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.  

Gift to the Savior for Easter

Hola amigos y familiares!

How fun to hear about the family road trip. Hope you have a good time. Thanks for letting me know about brother Plante as well. I miss his smile and his jokes. He always knew how to make me laugh, haha.

Sorry I couldn´t write last week.

So excited that the church has put out another initiative called ¨Gracias a que Él vive¨ (at least that´s what it´s called in spanish). 

Check it out at mormon.org! So my companion and I have been thinking of the best way to use this wonderful tool to bring more people to the knowledge of the Restoration of the gospel. One idea is to have an activity in the park. So to get permission from the government, we wrote a letter last week. Must have been ok cuz we got permission! I love miracles. And the city will provide a screen, chairs, and speakers. What a blessing! The activity will be the 10th of April. Our plan is to show the video ¨Gracias a que Él vive¨ as well as a few of the new videos of Jesus Christ´s life.

Neat experience, my companion and I were walking down the street and saw a family carrying eggs into their house. We rushed to help. When all the eggs were inside, we asked if we could share a message. Juan (the dad) said sure. We shared the message of the Restoration and made an appointment just two days later. When we came back we invited them to be baptized and they accepted for the 25th of April! Amazing what can happen when we serve.

Another experience started a few days ago. We were knocking doors and found a woman who told us to come back Sunday in the afternoon. So we did! Unfortunately she wasn´t there but we knocked on her neighbors door and found her there. She told us she had forgotten and came quickly to let us in her house. After talking for a bit we came to know that she had started attending an evangelical church a few years ago. She had always questioned why there were so many churches. We taught her about prophets, the establishment of Christ´s church on the earth and the Restoration through the prophet Joseph Smith. As we gave Joseph Smith´s account of the First Vision, she started to cry. She felt the Spirit. In the end she accepted a baptismal date for the 25th of April. The Lord has truly poured out his blessings. Almost always, it´s when we are on the edge of breaking or giving up that God shows forth his hand. Never give up! Always rely on the Lord!

Yesterday the zone leaders let us know who has changes. Elder Hicken, Elder Rojas, Elder Cruz, Elder Harward, Elder Dixon, Elder Espina and Hna. Rodas. Every companionship had a change. So, I´m going then. I´m going to miss Quiché a lot, the experiences I´ve had, the people I´ve met, the miracles I´ve seen. However, I´m excited for a change. I know the Lord will call me where I need to go.

I´ve reflected a lot about the Atonement of Christ and the role it plays in my life and in the lives of others. Christ has paid for our sins. He has felt the pain we feel physically, emotionally, and spiritually. He has conquered death and permitted life. What are we waiting for? This Easter, I try to make prayer and repentance more a part of my life. And maybe you want to think of what you can give to the Savior of the World and then do it.

Miss you all! Have a great week!

Love, Elder Hicken

I Love to See the Temple

Lisangela's Baptism

Hola familiares y amigos!

Glad to hear the Journey with Joseph performances turned out so well. Sorry you were sick mom but it sounds like dad’s blessing really helped. Hope someone videoed it?! Super cool.

  

Elder Hicken and Lisangela

 

Lisangela got baptized! Her whole family showed up! Lisangela bore her testimony and the Spirit was really strong. Then her grandma gave her testimony as well. I´m so glad I had the opportunity to be part of this special moment in Lisangela´s life and in the lives her family. Earlier that day, Elder Andy and I had bought cake as a surprise for after the baptism. Turns out they had the same idea haha so we had 2 cakes. Yumm!

 

The Family Crew

Unfortunately, we found out this week that Feliciano was married before, more than 8 years ago. His wife had left him and had taken their 2 children. Being really weighed down for a couple years, he found Cristina and they hit it off. They have one child together, Carlitos, but they can´t get married right now until Feliciano gets a divorce. Yeah, kind of a long process. But we´re trying to help them in whatever way we can. We have a lawyer in our branch who is super cool. He´s helping us as well. It depends if the first wife of Feliciano is in favor of a divoce. If so, the process goes super fast. If not, it will take a lot longer. We´ll see how that all turns out.

This past Thursday, our zone went to the temple. It was great! We left early Thursday morning and got a private bus to head down to Xela. I had seen pictures but I couldn´t believe how beautiful it was in person. I know it´s the house of the Lord. Every time I go, I can feel His prescence there. And each time I go, I take away something new. I love learning in the temple. I´m so grateful for temples on the earth today.

Changes are coming up in 2 weeks. Later this week there is a multi-zone conference. Can´t wait! Y´all have a great week!

Love, Elder Hicken

 Una fiesta Guatemalteca
A Party - Guatemala Style

 

Sister Baby