It's Gettting Real and the Royal Baby!

My Dear Friends and Family!

 

First things first, thank you for all your acknowledgement of the royal baby, His Royal Highness George Alexander Louis. That's great! And thanks for the pic Amanda! I'm so happy for them and I'm so happy that I've left a little bit of myself with you all because you guys remembered me when you heard the news, haha :) You guys are the best.

 

Mom: I'm so glad that things are slowly but surely getting better. I am so glad that so many people are helping and taking care of you! We do have some really sweet people in our ward! That's also hilarious to hear about Greg and that he's watching Hercules. I can't believe it! Things are REALLY changing while I'm gone!

 

Other random things:

No, I didn't see Emily at the CTM but I'm so glad that she made it here.

 

The police station experience was so cool and Lindsey, I do like what you said about how maybe she'll be some missionary's end story.

 

I'm glad to hear that Pioneer day went well for everyone. We had a devotional about the Pioneers on Sunday and watched the devotional from the Provo MTC on Tuesday. Oh and by the way, we're starting to get so many more Americans. About 8 or 9 a week which is crazy! I hope things are really starting to pick up! I can't believe I leave on Tuesday! It's definitely getting real! I am so excited!!!

 

I do hope that Becky and Hannah get better soon! Tell them that I'm thinking of them and praying for their health! Love them!

 

Lindsey: I'm glad to hear things are going so well with the new house and that book sounds really interesting! Thank you for sharing those insights! And the Royal Baby things at the grocery store sound awesome! Love it!

 

Dad: Thanks for your great email. I can't believe that Sister Hunter and her presidency were released! Big changes. Thank you for your scriptures on discipleship. I will have to study those this week. I love you and thanks for the update on the Royal baby. You are so sweet. I do feel like your royal baby ;)

 

This week was really hard with Sister Skudder leaving. Now I'm just in a trio with Elder Davis and Elder Walker which is kind of funny. It was really hard to say good bye to Sister Skudder. We were pretty different personalities but that's what made us so close. She was way more relaxed and go with the flow, and I wanted to plan everything. I learned so much from her and I'm so grateful that she was my first companion.

 

The thing that made the change even harder was that on Monday they moved the three of us (Elder Davis, Walker, and myself) to the district one week behind us which just has 4 elders. We really just wanted to keep our schedule and our teachers. After a lot of conversations with the big whigs and some prayers. Our schedule got changed back and we still have our normal teachers, schedule, and investigators. Prayers are answered! And persuasion works too, haha!

 

It has been sooooo cold here! We can see our breath. One night it got down to 5 degrees celcius. All the sisters asked for extra blankets and I'm so glad Mom that you told me to pack a few warm clothes. I'm definitely using them. Yes, it did snow in Curitiba and Florianopolis. Oh, did Jason Allred get his visa?

 

So this week was really cool. We got to go out on Wednesday and place some Book of Mormons. The three of us went out with Irmao Allan. We were definitely really nervous in the beginning and Irmao Allan just said, "Ok, go place those 6 Book of Mormons. You have about two hours. See you in a little."

 

We were having a hard time in the beginning. One lady was sweeping the sidewalk, saw us, and went straight inside. Then we saw her later and she was sweeping again. That was hard to feel so rejected and we hadn't even talked to her.

 

Then Irmao Allan saw that we were struggling and let's just say that he showed us how it's done. He just went up and started talking to this guy. He was joking around with him and just having a grand old time. It was so great. That definitely boosted our confidence. After that we placed one with a lady that already had one but she said she hadn't read it and the ones we had had a number to call to ask questions.

 

It was so cool to talk to people on the street and feel like a "real" missionary. I know it sounds silly but it was really cool to be out and among the people and I definitely am so much more confident with just going up and talking to people. I'm sure this will just increase as I have to talk to people more. I think it's funny that before now I didn't even want to ask for help at the grocery store and now I'm going up to people on the streets of Sao Paulo speaking Portuguese and giving Book of Mormons.

 

Another thing that happened this week was that we went to the Police Station for our visas. They take all your finger prints and are pretty uptight. Better not commit a crime because they have all your finger prints. Because we've been in Brasil for more than 30 days the church had to pay a fine. To pay the fine we waited in line for 3 and a half hours! Talk about the slowness of the bureacracy! It was definitely frustrating!

 

I have to go but I love you and miss you the mostiest! Greetings from Joao Pessoa next week!

 

Love you,

Sister Hicks