Hey, family and friends!
This week has been a little rough. We had a lot of meetings (one because I'm a trainee, and one because we're getting new iPads soon), and Elder Ruiz had the misfortune of his iPad pulling a factory reset on him, deleting all his pictures.
While I was on exchanges with our zone leader, the heat in our pad gave out, so we ended up heading over to his pad, where our companions were, to shower. On the train there was a man who was quite obviously higher than a kite, high out of his mind. I'm talking the hard, hard stuff. That's probably the closest I've come yet to having to use my Kung Fu. I was in full combat ready mode, too. He was super unstable, slurring, and thought that he was pretty hot stuff. He actually was waving a long, thin stick around and asking for people's money, but he never really collected on it. He was probably too high. It really made me sad, actually. It proved again to me that there are no decisions that effect only one person.
I was super happy to get a package from Grandma and Grandpa Hicken, full of lovely goodies, and some new socks, gloves, and an absolutely fabulous scarf. I love that scarf so much! I only took it off to shower and sleep! I'm happy to report that I am much warmer when I wear it :) Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! I also got a letter from the Webelos back home that I really appreciated.
Since those were the highlights of my week, and I've received a lot of questions about how things are here, and how the mission is going, I'll answer a few of them.
Hunter Reichert from the Weblos asked me if it is hot or cold here, and how I get around. It's pretty darn cold here, Hunter! Back in Idaho its drier, so when the thermometer says its 10-20 degrees, it's not that bad. Here, though, it's humid, so it feels a whole lot colder. The streets here also channel the wind, so that makes it even colder. We have to wear coats, hats, gloves, and scarves to stay warm, and we're not supposed to be outside for more than 30 minutes at a time on some days because it's so cold. As far as transportation, we use trains a lot. New York is cool, because they have trains that run above the streets and subways that run underground. It's a bit of a game sometimes, deciding which train will take you where you want to go, because there's so many. We do a lot of walking, too, because the trains don't get you everywhere. We also use busses, too, but they're always super late, so we don't use them as much.
Dad wants to know how the work is going, and asked a few specific questions. We have two main investigators right now. Juan and Dilan. Juan just kind of showed up to church one day, and it turns out that he was actually baptized a few years ago, but never confirmed. Since then, he's made some bad lifestyle choices, and is working as a bartender. We're helping him make some changes and use the atonement, and it's really cool. Dilan was picked up from the English classes we teach (that's where we get the most of our investigators. We go out twice a week usually, and hand out I’m a Mormon cards with Classes de Ingles Gratis stapled to the back and the info). We have one member in the classes, and the sisters are slaying it up and showing the classes around the church, and we've talked to them about the gospel a lot, and Dilan was super interested. He is from El Salvador, and is missing his left middle finger. He's a super cool guy, and we're making lots of progress with him. We'll get more in the spring, because when it's cold, Hispanics like to stay indoors. And, no Dad I haven't met any of the three Nephites yet, ……. at least I don’t think so.
This week has been a little rough. We had a lot of meetings (one because I'm a trainee, and one because we're getting new iPads soon), and Elder Ruiz had the misfortune of his iPad pulling a factory reset on him, deleting all his pictures.
While I was on exchanges with our zone leader, the heat in our pad gave out, so we ended up heading over to his pad, where our companions were, to shower. On the train there was a man who was quite obviously higher than a kite, high out of his mind. I'm talking the hard, hard stuff. That's probably the closest I've come yet to having to use my Kung Fu. I was in full combat ready mode, too. He was super unstable, slurring, and thought that he was pretty hot stuff. He actually was waving a long, thin stick around and asking for people's money, but he never really collected on it. He was probably too high. It really made me sad, actually. It proved again to me that there are no decisions that effect only one person.
I was super happy to get a package from Grandma and Grandpa Hicken, full of lovely goodies, and some new socks, gloves, and an absolutely fabulous scarf. I love that scarf so much! I only took it off to shower and sleep! I'm happy to report that I am much warmer when I wear it :) Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! I also got a letter from the Webelos back home that I really appreciated.
Since those were the highlights of my week, and I've received a lot of questions about how things are here, and how the mission is going, I'll answer a few of them.
Hunter Reichert from the Weblos asked me if it is hot or cold here, and how I get around. It's pretty darn cold here, Hunter! Back in Idaho its drier, so when the thermometer says its 10-20 degrees, it's not that bad. Here, though, it's humid, so it feels a whole lot colder. The streets here also channel the wind, so that makes it even colder. We have to wear coats, hats, gloves, and scarves to stay warm, and we're not supposed to be outside for more than 30 minutes at a time on some days because it's so cold. As far as transportation, we use trains a lot. New York is cool, because they have trains that run above the streets and subways that run underground. It's a bit of a game sometimes, deciding which train will take you where you want to go, because there's so many. We do a lot of walking, too, because the trains don't get you everywhere. We also use busses, too, but they're always super late, so we don't use them as much.
Dad wants to know how the work is going, and asked a few specific questions. We have two main investigators right now. Juan and Dilan. Juan just kind of showed up to church one day, and it turns out that he was actually baptized a few years ago, but never confirmed. Since then, he's made some bad lifestyle choices, and is working as a bartender. We're helping him make some changes and use the atonement, and it's really cool. Dilan was picked up from the English classes we teach (that's where we get the most of our investigators. We go out twice a week usually, and hand out I’m a Mormon cards with Classes de Ingles Gratis stapled to the back and the info). We have one member in the classes, and the sisters are slaying it up and showing the classes around the church, and we've talked to them about the gospel a lot, and Dilan was super interested. He is from El Salvador, and is missing his left middle finger. He's a super cool guy, and we're making lots of progress with him. We'll get more in the spring, because when it's cold, Hispanics like to stay indoors. And, no Dad I haven't met any of the three Nephites yet, ……. at least I don’t think so.