Murphy's Law

Anything that can happen.... Will happen.....
This week was just great... Absolutely awesome.... Like the joy I feel
for a couple of the days this week is so powerful you can't
imagine...... For those who haven't detected my sarcasm yet, please do
so now.🙃

But anyways, about my week I'll start with the bad, Monday we lost our
phone and didn't find it until Tuesday night.... In a puddle...
Several inches deep..... The phone was fried. Not to mention my comp
was out of his medicine that he takes. To get a new one we had to get
out to Morristown to switch the SIM cards and get the new phone....
For those who don't know Morristown is about an hour and a half drive
from Bayonne, And we don't have a car.
Now let's recap.
1. Phone lost
2. Comp needs prescription
3. Phone found-phone dead
4. Have to ->call<- office to get new phone... No phone
5. Finally get into contact over email... Have to drive out to Morristown.
6. No car
Alright now the story picks up. We finally find a doctors office that
will take Elder Jess in to get him his prescription refilled and we
schedule an appointment for the next morning. We also talk to the
missionaries in Jersey City so we can borrow their car.... All is goin
good. Finally...
So we get the car in the morning and we're on our way back to Bayonne
to go to the doctors appointment when blam!!! I hit a pothole or
something driving and we blow out the sidewall of the tire......(Palm
to forehead). Luckily we were close to the doctors office, so we left
one problem to go fix another. Appointment went good, problem solved,
meds acquired. Now back to the other. We go back to the car, adding
more quarters to the meter of course, and change the tire. And as
you'd expect the jack for the car had no way to turn it. Just a ring
to twist, so we found a small screwdriver to use as our lever and
changed the tire. We then proceeded to go to Rite-Aid to get the meds
and go to a lunch appointment we had set up that we didn't know if it
was still good because we had no phone. All good, lunch is good. Now
we need to fix the fire, because driving out to Morristown on a donut
tire is not preferable. Especially when it's all free ways and the
donut can't go more then 50mph. Now back at home it's pretty simple to
get a tire replaced, especially when there is a tire dealer right
across the street, but no, To get the tire replaced, we have to call
the vehicle coordinator and get permission.... Oh ya, no phone.... So
we emailed him and tried to iMessage other missionaries to call him
for us. No luck. Ultimately we decide that we have to drive out to
Morristown without any more delay or we wouldn't get there in time. So
we said a small prayer and began our journey. It consisted of a 2 hour
journey with lots of angry drivers stuck behind me and no way to let
them pass. Very frustrating, because as many of you may know... I like
to go fast.... And to drive.... And I very rarely get to do that.
Going on we finally make it to the office at 5:30(the office closes at
5) praying that someone was still there. And there was!!! We finally
got the new phone and figured out what to do with the car. From there
we start driving to a pep boys and get detoured 20 minutes because of
a wreck. We get there and after half an hour of bad service we are
informed that they can't change our tire because they don't carry
Goodyear. They then tell us that all the other places around have
already closed. So we submitted and drove back home on the donut tire.
Handed the problem car back off to the other elders so they can deal
with it and went home and found some much needed rest.
 That all happened Thursday. We were phoneless from Monday night to
Thursday night we missed 34 txt messages and 7 calls.... And barely
got anything done this week.

Now for the good things!
I went on exchange Tuesday with my district leader and we had 3
amazing lessons. Like holy cow the spirit was powerful. We taught this
guy Who was super excited, he had only been taught once before but was
super gitty about the gospel.

We also got our new branch councilors which is helpful, it can take
more of the load off of Presidente's back. Overall it was a good week
despite the annoying phone and car situation. We are now fighting to
make up all that time we lost and get back in contact with our
investigators. All is well.
I hope everyone is having a dandy time back at home. I love you all
and wish you the best.


           -Elder Anthony Hicks
  New Jersey Morristown Mission

 "Look at this beautiful representation of my feelings that I found on a car"

Soooooooo Coooooollldd.....oh and Happy Birthday to me!!

So this week was pretty great me and my comp still get along
ridiculously well and I was practically confirmed during our
interviews with President Taggart that I'll be killing Elder Jess(I'm
his last companion before he goes home) which also means I'll be in
Bayonne for another 3 months. Which I'm super happy and also kinda sad
about. I do love it here but it'd be great to see a little bit of the
mission before I hit my 6 month mark though I'm still young.
    Bayonne is on fire though. Like I said last week referrals are
awesome and they are the best way to share the gospel for sure.

This last week we spent a lot of time introducing Elder Jess to
everyone and also starting a relationship with all the Spanish members
in our branch because I don't know any of them that well... So I've
sat through several lessons this week just trying to figure out what
is going on. I'm starting to understand it a lot better, but speaking
it is not coming as quickly as I would like!

On Saturday we got to here from one of the area 70 Elder Christensen
who is a business Professor at Harvard. He spent the whole day on
Saturday talking about member missionary work and it was great, I'm
telling all of you that it is the one and only really effective way to
help people understand the Gospel. Us missionaries can sit and talk to
people all day but it's people's friends, their families, and their
neighbors that get people to feel the love of Christ. The best way to
help people understand that is through service! So go out there and
serve!

Happy Valentine's Day
Now for the most important news. It's my Birthday🇺🇸
Thank you everyone for the Birthday Wishes, it really made my day.
I hope all of you are doing great and staying warm because it's not
here. It was 2 degrees yesterday with a feels like temperature of -18
which my Alaskan Companion attested to being the coldest he has ever
been in his life and more cold than -50... Stinkin humidity
      Love you all, stay awesome, and God Bless.

 -Elder Anthony Hicks
  New Jersey Morristown Mission

 Who needs candles when you have a lighter and Duct Tape!!

Blessings in referrals!!

This week was awesome!!!
So this week was transfers and I got my new companion. His Name is
Elder Jess and he is from Alaska, and he is super old(in missionary
world) 21 months to be exact. And he is awesome. We got along
perfectly since day one.

In other News regarding the title, let me tell you people, member
missionaries are the BOMB! First off all of our solid investigators
are member referrals. The 3 baptisms we had last week were member
referrals, and then a new investigator that we got on Friday is a
crazy member referral. Not to mention that their help in lessons is
amazing! Missionaries suck, that's why we ask you people to come all
the time to lessons, because we know that your help will get people to
the waters of Baptism our lesson on Friday was crazy! This lady was
hit by what I like to call the "spirit punch" like 6 times. And she is
now on date for baptism after one lesson! That's crazy! So there's my
advice, help the missionaries as much as possible!

On my own personal level I am doin fantastic, with a new companion and
a bumpin area I am pumped to serve the Lord! I also got to do my first
confirmation yesterday and that was freaky! We were up there to
confirm the Family that got baptized and after the dad, the older
daughter Stephany came up and President Bourdett was like "now you" in
a heavy Guatemalan accent and I freaked out trying to remember what to
say. But luckily the spirit guides and I was able to do it and it was
sooooooooo cool. It felt like my spirit took a step back from my body
and let the Holy Ghost take control for a second. Like some kind of
weird out of body experience!

Thanks for all your support and I invite you to do your part and find
those people who are in need of the conquering comfort and love of the
Holy Ghost, our Savior Jesus Christ, and most importantly our Father
in Heaven.

I love all of you and keep on keepin on!
       God Bless


          -Elder Anthony Hicks

Baptisms!

This week was pretty great....
    Tuesday:
Super confusing ridiculousness! We had to get a zone leader and a
district leader down to our area to interview our investigators for
baptism and it got super complicated because of all the exchanges
going on. It was really funny because nobody got there on time so we
had to wing it with a lesson on the Ten Commandments which turned out
to be perfect. The kids loved it and it helped them understand pretty
well. All of the interviews went great! Only downside is that we had
to push back the date for another one of our investigators because of
some issues by he is still super psyched to get baptized!
     Wednesday:
Another day of contacting and getting juked for appointments... But it
all turned out for the better because we ended up running into one of
our investigators and a less active who are also like my favorite
people in Bayonne, so we had a really fun lesson with them and then
some how ended up talking about if Jesus came when dinosaurs were
around.... It was an interest no conversation to say the least.
      Thursday:
Thursday was a work day. We spent most of it in our apartment
cleaning... Then creating baptism programs... And also doing weekly
planning. It was a long busy day but we did get lunch  fed to us by
good ole Brother Weaver so it was all good
    Friday:
Friday was the big day! We had 3 of our investigators getting baptized
so it was kind of hectic running up to Jersey City and filling the
font, then setting everything else up and hoping everyone would show
up on time! But it all worked out in the end. The spirit was powerful!
Our Branch President did the ordinance for all three. It was super
cool and I couldn't help but have a smile on my face the whole time!
Next Sunday we're going to give all three thee Gift of the Holy Ghost
and it's gonna be great.
       Saturday:
Saturday was interesting. We got to see our top Investigator Perry and
lay out a plan to help him follow the Word Of Wisdom so that he can
get baptized, and then we ran up the Jersey City to give a Recent
Convert a Blessing because she was about to go to the Emergency Room
so that was crazy. After all that we decided to go contact and door
knock in an area of Bayonne that we had never been before. It was kind
of funny thinking that we have been here for three months but we have
never been on the pat street.
       Sunday:
Was totally hectic! It all started with our whole branch presidency
not being there so we set up everything and then the Priesthood
president was going to conduct. And the people who were going to speak
hadn't shown up yet! It was crazy. Luckily everything worked out. The
speakers showed up a little late and our second counselor managed to
make it to conduct. The meeting went well. After that the young
women's president asked us to teach about Missionary work to the
girls... That went terrible. We were not prepared. But it went
smoothly. We spent the rest of the day running around doing service!
We helped a Recent Convert move for 3 hours. Then we got a member and
went and jumped an investigators car! Then we went and talked to
Brother Bohan the disabled veteran that we go and see every Sunday.

Finally the Transfer news......drum roll please...................................................................

I am staying in Bayonne And it is now a Spanglish Area....

 With my new companion Elder Jeffs. Elder Norris is going to Princeton.

So another transfer in Bayonne!!! Which is great because I can keep
working with some of the people that I've met here. But we'll see
about my new companion!
Thanks for everything. All the support and the love helps a ton out
here. Keep being awesome and being the best member missionaries you
can!

This is the Family we helped guide to the waters of Baptism. Michelle
on the Left. Ivan in the middle, and Stephany on the right!

 

And here is the Awesome Bourdett family who are a ridiculously huge help out here.