Wednesday, December 30, 2015

What the WHAT?! Christmas is OVER?? Letter 12-28-15

My 6 Month Mark was Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning

Christmas Morning

Christmas Day

Skyping with Family on Christmas Day

I can´t believe Christmas is over... It kind of freaks me out because I am now in the point of my mission where all holidays will be the last. You know, when 4th of July and Halloween and those holidays passed it was kind of like ¨I wonder what I´ll do next year in the mish when this holiday passes¨... but know I just have a year left.... so weird. Maybe a year still seems like a lot of time to you but it doesn´t really to me. I´m excited to start 2016 because I have some resolutions that I want to get started!

One thing I want to do is keep up the family ponderizing because I really love that. I haven´t seen if there is one for this week yet. I think it´s Mom´s turn? Aw, sorry, the Christmas week kind of threw me off.

Oh yeah…Chrsitmas…SKYPING WITH YOU CRAZY PEOPLE WAS STINKING AWESOME!!!! Thank you for being there and laughing at all my lame jokes and everything. I can hardly wait for Mothers Day.

After Hnas Judd and Lopez Skyped their families the Hna who´s house we Skyped at took us to Papa Johns, then Dairy Queen for ice cream. Here pretty much everything is open on Christmas Day. Then Hna Pelico and I went back to their house so she could Skype with her family. I spent the whole day with this family, which was fine because they´re hilarious. Ha-ha I was showing them the family on FB and she told me that Mom and Dad are one of the most beautiful couples she´s ever seen. Like I didn´t know. ;)

At church this week a member came up and asked me if I know a Brandon Hauck whom was one of his zone leaders in hi mission. I told him that he´s my uncle and he was so excited ha-ha. He was telling me and the other missionaries what a good missionary he was and how, quote, ¨macho¨, he is. Now all the missionaries in my ward want to meet him.

Speaking of the name ¨Hauck¨, a member sent us a message wishing us happy holidays and spelt my name ¨Hna. Jauz¨. I´m not sure where the ¨z¨ came from. 

Well, it’s been a crazy/special/weird/awesome week but it´s time to go back to normal missionary work. 

I just want to close this email with a birthday shout out to a certain mom....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST MOMMY IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful New Years!!!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck 

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

CHRISTMAS!!! Letter 12-22-15

Con amor and a Mexican pancho

Pinata Party

Ward Party. Olaf is Mormon!

Mission-wide Conference

My Generation

CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I CAN¨T BELIEVE CHRISTMAS IS HERE!!!!!! I feel like I´m just bursting with Christmas cheer (and excitement to talk to my fam bam on FRIDAY!!!!!) Being in the mission for Christmas is really, really cool. Not too many people have time right now to listen to us, but when we tell them we just want to share a 2-minute video with them they oftentimes accept. Then we get to share the beautiful video that the church made and we get to talk about the Savior. The members are taking really good care of us too. We have so much food in our fridge because they keep bringing it to us! It´s also really special to be able to focus so much in the Savior because whenever I even think about feeling lonely I just think of Him and I feel the Spirit envelop me.

Yesterday we had our mission-wide conference. There were soooo many of us there! It was really exciting to be able to meet everyone and to see all the Hermanas from my MTC generation and my trainer, Hna Piña. Sidenote: We (my generation) had the weirdest realization. I’m not sure is I ever told you this, but they stopped sending American sisters to this mission for 14 months right before my generation came in. Hna Blackmore’s generation was the last one before us. So now I and the other Americanas from my generation are the oldest in the mission. That doesn´t really matter or have anything to do with this email, but I just wanted you to know how old I´m getting. :) 

Back to the conference. We ate some pretty good mole and then we heard from the presidency of the mission. I always love hearing from President and Hermana Robinson because they are so sincere and loving. There was lots of music too. All of the zones were asked to prepare a special number to perform. We were told that we could sing what ever Christmas song we wanted so put together this performance of a song “Mi Burrito Sabanero”, a fun and upbeat song that talks about traveling to Bethlehem with a burrito (burrito as in little donkey, not the food sadly). We were surprised to find that all of the other zones prepared hymns. Ha-ha! So right after one zone sang “Noche De Luz” (Silent Night) we sang Burrito Sabanero! We were going to clap along with it but we thought it maybe better to not. Everyone (even President) was laughing by the chorus. Here’s a link to the song so you can hear it and imagine my zone and me standing in front of our entire mission singing this incredibly informal song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Wrc6Q7acME

We also had a gift exchange in our zone. Naturally, I was sooo excited to find out that the elder who I drew likes Star Wars. I found a super cool Darth Vader shirt (that he loved BTW).

I hope you are all enjoying this holiday season. And I really hope that you can feel the Spirit in your lives.

I just want to bear my testimony that I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. Our Heavenly Father, who loves us more than we can imagine, sent His Son to this world to save us. I know it´s not my turn to choose the ponderizing scripture, but I just wanted to share this scripture from D&C 88: 33 For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is thegiver of the gift.

Jesus Christ is this Gift. Let´s receive Him, not just during Christmastime, but everyday again and again. And as we receive this Gift, we can rejoice in it, and in Heavenly Father, who is the Giver of the Gift.

I love you all so much!

Con amor
Hermana Hauck

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Feliz Navidad (ch-ch-ch-ch-ch) Letter 12-14-15

Hermana Pelico & I With a Huge Cactus

Our Tree and Stockings from My Family

Sister Judd...Also From St George

Hermanas in Guaymas

Holy cow CHRISTMASTIME IS HERE!!! 

Freaky but awesome! It´s really cool being on the mission at this time because I´m studying and learning about the Savior so much. Sharing the Ha Nacido Un Salvador video (sorry, I don´t know what its called in English...maybe ¨Unto you a Savior is born¨?) is really special and has gotten so many people to accept visits from us. We also have some fun things coming up. Our zone is exchanging presents and we have a mission wide party next Monday. What I´m most excited for is SKKKYYYPPPEEE!!!!! I cannot wait to see your faces and hear your voices! Get ready to party fam bam!

Guaymas is just lovely! The weather is absolutely perfect right now. We get to see the ocean on our bus route:))) We live in a valley and the mountains around us are green with bushes and cacti. The cacti are HUGE! I loved Nogales, but Guaymas shoots it out of the water as far as scenery goes. 

The members are really cool here too. We have a bunch of strong members in are neighborhood so I´ll think we´ll be able to find a Skype venue easily enough. (SKKKKYYYYPPPPEEEE!!!)
 
Hna Pelico is so much fun! She and I are always pulling pranks on one another and being silly. She´s really, really loving too. Ha-ha she likes to call me Hermana ¨meow-k¨ in her imitation of a catcall. I love it because it reminds me of Steph.
Two other hermanas are in our ward and eat with us every day. Their names are Hna Lopez (who I know from Nogales and is from the city of Mexico) and Hna Judd (who is still in her training and from St. George!!! WOOH). We have TONS of fun together! I´m super excited to spend Christmas here with another St. Georgian.

Two investigators I want to tell you about. First, Paty, who is this awesome 60-year-old-ish lady who just adores us. She was so excited to learn about the Book of Mormon and she´s been sending us messages with questions about it when she doesn´t understand something. We set a baptismal date for her last week and I hope she can keep progressing to it.

Then there´s Naomi who is 17 and has a baby that is 2 or so. She´s super interested in the Gospel, but she´s pretty easily distracted. Ha-ha the other day we were seriously mid sentence explaining the fall of Adam and Eve when she looked at me and asked me if I never get angry. I said ¨Yes.... why¨ and she said she wasn´t sure if missionaries could get angry or not. We answer roughly 4 questions like that per lesson with her, but she´s really sweet.

I hope you are all enjoying the Holidays! I love you so much and I´m counting down the days to our Skype date!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Hello Guaymas Sunshine! - Letter 12-7-15

My New Companion Hermana Pelico

Goodbye Hermana Blackmore. I love you!

Sweet new converts Alejandra & Luis
Christmas Devotional

I met Hermana Judd, also from St. George.

Helllo Guaymas Sunshine!!

PLOT TWIST!!! I completely thought I would be staying in Nogales for Christmas but on Saturday my district leader told me that I had transfers to Guaymas! 

I´ve only been here for a few hours, but I can tell you it is a super beautiful place. It´s greener than everywhere else in the mission and I still haven´t seen the ocean yet but my area is the closest one to it. It´s way warmer here than it was in Nogales (WOOH) so my leggies won´t have to freeze from wearing skirts everywhere! 

My new companion is Hna Pelico from Guatemala. She is super friendly and happy. I can tell we´re going to have lots of fun together! It was pretty sad to say goodbye to Hna Blackmore because we”ve become so close, but I´m really excited for her to have a new adventure as she heads home to see her family and everything. 

I am really pumped for Christmas!! Things are really happy here in Guaymas, I got an awesome package from my family, and our President is throwing a mission-wide Christmas ¨conference¨ (fiesta). This is super, super special because this mission is really big and it´s hard to gather everyone at one time, but our President is just cool like that.

A couple things from the week..I was in Hermosillo Monday, Tuesday and the beginning of Wednesday because Hna Blackmore had a leader conference and then went to the temple with the missionaries of her generation. Sadly I didn´t get to go through with her because they needed me to accompany another Hna to the doctors office, but I´m glad I could be a help and I´ll have chances to go again here in the mission.

I was really sad to leave some of the people I had met in my area in Nogales. I’ve grown so close to them, especially my converts, Alejandra and Luis, who are little stinkers, but they’re my stinkers. I also will miss my investigators who are yet to be baptized like Gabriella and her kids. I hope that Hna Blackmore and I planted some seeds with her and others like her so that maybe someday they´ll be baptized. 

A little short today (sorry) but it´s been a crazy day of transfers so I don´t have as much time.

My ponderize scripture is the scripture on my mission plaque, 2 Nephi 22:2 ¨He aqui, Dios es mi salvación; confiaré y no temeré, porque el Señor Jehová es mi fortaleza y mi canción; y también ha llegado a ser salvación para mi¨.Sorry it´s in Spanish, I only carry my Spanish scriptures. I love this scripture so much because I know that the Lord really is our strength in all things. Sometimes we forget it, but He is also our song, our happiness. Living the Gospel of Jesus Christ is happiness in its purest, truest form. If we trust in Him we don´t need to fear because He will be our salvation.

I love you all so much!!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Hip Hip Hooray For Baptisms Letter 11-30-15


Baptism of Alejandra and Luis


Splits with Hermana Castro

Thanksgiving Breakfast


Hey All You Turkeys!!!! 

It looks like Thanksgiving was great for you all. I celebrated with a nice breakfast and making the video that I sent you, my family, telling what I’m thankful for.

This week I was on exchanges with Hermana Castro and we were contacting this older man. He was a little rude and said “I’m Christian and I don´t have time for you.” So we handed him a pamphlet of the Restoration. He scoffed at us and said, “I have the Bible! I don´t need these things of the world.” To which, of course, we explained to him that the message we are sharing is NOT a worldly message. This got us in a bit of a Bible bash. He told us that we don´t understand James 1:5 correctly and Joseph Smith just did it to make people think he read the Bible. We ended up just shaking his hand and telling him to have a nice day because a conversation like that would neither edify him nor us and it definitely didn´t invite the Spirit. Every once in a while you just have moments like that with people that aren´t very friendly.

Another time this week, Hna Blackmore and I were walking through a street at night when a bunch of kids around 11 and 12 years old started following us yelling “Hey guera!” (pronounced “weda” and means “Hey white girl”) and English swear words at us. One of them even started poking my arms. To be honest, I wanted to slap him, but I settled for a threatening glare. Sometimes it’s hard to be a missionary. But you learn lots of patience!! And the majority of the people aren´t like that at all.

