Elder Talon Hicken: The Missionary: Hola de un Papá

Monday, September 2, 2013

Hola de un Papá

Weekly summary in spanish:

Éste semana bautizamos a Edith! Yo estoy capacitando a un hijo, y el va a tomar el sector al fin de su capacitación. E´Eklof se fue éste cambio. Yo amo al Señor! Hoy dia vamos a ir a jugar bowling en Larcomar! [This week we baptized Edith! I'm training a son {they create a “family” line with trainers so if you train someone he becomes your “son” and you become his “father” and apparently this grows to having grandpas and uncles and brothers. This did not exist in my mission. There is a corollary when sister missionaries train, too, of course. But this is why his subject line says “Hello from a father”} and he is going to take over our area at the end of his training. Elder Eklof left this transfer. I love the Lord! Today we are going to go bowling in Larcomar!]

Elder Walstrohm is doing great! He is learning and progressing, and we get along great! Right now our great weakness is el horario [the schedule]. Mostly getting to bed on time. But we´re working on it.

My Companions, Elder Walstrohm and Elder Witton

Elder Walstrohm has a great talent of following the Spirit in lessons. He doesn´t talk a whole lot, but when he talks, it´s simple, presice, spiritual, and always seems to fix their ´duda´ [doubt].

Edith´s baptism went great, and even more important, she was confirmed yesterday morning! She felt the spirit, and expressed her testimony, and seems to be filled with a new light and a new peace. We look forward to our appointment with her this week to talk a little more about the life of Joseph Smith.

Baptism Pic with Edith

We have been fighting to figure out and repair the water heater for the baptisimal font, and we finally have everything worked out! Now the last thing is to help our Bishop get a copy of each of the 7 keys we need to have a baptism.

I was companions with E´Whitton for a week and a half, and it was super cool having a companion from the states! I love Latinos, but we are different people. I can learn spanish, but I can´t learn el ser latino [to be a Latino].

Elder Witton and the security guard's box

I got the package! Thank you so much! This morning I finally had the chance to read the letters (we can only read and write letters on Monday, even though I have them all on my shelf! Self control anyone?) That´s super sad that they took out the honey, root beer, and PB. Mostly the honey. Thank you Kai for sacrificing! I have heard that you can find PB in the supermarkets here, but probably not so much there in CM.

Sierra! Your blog post made me so incredibly happy. You are the bomb. I love you so much and I hope you take lots of pictures, and make lots of blog posts so I can read them!

Lily! I love you so much, and I hope you are loving your new world in spanish! Every time I see books for kids in spanish, I think of you and I wish that I could send you them so you can learn to speak spanish in a fun way!

Renen! Shoot, I can´t imagine what your brain could be doing if you´ve let it loose here in Perú. You´re so intelligent, especially in an engineering sort of way, I can only imagine what you´ve taken to in your new playground! Just don´t forget to learn spanish while you´re at it! You´ve only got 4 months! You're the bomb and I love you, and I hope you are having tons of fun in CM!

Kai! I´m glad you are looking forward to talking to me in spanish! Or in other words, me alegre que tiene ganas a aprender castellano! I love your letters that you send me, and the ones that I got in the package! I love you, and I hope you are finding tons of spanish speaking friends in CM! Does everyone there ask you to take them back to the US? Haha.

Familia entera: You have such a great responsibility in the ward there! It makes me so happy to think that you are going to result in the transformation of a ward into a stake of zion. Not a stake as in a group of wards, but a stake in the sense of the scripture that commands us to strengthen our stakes.

An exerpt from a letter to the president that I think you would like to read:

I just wanted to add really quickly my experience with reading the Book of Mormon. When you challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in 2 months, I felt a strong impression that I needed to heed your invitation with vigor. As I kept thinking, I realized that the Spirit was telling me I needed to read faster. After a simple prayer, I promised that if the Lord would help me, I would finish the whole Book of Mormon in that change, or in a month and a half. After promising with nothing more than Faith that the Lord would provide a way, I figured out that to finish in a cambio [transfer], I needed to read about 19 pages every day, not including Sundays (we have church at 8:30 so we don´t have personal study time). I also figured out from experience that I can read 20 pages in an hour. So I read like my life depended on it. And more or less it did, because I promised I would finish in a month and a half. And the Lord provided. In various ways, he provided the means by which I finished the Book of Mormon exactly at 9:00 the morning of the change.

I can´t describe the miracles of how I came to finish, and even less of the many times that my reading blessed me and my investigators. Several times, I used the chapters that I had read that very morning in the lessons with our investigators that evening.

Through reading the Book of Mormon according to your invitation, and the personal modification I made with the Lord, I have been overcome with the Spirit, and have experienced, yet again, another change of heart. I love the Lord. I love my Savior. I understand Him better now. I feel a little more of what he felt. I know He knows me. I am grateful for the details, which He places in my way to guide me closer to Him. I love you, as a servant of the Lord, and as an instrument through the which he has blessed and guided me.

I´m so different, and it´s so wonderful. I´m trying my best to change, and it´s hard, and it´s worth it.

Well life is great, and I´m enjoying the blessings that the Lords blesses us with daily. I´ve learned a whole lot this past week, this past month, and I´m looking forward to learning even more! I´m falling in love with the work, which is something I have really been wanting to do for the past few months! I have been filled continually with the light and love of Christ and I love sharing it.

E´Sagostume and I. Lo maximo, él... (my old ZL that left two changes ago)

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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.

Monday, September 2, 2013

Hola de un Papá

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