September 28, 2015

Jace is the best. hahaha. Does he know how to blow bubbles now?? How big is that kid now?? In weight and height. Probably gigantic like normal hahaha. 

So, some crazy stories for this week, We went to the zoo last Monday because we thought it would be open but it wasn't.. Monday is like the day off for a bunch of people which is a little weird because Sunday is usually the day off for us in the US. The Cerro De Gloria is right next to the zoo. So, we hiked the little hike up and took some more pictures. Now I have pictures of the Favorita :) When we were up there, there was a little store that was selling candy, food, and little pictures. One of the Elders tried to take a picture of the picture because he liked it and the guy working there saw him and started cussing at him. Of course it was in Spanish, so I don't know anything he was saying besides, you, and then the cuss words. So we left after that and started to head down the mountain then a girl wanted to take a picture with Elder Lybert who is American. So.... all of us were in the picture with them (because missionaries cant take solo pictures with girls) and then she left. Finally, we got down the mountain and when we thought nothing else could happen, a monkey was climbing through the trees and then on the power lines!!! We think it was the monkey from the zoo.. Because the monkey came from the trees and power lines that are next to the zoo. So yeah, we were sitting there waiting for the bus and the monkey was climbing on the power lines doing this weird spin walk on the power cables. It was pretty funny to watch.

Oh yea and Tuesday we were in the house of the bishop who is a type of cop for Argentina and his sons and nephew wanted me to dress up a little in the uniform so i=I dressed up like a Argentine cop for like 10 minutes!! hahaha. It was pretty funny. I'll get the pics from my comp and send them to you for you guys to laugh at haha. And then on the bus one day a guy was singing/harmonica while playing the guitar. It was pretty legit. He sung and played really well, we had to get off so we only heard one and a part of his other song. 

We have a progressing investigator!! Finally!!! haha. Jessenia, she is reading the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets that we gave her. In the first lesson she said I don't want to be baptized no matter what, but now it seems like she is okay with it. We are going to invite her to be baptized in our next lesson. Talk about the importance of it and all that but yea! We are really happy with that because when we showed up it seemed like we would never find anyone but hey, we work on the Lord's time so we never know who we'll find or what we'll find while we are working haha. 

We had our first somewhat physically challenging service this week so that was awesome because I haven't been able to work really hard in a while. We were shoveling dirt and separating rocks from the dirt with a home made sifter. It was a bit interesting but it felt good to work hard. 

Also, an amazing thing happened this week thanks to the Lord. Quick background, there is a member in our ward named Luis Silva, he is the only member in his family. Mom and dad don't want anything to do with our church. His dad like never talks with the missionaries because he thinks were bad people or something. I think there were missionaries before who he had a bad experience with too so he doesn't talk to us. But this day we were walking to Luis's house with Luis to share a quick message and then head to to pench. While we were talking to Luis, his dad walked up to go into the house and he started talking to us and we were talking to him. