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!

April 29

Mom, thank you for these pictures! I love them so much! And thank you for the letter! it was so good i am going to apply that principle of thinking what topic to help my investigators more! I love you so much! 

Love Elder Hicks

Dad, I know you know I want to Skype! I want to see you all the time! Tell mom! I absolutely loved her letter! I am really trying to study effectively and I appreciate that she told me about Elder Hansen! I am trying to apply the principle of thinking about my situation and what scripture topic will help my investigators. Thanks for the lesson. I love you so much!

  For this week we had an amazing experience! So me and Elder Feruling Were on an exchange and we had the great opportunity to go find the elect (this means we were tracing) ha but finding is actually super fun! We were in a trailer park going house to house. We talked to a couple people but there was really no great success... on our way back to the car, because we had to go to a dinner, we saw a man outside of his house, and Elder Ferolino asked him if he wanted a pass along card. So we gave him a pass-along card and started talking to him about his life, then we asked him if we could give him a saviors peace and blessing (this is a tactic to give someone a blessing, and to invite the spirit into someone’s life, it is kind of like a prayer, but we bless the person' and their family according to what the spirit wants us to say. we usually do these blessing on our knees inside the persons home.) after we asked him he said we could pray for him but not come inside. So we started getting his family members names to bless them and asked him if he needed any specific blessing in his life. After we obtained the family members names he said that we could actually come inside. We went inside and then told him to focus on his feelings during the prayer. So we got on our knees and said the prayer. 

After the prayer he said he felt peaceful and calm during the prayer, and Elder Ferolino testified to him that it was the spirit that was testifying to him. Then the man told us that he was waiting for something while he was outside, He had a feeling that he needed to wait outside for something and know he received his answer. It was so cool! I know god is preparing people for us to teach and talk to in this mission! I love the mission.

Also Dad I love that story of Moses, whenever something good happens that is of god Satan will always try to bring you down after and then you need to and have to cry to the lord for help to get over it! It is not even funny how much I pray now. I need the lord more than ever. And with and through the lord I can do anything. I need to have more faith though; With Spanish it is sometimes hard to just start talking. I try to say things but I think they don't make sense but the lord always lets the people discern what I am saying! 

Oh also dad what happened with your missionary experience, didn't you invite that coworker to that ward activity?

I love you so much, and I hope all is going well! Tell Makenna and Brennan I love them! And I know that so much God loves them and they are his children!

Love you all,

Elder Hicks

SWABH

See you all soon

Me eating some cereal I got in a package!! So Good.

1st week in NC

MOMMMY! This week has been awesome. Just so you know I am teaching in Spanish! And it is so fun every day my Spanish gets better and better!

For our ward it is a combined Spanish and English ward and our goal is to get enough Spanish members to have a branch by the end of the year. IT is amazing!  

 The other day we were planning and we decided to go to a less actives house from the roster. And we went over to her house. And her 3 little kid our outside. We asked her is your mommy home. And they said oh ya yes let me go get her. So the mom came outside and she said, "well I know who you guys are. I haven't seen anyone from the church in over 3 years" and then she invited us inside! So as we went inside she started talking about why she doesn't go to church anymore and many things about her life. To explain this woman she has made many tough decisions in her life and has married a couple of times and has 3 kids. They are 6, 8, and 9. Two of them are baptism age. Also this woman can only stand for a little bit before she has to sit down and a man lives with her, but the whole time he stays in one room and she said he only comes out to eat. It is a super tough life for her. So when we went in we wanted to talk to her and her kids about the importance and baptism and the restoration.  This lady has been teaching her kids the message of the LDS church since they have been born but since she wasn't able to move very much she hasn't or wanted to take them to church. We started teaching them and the kids knew many answer to the questions and of the lesson and by the end the 8 year old girl said, " I want to get baptized" with only mentioning baptism at the beginning of the lesson. It was so cool. Then all the other kids said they wanted to get baptized. It was an awesome experience! After the lesson though we passed them to the English missionaries but it was such a cool experience because I know the spirit was working through that little girl to want to be baptized. 

Also this week with Spanish, I am understanding little by little and I also taught in Spanish it was crazy because they are real people. And they speak so fast. While we were teaching my companion looked at me to teach a part of the plan of salvation and I had no idea what to say. So I just started talking and as I was talking Spanish words came into my mind and things to say came into my mind to say. I know the lord was qualifying my to do his work as his representative.

 I love this work! I can't wait to hear from you! I hope you feel good mom and I hope you are doing well! Tell the family I love them and really want to know if everything is going good for them! 

Love, 

Elder Hicks

Picture taken as they are writing emails home to friends and family.

April 19

Friday, 19 April 2013

Dear Loved Ones of Elder Troy Burke Hicks,

 Your son  has arrived in the North Carolina Charlotte Mission.  He  has been assigned an outstanding companion to helphim  grow and develop as a missionary.  The people of North Carolina are wonderful and the members of the church love the missionaries.  We will work hard as a mission to assist him   to become a successful servant of our Heavenly Father.

Your son  will be serving in the Gastonia Group (Spanish)  area with   Elder Paul Haupeahiki Laupua Tonga & Elder Clayton Read DeMond

You may send letters and packages to him at the following address until you have been notified otherwise  
                             1264-0 East Hudson Blvd.Gastonia, NC 28054USA
We love your son  and look forward to serving with him Sincerely,

Ronald L. Craven
President

My new companions

Safe arrival

We all got to talk with Troy today as he flew to NC.  He sounds so happy and full of Joy.  

Monday, 15 April 2013



Dear Parents of our New Missionaries,

Your missionary, Elder Troy Burke Hicks , arrived safely in our mission today.   We are grateful for the sacrifice and hard work that has brought your missionary to help serve the Lord in our mission.


With love,

North Carolina Charlotte Mission Office Staff

 Elder Troy Hicks

President and Sister Craven

New Missionaries of the Charlotte NC mission