December 22, 2014

Querida familia!!!

I love you guys:D haha. Christmas is always an awesome time of the year to remember Christ as our savior and redeemer that shed his blood so that we might be saved an return to the kingdom of God. Is there any other greater sacrifice than that? Sometimes I feel like we make a big deal out of things that aren't important during this Christmas season, but remember what is important. We may not be celebrating the birth of Christ because we know that it didn't happen in this time of the year due to the description of the weather in the bible and to modern day revelation, but we join with the world remembering Christ in these times. Its called Christ/Más or more Christ. How can you let Christ come into your life and to the life of your family? If you need help and don't know what to do, there is always a simple answer, pray unto the Lord asking is guidance and then look for what you can do and then the Lord will guide you to what you need to do through feelings in your heart. That is quite simply the secret to success in this life! It is called humility and revelation. Those 2 principle will guide us through our lives as we live and apply them in our lives. 

Also this week my new companion arrived!!! Elder Chun! My first Polynesian companion. He's from Hawaii and has lived in Window Rock, Arizona and Utah for the last few years. He's turning 19 the 26th of December and has 7 months in the mission. He is still having a hard time with Spanish but he's learning little by little. I've seen that he is a very humble man. He loves the Lord and wants to serve him. Also fun fact for ya.... his full name is Trustin Akua Keikikuikawamaikeakua Yick Nin Chun. It means trust in the Lord and the second part is special child of God. Super cool!!! I'm gonna struggle memorizing it but I'm gonna do it haha. 

Life is good. We baptized this week. We are working to find other future baptisms but all is well!!!! Can't wait for Christmas so we can talk!!!!

I love you all!!!!

Elder Hakes    

December 15, 2014

We no longer can go to the temple....:( 

The presidency of the area have banned it, but it looks good from the outside too!!!!

HELLLOOOOOO FAMILIA! 

This week are the exchanges.....I will be staying in the same spot:D BUT my companion Elder Anaya is on the move again. He is rolling out to Mendoza en Orizaba. It's another area close by my old area, so he's gonna have fun with some colder weather. 

The week was not as great as we would have hoped.  We didn't have anybody in church....BUT this next week I'm sure we will have more success. We are gonna get to work and be the most obedient we can. My new companion is Elder Chun......he's from Utah. He is Hawaiin but is living in Utah but I think he is more American than Hawaiian. But I don't know who he is or much about him. Should be fun to get to know him and to start working. 

I'm trying to think of something I want to share but nothing is coming to mind..... I think there's only one thing that was super cool this week that I want to share. So there is a woman we are teaching named Rosa. Her husband is a less active member and she has 2 daughters. We have taught her for a while and we had been thinking about what we had to do to help receive an answer to her prayers. So....we taught how to receive revelation using the scriptures of course. So we opened up to 2 Nephi to read a part when Nephi asks the Lord if they truly had to leave from Jerusalem. It talks about the great desire that Nephi had and that "I cried unto the Lord" in his prayers(not sure if that's a correct translation of what it says in Spanish). He then receives an answer and in the next chapter Nephi gives the famous response "I will go and do that which the Lord hath commanded for the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare the way for them". We explained that she had to do the same thing. The Lord would answer her if she showed the Lord that she truly desired an answer. She did exactly what we asked and just as we promised that she would receive an answer she received it. We got to her home earlier in the week and we asked how her prayers had been going. She looked us in the eyes and said, "I received an answer and I know that I want to be baptized in this church". It was soooooo awesome seeing the teaching go through and that she could receive an answer to her prayers because we taught her how to receive an answer. The teaching is really important and if we explain it well and they apply it they receive answers. I felt great knowing that. Now the only problem with her so that she can be baptized is that she has to get married. We are waiting on her birth certificates so we can go and they can get married and then baptized. It looks like its gonna be until January or late in December. But that was my cool story of the week! 

Also I will be calling home on Christmas day not sure what time, first I have to talk with my companion. I'll let you know next week. We will have 40 minutes to talk and that's it. I need to be obedient with that seeing as  the last time we went over time a little bit;) but all is well and I'm happy!!!! :D

Love,

Elder Hakes

FELIZ NAVIDAD!

Ugly tie Friday

My zone with President

They cut off the meet like in the Brazilian grills and then they cook it....definitely wanting one of these back home;)

December 8, 2014

Hello family!!!!! 

Hope all is well back home!!!! This week was not too shabby. We had our first baptism in my new area after working really hard these last couple weeks! It felt super good to be honest.  Her name is Leslie. She is a 14 year old girl that has been listening to us for like 2 months. She finally decided to be baptized. Also we were talking with her sister Michelle. She has been a little more rebellious but we talked to her on Sunday and she has accepted to be baptized on the 21st of dicember. WOOOHOOOO!!!!! So that was the good news of the week. The bad news is that all the super cool people we taught last week didn't come:( Ivan had a family party and so he didn't come and Adelaida we don't know what happened. Today we are gonna go see what happened, because it was way weird because they had told us since Wednesday that they were gonna go to church.....So I'll keep you updated on that one I'm sure they'll be going this next week. My district is also getting a lot better. Before I got here they hadn't baptized in 3 months(for my mission that's a long time). I'm happy cause they've been working hard and are gonna baptize this week the 14th of dicember. My mission is honestly going great! I feel good I feel happy and I feel like I'm working harder than ever. I just gotta keep it up! 

Recently we have been doing a program in the church with sharing the gospel. It's through some short videos one is "Because of Him" and the other one we are focusing on a lot right now is "He Is the Gift" (http://www.mormon.org/christmas) I encourage you to share it!!! We are seeing results in sharing this video. In my district, a companionship shared this video with a person and he wouldn't stop asking them what he had to do to get baptized. It might just seem like a video to us.....but for someone else it can change their life forever. So love your neighbor and share it with all people!! Flood the internet with this link!!!!!!

Also anybody that is passing for a hard time and needs help or something like that I'm a missionary called of God to represent him and help all people come unto him. So you can write me if you'd like some help!

Love,
Elder Hakes

My Generation - Me, MTC Companion Elder Parker, Elder Kimball

Los Famosos Nortes.  (North Winds)

Elder Esquihuas (my zone leader), Elder Anaya (my Companion), Elder Hubbard (ZL)

Steak, Cactus, Corn, Sausage..... Best lunch I've had in my whole mission by far.