October 26, 2015

Brent's getting married!!!! Jeez. You don't know how weird and exciting that is. It's like a part of me is like wooohoooo and then the other part is like this weird... Brent can't be getting married. He's just a little boy.. hahha. oh well, haha. Tha'ts awesome that he is getting married and I'm going to have another sister!! Yes, iIm going to have my interview with her on 25 de diciembre. haha. 

Lets see, what happened this week. It rained again and was cold. Elder Pinedo was dying. Doesn't like the cold for nada. haha. I was fine though. Threw my sweater on and brought my umbrella and taught the word. Oh, just remembered a funny story..... you're going to like this. So we were walking the streets knocking on doors because we didn't have a lesson with anyone. So, I was like we are going to knock on every door on this street!! Because we need to find investigators so yea, we started to knock on doors. No one was opening the door because it was colder that day. So we knocked like 15 doors and no one opened. Then , the next door opened and we talked with them and left a prayer in their house (going to return a different day), then we kept going and knocking. So, Elder Pinedo and Emanuel passed a house and I was like in my head, we didn't knock on this door. So, I said to them really loudly, "There is someone in that house that wants to hear the word!!!!!" Yea, don't know why I said that either...... but I said so yea hahha. So, we walk over to the fence  of the house to clap and guess what????  There was a woman doing her laundry!! And so I was hoping she didn't hear what I had said like 3 seconds before super loudly..... but when we started to talk she looked at us and had a huge grin on her face. Also she was trying not to laugh like the rest of us hahaha. When we left we all started laughing after we were far enough so she couldn't hear. But hey! She said we could pass by another time to teach her and her husband because she was too busy right then and her husband wasn't there ......so it turned out good in the end :) Hope that made you guys laugh if not oh well, because it made me laugh, like a lot haha. 

I feel like my English is leaving my brain and I cant remember how to speak in English anymore.. It's almost easier to speak in Spanish! This will be interesting in December for Christmas haha. 

Lets see, all is good here. We celebrated Elder  Pinedo's birthday this last week with the family Rodriguez. Awesome family. Always trying to help us in whatever we need. Its kinda like my other mom haha. Not quite the same though ;) 

I love you guys and I'm glad to hear all is good over there in Arizona, hope you guys are having fun with out me, probably is really hard ;) haha. 

Nos Vemos!!!

Con amor, 

Elder Hakes

October 19, 2015

AHHHHHH!!!! I always felt like Brother Tucker and Brother Crites would end up being a bishop or something like that. They just seem like they would haha. 

 Glad that you guys are having fun with everybody. Shabin sounds really nice right now haha. I miss the forests and quading as a family. 

How are Jennie and Joe?? Still alive up there in Wyoming?? 

I figured that Toros would have a rough year this year. There problem is they only had like 3 or 4 decent to good lineman and if they lose one or one doesn't really want to play, they won´t be good. Sounds like that's probably what is going on right now. Tell Cody to tell Thor, Schwan, and those guys I said hi. Tell them they got Big Hakes in Argentina Rooting them on win or lose he´s still rooting for 'em. Tell Cody I said hi too. haha. Hows he doing?? Never hear anything about Cody. Just Brent, Carlee, Dad, Emily, and a little of mom ;) 

Mom, I'm sure you didn't mind having to go to primary this week ;) hahaha. Probably was really hard to talk about your sons in the mish too. 

Oh, yesterday was Mother's day. In Argentina. Their mothers day is in October. Not sure if that's how you spell October but I think so.. haha. We made little cards for the 20 moms in our ward and gave them a bon o bon chocolate. Nothing too hard! haha. One of the moms later in that day told us that the missionaries have never done anything like this in total the tiempo she has been there. Sounded like she was almost going to cry. I guess our little gift really touched her heart. The little things really can do great things. 

