April 28

Dear Family,

Wow This week has been so great with my campanion. He is from Utah and is really so great. Also this week we have not been able to see many of our investigators.... First time in a long time for not having nayone in church.. What is a good thing is that Santo came to church with his mom Raquel and we are really helping the ward to keep growing.

This week we also went preaching with a returned missionary named Juan. He recently returned from his mission a 1 and a half ago and is such a great guy. While I was talking with him i ahd so much desires to be a better missionary. During my mission i have always been as obedient as I can but i feel i can do even better and i have made a promise to God that i am going to do everything in my power to have a baptism each week left that i have during my mission. I would love for your help with this goal i have put! I don´t want a another week to go by in my mission wher i don´t change the life an eternity of someone by helping them make a convenant with GOd. I Love the mission so much. RIght now i am so happy and my Companion ELder Garcia is doing so great. He is so obedient and reminds me of a lot of m e at the beginning of my mission and for that I want to do so  much better. I never want to plateau as a missionary! I want to continue until the end. As A ward or a organization we are planning to have a activity in the ward. A talent Show to help. We are going to plan it as Missionaries and with the ward counsel. I love this ward so much and I want ot help it grow.

DAD: 

I wanted to answer some of the questions that you have( sorry for not answering them other weeks) 

1. During p-day we really try to play Soccer with the Zone leaders, OUr zone leader is from Mexico and always wants to play soccer. While we are playing eah week i am getting better and better. I even scored a goal last week !) haha go Futbol... or is it soccer...

2.Also that video that makenna made i sure love so much!! ha I love you all so much and i can´t believe im 20 either. well almost 20. 

this week we are going ot bapitze. we don´t have anyone programmed with a date but we are going to strive to change that and we are going to change this area of Belgrano. Please help me achieve this goal.. We have 2 investigators right now. Paola and Kevin Please pray for them,.

On a last note, I am going to pray for Grandma and i will also write a thank you note to Grandma and Grandpa and Grandma Hicks! 

Please keep reminding, I really want to write them!

Love you all so much, more than you know!! ha A lot more than you know!

Love your Son and Brother,

Elder  Troy Hicks

Also For sure Grandma will be in all my prayers.

I Know God has a plan for each one of us. Please watch this video and you will recieve answers to the questions that you have in life right now! LOVE YOU ALL!  God has a plan for each one of us. (Click the link!) 

Elder Garcia

Dear friends and family,

These two weeks have literally been so great. We are working so hard here in Belgrano and we are trying to help so many people to come to church.

I´m not going to lie i love Belgrano! This place is literally one of the best places in the world. 

Last week Santo got baptized, His family is such a great family and his mom is supporting him so much but his dad really doesn´t want anything about the gospel, but he came to his sons baptism and during the baptism he started to cry. It was such a special moment in the lives of these people.  We are still trying to help them get married and to then be baptized. 

Today i saw a video of christ that really touched my heart, It was a mormon video named ¨Because of him¨ I´m not lying, when i wathced it I knew again that Jesus was the Christ and now I am even more excited to help others come unto him. It is so true that through him, we can all change and we can be even better! 

I am loving the missin so much and I am so excited to be here and to share with the people in Buenos Aires Argentina about who is Christ, why we should follow him and how we can do it!!! 

1, Elder guerra and me crying

2. Elder Garcia and I

3. Elder Campos, Elder Paricaha, Elder Guerra, and I

I'm not really sure if it should be Elder Guerra and I or Elder Guerra and ME =)

April 14

Mom,

I love you i don´t know if we will have much time ot write again tonight but i am writing to tell you that i am all good in Belgrano and that santo Got baptized!!

Love,

Elder Troy Hicks!

