Monday, March 16, 2015

Earthquake

Well, this week Elder Ríos and I got along, and I won´t spend space in this letter complaining. We´re being better missionaries, progressing alot in the area, and this week we could see some accion. Hey, great news with Luz Mary! Saturday, we were walking along the street, and I wanted to go to a tienda and buy a pony malta (the malt drink here) and as we stepped on the sidewalk, Luz Mary walked up behind us and was like hi, and my companion (who has never met her) was like hi, are you a member of Envigado or something? And then I said this is Luz Mary and he was like oh gosh and then we taught her there practically in the street and she explained the situation why she hasn´t had time these last couple weeks and basically we set up to begin teaching again and it was basically a miracle. 

Also, we have a count of, I believe, 7 addicts we are teaching currently, and one of them has a baptismal date for the 11th of April.  Although we have people to teach and we are making massive differences in the lives of people, it´s very difficult to progress. For example, we are teaching the less active sister of a member named Sami and her boyfriend Julian and they live together with a 5 year old daughter Dulce Maria who is from a different father. They are addicted to smoking, and for a couple reasons, it´s very difficult to put a baptismal date and get them to church, and it´s also more difficult because literally every single person in the ward has absolutely no faith in Sami that she can get back, including her very active brother Hugo (who was ward mission leader but now isn´t). 

Basically, with this pareja we have no support from the members. It´s also good because I can use my skills of really straight talk with them because not only do they need it, but they handle it. Just basically, you guys know what you need to do and you aren´t doing it, and you really have no excuse. I keep going through these phases when I want to leave Envigado, and then I don´t want to leave. I´ve fallen into the stage where I really love the people here, but there just isn´t success, but I have so much faith in the potential of the area, that I want to bring it out, but it´s just so slow. 

Oh hey, with the earthquake. So, I should start by saying that in Antioquia (this region) earthquakes (even really small ones) almost never happen. Well, we were visiting a less-active with Hno Correa on the 11th floor of an apartment builing in Sabaneta. As we were done and waiting for the elevator, Hno Correa pointed at the nearby door and said look, it´s shaking. Ríos and I were like yeah, that just means someone´s in there moving about, and then we felt the whole building shaking and we decided to bajar [go down] by stair. As we were bajando[going down], people were like opening their doors and being scared and people have been talking about it for days. People were in the streets like praying and stuff. It wasn´t even that bad, nothing fell down, it´s just that it never happens. It was a 6.6 in Bucaramanga, they say, and that´s pretty far. 

Also, so far, I won´t be sending pictures this week. Last week, the LZ and we went to this rock climbing gym and it was awesome, but I left my camera there. The upside is that this place is super pinchado, and so they are keeping it for me, and no one is stealing it. So, there´s a perk to living in the rich part of the city. This week, I should be able to do 6 baptismal interviews for the district and so basically the first baptismal interview after mine that I´ll be involved with will be me interviewing. 

Hna Gajardo is sick and has been on mandatory rest for a while but they´ve still managed to prepare 4 people completely for baptism this Saturday and it´s actually a bit impressive. 

Hey, to answer Mom´s questions, today it looks like we´re going to go to stores to buy new white shirts and I need to buy a jacket (I´m starting to feel chilly here sometimes in the morning) and then also we want to to a zone activity which may or may not be bowling, but it has yet to be confirmed. Hugo lives across the street from us, and we just go there to wash the laundry, so it´s free. Yes, I´ve gotten haircuts here, and barbershops are crazy. They play ghetto rap always, and there´s a style of hair here with the teenagers that is just really strange. Basically,  though it´s unique with every person, think of mullet, but more shaved, and then all the variations. Eating is pretty good, I´ve started buying a bunch of fruit to make jugos and also to just eat. It´s normal to give us a jugo and some type of salad with lunch.



Always Great,
Élder Hicken

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.