Elder Hixon: 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