Apartment Change

First day off the plane, in the airport






With President and Sister Sloan upon arriving

¡¡Dear Family!!
Well this week was pretty crazy. It was really good because we taught tons of lessons, but bad because one of our investigators needs to talk with the president. Actually it´s with The first couselor in the mission presidency because we found out that President Sloan received a 2 month break from mission president to recover. He´s going to remain here in Ecuador, but he does nothing with the missionaries. He´s in the mission home with only his family. Right now we have 15 baptisms as a zone for this month and that is really good. Élder Estrada and I are planning on having 1 this week and 5 the following week. We´re praying hard that they´ll all be safe and everything will work out. The goal for the mission is 200 for President Sloan. Right now we´re on the way of completing this goal. I have É. Estrada again for this transfer. I´m excited because we both know the sector well and this sector is really blessed. One of my district members in the MTC is now a district leader and trainer for this transfer. There´s another Élder that came on the plane with us that is going to train as well. I feel bad for them a little bit because it´s so fast, nut they´re going to have to learn really fast what to do so that´s good too. We´ll see what happens. This week i had one wierd night where i was sick. It was only during the night though. I didn´t sleep hardly at all because I had a really bad fever, but the next morning it was gone. I was just dead tired the whole day because I didn´t sleep the night before. I think I´m still losing weight but i can´t weigh myself so I don´t know. We changed apartments this morning too. It didn´t take too long but it was a pain to have to clean it. Our new apartment is a lot smaller but it´s safer and better than the old one. I keep trying to send pictures, but myldsmail.net is really slow with pictures. I´ll try to send more after this letter. The scripture for this week :) is in Jacob 6:12 "be wise". I forgot what it says but I wrote it down in my planner to send to you so I hope you like it :) My Spanish is doing a lot better now. I can understand most of the time now and I can say what I want to say in broken Spanish. They understand what I'm trying to say but it's not perfect.
The rule for the Christmas phone call is that you call to a phone here and we talk. Aparently it's really expensive to call from here. I haven't heard what the rule is on phone cards though. I think you'll call here at like 11AM-2PM Arizona time but we're going to plan it next week and give you and official time. The call has to be 40 minutes or less so we'll have to remember that. Oh yeah another rule. The family isn't allowed to make fun of the English of the Missionary because the missionaries don't like it :)
I haven't received any packages yet. The only physical mail I receive is the DearElder from Papa every week or so. Christmas here is weird. There really aren't that many lights and not very many people have christmas trees either. And it's hot and humid like normal. Actually it's more humid because it's rained everyday this week. Well I love you all. Talk to you in 2 weeks :)

Love,
Élder Hakes

TACO BELL

Family!!!
Wow. I can't believe that Christmas is in less than 3 weeks. I can't believe I've been here for over a month. Well this week was kind of crazy. I went to Quito and got my Censo, card that let's me stay in the country. It's about 3-4 hours to Quito. We left at 3 AM on monday night/tuesday morning. We didn't even sleep. We got there and got the censo and then, believe it or not, we found a Taco Bell in Quito. It wasn't quite the same but it was good. I thought that was the craziest thing ever. I also went to the mission offices and found out that I have lost 15 lbs. already. I weigh 230 now. Walking in the heat and humidity in a 3rd world country can do that to you : ) I had a meal without rice the other day and I actually wanted rice. They usually have it with everything so I was astonished. The 1st Presidency Devotional was awesome last night. It was pouring and there was lightning for the first time during the devotional. I actually got to watch it in English with the other gringos. It was nice to watch something where the lips and words were the same. So I heard that the Christmas schedule is weird. We go to our apartments at 4PM because they have some tradition that women are scandolously dressed and won't let you pass unless you give them money. It's either money or they get to kiss you. That's just a little bit of a problem for us so we'll be inside. I don't know when I get to call. All I know is that it's for 30-45 minutes long so I don't know how you want to do it. Remember that I'm in the same time as Florida right now.
Also, it would be sweet if you could send CD's that are missionary apropriate. Himnos(Hymns in Spanish), Josh Grobeck or something similar. Whatever you want. I'm going to by a CD player and speakers here. It's actually more expensive here to buy a CD Player. I don't know what you think about sending it through the mail because it costs $50 for the player and $10 for speakers.
I keep trying to send more pictures but MyLDSMail.net is really slow and can only take 3 pictures in one e-mail. I think I'm going to make a CD and send it in the mail. I don't know when, but I'll send it eventually.
Well I have 2 scriptures, one is serious and the other is a funny that my companion showed me. First the serious. I studied Jacob 2 this week and I applied this scripture in a different way. It was just a thought that came to me when I was reading it. Jacob 2:16-17 replace "substance" with "knowledge of the gospel". I thought it was a cool application. Ok now here's a funny one. Read 1 Nephi 11:10 then read verse 15. I thought it was hilarious when E. Estrada showed me.
Well this week I feel more comfortable teaching in Spanish. I know it's not perfect, but I'm sharing more and more every lesson. I can almost understand everything now. I can tell what's going on, for the most part. That's sweet to hear that Greg is doing so well. I hope they kill Hamilton. Can't believe the Cats decided to be good while I'm gone : )
Next week there are cambios (changes). It's where new missionaries come so companions change. President SLoan doesn't have cambios though. Obviouly there will be one every 6 weeks for the new missionaries, but he does them whenever he feels it's right. E. Estrada's previous companionship only lasted for 1 week. So, the cambio isn't for everyone so who knows what will happen. I don't know if I'll get to write if there are cambios because it's on Monday's. We're supposed to be changing apartments on Monday too. That'll be fun. Well I love you all!!!!!

