Mission Miracles

Dear family and friends,

                We had such a great week. Probably the best of my entire mission so far. Again , we were able to teach a lot but miracles have just been everywhere!!  Elder Sturgell and I have really been recognizing them, and it’s so neat to see how much we are truly being guided and blessed as we strive to do the Lord's work-Things like catching people at the perfect time, finding new investigators, teaching by the spirit, literally being led to where we are supposed to be, or having one appointment fall through but the next thing we know, finding ourselves in someone else's home who was ready and willing to hear our message. It has been incredible! 

                So, for example, one of the investigators we picked up this week is named Heng. We just tracked into him and he actually let us in!  When does that ever happen?!   I think we must have been overly excited or something because we didn't even really get to know him.  We just started teaching him.  We left and felt like there were so many things we could have done better, but we were glad he said we could come back. He actually kept our return appointment and we even had a member present.  Again, it didn't go the best but we were excited Heng committed to come to church! Then to our further amazement he actually came! And get this--Ron was supposed to pick him up at 12:30 but he was late so Heng just got in his car and came all on his own!   Wow!  He showed up with the Book of Mormon and the 3 pamphlets we had given him, all ready to learn.   It was awesome.  He had a great experience. It was so amazing!

                And there's nothing better than a baptism to cap off a great week. The service was absolutely awesome, filled with the spirit!  I was especially touched as Sinoun, Thea's wife.  She got up to give her talk on baptism, and just began by simply saying, "I'm so happy that my husband is getting baptized". Then  she paused and, while holding back her tears, she turned to her children and said "We made it Tim and Oni, we made it".  She then shared an experience in which Elder Sturgell and I were  a part of. In one of our lessons, one of us asked if their newly set up Christmas tree was real or not. To which Sinoun responded and said that for the first time they had bought a real tree because Oni had always wanted a real one. Thea then piped in and said, in his broken English, that it was extra significant this year because their FAMILY was getting real! Sinoun was trying not to cry the whole talk because she didn't want to embarrass Thea, but it was hard for her:) You could just feel that this family was truly being united together through the gospel of Jesus Christ and was so blessed and happy. It's been such a privilege to be a part of it all! Thea is going to be an incredible contributing member. He's already tightly laced into the ward and has his eyes fixed on the temple. We were glad that was mentioned several times throughout the service.

                I just feel so blessed.  I am very thankful for the Lord and His guidance as we strive to fulfill our callings to spread the gospel. Thank you so much for all your support and prayers! It is felt!
 

Love
Elder Hicken