January 26, 2015

Life is crazy..... All these missionaries.....I'm SUPER excited for Taylor! I haven't heard anything from him my whole mission but I'm glad to hear he's heading out to Oklahoma! Sound fantastic:) Also Aaron already getting home....WOW. Time flies by sooo fast. And then RYAN is finishing too.....how crazy. 

Anyways this week also was a little crazy for me! I got the new assignment. I'm right next door to my old area and converts and members that I love so much, but I can't visit them unless I get permission.... so we will see how that goes! Gonna see if I can get permission to go see them. Also being zone leader has been interesting with new assignments and chores to deal with. We verify every night with 3 district leaders. Also we have to make sure they are all obedient and that there aren't problems in companionships. It's a little difficult because there are 24 missionaries and more than half of them are like 45 minutes away from us. So we don't get to see them as much as we would like but we talk on the phone a LOT. hahaha. Also there are a lot more reports to do so that uses a lot more time and there isn't quite as much time to work. But it's fun:) I'm learning a lot and I have the opportunity to help other missionaries get better. I'm humbled by the assignment and am working hard to learn fast and do my best. 

This week I got with my new companion is name is Elder Cortez. He's from Patagonia, Argentina. It's on the bottom of Argentina where it's super cold. He's pretty funny. He likes to be really open and talk over the decisions together with me. So I feel like we are gonna get along really well and have lots of fun and success. We are working hard to find new ways to help the zone get better and to overcome the hard times that some of them are having. I'm enjoying it honestly it's fun to help others.

This week I also gave a talk in church. It was over the question, "How can I show humility?". So I started by defining it. It's being willing to submit ourselves to the will of our Heavenly Father. Also in being humble we receive the ability to do all that the Father has commanded and we receive spiritual strength (PMG CH6). So then I read in the Book of Mormon. Mosiah 4:11. It talks about having taken covenants and that we came to know the truth and that we have to be humble and continuously do what we did to know the truth. 1) Keep the Commandments 2)Pray Always remembering Christ 3) Share the gospel. I talked about those 3 things being the important things we must do always to be humble. We are humble by doing these things. I wanted it to be basic and simple and that there would be no way of confusing what I said. SO it's simple do these 3 things and the Lord will see our humility and he will show himself in our lives. He will do it by giving us blessings and answering our prayers. But Satan also doesn't want us to do this and makes us prideful but remember the promise. D&C 67:10. If I remember correctly. 

Love y'all

Elder Hakes