July 29

Oh how i love the letters from you all,
and wow that is a lot of chocolate!!! so much wow!! and thank you so much for the umbrella!

So yesterday i got the best package ever from you all, thank you so much, and did you know Lauren was going to send me a backpack full of goodies also. I was so surprised to recieve so many thgreat things from you. thank you so much. And don´t worry i will share and i will eat it slowly. Sharing is the ony way to be happy. I was so surprised though. Also i am glad you liked my spanish, if i can rememeber right i said ¨ we are baptizing many in PIlar and we are trying our hardest.¨maybe some more but i can not remember correctly. thank you thank thankyou. i really love the pictures and was so glad, more happy ot get the pictures than i was to recieve the chocolate. I love you so much.

Our investigators our doing great, we are teaching some kids from Peru, Branco, Bruno, Selene, and Niels, they are such chosen souls of god. Every time we come over they tell us something new that they have read in teh Book Of Mormon. And they are so excited. We need to work on there AUnt and Uncle ( they live with their aunt and Uncle) and have them be converted or these kids will og inactive, that is something we are going to work on this month. I am always so excited to teach them.

Also we are teaching another family who right now are less actives who has a kid who is not baptized. We are working ot get the mom and dad converted so they will in time go to church each week. Pelase pray for the family Brites and their son Ariel to have the desires to be baptized. I know with your prayers they will change. This week i told sister Brites by her faith her family will all return to the church and i know it will happen if we prayer for her and for her deisres to increase to go to church, she wants to go but it is super hard for her.

Also to answer some questions i had in tge letters, yes i still have milk duds,

Makenna you asked me if the food is good, compared to Chile the food here is a lot different, the food in chile is more like mexican food, or at least that is what the chileans tell me, but the food here is more noodles and chicken, it all very good. but the best food is the food from peru. There are many peruvians here and theyfood that is so good. i hope in teh video it did not looked like i gained weight. Also i told elder barragan to aks his mom if she know sis randall. and yes his moms name his Linda. 

Our nwly baptized sister named elba, is great, she missed chruch because a family member died, but she is converted and this next week she is going to go. Mom, i love hearing about your spiritual experinces in your letters. you are such a good mom and never look down on yourself for anything! I love you and thank you so much for all you did for me, it must of been hard to change my diapers but hopefully i turned out okay fo you!! i owe you  so much and i am so gald you were stern in this gospel

This week we saw many miracles i am learning so many things. as Elder  BArragan and i were talking we realized the importance it is to always be praying. We were talking about how for us satan is always taempting us, and we are always sinning no matter what we are never perfect, it is impoissible, but as we keep a payer in our heart and in our mind too, as we cry to the lord for help every second, we will always be improving and happy too, This week i have tried os hard to keep a prayer in my heart always and it has gone really well, it is so much easier to smile. I challenge you all this week to keep a praye in oyur Heart to god always, to be humble and to remeber we literally can not do this by ourself, we have to rely on Christ, and oh how much easier it is when we rely on him. I love you all and i hope you can try your faith this week and pray all the time. ( see Alma 34:17-28) For me this week i have recieved many negative thoughts from satan and that is why i have instituted always praying into my life. Each thought that i have i have to think wait is this from Satan or from god? for example, I had a thought that i wasn´t tryin ghard enough has a missionary... or that i was not saying the right thing, that i was not testifying enough, or that i was not talkin genouhg... but that is not how god talks to us. he will never say anything to us in a degrading way. he will only enocorage us to move on and do better because he knows we can.

I love you so much and i am so surprised how fast the mission is whipping by and i want it to slow down, i am trying to figure out as much as i can from elder barragan. I really love you all so much and i am so greatful for your support. I know that the plan of god is perfect and every temptation we have, as long as we have the spirit, we will be able to overcome if we are reading teh scriptures, praying, and going ot church, This plan is perfect and we can always be happy in it. I know it is true and i will never deny it. I know the gospel is true and perfect,  

Love,
Elder Hicks

This family were in Buenos Aires for a couple of days and took a package to Troy from his family.  We loaded it up with some of his favorites and He sounded excited to receive so much Chocolate!  So grateful for friends who did us a big favor and took a little bit of America to our son.