On Saturday we had the baptisms of Alejandra and Luis! HOORAY!! The service was awesome and super spiritual for me because I got to see the entire teaching and conversion process with these two kids that I seriously love so much! Ha-ha, actually Alejandra had to be baptized four times because she had a hard time trusting the Elder that was baptizing her and wouldn´t bend quite enough to go all the way under the water. On the last attempt, her elbow almost didn´t go under so the Elder just sort of pushed her the rest of the way in one little plunge. Hna Blackmore and I sung  ¨¨When I am Baptized¨¨... at least that´s what I think it´s called in English.. Then after we had cake (non-alcoholic this time).

Sunday was the primary program in our branch. It was as adorably bad as most primary programs, but amplified because we´re in Mexico (no offense Mexico). All the little girls had bows in their hair and the boys had red ties. 

Next week I will most likely be in Nogales, but with a new companion. I´m going to miss Hna Blackmore and all of our adventures, but I´m really excited for her as she starts this new part of her life and I´m excited to learn new things from a new companion. There really are absolutely amazing experiences that I have had in my time here and I know there is more to come!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck

Monday, November 23, 2015

PUI: Proselyting Under the Influence Letter 11-23-15Mexican


Mexican Thanksgiving

YAY for Thanksgiving coming up! Then the holidays can officially start, though they always start for me immediately after Halloween. I am so thankful to have the Savior and His Atonement and Gospel in my life. I am also super duper thankful to have YOU in my life! Why? Because you´re awesome, duh!

Today we had a Zone Thanksgiving dinner! KFC style because none of us have ovens/time to cook a turkey. There was no stuffing nor cranberry sauce but it was pretty good considering we´re in Mexico and all. 

Oh, I guess I better explain my subject title. So Hna Blackmore and I were on cake duty for the Thanksgiving dinner (pies pretty much don´t exist here) and we picked out the two most deliciously beautiful cakes we could find at the store here, one was chocolate fudge and the other tres leches. We served out the tres leches to half the zone and a couple bites into his piece one Elder commented about how strong the flavor was. Another smelled his piece and yelled “Ï think it´s spiked!”. Sure enough, we checked the ingredients and there was a good deal of wine in this cake two Mormon sister missionaries tried to feed to their zone! OOPS!!! It was a good thing we bought two cakes, but I have a feeling that this story is going to follow me for the rest of my mission. 

On Wednesday I had to go to the dentist to have a cavity filled. At first is was probably one of the scariest moments of my mission because they placed this seemingly Medieval torture device over my face to keep my mouth open or something. After that it wasn´t too bad... but I miss Dr. Denos for sure! The entire right side of my face was numb for the rest of the evening which didn´t do any favors for my Spanish. Of course I was called on to say the opening prayer in a meeting during which Hna Blackmore was shaking next to me from trying not to laugh.

As for the work here, we had a kind of off week with our young investigators, Alejandra and Luis, last week, but after our Family Home Evening last Monday they seemed to feel the Spirit and things started going better again. They now have a baptism date set for this Saturday. Will you all pray that they can keep progressing and that they can really receive confirmations that this is the right decision?

We had an interesting visit with a less active who was telling us she wants to go back to church now that the world is having all this crazy stuff happen with France and Syria. It made me think of how it is important to not procrastinate your day of repentance to when things get bad. Truth is we always need this Gospel, it´s just sometimes more obvious to us when we are in the middle of a trial or when crazy stuff is happening in the world. I guess that shows how faithful you are if you are just as firm in the faith when, to use a scriptural reference, all is well in Zion.

I hope your week is just lovely and I really hope that you don´t have spiked desserts for Thanksgiving!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck

Monday, November 16, 2015

SURPRISE BAPTISM :))))) Letter 11-16-15

Baptism of Jesus


GUESS WHAT?????

So we had this investigator who had been investigating the church for about a year and had already been through 6 companionships of missionaries. His name is Jesús and he comes to church every week and has a testimony and all but hasn´t gotten baptized. We’ve been meeting with him lots lately to try to really encourage him to take the steps into the font. Last Monday right after writing we had a lesson with him. As we sat down he blurted out “I’m ready. I want to be baptized--Saturday!” Hna. Blackmore and I were stunned but totally excited! We started all the preparations immediately because there was lots to do! 

When came the day of the baptism, Hna Blackmore woke up throwing up with the flu! Aghh! It was awful! The baptism was a big priority so we had her stay in bed all day. Then right before we left for the baptism, I started feeling flu-ish. Thankfully we both made it through the whole service without throwing up.
It was an awesome baptism! Many of the members came to support him. He bore his simple yet sweet testimony of the Gospel. Hna. Blackmore and I sang I Am A Child Of God for the special number. It wasn´t our best performance, you know, because we both had the flu, but considering the circumstances I think we did alright. :) Sadly we didn´t feel up to eating the tres leches cake afterwards. 

When it comes to our other investigators, Alejandra and Luis, we had a kind of off week. If you remember, they are 14 and 11, respectively. They´ve lost some of their desires to join the church because of friends and kids at school that have been making fun of them for it. We had a rather sad visit on Wednesday in which we had to move their baptismal date to later in the month. We also gave them the rest of the week with out visits from us to give them some time to read from the Book of Mormon and to pray. We have a family home evening planned for them tonight where we are going to show them this Mormon Message (in Spanish obviously) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqZ8bTjj-_E 

We had a really cool experience yesterday with our investigator, Gabriela. What happened was we had a ton of left over food from members that we really couldn´t eat because we had the flu, yet we couldn´t throw perfectly good food out or let it go bad and uneaten in our fridge so we decided to give it away. The only investigator we could decide on was Gabriela, but we felt slightly hesitant because she always has plenty of food in her house and is kind of independent so we didn´t want to offend her or anything. When we took her the food she was so happy and grateful towards us. She told us the her daughter, Vicky, had been sick all week and her ex-husband hadn´t come by to give them money so she couldn´t leave to buy food for her three kids with the little money she had. All she had in her fridge were refried beans. She kept thanking us that she didn´t have to give her kids nothing more than beans for dinner. It definitely was nothing on our part as we neither made nor bought the food. We were just the messengers bringing the food. But I guess that is exactly what being a missionary is--being the messenger of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It felt amazing to know that the Spirit worked through us like that that night.

I just wanted to add how much I love doing the ponderizing scriptures with you every week! I especially loved Helaman 5:12 this week! One of my favorites! 

Thanksgiving is coming up for all you folks in the states. I can tell you that we are so much more blessed than we even realize. Always remember what a miracle of a blessing it is to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Roadtrip Letter 11-9-15


Roadtrip to Hermosillo

PIZZA!!!

My Hermanas in Hermosillo

Tortilla Making

Going to Church

Hey turtles! 

I hope your week was grand! I can´t believe little Emme is 3!! WHAT THE WHAT?? She´s going to stop growing now right? And Hudson´s 1st birthday is on the way! Soooo weird! 

Anywho, this week went just swimmingly here for your main girl Hermana Hauck.

On Monday I took Hna Blackmore to the bus station because she was going to a meeting in Hermosillo for the leadership of the mission. The assistants gave her the wrong time so she missed her bus and the next one was at 8:00 that night which meant she would arrive in Hermosillo at about 11:30. President didn´t want her to be alone for that long so late at night so he gave me permission to go with her! Pres. and Hna Robinson picked us up and took us to their house to stay for the night. We were pretty pooped to be up until about midnight that night but it was fun having a little roadtrip:) Then the next day I sat through the meeting, which was pretty cool. My old companion Hna Piña is a sister training leader now so I got to see her. Plus I got pizza so it was a pretty fabulous day for me!

On Wednesday an investigator, Josefina, taught me how to make tortillas de harina (basically Cafe Rio tortillas). The recipe is way simple, but shaping them is a bit trickier. When I´m home I´ll have to make some for you because they are SO GOOD! However, I warn that their addictive yumminess is a trap and will make you gain weight before you know it if you´re not careful!

Hna Blackmore and I got to go to Young Womens in our ward with Alejandra, Josefina´s 14 year old daughter who is also investigating the church. It was kind of weird to hear the theme in Spanish, but it was really fun to be with the young girls of our branch.

Alejandra and her younger brother, Luis, are progressing pretty well but they are really shy when it comes to praying. We´re trying to get them to be more comfortable with it, because they have the date of the 28th this month to be baptized. 

Another investigator whom I´ve mentioned, Gabriela, is having a hard time. She´s opened up to us and told us some of the trials she´s had in her life, particularly with her family. She is trying so hard to find the path God wants for her and her children. I know she is so close! The Gospel is what they need! I love her and her kids so much. It´s weird how deeply you can come to love people that you haven´t known for that long as a missionary. I´m not sure exactly what it is, but something about working so hard everyday to bring someone even just a little bit closer to Christ and the Light that He is makes you care for them so much. 

That´s about it for this week.
I love you all so much! You´re all really, really, ridiculously good-looking.
Thank you for all of your love, support and prayers! 

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

I Love Candy Packages Letter 11-2-15

Splits with Alejandra

I love my package!

Gangster Missionary

Hello Dearest Humans!

I can´t believe Halloween time is over and we are in the month of November! Ha-ha I actually totally forgot that it was Halloween on Saturday until like 3:00. Sadly, Hna. Blackmore and I were already fasting by then so we ate no candy. 

Thankfully I´ve got my fam-bamily sending me packages of sweets to fill our trick-or-treatless tummies! We were SO excited to receive the package from you at church on Sunday! We went home and opened it and it felt like Christmas! I loved the jacket from Grandma Hirschi, the letters from everyone and all the candy! Especially the candy from Disneyland. My R2D2 Pez dispenser now resided on my study desk.  :) I feel so happy to have this stash of snacks! Also the stars miraculously aligned because I had Sprite in the fridge from earlier in the week so I was able to drink it through red vine licorice, which is a childhood recipe for happiness.

We got to see the baby pugs that I wrote about a few weeks ago again. A little bit bigger but OH SO CUTE! Remember how I said the owner was putting eye drops for humans in their eyes and I was afraid that it probably wasn´t best to do so? Well, I´m not sure if this is caused directly from the eye drops, but two of the puglets have lazy eyes.  On the bright side it makes them a teeny bit cuter in a pugly way.

A Hermana from another branch her in Nogales was sick and had to go to the hospital this week. Since my companion is the sister training leader, we had to go check on her. The hospitals here are totally Catholic! There was a huge shrine of the Virgin Mary outside, statues and pictures of the Virgin in every hallway and room and a cross with the trinity above each hospital bed. It was really interesting to see all of this and it really made me think of how in the Book of Mormon it talks about the great and abominable church polluting some of the plain and precious truths and doctrines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in this example they worship Mary as a deity though we know Heavenly Father to be our God and Jesus Christ to be His Son and the only Mediator between God and man with His Atoning sacrifice. Of course we love and respect Mary as a woman virtuous enough to be chosen by God to be the earthly mother of Christ, but it was never a doctrine of Christ´s Gospel to worship her. 

I´ve been reading from Jesus The Christ lately and I´m trying to time it as to be reading about His birth just before Christmas time. BTW I CANT BELIEVE CHRISTMAS IS PRACTICALLY HERE!!!!!!!!! (i.e. it´s November so you know Team BlackHauck is officially listening to Christmas music). Anywho, it´s been interesting reading about how Christ was foreordained in the pre-existence to be our Savior. I know and testify that He really did come forth to our Father in that day and offer Himself to be the sacrificial Lamb for our mortal sins, weaknesses and afflictions. I know that I will never be able to fully understand neither appreciate what Christ has done for me and for all of us, but I am grateful for it. I hope you all can take time in your lives everyday to remember Him and what He has done for us.

I love you all so much and I hope your week goes just swimmingly!

Con amor,

Hermana Hauck