January 22, 2011

An old investigator of mine got baptized in Los Chillos so I went to the baptism today. Her husband baptized her and it was a great experience.


Dear Family,
I think the weeks are going by faster :) I can´t believe that I´m writing you guys again. Well this week we had a ton of trainings. Otavalo was beautiful as usual. I went to a small town outside of Otavalo called Cotacachi for divisions with the Zone Leaders. It was pretty sweet. The people that we taught and contacted all spoke kichwa (the native language there). They all spoke Spanish too but their main language is kichwa. It was pretty sweet. We had some good experiences talking with everyone and with their investigators too. It was a fun trip. The training went really well too. President changed his part a little bit and he basically set us up perfectly for our part of the training. The Spirit was a lot stronger and it was awesome.
On Thursday and Friday we had more trainings here in Quito. They all went really well and we had to wait a long time after each one because President is interviewing all of the missionaries here in the mission. We have to close the chapel so we were there for a while. Yesterday we had a pretty crazy experience though. We left to do some things in the offices and when we got back some zone leaders told us that one of their missionaries had passed out on the bus at that he was sitting at some bus stop. We were pretty close so we left our stuff and we ran to the stop. We couldn´t find him when we got there. We called the zone leaders and they told us that we were in the right place and then we started looking again. After a while and after asking everyone if they had seen him we called the zone leaders again and they told us a different place that was pretty close by. We took a bus and we finally found them. He was crashed on a seat in the bus stop. He was really pale but he could move around so we took him to the chapel. He turned out to be alright but he stayed the night at our house last night. We had 7 people in our house last night because there was a missionary that had his appendix taken out on Sunday night/Monday morning. It was really crazy in our apartment last night.
Well, the Taco family didn´t get baptized this week. The dad had to go to Guayaquil for work this weekend. I feel kind of dumb saying this week after week but they´ll get baptized this weekend. Our zone is going to have a lot of baptisms this week so we´re going to have all of the baptisms in the stake center. It will be a white out :) I´m excited for it.
Thank you for everything that you do for me. I´m so grateful for all that you guys have done for me and for making me who I am. I love you all so much.






Love,
Élder Hakes






Pictures:

January 15, 2011

Dear Family,
What a crazy week!!!! I was back in the heat again!! This week went really, really well :) Yesterday, my companion and I got back from Santo Domingo and Esmeraldas. We had some really good experiences with the missionaries there. In Esmeraldas I went with a missionary that has been in the same sector for 6 months and his last companion got him really discouraged. He doesn´t have any faith anymore in that sector. We talked about it a little bit in the study that we had and in an hour we found 2 new families (15 people in total). He was really surprised and instead of learning from it he just said that they won´t progress. I feel like what I did should have helped him. I could have done better but it surprised me that he didn´t change. The sad part of it all is that he´s a Zone Leader and he´s kind of passed it on to his zone. When he asked me what I thought that he could do better, I told him to have faith that any person can get baptized. He answered "but if they have to get married?" (basically everyone has to get married but doesn´t want to in Esmeraldas) It´s tough to see a missionary like that. I just hope that whenever he gets changed he can get rid of that attitude because it´s really bringing him down.
In Santo Domingo I got to go with some missionaries to visit their investigators that had baptismal dates for today. It was a really good experience. They´re both really good missionaries but sometimes they´re going around in circles when they teach. They don´t get to the point very fast. It was a good opportunity to help them teach more effectively. It was kind of funny because in the first house of investigators they took a picture with me. It´s probably because I´m so tall ha ha. I loved being in Santo Domingo again :)
So the Taco family will get baptized on the January 22, next week. They weren´t able to go to church last week because the Dad had to work. This week they´ve already confirmed that they´re going to go. We´re going to announce everything tomorrow in Sacrament meeting and we´ll make sure to have a lot of members there with them. They are a lot more excited now. President Sloan came up with a new idea and it has really helped a lot. We were kind of pilot testing the idea and it really worked. It´s a paper that has stairs that go from the bottom left to the top right and have things that an investigator has to do to be ready for baptism (desire, believe, experiment, obey, testimony, baptism). We also have a place where the investigators can track their reading in the Book of Mormon and their prayers. The Taco family was really excited when they saw it and it has helped them to progress and to be more excited for their goal :)
Well next week I´ll be in Otavalo again :) I´m excited to go back. We´re going to go on splits again and I´ll be going to a place that I´ve never been to before. Well I love you all. Thank you so much for all that you do for me. I love this great work. It is such a privilege to be among the Lamanites here in Ecuador. I´m so grateful for the things that I have learned since I´ve been here. I love you all. Thank you for always supporting me :)