*This short note is all we got from Troy this week, so I will add a few pictures from the Smith's visit and the email they sent to us last night.*

"These are the sister missionaries in his district. I'm sure you know, he is the district leader and it's just him and his comp. and these sisters in his district. One night we were walking back to our apt. and ran into these sisters. They were helping a lady who looked distraught and upset. We stopped to talk to them and said we were members. They told us that the girl they were helping was a member and needed a blessing immediately because she was having some sort of an anxiety attack. They were on there way to get the elders to do it. ( we didn't know it at the time that it was Troy and his comp. ) The sisters asked Marty if he could do it instead so he was able to give this girl a blessing. After talking with them, we asked if they knew elder hicks. They said, "yeah he's our district leader! He gave us some taco seasoning yesterday. Was that from you?" It was a good laugh. But most of all, it was really cool that Marty in some ways got to help out Troy in his missionary work in his district. The whole trip was full of great experiences like this." 

Enjoy all these pictures!

This is on the street outside of Troy's apartment.

Sisters that are in Troy's district.

April 7

Dear Family,

This week has been amazing, we had such a great conference, and i am ever so greatful for the messages that were given and shared. Mom, i am so glad that you are going to start reading Preach my gospel. Let me tell you if you can study that thing for a year and a month straight for an hour everyday you will still be able to learn more from it! Also Dad i am so glad and happy that you were able to think about how the missionaries have helped you. I know it came from the spirit what you are thinking and i hope you will be able to ¨do it now¨ like President Monson said we should listen to the subtle whisperings of the Spirit.

My week for me has been great and i have learned so much from conference. Something that really stuck out to me was the scripture helaman 5:12 they used the scripture a couple of times. and i learned that i need to preach more of Christ while on my mission. This time is an opportunity to bring others to Christ and not to someone or something else. 

Also something that i really loved is that Boyd K Packer said, He chose to be called Father. Referring to God. I love this and it makes me feel the true love of him and to know how perfect his plan really is. 

Also something that was so interesting is how the leaders of the church are so well in testifying of the basic things of the church. The book of mormon, prayer also, Baptism and the Holy Ghost, I think something that will help us have more success in preaching the gospel is if we know the basics very well! 

One more thing that stuck out to me is the follow up done by Elder M. Russell Ballard. Have you done your follow ups?

jaja

Well this week some thing that we have really been trying ot do is to help a family, that as of now is 9 years old boy and his mom knows that church is true and so does he. But, His father does not want them he gets baptized. (the family that i talked about last week did not go to the conference, but thats okay they will go this week) so we are trying to talk to the dad and to help him understand the blessings that it is. Right now he is slowly changing and has allowed for his son to be baptized. I know the spirit of God works in people and changes their minds to keep the work going. so this week we are hoping we can baptize him with the help of the ward!

Also Dad to answer your question about what i do for me freetime. For freetime in the night Elder Guerra and i usually talk. For sure i really love this Elder. His birthday is 2 days away from mine and he really has helped me become a better servant of Christ. 

Also what we do for fun is we try to look for people to share the gospel with! ja no but last week we went to some gardens and as a campanionship we took some pictures. The only day we have really is Preperation day and today we had to do so many things to catch up, but next week we are going to do something as a companionship that is going to be so great. Elder Guerra is such a great companion and i truly love him.

I love you all too, 

To end my email i only want to reapeat the words of Elder Holland ¨Pure Christ Love can change the Earth¨

the question is would you like to have this kind of Love?

I love you all so much and i pray for you also,

Mom and Dad I think of you often and i am so greatful for the roles that you have played in my life and i am so greatful we will be together for an eternity, anything less would just not cut it. 

Makenna drive careful and  i love you so much you are always in my heart,

and Brennan i love you so much and i am so glad you are my brother and you will always be my big brother!!

Love,

Elder Troy Hicks

P.S

.

Brother smith left the glasses in his home, hah it will be okay, the ones i have now will make it to the end.

Smith Visit

Troy's Young Men's President was able to find him while on a trip to Argentina.  Troy really looks up to Brother Smith.  He has made a difference in Troy's life.

Troy's apartment (pension).  He lives on the 4th floor