Tis the Season

(Letter November 28, 2011)

Well Thanksgiving is over, and Christmas is soon to come. Wow, where did 2011 go huh? Anyway, Thanksgiving was just as merry as any other Thanksgiving I guess you could say. It included some all star football in Bogata on the same football field I played at last year. It was a little wet and muddy, but nothing too horrible. Now the questions is... did we win or not? Well unfortunately we didn't get to play zone vs zone, but the zone leaders were team captains, and My team, and Elder Erikson's team both beat the other zone leader captains, so I guess we could say we won. It was really fun though, although the super soreness for the days following wasn't much fun. We didn't actually end up eating PB and J, and we had a pretty original meal with Hermana Zamorah. Turkey, Stuffing, Potatoes, Gravy, Corn, and rice. It was a super delicious meal. Later we went to the lazaro's house and got to eat some ribs and the such. So it turned out to be a great Thanksgiving overall. 

As far as missionary work goes this week, it wasn't too great overall. We didn't teach a ton of lessons, nor did we accomplish the goals we were hoping, but I guess it was good to finish off the week with 2 baptisms! Yep, Guillermo and Gerardo both got baptized this Sunday by their Uncle Hermano Bello. It was a great baptismal service, and President and Sister Jeppson came to enjoy it with us.

  

But now comes the real test. Passaic was split, we lost a lot of investigators, and then we just baptized 2 more of them. So where does our teaching pool lie? Well we don't really have much of a teaching pool anymore. I guess you could say we just ran the elevator principle, and now the elevator is back to the bottom, but nobody there waiting to go up. I guess it would be unfair to say there is no one, but there definitely isn't anyone super close to getting baptized. 

We did find some other great investigators this week. One is named Jimena. Her parents and some of her siblings are members, and her parents work in the temple. We taught her one time 2 weeks ago, but seeing very little desire. We came back though, and she had kept her commitment to read, and seemed a little more open to what we were saying. Still not anywhere near baptism, but step by step she could possibly progress. We also started teaching this lady named Natalie, who is the sister-in-law of Ana (The recent convert). She still has a long way to go, as she hasn't participated too much in religion, and prayed (Like really prayed) for one of her first times when we taught her. We'll see how things go with her.

  

I guess our big focus for these coming weeks is finding. I don't really know the secret to finding here in Passaic, so that is something Elder Erikson and I will have to figure out together. The mission sits at about 361 baptisms for the year, and our yearly goal set in December or January was 500. The goal has been reset to have 400 baptisms in the year of 2011. It's quite a feat, but definitely possible. Hopefully Elder Erikson and I can fulfill our responsibility of helping the zone get 6 baptisms this month, as well as our companionship getting 1 for the month of December. And the way things are looking now, we don't have anyone close to be baptized before year's end. I guess it will take a lot of prayer and faith.

  

Things are going pretty well though. It will be interesting to see what kind of turn our area takes with these coming weeks. We just need to work super super hard to build up our teaching pools. It's true what pmg says, nothing happens in missionary work until you find people to teach. So that will be our big focus this coming week.

   

I'm really happy to be a missionary though, and I'm excited for this Christmas season. I'm not too much into the Christmas spirit yet, I guess it's just not the same when you're a missionary. We are excited for the new zone goal coming up, and then we have a missionary fireside for investigators and members in Union City on the 11th. On the 23rd Alex Boye (President's son in law) is coming to the mission to perform. (I think he is the main african american guy in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) so that should be quite a treat. Transfers are in 3 weeks on like the 18th or so. 

The Gospel is True! I Love you all so much!!!

T Day

(Letter November 21, 2011)

 Elder Guinto departing New Jersey. He was in my first apartmentship, and he was also my "street pops" for the fear buster. One of the first missionaries I met here in New Jersey.
Also possibly a future roommate at BYU.

It's so great to hear from all of you again. It's too bad I'll have to be away for another thanksgiving, but it just leaves more food for you! Sadly, (although we are in the land of plenty, Passaic) we haven't gotten any Thanksgiving dinner invites from anyone. It's very strange, but I'm sure something will happen between now and Thursday. I mean, what are we supposed to do, ask the member, or just sit and wait? Guess PB and J would be just as good on thanksgiving as any other day right? Haha, that probably won't be the case.

Anyway, things are going pretty great here in Passaic. It's true, we are still learning how to run the area right, and we haven't had our area explode yet (not literally), things are still going well. Guillermo and Gerardo are doing really well. They are both set to get baptized this coming Sunday which will be amazing. Guillermo has been good about doing his reading, and well, Gerardo, he's got some work to do, but they both came to church yesterday, and they said that their mom was ok with them getting baptized. Tonight we are going to have an FHE at the Bello's house with Guillermo, Gerardo, and their parents who we have never met before. So keep you prayers up for Guillermo and Gerardo.

Meri, well, yeah we haven't seen a ton from her. She didn't make it to church again this week, but we did talk to her on the phone yesterday, and she seems to be doing pretty well. This past week during leadership training, President talked to us about how we shouldn't always just only focus on baptism, but that the Gospel of Jesus Christ entails 5 principles. Our purpose is to help people develop faith, and then faith unto repentance. All that comes before baptism, and that's one thing I haven't been very good about on my mission. I worry so much about helping people qualify for baptism, that I don't focus enough on the first principles. That could be one reason why a lot of the recent converts I had, aren't very active in the church. So taking that to heart, along with other things, we had lessons with both Guillermo, and Meri, specifically teaching them what repentance is, and how we do it. The lessons went very well, and Meri and Guillermo both said they felt a lot better after they did it.

   

Leadership training was the highlight of the week though. It was great practicing, training, and receiving counsel on how we can improve. Our training that we did about the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion went pretty well, and it was nice to be one of the first companionships to go, so that we could relax for the next day and a half. It was great being around old friends again, meeting new missionaries, and getting a spirit booster for the upcoming weeks. In between the 2 days of leadership training, we received a new companion for the night that was too far away from his area to drive back just for the night. Elder Packer went out for the night, and he is a super amazing missionary. Missionaries are way better trained these days than at least I was when I came out. He had really great Spanish, and I think the training programs in the MTC are just going to get better.

   

Farewell Elder Jarrett!!

Hmmm, que mas? Well we had our Ward Thanksgiving party this past week which was super good. The food was pretty delicious, although I don't think hispanics make stuffing... que lastima.... But the rice wasn't too bad of an addition to the classic Thanksgiving meal. I got to eat turkey, ham, rice, and mashed potatoes (sort of). We'll see what kind of food Thurday holds for us. I'm really excited for Thursday though. It's our upcoming annual Turkey Bowl! Zone 1 vs Zone 2! It should be a pretty fun day, including a duo-zone breakfast, football, and then later eating more food (we hope).

