July 26, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was really weird. My companion and I were sick the whole week. It´s just a cold so it´s annoying us while we work. The only day we didn´t work was on Wednesday because I had a fever. I´m doing a lot better now. I only have a cough now.

Our sector isn´t doing so well now. With all the meetings we´ve had and with being sick, our sector kind of got destroyed. We want to get back to it but this week we have 3 straight days of meetings.

There are changes in all the missions in all the world and we´re going to talk about it starting tomorrow. We don´t know what´s going to change but we´re excited to see what it is.

This Sunday was way sweet. 6 of the people that I baptized and their families came to church yesterday. It was the first time that we had all of them there at the same time because they are all relatives. It was way cool because there were like 20 of them there. Here in South America, a ward with 100 people is pretty good. 1/5 of the ward is this family now. It was way cool. Germán Castellanos, the father of the family of 4, came to church in a white shirt and tie and blessed the sacrament. That was a really cool experience too!!! It is really awesome that I can watch these families progress towards the temple. If all goes well, before I leave there will be 20+ people that go to the temple (including the little kids that will be sealed to their parents). I want to see that. That would be the real blessing for me.

I love this work. It is such a blessing to be here. I have the wonderful opportunity to help so many people everyday. If I were to count up how many contacts I´ve done since I´ve been in the mission it would be over 1,000. It´s amazing that I´ve talked with over 1,000 Ecuadorians and helped them in some way. It is so important that we don´t waste our time. There really isn´t enough of it. We must always be helping people in every single moment or we will be wasting time. I´m not only talking about me as a missionary. I´m talking about people in general. We must always be ready to serve or it´s already too late. I love this work and I know that it is true. The Lord is on my side everyday. He leads me where I need to go. He has molded me into a different, better person. Thank you for all that you guys have done for me. Each and every one of you are a blessing in my life.



Love,
Élder Hakes