The Ultimate Team Up

  Hello all my weekly followers! This week was a solid mixture of
hectic to halted. One day we are running around late to everything and
the next we have so little going on we don't even know where to begin.
      So To Begin! On Tuesday we had interviews with president! Which
if you remember at all from the last 2 transfers, that means me and my
companion get to sit in the same room for 6 hours doing the same
training 5 times over and over. (Is that what Highschool teachers feel
like?) .....Going on....  and then after all the interviews President
Taggart wanted to come out as a team up with us for the whole night!
That is like a once in a mission opportunity. Not that many
missionaries get to do that. So of course we scrambled to get all of
our investigators scheduled so the Faith bomb of Pres. Taggart could
be there. It was absolutely awesome to have him there teaching with
us. Quite interesting to see the mission President out of the meetings
and trainings world. So ya, the most ultimate team up ever.
      The rest of the week was just the usual of teaching lessons and
takin names. We did have Zone Conference which me and Elder Peterson
Trained at. We got the opportunity to give a super powerful training
on the Doctrine of the Gospel of Christ.
      I also got to go with Elder Spencer down in West New York on
exchange! That was an awesome experience. We taught this one
investigator who they were at a roadblock with. After delving in we
found out her problems and talked about Alma 7 and how Christ feels
and understands everything we go through. The spirit was super strong
and she cried through most of the lesson. She said the closing prayer
in Spanish so I didn't understand a good chunk of it but it was so
absolutely obvious that she was genuine, and that she was pouring out
her soul to God. Repentance is real people!
       Other then that the usual. We got a killer storm coming up on
Tuesday, looks like it's gonna be a blast!

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission
New York City
Elder Spencer and Myself in front of New York City
Elder Peterson and myself's perfect weekly planning set up.

Look! Something Happened

So.... this week was full of surprises!
   To preface... Miracles happen and people can be truly prepared...
So on Wednesday we go to teach this investigator Janet.... she's super
cool... anyways... We met her when the Spanish Sisters referred her to
us a few weeks ago but we weren't able to talk much when we first met.
We had scheduling conflicts and couldn't meet for 2 weeks. And then we
finally met on Wednesday. Now here is where things get crazy. We
started teaching her and learned she had been taught everything before
in Massachusetts and also by the spanish sisters here. Things were
different this time. After teaching the first vision it really hit
her. Any of the hold backs she had before were gone. We mentioned
baptism and she was all for it.
   And then she told us she wanted to do it this Sunday.
Holy Flip! We were freaking out but we couldn't deny the spirit that
was there. We told her that it was totally possible but we had to make
a couple calls to make sure. We called President Taggart to get
permission and our Bishop to get his thoughts. Everyone was
onboard(Though very Hesitant) as long as we got her introduced to as
many members as possible over the next 4 days.
   So we started planning like crazy! We saw her Wednesday,
Thursday(For 2 1/2 hours), Friday(For 2 hours), and Saturday for an
hour and then got her interviewed. We pounded out all the things that
she needed to know and understand and it all lined up! So many
miracles happened to make this baptism work down to even her having a
towel at the baptismal service. Holy Stinkin ridiculousness!
   Another Miracle is that we had a ton of people show up to church!
Englewood is Exploding!
   Funny story of the week. When the baptism happened they forgot to
pull the plug in the font.... pictures and videos provided.

Miracle Investigator! And Stake Conference!

  2-27-27
 We had a pretty great week!
We got a ton of missionary work done! And we found an awesome new
person to teach! Full of several coincidences that led up to us
meeting her on the street! She was super interested in learning more!
And she even came to Stake Conference which was an hour away which is
a stinkin miracle that she made it with all that happened surrounding
it. I'm super sorry but I don't have a lot of time to send this right
now so this is all you get! Sorry!

Live long and prosper! Amen.

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

Here is two really cool Jeeps I saw!

It's My Birthday and Great videos!

    Hello everybody! Thank you so much for all the happy birthday
wishes! It made my day on Wednesday! Especially because I was in a
sour mood and wanted to kill everyone. You kept people in New Jersey
alive so good job!
   We had a busy and stressful week with transfers coming up. We found
out that our area was getting split in half and another set of Elders
was going to come in so it was really frustrating trying to figure all
that stuff out. We got some awesome new investigators though!
    We found a family in Hackensack that is super cool. Their kids are
really interested in learning and have tons of questions! Another one
of the investigators is a mom that the Spanish sisters gave to us! She
is super cool and has learned from the missionaries awhile ago. And
then finally we had a young woman who met missionaries in Newark who
lives in our area so we were able to talk to her and schedule a sit
down! I don't know what we're doing to be blessed!!!
   We also ended up giving two really spiritual blessings to
nonmembers which was a surprise!
A big plus for the week too, is that our zone hit our Baptismal goal
yesterday of seven! That's really great because this zone has
struggled with that in the past and we still have another weeks worth
of baptisms coming up! We are killin it!
    Me and my companion made a video as a reward for our zone...
you'll find it below...

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission
The final picture is our camera stand for filming.....

