Déjame Cocinar

Fam and friends, life is good! This week got busy and packed with good stuff. Due to the craziness of the week, the formats are gonna be a little different, but a heater email nonetheless. So, shall we?


P-Day de Zona / the whole week


The week was nuts; all the days just blended together, so I'm gonna start on Monday. We had zone p-day this last Monday, and it went crazy. The whole zone met up in Caaguazu to eat, play soccer, chop it up, and whatnot. When we got to playing soccer, it started straight dumping rain. Never seen it rain this hard in my life. So, we're just playing in the rain. It was so fun; people were slipping and eating it left and right, we're just soaking wet. Man, life is good, right? Post-game, you know I had to hit some jersey swaps and tie swaps with some of the elders (reference the Google Photos). You already know I'm still blossoming into a seasoned tie merchant. Then that night, there was a little meeting, and we couldn't make it back, so we spent the night in Caaguazu. The next day, we ripped back to Oviedo for a little district meeting, and then after that, we hit another hour-long bus ride to run some splits with the elders in Villarica. It was fire; Elder Fernández and I got straight to business, put some people on date, had some great lessons, even saw a capybara to wrap the day up (again, refer to the Google Photos). By the end of the day, though, I was straight beat. Super sore from all the travel, walking, and zone P-day. Despite that, Elder Raddie and I got straight back to work in Oviedo for the rest of Wednesday and Thursday. Then Friday, I went off to the other side of town and ran some splits with Elder Johns; you already know we got straight to work. We had this one lesson with a devout evangelist about the Book of Mormon. It was actually great. According to one of the members, while we were there in that lesson, the daughter of that guy made a TikTok of us, and it apparently went “viral” here in Oviedo. So, if you're reading this girl who put me in the TikTok, I want some of whatever you earn. Overall, it was a great week. Sorry, I kind of put it all in one big blob of a paragraph, but man, that's kind of how the week felt.


Sábado


The Saturday of this week deserves its OWN paragraph. This day was straight LOCO, by far the craziest day I've had so far on the mission to end the craziest week I've had on the mission. So, started the day on the other side of this area for splits, and when splits ended, we raced over to the chapel to watch some general conference (which I now thoroughly enjoy more than ever as a missionary). After the first session, we had to prepare for the baptism of my guy Kevin, which was that night at 6. Our homie Christian was also supposed to be baptized that day, but earlier in the week, he kinda bailed because he was feeling a little nervous, so we thought we'd have to wait, or so we thought. Imma come back to that. So, we're prepping the font, trying to fill it and whatnot for the baptism, and it filled up with a bunch of super dirty water like shin-deep, and then the pump broke, so the water couldn't drain. So then we were up in there with pants rolled up, emptying this font by bucket so we could refill it with cleaner water. At this point, we're a couple of hours out from the baptism, and remember our guy Christian? Homie hits our line and said he changed his mind and wants to get baptized THAT DAY. We're then like yoooo cool it boss, you haven't had this lesson and this lesson and the interview. Anyway, Christians just down to make it happen that night, so we told him to come 2 hours early so we could get him his lessons and his interview and whatnot. Then Elder Raddie and I remembered we promised Kevin we'd make him brownies, but we didn't have the stuff; we were gonna settle and make some cookies or something, but then I thought, NAW we promised my guy some brownies, he's gonna get some brownies. So then we took a Bolt (Paraguayan Uber) to this grocery store to get some ingredients to make the brownies and had to get a pan from a member, all just in time to get back to the church to teach Christian everything he needed, all while cooking brownies for the baptism. I mean, we were cooking on BOTH fronts; we were dishing him a fire lesson all while cooking brownies. Then as the baptism comes, our guy Kevin? His moto breaks, so now buddy can't get to the church. So we had to get a member to go get him and bring him to the baptism. Finally, we got both our guys there fully intact and ready to rock and roll. And that we did; all went smoothly at the baptism except the font water was a little low, and Elder Raddie kinda sold and undercooked the brownies (It's okay, Elder, you'll get it next time boss). Anyway, that's how Saturday went down, straight loco.


SPT:
With this past general conference, I got to rest a little from the crazy week, and my soul was absolutely nourished by the words of every talk. In this conference, there was much talk of temples and covenants. And how through these covenants we make and keep in temples and baptismal fonts, we get the opportunity to let God stretch, strengthen, and refine us. I like something Patrick Kearon said in conference, “God is in relentless pursuit of you.” Take a second and stop to think about what that means to you personally. Then after hearing these things in conference, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in this by baptizing Kevin and watching him get confirmed with the spirit. Kevin is 18, and he and I have grown close as I've had the pleasure of getting to know him and teach him. His life has not been easy at all; he's been kicked out by his mom, he works at a job with a bad boss who treats him wildly unfairly, he's even been SHOT in the NECK and lives on to tell the tale. Watching Kevin make this covenant, taking upon himself this divine potential, filled me with a joy that I couldn't describe, a joy that can't come from this world. It was a sliver of Godly joy. When I saw Kevin leave after his baptism and confirmation, it was a different Kevin than the one I knew earlier that day. The Kevin I saw leave the church was a Kevin filled with the stretching, strengthening, and refining POTENTIAL that making and actively keeping covenants allow us to have. He left with full potential and access to this joy. A joy that I know can conquer and consume any hardship, grief, or anguish that he might feel from his life. As someone who's not part of the church, let me know about any questions that you might have about any of this. I mean, it is my job.


Gave you guys a lil read today, huh? Hope you enjoyed.


Have a blessed week, get after it every day.


Everybody knows what happens when you're a real one; you hit Elder Pickett’s inbox with a little update.


Google photos, man, just hop on it already:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6pnXadUF4PCYgUtV7


Love you all,


Elder Pickett








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