Tis the season, as the cold front starts working it's way into New Jersey. We are still having a good amount of rain at times, and things have cooled down a lot lately. The leaves are probably going to being changing a lot soon. It has truly been a great conference weekend. I missed out on so much good stuff before my mission, and I didn't put much attention to conference, but Conference as a missionary is like a holiday. It was really nice listening to the prophets and apostles voices, and I didn't even watch a talk in spanish. The first week of the transfer has rolled by, and things should start getting somewhat back to normal, as we've been busy with meetings, conferences, and some final service.
Tuesday came around, and we headed to transfer conference. Not a whole lot of changes in our zone, although now we have 2 trainees in our zone. Welp, I know next transfer conference I'll be getting a new companion, but I really just need to try and help Elder Jarrett stay focused, which he's really good at anyway. Maybe I should avoid going home jokes, or going home talk like (Hey, how far away do you think that plane is? "I don't know, like a mile or so", Nah, 5 weeks, haha). When I got here, it was like that, but the answer was 2 years.
Last week we saw another miracle that I forgot to mention. We were teaching English to Hanz inside the church, when somebody rang the bell (Yeah, the church building has a doorbell) and we went out to see a couple, and a young son. It turns out that this women's name was Laticia, and she was baptized a number of years ago, but upon moving here hadn't found the church (or something like that). Her husband is a non-member, and she agreed to have us come over and visit her. It was a miracle because we happened to be in the church at the time she came. On Tuesday we went over, and talked to her and her brother, also a member. We shared a little bit about the Book of Mormon, and it got to the point where the Brother was crying. He's had some tough times, and I'm so grateful the the Lord led them to us so that we can help bring them back, and so that we can start teaching Laticia's husband.
Wednesday turned out to be another service day for our zone. We checked out a number of work orders, taking out dry wall, flooring, tearing apart a steel shed, but nothing all too horrible. But service has been adjourned I'm pretty sure, as the command center in Emerson packed up, and started giving us extra treats and supplies. We have a few boxes of some Gatorade Primer, and some Recover Shakes.
Friday was a really good day. We got to go to Zone Leader council, and talked about the importance of being an example, and being consistent. We discussed how we can help our mission get refocused after everything that has happened with the service, and we were introduced to the new monthly focus of working on Teaching Skills. While at the council, we did a role-play with President as the mediator, and different groups of missionaries switching in. We would be stopped at times, to see what we could do better, and we actually ended up using that which we learned in a role-play later in the day. We went and saw a former named Jessica, and taught her about how God is our Loving Heavenly Father, which she maybe didn't quite understand completely. There are probably a lot of people who don't really understand that. I don't think I understand how much our Heavenly Father loves us. I think it's incomprehensible. Later that day, we taught our last English class to Hans, who actually just moved to West New York. Now his missionaries are Elder Harrington and Elder Mattson. You remember Elder Harrington right? He was my second companion in New Jersey.
Saturday came, involving yet another meeting of District Leader Council, that we had with our District Leaders in order to work on developing a new zone goal for the month of October. We had some good things brought up, and tomorrow Elder Jarrett and I will be heading out (With the spirit of course leading) zone meeting. We'll be training the zone about developing Teaching Skills and then we will introduce the new Zone Goal, which should be pretty excellent.
I missed a good portion of the first session of Conference while things were in motion to get the program running in Spanish (which it never could, so we had to cancel the showing of conference in Passaic, and move it to Paterson). In between the afternoon session, and priesthood session, we went and visited Alberto and Loordis again. We haven't been able to see them in awhile because they've been so busy, but it was good to visit them again, and teach them the principle of "God is our Loving Heavenly Father." We went to Subway, and then headed to priesthood session. Priesthood session is pretty late here in New Jersey, 8 to 10. I didn't fall asleep though.
Sunday rolled around, and conference commenced once again. Sylvia and Manuel both made it to the session, and both really enjoyed it. They are the 2 most likely to get baptized this month I believe. Last night we went and saw Marilu with Hermano Bello, who is like the coolest member ever. He basically taught her the whole lesson, and was really good at taking control. We have still got some work to do with Marilu, but we commited her to pray about the church, and we'll need to follow up this week. Then we went and saw Manuel. We asked them the things they learned at conference (this is including Marcelino also) and it was good to see them happy. We asked Manuel if he believed President Monson was a prophet, and he say he believes so in the way that he talked. We taught the Law of Chastity, and the Word of Wisdom, and he agreed to live them both. It's going to be a foot race trying to prepare him in time for his scheduled date. We can only meet with him on Sunday night because he is so busy, meaning that we only have one more time to teach him before his baptism, and he has to have his interview on that same night. We'll see how it goes.
Things are going really well here though. I love being a missionary! It's the best! Time is slowly ticking on my clock as a missionary, and there is still so much more I need to do. Hopefully we'll be able to get refocused on missionary work with service being done, and see some great success this transfer.
The Gospel is True! I know that the Lord directs his church today. I know that the Lord answers prayers in his own time, and in his own way. I know that Thomas S. Monson and the apostles are truly called of God, and that through following their counsel, we can avoid many of the temptations that we have today. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior, and that repentance is indeed a process. At times we make mistakes, we repent, and sometimes still fall short, but I know that if we truly do strive to repent, the Lord will forgive us. I know that this work is true, and that nothing will stop it from progressing. It's true that we need more missionaries, because there is so much work to do. I really liked what was said in conference, that these are the best two years FOR my life. It truly is preparing me to become the person the Lord wants me to be.
Love you all so much!
Love,
Elder Hicks
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