Really slow computers are the best... NOT ;)‏

Hey y’all,

We have a new internet place which is great, the problem is that this computer is slow. I’m not used to it, it's like getting used to a new companion... so be patient. There will be a lot of errors, and mistakes. :) But it’s fine. All is well in Chincha. We had 44 lessons this week which is a new record for me. That was cool :) This week was pretty normal. Two things I’d like to share... 1. It was a week of mystery meats again... a. I ate wild boar on Saturday. b. I ate duck on Sunday and c. I ate tuna fish soup Sunday night… what???? But all was yummy and I didn’t die of food poisoning. 

The second cool thing is that we had a zone conference this week and talked about repentance. We talked about how we need to call the people to repentance. It’s so awesome! I love talking to people about repentence. They know what they're doing wrong, they just need to repent. :) 

Our investigator is getting married this Friday and baptized Saturday! I’m so excited for it and I’ll tell you how it goes!!  I love you all have a great week! :)

My lovely mother and grandmother (Sarah's trainer and her trainer’s trainer)

Charging the tablets in the sacrament meeting...nice

Although I do miss the states. I don’t miss them that much to have cheetos in my doritos... thank you very much!! 

--- Hermana Hicken

Wait... it's already been a week?‏

Well, this week was insane!! We had transfers this week, I'm STILL in Chincha!! I'll have 7 months here when we have transfers again! But I’m okay with it because we've got a lot of work to do! So, we're working! 

We got a new district leader, Elder Gerken. He’s got 8 months in the mission and he's cool. I don’t have a picture of our district yet but I’ll send one next week. We worked extremely hard this week.  Our zone is seriously on fire. Hna Morillo and I had 43 lessons this week! :) We worked a lot with our investigator who is getting married on the 26th and it's awesome to see him progress!! :) 

The new thing that happened this week is pictured below... so we have this cat. She lives in the church and two or three weeks ago, we decided that she is our investigator. She attends every Sunday, she is a hard worker but she broke a commandment, the Law of Chastity... and so we're working on that, but I think she regrets it because she now lives in a box outside of the church and can't party with all the other cats. :)   Yeah, we're insane... :) but all is well here in Chincha. 

I've learned a lot this week about being diligent in everything, and working to have the same success every week. I also learned that everyone can change. Like Asencio, he hated the church and then one day he decided to attend church and now he's baptized and happier than he ever was before. 

Well, I gotta go, but I love you all and I hope y’all are doing great!!

Love you! Hermana Hicken

Happy Valentines Day!!! 

My comp

Don't Trust the Meat

I learned many wonderful lessons this week but the first that I must share is to never trust meat if it isn't chicken.... THERE IS A REASON EVERYONE FEEDS US CHICKEN! 

Why? Well, Hermana Morillo and I were having a nice lunch with a member. The meal was different, meat, potatoes, and rice. We were fine until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon. We both got food poisoning. I also think I got something else too because I had a high fever for a few days and a cold. But hey, I'm better. :) Seriously, I’m better. :) We won’t be eating mysterious meats anymore, I promise that! :) 

Well, the rest of the week was great! Tahua is doing awesome!! :) We made our new goal for the month of February. 25 baptisms. It's high but we can do it! :) We also made this banner (see picture) and showed it off at the meeting of leaders! 

My comp and I are doing great! We got our other part-member family (the husband isn't a member) to commit to marriage AND... BAPTISM!!! His baptism is going to be on the 27th!!!!!! WOOOO!!!!!!! It's so cool to be a part of this area! 

Bueno, the rest of the week was pretty normal. I've learned a lot about diligence, and trusting in the Lord this week and I'm loving it here in Chincha! :) I love you all and have a great week!!!! :)

Pictures: the two fruits are mangos. One is HUGE the other is as big as a quail egg.... no joke. :) 

--- Hermana Hicken

Thanks for the package mom and grandma!

THERE CAN BE MIRACLES... WHEN YOU BELIEVE!!!!‏

I can't hide it... I'm freaking happy!! Why? We had TWO baptisms... Not one... TWO!!!!!!! Why? Because we were obedient and diligent!! :) HAHAH!!!! :) 

Okay so Monday... We did carnivales. That's when the whole zone gets together and throws water and water balloons on each other. It was so fun! :) Afterwards our zone leaders asked us if we had anyone else who may be ready for baptism. We thought for a while but couldn’t think of anyone. Until later when we realized we had a reference of a girl who's 9 years old and had been attending church forever! She hadn’t been baptized, so that night we met with her and she was baptized on Saturday! 

Asencio was baptized as well, and that was a beautiful experience! He cried the whole time! He's denied the church for so long and all of a sudden he change! He's an amazing man!! :) 

Anyway, this zone has had so many miracles! Remember how I said that Tahuantinsuyo is one of the worst zones because it never completes it’s goals? Well this month we completed AND went ABOVE our goal… our goal was 15 baptisms. guess how many we had... 21!!!!!! The first time in over a year, Tahua has had more than 15 baptisms!!! Seriously God has a plan for this zone. I'm not joking. This is HIS work and HIS glory. I am so grateful to be an instrument in HIS hands.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We're doing awesome!  I love you all and Miss you guys! I hope all is well in freezing cold States!! :)

--- Hermana Hicken

I look like a giant next to Peruvians.. So I decided to be as short as them.

