Hero's Paradise!

Another week! Ahhh my first change back in Los Olmos is going by just as fast as my first change...well, my first change ever. I watched Joseph Smith the prophet today, ahhhh he is such a hero of mine, but Emma is also a hero of mine as well. As for many other people, too. It´s interesting the two parts of the battle that were fought, on Joseph´s end being constantly persecuted and unjustly attacked, enlightened and brilliantly illuminated, and Emma´s end of being in charge of bearing everything patiently, faithfully, perfectly. Interesting, no? The woman not only bears her children for her whole existence, but her husband also. I admire Emma Smith a lot. I admire my mom a lot too. I will find a wife like the 2 of them!

Well, this week has been pretty busy. It´s pretty wild how different things are here, my first 6 months were a heck of a lot of contacts, fewer people to teach. Now, in the weeks I have been back here, I have done a total of about 2 hours of contacts, and the rest of the time we have been teaching. Lots of teaching here. We had a pretty awesome experience in a lesson last night, where we were able to place 3 baptismal dates! Wild. In these moment, we have 4 people set to get baptized on the 9th of October! 

I want you guys to meet Jorge. 

Jorge got here just before I did, he is from Venezuela. Things in Venezuela are pretty messed up right now, it was pretty sad as he was telling me about the situation his family is in. That place is a mess. Anyway, he came here to Chile with 11 friends, to find a better living situation and find better everything, and on his way here, he got seperated from the group at the border of Bolivia, got robbed of everything he had minus his clothes and his phone, and THAT is how is life in Chile started. Pretty bright eh?

Anyway, long story short, he lives behind us now. In February remember how the dueña of our house died? He lives where she was living, right behind us. It´s pretty fun having him back there, living with 2 returned missionaried behind you is pretty ideal for divisions! (juanito is another guy who lives back there, chileno, haha he´s pretty good at Pokemon Go if ya catch my drift). Nah Juanito is also awesome, really, we are pretty blsesed to have them back there. 

Last night, we were with La Familia Reyes. That house is pretty messed up, used to be a drug house, the daughters of 17 and 13 years lived with their boyfriends, but one of them got kicked out for smoking the mom´s marijuana and the other broke up with the daughter, and add that to a thousand more times apostasy and a pregnant 18 year old Katiuska and that´s the family we are teaching!

We´ve been teaching the now 14 year old Scarlett, who is really receptive. All the ahrd things that this family has gone through (to some level at their own fault) has made them really realize how bad things get when we forget The Savior. How true is that. Elder Albarracín (remember him?) and Elder Harrison found them a long time ago, and then they kind of disappeared, but we are now teaching them again. We are finding the Scarlett is the most receptive of the family and so we are focusing our teaching a little bit more towards her, and last night we went over to teach The Plan of Salvation. We had plans of inviting her to be baptized. When we got to the house, she was outside with a friend taking selfies (Chile really isn´t that different than the States) and we went over and hopped in a few. Then we invited the friend to come listen to us as we taught Scarlett. We had a good lesson with the family, and at the end we felt like we needed to include this friend (named Carla) to be baptized along with the invitation to Scarlett, and she said yes!! So they both are on date for the 9th of October, along with Scarlett´s brother named Lorenzo. We are going to Carlá house later this week to meet and start teaching her family, excited to see where things go. Earlier in the week we were also able to put the same date for baptism with another investigator named Jorge.

All in all, things are going well in Los Olmos. My good friend Amaro has been coming to church every week, like a good, faithful 8 year old kid. We gave him an alarm clock to help him wake up by himself so that he isn´t dependent on anybody else waking him up, and he did a good job this week. Nobody else in the family came to church, but Amaro got himself ready and called to have us pick him up. I look up to Amaro, I hope I can be as diligent as he always is, even when he´s alone. One of my heroes for sure! Another hero I have is Obispo Moroni. He is one of my greatest heroes here in Los Olmos. He makes a list every week of the people who didn´t come to church. Last week from the pulpit he called for a spontaneous activity in which all of us would return to the chapel and 5 o clock that same evening and he sent us in groups, with people to visit who didn´t go to church that Sunday. He also was out visiting. Pretty darn awesome guy. Wears his name well. I hope to be like he and Amaro one day.

Love you! Another week in Paradise!

Elder Hixon

Inconvenient

Ahhhhhh. Los Olmos! Woo! Still awesome. Still going strong. 

The work has accelerated a bit since I was here last, in the sense of teaching lessons and having investigators who are progressing. The ward has been going downhill in it`s attendance, but we were able to have 6 less actives in church on Sunday, and this Sunday we are expecting a family of investigators to come this week. So, all good things. All good things. My first 6 months were more seed planting, but we are definitely doing some reaping over here. There is a ton of work between the 2 sectors, I`ve really only contacted a few times in my 3 weeks back. So that`s been pretty different from the rest of my mission thus far. Things continue going well with my companion, he`s a pretty awesome guy. 

We re-found our little Viejita Karmen, the lady who was going to be baptized (87 years old) and she has been reading the Book of Mormon! And saying her prayers, so we`re stoked about that. When I was with Elder Huaquiñir we stopped going over, because she kind of stopped progressing, but we`re pretty hopeful about this second time around. Amaro and Vicente came to church Sunday, Karla wasn't able to make it. Lame. Also hoping for her to be able to make it this week. There was a lot of apostasy that went down this week in the family of a recent convert, and that has been pretty consuming. A lot of stuff went down that shouldn't ever really happen to any family, and we`re kind of stressed about that. Keep La Familia Reyes in your prayers! 