Love,
Élder Hakes

January 8, 2011

Dear Family,
This week was pretty crazy!! We had soooo many meetings. On Tuesday all of the new missionaries arrived safe and sound. They are all with their trainers now. We had some very spiritual meetings and trainings with the trainers and the new missionaries. On Wednesday we had Zone Leader´s Council. It went really well too. We were able to present the new process of following up baptismal goals and investigators. It was amazing. On Thursday and Friday we had meetings with all of the leaders in the entire mission. I was glad that we could talk with the District Leaders. The District Leaders now have a bad culture of just doing everything that their Zone Leaders say and they don´t think for themselves at all. We were very direct with them and they were excited when they left. They all had some pretty good ideas and were going to use them now. I´m really excited to see how this new process is going to be implemented in the zones. We talked to them more about ministering than administering. A lot of Zone Leaders have the culture of worrying too much about paper work and not enough about what their missionaries are actually doing. All of the leaders opened their eyes up a little bit. We´re really excited to see what happens over the next few weeks and months :)
This week we´re going to the heat again. We´ll be in Esmeraldas on Wednesday and Thursday and in Santo Domingo on Friday. We´re excited to go and work with the missionaries in their own sectors on splits this month. I´m excited to go traveling again. It feels like it´s been so long. This round of trainings my companion and I will be doing most of the trainings because President Sloan will be interviewing all of the missionaries in the mission during the month. We´re excited to get back to teaching again. President has done almost everything in the past 2 months.
Well the Taco Family is doing really well. They´ve been coming to church and they are ready for their baptism next Saturday. We´ll have to get the secretaries to visit them so they can keep progressing while we´re out of town. I´m so excited that they´re finally going to get baptized!!!!
I love you all. Thank you for your love and care for me. I´m still receiving Christmas cards and packages. Thank you for remembering me. I love you all!!!!






Love,
Élder Hakes

January 1, 2011

Dear Family,
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!! I can't believe it's 2011 already! Time has gone by so fast. So I just wanted you to know that I've been a little bit sick this week. It was just a head cold but I've been staying with the Geldmacher's (a senior couple here) because President wants me to be in perfect health for this month. I think he's overreacted a little bit but oh well. I got to have new year with all of the senior couples.
So this year I learned a lot of weird Ecuador traditions that they have during New Years Eve.
1. Everyone drinks and dances the night away (I guess that's not completely weird)
2. There are a lot of young men that cross dress and stop cars until they give them money
3. There are other young men that stand on each side of the road and hold a rope between
them stopping cars. They don't let them by until they get money.
4. Everyone buys paper mache figures and/or masks and burns them. It represents burning
the old year away. My favorite was the one with Hillary Clinton being a puppeteer of all the
presidents of South America he he he :)

We could see all of these things happening from the window in the Geldmacher's apartment. I couldn't get any good pictures though because it was so dark and the camera didn't pick any light up. Elder Geldmacher told me that at midnight Quito looks like a war zone as soon as the clock strikes 12 because of all the fireworks. He was the only one that stayed up to watch them :) It was a fun New Years :)
So today we had Juan Carlos Montalvo's baptism!!!! It was such a good baptismal service. There were a couple of musical numbers and he had all of his member friends there. I had the privelige of baptizing him. He was so happy!!! They asked him to share his testimony after he got baptized and it was powerful. He compared his conversion process to climbing a mountain and that my companion and I were like his guides. He also said that this is only the first mountain and that there many more that are much taller. He understands and has goals to go to the temple. I'm so excited for him!!! He is a reference from Norma (my convert). They seem like very good friends so hopefully they get married :) That would be an amazing blessing!!!
So this week is going to be pretty crazy. We have 4 new missionaries arriving, ZL Council, and 2 All of the Leaders meetings this week. It's going to be a fun week :) Well I'm so grateful for the many blessings that I received in 2010. It was an excellent year. I definitely progressed more in this last year than in any other year before. I've learned so much and I've had some amazing experiences. I'm so grateful for each of you that have influenced my life. Thank you for helping me to be who I am. In my Patriarchal blessing it talks about how I have the opportunity to know and be associated with great and honorable people. You are those people. Thank you for everything.



Love,
Elder Hakes

December 25, 2010

A gift from some members

A Ken Hakes Family tradition....making omelettes on Christmas morning

His comp Christmas morning

Their Christmas Tree

An Ecuadoran tradition at Christmas time




No offical letter from David today,

BUT we LOVED talking to him via Skype today.

He was able to show us some pictures from his camera and talk to us about them. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to see his face and hear his voice!!!!

December 18, 2010

pictures of us ice skating (My comp is in the white shirt)





picture of my comp and I in the mission home


Dear Family,
Well this week has been amazing!!!! On Wednesday Elder Morales and Elder Duarte went home. They´re enjoying their families right now. It´s so weird thinking that they have already left. So I have a new companion now. His name is Elder Arellano. He´s from Mexico City, Mexico and he has 21 months in the mission. We have gotten along amazingly well. I feel a lot more comfortable around him than I did with my old companion. President has noticed the difference too and is really happy about it. We´ve been able to teach together a few times now and it has gone really, really well :)
This week we finally got to go back with our families that we´ve been teaching. They´ve missed us and they have all said that they´re going to try to go to church on Sunday so we´re excited for that. Last night we did something special for each of our families. The 4 of us, Vomocil, Di Natale, Arellano and I, went and sang Christmas Carols with our families. We would sing a hymn and then we would read part of Lucas 2 and then we´d sing another song and then go back to Lucas 2. It was an awesome experience that we had. Each of our families were able to feel the Christmas Spirit :)
Today we had another really fun p-day. We went ice skating!!! My new companion has been in Quito for most of his mission and he knew about it so we went :) It was kind of funny because Elder Di Natale (the new secretary) had never gone before and wouldn´t leave the wall. My companion was way good and Elder Vomocil and I did alright :) After going ice skating we went and played laser tag (in the same place). It was kind of funny because they split the 4 of us up into 2 teams and they put 3 little kids on each of our teams. We had a lot of fun doing that as well. Mine and Elder Di Natale´s team won :)
Well sorry that this letter is so short. We have a talent show in the ward in a little bit and we´re participating :) I love you all and I´m grateful for all that you do for me. Remember Christ in this Christmas season. This is the time to share the great joy that our Lord and Savior was born and that he lived a perfect life so we can get back to our Father. Thank you all for your love and support.


Love,
Elder Hakes