Monday, January 25, 2016

A Gift From The Sky - Letter 1-25-16

Raul and His Parents, President Robinson and Us After Raul's Baptism Interview

Bird Poop!
Guaymas

The Mission 7 Month Mark


Well today´s been an interesting P-Day. We had flu shots this morning so now my arm is hurting. Then to add insult upon injury to the same arm, while Hna Pelico and I were walking in the Guaymas Centro (Main Street) a bird pooped on my arm. Yes, POOPED ON MY ARM! 

The good thing about this day is our investigator, Raul, was cleared for baptism this Saturday!! YAY! It´s been amazing seeing this investigator´s progress. He really has a desire to follow the Savior a receive a remission of his sins. 

This week has been a really beautiful yet really hard week. My comp and I set a bunch of goals for this transfer and we´ve been working really hard to better our obedience and work methods. Of course, Satan knows about our desires to do better and reach these goals too so we´ve been extra attacked by his forces. I don´t think I´ve had a week in which I´ve faced more rejection but in every moment that I feel discouraged I think of Alma 26:27 (¨And when our hearts were depressed and we were about to turn back...). 

Something that I found really interesting about the rejection this week was that it was always after we faced lots of it yet kept working and trusting that the Lord was guiding us to people who are more prepared to hear this message that we saw something rewarding (i.e. someone accepting us in their house or giving us their address, etc.). This made me think about the scripture in Ether 12 that tells us it is after our faith is tried that we receive. 


Also, this week we had a worldwide conference that was super cool! The speakers focused on bringing others to repentance and how we can do this in our teachings. It was weird seeing some of the missionaries from the States that have iPads. What the WHAT!! No fair! But I guess it would be thoroughly ridiculous to have iPads in my mission because the probability of being robbed is quite a bit higher. Also it was fun singing hymns in English.

That´s all for this week, folks. Take care!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck

Monday, January 18, 2016

Finishing the Book of Mormon & Agnostic German Dreadlocks- Letter 1-18-16

Making Guatemalan Tamales

Zone Goodbye



Hey Nerds!! 

We received transfer info on Saturday and Hna Pelico and I will both be staying here together for another transfer. I´m super excited because I adore her and we get along really, really well. Sadly, Hna Lopez is leaving our district, but we´re getting a new Hna from Peru. :)

Remember my goal to finish the Book of Mormon by the end of this transfer????? CHECK! I finished!!! YAY! I spent lots of time reading but it was all worth it. It was a really cool experience reading the second half so fast (13 days) but I started getting annoyed of all the characters because like every other chapter the stinking Nephites, Lamanites or Jaredites are converted unto Christ and then fall into secret combinations and wars and utter destruction and all that again. I guess there´s something we can learn from that and that´s why the many stories of the pride of the people leading them to destruction aren´t generalized into one sentence.

Oh how embarrassing! Yesterday Hna Pelico and I were with members before church and I was playing around with their 3-year-old daughter during which I put my missionary nametag on her stuffed animal. When this family gave us a ride to the chapel I forgot my tag. To my horror, President and Hna Robinson were attending our ward today! Luckily my hair was down so I was able to cover it. 

Also at church a member introduced my to this German woman with sweet dreadlocks who she had found wandering the streets of San Carlos so she invited her to church then asked Hna Judd and I to give her the lesson of the restoration in English. It was hard enough to teach this lesson in English, but this woman practically interrogated us! She was vegan, agnostic and opposed to all government and all titles of beliefs. This is COMPLETELY THE OPPOSITE of all the lovely Mexicans I´ve been teaching for the past 6 months. It was a really interesting experience and she was super nice though! I´m not sure what´s more difficult, teaching someone who has no belief in God or teaching someone who might agree with and believe everything you teach them but will not convert out of the Catholic church.

We had a really special lesson this week. We were teaching a young man--we´ll call him Juan-- about how baptism can wash him of his sins. His parents are members and they were present. Juan started telling us that he didn´t feel like baptism can help him because of some of the mistakes he´s made getting into drugs. At one point he told us that he had stolen from his parents. His dad said to him for all of us to hear ¨Eres perdonado, hijo.¨ or ¨You´re forgiven, son¨. This comment made me think of the parable of the Prodigal Son and the Spirit prompted me to share it. I explained after that if we come unto Christ and follow Him--in other words, when we humbly return to the will of our Heavenly Father-- He, our Father, will say the same thing that Juan´s father has said to him to us.

I hope that this week rocks for you people!!!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Yay for the Kick-Bum Life - Letter 1-11-16

Hiking Microhonda

View from top of Microhonda

Mexican Traditional Rasca Bread

Cutting the Rasca Bread

I got the piece with the baby Jesus. Yay for Mexican traditions!

Wowie wow wow!

It sounds like the family had a pretty cool week with the padres cruising in the Caribbean and Brad turning 22! My week has been pretty kick bum as well! :)

Today has been a pretty kick bum P-day. This morning Hna´s Pelico, Lopez, Judd and I hiked this huge mountain called ¨Microhonda¨, which means Microwave oven so who knows what´s up with that. Anywho, the hike was really beautiful and we got to see the ocean and all of Guaymas and San Carlos. Later we went to the chapel with the entire zone and we got zone shirts (I´ll send pics later) and we played soccer. (BTW hike + soccer = sore Hna Hauck). Then Pelico and I went to the centro (town square) and ate churros and I bought these awesome purple shoes that were only 29 pesos, which is less than $2 in US. 

We had a zone conference this week that was so cool! We had many changes made to our teaching approach and our studying tactics. Our teaching is to be more simple and direct and we are trying to focus on what the prophets of the Book of Mormon teach--come unto Christ by receiving a remission of your sins through faith on His name, repentance and baptism. Our studying time is half our Book of Mormon then a half hour of other canonized books or the missionary library. We then study Preach my Gospel with comps. We also have goals to read each of these books a certain number of times. The goal is to read the BoM 4 times. I was in the first chapter of Alma the day of the conference (Tuesday) the first time reading it in my mission and I already have 6 months so I´ve kicked it into gear and made it a goal to finish it by the end of this transfer (Sunday).

 I’ve been reading a ton obviously. I didn´t want to give up being able to understand what I´m reading but I needed to read fast, so I moved to English scriptures alone just to finish it and every time I open study with prayer I pray to be able to understand what I´m reading. I have seen so many blessings doing this. This week I have felt more understanding and love for these scriptures than I ever have in my life! I can feel that mighty change of heart that it mentions in Alma. It’s a crazy miracle that we have these scriptures because I can feel them changing me just by reading them. I hope you all are keeping up on your scripture study because it is SO IMPORTANT!!

I can also tell you that the changes made to our teaching were very inspired. We´ve been a bit more straightforward in all of our lessons, which has helped sort out those that, or part of the ¨white and ready to harvest¨ group and those that just aren´t quite prepared to receive the Gospel in their lives. Lots of people here agree with EVERYTHING we say and then at the end of a lesson they say something like
 ¨How nice it is that your church and the Catholic Church have the same beliefs¨ 
Us: (sigh) ¨lets go over the Great Apostasy again.¨
With the new approach we’ve been able to be a little clearer and more distinct.

We´ve had to drop a couple of our investigators (Paty being one of them) but we´ve had some progress with others such as Raul who is moving right on forward to his baptismal date for the 30th of this month.

Transfers are coming this next P-day and who knows what´ll happen. I think I´ll be staying in Guaymas but I thought I´d be staying in Nogales too. And I think Hna Pelico will be leaving to train. We´ll see what happens.

Thanks for all of the love and support that I have from you, you crazies! I really am so amazed and grateful that I have you because a family as wonderful as ours is not a blessing that many have. But that´s why I´m here! To help others have what our family has!! The true Gospel of Jesus Christ and all of the blessings that therein are! Yay for missionary work!!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck

Monday, January 4, 2016

Lookin' Good 2016 Letter 1-4-16

New Years Day 2016

New Years Eve

Hernandez Family

Hernandez Girl

With Raul, our investigator, and his family

Hey skillets! I hope this New Years has been great for you as it has been for me! 

This week we’ve been in a trio with Hna Barton (an Hna that was in the CCM with me), which was so fun because she is absolutely crazy and fun. It also was cool being able to learn how to teach with three instead of two because it sort of put us out of our comfort zones. 

New years eve was a super slow day because everyone was out of town or having parties or drunk, so we helped an investigator prepare like 1,000,000 tamales. Then we got to eat some after which rocked. Then that night we ate more tamales with a family in our ward. Then we went to these recent converts house where they fed us the infamous menudo. Menudo is a soup with COW STOMACH. It didn´t taste te-herribly awful, but the texture and just how it looked was nasty and I am not a fan and will not be bringing the recipe home, thank you very much.

After that tragedy we created a cranberry juice/sprite drink to toast to New Years. Hna Pelico, Hna Barton and I were running around our house like a bunch of crazies at midnight on New Years because we didn´t know what else to do. Then naturally after a day of eating tamales, tamales and cow guts we felt inclined to make goals on eating healthier and exercising better in the mornings. We made other, more mission-focused goals too.

Now about the work.

The holidays have kind of hindered the progress of some of our investigators because they´ve been out of town or busy. One in particular is Paty who is around 55. Her testimony is growing lots already and she has accepted a baptismal date but it fell last week when she didn´t come to church (because she didn´t dye her hair). She really is super awesome though and sends us texts all the time when she´s reading the Book of Mormon to ask us questions.

We have a new investigator who is progressing really well. His name is Raul and he is the son of some recent converts in our ward. He accepted a baptismal date but didn´t feel very ready. Then when he came to church, the lesson in principles of the Gospel was on baptism and was seriously PERFECT for him. I think he´s feeling a lot better about it now. I´ll let you know next week.

I hope this week goes well for all of you. Also I really hope you don´t have to eat cow stomach. Plus also, good luck on your goals and everything for New Years!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck