Chile

Goodbyes were had and Chip has now safely arrived at the Santiago, Chile MTC. We cannot wait to hear from our new elder.

We received this brief message from him when he landed.


Hola!

Landed and am safe in the CCM :) 

Not allowed to make this long, but already had a confrontation with someone who hates the church hahaha. AND GUESS WHO´S SITTING NEXT TO ME! 

Hayden Gehring! Santiago South! Haha we both report today. Wild. 

That´s all. Love all of you!

Santiago Weather though!

-Chip

Week 7 MTC

Well today was undoubtedly the best day of my life. I mean, great day at the temple, very effective P-Day, but then I come in to write my email and the pictures of Oakley were absolutely unexpected, and I am grinning ridiculously right now. I called over everybody in the laundry room to look!! AHHH she's so cute!! What the heck, I've never wanted to be home more than right now! Not really, but ahh dang :) The more the merrier, if y'all know what I mean! I love her!! 

Anyways, the report.

Hannah, I received your Dear Elder Monday night. THAT was rough, mainly because I wanted to write you back so bad, but I could not until today. So expect that in the next few days. Basically, Dear Elder gives me the letters the next day, rarely that same day. And anything sent on Saturday or Sunday I get on Monday night. So. I was dying to write you back that night and was tempted to, but Elder Sheridan, jokingly but seriously said something I found to be both very funny and very insightful. He said, "You can't be tempted if it's not an option, Elder Hixon." That's been the motto ever since. Love that Elder. It's strange, we've spent over 1,000 hours straight together, and it has felt both short and as though I have known him for years! He's an example to me every day. Just last night I came in the room from some shenanigans with Elder Payne and the Czechs, and Elder Sheridan was polishing/shining my shoes. I am humbled that he has been my first companion. In 2 weeks from today, we depart and part ways. That will be rough, but at the same time the likelihood of us being companions is there, if not other ways to work together. And with Elder McAllister. Even though we may not all be in the same country at first! We shall see. Though we have already planned our reunion when we get back, which included clubbing catfish in Utah Lake, going into Elder McAllister's famous "the woods" and some other strange events I cannot recall at this moment.

Mother, you had written me and asked a few questions. I figure you will appreciate these answers immediately, and I'll write you a hand written letter with anything I miss. My shoes are excellent. Seriously, Ecco's are what's up. My teachers all recommended them, and that theirs have lasted through their missions, which is remarkable because we're walking 20-30+ miles a day. They're ridiculously comfortable, and the slip on aspect is great. So, thanks again mom, as usual you were right. My suits are good, I dry cleaned one already, the other I will next week before we head out. At the MTC, you have to wear your suit everywhere, which is why they have gotten dirty. In the field I'll be able to break out those nice slacks and whatnot and we will probably fare better as far as keeping things clean. Though I am a gnarly fan of the short sleeve. Everything else is going excellently, I am not in need of much I think! I am fine on cash, though I may or may not have to use my card for luggage, we will see. I'll get my travel plans this week and have a better idea. I also have some things about your topic, it was an excellent point of study for me this week. If I have time in this email I'll include them, otherwise I will write you promptly and include them.

I am sending home pictures this week, got some with Elder Washburn and Elder Carmichael. 

Get this. So I have easily found every human that I know that has come to the MTC, and so I assumed that finding Elder Carmichael would be no sweat. But by Friday night, I was frustrated. Every time we left my classroom or residency, I was head swiveling left and right searching for him. Nothing. I was mad! He'd be gone before I found him!!! I prayed every time I had the chance that I would find him! But no, no Elder Carmichael to be found. Then, Friday night I prayed to see him again, and started a fast, for that and other things Elder Sheridan and I wanted to fast for. That night I had a dream that I found him in transit from gym to my residency that next morning. When I woke up, I wasn't feeling super great and I sort of didn't want to go to gym (because Elder Payne was going to kill me, again. Seriously, my body breaks with that guy, and with no food I wasn't exactly down to dry heave again!!) Finally, however, we went. After that ordeal (it was fun though, and I didn't dry heave) Elder Sheridan and I were walking back to the residency. Suddenly, Elder Sheridan says, "Let's run." I hardly had a second to disagree or argue before he took off. Not to lose my companion or be beaten by him, I started after him. I obviously overtook him and as I was sailing by, I hear "Jake!! Er, Elder Hixon!" I whip around, and lo and behold, there was the man. I run over to him, and that embrace was overwhelming. I felt like Alma and the Sons of Mosiah already, and we haven't even served our full missions yet! We'd have missed him going into a building had we not run, so I was very convinced there was Divine help. As we quickly conversed, we found out that we live in the same building! He's on the bottom floor, I'm on the top floor (we're on the top floor everywhere. We roughly estimated we've hit 30,000 stairs or more already.) We've had a few nights now to catch up and it has been wonderful. Love that Elder, and he's already showing such motivation and drive from what I've heard of his stay here. Great week all in all. 

But wait, it gets better.

On Thursday night before TRC, Elder Sheridan and I were having an inventory and planning. We talked of some things, and prayed for the opportunity to better serve our district and to find those opportunities. That night, two sisters came and asked us for blessings. The quick answer of that prayer impressed me, and the offering of that service blessed our lives, even though we weren't the ones receiving the physical blessing! Such peace filled the room. Also, skipping around, during that previous planning, we were trying to decide how best to help the members we would teach at TRC. We were instructed to teach from one of the first lessons, for a 40 minutes lesson/discussion. Elder Sheridan and I felt prompted to talk about the first lesson, about the Restoration, but to focus on testimony. We decided to bear our testimonies, and ask our member to bear theirs, then extend some commitments regarding bearing testimony. Then, Elder Sheridan said, "Let's sing in Serbian with them." Elder Sheridan's that cliche music guy sometimes, so I laughed at him and said no. But he insisted, said he felt we really should. So we snagged 2 hymn books and chose "I Need Thee Every Hour." I wasn't too excited, but I decided to go with it. Then, finally, I felt a strange something, and I said, "Elder Sheridan, we are only bringing English scriptures today." He said no way, but I pulled the card of "I let you have us sing!" and I also told him that the translations of scripture in the New Testament in Croatian and Serbian were not Church approved, and while the message likely would still be fine, I felt we should bring our English scriptures. So we did, and we went.

We knocked, and as it turns out, our members for TRC was a sister who served in Croatia a few years ago, and her husband. As we started singing, we found out the she couldn't read Cyrillic. and her husband served Spanish speaking. No worries though, she knew "I Need Thee Every Hour," so we sang in Serbian, she sang it in Croatian, and her husband sang it in English. The Spirit flooded the room, and it was very powerful. It led into a Spirit-led lesson about bearing testimony. We found that we could all participate and grow. We had her husband read the scriptures we had chosen in English, then share what he learned from that, and we would converse with him in Serbo-Croatian, his wife translating, and she in turn sharing with us. We felt we should challenge them to bring somebody less active to church that week, or invite them to. Turns out he is in the bishopric of their Single's Ward, and he knew just who to invite. We then invited them to share their testimony at least once a day, promising them that as they did, it would be strengthened and they would help their loved ones. Not sure where that came from, but the sister got a little teary, and told us she had been praying for answers of how to help one of her non member relatives who was struggling, and that this lesson had been an answer. 

In every way we were led by the Spirit to help others that night, even though we didn't know it at the time. As Elder Bednar said in a talk, if you are doing your best to be a "good boy, or good girl" you'll be prompted and respond to promptings without even knowing it at first, just as you try your best to help.

I have to go now, so I'll write you the rest mom. It was an awesome week, really!

I love you all!

Elder Hixon

MTC Week 3

Hello world.

I get stressed when I start typing! The time crunch is killer! I have been told that in the field we get plenty more time, which will be a relief. To clear a few things, Sometimes (often) I will get letters from the weekend not until this afternoon (that's just how it works) and so I will have letters that I miss responses to in the email. ALSO, I have a three hour window to respond to letters for the week this afternoon, so in some cases, like Elder Carmichael and Callie, I don't get those letters or Dear Elder until dinner time, at which time I am not supposed to be writing anymore for the week.

Forgive me when I ramble. 

So Elder Carmichael, who I will promptly respond to this afternoon personally, asked me for 5 things that I wished I would've prepared better for in the last month of my pre-mission life. I extend my 5 things to those who have longer time than a month.

1. Learn to be perfectly obedient. That was the only advice Max gave me, and I was glad to receive it. I could've prepared in that regard better, but I was very much better off from that piece of advice. Even when the rule seems minor or permissible to ignore (like responding to letters in my free time throughout the week, or emailing outside of family while in the MTC, which some do and I could surely get away with) that is not the point. The purpose of being perfectly obedient is to show our Father that we are willing to obey even the smallest of rules. For why would He trust us with larger tasks and the working of miracles by His Spirit if we did not first display our obedience in the tiny rules? 

2. Wake up. Get used to it, get used to doing things you don't want to. Because the mission is not about you. Learn, through fasting and prayer, how to subject the desires of your body to the will of your spirit. This is perhaps the hardest for me, but I have found that winning the waking up battle makes the rest of them much easier--losing it makes the rest of the day harder. So get into the routine of waking up on mission schedule, being 6 or 6:30 depending on the day. In addition to that, get to bed on time. It helps.

3. Learn how to make effective use of studying your scriptures. They are truly the word of God, and the Book of Mormon really does contain the doctrine of Christ. How could we teach that to others if we aren't even familiar with the book that contains it? And learn how to plead by prayer.

4. Learn that you are nothing without God. That nothing you can say, no facts, no convincing stories, no charming qualities you may have (I've tried this one) will convince or convert anybody more effectively and eternally than that of one who acts solely as a vessel to carry the Spirit. I'll give an example in a bit.

5. Look outward. Learn of the Character of Christ, how even in the midst of His unfathomable agony, He reached out and healed the guard's ear which Peter had chopped off. Look outward, and only by doing so will you find yourself. When you aren't looking for it.

That's my five points, now here's the week as best as I can summarize. Which is hard because we have P Day today, Monday, then we have a bomb diggity devotional on Tuesday nights that always blows me away and I REALLY die not being able to write home about it that instant, then the rest of the week goes by and then we have a likewise bomb diggity fireside Sunday nights and I'm Spiritually drained by the time I get to writing, and I pray and pray that I can write useful things and not forget.

So, last Tuesday we had an INCREDIBLE devotional by one of the Seventy who spoke last conference I believe, his name escapes me but it's written in my journal along with notes on it. He answered prayers I've had for over a year now, and as a servant of the Lord he promised us that, "If we worry about theirs, the Lord will provide somebody to worry about and save ours." (speaking of our loved one s who are less active and/or struggling). It was a confirmation of an answer I received a long time ago to simply not worry about mine, which confused me then but has come full circle now. Mom I will write the details to you if you've forgotten them.

Then throughout the week we just went hard. Studying takes it out of me. The language is so flip floppin hard! 

(Though I do take back my comparison to Chinese, not sure which is harder. Not that it matters too much.) But anyways, we are learning it rapidly, but it's just so hard. I swear every verb sounds the same! And the grammar....yikes. So it's a free language, meaning there are only a few rules to sentence order, and then you can basically say whatever you want in whatever order you want. Which makes comprehension hard, and transitioning from structured English very much hard. We have 4 tenses and 7 cases, cases affect adjectives/objects and such that change the endings of those words depending on its function in the sentence. So saying "I hit the ball to you," and "To you I the ball hit," and almost any variation of that sentence (minus enclitic order, which is the only real necessary rule that I am aware of) makes complete and logical sense, because of the different endings due to cases. And we only shakily know 2 of 7. 

Also, for a couple fun facts, I have discovered how and why some people consider Croatian to be one of the most beautiful languages in the world. Its fluid. Because of this freedom of order, you can say things however and because of that you can change sentences so the flow and sound the best they can. Serbian is more choppy, with mostly the same vocab and same grammar, with differences here and there. The fluidity is as French is to German, Croatian to Serbian. So the Croats can talk very very very very very fast. Serbs can too, but not nearly as fluid as the Croats. So the language is impossible. For me. 

But get this. On Thursday we had our first TRC, which is when volunteers come in from Provo and we teach them, not fake investigators, but actual members as they are. Ours are all RM's and one couple who just moved here from Zagreb and she just took out her endowment cause she was baptized a year ago! So awesome! But anyways, since they weren't investigators, Elder Sheridan and I couldn't exactly plan a lesson as well. 

So we made questions and went in with much prayer the Lord would send the Spirit with us, since we knew the language was probably not going to be there. We started on the first of our 2 20 minute discussions, and the Spirit began rushing in. We could physically feel the change in the room, and suddenly, not because the language switched to English in my ears, but I could understand the woman we were talking to. Not perfectly, but enough to understand and know who she was. In my broken Croatian I asked her questions and tried to address her concerns, and the Spirit had me starting sentences that I didn't even know how I was going to finish, but we did finish them. We bore testimony to her and there were wet eyes and smiles all around. It was incredible. She returned home from Croatia in December, also.

Then our second discussion went similarly. However, at one point the RM asked us why we were here, why we were serving missions. The Spirit compelled me that I should tell him about Dad. I mean, tell him of my love for my Dad, and that he did not serve a mission, and that I was here to make him proud. And I was further instructed to tell him of my Father in Heaven, that I wanted to make Him proud, and to make His children happy. In a few seconds this flashed through my head, and I think to myself, "Yeah good...but in Croatian?" Then I opened my mouth and very slowly, with much thought and effort and hand motions on my part, and struggling, the Spirit brought to my memory the words I needed, most of which I cannot recall now. My broken, broken grammar did not matter, the Spirit was freely flowing. Never have I had a more powerful experience with giving my all to the Lord and relying on Him for what I lacked. I can promise you, anybody reading this, that this Church is true. Not because the people are perfect, they're not. But because Christ stands at its head. Joseph saw what he saw.

If you can find it, find the MTC talk called "Character of Christ" by Elder Bednar. INCREDIBLE talk. Can't say more about it, but if it is unfindable, I'd be glad to expound details. I've never learned so much than I have this week, and I hope it continues. Even when it gets harder than it is (how??!?!) I want it to get hard. Because when it gets hard and we look and reach out instead of reaching in, then the miracles happen.

Love,
Elder Hixon

P.S. Sending my card home with pictures. Elder Payne is down to marry Hannah, so that's nuts. Also, in addition to other answers received in the Temple today, we ran into a man working there who was the mission president of our mission in 1980, over the Eastern Europe mission. Told us of updates in Zagreb and such, was incredibly powerful and not a coincidence!) And!! Brother Morris had his last day teaching us. It was emotional, he was "Goran" our first investigator. He taught us so much about loving the people, and we found that the reason he has taught for the past 3 years at the MTC is because of when he was reassigned to Colorado (don't know if I mentioned that last time.)

Kosovo was revolting, and the U.S. backed them up, and since we are viewed as an American church, it wasn't safe for missionaries to stay in Serbia. So half of Brother Morris' stuff was left in Serbia (he had been in Slovenia to meet with his mission president at the mission home of that time, getting the first boxes of printed Serbian Books of Mormon.) And was transferred with the rest of the Serbs to Croatia, and half of them (including him) were reassigned to Colorado for the last 3 months. 2 were baptized that he taught there, and he says he knows it was the Lord's will, but it was the hardest thing that's happened to him. Others fell away, some, and it was just a test of their conversion to Christ. So he felt teaching the elders and sisters that were going to go to his mission was a way of finishing up what he left there. He has undoubtedly influenced my life, and he (Goran) will always be my first investigator. (We got him "baptized" too. holla.) Hope I didn't forget anything. Probably did! I'll write the other stuff next week!

MTC Week 2

 Hello world!

So, as for answering individual questions that I have received via Dear Elder and letters and from mom to this email, I will write out letters. (Those of you who HAVEN'T RETURNED MY LETTERS OR WRITTEN ONE....get on that. Mail is gold.)

