Dear family and friends,
It was a great week for our companionship. We had lots of new investigators! It gave us just the boost our area needed for us to keep moving forward. And guess what? It's interesting that almost all of our new investigators came from less active families. Elder Sturgell and I had stopped by many times before, but I guess when Elder Fowler came, the stars just aligned. In our first 6 hours together we got five new investigators! And then even more came later on in the week! I love miracles.
Of all our new investigators we are most excited about these three girls who are 10-12 years old. It was funny though, our first appointment with them was a bit rough because these two other active 6 yr. old boys had lots of energy! Our plan for the next time was to watch the Restoration DVD all together, thinking it would hold everyone's attention. However, it proved to be less effective than we had originally expected. But what happened was, after the DVD ended, the kids started looking in Elder Fowler's bag and they found our picture book. They got pretty interested in that. So I ended up getting to babysit the boys while Elder Fowler taught the girls. It worked great! I think the girls were really able to feel the spirit, have a good discussion, and get their questions answered. Plus the boys learned about baptism and Joseph Smith from our pictures. Win, win. It was funny the next day when we went back. One the boys was like, "I don't want to get in the water" and we just laughed. We were like, "You don't have to." We reminded them that they needed to wait until their eighth birthday anyway. However, the girls DO want to get baptized, and they all ended up accepting baptismal dates. They seemed really excited for us to come back. And the best part is that before we left, the less-active mother walked in. It turns out she is very supportive of everything (even though she didn't let them come to church this week, but next week hopefully!) And the ward is so great. They've already sent the Relief Society over to visit this family too, so that will help a ton! Other than that we'll just wait to see how our other investigators turn out. We haven't had too much of a chance to meet with them yet, but we are looking forward to seeing them this week!
As a district leader I'm really trying to become more aware of the work of the other elders. They seem to be doing well. We actually have a new missionary in our district. His name is Elder Pickering. He doesn't speak Cambodian, but president felt he should be in the Park ward. He’s great. He was actually supposed to be training in an English area this transfer but his companion never showed up. So that’s a little disappointing. I’ve been worried about him and how he would adjust to being in our Cambodian ward despite the fact that he doesn't know Cambodian. But it sounds like he and his companion have worked things out. At church or in an appointment, if Elder Pickering doesn’t understand or if he wants to say something, his companion just translates for him. I talked to Elder Pickering just a little bit to see how he is feeling about everything and he has a great attitude about the whole thing. He says of course he's disappointed he won't be training but he is excited to work with the Cambodians. And he also said that he has faith in the revelation President received. Isn’t that great? I think he's adjusting very well and the other elders are doing great working with him too. They've even been teaching him some of the language a little bit. He can already say a few things. We're excited to have him in the district and we all like him. The ward loves him too (of course!). They gave him a Cambodian name and everything this week! I think things will be just fine.
Also guess what? I met a "Moana" on the street the other day! I was like, “no way.” That’s my grandma’s name. She wasn't Maori, but rather Samoan. She said it still had the same meaning and everything. And she was actually a member too! Crazy! Just thought grandma would appreciate hearing that. I thought it was way cool.
This will be a great transfer! Elder Fowler and I get along really well. It's been fun working together so far. And I’m excited about our district. I think we have a lot of great potential. We all enjoy each other and we work well together. I love this work!Love you all!
Elder Hicken
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