Elder Talon Hicken: The Missionary: Eternal Families, Scripture Study, and the power of investigators

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Eternal Families, Scripture Study, and the power of investigators

Well can you believe it's day #30 of being on a mission already? I can't. And as of tomorrow we'll be in our departure month! I'm still so pumped to get reassigned somewhere. Also, I got the package this week! Thank you so much for all of the things I asked for! (especially all those pictures, which are tacked to my bulletin board above my desk now)

I never thought I would miss wearing long sleeve shirts so much, but something about wearing a suit with short sleeves on is unsatisfying.

Well just another fantastic week at the MTC. I just got back from doing sealings with my district. What an amazing opportunity to be sealed for TIME AND ALL ETERNITY! Wow. Can you even wrap your head around the concept of being with your best friend for eternity? I observed the happiest couple today during our sealing session (reminded me a lot of Jim & Roxy Beardall, but with an extra 70 years) and I just got thinking about how blessed we are to have such an amazing opportunity. Eternal families are so wonderful, and provide the perfect eternal learning environment! Of course eternal families are divine, but just take a minute, right now, in silence, to think about being with the individual members of your family for the next 20 years...50 years...100 yeas... 10,000 years... Go.

What an incredible blessing. I hope you really did take a minute of silence. If you didn't, this is your final prompting. (this includes all those who are reading this in groups of families, friends, quorums, etc.)

One thing that has been engraved in my mind this week is the power of the Spirit through silence. When all there is inside your head is your thoughts and the spirit, amazing things happen.

I've decided that before I get engaged, but while I'm holding back from popping the question, I'm going to read the BoM all the way through and study about the Endowment, Sealing Power, Marriage, Families, Relationships, and Parenting examples of the Savior. I've learned that studying the gospel aligns priorities to enable making the right decisions for the right reasons.

I realized that I haven't talked much about the investigators we have been teaching here at the MTC. Just a refresher from Elder Joseph Hicken: these are my teachers acting as an investigator they taught on their mission. Our first week or two we taught "Hermano Gabe O.", the father of an active member family who was never baptized or interested. After we set him up with a baptism date, we recieved two new 'referalls' and started teaching "Hermana Cristi B." and "Hermano Marco A.". Both were members of unwed families (which are incredibly common in Suramerica) but both are "golden investigators" (which are also incredibly common) as was Hermano A. I think drinking from a fire hose might be a more common phrase among missionaries and investigators, but Hermano A. and Hermana B. are both more akin to filling a swimming pool in one of those sponge races we always played at youth conference. So willing and ready to change, while we can barely study enough to effectively teach everything they want to know!

Well I think there are a bunch of missionaries here from BYU as of yesterday, but I haven't been fortunate enough to run in to them yet. (since today is p-day and their first normal day...)

Our biggest problem as a district right now is going to bed after the lights get turned off. All of us have a love and respect for each other that translates into curiousity, which in turn leads to some late nights. (haha, the idea of a late night is so skewed on a mission. Don't worry, we aren't staying up until 5am.)

I've been sharing so many scriptures for so many different reasons with so many different people that it's hard to keep track, so if I've already expressed my love for Alma 17:2-3, you're in for a refresher. If you want to know how to make a missionary happy, study Alma 17:2-3. What an incredible reunion! If you have a missionary you want to be happy, just share with them about your scripture study, fasting, and prayer, and the resulting spirit of prophesy, revelation, and knowlege. And thanks to our new high tech system, you can even write them down and pay a small fee (stamp) to have it delivered right to them! How blessed are we! Just think of how elated Dan Jones would have been to receive a letter that had been written days, not months before (Dan Jones was an early missionary for the Church in Wales)!

The Lord is certainly hastening his work. Relief Society at the MTC now fills the entire gym. (Which also has stadium risers as of a few years ago now) The choir is limited acceptance, and getting close to half and half.

Well, Russel M Ballard spoke to us on Tuesday. That was pretty darn cool. Is there any way to watch (live or recorded) MTC devotionals in the real world? If so, they're great.

I want to emphasize the amazing blessing the Centennial Ward could be if we, the members of it, utilized it. We have an amazing opportunity to have the best ward in the church (with all due humility) however in my missionary opinion, we lack a very crucial part of the church what seems like every week! This crucial element of church, specifically sacrament meeting, is investigators! We don't have nearly enough people coming to church with us to see the wonderful blessing we quite possibly might be taking advantage of! Now I know this was a concern of dear Bishop Miller's, and with the power of that wonderful man, missionary work very well could be flourishing after me being away for only a month, but I want to emphasize the importance of not taking the blessing of our ward for granted. Bring friends to church! Especially fast and testimony meeting! It is your greatest and most wonderful tool for casually sharing the happy spirit that you have as part time missionaries and members of the Centennial Ward!

To young men and women, whether you have decided to be a full time missionary or remain a part time missionary: Love Preach my Gospel. Love it with your whole soul! If you're going to be a full time missionary you don't have any time in the MTC to get to know it, so you better be best friends well before you receive your letter from the Prophet. If you've decided a part time missionary job is best for you, then you have even less time to memorize the principals, doctrines, and methods within Preach my Gospel, because you are already on your part time mission! No MTC for you! Study up! If you think you know everything you need to know, you have got a lot to learn, so study up!

To all those who skipped over the last paragraph because it started with "to the young men and women", Noah lived to be over 700. Go back and read it. You're young in the Lord's eyes.

I love all of you, and my only hope is to bring to your attention the grand potential with which you have been endowed. You have chosen through coming to Earth to take your opportunities into your own hands. "Don't wait for a special occasion. Every day of your life is a special occasion!" -President Monson

Thanks for all of the wonderful support! Pictures later today hopefully!

Love,

Elder Hicken

p.s. Shout out to Bianca McDown and family: Elder Lehman is awesome and I'm so happy for the whole lot of you on a daily basis. May God bless that we can meet someday.

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How great is my calling!

I am called of God. My authority is above that of the kings of the earth. By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my master, and He has chosen me to represent Him, to stand in his place, to say and do what He would say and do if He were ministering to those to whom He has sent me. My voice is His voice, and my actions are His actions. My words are His words and my doctrine is His doctrine. My commission is to do what He wants done, to say what He wants said, to be a living witness in word and in deed of His great and marvelous latter-day work.

Where to Send the Good Stuff

Inspiring Words from Elder Hicken

Feb 21, 2013: Anyone who can't decide about serving a mission, start studying the Atonement with all of your energy of soul. You will not be able to resist the desire to share the amazing effects of a knowlege of the Atonement. As for everyone who has already been on a full time mission, congratulations, you're now a part time missionary--you're not done sharing. If you lack an intense desire to share the gospel, you'd best start studying the Atonement right along with everyone else. If you don't fit in either of those categories, you should study the Atonement. In summary, STUDY THE ATONEMENT! It is so wonderful, so happy, so inspiring, so spectacularly amazing! I know it is because as I study it every day, as I share it every day, as I pray about it every day, my happiness has grown exponentially, my energy has increased in duration, my attention has been refocused, and my desires are being tuned! If you seek happiness, seek a testimony of the Atonement, and the happiness will come with a flood of our Savior's love.

Feb 21, 2013: Fear to take advantage of the scriptures. Be afraid of falling into the category of people Nephi spoke to in 2 Nephi 32:7! But even more so, fear to hearken unto the evil spirit which teacheth a man not to pray. Which whispers "you're too tired", "try it first and then pray", "see if you can do it on your own". If you're ever thinking of praying, you should be praying. Ye must pray always! (verse 9) The ability to do things without prayer is a vice, and a weakness. It is harder to rely on the spirit, than to do it yourself.

May 21, 2013: I only want to share a thought that I had during our Stake Conference this last Sunday. We were singing “Praise To The Man” and a thought came to my mind forcefully, that what I am sharing and preaching each day is true. I know without fail, with every fiber of my body and I cannot doubt, because of this I am made. This is the true gospel, and there is no other way, path or salvation. The happiness that I feel grows each day, and my experiences are helping me in each moment. I am extremely grateful for the gifts of knowledge that the Spirit gives me, and I hope with all my heart that you are feeling a new desire to study, search, and pray with more effort often and regularly. There is no other way.

July 1, 2013: I know that God loves me, that He knows me, such that He puts details in my day that He knows only I would recognize. I know that God listens to my thoughts as well as my prayers, and that He is helping me develop a will similar to His. We please God when we help His children come closer to Jesus Christ, but our most important conversion is ourselves. God takes care of me every day, in a way I cannot understand. I know that Jesus Christ thought of my name, our friendship, when He was praying in theGarden of Gethsemane, and that I have his strength as a support when mine is weak. I love my Savior. I love my God. I have His love for you and I want to help you just like my neighbors here to know Christ. Believe in God; believe that He exists, believe that He has all wisdom and all power, believe that man does not understand everything that the Lord can understand. Know that I believe it, I know it, and I want to live it.

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October 14, 2013: Look for the time each day the Lord gives you to rest, and use it. It´s a gift from God, and he gives it to you because he knows you need it, not because he knows you have something else to get done. Read the scriptures for fun sometimes. Forget about any goal or need you have, and just open somewhere and read. The Lord has control, but only if you let him. Sometimes we want to do so much good, that we don´t let our Savior do anything--sometimes we want to help our investigators so much, that we don't let our companions do anything. But not in either situation does it turn out for our good.

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Dec 23, 2013: The work of the Lord is progressing at an incredible rate. The adversary is fighting to keep up. His work is disgusting in every way, and even worse is that he disguises it to not appear that way. In Elder´s Quorum this week, President Jimmy said that everything Satan does is to divide the family, and he works with the weakest member. Don´t be the weakest! Even better, don´t let there be a weakest! When a family is united in persevering to the end, there is no place for Satan! No handhold! But he has many workers in this world, and he will pull at every seam, and tear at every fray. I testify of the importance of gaining a testimony by way of the spirit. The devil reasons with perfect reasoning. There is no outsmarting the devil, but there is overcoming. We overcome the devil by rising above reason and learning to listen and understand the spirit.

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April 7, 2014: This week I have learned the importance of setting goals so that in the future we can measure our progress. I remember the feelings I felt when Sister Borg explained to us that she can see our progress, even though we can´t see it. It´s like my family: they send me pictures, and everyone seems so much older, though they have no idea. Sometimes we need to look ourselves in the mirror spiritually, compare ourselves with a snapshot from the past and see just how much we have grown.

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July 8, 2014: One thing that I¨ve learned to always ask myself is if I am a blessing or a burden. When I call my leaders to ask for help, I ask my self how I can be a blessing for them in this moment. When I call my missionaries to verify their work, I ask myself how I can bless, not burden them. It has been one of the biggest changes in my life, and I believe it all started with something Dad taught me: whenever you go to a meeting or meet with someone important, always make sure that by the time you leave, they are glad that you were there. I always try to make people really, truely glad that I am there to help them, and never feel like life would be easier if I weren´t there to bug them about an assignment, or get after them for not doing something.

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Nov 15, 2014: Many times it hurts to not have materials for those who need. It makes me think of the spiritual application of the same; the feeling of guilt and pain that one encounters when lacking a testimony to share in another´s time of need is a cringing experience. It is not as easy as asking a companion for an extra pamphlet, or looking for the extra you always keep inside the cover of your scriptures. I urge all who are within the reaching of my words to prepare themselves. There is not much time before the Lord will require your testimony. The days are accomplished that the battle front has disappeared. The enemy is within the walls, and we must sleep on our swords. There is no child too young, no soldier too wounded, no scout too lost, and not one too weak to be strengthened by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We all need it.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Eternal Families, Scripture Study, and the power of investigators

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