Hola despues de la communion

Today we met with President Soares of the Presidency of the 70. Great man. He´s Brazilian. Surprise: I can understand almost 95% of Portuguese now!

On August 23, 2014 we were blessed to have President Soares with his wife and President C. Scott Grow visit the mission.  They are both members of The First Quorum of the Seventy. 

Elder Grow also came (Mom, he remembered Sunny right off the bat when I met him) and in his talk shared the same scriptures and the same principles as Elder Castro and I in our capacitationes this past month. Incredible. 

Needless to say, praying for the answers to questions, and then listening with faith, produces testimonies and spiritual experiences.

One of my questions was with regards to the relationship between the two Christlike attributes of patience and obedience. Up until now, that has been a big question in my mission. A question I asked my first President and he responded with a "only time can tell" answer. Now I am beginning to understand. It has to do a lot with charity. Everything is un gran giro eterno [a great eternal round] and everything ties in. The spirit makes connections that we ourselves as veil-experienced humans cannot make (such as the comprehension of "eternity"), through the which we can testify of and teach eternal principles to others--always depending upon the connection that can be made if our words invite the Spirit to do it´s work.

Both President Borg and President Soares talked about their wives. Many times I have experienced a type of love that comes from within me, but from a source much greater and much more powerful than myself. It´s a feeling that doesn´t translate well into telestial terms. It was interesting to see my President feel that same big feeling of love and try and let it out. It seems to me that it is most frequent to feel in such a way in concordance with a foreign demonstration of piety.

3 Nephi 19:34

 34 Nevertheless, so great and marvelous were the words which he prayed that they cannot be written, neither can they be uttered by man.

I love the mission. It is nothing like what I wanted, but my Heavenly Father knows me better than I do, and certainly better than I did. I had no idea what he had in store for me. I am beginning to realize that my most wildest dreams are really not as far away as they´re made out to be. 

Love, Elder Hicken