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Monday, March 30, 2015

first week in FOLSOM!!!!

Hi everyone!!!

I just LOVE FOLSOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got here on Wednesday. My companion is Sister Wright. We served together in East Sac, so I had been around her. She has been out 6 months. She is from West Jordan, Utah. She is a piano performance major at University of Utah. She is very driven like me, so we work so hard haha we are exhausted everyday, but it is AWESOME! We have already seen so many miracles. We live with a member...a widow lady. Our room is tiny, but at least we have a place to stay :) In East Sac, Sister Bills and I had a HUGE apartment, like I had my own bathroom. It was so nice. So, this is different ahha. We are over Folsom 2nd and 4th wards. I love being back over two wards!! When I got there Wednesday, we met up to say hi to Sister Campbell and her trainee, Sister Kauvaka. They are shotgunning two wards here. It was sister campbell's bday, so I got her a pizooki from Bj's! They have one here!!! Teaching these missionaries the Norman way to celebrate birthdays :) I met her trainee and she said she found my blog before she came out and read it!! hahahahhahah I was so embarrassed. But I know that when I post on here it is going to the world :) It was just funny. I love being back in this area. I want to live in El Dorado Hills when I grow up!! I am serious!! See pictures :) Folsom is a little down the hill, which is our wards. El Dorado Hills is the other part of the stake. Folsom is a lot like South Tulsa. Cookie-cutter houses, etc. It is so homey. I love it. THere are bike trails that connect all the neighborhoods, so we are riding bike and doing those. It is the best. I am glad sister wright likes bike like I do! She was full-time bike in East sac, so she is used to it :) We are able to talk to wayyy more people on bike. 

On Saturday, we had so many miracles and picked up new investigators! It has been such a cool week. We have already like doubled the numbers here from what they have been. And we put someone on date for April 11!!! He is this 19 year old kid, who went to seminary in high school. We dont care about the stereotype of Folsom...we are baptizing here!!!! We are totally in the mind set of finding families. I want to find them so badly!!!! I hope I stay here a while. I want to be in an area for at least 6 months...I hate moving so much!

President and Sister Jardine attend the 2nd ward. They travel a lot, so they aren't there too often, but they were on Sunday. It is funny being in their ward! I am just myself. They know how I am. Their daughter-in-law was visiting and she said, "you are so spunky!!! I can feel your energy!" President goes, "You've never heard that before, huh!?" She was sort of an answer to a prayer because Friday was the new leadership meeting for the mission, and I was feeling so out of place because all the sisters in leadership are such molly mormons!!!! I am NOT like that at all. I told Sister Jardine that I am just not like that and never will be! We were doing role plays on correcting sisters, and I am just so different than them all. But, I know Heavenly Father wants me to be the bold, sassy, energetic Sister Hickman that I am because maybe I have certain people to touch with those traits. But after that meeting, I was sort of having an identity crisis. 

I have come to realize how much Heavenly Father was lifting me up in East Sac. Since being in Folsom, my teaching and contacting has not been as natural. It made me realize that Heavenly Father was totally lifting me up when I was with Sister Bills. Because I was sort of on my own, He helped more than I knew. It has been humbling. I thought I was such a great missionary when I was with her. I was so good at it all. And now I am realizing that it was not me at all! I know that we always have the Spirit and that is what converts. I am not saying that. But on the "skill" side of it that we are to work on, I was solid! So I thought at least. It has made my heart so full of gratitude for all that Heavenly Father did for me. He knew I needed to work on patience and love with Sister Bills, that He made up for the rest on my missionary skills. Now, I am back to focusing on being a missionary because the Christlike part is easy because I love my comp, area, people, etc :) Heavenly Father helps us more than we even know. I know that He loves all of us so much. When you think you are alone or that you are a master of your calling, it is Heavenly Father lifting you up :) 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! I LOVE IT I LOVE IT!!! I hit my halfway mark this week. I cannot even believe it. It is going too fast. I love this gospel. I am thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ. This week is Easter and General Conference. I cannot wait! I cannot stop smiling here. I am so happy and grateful. Thank you for all your prayers!!!!!!!!!!

I love you all so much!! There is not a way to print here in Folsom...so I probably wont be good at reading/responding to emails because I cannot print them and read later!

Love,
Sister Hickman
Folsom Zone today on Pday! We went on a hike...it was a blast!

Came home to this welcome to the ward from the Folsom 4th ward :) So cute!!! 

Sister Wright and I in Folsom! This will be an awesome transfer.

That is El Dorado Hills behind me....my future home :) hehehe

We love the bike trails :)

Our Pday hike today at Folsom lake. I love being with Sister Campbell!

Sister Wright, my new companion!

Sister Campbell with her birthday pizooki! Love love this girl! 

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

TRANSFERS!!!

HELLO EVERYONE!!!

HAppy transfers week!!! :) SOOO THE NEWS IS........

I have been called as a Sister Training Leader in Folsom over two wards and Sister Bills is going to another ward in this zone and they are putting ELDERS in our area!!! SO WEIRD!!! They only do that when an area is dead, but ours is doing the best in the zone!!! We are shocked!!!! I am so excited to go to Folsom because some of the sisters my comp and I will be over are in El Dorado, so I will get to go back to my first area for exchanges!!!! EEEEKKK!!! My new companion and I are both Sister Training Leaders (STL). Even though it has the word training in it, I AM DONE WITH TRAINING WOOOHOOOO!!! STL's are just the sister missionary leadership (like zone leaders). Sister Bills and I survived!!! Wow. Love that girl but it was HARD!!!! hahahah I learned tons though. Sister Campbell and Sister Kandare have been called as trainers!! I am so happy for them!! They get their new missionaries tomorrow :) Sister Campbell is training in Folsom, so we will be back in the same zone!!! Sad leaving Sister Kandare, but I get Sister Campbell :) 

Tim was baptized on Saturday!! What an incredible last weekend in East Sac with Sister Bills. Annie and Daniel (my recent converts from December) are who introduced him to the gospel. Daniel baptized him, and Annie spoke at the baptism. It was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!! My heart was so full. Everyone just loves Tim. He is so precious and SO HAPPY! He was just glowing all weekend. Sunday at church was sad because I knew it would be my last one  in this ward :) I LOVE LOVE this area and ward. In Sunday School in Gospel Principles, the teacher called me up to bear my testimony to everyone because I would probably be leaving. She said "Sister Hickman, look out at your flock. The recent converts you've brought in, the returning less actives..." I just cried!!! This was a moment of the PURE JOY!!!!!! My heart was bursting. It was one of the best days of my mission....seeing the gospel change all of these people and having the opportunity to witness it. It is a privilege to be a missionary. I LOVE IT! I seriously love it. I want to be a missionary forever, I am serious! I just cannot even describe how thankful I am for this experience. 

I am thankful for the last 4.5 months that I have been in East Sac. I am extra thankful to have trained Sister Bills the last 3 months. A piece of my heart will always be here. I know that transfers are a part of this whole missionary thing, but they are SO HARD for me!!!!! I just get so attached because I love people, and I hate leaving. I hate it!!!!! But, I am so excited for Folsom :) It will be like El Dorado...hahaha rich, white people. So it is a hard area, but I want to find a family so badly!! I was praying the other day about how I want to find a family and Folsom is the place to find it! It is all member missionary work...there seriously is no other way. My new comp was here in East Sac for a while, so I know her. We are very similar (good and bad thing haha) She is very intense and serious about missionary work like me, so I know that we will work super hard!!! 

I am sorry this is so long. It has just been the best journey here, and I am so sad to leave, but I have so much trust to know that my nest assignment and area is exactly what I need to grow even more. watch out folsom.....sister hickman is COMING!!!!!!

SO LONG EAST SAC!!! I WILL LOVE THIS PLACE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Sister Hickman 
Sister Bills and I on St. Patrick's Day in our green :) 

Our matching Sacramento shirts :) I am going to miss my running buddy!!! Goodbye long morning runs :(

My District this past transfer. They put all the sisters in the other one haha it was so lonely...

Every Saturday morning, we went and served the homeless at the Catholic Church...took me back to the Cascia days...love those Catholic schools :) I am so sad to leave this crew!

my girls :) Peace out east sac!

The crew with Tim!! I love these people!!!!

Sister Bills and I with Tim at his baptism. He is such a light!

My Mission Oak Auntie :) She always came out with us...she is the best!

With Jim and Vitor at Tim's baptism :) This is the father and son we are teaching!

Sister Bills and I with the best ward missionaries...the Mendoza's!!! We love them :)

My selfie with Tim at church the day after his baptism :) Doesn't he look so happy?!?!

Don't want to leave these people or this ward!!! 
At the temple this transfer P-day! I will miss them so much!

Sister Allen is going to the El Dorado Zone :) not my old area, but the other area there with sisters! I will be her STL!! Yay :)

My lil baby. Been with this girl every second of everyday the last 12 weeks!!!! I cannot believe it is done!

My best friend, Sister Kandare. She is a blessing that was waiting for me on my mission!

Cannot wait til we are reunited one day again :)

Sunday, March 22, 2015

WHAT A WEEK!!!



Hi everyone!!!

It was a CRAZY WEEK!!! But so great :) So, on Friday, we met as an entire mission and got to hear from Elder David A. Bednar and Elder Lynn G. Robbins (of the Seventy). It was incredible! Elder Bednar is a lot more gray than I thought :) He is awesome! He is just so straight-forward, and he really tries to teach by the Spirit. I thought it would be more of a lecture, but it was very interactive. He let us ask questions, make comments, etc. I received a lot of personal revelation from that meeting. Heavenly Father taught me exactly what I needed to realize. They talked a lot about how missions will prepare us for life. We are learning to be Christlike in our dealings with other people, which will have an effect on us the rest of our lives. I feel like I've got the hang of the "missionary" part for the most part (well, we never actually get the hang of it:) ), but I want to be better about growing Christlike in how I interact with those around me...like companions, etc. I am such a type-A person, so I am very goal-oriented, work hard, and know my purpose as a missionary, but I need to learn to focus on heavenly virtues. For example, patience, humility, faith. I really want to be a faithful servant of my Heavenly Father for the rest of my life. Someone who puts others first, so that I can show them love, just as Christ would do. I am sorry for rambling, and I am sorry if this doesn't make sense. I guess I am just very checklist oriented, and I want to work on having more of that Christlike desire behind it all. I have it down with investigators, ward members, etc. They are the EASY ones to LOVE!!!!! I seriously am so people oriented that being a missionary and talking to everyone is so fun for me! I look forward to it everyday. Sister Bills and I always laugh about it because for her, the interacting part with people is the part that scares her most! Speaking of which, we have 1 week left together!!! Wow, I cannot believe this 12 weeks of training is almost done. I have learned TONS. It is crazy. I would not take it back for ANYTHING. I am excited to watch Sister Bills blossom the rest of her mission.

On Saturday, Sister Bills and I got to go to the temple with the recent converts in the ward, and with the ward missionaries! It was so special. Annie and Daniel were there, Alec was, and many others. Seeing them dressed in white in the house of the Lord was one of my favorite moments of my mission! I love this work! Annie and Daniel's neighbor, Tim, is getting baptized this Saturday. It will be special to have a baptism with Sister Bills the last weekend we are companions. We get transfer calls next Monday! I am now second guessing wondering if President was messing with me when he told me I was getting transferred haha. The whole ward thinks I am leaving next week! I have LOVED this area. I am going to miss it so so much. I have loved getting to know all the faithful members in the ward. 

My heart was just so full this week! I felt like I received so much inspiration for how to better myself, and seeing all the recent converts in the temple was incredible! I love this gospel. I know that as we come unto Christ and help others come unto Christ, we see them change, as well as ourselves. 

P-day will be Tuesday next week because of Transfer week :) I do not want to leave Sister Kandare and Sister Allen! It was such a tender mercy having them here with me in East Sac.

I love you all so much! Have the best week!

Love,
Sister Hickman 
So excited to see Sister Campbell at Mission Conference! I have missed her tons. 

Campbell, Hickman & Kandare reunited :) It may be the last time until we finish our mission!

Excited for life with these two post-mission :)

Sister Bills and me at the mission conference with Elder Bednar!

Outside of the temple with the Mission Oak Ward. What a special day in Sacramento! 

Loved being with Annie and Daniel on this special day!

Monday, March 9, 2015

Hi everyone!!!

Hello hello!

It was a pretty good week! Yesterday was Sister Kandare's birthday, so that was fun! We surprised her in the morning...although it did not go as planned due to our phone not cooperating with the time change...yikes :) I loved having both our birthdays this transfer! She is the one who was in the MTC with me...I cannot wait for you all to meet her. We keep making all these post-mission plans..haha not trunky, don't worry :) She cannot wait to come to Tulsa/Norman and meet everyone! And I am excited to see her life back in North Carolina. She is going back to BYU-I after, but I am trying to convince her to transfer to Provo :) 
Celebrating Sister Kandare on her birthday! 
Some Sister Missionaries at her surprise celebration!
I do not know if I ever have talked about this father and son we have been teaching. I met them back with sis garrido...like back in November. We were visiting a less-active, and we asked her if there was anyone around that we should meet. She told us a new family moved in a little ways down, so we went and knocked to meet them. It is a nice father and son (single dad), and he said his family is Mormon! HE was adopted, but he met his birthday family like 10 years ago, and it is his birth family that are members. Anyways, Jim is the dad and Vitor is the son. Jim's family is from Peru. So we mainly teach Vitor because Jim is an atheist. HE is the kindest, most supportive dad and person ever! Seriously, he is a great person. He is so supportive of Vitor taking the lessons. They both come to church every week, and Jim sits in on all the lessons, but he just doesn't believe it is for him. This week during studies, I had a VERY STRONG impression that we should invite Jim to be baptized. IT freaked me out! I am very bold, yes, but we have talked about it so much with him, and he is not interested. The prompting would not go away. I told sis bills that we were going to do it, and that I felt like she needed to! She is so sincere and the Spirit is very strong (when she does talk in lessons, not much haha :) ) We decided we would read 3 Nephi 11, Christ coming to the Americas, and talk about Jesus Christ. We went into the lesson, and the Heavenly Father totally turned the lesson for Jim. If we ever try to involve him, he moves it back to Vitor. In this lesson though, he asked SO many questions and was so intrigued by the Book of Mormon. She Spirit was so strong. Sis Bills invited him to be baptized. He looked at us and said, "That is something I will have to think about." I was scared because I did not know what he would say. He is an atheist afterall!!!!!! It was so cool though. He said, "If you had asked me 3 months ago if I would be sitting here with Mormons, holding the Book of Mormon, I would have thought you were crazy!" He said he wants to read the Book of Mormon, and we committed him to pray and try to feel that God is there. He has not prayed in 15 years!! He was in the army, so he has been in Iraq for a while, and I think that had an effect on this whole "God thing." Anyways, it was a MIRACLE!! I truly believe his heart is changing! We never know who Heavenly Father is preparing. That is why it is essential to follow the Spirit. This was a big testimony builder for me this week. It made be a while (months...years...) but I believe Jim will be baptized. Him and Vitor went to LA this weekend to the temple because his sister was getting married there! 

We are all SO excited for Elder Bednar this week. It will be awesome! Word on the street is that this presentation he does totally changes peoples' missions. I am pumped. 

This Saturday, we are going to the Temple to do baptisms with our recent converts....I am so excited!!!! 

Life is great!!! I love being on a mission. We had interviews this week. President said, "Sister Hickman, through this experience of training Sister Bills, you have a calmness and peaceness about you." Hahah I said, "I guess I am not rough Sister Hickman anymore!!!! I have a heart afterall!!!" Hahha jk jk I just am a "tough love" person. It was great talking with him because he talked so much about this being the "refiner's fire" for me, which is totally what I have been thinking so much about! 

Talk to y'all next week! Love you all so so much!!

Love,
Sister Hickman

Monday, March 2, 2015

8 Months y'all!!!!

I cannot believe today is my 8 month!!! No wonder these missions are long....because they go by FAST, and I feel like I still have SO much to learn!!!!

This week was just a normal week of work!!! Our investigators are really progressing. We have a couple on date for the last Saturday of the transfer (before I am probably leaving), so hopefully they happen :)

I lost my patience a few times this week...surprise surprise.....

I can say that I am so grateful for this whole training experience with Sister Bills because I have learned more than I ever expected. I am NOWHERE near perfect, but I have learned SO MUCH about the importance of being Christlike, or striving to be at least :) I think this experience will have a lasting effect on me throughout my life, as I strive to develop more attributes of Christ. I am really focusing on charity, humility, and patience. I cannot believe I have 3 weeks left of training her. We went on exchanges this last week, and I went to another area. I missed her! I really did! I feel like she is my baby, and I was so worried to leave her all day. It went well though! I went to Rancho Cordova, which covers downtown Sac. I WAS IN HEAVEN!!! I am such a city girl, and I love downtowns. We got to do service at the food bank. Of course, I loved that!!! It was such a fun day. I really hope I serve there, so that I can do the fun downtown things on p-day :)

We have an ALL MISSION conf on March 13 and ELDER BEDNAR IS COMING!!!!! WOOHOOOO I CANNOT WAIT!!!! HE is one of my very favs!!!! It will be great :) That is our big news in the Sacramento mission :)

Thanks for all the support that you all give me! I love you all so much! People are right when they say mission's are the "refiner's fire." I am thankful for this opportunity to learn and grow and hopefully CHANGE for the better. That is what life is all about, afterall! 

Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Hickman