Semanas de exito [successful weeks]

Todo está bien aquí en Jorge Chavez!

We finally have investigators on date!

Bryan was an investigator of E´Jimenez, but his mom (who assists an evangelical church) didn´t want to give him permission to be baptized. Now he is 18, and started going to church because a member in our ward invited him. His mom is en viaje [traveling] and we are a little worried about what she will say or do to Bryan when he tells her he still wants to get baptized. They do not have a good relationship between the two, so we hope to nurture the relationship and thereby receive his mom's permission, even though he is 18.

The Ventura Falcon family is a family of 5, with unmarried parents. They are excited to learn more about the gospel. We have been working with the mother´s sister (who is a member with her husband) to activate her, which ultimately led to the encounter. We hope to put the parents on date to get married, and afterwards be baptized, along with her sister in law and her husband. It won´t be easy, but we will be diligent.

We had an exchange yesterday with the zone leaders. We could do it on a Sunday because we are in the same ward, but it didn't benefit us. Today I am going to spend some time studying what we did, and see if there is anything I can learn from the experience to be a better missionary.  Personally, I have learned the importance of gaining a testimony in the only Christ-approved way: read, ponder, and pray. Any other testimony is short-changed. Sometimes we trick ourselves into thinking that the sandstone foundation will be sure enough.

The president gave me a few sneak peaks in the plan of the Area Presidency. Now I will set aside an extra focus on family history and improving our ward counsel. 

Sé que es necesario que tengamos metas, y después planes para cumplirlas. Pero si estos no están escritos, vamos a tener dificultad siendo diligentes.Sé que el amor es lo que nos da el poder para ser lo diligente que seamos.Sé que el Señor trabaja con la fe y que para pasar la prueba de fe primeramente tenemos que tener la fe para probar. Después tenemos que hacer lo mejor de la que dios nos da en la prueba para pasarlo. Sé que es muy importante no jactarnos de lo que logramos porque nos detrae de la realidad. Si tenemos éxito o no lo tememos siempre debemos preguntarnos ´¿Cómo puedo mejorar?' Sé que si fallamos en nuestro planeamiento, estamos planificando para fallar o fracasar más adelante. Sé que nosotros tenemos que ser diligentes en probar si algo como el evangelio es verdadero. Tenemos que buscar y poner a prueba y dudar nuestros dudas, antes de dudar nuestra fe. Sé que fácilmente nos engañamos a nosotros mismos. Somos hijos de un dios todopoderoso y a veces nos dejamos engañados de nuestra potencial. Se que al estudiar el evangelio con diligencia, ganamos ese vista, y más adelante la potencial.

[I know we need to have goals, and after, planes to meet them.  But if they are not written down, we will have difficulty being diligent.  I know that love is what gives us the power to be as diligent as we want to be.  I know that the Lord works with our faith and that in order to pass through the test of faith we first have to have the faith to try.  Then we have to do our best with what God gives us to pass the test.  I know that it is very important to not brag about our success because it distracts us from reality.  If we have success or not, we always should ask ourselves, "How can I improve?"  I know that if we fail in our planning, we are planning to fail sooner or later.  I know that we need to be diligent in testing if something like the gospel is true:  We must seek, and put to the test, and doubt our doubts before we doubt the truth.  I know that we easily deceive ourselves.  We are children of the Almighty God, yet sometimes deceive ourselves about our divine potential.  I know that by studying the gospel diligently, we gain this perspective, and later, our divine potential.]

I love you!

Love, Elder Hicken

Hurrah for Israel!