Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day! Sounds like it went well, with more creativity than normal with Mom's question thingymajig. Apparently, in South America they celebrate Father's Day a week early. It isn't all that surprising, considering they celebrate Christmas a day early as well. I guess I should just be relieved they don't celebrate New Years a year early or something.

So, here's what happened with Cambios [transfers]. Pezo and I are still together, and it'll be 18 weeks at the end of the cambio, Sanchez went the the southernmost point of the mission, Cevilla Valle, a grand almost 24 hours of travel. His new comp is Elder Flores, who I met as part of my first district in the field. I replaced Sanchez as LD [District Leader], and the new kid here is Elder León, another Peruvian. There's a pocotón [ton] of Peruvians in the mission. There's actually more Peruvians than anything else.

On Saturday, Valentina, the daughter of a previously less-active, was baptized. It was great, and even Ingrid came. If you remember my letter from last week, she's super difficult to even get out of her house, let alone to church. Also, through this family, we met another family who lives next door, and we are planning on visiting them this week.

Elder Pezo, Valentina, and me

Outside of that, this week ended a bit rough. A couple investigators who were going strong are now not going strong, and we aren't sure why. That's our goal for the week: find out why.

The other night, Pezo and I were ending our day walking back to the house, and we saw a less active on the other side of the street. We said hi and went to the other side of the street to talk to him. He stopped attending church when Pezo got to the area. He asked me if I knew the area already, and I was like yes, I've got 3 months here, so yes. He didn't believe that I already had 3 months and asked Pezo how much time he had here. Pezo said he had over 4 months  already. The less active was like oh shoot, I'm inactive ,and we laughed and said yes you are. He's a cool guy, with 19 years, and we put him on our priority list to rescue.

Yesterday, Colombia played against Peru in the Copa America [South American Soccer championship].  Here, that was a massively huge game because it was for elimination. The [Mission] President sent out an order that we wouldn't be out in the streets because of the danger of hardcore partying and advantaging ladrones. The game ended 0-0, and it so happened that both teams were continued, and so there was a good bit of celebrating yesterday. The day before the game (León has an excess of Peruvian Pride and a lack of judgement) León started waving a peruvian flag outside the apartment and got a couple of joking cheers. Then, wanting more cheers, he put on the Colombian seleccion jersey and a traditional colombian Cordobaño hat and waved a big Colombian flag and the people outside started cheering for real.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken