Should be a Great Sunday!!

February 22,2011

Hello Family!

This is the last week of the transfer and it's going to be pretty great. We're hoping to have 2 baptisms on Sunday, and Elder Bednar is coming to the mission on Saturday with another General Authority from the Seventies to talk to the missionaries. It really is going to be a great week. Everything is going well though.

Anyway, I'll just give you an update on our main investigators and their progress. But first I want to tell you about Cynthia. This week we had the opportunity to go help out at English class and the church. Their was this one girl there that we talked to briefly afterwards and said that we needed to drop by and teach her, and we could even help her out with her English. On Sunday she showed up to church, and even came early. Neither of us had invited her to come, but the teacher must of told them in the class. While there Elder Sopena and I took her on a tour around the church. We showed her the baptismal font, and she told us basically that she wanted to be baptized. It was pretty amazing. It's weird because she is a lot like Diana. She's 15 years old, Dominican, and wants to be baptized. We just need to go and teach her now.

Ok, so our first expected baptism this week is Diana. Diana has been doing pretty great. I said last week that we were hoping to baptized her on the 20th, but that didn't quite work out because it's been tough to see her. We finally got to go teach her again, and she has really progressed. She knows that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and knows that the book of Mormon is true. When we first got to her house we saw the "New World Translation: Bible" (Jehovah's witness bible) on the table with another booklet from the Jehovah's Witness church. I think she had gotten it awhile ago, but when she found out it wasn't from us, she threw it in the trash. She also told us that she read the chastity pamphlet I think a few times, she said that she really likes it and it makes sense. Later she even asked if she could have a chastity pamphlet for her cousin while she was sitting right there. We taught Diana the plan of salvation and when we got to the part about the 3 kingdoms, she ran to get her cousin so she could listen. Diana has a great desire to be baptized, but we're hoping she'll be prepared to be baptized this Sunday. Diana also has a great desire to share this message with others and asks for some material to give to people.

Next we have Ruth. Things have been pretty great with Ruth. We had interviews this week with President and Sister Bahr, and we told Sister Bahr a lot about Ruth. We've been having some great lessons with her lately and on Sunday we did a fast with her. We went and taught her the next day and she said that the night after the fast she had a dream involving the Book of Mormon. Ruth has really progressed a lot, and we're really hoping that she'll be baptized this Sunday. She is a really faithful person, and will be a really strong member of the Church.

And unfortunately Maria is not going to be baptized this week due to her current situation of still living with Gabriel. It's been pretty tough seeing her progress really slow down. We were pretty sure she was going to be baptized because of how fast she received an answer and how much faith she has. She is making arrangements though to get a divorce from her former husband, which is one step in the right direction. Then she either needs to marry or separate from Gabriel. We'll keep working with her though and helping her understand the importance of obedience to the law. She's a really good lady though.

So as you can see, we've got lot's to do this week with Diana and Ruth especially and really preparing them for the 27th. But we just need to continue to have faith and be diligent, and listen to the spirit in all things.

I've really enjoyed reading Jesus the Christ by James E Talmage lately and I really invite you to read it if you never have. There is some really deep interesting stuff in there. I'm grateful to be a missionary and for all the things I'm learning. Sometimes things get hard and things happen that make me a little more worriesome, but I think it really helps me to learn to rely on the Lord and know that he will take care of me, and that those times of sickness or opposition are really for me to learn.

I hope all is going well at home and that you are all doing awesome. It's kinda weird thinking I have a family back home because those family relations are stretched so far apart, but I really love all of you and I'm thankful for all your support. The Gospel is True, and I know this message can really bless everyone. They just need to let the spirit in!

Last week of the transfer... Here we come!

HAPPY MISSIONARY DAY!

All right so it's Valentines Day, but that day doesn't have a lot of meaning to a missionary haha, but I guess it's always good to develop Christlike Love and Charity for those in the area.

Well I guess it's time to update you on the week huh? Well things have gone pretty well this week. We've had some tough days where things fall through, or things just don't go as planned, but there has to be opposition in all things and that's really how our faith is tested. I guess I can just update you on our 3 investigators with baptismal dates.

Maria: So Maria is still progressing, but we're not sure if she is going to be baptized on the 27th. She has agreed to live the law of tithing, and after she taught it she was willing to pay us right there, but we told her that that's not how it works. She has so much faith, but we still have a problem with Gabriel. They aren't married, and Maria needs to stay with Gabriel especially for financial support. Her Divorce could take awhile, and it's one of those situations where we don't know what's best to do. Maria came to church yesterday, and she has been good about reading and knows that the church is true, but she can't be baptized until she separates or gets married. Yesterday we went and taught Gabriel without her, and he had been looking online for stuff about our church. Yesterday he brought Polygamy up, but luckily Elder Sopena is really experienced and can handle most of the difficult questions. We've invited Gabriel to read and pray to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. One day though, I think he could be a really strong member of the Church.

Diana: Diana is actually progressing really well, although we haven't been able to teach her as much as we've wanted. Diana said she has read and prayed and she feels pretty good about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. Yesterday she came to church and stayed after to watch the Baptism. The Bishop also came and met her and talked to her for a little bit at the baptism. She is really making great friends with one of the girls in the ward, and she has a great desire to be baptized. Elder Sopena and I were thinking that we needed to push her date back to the 27th just because it's been so tough to see her lately. Yesterday we went and taught her and she asked us what she needed to learn to be baptized. Of course we still have to teach a lot, but she ready and willing to learn. She also asked us yesterday if her being baptized would just bless her or if it would bless her family as well. I think they've been having some struggles in their family, and when we contacted her I think we talked about how the Gospel blesses families. She's a really awesome girl and I think wants to be baptized in part to help her family. She has committed to live the Word of w\Wisdom, and to read and pray every day as well. Hopefully she can be ready for her baptismal interview this Friday! We've got a lot of work to do.

Ruth: So Ruth is the one that we set with a baptismal date this week. We've been teaching Ruth for a pretty good while and have invited her to be baptized before but she just says she needs more time. This week we were teaching her with the Ward Mission Leader, and while he was talking Elder Sopena told me that we needed to set her with a date this time. I got pretty nervous for the moment to come when I was going to have to set her with a date. Elder Sopena told me that we were going to try for the 27th. They kept talking and I was pretty nervous but knew that this was the right time to invite her. Elder Sopena was talking and than stopped mid-sentence giving me the opportunity to set the date. We said "We will be having a baptismal service on the 27th of February, will you prepare to be baptized on that day?" She said "I Hope" which is a whole lot better than answers we've received from her in the past. Elder Sopena asked her for a piece of paper and wrote on it "27 de Febrero, Me voy a bautizar" as her goal. Than we hung it up for her. She stilled seemed a little hesitant and we sorta had to push her a little bit, but I think it's really what she needed. Later we came back and taught her and she seemed a little hesitant still. Elder Sopena asked her if we should take down the sheet, but she said no, that it was still something she wanted to work towards. Yesterday she came to church and came to the baptism as well, and I think she really enjoyed it. Elder Sopena told me that after the baptism yesterday, the Ward Mission Leader said to her, "Next" which is pretty funny.

We met this awesome lady this week that was taking up groceries. We helped her take up her groceries and started talking to her a little bit. She talked about how she has really found a lot more happiness in life being a Christian. Then she started telling us about her life and started crying at a certain point. We know this message can bless her so much, and so we got her information and we'll send the English Missionaries to her. She was really nice though, and it's just one of those times when you are so happy to be a missionary to share this message of happiness with people.

I'm grateful to be a missionary and I really love Union City. Hopefully I can stay here for a few transfers. I love learning how to be more responsible and continually trying to become more Christ-like. I know that that is how we can find happiness, in trying to be Christ-like in all that we do. I'm thankful to be serving and it's pretty crazy that almost 6 months have passed. There's a lot of work to be done, and a lot I still need to learn. I'm trying to learn to be more focused and not think so much about home or school or other things. I know that as I learn to do this I'm happier. Thank you all for your support and I hope all is going well with you. The Gospel is True!!! Love you all!!

Love,
Elder Hicks

Spring time coming?

There is still snow here but it does feel a little warmer which is pretty awesome.

This week has really been probably one of the best weeks of my mission. The Lord has blessed us so much and we have seen some pretty great success.

One great story is with our new investigator Maria. Last Saturday Elder Sopena had to meet with the zone leaders and so he assigned me to work on calling some former investigators. Most of them didn't answer, but there was one named Maria who answered and said we could come by on Monday. We looked at her Teaching Record and it said that she was a pretty awesome lady. We went there Monday night and basically got to know her and taught her about some of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She has a lot of faith and really wants to follow Jesus Christ. We soft commited her to baptism (Which means that we asked her if she'll be baptized when she comes to know the gospels true) and she accepted. The next day Elder Pettus and I were on an exchange and we went to go teach her again. The lesson was pretty rough because Maria's "Esposo" but not really married to him was asking us a bunch of different questions off topic of the restoration. We still gave her a Book of Mormon though, and invited her to read and pray. The next day was pretty great. We went to her house and asked her how her reading and praying went. Then she told us," Tenia un sueno" or something like that. Meaning she had a dream. I'm not all too sure what the dream was about, Elder Sopena told me it was something about how she could cast the devil out through the word of god, the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I'm not sure exactly, but she took this for her answer and said she knows the Book of Mormon is true. After she said that, Elder Sopena told me in English to set her with a baptismal date. So I asked her if she would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. She nodding yes. I then told her that we would be having a baptismal service on the 27th of February and asked if she would prepare herself to be baptized on that day. Again she nodded a yes. We were so happy to hear that, and we're really excited for her.

