Cosas [things]

Élder Godoy visited this week the mission and it was great. 

He took a verse from the Book of Mormon and spent almost 2 hours with a fantastic capacitation [training]. We´re going to have a more successful mission now. Sorry if it seems like I´m writing short, we´re a bit distracted and busy at the moment, there´s kinda a lot happening, and it wasn´t a very productive week anyway. Good luck to all, there aren´t pictures because I lost the cable a month ago and the guy in the internet didn´t bring an adaptor, rough. Just don´t be prideful, being prideful makes problems and that makes other people work more because you´re being dumb and you don´t realize it.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Find QUESTIONS in the scriptures

Well, we had another unproductive week, but not for lack of trying. We ended days with aching legs and lots of tiredness because of walking and not sitting down to teach. But, we got ourselves all organized to have results this week. We decided to work much more with less-actives and use that as a conduit to achieve baptisms.

Our Mission Presidente Calderón visited the two zones in Montería and gave us a capacitación [training]. Part was about doing questions. He taught that there are four categories basics of questions. Searching, Analyzing, Feeling, and Applying. He left us with homework to do and write him in the weekly letter. It was to make the four questions for 1 Nefi 1:1. (1 Nephi 1:1) Here are mine: 

"Yo, Nefi, nací de buenos padres y recibí, por tanto, alguna instrucción en toda la ciencia de mi padre; y habiendo conocido muchas aflicciones durante el curso de mi vida, siendo, no obstante, altamente favorecido del Señor todos mis días; sí, habiendo logrado un conocimiento grande de la bondad y los misterios de Dios, escribo, por tanto, la historia de los hechos de mi vida."                                                       1 Nefi 1:1

Preguntas de 1 Nefi 1:1

Buscar - Aunque Nefi conoció muchas aflicciones en sus días, ¿él sentía que era qué?

Analizar - ¿Cómo pudo haber sentido muy favorecido del Señor y haber logrado mucho conocimiento Nefi a pesar de las muchas aflicciones?

Sentir - ¿Cómo se siente usted entre las "muchas aflicciones en el curso de [su] vida"?

Aplicar - ¿Cómo puede usted lograr "un conocimiento grande de la bondad y los misterios de Dios" por medio de sus aflicciones?

I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days.                                                                   1 Nephi 1:1 

Questions from 1 Nephi 1:1

Search - Even though Nephi had seen many afflictions in his day, how did he feel about them?

Analyze- How could Nephi have felt highly favored of the Lord and have achieved great knowledge despite those afflictions?

Feel- How do you feel during those "many afflictions in the course of [your] days"?

Apply- How can you achieve "a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God" through your afflictions?

I taught Gospel Principles yesterday and spent the entire class trying to apply these questions well. The class turned out super great and everyone was participating. The invitation is that everyone try it out for 1 Nefi 1:1.  In the language that´s most easy for you. After practicing, try it out for real teaching FHE or a class on Sunday, or anything like that. It invites the Spirit a lot better because the people are paying attention and are using their own agency to learn.

Good luck with life, everyone.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Importance of Friends...and the Book of Mormon for our mission

We almost forgot yesterday that it was Valentine´s Day because they don´t celebrate here. Also I didn't know that today was President`s Day because I don´t have a gringo [American] calendar and I don´t see the gringo holidays, and they don´t celebrate it here either. I´m just going to give a quick update to the week.

It was a rough week. The problems with the funds aren´t resolved yet, but we´re working with half the office to get that resolved this week. The mission doesn´t have Libros de Mormón [copies of the Book of Mormon], the Sec. Registros already asked them, but they haven´t gotten here yet, apparently the Distribution Center in Bogotá has had some difficulties, that´s what they´ve told us.

So, our fecha Carlos Velasquez is having a hard time progressing because he doesn´t have a Libro de Mormón [Book of Mormon]. He has a couple friends that are members and expressed to one his preocupation [concern] that he might not get to his fecha [baptism] because he´s progressing so slowly, and it´s just because he doesn´t have a LdM [BofM] to read. We´re going to be reading with him and we did a bit of that the last time.

They cut our water in the house Saturday and we don´t have any idea why, but we went to La Granja to sleep in the house of our LD [District Leader], Élder Muñoz (who was my comp in Cereté) and shower there, and I took advantage of the opportunity to talk with him a bit about the difficulties of Zenú, our area. We are expecting many more results this week.

The sun came out this week and we are más o menos [more or less] dying. The other day the street was so hot that it was burning our feet through the shoes.

I was assigned a talk in Church yesterday and I felt it was important to talk about friends. Really, the importance of making friends with people who aren't active in the church, be they less-active or not baptized. The activity in the Church shouldn't depend on if they feel comfortable or fellowshipped by the members because it should be a given. Their activity should depend solely on their own testimony. I´ve met too many people on the mission that don´t go to church because they don´t have friends there and the members think that being their ´friend´ is visit them every week or month and invite them to church. A friend would communicate with the person often, invite them to things, spend time with them outside of their callings or responsibilities, serve them, help them out, and there just isn't enough of that in the Church in general.  It makes a huge difference, though.

Always great,

Elder Hicken

Drought

To start out, answering a question of Mom, Zenú is a brand of meat in Medellín, it seems like all meat is Zenú. But, it´s also the name of our ward here.

The massive river that runs through Montería is the Río Sinú and they say it´s one of the less-contaminated rivers in Colombia...not sure about the validity of that claim because that river isn´t clean. We´ve also heard alot about a novela about the Río Sinú called "Sinú."

Hey, super cool the pictures and yay for the Broncos!

Well, to explain the title of this post. Colombia is in a massive drought. Traveling to Montería, it was made obvious because every river we passed was half-dry, basically that there isn´t much water and it isn´t raining. So, it´s hot and dry here. But, Élder Ampuño and I had our personalized drought this week. The financial issues with the zone are over we think, but as a result of that problem, it wasn´t possible to pay the bills, for example water. Wednesday I was on intercambio with Cereté when Élder Ampuño called to say that they cut the water. We spent the week traveling to the closest missionaries to shower there every morning. It´s been a weird week. We have water now, and I hope it doesn´t go away.

As I said, Wednesday I was in Cereté. It was a bit weird because I was there with Élder Hurtado. He was my trainer a year ago, and Cereté was my area almost a year ago. I was in a past area with a past companion. It was pretty good, I showed him people who weren´t baptized for some reason, and helped him out in the area. Alot of shocked faces when people saw me, it ws a lot of fun. Really, it´s been a weird two weeks.

Also, for those of you who aren´t familiar with missionary changes, there are normally cambios only every 6 weeks. Right now we are in week 3. Beginning week 2, we sent two missionaries on cambios extraoficiales [unofficially] and it could be that we send a third this week. One of them was sent to the office as the new Secretario of Registros. We felt so bad for him--almost no one deserves that. Being secretary is already super no way cool, but de Registros is the least cool of them all. Just a weird week.

Hey check out the new mission blog misioncolombiamedellin.weebly.com 

I´m not sure how well it´s updated, but it´s the job of the Secretario of Registros.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Zenú - something like that

So I announced last week that I had cambio to Montería. Yes, I am still LZ, but the area has its quirk. The week before cambio, the area recieved an extension. Basically, we have our area anterior and the part we're opening. But, I don't know much about the area.

Actually, it's been quite the week. In the stories I'm going to count, keep in mind that the funds of the zone aren't coming and so there isn't money (0 money) to travel, to go to the hospital, to eat, to whatever. Martes [Tuesday], we left Armenia to Medellín (7 hours). Miércoles [Wednesday] we left Medellín to Montería (9 hours). We left super late because not one person had enough money to buy their ticket. We had to wait for the Sec. Financiero of the mission to buy the tickets and we got to Montería at like8:30pm. When we got there, no one had the money for taxi to come and get their comps and those who did didn't have money to return. I don't know how we managed to get people home, but like Élder Ampuño and I live close, we walked. Jueves [Thursday] we went to Lorica (1.5 hours) for two baptismal interviews for the LD there. So, in the three days I spent 19 hours in bus. But wait, there's more. Élder Ampuño left our house keys (the only set) in Lorica and so we couldn't get in the house. While we were trying to find a solution, the APs and the Pte started to call about a sick elder in the zone saying that he needed to go to the hospital immediately. Don't worry, everything turned out alright and he's working in his area, don't precoop [worry]. But, as we didn't have money to pay the hospital, we spent much time calling everyone possibly involved (sec. financiero, pte, ap, lz from Montería Sur, ld...) trying to collect the necessary money. I ended up staying with him to translate (he's a new gringo and doesn't understand nearly anything) until almost midnight. To make sure he was taking his meds (including waking him up at 1am) I kept with him for 3 days (until today in the morning) and so I haven't taught ni [not even] one lesson in my area. It's been a great week.

I've learned a couple things about humility also this week. If anyone remembers my cartas [letters] from Cereté, it was hot there. There wasn't any breeze either. Here in Montería, there's a lot of breeze and I'm like this is awesome. Cereté is the hottest area in the mission and I'm glad for to not be there still in the mortal heat. But, people say that this month is "el mes de cometas" or the kite month for all the wind. Next month is the hot month because the wind goes away. But I'm enjoying it for the time being. For the record, the weather says that right now is 30C [86F] ("RealFeel" 44C [111F]) for the breeze and cloud cover. It feels real nice outside. Average is about 35C [95F]with high humidity, strong sun, no clouds, and breeze unless you're in Cereté. Normal is like 40C [104F]. It's a lovely place.

A veces personas no hacen la conexión entre cosas espirituales y cosas temporales. No reconocen que las cosas espirituales gobiernan nuestra vida temporal y para obtener estabilidad duradera en uno, es necesario la estabilidad en el otro. 

[Sometimes people don't get the connection between spiritual and temporal things.  They do not recognize that spritual things govern our temporal lives and in order to obtain lasting stability in one, it is necessary to establish it in the other].

Always Great,

Élder Hicken