This week should go by pretty quick including an exchange tomorrow, Dermatologist on Wednesday (Hopefully the Hives are gone for good), Thanksgiving on Thursday, Zone Leader Council on Friday, and then it's almost Monday again. The weeks are just getting faster and faster.

I'm so grateful to be out here though. The Lord has blessed me a lot! It was just a few years ago that I was afraid to leave home for a day or 2, and now look, 15 months later! I'm so grateful to be on a mission, preaching the Gospel, Learning Spanish, meeting amazing people, seeing people's lives change, meeting new friends, learning new things everyday, and working and facing situations everyday that test me in so many ways to add to my growth as a person. There are so many experiences you have here, that you wouldn't have anywhere else. It get's hard, and sometimes bad things happen, but those bad moments and experiences fade away pretty quick as you lose yourself in the work. I need to keep improving as a missionary, and I need to be sure that I do everything my Heavenly Father wants me to do here. 

I'm grateful for a wonderful family that supports me on my mission. I'm grateful that my family has grown so much while I've been away. I'm grateful for President and Sister Jeppson who make me feel really important, and help me whenever I have any problems. I'm thankful for my companion Elder Erikson. And I'm thankful for the knowledge of the gospel, that allows me to have hope for the future, and to receive peace and comfort through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is True!

I love you all so much!

 

Love,

Elder Hicks

 

 

Season's Changing

(Letter November 14, 2011)

Well, the leaves are turning colors, and things are looking pretty different here down in Passaic. Transfer conference was pretty intense not knowing who my companion was going to be. I always have my guesses, but I was super happy with what happened. 

My new companion, believe it or not, is Elder Alex Erikson, the elder that was in my BYU ward that I told you about when I got my call. It's super cool being together, especially since we knew each other in college, made a movie together, and played a lot of ultimate frisbee together as the semester came to an end. He was also my roommate for 3 weeks in the MTC.  We are getting along really well, although it is a pretty humbling experience to be with him. He has a lot of strengths in the work, and is one of the most solid missionaries I've ever been companions with. I'm going to learn a lot from him.

We also just had Elder Taylor and Elder Ream move in with us to take over Passaic north. Elder Taylor has been out for about 6 months, and Elder Ream is only on his second transfer. He came out as an english missionary, and has just been changed to Spanish, so he's gonna have to really get hopping on the Spanish. It's ok though, he took Spanish for all 4 years of high school I'm pretty sure. It's a pretty good apartmentship.  We still have to break the ice a little bit more. They got doubled in, and have been doing super great in their area. They even set a baptismal date with Leonardo this past week.

It was sad to say goodbye to Elder Jarrett, and Elder Guinto, who was in my first apartmentship when I got here. We have plans of maybe living together while we go to BYU, but we shall see. Transfer conference was super amazing and spiritual with 3 musical numbers, and some amazing testimonies from the departing missionaries. It looks like the transfers they made were right because our whole zone did better this week (as a whole) than we have done for a long time. I'm super happy for the zone, and hopefully we can continue seeing great growth.

The transition was pretty tough trying to teach Elder Taylor, Elder Ream, and Elder Erikson about Passaic, and especially trying to help the other Passaic area with planning. But I actually didn't do that much to help them, and I don't know if that was good or bad, but they managed to pull off a great week this week. Now we don't have too many investigators to work with, and it's something we need to work on a bunch. Now we have the outskirt areas of Passaic including all the little cities of Garfield, Lyndhurst, Moonachie, Little Ferry, etc etc... We have plans to do a pilgrimage to those lands in order to find some new people and find the bajillion members we have on the ward list that we don't know. We tried quite a few of them in Garfield, and the majority of them had moved out 1 or 2 years ago. We received a new assignment last night in correlation to clean up the ward rosters anyway, so that will make things a little more interesting.

The investigators we do have are doing pretty great though. I had the privilege of confirming Silvia at church yesterday. Also, Guillermo and Gerardo are doing really well. Jennifer (The member friend) had really been doing a lot of the work for us, and even worked things out for Guillermo and Gerardo to be able to go on the 2 days trip to Cumorah this past weekend. We haven't talked to them a lot about how it went, but yesterday during priesthood they were called to the front and asked to bear their testimonies of the experience they had. They both really liked it, and learned new things, and both of them said they would like to be baptized! They are set for the 27th although we don't know how solid that is because we haven't even met their parents, and they would still need to get permission. We need to work with them a lot more, and make sure they want to get baptized for the right reasons.

Our investigator Meri is doing pretty great as well. She had a date for this upcoming Sunday, but she didn't make it to church yesterday, and we aren't sure she is quite ready. She believes that the things we teach her are true, but Elder Erikson puts it in a way, that it's only skin deep for her. She either understands everything we are teaching her and is super prepared, or she doesn't understand very much. It's still possible for her to get baptized this week, but not likely. We really need to work with her, making sure she is reading, praying, and making it to church. We really hope to see some really change of heart. She's super nice though, and is willing to listen which is great! It just might take some more time.

   

Things are still going great here in Passaic and this week should be pretty good as we have leadership training in Morristown for 2 days. I've been to it twice before, and it's more so for the new missionaries, but all the zone leaders are going, and Elder Erikson and I have to do one of the trainings. We were assigned to train/ or do a demonstration on the role of the Holy Ghost in conversion.

I'm really happy to be where I'm at. I'm so grateful to be serving with Elder Erikson, and that we already have a connection in our companionship. We already teach in pretty great unity, and I know he will teach me a lot. He is super focused on his purpose, and knows how to get things done. Sometimes it makes it easier for me to see my weaknesses, but I guess that's how I can see how I need to improve.

   

The Gospel is True! Thanks so much for all your support. Thank you for sending the Ensign, I'm excited to get in and study it when I have some more time. I love you all so much!!

 

Addition by Division

Passaic's Bravest

This week has been pretty crazy indeed, but we did have Silvia's Baptism this week, and I received some other big news, Passaic will be split into two area's, and we will have 4 Elders here. But I guess I'll give you a quick update on the week as a whole. 

Sorry if my letter doesn't make a lot of sense, I'm in a hurry, as Elder Jarrett and I have a lot of things to do today before he heads home on Wednesday. We have to go remodel our apartment to allow for 4 missionaries to live there instead of two. So yes, I will be staying in Passaic, but things will be a lot different than before.

Elder Jarrett's Hot Seat (Representation of me killing him)

Sister Lowry and Sister Word  (Sister Word is getting transferred)

 Last Monday we had a pretty awesome Halloween party as a zone. We carved pumpkins, played some games, and headed home for the night working on zone goals and the such. 

New Jersey Morristown Mission
(The shape in the middle is supposed to be new jersey)

Tuesday came, and we had a really great zone meeting. We talked about the importance of setting goals, and talked a lot about commitments. It was a really great meeting, and I think it really helped pump up the zone for this coming transfer. 

Zone 2

We are focusing on personal consecration, and helping other to make and keep commitments. After the meeting, I went on an exchange with Elder Lopez, as he was to come into our area and do the baptismal interview for Silvia. Upon arriving at the Interview, Elder Lopez said that he had already taught her before, and as such, couldn't do the interview for her. That was kinda discouraging, but we had one of the assistants do the interview the next day. We taught Sylvia that night, and one of our goals going in was to find out if she was separated from her Ex-husband or divorced, because she was still living with him, and if they were divorced she couldn't be baptized. We asked a few questions and found out that they were divorced, which made me a little worried, but then another miracle took place. She told us that a few days earlier, she had thought about moving out. That was amazing news, she must have received some pre-baptism revelation that that was something she would need to do before she got baptized. She got moved out on Saturday, and was able to get baptized on Sunday.

Silvia's Baptism

 

On Wednesday, Elder Jarrett went on his temple trip and I spent the day with Elder Silva from Brazil. We didn't get to teach anything together because of time spent driving and waiting for Silvia's interview to finish.

I should just give you an update on our investigators. Well sadly, the areas split, and therefore I won't be able to teach about half of our investigators anymore, but I'll still be in the same branch. Our investigator Meri is still doing awesome. She readily accepts what we teach her, and she said that she feels she has received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true. She came to church this Sunday, stayed for the baptism, and should be ready for her baptism on November 20th. She'll be in my area this coming transfer.

   

Manuel and Marcelino

Sadly, our good friend Manuel will no longer be in my area. We had a pretty amazing lesson with him last night, talking about how we received answers from the spirit, as he is sorta expecting to have a dream in order to know these things are true. Although he did have a dream the other night about looking for directions for "Los Santos De Los Ultimos Dias" not including "La Iglesia de Jesucristo" and that he couldn't find where it was. It was kinda a weird dream, but we asked him questions, and he seems more sure about being baptized on the 20th than he has in the past. Hopefully the new elders can do some great work with him.

   

Leonardo, Laticia, and Santiago

We finally got to go and see Leonardo again. We taught him about the Sabbath day, reviewed things, answered questions, solved doubts, committed to come to church. And what added more to our joy, was seeing Him, Laticia, and their son Santiago walk down the hall towards us, coming to church for the first time. It was amazing! Sadly Leonardo will not be in my future area either, but the other Elders should be able to do good work with him.

  I don't know what else to really include in this letter. The Baptism, and the splitting of the areas was definitely the biggest news. I'll be including like 10 Pictures, which should equal about 10,000 more words right? 

The Garcia Family

Abraham Sanchez (With his hats that he wears and always talks like an italian "Forget about it"

Thanks so much for all your support. I'm excited for this upcoming transfer, and all that I'm going to get to learn. Hopefully my new companion and I get along well, as well as the new missionaries moving into our apartment. It will be a change for sure. I haven't lived in a 4 missionary apartment since the beginning of March.

The Gospel is True! 

Love you all so Much!!

 

Love,

Elder Hicks 

I'm dreaming of a white . . .

Halloween! 

Just like the one's I used to know (In Utah), may your days be scary, and a fright, and may all your halloweens go right? It's true, I must say I was a little surprised by the snow storm, it definitely came earlier than last year. We didn't get snow last year until the day after Christmas. 

Here's an excerpt from Presidents letter... "Let’s see, in the last four months we’ve had (1) a heat wave with the highest recorded temperature in Newark ever recorded (107 degrees), (2) an earthquake, (3) a hurricane, (4) record rainfall causing the worst flooding on record, and now (5) a 50-year event snowstorm.  You gotta love it!"

 

So yeah, it's definitely been an interesting mission experience. But this week actually went pretty great. One of the better weeks we have had in awhile. Last Monday I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Elder Williams which went really well. We were able to teach Sylvia, and she is just amazing. We reviewed the baptismal questions with her, and she was pretty solid with all of them. She is still excited to be baptized next week, and even came to church yesterday. She wants to be baptized, because of the peace she feels from the gospel, as well as the changes that have happened in her life ever since she has been meeting with us. She had some family problems, and didn't have the best relationships with her kids, but since she's been taught, those relationships have changed dramatically, and that is sort of an answer to her that these things are true. We are so excited for her, and I'm glad Elder Jarrett will hopefully have one more baptism before he goes home next week.

Wednesday turned out pretty great as well. We started teaching this cool lady named Perla, who we actually contacted back in the end of August. She has some desires to find out about our church, and hopefully we can keep helping her grow in faith.

Thursday was a pretty miraculous. It was walking day, meaning no car usage, and it was the one day of the week that was rainy all day. But I guess with the rain, comes miracles. We went and taught a Recent-Convert, and we were able to teach her son as well who isn't a member. We shared the plan of salvation, and they found it to be pretty interesting. Then we headed over to a members house, where they were to have some friends come over. We ate some Willy Bello burgers (That's the members name) which included 2 quarter pound burgers put together with cheese in the middle. They were super good! Jennifer Bello (17 years old) invited some friends to church last week. We set up a time to come and teach them on Thursday. The 3 friends came (all brothers) Guillermo, Gernardo, and Oscar, and we taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We taught them how to pray as well, and we asked them if they would be baptized when they came to know this message is true. They said yes! We are super excited to work with them a little more.

Friday was a pretty great day as well. We got to go to zone leader council, and discuss Goal Setting, as well as helping investigators keeps commitments. We went to the mission office to get a new phone (again, because we just got new phones, but they don't work very well), and then we went to our appointment with the Garcia Family (RC's) and taught their friend Meri again. We asked her what she wanted to learn, or if she had any questions, and she was curious about what kind of rules she would have to live if baptized. We originally went in planning to teach about the restoration, but we ended up teaching the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity, which she agreed to live. She's super cool, and has a date set for November 20th. Later we got to teach the Gonzalez Family (LA) that we have been trying to get to church. We discovered that they don't feel too comfortable at our church, and that they are going to another church, so now we know we really need to help them gain a testimony of the restoration.

Saturday came, we headed to district leader council, discussed the new zone goal and monthly focus, and then left the church only to find the surprise of Snow! 

The snow was pretty heavy stuff, and it was super dangerous because all the tree's still had their leaves, and so the snow just weighed down and broke a ton of trees, which in turn brought down power lines, and made a lot of people have to live without power. In Paramus, they are not going to have power for another few days. It's pretty nuts. We received a text around 7:15 to go home because of a snow night...

