FELIZ NAVIDAD

Sorry for not writing yesterday. An elder in the zone had his appendix taken out so we did divisions with his comp. and went back to his area and got his stuff. He’s fine. (more later)  Anyways, love hearing about what’s going on at home. So great everyone was able to make gingerbread houses. Thanks for sending me a simple one to make mom. Hope it turns out ok. There will be pictures. Congrats to Taryn on her baptism! That`s such an important step in her life and I know God is so proud of her. I really liked how y`all could go caroling and play instruments together. Music and Christmas just go together! Can’t believe it`s already Christmas! The year`s gone by so fast!

To answer your questions mom:

1.      How is Huehuetenango going? (fun name!)

Huehue is awesome!

2.      What are your living conditions like? 

We`re living in a small apartment. Today there wasn`t water in the house. Apparently it happens pretty often. But nothing that I`m not used to. After being in Xela for so long, it was weird going back to showering with a bucket but I`m gettin` the hang of it again jaja. So blessed to even live in a house. Also, there`s a supermarket called Paiz, which is kinda like a Guatemalan Costco. There are a lot of clothing stores as well. I guess fashion is a big deal here.

3.      How do you like the ward? 

The ward is great. The attendance right now is about 115. Before it used to be a lot more, but there was a change in the bishop and many stopped coming. The bishop is great! He prefers to have 100 faithful, obedient members than 250 inicous [wicked] members.

4.      What is the most different?  Anything the same?

We have a small part of the city as our area, so that’s different.  We shop in a supermarket. It`s kinda like Cub Foods back home. There are so many clothing stores! It`s insane...

Everybody has motorcycles here! I think for every man, woman and child there is at least a moto or mopad.

The people are the same.

This week was great! The Lord helped us to find Robert. We had received the reference from the elders in Zaculeu, another zone in Huehue, and went to find him. Eventually we found him as he was getting out of his car and entering his house. He said he would wait for us Saturday morning. When we stopped by again, he was there, ready to hear us and our message! He had looked up a few things on the Internet and so had some weird questions but we focused on our message, the Restoration of the gospel. As we invited him to be baptized, he said he was willing! We invited him to church and he came! We`ll be visiting him later tonight so we’ll be sure to let y’all know how it goes.

Yamilet got baptized! She is the girlfriend of Fernando who was baptized last week. And Fernando had the honor to baptize her! It was great. 

There were a lot more members who came this week to the baptismal service. The only thing is that Fernando will not be living here anymore. He`ll be moving back to Guatemala City. We`ll sure miss him.

Unfortuantely, We`ve lost contact with Edgar and his wife because they went back to Honduras for the holidays. But the good news is they should be coming back in January.

The Christmas devotional was today! Sister Smith put me in charge of assigning all the special musical numbers. Everything was just fine and dandy until Elder Silva, an elder in the zone, went down with appendicitis. He had to get his appendix removed and so was unable to play. That`s when Sister Smith asked me Monday night to play for the devotional. Of course I had nothing planned and I felt so unprepared. But I prayed, pulled together some music, and tried my best. It was great. The devotional really was a spiritual experience for me. We got to here from Pte. Smith and Sist. Smith. We also got to watch Ephraim`s Rescue. It was great to see it again. Been a while. And in the end we had lunch and got to take home a bag of goodies. It was nice.

¨Fear not, for I bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto you, in the city of David, is born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord¨ What greater message than to hear that the Savior of the world had been born! It really is ¨good tidings of great joy¨. I know that Christ lives, that he is the Savior and the Redeemer of the world. He lead an exemplary life, a service oriented life, a perfect life. I know that he performed the Atonement, allowing each of us the opportunity to live in His and God`s presence again. Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad!

Hope all is well back home! Nos vemos!

Elder Hicken

p.s. We were seeing Santa everywhere so for fun we decided to try and pull it off ourselves...you be the judge