Por Fin [at last]

I don`t know if I`ve mentioned this in other letters, but on a scale of 1-10, the mission Medellín is fairly disobedient. A lot of it is due to a lenient President, but it`s having a heavy effect on the mission. The mission has the potential to baptize more than 120 people every month, but in January the mission had 30 baptisms and 39 in December, with 96 in November. The Carta del Presidente [Letter from the mission president] this week was pretty strong about the state of the mission and the lack of obedience. I`m waiting in anticipation for the next president, Pte Calderon, and hoping he`ll whip the mission back into shape, even if it means sending a bunch of missionaries back home for disobedience. 

But, in this hardcore lull in success, Hurtado and I finally have a baptismal date! Luz Mary set the goal to prepare for the 21st of February! Obviously, this doesn`t assure that we`ll have her baptism on the 21st, but it means she can progress and basically you can`t get baptized if you never have a baptismal date. But, considering our area hasn`t had a baptism in over a year, we celebrated and bought a pizza. 

But, it hasn`t gone so well with Adriana. She told us she didn`t want us coming and teaching her anymore. It wasn`t because she didn`t want to listen, but more because she knew she wasn`t progressing. Of course, this doesn`t mean she`s out and gone of our lives. She said she would still like it if we shared like a message with the family and still came over and everything like that, but just not specifically for her. So, we are going to continue having Noches de Hogar in the house of the familia Franco (where she lives, with her sister Hna Franco) and share messages and basically increase her faith in Christ without teaching her directly. Hopefully, she`ll feel differently in an undefined amount of time, and she definitely can. She`s going to church every week now, for 3 weeks in a row, and considering she lives with one of the strongest families in the Church in the entire world, we figure she`ll continue attending. But, that was a little sad for us because we had big hopes for her. 

Hey, also the family calendar got here! Not to my house yet, but my LZs have it. They called last night to ask if they could look at it and I said yes and they said the family is ridiculously photogenic and I said thanks it`s genetic. But, apparently Renen`s birthday and mine are right so it`s making out to be a great calendar. 

Yesterday in church, it was funny. In Elders quorum, the Elders president was just doing the initial quick announcements before the lesson, and a nonmember spoke up and talked for the entire lesson and ended like 5 minutes past when the class was supposed to end and it was super boring and and it was good that he sat in the front row because the entire class was like what is he doing but he talked too long and he said good things, but there`s a way to say the same thing in 5 minutes and not 50. But, one really funny thing was that like 30 minutes through, an older hermano in the back stood up and said "hay como una regla en la Iglesia que no es escrita, y dice que una persona no debe hablar mas que cinco minutos en la clase" [There's an unspoken rule in the church that says that no one should speak more than 5 minutes in a class,]  and then we all laughed and then the nonmember talked for another 20 minutes and we were like this is the best. Mackenzie sent me a quote this week that I really liked and want to share with you all. "Every time you find humour in a difficult situation, you win"-Charlie Brown. 

Something that Hurtado and I have taught many times is that it`s never ever all bad. Like, for example, our area for the last year! People don`t listen and don`t progress, and the members don`t participate much, and all the difficulties, but the foods really good and there`s potential, and now we have a fecha [baptismal date] and also teaching JWs is hilarious. It`s ridiculous how many of my friends from BYU and from home are on missions now! It`s like "a thing" I guess.

Elder Hurtado with me and Elder Ramos, the two missionaries he trained [his hijos]

 Gajardo, Chuquimia, Flores where we buy carnes 

Be excellent to each other.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken