Easter and Discipleship

Lots of thoughts to unpack this week so hopefully this makes sense. 

Elder Park andI have had lots of prayerful and inspired conversations about what is missionary work, what is a mission, and what is our purpose. I know in Preach My Gospel it says we are called to invite others to come unto Christ by receiving his restored gospel, faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, Baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end. It doesn't say who needs these principles or the one right way to invite them. For the past 8 months I've been going out and inviting those who have little to no knowledge of the restored gospel to learn of His divine mission and to have faith in Him, but what about those who need help enduring? Or what about those who don't understand that the Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses all God's children (final principle of lesson 3)? What is the best way to have people gain a curiosity about His church? 

We started by listening to what the prophets and apostles had to say. Elder Bednar gave some great insight about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He says that 'we' are the gospel. The ordinary, typical natural flow of our lives will bring more interest and curiosity than any invitation we can give. We just need to focus on being natural authentic disciples of Jesus Christ. After that, we began to study what Preach My Gospel has to say. There we see that if our efforts are paired with ward members they will increase exponentially. As a ward member I did not have the experiences or knowledge of enduring or the blessings it brings to others. After that we went to the scriptures to find examples of the greatest conversions, one of my favorites is King Limhi's father. What drove him to curiosity was the light of Ammon and love he naturally showed. That changed the course of his mission. Ammon's natural ability to serve and love and bring that to the Lamanites converted thousands!!! All he did was serve, and after his service was finished he was given the opportunity to teach.

We are trying to apply these principles in our missionary efforts. This week we spent ample time looking for service and working with ward members. We helped some with their ministering assignments, visited and called those active and inactive members. Next week we are going to work to build stronger relationships with the prospective elders. The blessings on our own souls have been huge and I know that God will work mighty miracles in this area just like with the Sons of Mosiah. 

Nothing else super crazy happened this week except EASTER!!! It was amazing to grow my connection with my Savior as I studied about his life and pondered on what he'd have me do. All my favorite words about the gift of Christ's life, atonement and death are in a BYU speech called "There Must Needs be a Christ" by Kyle S. McKay so give that a listen!

Love you all,

Elder Hixon

High Love and Boldness!

This week was a blast!

We had six people come to church, and two of them were members who hadn’t been since they moved from Ecuador. We helped them find the Spanish-speaking ward and got them connected with the sister missionaries there. More on that later!

This week has been powerful in helping me understand my individual purpose for serving a mission. You’d think that after working 11 months to get out here, I’d have a clear reason—but honestly, I think I mostly did it because my parents love me and wanted me to. Or at least, that’s what I think happened—I don’t really remember the exact moment. But it’s kind of like keeping commandments: at first, we don’t always know why, but we trust that God loves us and wants what’s best. Later, after we act in faith, we receive a witness and understanding of why.

So for anyone who doesn’t know why they should serve a mission—you’ll figure it out on your mission.

The end of Mosiah and the beginning of Alma have been especially meaningful in helping me understand both myself and God. I might’ve mentioned this last week, but I’m saying it again because it’s that important—I need to keep hearing it and maybe someone back home needs to hear it again.

The words Alma uses to describe himself and the sons of Mosiah hit me hard—the joy they found in being able to change. We are not who we were, and we’re not meant to stay who we are. The path to follow Christ is a path of transformation. And that’s the miracle: that we can change. Jesus Christ atoned for us and died so that we could be made new.

How incredible is that?

It’s taken me way too long to start grasping it, and I still don’t think I can fully put it into words. But I know this: because of Christ, I can change. And now that I’ve tasted the immense joy that comes through Him, I find myself deeply concerned for the people I’m called to serve here in England.

The importance of being a missionary has never felt more real to me. Without the gospel of Jesus Christ, these people may never know the joy that life can hold—and that thought truly saddens me. It reminds me of the sons of Mosiah, who said they "could not bear that any human soul should perish." Before I understood what repentance really was, my own soul was miserable. I had moments of giving up—thinking, What’s the point if I can’t change?

But then, one night at the MTC, the Spirit hit me so powerfully, and for the first time, I truly began to understand repentance.

I remember a woman in conference once said to replace the word repentance with “I love you.” That confused me at first, and maybe I’m still not smart enough to fully grasp it—but I believe that Christ calling us to repent is His way of saying exactly that: “I love you.”
Repentance is Him knocking at the door. It’s His invitation to experience true change and exceeding joy.

It’s kind of like going to the gym. The best part is the transformation you get to see. And once you start to see it, you want to tell everyone to give it a try—because you know from experience that change is possible. You have a testimony that if someone shows up with the intention to grow, they can. So you speak boldly because you know it’s real.

