Christmas Stuff!!

Hello my dear Subjects! Merry Christmas Season!!!
This week has been crazy! With so much partying , Singing, and
teaching it's crazy!
Early on in the week I went on exchange with Elder Hills. He's a super
cool young missionary and we got to sit down and teach a really good
lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ to an awesome investigator who
had a ton of really good questions!
And then later in the week we hit the party weekend!
      Friday we had the all mission Christmas concert in which we had
Bart Oates a former NFL Center and 2 time Super Bowl winner who just
happens to be a bishop here speak to us which was cool! And then we
had the party with a few funny skits! I got to be a part of the best
one.... just saying, the lyrics are provided below though a lot of
them are mission jokes that you might not understand.
     Friday night we also got to be on exchange and I went up to New
York with Elder Jean-Baptiste, who is from Haiti. He is the most
entertaining I've seen in a long time! I got the opportunity to watch
him open his Christmas presents and he was like a little child
screaming with joy at the smallest gift. He was an amazing example of
charity to me too. Immediately after opening all his gifts he started
divvying stuff out to give to some of the homeless people in the area.
He then handed me a tie and a pair of socks that he got and said they
were for me. Then he put a tie and a pair of socks aside for his
companion without even a thought. It was really heartwarming to see.
     Saturday we had our ward Christmas party which was really fun and
we had a few investigators there which is super sweet!
       Sunday was the English Missionary Fireside. It was absolutely
amazing! I love singing Christmas music and I got the chance to be a
part of 3 different musical numbers that all went super well and it's
crazy how blessed my voice has become.... 10 months ago I couldn't
sing tenor without hurting myself but yesterday I sang Joy to the
world in Alto for a couple practices just to see if I could.... so...
pride.
        I also got to see some of the people back from Clinton that I
love so stinkin dearly!
So my week has been pretty good! Christmas is coming up and I'm
excited for all the joy that people have this next week though I will
miss all the ridiculous parties our family does.

Thankyou all so much for the great support you give me, and thankyou
to those who sent cards and gifts! And to those that didn't, I
understand, I wouldn't send one either ;)

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

Faith to Find!!!

So, I hate knocking doors..... but guess what we did a lot of this
last week? We knocked doors.... and it was Great!!!!
   Something we've been working on a lot in the mission over that last
couple of weeks is Faith. There are many areas in the mission where
missionaries have fallen into the depressive ideals that include such
statements as "This area is dead.... There are no prepared people
here.... This area doesn't baptize.... Etc" you know that kind of
thing... I know, I've been there. I've said some of those things.
   The missions goal is to have a paradigm shift. We need to have the
"Faith to Find"
So me and Elder Trask have been putting a ton of work into finding new
investigators through everything! Members, door knocking, street
contacting, everything!. And it's working!!!! We have found a bunch of
people and there is a ton of potential here!
   The cold has arrived and it has snowed twice this week! It is
definitely looking like this winter is going to be better then the
last one. Not like last years joke of being 70 degrees on Christmas
day. Though my companion complains a lot about the cold. He's a
California surfer boy so he ain't got no winter layers on his body.

Cool experience for the week. I went on exchange in Passaic with Elder
Hunt. It is a spanish area so I wasn't super involved in the lessons
but during one lesson I felt prompted to share my testimony about the
Plan of Salvation and I was blessed to have wifi so I typed out a huge
paragraph on Google Translate super fast while Elder Hunt was teaching
and I was able to share my Testimony in Spanish.

Sorry I got no serious stories with details but it's just been hectic.
Thank you guys for all the help and support you give me! Happy holidays
and good tidings
Farewell.

Englewoood... Responsibilities.... I'm Tired...

Hallloooo!
Good Morning my dear Monday subjects!
This week has been super hectic! Elder Trask my new companion is a
crazy awesome missionary, and he works super hard.... and I have spent
to much time in an area that you get to sit in your cushy car all day
long. If you connect the dots there, I'm tired! We had an awesome week
of teaching people and meetings!
My one experience that I really do want to share is of a Baptism that
we had yesterday.... So I got transferred into this baptism, I had
only met them once before the baptism so it was interesting....
But anyways, to the story... So we had to fill the baptismal font, and
our Bishop told us that it would only take an hour..... For some
reason we believed him. The baptism was supposed to start at 1:15. But
at that time the baptismal font was only a foot deep.... not good
right, so me and my companion this whole time are using a big garbage
can and filling it with water from the custodial closet and dumping it
in to the font. We did that for forty five minutes until my companion
had to go change for the baptism, so I stayed back there with another
missionary continuing to fill it up all through the beginning of the
program. So on the other side of the doors we hear people singing and
the ward missionary leader talking and welcoming everyone and the
baptismal talk starts. We finally get it up to a reasonable depth and
run out to be in the room for the baptism. It all worked out in the
end and everyone was happy... but the lesson for the day is
preparation!
Thankyou for all your support! You guys are super awesome!

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

The Spirit of Song and Sad Goodbyes.

Helllooooooo Everybody!
I had an amazing week! And it was exactly what I needed.
       So some of the great events that happened this week!
       Turkey Bowl! Woohoo! All of the missionaries in the North
Western chunk of New Jersey got together and set up teams to play
football Thanksgiving morning! It was super fun and absolutely
ridiculous. We all set up uniforms for our teams too. We had the Red,
White, Blue Team dressed in America Colors. True Blue who were all
blue. We had a White Out team. And My team was Black and Camo.
Pictures will be provided. My team went 1-4... but the only team we
beat was the one that was killing everyone so I'll take that as
ultimate victory.
         Thanksgiving! We got the opportunity to spend thanksgiving
dinner at the wonderful home of the Wimmer Family. The food was
absolutely amazing!!! Not to mention that I'm pretty sure I got more
roasted then the turkey that evening. I've never laughed so much in my
entire life....

        Friday we had a really cool experience. We were down in
Flemington and our appointment cancelled so we had nothing to do and
as the wonderful missionaries we are, we forgot to plan any kind of
backup. So we started going through potential investigator records and
Less active records trying to decide who to see. Now I haven't done
this strategy in a long time. I had fallen away from "Potential
Hunting" because it had never yielded fruit. Now for you that don't
know, a Potential Investigator Record is a record of someone who had
some sort of Contact with missionaries to the point that we got a
number or address. In some cases the missionaries had taught them one
lesson. But in all cases there was never a return appointment. So
potential hunting is when you go back to these people who had just a
tiny bit of missionary contact in the past and try again. So, back to
the story, I'm scrolling through names and I see this one couple. And
the second I see their names I immediately know that that is who we're
going to see. We get there and a nice young mom opens the door and is
very nice to us. We talked for just a minute, finding out that her
family is actually going through a hard time right now and that she'd
love to have us come by another time.... I haven't had it go down that
easy on a door approach in my entire time in Clinton, so it was a
small blessing for me.

    Now for the big day, if you all haven't seen it on Facebook
already, I sang in a local Interfaith Christmas concert yesterday!
Starting with a solo singing Silent Night to the Mannheim Steamroller
Piano Arrangement. After that I was given the opportunity to sing with
the Hunterdon Harmonizers, a local Barbershop that is apparently a big
deal out here. Singing Hallelujah, and Do you hear what I Hear. And
then finally I sang with the Ward choir and with all the Church
singing groups doing the Hallelujah Chorus! It was absolutely amazing
and the spirit was definitely there to help all the performers. My
whole time practicing Silent Night I couldn't hold and hit the high
note in Peace and Born at the end of each verse without making it
sound garbled and bad. And then I get up there and do it without any
problem! I'm so thankful again for the opportunity that I was given To
sing in this concert! It will go down in my most favorite memories.

      Now sadly for my final news. I'm am getting transferred out of
Clinton. I have been called as a Zone Leader up in Englewood to be
companions with Elder Trask. Apparently they still think I'm a good
missionary or something because the keep giving me higher and higher
assignments. I need to go do something bad to drop me off the list or
something.
       I'm deeply sad to leave Clinton though, I've been here for 7
1/2 months and I have built a large family of people that I'll for
sure be staying in touch with! This Ward has helped me so much in
growing as a person and as a missionary! Thankyou!!!

I go to start a new journey in my mission!

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

 Mom..."Are you wearing camo leggings"

Elder Hicks..."Yes.... I am... it's under armor leggings"

 Thanksgiving.....bacon wrapped turkey!!!

 Joyeux Noel Interfaith Benefit Christmas Concert

 

Silent Night with Brian Gallacher on piano

 Hunterdon Harmonizers

 

 Saying Goodbye to the Wimmers

Fire, Snakes, and other things...

  Hello Good People of the land!
I had a very good week! I don't thing there was really any serious
dull moments this week.I feel like it went by ridiculously fast yet
looking backwards it feels like Tuesday was a decade ago.
   But anyways.... the week started off really well with an amazing
District meeting. So as District leader I give a training every week,
I'm pretty sure I've told you this before. This week, the Training was
on prayer. My goal in my trainings is and always has been to make it a
very good discussion. However much I like the sound of my own voice,
there needs to be less of it. So we started talking about prayer and
blam! Spirit hit and we sat there discussing prayer for an hour. I
didn't even get to half of our training because we got so deep into
how it affects us as missionaries and how we really need to be using
it! It went really well.
   After that I got to go on a spanish exchange with one Elder York. I
miss spanish food, and spanish people. I still don't understand what
they are saying half the time, and I can Barely talk back to them
because my spanish vocabulary is pitiful, but the energy and fire
(probably from the spicy food) is just so awesome.
   Speaking of fire..... Elder York got me to try the Hand sanitizer
fire thing on your hands....... I only lost most the hair on my right
hand and only got one blister from the burns......
   Moving on....
After returning from the exchange I got a call from good ole Bro
Gallacher asking me if I wanted to sing with the Harmonizers, a vocal
group that will be singing in the Christmas Interfaith Concert this
next Sunday.... So I am now booked for music. I'm singing a Solo, 2
Harmonizer Songs, a church Choir song, I'm part of the Hallelujah
Chorus, and then I'm also learning a song to sing in a couple weeks
for the Missionary Fireside......... and it's all in tenor....... My
vocal chords have not been this stretched in a long time. But it's
super fun and I'm really grateful! Woohoo.
   Now for the Snake part of the title.... The Gallachers through a
coming home party fro one of our other members getting home from
Marine Basic. And the kids decided to pull out a snake and we
proceeded to terrify people with it for quite some time.

   Thankyou all so very much, luv ya, miss ya, wouldn't wanna kiss ya.
(You know, because I'm a missionary and all...)


                     Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                 New Jersey Morristown Mission

Unknown Subject Title

Hey everybody!
This week was super fun! I got to go on exchange with a trio this week
so I got to be with 2 missionaries over in North branch for a day. It
was pretty funny! I found a new way for a portable picnic, (Picture
Provided) and taught one of the funniest lessons in my whole mission.
           Apparently when you get a British guy hyped up on Monster
and my beautiful old self together.... we make quite the pairing. It
was quite surprising. You would think that those variables would add
up to a very bad and unspiritual lesson, but indeed it turned out to
be quite the opposite. The spirit was truly there and it was really
fun and humorous at the same time. The Third missionary was laughing
pretty hard and kept berating himself afterwards for not recording it.
I still don't know how it turned out to be that way but we were full
of theatrical movements and "did you know" comments that turned into a
great lesson.
           Other things to highlight! We have a new investigator who
came to church yesterday! It was quite surprising in our last lesson.
We just asked him if he'd come and he was like "Ya sure, how far is
the church?" Which in our area is a rough question to answer, because
the answer is usually 30 minutes away, which scares people off. But
after I told him he was all for coming! I have never gotten someone to
come to church so easily in my entire mission! What the heck!
           We also had our ward thanksgiving party on Saturday and I
am slowly growing infamous for my cookie recipe....
muuuahahahahaha..... lots of nonmembers and less active members were
able to come and it was a great experience.
           And finally to end the week off we got to go practice for
the Hallelujah chorus with a bunch of people singing in the Interfaith
concert on the 27th. It is super awesome but I can barely pull off the
tenor required for the choir songs, let alone the solo I have to sing
at the beginning of the Concert!!! Life is rough.


Hope y'all are having a wonderful week and that you Repent of your
sins. Because y'all are a bunch o' demons!

Live long and prosper,🖖
Hicks out.

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

Temple Trip!

