Pardon Me My Good ummm Sir

That was Hercules' first time in the field trying to be a hero and this is my last week of my first transfer and possibly the end to my time in Minot/NDBM. 

Nothing crazy to think about this morning. I did love in Doctrine and Covenants 14:11 where it reads, "And behold, thou art David, and thou art called to assist; which thing if ye do, and are faithful, ye shall be blessed both spiritually and temporally, and great shall be your reward."

Amen. 

I've had a lot to learn this transfer. Learning to be the trainee when my trainer and I are complete opposites has been a little challenging. As I read this though, I think I realized that I need to be a better assistant and follower and let him lead because he's called to be the senior companion and trainer. Easier said than done but we are working on it hahaha. The takeaway for home is that the Lord only seeks our effort and he will magnify us. But we need to put forth effort. Trust God. He trusts you.

Well just now I got up and walked to the car and my hip flexor feels like it's blown up. I hope it's not an over training thing or anything at all because that would be a hard one for Elder Hixon. I don't know if I could handle that right now haha but let's get into this week.

Monday- Another p-day. We went bowling and I won a game! It was fun just to be a human playing again hahaha. 

Tuesday- District council. Still a little snooze but I have to live it so you get to hear about it. But after that we had a few lessons happen! One with a friend named Ms Mcdonald and she's a huge Osmond fan. That's all she knows about the church haha. We met her and she just started talking about them. She went on a trip to Gilbert for a few weeks. Best place on earth! Then we checked up on a guy from a referral and gave him a Book of Mormon. We then taught our friend Abu. He only speaks French so we had a member come translate for us and we brought him a French Book of Mormon. We think his native tongue is Arabic so we want to get him one in that language too. Then we had Bible study and Mateo brought one of his underlings with him. Is that allowed in the military? I don't know nor do I care because it's good for him. We taught him a lesson after and it was good!

Wednesday - This old lady named Sister Jorgensen fed us. We brought Mateo and she chewed him out haha! He has tattoos and no girlfriend and that's isn't ok with Sister Jorgensen so she let him have it. But she's so sweet and nice and said hi to him at church. We then had a lesson with Mateo and the Kingsleys. To get Mateo closer to the ward once a week we do a lesson with a member at their house, preferably. 

Thursday- We served at Matthew 25 again which is a party! We had institute that night and I loved it. But I was a little stressed so it was hard to completely enjoy it, but it was soo good even with that.

Friday- We met this guy who wrestles at MSU. He's super cool and very elect. We will meet with him again this Wednesday. Then we played volleyball for sports night and so many people pulled up. The field is white!

Saturday- We had lunch with this guy who writes the sports section of the paper. He loves wrestling!! Then we gave this lady a blessing. She is hard of hearing and getting older so seasonal sickness isn't passing :( After that we taught our friend Sabastian who's awesome. He's gonna have a kid in a month. Then we taught Martin who's interesting. Hard to tell if he's interested or not. Mateo came with us to every lesson!

Sunday- No one pulled up to church out of our teaching pool :( but the Roses had us over for lunch and then the Shaws had us over for dinner, so it was awesome! Then one of our friends that the sisters are teaching named Audrey painted me a painting because I'm leaving soon. So that was way cool!

Well that's all for this week!

Elder Hixon 

Call me Phil!

Thank you all so much for my birthday emails, cakes, packages and wishes. It made for the best day!!

Another week and time is flying by too quickly, but like every week, I'm learning more and more about aligning my will with God's and going forward with faith. For a week and a half, here's been the daily.

4:55 wake up 

5-6 study

6-7 workout and run

7-7:30 district pickleball 

7:30-11 get ready, eat, personal study, daily plan, companion study

11-9 proselyting

9-10 workout

10-10:30 get ready for bed and go to sleep 

With this schedule I felt like I was doing what was right working my hardest to accomplish what I wanted to do within God's parameters. What I'm learning is that God can only work miracles where we put forth faith. Ether 12:12 teaches us that. So with that in mind and a little spiritual prompting I adjusted the daily to this. 

6:30-7 wake up and run

7-7:30 district pickleball 

7:30-11 get ready, eat, personal study, daily plan, companion study

11-9 proselyting

9-10 workout

10-10:30 get ready for bed and go to sleep 

And we have seen so many miracles this week because of some very minor adjustments. So let's dive in.

Monday- We played basketball basically all day after I had the chance to talk to my family. Then we found 3 new friends! Which is crazy and it was all in the last 2 hours of proselyting. We went out in the rain and hoped that God would see our efforts and he did. But while we were in the rain the people were quite rude. It wasn't until after that we found our friends.

Tuesday- We had district council again (it's a snooze but I am trying to be attentive) and then we went out and we were able to get in touch with a lot of our friends who we had stopped teaching in the past because we haven't been able to get in touch with them. It was pretty cool! We met this guy named Rocky and we set up a follow up appointment through the window. We had bible study and after we taught our friend Dreagen about the importance of the Book of Mormon and the Plan of Salvation. He's elect he just doesn't know it yet. He keeps his commitments so I trust that the spirit will work on him.

And then we put Mateo on date!! He asked me to baptize him on the 28th at 2pm! It was all over the phone because he is still in Texas with his mom.

Wednesday-We taught our friend Raymond over the phone with Cody Jenks (who was my brother Chip's mission companion and lives here in Minot) and the spirit was so strong. We called both of them and just put the phones by each other and it's a miracle they talked to each other perfectly! Then we went out with a YSA in the ward named Lincoln and found 2 new friends. People are out there waiting to be taught we just have to find them. After that we had dinner with the Eagle family and it was so fun. They lived in Arizona for a bit so that was awesome. 

Thursday- We did service at Matthew 25 where the owner lives right by us and has a gym barn. So we will be using that every chance we get. Bye bye pickleball haha. There was a blood drive at the church and I gave blood for the first time. We then went knocking and met this guy named Edwin who says he's a soldier for Christ. He's not a big fan of unified religion. But he took a Book of Mormon and might come to bible study. He's trying to save our souls by helping us make our own choices and not having to listen to our elders. That did make me think of one thing. It taught me that I don't need to always cite my sources when I testify, I can just stand firmly and say what I believe because Christ has manifested it to me. So it was a blessing in disguise. After that we had institute where it's always so fun and we have friends there so we get to stay.

Friday- THE EXCHANGE. So before we get exchanged Elder Lambert and I went to a guy's house named Sean who I'd never gotten in with before and all of the sudden we teach a huge message and I'm able to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon and give it to him. I'm so happy he accepted it. Then the exchange happens and I get to work with Elder busby. He's awesome! *side note* every male companionship in our zone had someone from Arizona. Elder Busby is from Tucson. Elder Holliday is from Peoria and Elder Stock is from Mesa. So Elder Busby and I go out and teach Raymond again and it was so awesome. He has such a strong testimony and it just brings light to my life. He's like a spiritual recharge for me. We then helped this lady move and went to MSU to the college campus to contact. We just walk around campus and talked to people. We helped these ladies take down this pottery event then met a man named Abu. He speaks only French so I used google translate and he said he'd be interested in a message about Jesus another time. We then talked to this guy named Caleb who is a youth pastor. We talked to his wife a lot so it was good to talk to them. We then went to sports night where no one showed up and we were pretty bummed out, so to lift out spirits we went to the grocery store to contact/make pazookies. We were wayyy past curfew when we exchanged back. It was totally my fault. But its all good. 

Saturday- We got back in with Rocky and taught about the Book of Mormon briefly and gave him a copy. Then after a lot of doors not opening we went on the road to go check on a friends house for them while they were out of town. On our way there we went to a couple of small towns and knocked doors for no one to answer or for them to say no. And when I say small towns I mean the only community building is a Lutheran church. It's probably a 2 mile radius town. We then met a guy in our friend's small town and he also took a Book of Mormon. He was super nice. Finally Mateo came home!! Finally he is back in Minot and we've seen him for  the past three days and it's been awesome. We have been planning his baptism. I'm so happy for him!

Sunday- We had church and it was good. Sundays we spend a lot of time studying and then we got to a few lessons and at nights we knock a little. They are still days of work but I feel that it's not the best to bang down random people's doors or bother members on Sundays because that's family day. So we try to have a lot of set lessons and make sure we are ready for next week. Raymond sadly did not come to church. He slept in but we were able to teach him again. Brother Jenks came again and it's always so awesome teaching Raymond. We then went to a YSA dinner and we talked to Mateo more about baptism. 

Now it's Monday and we are going to celebrate Elder Falkner's birthday!! So wish me luck, I'm baking a cake for him. I love all of you guys and I love it here! I'm gonna miss Minot when I have to leave but I will go where the Lord wants me to go! If I've learned anything so far it's that missionary work is two things. one, be the hardest working missionary you can and two, have the highest expectations with incredibly unrealistic faith. Because God does work miracles. I know that personally.

Love you all!

Elder Hixon 

Here We Go!

Hey everyone!! 

We are back and at em' after a good 10 months. I am so excited to be serving the Lord.

This week has been crazy!! I miss everyone but let's get into it.

Thursday - I left my family which was rough but not at first. I was good on the plane and everything, but the flight was not smooth. I left AZ at about 9:30 and landed in Minneapolis at 2ish but our plane had to wait on the runway for two other plans to take off. The problem is that my flight for Bismarck started boarding at 2:50 and was on the opposite side of the airport!! I got off my plane at 2:43 and on the new plane just in time only to have a storm roll in so we were grounded. Finally after an hour we took off and arrived in Bismarck. The mission president and his wife picked me up and took me to this burger place called 'Sickies'. It turned out to be a sports bar but we ate there and I got to watch football and the UFC fight that was playing, so a little blessing if you want to call it that.

Friday - Thursday night I stayed with the two zone leaders over the Bismarck area. They were super funny and we got up early to play basketball. Then as a new missionary I went to MLC which is a meeting for zone leaders and the mission presidents, so I was the only normal guy there haha. After I met my zone leaders, they took me to my area in Minot, North Dakota 2 hours away. There I met my 2 companions Elder Lambhot and Babbot. Elder Babbot doesn't do hugs hahaha. They both have been out over a year, so crazy! We had a sports night playing volleyball where I met our friend Mateo who has been taking the lessons. He is heading to Texas to tell his mom he is going to get baptized which is awesome! Mateo is great because we just clicked. I can talk to him about the scriptures and about life just like my friends at home.

Saturday - This was my first real day and it was awesome! We went out after our morning was finished and ended up not having any of our planned meetings go through until lunch. But it gave me plenty of time to learn how to navigate the PMG app where we record everything. Then we got to teach our friend Jay who only had a few minutes and a friend named Quinn who the sisters passed to us. Quinn had even less time. Since there is a military base in our area a lot of people work or live on base so they are super busy. We then went to go check on our friend Jamal but he didn't answer. But then I got a prompting to knock on his neighbors door and there we met AJ. AJ is super into his church but let us share our message and we gave him a Book of Mormon with our number in it. We invited him to a bible study that we host on Tuesday nights. Pray that we get a response please! We then went on a split with another set of elders and taught Jordan who is on date for baptism. Teaching him was awesome. The spirit was super present. After that we had two member meals and then we knocked on a door by that house where we met Arthur. My companion taught him and then I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and gave it to him. We have a follow up lesson set, so cross your fingers!

Sunday - I wish this was the day of rest it was when I was home but it wasn't. And it was fast Sunday hahaha. We went to church and I gave the closing prayer and then went to YSA Sunday school with our friend Mateo. Then we went to our friends Jayda and Tyshon who are super cool. We had a really long lesson there and I got to again leave them with a Book of Mormon and my testimony. After that we didn't get anyone else to open a door but the YSA ward made us dinner and it was great. We went over to another town in our area and taught a family for a little bit then went home for personal study.

Waking up and teaching and getting rejected so far has been easy. The only hard part is every night I miss my 8 second hugs from my mom and I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry a little every night I thought about them. The 30 minutes I lay in bed before I fall asleep all I want to do is go home. It's like all the sudden 10:30 rolls around and I don't want to be here at all. So pray for me to get over that.

Hope you all are well

Love your favorite elder,

Elder Hixon