December 11, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was crazy!!! We have been so busy ha ha :) On Tuesday we had ZL Council all day long. It went really well. We were able to come up with a lot of good ideas for some Open Houses that we are going to have next month. The Spirit was guiding that conversation. On Wednesday and Thursday we had specialized trainings for 6 different zones. For part of the training we go to a huge park here and start talking with everyone. My companion and I split up with other missionaries to help them apply what we had just taught them. It has gone really well with all of them. It´s weird to me how surprised they are to see us having a conversation with someone instead of coming up and saying, "Hello, we´re missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we´re here to share about how the Gospel was restored to the Earth again. When can we come and share this message with you?" every single time. The theme that we decided to talk about was truly inspired because so many missionaries are shocked about what we teach even though we have taught it before and it´s in Preach My Gospel. It´s just like President has said, repetition is the key.
On Friday we had a meeting with a comittee that President formed during ZL Council. President wasn´t there. He asked us to run it and solve the problem and that we´ll all present it to him in a week. The problem is that when we set baptismal goals we set them for 2-6 weeks in the future. We have the norm of baptizing every week so planning 6 weeks in the future is almost pointless. Also, the missionaries are still focusing on baptizing every month instead of every week. In the comittee we came to the conclusion that we will set baptismal goals every other Thursday during weekly planning session. On those days we will set goals for the next 3 weeks. We will implement this new process and retrain everyone on the purpose of setting goals with names. We need to retake the right vision on this. The meeting was amazing. It was literally a council where everyone was commenting, bringing up doubts, sharing ideas, etc. The Spirit was guiding our conversation in that meeting too. It was an amazing experience.
So, this week we had an amazing p-day activity. Today was the last p-day for my companion, Elder Morales, and for Elder Duarte. We decided to go to the highest active volcano in Ecuador, it´s called Cotopaxi. I´ve sent tons of pictures of this volcano to you already because you can see it on a clear day from my old sector (I attached an old picture in this e-mail too). I never thought that I would touch snow while I was a missionary :) We had a lot of fun. The van that we took up didn´t have 4 wheel drive so it took us a while to get up. Today the snow was lower than any other day that our guide had ever seen. When we got to the highest point that we could in the van we had already been in snow for a long time. We made a snowman and had a snowball fight. It was way fun. We were all freezing our butts off because we didn´t have anything that could keep us really warm, but it was still so fun. I´ve wanted to visit Cotopaxi since the day that I saw it. We finally went!!!!!!
Well I love you all. Thank you so much for all that you do. I hope that everyone has a very merry Christmas. Always remember the true meaning of this time of year, Christ was born to bring us all back into the presence of God!!!



Love,
Élder Hakes

December 4, 2010

The giant Christmas tree is in front of a mall here

Dear Family,
This was a pretty amazing week!! We didn´t have a lot of trainings or anything because we are having them all here in Quito for Christmas. We went on exchanges with 2 sets of Zone Leaders. Both of the exchanges went really well. We haven´t done very many as assistants because we´re so busy but we have some time now so we´re going to be having them every week. With all of the exchanges that I´ve had before I never had one of my missionaries tell me that I had helped them in some way. Honestly, I didn´t have very effective exchanges, but this week was different. On Tuesday we went to northern Quito to the Calderón Zone. We were with them from 8AM-6PM so we could study with them and then apply what we learned. We helped them more than anything with talking with everyone because they hadn´t been doing it. It went really well. The missionary that I was with has been in that sector for almost 6 months so he "couldn´t find anyone". We just started talking with people in the street. He started by knocking on doors but then I saw a family so I said lets go talk with them. It went really well. Yesterday in the specialized training that we had he and his zone was there. His topic that he spoke on was on a question "How do we talk with everyone everyday without fear and by the power of the Spirit?" He shared what he had learned in the exchange. It made me feel better about my teaching skills because I had never heard that from someone before.
On Wednesday we had exchanges planned with other zone leaders in central Quito in Santa Ana, but President asked us to have a meeting with him. We studied with the Zone Leaders and then we went to the meeting and afterwards we went back with the Zone Leaders. The meeting went really well. President wanted to talk about what the mission needs and what are we going to share in the specialized trainings this month. The Spirit was so strong in that meeting!!! We all knew and felt exactly what the mission needs right now. Well, after the meeting we only had an hour and a half with the Santa Ana Zone Leaders. We went and my comp with one zone leader had all the appointments and the other zone leader and I had nothing, just contacting. We started going and we saw someone loading up a truck so we went and started helping them. We barely asked before we took the stuff out of their hands :) We got a little bit dirty but we were there for about 5-10 minutes and we found a new family. They wanted to pay us for helping but we didn´t let them of course. They had an appointment last night but I don´t know how it went. The missionary that I was with kept saying the same thing in every contact so I talked with him about it. We kept talking with people in the street and they had scheduled about 4 appointments. The missionary thanked me and told me that what I had taught him helped him to understand what his zone is missing and what they need. Again, I had never had a missionary tell me that I helped them. It surprised me, but I´m grateful that he said it because I feel better now :)


So, this week I took a lot of Christmas pictures because there are a lot of trees and lights up now. For the specialized training we are doing something special for Christmas. President invited everyone to have lunch in the mission home after the training. In the mission home we eat lunch, sing all of the Christmas songs, drink hot chocolate, and listen to President and Sister Sloan. Also, the secretaries of the mission, they live with us, dressed up as Santa Clause and Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer. It was hilarious!!! All of the missionaries were dying of laughter. They had everyone that has a birthday in December come up front and we sang to them. They also gave out the presents that President and Sister Sloan got for us (a study journal with our name on it and a box of 10 Bon Ice, Bon Ice is basically otter pops). It has been really fun and we get to do it 6 times this month :)

Élder Duarte is Santa and Élder Vomocil is Rudolf



Well I love you all. Thank you so much for everything that you do for me. Thank you for your prayers and your support. I love each and every one of you.




Love,
Élder Hakes

November 27, 2010

With Elder Morales


In the Mission Home





Dear Family,
So this week was pretty crazy. I didn´t go to our sector once. It´s kind of sad. I really miss my investigators. So all the new missionaries arrived on Tuesday. It was....interesting ha ha. So in our mission, before Tuesday, we had 3 north American sisters and they are all good, hard workers. On Tuesday 5 north American sisters showed up and they were like the stereotypical sister missionary in the states. We asked them to bring what they needed for 1 night because we took their luggage to the church where we had the new missionary meeting. I saw more make-up and blow dryers then than I have seen in over a year :) It was pretty crazy!!!! Maybe I´m being too hard on them but I haven´t seen that in forever. We talked a lot about our missionary purpose and hard work. It turned out to be really good. President had us bear our testimonies again and it went way good. I felt the Spirit so strong again :) They were all touched and they are really excited about being here. It was really fun.




So President Sloan has been kind of sick this week. He has pneumonia and that is what caused him so many problems last year and that´s what started his really bad sickness. He decided to rest a lot this week. On Tuesday before the new missionaries arrived we had a meeting without President because he decided not to go. He did go to the airport on Tuesday and he interviewed each of them. On Thursday we traveled to Ambato alone, by bus, and we had a specialized training with 3 zones without President. It was a little bit weird but it turned out to be alright. He´s still sick so we´ll see what he wants to do these next few weeks.
So last Sunday our old Ward mission leader had his farwell. He´s going to the Peru Trujillo Mission. He´s in the MTC now!!! He always went and did visits with us and it was awesome. It was sad to see him leave but he´s doing what´s right. His name is Jorge Pillajo and he´s a convert of 4 years now. He´ll be an amazing missionary!!
Tomorrow in all of Ecuador they are having a cesus and we all have to stay in our houses. We have to be there until 5 PM minimum. Someone will come and will ask us questions and stuff. We heard that each questionaire could take up to 30 minutes so that´ll be fun tomorrow :) We aren´t going to have church either and we can´t have any confirmations either. Tomorrow wil be really interesting :)
So today my companion and one of the secretaries, Elder Duarte, went to one of their old sectors to visit some of their converts and Elder Vomocil, the other secretary, and I couldn´t decide what we wanted to do. We finally decided to go visit some of Elder Vomocil´s converts and investigators in Santa Ana, close to Valle de Los Chillos. It went really well. One of his old investigators that didn´t get baptized had been praying that Elder Vomocil would go back to visit them. We showed up today and he prayed for that yesterday. It was way sweet because they were so excited to see him. After that we decided to call my old bishop in Salvador Celi. He said that he was buying lunch for the missionaries that are there and he invited us to come too. We said ok and we went to the mall in Los Chillos. We show up and he takes us to TGI Friday´s. We were way surprised but he was really excited to see me ha ha :) We had a really fun time and we took a picture :) Their son has changed so much in the last 3 months. He´s talking a little bit and his hair is really dark now. It was awesome to be able to see them again. They are one of my favorite families here in Ecuador. Today was an amazing p-day :)


I had a pretty cool experience helping one of the new missionaries on Thursday. We were in Ambato and one of the new missionaries, one that came on Tuesday, was there and he was kind of nervous. I don´t know why but the zone leaders that were giving the training decided to call on his companionship to do the practice. The new missionary didn´t say a word because he was so nervous. It turned out being alright but I could still see that he was nervous. When we got to our part of the training we had a lot of practices in groups of 2 companionships. When the new missionary´s companionship were being investigators I took him aside. I just asked him how he was doing. He told me that he was nervous and he felt unsure. I told him to just take a couple of breaths and to calm down a little bit. I told him that we´re here to learn from him too and that he´s a good missionary. He felt better and he started to participate more. I felt good for him. Afterwards he thanked me and said that he´ll keep doing better. It was a really special experience for me because I´ve never had anyone thank me for being a leader that I can remember. I felt like I was actually doing my job right now :) It was a really cool experience.
Well, I love you all so much. Thank you for everything that you have done, do, and will do for me. Keep strong in the faith and be ever aware of our Heavenly Father in our lives.




Love,
Élder Hakes

November 20,2010

Dear Family,
So this week went really well for us. We weren´t able to go to our sector as much as we would have liked to but we had some really great spiritual experiences. We had a good one on Wednesday night. We got home from Otavalo at around 7:30 PM It was pretty late and by the time we were ready to leave it was about 8:05 PM. We were thinking about just going somewhere close so we could get home quickly but we decided against it. We went down to where some investigators with baptismal date live, the Maza family. They live down 133 stairs. When we got there just 2 sons and the daughter and the mom were there. We asked them to invite the dad but he didn´t want to (we had never met him before but we told his family that we would talk with him some day). About half way through the lesson the dad walked in the room. We were all surprised but we invited him and we continued with the lesson (about baptism). About 10 minutes later the other son showed up. That means that for the first time ever we were with the entire family at the same time. It was such an amazing experience to be able to have all of them there and to be able to share that time with them as a family!!!
Thursday night we had another cool experience. We went to visit the Taco family (the ones that went to church this last Sunday). We got there and we found out that they had read in the Book of Mormon, but they didn´t remember anything that they had read. This whole month we have been talking about the Book of Mormon, especially Moroni 10:3-5, in the Zone Conferences so we decided to teach that to them. We talked about the importance of being able read it with a sincere desire and with real intent. They were able to understand the difference now. So last night when we went by again we found out that only the son had read and that they didn´t have time. We weren´t sure what to share with them because we knew that they had understood what we taught them the last time. My companion started and he decide to share Helaman 5:12. I felt that that was what they needed and my comp explained it very well. When it come around to me I still wasn´t sure what I was going to say but the Spirit helped me. I talked about how we can recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost as we read. They shared with us that that is what they had felt as we were teaching them, the Spirit. It was a really amazing experience and the Spirit was so strong.
We had another cool experience on last Sunday too. We showwed up to our investigators house and the dad came out and said that everyone else was sick. He invited us in to share with him and we did. We talked about blessings of health and we gave 2 blessings of health and 1 blessing of strength to his family. The Spirit was so strong and they were extremely grateful for what we did. I hadn´t given a blessing in so long so it was nice to be able to do that again.
So It has rained everyday since last Thursday here in Ecuador. There is a phenomenom here called "la niña" ("the girl" in English) that makes everything cold and rainy in all of Ecuador. It´s been in the 50s and the low 60s this whole week. Kind of weird. Luckily today it was sunny in the afternoon when we were at Mindo because it started raining on the way home :)
Well I love you guys. I thank you all for all that you have done for me. I have learned so much from each and every one of you. I am grateful for this Gospel that i get to preach everyday. I´m grateful that i am learning to live it and help others to live it as well. This work is God´s. I can testify of it now. He leads me everyday where i need to go and puts the words into my mouth in the exact moment when I need it. Again, thanks for everything!!!!



Love,
Élder Hakes

November 13, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was pretty crazy. It went by so fast because we were traveling the whole time. We left Tuesday morning at 8 AM and we got back at 6 PM on Friday evening. It was so long but so fun too! With the Zone Conferences and the Specialized Trainings this time we haven´t done anything. We have a grand total of like 1 hour between the 2 days and all we do is have a demonstration and have them do practices. It´s good because this time around I´m learning how to be more observant and I can make more comments to them about their teaching skills. It has been nice. So President Sloan decided to take us and the zone leaders out to eat with the Stake President in Esmeraldas and in Santo Domingo. I ate some pretty good food this week :) I probably gained like 5 lbs. ha ha. Seafood in Esmeraldas is amazing!!! It´s a city that is literally on the coast so it´s all fresh and it´s fairly cheap. I had some pretty amazing shrimp there :)
So on Sunday we were finally able to get out and work. We went with some of our families and we were able to help them progress more. The Taco family and the Maza family have baptismal dates for the 27th!!!! We had 2 amazing experiences with them on Sunday to help them to accept a baptismal date. When we do the baptismal invitation we normally do it in 2 parts (I might have already explained this before but oh well!). The first part we ask them, "Will you prepare to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized just as he was?" Normally they will say yes I would like to prepare for that. The second question we ask is basically the same, "Will you prepare to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized on the 27th of November?" Normally on this question they´ll have some sort of excuse or doubt. Basically we help them to realize that if they truly have the desires to do it that they can do it. They just need more faith!! After the second question we are able to know why they don´t want to get baptized and we are able to help them to repent and to be ready for that day. It is such an amazing process and it works with everyone. That is why we are baptizing so many people here in the mission now. I love it!!!!
On Thursday night we went on exchanges in Santo Domingo. I went with one companionship and my companion went with another. It was so amazing to be able to get to work again. I hadn´t done any type of "in the field" missionary work for a few days. I couldn´t even do a contact because we were with President in his car the whole time. I was dying ha ha :) We had some amazing experiences that night and I´d like to share just one of them. We went to one of these missionaries investigators that is going to get baptized today. When we showed up he asked us to go visit him with one of his sisters that hadn´t listened to the missionaries before. We went in and she wasn´t too interested but I told her that we could help her and that I wanted to share an experience with her. She said that she would rather set an appointment for another day and I told her that I live in Quito. She finally agreed and we started with a prayer. I just started to ask her questions about her life and about what she desires. She opened up to me and I don´t know why. She started to tell me about her depression and her need to be loved unconditionally by someone. She had been studying with Jehovah´s witnesses and she hasn´t felt anything special yet. I asked her a rhetorical question and said, "Who have you shared this with before and why did you share it with me, a complete stranger?" I told her not to respond and then I said, "The Spirit of God is testifying in your heart that I am one of His servants and that I can help you." She just sat there thinking. I shared an experience with her and we ended with a prayer. She tried to invite us over for dinner the next day and I said that the 2 missionaries that i was with could go but that I couldn´t. I am so grateful that the Lord worked through me that night. The Elders that I was with told me that they had tried to talk with her before but that she wouldn´t listen. I needed to be there on that day and I had to be there to help her to feel the Spirit. I hope and pray that she will continue listening to the missionaries and that she will be baptized. It was such an amazing experience.
Last night the Taco family said that for sure they are going to go to church with us on Sunday!!! We are super excited because that has been their challenge over the last few weeks. We talked with 2 of the sons in the Maza family and they are going to go to church as well (the mom wasn´t there). They said that they´re going to help family to go as well.
I just want to let each of you know how grateful that I am for you. This week I have pondered over the many blessings that I have received in my life. I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father put each of you in my path and that you were able to influence me in my progression towards God. I love each of you. Thank you for everything.



Love,
Élder Hakes

November 6, 2010

Dear Family,
What a crazy week ha ha :) We were in meetings all week just as was planned. It turned out to be really good. We learned a lot of things. During all of the meetings and trainings, we did demonstrations with President Sloan. The demonstrations have really helped. My companion and I are more confident teaching together now and the missionaries can see a good example and they can see that we aren´t perfect. It has been really great. We have been able to feel a special spirit during the demonstrations. So on Tuesday in the Zone Leaders Council we had an hour to play soccer and/or Ecuavoli (Ecuador Volleyball). My companion got hurt playing soccer. We thought it was just a sprained ankle but it is really bothering him still so he´s going to get it x-rayed next week.
So today in my personal study I read a scripture that really impacted me. It´s scripture mastery but I have never felt like this when I read it. It´s in D&C 130:18-21:

18. Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.
19. And if a person gains more knowledge and intelligence in this life through his diligence and obedience than another, he will have so much the advantage in the world to come.
20. There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated—
21. And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.

