Hola como esta?!? How was yalls week? My week was great. I will tell you about it.
So. Last monday was pday. It was a very relaxing pday. I took a nap. Which I really hate, but it felt good to sleep. Then we went to dinner with the Sanders. They are awesome. We were at their house for all night long, so that wasn't great, but I love them. We had chicken and dumplings (delicious!!) and ate it around a fire and then we roasted marshmallows in the backyard. I can't WAIT for us to roast mallows in our very own firepit back home. I am jazzed about that.
Tuesday we had interviews with President Crawford. He told me this was going to be my last interview before my exit interview. And my stomach pretty much drops every time I think about it. Why does it have to end so quickly?? It was good to talk to him. He is a great mission President. Then we went to see Miss Betty, Viola and Shirley McMahon before dinner at 5:30 with the Cliffords. It was good. The Cliffords kids are between 8 and 1 and they all speak English AND spanish. It's amazing. They are totally bilingual. I wish I knew another language so I could make my kids bilingual! It's the coolest thing. We talked to them about the talk in conference "I know it, I live it, I love it." And since they're little we had run off copies of a t shirt and invited them to put what they would have on their own t shirt. And we talked to the parents about... mormon.org profiles I think. They don't like us to give them missionary invitations. I don't know why, it's pretty darn weird. But it was a good dinner.
Wednesday we went back and talked to miss Debbie. She is awesome. She is still crazy and still wants to read the book of mormon, but she can't see the print her copy. So we gave her the lds.org website to read. She hopefully did. She wasn't at church yesterday but... we will see if she read. There is so much power in the word of God. I have complete confidence in it. We also saw Susan. She's doing fine. her family is warming up to the church. Her husband reportedly even said he'd like to see what services are like. That is a good step! We also went to see Josetta. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and how restored authority is really important. She is really receptive. We told her we want her to come to church with us. She is doing well. I really love her. We had dinner with the Courvilles. Oh my gosh, I love the Courvilles. They have been married for about 5 years I think and their first baby is due in a month. They are so awesome so confident and charitable. We talked to them about how Satan is real and how we can get him away from our lives and our families.
Thursday it was about 85 so we did weekly planning outside of the church. It was glorious. I have stopped despising weekly planning as much. Then we had lunch with a less active named Lynn, which was odd. She is like the missionaries buddy and she doesn't really understand what her baptismal covenant meant. So basically I felt wierd because she wouldn't really talk about the gospel, and I have no idea what to talk to her about other than that. Yikes man. We also met with Kizza. She is sister T's favorite less active. She loves her. Kizza really wants to come back to church, but she is finding it hard to live the gospel - all the standards. It's too much of a commitment for her at the moment. We did the hour of power and it was great. It was this neighborhood with the hugest prettiest houses. Thanks to that, we didn't have much success, but except one man. He opened his door just a crack and all we could see was his eye )it was kind of creepy) becuase he had dogs inside. And we just like slid a resto pamphlet in the crack and asked him when we could come back. So we are thinking he's going to turn into something good. Sister Lundquist prayed with SO MUCH FAITH before we went out. The Lord honors the faith of his people, I know He does. It's amazing. So we'll go back and see him.
Friday morning we talked to Sue Patterson and it was slightly more coherent than she's been before. Its hard to know when to cut the cords with some people. We are the only contact so many of them have with the church - THEIR church. It is hard. Anyway, Friday we did service after that for Brother Doxey. He is trying to quit smoking. He smokes all the time, in his apartment like crazy. So we went and cleaned it. It was pretty gross but looked and smelled a whole lot better after the Elders and we left. Then we met with Gabriella at 4:30. She had made us steak. I love her. They have been reading. If they will just keep reading, I know that they will feel the spirit. That's how it works. I'm so happy and grateful for that. We left right after that to go to HOUSTON!!! So stay in Kingwood at the mission home. Oh Kingwood is the love of my life. I miss it so much when I go back. I get so nostalgic. It was fun. We drove down with the zone leaders to prevent me from killing the driver of the other car. Never will I ever drive anywhere with that soul again. I almost went nuts the last time. So Brown and Shepherd took us. They listened to this cd by the Nashville Tribute people to Joseph Smith. It was great. I loved it. Me and Brown aren't really friends anymore :[ It makes me oh so sad. It was a good drive. Then we got to the mission home and Erickson and Jackson were there. I haven't seen Erickson since leaving Baytown and it was so good to see her. I love her so much! We talked to sister crawford til 10:30 when president was like "Sister Crawford it's 10:30" and we all had to go to bed. haha
Saturday was the Triwizard!! For James' birthday!!! haha. The final triwizard tournament for me I do believe. I don't know how we get so lucky to have 5 General Authorities in my 18 months as a missionary. I actually think it's because when visiting GAs come down, they work with Elder Gifford Neilson who is our area 70. And I'm pretty sure he asks them if they'd like to meet with the missionaries on their free morning. And they do cause they love us. We love them. Elder Echohawk's talk was AMAZING! He talked about the power of prayer and his conversion story. And how a his priest advisor was instrumental in him gaining a true testimony. It made me want to be such a good member of the church for all of my life! This is what it's all about. Elder Ellis talked about obedience. And Irecommitted to be more obedient. Then Elder Callister. He talked about the Plan of Salvation. He gave us a lot of tools for how to teach it better. It was great. And I got to see all of these people that I dearly dearly love. Paletu'a, Cochran, Mokeaki, Davis, Olsen. OH!
Speaking of Olsen, he came and told me that his parents just moved to Heber Utah and their neighbors are the Hickens. AHHH! Ask Grandma and Grandpa Hicken if the Olsens are their new neighbors because if they are Elder Olsen is our new neighbor!! I LOVE him so so much. Also, I talked to Elder Poteki (I think that's how you say it) and he knows Jonny! He is enormous. He is huge and tall and poly. He said Jonny was way cool :] AND I got to talk to phil! Phil who knows James AND jonny apparently. He is friends with Ian and Brad etc. So apparently yall hung out one time or something James. do you remember phil brown? He's pretty cool. We also saw our mtc people. I love them all so dearly.
When we got home we were all fired up and we saw a less active lady and tried a potential, that honestly I had little faith in. We found her during the hour of power and she has kind of shrugged us off every time. But this time her husband came out and started talking to Tuigamala about Hawaii and then invited us in. Turned into how to begin teaching turned into a lesson 1 and they are now our new investigators. I love them already. They are lake Charles natives. Louisianans are so cool, just trust me.
Yesterday church was incredible. We had a missionary who is going on her mission two weeks give her "non-farewell" (right mom?). It was great. I love being a missionary. AFter church we saw the Connors and we went finding. This is how it went. We try a less active family. They are "busy". So we start driving away and I see these people outside and I just feel like we should go talk to them. I debate it for only like 30 seconds (great improvement from pre-mission jillian) and then we pull over and start walking back toward them. First set of people -strike one. Second set of people, aka the ones I was originally prompted to go talk to- BIG strike two (they didn't like us at all). Little boy walking his dog, rejected the picture of Jesus we offered him (maybe because I asked him really wierdly if he wanted one. my bad. lo siento chico). Third Set of people - strike three. We are walking back toward our car and then out of the corner of my eye I see a lady sitting on her porch. We go over and contact her and she invites us back for this coming week on Tuesday! Gold. The Lord knew that if those people rejected us we would keep walking and we found a really good potential. He is so smart. And then we gave thee cutest little black kids pictures of jesus. They ran after us yelling "Thanks for the Jesus picture!" and I love them. Why aren't all people like children? The world would be happier. Gerard we called him but it was the wrong nubmer so we didn't even get to see him. Broken hearted. He called us later that night to say that it was too late to come over. The other guy, Gerald, that we called was like "Yall came by but it wasn't last sunday" and I thought it was our gerard, so we were like "um... okay but can we come over another time" and he was very confused. Turns out because missionaries hadn't seen him in a hundred years. Oopsy. We had dinner last night with the Morris. Also make me excited to be a good mormon family. LOVE them.
So that's my week. Sorry it's a long e-mail. I love this church I love this gospel I love being a missionary. I am so grateful for it. I have changed so much on my mission and I'm so thankful for that as well. I really think that the Lord wants more of his daughters to have had this missionary experience to help them raise their kids. That's why the age change. It's priceless what I have learned out here. I love it.
Okay so about coming home. Mikelle's apartment complex has a room for $320 and it's where she and Kimmy live. I'm pretty sure there is a washer and drier, it is an older'ish ward and it is close to campus. Then there's the Becky's apartment option. I just don't know what to do. UGH. I know it doesn't really matter where I live, but I don't want to decide. What do yall think? Also, I want to apply at the MTC. Also I need to register for classes, but I can do that from here. I also need to figure out about getting a car. I know I don't have any money, but I think it's high time I bought myself a car. I need to build my credit somehow, right? AH! The reason I am freaking out about all of this is because I have like 2.5 seconds when I get home before I go back to school. So... yes. Minor freak out. What do yall think? Housing option is my main worry now. Kelle says the apartments are filling up fast. What should I do??
Well, familia I love you. Jonny stop going out of town and hang out with the family. :] James, how was your bird-day? Mom, how are you doing? Thanks for your letter I LOVED your conf notes. We think so alike :] Dad thanks for your e-mail. I'm so glad that theh missionary thing is going well and that you had some awesome visits!! I love this gospel. Let's just live it, okay?? Let's just do what we can and be grateful for it. Have a great week and remember to find someone you can serve every day. Pray for missionary opportunities. They're the BEST.
And let me know what yall think I should do about my life in just 9 weeks. Yucko. Scary scary scary. I'm excited to see yall tho!!
LOVE, sister hicken