Last Week in Texas

Many More Miracles

This past week has been really good with many more cool miracles, It will be pretty hard to leave baytown, but I know that Heavenly Father is watching over it. We found this spanish lady that thought we were Jehovah witnesses but then she looked at our name tags and saw Jesus Christ. She called after us and we began talking with her. Her father is in jail right know who is not that big of religion person but since he has been in there he wants to get more closer to God and Jesus Christ so her daughter has been writing him and telling him about us and he wants to come to our church when he gets out, she and her husband will be coming to church this week. They are so ready for the gospel.

Michael and the First Vision

We taught michael this past week the one that we found during hower of power his wife was not there because she had to do some things at the school. we taught him a restoration and he loved it. When he heard us recite Joseph Smiths experience he knew that this was true and he wanted to read the whole book of mormon. He told us that when he heard it that he found the last pieces of the puzzle he has found it, his search for the truth is done, but this is only the beginning.

Personal Testimony

Jo was not able to get baptized this past Sunday, we need to continue teaching slowly and simply because here husband was kind of pushing her and was not doing it for the right reason, we are glad they told us that because we want her to get her own personal testimony of the resotred gospel.

Finding the Lost Sheep

We were able to teach other people that we have found who are ready to hear and to accept the gospel. there are so many people that are searching that are lost and confused trying to look for answers, Heavenly Father has been directing us to them. They know that we are his servants and that we have the answers they need. I know that Baytown will grow dramatically.

Last Week
This was Josh's (Elder Hickey) last week in Texas. He returns home Wednesday night to Mapleton, Utah. He will have a homecoming address this Sunday at 1:00 p.m. at the copper top church in Mapleton. If you would like directions please email johnhickey22@gmail.com.

Pday fun

This past monday we went to battleship texas. it was fun, I attached some photos. I think it is the only one that survived during the world war one and two. Well that is about it. I will catch you all up this wednesday so y'all soon.

 

Miracle, a prayer is answered!

Update with Investigators

Jo is getting BAPTIZED this Sunday, I am super excited. Her husband the less active member who came back is going to baptize her. We jsut have a few commandments that we still need to teach her but after that she is getting baptized. They are super excited as well.

 

The Garcias are doing better, they are reading a bit and have been praying and Armondo has been thinking a lot about baptism and he really wants to be baptized, so we told him what we need to do and what he has to do before that happens, I am sad that I wont be able to see them getting baptized. I know they will do great.

 

 

                                                              Miracle, a prayer is answered!

 

On Thursday evening for the hower of power that we do every Thursday at 5:50 we get in with a member and share a scripture on faith then we get on out knees and ask the member to pray for us that we will be able to find a family, the whole mission is doing this and the general authorities go the temple on thursdays and prays for all the missionaries. After the member prayed for us he told us we could go see this older lady that he knew who we could try that they knew and did not know if she would accept us or reject us. We tried but she was not home. we started to knock around her and a guy opened his door and let us in, He does not really believe in a God but knows that there is something out there but does not know what it is yet. He was really nice had a three year old boy and he told us that he would talk with his wife if and would give us a call if they were interested. that was pretty good have not gotten a call from them yet. We kept knocking around and met a single mother who has two young kids who goes to the baptist church, very friendly she has heard some things about us but not a whole lot. We talked with her for a bit gave her a pamphlet and said she would visit the website ang got a return appointment for tuesday which is tomorrow. We had a few more minutes so we knocked on one more door. A young dude answered the door and told who we are and that we share a very important message about Jesus Christ. He said that we could come back on Saturdays. After the saturday morning session we went to see michael who was the one that invited us back. He let us right in and began to talk to him. He is another one that believes that there is something out there but does not know what it is. A few minutes after we talked he was calling after his wife to join us in our discussion. A few mimutes went by and she still did not come so he got up to go get her, they both came in and sat down, we got to know them they have three daughters who are all off in colllege, the wife which I can not recall her name but I will call her Cynthia for the time being. She is a baptist, she told us that when they were dating that Michael was going to church reguraly and she thought that he would still continue but fell away, and she has been praying for christlike people or someone that could talk to her husband and build his faith in Christ. She started to cry and began to bear her testimony that her prayer has been answered. That she knew we were the answer to her prayers and she knew then that God does listen and is mindful of us and he does answer prayers in his own time, and she thanked us. We told her how we were led to them. We left them with a restoration pamphlet and a book of mormon. we are going to see them this saturday. I know for my self that God does answer prayers it might not be right away but it will come just like Cynthia that her humbled prayers have been answered and waiting patiently because she knew it would eventually come. I love being a missionary it feels so great that God trusts us to answer one of his childrens prayers and that we followed the voice of the spirit.  

