Great Week!

(Letter June 6, 2011)

We got to the library a little late today, and yeah, I feel like P-days are some of the most stressful days of the mission. Just so you know, June is Temple month, meaning that we get to go to the temple!! But that also means it counts as our P-day, so if there ever comes a day or a few days where I don't write when I was supposed to, it probably means I went to the temple. But I'm pretty excited for that for sure.

Thanks so much for all the letters, it's good to hear from you all. Rachel, that's a pretty crazy dream, kinda funny haha.

We have been able to find a lot of great people this week. There is this one guy named Paul who has been coming to English class. We started teaching him and he's a pretty cool guy. Probably the first investigator I've had, that smokes, or at least that I know of. The first lesson we had with him, was talking about how God is our loving Heavenly Father. He doesn't seem to have too much of a religious background, so we were just trying to help him understand that, but than we talked about the restoration and invited him to read and pray. He had told me in the middle of the week that he was going to research online for more info, but I told him to be careful, cause there is a lot of bad stuff out there. We met with him again yesterday, and he was on sites that he shouldn't have been, and was asking us questions about it, so I kinda scolded him in a way and told him that we told him not to look on those sites, but we did set him with a date, and he is going to prepare to be baptized on the 10th of July. He came to church yesterday which was good for him as well. He sorta has a testimony in that he has seen how members of the church are happy.

We have another new investigator named Dorian from Guatamala. He's also another guy from English class, 21 years of age, and is a good kid. We taught him with Hermano Ernest from the Bishopric which went pretty well. Hopefully we can set him with a date the next time we see him, but he's been to church before in the past.

On Friday we got to go and teach Hector again. We taught him about the priesthood, and he seemed really excited to be able to receive it. We did a good amount of member work and got to do some role-plays with some other members.

The exchange with Elder Hunt went well. I got to stay in an apartment with Elder Brickey and Elder Woodburry. One funny experience from there is that I accidentally blew the circuit breaker because I used the microwave while both the AC's were on, so we had to go down and flip the switch, and when I came back up and went to get my cheese tortilla out of the microwave, it was gone. Elder Brickey loves food, and so I had an idea of where it went. I went out to find him in the apartment, and he was crouched down eating my Cheese Tortilla.

I finally ate something kinda weird on my mission. On Saturday we went to go and see some former's and they let us come in, and the lady, named Sandra, wanted us to try some of their food. We started eating it, and I wasn't quite sure what the meat was. I thought it was fish, so that's what I guessed. To my surprise I was corrected and told that it was Cow Stomach. Cool huh? It was all too horrible, although it was really chewy, and I guess just the thought of what I was eating didn't exactly help it go down much easier.

Mariuxi is still doing good and progressing, although she still hasn't been able to come to church. She told us that she would talk to her husband, and asked us to maybe come by the next Sunday when her husband was home. So I guess we will see what happens there, but she's a really awesome investigator, also from Ecuador.

Sunday was a great day--you know why? Hector received the Aaronic Priesthood!!!! It was so great to see him there with his white shirt and tie. He has just progressed so much, and his mom and grandma were both their to see him do it.

At church there was a baby blessing and the lady wanted me to do it, but I wasn't really sure how, so I just stood in the circle instead. I don't even know if we are allowed to do baby blessings, but I guess I should learn any way. Later we ordained Hector to the Aaronic priesthood. It's really quite incredible to see a recent convert progress like Hector. He was even helping us to fellowship Paul because they are Paisanos (Same country). Especially when a good number of our recent converts are less active, or just not quite strong in the church. Retention is so important, and I guess I still need to find a good way of keeping the recent converts activated.

Tomorrow I get to go on an exchange in Newark which should be fun. I get to work with Elder Munk from my MTC district so it will be a good experience. Maybe it will help me erase my fears of Newark.

Thanks again for all your support and letters and everything, hope all is going well!

Love all of you so much!!

Love,
Elder Hicks