Dear Family,
Wow! What a crazy first week as zone leader. There are a lot more things that we have to do that I didn´t know about. I forgot what it was like to be in a new sector. I am adjusting really well though. It was nice to come in and have 2 baptisms in the first week. It was really crazy when one of them asked me to baptize them. Their names are Alejandro Morocho and Rosa Ugsha. It was a really neat experience. We had a pretty amazing day yesterday too. Normally during a day we have about 4 lessons and 2 or 3 new investigators. Yesterday we had 6 lessons and 7 new investigators and our time was a little shorter because of church. It was really cool. We also taught someone who I had contacted on the bus and we had an amazing experience. On Friday we had our Leaders Counsel with all of the leaders in the whole mission. President Sloan talked about taking the fear of contacting out of this mission. I´m not going to lie, I was one of the missionaries that had this fear, just a little bit. When we were going home my companion and I set the goal to have 5 contacts in the 2 buses we had to take. I was really nervous for some reason. Satan didn´t want me to talk with these people. I did 2 contacts on the 1st bus and I had an amazing contact on the last bus. I shared pretty much everything with him. I shared about the Book of Mormon, the First Vision, Baptism, etc. It was an amazing contact. Yesterday we passed by the house of this contact from the 2nd bus. We taught him all of the 1st lesson and he was extremely receptive. He had a couple doubts but we shared some scriptures and he said that it all makes sense and that he likes it. We left a Book of Mormon with him and he asked us if he could read more that the little part that we showed him. We told him of course and he said that he will pray to know as well. I´m really excited to go back on Wednesday to see how he´s doing. I am so grateful that I overcame my little fear of talking because he probably never would have heard of the gospel if I hadn´t talked with him. It was an amazingly spiritual Experience.
This week is going to be really awesome. We have a conference with Elder Nash. He´s the Area President for our area here in Ecuador. I´m really excited to hear him speak. After the conference, all of the Zone Leaders have a special meeting with him afterwards. I´m really excited about that too. It should be a really good experience.
We had a plaza presentation on Saturday. I put some pictures of it in this e-mail. As a zone we all went to a park and we contacted people. We have 4 signs that have a picture and a question on each side. It was really cool to get to know more people. It will really help our missionaries. We are also going to have another one this Saturday. I´m really excited.



I also had a nice surprise yesterday at church. Sacrament meeting had just finished and I was putting my stuff away when I look up and see Brother Sowards with a big smile on his face. I´m not going to lie, I was speechless. It was pretty crazy to see a member from my ward in Ecuador. He was visiting Ecuador and he thought he´d pass by and visit me. He also delivered my new scriptures from my family. I was very grateful for that. I just had one crazy day yesterday. This whole week has been crazy and I love it :)



My new companion´s name is Elder Christopher Rodríguez and he´s from Quayaquil. He´s got 13 months in the mission and has been my Zone leader for about 3 months. Now we´re companions. He´s 5´5" and he likes jogging to keep up with me :) He´s a really good missionary. He teaches from the heart and he knows the scriptures very well. He teaches kind of like me except for he´s smarter. I will learn a lot from him. I´ll be sure to send a picture of us next week.
Well family you got a really good letter this week. I love you all so much. I´m so thankful for all of the letters that I´ve received from each and every one of you. Love you all.



Love,
Élder Hakes

April 19, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was really crazy. I actually had a pretty tough time because I couldn´t work in my sector. It´s tough being with 2 people that don´t want to work hard. I´m glad that I have a companion now. Well, I have another new assignment. I´m a zone leader now. I don´t know why but I am. I only had to move across the street. The ward is called Salvador Celi. It´s kind of exciting but a little bit scary too. I´m just a little nervous because I´m so new and I am responsible for 22 missionaries now. My companion´s name is Elder Rodríguez. He´s from Quayaquil and has 13 months in the mission. That means that we´re both fairly new at being zone leaders. I´m nervous but I know that I´ll be alright and that Heavenly Father will help me know what to do. This last weekend a companionship in my district had 4 baptisms and we went. It was an amazing baptisimal service. THere were about 30-40 people there and the Spirit was so strong. During the service, one of my misionaries asked me to sing during the baptism I told him ok. I sang the first solo in my life. I´m not going to lie, I´d rather play in another state championship football game than do that again. I was way nervous. I did ok though, I think :) Well I love you family. I hope all is going well and I can´t wait to talk to you on May 9th!!!!

Love,
Élder Hakes

April 12, 2010

Dear Family,
Wow, this week was really tough. I learned a ton though. It´s been really hard the last couple of weeks. My old companion, Elder Rivas went home. I know a lot of the details but I´m not going to share them. It´s been really hard on me too because I had to take him to Quito and I spent about all of my time sitting. I can only study for so long I found out. I always want to study more during the week but after 2 hours I´m pretty sleepy. Right now I´m with 2 Elders in my district that have problems, Elder Stieber and Elder Lopez. I´m trying to help them and it´s been hard so far. It´s hard also because I have to work in Conocoto but I can only go for a couple of hours during the week. I´m going to lose a lot of investigators and that´s really sad. I did have some good experiences too though. I had some crazy baptism interviews this week. I had 2 interviews with sisters. They were exact opposites. They both have to talk with the mission President and only one is ready to do it. The first interview was really weird. I din´t like it at all because from the moment we started I knew she wasn´t going to pass. She didn´t have a testimony hardly at all. The second sister however was an amazing experience. She is ready to baptized. I also knew it from the beginning. She also has to talk with President SLoan but she´s ready to do it. She is very humble and she has a strong testimony of the church and she has a ton of faith. It was an amazing experience.
This week we were visiting a family of the other Elders and I found someone that reminded me of Cooper. That is one personality that I thought I would never find here in Ecuador. He is about 6 years old and he´s hilarious. We were teaching him and his family and he wasn´t paying attention so we asked him if he understood. After that in the same sing-song voice that Cooper has he said I don´t understand anything. I got a really good laugh out of that one. This little kid is called Galo. It was a pretty funny experience too.
Another bad thing happened this week too. After my companion and I received the news that he´s going home we got on the bus and were an the way home. There was some guy there that had lived in New York before so he was acting like a gangster and he thought he was all cool. I eventually decided that I wasn´t going to talk to him because it was really annoying. He just kept cussing and saying very ina propriate things in English. I was so annoyed and distracted that I left my English scriptures in the bus. I was pretty sad because that´s one of the few things that I really want here in Ecuador. It was also all marked up and had a lot of notes in it. It hurt to lose it. Right now I´m studying from a Book of Mormon that a missionary has here. Luckily he had one in english or I´d be studying everything in Spanish.
Well I´ve had some pretty rough experiences this week. I feel right now like the Lord is preparing me for something. I just hope I´ll be prepared for it. There are transfers on Sunday so we´ll see what happens. I love you all and I´m so grateful for all the blessings that I have received from each and every one of you.



Love,
Élder Hakes


......I almost forgot. I had a baptism this weekend. His name is Luis Olmedo Lopez Mora. He´s a little bit slow and it took some time to get him ready but he did it. He has a really strong testimony and he lives next door to the Bishop and they´ve been helping him a ton. He is all for enduring to the end and not listening to what others tell him about the church. It´s really awesome. I have baptized my 5th person here in the mission. That´s pretty exciting!!!

I don´t know how to explain Quito. It is really high in the mountains and there are mountains on every side. These last feew weeks it has been raining pretty hard. Everyday it rains now. It´s a nice chnge. I think the easiest way to show you what Quito´s like is that you come here when I have to leave. I´ve been growing a lot during the mission. I can´t beleive how skinny I am now. I hadn´t really looked a myself in the mirrior and it kind of hit me this week. I felt like Brent. It was weird :)

April 5, 2010

Dear Family,
Wow this week was pretty crazy. It´s called Semana Santa. It´s really just another reason for people to drink and have vacations. It was really amazing watching the General Conference. It´s a lot different when you know about the scriptures they share. I learned so much. I only took 20 pages of notes this time :) I really liked how the whole conference focuse and families and strengthening the youth and children. It was amazing listening to the prophet´s voice again. It has a power that is very amazing. We´re preparing an investigator to be baptized this weekend. He´s really excited and we are too!!! Today was a really fun day. We had our zone activity and as you can see we went to some cascadas(waterfalls for you non-spanish speakers)!!! It´s about an hour long hike in there after all 20 of us traveled for an hour in the back of a small pick-up. It was way fun. We were literaly walking through the jungle and I took a ton of pictures. Well I love all of you. Can´t wait to write you next week.


Love,
Élder Hakes

March 29, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was pretty crazy. We had transfers. I´m still here in Conocoto but I have a new companion. His name is Elder Rivas. He´s from Guatemala and he has 14 months in the mission. It´s kind of weird that I keep getting missionaries that have more time then me. Something actually happened with him and his old companion. He was a zone leader for like 5-6 months. I got a call last monday after I had written you and we went to the office. President Sloan was having an interview with him. Everyone in the office spoke only spanish except Elder Purnell, President Sloan and I. President Sloan told me, "I´m giving you this companion because I trust you. I know that you´ll protect him." President Sloan has a lot of trust in my right now. I didn´t realize it until this transfer. Elder Rivas is an amazing missionary. He has helped me a ton. With Elder Purnell I kind of felt like I was going backwards but with him I learn something new everyday. He teaches very well and I´m really excited to be his companion. This week was a little crazy. I had to do a lot of Baptismal Interviews and none of them passed. It´s pretty crazy thinking that I have the authority to authorize someone to be baptized. I know that it´s not me that does it but it´s still so crazy. Yesterday we had a really cool experience. We had an appointment with a family of 5 and we showed up and they said they had some of their family over. It ended up that we taught about 20 people at one time. It was the craziest thing ever and the Spirit was so strong. We invited all of them to go General Conference this weekend and it sounds like a lot of them will go (about10-12). It was an amazing experience to see all those people and to testify of Christ. I never would have though just 2 years ago that I´d be able to teach the gospel to 20 people in Spanish, but it´s really not hard at all with faith and love for the people. I´m going to miss this ward a lot. THey have helped us a ton and the investigators are really amazing.
This weekend is going to be amazing!! We are so blessed that we have the opportunity to listen to a prophet and 12 apostles called of God. It´s amazing that I can be thousands of miles from Utah and I will be able to listen to conference in English. I hope that we can all be prepared to listen to these words and counsel that we will receive. I love you all family. Good luck with all that you do.


Love,
Élder Hakes