It's true. Everything is bigger in Texas.

Pioneer Day

The pioneer day was huge down here. they had a big country store with a lot of stuff, they had a little bank where they would give you paper money to get stuff from the store. they had scones, icecream, we made butter, we washed some clothes the same way the pioneers did it, then they had a lot of quilts, they had a pie and watermelon eating contest for the primary children, they had a watermelon eating contest for the priesthood holders. they had drawings for prizes, had a little skit of a pioneer story, and a lot of food, it was big, I will send you a picture of the store, next week. last monday we went bowling.

The Diversity of the Work

On Tuesday our district leader had to go to leadership meeting so we had to go pick up his companion and brought him down to silsbee and we became a three companionship for two days and we had a lot of fun. we tracted with each other. we have been seeing a lot of the people and some of them wants there records removed so we have been going around and seeing if they want there records removed and taking the list to the bishop. we had dinner at a bar-b-que place and it was good. Yesterday we had two of our investigators come to church which was good. I gave the lesson in the principles class on service it went pretty good. everyone thought i did good.

Near Death Experience

An old member from the ward drove us around and we almost got killed. he was driving into the Whataburger parking lot and there was incoming traffic and some of them had to stop and another one veered off to the left. but we made it. there was other times when it was close. We had dinner at the O'quinns and they have a sweet backyard they have a zip line, a teeter totter. with a lot of plants and trees. On saturday we helped someone move there stuff from the storage unit to a house they are renting. some other people helped us.

Study Quotes

Spencer W. Kimball "Happiness does not depend upon what happens outside of you, but on what happens inside of you. It is measured by the spirit which you meet the problems of life."

Thomas S. Monson "happiness come from living the teachings of the savior and having the vision to see what he would have us become."

Thomas S. Monson "If you marry, you will more likely be happier, live longer, be healthier, live better, and make more money!"

Howard W. Hunter "The church is for all members...all of us, single or married, have individual identities and needs, among which is the desire to be seen as a worthile individual child of God....the clarion call of the church is for all to come unto christ, regardless of their particular circumstances...this is the church of Jesus Christ, not the church of marrieds or singles, or any other group or individual."

Thomas S. Monson "I promise you that if you are faithful and true, you will recieve the great promise of the savior-peace in this life and eternal life in the life to come."

Gordon B Hinckley "There isn't anybody in this church who has to buy furniture on Sunday. there really isn't. there isn't anybody in this church who has to buy a new automible on Sunday, is there? No. There isn't anybody in this church who, with a little care and planning, has to buy groceries on sunday. No...you don't need icecream to be bought on sunday...\you dont need to make sunday of merchandising...I dont we need to patronize the ordinary buisness merchants on the sabbath day, why do they stay open? to get customers. who are these customers? well, they are not all nonmembers of this church. you know that and I know that."

Quick update

Work, work, work

I learned that you are really tired at the end of the day, because you are so busy and have so many things to do. But it is so worth it and I love it. I learned that the spirit is so important in missionary work. without the spirit you would not be successful. faith is another important thing i have learned that you have to have faith that the lord has prepared people to recieve the gospel and to be baptized. we got 16 baptisms for the zone last month and our zone doubled the baptisms than everyone else had. for this month our zone has nine baptims already and they are still coming.

News

Elder Holland is coming down and is speaking at the Beaumount stake in August so I hope I don't get transfered out of the zone. It has been raining a few times know. It rains really hard for a little while and then stops.

A Daily Taste in Elder Hickey's Life

Tuesday and Golden Youth
We saw the Bonins and there family is against mormons but Jordan is 18 and he loves our church and all the activities we do. They usually don't let anyone from our church in there house. They don't let him go to church, seminary or anything. One time he sneeked out of the house to go to seminary and he got caught and got in to big trouble. a member in our ward brad bebee and him were at his house getting his clothes and taking him to his house before his parents came home so he could go to church. that is so weird. He wants to go on a mission but he doesn't think he will because of his parents.

We went to see Josh Murray and he is 18 and he is really cool kid. They were pentacostal. He has been taught the fourth lesson and he is going to youth conference. We taught him the first lesson and he had a lot of questions and he said he would read the Book of Mormon and we set a baptismal date for this month, he is golden and he wants to go on a mission and wants to read the D&C, Pearl of Great Price and the ensigns. we said to him before you read any of the extra material, we want you to focus on reading the Book of Mormon. He called us later and he said he was teaching his mom and know his mom is asking questions so know we are probably going to teach his mom too. He also said that when he was watching a show and there was bad language and a inappropiate thought came into his head he immediately turned it off and got his Book of Mormon and started reading. Because we told him to have clean and pure thoughts. he is awesome. I wish all investigators was like him. he asked us if it was a sin to grow out your hair? we said no and we talked about the Word of Wisdom and told that out body is a temple and that men are not supposed to wear earings, not to smoke or anything and he said he would stop.

Wednesday and many visits
we saw bill singley and we tried to get him to church and tried to set up a church tour. He said he can do one next week. We saw a less active Chris Naquinn but he does not want to come to church and is not interested any more. we saw Josh Murray and taught him the rest of the restoration. we went to see the boddies and shared a message and gave an invitation for them to bring someone to church this sunday.

Thursday - Planning and Conversion
we do weekly planning. we went finding and we got some good quality contacts but no return appointments. we went to teach tristin smith and we taught him the last new member lesson.

We had dinner with the vashaws and sister vashaw told us her conversion story and it was awesome. She was at work and one of her co-workers was mormon and he just seemed so special but she didn't know what it was. than one night she went to his wife and said what makes him so special and she told him why he was so special. She gave her a Book of Mormon and she read it all night and she had a lot of questions so they went to knock on the missionaries door but they where not home so they went to some members hosues to have the questions to be answered and then later they knocked on the missionaries door again and they began teaching her and she knew it was true and wanted to be baptized. she had to attend two sacraments before she could get baptized.

Later we went with Brother Schabaka to go see Josh Murray and we watched the restoration DVD. He loved it and had a lot of questions.

Friday - Zone Conference and Exchanges
Today we had zone conference in Beaumount and we talked about that our zone had the most baptisms in our mission. we got 18 baptisms in June. Its the most baptisms that they have had in a long time. we had lunch at kings palace its a chinese place and it was so good.

we did exchanges and me and Elder Thomas was in silsbee while my companion went to Lumberton to work with another Elder, so I was in charge for the silsbee area and it went good. We saw the Gardners and they are less active and sis. gardner said her foot was bothering her so she didn't come to church this sunday. We saw Geno and talked to him and we set up a church tour.

Saturday - Commitments and Door Knocking
we went to see the Taylors and we followed up on there book of mormon reading and they have not been reading. we extended a invitation to keep reading. we invited them to come to church this sunday but they said they needed to do house work. we saw the goins and they are less active. Brother Gion is a member but his wife is catholic and she just got out of the hospital and she is overcoming cancer. we sended a invitation for them to read the scriptures and to pray and they said they would.

I said to Elder Thomas lets see how more successful apartment tracting is than house to house tracitng. we only had time to knock on nine doors and only two of them turned us down. than out of the seven we got three return appointments and one was Otha and we gave him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet and he said he would read them. we had dinner with the Willis's and it was good.

Sunday - Church
we had PEC and then had chruch and one of our less actives came to church which is good. she has stopped smoking and know is reading the book of mormon and is excited to read it.

The Joy of July

The Fourth of July and squirrel meat

We went over to the Boudreaux's and had a barbecue and than another member cooked us some barbercue and gave us some steak, ribs, squirrel, potatoes, corn, rolls and some other stuff for the week. No we don't get to see fireworks. Texas outlawed fireworks because it is so dry and has not been that much rain. so everyone is mad that they outlawed them. Our neighbour asked us if we wanted to go see fireworks by the river and we said we can't because of the mission rules. Yeah they still do them even when it is outlawed. It is usually over 100 degrees and it is way hotter because of the humidity. when we bike and stop to knock on the door, we are just soaking and dripping with sweat. Yeah it is a little different than what I thought.

The "Full"fillment as a missionary

I love being a missionary because of all the different things we get to eat. I get to share the wonderful gospel to other people. hardest being a missionary is getting up at 6:30 every morning, I think and teaching to little kids because we where raised in the church and know so much that it is so hard to teach it simply so they can understand.

"Finding" Success

While we where going see some investigators, a guy about in his late 60's said come over here and talk with me. His name is Geno and he wanted to know what message we where sharing so we told him about the Book of Mormon and he wanted to know more about it. He said he already had a Book of Mormon because some other missionaries came over and gave him the Book of Mormon but they did not come back. He said he wished he was a mormon and he told us about how he worked around mormons and how nice and helpful they were. How they have helped him. we are going to set up a church tour with him and set a baptismal date.

we got a refferal from the sister missionaries and his name is Josh Murray and he is 18 Years old and I guess he was over his freinds house and the sister missionaries were teaching his friends family and he listened and liked it and they commited him and he wants to hear more so we are going to teach him the first lesson and set a baptismal date for him. His parents are pentacostal.

We also met a referall Michael Stanley and he drinks a lot and he wants to stop and see's how it has effected him and his family and he wants to do more with his life than to drink so we said that our church can help and they provide a free class that helps people to stop addiction. He is going to that and than we will take him on a church tour.

Loads of Service

we replaced some peoples steps becuase they where falling apart. On Tuesday we did service until four Pm. One of the Lumberton elders while they where tracting felt he should go ask if this one old lady needed help and so he asked her and she said yeah she did and she said how much do you charge and they said for free, then she just laid out all the things that needed to be done. We did a lot of yard work and than we helped a member move around furniture and paint the house. we helped some members move there stuff to there new house so we have done a lot of service last week.

Members and Part-Member Teaching

We are teaching a part member and we are teaching Bill Singley who is not a member and has a smoking problem but we set a goal for him to quit completely in six weeks. He is doing good and he already has been cutting back on smoking, when he has stopped smoking he said he would be baptized.We have been teaching Tristin Smith who we have baptized recently and teaching him the new member lesson. We went over to the silsbee oaks health center and saw Aldon Stout who was the stake president and saw some other people there.

New Mission Presidents and a Frog

We met our new mission president Crawford they are really great and going to be great mission presidents. They are from Salt Lake/ Louisiana.