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Hello everybody!
This week was eventful!
    Forgive me for lack of details because I can barely remember
anything anymore. Probably because I'm starting to become an aged old
man in the mission.
Our investigator got confirmed! So he is now a member of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Pretty cool, I know.
    It snowed a ton on Thursday but we had our service planned at the
animal shelter. We showed up and nobody else came besides the actual
workers so they were super happy we came! Every freaks out over snow
here in New Jersey! So I supply this video below to tell them all to
chill out.
    I got to go on Exchange with Elder Combs the young missionary! He
is super cool and companions with the one person I'm grabbing when red
dawn happens, Elder Miller. They are super funny guys!
    We went on Exchange with the Assistants to the President this week
too! That was an experience. We did a table stand on a Main Street in
Elizabeth and talked to a ton of people! We got the information of a
ton of people who were interested in hearing more about the Book of
Mormon! So that was pretty cool!
    Experience of the week though.... I got to participate in the
Baptism of the Spanish sisters investigator! She's the lady that me
and Elder Trask found a couple months ago and they asked me to Baptize
her! It was super cool. I also had to do it in Spanish which made it
interesting. The font at our church is weird too so we can never get
it to be even remotely warm. So all these Spanish people were freakin
out because it was so cold and I was like "Room temperature? This
feels great!"
Anyways sorry for the lack of content, I'm busy, and I can barely
remember this week.
You guys are great and thank you so much for everything!
Oh and Happy Birthday to myself on Wednesday.🤘😜

30 hrs of meetings and Home Sweet Home.....

Hullo Everybody! This week was really rough on the exhaustion scale....
        30 Hours of meetings all together can be really painful starting with
District meeting and a special training, Stake Coordination, Giving
Trainings at Interviews, Mission Leader Council, and all the driving
and planning that went into all of those... I want to die. But it's
all good and necessary and enlightening.
        Other Random information, WE FINALLY GOT BACK INTO OUR APARTMENT! It
was honestly such a drag to be in another apartment. I can't tell you
why, but it was different and uncomfortable. For some reason we just
couldn't settle over there and it didn't help that we stayed there a
whole week longer then we were expecting to. It's good to be home.
        So this week was super good.
Story of the Week!!!
        So we got into contact with this investigator that I had taught a
couple months ago. And we met at their work! It was kind of awkward
and loud and me and Elder Peterson didn't know what we were gonna do
about it because you can't expect to feel the spirit when a Spanish
Soccer game is blaring in the background. We go into the lesson
anyways and start talking to them about the importance of Baptism and
the Authority of the priesthood. It really hit them and told us that
we should all set a goal to work for. Specifically a Baptismal Date!
Super cool. So we decide we should pray to confirm the day that they
had chosen (Because it was pretty far out) and Elder Peterson and I
were concerned as to how far away it was. We asked her to pray and
the second she starts praying she starts crying and the spirit hit
like a slap to the face.... We wanted a date closer to now but the
spirit was all for the day She had chosen. It was a testimony builder
for myself that sometimes you aren't going to get answers you want and
that you're gonna just have to be patient. She was full of emotion
after the prayer and it was such a spiritual moment....
        Then Yesterday we had a Baptism!!! It was so cool and the spirit was
definitely there... I still feel bad because the Font is super weird
at this church so we can't get the water to be warm, so the guy
getting baptized was obviously super cold.... but either way he was
super happy afterwards and told us he felt different!
        So after a slow week full of meetings we finished off strong with a
super spiritual experience and helping another one of God's Children
to the waters of Baptism!
I'll call it a success.

Until Next Time my Dear Compadres!

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission

1-30-17 Evicted........

So, we got kicked out of our apartment this week.... I told Elder
Peterson we weren't allowed to play with fire in the apartment but he
didn't listen....

Just kidding... maybe.
    Last week our landlord left a note on our door talking about how
they are doing repairs to the apartment complex and we'll have to be
out of our apartment for a couple days. He also stated that he would
let us know before the repairs start so we can pack up and leave. Cool
whatever, that's fine, we'll figure it out. And then last Monday he
comes in and tells us we need to be out by Tuesday night and that the
repairs will take at least a week. Awesome, great, that makes things
wonderful! Luckily there was an empty church owned apartment int the
south end of our area so we had to emergency pack up and gun it over
there! So that was a fun event for the week!
    There have been some blessings of being in that new apartment
though..... because we found a skateboard.... videos provided below.
    Me and Elder Peterson are killin it here in Englewood! We are
teaching tons of peeps and having a blast. I also haven't had so many
intellectual conversations with someone since I was back at home, best
companionship ever!
    We also got to eat Korean food twice this week! And we aren't even
Korean missionaries in the slightest!
    I got to go on exchange with Elder Draper. He is a brand new
missionary! In fact I was his first exchange ever. I feel sorry for
him, I set such a high standard. No exchange will ever live up to it.
But he is super cool. From Springville Utah and is super excited to be
out here doing missionary work. I'm really glad we have a bunch of
young fiery missionaries here to lead the charge! Keeps me going.
    Random cool thing that's come up. So an investigator that the
Spanish sisters are teaching is gonna get baptized in 2 weeks. She is
someone that me and Elder Trask actually found and only got into her
house because I started speaking in Dominican Spanish slang. And they
asked if I would do the Baptism! So I'm not even a Spanish missionary
but I am going to baptize someone in Spanish! Super cool and I'm
absolutely and utterly humble about it.
    So miracle story that happened last night.... Right before we were
gonna go to the Raddatz house for dinner(they are my people) we had a
few extra minutes so we decided we were gonna stop by Sister Schroeder
because we didn't know her very well. So we knock on her door and she
opens it and immediately starts yelling at how much of a miracle it is
that we show up at that time. So we go inside and her nieces are there
and apparently one of them was going through a really tough time
because of anxiety and stress stuff. So Sis. Schroeder asked us to
give her a blessing and immediately the spirit fills the room. We
proceeded to give her a blessing and it really hit! It was such a cool
experience and we referred them to the missionaries over in Sparta.
Miracles happen.

                      Elder Anthony Sleigh Hicks
                  New Jersey Morristown Mission
I call this concoction the "Heartbreaker"