August 8, 2011

Standing on the bus for a 2 hour bus ride




Dear Family,
Well, this is the last time that I´ll be writing as a full-time missionary. I can´t believe it. It still hasn´t hit me yet :) This week went by really fast. The highlight of the week was that Marco Torres got baptized. It was a really awesome baptism and it was a special day for everyone. His uncle, Javier Palacios, has been working hard to get him to church and to get baptized and all of his hard work payed off :) Marco was so happy too. He even came to church in a white shirt and tie. We didn´t even tell him :) He is really pumped right now to keep progressing :) I´m so excited for him!!!!

On Saturday we had a really interesting lunch right before the baptism. I asked them to do it because, first off I´m kind of crazy and second of I had always heard of it and I wanted to see what it was. It´s called yagua locro. It´s basically a soup with sheep intestines, potatoes and stuff and you put sheep blood in it too :) The blood isn´t liquid it´s solid and it looks kind of like ground beef. It actually wasn´t that bad. I ate just the blood and it didn´t have too much flavor. You eat the soup with lime and avacado too. I ate 2 bowls and it was pretty good. My companion can´t really deal with stuff like that. He really syked himself out. He started off fine eating the soup. He was only eating the potatoes and nothing else until another Elder that was with us told him to look at his spoon. The other Elder told him that they were delicious intestines and blood. My companion imagined, only in his mind, that there were drops of blood falling from his spoon. My companion got up and went straight to the bathroom and started to throw up. We all started laughing because the rest of us really liked it. Luckly the family didn´t get offended or anything. They are a really cool family.
The Soup

The Blood

My comp after he threw up

Well, the next time I see you it will be in person. Thank you for your love and for your letters. I can´t believe that 2 years have gone by so fast. Thank you for everything.


Love,
Élder Hakes
Paco Asqui.... He´s a member that gives us lunch on Sunday´s

August 1, 2011

Dear Family,
This week went by soooo fast and it went pretty well. I went to Guaranda twice this week. The first time for interviews and the second time to try to help some people be strengthened for their baptisms. It went fairly well. I really enjoyed being there and it felt good to be helping them out. Not everyone got baptized but I was able to learn a lot and it helped me to keep being motivated :)
This week Elena Colcha and her husband Franklin Puertas finally got baptized!!!!!! They have been investigators for almost a year and a half. It was such a special moment. The branch almost didn´t believe us when we told them that she was getting baptized. It was a really good baptism and the Spirit was so strong!!! I can´t believe that we finally were able to help her to get baptized :) I feel so blessed to be at her baptism. About 13+ missionaries taught her over the course of her time as investigator. I love this work. The Spirit is the greatest blessing that anyone could ever ask for :)
This week we have 2 people planned to get baptized. Sandra and Marco. They are investigators that we´ve taught for a while now but they´ve come to church 2 weeks in a row now and they have the desire. We have to help Sandra overcome a few things before she gets baptized but I know that we´ll be able to help them :) I´m so excited :)
Today my companion and I went to Baños. It´s a city that has some amazing waterfalls and some amazing views!!! I got some amazing pictures :)
I love this work.I don´t want it to end but my time as a full-time missionary is coming to a close. I have this week and lots of meetings next week and then I´m home. I still have things to learn and to share with other missionaries before my time ends. I´m excited to see what happens. I know that Jesus Christ suffered so I can make it back to my Heavenly Father´s presence. That´s why I live the Gospel, because I know that I can´t be saved unless I do all that Christ taught and reveals through Pres. Monson and the 12 apostles. I love this work. I love you all. Thank you for all that you do and have done. I will always be in debt to those who have served me :)



Love,
Élder Hakes

July 25, 2011

Big chess pieces
Chess boards that an investigator makes
The Palacios Family that got sealed this week!!!!!!!!!
The Bellavista Arch that´s in our sector
Dear Family,
This week was so crazy and so amazing!!!! We are seeing so many blessings :) On Tuesday I went with our district leader to his sector here in Riobamba. We had a really good day. We were able to find a new family and we put baptismal dates with some people. That night we had 3 appointments in less than an hour. It was cool because all of the appointments were really spiritual and we were able to help s lot of different people that are progressing.
On Wednesday I went with Elder Stange to his sector to help with some people to get baptismal dates too! It went really well 2 families were able to accept dates and 1 of them went to church yesterday!!!! It ws good because Elder Stange wasn´t feeling too well and we were able to keep working and helping the people that really needed it.
On Thursday we had our specialized training with Pres. and Hna. Ghent and the assistants. It went really well. They talked about the importance of understanding the doctrine because the doctrine is the reason why we live the gospel. It was a really good training that really opened my eyes. We´ve taught it to the members too and they really liked it. :)
Yesterday we had some amazing experiences. We had 10 people at church!!!! We had to go to the other branch at 8 AM to have 3 people go. They had something to do this week but normally they´re good to go at 10 AM (our branches time). It was so good to have them all there. There were a lot of less actives at church too. Normally we have like 70 people at church but this week we had close to 100!!!!! Last night was so amazing. We have been teaching this lady called Helena Colcha since I got here. She´s been listening to the missionaries for about 14 months now and she knows more that a dozen missionaries that have helped teach her. She and her husband went to church yesterday and we went to visit them afterwards. We invited the husband to be baptized this weekend and he said yes!!!!!! Then we looked at Helena (she looked shocked at what her husband said) and we invited her to be baptized with her husband and she said yes!!!!! I almost couldn´t believe it :) I was so happy because I have invited her so many times over the last 4 and a half months to be baptized and she finally accepted!!!!!!! All of her kids (they are members for over a year) started cheering when she said yes :) It was such a cool moment. We just have to help her husband so he can stop drinking. He has stopped a little bit by himself but we´re going to help him even more.
Well I love you all so much. I love this great work. I can´t believe that my time is ending. I don´t want it to end. I know that I will miss Ecuador and all the people that I know so much. I don´t want to leave them, but I know that the Lord has other things planned for me. Thank you for your love and support. Don´t worry I´m excited to see you guys too :)


Love,
Élder Hakes

ME BEING A SITH :)

JULY 18, 2011

Dear Family,
This week went by super fast. It was pretty fun too. I was going around to lots of different sectors again trying to help the other missionaries. It made everything go by even faster! I had a really amazing experience with a baptismal interview too. I went to Guaranda (2 hours away) for the interview. The person that I interviewed has had quite a few problems in her life. She has been fighting depression for years and there have been many times when she has been ready to kill herself and she was able to change her mind or someone came and stopped her. It was sad to hear about all that had happened to her in her life. I just told her that she has a lot of people that love her and care about her. I talked especially about how our Heavenly Father loves her. I told her that she should remember what I told her every time that she faces depression. 2 days after the interview I called her to tell her when her other interview with President would be and she thanked me for telling her that Heavenly Father loves her. She said that the day after the interview she had negative thoughts about herself and that when she remembered what I told her she felt better. It was way cool. During the interview she also told me that 3 days in a row she had dreamed with the missionaries that are teaching her and a 3rd really tall person :) She didn´t want "to confess" but she could trust me when we started talking. It was such a cool experience!!!!!
On Tuesday we had a really cool experience. I was with Elder Glassford, our district leader, and we found a ton of new families. We went to visit a cab driver and his family and he wasn´t there yet, but his mom invited us in and then she started inviting all of her family. We taught 10 people at the same time!!!! They were 4 different families that we found at the same time. It was a cool experience, but they were talking a ton!! They are evangelicals (I don´t know if that is spelt right). We tried to talk about the importance of the priesthood in receiving a baptism and they didn´t really understand. After we would talk one of them would talk and confuse everyone else. They all accepted to pray to know. We have to go back this week to see how their prayers went :) On the same day we talked with a family in the street and we walked back to their house with them. They let us in and they accepted a baptismal date for July 30. The only problem is that they went out of town so they weren´t able to go to church. We´ll be getting a hold of them this week too!!!
Well I love you all so much. Thank you for your support and for all that you do for me. I am so grateful for my family, for my brothers, sisters and parents. Also for my cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents. Thank you for all that you do!!!!!



Love,
Élder Hakes