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
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