Hi! Ok let's get straight to the good news of the week! Jo got baptized! It was truly a wonderful time, it reminded of Mateo's baptism. It was just really good :)
Now I want to share one experience that has brought a lot of light to my life long journey toward authentic discipleship.
The week before Jo got baptized his dad Paul came to church. I got to meet him and he is super nice and he loves the Arizona Cardinals! But other than connecting and talking a bit I didn't get his number or anything. Then he came to Jo's Baptism and he came over and said H
hi to me. We started chatting and I found out he likes to go running. (I am not a good runner but I have run a lot because of boxing). So I told him we should go running sometime. I naturally get very excited about things and I have heard it can be contagious because he started to get excited as well. So we went our separate ways with no plan in place. After the baptism I walked back over to him and I asked him what time he would like to go running. He said tomorrow morning at 6. Now this was a Saturday so the next day was Sunday. One thing my Dad has taught me since President Nelson's talk about the Sabbath day is asking myself what is my sign to God. Ever since I really learned what he meant, I have never justified another activity on Sunday, I have done things that show God it is His day. With that in mind physical exercise is not something I normally do on Sunday, however I knew my purpose, I knew the sign I was showing to God was not about staying in shape, it was about caring for one of his lost sheep. So I say awesome and we plan it and my only goal is to make another friend. To make a genuine connection because Jo has become a genuine friend. And so we meet up, we run over two hills back and forth so Elder Fenton can be in sight and sound, and we just start talking as we are running. Talking about everything. We talked all about my life experiences, what his advice is and naturally it led to how I became a missionary.
As the conversation flowed I taught him the entire restoration including the different witnesses of the Book of Mormon and the beauty of how it testifies of Christ. I told him that I truly was converted from reading the scriptures every day, and he said he is going to start doing it. It was a super spirit filled time. One of the biggest on my mission, and it all started with the desire to be a true friend. That is something my mom taught me.
I was thinking the other day about something I shared in my farewell talk. It was about when I was 11 and my scout group had only 3 people. I loved them but there isn't a ton of games you can do with so few people. I expressed my concerns to my mom and she simply said, "start making friends and invite one to scouts". So I did, and the friend that came has taught me more lessons about missionary work than anyone or anywhere else. Cash came to scouts and became one of my best friends. After a few months his family (who at the time was less active which I didn't know) started to come to church and they were reactivated. One simple, and in the words of Elder Lambert "woefully inadequate" 11 year old boy looking for friends got to partake of the fruits of the gospel.
It's taken me all of my short life and 7 months on my mission to truly begin to understand this principle. Because of this family, I will never forget the importance of making friends again.
Once again all my love to you guys!
Elder Hixon
