Keep the Sabbath Day Holy

Hola amigos y familiares!

So it´s off to the Grand Canyon. Have fun. Neat that Johnny went to the temple. Way to go mom for sharing a Book of Mormon. I was thinking the other day how great it would be if every member were to give a Book of Mormon to someone not of our faith. I think Jonathan gets taller every week. haha

We got to go on divisions with President Smith this week! It was awesome. We met up at the temple at 4:40 PM. As we got in the car we started with a prayer. Our first appointment was with the mom and son that we´ve been teaching. It went well. After that we went to visit Germán, the father investigator of a member family who we´ve been teaching. He had a few questions about the law of tithing. I felt so blessed to have President there. It was amazing to see the President´s use of the scriptures. I came to realize that he only referred to scriptures in the Book of Mormon. Later he taught us that our investigators shouldn´t get baptized unless they receive an answer that the Book of Mormon is true, no matter how many times they have attended church or received the lessons. He also encouraged us to pass by our investigators houses every day. If that wasn´t possible then to send a text message or give them a call. Such great advice.

Turns out the Temple is closed Sundays and Mondays so we weren´t able to take the mom and son on a tour of the temple. Too bad. It’s o.k. though. We talked about the temple.

When Sunday came around, we had a miracle! We had planned to pass by our investigators to bring them to church. It so happens a less active down the street, Mike Merida, wanted to help and so he offered to take us around in his van. So nice. The sad part was that ALL our investigators cancelled. Bummer. But Brother Merida had invited his friend to come with, and she came! Hooray!  After church we were able to visit with Brother Merida and Fernanda. She is excited about her experience and wants to learn more. It was a miracle!

I have been thinking a lot recently about the importance of keeping the Sabbath day Holy. In Neh. 13: 17-18., it reads, 

17 Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said unto them, What evil thing is this that ye do, and profane the sabbath day?

18 Did not your fathers thus, and did not our God bring all this evil upon us, and upon this city? yet ye bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the sabbath.

When someone or an entire nation turns away from this commandment, religious as well as all other aspects of life begin to decay. I know it’s so important that we keep the Sabbath Day holy. It truly is a reflector, or a SIGN as Elder Nelson says, of our personal devotion to God. The Lord promises great blessings to those who keep the Sabbath Day holy. I know this to be true.

All the best! Have a great week! The gospel is true.

Love, Elder Hicken

Rain, rain,rain

Hola amigos y familiares!

Glad to hear grandma Midgley has a treatment plan. And wow, great to see all those awesome photos. So fun that the fam. got to spend the weekend together with the Moores, and grandma and grandpa Hicken. The fact that aunt Cheri had the blessing dress made for Alena months ago blew me away, but of course she did. That’s aunt Cheri. I love my family!

It rains every day! It´s kind of expected. Made the mistake to not take my umbrella or rain jacket with me one day. Got back to the house pretty soaked. My backpack too but luckily nothing got wet. My comp. doesn´t have an umbrella and there’s no way to get one until we go to Walmart next week. We´ve been sharing mine haha but it works out!

Some new updates as far as my companion goes. He is more specifically from Juayua, El Salvador. He gets along with people really well. He loves pupusas! It´s a special dish where he´s from. Consists of maza and cheese and beans and sausage or whatever else you want to throw in. He keeps saying that the ones made here in Guatemala don´t even compare to real thing.

We´ve been teaching a mom and her son but haven´t had the opportunity to talk to the husband yet. He works a lot but the wife and son are pretty easy to find. This past week we finally got to see the husband and he seems pretty excited about everything. We´re going to go do a tour of the temple next week with the whole family! We’re excited.

The members here are super supportive. I think we´ve gotten more rides this past week from the members than I have my whole mission! It makes such a difference to have supportive members. My comp. and I are super pumped to start the new week. Always trying to improve, always trying to be better, always trying to be more productive.

Just a quick thought-This week I came across a great quote from Elder M. Russell Ballard, 

¨We can become the masters of our own destinies by practicing self-discipline and by setting worthy goals that will lead to higher ground so that we can become what our heavenly father wants us to become.¨ 

Goal setting gives one a clear direction and something to work for. The Lord offers great promises to those who set worthy goals and do all they can to accomplish them. I’m excited to set more goals. 

All the best! Have a great week! I know this gospel is true.

Elder Hicken

Family Week Celebration

Hola familiares y amigos!

Thanks for sending pictures mom. Awesome that Mark and his dad were able to stop by. And that fence...looks amazing. Hope it keeps the deer out for good.

So, my new companion is Elder Salazar. He is from El Salvador. He has 3 months in the mission, just finishing his training. He is really positive which is good. He is one of 7 brothers and sisters. He plays basketball, or at least he’s willing to play. He loves to eat, as do I. Somehow we both got sick last Saturday but we’re fine now. We are working hard trying to find those people who are prepared to hear us. I know they are out there. Elder Salazar has adjusted to the área really well. He says it´s a lot different from his other area. He was in an Aldea (really small town).

Elder Salazar and me

So about our investigator Andres, to be honest, he has disappeared on us. He left to the capital and hasn´t been heard of since. Not even his family knows where he is.

That’s o.k.  We were able to find 4 other really positive investigators. Two are sisters (Shanon and Jennifer) going to college here in Xela. And the other two are a mom (Gabriela) who has 3 children, and Juan, one of her children who is eligible for baptism. It´s great to see their progression! They teach me.

We’ve been taking this teenager to church for the past 3 weeks. On Sunday he said he wants to be baptized, and he wants to be baptized this Thursday. What was a miracle! I love miracles. We´ll do all we can to make that happen.

This week was a special church celebration called “Family Week.” Cool, huh. Every night there was an activity in the church. For example, Tuesday was a role play family home evening as well as cooking. Thursday was game night. Everyone formed a group with their family and went around to the various stations, collecting large pieces of paper forming a puzzle. At the end they all put it together and it wrote title of liberty. SUPER fun. Saturday finished with a cultural night. Both the Americas and Garibaldi wards did some skits, singing and dancing. As missionaries we got to do a skit as well. It was great. Any way to strengthen families is good. I know strong families are important.

 Elder Caseres and me

 Family Week Skit

Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple

 Preaching the gospel to every creature

I love this work. The gospel is true.

All the best! Have a great week

Elder Hicken

One standard, one message, one mission!

Hola amigos y familiares!

Got a chance to talk to the fam on mother’s day. It was so great to Skype with them! I love our family.

 Skyping on the Big Screen for Mother's Day

From Susan about Skyping:

Our conversation with Elder Nathan in Guatemala was awesome!  Joseph Face Timed in, while Shaun, Jonathan, and I skyped.  (see photo attached)  It was so good to see Nath and hear his voice!   Hard to sum it up—he shared some really neat stories that have strengthened his faith. (and now ours)  Two in particular about tithing.

•          There was a lady who owned a restaurant.  She was trying to decide if she should buy a stove or pay her tithing.  She really needed a stove but she decided to pay her tithing.  A few days later one of the customers finished eating and then came up and said to her, “I feel like I should give you a stove.”  She did!  The restaurant owner went to this customer’s house and got a stove.  Wow!
•          Then, there was this poor farmer.  After paying his tithing he bought a cheaper seed than his neighbor and went ahead and planted.  It didn’t rain very much.  Yet, somehow the farmer had a great crop, while his neighbor did not.  The farmer knew he had been blessed for paying his tithing. So neat!

Nathan talked about realizing that the Lord pours out blessings even with a small effort!  It has made him want to give even more effort.  Love that boy..

