President L. Whitney Clayton

The reason for which I didn´t write on Monday is that Pte L. Whitney Clayton, the leader of the presidencia of the Seventy came to visit. Basically the person with most authority after the 12 Apostles. 

It was cool, a good motivating visit although short. We had to travel the 6 hours to Medellín and we traveled leaving a little before midnight Sunday and got there at 4:30 in the morning (a bit faster because there isn´t much traffic that that hour). In Medellín where all the missionaries stay in cambios and things like that is called the Casa Hotel and it fits about 30 elders with every inch of floor covered by a mattress and a sleeping missionary. 

We had 4 zones there: Manizales, Pereira, Pereira Lago, and Armenia. Every zone has an average of 15 missionaries, 11 elderes. We got there and Manizales was sleeping. My zone is only 10 elderes, but entering and moving about we woke up the 16 from Manizales. At about 5:00, the 14 from Armenia got there and at 5:30 the 14 from Pereira Lago. Super packed was this place and in the end, we all slept like 3 hours total before the conference with Pte Clayton. I hope the next week come pictures of the conference. He asked me a picture apart because he recognized my last name and realized the connection to Joe Hicken from Chicago, or Grandpa Hicken with whom he had done various assignments. It was also a blast seeing loads of companions and buddies from the last 21 months. 

We´re fighting for our baptisms, they never come too easy, but the people are excited and want to be baptized. Cambios are next week so we´ll see if I´ll still be here for the baptisms. I talked with Élder Velázquez about that yesterday, as he´ll be with the Pte doing cambios today and tomorrow.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken