June 20, 2011

Half of the Quigla family at the activity

The other half of the Quigla family

Victor Quigla preparing for the 3 legged race with Rosa his daughter-in-law (Segundo´s wife)
Victor Quigla (Jr.) winning the sack hop race at the Father´s Day activity

Segundo Quigla (in orange) in the sack race


Victor Quigla (Jr.) with his wife Angela dancing and balancing a tomato
Me with a member who sang at the activity and the Relief Society President


José Luis Quigla and his sister-in-law Rosa (Segundo´s wife) dancing and balancing a tomato

Dear Family,
This week was so crazy!!!! It went by so fast to. On Tuesday we had the last training with President and Sister Sloan. That was really weird. I can´t believe that they are leaving. Where has the time gone. It was kind of sad at the training because they have changed the lives of so many of us. They surprised us and President hugged all the Hermanas and Hermana Sloan hugged all the Elders. That was kind of weird. They end their mission on June 30. President Ghent will be here on the 30th too. It´ll be interesting being with another President for a month and a half, but I´m excited to get to know him. Supossedly he´s taller than I am. We´ll see :)
This week I basically went from sector to sector here in the zone. I was helping other missionaries the whole week. On Wednesday I was in Los Alamos with Elder Barrera, Thursday in La Joya with Elder Stange, Friday in Guaranda (2 hrs. from Riobamba) with Elder Cruz, and Saturday in La Joya with Elder Montalvo. It was a crazy week but I learned a lot and I felt that I was helping the zone out. We got a lot done and we´re seeing a lot of progress now in the zone.
My companion did amazing in our sector this week too. We found another 4 new families and 3 of them have baptismal dates and went to church this week!!!!!!! We had 15 people at church this week and we´re going to have 4 baptisms this weekend!!!! Finally!! :) Next week, July 2, we have planned 10 baptisms and they have all gone to church and are really excited!!!!! I am so amazed at all the blessings that our Heavenly Father is giving to us now. In the zone (6 companionships) we have 22 people planned to be baptized on July 2. It is almost unbelievable for me but I know that we can do it now. We just have to follow-up well with them.
Well, I got some crazy news this week. They changed my release date. I´ll be coming home August 12th instead of the 19th. Now I´ll have at least a week before I have to take off to school again :) I have a lot to do before I go home too. I have a lot more to learn and to teach before my time will end. I am so grateful for this great work. My time as a missionary has been and is the best time of my life up till now. I have learned so much and I have received so much. If we don´t want to share the Gospel with others we don´t understand the Atonement personally in our lives. Of course we will all have a little bit of fear at first but when we share we are blessed and we feel more love for our Savior and Redeemer. Share the Gospel with everyone!!!! We all need it so much and it is just selfish to keep it to ourselves. I love you all so much. Thank you so much for all that you have done for me in my life. I have learned so much and I am who I am because of each of you. Read the Book of Mormon everyday and pray with all your heart at all times. Partake of the Sacrament with real intent and remember the covenants that we make at baptism. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!



Love,
Élder Hakes

June 13, 2011

Investigators that moved to Guayaquil


Me droping a tomatoe in a game we had in the branch family night against Pres. Luna (1st counselor in the District Presidency)

My companion and I making burritos in an Elder´s quorum activity

Us studying with other missionaries

A light pole in the middle of the street

Investigators that moved to Guayaquil

Dear Family,
This week was amazing!!!!!! The Lord has blessed us so much. I have seen more miracles this week than in my whole time here in Riobamba. We started working really hard and we are already seeing the blessings. This week we found 4 new families. They are all so amazing. On Tuesday we found a family of 10, the parents and 8 kids (they have another kid but he lives in another city). Their name is the Quigla family and 7 of the 10 are in baptismal age. They live a little bit outside of the city but it´s not too far away. They are very humble. All of them live in 2 bedrooms and a kitchen. They have been so kind to us because they feel blessed to have people there at their house sharing the gospel with them. The thing is that we feel so blessed to be able to know and to share with them too. We have a lot of love for each other. They have been making sacrifices to be able to live the Gospel. This week they couldn´t all go to church because they had to work and some other things that they had already planned before they met us, but they have already told their boss that they won´t be working next Sunday so they can all go to church. They are such an amazing family!!!
On Wednesday we contacted a reference that other Elders gave us. We went and his whole family was there. There are 5 people in the family, mom, dad, and 3 girls (2 of the girls are in baptismal age). Their name is the Parra Rodríguez family. This week they couldn´t go to church either because they had already planned to visit their family, but they already have made plans to go to church next week. They are such a great family.
On Wednesday we also got to know the wife and 2 kids of the second oldest son in the family Quigla. His wife is amazing. On Thursday, Saturday and Sunday she went with all the little kids to the Branch Family Night, the Primary activity, and Sacrament meeting. She is really excited and her husband is progressing too!!! I love this family!!!!!!!!!!!
On Sunday morning before we went to church, we contacted a reference from other missionaries. It was a family of 5, the Pilco Pintag family. The dad had an accident about a year ago. He fell of a cliff that was about 4 stories tall. The doctors don´t understand how he lived. He is in a wheelchair now because he´s paralyzed from the waist down. On Sunday he had enough faith to get out of bed and let us help him get into his wheelchair and go to church with his 2 sons (9 and 11 yrs. old). He went for 2 hours of church and he told us that a lot of his pain went away and that he felt a lot of peace that he hasn´t felt in a long time. He has plates and screws in his back so he had to go home after the 2nd hour to rest but he really enjoyed it. His sons did too. His daughter and wife went to their land that they have outside of the city and couldn´t go this week but she was surprised with her husband so she´s going to go next week with the whole family!!!!
We are seeing so many blessings here in Riobamba now. The missionaries are more excited now and we are working harder than ever. It is such a blessing to be a servant of the Lord. He blesses us so much. I am grateful for the power of the Atonement in my life. I need it everyday. I love this work. I love being a missionary. I have such little time left to do so much. I need to keep working like I did this week. I love you all so much!!!!!



Love,
Élder Hakes

June 6, 2011

Dear Family,
Well this week went by way too fast. We went to Quito on Monday for ZL Council and we came back on Wednesday. Elder Alcívar went to Quito yesterday and he´s going home tomorrow morning. He got really trunky at the end. On Saturday we had our mini-zone conference. It went really well. We weren´t very sure what we should talk about because there are quite a few challenges that we are going through right now. We decided just to focus on one thing and it turned out really well. The Spirit was so strong during the whole conference. Everyone, including us, had a duh moment. It was really good. The spirit was so strong.
This week I had a really specially fast too. I think it was the first time that I had real intent when I went into the fast. I was so worried about the zone and the missionaries and I felt a little bit lost. I didn´t know exactly what I needed to do. I decided to focus on the zone during the fast and I was praying for them during the whole thing. I received so much revelation about what we need to do and what I need to change in myself so the zone can progress. I´m excited for my new companion, Elder Albino from Uruguay, and the work that we´re going to do. I love this work so much. I have learned so many things and I continue to learn new things everyday. Thank you for your good examples and for the advice that you have given and give me. I learned that I need to trust in the Lord with all my heart and not lean unto my own understanding so the Lord can direct my paths (Prov. 3:5-6).


Love,
Élder Hakes

PS My companion's name is Elder Albino and he´s from Uruguay. He was in the 1st group that I received as an assistant ha ha :) President nicknamed him the energizer bunny so I´m excited to work with him. He´ll get here to Riobamba in about an hour. He came from Santo Domingo from heat to cold. Hopefully he doesn´t get sick :)

May 30, 2011

Dear Family,
Well this week was pretty crazy. We had some exchanges and we went to Quito to listen to Elder Walter Gonzalez of the presidency of the 70. It was pretty sweet. The entire mission was there in the chapel for that conference. We had a really good time but we got home really late afterwards. I think it was about 1 AM when we got to bed :) This week we found an awesome family. It´s the Naboa Zurita family. In the family they´re a mom, dad, and 4 kids (3 in baptismal age). On Wednesday we knocked on their door and they let us in to teach them. We had a really awesome lesson with them and they accepted our invitation to be baptized. They live really close to the branch president so on Friday we visited them again and we went with the branch president´s wife. We had another excellent lesson. It was even better because we had a member there with us. The Spirit was really strong.
On Friday night we went with the branch president and his wife to visit a reference from them. We visited a widow who´s husband died about 6 months ago. He died pretty young so it really affected her. We went and she just started to tell us about all of her problems and all of the things that she´s going through. She has gone to psyciatrists and other things but she hasn´t been able to change too much. She feels really empty. We talked about the Atonement and how Christ knows exactly what she´s going through. The Spirit was so strong when we were there and she told us that she feels that what we share will help her. The branch president and his wife gave powerful testimonies about how our families can be sealed for time and all eternity and that she is going to see her husband again. It was such a spiritual experience that we had. I felt so much love for the people that we taught and the Spirit was there. I love the spirit!!!!
I love you all so much. Thank you for everything. You all have been good influences and blessings in my life.




Love,
Élder Hakes

May 23, 2011

Dear Family,
This week was so crazy!!!!! We had District Conference here in Riobamba. We were in so many meetings. On Friday we had Zone Conference with President and Hermana Sloan adn later that night President invited us to go to his "farewell" dance that the district did for him. It was way cool and I got some awesome videos of them dancing. President and Hermana Sloan got up and danced too ha ha :) It was pretty fun. On Saturday we went in some intercambios and we had district leadership meeting and then the Priesthood meeting. On Sunday we had the general session at 10:30 AM and afterwards we had some baptisms here in the zone.
We actually had some really cool experiences this weekend. On Saturday morning, my companion and I were talking about what we need to do to have baptisms here in the zone. We made a list of all the people that can get baptized this month and it was a list of about 20 people. We chose a few of them and we went to work with our missionaries. We were in divisions all day on Saturday in all of the elders sectors here in Riobamba. We had planned only 1 baptism for this weekend but we ended with 3. It´s not a ton more but I´m happy that we we´re able to help out and get people interviewed and baptized. It was a really cool experience.
Well my companion only has 2 weeks left. It´s so wierd that I have another companion leaving. He´s still working hard though and we want to help the zone out a ton. We´re trying to get better each day and we´re waiting for the results. I´m learning a lot of patience right now :) I´m also learning to be more humble. The Lord wants to se my faith before He gives the blessings. I can´t wait for next month :) It will be record breaking for all of us!!!!
Well this week Elder Walter Gonzalez of the Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy is going to have a devotional with us!!!! It was going to be Elder Richard G. Scott but he can´t come anymore. I´m still excited though because the Area President Elder Marcus B. Nash will be there too. It will be a powerful and spiritual conference. I´m excited :)
Well the offices called me this week and as of right now my official date to come home will be Friday, August 19. I´ll have a very short time at home before going off to school again. I guess you´ll all have to come visit me in Thatcher ha ha :) I love you all so very much. I have learned so much during this time as a missionary and I have so much more to learn. Thank you for your love and support. Stay strong in the Gospel and always be worthy to have a temple recommend. I miss the temple so much. I think we all take it for granted that we have a temple so close and so easy to access. I love you all so much!!!!






Love,
Élder Hakes

May 16, 2011

Dear Family,
Well this week went really well. We had some really amazing experiences and we´re starting to see some more progrss here. This week we found a new family called the Aulla family. It was so cool when we found them. We were on our way to an appointment and it was raining really hard. We were going pretty fast so we could go inside. When we came to the corner where we needed to turn I noticed that the light was on and I just thought warmth. It was kind of weird so I decided to knock on the door. The family let us in and we shared with them. It was a really cool experience. I´m glad that we followed the Spirit and that we were able to find that new family.
Last night we had an even better experience. We went to visit Helena Colcha and her family. She has 5 daughters (4 of the 5 are members) and her husband (non-member). She has been listening to the missionaries for a year now and she hasn´t gotten baptized. The last few times that we´ve gone we´ve talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is faith, repentance, baptism, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. The last time we visited her we also invited her to start reading the Book of Mormon more frecuently. She did it and she´s changed a lot. In the last visits she told us, jokingly, that she would get baptized next year. This time I asked her if she´d get baptized before I go home and she said yes. She told us that she made a promise with the Lord. She didn´t tell what she promised but she said that she will be baptized very soon. It was such a cool experience because she has changed so much. The Lord is softening her heart through the Book of Mormon. I love the Spirit.
Well yesterday I had an interesting lunch (look at the pictures). In Spanish it´s called caldo de pata or in English foot soup. In the caldo de pata that they gave us it had a big foot in it. It wasn´t as bad as I thought but it was pretty weird. The soup was good but the foot was weird.




I´ve eaten some weird stuff these last few weeks. I killed and ate the cuy (guinea pig) that is in the pictures too : ) On Saturday we had the branch Mother´s Day party. They went big. They hired a band and a Mariachi (it´s basically like the Mexican music that they have in Mexican restaurants). The picture of the rice is one of the huge pots that they had of rice for everyone. There´s also a picture of us with the Mariachi. It was a fun party and we had like 7 investigators at the party but none went to church.




I love you all so much. Thank you for your support and for everything that you do for me. I love you all!!!!!!!!!

My comp´s name is Elder Alcívar and he´s from Guayaquil, Ecuador. He has 23 months in the mission and he´s with me in the Mariachi picture that I sent in the family letter. He goes home June 7th.






Love,
Élder Hakes