Hullo there!
Guess what! Temple Trip this last week! Super cool!!! I love going to
the temple! I feel like the celestial room is the only place where I
can truly organize my thoughts and what I want and need, and it was a
very spiritual and weird experience this last time.
        It was also super fun to go with our whole zone. A lot of the people
in my zone have been in these areas for a very long time. Very few are
new to the zone. So of course we all all super buds because we've been
hanging out for 6 months now. It made going to the temple that much
more exciting and fun.
        Twas super annoying at the same time though. Do to some hiccups in
the travel plans and missing a bus we were gone from 6:30 in the
morning and didn't get back to our area until 7:30... We also ended up
really close to Times Square which is a big missionary no no....
hehehe. Not my fault, I promise.
        Other then all that we had a pretty routine week filled with dinners
and lessons! Super great! Except for the fact that I was on exchange
and found one of the few Arby's in all of New Jersey...... Chicken
bacon Swiss and Curly Fries..... I only fangirl'd a little when I saw
it.
Thankyou all for you support and love! It helps immensely.

Explanation of the Video.... we were playing a game called Kumcha....
though I'm pretty sure anyone in the area they might've seen it has
now posted a video titled this "Mormon Missionaries doing crazy ritual
under Church"

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

Hump Day! 10/31/16

I come to ya'll once again on a beautiful Monday morning.
        Like it is stated above, this week has been my Hump Day. I think I
told you in my last email that I am now past my year mark. But Hump
Day, and I'd go as far to say Hump Week, Really lived up to its name.
It just seemed off, and I had no energy. So it was a rough week, we
still managed to teach a few really awesome lessons. We ended up
driving all the way down to Lambertville, which is in the bottom of
our area, to teach a lesson. 40 minute drives to lessons are always a
bonus! Especially when immediately after the lesson you have to drive
all the way back up to Clinton for some service do to some complicated
scheduling issues.... luckily it all worked out and the lesson was
totally worth it! Good thing I'm used to long drives.
        The weather has been more gracious for me this last week though.
Temperatures are dropping and I am so absolutely happy, I hate the
warmth! I used to just dislike heat, but now that I've experienced
true humid heat, I truly value winter.
        Now for the Funny part of our week, Saturday night our ward had a
Trunk Or Treat party. Now fortunately I've been in Clinton so long
everyone knows my sarcasm and sass and throws it right back. So for
the Trunk Or Treat me and my companion decided to make a statement.
Luckily do to my mothers gracious timing with a wonderful Hump Day
package, we had our banner. Thanks for the hug Mom.......... Picture
is provided below. We were well received and only had several
arguments over our banner... hehehehehe. Good to know the Holy War
spreads across the country.
        Well Everyone, Happy Halloween!!! Enjoy your candy and Parents don't
forget to take your candy taxes!
        Thankyou all for your support and I hope all is well!

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

The Taming Power of Sisters!.... Oh and I'm Old.... 10/24/16

 Good Morning fellow hoodlums and no good doers! I hope all is well
in Utah land or wherever else you are in the world!
   This week was the beginning of the new transfer! So as to help you
understand what I mean by the first part of the subject line I shall
enlighten you as to some history from last transfer. I am a District
Leader, and my district last transfer consisted of 6 elders.... 3 of
which are very young in the mission. We started by calling our
district Elders quorum, but we soon demoted ourselves to priests
quorum. Our demotions quickly accelerated and we found ourselves with
the title of deacons quorum.... Do to repeated distractions and
pointless conversations during training times we found ourselves stuck
in this rut. Trainings were still good and meaningful, but much less
on track and focused. We learned in those meetings from last transfer,
For example, how to throw a Pokémon card with deadly accuracy......
   Do to our rambunctiousness I requested  some changes to be made to
help us be better for this next transfer.... so they gave us
sisters.... We can now proudly say we have been promoted back to
Priests Quorum but further progression is yet to be seen. Being a
District leader is great!!!
   As for our week we did pretty well, we taught some new people and
are hoping for a good future. We started working with our less active
members a little more in hopes to find more people as per that route.
All is well here in the Clinton Ward and we got a bunch of Parties
coming up! Super excited..... for missionary purposes of course.... We
can... like... invite people.. and stuff....
      Oh and guess what!?!?!? I hit my Year mark this week, I'm super
old! It's also funny that i've been through a year of my mission and
i've only had 2 areas! I've decided i'm just a member/missionary
relations establisher. It's all great!
Also one of the members gave me a Baritone Ukulele so now I have 2! A
Baritone and a Soprano! Now I just got to get new strings for it.
Thanks Sis. Judd.
Hope Ya'll have a great week!
   Fare thee well!

                     Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                 New Jersey Morristown Mission

Hunting Crickets 10/17/16

Hello my loyal Subjects! Are you still there? Do you still love me?

This week was super fun! We taught some awesome lessons and killed a cricket. Taught some more awesome lessons and Plotted a torture scheme for some other missionaries. Taught a few more awesome lessons and worried about transfers.

    So you can say a lot happened. 

Earlier in the week we got to hike to High Point in north Jersey. It is the highest point in New Jersey if you hadn't guessed yet. That was super fun and I already sent all the picks to my madre last week.

    After that I went on exchange with Elder Feick! Holy darn he is an awesome missionary. Who'd uh thunk he was barely out of training! He was the one that I also hunted crickets with.

Awesome moment too! Robin's confirmation was on Sunday and it was super great to bring her in as a bonafide Mormon!

Now for as too how we are gonna torture some other missionaries.... please few the videos below.... I'm a bad person.

I love you guys all so much and I thank you for everything! Hope your having a great week! 

Oh and everyone tell my mom happy birthday because she is old now. Love you mom.

  

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks

                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

 

 

The Spirit!!! 10/10/16

Friends and family!
I had a crazy spirit filled week starting right from the beginning!!!!
To start it off we had an amazing lesson with one of our prime investigators that was super spiritual and they definitely felt it! The testimonies that were bared touched me and everyone in that room.
After that I had a super fun exchange with one of my districtee's Elder Oakley from Yorkshire, England. Now that is someone who knows the church doctrine out of the scriptures, I definitely learned a lot from him. We also ended up shoveling out a member's dog run on that exchange in dress clothes! Was super awesome.... I think I want a Great Dane now..... Went even better when I found out halfway through getting mugged by the 2 giant beasts that Elder Oakley was allergic to dogs..... we both apparently have a twisted sense of humor because we couldn't stop laughing about the irony. Brother Dinkelo, if you read this, I stinkin' love your dogs.
We also kinda locked ourselves out of our apartment...

 Now the next few days were business as usual until friday we had Zone Conference which was super great, got to see some past companions and friends i've made throughout the mission and also got to be spiritually fed by the Spirit giant known as President Taggart.
Then Saturday came around and we spent the whole morning doing service moving tree cuttings back and forth to a recycle center. That was pretty fun and I only Gashed my leg once....
After that we got fed lunch.... twice... and then spent the rest of the day running around teaching people and got lucky enough sucker someone into ordering some pizza.... Thankyou Bro. And Sis. Greenwald... the rest of the night became very interesting but I dare not tell the tell.

 AND THEN SUNDAY!!!! Robin our investigator for the last couple of months got baptized!!! It was so awesome and was super surprising and stressful when President and Sister Taggart decided to come... especially when I was singing a musical number halfway through it.... I was nervous already, now double it. But it all worked out and the spirit was super strong there! Thankyou everyone who had a help with all of it.


The week was a little crazy and fun and great things happened... thankyou so much for all the support you give me and all the other missionaries around the world, we truly do need it and are eternally grateful.

Conference Weekend! 10/3/16

    Hello, Hello my dear Friends and relatives. Unfortunately my email will not be as eloquently wrote as the last one was. My apologies.

So this week has been interesting. It feels like we just had a super dead no energy week, but then looking back we got way more accomplished then I first believed... we taught a few great lessons, sat through long trainings (I'm going to credit my back aches to those) and got to sit at the church most of Saturday and Sunday watching General Conference! I'd like to thank those who kept us company so that we didn't have to sit and watch conference alone and Thankyou to Sis. Wimmer and Sis. R. Harris for providing the delicious food for our lunch on Sunday! It was awesome!

Now Conference was interesting (As it always is) but I noticed a particular focus on Repentance and Judging. Several talks focused on making true repentance, or true change, while a few others talked about not comparing ourselves to other. I see that as a big problem in the church and in society today. Many times in our lives we prefer to hide or block our sins and mistakes then fess up and deal with it. With that we also begin to Judge ourselves.... "Why can't I be as good of a Mormon as that person".... "That family is so perfect, why is mine so  dysfunctional"... "Why do I struggle when they get all they want".... and then the other side "That family is so dysfunctional, good thing I'm better than them"... "That person is a disgrace as a Mormon, they can't even get the simplest things right".... I guarantee that all of you, including myself, has asked those questions or some similar. We're all selfish, we're all jerks, just accept it. We never truly examine those we see and compare ourselves too. Instead of focusing on our own sins or problems we pick and prod at the perfections and imperfections of others... I'm certainly guilty of it. Many times we also ignore the problems that others may be facing and only see their so called "Perfections" that we don't have. We become selfish and blind.

I have realized this lately as a Trainer.... I am constantly drowning my own pride in things that my trainee does in which are not the same way I do them. I have to take time and focus on his positives because I always find myself turning to his negatives... and then berating myself because I realize I'm jealous of many of the positives that he posses...  and that jealousy brings more pride infused frustrations. A vicious cycle... 

Now, how do you fix this problem? The Leaders of the church seemed to pound it into my brain.... Repentance/Change.... Stop comparing, stop judging. An interesting comment that comes to mind is something that I try to really focus on with any missionary that struggles.... "God called YOU!" And that doesn't just apply to missionaries.... wherever you are, whatever you're doing, God has called YOU! You are the exact parents he wants for that child. You are the exact Teachers he wants for those students, you are the exact companion he wants with that missionary. I could go on and on about everything that he has placed YOU to do. 

Just remember that Your Heavenly Father placed you in your shoes. So it's you that should be there.

Rant ended.... I love you guys and I thank you all so much for your support and love... Keep being awesome and all that kind of stuff!

Here is a picture of a funny sticker we found on the road..... stuck it on Elder Taylor's desk so everyone can remember.... (Disclaimer)This is not us stating our political position.

  Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks

                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

                             Sent from my iPad

The Trial Continues......

(Please read with a Shakespearean British accent) (Enjoy)

Ah yes, my good subjects.... Once again we return to this day known as Monday, to myself as thine P-Day. The day in which I communicate with all of thee in mine own motherland.

Thirty four and Three Hundred days have come and gone since I last laid eyes upon my humble abode, and since that time of reckoning have I gained much experience in the front lines. The natives to this strange land have become more aggressive. The hill people from the north have begun sending their minions to attack the top of mine head, and others continue to lure us into their traps with goodies that are delicious to the taste. Others seem to have learned my language of deception and witty remarks, and have even surpassed me in their skill. I have found challenges.

Only through interacting with the locals have I learned their language.... They say like mountain...... Yet I see no mountain upon the terrain surrounding me. They talk of the weather as if it is good. Through their years of evolution they must have built immunities to the blights that plague this region, I have suffered much from this sickness known to the locals as "Humidity". It may in fact end me. I have also recently discovered that the insects throughout this area must believe that my blood and perspiration is sweet.  They horde to my location at any time we exit the hut in which we reside.

Winter approaches and I see the leaves fall, yet the trees are still full of their green foliage. Where dost these leaves come from. I know not where, only that the brutal task masters the natives have placed over me will most likely put me to labor upon the fallen leaves.

This last rise and fall of the seven day cycle has brought much interaction with the locals. The colony up north known as Washington had a festival where the tribes gathered to celebrate something. Local bards from the region came and played their musical instruments and chanted strange melodies. Me and my companion used this gathering as an opportunity to enlighten those who have not yet experienced the joy and knowledge of that being who created us. We were able to acquire some interest, yet only slightly more then usual.

Despite mine afflictions, we press on. My young companion continues to grow in knowledge. For some reason the natives show more kindness to him, and are more forgiving of his naivety towards their strange culture. He is a good lad though still knew to this hard, adventuring life.

I wish all of you back home peace and good tidings. Thankyou for all your support and adoration.

Below I share a depiction of the strange scenery. 

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks

                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

Another Week! Using Technology!

Hello my dear friends!

This week has been slow, but hectic, at the same time. I don't understand! We've also had lots of little moments that show a lot of potential and then nothing comes out of it or still needs much more exploration.

For example, last Sunday we had this nice couple come in needing help really bad. They were about to become homeless and they needed just a small amount of money for part of the down payment on their new apartment. Our bishopric was able to help out and they seemed very interested in having us missionaries come by! Super exciting! But unfortunately they weren't there when we showed up... bummer. Hopefully it was just a misunderstanding and we can catch them another day. We'll see soon enough.

Now regarding the "Technology" part of my subject, this week has been a cool opportunity to use it more effectively. My Companion Elder Taylor was heavily under the weather on Thursday so there wasn't much we could do on part of going out. So we were able to actually teach a couple lessons over Facebook messenger and reach out to people that way... It was pretty surprising how well it worked.

My baby boy Elder Taylor is coming along stronger now though. He's starting to get the hang of this weird missionary world we live in. He's already training me on how to be better at some things! I also have the easiest district ever too. All Elders, which makes things super easy. One of them is from the U.K. Too so we make lots of Revolution jokes and stuff. Just waiting for him to call me and ungrateful colonist or something.

I'm also getting better at the Ukulele for all you who might care....

Hmmmm what else.... hmmmmmmmm....

Oh ya I did get asked to sing in a big interfaith Concert with several other churches in the area in November..... Specifically a solo... I guess that's kinda big.

Love all of you, thanks for all your support! And for all you Clinton Ward members who spy on me and read this email.... Thanks for all the food!

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks

                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

 

 

My Son!!!!!

Well hello everybody.
        How are you?
This week has been hectic to say the least. As I stated last Monday I
got a new trainee missionary on Tuesday at transfers. Oh man was I not
prepared for that. I was expecting him to act like I did when I first
came out. But he's almost the exact opposite. How do I deal with
this!!! It's alright though, he's cool. I keep getting stuck with
central Utahns for some reason. First Panguitch, then I got a break
with Alaska and Washington, then back to Joseph, and now I got this
one from Richfield.
        For the events of the week! Now I won't name names because all you
people in Clinton seem to read through my emails now, but I did get to
introduce Elder Taylor my Trainee to some of my favorite people! I
think it really helped break the ice for him. Because when I first got
here neither me nor my trainer knew anyone in our area so we were
struggling alone for a good week.
        I think he's gonna get this illusion that members actually feed
English missionaries though. This Ward is too nice to us.
        Now to the missionary work. It has been a pretty good week for
lessons. Had some super spiritual moments for myself teaching
Repentance and Baptism. We talked to one group of people who had some
concerns about forgiveness and we had a very spiritual and heartfelt
moment focusing on Forgiving ourselves and learning from those past
mistakes to help people in the future. (Sorry I'm not providing more
details, I'm just trying to provide as much privacy as I can to those
we teach). It's been a little tougher because Elder Taylor is new so
he doesn't speak up much in the lessons but he'll come to it. Sooner
or later I'll be trying to get him to shut up in lessons so I can get
a second to speak.
        He is my son and I will make him the greatest!

Now to explain the "Son" thing. We look at the mission as a mini life.
When you arrive from the MTC you are born, and your trainer is your
Father (or Mother for Sister missionaries). So my Dad is Elder Norris,
and my son is Elder Taylor.

So long and Thanks for all the Fish, I bid thee farewell.... For now.

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

Unexpected Changes......

Hello my dear friends and family.... Big news this week.
So to start when it comes to missionary work it was kind of a slow week.
        I did go on exchange with one of my district members and have found
another new best friend. We talked and joked a ton and pretty much
have the same outlook on everything.... And the same sense of humor, I
don't think I have laughed that hard and that much in a while..... I
had a headache for 2 days afterwards.
        But now to the drama of the week.......
Thursday night I found out that someone up there either thinks I'm a better
missionary then I think I am, or that they believe I need some
straightening up.... Or the more possible answer that they ran out of
good missionaries... Because I got called to train a new missionary
coming into the mission.
        Who thought that would be a good idea!
So anyways, being that I'm training means one of 2 things, I am either
staying in Clinton for 3 more months, or I'm getting "Doubled In" to a
new area. I don't want to leave Clinton! I stinking love this Ward and
things are starting to happen here! So as transfers approached I was
praying pretty hard, along with a few other people that I stay.
        Prayers receive answers!!! I'm staying in Clinton! Now I'm
sure the Ward will be disappointed that they're stuck with me even
longer! But they'll just have to deal with me! Muuahahahaha
        Now back to missionary work.... We Taught a few amazing lessons this
week that were great! Investigators are progressing and things are
moving along here! I'm so happy to be staying and I can't wait to make
my new trainee hate me!
        I love all of you guys and I thank you for all the support, pray for
my trainee's mental health. He will have had to done something bad to
get me as his comp.
        So long, Farewell!
                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

 

 A Kissy Face selfie for Mom!!!

Here is a video we made on P-Day... Enjoy.

Busy Week!!!

  Well hello again my dear friends and not so dear family. I
regret to inform you that this weeks email will actually have some
stuff in it. I'd like to apologize for my boring emails in the past
but sometimes life is boring. So don't complain and don't ask
questions.... Mom...... ;)
     This week was awesome! Like I just said a ton of stuff happened!
        To start P-Day we had a big party in our zone at a park including a
relay which was unfair for the part they put me in.... They paired me
and my companion against 2 sisters for a wheel barrel race. When one
of you holds the other persons legs and that person has to run on
their hands and stuff.... Quite unfair because that's really the only
muscle I manage to workout on out here so it was no competition, sorry
Hermanas....
        We then proceeded to have a water balloon fight. Which turned bad
because I nailed one of the Sisters in the face...... I'm a bad
person... And District Leader too, because she's one of the
missionaries in my district.... Hopefully she'll forgive me one day.
Once again, Sorry Hermana.
        So that was all fun. After that I went on exchange with our Zone
Leaders. I got to head up to the Cedar Lakes area for a couple days
which was super fun. I learned a new way to knock doors that makes
things less awkward.
        On the exchange I saw a funny sign, was given some free Girl Scout
cookies( that I promptly ate the whole box by myself)... Oh and I also
got attacked by a dog.... Thankfully I buy thicker pants so it didn't
break any skin. It was quite funny. It didn't scare me really at all
and after we got out of the situation my companion was freaking out
and kept asking if I was ok. He obviously had some sort of adrenaline
going on but I was in the whole "Just another day on the Job" zone.
        Then on Wednesday me and my companion made cookies to take to a few
people! They turned out super delicious and I now have to make another
batch because we're selfish and ate too many of them....
        Now for the first big event of the week! Elder Dube of the Seventy
came and spoke to our mission! It was really funny because a little
bit into the meeting he used the scriptures to call us all out about
not speaking up in the discussion he was trying to start. I was
laughing.
        Then the next day which was the Highlight of my week!!! We got to go
to the Philly Temple Open House! The Greenwalds were kind enough to
take us to it and it was an amazing experience, not to mention the
first time I'd been to Philadelphia. The temple was absolutely
beautiful and it was really cool to see how many Non members were
there! In our tour group I kept having people asking me questions
about the temple. It was kind of annoying and cool at the same time
because I was trying to experience and enjoy it while people kept
coming to me for answers! All good though. The Architects and
designers all did an amazing job of keeping to the Patriotic feel of
Philly. One of the coolest things I repeatedly saw throughout was two
feather quills next to each other. One representing the Translation of
the Book of Mormon, while the other represented the signing of the
Declaration of Independence. Also in the main lobby there are two
paintings. One of Jesus Christ and the other of all the Forefathers
signing the Declaration. Everything was just amazing.
        After our tour we talked to a couple locals to find the best
Cheesesteak place and began our second quest for the day. This place
also happened to be past Independence hall and that whole area so we
got to see a lot of that cool stuff from a distance! And then we had
lunch... The Cheesesteak was absolutely delicious but I'm pretty sure
it's what made me sick for the next day.... Totally worth it.
        Saturday I ended up sick most of the day which sucked.
And then Sunday we had Stake Conference! Which was super cool. It all
ended up being focused on member missionary work and what the members
need to be doing.
        Thankyou all for your support and love. I hope everything is going
great on the Homefront!

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission