Little Girls Bike Letter 9-12-16

Flour-faced hermanas after our zone activity today.

More Flour Faces

Yaqui mural here in Peñasco

Yaqui mural here in Peñasco

Nursery Time

Hello all!!!

The work keeps moving forth here in Peñasco! We had a really good week, though Hna Camacho came down with strep throat this weekend:/ I´m sick too but just mildly. It´s been kind of hard attending all of our investigators being sick and all. I went on divisions with a member to be able to get in some needed lessons. The good news is we´re both healin´ up well and will be pretty much back to normal by tomorrow or Wednesday. 

Besides that unfortunate event, this week was lovely! We had a Zone conference with President that was really inspiring and got me so excited. He talked a lot about the Atonement. He shared a story that I think many of you have heard. It´s about a little girl who wanted a bike. Her dad told her to do all she could to earn the money for it and she could have it. She did everything she, as a little girl, could but still was short of the price of the bike. So her daddy paid the remainder. I couldn´t help crying as I listened to this story  that I´d already heard many times because it touched my heart in such a deeper way this week as I imagined the Savior paying that debt for me. I, being young, impatient, selfish, prideful and imperfect in so many ways will never be able to reach the happiness and glory that Heavenly Father has prepared for us. Yet Christ atoned to be able to lift me higher than I can on my own. I know that He has paid that same debt for each and every one of you.

And in the work, all of our investigators are doing really well..

Irlanda:
This girly is absolutely adorable. She has a little journal that she writes in as she reads her Book of Mormon to remember what she learns. Her family is less active but told us this week that they want to be sealed in the temple!!! They´ve already gone to church twice as a family:)

Kenia:
Doing really well too. She has several friends that are members which helps so much. Her kids are coming to church with us too but aren´t old enough to baptize yet.

Rosario y Ariana (y Valeria):
We started teaching Vale, Ariana´s sister, this week. They´re doing really well too and have come to several activities and church meetings with us.

Andres:
Also doing well, but sadly this week his parents expressed some of their negative feelings towards his preparations for baptism. From what we can understand from their point of view they have fears that he´ll be baptized then later on in his teenage years he´ll go off the deep end and make lots of serious mistakes (as happened with an older daughter of theirs). They feel like it would be better for him to be baptized when he´s older and has more sins to be washed away. I understand how someone could arrive to that logic, but I don´t think they really understand the purpose of baptism, nor that it is in fact a commandment. And one of the amazing parts of baptism is the confirmation of the gift of the Holy Ghost which will help him in his life to make the correct decisions. We´ve tried sharing scriptures with them and talking on the matter but they´re rather set in this idea. If anybody has advice on the matter I´m all ears:)

That all for this week!

Con amor,

Hermana Hauck

A Happy Week And A Happy Life Letter 9-5-16

ELOTES with member Lupita:)

Masks with Ariana

HI FAMILY AND FRIENDS AND ALL YOU BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE READING THIS EMAIL!!!

Hermana Hauck here is a happy camper because we had a great week here with our investigators! Yesterday 5 investigators came to church with us! It was so amazing having them all there because it´s been really hard getting people to come to church here in our area. Brief summary of each of our main progressing investigators:

Andres: You already know a bit about him. 10 years old, son of a less active couple. He is the CUTEST THING EVER. He´s extremely polite and doesn´t has a sarcastic bone in his body so I am (naturally) always joking around with him.

Irlanda: 11 years old and also is from a less active family. She´s the older sister of the quadruplets... I think I mentioned them once, right? Well, the whole family came to church with us this Sunday! They were climbing all over the seats and running around. Irlanda is really smart and has been progressing well.

Rosario & Ariana: a grandma and her 17 year old granddaughter. They are really sweet and love Hna Camacho and me so much. Actually, last night we did facials with Ariana.

This week was also really special because we had a visit from Seventy Elder Pino. All of my zone here in Peñasco went down to Caborca for a multi zone conference with him, his wife an Hna and President Robinson. He talked alot about the sacredness of our calling. He told us that our mission calls are recieved via revelation. The Lord puts us where He puts us because He knows where we need to be for our own welfare and that of others.

With those thoughts from Elder Pino, I just wanted to share with you that I know that to be true. In these 14 months that I have been here as a missionary in the state of Sonora I have learned that the Lord actually knows me and that He sent me here. I look back at the early months of my mission when I had such a hard time adapting to Mexico. I thought I would never come to love my mission nor this place to where I was called. Now I can´t express hard grateful I am to have been sent here by the Lord. I have had experiences here that I am sure I could not have had anywhere else and I have come to love this place, the people and the culture so much I feel like my heart might explode! It´s been a lesson for me to trust in God. He knows what He´s doing and He doesn't give us things we can´t do. If we´re tried in the tasks and calling He gives us, it because He wants to give us a chance to prove our faith and dedication.

