Nuevo compañero

There´s a list of stuff to talk about, I think I might get to the points. I go chronologically. Tuesday afternoon, Elder Muñoz and I went to the clinic to get our feet checked out. They gave us the typical expensive list of drugs we probably don´t actually need, and told us not to use shoes. So, I think we´re the only two missionaries in the mission to proselyte in sandals, so I´m back to my beloved flip flops. Gosh I love flip flops, and I kinda want my infection to never heal so I can stay with flip flops. After a week of treatment, it´s still there, so I guess maybe there´s a chance.

Also, Tuesday, my new comp got here. Elder Izquierdo from Lima and he´s dying in December [being released from his mission to go home, not literally dying]. This guy is unbelievable tronky. The good side is that I never have to make him work, he just comes with me when I tell him too. But, I apparently maintain my luck for comps. Everyone feels real bad for me, and basically they say they´ll pray for me that my next comp will be a good one. I kinda see stuff like this differently now, very very differently than I was when Rios was my companion back in Envigado. But, he´s a good guy, bought us all churros today.

Also this week, we efectuated a very odd intercambio [exchange]. Intercambios are normally between the LD and his missionaries, LZ and his missionaries, HL and her missioneras, AP or Pte with their missionaries. Well, the whole mission was told to do intercambios entre LD within every zone. They never told anyone why, just told us to do it and give an informe [report back]. I kinda felt like Nefi [Nephi], saying I have no idea why, but I do it hoping there´s a good reason. Even weirder, the intercambio was for 2 days, and not the standard 24 hours. But, they sent me to Lorica for the two days, and I was with Elder Welling, another gringo. It was really really interesting, and I was told they wanted me to really help out Welling because he´s struggling. He almost doesn´t speak Spanish at all, and he´s having a bit of trouble with mission life. I really had to trust in the Spirit for that, and I hope I did all right. I was just totally in the dark about what to do for this guy because I practically didn´t know him at all. Then, in my area they put Muñoz and Izquierdo together because my comp had like 2 days in our area and Muñoz knew the area because of our three weeks in trio.

Yesterday, church was really interesting. Diogenes came, but left early because he said he felt sick. I have a slight feeling it wasn´t so much that he felt sick to the stomach, but that he´s sick of the super boring elders quorum classes we have. Overall, he´s progressing well to his baptism. And he´s right about the elders quorum classes, I think we´re going to say something to the elders quorum presidente. Hey M+D, actually, I´m not going to talk about the ward. pg 20, MM (español).

Hey mom, on the asunto of being sick, here I depend much more heavily on prayer than drugs. Muñoz caught a cold this last week and no one has any idea how. It never drops below 30C, and during the day it´s normally 35-38C, and it was just a surprise. He was pretty grave yesterday.

Hey mom, good luck with translating in that talk, tell me how it goes! Hah and good, now you know how it feels to plan everything you were going to say, then sit down and forget it all. It´s rough.

Hey, so I don´t know if you´ve heard, but missionaries usually gain alot of weight in the mission. I weighed myself leaving out the door to the airport the day I left and I was 150lbs, like 68kg. When I got to Cereté, I was almost 75kg. I´ve gotten myself down to 71kg, so I´m closer to when I left than 6 months ago.

One thing I've been focusing on with my missionaries is using your time well. We almost always overestimate the time we´ve got. That´s my invitation home, to use your time better. Get rid of laziness. If you think being lazy helps you rest in any way, it's actually scientifically and biogically not true, it actually is physically tiring. It just doesn´t do you good. Just use your time better.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken