Hola de una semana dura

Todo está bien aquí en San Silvestre, but this week has been especially hard. We strived to do everything we could to honor our fast, focus in our investigators that could be baptized in the coming weeks and months, and applying all of the principles of Preach my Gospel, but we just got packed with problems. At the end of the week, we didn´t have even one key indicator of excellence. I know that as a leader, I need to have a sector that can be used as an example for the members of my district, but their sector is doing better than mine is! I feel like I am helping them in their trials, but I can´t seem to overcome my own. This week I reminded myself that I need to focus more in praying always. I´ll strive to be even more prayerful in this coming week.

Right now we are working tooth and nail to meet our zone goal for October, and E´Walstrohm and I plan to teach an especially prepared reference tonight in a FHE, and set him on date for this Saturday, if the spirit is right. 

One question: My parents and friends have been sending me their talks that they give in sacrament meeting. In the Mission Rules, it says that we can only read and write letters on Monday. Is it ok to read their talks during the week, since they are with the intention to instruct in the gospel, and not specifically to communicate back and forth?

I´m super excited for this week, as we have our multi-zone meeting tomorrow, and we are going to the Temple on Wednesday. But at the same time, I´m a little nervous because we had a lot of appointments in the mornings those two days that now we won´t be able to get to until this coming week. But maybe it will help us focus on the people that really need our focus to be baptized this month.

I´ve been thinking a lot about the process of faith, thanks to E´Claros, and I can tell that it´s going to be a major changing point in my mission. I´m determined to keep track of where we are in the process of faith with each investigator from now on. What I really need is a dashboard for each investigator. My mind is basically programmed to think about how technology can help us in our needs, and can I just say that I am so excited for technological privilegios to aid us in the work.

Well since you should be sufficiently submerged in the spanish language, here´s a little bit more to go along.

Yo sé que la oración es la comunicación con nuestro Padre Celestial, y que siempre nos escucha, y siempre nos contesta. Sé que cuando vivimos de acuerdo con las leyes y principios eternos, tales leemos en las escrituras y aprendemos de los profetas, recibiremos bendiciones in-nombradas. Sé realmente que no hay ningún obra más importante que la obra de salvación, y que un enfoque en ésto nos ayudará edificarnos sobre la roca de Cristo. Yo amo ser misionero, aún que es sumamente difícil. Nunca he tenido desafíos tan grandes, y tan numerosos. Por la primera vez en mi vida, no sé cómo hacer lo que tengo que hacer, pero sé que mi Salvador sabe, y que me ayudará, me guiará, y me fortalecerá. Él me conoce, y he sentido sus ángeles a mi lado, y sosteniendo mis ánimos, mi espíritu, y mi esperanza. Testifico que las escrituras son nuestro guía en todo, y que por escudriñarlas, ganaremos una esperanza, y tal esperanza se volverá en una fe tal grande que verdaderamente podemos mandar en el nombre de Cristo. Estoy en la obra, y les invito que me puedan juntar, con el fin de predicar el evangelio, perfeccionar a los santos, y redimir a nuestros muertos. Testifico que Cristo vive, y está dando prisa a su obra. En el nombre de nuestro Jefe y Salvador, Jesucristo. Amen.

[I know that prayer is communication with our Heavenly Father, and that he always listens to us, and he always answers us.  I know that when we live according to the eternal laws and principles, such as reading the scriptures and learning from the prophets, we will receive unnamed blessings.  I know really that there is no other work that is more important than the work of salvation, and that a focus in it will help us build upon the rock of Christ.  I love being a missionary, even though it is extremely difficult.  Never have I had challenges so large and so numerous.  For the first time in my life, I don’t know how to do what I have to do, but I know that my Savior knows, and that he will help me, will guide me, and will strengthen me.  He knows me, and I have felt his angels at my side sustaining my excitement, my spirit, and my hope.  I testify that the scriptures are our guide in everything, and that by searching them, we will gain a hope, that that hope will turn into a faith so large that truly we can command in the name of Christ.  I am in the work, and I invite you to join me with the purpose to preach the gospel, perfect the saints and redeem the dead.  I testify that Christ lives and He is hastening his work.  In the name of our Leader and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.]

Love, Elder Hicken

Hurrah for Israel!

Hola cortita plus Eagle Condor Blog

Dear Mother,

Honestly the most important thing to me are pictures and feelings. I´m so happy to talk to Kai about how much better he is than I was in regards to his relationship with you and with the Lord at this point in his life. He definately has many of the same charicteristics as I do, and I am happy to tell him what I wish somebody had told me. 

I´m glad you understand that my number one priority is your wellbeing, and that I hope not to increase your stress level, as you have said. 

I´m not sure if I´ve already told you this or not, but you are in a different world. The one and only thing that is exactly the same here as in the world we came from is your divine potential, and that relationship between you and your Father in Heaven. I testify that he listens to and answers your prayers, just as he listens to and answers the prayers of our Savior on your behalf. I testify that just as our church leaders mention our names; the Hicken Family (o la familia Hicken) in their presidency meetings, ward councils, stake meetings, etc., our Father in Heaven and His Son, converse in union of our needs, prayers, and how they can bless us on an individual basis. 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. 

Thank you for the blogs! I´m going to print them out, mainly to have the pictures, and also to save reading-writing time right now.

I´m so glad you´re sharing the gospel! See what you can do to help out the missionaries! I don´t know if you can offer to have a lesson in your house, but it´s always more spiritual in a memeber´s home. 

[Excerpts from his letter to the mission president]:

Todo está bien aquí en San Silvestre!

Thank you so much for giving me another transfer here in Las Flores. I love it here, and I am loving it more and more every day. All the members tell me to request that I stay here until I finish my mission. I told them it´s up to the Lord, but they should feel free to contact you to put in requests. Let me know how that goes. But really, I love this ward. Things seem to progress slowly when they only have time to work in the work of Salvation at night and one day out of the week, but slow and steady wins the race. We are helping our ward become worthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The day before yesterday Elder Walstrohm and I were looking over our logros [acheivements] for the week, and looking at our metas [goals], and there was a gap that didn´t reflect our efforts during the week. I sought the spirit, and suggested that we spend an hour and a half on Sunday practicing inviting to baptism using the Book of Mormon, to strangers. We ended up with less time than expected, so we found two priests and did splits. In a little over an hour, we taught 12 lessons, gave away 6 Books of Mormon, found 19 new people to teach, and invited 8 of them to Baptism. Two of them accepted a date as well! The Spirit directed our thoughts, and confirmed our plans, and then aided us in our work to achieve a goal according to the will of the Father.

Elder Walstrohm is progessing! I have to admit that I am completely confused by who he is, how he thinks, how he acts, and most of all why, but I feel that the Spirit is beginning to develop his talents and fortify his abilities to bring to pass the work of the Lord. I am learning so much in regards to helping him learn, giving him opportunities without leaving him out to dry, and preparing an environment in which the Spirit can help him invite people to come unto Christ. 

I´ve finally been given the opportunity to receive blessings for being a leader. In all honesty, the last six and a half months have been the only months in my life without a leadership responsibility since I was 11 years old. I have grown dependent on the blessings we are given to help us lead, teach, and inspire, while magnifying our calling. I am learning more than I can believe, and E´Casanova is right there with me, to inspire me, help me when I need it, and to understand me, as he was called as a district leader only one transfer ago.

I can feel the promises in my Patriarchal blessing, and I am fortifying my understanding, experience, and ability in the work of Salvation.

Well time´s up! See you next week!

Love, Elder Hicken

Hurrah for Israel!

Hola de Cambios

Todo está bien aquí en San Silvestre!

I´ve been thinking a lot these past few days about logros, and I took out all my agendas from my sector here, and I´ve decided that I need to make a potent change, and that potent change is a forward-progressing viewpoint. I´m not sure exactly how I´m going to change as of right now, but it´s a work in progress. I spent some time on my knees late last night, and I feel good about narrowing down the number of ´conocidos´ by putting them in the ´futuros investigadores´ category. It´s going to be a long process, as I estimate I know and have taught more than 150 investigators in this sector over the past 6 months. It seems like a large number, but really we should be contacting 10 nuevos each week, and baptizing 10%.

More than anything, this week I´ve come to realize that I´ve got no hope except obedience with exactness. I believe that shadow of decreasing logros is cast by an increasing tolerance for disobedience. But I remember how good it feels, not only to be obedient, but to lead others to obedience, and I am determined to make a potent change, now.

Elder Walstrohm is doing great! He is learning fast, and took a huge leap for better this week. I´m not sure why, but he´s started talking! I´ve always struggled with letting him talk, but he´s begun to talk before I can! It´s such a great feeling that it´s going to help me let him speak even more. Sometimes miracles are so small, but so crucial.

We´ve had lots of miracles in these past weeks, and we´re looking forward to working with what the Lord gives us, and letting the people excercise their free agency to follow, or to be left behind. Those who come to church, will be prepared. Those who don´t, are part of the 9 investigators we should be dropping each week.

Ok, I want you to think about three things, and if you would like, I would love to hear your repsonses. How do you feel about your personal efforts in:

1. Using your prayers as tools to change your will into that of the Father?

2. Reading the scriptures in order to invite the Holy Spirit to change your thoughts, words, and accions?

3. Attending church meetings, and focusing more on fortifying the testimonies of investigators, less actives, and recent converts, than on passively recieving blessings of the Spirit found in the church.

Conference was wonderful! I hope you feel how important it is to be involved actively in the work of the Lord. 

Moroni 9:6

 6 And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor ^adiligently; for if we should cease to ^blabor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.

The work is not yet finished. Carry on, my beloved bretheren, the prize is yet to be won.

Love, Elder Hicken

Hurrah for Israel!

Ho...(hola, pero cortito [hola, but very short]

It´s going to be short this week! My computer got shut off and I lost everything... sorry!

Well Elder Walstrohm is doing great! Yesterday he told me as we walked to an appointment: 

     "Me encanta éste barrio...pero, ¡no puedo decirlo!" [I love this ward, but I can't say it]

     "¿Porque no puede decirlo?" [Why can't you say it?]

     "Porque sí lo digo bastante, ¡me van a cambiar!" [Because if I say it too much, I'll get transferred!/

I´m so glad that he is learning to love the work, and especially that he is learning to love my ward. I do think of it as my ward, as I´ve seen it grow so much. 

This past week has been full of the Spirit of Elijah. We´ve been teaching everyone we meet about family history, and our ward deemed September índexing month. Yesterday I fasted to receive revelation for my sector, and I realized that the Lord had answered my fast through my own actions while I was fasting. I am sure that the Lord wants his ward San Silvestre to focus on the Spirit of Elijah. At first my understanding was that we needed to focus on family history and indexing. But after eating dinner in the home of the second counselor in the bishopric, I came to understand that the spirit of Elijah is more than the living worrying about the dead; it also includes the young ones taking care of the elders. Our ward is focusing on helping the seminary students come to seminary. In order to do so, the primary kids are going to visit them and share their testimonies and sing hymns. What an inspired idea. Also, our ward recently was reorganized to have a new bishopric, all of which are young members. Our stake president as well is young. Our ward mission leader was baptized less than a year ago. The spirit of Elijahis what is making our ward work. 

The Lord is preparing for the second coming of our Savior.

Today we had a strict training on making better goals; goals that we can and WILL acheive. We have a goal to baptize Claudia and Francisco this coming month. This goal is a covenant with the Lord to do all we can to bring them to the waters of baptism. We are determined to be faithful to the salvation of those the Lord has given us.

Family history is the best! Work on it for me while I can´t! The new familysearch.org is the bomb! I don´t know who is doing the next family reunion, but make family history a big part of it! With how complete our family history is, we´ve got to start training the little ones now, so they´ll be talented enough to find the ancestors that we can´t, once they grow up! I promise that the blessings that will come will be so widespread and plenteous that you will not be able to keep track of them all, but when you make the attempt, you will be overcome with the love that our savior has for each and every one of us. You will be filled with the desire, energy, and ability to continue his work, and you will come to understand more plainly how important you are to your Father in Heaven.

Until next week!

Love, Elder Hicken

Hurrah for Israel!

Photos from Elder Hicken

...with captions to come hopefully next week (?) ...

or make up your own...that can be really fun.

Such as...

 "Tracting all day...Must escape the stinky feet"

"Our new apartment"

 "So much for No Food in the Library"

 "Feed the Birds, Toppins a bag..."

 "So, if I touch the pole here, I'll be translated?...riiight."

 "Olive...the other reidneer"

(I wish we could zoom in to see that dog!)

 "It's not caffeinated, I swear!"

 Preaching the gospel to all creatures of our God and King

 (I got nothin...is this a volcano shot?)

 "I'll trade you a sandwich for that camera!"

 "YES!  I way out (notice the Salida sign).  These little people have been keeping us for days (notice the kid clutching his leg)"

 "Just a friendly game of rock, paper, scissors"

 "The Peruvian solution to Road Rage...use your inside voice"

"Studying Lehi's dream"

 "It's called Petro Americana....is there a reason it's so vacant?"

 Yikes

 "Eeny Meeny Miny Moe"

 "So Booth was standing where?"

 "My closest thing to Peanut Butter"

"Excuse Me, Excuse Me, Excuse Me, WILL YOU LET ME OUT OF HERE!"

"I found this letter, signed with my name and everything.  What a coincidence."

...or something like that.  You can add your ideas in the comments.

Hola de Hoy

"Sometimes God needs to chastize His servants the Missionaries" - Elder Whitton

Todo está bien aquí en San Silvestre!

We didn´t have any of our investigators in church today, which was a little bit of a let down, and we´re having trouble applying what we´re learning when we can´t get into the houses of our investigators to teach them! But we´re working on applying what we can and trusting in the Lord to do the rest. Personally, I´m confused on why he keeps giving us work to do, when we can´t handle what we´ve got! 

After our Cornelius a few weeks ago (who works from 8am-11pm in his internet, which is always full, so it is very difficult to teach him), we haven´t stopped getting references from Elders, members and investigators, even though we haven´t been asking like we should, and yesterday E´Lopez told us that a family came to their ward asking to meet our bishop and get a priesthood blessing and be baptized. And they live in our sector. We must be doing something right, but as of now, I´m still trying to figure out what it is.

We plan to refocus on a few investigators to teach in a way that looks forward to attending church on Sunday, and makes it a more important part of teaching them. One way we are going to do so is having more lessons with members, utilizing our new ward mission leader, and by preparing the investigators to receive revelation in church classes by teaching them the basics of that week´s Gospel Principles lesson as part of the missionary lessons. That way in the class they will be full of more ´how?´ questions and not ´why?´ questions.

Just to clarify, this isn´t normal, even for ´south american missionaries´. Our sector is the best one in the whole mission, which is the best in the world, so natually our sector is the best in the world. But really, we are so blessed that there is not room enough to recieve it. And I don´t even have tithing to pay...

We´ve been formally asked by our Bishop to teach the missionary lessons to the less active members of our ward, focusing on the kids who are of seminary age. I know our Bishop has the power to recieve revelation in order to take care of our ward, and I am appreciative to be a part of fulfilling his needs. 

This morning I got a letter from Josh and Brynn! Super cool to see and hear a little bit about Hong Kong! So crazy how spead out our family is! 

This month we´ve been super focused on working with members, specifically the leaders. We´ve been instituting the Obra de Salvación, instead of the Obra misional. Let us know when you start talking about that!

Love, Elder Hicken

Hurrah for Israel!

Hola de 5 minutos

Todo está bien aquí en San Silvestre!

This week we had an intercambio [exchange] with our district leader, Elder Condori. He is great. We can feel that he really loves us and is worried about how we are doing. I went to Zarate, and Elder Condori came to San Silvestre. Their desafío [challenge] in Zarate II is that they don´t have investigators. I love finding investigators, and we did a pretty good job! E´Leon is quite nervous speaking to people he doesn´t already know, but he is conscious of his weaknesses, and he is working on turning them into strengths. (Ether 12:27). He is a great missionary with a lot of potential.

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

This week we didn´t complete a whole lot of our goals. I think I personally got distracted with the work, and forgot to focus on specifics. For example, we visited more than usual of our investigators, but we didn´t set anyone on date, and we didn´t meet our goal of investigators, or less actives in church on Sunday, even though we had our stake conference.

Right now we are working with Alida and her husband Ruben, but we are having bastante desafios [quite a challenge] with getting to actually teach them. Alida just gave birth to her first child, and is having complications. We have an appointment today to talk about a priesthood blessing.

Sorry it's short this week! I´m honestly not sure what happened with the time!

Elder Hicken

P.S.  I remembered what happened to the time, I have been talking with the mission president about doctrine, and I had to look up a few scriptures. Sorry! More next week!

Love, Elder Hicken

Hola de Sunburn City!

Hola! Sorry to fake you out like that, but we´re writing on Tuesday this week because we got back late yesterday from Cañete! We had a blast! 

All of us in the bus on the way to Cañete:

 E´Claros, E´Thorup, E´Isaguirre, E´Oroscco (I think?), E´Reed. 

Next row, E´Condori, E´Leon, the isle, E´Walstrohm (behind my head), E´Whitton. 

Next row, E´Burgos (not pictured), E´Warren, me, E´Urrutia.

Cañete!

A cheap lunch in an expensive restauraunt. 

We ordered portions of everything instead of ordering a main dish, then went to the market and bought palta and bananas. It was soooo good. I have a better picutre on another elder´s camera... for me, portion of rice+portion of yuca+portion of salad+avocado+banana=an amazing lunch for only 14 soles! (the cheapest main dish, chicken and rice, was 16 soles)

Todo está bien aquí en San Silvestre!

This week was a little rough for me right at the beginning. I was pretty heavily stressed out, though I´m not exactly sure why. I think I felt a lot of pressure with helping our investigators progress, while teaching E´Walstrohm, while worrying about being more obedient in our dormitory, and trying to work with our ward to work in the Obra de Salvación. I´m doing great now, but it was a rough Monday and Tuesday, as I was trying to make some time on Monday to write a letter home that I´ve been procrastinating for too long, and it didn´t end up happening.

We´re getting to know our sector, as well as the new elders in our zone a little bit better! Today we went on a big Pday trip to Cañete and had a great day in the sun, playing fútbol and spending time together.

So we just had the person running our internet café ask us how he can ´pertanecer a la iglesia´ [belong to a church] and if we had an invitation to give him. Luckily for us, our Stake Conference is this week, and with General Conference close as well, our stake made flyers, and I had one to give him! So we´re going to meet withVladimir on Wednesday at 8pm. We also invited him to check out mormon.org, since he has plenty of time in front of a computer each day.

We love the new way of reporting our work with less actives! I have been working as much as possible with less actives during my time here, and it has been our main source of success. Personally, I feel that I have been prepared by the Lord more to reactivate than to baptize. But as I have made sure to explain to E´Walstrohm, the more we work with less actives, the more we baptize. We just seem to run into miracles when we are focused more on being a blessing to our ward, than being able to baptize someone new.

E´Walstrohm and I are progressing in the First 12 Weeks, and he is doing wonderful. He has memorized the Missionary Purpose, our Comission, the key points of Lesson 1, the process of commitment, and the baptisimal invitaition in PMG. I made a web chart of everything I feel is the most important that a new missionary should know, and I am curious to know what you might think of it; if I should add anything, or revise it in any way. It has 4 main points, and right now we are focusing on two: PMG is everything, and things to memorize.

This past week we introduced Edith to a member across the street, which belongs to the other ward. It was an idea from E´Eklof, and it worked wonderfully. Even though they are in different wards, I believe that they will end up being great friends, and a great strength in standing firmly in the Gospel of Christ.

Right now we are working on Francisco, who is a little confused on how he can be baptized again with the authority of the Preisthood, even though he was baptized before, and the bible says ´one baptism´. He is 62, and loves to talk, and has a great testimony of the Lord, but we have to explain really well for him to learn. We´ve recently discovered this iceberg, and hope to ´melt´it this week, in order to help him set a goal date for his baptism.

Ok, just to share a spiritual thought, have you ever studied the Hymnal? Usually we don´t really think about the Hymns being scripture you can study, but they are! And they´re powerful! And once you study a Hymn, you come to love it, and it makes it even more powerful in terms of the spirit when you sing it, or listen to it. All of the Hymns have a scripture reference in the bottom corner to explain why we sing the hymn, or in other words, in which doctrines we should focus our thoughts when we sing. The Hymns bring the scriptures to life on a whole other level.

Well that´s all there is time for!

Cuídense! Love, Elder Hicken

Hurrah for Israel!

breakfast this morning! I made one of the boxes of Mac and Cheese, but I couldn´t resist experimenting, so I made it Mac´n´cheese a lo peruano. Yum.

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)