Out of the Ordinaries

This week was a little bit of a weird week, for a couple of reasons. Here are a couple of the "out of the ordinaries" that went down this week:

1) My companion got bit by a dog! Hahahaha. I think I have learned a lot of things here in Chile, but if one thing has become more clear than all others, it is that I really, really, do not like dogs. Bleh.

2) Yesterday, my comp and I spent the day in bed, sicker than the dogs here in the streets. We think we got some food poisoning or something, but who knows. We took turns throwing up all night on Monday and through the day on Tuesday, man. Made for a pretty lame, uncomfortable day yesterday. 

3) We have a BAPTISM Saturday! I am just as surprised as you are. At church 2 weeks ago, a guy and girl came to church, and nobody knew who they were. After Sacrament Meeting we went over and started talking to him, and turns out this girl is a member in a different ward, and this guy is her boyfriend who wants to get baptized. He`s been going to church with her for the past 5 months, and recently found his answer that the church is true, and now wants to be baptized. He has already read the Book of Mormon and we have been teaching him this last week, and this week, and MAN. This guy is ready. He already knows everything we are teaching him, haha he`s awesome. His name is Leonardo, and his girlfriend`s name is Camila. Power Couple, Dream Team, Future Goals, these 2 are AWESOME. 

That`s about it. I was reflecting on Sunday during Sacrament Meeting, as a young man got up to bear his testimony. There was a mini missionary activity for the kids of the stake, and those from our ward who participated got up and bore their testimony of the experience. 

One of the kids who went was a kis named John, who isn`t a member of the church, He`s going to get baptized on Saturday, same day as Leonardo. John is...incredible. An extrememly unique kid. He has a very powerful testimony and is going to be a powerhouse missionary. I could talk for a long time about John, the person he is, and the person he is going to become, but I was reflecting more on another kid named Marcelo. 

Marcelo is kind of a weird kid, I mean he`s cool, but a little weird. Kind of annoying, probably has ADD, weird style, probably a little bit like me hahaha. Marcelo got baptized about a month ago. While Marcelo is a pretty "average" kid, doesn`t seem super special, he's awesome. What`s awesome about Marcelo is that he brings all his friends to church. John, this powerhouse of a kid, came to church because Marcelo invited him, and now John`s life has completely changed and he has a firm testimony of the gospel. Marcelo also invited a friend named Alvaro who also was baptized, and is now coming to church with his girlfriend, who also goes with him to seminary during the week.

I guess I admire this average kid who really isn`t that average. I realized that when we magnify and do the things that The Lord commands us to do, our average selves get to partcipate and become a part of pretty unaverage things. The conversion of John started with Marcelo. John thanks Marcelo in every testimony I have heard him share. 

I hope I can, as my average self, be a little bit more like Marcelo and share the Gospel with others for my whole life. I know that if I do that, The Lord will put people like John in my path and I will be able to participate in great works. 

DC 18: 15 16

"And if it so be that ye should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father. And now if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me, into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you bring many souls unto me. "

 

Simplemently Our All

Hello! We set a baptismal date this week with a new investigator named Leonardo for June 5th this week, and I am pretty close to positive that he`s gonna get it! We have a lot of awesome people in the area and I am really really excited for the work here. Up to this point in my mission I have felt like I haven`t been giving my all, I haven`t been really really trying to maximize time, I feel like I would "take some off the field with me" as Coach Cornell would say...but I feel like I am finally starting to leave it all out on the field, and finally really trying my best in every aspect, and it is so rewarding. In football they always talked about how water doesn`t boil until you hit 212 degrees...that it can sit at 211 all day long but nothing happens until you hit 212. I think you could draw parallels with the Gospel, with The Atonement, how really nothing is enough but our everything. EVERYTHING is the only price sufficient to qualify us for the EVERYTHING that Christ gave. 

It reminds me of a quote I read in a talk called "The Consecrated Missionary", Callister refers to a movie about Marter Luther King, and there`s a point when his "life trainer" gets ticked at King and starts yelling at him for causing so much trouble, for causing so much contention in the public and all that jazz. It was an intense part of King`s life, he was putting himself and everyone acquainted with him in danger. King`s response is awesome, he says "You wanted me to change the world, that`s what you always encouraged me to do. Did you think there would be no cost? "

We are changing the world, and is does have a cost. We could say that the price was paid by the sacrifice of Christ, which is true, because that is the price that was already paid by which the world can be and is changed. But what price we pay to become beneficiaries of that sacrifice? All for All by Bruce C Hafen is an awesome talk Brother B showed us in seminary my Freshman year, explains that the price for Christ`s all, is simplemently our all. Nothing more, nothing less, just our all. 

This sector is alive, ahh we are in a gold mine. We are teaching a lot of people who are very very prepared, we`ll probably have a few baptisms in the next couple weeks. Very excited! Elder Jenks is great! We get along well. I have learned so much about companionships. I feel like being with companions is helping me realize the traits in people that really matter, and traits that may seem important but ultimately don`t matter. If someone is obedient, cares about God more than me, and is willing to make sacrifices for The Lord, he is a good comp, whether or not we have similar likes or dislikes. If we are similar people, but he doesn`t really care too much about being exactly obedient, or doesn`t really look to make sacrifices for the work....we have problems. I think I am learning the things I really want to look for in a wife, 

Excited for this week! We still do a lot of contacting, have a few long, empty days, but the couple people we ARE teaching are inredible. It`s awesome. 

Anyway, going to continue trying more to give more of my all this week!

Super excited!

Love,

Elder Hixon

Mother's Day Magic

(Baptism right before he left his last sector- Karla, Vicente, and Amaro)

Good week! Super super super good week. finding a TON of people, and teaching a lot. We are in a gold mine here in Nocedal. The ward is definitely very different than Los Olmos, but I still am excited to serve here. We are teaching a ton, a ton, at least in comparison to how things were going in my last sector. We have one family that is so incredible, my comp found him with his last comp a week before I got here. Elder Jenks and I taught them Lesson 1 and went over another night to have a family night, the son is coming to mutual today, and they are AWESOMEEE. At the end of lesson 1, the mom (Angelica) and her son (Jorge) were crying and Jorge was crying as he gave the closing prayer. We left them with 3 Nephi 11 to read, and when we came back for family night, they recited the chapter by detail. Jorge read all the way to chapter 25! The Dad (Fabian) said he was reading with the intent of finding an answer to a specific question, and that he didn`t find it, but that he will keep reading the Book of Mormon to find it. They are so so so awesome. 

Just one of some pretty cool experiences we`ve had this week, and I know they are all coming because this is my first companionship where I feel like we are being perfectly obedient. We aren`t perfect, but we are both trying our best to be, and it is awesome. Really having a good time with Elder Jenks.

Skype with the family was amazing, ahh so good to see everyone. For Mother`s Day, my comp and I started trying to contact in a way that would indirectly say Happy Mother`s Day to our moms. At every door we contacted, didn`t matter who answered, boy, child, woman, man, abuelita, quien sea, we asked "Is your Mother home?" (kind of like Spòngebob and Patrick when they`re selling chocolate haha) and almost EVERYONE said yes, and went to find their mom. When the mom got to the door, we would say,

 "Hello! We`re the missionaries, we`re passing by every door today, looking for all the Mothers here so that we could say Happy Mothers Day, we are thankful for you and everything you do. We aren`t with our moms today so we thought we would say it to all the other moms instead". 

And the results...were AWESOME. We found so many people! Lots of new appointments this week, we`re super super super excited. Made contacting a blast, kind of funny, and ah it was a great Mother`s Day. 

Thank you to all Mothers who are awesome, which all Mothers are, Elder Jenks and I are grateful to you and now even more indebted because you just blew up the sector Nocedal!

And obviously, to my Mother, who is the best of them all, I love you :) 

Love,

Elder Hixon

(Los Olmos apartment and goodbyes)

  

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Nocedal! 

I am in a new ward, and I am excited to be here. It is called Nocedal, and my sector is three times bigger and more wealthy than Los Olmos...so this should be a little bit of a change. The houses...are relatively big and nice looking. Like front doors and all that jazz exist.  I have heard only good things about this ward from the Elders that have served there (one of those Elders being my trainer!) and I am excited to be here. My new companion is a gringo (not being racist, but extremely excited about that) and his name is Elder Jenks. From North Dakota, and ALSO plays Super Smash Bros so that`s good. Plays with Shulk, for any fellow Smashers out there. (HA! Shulk. Shulk is a chump.)

I can`t think of a better, nor more difficult, way to end time in a ward than with a baptism. Wow. Amaro and Vicente were baptized on Sunday! Along with another joven named Katiuska, who has an incredible story, but time forces it to wait for another day. 3 baptisms in Los Olmos! I think I received a little bit of understanding to the Joseph Smith`s revelation in DC 18:15-16. In terms of baptisms, these 2 kids were the only 2 I saw enter the waters of baptism (in which I participated from the very beginning) in my time here in Los Olmos. But Sunday made everything worth it. The reactivation of their mom, Karla, their sister, Tamara, and their baptism was worth 7 months or working. Really, it was worth 2 years of work. If we don`t find another person for the next 2 years, I am more than happy with the conversion of this family. Named La Familia Silva Perez.  

Getting the news that I was leaving in special changes this week was a little last minute, which made farewells fast and hard. Between Elder Albarracìn and Karla, Vicente, and Amaro, goodbyes were really really hard. And the family of our Bishop. It`s interesting...while we have so many incredible families in the ward, it wasn`t that hard to say goodbye to the people that I didn`t really help progress. If I didn`t put some kind of work spiritually into the family, it wasn`t that hard to say goodbye. Oooh and Nacho, ahh that was hard, too. 

It`s just wild...there`s a decent chance that I won`t ever see them again, and especially with Karla, there`s a chance that she could inactivate or that her kids could fall away or I don`t know. It is interesting to completely walk away from a big work you are participating in and leave it completely in The Lord`s Hands. Talk about trust.

Also pretty emotional saying goodbye to Elder Albarracìn. He has got it pretty rough. Being the only member in his family, not a lot of support on his side, and he had to work like crazy to afford coming out on the mission. He didn`t come out with a lot, but the members of his wards have given him what he needs, which is amazing. As we were saying goodbye, he went to his closet and brought out a tie, and said 

"Here. This is for you. But TAKE CARE of it. This is the most important tie in my life". He started to cry and said "This is the tie my mom gave me before I left". 

He also gave me a sweater and a little stuffed kangaroo he had brought from his house. I will miss him so much, but The Lord knows exactly what His Children need, so I think this change will be good for everyone. 

Excited to see what the future holds! 

Love you!

-Elder Hixon