The new year commences

2012 is here, bringing new opportunities and new room for growth. My consecrated year has ended, and it's weird to think that I'll be coming home this year, but lets not talk about that. This past week has been pretty great though. The weather here in NJ can be very strange. One day it's pretty cool and kinda nice, but another day there is piercingly cold wind. Hopefully the winter can go by faster than last year. At least we haven't had any snow recently. I was hoping to have some for Christmas, but now it's not a really big deal with the Holidays over. I'm sure we will get it soon enough though.

  Passaic still doesn't have a ton of work as of now, but we are building bit by bit. I was pretty excited this week when we made contact with another former investigator named Amaya, who stopped meeting with the missionaries because she had a baby. But she kindly allowed us to return, and we had a great lesson with her. She wanted to know what it was to be a Mormon. She also had smart questions about why we have 12 apostles today if Jesus Christ had already called 12 apostles before to judge the 12 tribes of Israel. And she wondered why we had the Book of Mormon when the book of Revelations says that we shouldn't add or take away from the Bible. We still haven't gotten the opportunity to go back and teach her the answers to those questions, but we are excited to have her as an investigator. 

Other great news received this week! Our mission had a baptismal goal for 400 baptisms as we finished the year. Sadly we ended with 397, but got 3 more on the first of January, so now we are at 400. But one miraculous experience has to do with one of the investigators I taught in Union City, and then in Passaic. Do you remember Hans? Well I guess a number of days ago, he sat down with the missionaries, and finally asked the missionaries when they were going to baptize him! Hans got baptized on Saturday! I was very glad to hear it, especially since he had been investigating for a good while, and had attended church tons of times, and even helped us with the flood clean-up. The other Passaic elders had a baptism this week for a lady named Marisabel who was a former. She is a super cool lady who received her answer of the truthfulness of the Gospel in a pretty miraculous way. It was very similar to Joseph Smith's experience involving a dream where Satan was holding her back as she was trying to get to the light or something like that. We had to go over to the baptism a little early to help the elders boil water to heat up the baptismal font water. It was a wee bit chilly. President and Sister Jeppson came to the baptism though, and the service was really great.

Jimena is doing pretty great as well. She came to church again, for the second week in a row! She is doing really great, and still keeps commitments. Hopefully we can continue to help her progress so she can be baptized on February 5, although we might try to move it up a week, in case I get transferred before her baptism.

   

We had some great visits with members, teaching them about setting spiritual new year's resolutions, and talking about how Heavenly Father can help us accomplish our goals through faith and humility. (See Ether 12:27). We had a pretty "Full" new year's eve as we visited some of the members, and received food from all 3 appointments.

Welp, it looks like the computers are running out and I might not have much time left. Today was a pretty great day thus far. We had to take the car in to get the alignment fixed in the trunk that was keeping it from shutting. It was pretty expensive to say the least. But today we had a great zone meeting, and Elder Erikson and I did a training about becoming master planners. President and Sister Jeppson even came to zone meeting today which added a little more pressure. They both said it was a really great meeting, and the counsel I received from President was that I need to smile more. Sounds like my mother huh?

I'm excited for this new week to see what kind of things we can get rolling. Thanks for your support and love. The gospel is true!

 

Love you all!

 

On to 2012!

(Letter December 27,2011)

The Facetime wasn't all too mind blowing, although a little different than normal. It was great to see all of you and see that you are doing well. I must admit I was a little nervous after the brief cliff-hanger of my dad almost passing away, but I'm glad to hear all is well.  Wow, my mind just keeps getting blown every week with all this bad news. I'm grateful that everything is alright with Dad, that sounds like a miracle. I'm sorry to hear about Melanie Kau, but I'm sure she had been going through a ton of suffering and now she is in a better place. 

Well, the last week of my consecrated year is here... Can you believe it? 2012 already? It truly has been a great year, full of just about everything. Learning Experiences, sad moments, stress, joy, love, fatigue, and everything else needed to have a good mission. It's crazy that I only have 8 months left. It seems like a lot, but then at the same time, it is going to pass by really really fast.

I've given you a brief update of how my Christmas week went, but I guess I can recap it a little bit more. Friday was a pretty memorable experience of going to all mission conference. We arrived to see in the cultural hall hundreds of packages wrapped in wrapping paper, as if we were in Santa's workshop. It was indeed a sight. We enjoyed wonderful testimonies and messages from the assistants, President, Alex Boye, and the 4 stake presidents here in New Jersey. It was great to hear their inspirational messages, and later to hear Alex Boye sing us some amazing songs. It was an amazing experience, and just continued as we went Christmas caroling as a zone on Friday night. We went to this apartment complex in the shape of a U, and in the middle stood the choir, and 2 elders went running to ring all the doorbells. We had some people out on their porches, others watching from their second story windows. Although caroling can be a little awkward, it was a really great experience.

Saturday arrived, and we headed to Walmart to order some Christmas cards, and then made some brownies to take to some members. We delivered some of our Christmas cards and headed to Fardale to do even more caroling. This time was pretty grand as well, including a few carols with Santa Claus. 

Sunday, Christmas morning arrived and we ate some pancakes and opened the presents that we had left. Elder Ream and Elder Turner had basically opened all of their's prior to Christmas, so there wasn't much to be opened. We made visits to different members, but over-all it didn't feel too much like Christmas. Must have been the lack of snow... It was a great weekend though that involved many choice experiences.

As the area goes... our main investigator is Jimena still. She is doing quite well. She came to church this past Sunday, and she is reading in the Book of Mormon every day. We still weren't sure why she was doing all these things, but we have recently come to the conclusion, that she doesn't really know what she is doing with all these commitments. She doesn't see the overall picture, or a changed disciple of Jesus Christ. So we really need to work on helping her understand what the Lord expects of her.

Our area still doesn't have too much going on, but hopefully this week looks upward, and we can find some more great people to start teaching. Today we went to the hospital to give a little girl with Pneumonia a blessing, and we got some funny comments from people about being "The Mormons." Like a lady walking out of the elevator and saying something like, "Look, its the Mormons." Probably because there were 5 big missionaries wearing suits in a children's hospital.

And here I am sitting in a library at 4:30 in the afternoon, the sky getting dark, and the wind and the rain falling. Now it's time to go fill all those I see with cheer and happiness, as they come to know the truth of the gospel. I know that the Gospel is true. I know that miracles follow faith, and that the Lord will try our faith to see what we will do. One quote that I really liked that was shared in a district meeting a few weeks ago, was from Elder Nelsen, who quoted from a book by a man who was in a concentration camp. It goes roughly like this, "The only thing that can't be taken away from a man is his ability to choose his attitude" toward something that happens. That's so true! Adversity strikes, things seem unfair, someone may offend us, but the only thing they can't change is how we respond. I hope to take that as I try to remain positive, happy, and cheerful to everything that happens here in the mission life, and I hope all of you can find some way to apply it to yourselves. I love you all so much!

Until next year... :)

 

Love,

Elder Hicks

 

 

One more . . .

 (Letter dated December 19, 2011

.... That's right, I will be staying in Passaic for yet another transfer, making it #5 and by the end about 6 and 1/2 months. I really do like Passaic though. The members are all amazing, out apartmentship is good (staying the same), and we found out of a member that has Skype! I'm not sure if I really know how to use it, so we'll see if we can get it all worked out. I'll probably call on Christmas Eve to set up the call, get all the Skype info and stuff. So we'll see if that works, if not, we will just have to play it old-school I guess.

Sorry to hear about the tough week. Sorry I can't be there to help out, but I am where I'm supposed to be. Things here in Passaic are going alright. The area hasn't grown much more than the last week. But we didn't have a pretty great miracle with Jimena. Keep in mind that this is the girl that was forced into the room by her mom to listen to us. She's slowly opened up throughout our lessons, and after some good conversation, testifying, and the such, Jimena agreed to be baptized on February 5th if she comes to know the message is really true by that time. That was a big blessing!

   That's about all the news as far as our investigators go. This transfer has been a bit of a struggle as far as the work goes, and it's possibly something the Lord wanted Elder Erikson and I to experience and to learn from. The Lord gave us the blessing of staying together for at least another transfer to see if we can improve things. It will be a good transfer though, and I'm excited to start over and try to really get this area rolling. I would want to leave the Area better off than I found it, and if I would have left this week, that definitely wouldn't have been the case.

The temple experience was really great this year. We rounded up a majority of the missionaries in our zone and made plans to head to New York. We arose, drove to Union City, hopped on the "Gua-Gua" (little buses all over the place) and drove through the Lincoln tunnel to arrive in... "New York!" This was my first experience walking through Times Square on my mission. It was super cool to be in such a touristic place, but it was also a big welcome to Babylon. Some advertisements were just super inappropriate, but we made it to the temple where the contrast is immense. Going from Babylonia into the House of the Lord. It was a great temple session though. A time to feel the spirit, and to think about how I'm doing. It was a great recharge for my spiritual battery, and since then has given me greater desires to be more organized, more obedient, and to use my time more wisely.  The trip home from New York was a little more stressful being in the back of a tiny "Gua-Gua" packed, and me with my long legs in the back row. We got stuck in some traffic which is never fun, but it was a trip well worth it.

   

On Saturday we had our Passaic Christmas party which turned out great. Santa came! We got a picture with him, but had to take off before the party finished. You know, with the whole curfew thing.

   

That was basically the recap of our week. Not too much going on, but we are excited to rebuild. I think Elder Erikson and I are capable of doing a lot more than we have been doing. Now it's just time to buckle down even more, hit the pavement, and have faith to see Christmas Miracles!

 I'm excited to talk you Y'all this Christmas. Remember that it can only be between 30-40 minutes. But the "Longest term" is over of the time that I won't be able to talk to you by phone. Thanks for all your support and love! Tell Everyone I say Hi! And have yourselves a Merry Little Christmas!!! Love you mucho!

   The Gospel is True!

 

Love,

Elder Hicks

 

Elder Brickey's Hot Seat!

I know that my redeemer lives. . .

My Cousin David 

(Letter December 12,2011)

I guess I had to experience losing someone, sometime throughout my mission.

That's pretty incredible that Dad was able to receive that inspiration to call President Jeppson right at that time. I heard the phone ring during the "Jingle with the Jeppson's," but who knew it was my own Father on the end of the line. President told me he needed to talk to me as we finish up the "jingle" and that's when I received the news of David's accident and passing. 

You know, I'm actually taking it a lot better than I thought I would. It may be the Lord protecting me from completely breaking down, or it may be the fact that I'm on the other side of the country and i'm just kind of in another world. I feel sad, sorry, mostly for all those back home that are hurting immensely. But I know that we will see David again. As said in Alma 40: There is a place prepared for those who are righteous, as state of paradise, where they can rest from all their troubles, and cares. I've been thinking more about the spirit world this week and what it must be like. I've been thinking what David is thinking now. It seems that passing would be super sad because you are leaving so many family members behind, but I know he is in a better place. I talk I would highly recommend is President Monson's talk from Conference (I think in 2010 or 2009) titled "He Lives." I guess one memory of David will be a lot more meaningful for me than I thought it would. I remember after my mission farewell, David sat down next to me, and was giving me advice about my mission. Unfortunately I can't recall what he said, but I remember what he did, and then he pulled off his tie he was wearing, and gave it to me to take on my mission. I know that David was an amazing missionary and an amazing cousin. He loved all of us so much and he really wanted me to have a great mission. That moment will mean a lot more to me now when I think of my great cousin David.

 I think as a missionary, the Lord is protecting me with an added measure of the spirit and the comforter. The "sting" of death is really swallowed up in Christ. I know that there is a plan for each one of us! I was reading today in "Our search for Happiness" and it talked about why bad things have to happen, and how we can cope with adversity. I recommend that to. But it talked about how the Lord cherishes us having our agency so much, that sometimes we suffer the consequences of someones misuse of agency. I know the Lord watches over us, and loves each one of us. I know he has given us the comforter to help us cope with tough times. I know that he will watch over each one of you, and will help you in troubling times. "Trust in the lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine understanding. Acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5, ps, sorry if I quoted that wrong).

This past week has been pretty busy here in the field. On Tuesday I got to go on an exchange with Elder Lopez from Argentina, but we didn't get much of an opportunity to work together because we were called to go help some senior sisters move out. The worst part, other than the fact that it was raining, was the marvelous pull-out bed couch that we had to carry. I know we all love those, especially Aaron. It wasn't all too bad, and luckily we didn't have to carry it up any stairs. I just need to be better about lifting with my legs. Jimena is progressing poco a poco. We taught her this week and though asking questions she said that she had already prayed about the Book of Mormon in the past, and the Lord told her it was true! She knows the church is true, but she just isn't quite ready to commit to the answer she has been given. We had a 20 minute lucha with her about coming to church, and got her to commit to coming next Sunday. We'll see where things go with her.

On Thursday, we had to drive all the way up to New City, New York to do a baptismal interview for Elder Long (The movie star that's being filmed for a product the church is putting out). It was kinda weird having to knock and act, but not act as we walked into the interview. I did the interview, and luckily they didn't film it, but unfortunately the person I interviewed wasn't quite ready, and needs another interview. They filmed me coming out and saying he needed another interview which was kind of odd, but I guess those things happen in missionary work.

The Jingle with the Jeppsons was a blast. We had an amazing breakfast, played white elephant with some ties (I got a cool byu colored tie) and then we played some songs using bells (Like Mo-tab uses, but not as nice), which was super fun. We read a little bit in the Bible about the birth of Christ, and then we headed back to our areas. I received the bad news right after.

But some good news is, yesterday Guillermo received the Aaronic priesthood and became a Priest. Sadly he didn't have the priesthood on Saturday, else he would have gone to the temple with the other jovenes, but he'll get to go someday soon.

The week ended on a spiritual high last night, as we warmed up our voices and sang in our annual missionary Christmas fireside. The spirit was pretty strong, and it was great to see some of the former people  I knew from Union City!

The last week of the transfer is here, and who knows where I will be headed in the coming weeks. Am I staying or am I going? I talked to Elder Larsen last night, one of the assistants, and he said I was going to Newark, which I think he said because he knows I'm afraid to go there, but he could have been serious. I guess we will just have to wait and see.

The area is still struggling, and needs some serious rebuilding. Hopefully we can make this week faith-filled and see a lot of miracles. P-day actually ends at 2 today, because we are going to the temple on Wednesday which should be pretty great! I'm excited!

Thanks so much for your love and support, and for all that you have done for me to help me grow and become the person I am today. Know that you are in my heart and in my prayers! I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Hicks

Rebuilding

(Letter December 5, 2011)

It's so good to hear that all went well during birthday celebrations! I'm sorry I didn't wish you a happy birthday last week mom. so HAPPY BIRTHDAY.  Well as I've said before, with the two baptisms, we are struggling to build up our area here in Passaic. We are trying to find people prepared and ready to progress, but this week didn't have too much success with that. These weeks are going by faster than ever. The transfer ends in two weeks, and I feel like Elder Erikson just barely became my companion. I don't know if I'm staying or going, it's kind of a toss up. To be honest, it's been pretty discouraging seeing the area take a big downfall. I don't know what we need to do in order to get it going on the upward drift, but some drastic action needs to take place. We saw a little bit starting last Monday. We have been pretty busy checking out formers/less-actives and the such, and we came to the house of a former, and ended up teaching a guy named Edgar and his wife. They seemed pretty interested in coming to know about a living day prophet at the beginning of the lesson, but by the end things weren't going so great. We'll see if we can get another few lessons in with them before we drop them entirely.

  On Tuesday, zone meeting went extraordinarily well. It was spirit packed, and really inspired the zone. We reviewed the new zone goals, and set a zone baptismal goal of 6 in order to contribute to the missions goal of 400 baptisms for the year. Hopefully we can encourage and inspire the zone to do the best to reach that goal of baptism. We really need to increase our faith, hope, and our vision for what we can each accomplish in our individual areas. I had the opportunity to work with Elder Tilley on Tuesday during an exchange. It was good to talk to him a little bit about his district, and how they are doing. We did some good old street contacting and knocking, but nothing too amazing happened.

We were also able to find this dominican girl named Adibell while we were checking some formers. She seemed to have interest, and wanted to hear the word of God, but when we went back for our return appointment, the guy told us she wasn't there, nor does she live there (which we knew, but she acted like she would be visiting for awhile.) 

We had the opportunity to teach Guillermo about the priesthood this week, and both of them were confirmed yesterday. What made yesterday even more special, is that during fast and testimony meeting, Gerardo went up and bore his testimony to the whole congregation of the things he knew to be true, and how happy he was to have the Holy Ghost. Those are the moments that are priceless in the mission. Sylvia is still doing great. We taught her about the temple this week, and she was pretty excited to learn about it. She's going to be just fine. Jimena is doing pretty well. She said she did her reading, she prayed and repented, but didn't really feel much of a difference. She's so much more open with us now than she was the first time we saw her, but we are still having a hard time understanding why she's keeping commitments. If she doesn't feel anything, and doesn't have much desires to be baptized, why would she keep commitments? We are hoping her motives are in the right place, but tonight we are going to go teach her about real intent, and get her to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. We've made contact with Meri once again, talked about sabbath day, but was still a no show yesterday at church.

The highlight's of the week were definitely the confirmations and the testimony meeting. I would say one thing that gets hard for me as a missionary, is that I sometimes measure my self worth/effectiveness on the numbers we get. So after a really good week, I'm obviously happier and more positive, but after a rough week, it's just a little harder. But things should turn around this week, and we just need to have the faith to make miracles happen.

I really loved the Christmas Devotional by the first presidency last night. I liked Presidents Monson's talk, and the story he shared from the book "The Mansion." It was great to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as well. I still haven't quite gotten into the Christmas spirit, maybe because there is no snow, and Holidays on the mission aren't much of a big deal, but Elder Erikson wants to go buy a Christmas tree today that we can put in our apartment. That should bring a little more of the Christmas spirit. Next week we have our Semi-annual temple trip which should be pretty great as well. It's been awhile since I last went. Thanks for all your support and love. I hope all is going well across the United States. 

Jesus Christ is our Savior! He is the way! May the true spirit of Christmas fill your lives each day! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Hicks