And that leads me to boldness. Boldness comes from testimony. But now, I’m realizing that high love is where the real effort begins.

Yesterday was Palm Sunday. The Church’s study plan had an invitation: “Open your heart to greater love.” I know that as I grow in love for the people I serve, my efforts will deepen. And when I combine that love with boldness, I’ll start to understand the first great truth of heaven.

In Elder Holland’s words:

“My brothers and sisters, the first great commandment of all eternity is to love God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength—that’s the first great commandment. But the first great truth of all eternity is that God loves us with all of His heart, might, mind, and strength. That love is the foundation stone of eternity, and it should be the foundation stone of our daily life. Indeed, it is only with that reassurance burning in our soul that we can have the confidence to keep trying to improve, keep seeking forgiveness for our sins, and keep extending that grace to our neighbor.”

Love you all! I hope this week is even better than the last for each of you.

Elder Hixon

Arizona!

ARIZONA IS GETTING ANOTHER TEMPLE 🤯🤯

Elect people over there, I swear. So exciting!!

This was a pretty wild week spiritually—even before conference started. I had some really meaningful personal study time where I took a step back and really looked at the miracle of change. The kind of deep, lasting change that only comes through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

I realized that I’ve been using the Atonement—leaning on it—without fully understanding what it is. Without the Atonement, true change just isn’t possible. We’d be stuck—perpetually caught in sin and torment with no way out. Alma the Younger lays this out powerfully in Alma 36, and Mosiah 27 hits just as hard. It's humbling stuff.

In even more good news: another friend accepted the invitation to prepare for baptism!
The path may be narrow, but we can do our part to keep the gate wide open. I’m so stoked for him. Watching someone begin this journey never gets old.

Also—we just got back from a district trip to London and it was an absolute blast. (And no, I’m not already in London—despite what people assume. That’s about as deep as the explanation gets.)

I got to see Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and the London Eye. It was super fun getting to know the zone better. We sang with Elder Paz and Sister Numbers, and basically played bumper bikes the whole way around the city. Core memory unlocked.

Conference weekend!
We watched two sessions with this sweet older sister in the ward who’s homebound. She’s hilarious—conference ended, and boom, football came right on. 😂
I LOVED the theme of repentance this conference. The whole thing was centered on change and preparing to meet God—and honestly, it hit me deep. There’s such peace and purpose in knowing we can change.

Also... Elder Paz exchange!!
Once again, me and Elder Paz were out finding the elect. We ended up teaching this woman and her 11-year-old daughter for about 20 minutes. It was so powerful—deep gospel truths were flowing, and the daughter had some seriously amazing questions for being so young.
I love that guy. Every exchange with him is fire.

Gotta go love you all!!

Elder Hixon 

All Good Things!

I just got cooked in basketball, but this week was epic!! Second week in Kingston and the best district council of my mission!! No offense to anyone who led one of my District councils, you're all great but this was just an extra great one. 

Elder Park and I have been working this area to the bones this week! We had 5 wonderful friends decide to accept a date to be baptized! Elder Park has been making amazing food and the workouts have been absolutely beautiful. I feel like I'm truly growing in all ways and I'm being stretched, but it's perfect. One of our friends who's going to be baptized is a boxer! So we got to chatting a lot. I also got a super surprise visit by the one and only, Butlers! I'm so happy they made time to take me and my companion out for dinner. It was so awesome to catch up with them. It's awesome to hear about all you guys and how you're doing back home! One of the best things I've found on my phone is stubz baking channel. 10/10 gotta go check it out!

This week I also had an exchange with Elder Beller. That was epic! We taught some great lessons and worked the highstreet a ton. We taught one lesson and sadly one of the ward members was being ummmm a little silly you could say and his answers just matched up with what our friend who had never heard of the gospel before and we couldn't stop laughing. You couldn't make it up, he didn't hear what she said and gave her answer word for word . The flat is awesome. It's just so funny, there is nothing else to say about it. Everyone works hard and has fun. Can't ask for anything else!.

A scripture down!!

Elder Anderson invited us to memorize 10 scriptures. I could cop out and go with the ones that are already memorized for teaching but I decided that I could memorize 10 scriptures that really are close to my heart and the first one I picked was 

Alma 36:24

"And from that day until now, I have labored without ceasing that I might bring souls unto repentance. That I might bring them to taste of the exceeding joy of which I did taste. That they might be born of God and filled with the Holy Ghost"

Love you all!

Elder Hixon