HOWDY FROM MONTANA

Hello everyone!

There is not much to report on this week.  I really just want to share a quote I found this morning. 

"Courage, not compromise, brings the smile of God's approval.  Courage becomes a living and an attractive virtue when it is regarded not only as a willingness to die manfully, but as the determination to live decently.  A moral coward is one who is afraid to do what he thinks is right because others will disapprove or laugh.  Remember that all men have their fears, but those who face their fears with dignity have courage as well."

President Thomas S. Monson.

I am so excited for Conference! I read this quote this morning and liked it a lot. We have had some of the people we are teaching decide they are not ready to commit to anything yet.  It's sad and frustrating, but then we had lunch home at the Whitney's yesterday, and Sister Whitney said simply, "Change is hard."  It got me thinking a little bit about how hard it really is to change.  It takes a lot of courage. 

Have a good week! Love you!

Love,

Sister Hixson

Sisters Hixson and Frost getting stuck in the mud--again.  They tried pushing and maneuvering their way out but finally had to call for help.  They snapped this picture while waiting.  Ya gotta love the life of a missionary!

YOU CAN PINCH ME!

Hello family and friends!

I hope all is going well in your different areas around the world.  I am still here in Montana and am so excited to write to you today!

I've enjoyed all your emails and letters.  Thank you again for all your prayers, love, and support.  It means the world to me.

It's been a great week. We met this girl named Dayna Jones who is probably about my age.  She has a strong testimony of the church, but she has had some things happen in her life that have simply gotten her out of the groove of being active in the church.  She wants her boyfriend to take the lessons and we are seeing them both this week! It's amazing how the Lord surprises you when you least expect it.  We have been trying to contact Sister Jones for months! I'm glad we stayed diligent in that.

We also continued to teach Sister Hughes this week.  She has committed to read the Book of Mormon.  She downloaded it onto her phone, so she says she might actually read it! I'm grateful that the Church has kept up with technology because it helps SO much in missionary work!! Her son, Kyle, downloaded the children's version of the Book of Mormon onto his tablet, and that's what he reads.

We saw them both on Wednesday, right before Scouts.  Sister Frost was so bold and persuasive, and by the end of us being there, Kyle and Sister Hughes were committed to coming to scouts with us and we had a ride on its way!  It all worked out perfectly because we were supposed to be at the church at 7 anyways for a lesson with this man who was supposed to meet us there.  We never got a hold of him, and he never showed up, so we were able to walk around the church with Sister Hughes and look at the pictures and chat with her a bit.  As soon as we started to walk around the church, we hadn't even pointed out any pictures on the walls yet, and she saw the one of Christ standing at the door knocking, and she said, "Wow."  So we were able to talk to her for a minute about it.  It's incredible the message that paintings portray, and I love that you can feel the Spirit even just looking at a painting of Christ. 

Tuesday was filled with lots of trying, and not much talking.  None of the appointments happened, and we weren't having much success contacting.  We had dinner that night with the Dalton's, and right afterwards, Sister Frost said, "Let's try Kurt."  Kurt lives ten feet from the Dalton's, and he is the husband of a less-active lady named Jennifer.  We met Jennifer and Kurt probably in December.  Jennifer has been gone for a couple months receiving radiation in Washington.  We stop by every so often to see what we can do for Kurt and what the news is with Jennifer, but he hasn't been home the last few weeks we have tried him.  Well guess who answers?! Jennifer! She seemed to be doing well and said she would let us come and teach Kurt (even though he has declined before), and that she didn't care that he wasn't interested in listening.  She wants to come to church and she was glad we stopped by.  It was amazing.  She is out of town again this week, but I'll let you know what happens when we see her again. I'm so grateful Sister Frost felt to knock on Kurt's door, and I believe it was so we could reconnect with them and ultimately bring them closer to Christ through the gospel covenants.

Tuesday night ended on a bang.  We decided to stop by at Alex and Jacob's at about 8:45pm to see how they were doing and set up a time to teach them.  We went in and they invited us to sit, but we knew we didn't have much time, so we just stayed standing.  Then Alex says, "Will you teach us something? Please sit down, and you can give us a lesson!" We have been praying for their hearts to soften.  They had voiced previously that they are not ready to make any commitments, but they want to keep having lessons and things; they have said they are simply too busy to get fully involved into the church right now.  We have felt the need to keep teaching them, so we have, but they are so busy, so it has been a couple weeks since we have really been able to teach them anything.  Anyways, it was wonderful.  We had a great discussion about God's love, the Atonement, and how it does not matter the sins they have made in the past- they can change and move past their past and become new through Christ. 

Whenever I teach about this, it always makes me think about how that really works- the Atonement.  It is incredible.  I don't fully understand it, and I am sure that my whole life I will be understanding it more piece by piece, but I do know that Christ suffered for each one of us, and that, because He did, we can become perfect one day.  Without the Atonement we could not progress in this life or after.  I am grateful for the Atonement because it means so much for me and others- for Alex and Jacob it means that their past is their past.  They can learn from it, but they don't have to live in it. They can become new.  And for Jacob and anyone else who is not a member of the church, it starts with baptism.  Christ was baptized to be the example for us-to show us what we need to do.  And our sins are washed away when we are baptized.  What a blessing, not to mention receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost!

2 Nephi 31 talks about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I have been focusing on verse 13 this week- "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism- yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to His word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost.  Yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel."  I feel like there should be an exclamation point at the end of that! When we make that commitment to the Lord through baptism, he blesses us with the gift of the Holy Ghost, who can be our guide through life and comfort us.  I have felt the comfort of the Holy Ghost and I am so grateful for Him.  For anyone who is reading this is who is not baptized, I invited you to consider it.  Meet with the missionaries and listen with your heart to what they teach.  You will feel the Holy Ghost.  What a blessing it is to have the gospel here on the earth today, restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.  I am so grateful for it.

I love you guys! I hope that you love this next week! Sister Frost and I are going to be working hard and looking for those who are prepared to accept the invitations we give to them! I know that even those people who say no have still been changed by receiving the invite to have the gospel in their lives.

Happy St. Patty's day! :)

Love,
Sister Hixson

Hello everyone.

Today it is raining, and I am so happy about it.  We opened our window this morning and listened to it while we studied.  I love rainy days, and it's been a while.  The sound of raindrops is my favorite.

I have loved reading everyone's emails today, as always.  They truly uplift, strengthen, and remind me of the blessings I have. 

Sister Frost is still as wonderful as ever.  She got sick this week, but now she is all better.  The Elders gave her a blessing on Thursday, and she was better on Friday.  I am so grateful for Priesthood blessings.  Friday we went out and it seemed that Heavenly Father was like, k, so you were inside for a few days, now here ya go! Here's some people to talk to! We were busy busy all day long.  We were able to contact some people we haven't been able to catch lately, so that was great.  As we'd be leaving their house, they'd get home- it happened three times in a row!

Also, we taught this man named Jim Ledakis.  He was a referral sent to us from San Diego!  He is eighty one and the CUtest man you'll ever meet. His house is filled with ships and Disney characters, and his answering machine says, "Hello....has anyone ever told you how unique and special you are? Leave a message."  Isn't that the best?  We went over there with Penny, and he sat down and said, "So let's talk about this LDS thing."  Haha. His son is a member, and Jim says he knows the church is true, but he doesn't need to join yet.  (Yes you do Jim!) So, he says that for now he doesn't want to meet with us, but we will see him soon.

Sister Frost and I also tracted this week, which we don't do very often. And it was on a day that was so nice and warm. No one let us in, but we met so many nice people.  Also, most of our investigators are struggling right now. Mostly we can't contact them.  They have broken phones, can only text(which we don't have), moved away (Theresa), or are too busy to meet with us.

But we know that we will find some more people to teach and that if the ones we are trying to teach are not ready, the Lord will put more prepared people in our paths.  We have the faith!

I have learned a lot of things this week.  It's hard to put a finger on one thing.  One thing that has been on my mind though is the fact that God answers prayers.  "Prayer is the passport to peace." - President Monson.  Prayer really is the answer to everything. When we are exhausted, worn down, sad, lonely, confused, then pray.  When we are happy, excited, grateful, content, then pray.  I know that prayer makes a difference.  We taught this to Russell this week.  He doesn't feel like prayer makes a difference.  And Sister Hughes only prays when she really needs something because she doesn't want to bother God with her little issues she can figure out herself.  But the blessing is that God WILL help you with those little things if it matters to you.  He will. "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you."  I'm grateful to know that I can pray and that God answers prayers, and if you are struggling with something (that's all of us), then say a sincere prayer and look for God's way of answering it.

This week had it's few funny moments, one of which was when I drove down a one way..the wrong way.  This old man in his truck waited for me to turn around and gave me the biggest smile and thumbs up when I finally got turned the right way.  Haha, it made my day.  I love the people here.  I keep loving them more and more.  Even when people aren't nice or don't want to hear what we have to say, I still love them! And I hope that they will feel the Spirit and want it in their lives.  I love this work.  Missionary work is the best.  It brings so much joy :)

Have a wonderful week! :)

Love,
Sister Hixson

Hello!

This week I wanted to write a little bit about the power of music...well, a month ago Sister Frost and I misunderstood something our zone leaders said, and we thought we couldn't play music from our iPads anymore.  Because we don't have a CD player, we couldn't listen to music in our house.  We recently found out we CAN play music from our iPads and we have been playing music from lds.org in the mornings.  We already have favorite songs.  We have realized since we started this that we feel happier and more upbeat and positive when we listen to good music.  I have been reminded of the power that music can have in our lives.  And if anyone is wondering where to find good music- go to the youth web site on lds.org.  There are some good ones :)

We met with Theresa again this week, and she is just so sweet.  She is in her 70's and lives in a little trailer and just knows that everything she has gone through is all part of God's plan for her- no matter how difficult it has been.  She came to church again this week and is enjoying it.  She is so cute.  Her dog, Harry, is soooo hairy, and she has a little chime she hung up on her door to use as a doorbell. 

Penny is wonderful.  She came out with us last night to visit this one lady who is struggling with cancer right now.  It turns out they know each other from years back, so we were grateful we felt impressed to bring her with us.  Penny is an incredible missionary.  She invites everyone at work to church and stands up for her beliefs when people make fun.  She also told us where her brother lives and gave us his number, even though he doesn't want to meet with us. But she doesn't care! She had us stop by and call him to invite him to church, and she did the same. She wants everyone to accept the gospel!

We are working with Russel and Joy (Penny's sister) and a family, the Ramos's.  We are trying to help them prepare to be baptized, but they are hard to contact right now, so we will keep trying. 

Oh, and Sister Frost and I are staying together for another transfer here in Great Falls! I am no longer her trainer! We are just normal missionaries :) There is a lot of work to do here and many people who we have yet to learn from and to teach. I definitely know that I have more to learn from Sister Frost too.  She is incredible and so strong. 

That's all for this week! Enjoy the pictures.  Sing some songs. Listen to some good music.  Share the gospel with your friends.  I know that the Lord will make us into who He needs us to be as we decide to serve Him.  And we can do that by sharing the gospel with others.

I love you all.

Keep the faith.

Love,
Sister Hixson<3