Feb 24, 2014

Well, it was due time for me to have a baptism. It was a long time since my last one! I know the Lord has blessed the lives of Mauricio and his family. I am so grateful to be a part of it. His baptism was remarkable. There were like 60 people there. I have never seen so many people support someone in  a baptism here. It was awesome! It is super comforting to know that the people the Lord helps us convert here in this ward will be very well taken care of. I can just focus on my work and the missionaries the Lord has put me in charge of!

This week was full of just getting everything organized for the baptism and trying to help or investigator Diana and her mom make the decision to be baptized for this week too. That is actually a cool story. I'll share it. So this week, we went with our ward mission leader who thank goodness is not less active like my last one in my last ward... And we went and taught Diana. We went to talk to her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ again, with the focus on faith. We told her how we need to act on our faith and the Lord will always bless us according to what we really need and when we need it. Out of no where our ward mission leader Hermano Estrada just starting pouring out a super personal story about his faith when he almost lost his wife and a set of twins when they were about to be born, but when he shared that story, the Spirit was just so strong and then afterwards we told Diana to pray, and then listen very carefully to how she felt. The very next day she called us and told us she was ready to get baptized. We didnt do it this weekend cuz she had a lot of things going on so we are going to be doing it this weekend!!!! We are soo pumped for her. I know the decision she has made will bless her life and her mom's life who is also an investigator. She isnt progressing as fast, but she loves us and goes to church. We just gotta explain things a little more simplified with her. 

We have been trying to also get out and visit more of the active families so that we can hopefully strengthen them even more and get them pumped up for the work of salvation. And to hopefully find some more people to teach. We found out this week at our zone conference (which was sweet by the way) that Elder Nelson came to Mexico and talked with all the mission presidents and their wives and that he sees a vision that we need to be baptizing every week! So that should be nuts! I know that if an Apostle has said that it can be done, it will be done, but with lots of work and lots of prayers with faith! We are going to try super hard this week to find some new people to teach so we can start doing that. One of the things we are going to start doing is when we go into stores and stuff we are just going to start asking the people if they want to hear a message of Jesus Christ or just casually ask the question if they want to get baptized just to start conversations! ;) We are very optomistic right now Elder Felsted and I. We just want to make the most of each day and enjoy our time together.

The zone conference was actually pretty easy. I thought it would be hard, but with my comp there it was actually easier than giving a district class in my opinion. So that was a blessing. The missionaries in our zone seemed to be extra motivated afterwards. So overall, it was a pretty legit week. I cant wait to see what this week has in store. I am pretty sure another baptism so we are soooo happy right now! :)

Hope you all have a good week! Keep working hard.

Love, Elder Hixon

Feb 17, 2014

Hit my 10 months today. Weird. 2 short months and I will be half way done with this amazing adventure! This week passed by super fast of course. When does it not? We had some miracles happen this week. First story, so we had some appointments fall through, and we originally had plans to visit a less active family as a back up plan, but my comp and I basically at the same time felt prompted to visit one of our investigators Mauricio and his family. We went and saw them and they were home :) We visited them and they promised us they would get married on the 14th cuz it is also Valentine's day down here and the marriages would be free for that day!! But they said they had gotten in a fight earlier that day, and they didnt want to get married anymore. But after we visited them, they said that they felt calm again and that they would get married. Well, they did get married this week and so that turned out to be a huge miracle!!!! :) So Mauricio will be getting baptized this Saturday and he is very excited for it. I am too! ;)

We also have some other investigators that can possibly be baptized this week. Their names are Diana who is 25 and her mom, Araceli. They have the church attendance necessary and love to go to church, they feel good every time they read the Book of Mormon, and they always feel better from the stress of everyday life after reading the Book of Mormon. So they should get baptized right? Well for whatever reason, they still kinda have a little bit of fear but we are pretty sure we will see them get baptized this weekend too. But prayers would be excellent for Diana and Araceli :) The miracle about them this week was that they have a store they have and they have been trying to sell it for quite some time this week and wanted to sell it even more to have more time to be able to dedicate to church and everything. Well, after lots of prayers, they found out that tomorrow it will be sold. So they are super happy about that! And we are super excited for them.

This week shall be a super quick one as well. On Wednesday Elder Felsted and I are going to be giving a 2 hour training to the zone. The whole zone conference will last 6 hours, but President Egbert and his wife are gonna help us with the other 4 hours and we will be eating too!  We made a sweet powerpoint for a few of our companionship studies and we are excited and I am a little nervous for the whole thing! 

This weekend we had our stake conference, it was my first one in my entire mission! I think I have been changed to a different area right after all the conference happened so it was the first time. It was excellent. They talked about the work of salvation and some of our investigators went and said they really enjoyed it. I love this Church and I know it is the true church! I love my Savior and know that it is essential to listen to the promptings of the Spirit... If we hadnt followed the one with Mauricio, he wouldnt be married right now and he would not be able to enter into the gate that leads him to eternal life if he had not gotten married. Pretty amazing what one prompting of the Spirit can lead too! I know that the Lord still works miracles everyday and that miracles can only happen if we have faith! I hope that every one of you can find a miracle this week according to your faith. I love Mexico and I love being a missionary!!!

And yes, I love you all too and miss you too,

Have a great week!

Elder Hixon

Ps, we talked to President Egbert this week and he said that we have to go to MOLANGO to do divisions with the Elders there! I am stoked out of my mind to be able to teach and visit the people I have once served :) One of these weeks we will get out there. It is just so stinkin far. 

Feb 10, 2014

Wow, so the changes! I am now a Zone Leader here in the Pachuca Centro zone. It is the zone that has Molango in in, where I started my mission! So I guess there is a possibility that I go back there. That would be super sweet huh? My new companion is Elder Felsted from Utah. He is AWESOME! We are so happy to be working together. He has about 14 months in the mission and he only has one transfer as a zone leader! He is a really funny guy... We are constantly laughing and cracking jokes. We laugh at ourselves too for how ridiculous our English is! We talk in super spanglish and it is so funny! He loves to play soccer too so automatically we are best friends! The best part about this area is that we have BIKES!!!!!! We totally cruise on our bicicletas ;) I cant help but think of what the people think about us.... Two white guys in white shirts and ties riding around everywhere on bikes. Haha, I love it! The bikes are super sweet and new too. I guess there is one rich guy in our ward that bought 4 of them for us two and two other missionaries that split the ward with us. It is called the Revolucion ward. I cant help but think about Magic Mountain every time I hear the name. ;) It is a really big ward... Yesterday we had 199 people go. And when I showed up the bishop asked me to give a talk. So I gave another talk yesterday and everyone told me that it was an excellent talk and they were really surprised to know that I only have 9, well almost 10 months in the mission cuz I guess I speak pretty well.

Anyways, this week has been one of the best I have ever had in the mission. I am so happy to be here in this ward and the house we live in is pretty sweet. I hope that next week I will be able to send pictures. As a zone leader we literally have zero time to do anything. We are working from 6:30am to 10:30pm if I wasnt already doing that earlier! Some of the things we gotta do is take reports from all the Elders in the zone, the numbers and their well being. We literally were taking reports yesterday from 3pm until 8:30pm and then we went and rode our bike super fast up and taught a less active! It is crazy, and it is like that everyday. We work everyday like normal and then we get home and plan and then the phone goes off like crazy and we are getting the missionaries pumped and helping them with their struggles and trying to know the names of their investigators. Honestly it is a lot but I am loving every single minute of it.

This week we had a bunch of really cool teaching experiences. We found on two different occasions, two different less active families that really needed our help by the guidance of the Spirit with the ward list we have. It was pretty sweet. I unfortunately dont have the time to tell them in detail but I love being a missionary for that reason, to be so close to the promptings of the Spirit and then listening and acting! The blessings we recieve from being obedient are innumerable! I am so so so happy right now and super excited for my new assignment as zone leader and my companion is such a CHAMP!!! Oh and right now we have 6 people with baptismal dates. We put 3 new dates this week and they came to church! :) That made me super happy. Next week is the Pachuca Centro's stake conference, the first stake conference that I will be in in all of my time here in Mexico. Crazy huh? I am kinda excited for that! Being in Pachuca is pretty sweet cuz today played soccer and then we went to a place really close called Peter Piper's Pizza which is a pizza buffet. I ate a ton of pizza today. Super delicious :) 

Well, I had an amazing week, I sure hope you all have a great week. I know I will! :)

Elder Hixon

I promise pictures next week :)

Feb 3, 2014

Happy February! Well, I found out today that I have changes. I will be going who knows where tomorrow. I will not be with my son anymore so that makes me a little sad! But I know he will continue to do many great things here in Plazas! He is my little champ ;) I will let you all know next week about my changes. We will see what happens right?

So this week was a little hard... We only got 29 lessons this week. Haha only... After hearing the expereinces of Trevor and Jake Hixon I am exrememly grateful for the 29. My companion got a little sick on Monday afternoon and so we were kinda limited as far as the work went this week. At least to start the week. It is no fun to see your companion struggling. But I did have a cool experience, he asked me for a priesthood blessing and I gave him one and it was the first time I had given a pristhood blessing to a companion. It was a really cool experience because it let me know that he had confidence in the priesthood I hold and we definitely grew closer as companions after the blessings. I am seriously going to miss working with Elder Vazquez. 

So this week my studies were amazing. Right now I am reading the New Testament and I am loving it! I really appreciate the example of our Savior. He was the perfect teacher! I love being able to represent Him in everyway. I love how simple He taught and how powerfully He taught too! Also in my studies this week I have been reading the General Conference talks from October 2013. I came across the talk by Elder M. Russell Ballard, I challenge you to read that talk this week and you will know what to do! Such a powerful talk. 

So one quick legit story and I gotta go... So last night we were teaching the Rodriguez Gaspar family and we watched the Restoration video. Cool story huh? No just kidding, after the video we were testifying and we invited the family to orar (pray) to see for themselves if the Book of Mormon was true. And my companion invited them and they kinda hesitated. So I felt prompted again to testify and I did, then I felt prompted to invite them all individually. I started with the Hermano, and he said he would. Then when I asked the wife, she told us she had a dream the same night after we left and taught them last. She told us that she had a dream that she was in a room sleeping with her family in one bed, and then her parents were sleeping in another bed in the same room. She said that in her dream she saw a man walk in and started to attack her mother and that she started saying her memorized prayers and call the Virgin Mary cuz she is Catholic, and that nothing happened. Then out of no where she said, in her dream, ''In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to leave!'' And it left... I told her that I was no pro at interpreting dreams, (even though it would be pretty cool to pull a Joseph in Egypt thing) and I testified that Jesus Christ is the only path and then asked them the question if they would be willing to leave all their traditions and beliefs if they know that the Book of Mormon is true. And they said YES!!!! I was so happy cuz we have invited them to baptism twice and they just said that it was the same. That it is the same God and that they were fine where they were. But this lesson changed everything! So we will invite them to be baptized next lesson. So exiciting. I love feeling the Spirit working through me. It is the coolest! So that was my super cool story for the week. 

I love every single one of you and pray for you daily! Be jealous that I am down here eating cow eye ball tacos! And also cow tongue tacos. They are pretty tasty. I am pretty convinced that anything in a taco is tasty! :) Alrighty, well you all have a great week. We will see what happens with me haha!

Elder Hixon

Jan 27, 2014

We are getting pretty darn close to Febrero and it is freaking me out kinda a lot how the months are just passing by right now. It has been over a month since Skyping the family and we only have about 2 and a half months before we listen to General Conference again! So stoked about that not gonna lie haha....

Anyways so it was another busy and quick week. We barely hit the 40 lessons this week on the dot! We were worried that we wouldnt make it, we needed 7 on saturday but we got all the 7 we needed and we really happy to know we did everything possible this week to reach that standard of excellence! :) 2 weeks in a row baby! Gonna make it three this week for sure. It is amazing what we are capable of doing when we are diligent and obedient and then basically challenge the Lord to do His part with our prayers with faith. One of the greatest testimonies I have gained here in the mission is being able to pray with faith! My companion and I have definitely been praying with all our hearts this week. It isnt easy to reach the standards President Egbert has put. I love that man! Speaking of President, I was talking to Sister Egbert today and she was telling me some stuff I didnt even ask her to tell me but she was telling me how there was going to be a ton of changes for next week! I believe it cuz our mission is going to be growing in these next couple months. And with that growth there will be a new zone created this cycle I believe. Exciting stuff and it is so cool to be part of this amazing work! 

So this week we went to eat with the García family which is an awesome family and when we got there, they told us that their neighbor Clara, (yes, Clara I did tell her that was my sister's name ;)) wanted to talk to us. We were still eating when she came right on into the García's house and she basically just told us of a ton of problems she has had in her life. One of her sons doesnt live with her, but with her parents, she has had problems with drugs and smoking in her life and she was homeless for two years, she said she has considered suicide a number of times and the only thing that keeps her from doing it is her 3 year old daughter that she has.... A ton of other things that I dont even want to mention but just know she has a crazy history! Well, we listened to her for about 30 minutes and then when she was done talking, my companion and I just felt such compassion for this woman and we explained to her the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how God is our loving Heavenly Father. We didnt even teach one of the lessons and then we committed her to be baptized for the 22 of Feb. She said YES! And the best part was that she actually came to church! :) We had 4 investigators and church. All different ones from last week. This place is crazy :) Erik Palacios was there with his family and Irais and 3 kids were there too. Max, Irais's husband wasnt there cuz he had to work! :/ The economic situation here is rediculous! Sometimes the people just have enough to eat for the whole day with $15 or $20 pesos or roughly 1 or 2 dollars. We really are blessed huh? :) 

Right now I am just super happy cuz we have lots of people to teach and they all love us so much and I love them. In fact, some of our investigators are praying that we dont have changes cuz they dont want us to leave! It is the most humbling thing ever to know that these people really appreciate our visits and that it is definitely worth my time to be here helping as many people as I can! The feelings of joy and happiness I feel right now cant even be put into words! :) Yes we are even finding time to goof around. I will send una foto of my pretty smile.

Love you all so much! Keep praying for me. I have seen the effects of those prayers for sure. I pray for all of you! Have a safe week :)

Love, Elder Hixon 

Jan 20, 2014

What a week! Honestly I dont have much time to write but I am so happy to be here and to be working my absolute hardest!! This week my son and I taught 42 lessons :) Thats right, we reached the standards of excellence and even surpassed them! I still do all my stuff as District Leader too! SANTA VACA (holy cow) just so you know they do not say that here. Its just something I sometimes like to say! I dont think I have ever felt so tired in my whole entire life. But at the same time I cant look back and think of a time where I have ever felt such happiness!

This week we only had 5 investigators go to church but I was still happy. I know I did everything I could this week! We also figured out this week that Erick Palacios needs to get married and also another investigator named Miriam. I think I mentioned her in my letter last week. I am so sick and tired of hearing that so many people arent married down here in Mexico. One of the biggest problems down here is the people just dont see the importance of getting married. But nothing can stop me from working hard and helping these people down here see the importance and that it is a commandment of God to be chaste. It also just kills me to see how poor these people are here. They sometimes barely have enough to buy food and diapers for the babies! I know that if they just put their faith in the Lord and live the commandments that they will be blessed spiritually and temporally. (Mosiah 2:41) That is one of my favoritest scriptures.... Favoritist? I dont even know if that is a word haha :)

Right now I cant think of any one thing that stood out this week. I just remember we taught and taught and taught! It was super fun and that I want to keep working hard and helping as many people as I can. I passed my 9 month mark on Friday! Weird huh? Well, I love all of you. Just know that my testimony of the Savior has grown so much this week, I know that as I put my faith in the Lord and say lots and lots of prayers with faith, anything is possible. I felt like a true instument in the hands of the Lord! I wish I could tell you everything that happened in the week but it is just impossible! 

Make this week a good one! Talk to you next week :)

Elder Hixon

Jan 13, 2014

¡Què una semana! What a week. I would say this week has been one of the most gratifying weeks I have had here in the mission. All of the hard work and diligence and obedience was giving back to me in so many blessings from my Heavenly Father! First off, I am pretty sure I mentioned in my last weeks letter that our standards of excellence had been raised to 40 (25 with investigators and 15 with less actives or recent converts) and no my companion and I didnt reach that goal but we taught 29 lesson this week, the most I have ever taught in this area! And there is nothing that is going to stop me this week from having more and inviting even more people to be baptized!!

This week my companion and I had 14 people that had baptismal dates and commited to be baptized either on the 1st of February or the 8th... Well, 7 of those people showed up this Sunday so those people will keep their dates! Of those 7 people, Max and Irais and thier daughter Melani were there. That is a story I will share in just a sec... Also, Roberto and Erika were there, Erick Palacios, and a lady named Mirium. So 7 people from 4 different families were there! You should have seen how pumped Elder Vazquez and I were when each one of them walked in to the chapel!!! I couldnt stop smiling haha! So, for the story about Max and Irais... I called them on Saturday night at about 7 to tell them that we would be running a little late to an appointment we had with them and Max told us that he would be leaving the house shortly. So I told him that maybe it would be better if we just saw him at church the next day. He then told me that he didnt think he would be able to make it to church the next day. I became really sad and told him, ''Max, you know the reasons why it is important to go to church, and you know that faith is super important and that you will be losing those blessings if you don`t come to church tomorrow.'' Pretty sure those words werent my words because normally I dont talk so sternly. But my comp felt impressed before we left the house that afternoon to bring a white shirt and tie for Max. So we decided to book it to their house and we made it and taught them a super quick but powerful lesson and gave Max a shirt and tie! At the end of the lesson, Max said... ''Yeah, were gonna go to church tomorrow.'' I was SO pumped! And they showed up. So it just goes to show you the importance it is to follow the promptings of the Spirit ALWAYS! :) 

Other than that, this week has been filled with an interview with President Egbert. He is an amazing man! It was so great to hear from him personally that I was a worthy missionary in every way and that he wished that all the Elders here in the Pachuca mission were Elder Hixons. Haha that would be really boring! ;) Also the very next day, I had a leadership training meeting and those are always filled with the Spirit and I was so pumped again to be working again with everything I got! 

Oh, just a really quick story that I thought was pretty hilarious. So Erick Palacios is one of our investigators and he is absolutely awesome, he came to church one time in october and then had like 5 weeks of training in his work and then his wife was really pregnant so they didnt come to church for a really long time, but last week and this week they came to church. Anyways, last week he actually gave us a ride to church and their 4 year old daughter when we rolled in to the parking lot said ''Uhhh por fin llegamos a la capilla!'' (Uhhh finally we came to church!) It was great! Really to the children of such is the kingdom of God! :) 

Well, basically had an amazing week and look forward to see what the Lord has in store for me this week!!! Love you all and apreciate all the prayers that head my way. Keep being the best ever!

Elder Hixon

Ps... The picture is of the Flores Family. He is the bishop of the ward and his daughter got baptized! :) Isnt she so cute?

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

Nov, 11, 2013

Well, this time I dont have changes and I am not going to lie I am very glad I dont have changes. I would like to stay here in this área a Little longer. But my companion Elder Rogel has changes so I will be getting a new companion tomorrow at the changes meeting. I have a weird feeling I will be training this cycle because 12 Elders are headed home and we are recieving 21 new missionaries and I am pretty sure they are ALL Elders, no Hermanas. So I kinda am mentally preparing myself for having a ´´son´´ in the mission! I have been thinking about how awesome my trainer Elder McCormick was/is to me and to know that if I do train, I will be that same kind of example to a newcoming missionary. But I still dont even know if I will train. We shall see :)

 

So last monday we went to go try and contact some references and the investigator didnt want anything really. So that was a Little sad, but afterwards I helped the members son with his math homework and strangely enough, I kinda miss homework and school. I never ever thought I would say that in my life. I really want to get home and start studying. It is really weird but probably another reason why it is good for me to be out here on a mission. :) This week we taught lots and lots of less active members and really tried to ask the members for references. We didnt really have too much sucess because after the first time visiting with the less active family we would have a return appointment to try and contact their references. Lots of appointments fell through so we did lots and lots of walking this week! Super fun stuff.

