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
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