Basking in Baytown's Beams

Easter 

Easter was a nice day, we had a member have us over for a big easter dinner it was really good. then we went to see the coles and it started to poor rain real hard.

 

Jo Coles

we helped a member to cut down her trees and trim back all the bushes with some other missionaries and with the bishop. We are shooting for april 14th for Jo Coles baptism, we are finally getting everything figured out and guess what when we told her about the word of wisdom and said that she could have no more tea, she poured out a whole gallon of it that she just made that morning and she has stopped buying it too. She is so solid. We just have a few more commandments that we still need to teach her than she will be good for the 14th.

 

Garzas and Simple Truths You Just Need to Hear

We also saw the garzas who is a less active family that we have been working with for a while and he had a really cool experience at work. He said that one of the guys that he works with asks him what is going on? knew that something was different. He asked the member if he knew what is true and he said yeah. The worker knew that he has not been to church for awhile and he recognized it and he said well then you better get back to church. Brother Garza its one thing that a missionary tells you that you need to come back to church but when a non member tells you need to get back to church was a whole another level. It really struck him. by those simple and small things that we do has a great effect upon us, family and the people that we around.

 

 

Finding Miracles Everywhere

Sisters' Story

Here is another cool story that happened this past week. The sister missionaries went over to the Shermans a members house and they went through the whole ward list and told them who they knew and what they knew about them and told them to go see this member that has not been there for a while and the sisters found sister Starr. She is about in her 60's and her mom is taying with her and she has a grandson that is living with them two with his two kids. They are actually in our area. they have seen and fed missionaries there whole lives. The grandson Charles is actually really interested to learn more about the church and he wants to raise his children into the church.  HIs great grandmother is not a member either but loves the missionaries so we have been teaching them and going over there today to teach about the plan of salvation.

 

Garcias

we helped the Garcias moved from there apartment to there new house and sister Garcia is about to have her baby.We are still working with the Garcias, Jo, and Gena that would be great if they all could be baptized before I leave. Thats what we are working on. Bonnie one of our investigators that we have been teaching for a while came to church this sunday which was great.

 

Another busy week in Baytown

A Little Harassment 

While we were biking around our area trying to find some people to teach, this lady chewed us out, swearing, and threating us and said that she was a member for a while and that we have the worst morals and all of this other stuff, so we just pedalled away, it was pretty funny.

 

Stopping Fighting

We stopped kids from fighting each other because one kid stepped on this one kids glasses and he was really mad. we told him what would jesus christ do. He said he would not do it and become there friend something like that, then we biked away and came back later and they are best buds.

 

A Little Religious Confusion

This other time we were going to see a potential, Heidi, she has a little daughter and she is about to have another one, real nice lady. She just pulled in and said that her beliefs does not go with ours, and that she did some research, we were like oh no she looked up some anti mormon stuff. we asked her what did you find and she said one of them it says that you guys do not support the military, then we said oh we are not Jehovah Witnesses. then she asked then who are you? we are from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or other known as "Mormons" it is a nickname we get becasue of the book of mormon. She said man you guys are confusing me because there was some other people (the Jdubs) were going over there as well. We left here with a mormon.orgcard because she gets online a lot. We are going to go over there and to check up on how she is doing.

 

A Great Flat Tire

Oh yeah another miracle happened this past week. the baytown first ward elders were on there bikes and one of them got a flat tire, so they walked there bike back to there apartments and they heard this lady call after them saying Elders. She lives in our area so they gave us the referral. She moved from Tennesse nine months ago and has been trying to find elders ever since because in Tennesse She would always feed the missionaries and they would teach her but we found out that they did not teach her much becasue of all her questions she had like so Joseph Smith wrote the book of mormon. right? a bunch of other qustions about the plan of salvation, so we are going to have to teach her from the beginning. We gave her a book of mormon. She has three kids home with her and one or two that has moved out already. We are going to teach her tomorrow and invite her to baptism.

 

Working Towards Baptism

We are still working with Jo kole, she is supposed to get baptized this sunday but something came up that we have to figure it all out but she should still be good but we will see. we are working with the Garcias they have been readign but trying to get them to come to church. They feed us a ton of food, Baytown is doing really good at feeding us because I'm actually gaining weight. Hmm thats weird.

 

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Elder Josh Hickey! We love you! :) ;) :)

Update on Progress in Baytown

Update on the Coles and Garcias

This past week has been pretty good. we are still working with the coles and the garcias. the gracias are awesome they love us when we coem over they cook us a bunch of food. when you do not eat a lot they get affended so you have to make sure you eat a lot and make a lot of compliments, they cooked us ribs, rice and shrimp it was very good. they have been reading the book of mormon which is way nice. They have been struggling with coming to church because armando works a lot but they want to come to church and they definelty want to be baptized. hopefully they will be baptized before I go.

 

the Koles we taught the restoration and they loved it and is understanding it very well. Jo is still loving relief society and church, she loves how welcoming and friendly everyone is. She is very excited to be baptized on the 24th of this month.

 

Smiths

We are teaching the smiths who just moved from ohio and is looking for a church for there 14 year old daughter, we were going to teach the dad but it seems like the mom is more interested and she read the pamphlet we left with them and she had many questions which we answered and helped her to understand. We left her with a book of mormon and she said that she will have it read by next time we come and visit them. we also are going to give them a strength for youth pamphlet and personal progress booklet and tell what programs the church has for young women.

Cow Stomach and Eternal Progress

Ummmmm...........Yummmm?

Guess what I ate the other day. I had pieces of cow stomach in a soup. you know the lining of it, It was very disgusting, I could not get past the texture, it was all rubbery, and slimy.They took us out to eat for breakfast and had breakfast burritos it was pretty good.

 

Garcia's Progress

we are still working with the garcias, They are sucha great family, one of our members brought a icecream cake for a lesson. He told him we have an icecream cake right in front of you and it want do you any good if you are not partaking of it and feasting. They hae been struggling keeping commitments. They said they would start reading.

Coles

We taught the coles yesterday and had a great restoration lesson, we had to use a lot of analagies, pictures, videos and stuff becasue she is a very visual person, which helped her out a lot. She wants to be baptized hopefully we will be setting a date for them this week.

The Most Tremendous Miracle

Miracle in a Trailer Park

We had a huge miracle that happened this week that I got to tell you all about. a few weeks ago we did the hour of power and knocked this trailer park and we only knocked a few doors because we found out that it was mostly spanish people. This one guy answered and said that he was too busy. two weeks went by and we saw the same guy that told us that he was too busy was at church with his wife. He told us that he has been less active for 28 years and just decided to come back to church because his life has not really gone anywhere. He told to his wife who is not a member to come with him and if she did not like it that she didn't have to go again. she doesn't get impressed that easily. She loved it, with everyone welcoming her. She loves relief society with the idea that they go around and help people out. She said To her husband I want to be baptized, so we are going to start teaching this thursday. When he told us that when he said that he was too busy was because he thought that his dad who is really active into the church sent his address to the church who lives in las vegas. It was his birthday when  we knocked on his door. His wife works at the hospital and has been talking to this one lady about religion. the less active family name is the coles. they came and sat down in the chapel pretty early and where they sat is actually were a young family sits everyweek. it was the same lady that has been talking to her about religion. isn't that sweet or what. He wants to become very active in the church.

 

Garcias

One other thing we are working with the Garcias who has a date for march 24th. Mexicans know how to party. even if some family members come out to visit them they put on a huge fry which was the same time that we came over they had a bunch of fried fish, bass, flounder, and  red snapper, and they had a lot of fried shrimp, fried potatoes, dorritos with this very delicous homemade salsa.

 

Harvesting the White Field

Part Member

tonight a part member family is feeding us dinner and we are going to teach them too. The husband is not a member but he has been to a lot of the activities and campouts, which he enjoys. hopefully we can get him to join, then we are teaching the Garcias which is going to be another great lesson.

we met with this other sweet less active part member family, brother brandons family is all active but sister brandons is not. they attend the methodist church. He still has some kind of testimony, so we are going try to work with them.

More Exciting Tree Chopping

But we did a lot of service this past week. we helped some members cut down a huge tree. we told them that they would need professional help because if they cut it down it come down and break the fence, but he said no if we throw up a rope and pull it, it will land on the other tree. We threw up the rope around a branch which took awhile then we tied it off, then the member started to cut it down, and it started to break off and we were pulling with all that we had, and it still fell on the fence, and it was very load, it was like a thunderbolt striking something, the neighbours were like it was that man over there, yeah it woke up the whole neighborhood, it was only around 3pm.  we helped a member to clean out her garage and reorganized it because it was very messy, you could not even walk through it. then we helped some investigators dig out the pipe there yard and put in new pipe.

 

Blessing of the Priesthood

We also saw a recent convert Preston that was in the hospital, he is in there pretty often because he has sickle cell and he had the pneumonia, and he was pretty down so we gave him a blessing. we saw an investigator Jo that was in the hospital too she had a pretty bad stroke.

 

 

Amazing Baytown People

Baytown People

The Garcia's who have been taught by missionaries before the hurricane ike hit houston. When the hurricane hit there house got destroyed and loss contact with the missionaries and we found them by tracting into them which was a miracle. They said they want to be baptized but want to learn more about our message and come to know if these things that we teach are true. we set a date with them for the march 10. We taught them the first lesson wchich is the restoration of the gosepl. lets just say that the spirit helped us out a lot in that lesson. Becasue I did not do that great explaining and teaching it as well as i like. But my companion thought it was really good becasue they asked good questions.

 

The medinas are another sweet family. They want to know more about our message. we taught them about our purpose and they fed us dinner which was really nice. They hae questions about the book of mormon and about prophets which we will be answering and explaining to them this week.

 

More Amazing Baytown People

I love Baytown and I think this is my most favorite area I have had. Because one the people here are really nice. Since I have been out here and knocking on doors, I have seen that God has been preparing the hearts and minds of these people to hear and to accept the restored gospel, we have found a ton of people. I know that pretty soon that baytown will baptize a lot of people in the church. baytwon is ready but we are getting the ward missionary minded and excited so they can invite there friends. There is very few that are not ready yet but there time will come.

Baytown Kids

Baytown boys and Injuries

I AM IN BAYTOWN, I LOVE IT HERE!!! But I am serving in the 2nd ward. I love the people here they are so nice, love the ward. My new companion is Elder Jensen he is from Thatcher, Arizona he has been out for nine months. He is a really great companion. This is a bike area, we biked for the first day we got here, I am so grateful for that they have sidewalks here. It was a long time since Elder Jensen has rode a bike because he got in a bike accident and broke his arm, he was driving a car for awhile until I got in the area, than in the morning we went to the church to play basketball with the district for morning excercises, which he sparined his ankle. we have  a car again. Our mission president said that he will turn this area into a car area. We probably wont be riding our bikes that often. This transfer is going to go by so fast because first its only five weeks becasue of the new change, and with all the many things that our mission has planned for.

NASA

Yesterday Our mission president took our zone (pasedena) and the broadwy zone to NASA it was really fun. got to see a bunch of cool stuff. This friday we have zone meeting, this coming up monday we have zone P-day, two weeks from now we have zone conference and then the next week we have zone meeting again. 

People

Christian is ninteen years old he has graduated from high shcool and is working two jobs to earn money for college. He has a little brother and his mom who are with him. Him and his family does not have a really religous background, we are teacahing the basics who God is, prayer, yah the basics. I love them so much we are going to teach them the restoration soon and set a baptismal date with them soon.

Paul and Tavia is a couple that we have been working with, they came to church this past sunday and seemed to love it. Paul has been taught the restoration many times and we are trying to teach his girlfriend the restoration. we are going to set a date with them and get them married. they have a new born.

Jose is another person that we are teaching he has been reading the book of mormon I mean really studying it using the cross references to the bible and asking a lot of questions. which is great but he is not getting the docterine that is in it. we are going to teach the plan of salvation and have him to pray about it.

We have more investigators and a lot of potentials but those are the only ones I have really got to know so far. we have been working with a lot of less actives too.

Another Week in Texas

Getting Transferred

this past friday we got a call from the zone leaders and they said that elder harrison my companion and me are both getting transferred and two brand new missionaries are coming in. 

 

Soon to Be Baptized

we have been teaching blake and he is doing great. he should be baptized this saturday or next one. while we have been teaching him. His dad who has been less active for 20 years is enjoying the lessons. he got ordained as a priest and the bishop is working with him so he can baptize his son. he loves coming to church and is striving for the temple.

 

Want to change

Another family were are teaching is the crowells and deforrest. one of them a few weeks ago jsut got out of jail and wnats a better life, they have been enjoying our visits. they are slowly progressing. they like what we teach so far. They are having a pretty hard time right know, they are trying to look for jobs.

 

Two Apostles and Faith

Apostolic Power

This past week has been good. We went to Houston to hear Elder ballard and Elder Nielson speak to the three houston missions. they sopkle to us about companionship unity and getting along with them. They told us a story about a blind missionary that was serving in Florida. Since he could not read, he had to share of what he has felt. He bore his testimony to all of his investigators. It does not matter how much you know until you show much you care for them. He relied on the Lord and had faith. Then on Sunday he sopke to the kingwood stake on sunday. It was really good. Then everyone got to shake his hand.

  

Lifelong Lessons

Getting Better

My finger is doing better, but the other day it was hurting alot more than it usually is. which I think it means that I am getting feeling back into my finger, which is a good sign. I am going to get the stitches out tomorrow so i am really excited about that so it can fully heal. President interviews were great. 

Exchanges

On every saturday night all the neighbourhood kids come to the church to play basketball it is just to keep them off the streets. Before we begin we start off with a prayer and share a spiritual message, then we play some basketball from seven to nine. We are working on if we can teach them personally and bring them to church. This past week we also had exchanges with some other elders in our district. I went to Livingston, it is also another big area, they have a truck and it is pretty hilly over there. It is north of our area.

 

Learning To Teach

We had zone meeting on friday in kingwood which was very good. we are going over the first lesson (restoration) in detail for each principle, so that we can become better teachers, our mission is the best finders but not a lot of those we find get baptized and we teach a lot of first lessons so we are going to get more better at teaching the first lesson. We see what inspired questions we can ask them, what analagies, picture aids, and scriptures, we can use, and what commtiments we can leave with our investigators. Our zone is focusing on four key idicators which are baptismal dates, sacrament meeting, new investigators, and member presents. In our zone we have about three districts. We are doing a competition between the districts where which ever districts gets at least two of the key indicatros they win for that week,. they get to have the texas flag that everyone signed in the zone. At the end of the month whatever district had the flag more wins the big prize, which they have not told us yet.

 

Investigators

We are doing pretty good here in cleveland. We are teching a part member less active family. we are teaching the nine year old Blake and we have set a date for him for febuary 2. His parents also came to church which was good. We are going to get a baptism and also with two reactivations.

 

We are teaching Crystal who is the wife of a member we have taught her the fisrt lesson and she has been coming to church which she seems to be liking it. we are hoping that we will set a date for her soon. This week we are going to be working very hard on part member and less actives in the ward. that is pretty much what happened for this week.  love you all

New Area

New Area

Hey I want to give you all an update on transfers. I am serving in Cleveland, Tx. Which covers a big area and it is also pretty crountry too. it covers cold springs and some other areas. My new companion is elder Harrison. He is a really great guy. He is in the marines. he has been out for a little bit more than a year know. Here is my address.

 

307 sleepy hollow Dr.  apt. 301

Cleveland, TX 77327

Hurt Finger and New Area

Hurt Finger

I attatched two pictures of my finger the day after it was stitched up. Yeah my finger is doing better, it is healing but the wound is still open. I am so glad that I did not brake any bones in the finger, it could of been a lot worse than it was. which i am very grateful for. 

 

Christmas Day

The rest of the day on christmas we just hanged out at our apartment and played monopoly. It has been really cold here lately in the 30's-50's. the cold down here is way different than up there. If it snowed here when it was cold it would be a lot different. That is so exciting that you guys get to go to Cancun. That would be a nice trip.

 

Baptisms!

Yeah I got to go to barbies baptism which was great. a member from Buna the castlemans picked us up from cleveland and drove us to Buna. When we got to Buna they took us to there house and fed us a huge meal. we had a whole box full of goodies. I might go back to Buna again for another baptism. Carrie and her son Josh is going to be baptized in the next few weeks. Which is really exciting. speaking of baptisms We had one here in Cleveland on Sunday it was really great. Alex got baptized and his parents who is not members came to church for sacrament meeting, sunday school, and his baptism. they did not go to priesthood or relief society becasue they  kind of did not like seperating. But they loved of what they saw and heard. during the baptism we watched the restoration movie and they felt the spirit was so strong. After the baptism the dad was tearing up when he left and the mom felt good. We are going to start to be teaching them soon.

 

Reactivation

Yesterday we taught a less active part memmber family, we are teaching the nine year old who wants to get baptized. While the kid is being taugth the parents are asking us questions too. Hopefully we can reactivate the family and get a baptism from it.

New Years 

we did not do that much for new years either. we saw some fireworks that were going off but not to many becasue it was raining. we played catan for awhile. we went to the faucetts to eat dinner. We have president interviews this week. I will pray about what I should do about going home a little bit early for school and I will talk to my mission presidnet. I dont know if i told you this but elder ballard is going to come down and speak to all the three missions and then on sunday he is going to be speaking to the kingwood stake which I am in know. So I get to hear from him twice.