Sunday came around, and a lot of churches cancelled their meetings because of the snow, but luckily ours didn't get cancelled. Sylvia came to church, Manuel came, and so did Guillermo which was super great. We only had the first two hours of church, but the second hour was really great for Manuel and Sylvia. They talked about the Book of Mormon, and the branch president told Sylvia to tell us how she came to know the Book of Mormon was true. She hadn't really prayed about it, but she said that she feels that it is true. She's going to be such an awesome member of the church.  We were able to go and see Manuel that day, and we watched The Restoration with him. We set another date with him for November 20th to be baptized. He's had a lot of dates, but he is getting really close, and he is so ready! We invited him to specifically pray about Joseph Smith, and we will have to give him a call to see how it was. We had to go home around 6 because of the infamous Mischief Night here in New Jersey.

  

Now it's Halloween, and pretty soon we are going to a zone activity in Paterson to carve pumpkins, eat, and play games. It should be pretty fun. We don't get to do any missionary work today, because again we have to be home at 6 o'clock tonight.

Things are going super great though, and this week should be exciting. On Wednesday I get to go work in Union City while Elder Jarrett is at the temple. I'm super excited to go back and see Hector and other people I have met there. Thanks so much for the Halloween Package, my companion is pretty grateful too.

The chances of Elder Jarrett and I getting doubled out is very unlikely. It wouldn't be to good to double out of a zone leader area, so I'm pretty positive I'll be here in Passaic for at least one more transfer. I really do love Passaic though. The members are amazing! I'm so grateful that I was able to come to Passaic!

Thanks again for Everything!

Love you all so much!

 

Back to the Promised Land

Well at least for today. 
(Letter dates October 24, 2011)


Today I'm back in Union City, because Elder Jarrett is on his end of mission Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty trip. So I'm here with Elder Taylor. Actually just had a weird experience in the library. The guy next to me stood up to leave, said, "Romney", and I said "What?" cause I didn't really know what he said. Then he said "Romney", and then said "That's all I have to say", and then he walked away telling us to have a good day or something like that.  So I don't really know what that encounter means, or what he was trying to say, but I least he recognized us right?


Oh, and on a high note, I heard today from the UC elders, that my recent convert Hector received the Melchizedek Priesthood yesterday!! How cool is that!! He is doing so great! 

This week has been pretty hectic, involving 2 exchanges, a cold, no voice, giving a talk, and then coming to Union City. But I guess I'll start from the beginning. 

So on Monday, we had the opportunity to do a short exchange with the Assistants. We received a referral from a member in the assistants area, and so we did an exchange so one of us could be their to teach them in an FHE. It was pretty great working with Elder Larsen, and learning and talking with him. Sadly the exchange was short, but it was still a really good experience. Then I went straight from the exchange, and drove with Elder Jarrett to do another Exchange in Caldwell. I had the opportunity to work with Elder Marshall who is still in training. We had a pretty good day together. We taught this cool guy named Alex that they had been working with, and we found out that he had never prayed about the Book of Mormon. We invited him to pray about it, and also to pray about baptism, as he refused to set a date on it. Which by the way, I learned on the exchange that supposedly Conen O Brien lives in their area... but Elder Marshall said supposedly he's pretty Catholic. But a miracle happened in Passaic while I was in Caldwell. So I guess Sylvia wasn't able to make it to our appointment, but she did call and she said that she got her work scheduled changed so that she would be able to come to church every other sunday! Miracle right! Which means that we may be able to move her baptismal date up to the 6th or maybe even the 30th.

On Wednesday, we got to go and see Loonardo again, with one of our members Hermano Chuchuca. It turned out to be a super good lesson, and Leonardo did his reading. We taught about the restoration, and about the importance of the Book of Mormon. He still doesn't have a ton of religious background, but he is going to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. 

On Thursday we found our Investigator Francisco again. He's been super busy with work and helping other people out. He still wants to be baptized, and I was like, "Hey, ready for your baptism on Sunday" cause that's when his date was for. He sounded up to it, but sadly he hasn't been to church, and we went a few weeks without being able to teach him, but we reset him for November 20th. 

On Friday we went to go and see a less active named Hermana Echeverria. She didn't happen to be their, but one of her grandsons Anthony was there. We talked to him and found out that he wasn't a member. He said that he was almost baptized like 4 times, but never did because of transferring missionaries and everything. We taught him a lesson, and hopefully we can continue to follow up with him. His mom, and grandma are both members, but Less Active, so it could be hard for him to have support to go to church, but we will do what we can.  We have also started teaching this other awesome investigator named Meri. She is a friend of a Recent- Convert, and she really wants to change her life. We taught her the plan of salvation, which she seemed to understand really well, and then using what we had practice earlier while doing role-plays during comp study, we set her with a baptismal date/goal for November 20th. 

Sunday came around, and because of the cold front coming in, my cold was pretty developed. I got sick on Tuesday in the middle of the night, and the later stages followed throughout the week. On Saturday evening, I basically lost my voice. I was supposed to be giving a talk the following day, but I wasn't too sure about it because of my lost voice. The morning came, and it still wasn't too good. But, I got blessed enough to have a good enough voice to give my talk for about 10 or 15 minutes, and it all turned out alright. After that though, I didn't have much of a voice throughout the day. Today it's a little better, although I haven't quite gotten my voice back. 

Unfortunately last night didn't bring the results that we were hoping. Manuel had his interview last night, and still isn't quite ready to be baptized. We'll have to keep working with him, and helping him really receive a spiritual confirmation. 

    

It was a great week though, and this week should bring some great results as well. My companion is coming down to the finish line, and we gotta push until the very end!

The Gospel is True!

New Jersey is going pretty great too!

Things here in New Jersey are going pretty great too. The weather is becoming a little more brisk, and I spend most of the days wearing my Jacket. I think it's my favorite New Jersey weather. Not horribly hot and humid, and not horribly cold and humid. The humidity really is what gets you, so now i'm just enjoying the time of wearing a light jacket.

I can't think of many huge highlights this week, it was just kinda one of those average weeks I guess. My exchange with Elder Long was pretty great though. We saw some good success. We were able to go and see Sylvia again, and it's kinda hard to know what to teach her. She's been taught everything, and she has agreed to live basically everything, she just can't come to church ever. We reset her date for the 20th of November. We just need to make sure she is reading a lot in the Book of Mormon, and keep her spiritually strong.

   

On Wednesday we had a great opportunity to go help out in the "District MTC". This month is missionary month here in the Paterson district, and it was cool to go their where this week everyone got their plane tickets, and arrived at the MTC (AKA the paterson church). They split the youth up into companionships, and they were each assigned to a class. We were to teach them how to teach the restoration. We probably made it pretty complicated for them, but it was pretty great doing role-plays with them after the class. I must admit, it was pretty funny, but they are still really young.

   

Later Wednesday night we were able to go and see Laticia and Leonardo. Leonardo had done his reading, and he was asking a bunch of really good question. We taught the first part of the plan, and was pretty surprised when he learned that we can live with our families after this life. He was asking who would be able to baptize him, (as in who has the authority), and we shared a little bit of the gospel, and basically stated that we were the only church that had the authority. We told him we would explain more next time, but I definitely felt the moment come of inviting him to be baptized (soft invite) and he said yes, and then I kinda got crazy and tried setting him with a date for the 20th of November, which he didn't accept because it was too close in proximity. It was a good lesson though, and I think Leonardo really will be baptized.

On Thursday, we had our interviews with President Jeppson and Sister Jeppson. I took note of how Sister Jeppson reminds me a little bit of mom. I guess that's a good thing. The interview was really great. President Jeppson has so much love, and makes me feel like I'm the best. I'm sure he does that to everyone, but he definitely makes me feel like a special missionary. He see's a lot more in me, than I see in myself, and since I'm super hard on myself all the time, he gave me a new 2 week assignment where everyday I have to write down 5 positive attributes of myself, so that I can begin to see myself as he sees me. It's starting to get hard to thing of things to put down, and it's only been like 4 days. It could be an interesting 2 week assignment. It will be good for me though. 

On Friday we did some good old finding, and found some good potentials, but didn't see too much until later in the night. Hermano Bello came with us and we visited Franky (Inactive). We talked about repentance, and Hermano bore strong testimony of the atonement. It reinforced the importance of member work, and he told him to give him a call anytime, and even invited him to come to his daughters birthday party. Then we got to go see the Gonzalez family (Inactive) which is always great. It's gonna be a rough ride getting them to church. Their 3 kids like the church, but the parents I think are not too motivated to go. They have a son that needs to and wants to be baptized. So we'll see how things continue with them.

On Saturday, we got to go and see our Karate Kids again. David, Eddy, and Monique. They have like 3 trophies almost as tall as me, and a bunch of other trophies and medals that they got from track and karate. We had a pretty great lesson with them, teaching them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was really hard inviting them to be baptized, because they are just starting communion in the catholic church, and the mom is an inactive member of our church. We might have to just tell them next time about this church being the only true church, although they are so young it probably won't click that much. Eddy is like 12, David is like 10, and Monique is 7 (almost 8). They remembered a lot about the plan of salvation though, and hopefully as we get their mom to start coming back to church, the kids will be able to take part as well.

This Sunday was again different, as we had District Conference. It was a super good conference, all about our Testimony and faith in Jesus Christ. I didn't get to listen very much at the beginning though. Since we are in a bilingual district, we were trying to get the receivers for the translation working. Some of them worked, and a lot of them didn't. Elder Jarrett and I worked on pulling out the batteries, putting them in other translators, and trying to see if they would get reception. There definitely weren't enough translators, and they were working very well. When President stood up to speak, he had Elder Jarrett come up to the microphone and translate for him. Last night we went and saw Manuel, who is actually doing better than he ever has. We went through the baptismal questions, and he seemed pretty good on all of them, except for Thomas S. Monson being a prophet. But he accepted to have a missionary come next week to do his interview, and hopefully he will be baptized in another 2 weeks.

I'm so grateful to be on a mission though, and the new things I learn each day. I'm definitely becoming more responsible and more grown up, and I realized this week how much you really forget about your family while you're on the mission. I mean, you don't actually forget them, but the attachment is not so great. Don't worry, I do miss all of you a lot, and it's still kinda weird thinking about all these nephews and niece that I haven't even met.

The Gospel is True! I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Hicks

PS: Oh yeah, and people keep asking me if I'm growing, they all think I'm getting taller, and I think it's probably true. I probably stand between 6'4" and 6'5", and who knows, maybe I'll grow even more, but probably not.

My Oh My How it Rains in New Jersey

My oh my, how it rains in New Jersey. It's pretty nice though, especially since it cools the weather down a good amount.

Well here's the news about transfers... I'm staying in Passaic and so is Elder Jarrett. We were actually the only companionship in the zone of 7 companionships that didn't get changed up. Things will sure be different as far as the zone goes. 3 companionships in the zone got doubled out (meaning that both missionaries are going to different areas) and the other 3 companionship have somebody being transferred. So it should be pretty interesting to see what happens with the zone. We still get to go to transfer conference tomorrow though which will be pretty fun, and Elder Jarrett and I were invited to go and participate in the fear buster tonight with all the new greenies. That should be pretty cool, and hopefully I can be a good "street pops".

It's true that I'm 20 years old now, which is pretty weird. It was a pretty good birthday, although not much different than any other day. After getting out of the shower and dressed, Elder Jarrett sang happy birthday with some blueberry pancakes that he made for me, which was super nice of him. Then we went to District Meetings, and the whole zone sang happy birthday to me. That was about the extent of my birthday celebrating though. At the end of the night we got to go eat some delicious mangu at the Matos Family's. (Mangu is a dish from the DR, consisting of mashed up plantanes, fried cheese, and fried salami, It's pretty good.)

We did find some great new investigators this week, and I'll just give you an update on them, and our other investigators.

Victor: Well Victor got confirmed yesterday, and he is doing well. Not much else to report there.

Hans: Hans is actually doing really well. We had some great lessons with him this week. He says he knows the Book of Mormon is true and that the church is true (I think) but there was still something keeping him from being baptized. We finally got his doubt out, and it was about Tithing. Hans doesn't make too much money, and he was concerned about having to pay tithing. We explained what it was, and the blessings that he would receive. We sent him home to pray about it, to see if it was true, and although we haven't gotten to follow up about it, I think he was a little more accepting of it, and he did end up coming to church yesterday, which is really good.

While I was teaching Hans English with a member, Elder Jarrett teamed up with some other members to teach a lady named Sylvia, who is a friend of the ward mission leader. She came to the baptism last week, and Elder Jarrett said the lesson went really well with her. She is super prepared, and will be baptized hopefully. She just has to find out how to get work off on Sundays.

We had a finding miracle this week from another member referral. We have been having trouble finding this whole transfer, but we went and checked this member referral Noe. He allowed us to come in, and then they started gathering the family. We had all 6 of the family members in there listening to the message. 2 are too young to be baptized, but the Mom said that we were always welcome in her house, and she fed us before we left. The problem with them is going to be working on sundays, but things will work out. The kids that are investigators are pretty cool too. Noe Junion is like 11, and Roy is 10 or something like that.

Later this week, we went and checked on a referral from the other Elders. There we met Alberto and Loordis. They are pretty cool, although they don't have too much previous religious experience. They seemed pretty interested though, and invited us to eat with them next time we come over.

I don't really know much else about what we did that you would be interested in. We were contacting this lady on the street, and then the cops pulled up, and I thought they were wanting to talk to the lady, but they kept yelling, "what are you doing?!" Then they told me to come over to the car. They asked me again what we were doing, and I just told them we were sharing a message about Jesus Christ. They understood, but just told us to be careful in that area because people weren't very receptive or something like that. Not really any other funny experiences or anything. Things are still going really good here in Passaic, and I think this coming month we should have some good success.

Thanks again for all your support and all that you do for me. Thanks again for all the Birthday Gifts. School is coming up soon. Enjoy! The Gospel is True!

Love you all!!

Love,
Elder Hicks

Getting Back to Normal

(Letter dated October 11, 2011)

Well missionary work is indeed starting to get back to normal, as normal as missionary work is, but this week was a pretty great week. We saw some great success, and are still working hard to help our investigators progress. We kicked the week off with a great zone meeting on tuesday, involving Elder Jarrett and I training about teaching skills, and the such. We introduced the new zone goal, and everyone seems in agreement, and the zone has already seen some great miracles from it! After the meeting we had a big dessert fiesta because this past week 6 people or something like that celebrated their birthdays. So we all ate a bunch of desserts, and then headed back out to work. We were able to see Sylvia again, and she is doing so well. She agrees with everything, and doesn't have any problems except for work. We will keep working with her on that, and hopefully she'll get work off one day soon.

On Wednesday we enjoyed a wonderful zone conference, and were lectured on the Great Apostasy, the Restoration of the Gospel, and the Priesthood. We enjoyed some lunch, a small fun activity, and then did some role-playing.

But a few great finding opportunities we had this week are probably some of the highlights of the week. So I told you the story of Laticia. Well this past week we started teaching her husband, and I think he's got some great potential. He doesn't have a ton of knowledge or faith, but who knows, that might be easier to work with than somebody firmly rooted in some other church. He said he wants to learn more about God, and really wants to learn how to have faith. The other opportunity came about as a number of weeks ago we got a referral for some people that moved here from Texas, who turned out to be members. We have worked with them, as well as a sister of theirs who is a less active member. We started teaching her kids this week, and hopefully we can help their family become an eternal one.

Saturday was a very culturally uplifting day. It was a special day indeed. On saturday we had the Paterson International event in the Paterson Church. People from all different parts of the world including (Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Columbia, Jamaica, China, etc) brought different foods for people to eat, and we had a very enjoyable night. We were even able to have a few investigators come. The program included a guy wearing a silver glove singing and dancing the Baby Baby by Justin Bieber, President Jeppson singing and playing a guitar to a song about becoming an auctioneer (quite impressive), a little girl doing a dance from Mexico, and the grand finally of columbians dancing (Including some with machetes) It was pretty cool.

Sunday came around, and we finally had a normal block of church, which has been pretty rare around here. We got to see Marilu, who is progressing somewhat, but very slowly. We had to change her date to the 20th of November. Later we went and saw Manuel, who still wasn't quite ready, so we changed his date to the 30th of October. He seems to have more faith in that date, than he has had with previous dates.

And now we are today, sorry I couldn't write yesterday, but it was columbus day. Right now I'm actually on an exchange with Elder Long, who is actually going to be pretty famous someday. So I don't know if you have heard, but the church has been doing this film project that is going to be a season show in about a year, that includes the lives of different missionaries around the world. They have a camera crew that comes around with them at times, and they make video logs of themselves. Well Elder Long is one of those missionaries on that TV show, and so it will be pretty cool to be able to relive some of my mission when I watch the show after my mission. Sadly the camera crew isn't with him at this time, so I won't be on the TV, although I may be in other clips of the show because the crew has come to a few Transfer Conferences and things. It will be interesting to see what kind of show this stuff produces.

That was most of my week though. This week will be a pretty good one, including interviews with President Jeppson, an Mini MTC for the youth tomorrow in Paterson, and hopefully just seeing miracles day by day.

Thanks for all of your support, and it's good to hear you are all doing well. I love you all soo much!!

 

The Gospel is True!

 

Love,

Elder Hicks

 

Fall is Here (Letter dated October 3)

Tis the season, as the cold front starts working it's way into New Jersey. We are still having a good amount of rain at times, and things have cooled down a lot lately. The leaves are probably going to being changing a lot soon. It has truly been a great conference weekend. I missed out on so much good stuff before my mission, and I didn't put much attention to conference, but Conference as a missionary is like a holiday. It was really nice listening to the prophets and apostles voices, and I didn't even watch a talk in spanish.  The first week of the transfer has rolled by, and things should start getting somewhat back to normal, as we've been busy with meetings, conferences, and some final service.

    

Tuesday came around, and we headed to transfer conference. Not a whole lot of changes in our zone, although now we have 2 trainees in our zone. Welp, I know next transfer conference I'll be getting a new companion, but I really just need to try and help Elder Jarrett stay focused, which he's really good at anyway. Maybe I should avoid going home jokes, or going home talk like (Hey, how far away do you think that plane is? "I don't know, like a mile or so", Nah, 5 weeks, haha). When I got here, it was like that, but the answer was 2 years. 

Last week we saw another miracle that I forgot to mention. We were teaching English to Hanz inside the church, when somebody rang the bell (Yeah, the church building has a doorbell) and we went out to see a couple, and a young son. It turns out that this women's name was Laticia, and she was baptized a number of years ago, but upon moving here hadn't found the church (or something like that). Her husband is a non-member, and she agreed to have us come over and visit her. It was a miracle because we happened to be in the church at the time she came. On Tuesday we went over, and talked to her and her brother, also a member. We shared a little bit about the Book of Mormon, and it got to the point where the Brother was crying. He's had some tough times, and I'm so grateful the the Lord led them to us so that we can help bring them back, and so that we can start teaching Laticia's husband.

    

Wednesday turned out to be another service day for our zone. We checked out a number of work orders, taking out dry wall, flooring, tearing apart a steel shed, but nothing all too horrible. But service has been adjourned I'm pretty sure, as the command center in Emerson packed up, and started giving us extra treats and supplies. We have a few boxes of some Gatorade Primer, and some Recover Shakes. 

 

Friday was a really good day. We got to go to Zone Leader council, and talked about the importance of being an example, and being consistent. We discussed how we can help our mission get refocused after everything that has happened with the service, and we were introduced to the new monthly focus of working on Teaching Skills. While at the council, we did a role-play with President as the mediator, and different groups of missionaries switching in. We would be stopped at times, to see what we could do better, and we actually ended up using that which we learned in a role-play later in the day. We went and saw a former named Jessica, and taught her about how God is our Loving Heavenly Father, which she maybe didn't quite understand completely. There are probably a lot of people who don't really understand that. I don't think I understand how much our Heavenly Father loves us. I think it's incomprehensible. Later that day, we taught our last English class to Hans, who actually just moved to West New York. Now his missionaries are Elder Harrington and Elder Mattson. You remember Elder Harrington right? He was my second companion in New Jersey.

Saturday came, involving yet another meeting of District Leader Council, that we had with our District Leaders in order to work on developing a new zone goal for the month of October. We had some good things brought up, and tomorrow Elder Jarrett and I will be heading out (With the spirit of course leading) zone meeting. We'll be training the zone about developing Teaching Skills and then we will introduce the new Zone Goal, which should be pretty excellent. 

I missed a good portion of the first session of Conference while things were in motion to get the program running in Spanish (which it never could, so we had to cancel the showing of conference in Passaic, and move it to Paterson). In between the afternoon session, and priesthood session, we went and visited Alberto and Loordis again. We haven't been able to see them in awhile because they've been so busy, but it was good to visit them again, and teach them the principle of "God is our Loving Heavenly Father." We went to Subway, and then headed to priesthood session. Priesthood session is pretty late here in New Jersey, 8 to 10. I didn't fall asleep though.

Sunday rolled around, and conference commenced once again. Sylvia and Manuel both made it to the session, and both really enjoyed it. They are the 2 most likely to get baptized this month I believe. Last night we went and saw Marilu with Hermano Bello, who is like the coolest member ever. He basically taught her the whole lesson, and was really good at taking control. We have still got some work to do with Marilu, but we commited her to pray about the church, and we'll need to follow up this week. Then we went and saw Manuel. We asked them the things they learned at conference (this is including Marcelino also) and it was good to see them happy. We asked Manuel if he believed President Monson was a prophet, and he say he believes so in the way that he talked. We taught the Law of Chastity, and the Word of Wisdom, and he agreed to live them both. It's going to be a foot race trying to prepare him in time for his scheduled date. We can only meet with him on Sunday night because he is so busy, meaning that we only have one more time to teach him before his baptism, and he has to have his interview on that same night. We'll see how it goes.

    

Things are going really well here though. I love being a missionary! It's the best! Time is slowly ticking on my clock as a missionary, and there is still so much more I need to do. Hopefully we'll be able to get refocused on missionary work with service being done, and see some great success this transfer.

The Gospel is True! I know that the Lord directs his church today. I know that the Lord answers prayers in his own time, and in his own way. I know that Thomas S. Monson and the apostles are truly called of God, and that through following their counsel, we can avoid many of the temptations that we have today. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that repentance is indeed a process. At times we make mistakes, we repent, and sometimes still fall short, but I know that if we truly do strive to repent, the Lord will forgive us. I know that this work is true, and that nothing will stop it from progressing. It's true that we need more missionaries, because there is so much work to do. I really liked what was said in conference, that these are the best two years FOR my life. It truly is preparing me to become the person the Lord wants me to be.

  

Love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Hicks

 

Another Transfer Gone

(Letter September 26, 2011)

Hello Family,

So... the news came in at about 11 oclock last night. I Elder Hicks, will not be getting transferred, and neither will my companion. That's right, Elder Jarrett and I are together again for one more transfer until Elder Jarrett packs his bags and heads home in 6 weeks. Which means, that I will probably be in Passaic for at least 2 more transfers, and it is very unlikely to double-out zone leaders. So let us commence with another exciting transfer. I just read the list of names of the missionaries coming into the mission today, and I actually know 2 of them, I think. I'm pretty sure one played football and Timpview, and the other named I recognized was Daniel Wells (I'm pretty sure he lived at the house where the Nelsons live right now, across the street from the Nemelka family). So that will be pretty cool to see both of them. As such, time continues to fly by. Yesterday my companion Elder Sopena called me to see how I was doing. When he left, I had just hit my 6 month mark, and then he asked me on the phone yesterday how much time I had left in the mission, and I told him 11 months... That 11 months is going to fly.

Things went back to normal, almost, this week. We didn't have to serve within the week which was pretty nice. On Tuesday after a super amazing district meeting, I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Tilley from Tennessee. We had a good day together, and even got asked if we were brothers. (Probably cause we are both tall and lanky). On Wednesday, we were able to go and visit a member Hermana Zamorah, and she fed us some delicious Lomo Soltado (I'm not quite sure how you spell it, its from Peru).

Our investigators are doing pretty great, well at least some of them. You've probably noticed that I haven't written about the Saenz family in forever, that's basically cause we haven't seen them in forever. We've had set appointments, but they either aren't there, or they have to cancel. It gets pretty frustrating, and I don't know if we should just drop them. They are just pretty busy people like almost everyone around here. On a high note though, while I was working in Caldwell with Elder Tilley, Elder Jarret, Tippetts, and Lopez came to Passaic and they were able to set a baptismal date with Marilu. And we did get to see Francisco as well. He's still pretty awesome and is still preparing for the 23rd of October. And I guess on the highest note, last night we went to teach Manuel, with Marcelino and Martin. We have been working to set Manuel with a date like he had in the past, but he is always unsure. Last night we taught a nail lesson of the restoration (Nail Lesson- a visual lesson of the restored church of Jesus Christ, I would just have to show you one day). And you could just see the light in his eyes, that he was understanding the importance of authority. Had a great lesson with him, and we were able to set him with a baptismal date for the 16th of October. All 3 of them were pretty excited for conference this week.

   
We also had another pretty amazing experience this week. We received a referral from the English elders a few weeks ago that was originally from a member in Connecticut. They gave it to us, because the referral prefers Spanish. Her name is Susan Silva from Peru. We had been trying to call and contact her for awhile, but to no avail. We had never made a trip out to visit her, because it was quite a drive away. We decided on Friday to go and visit a family of members, and planned to go and see Susan right before. We went to the address we had, but we had no apartment, and so there were about 20 possible doors where she could live. We figured we would leave, and even got in the car and started driving away, but we had called the english elders, and they said they didn't have the apartment number. They sent us the number of the friend in Connecticut, and she didn't know the apartment number, but she explained to us what door it was. So we went back to the apartment, found the door, and gave it a knock. A man answered, and we asked if Susan was there. He went back and got her, and when she saw us, she was super nice and invited us in. We went in, and although we didn't have enough time to teach them a lesson, we talked a little bit, and she seems pretty prepared. What is even greater, is that we happened to catch her on her day off! We are super excited to start teaching her, her husband Marcelo, and their Daughter. Not to mention, this lady lives on Gold street. You just don't get any better than that.

  
Saturday came, and another day of service commenced. There were only enough people for 2 crews, so roughly 16 to 20 people. We worked with Elder Munk (From my MTC district) Elder Ruano (From Guatamala) Sister Word (MTC district) Sister Lowry (Canada) and with a branch member from Paterson. We went to our assigned house, and basically spent the whole day there. Elder Munk and I worked on taking the 3 or 4 fridges that were in the house.  Elder Munk and I went to work taking the doors off and everything, and yeah, let's just say it was not a pretty job. We took out the flooring, tore down the sheet rock, and then most of our crew had to leave. It was a pretty good Saturday though finishing it off with some delicious Tacos with the Garcias, and then a big bowl of Ice Cream at the Sanchez.

And so September comes to a close, and I haven't been to a 3 hour block of church since before the hurricane which was at the very end of August. They did have normal meetings this week, but Elder Jarrett and I volunteered to go to work on Sunday, and so we had a little Sacrament meeting, and started doing more jobs. We finished pretty early in the afternoon, so it wasn't too bad, but I'll be excited to get back on the normal schedule of church. They called it good in Patterson, and they aren't going to be doing any more work there, but we do have to do service on wednesday of this week up in Emerson.

  
So mission life is still a little different, but it is slowly going back to normal. At least it never really gets dull. I'm excited for this new transfer, and to learn even more. I really love the members here in Passaic, and I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. He performed the greatest act in the history of mankind, when he died for each one of us. I know that our Heavenly Father watches over us, and his vision far surpasses what we can see. I know that everything works together for our good, and even when trials and afflictions do arise, it is but a small moment. I know that if grandma does pass on, she will be able to enjoy paradise with her brothers and sisters, and that she can rest from all her troubles and worries.

Know that I love you all so so much, and this is really where I'm supposed to be right now. Thanks for all your support.

Love,

Elder Hicks

The Work Rolls Onward

Hello Family,

Things are going pretty well here in New Jersey. I guess one word can summarize what my week consisted of... Service.

The work on cleaning up from Hurrican Irene continued this week, and sadly proselyting has taken a back seat at least for this week, although things should change back to normal this week. On Monday we played some amazing basketball with some other Elders, and received word that the next day we would be doing service again.

Tuesday arrived, and we headed out to do Work order forms, meaning we were going door to door, to see who needed help, and fill out the damage so that we could send people to do the work later in the week. Some places were fine, but others were really bad. I knocked at this one story house, and upon looking inside, I saw that the water level was probably like 2 feet above floor level. I don't think the lady will be able to live there anymore.

Wednesday was actually not a service day, so we did an exchange with one of our District Leaders (Elder Lee) and his Trainee Elder Montes. I left the area, so that Elder Lee could come in and do the baptismal interview for Ana. The exchange went better than I thought it was going to be actually. It was good practice being with a native from Mexico all day, and so we basically spoke Spanish the whole day. We actually saw some good success together, and found a couple new investigators. 

Thursday rolled in, becoming another service day, but this one even more special than the others. It wasn't just the missionaries from New Jersey, but they actually sent in like 50 or more missionaries from the New York New York South mission. I was excited to see who would be there, because I knew I had a couple friends from that mission. Coincidentally, I saw more people from that mission than I thought. The first one, was one of my college friends Logan Lewis. Also, I saw 4 people that I knew from High School including, Elder Sean Kang, Elder Matt Daley, Elder Nate Gootee, and Elder Montgomery Campbell. Looks like it's a small world after all. Nice little High School reunion. Later in the day, we went to work at the house of a guy named Frank. He lived right next to the river, and basically his whole part of the village or whatever you want to call it was destroyed. We even had to drive through some water to get to his house. We started gutting the place out, taking out the dry wall, destroyed furniture and belongings. I really like taking out Sheet Rock, it's pretty fun to take a crow bar to the wall. The day came to a close, and we bid farewell to the Missionaries for New York.

Saturday came around, and it was yet another day of service. This time there was only 2 crews, so it was pretty small. We got to take out more sheet rock, and I even had the experience of taking out cabinents. They were pretty tough to get out, but with the help of the others, we finally got them taken off the wall. After all the service, It was time for Ana's baptism!! 

We had taught Ana earlier in the week, and she decided to be baptized on Saturday, and then be confirmed on Sunday. The baptism went pretty great. We ended up having a good turn out and she seemed happy.

Sunday came, and things were different once again. Our whole district was going to have Sacrament Meeting in Paterson, and then we were to start serving. They called zones 1,2 and 3 to come help in the clean-up. I had the opportunity to confirm Ana there, and then I was able to participate in blessing the sacrament. One person did it in Spanish and the other in English, because we had two Spanish branches, and 1 English branch there. The work commenced, and we finally found a place to work. 

I think I've changed a lot since I left on my mission, cause the place we cleaned out was not pretty. We went to this ladies house and went down to her basement. It was full of piles and piles of stuff. Clothes, Doors, unused insulation, bottles, bikes, water heaters, and the like. The floor was molding, and yeah, it just wasn't good. Our crew went down, and the work commenced on cleaning the place up. We did a ton of work, hauling up huge bags of stuff, and forming assembly lines. When we got to the end of the room, we worked on taking the unused Insulation, which is where all the mice were living.

It was pretty gross to see the mice climbing up the walls as we were destroying their home. But I guess I've gotten kind of used to mice from living in the Union City house and everything. We finally finished the progress, and we were able to have a really good lesson with Marcelino, Martin, and Manuel. Manuel had another dream that involved him accidentally knocking into an Idol Statue, and it falling to the ground and breaking. He was wondering what it meant, and we talked a little bit about how we aren't supposed to worship Idols. I'm not sure what exactly is holding Manuel back, but Marcelino and Martin are doing great, and really help us a lot when it comes to teaching Manuel.

Oh yeah, another little peace of news. Sadly, I heard that Ruth is trying to take her name off the church records. I don't know if that is a rumor from the Elders there or what, but sadly she has fallen away.

  

Now I'm here in the Library, enjoying P-day, and ready for the last week of transfers. Am I staying or am I going? I really have no Idea. Elder Jarrett has been here for 3, and only has one more transfer left in his mission, and I have been here for 2. I guess we'll have to wait and see. The work is going pretty great, and it will be nice to get back and focused on proselyting, and the service days are coming to an end. Thanks for all your support! Happy Be-lated Birthday Brigham. Sorry to hear about BYU. I guess life just goes on.

Until next week

Love you all! The Gospel is True!

Love Elder Hicks