Let’s see, a few other “housekeeping” type things we learned from Nathan:
1.       Nath is in a very wealthy area with plenty of food.  Everyone feeds him all the time. There are tons of stores with almost everything we have here in the states.
2.       His Spanish is amazing.  Native companions really help with that.
3.       It was cute--he couldn’t remember certain words in English—like “teenager”
4.       Natives don’t like to exercise or work out at all.  No more morning runs.  But he is doing lots of walking—on dirt roads and up steep hills. 
5.       Basketball P-days are awesome, even though Natives don’t really know how to play.  Nath likes being the tallest!
6.       He LOVES his mission president, who follows the Lord through the spirit, and really sets high goals for the mission.  President Smith has helped the missionaries see that now is the time for the work in Guatemala to grow!   President Smith is strict and organized and Nathan loves it!
7.       There are 4 sister missionaries in his District right now.  Nath isn’t quite sure what to do with struggling sisters.  But Joseph gave some great advice… So glad he could be on the call with us.
8.       Yikes—a little scary.  When I asked if Nath felt safe he said he’d share those stories for after the mission.  I told him that we pray for his safety every day.  Nath said he knows the Lord blesses and protects the missionaries.  I guess they’ve been in some sketchy situations and they’ve felt the Lord helping them get home safely..
9.       Nath skyped from his Bishop’s house, and the Bishop and his wife LOVE Elder Hicken!  They said he is a hard worker.  Shaun was able to speak Spanish to them-which was neat.
10.      Guess what?  Nathan is done with fans!  Shockingly he no longer sleeps with a fan!  Guess it’s actually quite chilly there.  (not that MN was balmy—ahem!)
It was sooo…wonderful to talk to Nathan.

 My companion is going this change, meaning tomorrow. He has been an awesome comp. We found this groove that worked really well. Gonna miss all the joking around. You can have fun and still obey the mission rules -  haha - He says he’s going to Momostenango but I think he´s going to Totonikapan. We´ll see what goes down. Sad to see him go but pumped for what this new change will bring.

We haven´t been able to meet with Andres. He went out of town with his aunt to Guatemala City, the capital. But we´re going to have the Zone leaders interview him this week, one week before his baptism. I think it´ll help him a lot.

We’ve worked really hard this week. We did A LOT of contacting. It was helpful because we literally did a loop of our entire area, some parts in which I´d never gone before. We found two new positive investigators. They both excepted baptismal dates! The Lord has blessed us so much as we´ve done our very best.

President Smith is amazing. He had all the district leaders come together for a meeting last Wednesday that really pumped me up. It was very helpful. He talked about many things. Just to mention a few; what we have done in the past has been good but we can do better-one standard, one message, one mission! He told us to look at missionaries as to what they can become- a good leader, etc. Our greatest example is our Savior Jesus Christ. Now is the time to keep the rhythm of the Lord and reach the mission standard. Great stuff.

Anyways time to go! I think my companion wants to go say goodbye to a few families.

I know this work is true. All the best!

Love, Elder Hicken

Happy Mother's Day

Hola familiares y amigos!

Great to see all the pictures. So, Joseph got to spend a few days in MN, and then mom got to be in Utah. Cool.   

Quick update! I finished “Jesus the Christ” on disc and now starting to read it. It was amazing! Definitely strengthened my testimony of Jesus as the Christ. A lot of things I had never known, and never thought about. And that´s an awesome story about Janthon and the importance of keeping the Sabbath day Holy.

Kind of rushed today! It´s rained nearly every day since the start of the week. It is really good for all the farmers here and it’s a joy for missionary work haha. Started carrying around my umbrella everywhere I go. Even though this is the city, there are still a lot of dirt roads, which means mud. It was actually kinda fun walking on this one dirt path. It turned into a small river and it was like walking upstream.

Apparently there is such a thing as labor day here. Andres, who we´ve been working with a lot this month, went out of town for the holiday, as did many other of our investigators. However, we weren´t discouraged. We did a lot of contacting and found some other positive investigators. The Lord is preparing people!

Interviews with President Smith were this week as well. My comp. and I were first up. It was a very powerful spiritual experience. It strengthened my testimony in following the brethren, those the Lord calls and appoints in various positions in the church.

HAPPY MOTHER´S DAY! Shout out to all those wonderful moms out there, and one in particular. Love you mom!  Can’t wait to talk to you on Sunday.

All the best! Have a great week! 

Love, Elder Hicken

P.S.  Pictures--cleaning a member´s ¨pila¨. He eats the fish.

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