Dec 30

Dear Family,                                                                                    Dec 30, 2013

1. The rest of my week has been great. We have continued working and we are trying hard to help others come unto Christ. Also if you want to know this week I had to do a particular service for Elder Campos.  He had some nose hairs that were growing a little long and I had to cut them for him. Fun... ha

2.On Christmas after the call we went and visited some investigators. The people in Argentina celebrate their Christmas on the 24th in the night and that is when we ate rice and meat... a lot of meat... ha

3.The investigators are doing great, Right now Noelia is working on her testimony. And is praying a lot to know if the church is true. She has a baptismal date scheduled for the 12th of January,

4.The People in Argentina celebrate their Christmas a little different than we do. They celebrate it like new years. First the night before, on the 24th they open the presents and in the night at 12 midnight they start partying and then they party all night with their family. They believe in Santa Claus but not that he comes over night like we do.

5. For the new years we are going to the bishop’s home again to eat with him and his family. I think we are gaining his trust. I really love this ward so much in José C. Paz and I really don’t want to leave

It is so good to hear about Blake and I loved seeing all of you on the camera. To me it seems that you are all doing so great.

First of all I want to tell you that I love all of you so much. And I am so glad we had the opportunity to talk and to converse about everything that is happening in the mission.

I still have not fulfilled the Christmas tradition I still haven’t had time to go to a place to take out the money.

Today we have played soccer so I don't have much more time to write you. But I love you all so much and this week I will try to take out the money to give it to someone. It is kind of hard to find time to go to a place to take out money we have to wait in a long line...

Today I studied about the obedience and about the 2000 stripling warriors, and I learned so much. It says with their exact obedience they were blessed and protected. Also if we are exactly obedient to what the prophets are asking us we also will be blessed and protected. It doesn’t mean we won’t be hurt, because the stripling warriors, all of them had wounds, but it means we will be protected from Satan his hurtful influences on us that if we are not careful…will not be able to overcome.. Be obedient this week. and I am so glad for your involvement in the missionary work of the Lord. All of you are much better examples to me on how to involve yourselves in helping people come unto Christ.

Much Love, Elder Hicks

SWABH

See you all soon!

During this email I hope you could find some funny experiences and I hope I could answer all your questions. Sorry for not doing the challenge still...

P.S: I am gong to try to relax a little both Mom and Dad told me I needed to relax. haha maybe it’s a sign

I love you all so much (:

Dec 23

Dear family and friends

 I know that this church is true and i am so greatful for what our savior has done for us. During this time of the year i hope we can remember the reason for all of the christmas decorations and for all the love and joy in the air. This joy does not come from us but it comes form the true Chirst and Lord. A scripture that i really love helps me rember the reason for this time of year is in Matthew 1

It says:

 1 The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of ^aDavid, the son of Abraham.

 2 ^aAbraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat ^bJudas and his brethren;

 3 And Judas begat ^aPhares and ^bZara of Thamar; and Phares begat ^cEsrom; and Esrom begat Aram;

 4 And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and ^aNaasson begat Salmon;

 5 And Salmon begat ^aBooz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse;

 6 And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat ^aSolomon of her that had been the wife of Urias;

 7 And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa;

 8 And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias;

 9 And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias;

 10 And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias;

 11 And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to ^aBabylon:

 12 And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat ^aZorobabel;

 13 And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor;

 14 And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud;

 15 And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob;

 16 And Jacob begat ^aJoseph the husband of ^bMary, of whom was born ^cJesus, ^dwho is called ^eChrist.

 17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen ^agenerations.

 18 ¶^aNow the ^bbirth of Jesus Christ was ^con this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

 19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a publick ^aexample, ^bwas minded to ^cput her away privily.

 20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a ^adream, saying, Joseph, thou son of ^bDavid, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the ^cHoly Ghost.

 21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his ^aname ^bJesus: for he shall ^csave his people from their sins.

 22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

 23 ^aBehold, a ^bvirgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his ^cname ^dEmmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

 24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his ^awife:

 25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her ^afirstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.

When i read the last verse i feel the love that the savior has for each one of us.

This scripture helps me rember the reason behind Christmas, that Christ our saviour our example and our redeemer was born. it is to help us remeber his birth. I know he is our saviour and as his representative, I know his atonement changes us and helps us to be BETTER, without a doubt i know this church is true and IT really is his church. 

I am so excited to be able to talk to you mom and dad and makenna and brennan this wednesday. Keep chirst in your hearts and remember who we all represent as believers in him.

Love,

Elder Hicks

P.s. i love you all so much

Dec 17~ Elder Campos

I am going to recieve aniother new missionary! i don´t know where he is from i am going to meet him at 3 today and i am so excited to meet him. I am going to miss ELder Paricahua so much. He really is like an Hijo for me... He is going to serve with an Elder in my Group named  Elder Williams who is from Mesa and he is going to serve in a place called Savio.

