Hi all!!!

This week was pretty normal for us. It was "Santa Rosa day" on Tuesday so everyone was worshipping their idols.... It was fun to try and preach about the 10 commandments that day!!! :)

We had two miracles happen..

 First off, This one is a little sad. We have this family that we've been teaching for a while. It's Alberto and Natali. She's a member and he's not but he goes to church every week and she follows him. Sadly, they aren't married and Natali has to get divorced but her ex is in prison. We taught The Family: A Proclamation for the World to him yesterday and he looked me straight in the eye and almost crying said, "What do I have to do to be baptized." We told him that he had to get married and to live in the way that the Proclamation says. He said that that would be difficult because it could take YEARS for the ex to get out. We scheduled an appointment for him to meet with our district leader and we'll see what happens. It's so sad for me to see someone who is so ready to be baptized but can't. We are working with him and I hope that he can get baptized soon!!

Second, Vilma and Martin are super strong. We were meeting with them this past week when we heard one of Vilma's sons yell "Mom FIRE!!!!" We all go sprinting into the other side of the house (where the grandma lives) to see her living room in flames. We dumped water on everything and looked at the damage. Guess what started the fire? The saints that the grandma has. Apparently she had put some candles around her saints for Santa Rosa and one fell over and started the fire. The grandma came home and looked at the mess and said, "Creo que estoy portando mal." (I think I’m being mean, or being rude.) (It's a rough translation...) It was a miracle because she has truly been rude to Vilma and Martin! She kicked them out of their house!

We worked hard and found some new families to teach! I hope that they will progress. Next week is transfers so that will be interesting!!Well, I love you all!!! Have a great week!!!!!! :D

--- Hermana Hicken

(Jody here: A member in Sarah's ward, Stefy, has been sending me pictures of Sarah.
She had the sister missionaries over to decorate cookies and make a cake to celebrate Sarah's 1 year in the mission).

"I'm getting married in the morning!"‏                                August 29, 2016

Name that musical!!! 

Well, what a week!!! After stressing about marriages baptisms, and having a freaking year in the mission.... It all passed!! Friday was insane!!!! In the morning we met with Vilma and Martin and they then got ready for the marriage. In the afternoon we went to Tahuantinsuyo and VILMA AND MARTIN GOT HITCHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A wedding full of tears (brides part) and quiet/shy answers (groom's part) but they got hitched! Afterwards, my comp and I worked until 8:30 pm when we had the baptism! We waited for them to get there and we started. It was awesome and super spiritual. We had a lot of investigators come who now want to listen to us!!! Baptisms are the best!!! 

And after that crazy baptism my comp and I celebrated my one year mark!!!! 6 months to go!!!! AHHHHHH!!! What happened!!! I'm old... Anyway we celebrated it with pizza and maracuyá cake. yummy. 

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We worked super hard to have success with these three baptisms and I am very happy that all worked out well. Our mission has a new goal to work harder with the Book of Mormon and I hope that this next week my comp and I can have awesome experiences with it! I have a very strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and I hope to share it with ya'll soon!

Love you all!!!!!! 

--- Hermana Hicken

Martin, Vilma, Naysha and Oscar with President and Sister Godfrey

 This gigantic balloon popped and scared me to death!

What a Week!                                                                                                            August 22, 2016

I had four big things happen this week...

1. I ate Caja China. It's amazing! It's pork that sits in a box with charcol on top for two or three hours and it cooks. the pork melted in my mouth it was amazing! I expect Uncle Aaron and Uncle Jake to recreate it when I get home. ;) 

2. We had  our stake conference and guess who said the opening prayer and recieved the Melchizedek Priesthood... CESAR!!!!!!! My convert from Tahua!!! He moved from Tahua to Comas and I got to see hime!! It was so awesome to see him!! I miss their family a lot!! 

3. This was sad... Remember Edwin.. Our half convert? He died this week. He got baptized and 3 weeks later he died. He had diabetes and couldn't feel his legs. He had an accident and his legs became infected and they died. He couldn't move and get food and practically starved to death. We did everything we could to help, as well as the bishop and the ward, but he is now resting peacefully with our Heavenly Father. It was sad but It's okay. He need to go home. :( 

4. We had our zone conference with President!! We did practices with him!!! Crazy!! He taught us a ton of things but on of the things I loved that he shared was Alma 13: 24. He said that we all have angels that are helping us along the way. He said that our investigators are being prepared by their angels. I loved that! 

It was a good week!! I hope you allhave a great week as well! Love you all!

--- Hermana Hicken

Week....                                                                                                                           August 15, 2016

Hi all! I hope all is well! 

This was a good week! We started out with Pday, we watched "The book of Life" and "Zootopia" While eating pizza. Great pday in my opinion! We had an awesome district meeting and we spoke a lot about our goals and who we want to focus on this month. My comp and I have a lot of work to do but we hope to end this month with one marriage and 4 baptisms!! We met with them every day to help them stay on top of things! 

We contacted a lot of new people and we hope that they will progress for September! We found this new family and we taught them about the Restoration. They seem really cool and We hope they will progress. 