 

The best part of this week was sunday! We had a family of investigators in church. They are named Max and Irais, they have 3 kids and they are so cute. One of them is 8 years old named Melani, one is 6 named Linsey, and a baby that is 1 year old named Ian. They were in church and said they really liked it. It happened to be our Ward Conference and lots of members from the stake were there. The sacrament meeting room was FILLED! There were about 210 members there at church and it was just an awesome day to renew my covenants. Max, Irais, and Melani have a baptismal date set up for the 14 of December. Now it is a battle between us, and Satan. We are gonna win of course! :)

 

We also have a Ward activity planned for the 14th of December that will be a Christmas themed activity and so that day will be the best ever when Max and Irais and Melani get baptized! It is getting weird seeing Christmas stuff starting to pop up. It makes me a Little homesick seeing that kinda stuff but I know I am where the Lord needs me and it will be worth it in the end. Besides the fact that we are an eternal family so we will have plenty of time to get to ´´hang out´´ :) I sure love and miss you all. I know that my Savior lives and still Works miracles through us today. I hope you all have an amazing week like I am going to have! :)

 

Love, Elder Hixon

Nov 4, 2013

Wow, so this week will be the last week of this cycle and I cant believe that in a week from now the mission will be having changes again! 

So this week went well. I have a goal to finish the Book of Mormon in spanish before the end of the year and I have been keeping up with that goal. I started a few weeks ago and I am already in Mosiah 11 and working my way through it. I have decided to put away all of my English books and I am studying only in Spanish. I have had some people tell my that my spanish is really improving so I am really pumped about that. It really helps to be talking in Spanish 24 hours a day, 6 days a week cuz every monday is English day. My comp really wants to learn English and he does a pretty good job. It is pretty hilarious though, cuz sometimes he will be talking to me in English and I will just naturally talk to him in Spanish and then he gets mad at me! Oops :) 

Honestly the work has been moving along, reallly slow here. It is kinda normal. I havent baptized since my first area and I am starting to feel like I am not working hard enough, but I know that that is a lie that Satan puts in my head to try to get me unmotivated. I know that this work really isnt about baptizing, it is about bringing others to Christ. Two of the first steps before baptism are first faith, and then repentance. The most difficult part we are having as missionaries right now is getting people to church. If the people arent coming to church, they really arent repenting and changing their lives! We are going to work extra hard this week to make sure we have some investigators in church this week. I know we can do it! :) We are going to do it!

Nothing really exciting happened this week. The 2nd of November was el día de los muertos or the day of the dead and we ate some delicious dead bread and hot chocolate. Other than that nothing too exciting happened this week. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, like pioneer children, and YES I sang a little while we walked! :) Elder Rogel likes to copy me as I sing made up songs in the street so that he can make his English better. It is actually really entertaining! :)  I hope to have more exciting news for you all next week. 

I sure love and miss you all! I hope you have a great week. 

Elder Hixon

Oct 28, 2013

Hey everyone,

I cant believe that on Friday we will hit November. I wont be celebrating Halloween this year but the 2nd of November they celebrate the day of the dead or something like that. Its a holiday more commonly know among the Catholic church and the people leave stuff on their ancestors graves and stuff. Basically everyone is Catholic here so it should be an interesting day here in Mexico. Its a little weird and I honestly dont understand it all. But they have what is called ´´Pan de muerto´´ or ´´dead bread´´ and it is super delicious. It is just some sweet bread with sugar on top. 

So this week was pretty successful, not as far as the amount of lessons we taught but the fact that we have found 3 new families to teach this week. They are all families of 4 and have little kids in their families. In each of the 3 families there is 3 possible baptisms so Elder Rogel and I are pretty stoked about that!!! One of the families was a reference from one of the amazing sisters in our ward and their daughter went to the Youth Conference that went on in the church about 2 weeks ago and loved it so we are really excited to continue to teach them! Another family is a reference from another member of our ward and they are named Max and Irais, they have 2 little girls and oh I lied a baby boy so they have 5 people in their family. I just cant remember the names of the two girls right now. So many names to remember!! :) But this family was really special, we walked in and Max was drinking a beer and when I walked in I was kinda optomistic but we decided to just go with the first lesson. During the whole lesson, one of their daughters who is 6 years old was wanting me to draw a picutre. I told her I didnt know how to draw and so she told me she was going to teach me. Honestly she drew better than I can. IT was actually really fun, she tought me how to draw a bear. So with her I double tasked, I learned how to draw a picture to keep the little girl quiet and Elder Rogel and I taught a powerful lesson. The both of them, Max and Irais said they would love to read the Book of Mormon and they were very excited to learn more. Unfortunately it is the only  lesson we have been able to have with them! But at the end of the lesson, the little 6 year old ran up to me and gave me this huge hug and was asking for a kiss too. It was sooo cute! So made me miss my girls back at home! (Emily, Clara, and Livvy) The last family we taught we taught last night and they were really nice. The guys name is Luis and he found us in the street about 2 weeks ago while he was drunk but when we taught him last night with his family he was really humble and their entire family was open to our message!

