“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