Week 1

The new elder in the ward is Elder Muñoz from Mexico. He´s a quiet kid and awful at soccer, but seems like a good missionary. Hernandez left Monday, and since then our lessons have doubled. Apparently he was discreetly suppressing our energy or animo to work or something ;)  

But, this week was awesome. Pezo and I finished everyday happy, exhausted but energized, and although getting up at 6:30 still sucks, I do it happily. I´m technically actually the only one who ever wakes up at 6:30. Well, Pezo wakes up for like 30 seconds to say our companionship prayer in the morning. But I can´t say enough how much better everything is without Hernandez. Cool kid, though.

We've been doing a lot more work with the members, and they´ve begun to search out references for us, and ask us when they can get to salir [go] with us. It´s actually great. So, this awesome week ended in a fat 0 in our asistencia [attendance in church] yesterday and I was like What are all these people doing on Sunday morning that they can´t keep a commitment and come to church? You know, typical missionary thoughts.

Last night, a member gave us dinner and her puppy (named Chicken, named after me) bit me and sacó sangre [drew blood], and so it´s good we bought that triple antibiotic, Mom.

In our ward, there´s two of what people here call "diablitos" [little devils]; basically that they have absolutely no sense of control, and that there´s basically nothing to be done. They just destroy everything and all happiness and have no conscience. One of them, Ivan, came with us to a cita [a teaching appointment] the other day. Well, he has like 5 years [5 years old], it was really the jovencita [young woman] living there, Ana Karina, that accompanied us to visit with her neighbor, but Ivan had to come because there was no one in the house. 

We were teaching Eva, the neighbor, and Ivan was being such a massive distraction as he was attacking my Bible, her Libro de Mormón and folleto [pamphlet], and our futures and dreams. Eventually I was thinking There is no way we are going to put a fecha with this woman if this kid is here yelling swear words. Finally, another person came home and Ana Karina could send Ivan back home, and we could all breathe normally. So, we put a fecha with that woman and talked about the importance of attending Church. And then she didn´t come on Sunday and we were like What is this.

It's funny to see Muñoz suffering from the heat because that was me 6 weeks ago, but now I´m completely used to it, even though I sweat like a dog because it´s super hot, just that I don´t notice as much. Normal ice actually steams like dry ice here. You know how in Colorado, an ice cube can last you like 4 cups of water? No, here you need new ice every cup.

Saturday, the Priesthood had an activity of rescate [Rescue], where the Priesthood went out in companionships and visited less actives in the ward. Us missionaries did divisions and went out with other Hnos and it was awesome and a bunch of less actives came to church the next day and there was much more excitement with mission work and it was a success. I went out with Hno Sandón, and the last visit we did was actually really close to his house, super super far from normal civilization, and we finished when it was dark, and he told me afterwards Well, my leg hurts a bit and we´re already close to my house--do you know how to get back to the chapel? and I was like Hello sir, you can´t leave me alone; that´s against the law and he was like Ok fine I´ll go back with you but he actually came all the way, just until the door of the chapel, so I went in the room with all the Priesthood without him and everyone thought I came back along and I was like No, he came with me, and it was funny.

The other week, we did a service for a Hno in the ward and we moved bricks the latino way, by throwing them around. Well, Hernandez is awful at throwing bricks and they do like a billion flips in the air and so he threw me one and it cut up my arm, and there´s a video to prove it. Also I tried this weird fruit called Mamón. You actually just suck on it and spit it out. It doesn´t even taste that good. Also I found a starfruit tree and so now we have free starfruit (if we want to walk half an hour to get there). I sent fotos of the massive cup of water a Hna gave me when I asked for water (even though apparently she had a jug of Guayaba juice) and the other of a mamón.

 A BIG drink of water

Mamón

Always Great,

Élder Hicken