Before I leave. . .

The Promised Land?

Alright, so I'm back here next to NYC in the area of Union City 1-15. Some missionaries call Union City the promised land because they see so much success here. I'm back to my old zone but am living in a different apartment of course. Union City is a pretty good place. There are a lot of people, and it's nice living in a place kinda like Utah where all the streets are numbered at least in one direction.

But yeah, so my new companions name is Elder Sopena (Sorry I don't know how to do an n with a line over it, so his name is pronounced kinda like Sopenia). This is his last transfer. He only has 5 weeks left in his mission now and so he's pretty determined to work hard. He's from Puerto Rico, so he's really good at Spanish. He can help me with my Spanish and I can help him with his English.

It's pretty cold here for sure, especially since I'm a walking elder again. So Mom, you don't have to worry about me driving on the Icy roads for now. My guess is that I will stay in Union City for more than 1 transfer (I think) because Elder Sopena has to leave and I don't think they would double us out, but strange things have happened to me when it comes to transfers, so who knows?

Last Monday I worked on packing everything up. I had to give up my old bedding because I couldn't really make it fit. Elder Harrington hadn't brought any bedding and was using some old bedding of an old missionary, so I gave my old bedding to him. It will be missed considering that was my bedding since I was like 12, but I really do love the new bedding you sent.

On Tuesday I finished packing and we got ready to go. It was a pretty crazy phenomenon with Ice Rain on Tuesday. I've never seen it before, but basically it rains, but it's so cold that the rain freezes after it's on the ground, and it makes it pretty dangerous. Our car was like encased with a shell of ice.

So we went to transfer conference on Tuesday and that's where I learned that I was headed to Union City. It was sad the night before to say goodbye to the people from the ward and to say goodbye to Freddy (who I'm pretty sure got baptized yesterday). It was also pretty sad saying goodbye to Fausta. I think you just get really good at saying goodbye on your mission.

So my first night in Union City, we went to go see our main progressing investigator Ruth. Ruth is a pretty awesome lady. She's single and has 4 little boys that she takes care of, and one of them is Autistic I'm pretty sure. So our lessons aren't really very peaceful, but Ruth could definitely benefit from the message that we share.

The first night I was getting a little Dover Homesick. It was kinda hard being put back in the city when I had been more accustomed to small town life in Dover where people lived in nicer more spaced housing. But I guess it was good for the Lord to send me back here where I can learn to grow more. This week we've been trying to find more, but haven't seen a ton of success. But we'll keep working, and we have a transfer baptismal goal of 3, so we for sure have a lot of work to do.

The ward here is awesome, and is a lot bigger than any of the wards I've been in while here in New Jersey. We went and had a FHE with some recent converts and another family, and talked about the Family: a Proclamation to the World. While we were waiting to head over to FHE, Sister Ramirez gave us some Pupusas to eat.

On Saturday we went and played some soccer, and Elder Sopena didn't really want to change his clothes, so I was playing in my b-ball shoes and my proselyting clothes, so I kinda looked like a goof, but I guess it's alright.

So yesterday was a really good Sunday. After Sacrament, the primary needed me and Elder Sopena to be the teacher of the 8-11 year olds, cause the teacher was sick. It was pretty tough to teach them to say the least, but in reality we should try to teach all our lessons with the same simplicity. After Sunday School one of the Sunbeam teachers (I think) wanted us to come in and teach a little bit about Joseph Smith's boyhood. We taught a little bit, and when I walked in there was this little girl that was like "He's cute" and then said something else like "Give me a hug" or something. Then later when she saw me again she just looked up at me with her eyes all big and everything. It was pretty funny.

But yeah it's been a pretty crazy week trying to get readjusted to city life again, and trying to adjust to the cold. At times I've had 5 layers on, including my garments, white shirt, sweater, jacket, and then my big coat which I guess is 2 layers, but mainly my hands get pretty cold. Sadly I lost one of my American Eagle mittons, so I'll have to buy some new gloves today. I'm excited for warm weather to come again though. I guess these are one of the times that we need to think back to the Mormon Pioneers and what they had to go through, and I guess we don't really come close.

Everything is going pretty good though, we just need to find some more people and get some more set appointments. Tonight we are having a FHE at the church and teaching about family history which should be pretty fun.

It's been kinda tough for me lately really adjusting, and sometimes I'm hard on myself, like always. Sometimes I feel like I'm just not doing good enough, but I guess we can always improve. I know that I can be much happier if I just try to have a more positive attitude, and I think that has been my problem lately.

Luckily I have Elder Sopena as a companion this transfer, because he's always positive, pumped up, and ready to go, ready to do missionary work. I think I can learn a lot from him this transfer. He also tries to really help me grow, but making me teach more than my other companions had me really do, and although sometimes it's hard, I knows it's exactly what he should be doing that will help me the most. Should be a pretty great transfer though, and I think I'll learn a lot.

I texted Elder Harrington yesterday to ask if Freddy was getting baptized and he said he was, so that's always good.

I love all of you, the Gospel is true, the Book of Mormon can bless our lives so much!!! Jesus Christ is our Savior, and I know our Heavenly Father is always there for us, and we can live happily if we just do His will in all things.

Love you all!!

Elder Hicks

Transferred Again!??

Yep that's right, I'm being transferred again. We got the texts this morning and I was pretty surprised to see my name on the list. I thought if either of us were to leave it would be Elder Harrington because he's been here for 3 transfers, but I guess I'm out. So I don't have a ton of time to write today because I gotta go pack and stuff.

Anyway, this week was actually pretty great for us. Probably our best week of the transfer. We went and saw Ider again this week from Newton, and he was their and ready to listen. We watched the Restoration with him and I thought the Spirit was definitely in the room. We talked to him about it afterwards and we asked him something like, "How can you know that Joseph Smith was a true Prophet?" or something like that or just mentioned it, and he agreed that he was a prophet. We decided to hard commit him to baptism with a date and everything, and he accepted. February 5th is our goal, which is really exciting, but sadly I won't be here for it, or for Freddy's either. But I think that the next Elder that takes my place and Elder Harrington will have an awesome transfer coming up. Elder Harrington and I have found some pretty good people lately that I think have a lot of potential which is awesome.

This week we went to see Patricia and Wilson's family. We went and taught the Plan of Salvation using a cool puzzle thing, and we brought Hermano Haro from the ward who is a patriarch. He truly backed us up, and really did a lot of things that would be hard for me and Elder Harrington. So he basically told this family that we don't worship Saints, and that The Church of Christ should be named after Christ and not have some other name. He said that their are only 2 churches, the Church of Christ and the Church of the Devil. He also brought down the belief of infant baptism, and talked about how it says nothing about infant baptism in the bible. So hopefully this will help Patricia and Wilson understand better, but hopefully Hermano Haro wasn't too bold. He explained parts of the plan really well though. I guess we'll see how they progress.

Yesterday we went to Edwin's cousins and taught her. We talked about the plan with her, and she sent a text to Edwin after the lesson that said something like "Thank's so much for coming, and I'm excited for the next lesson, and to learn how to pray better." Which I think is a pretty good sign from her as well.

The snow hasn't been too bad. We got a lot of it on Tuesday night, that they actually made us do our car fast day on Wednesday. The roads aren't so bad anymore. The weather gets super cold here. One or two times this week when we went running in the morning, I would wear my neck wrap/face mask, and all the moisture that I would breath out would like freeze on my eyebrows, and I actually started getting a little ice on my eyelashes. It's all good though, I'm glad we've had a car for this transfer. Who knows if I'll be a walking or driving Elder next transfer?

But yeah, things are going pretty good here. It's sad to be leaving Dover, but also kind of exciting to move to new places and meet new people. I think it would be good for me to get an older more experienced companion so that I can improve my Spanish more and my teaching skills as well. I guess we'll just see where I go next week.

I'm sorry that this letter can't be so detailed, but we're trying to keep our writing time under an hour writing both our families and President Bahr.



I guess the spiritual thought, or something awesome that I found in the scriptures this week would be from the book of First Nephi. So we all read that Lehi's family had to leave Jerusalem and all the things that they had to go to the promised land. Laman and Lemuel murmur alot and want to go back to where they are comfortable and have the things they need. During the whole time they are being led to a far better place, but they just don't really trust in the Lord. Nephi of course does all the things that the Lord commands him, and bears with patience all his afflictions. They reach the promised land after being counseled by the Lord on how to build the ship.

So how can this overall story relate to missionary work, or life in general? Well... as a missionary we leave our own "Jerusalems" where we are used to life there and have everything we need. At times we may want to go back because we are not use to the things out in the "Wilderness". We may murmur about different experiences, and may sometimes be blind to the fact that the Lord is really leading us to the promised land. The Lord is leading us as missionaries to really become better people, and to have better lives. We just need to be as Nephi and bear with patience, all of our afflictions. And then we'll see, that the Lord truly did lead us to the promised land.

Just as I've talked about in the past, the scripture from Matthew that says something like, "He that shall save his life shall lose it, and he that shall lose his life for my sake, shall find it." We are on a Journey as missionaries, in the Lords work, trying to do his will, and trying to become better people. If we truly lose ourselves in the work, and forget about ourselves, we shall in turn find our lives. So we just need to trust in the Lord and realize that everything that is happening to us is truly for our benefit and learning, and that the Lord is trying to lead us to the promised land. And I know that if we follow the Lord, we truly will be happy, even if life gets tough sometimes. Thanks for all your Love and support. The Gospel is True!!

Love all of you!!!
Love,
Elder Hicks

Week 6 already!!!

Wow, this 2nd transfer has just flown by. This is week six meaning that next Sunday Elder Harrington and I will figure out who's staying, and who's going from the area. Possibly we'll both stay, but you can't really tell.

With the 100 dollars that grandma sent, I made a pretty big purchase today. Hopefully you approve, but I purchased a GPS today for the car for about $128. I figured it will help me around here because I still have a hard time learning the roads and it's something that I can for sure use after my mission. The only problem is, is that more worldly treasures equal more worry. Now I'm going to have to worry about the car being locked and the GPS hidden whenever we leave the car. That's probably another reason why we shouldn't lay up for ourselves treasures where moths doth corrupt and things can get stolen. It should be OK here in Dover at least. If I get transferred to Newark or something like that, I might just have to leave it in the apartment.

This week has been an OK week for me and Elder Harrington. Last Monday we went and taught Freddy (who we actually reset his baptismal date for the 23rd of January, and he wants to invite his parents and everything). It was a good lesson. We watched the restoration with him, so I think he understands Joseph Smith a little better. Freddy is a good guy, probably at like his mid 40's. He lives with some members and is originally from Peru. But we're excited that he's progressing, and in fact, he is kinda our only solid progressing investigator.

On Tuesday we had our zone meeting which was pretty great. We are now this month working on being challenging and testifying missionaries. Meaning we need to learn to contact and open our mouths more, and bare testimony to those around us. For these first 2 weeks, we are suppose to contact 20 people a day, and for the last 2 weeks, we need to invite 4 people to be baptized each day. It should be interesting, but hopefully we'll see some good success from it, and find more people.

Elder Harrington and I haven't been very good about doing contacts, but we are going to try to do better. We realized this week, that maybe we are wasting our time with some of our investigators. We spend a good amount of time teaching people that might not have a ton of potential. It's just kinda hard for me to drop investigators I guess, cause you just never know what could happen. But dropping them could be an act of faith, and hopefully if me and Elder Harrington drop a lot of our investigators, we'll be able to find some new ones.

We went and saw a former investigator named Joaquin. He let us in and we talked to him more about the Book of Mormon. He's been to church tons of times, but then just kinda stopped progressing. Hopefully we'll be able to get somewhere with him.

We did have a pretty good experience this week though. We picked up Edwin and he took us to these referals he had. The main person he wanted to see was gone out of town, but we went to the people downstairs that he knows. (because he tutors one of them) They all gathered in as a family and we taught them the first. I think they are from Ecuador and they seem like pretty religious people. Their 10 year old daughter probably has more potential than either of the parents, but I guess we'll just have to see. We went to Newton again to see Ider (who we thought had some great potential). Unfortunately they haven't really answer their phones when we've called. We decided to go at the time we scheduled and hoped he would be there. We went and unfortunately he wasn't. So we didn't see a lot in Newton, but we're going to have the Spart Elders check on Ider from time to time so that we don't have to drive up there in hopes of seeing him.

On Wednesday, we went to go visit this guy named Frank who we've been trying to get an appointment with for awhile, but everytime we set a time, either him or us had to cancel. Frank speaks English so we turned him over the the English Elders but we had a pretty good lesson at his parents house. He was asking what being a Mormon entails, so I explained a little bit of the word of wisdom, the law of chastity and all that, and then we taught him the first. He accepted to be baptized when he knows these things are true, and I think he has a lot of potential.

On Thursday Elder Harrington and basically all of the other Elders in our apartment complex had to go to leadership training, except for Elder Althouse. So of course, I got to be companions with Elder Althouse for Thursday and Friday. We went and had a lesson with Edwin and watched "Our Heavenly Father's Plan", then we headed to Elder Althouses area. We went and taught this progressing investigator named Richie who really wants to be baptized but his mom won't give him permission. We taught him the word of wisdom and he seemed to really understand it. He picked out different points in the blessings part of D&C 89 that were way good as well. Richie is pretty awesome for sure, and hopefully he can get permission from his mom. I think they have a date set for him next Sunday. When we were done, we went and met with the other Elders who came back from the Leadership training. We had an Elder from New Brunswick staying with us for the night because of the trainings on Thursday, so all 3 of us went out together and contacted and knocked. One guy we contacted, I did a soft baptismal commitment and he said yes which was pretty awesome.

On Friday me and Elder Althouse worked together again which was pretty great. During comp study, he gave me some reallly good pointers and answered questions that I had. He talked to me about making goals, and making a baptismal goal for my mission. I hadn't even made mission goals for myself, which was definitely not smart of me, but I did make some the next day. Here is a list of my goals, or at least some of them

- 1 to 2 Baptisms each month: but do my best to invite others to come unto Christ
- Pick a Christlike attribute every Monday to work on for the week
- Read PMG every day either before bed or during lunch.
- Complete all of the standard works
- Read 15 minutes from the Book of Mormon each day.
- Read the mission Library
- Help every companion I have grow and have a more fulfilling mission
- Gain a greater love for the people and a greater desire to serve them
- Obey with Exactness
- Run out of Fuel every day, work until I can't work anymore
- Sincerely get to know the members
- Memorize a new scripture each week in Spanish and English
And of course I had to include... * Have Fun!! *

So I'll do my best to accomplish these goals and of course they are subject to change, but it at least gives me something to work towards right?

Anyway, Me and Elder Althouse spent a lot of the day shoveling walks for some people he knew. I actually got to use a snow blower for my first time, but when I was using it, I was kinda thinking that I probably wasn't allowed to be using it as a missionary. It was pretty hard to figure out how to get it started and working and everything. Maybe I'll just stick to shovels. Later we went and taught Freddy about the Word of Wisdom and about Reading and Praying every day. He commited to live those commandments, so he's looking pretty good to be baptized next week.

On Saturday we went and taught Yetlenessi who is a member, but we're going to meet with her more because her son is going to turn 8 in about a month and she wants him to get baptized.

Elder Harrington and I had a pretty rough experience on Saturday though. We had found this guy named Jose Antonio about a week before and had taught him the first lesson and gave them a Book of Mormon to read. We returned to their house and wanted to teach them, but they said they had read at least a little bit, and his wife looked up stuff about our church online. They were asking us questions concerning baptisms for the dead (and how it doesn't say it in the bible) and then they asked us about the 3 kingdoms (and how it doesn't really say it in the bible). Well they know that it says it in the bible but they have different interpretations of the meanings. Elder Harrington talked to them while I was looking in the back of the Book of Mormon for bible references to those topics. We found them and showed them to them, but it wasn't doing much good. We think maybe the wife read some anti-mormon stuff online, but we're not all too sure. As we were leaving, we left their copy of the Book of Mormon on the table and walked out, but they stopped us and gave it back. We said they could have it still, but they were saying something about how somebody else could better use it. That was pretty hurtful. To get the Book of Mormon back from somebody is some pretty serious rejection. Well, maybe some other day they'll be more prepared for the Gospel.

On Sunday the missionaries in the branch had the opportunity to give talks. Elder Harrington talked about the Armor of God, I talked about the power of prayer, Elder Christopher talked about the Book of Mormon, and Elder Holmes talked about the sacrament. It went pretty well, and I also had the opportunity to translate during Elder Harrington's talk, which is always good practice.

Fausta was also confirmed during church which was pretty awesome as well. After church we went out knocking and after a number of doors, this guy named Jorge let us in. We taught him the first and he commited to read and pray, and also accept a soft baptismal commitment, but me and Elder Harrington didn't feel super awesome about the lesson. I think we were in there for way to long, and it wasn't super simple. I guess we're both still learning, but hopefully Jorge will progress. Last night we took Edwin out with us to teach. First we went to Fausta's and taught her about Service and about missionary work. Edwin included a powerful testimony about a missionary experience he had earlier in the week. We then went and taught Joaquin and taught about faith from Alma 32, and again Edwin shared a strong testimony of faith and another awesome experience with people in his family.

That brings us back to today. This week My Christlike Attribute is virtue. I studied it for a little bit today, and this week I'm going to try and keep my thoughts more focused and try to be more pure in all things. It's been a good week though, although our numbers for this week were a little rough. We'll have to do better this week, especially as it is the last week of the Transfer.

Thanks for all your support and letters and everything. It's kinda weird thinking about home and family and stuff. That's just like another world, another life in a far away place. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I think it helps me to stay a little more focused. Time is pretty crazy on the mission. As is always said, the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. I feel like it gets faster as I get farther into my mission.

The Gospel is true! I love learning how to be a better person, a better missionary and a better person. I'm still working to get things figured out and to better recognize the voice of the spirit, vs my own thoughts. I'm happy to be here, and I'm happy to continue growing and becoming the person I'm meant to become.

Today I was studying in Alma 32 about Faith. One thing that I picked out that I've seen before but is worth mentioning, is that we need to continue nourishing the seed through diligence, but also through patience as well. Just like when you plant a tree, it's not like you can just put the seed in the ground, water it, and then an explosion of tree comes. We must wait patiently day by day for the little seed to grow as we nourish it. I know that I can gain greater faith as I continually nourish the seed and be patient with myself and not feel so discouraged that I don't have the greatest faith ever. I know that we can learn so much in the Book of Mormon as we seek to liken all scriptures to ourselves, and I know that Heavenly Father is always there for us, whenever we feel like there is no one else. I'm grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and that when I fall because of my weaknesses and imperfections, I can use the atonement and try to do better the next day.

I'm happy to be on a mission and serving others, and thanks again for all your support.
I love all of you!!

