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