So with the new investigators to teach we have been really excited and happy to be here. Also a read quick story about the power of the Book of Mormon. So we are teaching a man named Carlos and he is the neighbor of our 1st councilor in the bishopric. Anyways, he is/was really Catholic. We taught him about the Resoration and seemed to have a lot of doubts but he said he would read and would listen to us again. So the next time we visited with him he said he didnt read. :( So we decided to read with him and felt prompted to read the cover page, the intro, and the testimony of Joseph Smith with him. He told us he had a really hard time reading but that he would try. So we started reading and he read perfectly and got really interested in our message. I asked him why he said he couldnt read good, and he said that before he didnt have faith but now he does so he can no read better! I thought that was pretty awesome. He is really progressing now and praying with lots of faith to God and not to the Virgin Mary. The catholics worship Mary more than Jesus and God. It is really weird. But Carlos is a champ and even accepted a baptismal date! 

So the work here really is progressing and I am really excited for that. I also just recieved excellent news from Elder Christensen, my last comp, that one of our investigators Mirium got baptized on Saturday! :) So that makes me really happy too. Overall it was a really great week and look forward to continue working hard and finding even more people that are ready to hear our message! Love you and miss you all.

Elder Hixon

Oct 21, 2013

If I have ever thought any week has passed by really fast I was lying, because this week has just come and gone and I have no idea what happened to it! All I know is that I will not ever get this week back again. I really appreciated the emails this week and for what the leaders back at home said about having fun out here on your mission and I think that is what I have been lacking this week. Sure this week passed by really fast but I think that that is great council to have fun and to work hard because it is possible! :)

So this Wednesday we had interviews and that was a really cool experience cuz I was talking with President Egbert and I was talking to him about how my district was going and he said I was doing a great job. I also was telling him how I felt like I had no time for myself and he told me... Think about how the Apostles feel, and I was sitting there thinking wow, the Apostles basically give their lives to work for the Lord.  And then he told me, now think about the Savior and how his entire existence was a sacrifice for us and in the moment I can start to understand more fully his sacrifice for me that I can become more like Christ and we'll, have even more success in the mission. I got really excited for his comment and I am really grateful for the Atonement in my life and for the patience that God has for each and every one of us! :) 

On Thursday after my district class I did divisions with Elder Back my comp from the MTC and that was a super awesome experience because I could really see how much we have grown here in Mexico as far as the language and our testimonies go! :) We taught an amazing lesson about the Plan of Salvation and it was one of the most spiritual lessons I have taught here in Mexico and I know that the Plan of Salvation is a perfect plan and it really is a plan of happiness. We also burned a tie and to celebrate our 6 months together! That was lots of fun, I took a video and it is pretty hilarious. We kinda failed a little bit but it was a great time! :) 

On Sunday I gave a talk on the Work of Salvation and i learned a lot from the talk! I spoke for about 20 minutes and I remember saying in my hear back home that the day I was able to give a talk for 20 minutes without a problem would be the day I became a man! Haha  I still dont feel like that man I thought I would be but it did feel great to be able to do that, especially in SPANISH! :) Honestly though I dont know what happened to this week but I know that think week I am going to try to do a better job and being a HAPPY and hardworking missionary and I hope you all back at home continue to share the Gospel with everyone and that you have fun doing it! :) I love and miss you all so much and you are always in my prayers! :) Talk to you next week :)

PS enjoy that extra hour of sleep  on Saturday night!  I know I sure will  :))))

Oct 14, 2013

I hit my 6 months mark on Thursday.... Sometimes I still catch myself thinking ´´Wow I am a missionary, I am here in Mexico with a bunch of people that I dont even know, and all that while speaking in spanish!´´ It still hasnt hit me, probably never will! So this week was a tough one again. We are still trying to get used to this huge area that we are in! We have a really big ward too with lots of people so it is really overwhelming especially for me cuz I am TERRIBLE with names! My agenda is just filled with a bunch of names so that I dont forget them. Yesterday in church we had about 150 people there and there was a ton of people that we taught that werent there too! There seems to be about a million less active people in this ward but hey, I guess I shouldnt be complaining about a lot of work! The weather here has been so extreme too. It is blistering hot in the day, but once the sun goes down it is freezing cold! It doesnt help either that there are NO trees, just concrete here in Mexico. Beautiful concrete. Oh yeah, it started hailing on friday too, I didint know that was possible here in Mexico. I was kinda freaking out cuz it was such a cool experince. It was really histerical to see all the people freaking out too. People sprinting to get home or find some sort of shelter! The people here in Mexico really do not like the rain at all!

We had a meeting with our bishop this week and he told us that we really need to work with the leaders of the ward cuz even the leaders here arent the stongest of members in general. He said they were the strongest they got! So thats our plan right now is to go with the members of the ward, strengthen them, and ask for lots and lots of references! Those are our favorite. Everyone back at home give the Elders references. THEY ARE REALLY HELPFUL! :)

So this week I was preparing my district class and I was putting a few ideas together the morning of the class when the phone rang and it was President Egbert, he called me to tell me that he and Sister Egbert would be attending my class that day. No pressure right? Just kidding. It turned out to be an amazing experience and the class I gave was on the Book of Mormon and the role it plays in our religion and as missionaries. We have been invited by our President to go to every single person we teach, and invite them to read the Book of Mormon from  cover to cover! That is another thing that we have been doing. In fact, this week also I finished the Book of Mormon again, in English ;), and of course prayed like always to find out if it was true. I just felt this overwhelming sense of peace and joy and to me that was just a great testimony builder! :) I know the Book of Mormon is a true book and that when we apply its teachings we can draw closer to our Heavenly Father and it really is the keystone of our religion. If we know the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God, we know that Jesus really is our Savior and Redeemer, and we know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints really is the kingdom of God here on earth!

Really quick, we have 1 real investigator at this point and he is awesome. His name is Erick Palacios and he was athiest but then he has his little girl and now he believes in God. His wife found us miraculously in the street our 2nd day here in the area and told us her husband wanted to talk to us. So we went and we have taught him 3 times now and he actually took us to church with his wife and little girl yesterday. That was a really cool experience. I know the Lord is in charge and puts us exactly where we need to be at the right time! Always stand in holy places so that the Lord can guide you!

Well, thats all I can think of for now. I hope you all have a good week! I love you all.

Elder Hixon

Oct 7, 2013

Wow! So this week was quite a tough one for me. Yet I learned a lot!!!! So as most of you know I had transfers for this cycle after only being in my last area for one cycle. My new companion this time is not a white boy! My new companion´s name is Elder Rogel from Veracruz, Mexico. He is a champion! The craziest thing about this cycle is that I am now a District Leader! That is one of the big reasons why I had changes so fast! It is a lot of responsibility to be honest. I am glad my district is small. We are 4 elders, (2 companionships). It consists of me, my companion, Elder Beck (yes my companion from the MTC), and a new Elder to the mission who is named Elder Jimenez. The 4 of us combined have less than 2 years experince. My comp has the most time out of all of us, he has 7 months in the mission. I have almost 6 and the same as Elder Beck who right now is training Elder Jimenez. So we have about 18 months combined experience the 4 of us! It is very interesting but I am very humbled to have this assignment as District Leader.

So I am working in this area called Tizayuca in the zone Pachuca Sur. Sur means south! :) My ward is called Plazas and so far the work here has been really hard!! My comp and I both came here and we didnt know anything! We didnt know where we lived, the boundries of our area (the area is gigantic btw), we didnt know anybody either. Also the missionaries that lived here before us didnt fill out the Area Book very well. SOOOO basically this week was very hard. I had the privelige to give a District class on Wednesday. I get to do that every week and to add even more pressure, I our zone leaders came to my class. That actually turned out to be a blessing because I am pretty good friends with one of our zone leaders right now. His name is Elder Menendez and he is from Los Angeles. He is the Soman looking guy in one of the pictures. His is hilarious! Anyways so this week, Elder Rogel and I have been working really hard and have not really been able to teach many lessons this week. We didnt really get to know many members either this week at church because it was General Conference.

General Conference was amazing! It was really interesting because for the Saturday morning and afternooon sessions I watched it in spanish at the church. I am not really sure if the people can watch it in their houses or not. I think it is just easier for all of them to just go to the church. Anyways but then for the Pristhood and Sunday morning sessions I watched in Pachuca at the mission offices with a few of the other white guys in English! Let me tell you it is WAYYY better in English. Then once again in Spanish to end. It was good in Spanish too but is more powerful when you actually get to hear the voice of the propht and not translator. My favorite quote was from Dieter F. Utchdorf when he said ´´Doubt you doubts, before you doubt your testimony.´´

So yeah, this week was really hard but I learned a lot of patience and humility. I really would appreciate a few extra prayers this week to help me and my companion be able to find the people we need to teach. It is a little hard but I have lots of faith that everything willl be okay! Love you and miss you all!

Elder Hixon

Sept 30, 2013

Hola family and friends,

Wow so first off, this is the first day of my 5th cycle as a missionary. Crazy to think that when this one ends it will be November 10th. I also was notified last night that I had changes again already! I have been here in this ward for 6 weeks and the Lord already wants me to go to another place. As of right now I dont completely understand why but only the Lord knows where I need to be and I am putting my complete trust in Him right now. I still dont know who my new companion is or where I will be serving. The changes meeting isnt until tomorrow. Honestly I am completely shocked, but at the same time really kinda excited to see why the Lord wants me in the new area I will be in! It is so shocking because my companion has been here since April 16, yeah, the day before I went into the MTC and he is still here. He has been here forever and we both thought for sure he would be the one to go if one of us went. The mission is just full of surprises isnt it? :) 

This week was really well, but most of the exciting stuff happened yesterday. Church went really well yesterday. We had an attendence of 113 in sacrament meeting, the most it has been since I have been here in the ward! Also the best part, we had 7 investigators in church yesterday! I was so happy to see every single one of them there. Also helped this one sister go to church and she recieved her confirmation. She got baptized in January and never got the Holy GHost. So she got it yesterday and I felt really happy to help her! Maybe that was the whole reason I was here in this ward! :) My companion confirmed her and it was the first time he had done that. He said he was pretty nervous but he did a good job. I also gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting about the importance that everyone hears the Gospel. All I had prepared was one note, I had my scriptures, and I had my Preach my Gospel. I was able to easily give a 12 minute talk in spanish and without notes. I just proved to myself how much my spanish has improved and also my testimony. I remember my farewell talk I was a nervous wreck and I stuggled for words. I know that my testimony has strengthened here and that if we rely on the Lord anything is possible. Even if it is getting changed to a new area! We will see what happens tomorrow. I am really excited and anxious right now! But for now, I am off to go teach a few more investigators before I leave, and maybe 1 or 2 goodbyes! I would appreciate some extra prayers my way with a new companion in a new area this week! Love you all so much! Keep being member missionaries, there are plenty of people waiting to hear the truth! :)

Love,

Elder Hixon

Ps. The bowling pic is when we went bowling last week with the Zone Leaders and another District leader. It was a blast! (I won!)

Sept 23, 2013

So I hit my 5 month mark on tuesday! And this week will be the last week of this cycle. Including the MTC, I will be starting my 5th cycle next week. As a missionary, you only get 16. Its really starting to hit me how fast this two years will go by. I remember thinking in my first and second cylce here in mexico and thinking that this would be the longest 2 years of my life, but I am finally starting to believe all the older elders that have 18, 19, 20 months in.

This week went pretty well. Just flew by if anything! Because of the hurricanes we have had rain, basically everyday. But nothing too serious. My life is no where in danger! ;) So some of the highlights of the week. We had some really great lessons with some investigators. The two most promising are Mirium and Apolonia. Mirium is about 30, she had a daughter that is a member and her mom is a member also. She was one of the 4 investigators we had in church this sunday! :) Btw I was super happy about 4 in church because the other 4 weeks I have been in this area, we only had 1 in church every week. So that was a little tender mercy right there! Mirium has a date set up for the 12th of October and I really hope she will be baptized, she is totally reading the Book Of Mormon and is already in Alma I think. The other awesome investigator is Apolonia. She is 50 years old and totally loves the way our church works. She has gone to church twice but wasnt there this week for some reason. We are gonna try and find our why tomorrow. She loves when we come to teach her and she loves reading the pamphlets we leave with her. We actually taught her on Wednesday when I went on divisions again this week. I stayed here with one of our zone leaders, Elder Hirst. He has about 18 months and is from Augden, Utah. He is a very cool guy. Anyways so we were teaching Apolonia the Plan of Salvation and it was an awesome lesson, we even commited her to a date on the 12th of October also, but she wasnt at church so that date will move over a week. So we taught the lesson and it was the last lesson of the day before going home and Elder Hirst told me in his own words, ´´Dude, you are a champ.´´ And I told him why he was saying that and he said, ´´Cuz bro, you already teach the Plan of Salvation really well and you only have 5 months´´ haha I thought it was pretty funny cuz everybody tells me how great I am at spanish and how they really think I am a good missionary. After hearing it so many times, I think I am starting to believe them. I really like to do divisions because you learn so much from other Elders and what you can do better as a missionary and you learn how to teach in different ways too! That was probably one of the best experiences of the week.

One other quick story. So Elder Christensen and I like to read the BOM together out loud but in spanish to make our spanish better and to feel the spirit cuz the book of mormon is the best! So we have been reading since the beginning and we read 1 Nephi 13 and that chapter is amazing. I have read that chapter like 5 times and I have never known how awesome it was. Nephi is seeing all these things that would happen and prophesies and just reading it and studying it made me realize that everything he saw, have happened! Maybe not everything, but a ton of stuff! It was such a testimony builder. Also, shout out to Sister Nuñez back at home because I remember her telling me that the Book of Mormon is better in spanish than in english. I can start to say that I am believing her! The spanish version is put very simply and there are just things that dont translate directly from English to Spanish. Its kinda complicated to explain but no matter what language the book is in, it is a true book! 

So overall, this week was a good one. Just lots of rain! Don´t know what happened to it to be completely honest! It´s hard to believe how much time has already flown by. Vamos a ver lo que pasa entre esta semana. I will leave you guys up to translating that! :) Hasta luego! 

Les amo muchisimo! 

Elder Hixon