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

“The Book of Mormon: Real Life in the Little Falls Flood Zone.

Flood Clean Up Continues

Well I guess I can start the letter off by including an article that was written about us this week...


“The Book of Mormon: Real Life in the Little Falls Flood Zone.
In the Broadway hit “Book of Mormon,” Elder Price, waiting for his missionary assignment, really, really wants to be sent to Orlando. He gets assigned to AIDS-ravaged Uganda instead.
Maybe in the sequel, he’ll be sent to New Jersey.

Yesterday, a cluster of yellow-shirted Mormon missionaries, including Elder Devan Munk of Idaho and Daren Montierth of Arizona, were walking the streets of Little Falls on behalf of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Part of a group of 135 young Mormons stationed in New Jersey for a two-year service stint, Munk, Montierth and their fellow missionaries spent yesterday afternoon going door to door with a form designed to assess the damage of each individual home in the storm-ravaged town. That information was then given to a team of six disaster recovery experts sent from Salt Lake City, who will decide which households need most help. Then, this Saturday and Sunday, more than 2,000 New Jersey-area Mormons will join the young missionaries for a huge cleanup effort, armed with two tractor trailers of supplies and tools — also sent from Utah. They’ll remove fallen trees, rip up carpet and take down walls.

Jon M. Jeppson, president of the NJ/Morristown Mission, oversees the local contingent. While their ultimate goal is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, he says, they are a formidable army of Christian do-gooders when a disaster strikes. “These young people are remarkable,” Jeppson told Baristanet. “They leave their families, friends, colleges, cars, pay their own way for a period of two years, and go wherever in the world they are called. They’re a significant force, who give their energy, effort and backs to provide good Christian service to people who have lost hope of being helped.” Jeppson said that the volunteers are explicitly forbidden to preach in the course of their flood recovery effort work, though they can answer questions if asked.According to Mormon doctrine, Jesus Christ himself decides where missionaries are sent, handing the orders to current church president Thomas S. Monson. Sometimes the assignments are puzzling. Munk was sent to Newark to work with a Spanish-speaking community, even though he had never spoken it before. “I learned,” he said.

Jeppson himself was planning to retire from his law practice in Salt Lake City next year before being unexpectedly assigned to oversee the NJ missionaries. Two months ago, he and his wife left their six children and 13 grandchildren, packed up their lives and moved to Morristown.”

It's been a pretty great week here in Passaic, but pretty busy at the same time. This week included a lot more rain, which in turn made the hurricane disaster and flooding, even more disastrous, as houses and cities were flooded once again. So... The Mormon helping hands work continues. But I guess I'll just give you an orderly update of this weeks happenings.

My exchange with Elder Heward turned out to be pretty great. He doesn't speak spanish, but we still tried to make an effort of preaching 2 by 2, and so I'd stop periodically and ask him if he knew what was going on, explain the situation, and then he would speak and I would translate. It turned out pretty well, and we got to go see one of our investigators Francisco again. We taught him a little about baptism, and he is set for the 23rd of October. I wasn't sure we were gonna set a date while going in, but it just felt super appropriate during the lesson. But a problem came up. I wanted to set a date, but I didn't know any of the dates of Sunday's in October, so I asked Elder Heward for the phone, checked the calendar, and picked out the 23rd of October, which actually happened to be Francisco's Birthday! What better day to be baptized, and be reborn spiritually right?

Later that night we got to go see our investigator Sylvia, who is progressing slowly but surely. She is so willing to live all the commandments, the problem comes up though, that she can't come to church until she changes her work schedule. With that being said, we had to extend her baptismal date out into October, to give her a little more time to change her work schedule and learn more. The night came to a close, and plans were made for the next day.

On Wednesday we made plans to go see a member Hno Valencia, who isn't someone we usually go and visit. We tried finding where he lived, and calling him, but to no avail. Later we get a call from him asking if we can come over. We find his house, and it turned out he wanted a blessing. Cool little story I guess. That night we were making the drive to switch companions back, and I must say, driving is pretty fun, but in New Jersey it can get a little crazy. I told Elder Heward how if my Mom saw where I was driving, she would probably not approve. It's not all that bad, it's just pretty fast paced in certain parts, with a good amount of cars. Driving in Utah should be no biggie right? Don't worry mom, I'll be sure to be careful.

On Thursday we were able to go and see our Investigator Ana. She has a date for the 18th, but we had gone awhile without seeing her. She came to church last week, and we finally got in and talked to her about The Plan of Salvation, the Word of Wisdom, and the Law of Chastity. She was pretty willing to live all of them, and even asked us some good questions, about why women wear skirts to church, and Elder Jarrett told me she asked about Modesty basically. Things are good with her, and we still have her date set for the 18th. It could get crazy with all the service going on. Church was cut down to just sacrament meeting again this week, as efforts were made by the District to help people that had been flooded. We might have to do Ana's baptism on saturday, as plans are again made for this sunday to be cut down to just sacrament, with all of the District in one meeting place.

Friday started off with some more service as we were asked to round up some troops to go unload a truck full of supplies up in emerson. We went there and unloaded Food, Cleaning Kits, and even got a good system going of taking the cleaning kit buckets, rolling them down the back of the truck, across a table (used as a ramp from the truck to the back of the stage), across the stage, to the other Elders that were stacking them up. It was pretty fun actually.




Saturday came, and another huge day of service commenced. Except for this one, the whole mission was called to help out. There was still a lot of flooding in area's, and so some of the work order houses could not be reached, but we were still able to have a pretty busy day. We spent a few hours in somebodies basement pumping (basically like vacuuming) water up, and then dumping the water into the bathtub. It took awhile, but we couldn't really finish it completely as some natural spring was causing water to keep coming in the basement. We met up with the Brazilian team (Portuguese Missionaries, and a some members of the Portuguese branch) and worked on another basement, with pulling out Dry/Wall, and a wood floor. These people have really lost a lot, basements, and sometimes first floors, destroyed.

Sunday came again, and the service effort was a little smaller as we were all told to work with our own wards and branches. Church was short, but we were still able to confirm Martin, and had some investigators that came. The work commenced, and one of our investigators even came to the whole day of service wearing a Mormon Helping Hands vest. We got split up into crews, and spent the day at work. We didn't do as much, but still did some work. We were supposed to have Leadership training this coming week for 3 days, but it has been cancelled, due to the service efforts and things put into this week.

So yeah, we've been staying pretty busy. Missionary work has been cut a little bit, but it's been nice to serve in another form as well, and I'm sure these efforts we put in will soften the hearts of many. As you can see from the article, it got some attention.

So, that's basically it. I somewhat feel that time is flying by. I guess that's what happens after you hit a year mark. There is still much to do though, and still a lot of growing that I need to do. Thanks again for everything! Love you all so much!!!

The Gospel is True!

Love,

Elder Hicks

Manos Mormonas Que Ayudan (Mormon Hands That Help)

Well this week has definitely been an interesting one for sure.

I didn't realized how much the hurricane actually affected New Jersey, but it did take it's toll. Enough of a tole that President Obama came to different parts of it on Sunday. This week has been a little off as we spent alot of Saturday in the efforts to clean up. We put on those yellow shirts and got to work. We drove to the Caldwell Area, and wow, it was crazy. So much junk and personal belongings ruined and destroyed. The street were lined with ruined furniture and other things. We went and helped serve, cleaning out a shed, hammering out ruined dry-wall, and even entered into an apartment where basically everything was destroyed, and they had taken out all of the dry-wall. It was pretty sad to see. So many people have lost so much to the flooding caused by the hurricane. I'm glad I was able to take part in the clean-up effort, and those opportunities will continue during the week, and maybe even for the next few weeks.

On a higher note....
After all the craziness of everything, Martin got baptized on Sunday!!! It was actually pretty incredible. We knew on Saturday that the Caldwell stake was only having sacrament meeting, and then the missionaries and volunteers were to help in the clean up effort, but we didn't know how it would effect the Paterson district. We went to church just expecting normal meeting times and everything, planning to have our baptism at around 1:15, when we received word that all the meetings except Sacrament would be cancelled, and that all the members would need to leave and be involved in the effort right after. We were a little confused and distraught, not knowing exactly how the baptism was going to happen with all the mix-up, but we were able to get things planned out, and members involved in order to be able to have the baptism right after sacrament meeting.


I had the privilege of baptizing Martin, and Elder Jarrett had the opportunity to baptize a kid named Adriel, who is a child of record that we have been working with. It was a really great day, and all came together quite nicely. Later that night, we went to see Martin, and he seemed so happy! He seemed to have a greater desire to learn and grow, and told us how much he loves the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Now he and Marcelino (Other recent-convert cousin) can tag team in trying to help Martin's brother Manuel progress toward baptism.


This week has been harder in a way on account of things falling through, and unfortunately we weren't able to see the Saenz family this week. But we should be going to see them tonight. Sylvia is doing pretty great though. We finished teaching her the plan, talked a little bit about chastity, and she had a question about Polygamy. Luckily we were in the church, and the Branch President came out right in time to explain it to her very cleary. She seemed pretty willing, and we will also be going to see her tonight. Which that brings me to my next point. I'm actually on a two day exchange right now with Elder Heward, an English elder from New City. He's one of the district leaders in the zone, and we should have a pretty great exchange, while Elder Jarrett spends the next 2 days in New City working with the Elders there.


I'm sorry this email is so short, but I'm just kinda in a hurry right now. Things are going pretty great with our new zone goal, and our zone is seeing a lot of miracles! It's been exciting to receive the Texts from the zone and hear how their finding efforts are going. I'll include a few pictures hoping that they will add a few thousand words to my Email.

Thanks again for everything. I love you all so much.
The Gospel is True!!!
Love Elder Hicks