Love,
Élder Hakes

Daily Details

Wow what a crazy week. I keep thinking that eventually there will be some sort of routine, but there never is. We had 2 baptisms this past Saturday. It was really amazing seeing the husband change this week. He is the one that drank two fridays ago. He needed this extra week becasue he progressed more in the last week than all of the others. He realized how important this is and I honestly believe that he will be a strong garment wearing priesthood holder in 1 year. We´re also talking with the family of the wife. Her whole family is really powerful and we think we can baptize 1 or 2 of them in December. I had the wierdest experience ever on Saturday. We were at our mamita´s (members that feed us lunch) house and they had invited the mom´s sister (one of our investigators) and they asked me to bear my testimony in English after the lesson while we were waiting for the food. I could not do it. I kept going back to Spanish. I finally gave up and did it in Spanish and it was way easier. I honestly am forgeting English. You can probably tell by my letters. I´m not sure if this is good or bad because I can´t speak Spanish yet either. I totally forgot about Thanksgiving until another Élder reminded me at a district meeting. It was wierd. Christmas is in less than a month and tomorrow is December. Weird!
Well the food here is exactly how Nancy described it. First, a bowl of soup. Next a plate with a ton of rice, a little bit of meat, and a side (potatoes, salad, fruit, etc.). There´s always juice or soda. There´s a soda here that is only in Ecuador and it´s called Fióra. It´s so good. Everything here is really cheap too. I live with $180 a month easily. I ususally have to send money back to Quito. My companion and I walk everywhere except the centro, downtown I think, then we take a bus. I´ve lost weight since I´ve gotten here. My belt buckle is one size smaller and I can stick at least 2 fingers in the collar of my shirt. It´s really weird to be losing weight. I´ve been trying to gain for the past 4-5 years.
Well my companion is from Cali, Colombia. He has 7 months in the mission right now. He is an amazing teacher. I´ve learned a lot from him about how to teach and also some doctrines. He is 19 years old and he was actually born into the covenant. He´s one of the few latinos that isn´t a convert. Everyday we have a mamita, or a member that makes lunch for us. We have to figure out dinner on our own, but usually our investigators feed us. I had one day where I had to eat 3 lunches in a row. It was too much food. I was dying afterwards. I´m able to understand about 80% of the time now. It´s a lot better. I feel more comfortable now that I know what´s going on.
Well the weather here is nice. It´s still kind of warm right now but it´s really humid. There is this weird rain thing that happens here but not in Arizona. It´s like tiny tiny tiny drops of rain that is more or less very fine mist. It´s weird but it feels good when we´re walking around. THere´s also a ton of fog every morning but it´s usually gone by the time we leave the apartment. Our apartment is pretty nice. We´re actually moving to another apartment that is better next week. It just has to be authorized by the mission. I haven´t had a warm shower since I´got here. I´m used to it now though. Well i can´t think of anything else. I love all of you. I hope Thanksgiving was good for everyone.

Love,
Élder Hakes

Following The Spirit

Dear family, again,
I can´t believe I forgot about this experience. So on friday night we had divisions with the Zone Leaders. Me and one of the zone leaders and E. Estrada with the other. I stayed in my sector. SO we were walking to one of our appointments and i just didn´t feel right about it. It was what me and E. Estrada had planned the night before but it didn´t feel right. I couldn´t decide between the regular and back-up plan. We went off the road and said a prayer. I still didn´t know exactly where to go but I decided to go to the back up plan. The back up plan was to a recent convert, the one that was baptized my first sunday here. We got there and she immediately rushed us to her neighbor´s house so we could give him a blessing. It went really well and the Spirit was really strong. After that we resolved some of her questions and dedicated her home. I guess a couple of nights ago she and her daughter both felt like they were choking and couldn´t do or say anything. We decided dedicating the home was a good thing. It was a really cool experience for me because I hadn´t been "the leader" in the mission field yet. I know that I followed the spirit .

Love,
Elder Hakes

The Language

Familia,
Wow what a crazy week. Satan is working really hard down here. For me it wasn't bad but it's hard seeing investigators fall. Friday night one of our investigators drank. It was the night before his baptism. He and his wife were going to be baptized on saturday but we have to wait until this saturday. It was tough to find out and talk to him about it. His wife cried the whole time while we had a lesson with them on Saturday. It's a young couple and they'll be good this week. Well time is flying for me. I can't believe that I've been in Ecuador for three weeks. The Spanish is coming along better. I finally noticed a difference over the last few days. It's not good speaking but it's becoming easier to understand. My English is getting worse. It's hard for me to write in my journal in English and I can't write good in Spanish yet either. It was funny because the zone leaders had me call the senior couple for the mission so I could speak in English to them and it was hard. I understood what the zone leaders wanted but I couldn't get it out in English. It was funny. Well we had a zone conference this past week. Usually the mission president and everyone is there but not this week because he's in the hospital still. He's improving and should be out sometime this week. The assistants to the president, mission secretaries, senior couple, and older sisters couple came to the conference. It went really good. It was weird sitting all day. I hadn't done that for 3 weeks.I think I may have lost a little weight. Probably just what I gained in the MTC though. Oh well we'll see what happens. This week I got served the usual soup for one meal and they served a big ole crab in the middle of it. It was the craziest thing for me and it tasted really good. I wish I would have had my camera with me. Here's another funny scripture. 2 Nephi 9:51, just look at the last phrase. It's pretty funny. Well don't know what else to talk about. THe work is going good here and we have a goal to find 5 families in December. The goal for the mission is 200 baptisms in December. It's a huge number but I know we can do it. Hope all is well at home. I get dearelders tomorrow so I might write back to those if there's time next week. Well love you all!!!

Love,
Elder David Hakes

First Baptism

Familia!!
Well this week was crazy. So, we didn´t haveany baptisms planned for this Saturday, but the craziest thing happened. On Thursday night we were teaching a part-member family. Only one brother and the mom aren´t baptized, there isn´t a dad in the home. The lesson went good because we got there right as she was having a hard time and we really helped her out. Miller, the brother, listened to and it was good. So we were leaving and Miller was walking us to the gate when he, really casually, said he wanted to be baptized on Saturday. He has been going to church and seminary so we said we´d ask and find out for him. The next day, Friday, he had his baptisimal interview and he asked me to baptize him. We had the service on Saturday and he was happier then I´d ever seen him. I baptized him, I got it right the first time, and he was confirmed during church on sunday. It was crazy!! Well I found out that my companion´s name is Hammer Estrada. I thought that was funny. It´s really funny because everyone thinks it´s really hot here but I think it´s nice. Well I just recieved dearelders from the MTC this friday. I would say e-mail is the best way to communicate. So the ward here had their primary program this week. I tell you what, there´s a cody in every ward in the world. It was weird hearing it all in Spanish but it was great. Also, fast sunday was a week ago, the 8th, and the same types of people get up. Someone that cries, somone that talks a lot, etc. It´s amazing to see how much the church is the same around the world.
Ok so I found a funny scripture for my siblings. 2 Nefi 3. 25 - replace Joseph with Jennie, Brent, Ryan, Cody, or Emily and replace Nefi with David. It´s a fun one. I also found another one for food but I can´t rememberit right now. I got a hair cut today for 1,50. That was pretty sweet. Sorry this e-mail is so random. I have lots of thoughts going through my mind. SO this saturday we have 2 baptisms and 1 the following saturday. THis area is really amazing. I got to give a blessingin Spanish. That was crazy. E. Estrada pretty much told me what to say because I had no clue. It went good though because the one that recieved the blessing is an investigator and their whole family turned to prayers and scriptures for comfort. They´re a blessed family. Well that´s all I can think of for right now. I love this work! I´m tired every night and tired every morning so I must be doing good so far.

