Oct 28

Dear family,

I already have received the packages, they came really quick.

I know Elder Chriss from the MTC, he is in my group of missionaries, and I can’t believe he is still waiting; only god knows why others wait more than others.

My foot is doing better; I have a couple of pictures to send they are a little gross...

This week has been spectacular with the work. I wish I could have a picture of Ramon, but I still don’t... He cut his hair this week and also found a suit to wear to church! I have to tell you he looked so good. This week we really have to have more support from the members to come to his baptism. Also we need to find a place where he can have a proper bath. I know that the Lord will provide a way if we are working hard. The baptism of Ramon is this Sunday.

Abril is doing so great; Her mom is so excited about being back in church. This Saturday they are going to the temple with the ward. The baptism of Abril is this Sunday also and we are so excited. And so is she. It is incredible that an 11 year old can understand so much about the church. We still have so much to teach her and this week we need to work especially hard to teach her everything.

This week we moved only a little ways from our other pension. This new pension is huge also, i'm sure we are going to have new missionaries move in with us and we will probably live with 4. In the next 2 weeks we have 50 new missionaries coming into our mission. It is truly a miracle to have so many missionaries.

I don’t have any pictures of the new pension but it is very nice.

By the way how is Elder Willardson doing in the mission? I think about him, and wonder what is going on in Brazil?

This week i have worked really hard on being humble... It is truly one of my favorite characteristics of Christ. It is hard because everyone has a little bit of pride in something, but the more I learn about humility the better I feel.

I love you all so much...

Makenna,

Makenna, How are you? I really love you and I hope you are doing great in school and are achieving all your goals that you have. Please stick to you goals that you have with god. You always need to be true to your baptismal covenant and you will receive so many blessing, I know that the Lord gives these laws for a reason, to be happy for forever, I am so glad you don’t date and I give you an invitation to stick to yourself and be strong and if you have a question on what is good ask the lord.

Love,

Elder Hicks

Keep being obedient

Mosiah 2: 41

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and ^ahappy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out ^cfaithful to the end they are received into ^dheaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

I hope you can take this invitation from king Benjamin and be obedient as our first priority and everything else will work out.

Much love,

Elder Troy Hicks

Love you all so much you can’t believe it!

SWABH, SEE you soon

Oct. 21

Our investigators are doing so great. Ramon and Abril went to Church this week and both of them have their baptism scheduled for the 3rd of Noviembre!

Today we are going to move and it is going to be just me and Elder Paricahua living together

Ill send you some pictures of the new pension next week.

This week we had a lot of success. We are working so hard and being super obedient. Or at least I know that I am trying my best. I have never felt like I have tried so hard to do something and still have so much more to do! Ha this work will never end. Something that is so great is that we have a schedule we have to follow and we also have rules. These things are such a blessing. Without these rules I would feel so lost. I never though when I was a kid that I would or could love rules so much.

This week I have learned so much, we had a meeting for trainers in San Fernando with president, also we have met a lot of new people in our ward.

I don't know if I have told you a lot about Ramon, He is about 70 years old and does not have a lot of things. He was a drunk and is very poor. We found him about 2 weeks ago, on the street, during divisions with our district leader. We started talking to him and he agreed we could pass by his house.

The first time we passed by his house he could not understand what we were talking about and could not remember anything because he drank that day. But something special happened during that first lesson for me. I asked him if I could say a prayer to start the lesson and he said yes...

During my Prayer I felt the Love of the Lord so strong for Ramon and I knew he was my brother I knew that the Lord and God wanted us there to be able to teach him. After 2 weeks of going to church he has stopped drinking and smoking and also the ward this week has agreed to help him out.

This next week I will have to send you a picture of me and him together. He is such a miracle and every day he has changed so much. He still does not remember things very well and we have to teach things a little different but I know in a couple of weeks he will be clean of all his sins and he will be able to enter the Celestial kingdom.

To do this work we have to be pure in heart, we have to start to look with spiritual eyes and once we can do this, the Lord will guide you to the people that he knows will accept this message. I hope this week as you are looking for missionary experiences you will look with your spiritual eyes.

Love,

Elder Hicks

Oct 15

Dear Mom,

This week has been so great, I Just want to tell you that I am a little jealous that you could go to the beach, but when you were all at the beach I went to a zoo this week with all of our mission, we saw a couple of the animals. I don’t have very good pictures of the experience but I will send you a couple that you might like, and I literally love the pictures you have sent me, they look so great.

First of all, I could not send a letter yesterday because it was a holiday in Argentina and everything was closed; it was a very peaceful day.

Second this week we have had so many miracles. We went from having no investigators to have three people come to church and we are working so hard to help them keep their testimonies. It is so fun being a missionary, I love it so much, IF we focus on being humble and being obedient the Lord provides everything that we need.

This week our investigators that came to church our named Rocio, Ramon, and Abril. They are all so great and are doing so much good. All I can ask is that you pray for them and I know they will progress even faster. Also can you pray for Claudia, and Fernando?

Right now, Elder Paricahua and I are doing great and we are progressing so much as a companionship, I really love him and through the Lord I am having more and more love for him each day.

I really want and have desires to talk with all the family about something I learned this week with my companion.

As a companionship we don’t always get a long and we disagree about quite a few things and sometimes it is hard for us to always be happy together, but this week I learned something amazing. And it has to do with something that I have never studied and is probably one of the biggest changes I have made in my life. And it is called humility... this week and this transfer I have learned and made it my goal to be more humble and it has helped me to get along so much better with my companion. We live with the Zone leaders and at the beginning of the transfer elder Carvajal, one of the Zone leaders told me the most important thing about being a missionary and the way to have success is to be humble. At first I did not believe him and I did not understand why. I always thought that the most important thing is to be obedient but as I have learned about being humble I have learned that it is so important to be humble. I the General conference priesthood session one speaker talked about being humble. He said to have the guidance of the lord is to be humble obedient and you will have to spirit. He said if you are humble, you will listen to what god says and you will in turn be obedient and if you are obedient you will in turn be blessed to enjoy the sprit in your life.

As I have applied and studied the Christ like trait of humility in my Life I have been so much happier. I don’t judge others and I think more and more each day about what god wants me to do and it brings me so much peace and happiness. Especially as I think about my companion. Ever since I have been more humble and thought about him instead of myself we have gotten along so much better.

Mom, I love you so much and I can’t believe that 7 months of my mission have already passed by. And every day I love you more and more. I want to especially thank you for all the nights for praying for me and for caring for me. I would not be here without you

Love your son,

Elder Hicks

Dear Dad,

    Ha yes, it is a dessert; it looks really good doesn’t it.

Ha and I can’t believe that you went to the beach how fun is that. Well while you were at the beach I was at the zoo. We went to a zoo called Temaiken this past week. It was so great. I am going to send some pictures to mom.

And I think my Spanish is well so, so. Right now I think in Spanish a lot but I Defiantly don’t understand everything but as I study and read and write down the words I don’t know the Lord is helping me a lot to remember what I put in my mind.

Also Dad, we all know that when we all return from our missions that when we play that Jackson is going to beat all of us in Ping Pong. I only think that because he is serving in Japan. Ha but between you and me I think I can still beat you. We will have to see.

Also I love the idea of reading the ensign each day and the addresses from it from the prophets today. It is revelation for the next 6 months of our life. Wow, I will try to use more talks in my life also for these next six months.

I decided that right now it is not a good idea to buy groceries for the people... the purpose of the gospel is to help us be auto sufficient. And as a missionary if I am buying groceries for someone they are going to come to the church looking for only help and not for a way to feel free, not for a way to enjoy the spirit of Christ.

Also I would love for you to be my companion, I think that would be so cool if you can learn a little bit of Spanish when you come down. Hopefully I will be able to teach you a little bit more also.

And the gear is holding up great, I have had to sew a couple things up here and there, but I figured it out and it seems to be working fine :) ha, I'll send some pictures in the email to mom, But I love you so much and never forget that we are an eternal family and every day I think about all of you as I teach and how great a blessing we have to be an eternal family.

And then we received this 3rd e-mail from Troy today...

Oh and it is a dessert, also I don’t know if I have told you guys but something funny about the mission is that I have I had a fungus on my foot since I have arrived here and it still has not gone away. ha-ha I just wanted to let you know. I love you so much and I hope you can laugh at the e-mail. Because I have cream and it seems to be working so. Love you.

Oct. 7

Our Zone

 Dessert or Egg?

In the plaza of Jose C. Paz

Dear Mom,

Mom, I literally love your letters... they are the best. Every time i read your letters i feel the spirit so strong, i almost cry each time. But don´t worry i Laugh also. Laugh and Cry i don´t know what to say some of the best emotions right?

And yes i have recieved the letter from Aunt toni.. I really have to write them, thank you for the reminder to write them, i have made plans to do it tonight. Thank you Mom.  Already talking about Christmas mom, wow! this year has gone by so so so Fast! ha i feel like it was just new years yesterday.

For conference, I watched it in Spanish for the first session and i understand almost every word, But i could feel and set better goals as i watched it in english so i watched the rest in english. We watched it in a stake center in san miguel, a city right next to José c. Paz.

All I can say about conference is it is better than enything I have ever watched in the world. Before the sessions I felt as if i have never looked forward to something more exciting in my life. I had so many questions and they were answered. As they were speaking each word they said was said with so much love.

I thought a lot about you and the family as i was watching it. i knew you were crying during a couple of the talks as i watched them. It is so great to know we have angels for each one of us that our watching us.

It seemed to me that they talked a lot about hope(and missionary work). Something that a lot of people need right now, and we can only fine true hope in the atonemnet of Jesus Christ. I love this messaage, it is so true that the only hope we can have is in Christ and in his atonement, one of my favorite scriptures is Jacob 4:12 ¨and now, beloved, marvel not that i tell you these things; for why not speak of the atonement of Christ, and attain to a perfect knowledge of him, a to attain to the knowledge of a resurrection and the world to come.

Please think about this invitation... For why not speak of the atonement of Chirst... The other day Elder Viñas came to our mission ( he gave the closing prayer in the sunday morning session) and he invited us to talk about what the atonement has done for us. and I have never felt so much joy. When we talk about the atonement of CHirst and what it has done for us we see the miracle of change in our life which can only come through Chirst. And we also see the miracle of change in other people.

For why not speak of the atonement of CHirst...., and attain to a perfect of HIM... we will have a perfect knowledge of him if we do this... and this scripture continues and says, as to attain to the knowledge of a resurrection and the world to come... what more hope can we ask for?

I want to invite you in the family to take this invitation of Jacob... ¨for why not speak of the atonement of Christ?¨ and I promise that the holes of sin will be covered up, you will have more strenth to go on, the lord will lift you up and you will see light.

All you have to do is take a night and talk one by one what has the atonement done for you, and the lord will guide the rest of the conversation.

This morning i took the challenge with my companion and i cried.. i cried for Joy at what the Lord has given me.

Personally this week in José C. Paz 3 we did not have anyone go to church we have some investigators named yamila and roocio and their mom is a huge support for them but they do not have the desire.. also the members are helping us a lot sending us references but we just seem to not be able to find any people that are really looking for the truth, we met a man named Diego this week, who might be interested and we have an appointment with him today i know it will go well.. We are really trying hard to find people that The Lord needs in his church... we are looking for leaders. I know the Lord will help us this week if we work hard.

Thank you for your prayers Mom and family, and keep reading the Book of Mormon, we have to finish it by Chirstmas. I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Troy Hicks

P.S. For why not speak of teh atonement of Christ, and attain to a perfect knowledge of him.

Mom, and makenna I love you so much, and i know that god loves you more.

Dad, I love you so much and i figured out what i need to do with buying people groceries... i think about you often, and i love you so much, i am trying everyday to become the man that you and god want me to be. I also have a lot of goals that i hope we can accomplish together when i return home... this mission is flying by and i am learning so much.

Brennan, i love you and i know god loves you and knows who you are, i am so glad for you as my Brother... i think about you a lot, and i hope you know you are loved, and the love will never stop.