Armenia!

So, yes, I had cambio [transfers]. I left Cereté to the great city of Armenia, almost 3 times the size of Cereté. It´s much more beautiful here in every way. The weather reminds me of an early Colorado autumn, and also when we turn a corner and see a bunch of mountain peaks. We live on top of a large hill in Armenia, so we walk downhill to basically all our citas and while we´re within like 8 blocks from the house, we can see all of Armenia. There´s a ton of stuff I could be saying, but I just don´t have the time to write it all, but I´m trying to get it all down in my journal.

So, my area is called Álamos and my comp is Elder Velazquez from Panama, though he lives in Canada. Although he speaks perfect English, we always talk in Spanish. We´re both the zone leaders, and I´ll explain a bit of what that means for those of you who haven´t served missions. Basically, we verify the district leaders (what I was for the last couple months) in Armenia and train/motivate/care for all the missionaries in Armenia which is a count of 20, 4 of which being misioneras [sister missionaries]. Talon, that answers your question, and yes, it´s always a bit rough with hermanas, I know. I learned a bit also in Envigado when I had 2 hermanas in my district. We also are in charge of basically anything the missionaries need, may it be money, houseware, health, questions, and basically everything before it ever gets to the office. It´s really intensive and I´m really blessed to have the comp I´ve got. Elder Velazquez has 6 months less in the mission than I, but has 6 weeks more as LZ.

And yes, mom, it´s the Zona Armenia. And I don´t know our address, I´ll look for it and tell you next week. We´re trying to find a new house though because there are a couple things here that aren´t very good, just stuff that makes the house less functional. Also, the weather here is pretty chilly in the mornings, and our shower doesn´t heat up because the electric heater broke. So, the showers are super cold and it kinda takes the fun out of shower time. No, it doesn´t feel like Cajamarca at all. The mountains are bigger and prettier, and the form of the city is different, and much bigger. I feel like I´m more in the mountains than when I was in Medellin. Also, the only ones in our apartment are my comp and I.

So, speaking of the toe, everyone always seems to have their own magic remedy. In Cereté, it was normally salt and something. Salt and lukewarm water, or salt with some leaf of a specific plant. Here, the Pta of the SocSoc uses hot candle wax for basically anything. So, she tried it on my toe and maybe it helped, but maybe not because we were unable to carry though the necessary second treatment.

Hey, so also last night we saw a tiny bit of the eclipse, just as we were leaving a lesson going home. Basically nothing was happening so it was probably just beginning. But that picture that Emma took looks stellar.

So, talking with my comp, he hasn´t written in his journal since being made LZ. I´ve been trying to be juicioso [judicious] with that, but verifying takes us past 10:30 and other administrative things. There´s just a ton to do as LZ, and my comp and I have a combined 8 weeks doing it. I´d write more, but time. 

Always Great,

Élder Hicken