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| Our District Plus Two Adopted Hermanas |
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| Awkward Photo with Elder Nate Benson |
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| Our New Latino Neighbors |
Sounds like lots of fun things are
happening in the good ol' States! Is Emme really using the Elsa pottie? And
it's great to see Hudsie Bear crawling! You people are my favorite!
It was another great week here for
Hermana Hauck at the CCM! My testimony has grown so much this week as I've had
to really rely on the Spirit for the help I need.
Tuesday
After emailing, the Hermanas and I
spent the day at the gymnasio playing different sports and games. We also spent
some time in the weightlifting gym. We have a bit of a running joke with
lifting because we do our benches and pull-ups every day. We can each only
bench the bar ten time (yeah...with no weights on it) and do 4 pull-ups. Later
we went to La Tienda and bought matching basketball shorts cause, you know,
that's what you do right?
Wednesday
Hermana Ylst and I taught a new
investigator, Alejandro (our teacher Hno. Vargas), and it didn't go as well as
we hoped. He had lots of questions about the Plan of Salvation and the Book of
Mormon that are hard enough to answer in English, let alone Spanish!
For service this week we cleaned the
walls of our comedor (cafeteria). It was actually really fun because we played “Name
That Tune” with hymns and Disney songs to pass the time. After we went and
bought helado (ice cream) in Le Tienda. At dinner, I saw Elder Nate Benson and
almost accidentally hugged him (still trying to get the hang of no huggsies)
but luckily he shot his arm forward to shake my hand.
Thursday
Today was a total adventure! We had
to wake up a half hour early to eat breakfast then board a bus that drove us an
hour into Mexico City to the US Embassy where all who were staying to serve in
Mexico had to appear for Visa approval. Immediately upon leaving the gates of
the CCM is chaos. Absolute colorful and noisy chaos! Seriously almost every
building is brightly colored and heavily vandalized with graffiti. There are
fruit ad taco stands everywhere and tons of stray dogs. It was so fun watching
the hustle and bustle of this place. The traffic is pretty packed and cars and
buses are crammed on the street bumper to bumper. We passed this public
gym/park that had all these exercise-intended contraptions and these ladies
were running on this thing that looked kind of like an elliptical. We must have
looked like kids in a zoo with our faces pressed against the windows because we
were in awe of this city! Driving back we got to see this really pretty Cathedral
and a bunch of different statues and sculptures that are mostly of apostles and
saints. We had a pretty normal day after that. Hna. Ylst and I taught the
cutest man ever, Lucio, who is probably about 75. We shared 2 Nephi 22 with him
and he loved it!
Friday
We taught Alejandro again today and
it went way better! We felt more prepared to answer some of his
questions. We were able to watch President Packer's funeral. All of the
messages were so wonderful. I love hearing from our beloved Prophet. His
message testified so strongly of the actuality and literalness of the resurrection
and eternal families. While in the auditorium where we watched the
funeral, this elder next to me, who had been here at the CCM for only 2 days,
fell asleep. I felt this breathing on my shoulder as his head was almost on me.
Ha-ha! I had to motion to his companion to wake him up/get him off of me. Everyone
has been getting kind of sick this week. The Mexican food here is really great,
but it has its side affects...I'll say no more.
Saturday
Some of the side affects of the food
put the two Elders in our district in the infermeria on Saturday, so it was all
girls, which was pretty fun! I don't think I've seen our teacher, Hno. Vargas,
laugh as hard as he did with us today. We went outside for much of the day to
get some fresh air because we practically live in our classroom.
Sunday
The Sabbath is always perfect for
letting us catch our breath and be spiritually fed. This Sunday was just what I
needed, and I didn't even know I need it! Our Elders were still sick so we had
a mini testimony meeting with the Hermanas. I bore my testimony on the
plainness of this Gospel. I really like reading and words in general so I sort
of always want to put things about the Gospel in beautiful and profound ways.
This is not necessary; The Gospel is beautiful and profound on its own. It
doesn't need flourish. I shared an experience from earlier this week when Hno.
Vargas was teaching Hna. Ylst and I about the importance of bearing testimony
and witness in lessons. He asked me how I know that God lives and is my Father.
I sort of waited for a second for the Holy Ghost to place some awesome sentence
into my mouth, but felt nothing come. This was terrifying to me and for like
.05 of a second I thought "Hold up! I have a testimony, right?" I sat
quietly for a bit and then realized how simple it all is. I began to cry as I
told him in the best Spanish I could muster that I know these things because
the Holy Ghost has testified of their truthfulness to me, not ever in some
single grand gesture but in hundreds of things. Line upon line, precept upon
precept. From my birth I have been taught of goodly parents things which I know
to be true through my life experience and the warm feeling I have inside every
time I pray, here an inspired lesson or talk and so on. This realization
has helped me SO much in the past days. Another cool experience from
today! After our testimony meeting, we were trying to sing the EFY medley but
were forgetting a bunch of the parts and didn't know how to sing it in Spanish.
About an hour later it was announced that this week the choir would be singing
none other than the EFY medley--in Spanish! You better believe District 14 B
was there for practice!
Monday
Lots of scripture study today which,
of course, is amazing! I am realizing more and more how much the Book of Mormon
testifies of Christ. It is the perfect tool for converting others and our selves.
I spent a lot of time studying 2 Nephi 31, which talks about following Christ's
example of baptism. Read it! Hna. Ylst and I have been planning for upcoming
lessons this week. We're getting better at planning and teaching. Honestly the
hardest part is for me to trust that the Spirit will put the right words in my mouth
as promised in D & C 84:86 (I think). I have a habit of trying to plan
everything I'm going to say rather than studying before hand and allowing the
Spirit to prompt me to say what is needed. We met Elder Alvarez from Hermosillo
today! He's a crack up and told us lots of fun-facts about his hometown. I'm so
excited to actually go there!
The Spanish is coming nicely! The
Gift of Tongues is real! It's amazing how much I can understand from my
teachers and the Latinos here. I had a 15-minute conversation in Spanish with a
teacher about the new Pixar movie, Inside Out, the other day. And in lessons,
the Holy Ghost really helps me remember words, grammar principles and so on.
The mission is the life!
Lately there have been cannons going
of outside the walls from around 4:00AM throughout the rest of the day. At
first we all thought it was funny and made tons of Hunger Games jokes, but the
novelty has faded. It's the worst! Last night I had this terrible dream that
the Hermanas and I were being shot at because I could hear the sound of the
cannons!
I hope you have a wonderful week and
that all of your wildest dreams will come true!
You are the best.
Con amor,
Hermana Hauck
PS: I am sorry if any Spanish words/misspelled English words are
found in this email. My brain doesn't use either language fully anymore. I
seriously can't remember how to spell the word "Restauración" in
English.
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