Letter 07/10/2012

another week come and gone. its starting to go super fast. So i'm super awesome and i have a list of stuff to tell you about in my planner so I should have some good things to tell you! thanks for you emails. I am doing pretty good.

today we're going to the mall and i am probably going to be buying  a few things so watch for some action on my Visa.

the bus drivers here are CRAZY! but the metro is pretty cool. So last week I was in a Castaño, which is kinda like a starbucks, and I heard the song *Dont know much* by aaron neville and linda rondstadt. that made me laugh haha. so.. question about my jeep.. whats it doing right now? just sitting in the driveway? If it doesnt ever sell, you should put a car cover on it and tire covers on the wheels so the sun doesnt kill everything.

so heres something you should try- lettuce with oil, lemon, salt, and slices of avacado. its super good.

I am glad you all had fun on the trek i am pretty jealous!!

SOOOOO... certain of my friends and family have yet to write me. you know who you are. JOSHUA! if anyone reads this and has a way of texting him or something, do it and tell him to write me. Also, Johnny, Ashley, Matt, Marcus and every one else you all nee to write me and tell me what youre doing with life!!

So my spanish is getting a lot better, and I am more able to understand more of what the natives say. I understand gringos really well. We were able to teach more lessons this last week which was awesome, and last night I pretty much took the lead in the lesson and that was way fun. Right now we are teaching a couple, the woman Claudia is a menos activo and her husband Amauri is no miembro, and his brothers also live with them. The 3 guys are from the Dominican Republic, so basically we have to deal with the two worst castellano accents in the world. woohoo haha. but Amauri is progressing well it seems. their goal is to get sealed in the temple! this week we are going to set a date for july 29 for baptism. so pray for him!!

anyway, hows everyones summer going? its cold here lately and my house is freezing at night! no heating is no bueno.

anyway, everyone have a great week.

Elder Hicken

Letter 7/2/2012

hello! it´s been a pretty good week. Lots of work and stuff. So I actually wrote stuff in my planner as I went through the week stuff I wanted to tell you so here goes..

So here in Chile there´s a ton of perros. like all over the place, all strays (wild) and they fend for themselves its actually really crazy but they´re all timid and nice I havent had a problem with any yet haha. So tell Stockton to be greatful everytime you make him go outside. Lots of people here listen to popular american music it´s funny because they don´t even know what it means! I wanted to let you know dearelder still works, and if you want to send any packages letters etc, do it through USPS and to this address-
Elder Stephan Hicken
Misión Chile Santiago Norte
Sucursal Correo Patronato
Casilla #60
Recoleta, Chile

also there is a mission website as well, www.chilesantiagonorthmission.org

cada jueves y domingo (each thursday and friday) there is a street fair called a feria. It takes place on the main street-ish of our sector and just has tons of people trying to sell tons of stuff. it´s actually pretty cool. very crowded. ummm... some food I´ve had so far that I´ve really liked is a completo, which is a hot dog with avacado, tomatos and mayo. super delicious next time though I´m going to put some picante on it. Chileno food is pretty bland they don´t like spicy from what I´ve seen so far. I´ve also had sopapillas which is like fry bread or a scone or something whatever wanna call it and I had it with  mustard haha. They´re mustard here is different and really good. also their mayo. weird. anyway I´ve also had berlines which is kinda like a donut with something sweet like jelly in the middle. they´re way good also. last saturday we participated in the stake activity which was way fun they were on a ¨cruise¨and they all could visit different rooms, some rooms were full of wholesome activites and others with dancing, games, etc, each room was 1 ticket to get in and the good rooms they got 2 tickets when they left, and the bad rooms nada (nothing). after a while they ¨wrecked¨ and took every one in to the chapel ¨heaven¨ and asked how many tickets people had etc. it was pretty cool I really enjoyed what I understood of it.

We have an investigator named Guillermo who has a baptism date of July 15 but still has a lot of work to do but he came to church yesterday WOOHOO and so hopefully he´ll keep progressing. We´re struggling with finding people to teach. A lot of people will listen to us, but don´t want to pick just one religion. I still don´t understand much of what the Chilenos say but I do pretty well with my companion. Other than that, not really a huge eventful week but got a lot done. I did quite a few contacts on my own. The members here are great haha but they´re starting to catch on to my tricks haha usually when I don´t understand I nod my head and say sí but now they laugh at me haha its fun.

anyway, running outta time so keep me in your prayers and the people of Chile.

les amo todos ustedes
Elder Hicken