Monday, May 30, 2016

LDS Weekend!!!

Happy rainy Memorial Day... At least it's rainy for me!
I hope you are all having an awesome three day weekend! Because I am.
It's exhausting.
        Our "Resident Roman Catholic Member" (guy who is super active but not
baptized) called it LDS Weekend! In the monster truck commercial voice
because we have had 2 baptism's, 2 parties and another party happening
today!
        Luckily one of those baptism's was our Investigator Bridget! It was
super awesome and really funny because right after she came up out of
the water her 5 year old son yelled "GOOD JOB MOM!" We then had a
little party after to celebrate of course and there were tons of
members there that she had never even met. It helped her to make a lot
of new friends and see all the people that support her.
        After that on Saturday there was a Surprise birthday party for a
member that we were invited to and that was really fun! We had a
couple investigators there so it was totally justified.... We ate some
awesome food and talked about the church... and possible ways to kill
off varmint species in NJ......
        Then Yesterday at church Elder Reese and I were given the wonderful
privilege of giving talks.... I guess that went alright... Probably
not. Then we got double duty because we got to teach the 5th Sunday
class to all the young men and young women. I learned that stomping
your foot really loud gets teenagers to be quiet. Makes them jump a
little too;) After that we had a baptism for an 8 year old. The mom
invited us to be part of the program so we got to be there and help
out with all that jazz.
        For the rest of the week we had nothing too eventful. I did go on
exchange with the Zone leaders, got into 2 bible bashes, found 2
awesome people that I hope turn into solid investigators, and didn't
get enough sleep. All very eventful indeed.
        last of all we have our ward Memorial Day picnic today. Excited for that!
Other than that I think I said it all for the week. Bringing in people
to the Gospel is great!
        Keep on Keepin on, Live Long and Prosper, Never give up, Never
Surrender, Nos Vemos, and have a wonderful day.

           -Elder Anthony S. Hicks
  New Jersey Morristown Mission


Monday, May 23, 2016

....No Car......

Good Morning people!!!
        How's Life?
We'll it was rough for me this week!
        So for some reason that me and my companion don't understand, we had
to take our car in for repairs on Monday.... Which meant we had to go
4 days without a car. We cover an entire county and half of another
one... Roughly 450 square miles... And this week it was on bikes!
Woohooo.... My legs have never been so tired. We managed to get rides
from a few members to our important things, but otherwise it was pure
pain. So ya that was fun
        Our investigator Bridget is getting Baptized on Saturday!!!!! And to
think she found the church after watching Sister Wives. New finding
technique? Maybe... But holy darn she is prepared. I'm pretty sure she
has read more in Gospel library in that last month or two than I have
in my entire life. Pretty cool, I'll release pictures of the baptism
next Monday.
        I get to give a talk next Sunday on the topic "Remember those who
came before" and I'm at a loss... Any suggestions?
        I almost ran over a frog, 3 deer, a fox, a raccoon, and one bad
driver this week. My tally is growing.
        Life here in Clinton is great, I still haven't gotten a tick bite so
I must being doing something right.
        Sorry I'm kinda jumping around but I'm just spilling everything onto
the page as I think of it so I don't forget.
        Yesterday was super cool! We had an English missionary fireside in
which we all sang to all the people that came. The spirit was super
strong, as it always is when large groups sing hymns. I loved it!
        Other than that I have nothing to eventful to talk about, sorry I'm boring.
Hope you all are having a great week!

-Elder Anthony S. Hicks
New Jersey Morristown Mission



Thursday, May 19, 2016

I feel old!

Well hello again my wonderful Monday subjects!
   I've been pondering and trying to decide what I shall write to you
this beautiful morning when I came out blank.... Nothing deep, nothing
funny.... Except I went to a Jewish church on Friday.
   A couple weeks ago we knocked the door of a house and the guy
invited us in and after talking for a minute he told us he was a
Jewish Rabbi. He led some kind of reformed Jewish church nearby or
something and invited us to one of their family services! So we went.
It was pretty neat to experience though a little odd and in the least
bit personal. One reason I love the LDS church. Sunday is for the
members to speak, not for one guy to sit up there and say the same
things they do every other week.
    As I continue to write this email I'm reminded of the things that
happened this week and that my mind is failing me. We also went to the
temple!!! Kinda Important. Not the typical thing you forget... But ya
that was awesome! I love the temple! Us missionaries are starved of it
so we only get to go every six months for personal worship. Off to
Manhattan we went! (I still don't like that city no matter what you
say mom) we took commuter trains and subway all the way from Newark to
the Lincoln center where the temple is! Did the wonderful spiritual
do's there. Which was even cooler because there was a guy there who
was getting his endowments for the first time but it had to be in
Mandarin because he didn't speak English. So in the last part there
were multiple people helping the translation. Funny and cool at the
same time. After that we sat outside and ate Gyros and watched the
chaos of the city for half an hour. Then proceeded to get on the wrong
train into Newark and ended up in central Newark instead of by the
church. A two and a half mile walk later in suits and sun we made it!
      That same night we asked one of our main investigators Bridget
to get baptized! She is super cool and has a ridiculously wild little
boy... She didn't seem to sure about the date we set for her so we
left it in the air for the day asking her to pray about it. The the
next day we get a call form the bishop saying that she called him and
was so excited to be baptized.... So that was funny!
      Otherwise nothing else to substantial happened this week. We
lose our car today for 4 days because it has some repairs that need
getting done. (Not my fault I promise). So this week is gonna be
hectic and will include a lot of bike riding. I'm not excited...
    To finish off I got to eat at the Gallacher's home last night
which for those of you that don't know is funny because they are
family friends. We joked about old nicknames and how they had to train
themselves to remember that I am "Elder Hicks" and not the other names
they know me as...

