October 17, 2011

Family,

  Sounds like you guys are having a blast, I'm way jealous of that ramp! I still remember the old BMX days, when we built that dirt course next to our house and were always jumping. . . I can't believe Ally and Brendan are already coming home. The last letter ally wrote me was when she hit her half way mark!

  Things have been going crazy good this week. We have been blessed with some incredible investigators. Jiang D--- will be baptized this Sunday, and we also found a couple from Beijing, Sun and Liu, that will hopefully be baptized in November. The couple came to church for the first time yesterday, and the husband was asked to introduce himself in priesthood. He stood up and bore a testimony of how the spirit in the building has moved him in a way that he couldn't explain, and how grateful he was to be there. They have all been fellowshipped so well; our new plan of working with the ward closely has worked SO well. We're having a family home evening tonight with a member, and 3 investigators will be present. They've all become such good friends with each other and the ward members. We're also having an investigator dinner on Friday at a different members house. A foundation is being set for the work to explode in our ward, and just the chinese work in general... it's so exciting to be apart of! Eric B--- gave me his guitar last week to fix up and stuff... MAN i can't even begin to say how nice it has been to play a guitar again! I've been arranging hymns during lunch and I think I'll play some in one of the upcoming baptismal services, that'll be way fun. Also... our sink has been clogged for a week and so there are dirty dishes everywhere and our apartment smells like poop. A chinese man tried to come fix it this morning, but he looked at it for a few seconds, said "bu xing" which means "no way", and walked out. Our apartment has so many problems, I think we'll try to convince the mission that this apartment needs to go.

  Well I planned on sending some pictures today... but I just realized I forgot my camera. I'll try to go get some developed today that I can send in a letter home. So be waiting for 'em! P.S. am I getting garments for Christmas?... 'cause these are no longer garments... they're grayments. Anyways, love you guys! Have a good week!

 

Love, Ben.

October 11, 2011

 

  Dear Familia,

   Happy anniversary mom and dad! that is exciting. 28 years.

   This week was transfers so that's why I'm emailing today. I didn't get transfered, but Elder Tseng in our district did so we had to help him move. I'll be with Elder Wong at least one more transfer, maybe 2. I'm thinking I won't be leaving this area at least until my year mark, maybe a little after. Then i'll finally move out of this apartment! haha. I've been here since the beginning.

   I wanna see pictures of the ramp! Reminds me of the good old days of building the half pipe off the fence... and mom yelling at me when i tried to snowboard off the roof. Good times!

  This week has gone really good. The lady that I talked about last week, Jiang D---, is still progressing really well. Better than I've seen anyone progress on my mission so far, and it's all because of our ward members. We've been working with them more closely, and they've really started to get more involved in missionary work. They've taken her and really made her feel welcome to the ward, she's excited to be baptized. She's already read up through 2nd Nephi, and believes in the restoration. People really are prepared to receive this gospel, and it happened to be right now for her. I'm just glad we were prepared to receive her when the time came.

  September was kind of a rough month for our district and zone, everybody's numbers dropped really low. Nobody really knows what happened, it just ended up that way. But nobody is discouraged. Everyone has an even greater drive to keep working. The month of October is looking good for us now, I'm excited. Yesterday we were able to get all the chinese elders together and take pictures and stuff, but I forgot my card reader! So i'll have to send them next week.

 Well I hope everyone is doing well at home, especially Noah! I remember those days, sometimes they were rough. Elder Wong is a lot like Noah sometimes, we get into the same type of arguments. But I always win, just like I did with Noah :) haha. I love you guys, keep staying righteous.

Love, Ben.

October 3, 2011

  Well I'm super glad you guys had a good time with Eric! haha. He called me Friday morning, "Hey Elder Dixon where do you live? do you think your mom would let me stay there for the weekend?" Man that kid. haha. He's a good kid, and he'll be a good missionary soon! We took him out on splits with us a couple weeks ago.

   I loved conference so much this weekend. I was able to receive answers to questions i've been wondering about, and that has been a blessing. I really loved Henry B. Eyrings talk Sunday afternoon, I don't think I've ever seen him get so emotional, I loved the spirit he brought. As well as Hollands as well.. it's so true! kids need to stop being dumb! So Noah and EJ, when your friends want you to be dumb, don't be dumb. Keep your standards as high as mom and dad think they are! haha. I loved Sister Daltons talk as well. I've always loved her just because of that EFY experience I had with her. I mean... Of course I can't really take heed to what she said yesterday right now... but it was still good. It really made me want to be better missionary now so I can be a better father later. 

   Have you guys had a chance to read the new Ensign? I think it is my favorite one yet... the power of the Book of Mormon is so real! We found a nice old lady named Mrs. J knocking inbetween sessions on Saturday, and last night we were able to take her on a tour of our church building. She just came to America from Beijing, and is very interested in religion. She hasn't been baptized in any church yet, but she's read through the bible multiple times and has quite a bit of knowledge. As we were introducing the restoration to her, she cut us off and started to tell us all the hardships and trials that have led her to come to America. She explained she still didn't know why she was here, she has no money and can't speak english. After she said that the spirit was really strong in the room, and we testified that the reason she has been led to America was to find the Book of Mormon. The spirit was really strong with us, but she just took the book and set it to the side and continued to talk about her life story. We asked if she'd read it and she said "yeah if I have time." We were kind of disappointed, we thought for sure that the spirit had testified to her that it was true! At the end of the lesson, we asked if she'd say a prayer for us. Turns out she had never said an audible prayer, and really didn't want to say one. We finally convinced her to say one, and almost immediately as she said the words "Heavenly Father" she burst with tears and she continued to have a hard time speaking throughout the prayer. She knew what we were saying was true, and after that was really excited to go home and read the Book of Mormon. She's scheduled to be baptized by the end of the month :) we're really excited about her. It's been kind of hard for us this transfer to find people to teach. I don't know what it was, but as soon as Elder Wong got here almost all of our investigators dropped us. Things are finally starting to pick up though, as we're trying new ideas and working with different members in the ward. As long as progress is being made, we're doing alright.

  About the shoes, I think it'd be best if I just went and picked some out so I can get the right size and stuff. That would be great. and thank you for the blender! I've been craving smoothies for months.

I love you guys! please pray that we'll be able to find more people to teach this week! Thanks for everything.  

Love, Ben

(This young man, Eric, lives in Ben's Mission.  He spent Conference Weekend with us.  Heading to Conference with Brad and Cami!  He is currently filling out his mission papers!)

 We played lot's of ping pong!

September 26, 2011

CAMI IS FREAKING PREGNANT! Man alive. I freaked out for at least 8 minutes straight when I got that letter. What am I going to do with a 6 month old Brami running around when I get home! haha. I can't even comprehend it right now. My guess is a girl, too. Just cause brad's so whiney.

This week has been pretty great. We went to the temple this morning, and took a detour through Hollywood on our way back. That city will probably sink first in the 2nd coming... haha. But we got to see all the cool sights... and we drove past the Pantages Theater which flooded me with memories of Wicked with the Bergquists... haha. Good times.

I've actually been sick all week. I'm finally getting better today, but I've been stuffed up and coughing like crazy all week, it's been pretty dumb. Elder Wong is doing well, sometimes he gets on my nerves like crazy though. He's quite lazy, so I feel like I'm pushing him all the time, which in turn makes me feel like a huge jerk, haha. But things are going well. He's learning. and for some reason he also thinks I'm the funniest person on the planet, so that's nice too. We had a mission conference this Friday, a lady  came and spoke to us about how to do member missionary work. It was incredible! I've always wanted to work with members the best I can, but It's hard to figure out the best way. She outlined everything for us which has given me a vision and a way to accomplish it! We've been able to build lots of trust with our members this past week, which is going to change everything we do in Chinese work. I'm really excited!

I don't have so much time today but I love you all! Keep working hard and being good... everything will work out.     и稲琌程產畑

September 19, 2011

Hello!

   This week has been pretty great. Things were slowing down for a while but they're starting to pick back up again. We've had to drop a few investigators this week, but doing that has given us time to find the people that are even better prepared. Training Elder Wong has been way fun. I learn a ton every day from training, and the responsibility makes me work a lot harder than I think I can.

   We had a ward party this week for the "mooncake festival." The missionaries put on a little play about the story of the holiday, it was super funny! I'll have to send some pictures some time. Our relationship with the ward has been getting a lot better, which is awesome because we definitely need that. Our ward has a lot of struggles, people don't like each other and stuff like that. But they're finally getting things figured out, and their trust in the missionaries has grown as well.

  I'm having a hard time thinking of what to write... nothing crazy or exciting happened really! And it doesn't look like i'll get to read an email from you guys today. I hope everything at home is going all right! I think I've prayed for you guys more than I ever have before this week and I'm not really sure why. I love and miss you guys every day, and your guys example drive me to work even harder. Always be good!

love, Ben.

September 12, 2011

Hello fammmmmmmmz.

  I can't believe it's been 10 years since 9-11! that blows my mind. It feels like just yesterday we were watching it on TV before I went to school.

  just to clear things up, I fell out of the tree AFTER Elder Toole called you... and I'm fine. really. I just got a stick stabbed into my side and i didn't pull it out 'till the next day so it's nice and infected for now. But it's healing and doesn't really hurt anymore :) no worries.

 This past week has been okay for the work, we didn't teach as many lessons or find as many people as we hoped, but it's been okay. I'm really trying to change how missionaries work in this area i'm serving in, Mountain View North, and making that transition has been kinda hard but it will pay off in the end. For the past few years all the missionaries in this area have been mostly working in the city of San Gabriel, which is where all the chinese move to when the first come to the Los Angeles area. Because of that, lots of them have no jobs, are really unstable, or illegal. You find a LOT of chinese, but you rarely find the people that are going to last in the church. We're trying to move completely out of San Gabriel up to working all day in Arcadia, because thats where people have stable lives and have families. Those are the people that the Lord has prepared up to the point of being able to accept the restoration in their lives. We're still working on finding the most effective way to work in Arcadia, and because we're showing our faith the Lord has already given us quite a few blessings, we have lots of really good potential investigators, that, if they turn out to be ready to accept the gospel, could make some awesome improvements to our ward. It's kinda hard right now but it will be awesome for the chinese work in the long run! Some sad news though... Lydia and her mom haven't been able to meet with us for a while now and it's not looking like they are going to be able to. She called the other day telling how grateful she is that we could meet with her and teach for this long... which kinda was a hint that she won't be able to teach her anymore :( I don't know if it's her husband, or if it's because she's just to busy. Hopefully we can find out this week.

  Tonight we're teaching the Geng family in our ward. The mom and 18 year old son are members but the father isn't. He's been meeting with missionaries for about 7 years now and has come to church every single week since then, but for some reason he won't get baptized. He even has a sort of calling in our ward as the "ward cook" haha. He cooks for all of our activities. While studying this morning I was thinking all about him and what we could possibly do to help him realize that he needs to be united with his family. I thought a lot about the role of the father in a family and how awesome of an example Dad has been to me. I thought of one certain experience when i was 14 or 15 years old when dad came into my room before I went to bed and said "I want you to know you can tell me anything. no matter what it is, I will not be dissapointed or judge you." Looking back on that, I noticed just how much that one experience has changed my life in so many ways. I've always known I can trust my father. They also have a 5 year old son that they just brought to America from ShanDong, so tonight we're going to teach them the importance of the role of the father. I'm going to share that experience, and I really hope that he'll see how important it is for him to be a good example to his sons by joining the church and partaking in the ordinances of the temple.

    My watch broke again... so i'll probably send that back. I might just buy a cheap one from wal-mart. We'll see. But for now, have another good week! I love you guys!

Love, Ben.

(This is an Elder serving in the Chinese program in Ben's Mission, he is from Beijing China.  Even the Chinese Elder is taller than Ben ;)... but not nearly as handsome!)

September 6, 2011

      I don't have a whole lot of time today but I wanted to shoot an email out! This week has been great. My trainee's name is Elder Wong, he's a good Elder. He was born in America but his parents are from Taiwan, so he can speak Chinese. kind of. But he works hard and is willing to learn, and I really admire that about him. We've had a good first week! We're trying to do new things in this area that will hopefully get the work moving faster and better, and so far we've made some good progress. Lydia's mom, sister Zhang, is set to be baptized on the 18th. But we didn't get a chance to meet with her this past week 'cause she's been pretty busy, so pray that she can still make her date! We've also been meeting with a brother Fu for about 2 months now, he's got a date at the end of the month, but he's kinda crazy so we'll see. He's convinced that because of background of atheism he'll never be able to believe in God. But he's slowly progressing. I fell out of a tree this morning trying to pick fruit for a less-active, it's super painful. But I can deal. Hope you enjoyed that phone call from Elder Toole, mom! he's one of my favorite senior missionaries, haha. Well I wish I had more time but we've got an appointment soon! Have a good week and thanks for the music! I love mindy gledhill... does she have any other CD's? I would love that. And thank you for the cinnamon rolls, they made me gain 10 pounds. love you guys! love, Ben.

(info from Mom... I received a phone call from Ben's Mission this morning!  Of course, I thought something was wrong ;)  Elder Toole (an older senior missionary) said... "No, everything is fine... in fact I am looking at Elder Dixon right now-- he is a great young man."  I made sure Elder Toole told Ben I love him!  They just had some questions about his health insurance that I answered.  Now that I have read this email, I wonder if he really is hurt ;)... Elder Toole said everything was fine, so I choose to believe that!)