October 25, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was still kind of crazy. The first half was really nice because we were in our sector a lot. We found another new family this week. The Taco Family, no I´m not joking :) There is a part of our sector where almost everyone is from the Taco Family. The first time we visited them was really awesome. We were with the husband to start off with. We talked about the Gospel and how it can bless him and his family. After that we invited him to be baptized. He accepted and he has a baptismal date for November 13. After we invited him his family showed up and we got to know them. There are 4 people in the family, Mom, Dad, son and daughter. The daughter just turned 2 so she can´t get baptized yet. It was an awesome experience! The Maza family couldn´t go to church this week. Well only the son that´s 18 went. He is way cool. We presented him to President Sloan during the Stake Conference and President told him that he looks like a future missionary. Our investigator responded by saying I would like to do that. He is an awesome guy!
So at Stake Conference I ran into a family from Idaho. They told me a pretty funny story. They are here for like 1-2 weeks to go to the Galapagos Islands. On Sunday morning they looked on the computer to find where they could go to church. They typed in "Quito Stake" in google and the first thing that came up was my blog. In the letter last week I wrote about how we were going to have stake conference. They saw me and they thanked me for writing about Stake Conference. I thought that that was pretty funny :)
So my life is going to be completely crazy for the next month. In November we will have a lot of meetings. 1. Zone Leader Council, 2. All of the leaders in the mission meeting, 3. Specialized Trainings in all of the zones, 4. Zone Conference in all of the zones, and 5. Specialized Trainings for 2-3 Stakes. According to the schedule that President posted every week this month on November we will be in meetings. I should be free on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays for p-day and church but we´ll see what happens. This month is going to go by sooooo fast!!!
Today we played soccer again. It was really fun. I´m finally getting better at it. I made 3 or 4 goals today. It was way sweet!!! One of them was aimed so I could head it in but they kicked it too low. I decided to hit it with my chest and I got a goal. Everyone was laughing because I don´t think they´ve seen that before. It was way cool :)
Well thank you for everything. You all have been great influences in my life. Thank you for your love and your support. I love each and every one of you.




Love,
Élder Hakes

P.S.
We had 2 specialized trainings with 2 stakes, Ofelia and Calderón. The Spirit was so strong in each of the trainings. We had they same thing planned but the each turned out differently and the Spirit was so strong in each of them. The topic is "How can we help investigators, less-actives, and new converts have a good experience at church". It was a really special experience and I truly felt the Spirit working through me. I was able to recognize all of the little blessing that the Lord has given unto me in the last few weeks. I am so happy and filled with the Spirit right now :)

October 16, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was a little bit crazier than I thought it would be. I didn´t realize how hard it is to work with such a big group of new missionaries. On Monday afternoon and night President Sloan had to interview all of the new missionaries. He couldn´t wait till the next morning. We were in the President´s house until 10:20 PM waiting for the interviews. After taking the new missionaries to the house where they were going to sleep we got home around 11:15 PM. It was a pretty crazy night. On Wednesday I had a really cool experience. We were in the training for the new missionaries and we were going to do our part last. The first parts took a really long time. When we were to speak it was already past the time that we had planned to end at. President Sloan told us to just bear our testimonies and then we´d end. I liked that he told us right before we had to get up. I wasn´t thinking about what I was going to say. I just said what I felt. I felt the Spirit so strong in that moment. I shared with the new missionaries and their trainers about my experience with the Book of Mormon. When I got to the mission I had read the Book of Mormon 3 or 4 times cover to cover. I thought that that was sufficient but I was wrong. President Sloan challenged us to read the Book of Mormon with real intent as soon as we got here and I chose to do it. It was the best experience that I have had in my life. I now know that the Book of Mormon is true. I can feel it in my heart. I love the Book of Mormon. Just by reading the Book of Mormon I have learned to follow the Spirit. I know where to find the answers to my questions. I love it!!!!!! Don´t ever go a day without reading the Book of Mormon. If you do you will lose the Spirit and your day won´t be as good. I can testify of that now.
This week we finally went to teach a family of 6 that we found 2 weeks ago. They are so amazing!! We invited them to baptism in the first lesson and the accepted. They are going to go to church on Sunday and they are keeping all of their committments. It is so exciting!!!! I love being able to be in the feild! This next week President and Sister Sloan will be in Peru for the Mission President´s Seminar so that means that we should have a lot more time to be in our own sector. I´m really excited for that!! President and Sister Sloan are going to Machu Pichu for part of the Seminar. They are so lucky!!!!
So next week we have Stake Conference in our stake here in Quito so I don´t know how much time we´ll have to write you next Saturday. If it´s not on Saturday it will definitely be on Monday. I love you all so much. Thank you for everything. Keep being faithful and CTR forever!!!



Love,
Élder Hakes



P.S.
We went to the Middle of the World again. This time I took a picture with a statue of an indian native to ecuador. They don´t wear any clothes so I used a Law of Chastity pamphlet to cover him up : )

October 12, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was absolutely crazy. We were so busy with all of the trainings that we had to give. On Tuesday we had the zone leader´s council all day long. It went really well. It started raining really hard when we went outside to play soccer. It was way fun!!!! We had some amazing BBQ chicken the mission home and then my companion and I went home to plan the trainings that we had to give during the week.
On Wednesday and Thursday we had 2 trainings each day for the zones here in Quito. On wednesday President took us and the secretaries out to eat because it´s a tradition that he has every month. We went to a really nice restaurant. It was pretty good :) On Thursday night we finally went to our sector for the first time last week. We taught the Yasig Family (they went to church 2 weeks ago) and they had a lot of problems. They don´t have as many desires and they used to because we hadn´t visited them in so long. We made it very clear what they were losing and they rejected us. We will still go back but we have to help them to keep the committments that we left them. It was a really rough experience that we had.
On Friday at 8:30 AM (President showed up late) we were in President´s car on the way to Ambato. At 10:45 AM (half an hour late) we showed up to the training with the zones there (Ambato and Oriente) and we taught them. President is doing interviews with all of the missionaries this time so it takes a lot longer. At 5:00 PM we left to go to Riobamba and we got there at 6:00 PM. We showed up 3 hours late for that training. It was suposed to start at 3:00 PM. They were all so tired and I think President apologized like 100 times. The training still went very well considering that everyone was pretty much asleep. That night we slept in Riobamba with other missionaries. In Riobamba it is colder than Quito and the missionaries only had one blanket for each of us. I didn´t sleep at all on Friday night.
On Saturday morning we went on divisions (exchanges?) with a companionship in the zone. The division (exchange?) went really well. We put a baptismal date with one guy and commited him to go to the District conference and he accepted. We also taught a family of 5 [only the parents are older than 8 :)]. Everything turned out to be really good. After the division (exchange?) my companion and I were part of another training to all of the district and branch leaders in Riobamba. It went really well too. That afternoon we finally came home!!
Well my life is really busy right now but I love it. I really enjoy helping the missionaries in the entire mission. Today, tomorrow and wednesday is going to be really crazy with all of the new missionaries coming and with transfers. I can´t wait!! :) I love you all so much. Thank you for all that you all have done for me. I know that the gospel that I teach everyday is true. It is such a blessing to be able to have it in my life and with my family. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. I know it.



Love,
Élder Hakes

October 4, 2010

Dear Family,
Well this week was pretty weird. As a lot of you already know, on Thursday the National Police here in Ecuador went on a protest. They weren´t doing anything. They were burning tires, blocking roads, etc. President told us all to go home immediately and we did. On Thursday we were at home from 3 PM until the next day. On Friday and Saturday we were in the house at 6 PM. Sunday we went back to normal. We didn´t get to watch priesthood session and that really stunk. This week is going to be crazy for us. Tomorrow we have ZL Council, Wednesday and Thursday we have Specialized training, and Friday and Saturday we´ll be in Riobamba (my first time!!!). Next week is practically the same because it´s transfer week. Monday night we have dinner with the old missionaries that are going home in the mission home and we have to pick up a new Elder at 9:30 PM. On Tuesday we have a training for the trainers and we pick up 27 missionaries (22 Elders and 5 Sisters) at 1:00 PM. After that we go to the Panecillo (the place where the dedicatory prayer was said for Missionary work in Ecuador, by President Kimball) and then to the mission home for interviews and Visas. On Wednesday of next week we will train the new missionaries and send them off to their sectors with their trainers. On next Thursday we have another specialized training here in Quito and then we´ll finally be done for a week and a half. It will be pretty crazy but we´ll enjoy it and learn a lot.
This week we didn´t hardly go to our sector because we´ve been preparing so many things for these next to weeks and we´ve been locked up in our houses. I really loved conference though. I really enjoyed President Uchtdorf´s talk. We need to follow the living prophets and we need to learn how to use our agency correctly. Those are the 2 major themes that I was able to get out of conference. Sorry that this letter is like a mixture of thoughts. There wasn´t any internet all day and I don´t have very much time. I love you all so much. Thank you for everything that you have done, do and will do for me. Follow the impressions that each of you received during conference.








Love,
Élder Hakes

September 25, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was absolutely nuts!!!!! I felt like I was out of town the whole time :) On Tuesday I went to Esmeraldas for the first time. Esmeraldas is on the coast of Ecuador it has beaches and everything. It was pretty hot there. I thought I might enjoy it and I did at first. Trying to go to sleep covered in sweat isn´t too fun though :) On the way there we had a little problem with a tire. It went flat. That was really fun that we got under the car in our church clothes to get out the spare and change it. We got our hands pretty dirty, but the shirts weren´t too bad. When we had our suits on you couldn´t see any stains or anything :) The training went really well there. I got to see a lot of missionaries that I know and my trainer is one of the zone leaders there. It was nice to see Élder Estrada again. He´s a really funny guy. That night we slept in Élder Estrada´s house and we left early the next morning to Santo Domingo. I really liked being in Santo Domingo again. It wasn´t nearly as hot as Esmeraldas. It was nice to see some of the places that I got to know when I started the mission. Santo Domingo doesn´t look weird to me anymore. It looks....normal. I remember when I first got there that I was amazed by all of the buildings and the store, but everything is just normal now :) It´s kind of funny ha ha. The training went really well in Santo Domingo as well. I felt that I was following the Spirit best in that training. I really enjoyed my time there,
Well this week we had a baptism as well. Norma Simbaña was baptized today!!!! It was a really neat experience. There were a lot of people there because she has a lot of friends in the church now. Her whole family came too!!!! The Spirit was so strong there. She told us after that she felt so good. She thought she was going to be nervous to give her testimony in front of everyone, but she wasn´t. She told us that she just felt soooo good. She also told us that she had already felt the Spirit a lot because she has been living the Gospel, but that by getting baptized she felt that she was pleasing our Heavenly Father. She is an amazing person. I don´t ever see her falling away from the church. She´s already planning on going to the temple to do baptisms and to have someone get baptized for her dad. The Gospel has changed her life, and it will continue to do so :)
I can not wait for General Conference this next weekend. I can´t believe that we´re already at another one. I fell like I was just watching it there in Los Chillos Valley. I can´t wait to be able to listen to the prophet´s voice in English!!!!! I love hearing their voices. President Sloan shared something interesting with one of the zones that I really liked. He said that as he is watching General Conference, he doesn´t take notes about what they say. He isn´t writing down the doctrine that they say. What he does is he writes the impressions that come to his mind as he´s listening. I thought that that is a really good idea. In November we´re going to have the Ensign and we can study doctrine there. I´m going to apply it this Conference and I thought I´d share it with you guys too :)
Well I love you all so much. Thank you for being so great to me. I´m so grateful for you guys, my family and friends. In my Patriarchal Blessing it says that i´m am blessed to be surrounded by good and honorable people. Thank you for being those people :)




Love,
Élder Hakes

September 20, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was pretty crazy. We had a lot of trainings to give. On Tuesday and Wednesday we trained all of the zones here in Quito (80 missionaries) and on Saturday we trained 3 more zones (Ambato, Riobamba, and Oriente). It went really well. I feel a lot more comfortable giving all of these trainings now. At first I was nervous and stuff but now it doesn't really matter. It's a lot more natural now. It is really beautiful on the way to Ambato. I didn't take any pictures because we were in the car with President Sloan and Elder Cabrera (of the 70). It was a pretty short trip and I really enjoyed it. That same night we came back to Quito because we had an investigator at church.
This Saturday Norma Simbana is going to get baptized. It is so interesting teaching her. She has some really great friends at church and they are teaching her pretty much everything. The last few lessons we've come and we start talking about a commandment and she tells us that she already had talked about it with her member friends. It makes our job so much easier. We just have to invite the Spirit and talk about what she's already learned from the members. She really understands her purpose now. She knows what she has to do to be able to have happiness in this life. I am almost 100% sure that she'll be in the temple 1 year from this Saturday. She has her own personal conversion already. She's more faithful than some of the members here ha ha :)
Tomorrow I'm going to go to Esmeraldas for the first time and the day after tomorrow I'll be in Santo Domingo again. I'm really excited because these 2 cities are the coast cities in our mission. It'll be really hot but I'm going to like it. I really miss the heat now. I didn't even realize it ha ha. They make really good food in these 2 cities too. I'm really excited for that :)
We were invited to eat with 2 different senior missionary couples this week. I really enjoyed that. On Friday I ate some really good burritos and last night I ate roast and mashed potatoes and gravy!!!! It was so good. It was way different but it was still really good. I'm going to get fat here in the offices :)
Well in the mission we have 2 new norms in the mission now. The first is that every companionship will baptize 2 people (minimum) every week with the focus in families. We had a really cool experience to change this norm. We weren't going to change it but we started talking about it in the Zone Leader Council last week. As the leaders of the mission we changed the norm. President Sloan was so happy to see the faith and hope that we have. It's a norm that will be really difficult for a lot of missionaries, but we now know that 2 baptisms every weekend is what the Lord expects for us in this mission. We're really seeing miracles now. We have set records the last 2 months in a row. This month probably won't be a record but it will be a good month. Well, the second new norm that we have is to make a baptismal invitation in every lesson. This norm will help us to be able to do the other norm. It's been really cool to be able to teach the missionaries why we need these norms. I think that it's helping them to be more connected to their missionary purpose. The mission is a lot different now compared to how it was when I started the mission. When I started the mission there wasn't as much faith. Everyone just kind of complained that the norms are too hard. Now we have leaders that want to raise the norm and make themselves and their stewardships better. That is why we are seeing miracles in this mission. I can now testify of the power of trusting in the Lord. I wasn't trusting him as much before. I depended on myself to find and teach people. Now I trust in the Lord and He does the rest.
Well I love you all. Thank you for everything that you've done and do for me.








Love,
Elder Hakes

September 13, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was pretty crazy. It went by sooooo fast. On Thursday we were in Otavalo. That was a really cool experience. The stake where we had a fireside at only speaks quichua (that´s a native language. It was really cool. Most of them speak spanish too so they understood us. They have a very interesting dress as well. The stake president had a blue poncho over his white shirt. The women all had the same neclace and pretty much all of them had the same shirts on too. I didn't take any pictures. I totally forgot because it was so interesting to see them all like that. Don't worry though. I'll be going back next month so I'll be seeing them again. There was a different spirit there with that people. It was really cool. I kept imagining different Book Of Mormon stories while I was looking at the scenery on the way there. It was really fun to do. I really felt like I was there. otavalo is a very sacred place to me. I liked it a lot.
As you all know I went to Coca as well. That was a really neat experience. I definitely took a ton of picture. I put a few of them on here so I hope you get them. It was really humid and hot there. I liked it a lot. I missed being in the heat. I've been in Quito for the last 8 months. It was so cool being there with that branch. When President Sloan was first starting his mission he opened that branch. At that time there were about 40-50 people that attended every week. When we went this last weekend there were 80 people there, not including the visitors. It was a really cool experience. This branch is really strong. They only meet in a house that was donated to the church. President Sloan is now talking about building a chapel there because the branch is growing so fast. It was a humbling experience to be there with those people. They don't have the church like we do. They just meet in a house, but they all have great faith and they're all living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was such an amazing experience that I had.
This week we also had a really cool experience in our own sector. There is a lady here that has gone to church 3 times now. She's not a member and we went to visit her for a 2nd time. The first time we had left her with a reading assignment in 3 Nephi 27, the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we got there she started explaining what she learned. She had her Book of Mormon more marked up than I do. She really analized it and she felt that it was all true. She had even written in the margin 1. Faith 2. Repentance 3. Holy Ghost (she was out of order :) ) It was amazing. We invited her to be baptized. She was so surprised and said, "I can do that in your church?" We told her yes and invited her to prepare for her baptism. She committed herself (we hadn´t asked her yet) to be prepared for September 25th. It was a really cool experience. She is more than a golden investigator. That was an amazing experience.
In the mission now we have 2 new standards. The first is that we have to invite our investigators to be baptized in every single lesson. The second is that we have to baptize at the very least 2 people every week. It´s a really high norm, but we know that we can do it. We are really starting to see miracles in our mission. We set another new record. We had 195 baptisms in the month of August. It was awesome!!! I love this work.
Well I love all of you guys so much. Thank you for everything that you do for me.








Love,
Élder Hakes








P.S.
This Saturday I´m going to be in Ambato so I´ll probably write you next Monday again :)