Eternal Family

Dear My Eternal Family,
I love you so much! I hope you understand the importance you are to me. This week my thoughts were directed much towards you during my studies. And i hope that dad has been working on the attributes of christ section of Preach my gospel. And Mom I want to know if you can see any changes in the home since the dedication. Also mom can you read and pray and study about Mosiah 27 in the Book of Mormon. Next week I want to hear about it in your next letters to me how the studying is going.
I watched the conference yesterday also! It was so great many things were mentioned about the missionary work. While I was watching the family work together to get baptisms I was very inspired also, and that family can be us!   Will you pray about families we can invite to church. . I invite you to pray and make plans and if you have any questions go to the Lord, he will always help and preach my gospel is a great tool to use also if you need help.
This week I have never loved the mission more. We have had so much fun as a companionship. Yesterday and most of this week we have been working so hard to always speak Spanish  within the companionship. I know the through the Lord I am learning this language at a rapid pace. Also yesterday we started talking more about only gospel topics and we have had the spirit so much stronger within our companionship. The Lord is really looking out for us and teaching us so much.

The sad thing this week is that our baptism fell threw, and we did not baptize this week.. we are working so hard and hopefuly the fireside can fire up the members to invite more of their friends to hear the gospel.

I´m so glad we can be an example to our family. I love you so much!"

Oh and for Makenna, what is going on with her.. can you please tell her it is so hard to write a letter here and i am trying my best to find time. But i want her to know how she is doing over email! how is summer school, how are her prayers, I know she is already a great teacher and has a testimony, but how are her reading of the book of mormon! Can you ask her to study and pray a section a day in  the for the strength of youth and Moroni 7 this week?


Brennan also I have no clue what is going on with selling! Something that might help you sell more is in Preach my gospel he can read how to find people ch. 9! It talks about how you can find more people to sell the gospel but I think it applies with selling anything. And can he read Alma 7: 9-13, it is such a good scripture about the saviors love for us!

I love you all and I want to know how these scriptures apply to your lives and what the spirit is trying to tell you through them! so I invite you to write me a letter about how it went!  I know Christ lives and God loves all his children and I also know Joseph Smith was a Prophet and Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet now!

Trust in god

Love,
Elder Hicks

Also can you send my email to Jim and Jeannine.

And today I am going ot buy winter clothes so money is going ot be taken off my card, so dont worry if you see money taken off. love you! DO missionary work and save souls!

-next week i am going to email on tuesday we have transfers on monday!! love you!

June 17

Dear family!

Wow, We had a great week here in Argentina our new converts are doing great. We are working so hard to get another baptism this weekend. Oh and also mom if you ever send a package can you send me more garments, the cotton kind for my bottoms 32 or small and the round neck for the top (cotton also and its a small) that would be great if you could send me 6 more. 

This week was such a great week on the mission, we are going to play soccer today s and we have to leave soon.

This week was amazing because we found a part member family that had 4 new investigators. We taught them Saturday night and they were so interested in the gospel. And they were so committed about coming to church the next day but then they never came, it was defiantly a let down but we still had an investigator at church, it is the granddaughter of Elba and we are going to baptize her this weekend and hopefully her mom to. It is going to be tough.

I need all the prayers I can get and pray for the Mom of Oriana to want to change! Please! We need a miracle. I need to go sorry for the short email! I will try to get back on we need to travel somewhere today to play soccer! Love you!

Elder Hicks

We received another email later in the day...I am so glad.  

Letter continued,

Yes, we eat at members home, we get fed every day from the members. Most of the time the members give us food to go. Only some of the time do we eat in there home. Also we get about $153 dollars a month, things are a little bit more expensive here. I was surprised to figure that out when I got here. Also to go everywhere we either ride our bikes or we take buses! There are so many buses here it is crazy. It is kind of hard to last but we will be okay this month we just need to budget! Oh also I have not told president I know Dave Pothier

Also happy fathers day dad!! I hope all went well with German chocolate cake what a great thing to eat! Also dad how did it go with studying the attributes of Christ in chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel? I hope you are growing spiritually with those gifts. We have to pray to be able to have them we cannot attain those attributes without the help of god.

This week was probably the harder week in the mission, but so great that I finally passed over it and I understand myself so much more now! What happened was yesterday I was mentally exhausted and I felt like I couldn’t take Spanish anymore, I had a headache I wanted to sleep and have a regular Sunday! But what I did was turn my attention to our heavenly Father, what would he want me to do right now. So I got on my knees and I said one of the most heart felt prayers I have ever said in my life. And I got up and kept going. After I went to my company and asked him for a blessing. The blessing was so beautiful and I know it came from our god, Heavenly Father! After that my mind was more at ease and slowly I started to figure out how to fix the problem I was having. I know Heavenly Father knows each one of us personally and wants us to be happy. And now matter what ANY negative thought comes from Satan. What a beautiful thing it is to have the power of prayer and the power of the priesthood in our home and to have it on the mission we are so blessed.

Also this week I confirmed Carolina with the Holy Ghost and gave 2 Priesthood blessing, it was a miracle to see heavenly father work through me in a different language to heal the sick and to give someone the guidance of the Holy Ghost. It was a great experience. I know the priesthood is from god and it is his power on the earth.  Everything is going great we just need to baptize more and as long as I am trying my best it is going to happen if the lord wants it!

I hope you know heavenly Father loves you personally, and knows you personally. Anytime you are down or need help, do not rely on yourself, go to god and use your resources, prayer priesthood, we have the power of the heavens in our home. He is standing there with open arms.

I love the mission so much and I love seeing other people change their lives through this gospel. This week we went over to Elba’s home, Elba is abbot 60 if you remember, and we were talking to her, and this young man named Dario walked by and she called him over. After that, Elder Barragan started talking to Dario about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. Once Dario had to leave we asked Elba to say the prayer and while she was praying she said heavenly father please help Dario to see the truth of the Book of Mormon and to join our church Amen. It was so cool to see her faith in the lord. We are going to meet more with Dario this week. The people here have so much faith and our so humble. I love you all and please always have faith in the Lord and rely on him with everything he always delivers us.

Love,

Elder Hicks

June 10

Hola familia,

I am loving it here. We had 2 baptisms yesterday. One lady’s name was Elba, She is around 70 years old, and Carolina she is 29, I will send you pictures next week, I forgot my camera... sorry. Satan tried to attack both of them the day before there baptism. Carolina said she didn’t feel ready and with Elba none of her family came to her baptism and she started crying because of it the day before her baptism. We went to both of there houses every day this week so we could have daily contact (preach my gospel missionary!) and I know that is what you have to do before the baptism, Satan does not want them to be baptized because he doesn’t want any of god’s children to progress. My companion told me through his mission he has learned that not all is well in Zion. We have to look after the people that we know and make sure their faith in Christ is growing. This gospel is the only way to be happy. 

After the baptism of both of them Elba came to shake my hand and then she kissed me on the cheek! I did not know what to do! haha don’t worry I repented. 

It is so good to hear about all the missionaries going out! I really need to get the email of Stephen! He is going to do so great.

OH and make sure to tell Brennan happy Birthday! I can’t believe he is 21 already. 

Oh and we eat a lot of Milanese. It is this fried meat thing it is really good, and we also eat a lot of dulce de leche! Dulce de Leche is so good. It is kind of like carmel but better. 

I love this ward and this area, but we need to work so much harder. It is so hard to see people reject are message. I am beginning to understand the language more and more, It is really weird, in a lesson when I need to know the language God helps me understand so much and then I can say more but when we are outside of a lesson it is a lot harder to understand people. All I know is I need to work harder and the lord will take care of the rest as long as I try my best.

This week I hope you look for alt he blessing you have in your life from the lord. I know they are so many, the people here almost have nothing and they go out of their way to pay tithing when they don’t even know if they can eat. I am learning so much from the people here they go out of their way to give, thinking about others before themselves. I love them so much, please go out of your way to count your blessing, we have so many! I love you all and read your scriptures everyday. They are so good. You can always learn something new from them. Tell Makenna I’m glad her foot is good and I love you all.

Trust in the lord more than you trust in yourself. He will help you do great things.

Love,

Elder Hicks

June 3

Dear Mom, Dad, Brennan, and Makenna,

This week has been so good. Probably the best week of my mission. We had an opportunity to see Elder Cook, and listen to him speak in our mission! He talked about how the missionaries are going to be working a lot more with the members. The spirit was so incredibly strong. I know that God loves us so much, each one of us. Everyday people reject us and I get a little sad for that person that rejected us because I know they could be so blessed for their decision to join this church. But as in says in preach my gospel we have to keep pressing on. But my love for others is increasing so much. I never thought I could have so much love in my heart for other people. 

Something I have learned while being in Argentina with my companion Elder Barragan is how to forget yourself. Always he is serving, and I am trying to pick up on that too. 

My Apartment is so great don’t worry about the bathroom it is kind of fun to have something out of the ordinary. I love it here. I am learning how to be clean!

We are teaching a lady named Carolina. She accepts everything we ask her to do and follows up on every commitment. She is so in tune with the spirit she really wants to follow Christ. She has a baptism date this Saturday. We are having daily contact with her to make sure she stays with the commitment and learns everything she needs to learn before the baptism. Also I can teach in Spanish. I do not understand everything yet. But I am working on my language. This week we went on exchanges and I was with a Spanish speaker form Uruguay! His name is Elder Vicente! He only speaks Spanish. We did work together as a companionship. He taught me se much Spanish and I taught him a little English it was so fun to be with him for a day. 

The church is true; the Book of Mormon is the word of god. And I know the lord never gives a trial we can’t overcome. The power of prayer is amazing! God is always there for you with his hands out. We need to tell more people of this love and more people of the restoration of the church of Jesus Christ so they can become closer to Jesus Christ. If they are not baptized they cannot go to the celestial kingdom! What a weight we have on our shoulders to be members of the church! Share your testimony with others all you can.

I am so happy our home is dedicated it will truly help keep the spirit there! I know that is true. The priesthood power is so strong! So much stronger than anything Satan will ever have! Thanks for the Emails! I love hearing about your days so much, and I am having fun! 

Oh also we spent today cleaning our apartment! It felt so good to be in a clean apartment. We just have a problem with flies! What a great challenge it is. I love Argentina! You are the best family ever and you are always in my heart! Oh and mom, I always wear my shoes in the bathroom. haha

Love,

Elder Hicks!