Letter 05/18/2012

¡hola!

 

como estan? muchas gracias para usted escribia me. yo mucho feliz! yo tengo much amo por la CCM. (MTC) esta muy fun and yo aprender mucho! usted muy correcto cuando dicho "drinking from a fire hose" pero yo se que esta mi mision. como fue su semana? yo tengo muchas cosas ..... bleh (Hello! How are you? Thank you for writing me. I am happy. I have a lot of love for the MTC. It is very fun and I am learning a lot. You are right when you said "drinking from a fire hose" but I know that this is my mission. How did your week go? I have a lot of things ... bleh) no more  spanish it is too early hahaha. I have a lot of stuff to do as a Zone Leader. Hmmm.. Sundays I have leadership meetings and trainings all day and when a new district comes in I get to do all the orientation their first couple days. Elder Barnes and I that is. We actually had a new district las week and this week so right now there's 4 in our zone (about 40 elders and 4 sisters). Every night I have to give them all a hug good night. (except the hermanas (sisters) of course) when i say have to, I mean I GET to cuz it's so much fun and so amazing! Last night my ribs hurt though lol I gotta tell them all to stop squeezing so hard :) where did I get my love for people?? man I am not trying to brag but everyone says they just love getting hugs from me haha I'm practically hugging all day. and I've been complimented numerous times by the older districts and the branch preisdency on my love for people. but anyway also being a zone leader we lead the meetings and stuff I dunno. It's not too big a deal but a lot of fun!

 

So one thing I've forgotten to mention before is that I've been singing in the Choir here... haha. It's so much fun! You feel the spirit in such a different, but powerful way in music that you can't in any other way. I'm really grateful for that oppourtunity. I wish I could still play the piano though!

 

...

one of the branch presidency. well actually district presidency. in the MTC it goes Mission Presidency->District Presidency->Branch Presidency->ZL's->DL's. anyway he started talking about an experience he had with another missionary and himself on his mission, which I won't mention cuz I'll probably cry if i do, but it just made me so sooooo GRATEFUL for everything that you have done for me mom. I wasn't really crying over homesickness, just gratitude.

...

well I'm pretty much out of time. Dad, I don't feel like writing one for the blog this week so if you wanna take bits and peices from this email and put it on there that would be great. sorry haha.

 

love you all!

Elder Hicken

Letter 05/11/2012

hey friends and fam!

I don't have much time but I just wanted to tell you all HI and that I'm doing fantastic! hope you all are enjoying this amazing spring weather! I wish I had time to haha :) So guess who's a zone leader as of this sunday? this guy! woohoo... hahah there goes all my free time :) But anyway, I'm doing great. Being a missionary is awesome and has soo many perks! we're finishing up "week 4" right now. isn't that CRAZY? only 100 more to go... hahaha :) well I hope you all have a fantistic week

hasta luego

Elder Hicken

The following is some clips from the letter he wrote to our family:

  so big news... I hadn't even been here a full 20 days before I get my first major responsibility... but as of next sunday, Elder Barnes and I will be our zone's new Zone Leaders... crazy huh? not even here a full 3 weeks, they usually don't put Elders in as zone leaders until their 6th week or so. so we'll be zone leaders for a good 5 weeks! AH! I don't know all my responsibilities yet but it is going to be a hand full. We're going to be losing a lot of our personal time, study time, and class time but our branch president, Pres Stewert (sp? spanish is ruining my english! haha), said that the blessings of serving as a leader will make up for the time lost for study, etc. I'm really excited. It pretty much blew my mind. Well here's a spiritual moment for you, mom get your kleenex's ready. I was sitting in the computer lab sunday just kinda stressed out and wondering if I have what it takes to be out here and if I'm doing the right thing. and I was watching Mormon messages. I don't even know which one I was watching but man out of no where I got this huge feeling in my chest and almost an audible voice inside my head, which confirmed to me that I've got great things in store for my mission and my life, and that Heavenly Father does love me and has a lot planned for me. man. I'm still not as strong as I'd like to be but whenever I get down I just try to think of that moment and I'm pretty much good to go. This church is true without a doubt and I can't wait to share the love I've shared with my family and friends my whole life with the people in Chile. but anyways literally right after I kinda had that moment, Elder Barnes walked in from a meeting (he's been district leader) and said President Stewert wanted to meet with us, and I knew exactly what was going to happen before it did. Man who knows maybe I'll never want to come home. I don't know if I could ever live with out this level of the Spirit and the blessings of being a Missionary. But I'm not perfect. I do get home sick a lot. I miss my girls, my mom and dad, the freedom of jumping on a motorcycling and just flying up the canyon. and I miss my courtney as well. But every night I tell Heavenly Father I'm out here doing his work, and any blessings he'd want to give to me, to give them to you guys instead. Last sunday, there was a Devotional, I can't remember the speaker's name but he told a story of a missionary who came out on his mission with both parents. and both passed away before he got home. I honestly don't know how I could deal with that. But he stayed out on his mission. anyway.

Letter 05/04/2012

hola! how is everyone doing? I'm doing freaking awesome. the work is great! busy, but great. The church is true, Jesus Christ is our Savior and and through his atonement we can ALL return to our Heavenly Father and each other! my time is all scheduled out from 6:30 am to 9:30 pm. It's absolutely crazy! but I'm used to it now! Spanish is honestly the stupidest language! hahaha jk. I love it but the different rules drive me crazy. don't even get me started on conjugations! hahahaha but it's all good. For being here two weeks it's suprising how much a part the Gift of Tongues is of the learning here. (Editors Note: In his other letter he literally described his "Gift of Tongues." He finally got his tongue to trill. He was sure that he would never be able to get the trill down.) My District is awesome. a great bunch of guys! My companion is Elder Barnes, from California. We get along great so that's a good thing haha. Well I don't have much time today cuz I spent all my time writing my mom and dad, so if you have any questions about how I'm doing, ask them or WRITE ME!!!!!!!


anyone can email me but I can only email family. the best thing to do would be dearelder.com and make sure you include a date somewhere and your address! and I'll respond with snail mail on my p-days (fridays) or if you wanna write me some snail mail that works too! getting stuff in the box is amazing :) plus I forgot to make an address book for anyone i'd wanna write so If your're reading this and havent gotten something from me yet and you feel like you should have, write me and then I'll have your address!!


I love you all. thank you for all your wonderful support and love. each and everyone of you are truly amazing and have made a huge impact on my life wether you know it or not! It's not a sacrifice to be out here, it's a blessing and I'm so greatful for this oppourtunity to serve the Lord and his people.


til next time!
Elder Hicken

ps dad, proof read this for me. I don't want everyone to know how bad my english is getting ahahahahahaha (DAH - I didn't. :)