Miracles

Hola amigos y familiares!

So awesome to hear about all the fun times with Joseph home. Glad he got to spend a few days in MN. I was happy to hear about your visit to the Moores, the Cambodian dinner, Cambodian missionary work, fun times with basketball, juggling, games. Thanks for all the pictures!  I love our family too.

Guess what? Sophie got baptized this week! What a miracle. We were a little nervous cuz she showed up 30 mins. late with her family but in the end it all turned out super well. There were a lot of people so we ended up moving everyone into the chapel.

About 2 weeks ago, a friend of a return missionary named Andres came to church. Being testimony meeting a lot of the members stepped forward to bear their testimonies. It was amazing to see Andres, a non-member, get up and say what he knew to be true. I loved his enthusiasm to be at church. He stayed for all the meetings and we set up an appointment for later that week. He´s been through a lot. Drugs, Alcohol. But he sincerely wants to make a change in his life. We came out of a teaching appointment one night and immediately thought of Andres. He happened to live close by. When we knocked his family opened the door and let us in. Andres told us that he had been praying to God right before we came. Another miracle. In the end, we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know that it was true. The next day we stopped by. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted. It will be for the 23 of May. He has a lot of things going on right now but with his efforts and more miracles from God, I know he will be ready.

 Me and Andres

Another night, my companion and I were out contacting. We ended up talking to this teenager. He was interested so we taught him about the Restoration. We invited him to church and he accepted. When we passed by Sunday to pick him up for church he, his brother, and his cousin were all waiting! It was awesome. More miracles. They all came to church and stayed the whole time. Afterwards they said they really liked it. There will be a baptism this week for the sister missionaries in our area so we invited them to that. They said they would come. Exciting to see the work moving forward.

Little side note. Today we played basketball for the 2nd time in the mission. I was so happy. A lot of people showed up so we had a good game.

Me and Jimena

Grateful for all the miracles this week. The Lord has truly blessed us. Have a great week!

Hungry Dog

Hola amigos y familiares!

Sounds like there was a lot going on this week at home. Cheri had her baby! Woot, woot another cousin! Uncle David came for a visit. Nick Hostetter had his mission Farewell, and Jonathan had a piano recital. Keep practicing the piano Jonathan. It helps a lot on the mission. Thanks for all the pictures. Glad Joseph is coming home for a few days this week. Say “hi” for me. That’s great that Jonathan is taking tennis lessons from Alex. And yes, we got the packages. Thanks mom!  More on that later. 

So excited! Sophia will be baptized this week!  She wasn’t able to on Friday or Saturday so we´re holding the baptismal service this Thursday. We made little invitations and are passing them out to all the members and investigators. It’s so great when members support baptisms.

My comp and I are helping a sister in the ward with her two nieces. What a tough situation. Apparently the dad and mom of the nieces got divorced a little over a year ago. The dad went crazy, and ended up beating their mom and them. So sad. For that reason the mom is working all the time so her kids spend most of their time at their aunt´s house. We started teaching them and they are awesome. They´ve had no religion or God in their lives until now. Hard to imagine what that’s like. They came to church this Sunday and my comp. and I are excited to keep helping them. It´s great to see how happy they are because of the góspel.

We´re really trying to contact at least 10 people in the street everyday. It has brought great blessings in finding new families and new people to teach. I’m also realizing that it is strengthening my own testimony that God really has people prepared. We  just need to find them. I know the best reference is the Holy Ghost!

Weird experience. So our neighbor, who lives on the second level with us, took his turn taking care of a member’s dog this week. The balcony outside, that seperates our apartment from his, is where he decided to leave the dog. We come home one day and this dog wouldn’t stop whining. We thought the dog must be really, really hungry. So the package mom sent had beef jerky in it right? We ended up feeding the dog beef jerky for about 3 days. She loved it. Hope that’s ok mom.

Love you all. Thanks for your support. Have a great week!

Love, Elder Hicken

Pics

Really short on time again! Sorry. Why does this always happen? Here are some pics though...

 Quetzaltenango Temple

General Conference and my area

Hola amigos y familiares!

Happy Easter. General Conference was great! It brought to mind the importance of the family, and the true and everlasting happiness that comes from rearing a family in righteousness. It’s sad how many people here do not get married. I know marriage brings happiness. Another topic I thought was emphasized in Conference was Christ´s Atonement. This Easter season, Christ´s sacrifice has become something very real and applicable to me in my own life. I can´t begin to express my gratitude to know that I have a Savior who loves me and can cleanse me from sin. He is a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, my grief. Do I look but not see? Do I hear but not listen? Listening to the music of the gospel will bring us blessings as we follow the Spirit. Hey, if we start now to read a conference talk per week, we will have read every talk before the next conference. What do you think? Anyone want to do that?  It was cool that I was able to watch the Saturday sessions in Spanish and the Sunday sessions in English.

So I made it to my new area! It’s called Las Américas, and the zone is Xela Oueste. It´s REALLY different from Quiché because it’s in the big city. The temple is here though! Super excited about that!  A part of me feels like I´m starting the mission again. There are 20 missionaries in the zone and it´s divided into 2 districts. My companion’s name is Elder Caseres. He is from Honduras and knows very little English. All the better so I can practice my Spanish and he can practice his English. He has about 6 months in the misison and loves to work hard. He´s super funny too!

This week was a little different because of la Semana Santa. Almost everyone was out of town. It´s kind of like Spring Break here. There was literally no one in the streets Friday, except the missionaries and the dogs. We tried visiting a lot of people but they just weren´t home. Although frustrating at times, it was a good week and allowed me the chance to get to know the area and missionaries better. Super excited to work hard and rely on the Lord with me new comp.!

Have a great week! All the best!

Love, Elder Hicken

p.s. I´ll send pictures next week. Great to see the pictures you sent from Chicago, Alabama, and Tennessee. Ouch, looks like Jonathan took quite a fall. But I´m glad he´s ok.