At the Manhattan Temple
 


 At the Gallachers for Dinner


 

Monday, May 9, 2016

Transfers and TREES!!

Well hello again on this wonderful Monday morning! Well at least for
me, I don't know what the weather is like there but this is the first
sunshine we've had in a week and a half.
To start off my new address has been requested so here y'all go
       19 Overlook Dr. Clinton, NJ 08809
But it has been a good week indeed. I left good ole Bayonne and came
to the oh so different area of Clinton. I pretty much flipped the coin
on everything here. Instead of no grass and trees and lots of people
and buildings I'm now surrounding by an abundance of grass and trees
but no people. For my mental health, this is much better. For
missionary work I regret to say that the first has the advantage.
     We spend a large amount of time driving. It takes us a half hour
to get anywhere and our area is huge! If anyone wants to map it out we
cover all of Hunterdon County and a chunk of Warren county.
Specifically Washington and Belvidere. It is all farms and horse
property and back roads that will end up destroying our Toyota Corolla
at some point. I've almost hit deer three times. Which I guess is
better than people.... Sometimes.... Everyone here has to be
ridiculously rich because the houses are big and they are on giant
plots of land in beautiful wooded areas. Yesterday we ate at someone's
house that sat on the Delaware river for example.
     So it's a little different here.
We've driven a lot, but we've also rode bikes a lot. Our area is so
big and we aren't given enough miles on our car to cover it that we
use bikes also. I never thought I'd get the chance to have a bike on
my mission but here it is! Woohoo! I'm tired.
       So everybody there is my new area for you. Very different and
the part of New Jersey that nobody seems to know about. Other then
that nothing big and exciting to share except.......

MOTHERS DAY!!!
       Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! I got up in
church yesterday and embarrassed myself in front of my brand new Ward
that I don't know anybody in just for you! So you better be grateful!
Moms are the bomb!
So ya! Talked to my family yesterday. They are all still terrible
human beings. Glad nothing has changed....😜
       Have a nice life, see ya in a bit, happy Mother's Day, live
long and prosper, hasta la vista, goodbye.




Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Goodbye Bayonne..... Hello washer and dryer.

As you may have guessed this is my last day in Bayonne. Good ole
transfers have come around again and this time I drew the short straw.
Tis the end of my stay in Bayonne.
It's slightly hurts because Bayonne is my baby. I've been here for
6 months and when I got here there was nothing going for this area.
All the serious work that has happened here has been me and my 3
different companions and an overwhelming dosage of God Power. I've
memorized all the streets and befriended all the members. I've eaten a
largely unhealthy amount of Spanish food and worked with all our
investigators. So it's a little tough to say goodbye to an area.
Now though I move on to my next challenge.... Clinton, NJ. A
completely different area then Bayonne. I've heard it is ridiculously
huge, and we have a car. Things like driveways, lawns and parking
space actually exist there too! But worst of all, the apartment we
live in has a washer and dryer! Like what kind of insanity is this!
I didn't realize how long I've been here until a member that went
on a 3 month vacation got back last Saturday and his first words to me
at church were "Elder Hicks? Wow. You're still here?!"
So you know. Time moves on. The work here this last week was
great to leave my birthplace with. We got 9 new investigators this
week, I'm pretty sure that's the same amount I've gotten in the last 6
months. So it was a pretty good week.
I got to go on another exchange with the Jersey City Elders but
this time it was the new guy. Elder McComber and I tackled a crazy day
where we were running around jersey city teaching 8 lessons in one
day! It was exhausting but crazy! I took a ton of pictures though so
I'll will share those promptly.
I'm exciting for a new opportunity in a completely different area!
I hope you all had a good week!
Thanks for all the love and support. I'll distribute my new
address next week!


-Elder Anthony S. Hicks
New Jersey Morristown Mission