One of the things I keep thinking about this week is something President told us in el mensajero and then my mom mentioned almost the exact same thing in her letter to me. It is this. Serve at your earliest INCONVENIENCE. It is almost never convenient to serve. I'm learning that convenience is a form of pride and as we serve at our earliest inconvenience we are showing humility as we put the Lord's and his children's convenience first.

There's not a lot more to say, I know this is a short report, but things just keep moving forward. Things always move forward, I think it`s our job to keep moving forward as well. I love my mission. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Love you! Que pasen una linda semana!

Elder Hixon

A Little Bit More

Extremely short on time, but here´s the shin dig of this week!

Basically, being in Los Olmos is pretty awesome. I still am not sure why The Lord wants me back in the sector, but I DO know that The Lord at leasts wants me with my companion. Elder Mendoza is the man. Since I don´t have a lot of time to share experiences from the short week, I´ll tell a little bit about my companion and then I gotta goooooo.

Well, my comp is 27 years old. Looks just as gringo as me, but is actually a Latino. We haven´t taken a picture yet, because, eh, well, neither of us has a camera, but we´ll figure things out. My comp is a pretty solid example about consecration to The Lord, despite anything that might keep us from doing what it is we are supposed to do. Here is why:

Well, he´s 27 years old because he was inactive for a good time, and studied 4 years of medicine in Argentina. He was born in Argentina, but when he was about 3 years old his family moved to Paraguay. There, he didn´t speak Spanish, but learned and spoke a native language of Paraguay called Guadanine (I think that´s how you spell it). When he was 17 years old, he moved back to Argentina, where he had to learn Spanish. So, really, we both have questions about Spanish still. Elder Mendoza...well, he was engaged before he came out. He had already bought a house, TV, bed, things for the house, and was ready to get married to a girl he had dated for a good amount of time. he was 4 years into his 7 year study. Then, at a Stake conference, he felt the strong impression that he needed to go on a mission. So, 20 days before the wedding, he called everything off, left everything behind, and came out here to serve a mission. 

Wild, no? Since then, he has lost his house, everything really before that he had, and his ex fiancé is down the drain. He doesn´t really have a whole lot going for him when he gets back. He is the oldest of 3 brothers, but the 2nd oldest brother was killed about a year before Elder Mendoza came out on his mission. Just went out, in the middle of the day, to buy some bread, and was killed by some guys at a corner. 

Tragedies are real, in my mission they seem to become less and less uncommon and more and more expected. A lot of missionaries have sacrificied a lot to come out, and I know that a lot of members of the church have sacrificied a lot to be members of the Church. Be pride, be family relationships, be money, be business, be their very life, a lot of people have sacrificed a lot for the cause that was established before this world was, shown by Christ, and once again restored to us through a modern day prophet. I have a testimony of that! 

Joseph Smith said something to the effect of "How can we, as members of The Lord´s church, expect to reap the blessings that the Apostles of old now reap, if we don´t give exactly what they give? The Lord is just, and we are required to give our whole selves to this cause."

I hope I can give a little bit more of myself this week, to stand alongside my companion who already does just that!

Love you!

Elder Hixon

Los Olmos (part 2)

(Elder Kelsch and Elder Hixon)

Well....this week was full of surprises. We had changes, and I got changed out of Nocedal. It was pretty hard saying goodbye to this ward that I only knew for 3 months, but that I really grew to love. 

(famlia bastidas....might be my favorite member family I have met so far in my mission. this family....ahhhh. incredible. so incredible. SHE COOKS SO WELL. Competes with Dad)

(leonardo and camila)

(misioneras! harrison went home)

(familia guevara)

(famlia altamirano (she was baptized by Eyering´s kid) her mom is less active)

(melina walter patricio michael angel romina )

I learned a lot from them, and also from my companion, Elder Jenks.

He´s training a Chileno from Concepcion there now, which means he´ll have another 2 changes over there! Yikes. That´s a lot of time. 

Speaking of a lot of time in one sector.....eh, well, the impossible happened. I got transferred back to Los Olmos. 

In this mission, there is (I thinkkk?) like 7 stakes. In every stake, there is about 8 ward. 56 wards. Somebody would probably correct me if they were reading over my shoulder. The point is, I don´t know if I have ever heard of anyone going back to an old sector in my mission. The sectors are so small, that, like, what would somebody do that they didn´t already do the first time. In about 3 months somebody could contact every door and know the majority of the people that live in the sector. In 6 months...well, speaking from experience, I knew every door, every drunk, every dog, every person in my sector. 

Yo conocí hasta los hatianos allí!

And now I´m back :)

The only difference is that before, we were 4 elders serving in the ward. So, my sector was half of the ward. Now there´s just 2 of us, so along with my old sector, we have the other half of the ward as well. That´ll change things up for a few days :) 

I don´t really know what to say, other than that I am excited as it gets to be here. I didn´t even hear the name of my new companioni when I heard the name of my "new" area, My 3rd ward is my first ward. But it´s my second time in the ward, and now going to be my 5th change. I imagine I´ll have maybe 3 changes here, which would be a total of 10 and a half months in the same sector. In the same ward. I´m excited to walk these streets with Nacho again. Elder Mendoza (my new comp), Nacho and I are gonna finish whatever it is The Lord wants us to do here! Ready to see more fruits this time! 

My comp is from Argentina, but grew up in Paraguay. Seems like an awesome guy. We´re the only 2 elders that live in the house now, so it´ll defintely be a change up in things! 

Ready to work! 

Love,

Elder Hixon

(arepas, blind hermano leiva)