Jan 6, 2014

First off, Feliz Día de Los Tres Magos (3 Kings Day). Pretty sure this holiday is bigger than Christmas was... Weird. This week went by really fast! I think I say that every week... So second off, we have a baptism set up for the 1st of February with Erick Palacios. I have been teaching him since the 1st or 2nd week I got here so it is amazing to finally see him progressing and getting his family to church. They actually gave us a ride to church so we didnt even have to pay for the combi to get to church this week! :) They blessed his baby and gave him a name in church yesterday so that was a really neat experience. He told us that he wants our less active ward mission leader Tomás Avila to baptize him so we were pretty stocked about that! Reactivating and converting at the same time. It doesnt get better than that! :)

 We had 5 people with baptismal dates for this sunday, but only Erick came. It was okay because we went after and put 5 more days right after church yesterday. I am pretty confident that these people will start progressing. My comp and I are going to do everything to teach the importance of going to church and repentance so that they do what they gotta do so that they understand that this big change they do in their lives isnt for a few weeks, or a few months, or a few years even, but really a change that they are going to be making for their lives! 

The 5 people are Max, Irais, and their 8 year old daughter named Melani. I have also been teaching them forever but finally they are starting to read the Book of Mormon, and they are now willing to go to church every week. They just didnt wake up... My fault cuz I should have called them before church. The other 2 people are Roberto and Erika. They are really nice people. Erika is super awesome, she is really like a CHAMP (haha that word again) and is in 2 Nephi something, she is starting the Isaiah chapters. She also told us she got an answer that the BOM is true in a dream that she had. And she wants to get married to Roberto but he is a lot more difficult. He is honestly one of the coolest guys I have met but he has a really stong character and he gets really angry really fast. We taught one of the most intense lessons ever last night with him and Erika, we almost lost them, but listening to the Spirit, I just testified of all the things I was grateful for to have the Gospel in my life and then invited Roberto to baptism, he said no. But with a little persistence and faith, the Spirit touched his heart and said yes! We still got a lot of work with them but I absolutely love them to death!!! 

This week my comp and I want to invite the biggest number of people we can to baptism so that more people can recieve those blessings! :) It is such a privelege to be a missionary to be able to invite others to be baptized. Nobody else in the whole world has that privelege! Gotta enjoy it while I can for the rest of my mission. ;) 

New Years passed by really fast. The only different thing we did was have a dinner with the Martinez family. They are CHAMPS! ;) I finally got my turkey that I was waiting for forever ;) The funny thing is that we ate it with salsa instead of gravy. Oh well, I am in Mexico after all! :)

Well, that was basically my week. Looking forward to this week too, should be full of blessings and hard work! Have a great week. I sure love you all!

Elder Hixon

Ps... The pictures are of the Martinez family and the turkey. And my district. Dont we look happy? :)

Dec 30, 2013

So just like Ben said in his weekly letter nothing much happened after Christmas. There are tons of people that are out of town for vacations and it is really hard to find people to teach! But, my companion and I are still working hard of course and doing what we can!

I was very happy on Sunday because Roberto and Erika came to church with their two little boys... Not sure if I have mentioned them in a previous letter but they are pretty awesome people! Roberto really likes me cuz I am American and says that he loves the way things are done in the US and says that he likes me for that! He calls me ``Hixon``. No Elder or Hermano like almost every other person. He always is just like... ``Thanks Hixon`` or ``I will say the prayer Hixon``. Its pretty great! Anyways that was the first time in this area that I have had investigators go to church more that one time! This was there 2nd time. We taught them about the Law of Chastity because they arent married and Roberto doesnt really want to... But after we taught the Law of Chastity, he ws like ```Hixon, does that mean that we cant go to church if we arent married?`` I just said that of course he was always welcome to come and that his family needs to be in church! They came :) We are hoping that next week we have even more in church! 

Today we recieved our weekly letter from President Egbert and it said that our weekly standards of excellence are being changed from 20 lessons with investigators (members present or without members) to 25 lesson a week. Also from 10 lessons a week to teach less actives and recent convers, we have to teach 15 lessons. That would be 40 lessons a week! He seriously is always pushing us and trying to make us better missionaries and better representatives of our older brother Jesus Christ! 

I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve! I hope you all have a Happy New Year and that you make 2014 a better year than it was this year! We will be becoming better people together this year! Weird to think that tomorrow is my year mark that I got my mission call!! I remember that day really well! I went surfing that day and a ton of people came to our house for the New Year! What a fast year! I am almost positive this year will pass by even faster, so lets enjoy it! 

Love you all,

Elder Hixon 

Dec 16, 2103

So to start off, I am a very happy and content missionary right now! :) The mission has changes tomorrow, but for the first time in 3 cycles I dont have changes and my comp doesnt have changes. So I will be here in the Plazas ward here in Tizayuca for at least 6 weeks more. I am really happy about that because we are starting to see progress in the ward! The only Elder that has changes in my district is Elder Beck. So he will be going to his 2nd area finally! He has been in his area since we got here to Mexico. Since I started in Molango... Weird to think that.

This week wasnt great as far as numbers or lessons go. But the ward activity we planned turned our to be a huge success! I was very happy. We had 4 families of investigators there in the activity and I was very happy to see the ward getting involved. It was a ward activity celebrating Christmas and honestly I just felt so happy the whole time and are really happy to be serving a mission. I hardly even think about not being home for Christmas! The only thing that really stunk this week was that none of the investigators that went to the activity made it to church this week! So of course, back to work with them and with the people in this ward!

Elder Vazquez and I have a goal to baptize 3 people in January. We are going to do it. We are going to do it cuz we love the Savior and we have faith in Him. It wont be easy, but anything is possible with the Lord on our side! Oh and cuz im training my son... No, jk! I failed to mention last week that we will be singing as missionaries in our zone later this week, not sure if it is Friday or Saturday, but our stake will be having an activity and we will be singing Christmas himnos and there are quite a few white guys in our zone, including Elder Christensen that sings like an angel. Anyways, last monday, we practiced and sang in parts and it sounded so cool! Singing is so much fun and I am so excited to do it this week! Also on wednesday, JOSH´s birthday, we are having a Christmas devotional as a zone with 2 other zones and with President Egbert and his wife. Oh yeah and speaking of Elder Christensen, we did division this week and it was so much fun! I loved being companions with him back in my last area! :)

Quick story about my mission mommy.... She is the best btw! So anyways, I called her on Friday morning telling her that our stove thing stopped working and we couldnt find one here in Tizayca. She was like, ´´oh no problem, I will just go to Walmart tomorrow and buy you guys one!´´ I said haha okay, and then told her we would go pick it up on Monday. Then she told me ´´no, I will bring it to you tomorrow morning!´´ I wasnt about to deny that offer so the next morning she brought us not only one electric stove, but 2! (with a pan, and a spatula) And then on top of that, she asked us if we had laundry! Of course we did, and so she took our laundry and cleaned it for us and then brought it back that night after our ward activity. And THEN she made us banana bread! :) The banana bread tastes exactly like moms, so I was super happy! Honestly, best mission mom ever! I will send a pic of the activity and of me chowing down on some banana bread. You will be able to see the sick watch tan I am developing! :) 

This week should pass by super fast with the zone devotional on wednesday and the stake activity this weekend. Cant believe it is almost time to call you all! I remember thinking about this time of year sitting in the MTC thinking it would never come... Its here! I love and miss you all, keep working hard cuz I sure will be! :) Happy birthday Josh! Cant believe you will be 17!

Until next week...

