New Jersey is going pretty great too!

Things here in New Jersey are going pretty great too. The weather is becoming a little more brisk, and I spend most of the days wearing my Jacket. I think it's my favorite New Jersey weather. Not horribly hot and humid, and not horribly cold and humid. The humidity really is what gets you, so now i'm just enjoying the time of wearing a light jacket.

I can't think of many huge highlights this week, it was just kinda one of those average weeks I guess. My exchange with Elder Long was pretty great though. We saw some good success. We were able to go and see Sylvia again, and it's kinda hard to know what to teach her. She's been taught everything, and she has agreed to live basically everything, she just can't come to church ever. We reset her date for the 20th of November. We just need to make sure she is reading a lot in the Book of Mormon, and keep her spiritually strong.

   

On Wednesday we had a great opportunity to go help out in the "District MTC". This month is missionary month here in the Paterson district, and it was cool to go their where this week everyone got their plane tickets, and arrived at the MTC (AKA the paterson church). They split the youth up into companionships, and they were each assigned to a class. We were to teach them how to teach the restoration. We probably made it pretty complicated for them, but it was pretty great doing role-plays with them after the class. I must admit, it was pretty funny, but they are still really young.

   

Later Wednesday night we were able to go and see Laticia and Leonardo. Leonardo had done his reading, and he was asking a bunch of really good question. We taught the first part of the plan, and was pretty surprised when he learned that we can live with our families after this life. He was asking who would be able to baptize him, (as in who has the authority), and we shared a little bit of the gospel, and basically stated that we were the only church that had the authority. We told him we would explain more next time, but I definitely felt the moment come of inviting him to be baptized (soft invite) and he said yes, and then I kinda got crazy and tried setting him with a date for the 20th of November, which he didn't accept because it was too close in proximity. It was a good lesson though, and I think Leonardo really will be baptized.

On Thursday, we had our interviews with President Jeppson and Sister Jeppson. I took note of how Sister Jeppson reminds me a little bit of mom. I guess that's a good thing. The interview was really great. President Jeppson has so much love, and makes me feel like I'm the best. I'm sure he does that to everyone, but he definitely makes me feel like a special missionary. He see's a lot more in me, than I see in myself, and since I'm super hard on myself all the time, he gave me a new 2 week assignment where everyday I have to write down 5 positive attributes of myself, so that I can begin to see myself as he sees me. It's starting to get hard to thing of things to put down, and it's only been like 4 days. It could be an interesting 2 week assignment. It will be good for me though. 

On Friday we did some good old finding, and found some good potentials, but didn't see too much until later in the night. Hermano Bello came with us and we visited Franky (Inactive). We talked about repentance, and Hermano bore strong testimony of the atonement. It reinforced the importance of member work, and he told him to give him a call anytime, and even invited him to come to his daughters birthday party. Then we got to go see the Gonzalez family (Inactive) which is always great. It's gonna be a rough ride getting them to church. Their 3 kids like the church, but the parents I think are not too motivated to go. They have a son that needs to and wants to be baptized. So we'll see how things continue with them.

On Saturday, we got to go and see our Karate Kids again. David, Eddy, and Monique. They have like 3 trophies almost as tall as me, and a bunch of other trophies and medals that they got from track and karate. We had a pretty great lesson with them, teaching them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was really hard inviting them to be baptized, because they are just starting communion in the catholic church, and the mom is an inactive member of our church. We might have to just tell them next time about this church being the only true church, although they are so young it probably won't click that much. Eddy is like 12, David is like 10, and Monique is 7 (almost 8). They remembered a lot about the plan of salvation though, and hopefully as we get their mom to start coming back to church, the kids will be able to take part as well.

This Sunday was again different, as we had District Conference. It was a super good conference, all about our Testimony and faith in Jesus Christ. I didn't get to listen very much at the beginning though. Since we are in a bilingual district, we were trying to get the receivers for the translation working. Some of them worked, and a lot of them didn't. Elder Jarrett and I worked on pulling out the batteries, putting them in other translators, and trying to see if they would get reception. There definitely weren't enough translators, and they were working very well. When President stood up to speak, he had Elder Jarrett come up to the microphone and translate for him. Last night we went and saw Manuel, who is actually doing better than he ever has. We went through the baptismal questions, and he seemed pretty good on all of them, except for Thomas S. Monson being a prophet. But he accepted to have a missionary come next week to do his interview, and hopefully he will be baptized in another 2 weeks.

I'm so grateful to be on a mission though, and the new things I learn each day. I'm definitely becoming more responsible and more grown up, and I realized this week how much you really forget about your family while you're on the mission. I mean, you don't actually forget them, but the attachment is not so great. Don't worry, I do miss all of you a lot, and it's still kinda weird thinking about all these nephews and niece that I haven't even met.

The Gospel is True! I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Hicks

PS: Oh yeah, and people keep asking me if I'm growing, they all think I'm getting taller, and I think it's probably true. I probably stand between 6'4" and 6'5", and who knows, maybe I'll grow even more, but probably not.