I also want you all to know how much I love you and how grateful I am for your support. Hahaha wow, lots of feelings right now!

Have a great week!!!!!!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck

¨[Hna Camcho] took a little spill at the sand dunes today... broke her coccyx¨ Letter 8-29-16

14 Months on the Mission

Caty's Kids

Caty's Kids

Caty & Kids

Hola a todos!

This week has been a pretty good one, though I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT I HAVE 14 MONTHS IN THE MISSION!!!!!!!!

It's starting to cool off ever so slightly here in Peñasco. And I'm also glad to tell you that there were no phone ransoms paid, dog bites, nor any other kind of mischief like that in this nook of Sonora. But poor Hermana Camacho has had some problems with her tailbone and this last week it's gotten worse so we've taken a break from our bikes. But now our area seems so much bigger!! We're going to the doctor tomorrow to check out her back. Hopefully they can find something or give her some kind of medicine because she's been having a lot of pain.
*PS-10 points to all of you who understand the subject line...

Our young investigator, Andres, is doing really well. We watched the Book of Mormon cartoon of Nephi and the Brass Plates this week which was really fun for him, but he wasn't able to come to church yesterday  because both of his parents worked. We're trying to reactivate his whole family so this week we're going to put some goals to be able to make it to Sacrament meeting this week.

Caty is still doing well, but gave us the sad news that she and her boyfriend and kids will be moving to Hermosillo in 2 weeks before she can get baptized. I hope she can continue to prepare for baptism there, though. We're going to send her dates to the mission office.

We have a new progressing investigator named Rosario. She has around 50 years and is darling! She was so excited when she came to church with us yesterday. I´ll keep you all updated on her and on our other investigators. Please keep them in your prayers.

Con amor,

Hermana Hauck

Stopping Crime In Peñasco Letter 8-22-16

Studying on the beach

Peñasco Super Sisters

Tomas with Hermanas Balboa and Voss

Stopping Crime In Peñasco One Phone At A Time

Latest crazy news for Hermana Hauck--Our cell phone was stolen last week. Well, technically we lost it. But then we called it from the phone of the other hermanas and a man answered and told us he found our phone and could meet us. We (Hnas Camacho, Barton, Luna and myself) went happily to a gas station to meet the lad who rescued our phone. When we arrived, the man was there waiting on his bike. He told us that he wanted something in exchange for the phone, 100 pesos to be exact.  We told him that we’re dirt-poor missionaries but could promise him blessings. He wasn’t convinced. After pleading with him for a while he told us to call him when we had the money and he took off with our phone. The stubborn hermanas that we are, we took off after him and began a high (bike) speed chase down one of the only paved streets in my area. I felt like we were in a movie ha-ha. You should have seen us four with our lame helmets and backpacks filled with Books of Mormon chasing this crusty old man for our beaten up phone! When we caught him we still had to pay for our phone, but at least we got it back! 

The best part about this story is that yesterday our phone broke and now we are waiting for a new one to arrive this week…I prefer not to comment.

Other than that craziness, this week was GREAT!!! Caty is doing really well and came to church again with us. We´re working on talking to her “husband” about getting married to her. Lots of people here are pretty nonchalant about marriage. They look at it as being just a waste of time because they’ll be divorced in a few years anyways. We’re really trying to help Caty and her husband realize that God´s view of marriage is much grander than that. 

We´ve also been visiting an inactive family called the Gallardo family. Their son, Adres, is 10 and we’re helping him prepare to be baptized. They have some time away from the church, but they came with us this Sunday.

I received really great news from my old companion, Hna Balboa. Tomas, our investigator, was baptized two weeks ago. I almost cried seeing this picture because I haven’t seen a baptism for some time in my mission. Hna Balboa and I spent a lot of time with this hermano and I’m so grateful that I could play a part in his preparations to be baptized, even if I didn’t get to be there when it happened.

Thank you all for your love and support. I’m so grateful to have so many angels looking out for me and rooting me on from both sides of the veil.

Con amor,

Hermana Hauck

Pitbull: 01 Hermana Hauck: 00 Letter 8-15-16

Karaoke

The bruises were more hard core in person :/

It was a dark, cold night (except it wasn´t a cold night at all, I just wrote that to add to the story-telling effect). Hna Camacho and I were riding our bikes through the unpaved roads of Puerto Peñasco when a gang of wolves (except they weren´t wolves...storytelling effect) came dashing at us two. We were innocently fleeing the attack when a pitbull pounced at me and chomped my leg!

When we found the monster´s owners they told us that it wasn´t vaccinated so they was a possibility it had rabis (not added for effect) but luckily my pants were covering my leg and the pitbull´s teeth didn´t break any skin. THANKS PANTS! Our zone leaders had us get it checked out anyways. Left me with a nice bruise:)

Other than that... oh yeah, we had an awesome Karaoke activity in our branch and I got to sing!!! Sadly I couldn´t sing Elton John or Neil Diamond as I had hoped so I settled for High School Musical (You Are The Music In Me).

Caty didn´t come to church this week, but we´re still working with her. She has a lot of interest and wants to follow Christ. She´s not married so that´s something we´ve been working on too.

We have some other families that we´ve been working with too. One problem we´ve seen a lot in these families here in Peñasco is drugs. It´s so sad to me to see what drugs do to couples and relations in families. Even with therapy and rehab programs the problems never seem to leave the families that have these problems. Hna Camacho and I have been focusing on the Atonement a lot in our studies and our teaching because in the end in the Savior who´s going to help people experience a lasting change.

Have a great week!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Hauck

The Sweatiest Bridesmaid Letter 8-8-16

Happily Married Tortoises

The Sweatiest Bridesmaid

Guess who´s oh so happy to have a new sister???? THIS HERMANA!

It´s pretty weird to think that the wedding is all done and over. All day on Saturday I was thinking about Brad and Emilee and the family. Haha I even put on my bridesmaid dress during personal studies (and got weird looks from my companion) to feel like I was there in person because I´m a sentimental nerd like that. I was checking my watch every chance that I could and imagining what everyone would be doing at that moment. Not to get at all self righteous.. but it did feel kind of cool thinking about the family enjoying the music, food, dancing, and party as I was fasting while biking through miserably hot and humid Peñasco.

I´m so happy that all went well with the wedding. I´m really grateful to be able to have a new part of the family. I know that the sealing that Brad and Emilee had is for ALL time and eternity!

This week was exxxtra hot and we sweat a TON. Then the wind cools a down a bit (which is great) but it also carries lots of sand right up to our sweaty faces. Needless to say I am filthy every night when I get home.

But this week was also awesome because we finally had 2 investigators in the sacrament meeting.

Caty and her two little kids came. Caty is 19 and a little hyperactive, but wants to learn about the Gospel. It was a fiasco getting them there and her kids were pretty restless, but I´m grateful that she had the chance to attend church.

Alicia, a new investigator, and her little girl came. It was her daughters 6th birthday so we were impressed that they  made it when they could have been out riding ponies or eating ice cream or something else that yells 6 years old.

That´s about all I´ve got time for today!!! LOVE TO YOU ALL!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Hauck

PS:  I didn´t get to attend Brad and Emilee´s wedding, BUT I did get to visit the happily married couple Jeronimo and Babba. Yes, they are indeed tortoises. hehe ignore me please because I´m too nerdy for my own well-being

They're Finally Getting Married! Letter 8-1-16

I hope you all recognized that the subject line is a reference to Aladdin and the King of Thieves.

I´m so excited for Emilee and Brad this week!!!!! I GET A NEW SISTER!!!!!! Way to go, Brad, because she´s a keeper :) I hope everything goes perfectly this week. I´ll be thinking about you and hoping that it´s a really special day for the whole family!!

This week has been nice. A little extra humid because we had a bad storm on Friday night which flooded a lot of houses in our area. The good thing is that I get to ride Splash mountain every time we ride our bikes down the streets in our area :D

Speaking of bikes.. they have been a struggle!! Hahaha this Wednesday we left in the morning to find that Hna Camacho´s front tire was flat. We went to a member´s house to fix it. Later that day, we came out from a lesson and here back tire was flat.. Back to the members house for a fixing. Then on Sunday on our way to church a car pulled in front of my companion before she could stop and she bumped into his car and gave it the teeeeeeniest scratch. He got out and started yelling (mostly swear words) at her and completely disregarded the fact that he could have seriously hurt her. My rapid-fire-Spanish isn´t toooo good... but I did get a few words in to defend my companion.. :) Haha mostly I just told him that his threats to call the police on her didn´t scare us because I saw the whole thing and jnew that he had 90% of the fault. He didn´t like that. I tried to do it peacefully but he wasn´t very cooperative, haha. I call everyone ¨hermano¨and he told me at the end of our rather loud conversation ¨No me digas ¨hermano¨, no soy tu hermano!¨ or ¨don´t call me brother, I´m not your brother!¨ and left. Hehe, some peoples´kids.

We´ve still had problems getting investigators to church. It´s a long distance, but we´re trying to help them make the sacrifices so they can receive the blessings.

Ivonne has still been, well, a teenager.. We´ve been thinking and praying about maybe taking a break with her... wow that sound like we´re in a relationship with her or something but I can´t think of a better way to say it in English right now.

We havn´t been able to get a hold of the Tapia Lopez family but will be visiting them tonight.

We have met some other great people this week with whom I hope to see progress.

That´s not too much info about my investigators but I´m running out of time. :(

Again I really hope that all goes fabulously with the wedding!!! I love you all so much and you are forever in my prayers!!!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck