Buenas tardes familia,
Thank you for your great emails and the love you always share with me through your words. I felt the spirit so strong as well as felt a small part of God`s love for us as I read the news of the passing of our loving, inspiring, Grandma Hicks. I am sad for this time we will have separated from her but infinitely happy and grateful that we will spend the eternities with her if we live righteously.
 |
| July 2013, Eric with his Great Grandma Hicks, 100 years old |
Mom, Miriam, Abby, and Cannon I hope that you are enjoying your time in Las Vegas. I'm happy that you were able to see great Grandma Hicks before she passed on. Dad and Mom I know that you make decisions following the spirit for our familiy. Mom, your words touched me very much as you recounted the last moments you spent with her and the words of Grandpa Hicks` blessing. So special that you took a picture with Cannon and grandma. 100 years apart but family forever. I too feel great love and gratitude for my great Grandma. I can practically feel her frail, loving hand in mine. I remember grandma's eyes. They were always filled with great hope. I know like her we can always ¨hope for a better world¨. A perfect world. A world of peace, joy, and love. She is living, working, and cherishing her grand reunion with all the people she loves so dearly that passed on before her. Like Dad said ¨as we suffer just a small degree, it is or can be in remembrance of the Atonement and if suffered for Christ's sake will draw us nearer to him.¨ Very wise words that I know to be true.
I would like to touch a little more on something that Dad brought up a little bit. Being in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. I know that it is through obedience and following the spirit that we can be sure of where we stand with God and know what we must do to please Him. I know that if we think of these 3 things the Holy Ghost will guide us in all things and we will literally be following the specific plan Heavenly Father has for each one of us, the Plan of Happiness. He knows us and He knows ¨happiness¨more than anyone of us knows happiness.
About the toe: Well first of all I went to an awesome doctor on Thursday and he told me that I needed to rest three days more but that he thinks he won't have to cut or take out the toenail. I rested that day and with the new medicine he gave me and without a doubt the help of the power of God my toe started healing very good. The doctor told me that I could start working like normal Sunday afternoon but I started Friday. Friday and Saturday I worked in my Sandals all day and Sunday I wore shoes for the first time in more than a week. So far things have been going great and my toe is healing great! Some things that have been recommended to me and that I have done are wash my toe in hot water with this special salt, clean my feet really good with soap, and keep my foot elevated, oh and taking off the water head on the shower and turning the water on to full blast so there is a powerful small stream of pressurised water and putting my toe right under the water so the water is opening and cleaning where the nail is in my skin. It KILLS!!! haha along with always making the toe bleed, it cleans it very good. An awesome guy who lives in the appartment beneath us showed us the trick. Thanks for the other tips Dad. I also wish that you could be helping me with it. I know you would be a great help.
I am very proud and happy to say that Sunday was one of the best days of my mission! This last weekend was stake conference. Saturday night we had a great priesthood session with the people here in Progresso. There are 53 missionaries in the Stake we are in! Sunday morning we woke up, got ready and then went to Miriam's house to walk with her to the Church. From the Church we took a bus with the members to the Stake center. The Stake Center was filled to the max! Elder Hales and Elder Oaks spoke through broadcast to all the Stakes in Central America! We ended up watching it on the T.V. in the kitchen because there was no room in the cultural hall. Elder Hales spoke in Spanish! The others had translators. It was a great session and I hope that Miriam along with the other 7 investigators who came with us felt the spirit and truth of the Church. That afternoon after eating lunch although it was super tempting to take a small nap and stay out of the heat, we went to work and I am very glad that we did. We had one hour of space before a planned lesson. We walked up the road and thought of who we should visit. There was a family that lived at the top of the road that we visited once and shared part of the Plan of Salvation with but we hadn't been able to find them home since. We decided to try. We got there and another man in his 20s or so greeted us, we asked if Jose was home (Jose is the head of the house) he was! They and one other young man graciously let us in and listened to the message of the Restoration. I felt the spirit guiding my companion and I so much during this lesson. At the end of the lesson they all accepted the invitation to be baptized if they received an answer to their prayer of faith. They also told us they are going to come to Church this Sunday. It was such a happy and fulfilling lesson. I know that Heavenly Father gave us this blessing for being at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing and for following the spirit. We had a wonderful and powerful lesson afterward with Joan, the young man we baptized a few weeks ago, two other young men, and the newly ordained Elder and young men's president in our ward. We shared a message about the Priesthood that he just recently received. Again, I felt the spirit guiding me and I felt a great joy as we talked about the power of God and the blessings we receive if we stay worthy. Afterwards we had an incredibly spiritual lesson with Claudia, Angela, Isis, and Dorka. The three sisters and Mom. about the Law of Chastity and testified that all we teach leads us to the Temple. We talked of eternal families. Claudia told us that she is going to read the book of Mormon with her spouse because we told her it would strengthen their relationship. Isis is going to baptized this Saturday! Angela we are praying will also be baptized with her sister but she hasn't made the decision. We talk to her tonight. After this lesson we walked to dinner and on the way an investigator we have named Antonio who we have been working with for months,and is completely ready for baptism but just needs to get married stopped us. He has been very sick, we shared a lesson with him on Saturday and gave him a blessing. He stopped us and told us that the blessing we gave him is healing him and that he is 80 percent better! He bore an incredible testimony and told us to keep working because we are servants of God. He told us that during the night as we rest God's angels come and prepare us for the next day. I almost started crying. When I have more time I will tell you more about Antonio. I have a great love for him and his words felt like they came straight from Heavenly Father. Last Sunday was a day that I will never forget, there was a special spirit with us that day. My great grandma Hicks listened and walked with us. I now understand what was so special about that day. Little did I know that my great grandma had passed on and that she in her spirit was with me.
I love you all so much, I wish I could be at the funeral but I know I can be here with Grandma in spirit. Please share my love with Grandpa and all the family. You are in my prayers and I love you very much. This is the work of God. These 6 months in the mission not only have flown by but have changed my life for the better. I know this is where I need to be, doing what I'm doing, at the time I'm doing it. It's all part of Heavenly Father's plan. :)
Love Elder Conover
I will respond more to each of you individually next week. Sorry I'm out of time! I love you!
No comments:
Post a Comment