I don´know why it hit me so hard this time. It really helped me to have more of an eternal perspective. It has given me more desires to be even more obedient and to repent of all the little mistakes that I have made in my life.
Well I love you all. Thank you for the good influences that each and everyone of you have been in my life. I realize now more than ever how grateful I am for the people around me and for what they have done for me. I have so many experiences, good and bad, that have helped me to be where I am right now and that have helped me to truly apply the gospel in my life. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father gives us our free agency and allows us to make mistakes so we can learn and become better each day. Don´t ever forget what He did for each and everyone of us individually. When we can have that in mind all of the time, that´s when we can become perfect.



Love,
Élder Hakes

October 30, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was pretty fun. On Tuesday and Wednesday we were in Esmeraldas and Santo Domingo again. The trainings that we had went really well. It didn´t feel as hot as last time we were there. I actually enjoyed the weather. It was funny because my comp was dying in the heat and he´s from Guayaquil which is a lot hotter. He´s going to die when he goes home in December. On Thursday we had divisions with the Secretaries. Elder Vomocil and I stayed in the offices doing stuff while our companions went and taught lessons. We left a little bit earlier and one of Elder Vomocil´s investigators gave us rice, potatoes, beets, fried beef, and an egg. It was sooo good. They are from the coast and the people from the coast know how to cook better :) Yesterday and this morning we were in Otavalo. It was the last Specialized training of the month and I think it was the best one too!! In this one we did something a little bit different. We always have practices in all of our trainings so the missionaries can know how to apply it in their sectors, but this time my companion and I decided to do a demonstration and then we had all of them practice instead of just 1 companionship. It turned out to be really good. The missionaries were able to see that we´re not perfect and that we need help too and it gave them more confidence in the practices that we did afterwards. We´ve decided to do a demonstration in every training that we have in the future. Last night we were supposed to have another training with all of the ward and stake leaders from Otavalo but no one showed up. We waited for like half an hour until the Stake President finally showed up and we scheduled it for a different day. The training wasn´t well announced (it wasn´t announced at all) so President Sloan wasn´t too happy. Afterwards he felt bad for all of the missionaries that had waited for nothing. He bought the whole zone and us hamburger combos for dinner. It was way sweet.
It´s interesting to see how I´m progressing now. Before I could see it a lot easier and I was progressing in things that we do everyday. As I´ve been here in the offices I feel like I´ve progressed more as a leader. I feel like I understand the Gospel more now and it´s actually part of me and my life not just like a job. I´m learning a lot about how to have good judgment too because we have to make a lot of decisions as assistants. I´m more grateful for my calling now and I don´t feel useless anymore ha ha :) Thank you for all that you have done for me, all of you.




Love,
Élder Hakes

October 25, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was still kind of crazy. The first half was really nice because we were in our sector a lot. We found another new family this week. The Taco Family, no I´m not joking :) There is a part of our sector where almost everyone is from the Taco Family. The first time we visited them was really awesome. We were with the husband to start off with. We talked about the Gospel and how it can bless him and his family. After that we invited him to be baptized. He accepted and he has a baptismal date for November 13. After we invited him his family showed up and we got to know them. There are 4 people in the family, Mom, Dad, son and daughter. The daughter just turned 2 so she can´t get baptized yet. It was an awesome experience! The Maza family couldn´t go to church this week. Well only the son that´s 18 went. He is way cool. We presented him to President Sloan during the Stake Conference and President told him that he looks like a future missionary. Our investigator responded by saying I would like to do that. He is an awesome guy!
So at Stake Conference I ran into a family from Idaho. They told me a pretty funny story. They are here for like 1-2 weeks to go to the Galapagos Islands. On Sunday morning they looked on the computer to find where they could go to church. They typed in "Quito Stake" in google and the first thing that came up was my blog. In the letter last week I wrote about how we were going to have stake conference. They saw me and they thanked me for writing about Stake Conference. I thought that that was pretty funny :)
So my life is going to be completely crazy for the next month. In November we will have a lot of meetings. 1. Zone Leader Council, 2. All of the leaders in the mission meeting, 3. Specialized Trainings in all of the zones, 4. Zone Conference in all of the zones, and 5. Specialized Trainings for 2-3 Stakes. According to the schedule that President posted every week this month on November we will be in meetings. I should be free on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays for p-day and church but we´ll see what happens. This month is going to go by sooooo fast!!!
Today we played soccer again. It was really fun. I´m finally getting better at it. I made 3 or 4 goals today. It was way sweet!!! One of them was aimed so I could head it in but they kicked it too low. I decided to hit it with my chest and I got a goal. Everyone was laughing because I don´t think they´ve seen that before. It was way cool :)
Well thank you for everything. You all have been great influences in my life. Thank you for your love and your support. I love each and every one of you.




Love,
Élder Hakes

P.S.
We had 2 specialized trainings with 2 stakes, Ofelia and Calderón. The Spirit was so strong in each of the trainings. We had they same thing planned but the each turned out differently and the Spirit was so strong in each of them. The topic is "How can we help investigators, less-actives, and new converts have a good experience at church". It was a really special experience and I truly felt the Spirit working through me. I was able to recognize all of the little blessing that the Lord has given unto me in the last few weeks. I am so happy and filled with the Spirit right now :)

October 16, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was a little bit crazier than I thought it would be. I didn´t realize how hard it is to work with such a big group of new missionaries. On Monday afternoon and night President Sloan had to interview all of the new missionaries. He couldn´t wait till the next morning. We were in the President´s house until 10:20 PM waiting for the interviews. After taking the new missionaries to the house where they were going to sleep we got home around 11:15 PM. It was a pretty crazy night. On Wednesday I had a really cool experience. We were in the training for the new missionaries and we were going to do our part last. The first parts took a really long time. When we were to speak it was already past the time that we had planned to end at. President Sloan told us to just bear our testimonies and then we´d end. I liked that he told us right before we had to get up. I wasn´t thinking about what I was going to say. I just said what I felt. I felt the Spirit so strong in that moment. I shared with the new missionaries and their trainers about my experience with the Book of Mormon. When I got to the mission I had read the Book of Mormon 3 or 4 times cover to cover. I thought that that was sufficient but I was wrong. President Sloan challenged us to read the Book of Mormon with real intent as soon as we got here and I chose to do it. It was the best experience that I have had in my life. I now know that the Book of Mormon is true. I can feel it in my heart. I love the Book of Mormon. Just by reading the Book of Mormon I have learned to follow the Spirit. I know where to find the answers to my questions. I love it!!!!!! Don´t ever go a day without reading the Book of Mormon. If you do you will lose the Spirit and your day won´t be as good. I can testify of that now.
This week we finally went to teach a family of 6 that we found 2 weeks ago. They are so amazing!! We invited them to baptism in the first lesson and the accepted. They are going to go to church on Sunday and they are keeping all of their committments. It is so exciting!!!! I love being able to be in the feild! This next week President and Sister Sloan will be in Peru for the Mission President´s Seminar so that means that we should have a lot more time to be in our own sector. I´m really excited for that!! President and Sister Sloan are going to Machu Pichu for part of the Seminar. They are so lucky!!!!
So next week we have Stake Conference in our stake here in Quito so I don´t know how much time we´ll have to write you next Saturday. If it´s not on Saturday it will definitely be on Monday. I love you all so much. Thank you for everything. Keep being faithful and CTR forever!!!



Love,
Élder Hakes



P.S.
We went to the Middle of the World again. This time I took a picture with a statue of an indian native to ecuador. They don´t wear any clothes so I used a Law of Chastity pamphlet to cover him up : )

October 12, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was absolutely crazy. We were so busy with all of the trainings that we had to give. On Tuesday we had the zone leader´s council all day long. It went really well. It started raining really hard when we went outside to play soccer. It was way fun!!!! We had some amazing BBQ chicken the mission home and then my companion and I went home to plan the trainings that we had to give during the week.
On Wednesday and Thursday we had 2 trainings each day for the zones here in Quito. On wednesday President took us and the secretaries out to eat because it´s a tradition that he has every month. We went to a really nice restaurant. It was pretty good :) On Thursday night we finally went to our sector for the first time last week. We taught the Yasig Family (they went to church 2 weeks ago) and they had a lot of problems. They don´t have as many desires and they used to because we hadn´t visited them in so long. We made it very clear what they were losing and they rejected us. We will still go back but we have to help them to keep the committments that we left them. It was a really rough experience that we had.
On Friday at 8:30 AM (President showed up late) we were in President´s car on the way to Ambato. At 10:45 AM (half an hour late) we showed up to the training with the zones there (Ambato and Oriente) and we taught them. President is doing interviews with all of the missionaries this time so it takes a lot longer. At 5:00 PM we left to go to Riobamba and we got there at 6:00 PM. We showed up 3 hours late for that training. It was suposed to start at 3:00 PM. They were all so tired and I think President apologized like 100 times. The training still went very well considering that everyone was pretty much asleep. That night we slept in Riobamba with other missionaries. In Riobamba it is colder than Quito and the missionaries only had one blanket for each of us. I didn´t sleep at all on Friday night.
On Saturday morning we went on divisions (exchanges?) with a companionship in the zone. The division (exchange?) went really well. We put a baptismal date with one guy and commited him to go to the District conference and he accepted. We also taught a family of 5 [only the parents are older than 8 :)]. Everything turned out to be really good. After the division (exchange?) my companion and I were part of another training to all of the district and branch leaders in Riobamba. It went really well too. That afternoon we finally came home!!
Well my life is really busy right now but I love it. I really enjoy helping the missionaries in the entire mission. Today, tomorrow and wednesday is going to be really crazy with all of the new missionaries coming and with transfers. I can´t wait!! :) I love you all so much. Thank you for all that you all have done for me. I know that the gospel that I teach everyday is true. It is such a blessing to be able to have it in my life and with my family. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. I know it.



Love,
Élder Hakes

October 4, 2010

Dear Family,
Well this week was pretty weird. As a lot of you already know, on Thursday the National Police here in Ecuador went on a protest. They weren´t doing anything. They were burning tires, blocking roads, etc. President told us all to go home immediately and we did. On Thursday we were at home from 3 PM until the next day. On Friday and Saturday we were in the house at 6 PM. Sunday we went back to normal. We didn´t get to watch priesthood session and that really stunk. This week is going to be crazy for us. Tomorrow we have ZL Council, Wednesday and Thursday we have Specialized training, and Friday and Saturday we´ll be in Riobamba (my first time!!!). Next week is practically the same because it´s transfer week. Monday night we have dinner with the old missionaries that are going home in the mission home and we have to pick up a new Elder at 9:30 PM. On Tuesday we have a training for the trainers and we pick up 27 missionaries (22 Elders and 5 Sisters) at 1:00 PM. After that we go to the Panecillo (the place where the dedicatory prayer was said for Missionary work in Ecuador, by President Kimball) and then to the mission home for interviews and Visas. On Wednesday of next week we will train the new missionaries and send them off to their sectors with their trainers. On next Thursday we have another specialized training here in Quito and then we´ll finally be done for a week and a half. It will be pretty crazy but we´ll enjoy it and learn a lot.
This week we didn´t hardly go to our sector because we´ve been preparing so many things for these next to weeks and we´ve been locked up in our houses. I really loved conference though. I really enjoyed President Uchtdorf´s talk. We need to follow the living prophets and we need to learn how to use our agency correctly. Those are the 2 major themes that I was able to get out of conference. Sorry that this letter is like a mixture of thoughts. There wasn´t any internet all day and I don´t have very much time. I love you all so much. Thank you for everything that you have done, do and will do for me. Follow the impressions that each of you received during conference.








Love,
Élder Hakes

September 25, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was absolutely nuts!!!!! I felt like I was out of town the whole time :) On Tuesday I went to Esmeraldas for the first time. Esmeraldas is on the coast of Ecuador it has beaches and everything. It was pretty hot there. I thought I might enjoy it and I did at first. Trying to go to sleep covered in sweat isn´t too fun though :) On the way there we had a little problem with a tire. It went flat. That was really fun that we got under the car in our church clothes to get out the spare and change it. We got our hands pretty dirty, but the shirts weren´t too bad. When we had our suits on you couldn´t see any stains or anything :) The training went really well there. I got to see a lot of missionaries that I know and my trainer is one of the zone leaders there. It was nice to see Élder Estrada again. He´s a really funny guy. That night we slept in Élder Estrada´s house and we left early the next morning to Santo Domingo. I really liked being in Santo Domingo again. It wasn´t nearly as hot as Esmeraldas. It was nice to see some of the places that I got to know when I started the mission. Santo Domingo doesn´t look weird to me anymore. It looks....normal. I remember when I first got there that I was amazed by all of the buildings and the store, but everything is just normal now :) It´s kind of funny ha ha. The training went really well in Santo Domingo as well. I felt that I was following the Spirit best in that training. I really enjoyed my time there,
Well this week we had a baptism as well. Norma Simbaña was baptized today!!!! It was a really neat experience. There were a lot of people there because she has a lot of friends in the church now. Her whole family came too!!!! The Spirit was so strong there. She told us after that she felt so good. She thought she was going to be nervous to give her testimony in front of everyone, but she wasn´t. She told us that she just felt soooo good. She also told us that she had already felt the Spirit a lot because she has been living the Gospel, but that by getting baptized she felt that she was pleasing our Heavenly Father. She is an amazing person. I don´t ever see her falling away from the church. She´s already planning on going to the temple to do baptisms and to have someone get baptized for her dad. The Gospel has changed her life, and it will continue to do so :)
I can not wait for General Conference this next weekend. I can´t believe that we´re already at another one. I fell like I was just watching it there in Los Chillos Valley. I can´t wait to be able to listen to the prophet´s voice in English!!!!! I love hearing their voices. President Sloan shared something interesting with one of the zones that I really liked. He said that as he is watching General Conference, he doesn´t take notes about what they say. He isn´t writing down the doctrine that they say. What he does is he writes the impressions that come to his mind as he´s listening. I thought that that is a really good idea. In November we´re going to have the Ensign and we can study doctrine there. I´m going to apply it this Conference and I thought I´d share it with you guys too :)
Well I love you all so much. Thank you for being so great to me. I´m so grateful for you guys, my family and friends. In my Patriarchal Blessing it says that i´m am blessed to be surrounded by good and honorable people. Thank you for being those people :)




Love,
Élder Hakes

September 20, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was pretty crazy. We had a lot of trainings to give. On Tuesday and Wednesday we trained all of the zones here in Quito (80 missionaries) and on Saturday we trained 3 more zones (Ambato, Riobamba, and Oriente). It went really well. I feel a lot more comfortable giving all of these trainings now. At first I was nervous and stuff but now it doesn't really matter. It's a lot more natural now. It is really beautiful on the way to Ambato. I didn't take any pictures because we were in the car with President Sloan and Elder Cabrera (of the 70). It was a pretty short trip and I really enjoyed it. That same night we came back to Quito because we had an investigator at church.
This Saturday Norma Simbana is going to get baptized. It is so interesting teaching her. She has some really great friends at church and they are teaching her pretty much everything. The last few lessons we've come and we start talking about a commandment and she tells us that she already had talked about it with her member friends. It makes our job so much easier. We just have to invite the Spirit and talk about what she's already learned from the members. She really understands her purpose now. She knows what she has to do to be able to have happiness in this life. I am almost 100% sure that she'll be in the temple 1 year from this Saturday. She has her own personal conversion already. She's more faithful than some of the members here ha ha :)
Tomorrow I'm going to go to Esmeraldas for the first time and the day after tomorrow I'll be in Santo Domingo again. I'm really excited because these 2 cities are the coast cities in our mission. It'll be really hot but I'm going to like it. I really miss the heat now. I didn't even realize it ha ha. They make really good food in these 2 cities too. I'm really excited for that :)
We were invited to eat with 2 different senior missionary couples this week. I really enjoyed that. On Friday I ate some really good burritos and last night I ate roast and mashed potatoes and gravy!!!! It was so good. It was way different but it was still really good. I'm going to get fat here in the offices :)
Well in the mission we have 2 new norms in the mission now. The first is that every companionship will baptize 2 people (minimum) every week with the focus in families. We had a really cool experience to change this norm. We weren't going to change it but we started talking about it in the Zone Leader Council last week. As the leaders of the mission we changed the norm. President Sloan was so happy to see the faith and hope that we have. It's a norm that will be really difficult for a lot of missionaries, but we now know that 2 baptisms every weekend is what the Lord expects for us in this mission. We're really seeing miracles now. We have set records the last 2 months in a row. This month probably won't be a record but it will be a good month. Well, the second new norm that we have is to make a baptismal invitation in every lesson. This norm will help us to be able to do the other norm. It's been really cool to be able to teach the missionaries why we need these norms. I think that it's helping them to be more connected to their missionary purpose. The mission is a lot different now compared to how it was when I started the mission. When I started the mission there wasn't as much faith. Everyone just kind of complained that the norms are too hard. Now we have leaders that want to raise the norm and make themselves and their stewardships better. That is why we are seeing miracles in this mission. I can now testify of the power of trusting in the Lord. I wasn't trusting him as much before. I depended on myself to find and teach people. Now I trust in the Lord and He does the rest.
Well I love you all. Thank you for everything that you've done and do for me.








Love,
Elder Hakes

September 13, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was pretty crazy. It went by sooooo fast. On Thursday we were in Otavalo. That was a really cool experience. The stake where we had a fireside at only speaks quichua (that´s a native language. It was really cool. Most of them speak spanish too so they understood us. They have a very interesting dress as well. The stake president had a blue poncho over his white shirt. The women all had the same neclace and pretty much all of them had the same shirts on too. I didn't take any pictures. I totally forgot because it was so interesting to see them all like that. Don't worry though. I'll be going back next month so I'll be seeing them again. There was a different spirit there with that people. It was really cool. I kept imagining different Book Of Mormon stories while I was looking at the scenery on the way there. It was really fun to do. I really felt like I was there. otavalo is a very sacred place to me. I liked it a lot.
As you all know I went to Coca as well. That was a really neat experience. I definitely took a ton of picture. I put a few of them on here so I hope you get them. It was really humid and hot there. I liked it a lot. I missed being in the heat. I've been in Quito for the last 8 months. It was so cool being there with that branch. When President Sloan was first starting his mission he opened that branch. At that time there were about 40-50 people that attended every week. When we went this last weekend there were 80 people there, not including the visitors. It was a really cool experience. This branch is really strong. They only meet in a house that was donated to the church. President Sloan is now talking about building a chapel there because the branch is growing so fast. It was a humbling experience to be there with those people. They don't have the church like we do. They just meet in a house, but they all have great faith and they're all living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was such an amazing experience that I had.
This week we also had a really cool experience in our own sector. There is a lady here that has gone to church 3 times now. She's not a member and we went to visit her for a 2nd time. The first time we had left her with a reading assignment in 3 Nephi 27, the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we got there she started explaining what she learned. She had her Book of Mormon more marked up than I do. She really analized it and she felt that it was all true. She had even written in the margin 1. Faith 2. Repentance 3. Holy Ghost (she was out of order :) ) It was amazing. We invited her to be baptized. She was so surprised and said, "I can do that in your church?" We told her yes and invited her to prepare for her baptism. She committed herself (we hadn´t asked her yet) to be prepared for September 25th. It was a really cool experience. She is more than a golden investigator. That was an amazing experience.
In the mission now we have 2 new standards. The first is that we have to invite our investigators to be baptized in every single lesson. The second is that we have to baptize at the very least 2 people every week. It´s a really high norm, but we know that we can do it. We are really starting to see miracles in our mission. We set another new record. We had 195 baptisms in the month of August. It was awesome!!! I love this work.
Well I love all of you guys so much. Thank you for everything that you do for me.








Love,
Élder Hakes








P.S.
This Saturday I´m going to be in Ambato so I´ll probably write you next Monday again :)

September 4, 2010

Dear Family,
Well this week was absolutely nuts for me. I have to get used to being the President´s new assistant. I´m really surprised that he gave me this assignment so early iin my mission. I think I´m the "youngest" (in mission time) assistant that he´s called. I only have 10 months in Ecuador. I´m really excited to learn though. On Tuesday we went to the airport to pick up the new missionaries. It was pretty sweet to be able to see them and get to know them. All the North Americans get to go to the Peru MTC after 3 weeks in Provo so they come here speaking a lot better than what I did when I got here. They all pretty much understand and can speak a little bit.
Oh yeah, on Monday night we ate dinner in the president´s house. It was the "Last Supper" for all the missionaries that went home this week. We ate fajitas. I´m trying to control myself a little bit with the food because a lot of American food makes me sick now. It´s kind of the opposite of what you´d think, ha ha. This week was really weird. Every morning we have to go to the offices to fill out reports and make things for President Sloan. I didn´t even go into my sector for the first time until Thursday. We don´t have hardly anyone that´s progressing because we´re hardly here. It´s really weird. I don´t like it that much. I´m sick of sitting around on my butt all day long.
On Wednesday we had the training for the new missionaries. It went really well. I think my companion thought that I would be really nervous but I wasn´t hardly at all. President really liked it too. That training was the first time that I felt like I was a reall missionary as an assistant. My companion says that I just have to get used to it but I don´t want too. I want to keep that desire in my heart. It´s what keeps me moving.
Well I don´t know what else to say. We haven´t been doing real missionary work very much so I don´t have any cool experiences. I have one that wasn´t so cool. We were contacting this one street and no one let us in. It wasn´t that they just said, "No thank you, we´re not interested". They just shut the door or just said no before we even said one word. I know that in other parts of the world that that´s normal but here in Ecuador there are only a few like that. It looks like they all live on the same street too :) It was kind of funny for us actually. I´m not sure why.
I haven´t really gotten to know my companion very well yet. When we´re in the offices we´re on computers and when we´re in the house he´s talking more with the secretaries (all 4 of us live in the same house). It´s been kind of weird. I just feel kind of awkward when I´m with him. I just need to talk with him more I guess.
Well I love you guys all so much. Thank you for all that you do for me :)




Love,
Élder Hakes


P.S.
Next week I´m going to go to Otavalo on Thursday. That is where the closest decendents to Father Lehi in the whole world live, acording to President Spencer W. Kimball. Ask Nancy about them. I´m really excited to go. Also, on Saturday, in 7 days, I´ll be in a small city in the middle of the Amazon Jungle. It´s called Coca. When Pres. Sloan opened that sector about a year ago there were only about 30-40 people in the branch. Now there are 70-80 people. I´m really excited to go. Right next to this city is a river called the Napo River. It´s one of the main rivers that leads into the Amazon River. I can´t wait to go!!!!

Because I´m going to Coca next week I don´t know when I´m going to write you. It might be on Friday or it might be on Sunday or Monday. I don´t really know. Love you all. Congrats to Brent. I got an adreniline rush just reading his letter love you guys :)

August 30, 2010

Dear Family,
I recieved a change this week. President Sloan called me as his new assistant. I´ll be in the offices and traveling around the mission giving trainings and stuff. I´m a little nervous but I´m grateful for the opportunity to be able to learn from him. My new companion is Elder Morales from Quayaquil. I love you all!!. My new p-day is on Saturday so I´ll write you then. Thanks for everything.




Love,
Élder Hakes

August 23, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was really awesome. We have a new family that is really good. It´s the Itaz Family. On the second visit they accepted a baptismal date. They are going to be baptized on September 11th. There are 4 people in the family.

We had an amazing lesson with them on Saturday. We showed up and we were about to start when some other family members were visiting them. Normally when this happens, most investigators just send us away because they don´t want to be embarassed. They invited their family in and we started to teach them too. The brother-in-law who came had a lot of questions and I felt that he was trying to attack the church. I didn´t like it. We were answering questions about the Word of Wisdom, the Law of Chastity, the Book of Mormon, Tithing, etc. I finally answered one of his questions and went right into the Restoration. We were teaching with the Spirit during that lesson. It was really strong. Especially when we repeated the first vision to them (it was probably the 1st time in my whole mission when there wasn´t a distraction when we said it!!!! There is always a loud noise or something when we say the first vision). I know that they felt the Spirit. The brother-in-law changed during that lesson. He stopped attacking and said that our message is really interesting. He felt the Spirit. I told him that he felt the Spirit and he couldn´t deny it. He knows what he felt. It was an amazing lesson.

After that lesson we went to Conocoto (my old sector) because they had 5 baptisms. It was amazing because my convert, Daniel Diaz, baptized his little sister right after getting home from the temple (doing baptisms for the dead). It was an amazing night. It was sweet to see 5 people get baptized at once.


Today we went to a waterfall. It´s the same one that I went to in April. It was a lot funner this time. We got there earlier and we played Ecuavoli (Ecuadorian Volleyball). All of the Latins started throwing each other in the water. They didn´t even risk trying to throw me in. They know what would happen to them :) It helps to be a foot and a half taller than everyone sometimes. Well I love you family. You guys are so awesome.



Love,
Élder Hakes

August 16, 2010

Well first off about the pictures. The big group is everyone that was there at the baptism. The old guy is a member. He was mad with us after the baptism becasue we didn´t ask him to give his testimony. He figured that since he´s been a member for over 30 years that he´d be able to bear his testimony. He´s way funny. He´s going to bear his testimony this next baptism

Dear Family,
We had another pretty crazy week. We had a few service projects and we had another interesting experience filling up a font (it wasn´t ours this time). On Friday around noon the sisters told us that the needed a propane tank because they ran out of propane and no one in their ward could help them. We called one of our district leaders and we told him to take a propane tank from his chapel to the sister´s chapel. We called him at about 7PM and he told us that the guy wasn´t going to get baptized so he didn´t take the tank. We called the guy that was going to get baptized and he said that everything is all good and that he´s excited to get baptized. We had to cancel the rest of our appointments for the night and take our tank to the sister´s ward. By the time we got there it was already too late to fill up the font and get home on time. We decided to get up early to go fill it up the next day (the baptism was scheduled for 7AM and I don´t know why!!!). We got up at 4 AM on Saturday to go fill up the sister´s font. We got there at about 5:30AM because there weren´t any buses. We waited and waited for it to fill up. It was going so dang slow!!! We started the baptism at 9AM. Not one member came because they didn´t know about the baptism. It was spiritual and all but it was way weird.

During all this time we were fasting so when we got home we broke our fast and made lunch. I was so dead. After lunch we went to an appointment and then we went to fill up our font for our baptism. Everything worked perfectly this week. Last week the construction workers had cut our water pipe. This week the water was nice and hot and it filled up really fast. The baptism went great. Coraima (15 yrs. old) and Carol (13 yrs. old) Llumiquinga (in english Jew-me-king-uh) were baptized. The spirit was way strong. We had about 25-30 people at the baptism. That is a lot of people for here in Ecuador. After the baptism my companion and I made burritos with them and the Morocho Family (my converts and the family´s neighbors) in their house. It was way fun. My companion and I have been sacrificing a lot for these last few baptisms in the zone and it´s all worth it. I´m still trying to catch up on sleep though :)

On Sunday we had a really cool experience. After lunch we weren´t exactly sure where to go. I just had the thought that we should go to this one part of our sector where I have never gone before. It was kind of weird but we went. The very first door we knocked on , the son of a less-active member came out and was really receptive. He wants to go to church on Sunday and he´s going to read the Book of Mormon that we left him. It was an amazing experience. We were led literally directly to his house. It is such a blessing to have the Spirit!!!

I´m doing really well. I´m now down to 205 lbs. I´m still losing weight!!! I´ve been feeling the Spirit a lot more over the last few weeks. Having baptisms helps, but I think fasting has helped me more. I feel a lot closer to my Father in Heaven. I feel like he´s helping us even more. I know that this is the true church. I feel it everytime that I see someone enter to the waters of baptism. It is such a blessing. The Lord has helped me so much in this sector. I now have 13 active converts in this ward alone. It is such a blessing that the Lord has given me. I love you all. I hope everything is going well with you guys.


Love,
Élder Hakes

This week we did feel a little bit of shaking but it wasn´t hardly anything. If I was standing up I couldn´t feel anything. Only when I stood up. It only lasted about 1 minute. It was a nice reminder that we need to be prepared for emergencies.

Pictures - August 9,2010

Today we had a really fun activity. We decided to hike a mountain that has a huge cross on the top of it. It was a tough hike but I really enjoyed it. I´ve got some sweet pictures. I attatched a few here