El Bautismo de Las Uruguayas!

My Posterity! :  Elder Waite (grandson), Elder Jellen (Son),Elder Hicks (Father), Elder Peterson (Son)

Things here are going excellent. This transfer has definitely been quite a change from the last transfer going from having an experienced companion, to a greenie. My new companions name is Elder Connor Peterson. He is from Salt Lake City Utah. He's a fun loving guy, really funny, and if I would have to describe his personality from a movie character, it would be Jack Black from "The School of Rock." Elder Peterson is a rocker, it's true, and had his own band and everything before the mission. We definitely come from very different backgrounds which has turned out to be quite a challenge over these past few days, but it also makes for good learning and growing experiences. It was exciting to see Elder Jellen get his new Trainee, named Elder Waite, and he's still serving in Trenton. I included a picture of my posterity in the email to follow. Elder Peterson is a good Elder, and has the desires to learn and become a good missionary. As far as his teaching and spanish abilities.... He's definitely still learning. It was a new experience for me, especially since Elder Jellen came out with stellar Spanish, so now I'm just trying to find the best way to include Elder Peterson in lessons.

 Elder Ferrell and I with Mikayla and Nicole

SO.... Just got done playing some basketball, and I'm super fatigued. I hope I don't get heat exhaustion again.... So I'll continue with the letter anyway. The best news of the week... Mikayla and Nicole got baptized yesterday! I finally got to baptize someone from Uruguay!!! Just what I was hoping for! Everything went really well with the baptism, although there was a lot more preparation needed than I had anticipated. Like making the program, making copies of the hymns we were going to sing, because the chapel with the font doesn't have spanish hymn books, and so it was really just a lot of running around trying to get everything set up. The baptism was scheduled for 2 o'clock, but Mikayla, Nicole, and their family didn't get there until about 2:45. Whoops. But everything came together quite nicely. It was a good first week for Elder Peterson. He baptized Mikayla and confirmed Nicole. Thats a lot of ordinances performed on your first week in the field. We received a lot of help from the ward though, and they provided a lot of food afterwards which was really helpful. I had the opportunity to baptize nicole, and I must admit, it was really hard baptizing in english. The words just sounded so awkward coming out, so I said them with a lot of hesitation waiting for someone to correct me, but I got it all right the first time so I didn't have to re-do it.

Elder Peterson and I with Mikayla and Nicole

Transfer conference this past week was really crazy. So many new missionaries came in, and so many left. We had to listen to almost 20 or so departing testimonies from a lot of the legendary missionaries of Morristown.

 Farewell Elder Erikson

 It was pretty sad saying goodbye, and Elder Erikson is leaving this week with Elder Munk (The one from my MTC district) who is going home early for school stuff. There is actually about 4 or 5 missionaries from my group that are heading home 2 weeks early. Sometimes it get's hard thinking that I could have been heading home 2 weeks early which would have been nice, but I already made my decision and I'm here for a reason right? I'm pretty sure if I would have chosen to go home, I probably wouldn't have had the opportunity to train Elder Peterson, and I would have missed out on a lot of growing experiences. I'm enjoying the work though, and we are still seeing good things in our area.

  

I guess I would say one of the cooler things that happened this week was when Mikayla and Nicole's step-dad Samuel (The one we are teaching that brought out all the anti stuff) came to the baptism! We taught him earlier in the week about the plan of salvation which was a little too deep to say the least, but he enjoyed it, and understood it. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and committed him to read and pray. On Sunday when he came to the baptism, he had already read, and said that he felt more peaceful after he read and prayed. I joked with him a little bit telling him that he was next (meaning the next one to be baptized in his family). Hopefully I'll be able to get at least one or 2 baptisms more before the end of my mission, but if we want that to happen, we are going to have to see a lot more progression with our investigators.

   

The Rayon family is doing good, but we are still moving slowly with them. They said they were going to come to church, but didn't end up coming which was a little disappointing, but they said they would be coming next week so we'll see. Believe it or not, I left my planner at the apartment, so I can't remember a lot of the happenings of the week, but I guess another good experience we had this week was when we did service for a member up in Sparta. Elder Peterson, Elder Ferrell and Elder Romrell (Elder Ferrell's trainee) went to help the Bravo family. We worked on chopping wood and stacking it all up. To say there was a lot of wood would be an understatement.  He had this really cool wood cutting machine that sliced through the logs like they were butter. It was a way good experience though.

    

This is going to be a good transfer though. I'm going to learn a lot, and teaching Elder Peterson is going to keep me focused and busy for these next 5 weeks. President Jeppson went back to Utah yesterday for another surgery he's getting on his back, but he's set to come back in about 2 weeks, so I'm hoping he'll be here when I head home. But that's enough of that talk. 

  

I do love you all very much! The Gospel is True! It's so interesting to see how Heavenly Father provides everything we need to become who he would have us be. I know it can sometimes be difficult to understand why he does some things, but I really like the scripture in Isaiah when the Lord basically says, 'Look, My ways are higher than your ways, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts.'  The Lord knows exactly what we need, and I'm a witness of that here in the mission field. Even though times get tough, I know it's all for my own good.

Until Next Week!

My Last Born in the Wilderness

(Letter July 16, 2012)

Ok, so we've got some pretty big news this week. Friday night came around and we received a call from President Jeppson. He asked Elder Ferrell to put the phone on speaker. He did and President Jeppson extended a call to both of us at the same time to be trainers for this upcoming transfer. We both agreed, and what's about to happen is pretty crazy. So there are 4 missionaries in Dover. Dover North and Dover South. Well, the Dover South Elders are getting doubled out, and Elder Ferrell and his Greenie are getting doubled in! Isn't that crazy? So Elder Ferrell and I will still be working in the same ward with our 2 greenies. But get this. The next day we went to the trainers meeting at the mission home, and much to my surprise, my first greenie Elder Jellen was there... He's Training!! Already? Can you believe it? This is his 4th transfer. I'm really proud of him, and he's going to do a great job. So in my family tree this week, I'm getting another son, and a grandson! Yeehaw!

    So that's the biggest news of the week, but I must express and share another tender mercy of the Lord. So at the beginning of July, I fasted that we would be able to find a family to teach and to baptize, because that is one of my ending goals for my mission. This week we went to check out a referral from a member, and we were told that it was a family of 5, which I was pretty excited about. We went over for our original appointment, but they rescheduled for a different day. We went by on Friday, and taught the whole family, all 5 of them. They seemed pretty interested, although the dad and the 17 year old daughter are a little more "duro"(hard). There names are Vicente (Dad), Elvia (Mom), Gustavo (Son, 24 yrs), Rachel (Daughter, 17 yrs), and Auri (Daughter, 9 yrs). The even greater part of it... 4 out of the 5 came to church yesterday for the first time! They seemed to like it, although it was different than what they were used to. We hope that by the next time we see them, they will have read and prayed about the Book of Mormon! 

   Also, we have Makaela and Nicole's baptism this weekend. Nicole passed her "Child of Record" interview yesterday with the Bishop, and showed me her tithing receipt of 62 cents. Isn't that just so cute? Nicole is awesome and she said she wants me to baptize her. So that will be the exciting thing for Sunday. So we just started teaching Makaela's and Nicole's step-dad Samuel (Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico). He's a pretty curious guy, and we teach him in English. He had so many questions, and unfortunately did some research on the web. After we answered his primary questions, he opened a packet of papers that he printed out full of anti-mormon stuff. Before he started going through it with us and said a little prayer in my heart that my testimony wouldn't be shaken by anything that may have come up. We answered the majority of the anti-mormon stuff, and he seemed pretty satisfied with our answers, except for one that he thought was a little funny. But we'll see where he goes. That would be sweet if we could turn this part-member family into an eternal one.

Unfortunately we didn't get to see Soy this past week, but she did end up going to Cumorah with the ward, as well as one of our other potential investigators that we've taught English to a couple of times. You can definitely put your money on Cumorah for helping someone gain a testimony. So we'll see how things go when we see her this week. 

 Hmm... That's about it for big news. I'm really excited for this coming transfer. I can't believe the last one is actually here. I'm sure this next 6 weeks are going to fly by like no other transfer. Actually just 6 weeks ago when Elder Ferrell and I got put together we said, "Man, this transfer is going to cruise by." And look where we are now. It's pretty crazy

   

But I'm happy to be here, and I'm excited to work with a new missionary. I think that will help me immensly with not getting trunky, because I can't afford to with a new missionary, and he'll keep me at my best. It's so interesting to watch how the Lord's will plays out, and I feel so immensly blessed to be finishing my mission here in Dover (aka the Wilderness)  and for the opportunity the Lord has given me to teach a family. If anything wrong goes with the Rayon family that we found, I know that a seed has been planted. And that's what it's all about here in the mission field right? To harvest those that are ready, and then to continue planting seeds to be harvested in the future.  The face of our mission is beginning to change…big-time.  20 new missionaries this month, and 30 more in the next two transfers.  Did you get that?  50 new missionaries between July 17 and October 8.  

 " It’s time for us all to step it up.  We need you all…and we need you “ALL IN”. "
(quote from President Jeppson's weekly letter)  
Definitely some big changes, and it's pretty exciting. 

Thanks again for everything! 

I Love you All so Much!!

The Bombs Bursting in Air!

(Letter July 9, 2012)
Hola Familia!

I'm happy to hear that all is going well, and that everyone is having a good summer. I must say, I was quite shocked to hear about the news of Julia and Steve. I thought the whole Denver thing was a sure deal. It's ok Hermana, No se preocupe (Don't Worry) everything will work out. It just means you'll find an even better dental practice! This week has been pretty speedy, and now it's week 6. Most likely Elder Ferrell's and my last week together before I enter my last transfer of the mission. We'll find out this week if I'll be training again or not. More news on that next week. 

As far as our teaching pool goes... We had to push Makayla and Nicole back one more week to the 22nd of July because the majority of the ward is going to Cumorah on the 14th and 15th. I thing the change of date will be for the best though, because Makayla and Nicole missed church again yesterday :(. I feel like I've been jipping you all of with my letters lately, so this week I'm going to copy my journal entries in and expound on them, to see if that gives you more about my week. 

7/2/12
   Today was an extraordinary P-day. We did all the normal stuff like shopping, Laundry, etc. We also got to play some b-ball with the assistants which is always fun. We found 2 new investigators! Our finding drought is over! First we taught Beatriz (From Ecuador, she contacted us the other day in the street wanting to learn English) English and then a little bit about the Plan of Salvation. We also got to teach Soy Esperanza de Consuelo (Her name literally translated is :" I am Hope of Comfort." Cool name huh?) She is super prepared. She was a member referral from our ward mission leader, and she's totally going to get baptized. This is the same lady we taught English a week before, but now she's been to church twice, and she is planning on going to Cumorah with the ward next week! Yeehaw!

7/3/12
   Happy 4th of July! oh wit, it was only the 3rd... But we did get to enjoy some fireworks tonight as we stood on a deck overlooking all of Dover. It was amazing. The only bad part was that everybody around us was drinking beer.

Oh well... We had an awesome zone conference today, and Sister Jeppson dressed up as a pirate to teach us about having manners. Her slogan was "Mind Ye Manners." (Think of her talking with a pirate accent, an eye patch on, and a stuffed parrot on her shoulder. She's such a funny lady. It was a great zone conference, unfortunately it was be my last :(

7/4/12
Happy Independance Day! For real this time! I have to admit this was one pretty awesome 4th of Jly. The morning started w/ the usual routine, and before we went to zone mtg, we went to Cliff's Ice-Cream. I didn't get anything, I'm kind of boring. But zone mtg was awesome! We did some role-plays, and afterwards we headed to Fudrucker's which was quite delicious. We didn't really get to teach anyone because nobody was home on account of it being a holiday, but we had a really good lesson with our investigator Juan and headed out to see more fireworks in Chatham. The fireworks there were super amazing, especially the finale which was full of amazing explosions. Probably one of the craziest firework finale's I've ever seen. Luckily I got it on video. I'll have to show it to you one day.

7/5/12
Amazing walking day today! It actually wasn't horribly hot, but I think a big part of it is that we taught 6 lessons today, so we didn't have to spend much time outside walking around. Hermana Vasquez is doing awesome! She quit drinking coffee and she's slowly reactivating. I guess the big miracle of the day is when we taught Ines. We were teaching a less active named Yetlennesi and her uncle about he parable of the sower, and as we were about to close, the daughter of the uncle came in to listen. We taught Ines the restoration w/ the Bishop, Edwin, and the girls dad helping out. She was really receptive, and I think she will get baptized in the near future. Hopefully the Elders in NY will follow up with her. We had a really good English class w/ the help of the Ariola family (from Paraguay) as we taught Beatriz. The night ended with some Domino's at Fausta's. 

7/6/12
Today was excelente! Although it was super hot, we didn't get too fried. We took a trip up to Newton again and visited with Papi. We're still a little unsure if he's accountable or not. He remembered some things but other things not so much. etc... Noting else really interesting on this day...

7/7/12
Today was a super exhausting day. This morning we went and played some B-ball which got pretty intense. There were a lot of really good players there and E. Smith and E. Tippetts invited some guys that played b-ball in high school. We were a little disappointed today w/ the number of appointments that fell through. We had a pretty crazy lesson with an old member. Taught an awesome lesson about conversion to some teenagers in the ward, and then had an awesome FHE activity in the church. We talked about the Apostasy and Prophets, playing 2 different games. First we played telephone which turned out to be hilarious. One of the funnies was one that started out with "Joseph Smith went to a grove of trees to pray." changing to  "Prophets like to dance!." Don't tell me how that happens. I guess in Spanish it get s a little more confusing. We played some Simon says changing it to "the prophet says" which also turned out really well. I even got my first watermelon today! Not a bad day, although I might have gotten heat exhaustion from the crazy humidity when we played basketball. 

7/8/12
Today was a rough day.... The first day in my mission where I have had to stay in from working. I may have got some sort of flu bug, or heat exhaustion yesterday, or a combination of things. I didn't end up making it to church, and so I sat home all day, slept, watched church videos and the such. Elder Smith was nice enough to stay home with me all day. I went to bed at 8:40 pm which was really good for my body, even if it took forever for me to get to sleep. 

And here we are today, I'm feeling a lot better today! Sadly Elder Ferrell got sick yesterday too, and was pretty sick this morning. But now we are both feeling better, we just need to stay out of the heat, and take it easy for a few days. 

I'm so grateful to be a missionary. I love the gospel, and I'm so grateful for the kind of person the mission has made out of me. I hope that for these last 7 weeks I can do all that the Lord would have me do. I love you all so much. You're all in my prayers!

Independence Day

(Letter July 2, 2012)

I'm sad I won't be home for the 4th of July, but I guess I'll have to settle with all the fireworks here. This week has been really great though, full of fun and work all at the same time. 

I guess the highlight of the week would be the all mission activity we had on Friday. We woke up and headed to Morristown and that's where the fun began. We all got our "Morristown New Jersey Mission" T-shirts, and played a few games of Ninja Destruction while we waited for the leadership meeting to be over. Chester Elton was our visiting speaker, he has 6 books that were on the New York Times Best Seller list. He came and talked to us about how team work is so important, and how we should root for each other and seek to build each other up. 

After the first part of the activity, we ate some lunch and watched zone skits. Our skit was about what sisters do on P-day, and so we would give Ideas of what sisters do on P-day, and they would say different things that Elders did. Elder Ferrell's and my part was about practicing to propose to our girlfriends. This is basically the script, although it was a lot funnier being able to see it.

E. Ferrell: "Elder Hicks, you've been talking about Chelsea every day, and you don't even know how to propose to her. How do you expect to be able to do it on your second day home? We need to practice." 

E. Hicks: "Correction, you mean my first day home. You know, I'm just not sure how to do it. I mean, do I kneel on one knee, 2 knees, sitting?"

E. Ferrell: "Haven't you ever seen a romance movie?"

E. Hicks: "No... My parents never let me watch anything but disney movies" (Laughter)

E. Ferrell: "You know what, it's all about the committment. So you kneel down on one knee, and you give the committment which is?"

E. Hicks: "I'm not really sure."

E. Ferrell: "Well you are asking her to marry you, so the committment is, will you marry me?"

E. Hicks: "Oh Yeah, that makes sense."

E. Ferrell: "The committment is what we've been studying for 2 years, chapter 11 of preach my gospel says it all."

E. Hicks: "You know what, forget it, I'm just going to text her and ask her." (More Laughter)

You just had to be there for it to be funny.

Anyway, after the skits we headed to a park to play some famous Sister Jeppson games, which included broom hockey, gadianton robber balloon popping, bubble gum blowing obstacle course, and scripture mastery contest from the president. It was a day full of fun, but also full of a lot heat. Especially since I was out in my jeans. I don't think there is going to be any way for me to gain weight this summer. The humidity is so killer. 

We've been involved with a lot of service this week too which included painting someones house, and helping someone move in. We also had to go help take town the dividers in the old mission office and take them to the assistants house. That gave us less time to focus on proselyting, but things in our area are still going pretty well.

   

We had a really good few lessons with Gino and Josue from Mexico. They are super awesome and Josue is especially prepared. He's been reading and praying and says he feels good. We tried setting them with a date, but they had a few doubts that we didn't have enough time to really cover, so unfortunately we weren't able to set them, but maybe the next lesson we have with them.

   

Sadly we got dropped by the seventh day adventist Victor. From the looks of it, he's got a lot of family opposition and for that he'd rather not get mixed up in learning the Gospel. You can tell that personally he wants to learn, but the timing just isn't right. We were pretty sad to hear it, and hopefully one day some missionaries can harvest the planted seed.

We are also teaching a guy right now named Papi. He's really old, and is borderline accountable, but he accepted a baptismal date, and understands he needs to be clean of his sins. It could be super difficult to teach him though because he can't remember much. We were hammering the steps to prayer into his head, because he kept thinking it was "in the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost." We were trying to get him to remember, Start with Heavenly Father, and end in the name of Jesus Christ. We'll see how he progresses. He has a date for August 5th, but we'll see if we can even make it by then.

Sunday came to a nice close as we went to see the Linderman family. They gave us a humongous piece of steak, some yummy potatoes and fruit. Then we finished it all off as we entered into the basement to open up the freezer full of quarts of ice-cream. Brother Linderman loves his icecream, and he must have had like 50 quarts to choose from. It was pretty delicious.

Mikayla and Nicole are still set to get baptized on the 15th of July, and we finally got them to church. Elder Ferrell and I just need to focus on finding. I guess my biggest goal at this point would be to find a family to baptize before I get home. I'm running out of time, but hopefully through faith, diligence, and obedience, we can make miracles happen. 

Thanks so much for everything. I love you all so much and I hope you have a happy fourth of July! 

Love,

Elder Hicks