Cambios?

So the LZ are being "goofballs" (rough translation from a local idiom). So, I don't know if I'm leaving Cereté this week or what. Maybe they'll call before I finish writing the letter. The time has been really different with Elder Izquierdo. On top of it all, he's been sick and so it's making working more difficult. Just cosas [things]. 

Saturday we had a service activity by the little hospital here in Cereté cleaning an area from trash. It was fun, even though about 5 members came, but they were a good 5 members. 

Yo with the elders quorum president, Alvaro Peña with out plastic bag work gloves

 Oriana helping me out with a service project

In the afternoon, we got to the capilla [chapel] early to help prepare for the bautismos [baptisms]. It was at 3:30 that we found out the drain in the font didn't work, and the bautismos were at 4. After trying to solve the problem mechanically, we ended up just taking out the water by hand. When Diogenes and Gissell got there, we were still emptying the pila [baptismal font]. And then Marco (lider misional) [ward mission leader] started filling it up, and then we started to take pictures and he forgot about it, and we ended up having a real deep font for the baptisms. But, it all went well, but I need to go get the pictures from the ward missionary and so I guess I'll send pictures next week. 

Diogenes's Baptism

Gissell's Baptism

So, with all the talk right know of "cuidaos del orgullo" [Beware of Pride], I put myself to think (doing the next bit in Spanish because I'm having trouble putting sentences together in English. I'm doing a ton of backspacing). en todo mi tiempo en la misión y más como líder en la misión, me doy cuenta una y otra vez de la diferencia entre los buenos y los malos. Hablando de los misioneros, los investigadores, y los miembros. Hay algunas personas con quien siempre queremos trabajar, y siempre hay algunas personas con quien no queremos hacer mucho. La diferencia entre esas personas es constantemente dependiente en su orgullo o su humildad. No importa cuanto sepan ni la experiencia que tengan, depende tanto en su humildad. Una persona humilde esta siempre dispuesta de tomar consejos, corregirse, trabajar con otros, escuchar, y no pelea tanto. Ezra Taft Benson, en su discurso de "Cuidaos del Orgullo" en la Liahona de Julio 1989 dice que hay una diferencia entre estar orgulloso y ser orgulloso. Esta bien estar orgulloso de quizá un hijo, un logro, o algo así. Pero, cuando alguien se eleve más que otras personas, pasa la linea a ser orgulloso. De allí vienen los problemas de que hablo. Solo no sean así. Se llama el pecado universal por una razón, que todos lo tenemos. Solo quítenlo, y lograremos mucho más juntos. If you don't read Spanish, put it in Google Translate or something I guess. And, well, we still don't know cambios.

[All in all, my time on the mission, and more as being a leader in the mission, I realize every now and then the difference between the good and the bad.  Speaking of the missionaries, the investigators, and the members.  There are some people with whom we always want to work, and there are always some people with whom we don't want to do much with.  The difference in these two types of people is consistently dependent upon their pride or humility.  It doesn't matter how much they know or how much experience they have had, it depends completely on their humility.  A humble person is always willing to take advise, to correct themselves, work with others, listen, and not fight much.  Ezra Taft Benson, in his talk "Beware of Pride" in the July 1989 Liahona Magazine, said that there is a difference between feeling proud and being prideful.  It is good to feel proud of your child,of an achievement, or something like that.  But, when someone elevates themselves above others, he passes the line into being prideful.  This is where the problems arise from which I am talking about.  But they are not good.  It is called the universal sin for one reason: that we all have it.  If we can all just remove it, we will be able to achieve a lot more together.]

Zona Montería in the Finca de la Mamita, Elderes y Hermanas, Bagley, Nevado, Quiroga, Hicken, Muñoz, Welling, Zuchel, Rojas, Guzmán, Crandall, Condori, Bobadilla, Dávila, Torres, Fajardo, León, Hna Ballesteros, bottom row, Hna Vallejo, Hna Antonio, niño Rodolfo having an exorcism, Hna I don´t remember, she´s new.

  

Always Great,

Élder Hicken

Also, he wrote us a couple hours after this email and said:

"Hey, they called me just now and I'm going to Armenia! It's south of Medellin, so tonight I'm leaving tonight."

and then a little later:

"Also Mom, my toe is the same. I tried out shoes yesterday and my toe was killing me and it was not good. Hey, just a bit ago they told us more info. Muñoz is going to Manizales opening a new area, and I'm going to be lider de zona, so it'll be inner-city and right in the center."

Note, that he is not being transferred to the country Armenia (a former Soviet republic and neighbor to Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Iran).  We'll just stop that rumor before it starts :-)