Happy Easter ?

So like Easter isn`t a thing here, the actitud was a bit different. Semana Santa was a bit interesting, everyone went out. The classic here is that they all go to little pueblos outside of Montería. The city was so empty that there were hardly tiendas to buy water. It touched walk around searching a tienda that was open, and the only one we found was a bar/tienda estilo colombiano and they were sure "santificando las fiestas" (I hope Mom remembers that from Perú).

This week, Élder Alvarado and I had a discussion about goals. We have a tendancy of putting a goal and verifying at the end of the goal if we reached it. That´s an awful way to progress in life. This week, we are going to try to put a goal and reach that goal, with the actitud that nothing can stop us. In cap 8 of PmE, M. Russell Ballard has a quote. I have to search it in English because I only remember it in Spanish. “I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.” Élder Alvarado and I are trying to apply the principles of SMART goals and metas significativas to reach higher results in the zone and in our area. Have a great General Conference, invite someone who doesn´t normally go.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Consejo, and Feliz Semana Santa

I've noticed a quantity of emails from other missionaries with the initiative of the Church "Halleluyah". To us we haven't gotten anything, so I'm not sure if that's also an initiative in Colombia too. I don't know, these kinds of things seem to always get to us real late. De pronto [Maybe all of a sudden] they get to us this week sometime.

Hey, shout out to Mackenzie for getting her call to Fukuoka Japan! 

This week we went to Medellín for the Consejo de Líderes. The ride there is normally about 10 hours and the buses aren't very comfortable. It made me miss the 7 comfortable hours from Armenia. Pailas. It was a good consejo, though. Real different than the anteriors [previous ones].

At the Leaders' council in Medellin 

Élder Canavese y Élder Hicken, Elder Covarrubias and Elder Velazquez  

We've had a rather successful cambio so far, but for Semana Santa people are traveling out and so this week is going to be interesting. Something that my companion and I have been doing is follow our leaders no matter what. Even if it doesn't seem the best thing to do, if it's in line with the commandments, follow your leaders. It'll turn out alright. God blesses people who follow their leaders more than people who do their best effort without following their leaders.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Rapidito - [Small and really quick]

We don´t have much time today. This week we go to Medellín for the Consejo de Líderes. 

I´m just going to answer Mom´s questions and give a quick update. It´s going good, Élder Alvarado is about my height, morenito, flaquito, talks a lot, he´s about to end the mission the next cambio [transfer]. He´s from Lima, he´s a good worker, and yes we are co-zone leaders -- there´s always two here. The area was real rough the last cambio for reasons but with the cambio the reasons aren´t here anymore and we´re free to progress. We had 7 nuevos [new missionaries] this week and we are working hard to be, to put it the most simply, perfect. We are pointing out openly everything that we need to better to be perfect and we make goals. Maybe it seems unorthodox, but that´s probably the best way to explain it in few words; it´s working anyway, so don´t comment. Como we will be in Medellín or traveling for half the week, we don´t have much time to work. So, we´re working a bit more today, and we have the first cita [appointment] in like 10 minutes so I write short for that. Have a great week, be ye therefore perfect.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Cambios! [Transfers]

Well, to end the suspense I'm still here in Zenú, going for 3 months. 

Kai's Apartment

Élder Ampuño is headed to Medellín to end the training of some Peruano [Peruvian]. My new comp is Élder Alvarado, a Peruano that has the same time in the mission as my trainer, Élder Hurtado. They end their mission in two cambios [transfers], o sea [in other words] 3 months.

This week was real interesting. We had the week to work, except for Thursday when we went to Lorica for a baptismal interview and it's a little pueblito [town] that's 1.5 hours in bus. We sent home two Sisters that ended their missions yesterday también [also].

Tuvimos [We had] a problem in the barrio [ward] that they made a chisme [gossip] of my comp. We learned a lot in the process of killing the chisme and talking to everyone involved and Élder Ampuño learned a lot of why people sometimes don't come back to church after a chisme.  He really felt bad and culpado [guilty] although he didn't do anything wrong. I learned that if we don't think well about what we do and how we do it, we can end up hurting someone without even realizing it. When we live in our own little world, we lose the pure love of Christ and dejamos de [neglect to] notice the needs of others. No one even wanted to make a chisme against Élder Ampuño, but it happened anyway just because two people weren't careful about what they said, and other people didn't understand and didn't bother to clarify well, and then no one took it back to the source except the Bishop, the Presidente of Mission, and us. But, we did it successfully and all's well that ends well. 

Always Great,

Élder Hicken