Elder Hixon

Dec 9, 2013

Holy cow, so this week once again went by so fast! So I got to admit, the Christmas season is nothing down here like it is there in the United States. Every 5th or 6th house has lights out. If that... But to be honest I havent been really missing it as much as I thought I would. I was missing thanksgiving more! This week went pretty well as far as the work goes... We finally had investigators in church today! It was a family we found on Tuesday. It was a reference from a brother in our ward who is a champ! His name is Hermano Olivo and actually his whole family is awesome. But he gave a reference to this family, the Sanchez Figueroa Family. The dad is Roberto, his wife (kinda, they arent married officially) Erika, and their two boys. (7 and 5 years old) But seriously, I was just really grateful to be able to teach these people this week. Erika is more interested, Roberto is kinda just doing it so his family is better. But Erika is reading the Book of Mormon and is really enjoying our visits. We taught here about 3 or 4 lessons this week, and only found Roberto in the house once so we werent able to put a baptismal date on them but hopefully that will be a story for the next week! :)

This week we also found Erick Palacios in his house. We have been visiting him ever since my first week I got here to Plazas, Tizayuca. He will get baptized eventually, I am almost positive. He just had some trainings for work on Sunday like 5 weeks in a row and so he wasnt able to come to church. Now is wife is super pregnant and is expecting the baby basically whenever haha! So I am thinking another week or two and he will be going to church again. He only went once! He is a champ though, we have taugh him basically every thing and also his wife who is less active. They have even been talking about getting married in the temple so I am just really excited for them :) 

It is still hot down here. I put on sunscreen every day! The sun just burns like crazy. It has no mercy! Especially for a white boy like me.

Yesterday, I got to watch the Christmas broadcast, I really liked Elder Nelson's talk. I love how he just focused his entire talk on the Savior. Also the pictures of Jesus got to me as well... Honestly, the whole reason why we feel happy here on this Earth is because Jesus is our Savior. He is our example, and should be our best friend! The best gift that anybody could ever give us is the Atonement He gave to all of us! Also, yesterday Elder Vazquez and I had the opportunity to give talks. Our topic was obedience. I based my talk on the talk given by Thomas S. Monson that he gave in the April general conference of this year, it is titled ¨Obedience Brings Blessings¨. It is so true that statement. The talk basically talked about how every law we need to live, every commandment Heavenly Father gives to us is a blessing. It is not something to limit us, but rather another commandment to live so that He can bless us! For example, the Word of Wisdom, if we live the Word of Wisdom, we will be able to live happier, healthier lives. It´s so simple! But because we are humans, we dont always want to obey. President Monson also said in this talk,¨this life would be so much easier if every one of us just obeyed every single commandment.¨ I feel like that is the same for our trials, if we endure our trails well, Heavenly Father will bless us due to our obedience and diligence and we wont have to stress about not doing the will of the Lord. 

I think that has been my focus of this week. Really trying to align my will with the will of the Lord. I know this is a lifelong commitment, but I know that as you and I continue to do this we will be able to become better children of our Heavenly Father. I testify that as we become more Christ like every day, we will be able to accomplish exactly that. We will align our will with the will of the Father. Just like Jesus Christ did! He was ALWAYS obedient, He was ALWAYS humble, He NEVER complained, and He NEVER did anything contrary to the will of the Father. I know Christ is our Savior and I am so grateful to be able to represent Him for these 2 very short years! 

I love and miss you all very much, 

Have a great week!

Elder Hixon

Dec 2, 2013

So first off, good news I got my Christmas package, it came a little early and I got it on Thanksgiving day so I was very grateful for that. This letter will be really short cuz I hardly have any time at all! This week really flew by.... Tuesday we had a zone conference that lasted from 10am until 5pm and it was absolutely awesome! Our zone leaders, sister Egbert, and president Egbert all gave us good trainings and I loved every minute of the conference! Every time I hear president speak he makes me want to be a better person. Then on Thursday I had a Leadership Training Meeting and all the District Leaders and Zone Leaders from the entire mission were there and I learned a ton! :) Basically that I should probably learn to be a little more charitable! I honestly feel that when we develop charity for ALL the children of God, all the other attributes of Christ follow.

This week I read an old conference talk given by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin. I suggest that every single one of you find it and read it! It is called, ´´Come What May, And Love It´´. Honestly that talk makes me want to be the best, happiest missionary ever so I know you can apply it to your lives and be better people for it! :) 

Just so you all know, it is super hot here still during the day. I forgot to put on sunscreen on day and got pretty burned. :/ At night it is super freezing! So and am really grateful for the new sweater I got from Grammy! Thanks :) We didnt have investigators again in church but I still am happy regardless of what happens. We are starting to see progress as far as the leadership goes in the ward. This week we actually have a meeting planned where it is going to be my companion Elder Vazquez and I, the ward mission leader, and the bishop! So little by little things are rolling down here. I am just glad to see progress :) We are planning on having a ward mission activity for the 14th of December so we hope we have lots of success with that! 

No this week I didnt eat a thanksgiving dinner but I sure learned a lot and honestly I didnt even think about missing out of the dinner anyways! :) I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week.

Love, Elder Hixon

Nov 25, 2013

Cant believe that Thursday is Thanksgiving! The time is passing by so fast. I know I say that every week, but it is just so true! Exactly one month from today too, it is Christmas. So we will all see how fast this month passes by! So this week was full of blessings and awesome lessons and studies!

Monday after 6 we went and had a FHE with some less active in the ward and they had a video of mormon messages and in one of the messages it said that there is somebody that is going through a harder time than you! I knew that Heavenly Father was talking to me directly saying that I shouldnt worry so much thinking about missing Thanksgiving and that all He needs me to do right now is focus on the work! President Egbert is awesome too and wrote us a letter last week saying that it is super important to work, work, work! He is a really great example to me for that reason. He literally does not stop working! 

Tuesday we decided to visit the Delgado Family which is an active family and when we got there the parents werent home and the son Moroni, yes his name is Moroni, invited us in and told us that his parents would get home soon. We said yeah and we waited. We waited for about 35 minutes and I felt like I was just losing time, but I kept getting an impression that we need to teach this family. Well, finally the family got home and we started to teach them. About 5 minutes after the opening prayer, there was a knock on the door. It was one of their neighbors. Her name is Maribel, and she is very nice and we only had a little bit of time to talk to her cuz she had to go, but I knew that she was the reason why we were to be teaching the Delgado family. We are planning on going to a FHE with the Delgado`s tonight and hopefully they invited Maribel :)

Wednesday we worked a lot and at the end of the day we found a lady that had been baptized but never confirmed. There are plenty of those down here in Mexico! :( But I was excited to find her and try to reteach her so that she can be rebaptized and confirmed! We dont still have her records in the system so we GET to rebaptize her. 

Thursday the assistants to the president joined Elder Vazquez and I in our studies. It was pretty awesome. Before we studied together, Elder Loza one of the assistants just talked with me in my room about how I was doing and my district. I was just telling him how I didnt want to plateau as a missionary and that I wanted to keep progressing. He told me that I have progressed a ton, (Elder Loza was one of my Zone Leaders when I was in Molango), and he told me that one the Lord knows I am ready to progress, he gives me another assignment as a missionary. It is true because when I was starting to feel like I was getting comfortable as a missionary, I was made a District leader and then when I got used to that, I am now training. So the Lord has been giving me more and more responsibility to help me progress. It was really great to be able to talk about that with Elder Loza. Then in the afternoon we had a meeting with our bishop who is a monster by the way! We had a meeting in his combi, a combi is like a 15 seat van. It was pretty cool. We just talked about investigators and stuff and he is just a really cool guy! 

Friday I really enjoyed my studies and found out that the sons of Mosiah served their missions for 14 years. That is like 7 missions. My 2 years are NOTHING! But I was grateful to read that because it makes me want to work harded with the little time I have here in Mexico. We also got some delicious tacos to end the night after working really hard! So while you all are enjoying your Thanksgiving dinners, I will enjoy so super delicious Mexcian food that you cant find in the US! :) 

Saturday was pretty awesome, we taught a super powerful lesson about the Book of Mormon to a sister who is really Christian. She had a lot of doubts and I was never quite sure what to do or what to say to cut out all her doubts. So what my comp and I decided to do was to just reteach the Restoration and to just focus on the Book of Mormon. So basically we taught one of the most spiritual lessons ever with her and my testimony strengthed a ton just by testifying over and over and over again of the Book of Mormon. It is a true book, no doubt! I love it!

Then on Sunday, we didnt have any investigators again at church. I was a little sad again of course, but it was the Primary Program this week and that cheered me right up! It was pretty awesome, but not gonna lie the people down here, especially the kids cant sing very well! Oh well, they make me feel like I can sing like an angel! :) The biggest miracle happened there at church though. Almost at the start of the 3rd hour, a maned entered the building and his name is Jenaro, and he told us he was looking for light and truth. I told him that he was in the right place! We just decided to teach him right then and there and we taught him about the trinity and how God love us. It was really awesome and I asked him how he got to the church, and he was telling us that he was praying to God even though he didnt know how to and we walking and walking to try and find the truth. Well I told him straight up that he recieved and answer to his prayers and that he can know that God is always going to hear his prayers. It is just super spiritual and he accepted the invitation to be baptized. We still dont know when, but it was seriously just the biggest blessing ever to finally have an investigator in church and to teach somebody that was so willing to learn. Jenaro might be the most humble and prepared person I have ever taught in my entire mission! I am really excited to see how he progresses. 

In this Thanksgiving I am super grateful to be a missionary! I am grateful for carpet. I am grateful for hard working members of the church! I am grateful for the Book of Mormon. I am grateful for my family! I am grateful for a knowledge of the Gospel that I have. I am thankful for the gift of tongues. I am grateful for Jesus Christ. And over everything, I am grateful for the Atonement! I know that Jesus suffered for each one of us and that we can rely on Him for all of our difficulties and trials that we face daily! If we are happier every day, we can know that Jesus didnt have to suffer so much! 

I love and miss all of you! Have a very happy Thankgiving! :)

Elder Hixon

Nov 18, 2013

Yesterday I hit my seven months! It has been so long, but so fast at the same time! The days seem to be like an eternity full of lots of things happening, and the weeks and months just seem to keep rolling by. Its kinda like high school! I know my time is short here and I really need to make the most of it!

So... Just as I predicted, IM TRAINING! :) Its actually really cool. My son´s name is Elder Vazquez and he is from Durango, Durango Mexico. He is just a little older than me... His birthday is in May if I remember correctly. So that makes him the oldest in age in my District, but the least experienced. In my district right now there is me, Elder Beck, Elder Jimenez, and my comp. Elder Beck and I (comps in the MTC) are both training right now! So our district is even more new now as far as experience goes now that Elder Rogel is gone. Something else crazy in the changes happened... Elder Christensen, my comp from my last area, he is now my Zone Leader. So that is really fun :) I am back in lots of contact with him. I will probably even be able to do divisions with him this cycle. It will be fun to be his companion again for a day! :) 

This week was pretty crazy with trying to visit with as many people as possible and introduce them to my new comp! We worked really hard thats for sure. He is gonna be worked even harded than I was when I was trained! ;) Not gonna lie, I have been getting a little homesick thinking that I would be home for Thanksgiving. Nothing too serious just gonna miss all of you! But President Egbert is amazing and wrote us a letter this week that said that we just need to work and that work is a blessing from our Heavenly Father. I definitely know that if I just work, I wont be thinking about home too much and I will have more success as a missionary.

We didnt have investigators at church this week! :/ But I know that no matter what happens this week after week, as long as I am giving it my all, the Lord is happy for my service. After the changes meeting, I had to go to a meeting for the missionaries that are training. President Egbert is one of my favorite people ever by the way... He said that every day we should be able to come home and say we are a little more tired than we were the day before! Thats the goal! :) I am really happy to be training because it makes me want to be an even better missionary to set a good example for my son! :) My companion is very awesome and has an amazing testimony! He hasnt complained one time and I am very grateful for that because we work really hard! :) 

Basically, I am grateful to be here serving a mission, even though it is hard, even though sometimes the people dont progress as fast as I would like them too! I know I am in the right place and the Lord doesnt want me to be in any other place. I hope you all have a fantastic week. You are all in my prayers! Love you.

Elder Hixon