This week we have worked hard and Noelia went to CHurch! I am not sure if i have told you a lot about Noelia but she is a single Mom and is raising her Son (who is such a great kid by herself) she is also raising a baby. After she went to the church she told us, I really loved the church this week! WOW, it was so great to hear that!.

Noelia has a goal to know if the Book Of Mormon is true by the 31st and in that day she is going to choose a date to be baptized. We are trying really hard to help her to feel the spirit and to help her recognize the blessings of the gospel. 

ALso in the news, we are going to have snow here for Christmas!! ha no just kidding, but for Christmas we are going to go on the 24th to the office of the mission and we are going to be with all teh missionaries and also with the president.! and then on teh 25th i will be able to call you in skype, i have completely forgotten my passwword and username, i will try to create a new one on the day of.

Mom, thank you so much for telling me that i need to continue being obedient, it seems as i become more comfortable in the mission, it is a lot easier to be desobidient to each rule that we have. thank you mom!

Dad, you asked me if i am involved a lot in the process with ward counsel. i try my hardest to always bring a progress report to each meeting, and it goes pretty well, I think in general somethind that i need to improve is involing the members more in our work and to becine a tireless missionary when it comes to the small and simple things,

A scripture that is really helping me right now to do more of the small and simple things is found in Alma 37, 6-7 

through small and simple things are brought to pass big things and in many cases, the small things doth confound the wise, ANd the lord GOd works through samll means to bring to pass his great and eternal designs. 

I know this is true and it is helping me and my investigators to realize the importance of the small things everyday.

Love you all so much,

Elder Hicks

 Our district

 I received the Ensign!

The last goodbye to Elder Paricahua,

Dec. 2

Dear Family,

i LOVE YOU SO MUCH, i hope in each messsage you can feel the love i have for all of you. Mom you are such a hard worker and seriously you have been an angel in my Life. I love you and think about you so much, i remember your example and how you always served me. thank you for your example. This week especially i have a lot about the family.. with thanksgiving and all, and now chirstmas! i´m not going to promise that i won´t cry because it would be crazy if i did not cry. i hope the missionaries in our ward feel welcome by the families in our ward. especially in this time of the year. Anyway i love you all so much and you are such a great family, dad you are such a great example to me of how to be a man, i have thoughts of you too, of how you set an example to me of how to work. Makenna, i have not recieved a message from you in forever and i am begining to worry about your situation  with the boys , hopefully you are staying away from them. hah only a couple months more you will be able to date, it is worth the wait Makenna. And brennan i always think about you, we have progressed together and gone thoruhg so much, you are my borther and will always be my best friend, Love you a ton.You are all my eternal family and you  are all my bests friends. 

        This week has been great: we have worked hard, we have been exactly obedient, and we have felt the spirit.

THis week i have felt the spirit so strong, We had divisions and my district leader came to my area. he taught me so much about how to live. He is from Nicaragua and is a true represantative of the Lord, He was always thinking about others and always helpìng, and especially always trying to listen to the spirit. He taught me so much about life. 

This week we had an investgator recieve an answer that the Book Of Mormon is true, THe cousin of Abril named Daiana knows that the Book of mormon is true.  Hermana Luna the Mom of Abril has started to do missionary work she invited Daiana to come to church and now Daiana know that the church is true. All we have to do know is teach her and baptize her and have the support of her parents. the other investgators that we have are named gonzalo and Noelia. Noelia is the sister of a less active and yesterday we taught her. She told us that she needs more hope in life. She is not married and has 2 kids that she is raising by herself. and she is really trying her best but she says it is so hard. During the lesson we read the scripture in Ether 12:4, after she read this scripture she started crying. All she has to do know is pray about the book and Joseph smith and her life will be changed forever! WE are going to see her later today, i ll tell you how she is doing next week! 

Also in Argentina it is getting super hot... you know what that means... more Ice cream! hah no, it means that we need to drink more water so we will be able to function. It is so much differnet than the states because their is no air conditioning here and everyone has fans which really are lifesavers! ha to sleep we need the fan, tostudy we need the fan, to not always be sweating we need the fan. It is like football practice but all the time. ha The heat doesn´t really bother me, i just hope it helps more people listen to our message so they can save their life through Chirst.

My foot is doing os much better, it doesn´t hurt and i need to be better about applying the lotion on it, but other thatn that it is okay. thanks for asking mom

I´m really so glad you got to see grandma this week, I thought about her this morning, i looked at my geneology chart and i was thinkning about the death of Granpa Burke and i was thinking that my kids are not going ot know who he was and our not going ot have the chance to meet him, it really struck me. I learned that as we grow up life really does change a lot. And it will not ever be that same, so we have to enjoy every moment that God gives us, I am so glad that i was able to learn that.

Something that i learned this week is that we should always be learning, If we learn from every experince we will always be progressing, ANd if we learn something thorugh the spirit we will be able to use it for some period furhter in the future.

Thank you for all that you have done for me, you really are the best family ever. I think about you often. 

Love,

Elder Hicks
sorry for not having any pictures... i din´t take much this week i will be better the next week.