I have 30 minutes to write, and every single day I explode with an "I have to write home about that!" Then when Monday morning comes...I can't remember it all in time.  Then when I sign off, I remember stuff! So I salute all you missionaries who have written good letters, I hope to one day learn the trade.  For now, forgive me.

Hannah you have to marry Elder Payne (The Czech elder who's our bud.)  He's the most insane human I have ever met with regards to a servant of the Lord.  He is valiant, and he is a stud! We do crossfit together up here, and he's set on joining the SEALs....so yeah. He's so awesome. 

So this week was very good. The languages are progressing, I can read Cyrillic and get the gist of what I read, as well as understand a good amount of what my teacher says in either language.  I know 3 of the 5 tenses, and I am slowly working ahead of the class to learn the 7 cases that complete the grammar portion, and my vocab is expanding rapidly (I hope.) Our first "investigator" Goran, who is actually our third teacher Brother Morris (for like a week longer, then he's moving to another job and we get another teacher) accepted the commitment to be baptized! Our last discussion with him was really great, and we understood most of his Serbian, and Elder Sheridan and I have been doing very well at teaching together and with the Spirit.  We used to write our lessons, then split the translations, but that didn't work well.  Now, we pray about and plan out our lessons for whomever we are going to teach, and we write it out together, then translate together.  We speak our language a lot, and have had 2 English fasts (epic fails, but good attempts!) 

Jesus The Christ is the best book I have ever read, I'm only a third of the way through!! I recommend everybody read it, especially those of you getting ready for your missions.  It's incredible.  What else is incredible is that EVERYTHING I read in my personal study will either answer my own prayers for myself or those for our investigators.  It's no coincidence, and it's so real. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.  I love it.  It's amazing! I learned so much about fasting this week, about having a 24 hour fast with a prayer, with a purpose, and then focusing my spirit and mind and prayers on the Lord and on what I'm fasting for, and my body subjects to my spirit and mind! I hardly am bothered by the hunger pangs (a triumph for me). Also, our next investigator is our hardest teacher, Brother Rubisch, as "David," and we don't have any information on him.  It's a door knock meeting, and he's going to kill us :) It's tonight, and it's going to be so gnarly!!! hahaha

A few stories.  Thursday I had a really hard day, my first.  I don't know where it started, but it just was bad. I kept responding "Losh dan" (Bad day) to everybody. We learned past tense that day, and at the time it was impossible. IMPOSSIBLE. And then I didn't have any mail at lunch (not a big deal, but at that moment I was already having a bad day and bad attitude) and I was just being a bum! Then, the Sisters all were so uplifting...I really cannot express how thankful I am for our Sisters.  

They are all so funny and awesome and kind and they bring the Spirit and held their shields for me that day.  Then I got some mail from Nan and Lo and Dad and Kinsey, and it was reassurance to me that God blesses us after our trials.  And then it got even better. As I continually asked the Lord for strength, my worries faded, the language barrier fell away, and Friday I picked back up and also learned the future tense in like 5 seconds.  This language is incredibly hard, but this weekend has been so much of a blessing in teaching me that the language isn't number one priority.

Brother Morris showed us again our purpose as missionaries, and then some scriptures regarding God's call to us. NOWHERE is language even mentioned. He said it will come. Work your hardest, but don't worry. Your top priority is to fulfill your purpose, and the only way you can do that is to learn to feel the Spirit and teach by His promptings.  He told us to make floors, but there's a reason we don't make one big jump from first to second floor, we make steps and stairs in between. I love my teachers. Each are so awesome in their own, different ways and I absolutely love learning.  Brother Morris was in Belgrade most of his mission, with a few trips out of Serbia to Croatia, but then at the end of his mission, all the missionaries were pulled out of Serbia and into Croatia for government reasons and some other issues I am not entirely aware of.  Then, because Croatia was flooded with elders, half of them were reassigned for their last 3 months to Colorado, English speaking.  And Brother Morris was one of them.  Many elders quit and went home.  He told us that it tried everybody's faith more than any other experience, but that he stayed and loved it.  Two people were baptized in Colorado by him, and he said that he felt that only he was able to assist those individuals and only he could touch their spirits with his.  God does everything for a reason, it's our job to submit our will to him and come what may.  