Do what you're told and you'll get the blessings!

This week was awesome!!! Seriously! 

PDAY we had a food buffet! Every companionship had to cook a plate of food from their country. We cooked something from Trujillo, Peru. We have two gringos as zone leaders so guess what they cooked... Grilled cheese sandwiches. Oh how amazing! :) I'll just say that I didn’t eat for a while! :) 

The rest of this week was awesome too! We completed all of our goals AGAIN!! 35 lessons, 15 references, and 75 contacts. And we have been blessed how? I’ll tell you... 

1. Sadly our investigator who had a date for the 30th will not be baptized. 

2. But! We have another investigator. His wife is a member and she’s the only member in her family. Our investigator has always turned away the missionaries, even when I was with Hna. Aguilera he said no. But we visited one night, hna Morillo y yo, and decided to teach slowly and not pressure him. We've been teaching for two weeks. Last Monday night, we invited him to be baptized! HE said YES!!!! He said he wants to follow the example of his wife! AHH! The next day we had the strong impression to talk to him. We had a meeting with our zone and our zone leader told us that Satan is going to work HARDER than EVER to make our fechas fall. So, we went to our investigators house. We were a little nervous but we asked him..  And he accepted the fecha of 30th de enero!!! We’ve taught him every day since and he is so ready for baptism! 

3. We have another investigator, whose wife is a member but he isn't and they aren't married. We taught them this week about the importance of the temple and he wants to be married!!! We are seriously working miracles in this area! It's so awesome! 

We have a lot of new investigators that we are really excited to start teaching. I know that when you do the things that Heavenly Father asks, you will be blessed. He has asked our mission to have more references and more lessons, and because my comp and I are completing our goals, he is blessing our area. He is putting more people in our path to teach! 

How awesome is the Plan of our Heavenly Father?? 

I'm sorry I don’t have any pictures this week, I'll make it up next week. :) I love you all and thank you for the prayers and support!! 

--- Hermana Hicken

Stardate: 18120.16‏

¨Perú the final frontier, these are the voyages of the star ship Perú Lima Norte. It's continuing mission, to baptize people and share the gospel. To seek out new investigators and new food. To boldly go where no missionary has gone before!!!¨

Sorry, I’ve always wanted to do that. :)   Well this week was good! We worked super hard and completed all our goals. Sadly our investigator is not ready for baptism on the 23rd but on the 30th!!! I have faith that'll he'll be ready for the 30th! 

On Thursday we had a Multi Zona meeting. Presidente talked to us about the importance of the plan of happiness! I learned that there is one word that you can’t find in the bible but it’s in the Book of Mormon, God has one and Satan has one... What is it?  Can you guess? Plan. God has a plan and Satan has a plan. WE can choose to follow Satan or Heavenly Father, but you can't serve both. :) It was an awesome training! 

We drank a lot of Chicha Morada and OH MY was it HOT this week!!!!! :)   I had a cool experience... We have an investigator, the first time week talked to him, he didn't want anything to do with the church, but we asked him to pray. The second time we met with him, he said that he started to have faith, and this last time we spoke to him... HE WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED!!!!!!! 

The gospel can change lives. Enough said. :) Well, that's it for this week, it was a normal week in Perú! I love you all and I hope all is well!! 

¨Fruit salad... yummy yummy¨

--- Hermana Hicken

La Fe.... El Primer Paso

Hola Mi Familia! Bueno, estoy todavia aqui en Perú!  (This is Jody – I had to use google translate: Faith .... The First Step
My Family Hello! Well, I'm still here in Peru!) 

It's getting hot! And the sun is very bright!! But it gives us an excuse to drink a lot of chicha marón y eat chupetes! :) Chicha marón is a juice. It’s purple and it’s made from corn! And chupetes are pretty much fruit popsicles! They are really good! :)

I'm doing great! This week was awesome! We made all our goals AND!!!!!!!! WE HAVE A BAPTISM DATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For the 23rd of January!!!!!!!! Our investigator is great! He's got a good testimony that he’s strengthening every day! :)  

This week I learned a lot about faith. We all know that it’s not just believing but it's also doing. "Faith without works is dead" right? And this week I learned that faith is extremely important. You can’t repent and you can't become a member of the church without having Faith. It’s pretty awesome!  Yesterday, for example, I had faith that we would have INCAS (investigators) at church. I prayed and we called people and guess what! We had 3! It's the little things that count!  It was pretty awesome! :) 

For pday last week we went to Central de Lima! It was awesome! I shall include some choice pictures for you to gasp at! Why? Because we went to the museum of inquisition!! :) Catolicos! :) It was pretty cool to get away from my mission boundaries and explore another part of Lima! :) 

We also had to move this week, and that was an experience. We’re right around the corner from where we used to live.  We're only living there till February so that'll be fun! We moved because the daughter of our landlady is here and needed a place to live.

 Well that’s all for now! I hope all is well! I love you all! - Hermana Hicken