Specifically because of 3 things.
The first thing that happened was on Tuesday. We decided to stop by
one of our investigators house to see if she was home. She wasn't but
her son who is a less-active member was. So we went in and started
talking to him about a lot of stuff and began to talk about a
conference talk when one of his friends randomly showed up. Our
friend, Nick, had no idea why his buddy was there but let him in and
he sat down and started talking to us. We began to ask about his
beliefs and any questions that he had about life. Being that they are
both high school boys you usually don't expect a lot of soul searching
ideas in their heads but this guy went off.... After a long lesson we
ended up covering topics from all sections of the missionary lessons
and were able to answer all the questions he had. There are those
wonderfully rare moments as a missionary when someone asks you "So
when are you coming back?" And that was one of them. The spirit was so
ridiculously strong and you could see this young man's eyes lighting
up as he felt the truth. It was so amazing and a great start to our
week.
Throughout the rest of the week we had the usual going around
finding people talking to members and eating ludicrous amounts of
Spanish food...... But then on Friday we had Zone Conference. At zone
conference we had all the missionaries in Newark, Jersey City, and
their surrounding areas come together to have an 8 hour meeting of
just trainings from people from salt lake and from our mission
president. It was pretty good and opened my eyes to a lot. They
focused a ton on a missionary's desire and purpose, on the different
reasons we go out on missions whether it be fear, tradition, for
achievement, for purpose, etc. and it was really interested me. Every
missionary's reason changes throughout his mission. Most missionaries
leave because of fear or tradition, but soon they change to follow
purpose and Unity.
On Saturday we had to go pick up a grill from a member to use
for a missionary party we're doing today for a missionary that goes
home this week.... Unfortunately this member lived very far away, and
the grill was in very bad condition.... So we ended up rolling this
grill 20 blocks back to our house. And by rolling I mean rolling it on
its wheels for 5 blocks and then carrying it 15 after the wheels broke
off..... Good times right(pics provided below) and then I spent an
hour last night after we got home trying to clean it as much as
possible, which didn't help much.... So if I die after today it's
probably because of eating from this grill.
Finally we ended off the week on a low note.... Last night we
felt the need to stop by a less-active lady's house. Now this is a
lady who I've been working with since the beginning of my mission to
help her quit smoking and gain full fellowship back into the church.
She has made amazing progress! But last night we went to her house and
something was very wrong. We got in and could see that she was not
there spiritually, mentally, emotionally. She was just a shell.
Something had triggered a sever panic or anxiety type attack and we
found out that she had not slept in 4 days and had barely eaten. This
is were the spirit took over me and my companion. Instantly we were in
a mode to help this woman. We sat down on the ground in front of her
and began showing her a picture of Jesus holding a lamb, teaching a
small lesson to this woman about how tenderly Christ loves and cares
for her. We said a prayer with her and the spirit just flowed into our
bodies. All the sudden I was prompted to get this woman mind onto
something simple and happy. I asked what her favorite color was(Red)
and went into talking about how fanatic my family is over our home
college team(Go Utes) and then figured out her favorite animals are
dogs so I started showing her pictures of all my dogs and told her
some dumb stories about their different personalities. You could see
the light coming back into her face. We continued to talk about stuff
like that for a little bit getting occasional smiles and single word
responses out of her until we didn't know what else to do. Trying to
call our mission president we got no answer. We said a few more
prayers with her and got her to say one herself too. After 2 hours of
trying to help her we realized there was nothing else we could do. We
left her with one final prayer and left deciding that it was the only
thing for us to do. I don't know what has happened since then, but I
know the spirit was there and was slowly bringing her back to life. I
know that the spirit was completely guiding mine and my companions
actions. It's really hard to explain the darkness that was there when
we first arrived. It's hard to express the feelings that were felt.
But that is an experience that I will never forget...
-Elder Anthony Hicks
New Jersey Morristown Mission
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