Monday, December 29, 2014

Feliz Navidad Last Week

All,

This week was interesting with Christmas and drunks and all. Tuesday, we did a massive Estandarte with Zona Poblado, Buenos Aires, Medellín, and another zone. We went to a place called Pueblito Paisa and sang, contacted, shared Èl es la Dàdive [He is the Gift], contacted, and then did some more contacting. 

Pueblito Paisa in Medellin (thanks Google Images)

View from Pueblito Paisa (thanks to Kai's camera)



It was really fun, and there were about 80 missionaries and also the President, his wife, and some family. And this place wasn`t even that big so we really contacted everyone I think. I know I started at the end contacting people who had already been contacted. But, it was fun and we gathered a lot of contacts. 
  
All of us in a chiva (Party Bus) we rented for the Estandarte
 Singing in the park

Wednesday we had a Christmas dinner with the Banegas (I can`t get enough of that name) family and it was so much food and it was all 10 missionaries in the ward. 

Their daughter is native Colombiana, but also attends BYU and speaks completely fluent English and her best friends are the gringo missionaries because we speak English and she likes English more than Spanish. Also, she speaks a couple of other languages. We all sang a bunch of gringo Christmas carols and hymns and had a contest between the latinos and gringos who could sing the carols better and we grande finale-ed with O Holy Night and Winter Wonderland and won hardcore. 

For Christmas, all the zones of Medellín--also Chocó (the black colony in the Colombian selva [jungle] and they don`t send hermanas there and maybe not gringos either)--met in Guayabal for a conference.

3 hours of talks with Pte and Hna Pitarch and two random missionaries (E´ Bishop and Hna Correa). We then ate lunch and then Jakas and a talent show and then a couple hours of trainings from the APs; then dinner, a gift exchange, and then Hurtado and I slept over at the LZ [Zone Leader's] house and then cleaned up after Chocó in the morning. They, for their Jaka used like massive party poppers and there was like a million pounds of confetti all over and we cleaned it all up. Freaking Chocó is like a real separate clique in the mission and it`s real interesting. They`re different. 

Hurtado and I with a pair of gafas I bought for the Jaka for $5000 (roughly $2.11 in US)
My second ever mirror selfie with our new shades for the Jaka

Friday was great to talk with the family through Skype! We did a 3-way to talk to Talon, me, and the family actually living at home and it was great. 
Family at home, with me in Columbia on the left screen, Talon in Peru on the right
"That's my cool brother", I'm pointing at Talon in Peru

My Skype View on our monitor.  Family and Talon posing for the picture (me holding up camera on the side)
Saturday and Sunday were normal days of work, but literally everyone was vacationing somewhere else and we didn`t have a single cita [appointment]. But, we got 3 nuevos [new contacts] and we are happy about that and these people aren`t even seeming to just want to fight about the Bible, but listen and we`re excited. Hopefully I`ll have a good update on that next week. 

Yesterday we ate at the house of an RM that got back just like a week ago and his mom said that the parties will continue only until like the 15th of January and we were like great let`s just teach la Palabra de Sabiduría [Word of Wisdom] a whole bunch because everyone will be drunk or gone or already members, but still partying. Actually, we went by Hno Torres Saturday to ask him to accompany us to a cita (which actually fell through) and they were having a party with their building and la familia Franco and making something called I think Marcillas -- they`re basically a bunch of chicken, oregano, probably other spices, and blood stuffed in pig intestines and they were doing it all by hand and had like the bucket of intestines and the huge pot of blood and meat. It was interesting, though I don`t actually feel that interested in eating it because there was a whole lot of blood in that pot.

L to R Hno Torres, Hurtado, Hno Franco, Hicken

 the mix for morcillas

 
the bucket of pig intestines into which they stuff the blood and rice and meat


Hno Torres mixing the insides of morcillas, consists of oregano, rice, chicken, and a whole lot of blood

Mom, the mom of that RM sent you a message on facebook because I told her you make good pizza and she wants to make a pizza for a Noche de Hogar [Family Home Evening] we are having on Tuesday. Also I told Hno Franco that you want recipes of soups, but I didn`t tell Hna Franco because she was busy chopping up chicken for the Marcilla but hopefully her husband will say something to her. This week was real interesting and real tiring.

Still eating well in our own kitchen --  Hurtado and I frying chicken and cooking dinner. Tasted great and it was a little intense.
--
Always Great,
Élder Hicken

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