Dear family,
Wow what a crazy week. I´m feeling a lot better now with the new sector. We have a lot of new investigators and we had a lot more lessons this week but it´s still nothing compared to the coast, it´s easy to find and teach there. Well today was interesting. We had a zone activity and we played laser tag. Weird isn´t it but there´s just about everything in Quito. I also ate a small pizza from Pizza Hut. It had so much grease it was pretty nasty. American food is gross :)
Well I found out how much weigh right now. You're not going to believe it but I've lost 32 lbs in 2 and a half months. I weigh 213 lbs. My shirts and pants are all to big for me and I've had to make new holes in my belt. I feel perfectly fine and I haven't been sick or anything. It's so weird that I only weigh 213 lbs. I haven't weighed that since like jr. year in high school. This week I ate my first thing really crazy, but I was warned about it before the mission so it wasn´t a huge surprise. I ate chicken foot soup. The soup was good and the foot is just kind of well like the skin of the chicken. There isn´t hardly anything to eat. At least I can say I ate it now :)
Well this Sunday/Monday we have the real transfers that are every 6 weeks. My companion keeps saying that he's going to leave and that I'm going to be a trainer, but we'll see. Also, transfers are the day of my companions birthday so we're having a family night at a members house that has a birthday the following week too. We have 2 baptisms planned for this week. One is what we call regalito (little gift) because he's 8 years old and it's a crazy situation that he lives with the parents of the Bishop so we're going to baptize him. I finally received all of the stuff from Christmas. It was all in Santo Domingo, but it finally got to the offices today. I'll find out what they say later because we're printing pictures right now in Quito. It's sweet to hear that there are a lot of missionaries in my home ward. My only suggestion is to start really studying the scriptures(especially the Book of Mormon) and Preach My Gospel. It will definetly help. I worried too much about the language. My suggestion to Nate is to do his papers now and write that he can't serve until June. That way he can return home with a whole summer to prepare for college after the mish. Well I'm glad to hear that everything is going good. I love you all so much.
Love,
Élder Hakes
Monday, January 18, 2010
Monday, January 11, 2010
Transfers
Wow this week was the craziest week yet. On Wednesday morning, Jan. 6, at about 9 AM we got a call that I have transfers. At 12 PM that same day I had to leave for Quito. Right now I´m in a town that´s a part of Quito (like Mesa is a part of Phoenix) called Conocoto. I´m also the senior companion. My new companion is called Élder Salmerón. He´s from Nicaragua and has 6 months in the mission. The problem is is that he only has 3 and a half weeks in this sector. We´re esentially white-washing (2 new missionaries that don´t know the sector). It´s pretty tough too because the companion that I´m replacing didn´t do anything. He slept in till 10 and went back to the house early at night. That means we didn´t have hardly any investigators when I got here. We only had about 4-5. As of right now we have 10 more and we´ll have a bunch more because we received 11 references from 1 lady in the ward. It was really hard too because the area book was a mess. The area book is where we have a record of every investigator and their progress, former investigators, future investigators, etc. The former companion didn´t do anything in the area book and the companionship before that only did a little bit. That was my project today and I fixed it (there were forms froms 2003).
It´s colder here in Quito. At night it gets pretty cold, I´d guess around 45-50 degrees. During the day it´s perfect and I love that it´s not humid. We´ve been working really hard and I´ve had some sweet experiences. I´ve been teaching a lot more with Élder Salmerón so my teaching and my Spanish has improved alot. All the members say I speak really good but I don´t believe them.
We contacted on the top of a mountain the other day. Our sector is huge. it goes from the top of one mountain down almost to the bottom of the valley. We went to a small neighborhood called San Andres. It took us about 15-20 minutes of walking after we took a bus to the top of the mountain. It was worth it because we have about 4 future investigators up there now. Well I love you all. Hope all is well.
Love,
Élder Hakes
It´s colder here in Quito. At night it gets pretty cold, I´d guess around 45-50 degrees. During the day it´s perfect and I love that it´s not humid. We´ve been working really hard and I´ve had some sweet experiences. I´ve been teaching a lot more with Élder Salmerón so my teaching and my Spanish has improved alot. All the members say I speak really good but I don´t believe them.
We contacted on the top of a mountain the other day. Our sector is huge. it goes from the top of one mountain down almost to the bottom of the valley. We went to a small neighborhood called San Andres. It took us about 15-20 minutes of walking after we took a bus to the top of the mountain. It was worth it because we have about 4 future investigators up there now. Well I love you all. Hope all is well.
Love,
Élder Hakes
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
January 4, 2010
Dear Family,
This week was pretty tough. New Years is a lot bigger than Christmas. That means that there were more drunks and more investigators and members that broke the Word of Wisdom. It was really tough when we went to talk to a part-member family that we've worked really hard with. The husband is a member and the wife wants to be baptized but they don't have money to get the papers for their wedding. They had been really strong until the holidays. We talked to the husband an the 1st and he was drunk. We cut him down pretty bad so we could get his attention and bring them back up the next day. That was really hard to watch because we visit them daily. The rules for New Years was we had to be in the apartment at 4 PM on 31 and we couldn't leave. That was really boring. On the 1st we couldn't contact people because they were all hungover or drunk. It was a tough 2 days. We couldn't do very much and all we could see is bad things. Almost all of our investigators drank during New Years. We're working with them now and teaching justice and mercy. It works really well when we tell them that they committed a horrible sin and they feel bad and then we tell them that they can repent. All-around it was a really hard week. Not much other news. Sounds like everyone had a great Christmas. For me it didn't feel like Christmas at all but that's ok, I'll give up 2 Christmas's for the Lord anyday :) I'd love to see pictures from all the families (Birtcher's, Gary and Lisa, Farnsworth's, Clark's, etc.) :)
We have really high goals for this month and as of right now there are 11 that I'm about 90% sure will be baptized in this month. We're praying really hard that they'll be able to be prepared for this. We're working like crazy too!!! I can't believe that I have 1 and a half transfers in the mission right now. The time is flying even faster now. Well I love you all Haz Lo Justo (Choose the Right in English).
Love,
Élder Hakes (Jeiks en Español) :)
This week was pretty tough. New Years is a lot bigger than Christmas. That means that there were more drunks and more investigators and members that broke the Word of Wisdom. It was really tough when we went to talk to a part-member family that we've worked really hard with. The husband is a member and the wife wants to be baptized but they don't have money to get the papers for their wedding. They had been really strong until the holidays. We talked to the husband an the 1st and he was drunk. We cut him down pretty bad so we could get his attention and bring them back up the next day. That was really hard to watch because we visit them daily. The rules for New Years was we had to be in the apartment at 4 PM on 31 and we couldn't leave. That was really boring. On the 1st we couldn't contact people because they were all hungover or drunk. It was a tough 2 days. We couldn't do very much and all we could see is bad things. Almost all of our investigators drank during New Years. We're working with them now and teaching justice and mercy. It works really well when we tell them that they committed a horrible sin and they feel bad and then we tell them that they can repent. All-around it was a really hard week. Not much other news. Sounds like everyone had a great Christmas. For me it didn't feel like Christmas at all but that's ok, I'll give up 2 Christmas's for the Lord anyday :) I'd love to see pictures from all the families (Birtcher's, Gary and Lisa, Farnsworth's, Clark's, etc.) :)
We have really high goals for this month and as of right now there are 11 that I'm about 90% sure will be baptized in this month. We're praying really hard that they'll be able to be prepared for this. We're working like crazy too!!! I can't believe that I have 1 and a half transfers in the mission right now. The time is flying even faster now. Well I love you all Haz Lo Justo (Choose the Right in English).
Love,
Élder Hakes (Jeiks en Español) :)
December 28, 2009
Dear family,
Wow this week was really weird. On Thursday we had to be in the house after 4 pm, except for 1 planned 1 hr dinner with a member family. On friday we had to be in the house at 6 PM and we couldn´t leave. Finally got to call home on friday too. It doesn´t feel like Christmas at all down here because it´s still around 80 degrees and humid. We had a baptism this week of a 9 year old boy. He´s the son of a recent convert so we found him taught him and baptized him. Diligence pays off :) We have another 10 year old for next week. This week I don't really have a whole lot to say because we didn't teach very much. We only had 7 lessons the whole week. I got to study a lot and I've got my scriptures marked how I want finally. There not complete but it's got what I need for right now. I really liked the 12 days of Christmas that you sent me. It was hilarious. It really brightened my day. It's been really rainy for the past few weeks. Yesterday was nuts. It started pouring when we were teaching a inactive and all the roofs here are metal. It was really loud so we were speaking very loud, but the Spirit was really strong. Right as we were ending the lesson the rain stopped. We walked to about 2 houses trying to set appointments and then we went to another appointment. Literally less than a minute inside the house it started pouring again. Yet again we had a really amazing lesson and we were talking really loud too. Yet again the rain stopped and we walked to the house. It rained for the rest of the night. There are 2 things that I learned from this experience. 1 we can still feel the Spirit when there are distractions that we can't avoid, 2 Heavenly Father blesses His missionaries so they don't have to be wet. It was a cool experience.
I kept the tradition alive of someone eating mexican food on Christmas. I made tacos and ate it with a jalepeño sauce that I found in the store here. It was amazing. I also made omlets for Christmas morning. They were awesome. I also made omlets this morning for us and the zone leaders. One of the Zone leaders is from mexico and he found jalapeños in a jar and we had those with the omlets. It was amazing. I'm having a great time here and thank you to all that sent me CHristmas e-mails. Sorry I can't write to everyone individually, but I really do appreciate it. Thanks for all that you do for me. Have fun in the dunes :)
Love,
Élder Hakes
P.S.
I should get my package on friday, finally.
Wow this week was really weird. On Thursday we had to be in the house after 4 pm, except for 1 planned 1 hr dinner with a member family. On friday we had to be in the house at 6 PM and we couldn´t leave. Finally got to call home on friday too. It doesn´t feel like Christmas at all down here because it´s still around 80 degrees and humid. We had a baptism this week of a 9 year old boy. He´s the son of a recent convert so we found him taught him and baptized him. Diligence pays off :) We have another 10 year old for next week. This week I don't really have a whole lot to say because we didn't teach very much. We only had 7 lessons the whole week. I got to study a lot and I've got my scriptures marked how I want finally. There not complete but it's got what I need for right now. I really liked the 12 days of Christmas that you sent me. It was hilarious. It really brightened my day. It's been really rainy for the past few weeks. Yesterday was nuts. It started pouring when we were teaching a inactive and all the roofs here are metal. It was really loud so we were speaking very loud, but the Spirit was really strong. Right as we were ending the lesson the rain stopped. We walked to about 2 houses trying to set appointments and then we went to another appointment. Literally less than a minute inside the house it started pouring again. Yet again we had a really amazing lesson and we were talking really loud too. Yet again the rain stopped and we walked to the house. It rained for the rest of the night. There are 2 things that I learned from this experience. 1 we can still feel the Spirit when there are distractions that we can't avoid, 2 Heavenly Father blesses His missionaries so they don't have to be wet. It was a cool experience.
I kept the tradition alive of someone eating mexican food on Christmas. I made tacos and ate it with a jalepeño sauce that I found in the store here. It was amazing. I also made omlets for Christmas morning. They were awesome. I also made omlets this morning for us and the zone leaders. One of the Zone leaders is from mexico and he found jalapeños in a jar and we had those with the omlets. It was amazing. I'm having a great time here and thank you to all that sent me CHristmas e-mails. Sorry I can't write to everyone individually, but I really do appreciate it. Thanks for all that you do for me. Have fun in the dunes :)
Love,
Élder Hakes
P.S.
I should get my package on friday, finally.
December 21, 2009
Ok I´m sending this one real quick because the power is about to go out and I probably won´t have too much time to send anything. The number is a land line and call here at noon Christmas day. Noon AZ time 3PM for me. The number is 005932759262. I think that is all you have to dial from the phone. We can only talk for 40 minutes maximum. Just say "puedo hablar con Élder Hakes" or you can just say Élder Hakes. It´s a house of a member. I love you all I´m going to start writing another letter
Love,¨
Élder Hakes
Half hour later.....
This might be just a bunch of jiberish but I´ll send it anyways. We had a baptism and I baptized her. Picture next week. We had little smokies with bbq sauce this week Send the family Christmas card please I love you all.
Élder Hakes
A few hours later....
Dear Family,
Well I found some more time. Élder Estrada had to go to Quito today for a District leaders meeting. I´m with some other missionaries for today and tomorrow. Sorry about the other letters. I was really rushed and wanted you to at least have something. This week was really good. I bought a CD player and that´s been really good to have for this week. There´s a big difference in the house when there´s music playing. I haven´t gotten any news on any package for me. I hope you sent it right. I think I fogot to tell you what President Sloan told us. He said send it to the mission office in Quito, it needs a green sticker, and don´t expedite it. If it´s more than 4-5 lbs. it will take a lot longer to get here. It was good to see the picture of the tree. I´m reaaly excited to watah the UofA bowl game, oh wait, they decided to be good when I´m in Ecuador. Oh well, I´m really not all that worried about it. THere´s too much to worry about here. We have a ton of planned baptisms for this next month. The goal is 11 right now. It´s very realistic too. We also have 2-3 this weekend. 1 hasn´t officially decided yet. She will tell us tomorrow or on wednesday.
I got the Ensign from conference and I saw something crazy in the pictures. On page 104 with the picture of the sister missionaries holding up signs look in the backround on the right hand side. Tell me who you think it looks like. This week I showed Élder Estrada li´l smokies and BBQ sauce and he really likes them. It´s really funny. We bought a ton of food for Christmas because we have to be locked in our house for most of the day. I think I´m going to buy a suit next week. It cost $60 for a suit (with pants). THe ones I have right now are to big. I can still wear them but I want another one too. It´ll have something special on it and I´ll send you a picture :) We had another baptism this week to. I baptized a 15 year-old girl. She's the younger sister of one of our other recent converts. It was a really cool experience with her because we found her taught her and baptized her. It was sweet too because she has a powerful testimony.
The ward here had their ward Christmas party on Saturday. THat was interesting. It started off with skits. We had 8 missionaries there and we did 3 skits. THey were all pretty funny. The young men here did a skit very similar to the Birtcher family. A skit where the director doesn't like what there doing and he keeps telling them to do it faster or slower or with more emotion. It was hilarious and I have it all recorded on my camera. After that they had a dance. THat's when we left. First off, we're not allowed to dance as missionaries and secondly, I didn't think the music they were playing was appropriate for a ward activity. It's all good though because we left. I really like the new house we have. A lot cleaner and a lot less bugs. The Spanish is coming easier everyday. I can teach about anything now, I just need to study more. I feel like I don't know the lessons very well. That's what I've been focusing on in my studies this week. Well I'll be waiting for your call on friday. 12 PM (noon) AZ time. I'm about 99% sure that the number is 005932769262. If it doesn't work try 005932759262. If I don't get your call I'll call you and then have you call back. If it ends up being on the 26th I'll call then if I have too (if all else fails). We'll make sure that we talk. Well I love you all. Have a Merry CHRISTmas!!!!
Love,
Élder Hakes
Love,¨
Élder Hakes
Half hour later.....
This might be just a bunch of jiberish but I´ll send it anyways. We had a baptism and I baptized her. Picture next week. We had little smokies with bbq sauce this week Send the family Christmas card please I love you all.
Élder Hakes
A few hours later....
Dear Family,
Well I found some more time. Élder Estrada had to go to Quito today for a District leaders meeting. I´m with some other missionaries for today and tomorrow. Sorry about the other letters. I was really rushed and wanted you to at least have something. This week was really good. I bought a CD player and that´s been really good to have for this week. There´s a big difference in the house when there´s music playing. I haven´t gotten any news on any package for me. I hope you sent it right. I think I fogot to tell you what President Sloan told us. He said send it to the mission office in Quito, it needs a green sticker, and don´t expedite it. If it´s more than 4-5 lbs. it will take a lot longer to get here. It was good to see the picture of the tree. I´m reaaly excited to watah the UofA bowl game, oh wait, they decided to be good when I´m in Ecuador. Oh well, I´m really not all that worried about it. THere´s too much to worry about here. We have a ton of planned baptisms for this next month. The goal is 11 right now. It´s very realistic too. We also have 2-3 this weekend. 1 hasn´t officially decided yet. She will tell us tomorrow or on wednesday.
I got the Ensign from conference and I saw something crazy in the pictures. On page 104 with the picture of the sister missionaries holding up signs look in the backround on the right hand side. Tell me who you think it looks like. This week I showed Élder Estrada li´l smokies and BBQ sauce and he really likes them. It´s really funny. We bought a ton of food for Christmas because we have to be locked in our house for most of the day. I think I´m going to buy a suit next week. It cost $60 for a suit (with pants). THe ones I have right now are to big. I can still wear them but I want another one too. It´ll have something special on it and I´ll send you a picture :) We had another baptism this week to. I baptized a 15 year-old girl. She's the younger sister of one of our other recent converts. It was a really cool experience with her because we found her taught her and baptized her. It was sweet too because she has a powerful testimony.
The ward here had their ward Christmas party on Saturday. THat was interesting. It started off with skits. We had 8 missionaries there and we did 3 skits. THey were all pretty funny. The young men here did a skit very similar to the Birtcher family. A skit where the director doesn't like what there doing and he keeps telling them to do it faster or slower or with more emotion. It was hilarious and I have it all recorded on my camera. After that they had a dance. THat's when we left. First off, we're not allowed to dance as missionaries and secondly, I didn't think the music they were playing was appropriate for a ward activity. It's all good though because we left. I really like the new house we have. A lot cleaner and a lot less bugs. The Spanish is coming easier everyday. I can teach about anything now, I just need to study more. I feel like I don't know the lessons very well. That's what I've been focusing on in my studies this week. Well I'll be waiting for your call on friday. 12 PM (noon) AZ time. I'm about 99% sure that the number is 005932769262. If it doesn't work try 005932759262. If I don't get your call I'll call you and then have you call back. If it ends up being on the 26th I'll call then if I have too (if all else fails). We'll make sure that we talk. Well I love you all. Have a Merry CHRISTmas!!!!
Love,
Élder Hakes
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