"Week 7 in the Field" -- October 31, 2016

¡Hola a todos!

¡Felíz Día de las Brujas!In case you were wondering, they do celebrate Halloween here in Ecuador. There are all kinds of parties and celebrations that happen the week before. The ward had a Halloween party last Friday. The members here are very divided about whether or not we should celebrate Halloween because of it{s pagan origins. It´s kind of funny, a lot of them feel very strongly about it and keep asking us what Halloween means and showing us Wikipedia articles they printed off for us to read. A lot of people here have the idea that because we´re missionaries we know everything and our answers to there questions are doctrine but we´re just like "If you don´t feel comfortable celebrating it, don´t celebrate it".

It´s a fun time to be Ecuador right now though. During the Halloween/Día de los Muertos season they have a lot of cool foods that they never have during the rest of the year. One of them is called a Guagua de Pan. It´s bread in the shape of a little person filled with jelly and it´s delicious! They also have this drink called Colada Morada that´s basically a bunch of fruits mashed up into a sort smoothy type liquid and then heated up and served hot. American missionaries seem to either love it or hate it because it has a very strong, sweet taste, but I think it´s so good. It´s funny too because the TV show "Ecuador Tiene Talento" just started up and is a big deal right now. We have a lot of people ask us what we think of all the contestants and judges and sometimes it´s just easier to smile nod and agree rather than have to explain that we don´t watch TV. But we´ve heard a lot about that.

So we baptized Steven Falcon this last Friday! It was a really complicated situation though. We had it scheduled for Saturday at 7:00 PM and invited a bunch of people, but then Steven´s dad had to work and Steven really wanted him to be there. We then changed it to 2:00 in the afternoon to accomodate his dad. But then we found out there was going to be a Family History Discovery event at the Stake center so no one was going to be able to come. We then changed it to 2:00 on Friday, but then the Bishop couldn´t come because he had work and the 1st Counselor in the bishopric, Hermano Toapanta could only make it at 3:30. We ended up having the service at around 3:45 and it was a small gathering. Only us, Steven, his mom and two siblings (his dad didn´t even end up coming), Elder Mansell and Elder Melendez, Hno. Toapanta, and Jefferson Perez, the gospel doctrines teacher, were there but it was a great experience nonetheless. Steven chose me to be the baptizer. I was excited to have the opportunity to baptize again and I was honored and honestly a little surprised that he chose me. We felt bad though because he was so worried about the water being cold and we reassured him several times that the water would be warm. But because of all the time changes and delays, the water was pretty frigid by the time we actually performed the ordinance. I apologized to him over and over again afterwards but he just thought it was funny and was too happy to be upset or bothered by it.

His confirmation was a really cool experience. He invited his siblings and mom to come so they were at church too. Afterwards, he was asking us all kinds of questions, like how does he get a priesthood interview, when can he go to the temple and things like that. He also leaned over and asked, "Hey, Elder is like a title for missionaries, right?" I was all like "yeah, sort of" and then I heard him whispering to himself, "Huh, Elder Falcon." I couldn´t help but just smile. He is such a great guy and I´m really excited to see where he goes in the gospel!

Well, I´m happy to say that I am free of all parasites! But Elder Mansell has two just like me. I don´t know what´s going on! We´ve been getting to know the new Elders a lot this past week because they eat lunch with us and we´ve been showing them around the sector a bit. They are super cool guys! Elder Mansell came from Santo Domingo near the coast, so he´s picked up on a lot of weird slang terms and speach patterns. But he´s really funny and he only has one transfer more than me in the mission, so it´s been nice to have someone in the same boat as me. It´s always exciting to hear about what´s going on with our old families up in Argelia Alta.

I´ve been having a much better time now that I´m parasite free and excited about Steven. As always, I hope you´re all doing great back in the States or wherever else you guys happen to find yourselves. Los quiero bastante y espero que todos tengan una buena semana y vida.

Hasta el proximo lunes,

Elder Travis Hicks

Picture 1: A pic before the baptism.