Love,
Élder David Hakes

WOW!!!!

Dear Family,
Wow. I can't believe that I'm already here. It feels like I just got into the MTC. Well I got assigned to the coast. I'm in a city called Santo Domingo. Everyone told me that it would be hot here but it's actually perfect for me. It is a lot more humid but it's really nice. The Area (it's called sector in Spanish) that I'm in is called Las Islas 2. There are 2 sets of missionaries in this one ward. I do a lot of walking. Besides going to the stake center, all I do is walk. We taught 16 lessons since I've been here for 4 days. We also had a baptism this sunday. I know that sounds weird but most of the ward went to the temple an saturday so we had it in the morning before church. It actually was kind of crazy because it was supposed to start at 8 am because church is at 9 am, but no one showed up. We ran to the bishop's house and got keys and started filling up the font. At about 8:20 the font was only half full so the bishop said we couldn't have it before, and that it would be at 12 and she would be confirmed the following sunday during sacrament. She was disappointed but then agreed.




We let the font keep filling up so we could do it after church. At about 8:35 Nancy Morejon (the one getting baptized) pretty much started begging the bishop to do now so she could be confirmed during sacrament meeting on the same day. The bishop said ok and she went to change. Then we realized that the Elder that was supposed to be doing the baptism wasn't there so me and my companion started looking for him. We found him leaving the church and we just caught him. He came back in and was about to change when he realized he didn't have an extra pair of garments. He went to teh bishop and said that the would have to do it later. The bishop said no you can just ring your garments out after the baptism. Then the 1st counselor said ok if you won't do it I will. The Elder then said ok ok I'll do it. The baptism went great. It was very short but the spirit was so strong. She was confirmed during sacrament meeting and is as happy as ever.




This week for some reason was fast and testimony meeting and I got up and bore my testimony. It was weird but it went good. The people here are so nice and talk really fast. At first I couldn't understand anything, but now I can mostly understand what's going on. My companion does most of the teaching but I always testify and teach a few principles. The area we're in has a ton of investigators. There is another baptism this week and I think 2 the following week. The food is just how Nancy described it. Lots of rice, a little meat, soup, and juice. It's really good, but the people here don't like spicy food. I love it here. Parts of the city look like rainforest. They have bananas all over the place. They are crazy drivers. There are tons of taxi's and buses all over the place. I get funny looks everywhere I go because I'm tall and white. I don't know how many times I've been called gringito. I'm tired everynight and the nights last about what feels like 5 minutes. The first 2-3 days (mon-wed) we were in Quito going around with the president. President Sloan is amazing!! I don't know how to describe it but he is and amazing mission president. He was truly called here by Heavenly Father. And finally, my companion. His name is Elder Estrada. He is from Colombia and he has been here for 6 months. He is an amazing teacher. He is also the district leader for our district. I have learned a lot from him already and I'm sure I will learn more. Well I love you, all is going great. My spanish is horrible but it's improving.


Love,
Elder Hakes

I Have Arrived!

Hey family. I'm in Quito safe and sound. I'm really excited to be here. It is beautiful. I'll be in the mission home until wednesday. It's most likely that I'll be going to The coast first but we'll see. I love you all.


Love,
Elder David Hakes

Last Week at the MTC

Familia!!!
Can you believe that it's my last week in the MTC. I will be in Ecuador this time next week. Here is my travel itinerary:
LV: Salt Lake City, UT 6:00 AM
AR: Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX 9:35 AM
LV: Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX 11:25 AM
AR: Miami, FL 3:10 PM
LV: Miami, FL 6:00 PM
AR: Quito, Ecuador 9:55 PM

It's not too bad of a schedule. Only 5 hours of lay-over and 10-11 hours in the air. I have to report at the travel office at 3 AM on Monday morning. I can't wait to go. I'm a little bit nervous but I know that the Lord will bless me. I can call you while at the airport. They never said how long but I think I just will call Dad's cell and home. I'll call when I'm in Miami. Not exactly sure what time it will be for you but I'll let you figure it out. It's funny that I got your letter with the calling cards because I had just bought one literally 15 minutes before my District Leader gave me your letter. Oh well. I'll sell one to someone in our district.
My Spanish is going pretty well. I can understand just about everything when it's said slowly and fairly clearly. Well see what it's like in Ecuador. I actually got a letter from a girl in our zone's mom who went to Ecuador. I learned some really cool things. They speak with a shuh sound with the ll in spanish (normally it means a yuh sound) up in the mountains. Down on the coast they cut the ends of words off. They also talk really fast. I just hope that I start off in the mountains because that will be an easier transition, but I know that wherever I go is where I need to be. I just hope that I'm prepared enough and that I'm constantly worthy of the Spirit. Today we have our final teaching appointment and I'm really excited. Both Elder Vogl and I have gotten to know how we teach and we work really well together now. It's going to be hard to leave because I love my district and zone so much.
Elder L. Tom Perry came last night to our devotional. He's the second apostle that has come since I've been here. It was an amazing talk and I took so many notes. He finished like 10 minutes early though so that kind of stunk, but oh well. I've learned so many things since I've been here. I've realized our progression by the way we teach in the referral center. It's amazing how many BoM's we give out now. Well I'm almost out of time so till Monday.

Love,
Élder Hakes

Photos

Elder Swanson and Elder Hakes



MTC District

Companions Elder Vogl and Elder Hakes

Planning

Hola familia,
This week was just another week at the MTC. I wish there was more I could tell you, but there's not a lot of interesting things going on here besides studying and Gym. What is crazy is that we're the oldest district in our zone now. It's so weird thinking that. We should get our flight plans tomorrow. That's when they usually come. If I do I'll send a letter tomorrow night and let you know what is going on. Last night we had an amazing devotional on planning. I now realize how important it is. Not only for missionary work but for our whole lives. Read about it in chapter 8 in Preach My Gospel. It's an act of faith to plan! Also, he said a statistic that if you plan for 20 minutes you will increase your productivity by 50%!! Crazy huh. Well I'm kind of sad because I can only go to the temple 1 more time in the next 22 months. We had a great session this morning and hopefully it will be the same next week. That's hilarious that dad wrote to the Pac-10 officials. I can totally see him doing that. It's good to hear that they are doing well. Hopefully they continue. Glad to hear that Brent and West are doing good too. Tell them to keep it up! I'd like a Mnt. View update, but since no one has told me I'm guessing they're not doing so good. You are so lucky that you get to go to Hawaii. I can't believe you're ditching the kids on Halloween. Send me a picture of Franken-Cody please :) From the letters I got this week I think I gave you the impression that I'm discouraged. I'm not at all. I'm more excited about missionary work than I ever have been. I'm just like Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20) and Ammon (Alma 29). I can't wait to get to Quito!! Let me know if Dylan got his package. I hope grandma and grandpa had fun on the east coast. I love you all. HLJ.

Love,
Élder David Hakes

HLJ=CTR in Spanish

Only Three More Weeks

Querido familia,
Hola como estan ustedes! This week went by so fast!!! I can't believe that I am leaving in less than 3 weeks! It's gone by so fast. Everything is going really good. We went to a workshop this week and learned how to have a better companionship study. The last 2 days of study have been amazing. My personal study has been amazing too. Did you know that 1 Nephi chapters 1 has things about families, revelation, prophets, apostasy, Jesus Christ, etc. It is amazing. We need to have invetigators just read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon and they'll understand or have questions about so much. If you continue on into the next 3-6 chapters there is even more about obedience to commandments, faith, and feeling the Holy Ghost.
I need some jeans and some basketball pants. Congrats to Brent. He better keep hitting people when I get back or else I won't respect his football talent :) ha ha jk. That's sweet that he can already hit people. I didn't really figure that out until varsity for the first time. Tell Brent and Weston to keep up the good work and to give me updates every week. I'd love to get a play-by-play detailed letter about their game. My spanish is doing really good. I've struggled with speaking all spanish this week. Our district wasn't really doing it and they didn't understand what I was saying most of the time. I'll do better this week though. Well we've learned all of the different tenses so I should be able to speak spanish correctly now. I'm a little nervous about going to Quito. I kind of realized that I'm leaving soon. I'm not doubting anything it's just that it will be hard. It's not hardly on my mind at all. I truly am really excited to get there too! I sent a package today that I need to get to Dylan Beekman. It's a Book of Mormon. Please just send it on to him somehow. I think that I'm allowed to call you for like 5 minutes before I go to the airport but I'm not sure. I think it's just an e-mail to let you know that I made it. I should get my flight plans a week from Thursday and I'll know when I'm leaving and my layovers and such. I'll make sure to let you know as soon as I get them. I haven't gotten a U of A or Mnt. View update in a while. It would be nice to get one at least every couple weeks. Sorry about missing the e-mail that one week. I lost track of time so I didn't have time to e-mail. I was busy writing all of the other letters. Conference was amazing! My favorite talk was Elder Holland's and there's good reason why. I think my second favorite was President Eyring's in priesthood session. That was a great talk about being prepared. I also loved Elder Ballard's in priesthaood. The priesthood session was amazing this year. I got called to be the sacrament coordinators in our branch at the MTC. Elder Vogl and I prepare the sacrament and make the blessing and passing assignments. Well I'm not sure what else to say. I love you all and everything is amazing. Hope all is well. It would be nice to hear from my siblings and Dad more often :) Grandma and Papa have sent me one at least every week. Thank you for raising me right and teaching me to work hard. I'm seeing why you did now ha ha :)


Love,
Elder Hakes

Conference

Familia!!!
Sorry I didn't send an e-mail last week. I couldn't think about what to say. The MTC is all the same every week. Well my district is the 2nd oldest in the zone now. This sunday we'll get zone leaders and a new district leader. I'm excited. Conference was amazing this year. It helps when you're prepared and excited for it. ha ha. I took 27 pages of notes and I've heard the Elder Holland talk more than once. That was the most bold and amazing talk I have ever heard. I loved it. I also wanted to tell you to follow the theme that was in every talk. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! It was crazy seeing how much it was in there. Also, Dad, Brent, Ryan, and Cody. Make sure you follow the words of Elder Ballard in priesthood session about relationships between fathers and sons. It was amazing!!! If you don't have the 3 things that he said to each of the fathers and sons then tell me and I'll send it in the next letter. I hope that next time we have conference that we prepare for it. It's so much better when you're ready and taking notes. The MTC is amazing. I taught my first complete lesson in Spanish. It was really hard but he understood us. It will take time but we're getting better. I love Spanish and I can't wait until I can finally truly speak it, but I know that won't be for a long time. It's great to hear that U of A is doing so good. Hopefully that continues. I haven't been able to get a hold of Anthony Johnson since the last e-mail I sent. I'm not sure what to do. I'll keep trying to call and hopefully he'll answer. It's getting cold here. I think it might snow before we leave. Elder Swanson is in the field now!! So weird. I've got less that 4 weeks left too and that's even weirder! Thanks for the chips and queso. It was gone in like 2 days. I didn't share very much either ha ha. I'm so ready to leave right now. I love the MTC but I want to be in the field!! Tell Brent and West to keep their heads up. They'll do just fine.I did get the picture of the Gila Valley Temple. They're so sweet. Send everyone my love. Hagan lo justo!!

Love,
Élder Hakes

Companion

Querido Madre,
That will be sweet to see the Gila Valley Temple pics. When is it supposed to be dedicated? Yes, I did get more letters. Thank you. Just make sure to bug Ryan because I haven't gotten one from him yet. A cheese stuffed, bacon wrapped, deep fried hot dog sounds really good. The food here is good, but it's still cafeteria food. My companions name is Preston Michael James Vogl. He's lived in about four states since he was 11 including California, Colorado, Utah and Washington. He's really funny. The schedule is about six hours of classroom time with teacher, one hour of gym, 3 hours of personal, companion, language study and meals three times a day. Pretty repetitive though. It's different on Sundays and P-days. We get to go to firesides on Tuesday nights too. I did get to talk to Alli and Susan. I love you. Haz lo justo.
Love,
Elder Hakes

NOTE: Our priest quorum created the deep fried hot dogs and we told him about them. Alli is a cousin and Susan an aunt that live in Utah.

Teaching

Querido familia,
Well this week was the best so far. We had Elder Holland come on last tuesday and I got an investigator in the RC on Saturday. I was on my last call before I had to leave and it was the first person to answer that day. I started talking to him and it ended up that I taught him the whole first lesson and that I commited him to pray about it. I also set up an appointment for the next day. I called him again on Sunday and taught him the whole second lesson. He accepted everything I taught him. He is a golden investigator. He already has a testimony about the Atonement and is accepting all of the commitments I've been giving him. I am going to call him again tomorrow and try to get him to talk to the missionaries. I don't think it will be hard to tell him at all, but prayers couldn't hurt :) Well I love it here. It is amazing to feel the Spirit all of the time. I guess you haven't gotten my letters about my companion yet. His name is Elder Preston Vogl. He's lived in California, Washington, Idaho, Colorado and Utah over the last 8 years. He love hockey and he's really funny. My ankle is doing fine now. I can do whatever I want now :) Also, I will be speaking spanish from now on. I'm excited!!! I probably won't be speaking as much now ha ha. I love spanish and it is coming so easy now. I've been blessed with the gift of tounges. It's no where near being good but I am learning very quickly and it's easy for me to understand. Well I love you guys. I hope all is well.

Love,
Élder David Hakes

P.S.
I'm out of chips and salsa!!!!

Referral Center

Apparently David sent 4 envelopes to us. Two arrived on Friday, one on Saturday and one on Monday....all postmarked the same day!!

Querido Familia,
Well you didn't get an email because it cut me off when it hit 30 minutes. So this week you just get letters. Well this week has been amazing. It's going by so much faster now. We've done so many new things too. We went to the referral center for the first time. When some one calls the number on a pass along card, it is directed to the referral center. It's so awesome to be actually testifying to real people that need it. I've been able to send missionaries to 4 houses. Of the 4 houses, 2 wanted Bibles and 2 wanted Book of Mormons. I love going to the referral center. We also went to the TE for the first time. In the TE we go and teach a teacher and then they evaluate how we did afterward. It has helped a lot in our teaching. We loved it so much we went another three times after that. I sprained my ankle this last Thursday. Don't worry thought, I'm doing fine and I was able to run yesterday. Our district is really close. We have 11 people in there. 3 hermanas y 8 Elders. I can't wait to get into the field. I've been here for 2 weeks and I feel like I've been here for a lot longer. There was another group of new missionaries that came in today and I started hugging random ones. It was pretty funny. Last night Elder Jeffry R. Holland came to our devotional. It was the best devotional I have ever heard. The spirit was so strong. He was extremely BOLD and excited with every single thing he said. It was almost like he was frustrated with the missionaries that don't finish missions, but he wasn't in the least bit angry. We also had Elder Richard G. Hinckley also came last week. His talk was pretty amazing too. I love it here. Tell everyone that they need to go on missions. I love letters and packages during the week. DearElder is the fastest. I love you guys!

Love,
Elder David Hakes

Bits and Pieces

This week David sent his letter through the mail. We FINALLY received it on Friday. He had taken all the letters that had been written through DearElder and tried to answer them. I will not put all of it here, but check your personal emails for his update....

Here are a few blurbs he shared:
I LOVE Teaching
Weeks are fast and days are slow
Make the temple a goal in your life
I haven't gained any weight yet
Sprained my ankle last week
My companion snorted green jello :)
Tell Keaton about questions and purpose
I have no idea what is going on in the real world, but I don't care.
The spirit is so strong here

Family

We received the following letter in the mail on Friday...

Familia!
This last week had probably been the best in my life! My companion, roommates and I have become like best friends. Every single day I feel the Spirit so strongly. I love it! I'm FINALLY where I need to be. ON Saturday night a ton of Spanish just came back to me. I can't speak fluently or be even close to that yet. I can pray and bear testimony in espanol though. :) My teachers are awesome. Right now our main focus is on learning the basic doctrine in English. We'll still be using Spanish, but it's all doctrine right now. I can't believe that my only letter was from Dad and that I got a package from Deanna Butler, who I don't even know. She even sent me chips and salsa. :) I hope all at home is going well. All I do is study, eat and learn Spanish. I love each and every one of you and I expect at least 1 note from DearElder.com from each of you!

Love su hijo y hermano,
Elder David Hakes

P.S.
DearElder sends your notes in letter from to me that day. I like chips and salsa :) (or any food. dinner is at 4:30pm)
I heard that BYU beat Oklahoma and I'm wondering how the U of A did. :)


JUST A NOTE: Deanna Butler was one of my counselors in YW when we lived in Tucson. She also served in the Ecuador, Quito mission as was thrilled to hear about David. She called before David's farewell and wanted to make sure he was the first in his district to receive a package. :)

DearElder.com

I would suggest that you send your notes to David at dearelder.com while he is at the MTC. If sent before noon, they will print them and put it in his mailbox the day they are sent. Then, he can read your notes during the week and spend his 30 minutes of computer time responding to the emails. You need to know his Mailbox number (107), his mission (ECU QUI) and departure date (11/2/09) Thanks!!

First Email

We got a quick note from David today updating his addresses. He apparently sent two emails, but we only received one. I will post it when we finally receive it.

The following is his second email:

Hey guys!!,
I actually sent a letter about 15 minutes ago so most of what I wanted to
say is in that. I just thought I'd send you a couple of pictures, but this
computer is being dumb so I can't. My e-mail address is obviously davidhakes64@
myldsmail .net I have 30 minutes of e-mail time every p-day, which is Wednesday.
I've had an awesome time so far. I'm having a great time with my companion and
my district. The Spirit has been so strong. If you send me a letter through
dearelder.com then I will receive it later that day in the form of a letter. It
would be really nice to hear from someone everyday and that is the easiest way
for me to get it. We were able to have Elder Richard G. Hinckley speak in a
fireside last night and it was amazing. He taught so much and I had about 1 and
a half pages of notes. Yes i take notes about everything now ha ha. I also have
every single minute of everyday planned out the night before. Weird huh :) I was
also able to go to the temple today and that was really cool. I did sealings and
acted for a child. There's no other place where I want to get married than in
the temple. I love all of you guys. Tell the extended family that I'm having the
time of my life here and they all need to experience a mission. I'm only allowed
to write letters on p-day so don't get too mad when I don't write back. Tell
everyone I love them and that I love getting letters and packages with food!!! I
love you Mom, Dad, Jennie, Brent, Ryan, Cody, and Emily. I hope all is well.
Please keep me updated about everything.

Love,
Élder David Hakes

He's Off!

It was a busy day yesterday. We traveled down to Tucson to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Hanna. We had a great visit. We used to visit them all the time when we lived in Tucson. It was great to see them again. We hurried back to Mesa so we could go to Brent's football game. They finally decided to score in the 4th quarter and win the game. It was great to visit with family at the game and some phone calls that night too. This morning we got up early and headed for the airport.

David was soooooo excited to leave he did not want to visit any more at security. He headed out ASAP. Emily was not ready to let loose of her big brother. She cried and cried. We went to the top of the parking garage and watched a plane take off before she would let us leave the airport. She loves her "Davy."

Hello Everybody!
I can't believe it is finally here. I will be set apart as a missionary tonight. I head up to the MTC on Wednesday morning. My mom will be updating the blog so everyone can see what is going on! Ecuador, here I come!!!