Team BlackHauck Letter 10-26-15

Four Months on the Mission!

Our Zone

Elder Dipko

Cute Little Vicky

Hey Fam-Bam!!

So Hna. Blackmore and I are officially team BlackHauck to all the missionaries in Nogales. We’re definitely okay with it because it makes us sound like a military or jiu hitsu duo. BTW my zone leader, Elder Dipko, looks kind of like Brad...well, not a whole lot…he has brown hair and freckles and lighter eyes…thats pretty much it. But I’ll send a picture.

Today Hna Blackmore and I went to The Linea, which is the border of the US. It’s just a big ugly fence. I felt so weird being close to America! I stuck my arm through the fence so I could be half in my native country for a second. Then we went shopping and a lot of the venders thought we were tourists so they tried to charge stuff for way more than it was worth, but when we started speaking to them in Spanish they stopped yelling ¨TWO DOLLA!!¨ and ¨HI PRETTY WOMAN COME SEE MY STORE¨ in our ears. 

On Tuesday we had a meeting with the branch council until 8:30pm and the journey home from the church is about an hour but we have to be in our house before 9:00 in our mission so we took a taxi home. This taxi driver was hitting on Hna Blackmore and I hard core, asking us if we go to any of the clubs in Nogales, if he could show us around the city, etc. and we were being pretty stern and frank with our ¨No...we’re missionaries,¨ but he wasn’t taking the hint. We resolved by teaching him the lesson of the Restoration of the Gospel, which must have been a turn off to him because he stopped inviting us places. Ha-ha!

We did divisions with members twice this week so we got a ton of work in and made all of our goals for the week. :) It was a little scary leading lessons without Hna Blackmore but I was totally blessed with both the gifts of tongues and discernment! We had a lesson with the less-active couple and the husband told me that church attendance isn´t that important because prayer and scripture study are more important and God knows what is in our hearts anyways. I felt a little stumped on what to say to him. But then the Spirit whispered to me to just bare my testimony. Thoughts and feelings just came to my mind! I bore testimony that I know that Jesus Christ is the Head of this church and, as such, the programs and organizations therein (i.e. Sunday church meetings) are inspired by Prophets that communicate with Him. They didn’t really argue after that and agreed to let us come back this week. Thank goodness for the Spirit!

After church yesterday Hna. Blackmore and I were waiting for the bus when this older American couple got off another bus and came to talk to us saying, ¨Finally some good Mormons!¨ They want to move down here from California but they were absolutely terrified to be here and didn’t know a lick of Spanish. They kept asking us questions about how to travel safely and without being robbed and so forth. Poor folks. We gave them our numbers in case they need more help but we haven’t received a call yet…I hope that´s not because their phones were stolen. o__o

Our investigator, Gabriela, has been doing pretty well and feels excited about changes she is making in her life in order to get baptized. She has a daughter named Victoria that was sick the other day but didn’t want to take medicine. I promised her a surprise if she would mind her mom, which she did after that, so I brought her some of the Frozen fruit snacks mom had sent in a package. She was one happy little camper. I’ll add a picture.

We also have been teaching a brother and sister, Luis and Alejandra, who are 11 and 14, respectively. Their Mom is dating a member in our branch so they’re investigating and have a goal to be baptized in November.

I hope you all have absolutely fantabulous weeks!

Con amor,

Hermana Hauck

My Companion Is A Muggle! Letter 10-19-15I

I got a package from home!

Ana Maria & Her Turquoise Wall

I Love Hermana Blackmore!

Nogales

Dear Family,

I have to tell you all that I received some devastating news about poor, poor Hermana Blackmore. Not only has she not read the Harry Potter series (which is only a minor transgression), but she has not seen the 5th, 6th, or 7th (neither pt. 1 nor 2) movies. Luckily I’m well schooled and prepared in this corner of the universe. Naturally, I spent the week telling her the entire plot whenever we had free time because I wasn`t about to stand by and let her continue on in her suffering when I had the power and authority to free her from such agony. As you can see I am still nerd to the bone.

Here´s a tender mercy from this week.We went to eat with our less active Ana Maria this week and we were blown away by how hospitable she was towards us. When we walked inside, her living room walls were painted turquoise blue. We asked why she decided to paint it and she told us it was for our lunch date--she wanted to make the house look nice and special for us SO SHE STAYED UP UNTIL 3:00AM THE NIGHT BEFORE AND PAINTED THE WALLS BLUE FOR US! We were so stunned and flattered. Then during all of the lunch she was constantly filling our glasses and asking if we needed anything. Ha-ha, she sent her son to the store 5 different times to buy different treats and drinks etc. for us. It was absolutely adorable! After we had a little lesson and she told us that she was doing all this for us because apparently, since we`ve been teaching her, she`s been feeling the Spirit again. I still can`t believe how much time, effort and love she put into this little lunch for us, though. 

Another investigator, Gabriela, has been progressing really well! This week after a lesson she set her own baptism date. Sadly she set it for Dec. 19th, which is after Hna Blackmore leaves, but we`re hoping that as we progress with the lessons she’ll maybe want to move it sooner.

We had a Zone Conference this week. It was great hearing from our President, his wife and the assistants. Many of the talks were about faith because we are trying to boost the faith we have as a mission in goal setting for progressing investigators. We did a mission-wide fast this Sunday with the purpose of strengthening our faith in the Work of Salvation. Actually it was really cool, like 45 seconds after Hna Blackmore and I started our fast with a prayer in a little corner of an empty street this guy approached us and told us that he was ¨Catholic¨ (meaning he is by tradition but doesn`t ever go to mass or anything like that--aka everyone in Mexico) but he wants more in his life. He asked if we would come by his house sometime soon and introduce ourselves to his wife without telling her that we had met him and see if she wanted to listen to our message. We went later that day and she was pretty accepting! We have an appointment with them for tomorrow! We’ve already started praying for them and we really hope that their hearts have been prepared by the Lord to receive His Gospel. Their names are Benjamin and Angelica, if you have extra room in your prayers. :)

Also at the Zone Conference Hermana Robinson (Pres`s wife) brought me my package! Complete with stickers of the Virgin Mary. Thanks for the treats, Herbal Life drink and picture.:))))  Our district leader, Elder Larsen from Las Vegas (actually he has grandparents in Ivins, if anyone knows them) also got a package from his family through a member in our ward and he shared real-life Costco dried mangos with us! Which was absolutely amazing because I ran out of my stash a while back.

Although I miss American food lots (ie ALL of Mom`s Sunday dinners and normal Oreos and milk because they both have a different tastes here), I have to tell you I am falling in love with some of the food here! Especially the fruit! Avocado, melon, grapes, pineapple, grapefruit, mango, etc. IT`S ALL SO GOOD! The tortillas de harina (flour) are also waayy good. Don`t even get me started on carne asada! I’ll have to steal some of these recipes and cook for you when I’m home.

That’s about all from this week. I hope you all have a lovely week and that all of your wildest dreams come true!

Con amor,

Hermana Hauck

AHH!! I almost forgot!! Mom had the ponderizing scripture for this week

D & C 84: 88 And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up. 

A personal favorite <3

You`re all turkies!

Puglets, Soccer and Nogalian Neighbors Letter 10-12-15

P-day Fun

I Love Pugs!

Hola Palvos (turkeys)!

Things are just fabulous here in Nogales! It has started getting pretty cool and even cold at night. Our shower doesn´t have heat so every night we do this little routine of boiling water in our little pot and filling a bucket then we use a cup to poor the water on us. Takes some time but works pretty well. 

Also, our house had to be fumigated this week because we had so many cucarachas.

Other than that, our little house is pretty cozy:) Although we have some neighbors that are royal pains in the tah-tah. Just the other night at 3:30 in the morning they decided to play the loudest, most obnoxiously Mexican drumline-ish music EVER TO EXIST IN THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING! Complete with trumpet that seemed to shake our house. Seriously it was so loud Hna Blackmore and I were practically slapped awake. This music went on for at least an hour. If I weren´t trying my best to represent Jesus Christ right now I would have toilet papered their house by now or something wonderfully juvenile like that. 

Hna Blackmore went to Hermosillo for a meeting (she´s a sister training leader) on Monday, so I spent the night and part of Tuesday with the only other sisters in Nogales. While with them we had a pretty nice door-slam experience when a little boy opened the door to us and as his mom saw us she started yelling at him ¨Wait to see who it is before you open the door all the way! Close it now!¨ Hopefully someday she´ll open the door to this message.

Our zone here in Nogales is so much fun! Today we played soccer at the church. It´s a pretty well known fact that Latinos are good at soccer and take it pretty seriously, but playing with them is a whole different ball field (no pun intended jajaja). Hna Blackmore and I ended up having to leave the game because we felt that it was getting too rough. But we went inside and played the piano and sang with some other missionaries after which were really fun too! 

Two days in a row this week we got to play with baby pugs because an investigator bred her pug!!! They were so cute! But I feel a little scared for their well being because the investigator´s, Gabriela, daughters are super rough with them. Also Gabriela was putting eye drops in all of their eyes and when we asked what it was for she was like ¨I don´t know.. We got these eye drops for one of our children when she was a baby. ¨ I´m not a vet but I´m pretty sure human medicine and animal medicine are not the same right?! Well, hopefully the poor puppies don´t go blind.

Ana Maria is a less active that we have been teaching and she is so cute and loving. Every time we go to her house not matter how much we object she has her son go buy us cookies and juice and she gives us whatever fruit she has on her table. Some of the people here are really so giving even when they don´t have much. She is always hugging us and patting us on the backs. She came to church this week so Hna and I are very happy. She and her husband want to be active enough to be sealed in the temple. :)

We have another investigator, Angelica, who seems very interested and has been reading the Book of Mormon and everything but has some troubles with the idea of leaving her Catholic traditions. Then we have Cesar who is 16 and seems very interested, but is also very, very agreeable so we´re not too sure if he really is gaining a testimony.

A 17 year old member, Xhunaxhy (zoo-nashi) is awesome! She calls us all the time to see is she can go out with us to teach! She wants to serve a mission too. I´ll have to get a picture with her to send to you.

If you would pray for my investigators, the members here and for Hna Blackmore and I to be able to find those ¨White and ready to harvest¨ here in Nogales that would be wonderful and greatly appreciated!

I´m glad to hear you have been ponderizing! This can go on my whole mission AND BEYOND! I loved to see the scripture in my planner and to ponderize throughout the week and I look forward to doing it again this week with Dad´s scripture.  

Matthew 11: 28-30 

LET THE PONDERIZING BEGIN!

I love you all and I hope the week goes grandly for ya!

Hermana Hauck

General Conference, ´Ay! Letter 10-5-15

General Conference with the Gang

I Adore Hermana Blackmore

General Conference, ´Ay!

First off- HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITE JEFFY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYAYAYAYYAYAY FOR YOUR ANNIVERSARY OF LIFE OUTSIDE OF THE WOMB!!!! I hope you have the best day and I know that all of your wildest dreams will come true (but only if you vote for Pedro).

Okay so here´s the update with Hermana Hauck. This has been a really nice change for me in a lot of ways. Nogales is pretty cool and has even been chili at times. The streets are pretty safe and somewhat clean but like I said last week there are hills everywhere. Seriously, you are always either walking up or down a hill. I haven´t been bitten by a dog here yet (we have our trusty weapons of a spray bottle and picking up imaginary rocks) but there are still lots of dogs in the street. Yes, sadly Chihuahuas too. We have a little shaggy black dog that follows us everywhere. We don´t touch it because she´s pretty gross looking, but we´re kind of fond of her so we protect her from the other mean dogs. I´ll get a picture of her soon. 

I. Adore. My. Companion. She is so funny and happy and she adds a little Canadian ¨´ay¨ at the end of roughly 30% of her sentences. Also she doesn´t carry a bag but a ¨bayg¨. We love to sing along with the church music we have to the top of our lungs. Also, we both have considerable (and probably unnecessary) amounts of the scripts of Napoleon Dynamite and Emperor´s New Groove memorized. We live in the most tranquil part of Nogales so it´s been pretty safe. The members here are really sweet too. There´s one young member named Sunashi who is always checking in on us and bringing us food to eat:) 

Now to what I really want to talk about: GENERAL CONFERENCE!

The talks were all so great! Our mission president had us spend time before the weekend thinking of some questions we had about the Gospel or about something going on in our life and right them down and pray for answers in the talks. Every single one of my questions received answers! If you didn´t do something like this for this conference, I highly suggest it for April. 

Here were some of my favorite talks.

  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland´s and President Russell M. Nelson´s talks really helped me better appreciate the importance and the divinity of our calling as women in marriage, maternity and leading a family in general. Not that I didn´t know women are awesome, but it´s always good to be reminded by apostles of the Lord:). 

  Carole M. Stephen´s and Von G. Keetch´s talks about the blessings and protection we receive, as we are obedient to the will and commandments of our Heavenly Father and the Lord Jesus Christ were also really good. I loved both of the stories and how they applied them to the themes. 

  I thought President Uchtdorf´s talk was phenomenal! I am definitely guilty of complicating this pure and simple Gospel at times. I loved how he talked about the Gospel working for everyone and that all we need to do is start where we are and God will make us better! 

  The Prophet´s remarks about being an example to the world were also really great, though I was sad to see him looking really weak towards the end. Thanks to Elder Bednar´s talk we know that the age and mortal weaknesses of President Monson and all the other church leaders don´t lesson their ability and divine callings to lead our church.

Last part about Conference that I want to write about, though I loved so many more parts: Ponderizing.

I loved this idea of having a new scripture to ¨ponderize¨ every week. I know that it´s something that could be done personally but I thought it could be really cool if we got the whole family in on it together. So, I am exploiting my position here as a missionary and asking, nay, demanding that you all support me by joining me in a weekly family ¨ponderization¨.  Every week we will take turns to choose our scripture and we will all ¨ponderize¨ (20% ponder/ 80% memorize) for the week. We all have to put the scripture somewhere we can see it often. I´ll start us out this week with choosing the verse, and then next week will be Dad, then Mom and so on down in order of age. 

Who´s in? You all better be. If not, don´t expect a present from me when I come home. ;D (hee hee, but I´m not kidding.)

The scripture we will ¨ponderosa¨ this week is Matthew 5:16 because the Prophets talked about it:

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in Heaven.

Let the ¨ponderizing¨ begin!!

I love you all so much and I´m so grateful for you. You´re in my prayers every day!

Con amor,

-Hermana Hauck

P.S. Dad, you better be ready with a scripture by next Monday!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes! Letter 9-29-15

I Adore Hermana Blackmore

Goodbye Hermosillo

Goodbye Hermana Pina

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

It’s okay to make Bowie references in mission email titles, right?

Hey sweet Family!!

Well it’s been quite the week. TOONNNNSSS has happened. I guess I’ll start from the beginning.

Monday

So I think I`ve mentioned a few times that the dogs here are awful. Not just the Chihuahuas but ALL SONORAN DOGS. While trying to leave an appointment in peace this monstrous animal that supposedly was a dog but seemed to me to be one of those crazy bear/dog things from Lord of the Rings... ya know, that bites off the face of that one guy? Anyways, one of those BIT MY LEG!! It was so scary, but don`t be too worried, I didn`t bleed at all. It just got pretty bruised. The mission life is pretty crazy! :)

Wednesday

We got to go to the temple this day! It was so wonderful and peaceful inside (one reason being there aren`t any psycho dogs). Then later in the day we moved to a different house in our area, because our area has changed a bit. The new house was sadly cockroach infested, :( but on the bright side, I didn’t stay there too long (I`ll get to that part in a second).

Gilda Baggins decided she didn`t want to be baptized this week. No, her name’s not actually Gilda Baggins, I just decided that she was a Baggins--I don’t know what`s up with the Lord of the Rings this week. Anywho, her family is Catholic and told her that they wouldn`t support her, so she’s having some struggles with that. 

On Saturday I had the opportunity of calling Mom and Dad for special circumstances. THAT WAS AWESOME OF COURSE! Hearing their voices was kind of weird but made me feel super happy. It sound like they played my message for the rest of the fam bam. I hope you could understand me. Lots of love (and learning a new language) makes it hard to talk sometimes. Later in the day I got to watch the General Women’s Conference although in Spanish. I didn`t get all of the messages, but it made me super excited for General Conference this weekend, which I`ll be able to watch in English!

Yesterday I left Hermosillo to be transferred to a city that is right on the border of the US. The journey was about 3 hours so I had some good time to read and sleep. :D

I am now in Nogales Mexico with Hermana Blackmore from Canada. The climate here is a lot cooler and there are hills everywhere. It`s really mild and pretty. I like it lots here. My new companion is absolutely adorable!! She`s 20 and has just two months left on the mission. She is super happy and has a really cute and contagious laugh. :) She`s also a bit sassy, which is perfect because the people here can be a little rough but she totally holds her ground. I’m really, really looking forward to this time I’ll have with her. 

We live at the tippy top of this hill (carrying groceries is quite the work out) in a cute little house. However, there are cats that live on our porch. We have to spray them away with water every once in a while. 

This change was a super blessing for me. It’s kind of been like the first day of school. Also, I live WAY close to the border so I think I might be able to find a way to send you letters. :)

I’m so looking forward to General Conference this week. How sad that now we have three apostles that have passed away, but it will be very interesting to see new men being called. I can’t wait to hear what our Prophet has to say!

I hope all is well at home! I love you all so much and you’re always in my prayers.

Con amor,

-Hermana Hauck

A Day in the Life Letter 8-21-15

Walking to Church with Gilda

Hi everybody! 

I have my first baptism this week with Gilda!! I´m super excited. I´ll take pictures and tell you all about it next Monday.

This transfer our area grew double it´s size so I´ll be walking even more, but the good thing is it’s FINALLY beginning to cool off a bit here. Now I said beginning. It is still super hot some days, but we get clouds and nice breezes every once in a while, which is amazing for my sweaty pits. 

We have a new Hermana, Hna. Rocha, in our district who replaced Hna. Fletcher. Now the crazy thing is Hna. Fletcher reminded me lots of Taylor. Well Hna. Rocha reminds me a ton of Jocelyn! I´m not sure who it´ll be next but I´ll keep you updated.

We have an investigator that is progressing pretty well, Jesus Antonio. The only problem is he doesn´t really love going to our ward because there are lots of older folks and the neighboring ward has tons of youth, but I guess the important thing is that he´s going to church!

Also, a random fact that I wanted to share, there is this awesome Christian church in our area that has these Gospel rock concerts a couple times a week. It’s my favorite to walk past the church during these slamming jams about Jesus to see everyone swaying and wiggling to the beat. Another random thing, last night I found a dead Chihuahua. As much as I hate them, it was kind of sad to see. :(

We had a ward party to celebrate the 15th of September (Independence Day here), where we ate some yummies. Like pretty much everything here it started about an hour late. Gotta love these people! :)

I met an Elder Zerkle from Logandale who said he knows the Rebmans! Yay, for connections! Lots of random little facts today.

I want to share that my testimony has grown very much of the power of prayer during my time here. I have been brought humbly to my knees so many times pleading to our Father in Heaven for comfort and strengthen me. And though we don´t always get exactly what we want immediately or the way we want it, He is listening. I know it! He loves us so much and He knows what is best for us. 

Sorry this was pretty short. I don´t have too much to share this week.

I love you all soooooooooo much!!

Con amor,

-Hermana Hauck

Investigators, Temples and Chihuahuas. Oh My! Letter 9-14-15

Hermanas Hauck & Piña

Farewell Dinner for Hermana Fletcher

Hey Turkeys!

Sounds like a super fun week back at home! DISNEYLAND for Emme?!?!? Super jealous! But how fun! Also it was awesome to hear from you all in the letters I received in my first package (thanks a million for the Gatorade). I´ve read each of your messages like 1,001 times. Such wisdom from Shaye about the Gospel being like burritos.

K, so....Queso? No. K, so. Ha-ha, I´m hilarious.

And I am absolutely soaked right now because Hna Piña and I just walked back from McDonalds in pouring rain. BTW McDonalds here are like really nice, but weird because the menu is totally different (i.e. Spanish). The workers were giving the confused gringa (aka me) some quality smirks. I thought McDonalds could be trusted to never confuse a red-blooded American. Sadly this is not so. The world moves on. Anyhow, this week was pretty fun! I want to tell you about some of our investigators. 

Gilda is a 64 year old lady who...well, to put it softly, is a bit slow to understand the Gospel. But she´s super sweet and has a baptism date for the 26 of September. A usual lesson with her goes something like this:

Us: Okay Gilda (pronounced Hilda), the Word of Wisdom commands us to not.....?

Gilda: ...

Us: ...drink....

Gilda: ...the Holy Ghost

Us: ...No, you can´t drink the Holy Ghost because he´s a spirit. We are commanded to not drink alcohol.

And so on and so forth. 

Then we have this investigator who is progressing really well and has a friend who is a member. His name is Jesus Antonio and he’s about 25 or so. His mom has been joining our lessons too.

We just started teaching this family that is awesome! They have one baby and they are super receptive. They told us that they feel like something is missing in their lives (cough, cough THE GOSPEL). 

Prayers for these and our other investigators are always appreciated. :)

Hilarious moment! So there are these weird wire things that come out of the sidewalks here and connect to electric poles. One day we were walking and poor Hna Piña was distracted by a demonic Chihuahua and walked straight into it. She fell all the way to the ground (I waited to be sure that she was okay to laugh). As if we needed another reason to hate Chihuahuas!

On Wednesday we were invited to eat dinner with President Robinson and his wife to send home Hna. Fletcher. We ate roast beef and ROLLS and MASHED POTATOES!!! So good because I haven’t eaten normal food like that forever! Well, almost 3 months... Also cake, but don´t worry, Mom, your chocolate cake is still #1 in the world and in my heart.

On Saturday we watched this cultural event that was for the rededication of the temple in Mexico City. The dances and costumes were so pretty!

Then on Sunday we went to 2 sessions of the temple rededication broadcast. I was SO happy to see that Elder Holland was there! He spoke in both sessions (in English all for me) about temples. The last session he talked about how he couldn’t attend his youngest son’s endowment because he was area president in England and the endowment was in St. George. However, he felt incredibly happy to know that his son was worthy to enter the temple. Temple ordinances are amazing goals that all of us, as members, can have--both to be worthy to enter the first time and to remain worthy all of our lives. President Eyring was also there. He shared a sweet experience about how happy he was on the day he was sealed to his wife. He also talked about what an amazing blessing temples are, because through the temples and the sacred covenants within them, we can bring our families back to our Father in Heaven one day. :)

I am officially SO excited to go to the temple here in Hermosillo, which I get to do this transfer!

I love you all so stinking much. Really. SO MUCH IT HURTS!!

Would you all let me know what your favorite hymns are?

Be safe and have a lovely week!

Con amor,

Hermana Hauck