What else happened... Oh yea, I translated yesterday!! So what happened was Elder Johnson, the couple missionary who he doesn't know Spanish but his wife does, yea, so he came to our ward yesterday and went to priesthood with me so I could help him understand what was going on. So all of the lesson I was translating for him what the conversation was saying and all that. he had me write it in a notebook and he would read as I wrote. Then, at the very end he wanted to say something. So I'm thinking, ehhh its not too bad to write down whats going on and then out of no where he wants to talk and my hearts pumping a little bit because I wasn't ready for this and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to translate everything, oh it was terrible. But then I translated everything and life was good :) Looks like what Hermo. Chandía said about me needing to know castillano really well was true. Everything is going good here and I´m picking up the language pretty well. I can talk pretty fluidly and get most of my thoughts across. My companion and I can have conversations about pretty much whatever. Except animals, geography and different things like that. 

Yea, so I made a goal these past weeks to only talk in Spanish no matter what. If its an English missionary or whoever doesn't matter. I talk in spanish. Well, besides when I need to translate like yesterday or things like that, but my goal is going really well and I think I´m learning a lot faster too. The only thing that sucks is I'm forgetting my English words already.. It's almost easier to talk in Spanish than English haha. NEVER THOUGHT I'D SAY THAT!!! Felt like I´d never get to the point where I'd like to talk in Spanish more but I'm kind of at that point. haha. It's my companions birthday tomorrow so were going to have to celebrate somehow. But yea, good stuff.

Love you guys, and hope all is well with everyone. Chow chow!

Con amor,

Elder Hakes

PS

Oh yea!!!!! Had my first Asado this week!!! It was the best thing ever!!!! Oh it was amazing.... I ate so much meat... The asado and chorizo and salad, and a little salsa. Oh it was sooooo good. I wanted to just stay there and wait for him to bring me more and more meat. But I restrained myself.... a bit. haha. But it definitely was the best food I'd had in the mish so yes I'm happy :)

October 12, 2015

So, still waiting for David to send me a letter telling me about the kiddo and whether its a boy or girl. We'll have to see if he waits until Christmas to tell me or decides to tell me now haha. I'm excited to find out en either way!! 

Hope everyone doing great. Gary with his hip and Michael with his health and the Brinkerhoff family too. Lets see... I don't have my little notebook that tells me everything that happened this week so I don't remember everything. But what I do remember is that it has been cold here. And when it's cold in Argentina Mendoza, no one leaves their house. Don't even open to talk to people. So those days were a bit hard to talk and find people. So basically all of last week. Like our attendance for church yesterday dropped almost in half. yea. it was insane. Oh and yesterday we went to have dinner with Hermana Bertolani, but she didn't have another guy older than 18 so we couldn't enter her house. So, she decided to leave and go to her sisters house across the street while we ate in her house!! hahaha. A bit crazy but funny too. It was just me and Elder Pinedo sitting and eating soup and bread in her house. It was good food too so I  was grateful for her sacrifice ;) She is a really nice person, always trying to help us out. 

What else happened.. There's snow in the mountains right now. That's pretty cool. There's too many clouds covering them right now so I cant get a really good picture but I'm hoping the clouds and everything leave this week and I can see the snow and take a good pic. Today we are going to hike Cero de Arco, a mountain in our area. So it should fun! Hoping it doesn't rain on us or anything like that hahaha. Oh, and we have a investigador with a baptism date!! So that's pretty bomb. She needs to get married first but we'll take care of that real quick ;) haha. Really good investigator, reads everything we ask her too and all.. Its awesome!! 

Lets see... Another cool thing that happened this week is we had our 2nd training with the president, his wife, and assistants. President Goates talked about people who are scared of baptism because of the water and how to help them with this. Little did he and we know, that 2 days later it was exactly what we needed with a different investigator. She is scared of the water too. Used what we learned from the president and she still didn't say yes. So that sucked. But, we think that we can teach her a little more and she will accept baptism. She seems to be a bit confused with it. The point of me sharing this is to show the hand of God in our lives. Pres Goates could have talked about a million other things but, he talked about exactly what we needed. He knew what he needed to give to us because I'm sure he prayed about it and this is what he felt through the holy ghost he needed to talk about. And it was exactly what we needed. Made me think of how many times I haven't seen his hand in my life. So, I encourage you guys to take a moment and think about how God has blessed you because I know he has. 

Love you guys and have a Fantastico Semana!!!

Con amor, 

Elder Hakes

October 5, 2015

HEEEEEYYY, how's it going?? I don't know where to start.. hahaha. 

This week we had lunch with a returned missionary and his dad from Chile in the house of Hermana Rodriguez and ate these amazing milanesas. oh... You bet I am getting the recipe :) haha. That was really fun to meet him and his dad real quick. Had lunch with the bishop another day. We were early to his house because my companion was freezing and needed to warm up. He is worse than you mom, he has slept in a sleeping bag and blanket for all the time we have been here.. Its crazy. haha. It has been raining the past 2 days in our area but not where we live. We live in Mendoza which is less elevation than our area so it was colder and wetter there. haha. Got to use my jacket which I wasn't expecting haha.

We had a family home evening with family Rodriguez and the returned missionary. It was to say goodbye and have a spiritual thought from him and his dad. It was awesome. There was about 8 of us and everyone included in the conversation and bore testimonies the spirit was really strong. Then we ate empanadas and this awesome chocolate things. The rm gave me a can of Dr. Pepper and I had like a million memories flash into my mind but the strongest one was remembering that we always got a Dr Pepper after we worked hard with dad in the backyard, front yard, pool, or most importantly, the shabin :) I actually miss working hard with you guys and Dad in the backyard and the shabin. Yeah, I know, I am weird. haha. Other things. I think i left the pen drive in our house like the one your living in so I think I will go buy one. We use them to show videos on tvs and computers. I'll have to see how much they cost first. I also have to get a backpack of emergencia in case there is an emergency. So got to go buy that stuff too. 

Conference was AWESOME!! Took a bunch of notes so I can remember what they said too so that's good :) Oh yea, right as conference was starting I looked around as if we were in our house on the couch toward the counter for chips and salsa, and the chocolate cream cheese dip with graham crackers thing and then remembered that I don't have that. Hence, the reason I made some homemade popcorn for Sunday for everyone :) Conference isn't conference with out the snacks ;) Conference was awesome, I remember a lot of talks about Faith, commandments by President Monson in priesthood fue buenisimo, and moms favorite from Elder Holland, mothers. That one was really good and I liked it a lot. Made me think of my amazing mom that has helped everyday since I was born.

 I say helped because, lets be real, I was the easy one and the other 5 you bore and are bearing ;) 

Oh ....there is an old missionary couple that work and do the autosufficiente classes here for people. Anyways... Hermana Johnson speaks English and Spanish and Hermano Johnson doesn't. So Hermano Johnson was talking to me in English and i started talking in Spanish and then I was translating words from Spanish to English. It was actually kind of hard to speak in English hhaha. It can be hard to remember words in English sometimes with just talking to other missionaries too!! I was trying to talk with all the guys watching the conference in English and I was stumbling. I couldn't do it. So, my intention to speak English was instead Spanglish hahaha. I felt so dumb not being able to speak in English really easily. But then I thought, hey, iI am not supposed to speak in English so Kuddos to me!! For reals though, it was the weirdest thing ever. 

 One short little experience I'm having. It's with the scriptures and the power they can give each and everyday. Right now I have started a little paper with like 10 topics in the gospel (holy ghost, atonement, faith...) and as I read, I look for these topics. Now, I don't remember every topic but when I see something and it really sticks out to me and applies to a topic I write it down. And if I don't have this topic and really like it, then I add a new topic! It has really helped me to slow down and think about what I am reading and the importance of different scriptures. There are so many more powerful scriptures that we never see because we are reading to read the Book of Mormon and not to learn. The scriptures can bless your lives in more ways than you guys could expect. I can see the difference in my life already from constant scripture STUDY. Try to find a way to study the scriptures in your lives. Even if it isn't an hour a day like I have I know that 10 or 15 minutes can bless your lives too. Read with purpose and the blessings will flow. I promise each and every one of you it is true, but it's your turn to find out for yourself. Love you guys and have an amazing week with your good old friend Book Of Mormon :)

Con amor,
Elder Hakes