June 21, 2010

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for all of the e-mails that you sent me. They make me feel like I´m at home....kind of :) This week was an amazing week for us. We were definitely led by the Spirit to some new families. We were able to find 30 new people just in this week. We were led by the Spirit to a 19 year old kid that 2 days after we met him he went to church and he´s reading the Book of Mormon. He wants to know more and he is very receptive. We also found a couple and their cousins that live in the same house that also said that they want to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. They said that they wanted to learn more first before they get baptized :) About 2 weeks ago, we finished teching a lesson and we were going to take a bus to go to a different place. When we were about to turn on a street to go to the bus stop I had a thought about a person that we were teaching that really wasn´t that intrested. I didn´t know why I thought that. I half-way wanted to just go down to the bus. I said no and we went to this not-so-intrested investigators house. When we got there this time she just told us to go away that she´s not interested (we were visiting her in her store). She was with a customer and the customer said hold on a sec. I want you to talk with me and my family. We were very surprised and we said ok. We went and got to know her husband and 2 children right then and there. This family has been prepared for a long time. They now have a baptisimal date for July 3 and they are changing a lot. They read from the Book of Mormon and from the new Gospel Principles manual that we received this year. I will be eternally grateful that I decided to follow a thought that I thought was a dumb thought becasue 4 of God´s children will be able to return to live with him again.

This week we went to the Equator again. We went to a different spot than last time. This is supposed to be the real Ecuator line. They had some really cool stuff. They had water fall in the North and in the South and on the Ecuator. It was way cool because it went opposite directions and on the Ecuator it went straight down. There´s also less resistance on the Ecuator. He had me put my hands out and he tried pulling my arms down. Away from the Ecuator he couldn´t do it but on the Ecuator he did it pretty easily. It was pretty crazy. We also balanced an egg on a nail. They also had some cool stuff from the Orient, the Amazon Jungle. It was way cool to learn about all this new stuff.

Well I just want to share my testimony with all of you I know that the church is true. The Gospel makes changes in the lives of the people here. I love being a missionary. I can´t believe that I´m going to turn 20 years old this week. Thank you so much for all that all of you have taught me in my life. I´m so grateful for each and every one of you.
I love you all so very much.
Love, Élder Hakes