Ola' from Queimedas October 23, 2013

Hey Mom, Dad, dear family, and friends!

So I´m happy to report that I´m still in Queimadas! Woohoo! I really didn´t want to leave so I have at least 6 more weeks here! The only thing that happened is that Sister Fernandes left and she´s training a new sister in a different area. So now Sister Johnson is finishing training Sister Shirts and I´m still training Sister Stolk. It´s a little crazy though because it´s just us 4 Americans in our house! haha, but it´s a lot of funny! We rarely speak in English which is good and we have so much fun together!

Mom: First off, I got your package!!!! Thank you so much! I was so excited when I got it and thank you so much for the candy, baking mixes (great idea) and the Purrell!!!!! :) haha, so much better than the hand sanitizer they have here! thank you thank you thank you!

That it so funny about the Gold Cup. I definitely remember when we went. I can only imagine how much Greg liked it. And, oh my goodness, I can´t believe that the number 2 horse actually won! hahah, that is hilarious.

I´m glad to hear that you liked the letters and picures I sent. haha, I didn´t think about Greg and the thumbs up but I can definitely imagine him doing the thumbs up with us in the pictures haha

Dad: Thanks for the talks that you sent! I can´t wait to read them today! I was so excited when I got them and it totally made my day! I love reading anything I can get my hands on, and especially your talks! :)

Thanks for the advice about seeing the good. Sister Stolk and I were just talking a few days ago about how important it is to laugh at the funny and ridiculous things that happen.

I still feel so blessed that I got my visa when I did. It truly was a blessing from Heavenly Father.

I really like what you wrote about charity. Moroni 7 really is such a great chapter!

I haven´t done that activity in Chap 6 yet. I´m going to do it this week. I agree that it´s a really good way to see your progress and development.

It is definitely getting hotter here! Really hot, in November, December, and January it´s going to get up into the 100s. Also, the real reason it´s so hot is because the sun is so strong here!

I like all the names that you wrote, maybe not Bristol but all the other ones I like (haha not like it´s my choice :)

So this week waqs really great, we had another baptism! Woohoo! His name is José and he´s 13 years old. We ran into him as we were walking to church two weeks ago and he ended up coming with us. Then we talked about baptism with him and agreed to be baptized. But throughout the week he was kind of indecisive about baptism and on Friday he said that he didn´t want to. But Saturday morning, in Campina, the youth had a huge activity and the LZs (Zone leaders) were there and were doing baptism interviews so they just ended up doing the interview and the elders talked to him and he changed his mind! haha, it was a real surprise but really cool!

So, I don´t know if I already wrote about this but the branch missionaries in our branch are AMAZING! There all youth and they are so excited about working with us. There are four young men and 2 young woman. The young woman were just barely called but the young men are amazing. It´s Renato (our baptism), Luiz, Thalisson, and Julio. Yesterday they made name tags that say "Missionarios do Ramo" Branch missionaries, and they look like ours. It was so cool to see them and they definitely looked like Elders, I´ll send a pic. They´re so cool!

Also, Sister Stolk and I are trying to do what the APs do during contacts in the street. So, we just talk to them and we don´t "invite" them to church we just say, So, you´ll come to church with us this Sunday! haha it really works because you can really tell who will actually go and who won´t. Also, then we tell them that we´re going to have a baptismal service the following week and we ask them if they´ll be baptized. We only ask for the address if they accept baptism! It´s so cool because there are so many people here that are so willing and accepting. Of course we talk to a ton of people but there really are the elect of our Heavenly Father here that are just waiting to be asked. It´s so cool!

Also, Lucas, one of our investigators (young man) that´s going to be baptized this Sunday, his mom was talking to us and she said that she was talking to one of her friends. This friend said that earlier in the day she talked to two American young girls and that she barely understood anything of what they said. hahah, it was soooo funny because we knew it was us. haha, we definitely find things to laugh about. :)

Also, we tried this juice this week made from the fruit of graviola. It is soooo good! You should look it up in the internet!

Also, we had a really funny visit with an inactive lady Gracileite, and her mom whose not a member. Her mom was a little crazy and she said that she didn´t like the church when she went because she just needs to pray and God always gives her everything she needs, this is her religion, but it was just so funny how she was so adamant and the way she was talking, Sister Stolk almost lost it laughing and me too! haha, I barely held myself together, ahahaha

Well, I love you all so much and the field is soooo white and already to harvest here in Queimadas! I´m going to send more photos today! Woohoo!

Thank you so much for your love and support! I love you the MOSTIEST!

With  much love, hugs, and kisses,
Sister Hicks