Por la sombrita

Hey pops,

Well, you have my itinerary and so you know my hour of llegada. A couple favours, to bring like wool or cotton gloves and I would love to listen to MoTab on the way home. I don´t know if Renen and Talon are going to be there? The bus to Medellín was last night, we got here at 0230 in the morning and didn´t sleep none. I´m still waiting my interview with the Pte. Thursday dinner doesn´t need to be much, remember that I´ll be accostumbed to small dinners and big lunches, but also I won´t have eaten much that day, but igual after being traveling so much, I don´t imagine I´ll be very hungry. But, it´d be bomb a grill or something like Friday because I like things like that.

See you Thursday, I´ll be leaving Medellín at 3am to go to the airport in Rionegro to leave at 7am here. 

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Oigan a este - Listen to this!

Another week, the familia Alzate Gañan should be baptized this week tomorrow, All`s well. I got sick this week but got better due to a priesthood blessing. I don´t even know what to write anymore, thanks for everything.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Hágale pues

Happy Birthday Dad! I think, although I was intending to, I didn´t include that in last week´s email. 

To make up for it, Jhonathan Alzate was baptized this week. That was satisfying because when I got here to the area we were teaching him but he was so drug addict that he wasn´t able to complete with any commitment. With time, we stopped visiting. 

A month ago, he got to church clean from all the drugs and wanting to get baptized. Then the next three weeks, he left smoking and amidst sometimes doubts and another church that was trying to baptize him, he made the right choice. It was an interesting week, and rather stressful, but it`s alright.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Bien, o ¿qué?

• Henry Bermudez was baptized on Saturday! 
• The Family Rincón was interviewed on Sunday and should be baptized on Saturday. 
• Jhonathan Alzate will be interviewed on Wednesday and should be baptized on Saturday. 
• The Marlon and Miriam Alzate familia didn´t come to church because Marlon couldn´t change turns but worked it out to come next week, so their baptism should be the following week. 
• Good news also, our person from "another well-known church that has a strong reputation in South America and part of the reputation is the amount of knowledge and ability to explain that they have" has a baptismal date now, though it´s still costing her to go to church. 

I forgot to mention last week that we extracted a viper from the church during ward council. Good experiences. Hey, also we did do a service this week, to answer mom´s question from last week. We went to a finca [farm]and picked café [coffee beans]. It was fun.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

¿Qué mas, bien?

Basically I don´t have an idea what to call my letters now so I just put something they always say in paisalandia.

So, we´re here working, achieving goals, getting better...we´ve been having a couple good weeks. Last May when I had just gotten to the area we were teaching Jhonathan Alzate, a drug addict that was the son of a member. He had so many addictions to different things. But, he wouldn´t come to church so we told him that he´d have to start coming to church or we wouldn´t be able to spend so much time with him. But, the things that we taught stuck. He went to rehab and we´ve been visiting him this last week and he´s coming to church now and should get baptized in two weeks. Honestly, I had thought that he was almost a lost cause back then. But, God obviously doesn´t think like that. God prepared him, and at the same time me cortó la cabeza ["He cut my head off"...similar to our saying "don't bite my head off".] saying I shouldn´t do that.   [God doesn't give up on people.  We shouldn't either.]

We´re fighting for our baptisms these weeks, it doesn´t come easy. There´s always other challenges and while these people want to get baptized, they´re going to get baptized. Allí vamos.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Metax

I put the "x" at the end of "metas" because there are some kids in our ward that always say "elderex!" and se nos pegó [it stuck].

Right now there was some guy in the next computer over in this internet that it sounds like was listening to metal because he was doing those pig squeals over and over again and we were just dying of laughter.

The leaders of the mission have been stressing alot in the past weeks how to make and acheive goals. I´ve been taking thier advice and we´ve had a good last two weeks. We´ve met loads of fantastic kids.

One, Dayana Meza, was member of another well-known church that has a strong reputation in South America and part of the reputation is the amount of knowledge and ability to explain that they have. She´s the daughter of a sister less-active since 32 years, and in reality neither of them knows anything about the church now. Dayana and her mom, Irma had gone to loads and loads of churches before ending up in the most recent. But, they had found things in every church that les desagradaban [they didn't agree with]. We got to their house just at the moment in which she was in an emotional and religious dilema, about to return to her most recent afiliation. But, listening to the Restored Gospel, she´s been able to answer questions, calm doubts, and after much time, returned to pray last night.

I have strengthened my testimony loads in the last month or two, maybe more than all the mission and I am sure the church is true, the Book of Mormon is true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that Thomas S. Monson is. It´s based on that time I asked God and He answered. The mission´s real pailas without that testimony, and real powerful with it. 

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Cambios!...No Cambios

Happy Anniversary Talon and Maddy!

So it's cambios[transfers], but probably the cambios least exciting of my entire mission because no one has cambio, not I, not my comp, not the other companionship. So, 6 weeks of the same kids.

We've been having challenges with the Flia [family] Rincón. It´s Mario with his three kids Dora, Juan, and Xiomara and only two will be baptized because Xiomara only has 6 years. Mario was interviewed for baptism on Saturday, but the new esposo [husband] of his ex-wife doesn´t like Mario much and the kids spend the half week with the mom and weekends with the dad and for problems with the stepdad, we had to postpone the baptism. 

But, the Flia Alzate Gañan is going well. Marlon said that he decided to quit his job that makes him work Sundays. And yesterday, as he had to start at 10, he came for the Sacrament. They aren´t even baptized, but they recognize the importance of the Sacrament. 

Miriam has now come 5 times and is just waiting her baptism. 

Henry Bermudez had a change in his work that they made him work Sundays and we, being worried about that, were praying. Turns out this week they fired him. Answers come in many ways. He already found a new job, and he has Sundays off.

Now that I've got 6 more weeks here, It´s just put everything I´ve got into the area and see what happens.

Always Great,

Élder Hicken