This week went by real quick! No surprise there, but not a ton of super exciting things happened this week! I'm trying to think! We had excellent devotionals. If you want a good story, go look for Elder Bednar's 20 Mark story if you can find it. Elder Packer may have given it also. There's a website with the MTC devotionals....I think it's called BYU speeches or something like that. I'll write home what it is if I remember. Elder Sheridan and Elder Payne and Elder Barber were sick last week and they got Elder McAllister and I sick Fridayish, and it's been rough! I have been poppin pills though, so I'm getting better. Just a cold.
We learned how better to teach the PEOPLE and not lessons to the people. We went in to teach David this week and something incredible happened. We planned harder than we ever have, but this time we went unscripted. In the past, we translate a lot of our lesson before hand and have it written down, and occasionally (like in conversation and such) we try our best to leave script. But this time, we only wrote our main ideas in English, and then discussed what David would need, prayed much. Then, just before we knocked on his door, we decided to say another prayer. We prayed for the Spirit and for the ability to help David, that our Serbo-Croatian would make sense and that he would feel the Spirit.
We went in, and we asked him how he'd been, small talk and such. We asked him if he had been praying and reading. He said he had been, and we talked about what he had read. Then, we asked how his prayers were. He said he felt good, but didn't feel as though he had received any answers. Suddenly, I had a thought. At the time, I just thought it was me trying to help him, so I went with it. I started to talk to David about real intent, about praying with sincerity of heart. I asked him if he believed that God COULD answer him. When he answered in the affirmative, and when we had explained real intent as best we could, I said "David, I promise the Lord can and will answer your prayers. By you faith, I know this. Even right now, He will answer you. Will you kneel with us right here, right now, and ask our Heavenly Father for a confirmation and answer?" And he did.
The Spirit flooded the room, and we didn't know what to do next. We asked him how we felt, and after he told us how different and warm and good he felt, he finally opened up to us. This stoic, reserved man who we had tried to help and teach and touch the heart of for weeks was all of the sudden telling us all of his concerns. How he'd been raised believing God, but he didn't even know God existed. He told us a lot of things very fast, and when he asked us a question, we weren't sure we caught it all. I simply felt I should testify to him, so we did. That God lives, that He knows and loves David. And that if David continued to pray how he did with us that day, that he would receive his answer. Then I challenged him to be baptized. We had challenged him at least 3 times previously, and every time he told us some excuse, mostly that he had already been baptized in his church as a child, etc. and we couldn't ever break through that barrier. This time he told us "Yes. I need time still, to get my answer, but yes. I will be baptized." It was AWESOME! Only later did we realize that the Spirit had been directing us the whole time! Often that is how it is. We won't always feel prompted, in fact it's rare when there's an overwhelming certain and resonating "do this." Rather, when we are trying our best to be our best, to be good boys and good girls and help others, we will be able to look back at the end of the day and see when the Spirit was indeed directing our actions. I know that.
We lost our Polish this week. That was rough, but goodbyes are necessary and hey, I'm getting good at them! We lose the Bulgarians tomorrow, which will be the last of our older siblings in our zone. That's gonna be lame, cause they are so awesome. I don't think I've talked about Elder Winkle, but that guy is nuts! He has perhaps one of the most incredible voices I have ever heard, besides Mom and Nan and Lo. He is our radio around here, takes requests and such, and sang last week at the fireside. Everything he sings sounds better than the original! He even can do every Disney song (guy and girl parts......a little strange) amazingly!! We will be having tryouts with the new kids that come in on Wednesday. 7 Bulgarian Elders and 13 Polish, I think 6 of those being Sisters. We have to take care of them like the Poles and Bulgars took care of us, so it'll be an interesting and fun week!
Every time Brat Freeman tells us about President Rowe, I get so excited. Brat Freeman says there isn't a more incredible man alive. He says that if he could describe President Rowe in one word, it would be "faith." President Rowe says when we are perfectly obedient, we can and should EXPECT miracles. God will work through us, he promises. So expect it. He and the Area President in our Eastern Europe area (however much that includes) came up with this insane tracting method, which basically consists of us knocking on the door and immediately stating a powerful phrase or doctrine and asking a thought provoking question, no introductions. We are being trained to employ words of scripture in that, because in John 10:27 (I believe. I will send a correction this week when I go check) it says that His sheep will hear His voice and know Him and follow Him. President Rowe says that the words of Christ are in the scriptures, so when we employ them in our tracting and our teaching, the elect of God, His sheep, will hear that and will follow His representatives. It's super weird, just knocking and starting like that, but it works and the Spirit is felt! When our broken Croatian makes sense hahaha.
We've actually been trying very hard to focus on Serbian. Reading Croatian is MUCH easier, and I'm growing accustomed to speaking it's grammar. Serbian...we have been setting goals for. The grammar is similar, easier in some regards, but it's just different in my Croatian wired head. And Bosnian is a mix......woo! But we are getting there! I actually have been excelling, not to toot my horn or anything, but I have truly been blessed. I have grasped the grammar very quickly, and my biggest struggle is memorizing vocab. So I can have conversations and comprehend and work around my vocabulary weakness, but it's definitely something to work on. I'm just terrible at devoting time to memorization when picking out patterns is simple and it's making my life easier. (Emphasis on ER, it's still nearly impossible over here. Not easy. But.) I will say this, my English is DEFINITELY making learning Croatian easier.
I have actually been seeing part of my Patriarchal Blessing fulfilled in reality. Because of my grasp on English and it's parts of speech and grammar, (THANK YOU MRS. SALCE. Tell her that Nan.) I have been able to switch over to the Croatian grammar patterns. (Which very different. The help comes from knowing parts of speech and how they work, their role and place and function in sentences and etc.) The part of my blessing that says I will learn to communicate well with those I will teach is still a work in progress, but there is a part (this can be public, no worries) that says I will teach others how to communicate with them. My three companions missed most of their English somehow, so every night I have been giving them English lessons and then converting them into Serbo-Croatian lessons. That, and I have been the go-to for checking on sentences they build and such (even though I am often wrong.) All this is by NO means me claiming strengths. Rather, I thank the Lord for the lessons He had me taught in my youth that have helped me now, and for the teachers and leaders that He placed in my life to teach me what I needed to know about knowledge and about faith, I thank Him for blessing my efforts and faith, though I am still working on building greater faith. Trials and suffering have accompanied, but I know that such make us humble. And humility allows us to receive greater faith from the Lord, and from greater faith come miracles. So, it's been quite the experience!
Language, don't get me wrong, we are terrible at. It's funny. But we are getting there! Slowly but surely!
I can't think of anything else for now, other than that I had an opportunity to both serve and be served in the same instance, Dad. I had been praying for something to help increase my weak faith for a few days, and then Elder Sheridan asked me to give him a blessing and the experience was incredible and an answer to those prayers. All truth can be circumscribed into one whole. That, and I had a moment of teaching and learning while interviewing a District Leader, which was incredible. His faith to be instructed and corrected, and to take it well and with much gratitude, humbled me and brought me much comfort and it was awesome!
Vjera! Ja vas volim!
Elder Hixon
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