I'm happy to hear that all is going well. I'm especially happy that you are doing OK too mom. As you know, I'm a bit of a worrier, so I called sister Suzuki (the mission nurse) and asked her if she could check on you so that I wouldn't have to wait until monday for the results. If it makes you feel any better, I put your name on the prayer role at the temple in Manhattan when we went there on Wednesday.
This week has been full of some up's and some down's but I guess that's how every week is-- no?
So let's take a look...
Monday: Monday was a great half-pday. We had to take a half p-day because we were going to be going to the temple later in the week. We finished our preparations, I got a hair cut from one of the sister missionaries who's a cosmotologist, and then Elder Smith and I started our exchange. Elder Smith is one of the zone leaders that we live with, and it was really great to work with him for the day. We had quite an experience while we were together. So we went to visit this really nice lady named Nori, who I taught once right before I left Dover a year and a half ago. It looks like the missionaries never went back after that, so to her, it probably seems like I never even left, but anyway.... We started talking to Nori and invited her daughter to come in and join us, and that's when it got a little awkward. We were talking about God, and who he is to us, and then we we asked Nori's daughter Kiera, this was her reply, "Look mom, hmmm, well I was waiting to tell you this, but... I don't really believe in this stuff... I'm an atheist." We were pretty shocked that such a confession would come right then, but the mom didn't seem too shocked as her brother had told her that before. We continued on with the lesson, and Elder Smith entered super spirit mode. He talked right to Kiera and told her how he knew there was a God, and he knew that she knew there was a God. I think the spirit must of pierced her, because she got up and left the room crying. We weren't sure if she was going to come back, and she didn't, but we continued talking to Nori and talked about how much this message would bless their family, and help Kiera come to know that there truly is a God.
Tuesday: On Tuesday I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Jernigan from the other Dover area. We went and saw a returning less-active Sister Vasquez. We decided to talk about the Word of Wisdom with her due to the smell of smoke in her house. From what I've seen throughout my mission, it seems that members, especially less-active one's don't understand the word of wisdom, or don't even really know about it. Hna Vasquez said that she drink a lot of coffee, and so we set out a plan for her to help her quit. Later in the week when we returned to follow up with everything, we took half her coffee away and got rid of it. We shall see if she can overcome.
Wednesday: Wednesday was a pretty crazy, hot day. On wednesday we headed out early toward Harrison New Jersey to take the "Path" into NYC. It was pretty fun going on the path and then walking from 33rd up to the temple.
The only bad part.... It was like a bajillion degrees outside and we were all wearing long sleeve shirts, and dark suits. I was sweating like crazy out there. There are so many cool sights in New York, but a lot of things you have to watch out for. And then the big relief comes as you enter into the peaceful beautiful temple.
We had no Hecklers this time around, so it was a successful trip. We finished the trip off with some delicious 5- Guys back in Harrison and headed back to work.
Thursday: I guess I just have one funny story for Thursday. So on thursday Elder Ferrell and I headed to North Arlington so that I could see a Doctor about my IBS. They drew blood to test if I was allergic to anything, and after some talking, the doctor gave me a perscription with the warning that my insurance might not cover it. I'll say... So we went to the Pharmacy, and the doctor entered in the insurance into the computer. This is what she said... "John, this is a very expensive drug... Right now it's saying that your co-pay will be $956.... and the drug normally costs about $1,150." I was awestruck. How could a medicine cost that much? So obviously I didn't pay for it and the Pharmacist and my doctor were going to negotiate maybe using a different drug. I ended up called sister suzuki to see what I was supposed to do, and she said that she just needed to call mission medical and get the drug cleared. She did, and the co-pay went down to $10. What a relief right? wrong. So I called the pharmacist again telling them to go ahead and order the drug, and this was the reply, "So just so you know, this drug is normally used for women. There has never been a cllinic done on men, but maybe your doctor tried it with some of his patients and it worked." Hmmmm.... So then I started having second thoughts about this whole medicine thing, I mean, I didn't want anything weird to happen because I was taking a medication for woman, and sister suzuki agreed explaining that I probably wouldn't want to start getting a really high voice and such. So she said she would call my doctor and find out a little more about this drug.... So that was the crazy story of Thursday. I'm not sure if I want to make the church pay for a drug that expensive, and I don't want the side-effects to be worse than the symptoms I already have. So we'll see where things go from here.
The weekend came to a nice close. First with a trip to Newton. When I was here a year and a half ago, we found this awesome investigator named Ider from Ecuador. He was taught after a left but then got dropped. On saturday we returned, and although Ider wasn't there, we started teaching his kids Ider Jr. and Estrella. Estrella had tons of really good questions, and I think would get baptized pretty quickly, the catch is.... Next thursday she's going to Ecuador for the summer... Ug... Que Suerte.... But maybe we can plant the seed enough for her to get baptized when she gets home. Later that day we had an awesome Father's day party with tons of delicious food and mariachi singing hispanic songs.
Sunday came to a miraculous close, with a miraculous find. So as we entered the late afternoon, we still hadn't taught any lessons. We tried some less-actives, but to no avail. Elder Ferrell thought we shoud go try some other less-active that he knew across the way. We began walking over there, and saw a guy sitting a park bench (Perfect scenario right?) and we started talking to him. He said that he was a 7th day adventist but hadn't been real active. We testified and explained the restoration, and he seemed to be really receptive. After we explained the book of mormon, he began asking us if we were selling the book or something because he was curious to read it. You should have seen the look on his face when we gave him the book of mormon free of charge. He couldn't believe it, and he was so excited to read it. As we walked away from the lesson, we saw him open up the book and begin to read. He's super prepared, and I think he's dealing with cancer right now which makes this message all the more important. It was a great week!
Time still continues to fly by as the transfer is half over now. This week is going to be awesome with an all mission activity on friday. We get to go listen to an inspirational speaker named Chester Elton, and afterwards we are having like a field day with games and the such. I'm pretty excited.
I hope you all have a great week! The gospel is true! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Hicks
(Elder Jiks) - {I ordered a name-tag that says JIKS to see if that will help hispanics know how to say my name}
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