From Jersey to Dover

Christmas Day Call

Mom: We had 45 minutes to talk, with Elder Hicks timing us on his cell phone. He insisted we follow the rules. We sat in the office around the speaker phone so we could all hear him. As Elder Hicks told us of his transfer, his Christmas plans, and as Caleb told Elder Hicks of their expecting a new nephew there was much joy and excitement. But as the time drew near to close, I started to silently cry. The others left the room for a couple of minutes so that I had a few private minutes to talk to him, to tell him of my love, and of how happy I am for him. Then the others came back to the office to hear Elder Hicks bear his testimony of our Savior, in Spanish. The perfect Missionary Christmas Call.

Entry from Mom's letter after Christmas:

Dearest Son,

Wow. We did it. I do need to apologize right up front for "crying" on the phone. I had tried to gear myself up for it for the few days before, and really didn't think I would, but sometimes Mom's are ...just....Mom's. I did love just hearing the sound of your voice. You already sounded so grown up, and maybe that is why I cried just a bit. Christmas and New Years were pretty quiet around here. Just so different for all of us, I guess.

Let 2011 begin, the Year of Consecration!

That's right, 2011 is year and that means its my consecrated year. For the whole year of 2011 I will be serving as a missionary. So it should be a pretty great year right?

Anyway everything is going pretty great here. We had a great start to our 2011 year with... Our first Baptism!! Yep, Fausta was able to get baptized yesterday and it was a pretty great experience. Elder Harrington and I are both so happy for her! She'll be confirmed next Sunday.



Also good news... A few weeks ago we set a baptismal date with our investigator Freddy who's from Peru, and lives with some members. We set it for January 9th but I didn't feel like he was all too sure about it. But yesterday Hermano Cielo (The ward mission leader who baptized Fausta) told us that Freddy was saying he was getting baptized next week and that he's inviting his parents from Pennsylvania. That was pretty surprising to me. We just have a problem. We haven't taught Freddy enough for him to be ready to be baptized on Saturday. We have only really taught him the first 2 lessons and we still have much more ahead, although he does talk about the gospel to the members he lives with. So we'll see if we can have him baptized this week or not, who knows?

Anyway, me and Elder Harrington have been seeing some pretty good success. We have found some new investigators and talked to some good people. Our problem is, is that we don't have very many progressing investigators. It's been harder setting up good return appointments with people. I think I told you about Patricio, who I thought had good potential, well, he's not too interested which is pretty unfortunate.

We got hit with some pretty crazy snow the day after Christmas, and driving on it was pretty crazy during that day. At the end of the night we were having a hard time getting up some of the major hills to get back to our house. Luckily we made it, but then we couldn't get the car back out of our apartment complex. So Elder Harrington and I decided to walk over to one of the main hills to help push cars. We walked and asked different people if they needed help pushing their car or shoveling, and people just said no. People didn't really want help. The walk out in the snow was pretty crazy. It was so cold, and I had like ice building up on my eyelashes. It was pretty brutal, but definitely an adventure.

On Christmas night we went to the branch president's home and had a really delicious dinner, and they gave us all ties which was way nice of them. We left them with a message of how we could improve the branch by focusing more on the Book of Mormon, and what I mean to say that the zone leaders left them with a message, cause Elder Harrington and I didn't do much. But yeah, it wasn't too bad of a Christmas night. Holidays don't feel too much like Holidays on the mission, which is sometimes a good thing, but sometimes a bad thing, just depends.

So last Wednesday we went to this interesting place called Newton. It was a lot different than Dover and there weren't quite so many Hispanics. We mainly went though because we had a referral from some of the Elders there. We were walking around doing some knocking and then the other Elders happened to drive by. We followed them to the referral and then went to knock it. We tried the first door which we thought it was, but to no avail. We decided to knock on the second door and a guy came and answered. We talked to him for a little bit, and then he said he needed to go grab his book. He came back, and it was a Book of Mormon. He was the referral. So we taught him the first lesson on his front porch and when we talked about the first vision, he indicated that he had a feeling or goosebumps on his arm or something, which is pretty good to hear for sure. It got sorta frustrating trying to teach him though, because I would ask him a question and then he would look at Elder Harrington for clarification of what I just asked. I was wondering what was wrong with what I said, I thought I asked the question in Spanish pretty clearly, but I guess maybe it's my accent or something. I'm not sure, but I have a lot to learn. We have a return appointment with him (Ider from Ecuador) on Tuesday, so we'll see where that goes as well.

Most of our lessons this week with members and less-actives have been focused on making goals for this new year, and how others can come closer to Christ and be better people. We asked them to pray to find their weaknesses (we usually used Ether 12:27 with this lesson) and then make goals to improve.

There is so much knowledge I still need to obtain, because when the ward mission leader goes out with us, he teaches with so much clarity and power, and just makes so much sense. He had been speaking the language for his whole life, but still. I have a lot to learn about doctrines, and teaching with power and clarity. The Spanish is coming but eh... I'm going to start doing more notecards to learn vocabulary because I haven't been really good about doing flash cards while I've been on my mission. I guess it will be like memorizing physiology terms.



Oh yeah, one more thing. So last night we ran out of plans and we didn't really know what to do. We turned on a random road because we needed to say a prayer to figure it all out. We decided to just knock on that road, we each picked 2 houses to knock. The first one we went to was pretty special. We knocked and a girl answered, then her spouse came to the door to handle it. It was this really cool guy with long dred-locks. He invited us in to the front part of his house and was really friendly with us. He asked us how long our missions were, where we're from, how we like Utah, and some other things. Then he invited us to sit down and he saw the Book of Mormon in my hands. He asked what it was, thinking it was a bible, and we explained what the Book of Mormon was.

He seemed somewhat interested, but then he stopped us because he had a question. He said he made a new years resolution to come closer unto God and that he is going to read the bible every day. Of course we were happy to hear this, but he also asked us how to pray. He wasn't sure if he was doing it right, but we taught him and I don't think he had been doing it too differently. He said that we could come by any time after he's done working, which unfortunately is really late, but he was saying that he doesn't really want to get into the politics of church, and really just wants to come closer to God. He just wants people to come over and read the bible with him and help him learn from it, which isn't the best thing ever, but I think the English Elders can work with it. (Yeah, this guy was English, so unfortunately we can't teach him).

But then he asked if we had any material to give him in English. We walked out to the car and he came with us. We gave him the restoration packet, and he asked us what kind of bible we used. We told him King James, and he said that's the one he reads on his phone, but he doesn't have a hard copy of it. We looked through our supply box, (and I had seen this bible in the bottom earlier in the week when I was going to attempt to organize it) but right there at the bottom was a King James version of the Holy Bible (In English of all things). We gave it to him and it was like the Bible was meant just for him.

We'll see if the other Elders can make some progress with him, but he was a pretty great guy. He told us that he envied us for having grown up in homes with the Gospel, and told us that if we didn't know it, there is a lot of people that respect us and really looked up to us, and he told us that he really looks up to us. Really good guy, and it was a great finding experience.



The highlights for these past two weeks were the Temple and the Baptism. The Manhattan temple is really beautiful and it was weird going from the streets and then entering in there. It was so silent, and while I was in the changing room, I felt like it was a silence that I hadn't heard in awhile, if that makes sense. But it was a really great experience, and the subways and trains weren't so bad to get there, just kind of expensive, but the day we went to Manhattan was a pretty great day.






The Gospel is true! The Lord will comfort us when we stand in need of comfort! This Christmas week we talked about the importance of remembering Christs life in our lives, and not just during the Christmas season, but everyday. I know that we can carry some of that joyful Christmas season spirit with us, if we remember our Savior each day.