President Russel M Nelson

As of one month ago, the whole mission has been really excited that President Russel M. Nelson was going to come this Tuesday to talk to the missions Quetzaltenango and Retauleu (I think that´s how you spell that?). Turns out he wasn’t able to come! Bummer. My comp., Elder Flores, freaked out the most of anybody. It would have been the first time he met an apostle. But the good news was he still talked to us by satellite. Saturday morning, our zone along with the XelaCentro zone gathered at the chapel to watch the broadcast of Pres. Nelson from Honduras. First, we got to hear from a member of the seventy, Sister Duncan and President Duncan, the president of the Central America region. Then, unfortunately, as Pres. Duncan was addressing us, the power went out in the building! We stayed that way for about 10 mins. until a generator was hooked up. Luckily, the power came back on before Pres. Nelson began to speak.

Hard to mention the many great things said by Pres. Nelson, but mostly he talked of the importance to get members and non-members to the temple. Our main goal shouldn´t be to baptize, it should be to get our investigators to partake of the ordinances and covenants made in the House of the Lord. How do we do that? By teaching the doctrine of Christ, the first principles of the gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, reception of the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. It was amazing to hear President Nelson speak! The spirit was very strong. Also, he would talk and then the translator would say it in Spanish. Kinda cool to be able to understand both * jaja * I know he is servant called of God, a living day apostle of the Lord.

The best part was what I felt the spirit was trying to teach me. It allowed me to step back a little and see where my priorities were. Basically, we are now going to work more with members. I think that´s the key. As we work alongside with member families, I feel that the Lord will bless this area with success.

Anyway, a few other things-we had divisions with the assistants. I left the area and went to Calvario, which is basically a cemetery and a HUGE beer plant. Near the end of the day, Elder Bryan wanted to try some very tasty pupusas. Also, he really liked the Dog Dazer mom sent. He got a kick outta seeing the dogs run away every time he used it. jaja Also, he wanted to show me all the corte he has. We´re talking A LOT. Just to give you an idea, he has an entire suit made of corte-orange, black lined corte. Nothing subtle about it. He had me try it on. jaja  Really happy to have played soccer and basketball today and another game called Aromaya for our pday today.  It´s kind of like ultimate frisbee but Honduras style.

puros chivos! (the soccer team in Xela)

Hope everything is well! The gospel is true.

Extraño a todos. Paz y amor

Elder Hicken