May 27

Mom... I love you so much and i am so sorry It has taken me this long to email you. We work so hard here. I literally have not had time to unpack. We get home at 9 we plan until 10 20 somenights spending the whole time on are knees. I trust the lord so much! i can guarntee you nothing and i mean nothing that someone could give to me would change my testimony of the church. I know it is true... But we are always so busy there is never time to do anything like clean our pension. This place is nothing like i thought! seriously, we walk around in the dirt all day! all my pants have dirt marks.. and dont et me started about my white shirts.. we wear sweaters everyday! and I love every second of it! it is so cool! it is unbelievable how poor some of the people are out here! we are in a place called Pilar, Argentina.. about an 1 hour outside of buenos Aires. the people here are so nce and i understand more and more each day...

My companions name is ELder barragan! oh and we work so hard! i try to say hi to everyone i see!... oh and to explain what kind of place i am in, sisters are not allowed in the area and i have to keep my patagonia back pack at home because the District leader said it would get stolen if i took it out. so i have a shoulder bag that i bring out that the mission gives us! oh and the reason it has taken so long for me to send this email is because we went ot the temple today and it took all day.. we had to call president to get premission to send are letters! everybody speaks spanish! it is so cool... also the people here are a little shy but all you have to do is say hi to them in a nice way and they usually say hi back, i love them, or at least my love for them is growing!

only one of my friends from the MTC is here.

I was pretty tired when we first got here but now it is not bad at all!

My district leaders name is ELder Abroa he is mr. Aboroa´s kid!m ( i think i spelled it wrong) 

Mailing address is.. General Lavalle 1828, San Fernando, this is the offices. they can send it to me from there. 

There are no washing machines with us... or irons.. so we have to wash our clothes oruselvse or get a member to it.. tomorrow i will need to get a memeber to do it.. or something like that because so far i run out of garments tomorrow... we will see.. it is so fun here. a little hard at first but io love it..

so busy all the time learing how to be a representative of christ.. but i am teaching more during lessons and the lord is helping me learn the language! 

Mom i love you! i don´t know what i would do with out you.. probably die!

This week.. We went to a house.. and a lady started feeding her child... I didn´t know what to do! i just stared at my companion for the whole time we were there and left at soon as possible.. KEEP TELLING ME TO WORK HARD MOM!"

i need to be such a better missionary.. I love you. 

Love,

Elder Hicks

Oh ya Church was great also.. i gave a talk and i was suppose to introduce myself. so as I was preparing my talk i was trying to get the ward pumped for missionary work and i wrote up a talk about moses 1:39.. and i was so excited to give a talk in Castellano( oh by the way a whole different type of Spanish, it seems like they mumble everything compared to Mexicans) so when sunday came around i ahd my talk prepared and got up to the pulpit to give it, i read my talk about moses 1:39 but i did not talk about myself, the whole reason for me talking, i was so excited to talk about missionary work that i didn´t even talk about me... so awkward once i realized that after... well its all good after sacrament i made sure everyone knew who i was.. also the ward is pretty small compared to our ward. many less actives.. but we can help it grow! through CHirst. we need more people to come to church and get baptized so they can be saved! please keep praying this week and i promise you will have an experince with the holy spirit if oyu have faith! the lord always delivers. 

1st email from Argentina

Thanks Mom! 

It is so great down here. We live in such a 5 star hotel and they give us free food every morning.... ya right. This place is a lot different than I thought it would be! We live in a place called Pilar, about 30 mins west of Buenos Aires! It is so cool though. A bunch of white people speaking Spanish so weird. The Spanish is a little different but I love it! So fun! A lot different than a states mission for sure. Oh and I am allowed to get on the Internet to tell you I am okay. Ask me any questions you have! My companion is from Gilbert. He went to Red Mountain. And my district leader is also from Gilbert he went to our high school! The Lord is helping me so much. I am trying so hard. I need to rely on him more! I love you all so much. Oh and also my companion is super great. He wants to work really hard! What a blessing! I love you all

I'll email you a great email on my preparation day! 

Love,

Elder Hicks

I don't know how we are going to be able to adjust to being a real missionary family,  In the past month we have been able to talk to Troy on the phone 4 times, because of Mothers day and all the traveling he has done.  This week we received emails from him on Saturday, Sunday, and Today. We also got an email and picture from his Mission President yesterday.  It has been super great!!!

Welcome to Argentina!

Dear Hicks Family,

  We are so thankful to have Elder Hicks with us. He arrived safely this morning and is doing wonderful. We are so excited for this great opportunity we have together to serve the Lord. We all ate lunch together here in the mission home and this afternoon he will be meeting his trainer and arriving in his area to work.  Your son will be communicating with you on his preparation day.

We love you,

President and Sister Gulbrandsen

Visa YEAH!!!!

I got my Visa!! I leave monday for Argentina!!! going to be in Buenos Aires!  I will be there Tuesday! finally really being out of the country! I love you so much! I will buy a phone card and call you when I am in georgia! there is a layover there. love you all! but I leave monday from here at 5. I will try to call you while in georgia!I 'lll email you again if I can get more info on when I will be in georgia.

May 13

I am so glad we got to talk yesterday. I miss all of you a lot! But don't worry about me I will see you soon! Always rely on God. This morning i was reading Nephi 4:34-35 and I realized not to rely on the arm of flesh but to rely on the lord constantly and you will be able to attain so much more happiness!  because for me i never want to regret anything, and I know through the Lord i will never regret anything! He will always help me. 

I 'm so thankful for the scriptures, Prayer, and the Holy Spirit. The Lord has given us so many great tools to be able to be like him and to have Joy in our lives. I know that this is the way to true happiness. 

You might find happiness in something of the world, such as a song, or a television show, or even in food. These thing will only bring temporary happiness, you will only be happy while it lasts. But the only time you will really be happy for forever is when you do what the lord asks, when you are able to have the presence of the holy spirit forever. 

Yea, come unto Christ  and be perfected in him, deny yourselves of all ungodliness... and love God with all your might, mind and strength. Moroni 10:32

I love you all so much. 

Love 

Elder Hicks

May 6

Dad and family,

Well my priorities each day right now focus on learning as much as i can from my trainers. And i love teaching. Also i am not sure about the Visa The president last week said that there was no info. It is awesome to be a missionary. Also the only good way to find people to teach is through the members. Also through less actives. Right now we focus a lot on gaining the trust of the members and then getting them to give us their family and loved ones to teach. It is so important to earn the trust of the members or you really can not get any work done. My Spanish is coming along even better this week, i still do not understand everything but i keep talking as much to the Spanish speakers as i can! I love it. Also are ward family is amazing i love them so much. their are some ward missionaries who are named javier and Alma, they are the coolest family ever. they feed us every Thursday  the best Mexican food, and they are so nice. They only speak Spanish and i can only communicate with them a little bit about gospel topics and maybe about work.. but i still love them so much. they are about 26 years old but so cool. And also they are the best missionaries.

We have a baptism coming up on the 11th And we, as a companionship, are so excited. It is a couple named sofia and Christian, who are going to get married and then baptized the next day. 

I am not exactly sure when we will Skype next Sunday... It will be around 4 o'clock. i have your Skype info. Mom gave it to me in a letter. i love it.

Also make sure to tell mom happy b-day on the 8th! i will buy her a card today and send it!! i really do love you all and can not wait to talk to you!

Remember it is important to do missionary work, and you always can spread the gospel. Javier when he is at work puts on his construction hat "Soy Mormon'  which means I am A Mormon. what a cool thing. you can think of some creative ways to share the gospel at work! you are so creative dad, you can do it. 

I am so proud of Makenna. It is amazing for me to see her grow so much in the gospel. She is naturally such a great teacher and has so much love for everyone. Keep spreading the news of the atonement dad and of the restoration dad. i love you so much. 

Love, 

Elder Hicks

P.S. do you own a preach My gospel Dad. Start srudying that in the morning, you will really undaerstand how to teach all of the points of the gospel. 1.Faith in Jesus Christ and his atonment 2. Repentance 3. baptism and recieving the gift of the holy ghost 5. Enduring to the end. study 2 nephi 31 And it expounds on all those points! tell me if you have any questions. ill seee how it goes next weeek. don't let me down dad! But i sure do love you.

Mom, 

Thank you so much for the letters, and the best birthday on the mission ever! Next week we will skype around 4, i am so excited to talk to you. i'll send you some pics of what it looked like when i was opening each present. Also mom! Happy Birthday. good ol' 27 years old how does it feel? no i am just joking. but i want to know how your birthday goes. You really made my Birthday great and i loved it so much! thanks for the money! i will spend it wisely! lately i have been eating a lot and gained a little weight... and it is not muscle weight. I will lose it though, i bought some strawberries and started making smoothies everyday instead of other things that are not so good to eat. Besides that it was the best birthday ever. Thank you so much Mom. i can't believe i am 19 now though it is hard to believe. each day i learn so many more things on the mission also

There are so many things for me to learn right now, Spanish, how to teach, how to talk to people, how to gain trust, how to work! and i don't know where to start. right now Mom i rely so much on the spirit, and i am trying to deny every form of ungodliness from my being. It seems that with the lord he changes us little by little as we use him. it is kind of like a clock, every tick on the second hand is how much we change every day and before you know it, it has already been a minute and you have changed so much. what a great lord that he teaches us so many things while we grow. It is hard but so worth it! i have noticed i can do anything with the lord. I am trying to listen to everything he asks me to do. 

I love you so much Mom and i hope you have a great birthday! i love you so much and can  not wait to talk to you on sunday! 

much loves,

Elder Hicks

"I look good."

Happy Birthday Troy!