Pure Happiness Nov. 17, 2014

Dear Mom, Dad, Family, and Friends,

Well, to start off, Mom, thank you soooo much for all your devotion to getting this BYU stuff firgured out. I know it must be a hassel but I am so grateful! So, yes, I agree that the girls seem a little old in that apartment building. Oh, and also, I totally understand about the whole cell phone thing. I thought it was a little sketchy as well. Oh, also, I´ve heard that the Riv is a little sketchy...

I know it must be hard to find a winter only contract. If worst comes to worst maybe you´ll just have to buy a contract with spring as well and I´ll try to sell it when my other friends get back or something, I don´t really know how it all works. 

I think the only priority is that I would like to be able to walk to campus. I would also like to share a room but if that doesn´t work out I would be fine with a private room. But really, Mom, thanks for all your dedication and don´t worry, I´ll start saving up some Brazilian nickel (centavos) for all the times you type my password, haha. 

Dad: Glad to hear that you are doing well and that your trip went well. I´m sure you must be pretty exhausted. 

I´m so glad for photos as well and I´ll definitely be showing you all a lot of photos. 

So, this week we had a special training with Pres. Nogueira. He talked to us about a few changes that the First Presidency has made in Preach my Gospel (it´s been a few months) about how now the full-time missionaries are responsible for teaching the 5th lesson before and after baptism and other things. It was great because it was a 4-zone conference and I got to see Sister Stolk and some of my other friends! 

Also, I received letters from Camilla and Danilo, two of my recent-converts from my first area in Queimadas! They are doing so well and wrote that they are excited to be able to see me and meet you two! They are so great, I´m so excited! 

Well, yesterday was a pretty good day. So, we have been working with and teaching an inactive family. Well, yesterday the four of them, the mom (Tereza (different Tereza than the phone one) ), the dad (Fernando) and their two daughters, Alice and Estephany. It´s so great to see the fruits of your labors and it really is pure happiness. We´ve been listening to the Book of Mormon with them because Tereza doesn´t know how to read. It´s so great to see how reading the Book of Mormon daily and having family prayer really does strengthen our families. 

Also, a little girl, Marília, went to church yesterday. She´s 11 years old and was baptized last year with her sister. Well, it was so great to see her at church and she made friends with the other Primary girls. 

Also, Tereza and her family (that we are working with) brought a friend to church, their neighbor, Vera. She´s not legally married but we´re going to start teaching her. 

Also, Saturday night we street contacting and we talked to a man named Edivaldo. He said that he had already visited the church but that it had been a while. He said during the contact that it was hard for him to believe in the Book of Mormon. We explained what the Book of Mormon is and invited him to go to church. Well, he said that he wasn´t sure if he would go. So yesterday, all of a sudden he appeared during the sacrament meeting (sacrament meeting is last) and I was so surprised. Well, afterward we showed him the baptismal font and invited him to prepare to be baptized this coming week but he said no because he was already baptized in another church. Well, we´re going to start teaching him and tonight we´re going to have a Family Night at Tereza´s house and he´s going to go. Please pray for him so that he can have an open heart. 

Well, Luma didn´t go to church yesterday but we´re going to keep teaching her. She´s a really great girl and just needs to stop smoking and feel more ready to be baptized. 

So funny story of the week: Saturday we had lunch at a member´s home, well apartment. So this apartment building is huge and there are 32 floors!!!! So, the doorman told us to enter the elevator and type P1 (yes, you type the floor and hit confirm) Well P1 is just the "leisure floor" that has the game room and other stuff. Well, we wanted the 1st floor and we couldn´t figure out how to work the elevator. Then the elevator just started to go up and up and up. We saw on the screen, 15th floor, 20th, 25th, and that´s when we started laughing, but laughter because we were so scared, then 30th floor, and we just started screaming, finally it stopped on the 32nd floor and we just jumped out of the elevator when the door opened! haha, we thought it would never stop going up. So the man told us how to get to the floor we wanted. But I`m sure the doorman was laughing out loud because there´s a camera in the elevator and he probably saw us freaking out, haha, it was pretty hilarious. 

Well, to answer your questions with the time remaining:

What is the one principle of the gospel that seems to resonate with the most people you talk to or is it something different that touches each of them?

I think the message of the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. I love teaching the Restoration because the Spirit truly touches them.

aah, my time ran out but I promise I will answer the other questions next week! 

I love you all the MOSTIEST!!!

love,

Sister Hicks

oh, so funny that you sent the photo of Greg sprinkling because I told the other sisters this week of how I always sprinkled but now Greg does it, haha :)

Hola! Yo havlo espanol :) November 10,2014

Dear Mom, Dad, Family, and Friends,

Wow, to start off, I´m soo sorry that it was such a hassel to get all the classes figured out. I was a little bit worried about all that this past week. and now that there are just two missionary couples in the mission office it´s a little more complicated because they don´t speak English. Before, there was always at least one american elder but now there are just these 2 missionary couples (that are super great by the way, just don´t speak english...)

But really, thanks so much Mom for getting all of that figured out. Just a question, did you sign up for Math 113 or Math 112 (becuase Math 112 would probably be better because it´s been a while) But really, thank you soo much for doing the registration.

Mom: About apartments, I definitely want a shared room. And it doesn´t matter to me how many people there, 4 person, 6 person apartment. :) I trust your judgment :)

Yes, it would be great if you could set up a hair appointment, dentist appointment, and a dermatologist appt. (to look at my moles after all the sun exposure :) ) 

That´s so great that we have some family names to take to the temple as well! That would be great! 

Well, to pack, I would suggest that you bring clothes for really hot weather...it´s been pretty hot here. That´s for sure. And don´t bring anything valuable, just a heads up :) Umm, I´ll think some more this week if there´s anything else that would be good to bring :) I´m so excited, it´ll be great :)

In response to your questions:

Tell me the most unusual contact you had this week.  

Well, this week we stopped an elderly man that was walking down the street. He started talking to us about how we need to conserve the planet and then we said that we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ and he started to explain that he could scientifically prove to us that Jesus Christ wasn´t the son of God and that He is not our Savior. It was so hard to hear that and I just felt for him. It´s really rare to talk to people like that here but there are some that exist. 

Tell me about a ward member that you really like and why.

Well, I really like the Bishop´s wife, she´s really sweet. Her name is Sheila. She´s the ward pianist and looks like I´m going to be the ward conductor. (They´ve asked me to conduct two sundays in a row...) 

  Do you teach at church on Sunday - Gospel Essentials?

Well we used to teach Gospel essential but now they have called a sister in the ward to teach which is great.

  Do you teach English classes in this area?

Yes, we have an English and Spanish class. (Sister Moscoso is helping me with my Spanish, I`ve forgotten so much!)

Dad: Thanks for your email and all your help with the BYU registration. 

I`m so glad that you were able to go to the temple this week and I can´t wait to go with you when I get back! 

Lindsey: Glad to hear that the girls are doing well and keeping busy! 

haha, yes, it´s truly the circle of life, training at the end :) Sister Moscoso is great and I´m learning so much with her! 

Bryan: hahaha, I laughed out loud when I read your email. haha, alright, we´ll have a talk when I get back about the Computer Science course....

Kimball: Glad to hear you´re doing well. Sounds like Kelsey´s birthday weekend well! haha, can´t wait to see Lil Guy yanking his socks off :)

Kelsey: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope you had a great brithday! 

Loved the photos you sent Kels! Lil Guy is soooo cute! 

Taylor: Hope you´re doing well bud! I love ya soo much! Keep me updated!

Well, we´re teaching Luma. I think I wrote about her last week. We fasted with her this week to help her stop smoking and she said that when she was fasting she didn´t smoke! She went to church again yesterday but she had to leave before the sacrament meeting because she had to study for a test. But, keep her in your prayers so that she can stop smoking and so that she can receive a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that Pres. Monson is the living prophet.

Well, I love you all the MOSTIEST!!!

Love,

Sister Hicks