The next day I think it was, we did a split. Elder Sopena went with a member to an appointment, and I went to Maria's again with another member. We had the opportunity to teach... The Law of Chastity. We basically just read from the Pamphlet and I think she felt pretty uncomfortable, but she did agree to live it. Now comes the sad part of the story. She lives with a guy named Gabriel who's like her "esposo" but they aren't really married, and Maria is still married to some other guy, but they just never really got a divorce. So it makes things a little tougher to the situation. She said that she is going to get a divorce with the other guy, but we're not quite sure whats going to happen with Gabriel because they either need to casarse (marry) or separarse (separate). We're just not entirelly sure that Maria wants to marry him so it might be to separate. I feel kind of bad because he is kinda like the dad in the house where 2 other kids live. But we gotta keep the commandments. It will all work out eventually. It's been kinda weird talking to them about the situation and about marriage, but luckily Elder Sopena does most of it. They came to Stake Conference yesterday though, and Maria read and prayed about Joseph Smith and knows that he was a true prophet.

Our other main investigator Ruth is progressing pretty well too. We've taught her a lot but she still isn't really taking what she's felt as an answer. She's felt the Spirit we're pretty sure, but she's looking for something specific. Last night we taught her more about the Book of Mormon, and Elder Sopena and I discovered that she's not really reading the Book of Mormon every day like she should and that's probably why she's not receiving a clear answer. So we're going to try and focus more on the Book of Mormon and hopefully get her to read it each day.

Diana is also one of our progressing investigators. We went and taught her the restoration and about the Book of Mormon. Then we had a member who was with us extend the baptismal question. She said she would need to know more, but agreed to be baptized on February 20th. Elder Sopena told her she would need permission though to be baptized (yeah she's pretty young, she just had her quincenera on Saturday) but after the lesson she went to her mom and asked her for permission and her mom said yes, so I think that's a good sign. The only problem is, is that we haven't gotten to teach her a lot yet and we don't think she's been reading the Book of Mormon, so it's possible that we'll have to push her date back to the 27th, but I think she's a pretty solid investigator.

So our transfer goal of baptisms is 3, and so far we have 2 set and we are really hoping to set Ruth with a baptismal date soon. We've got a lot of work to do though for sure.

Yesterday was a pretty cool day. We went to West New York for Elder Sopena to do a baptismal Interview. After the Interview we took some pretty cool pictures of the view, and then we walked back to Union City.


The walk was pretty far, but it was pretty cool walking with the view of the skyline to the side of us.


Elder Sopena is down to 3 weeks left in his mission and he has a great desire to work hard, so he's really keeping us going.

This week we had a visit from Elder Johnson from the 70. He talked to us about learning to recognize the Spirit. It was definitely something that I needed. One thing that Sister Bahr was mentioning in her talk was that All the people we know are material for us to practice our Christianity. It's so true! We can truly learn and develop Christlike attributes with everyone we know, especially companions. Sometimes problems erupt in a companionship, but you can learn how to get over those and learn how to be more Christlike in those situations.

Another cool thing I learned this week was in a talk from Elder Bednar called Learning by Faith. He talked about how our learning by faith grows through 3 interconnected things. 1. Assurance 2. Action 3. Evidence, and then back to greater assurance. That's really how our faith grows. We first have the assurance that something is true, and then we act upon that assurance according to the commandments and cousel that we receive. Then we see evidence in the form of blessings or happiness that that principle is true, which gives us a greater assurance that the things we are learning are true, which leads us again to act according to those principles and see more evidence.

The Gospel is true, and I'm loving working out here. It's true that I get homesick at times missing my family and everything going on there, but I know this is where I'm supposed to be, and this is truly where I can learn to apply principles and Christlike attributes that will help me be the person I am supposed to become.

Thanks again for all your support. I love you all so much!!!

Love, Elder Hicks

Snow snow snow!

