CHANGES!

(Letter dated April 11, 2011)

No worries, I'm not being transferred, but this week is the week of transfers, and Elder High AND I are still going to be companions. It should be a great transfer, and we will see a lot of good success together. Last night I got a call from one of the assistants, and he asked me to be the next District Leader! I'm so excited for this opportunity to be District Leader and to better help the missionaries and serve those in the District. It will also be pretty cool to conduct baptismal interviews for the investigators of the other missionaries. I guess I better start working more on my Spanish. It's a really great opportunity and priviledge and a time for me to learn and grow even more. Two of the people in our former district are leaving, and one of the people in the district is going to be training so it will be cool having a new greenie around to help out. But that's basically the big news of the week, the rest of the week hasn't been quite so good.

This week it seemed like a lot of not so good things were happening. Everything seemed to be going well with Hector, and then on Thursday he told us that there was some stuff he needed to clear up in Ecuador before he could get baptized. He still had his baptismal interview, and it came out that he is going to need a second interview. He has that interview tomorrow and I asked Elder Davies (The District Leader last transfer) if after this interview he was going to be able to be baptized, and Elder Davies sounded in the affirmative so maybe Hector will be able to be baptized in the next couple of weeks. This week we also got to go and help their family move, and I think it really helped us earn I guess you would say "brownie points" with Hector's Grandpa. Hopefully he will one day give permission to Yolanda to be baptized, and then her and Hectors mom Wendy can be baptized as well. Hector is an awesome kid though and told us that he still wants to be baptized and that he knows the church is true. He went to the YSA activity this week and is planning on going to mutual tomorrow, so it seems like he is continuing to grow in the church and is making more friends.

Christian and Trixi gave us some bad news this week as well. They still want to be baptized and everything, but we also found out that they aren't married, and that Trixie is still married to her former "esposo". So it could be a pretty lengthy process, but they will eventually be baptized. It was actually pretty cool this week. Trixi has been like super pregnant, and on friday or something like that I called her and got no answer, She called me back later and I asked how everything was going. It was like 10:15 or something like that, and she told me that she had just had her baby like about an hour ago. I congratulated her and was really happy for her. Yesterday we were able to find her a ride home from the hospital, and then we got to go and visit them. We taught them about "Where we were before this life" because they just had a baby and all, and then we told them they wouldn't be able to get baptized on the 24th because they haven't been to church yet and they have to deal with all this divorce stuff, but we invited them to pray about their own date in which they could reasonably be baptized. So we'll follow up on that a little more on Wednesday. I was pretty suprised that she was back only two days after, and she was pretty weak during the lesson, but they still let us come over which was pretty awesome. They also gave us a lot of details about the child birth which was definitely pretty interesting especially in Spanish, and it sounded like a pretty dramatic experience for sure, but hey, I guess they trust us enough to give us so many details about their new baby Angel (That's his name).

As for church attendance. Ay ay ay, yesterday definitely wasn't a good day of church attendance for our recent converts. A lot of them were missing and Fiorella and Samantha weren't able to make it either to be confirmed, but the good news is... Christian came and was able to be confirmed again. I got to do the confirmation which was pretty cool, but kinda hard in Spanish, especially cause as a missionary you basically only use the Usted form (Formal) while in blessings you use the Tu form (Less-formal) and so the confirmation had a mix of both, but hey, practice makes perfect right? Hector came and enjoyed it. Christian's mom came as well, and she isn't a member. And we had another investigator named Jennifer come whose spouse is a member. So we are going to try and work more with her, especially cause they are moving to Florida in like a month.

Elder High has been doing a lot better with learning the Area and seems to be getting to know the ward really well. Tuesday was his birthday, and some of the ward members went and got him a cake and sang to him and stuff while we were in the church during YM/YW. Other that that, things are still going pretty well. We definitely need to improve continually having some struggles in our area this week, especially with finding new people, but I guess it's always a good time to learn, and continually be diligent. I feel like my Spanish has been improving a lot this week with the changes and me being able to talk a little more in Spanish to members and the investigators. It's been a good week though and we'll keep working with the recent converts, members and investigators.

When Paul V. Johnson of the Seventy came to visit us, he talked to us about how sometimes in missionary work, or I guess a lot of the time, things just don't work out as planned and things fall through. He was saying how this provides another opportunity, that whenever one door closes, one more door opens. It's our job to find that open door of opportunity. That principle is probably the same with every situation, inside and outside of missionary work. I really know that everything happens to us for a reason. Sicknesses, adversities, and all the sorts, because it is truly necessary for our growth. But we will only really grow and learn from it, when we act and respond in the way that we should. With patience and with faith, and with diligence, we can grow and develop more Christ-like attributes.

Love you all!

Love, Elder Hicks