Cerete y nuevos

Hey party Élder Muñoz and I decided to come and visit Cereté, so I´m writing from the internet that I wrote from from April to September last year. We are going to spend the afternoon visiting members and converts.

This week is the last week of Élder Muñoz; next week he has his interview to end the mission.

Elder Hicken, Alvarado, Villarroel, y Munoz in the Avenida 1a

This week seemed successful, but in the end no one came to church. It seems like a less-active got lost and ended up going to Catholic mass o "misa". With Élder Alvarado, we are putting a bigger focus in the zone on achieving goals. Instead of being political with goals and putting goals that are easy to achieve or that change, or that aren't significative,  we put goals that are tough, achievable, specific, relevant, measurable, and that are by day, week, month, and cambio [transfer]. We are focusing on the little things that cause them to achieve or not achieve the goal and we are going to start being a lot more pilas with the goals and we´re going to achieve them. Also, paying attention to how well we actually use our time. Sometimes we lie to ourselves with excuses about our time. Yeah, but I was tired, or no one was home, or the Junior game was happening, or it was 40 degrees out...in cap. 8 of PmE it talks about "Rendir Cuentas" ["Accountability"]  and says the importance of taking responsibility for your failures and achievements, not giving them to others. The point is get better, not have a good reputation.  "Accept full responsibility for your efforts. Never blame others for difficult circumstances or lack of progress."

“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.”
                                                                              –President Thomas S. Monson

Love God Every Second of Your Existence!

Work liberates us from 3 great evils: boredom, vice, and poverty

We met a family this week the mom is Yudi and she´s got two kids Javier (20) and Juan José (19) and talking to them was interesting. They´re catholic, but sharing the Gospel with them, they seemed to understand the stuff. They said that it just made sense that there should be a prophet the same as Moses or Abraham or Noah in the earth right now, and that the authority of the Priesthood, being the same as the antiquity, should be on earth. It made sense to ask God to know if it was true. Although they traditionally believed something else, they were humble enough to listen to two weirdos of their own age and not try to have the reason or to be superior, but listen and try to understand something different.

We have loads of problems with pride in Colombia, in ways that I hadn't seen before, but there are always people that amidst the traditional superiority have for some reason the right level of humility to hear and accept the Gospel. Where are we with pride? Just for being baptized doesn't make us Humble. If you want to know how you are, read "Cuidaos del Orgullo" or "Beware of Pride" by Ezra Taft Benson in the 1989 April General Conference.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken