So another good week. Elders Fowler, Skidmore and I are really just having a great time working together. However, it's already our last week. Next Tuesday, I get my new companion. I’m really excited and looking forward to it, although I’m still a little nervous. But I also feel like the Lord has been preparing me, especially over the last few weeks. I feel like my language skills have continued to improve, along with my teaching skills and just general knowledge of mission nuances. Thank you for your prayers. They are felt.
This week wrought two new investigators. The first is the father of one of our less active members. His name is Siang. He just seems really open to our message. He's partly blind so reading the Book of Mormon is a bit of a challenge for him. We want to help him. He said we can stop by any time and read with him, so we'll see how that goes. The other challenge is just getting him to church. He obviously can't drive himself, but we're thinking that maybe if we continue to work with his daughter, she'll want to come, and be able to bring him to church.
The second new investigator's name is Sokantir. She's nineteen and is currently enrolled at the local community college. We taught her a first lesson last night. First, we tried to commit her to baptism but she really didn't want to commit to anything yet. Then, we tried setting a date while trying to explain that it wasn't necessarily a commitment but more of a goal to work towards. She didn't want to set a date either. Finally, we tried to get her to just pray, but she wasn't very comfortable with that idea either. So, I really hope we didn't try and force too much on her. We've been counseled a lot lately by our mission leaders about setting a date in the first lesson. We're really trying to do that, especially after having such a great experience with Ry last week.
Speaking of Ry, unfortunately we missed our return appointment with him and he hasn't called us back. Rough. But hopefully we'll be able to contact him here soon and continue to teach him and his family. He's so good. I think if we can get him and his family baptized, he'll just be an awesome member.
And speaking of awesome members, Mony was confirmed yesterday at church as the newest member of our ward. Hooray! She's SO awesome! She has incredible faith. So a funny experience—yesterday at church, we got to teach the 5 yr old primary class because their teacher was gone. Mony’s daughter, Rosa, who is actually in nursery, just came into our primary class because she loves us so much. Rosa started throwing crayons everywhere. Then, one of the little girls stood in the middle of the class with her hands over her ears; one of the boys calmly sat on his seat making noises with his mouth, and the third girl hid behind a chair. It was hilarious. We got things under control, and decided to play "reverent games.” Then we played this other game where you have to close your eyes and follow the Spirit's (Elder Skidmore's) voice. The other kids were supposed to make noise, except, they didn't quite seem to get the “making noise” part. I guess we just taught them about reverence too well :) . Then, out of the blue, the quiet girl who had had her hands over her ears at the beginning of class just came out of nowhere with this perfect "pig " oinking sound! Elder Fowler and I just about died laughing. It was just a fun experience.
Another awesome thing happened while we were at church. Charles and his girlfriend, Sovania and their 2 yr. old daughter, all showed up! Hooray! It was great to see them there. Charles is the one who was in jail for five days last week for driving with a suspended license or something like that. However, it seems to have been a good experience for him because he called us up saying he was ready to step it up in his life. Honestly he hasn't been doing so great at coming to church and stuff, so I guess jail really had a strong impact on him. We basically told him he needs to be living all the commandments including coming to church every Sunday. Sure enough he came and brought the whole crew. After sacrament meeting they said they were looking to get their own place here soon, which was great. But here’s the best part--they know they need to get married first! And then, you’ll never believe it, but Sovania said she wants to get baptized! Wow! And guess what else? Charles wants to get the priesthood! I was just so happy because not only did someone just walk up to us and tell us she wanted to be baptized, (wow!) but I’m glad that Charles is really trying to follow the gospel. We were a little worried about him, but he's really proving himself now. I hope they are able to just take off together! Miracles are great!
Well that's it for this week. We're staying nice and busy! Thank you so much for prayers and support! It truly is felt!
Love,
Elder Hicken
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