Picture 2: A pretty view of the Andes. This picture doesn´t really do it justice, lo siento, but it was so beautiful.

Picture 3: Elder Mansell had a hold of my camera.

Picture 4: Me about to eat a guagua de pan.

"Good Families, Bad Families" -- October 24, 2016

¿Què Màs Mi Gente?

I´m gonna be honest, this last week wasn´t very fun, but I had a lot of good things happen, so I´m going to start with that! Well, I´ve made it through my first transfer. I´m happy to say that Elder Garcia and I are staying together for another transfer in Oriente Quiteño until I finish my in-field training. We were actually in the room with Elder Arrambari, one of our zone leaders (former zone leader now, which makes me kind of sad because he was so cool) when he got the call from the Assistants about the changes because Elder Waldie was in the other room doing Steven´s baptismal interview (he´s getting baptized this Saturday!). We have two new Elders in Oriente Quiteño to split up the sector because it´s huge. Their names are Elder Melendez and Elder Mansell. They seem really nice I feel good about passing some of our investigators on to them.

We had stake conference this last Sunday and it was awesome because we had one of our families that we´re teaching attend. Their name is the Familia Tejero. It´s a mom and a dad named Pilar and Paul and two kids named Amy amd Jesus. We love them so much and Jesus is so cute. He´s two years-old and he´s the cutest little two year-old you´ve ever seen (well, third cutest I guess. Shout out to Livee and Warner!) We´ve been having a hard time getting them to come to church because Paul works on Sundays a lot. On Saturday we had a lesson with them and when we invited them to church like we had the last couple of lessons and we got the same response from Paul. We were disappointed for a second, but then Pilar was all like, "What do you mean your busy tomorrow? it´s your day off. Why don´t you want to go to their church? I really want to go but I want us to go as a family, so what´s keeping you from going?" He was silent for a moment and then said, "We´ll see what we can do." They were there at the chapel the next day.:)

Stake Conference was also really cool because President and Hermana Christensen gave talks. It´s always so nice to see them and it was fun for them to meet the familia Tejero and Steven, who was also there. President Christensen gave a really good talk about how members can help in the mission work. He quoted President McKay´s "Every member a missionary" a couple of times, which I´ve come to find out is so true. Also, this is super random but I also found out that President Christensen´s brother is Craig C. Christensen from the Presidency of the Seventy. I guess awesomeness just runs in their family.:)

So, I mentioned last week that I felt sick Saturday night and all day Sunday from that week. Well, it calmed down tha Monday but then like right after I´d finished writing you guys it kicked back up. It continued the entire week actually. I called the mission nurses again on Wednesday and they recommended I take some tests to see what´s going on. On Thursday, I got the results and saw that I tested positive for not one, but two parasites. I´m still really confused about how though because Elder Garcia has been fine and we´ve eaten all of the same things, but yeah, I´ve got ´em bad (and that ain´t good). I was laughing though because I told Elder Lambert and Elder Watkins about it at our Zone meeting and they were so worried and thought that I was gonna be sent home or something. Elder Lambert told me today that he´s been praying for me. I love those guys so much haha.

But yeah, that kind of put a damper on my week a bit. Here in Ecuador they have a saying for when someone has parasites. They say you´ve got a little family inside of you. Most of the families that I come into contact with are very nice but these families are jerks! I have to say though, I´ve seen a lot of tender mercies this past week with my unfortunate illness. For one thing, it didn´t rain for almost the entire week which is rare for Quito. Most of our appointments came through for us, so when I relly needed to use the bathroom, I was able to. Even through our trials, God is looking out for us. So, that´s been my week. I love you all and hope you´re all doinbg well. ¡Pase buena semana!

Elder Hicks

Picture 1: What I found on our whiteboard after a particularly rough day. Elder Garcia´s the best.

Picture 2: I´m sorry it´s taken so long for me to send a picture but here it is! I only ever play it Mondays, but I´ve been having a blast learning different hymns and primary songs.

Picture 3: A shot of the sunset out of our appartment window.

"Not a Cheap Experience" -- October 17, 2016

¿Cómo están?

Well, this week was a bit of a rollercoaster haha. We´ve been reviewing the lessons with Manuel and Heidi and it´s been a little bit difficult. Bless his heart, Manuel doesn´t remember things very well, so it was like we were teaching him the lessons for the first time all over again. They have been really excited about being members though and even attended church without Julia, their fellowshipper.

We´ve started teaching a 19 year-old named Steven Falcon. We first met him after church when the gospel doctrine teacher, Jefferson Peres, came up to us and said, "Um, I think this guy wants to talk to you guys". When of the first things out of Steven´s mouth was, "So, how can I get baptized?" We were kind of caught off guard by his question and explained to him what he needed to do. He´s attended church four times already, which is the hardest part. We taught him lesson one on Wedensday. When we asked him to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it´s true, he was like, "Oh, I already know it´s true but yeah, sure, I´ll pray anyways." Afterwards Elder Garcia was kind of freaked out. He´s like "This is weird. It´s never this easy. What´s his deal?" But I was just happy to have an investigator whose excited and ready to learn. He was asking a lot of really good questions and seemed like he was understanding it all. Also, he looks like an Ecuadorian version of Daniel Radcliffe. That´s always a plus in any situation.:)

We had something called mini-conferencia where the Sister Training Leaders and Zone Leaders taught us lessons instead of having district and zone meeting. I really loved what they said and I was really excited because I actually understood everyone´s Spanish! Our Hermana Lideres are named Hermana Paredes (President Christensen always calls her "Sister Walls") and Hermana Martinez and our Lideres de Zona are Elder Arrambari and Elder Waldie. Elder Waldie shared an experience from when he was in his third transfer. He´d just gotten a new companion and because his other companion wasn´t there, many of his investigators stopped taking the lessons. He talked about the importance of having patience during your trials and said God always blesses, but sometimes it´s with thing that we need and not things we want. I thought that was so cool.

That message couldn´t have come any sooner because the remainder of this week tested my patience a lot! We had three days in a row where nearly every single appointment and backup plan failed. We ended up knocking doors and street contacting all day. We had one lesson with a recent convert named Evelyn. I was like "Finally! We have a lesson today!" We started to teach when all of the sudden she made a dash for the bathroom and threw up. She said that she´d been sick for a while but that we could keep teaching and she´d be okay. We decided to just share a scripture, but several times during our reading she went back to the bathroom. We ended up just giving her a blessing and said we´d come back another time.

They have a saying here in Ecuador whenever it rains. They say that the heavens are crying. Well, the past couple of days, the heavens have been sobbing uncontrollably and my umbrella decided it would be a good time to break in half. Rain is nice, but I did not enjoy being out in the rains of Quito without an umbrella. To top the week off, I got really sick Saturday night and yesterday. I was up almost all of Saturday night and suffering for most of Sunday. I won´t get into the details because it was pretty ugly, but I´ll just say this: I´m never eating from the Pizzaria across the street EVER again! I feel a lot better now and I got to talk to Hermana Sjovold because she´s the mission nurse.

So, this past week wasn´t very fun. But the words of an Elder Holland devotional have been coming to my mind a lot throughout all of this. He was talking about missionaries and mission presidents that he´s talked to who have expressed frustration about why this work is so hard. His answer is a little bit blunt (characteristic of an Elder Holland talk): "Why is this work so hard, you might ask? Because salvation is NOT a cheap experience! We are representatives of Jesus Christ. How could we ever expect it to be easy for us when it was NEVER easy for him?" We wathced that in the CCM and some people in our district actually cried. Whenever I am frustrated and feel like I need to take a break or I don´t want to work as hard, I´ve had to think a lot about him who suffered more and took zero breaks.

I´m hoping for a better week next week but I´m grateful for this last one. I´m sorry I don´t have any pictures, there weren´t a lot of pretty things to see. Thank you all for your love and support. Los quiero mucho and I hope you´re all doing well!

De Ecuador con Amor,

Elder Travis Hicks

"Week 3 in the Field" -- October 10, 2016

¡Qué más mis amados!

I´ve had a lot of awesome experiences this week and I´m loving the work so much. Well, first off, the big news. Manuelito and Heidi were baptized this last Saturday. It was such a special experience. They are both just so happy to be members and have not stopped thanking us since last week. The only thing that I would have improved was to tell Manuel to bend his knees when he went into the water. I dipped him under and he just went limp and didn´t help me at all. I was struggling really badly to lift him but I eventually did it and the ward got a good laugh out of it I guess.

We visited the Panecillo today for our P-Day. It was honestly a lot cooler than I thought it would be. Just to fill you guys in, the Panecillo is a giant statue of the Virgin Mary on a hill and it´s a popular tourist destination for people who visit Quito. It´s also the destination where Elder Spencer W. Kimball (back when he was Elder Kimball) dedicated the country of Ecuador for missionary work. When Elder Garcia first told me we were going, I was like "Oh, okay. Yeah, big statue. That´ll be cool I guess." I was not as excited to go as he was, but when I got there, there was a very different feeling about it. I kept thinking about how almost 60 years ago, this is where it all began. This is where the work began to role forth in Ecuador. I felt the Spirit really strongly as I pondered about that. It was a great experience and a good reminder of why I´m here.

We had verification last Thursday. That´s when after 3 weeks all of the new missionaries have a meeting with each other and the President just to kind of gauge how everyoné doing. It was so much fun to be reunited with all of my CCM friends. The only thing I regret was that I forgot my camera so I have no pictures of the grand reunion. Everyone had a lot of cool stories from their various sectors. Elder Kotter is in Puyo, which is in the middle of the jungle and is six hours from Quito. He had lot´s of pictures of Spiders and monkeys. He and his companion arrived in Quito at midnight because they left the morning before but were detained by the military for not having their passports (President Christensen said that that has never happened before and hopefully never will again). Elder Syndergaard had someone ask him and his companion to clear their house of demons. They went and were disappointed to find that their were no demons. Hermana Sjovold has had Cuy (guinae pig) several times and says it´s pretty good. I felt lame because I didn´t have any stories like that but I guess I have something to look forward to.

Elder Garcia and I heard a lot of things in that mission that we knew we had to improve. I´m really forward to this week and putting those changes into place. I´m hoping to have some more good things to report. So, that´s my week. I love you all and as usual hope that you are doing well in your respective locations around the globe.

Hasta la proxima semana,

Elder Travis Hicks

Picture 1: Heid and I in the their home. That thing you see on my head is a gift from them. You can´t really tell in this picture but it says stuf like "Ecuador FIFA 2014" and "Ecuador is my Choice".

Picture 2: All of us at the baptism. That woman on the far right is Julia, the ward meber who first invited Manuel and Heidi to investigate the church.

Picture 3: Left to Right: Hermana Montenegro, the Primary President who helped us so much with inviting them to church and helping them feel welcome, Heidi, Manuel, and Julia.

Picture 4: The Panecillo.

Picture 5: A selfie from the top of the lookout deck. I will not apologize. :)

"Half a Transfer Done and Loving it!" -- October 3, 2016

!Hola¡

¿Còmo le va? I had an amazing week. Things are beginning to look up I think. Training is going a little better. I´m starting to feel little more comfortable speaking Spanish and improving ever so slightly in being able to understand people.

Elder Garcia and I have been working on his English a lot. I don´t mean to brag but he probably has the best English out of the all the other Latinos in our district. They had a little exam to do where they heard questions on the computer and had to answer them. Elder Garcia rocked it! He´s been starting to pray in English. He´s so cool.

We´ve been teaching this family called La Familia Soria. They are such a sweet family! We met them on the street during my first couple of days here and they ended up letting us into their house to teach them lesson 1. It was sooo cool because that like never happens ever. The Spirit was so strong and they invited us back the next week. They had some trouble with reading and praying to know if our message was true but this last time we visited, they had read all of 3 Nephi 11 and had really good questions. We ended up teaching about the Word of Wisdom because Beatriz, the mom, had heard rumors that we weren´t allowed to eat meat. We cleared things up a bit for them and they felt a little better. We think Luis, the Dad, might have a problem with it because Beatriz kept giving him a look whenever we would talk about some of the things we can´t have. We didn´t get to find out for sure because they had a guest over who went on for like 15 minutes about pretty much nothing. I heard him say something about a goat on a mountain and the end of the world. He said "fires of Hell" and "we are not prepared a lot. I don´t even know. That kind of thing happens a lot here. But I´ve realy grown to love them and look forward to teaching them each week.

We have a baptism this Saturday. We´re baptizing two people: a man named Manuel and his eight year-old granddaughter, Heidi. When we asked them who they would like to baptize them, Heidi didn´t hesitate to choose Elder Garcia because he "knows Spanish better and his more her height". Manuel shocked me when he straight away said he wanted me to baptize him because he said he had prayed and felt strongly that it should be me. I was so honored and am so excited. They are so nice and absolutely ready for it!

Oh my goodness, General Conference was SO good. It really is a different feeling watching as a missionary. I was fortunate enough to watch it in English on the computer in the secretary´s office. I went on splits with Elder Waldie, one of our zone leaders, and his his companion, Elder Arrambari, went with Elder Garcia to watch it on the big screen in Spanish. It was a little cramped and hard to hear, especially during Priesthood Session when there were eight of us in there. Nonetheless, I learned a lot and found a lot of ways that I can improve as a missionary and a disciple of Christ.

One sort of common theme I noticed throughout was that they seemed to be stressing the importance of members in missionary work. I´ve seen this first hand out here. We have a really big problem here in Oriente Quiteño with people who get baptize, start coming to church and then just stop after a while. We problem teach more less active families than we do investigators. Guys, if you know about a family in the ward who is looking at maybe investigating and possibly joining the church, I would encourage you to reach out to them. It can be scary to go to a brand new church with a still developìng testimony and not know anyone. Ask the missionaries what you can do or if you can accompany them on a lesson or a visit. It REALLY makes a difference.

Thank you so much for your love and support. I love you all so much! Be safe and stay todo cheverre.

Elder Travis Hicks

We went on a little hike as a district for our P-Day today and I have some good pictures.

Picture 1: Mt. Chimburaso, a volcano nearby Quito that we can see sometimes on a clear day.

Picture 2: The vast expanses outside of Quito.

Picture 3: Some more vast expanses to tie you over.

Picture 4: Elder Garcia and I at a lookout point.

Picture 5: That´s a mountain.

September 26, 2016

¡Buenos Tardes!

Man, what a week! I´m not gonna lie, this week was a little bit rough. But I´m still having a great time here.

I got a cold this last Monday. It was that kind of sick where you`re not quite sick enough to justify staying home but still just sick enough to feel miserable. We had a lesson during our Zone Meeting about when we have difficulties during our mission we have two choices: we can shut down and be discouraged or we can keep working. Misery is a choice. So I´ve been trying not to choose it as hard as I can. We had a lesson with a less active family this week that was amazing except for the fact that my nose was running off my face! The wife noticed and handed me some tissues which I was thankful for. She then proceeded to hand me this mysterious cream with Chinese writing on it and told me to rub it on my nose and throat. Foolishly, I proceeded to do just that. I have no idea what the heck it was, but my face started burning!!! It made my nose run even more and I was tearing up uncontrolabley. Elder Garcia was the only one who noticed I think and was trying so hard not to laugh. Man, I was so embarrased but at least I got a funny story out of it.

So, I have big news. I got a guitar! We were teaching an investigator and I noticed hye had a guitar on his wall and I mentioned that I played. He had me play something really quick and I played Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing for him. A couple days later he called up Elder Garcia and asked if I wanted to buy it for $25. We got it okayed by President Christensen and bought it! I haven`t had a lot of time to play it and I`ve been trying to only play hymns on it. But it`s been really fun to figure out how to play hymns without music. I`ve come up with some pretty sweet arrangements.

I went on my very first splits with the Zone leader. His name is Elder Waldie and he`s from Mesa! We talked a lot about Arizona stuff and it was kind of nice to speak a little bit of English. Elder Garcia only knows a couple of words and phrases in English so communication has been a little difficult. It was a great time though and it was intersting to see how another missionary does stuff around here.

I think I`ll close there. I`m hoping for a bit of a better week this week but even if I don`t get one, I`ll choose to go to work. I love you all and love hearing about what`s going on in the states. (Little side note. I`ve been hearing a lot about an app called "What`s Up" here in Ecuador. Is that a thing I missed while I was in Mexico?) Anyways, Have a great week!

Los quiero mucho,

Elder Travis Hicks

Picture 1: Elder Garcia and I doing our thing

Picture 2: This is what a washer and dryer look like in Ecuador. We are super lucky to know a ward member who has an electric washer.

Picture 3: Beautiful Turubamba! That forest is called Pac-Man forest because of the way it`s shaped. You can`t really see it from the picture but trust me, it`s there.

"Out Here in the Field!" -- September 19, 2016

Hola Familia y Amigos,

I´m here! I survived the CCM, I barely survived the all night plane ride, and I have arrived in glorious Quito Ecuador! President Christensen is so nice. I love him already. It´s been a very crazy week. The field is definitely harder than the CCM but it is also SO much better!

My trainer´s name is Elder Garcia. He´s from El Salvador and speaks almost no English. He is super nice and very helpful. It is a little bit hard not being able to communicate very well but we´ve been able to make due and work well together. My first area is an area in the southern part of Quito called Turubamba. Everyone here is so nice. I have been having a lot of trouble understanding them though. Some of them speak a little bit of English and like to show off their skills to me. I love them all so much.

The members of the ward here have been having a lot of fun with my last name. I get "Exsh" and "Eek" and "Heesh". One family spent like five minutes trying to pronounce it and during the lesson I heard one of the little kids playing in the other room saying "Hicks Hicks Hicks Hicks..." I didn´t expect people to find it so entertaining but I guess it´s different than any name they have here. One of the families that I love is called the Velasco family. They are a part member family with three kids. The oldest is Marco and he sings and plays guitar really well. The next is William and he is crazy smart. He is like 15 years-old and is in college. He has been studying English and likes to ask me questions about myself in English. He even acted as a sort of translator in one of our lessons. The youngest is Carlos. He is 9 years-old and is super funny. He is way into Minecraft too which I thought was kind of funny. I´ve been to there house twice and they are always super friendly.

So it´s really cold here in Quito. It also rains constantly and hails every so often too. The city is very beautiful from above but a little less so from the ground. There are dogs everywhere. There are only two kinds of dogs that live in Quito: the ones that looked diseased and super sad all the time and the ones that absolutely hate missionaries. But it´s been fun getting to know the area and the people.

Well, I think that´s about all I have to say. One of our investigators has a baptismal date set for October 8th so I´ll make sure to send plenty of pictures of that! I love you all and hope you are doing well.

Sinceramente,

Elder Travis Hicks

Picture 1: All the Perry kids at the CCM took a picture on our last Sunday.

Picture 2: A view of Quito from outside Pres. Christensen´s window.

Picture 3: Lunch on a P-Day. I am eating rice and eggs covered in BBQ sauce. This is the life!

Picture 4: Elder Garcia and I contacting oustide of a McDonalds. He wasn´t to interested in what we had to say.

Picture 5: Hermano Pavia and I

Picture 6: Elder Syndergaard and I with Hermana Balderas.

Picture 7: Left to Right: Elder Syndergaard, Elder Watkins, Elder Carter. They were my roommates. I love them so much. Elder Watkins is in my zone so I get to see him every Thursday!