Blessed Companionships

Well, I have one more P Day. I will be traveling on Thursday and getting home on Friday. But I would like to just take these last 2 days to read letters and only write a general. So, thank you for all your words and kindness. My whole family wrote me this week!! Minus my nieces and nephew, but they don`t know me so I guess I can forgive them :) 3 thoughts that I has as we worked this week:

1) One of the things that I have come to love most about being a missionary is getting to know the new missionaries. I love new missionaries. Just so much faith, ánimo, integrity, and humility. They`re all like sponges. They eat up all the words from all the other missionaries, they have faith in every single investigator. "She`s going to get baptized; I know it!" It`s amazing. By being such great learners, they end up being the real teachers and leave me with feelings up hope and gratitude for The Lord and His Church. Only a perfect gospel could produce such faith, hope, and love. I can envision my cousin Wyatt just being such an incredible missionary. I wish I could have the chance to see him in action! I am sure he fits the mold of the new missionaries that I have come to love and admire here in my mission. What a blessing and privilege it is to get to know them. I am thankful for new missionaries.

2) It is almost on a daily basis that I think about every one of my companions. All of my companionships have been so inspired. Having had 13 companions makes me think that nobody can put up with me, haha I must be a problematic companion! As time has gone on, I have really come to be thankful for and love all of the companions that The Lord has blessed me with. 

Yesterday, as Elder Riofano and I were looking for a couple of less actives, we passed a house.I saw a baby`s swing on the porch and thought, "That must be a nice family that lives in that house." I learned from Elder Davis that those thoughts come from the Spirit, and so my companion and I decided to stop and contact it. A lady came out, talking on the phone, and without even saying hi, unlocked the gate and said "do you guys want to come in?". We got to know her and came to learn that she had never talked to missionaries before, but had heard a lot about us and wanted to know what we shared. We were able to share The Message of The Restoration. It was my turn to teach when we came to the part about Joseph Smith and the First Vision, and I remembered they way Elder Canaán recited the first. Instead of saying "One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!", Elder Canaán would say, One of them spake unto me, and said, pointing to the other—Joseph, This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"

After the great lesson, we were able to set up an appointment to come back next week. I remembered how Elder Thomas ALWAYS asked, after every lesson, "What went well? What could we have done better?" And so I did the same with Elder Riofano. Many times a day I have experiences like that one, where I remember something a companion has taught me and am inspired to follow his example. 

3) I love this place. Today, we went to San Berdardo to do a couple of things for P Day. I was flooded with memories of doing morning contacts in that plaza with Elder Jenks, at least once a week, and then getting ice cream afterwards. I felt love for San Bernardo and gratitude to The Lord for allowing me to serve there. Then, we went to El Bosque to get some things done that my companion needed to get done, and had an identical experience as I felt love and gratitude to The Lord for blessing me with the opportunity to serve there. I commented to my companion today that I only have good memories of all these places in which I have been able to serve. I am grateful that The Lord has allowed things to be that way. 

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers. Keep praying, please. There is still work to be done :)

-Elder Hixon

goodbyes to millaray and la familia silva ortiz

elder araujo

riofano

Belief!

Hi!

I have mixed feelings about writing these last few letters. In AP Lang, we had these things called "timed writes", in which we show up to class and receive a writing prompt, and have an hour to write an essay. While it`s stressful, I think it`s healthy. Good mission prep :) it`s also a great opportunity that I have had weekly to reflect upon the progress in the week (or lack thereof). So, I am going to miss writing letters weekly. I asked Hermana Gwilliam if she knows any missionaries that don`t get weekly letters from home, so she`ll be looking for people that I can write weekly! No offense to anyone, but by the looks of it, it seems like a real challenge to write interesting weekly letters from home :) hahaha. So I look forward to the challenge.

This week was a good week, Elder Riofano and I have been running around all week. Time continues to speed up. It`s not uncommon that I get called to go play piano for some fireside or conference, and it`s just about the same for Elder Riofano to translate interviews and lessons with Hatians. That, on top of a lot of divisions and meetings (who knew that it took so much training to end a mission? haha), we recognized this week that we need to better organize ourselves. So, hopefully there are less locuras in the week ahead. 

September 18! Woo! I`ll admit, it was a very different experience passing the 18th in La Cisterna than it was in Los Olmos. In Los Olmos, everyone was drunk and the streets were FULL. We ate SO MUCH meat that day, so many empanadas, so many cups of a delicious chilean drink known as mote con huesillo. In La Cisterna...we had a great lunch with some nice members, and then went to work anddd the streets were empty. Pretty much went to others parts of Chile to celebrate. Lots of walking, less food. BUT, we finished the night with a family of investigators from Ecaudor who have been progressing a ton. A member also came out with us to the lesson, which was really kind considering the fact that it was a national holiday. We pretty much just shared and testified of the Book of Mormon and The Spirit that brings into our lives, and invited them to read and know for themselves the truthfulness of our message. As I continue learning as a missionary, I have come to feel that teaching, testifying, and inviting others to read the Book of Mormon seems to be the best way to recognize those that The Lord is preparing to receive our message. 

The convenience of the holiday was the fact that many wards had ward activities, allowing me to go by Los Robles and say goodbye to so many of the people that I came to love while I served in that area. I`ll send pictures. Quick revelation. 

My mind continues to be occupied by the thought that The Lord also requires us to do ALL we can do, and then His grace makes up the difference. James E Talmage teaches the principle in Jesus the Christ, as he explains the details about when Christ raises Lazarus from the dead. While Christ already knew everything and needed no human assistance, He only did that which the others could not do for themselves. Some of those things were: Telling Him where Lazarus was laid, having them remove the stone which covered his tomb, and having them also remove the linens which covered his body. 

Consistent in even this story, the Lord`s first requirement before ANY miracle is that we believe. It is a requirement because it is something that EVERYONE can do; it`s a choice. While sure knowledge isn`t a requirement, because that seems to be more of a consequence and less of a choice, belief is an independent principle. We are one hundred percent able and responsible to believe. While it`s true that belief can be influenced, it cannot be decided by anybody but us. The motif is really clear in tons of scriptures, some that come to mind right now are Mosiah 4 and 5, Alma 19(?) and 22, Ether 3, "be not afraid; only believe" "helpest thou my unbelief", and other examples. It`s a great motif that has really made me reflect and introspect my personal decision to believe. 

AND, I LOVED that talk my mom sent last week! About personal responsibility. I was going through a situation that was kind of frustrating, and the talk was exactly what I needed. Thank you for being inspired Mom!

I love you all!!

Elder Hixon

 

Weeds!

Zero time. A bad communication today with my comp, he had one plan, I had a different one, and we didn`t communicate very well. Tried doing both, ended up late. Great. 

Elder Bragg came down and gave a mission tour this week...

...had some GREAT thoughts. He drew an X axis Y axis graph, making 4 quadrants. The Y Axis was labeled "expectations" and the X Axis was labeled "love". He pretty much said that 1) low amount of love with low expectations causes Rebellion 2) Low expectations with a lot of love creates "fraternity"...which doesn`t produce a whole lot, either 3) High expectations with low love creates Deviations, and 4) High Love with High Expectation results in Miracles. 

He also commented that, when a 70 asked Elder Holland what he could do to be a better 70, without even hesitating Elder Holland responded: "Be a Rule-Keeper"

This week we had the chance to do some services for a few widows in our ward, one of those services was a good 3 hours of ol´ fashioned weed pulling. 

I loved it. I will never forget a lesson that Dad taught me one time when I was in trouble and trying to rationalize my poor actions...he said "Go outside and pull weeds, and come back in when you are thinking more clearly. When your hands are working, you tend to think clearer." A little revelation that I had while pulling weeds was that, the prickly ones lose their thorns at the very root. When they were thorny, I have to dig to the very bottom and pull them from the base. At the base, there aren´t any thorns. Obvious life-lesson. 

I´ll send pictures! 

I love you!!

Elder Hixon

For the Love of Comps

Another work week! 

Let me tell you about my companion:

Elder Paul Riofano. Born in Peru, raised in Canada. Speaks French, Spanish, and English. Turns 24 on the 14th!! A day before Calvin turns 12. He´s the 4th born of 5 children. He´s an awesome guy, just a work horse and fun to be around. His personality reminds me of Dayton, which makes things really fun. He´s been a big tool in the mission, he has a special permission to do divs with any elder who finds a hatian who seems to progress but, for the language barrier, needs a translator (a lot of the Haitans speak French, as well as creole). 

I really admire my companion. He just got finished being with an Elder who has a little bit of a negative reputation, and I only hear him say good things about his time with that elder. I have heard him defend other elders who sometimes become victims of backtalking and rumors, always with "Well, I lived with him, and he´s a great guy" or, "he has a few little problems, but..." followed with a strength and a genuine, positive compliment that is greater than whatever issued was being gossiped. Elder Riofano is a friend to all. 

There has been an old investigator in our area book who I have been trying to find since I got in the sector. As I was looking through some of the teaching registros, I saw this investigator´s name and felt like we needed to go by. Her name is Naira. This week, on Monday, we had divisions. I went to one Elder´s sector, and Elder Riofano stayed in our sector with the other Elder. When we met back up on Tuesday, Elder Riofano commented to me: "I went over to Naira´s yesterday, and we contacted another person who was there, named Carolina. We have an appointment with Carolina tonight." 

We went over, and Carolina was finishing up work (the house is also a car detailing shop)...and so we started helping with what we could. I saw Naira´s dad working (I knew him from before, we met one time when I came over looking for Naira), and went to see what he was working on...

He was fixing a piano!! This guy restores, fixes, and tunes pianos! On the side of detailing cars. So. Cool. So, I had fun helping with what I could and learning a lot while Carolina finished the car she was working on. After everyone finished, we asked if we could share a message with everyone present. It was kind of late, but Luis (Naira´s dad) told us to come inside. There was the whole family. Naira was there, too!

Due to time restriction, we weren´t able to share a whole lot, but we were able to share a video and testify of the message that we share. We have an appointment this weekend, let´s see how it goes!! 

Grateful that my companion looked for somebody that I had felt like we needed to see, even though I wasn´t there to suggest it. He made what was important to me important to him. And now we´ve got a new family to teach because of it!

Love you!

Elder Hixon 

Elder Hair

Elder McCane

Elder Brown