I am so glad to be here, so beyond excited for the weeks and months ahead.  Time still flies by in weird ways.  Days are long, weeks are short.  Apparently the same goes up the line. Wrapping things up, here's something.  All the 12 week languages are now 8 1/2-9 week languages, ours among them, and all transfers in missions are the same time.  I didn't know that.  But, that means I keep my companions out there for 8-9 weeks.  It also means that, we will figure it out out there, but I will either come home the transfer before January 23rd, 2015m or in mid February which I am hoping for.  The date on my proselyting card ends on February 15th. Just some fun facts! It's been amazing here! I love it! The Spirit is my best friend, and the Gospel is amazing. I love my Savior.

One last thing, my mind and heart were heavy, and I had been praying for answers all week, and had been receiving promptings and good feelings, but I felt I needed to continue those prayers. We went to the temple this morning, and nothing was coming (the temple experience was great still.) Then, when we were in the Celestial room, I knew I could receive guidance there. So I prayed and pondered  the scriptures. I received great information and feelings, but not to my prayers. Then, near the end, Elder Sheridan leans over randomly and hands me the scriptures to me and points to some verses. Then, there in front of me, were words found in the Doctrine and Covenants that were God speaking to His servants, and I felt overwhelmed as though He was speaking to me. And the verses answered my desires and brought me such peace and joy that I began to cry. It was the most incredible experience so far. The firesides and devotionals all have been incredible, too much to write out, but this experience this morning was another testament to me that my God is my God, and that He loves me and knows me. 

That's all I have for now! Keep it real, thoughts and prayers and mail are well received :)

I love and miss you all.

Elder Hixon

P.S. Elder McAllister is THE FUNNIEST human I know. Just saying. Saw a few more dopplegangers, but I can't remember them this second, I'll mail them to Nan. Cao!

Week 1 (MTC)

Hey guys!

I'm not sure where to start.  When I left you, I was sad for sure, but once things started moving along, I realized there were nearly 20 other Elders on my plane.  It was a warm thing to see and feel, knowing I wasn't alone.  Then, the Lord granted me another tender mercy.  The lady who sat by me on the plane was returning from Gilbert to her home in Canada, and asked where I was going.  We got to talking, and she is LDS, and it turned out her cousin went to the Croatia-Slovenia mission! She said her and her husband had visited, and they say I am beyond blessed to be going there.  Very exciting and helpful.  Then Papa and Grandma and Aly and Cody and Justin greeted me at baggage claim in Salt Lake, and that was a lot of fun, spending a little time with my cousins and grandma, listening to and laughing at Papa as usual.  He's a riot.  He taught me how to say "Greetings comrade, I am a member of the KGB" in Russian, because apparently that will save me from any troubles.  We ate at Five Guys, a good last real world meal, and then dropped me off on the curb.  I'll have to say I wasn't too scared, just a little.  Then, my host took my bags and it felt literally as though my burdens were lifted.  I was walked into the first building, recieved all my stuff, and that was that.  One of the sisters who was checking me in says, "Elder Hixon, are you from Simi Valley?" I was blown away. "Uh...yeah, how do you know that?" I couldn't figure out her relation to us, but she knows somebody or is related to somebody by the last name of Knight...who has some relation to one of us...not sure what you guys know of that.  To me it was another tender mercy that the Lord was telling me I wasn't alone, and that this is where I need to be.

Then, everything got crazy awesome.  I LOVE MY COMPANION, and my roomates too.  Couldn't have hand picked better. We all get along so well, have similal sense of humor and all are committed to why we are here.  In my district, there are 4 elders and 5 sisters.  That's right.  We are the first district to have more sister than elders.  It's me, Elder Sheridan (my companion), Elder McAllister and Elder Barber (my roomates), and four of the five sisters in our class learning Serbian and Croatian.  That's right.  We are learning both.  Because it is nearly completely likely that we will serve in Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia.  Serbian and Croatian are very similar, just the different alphabets are the trick.  Me, Elder Sheridan, and Elder McAllister are going to the Adriatic North Mission, and Elder Barber is speaking Serbian in the Adriatic South Mission, so he's with us.  Four of the sisters are speaking Croatian/Serbian, and one of the sisters, Sister Flanders, is going to our mission but she is learning Slovene, so she is a solo missionary who stays with two of our sisters except for during class time.  Cause Slovene and Serbo/Croatian are a lot different.  A little more on the language, we've been told that the hardest languages taught at the MTC to learn from English, are 1) Finnish and possibly Swedish if I remember right, 2) our Slavic languages, (Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian, Polish, Slovene, etc.) and 3) Chinese. You read that right. We've been told ours is harder than Chinese.  If I had time I would try to explain why.  Our teachers don't speak English to us.  I think I have heard each use 2 sentences in English, but the rest from day 1 has been in our language.  And we...understand it.  Sort of.  It gets easier.  The gift of tongues is a strange thing...it works if you work hard and have faith.  That's the key though, those two.  It is so so hard, but as we have worked at it and had faith, we are now able to (and do) pray in, bear our testimonies in, and scattered other things in our languages.  And we have taught our first investigator, Goran, 2 times in full Serbian already.  Like, he speaks it at us full on, and we try our best to understand him and share our prepared lessons.  The first lesson didn't go well, like we couldn't understand him well, and we struggled to teach.  But we got him to pray....and the Spirit was so powerful there.  Then, the next day when we came with another lesson, the Spirit was there the whole time. And I could understand almost everything he said! He talked about how he lives in Belgrade, does construction out there but is teaching at BYU...etc.  (He's really a return missionary from our mission at BYU, but he plays the part well.) I also love our teachers. They teach us so well, they are AMAZING! I can't describe the Spirit here....really.  It's a necessity, I need Him always. We learned day 1 to teach simply, as we taught three investigators as a group in english, and we learned that we can't complicate things.  Lucky for us, we don't know the language complicatedly enough to anything else :)

I am short on time, but let me break it down for you.  I receive Dear Elder letters the day you send them, so thank you very much Mom and Lo, that helped me much that day.  I can read those and mail the day I get them. Emails I can read and respond to on P Day, which is Mondays. And on P Day I can respond to the letters.  I can email immediate family while at the MTC, so I only wrote a physical letter back to Lauren.  It is easier to respond than write fresh.  So siblings, you can email me, or write, whichever.  Dear Elders would be best, as I can read them throughout the week and type up a faster response, as I only have 30 minutes of computer time. So...that's that.

I love every day here.  The language, the devotionals, singing with 2500 missionaries, its all so incredibly powerful and worth it. Please, everyone planning on it, get here.  It's incredible.  I'm rambling, but I also ran into Elder Idso, Elder Rogers (Naterbug) and Elder Spencer (Jesse) while here.  Everything is so awesome!! Also, our sisters are amazing.  They really have been a shield and a support to me.  They teach so much and are positive and exctied, they are truly amazing.  They are my adoptive family, my elders and sisters.  I'll respond better to questions, but two last things.  First, in our zone are most of the Slavics, but new with us are the Czechs and Slovaks, who I love because of Bishop. Our zone leaders are incredible and friendly too.  But hear this, the District Leader over the Czechs is an elder named Elder Payne. And we think he is the biggest stud ever.  Seriously, he does everything right and he's built and he's just always happy and we look up to him.  So when things get hard, we just shout "Elder Payne!" and press on. And our Branch Presidency is also more incredible than I have time to write for.  They are amazing.  My Branch President said "This is the only time you have to give your whole soul in service of your God, in perfect obedience.  The time will fly by, so do it right and enjoy it." 

This is where I am supposed to be. And I am so incredibly happy here. I appreciate all your prayers and letters, I love you all so very much! And I will see you soon.

Love,
Elder Hixon

P.S. dopplegangers of the week: Tyler Lockwood was on my plane, Charles Whittmore is in my Mission Presidency, and Si was working in the temple this morning, with a clean shave.