Yesterday we had another family night with the fam that we're going to marry. We spoke about praying, reading, and attending church. We then played a game that has a special place in my heart... OCTOPUS 8!!! It was hard to teach them the game at first  (in spanish it's called Pulpo 8) but it was hilarious and they loved it!! The kids wanted to keep playing it over and over and over. It was awesome to bring a little bit of home to Perú! 

As you can see by the photos, my comp, Stefy, and her cousin Kateryn and I went up to the mountain that says, Christ comes. We took pictures and then did divisions and went to work on that hill! in some of the pictures you can see all of Comas!!! IT'S HUGE!!!! 

Well, to end my week I just want to share a spiritual experience we had... We taught a less active about the priesthood. He recieved el Sacerdocio Aronico yesterday. He was nervous. I was so grateful that I was able to share my testimony with him about the priesthood and the fact that my grandfathers, my dad, and my brother have it. I testified about it's power and the authority that all worthy men can have. I'm grateful for the priesthood!! 

I hope you all have a great week!! I love you!!!! 

--- Hermana Hicken

"Christ Comes"

One year older and wiser too... I think...‏                              August 8, 2016

First off, thank you for the birthday wishes! It was an awesome birthday! We ate cake and worked super hard and had a ton of success! Sadly we didn't watch the olympics but please give me a play by play on what happens! :)

Wow, what a week! I'll start by saying that God is blessing us a ton!! We currently have two families that we are teaching that are going to church. We have one family that is getting married this month and we are working on the other one! (I should be a matchmaker or something... ;)) anyway! They are amazing and I love them dearly! We also have two men that we are working with. They both came to church and like it and they have a baptisimal date set for the 20th! 

The Lord is truly blessing us! We had an awesome Family night with about 30 people!! I'll try to send a picture of it but it was awesome! We watched Legacy, the pioneer film, and I testified about my ancestors. I'm so grateful for their example and their faith! 

Last thing I want to say is... keep the Sabbath day holy. That is something that we struggle with a ton here. Spend your time with your family. They are what matters most this day. I have a strong testimony that if we keep the Sabbath day holy we will have so many blessings and we will be more united as a church, and as families! I love you all! :) Thanks for everything! I hope you all have an awesome week! 

--- Hermana Hicken

My Birthday Cake

A wierd fruit that looks like a tomato in leaves but it tastes like and orange

Quail Eggs!!! Yes, they're really good!!

Everyone Wants a Waterbuffalo...                                                                               August 1, 2016

Hello everyone. This was a good week. We had a couple miracles and an awesome Pday! For Pday we went to the Zoo. I did see a waterbuffalo and a lot of llamas. Also, Theres this animal... Its a rabbit/squirrel. I attached a photo.... I call it... Squirrlit... But that is not it's name. It was cool to go to the zoo. Afterwards we went to Lima Central. We hung out there and then left. I was exhausted but we went full out and worked HARD! 

We got this refrence for a family that was attending church in Los Olivos (30 minutes from my area). We went to their house and found out that they had been waiting there.. for us!! We taught them the Restauracion (I cant spell it in ingles) and invited them to be baptized. Almost all of them came to church. (only their father didn't come). ANd the 2 boys went to young mens. When we left the young mens president said, You have got to baptize them!! We asked him why and he said that these boys knew a ton about the gospel even though they weren't members. Both the boys want to be baptized. 

We invited them to a family night last night and it was amazing! We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it was awesome to see them feel that Spirit! I'm super excited to get to know them better and help them. My comp and I don't have transfers so another 6 weeks!!!! We'll see what happens! :) I love you all! Thanks for the love and support!! 

--- Hermana Hicken

Spiritual Uplifter!!!                                                                                                           July 26, 2016

Hi all I have no time, sorry but I have two amazing stories to share...

We had two baptisms this week. The first was Marisol... Marisol contacted us two weeks ago in the street and said that she was interested in the lessons. She had been attending church for a year and had taken the lessons before but never was ready to be baptized. She came to church and had an interview with Elder Schaeffer (district leader). He said that she was ready to get baptized. Every time that we tried to visit her we couldn't... She never was there!!! We called her and that is how we did the lessons. ALL THE LESSONS!! Finally last Friday we asked her to be baptized.... For the next day.... She said that she was ready and was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. She bore her testimony and wow, was it powerful! She was an alcoholic but hasn't had a drink of alcohol in 3 months and she's going strong! It was really cool to see how the Lord changes our lives. I literally did nothing but reteach her, the Lord helped her become worthy and ready. 

The other baptism was really a half baptism. His name is Edwin. He was a reference for us and we taught him and invited him to be baptized. Later we found out that he doesn't live in our area so we had to give him over to the zone leaders. They taught him but asked us to stay in contact. We did and really helped him with some of things. He has a bad leg and it was super hard for him to be baptized but he did!! But he couldn't be confirmed because he was sick... We are praying that he will be confirmed next week! 

This week was awesome!!! I learned a ton and I am truly grateful to be here in this area! THank you so much for all the love and support!! Have a great week! I love you all! 

Marisol

Edwin

--- Hermana Hicken