More Baptisms

Glad to hear everyone had a fun Halloween going to Valley Scare and other parties. Wooh! 2 Book of Mormons given away in one week. Way to go, Dad! Sharing the gospel can be hard when it´s forced, but it seems to become a lot easier when the topic is brought up and questions are asked. We just need to act. Super happy you took the chance to share when the opportunity arrived.

Happy Halloween! Although it was a normal work day, we made it a fun time. In a bakery shop we found pumpkin pie! Of course we bought it. For everyone who doesn´t know, Halloween is not a national holiday here. The actual day everyone celebrates is the 1st of November. It´s called the day of the dead, or the day of the saints. It´s a day of celebration and remembrance, not so much a day of mourning and sadness. The typical food is fiambre, a mixture of just about every meat and vegetable ever heard of. As long as there´s not too much vinagre [vinegar], it´s pretty good. A traditional desert is sweetened squash. And very common are kite festivals.  Another elder was with us for a few days. In that time we ended up going to the mission office for some interviews he had. While he was with Pte. Smith, sister Smith took the time to show us a few of the kite festivals they had been to years before. I was impressed! The kites are about 8 meters high, made of this thin Chinese paper and bamboo backing. Each is decorated with an ornate design and then judged later on in the day. None of the big kites actually fly. The biggest kite sister Smith had seen fly was about 2 meters high.

Kite Festival - (Google) - Just for an idea!

 My comp and I with the elder who stayed with us a couple of days, Elder Herrera!

Guess what? Lucero wants to be baptized! She is the daughter of an already member. The mom was baptized when she was a little girl with her parents, but when her dad left and her mom started to drink she never went back to church. It wasn´t until now that we found her and her now 19 year old daughter, Lucero, which is about 20 years later!  The Lord sometimes takes His time.  They´ve already been to church a number of times and they love it. They don´t have running water. They don´t have electricity. They cook over a wood burning fire. The mom works making tortillas and washing clothes whereas Lucero makes and sells handcrafted baskets in the market. They are such a sweet, humble family. I really love them. It is a testimony to me that even in hard conditions, one can find peace through the gospel and Atonement of Jesus Christ.

The recently baptized Monteroso family has been super pumped lately to share the gospel. It’s awesome! One night this past week, we were over talking to them about a plan to practice how to share the gospel with family and friends who are not members of the church. After only about 30 seconds into the lesson, Isaias and Fredy said they were already working with someone who wants to be Mormon! Then Floridalma pipes up and says that a neighbor had recently asked about us, seeing that we had always come to visit them, and that she was interested to hear our message. Then the other kids listed off about 5 other names of friends and neighbors who they wanted us to meet. It was a great moment to see the desires of everyone to share what they knew to be true.

Some thoughts on my mind. The Savior has asked us to be perfect, even as He is perfect. I know we must follow His example and His teachings. We must become like Him in our thoughts, desires, words and actions. Asking questions such as, ¨How would Christ think?¨ or ¨What would Jesus say?¨ has helped me a lot in this past week.

Have a great week! Adiós!

Elder Hicken

Also shout out to Aunt Diana for sending a bday package! The shirt is awesome! I use it almost everyday! THANK YOU!