Yes, there is a lot of snow here. Or at least there was, but some of the piles of snow around here are taller than I am. We have seen cars that are completely covered with snow. It's pretty crazy for sure, but always makes for a good adventure I guess and provides a lot more opportunities to ask people if they need help.



Anyway... Hello again from the East Coast. Everything is going pretty great around here. When I said that I was going to kill my companion that's not what I meant. I meant it in the way that I'm going to be his last companion of his mission because it's his last transfer. So sorry, I should have made that more clear. We get along pretty well, although at times it's hard for us to communicate because he's not a native English speaker, but it's helping me learn greater patience, and helping me try to communicate more clearly.

Elder Sopena and I have seen some pretty great success this week. We didn't find many new investigators last week, but this week we found some who all have more or less great potential. My Spanish has also been improving a lot as I've been trying to study the Book of Mormon more in spanish. I still need to keep being diligent and trying to learn more and more. I gotta keep working on my grammer and learning a lot more vocabulary.

Last Monday Elder Sopena and I did FHE at the Church and we only had a few people come. We taught about Family History which is always good. There was a kid from Hong Kong there as well who was moving back to Hong Kong last week. I wrote a little note for Anthony (Or Elder Oliver my old roommate) and hope that somehow it can get to him. I just told the kid to give it to some missionary he sees there and hopefully it makes it there.



One of our main investigators named Ruth is continuing to progress. She's come to church like 3 times now. We've been trying to work with her by talking about the spirit and the power of prayer. This week we had a great FHE with her and a member family. We went over to her house to help her with her 4 little boys, and then we went to the Contrera family's. I think Ruth was a referral from the Contreras anyway, but I'm not sure exactly how they met. At the family home evening the Contreras taught about what we need to do to enter the temple and a little bit about eternal families. Then we at pizza and cake and just had a pretty great time. Hopefully Ruth enjoyed it as well.



We also had a pretty cool miracle this Sunday as well. Last week we met this teenage girl on the street real close to our house. We contacted her and then asked if there was a time that we could come by. She said yes and we went back on that day. Unfortunately when we went back she had forgotten and was busy cleaning but we got the opportunity to talk to her and her mom a little more. Her mom was talking to us about whether we had girlfriends, and said that we should go to the DR to marry someone there, and said that she would send 4 girls over to our house or something like that. It was kinda funny, but probably danger haha, but we did get to invite her to church and she agreed to come.

Later in the week we went back to see Diana (The teenage girl) and just remind her about church, and she said she was still good to go. As Sunday came around and the administration of the sacrament ended, we saw her walk in with her little sister. I was so happy to see that she actually came to church. After sacrament we took her and her little sister to drop her little sister off at primary. Then we went to sunday school to drop her off. Later we came back to Sunday School because she was sitting by herself but during the lesson the teacher talked about Missionary work and a little bit about baptism. During the lesson she asked Elder Sopena how she could get baptized. We were both excited to hear this of course. After sunday school she went with another young woman in the ward to young womans. After that we were having another baptism for the other elders, and she even stayed for that and had some good fellowship from the other teenagers in the ward. One of the girls had invited her to mutual and and she agreed to go. Later that night we went to teach Diana, and there were a ton of people there. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and we wanted to set Diana with a baptismal date, but it was tough with all her family there. After the lesson she asked us about the Book of Mormon and we said we'd get her one on Tuesday. She's showing great interest though and we're really happy to have her as an investigator now. Last night when we called her on accident she said that she was reading the pamphlet that we gave her. We're going to try and set her with a baptismal date for the 20th of February.

So that's most of the big things that happened this week. Just another side, kinda funny story. Last night we were at the home of a recent convert named Edwin. We read from the Book of Mormon with him and as we were saying the closing prayer, we got a knock on the door. He opened it, and there happened to be some Catholic missionaries at the door. They started talking about some event they had, and actually had pretty good spanish. The companion who wasn't talking had already seen us and was kinda looking like, "Oh man, there's already missionaries here." Then after talking for a while at the door the other missionary finally saw us and was like, "Ohhhhh" and then he said something about how everyone was invited whether they were Catholic or not, and then he gave Elder Sopena and I some invitations. Elder Sopena in turn gave them a pass-a-long card for the Book of Mormon. I thought it was a pretty interesting experience though.

Things are going great and I'm learning to get more adjusted around here, and trying to be more diligent, and continuallly trying to become more Christlike. I love all of you so much, and I guess here I can try and help other families have that same love within their home and find the joy that the gospel brings. The Gospel is True!

Love all of You!!

Love,
Elder Hicks