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

Week 2 in Peñasco Paradise Letter 7-25-16

Thirteen months as a missionary

Hermana Camacho and me

Dinner with the Tapia Lopez family

Hullo beautiful world!!!!

Hermana Camacho and I are beginning to hit our stride with the bike thing and we now know our area. I'm not sure if I mentioned last week that I'm opening a new area again. The dogs still make me pee my pants when they chase us but I think by next week I'll be over that phobia.

The people here are really awesome. I wanted to fill you in on some of our investigators.

The Tapia Lopez Family. We met Hermano Tapia in the street and he told us he was baptized when he had 14 years but hasn't gone to church in years and his wife and kids aren't members. We started visiting them this week. I LOVE teaching families because the Spirit is so strong when we testify about eternal families and the Plan of Salvation.

Ivonne is a 14 year old girl who lives with her recently converted grandma, Alma. She`s interested in the church but sometimes is embarrassed by us in front of her friends. Ha-ha-ha nothing makes me feel so old and nerdy as seeing her and her friends making faces when sweaty yet spiritual Hermanas Hauck and Camacho come to visit. We'll see if she'll start taking things a bit more seriously.

Marina is a 50ish year old woman who we've been visiting. She has a baptismal goal for August 13th but didn't come to church Sunday so we'll have to push it back a week.

That's actually proven to be a pretty big problem for our area. There is only one church in Puerto Peñasco and my area is an hour walking and the buses pass, like, once semi-annually or something. It's alright for my comp and I because we have our bikes :) but the people here have to go in taxi, which is expensive, or they have to walk in the sun. We've been really trying to motivate people to make sacrifices to be able to observe the Day of Rest. I hope that's good motivation for you back at home to go to church with a big smile:D

That's all there is. There isn't any more.

Con amor,

Hermana Hauck



1. Dinner with the Tapia Lopez family.  2. Hermana Camacho and me

Biking Through Puerto Peñasco Letter 7-18-16

Eating at Aqui Es Con Flavio, owned by Church Members

Yum!

Hermana Hauck & Hermana Camacho

Biking through Puerto Penasco

That’s right! Your favorite Hermana is now riding a bike in her mission. Puerto Peñasco is actually the only place in my mission, that I´m aware of, in which hermanas can ride bikes. Ha-ha! We have to use helmets. I´m not too happy about it because 1. MORE SWEAT and 2. The helmet left for me in my house has Lightning McQueen on it... but safety first, right? 

And if I thought that there were lots of dogs elsewhere in Sonora, I was mistaken because here THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!!! And they chase Hna Camacho and me on our bikes snapping at our heels until we’re crying/laughing from the terror, ha-ha! Seriously. There are dogs everywhere here.

But I LOVE my new area!!!!! It´s very humid but not nearly as hot as Hermosillo. And we have a nice breeze from the ocean. We can´t carry umbrellas on our bikes so I am a completely different skin color than normal for me. Almost everyone thinks I’m Mexicana until I tell them that I’m from Utah. : ) (Cough, cough that´s how good my accent is). Also we are sweaty 100% of the time. And my skin is thoroughly exfoliated daily by the sand that´s blown on us (We have only two paved streets in our area).  The people here are so humble too.  We´re in a very poor area and everyone just wants to listen to the message of the Restored Gospel. 

Hna Camacho is a gem. She’s from Veracruz Mexico, she loves to dance, she is hilarious and always joking and is a really good teacher. We’ve set some really cool goals for this transfer together and I hope to tell you more about them in other weeks.

AH!!! Another fabulous thing about Peñasco. Members own this really nice mariscos (seafood) restaurant called “Aqui Es Con Flavio” and they let us eat there for free!!! It’s so good and I’m full of coconut covered shrimp because we just barely ate there. :D

Con amor,

Hermana Hauck

TRANSFER Letter 7-11-16

Goodbye Hermosillo & Hermana Balboa

Hello Puerto Penasco & Hermana Camacho

PUERTO PEÑASCO!!!!! WOOH!

Peñasco is a little port way up close to the US.  #MURICA  I'll be leaving for an 8 hour bus ride pretty soon so I don´t have much time to write. Just wanted to let you know about the transfer.

I'm going to miss this area here in Hermosillo and I'm REALLY going to miss Hna Balboa : (  But these transfers will be a good growing opportunity. My new companion will be Hna Camacho. I don't know too much about her yet besides that she's the daughter of my old companion, Hna Pelico (as in Pelico trained her).

I hope you have a fabulous week!!!

Con amor,
Hermana Hauck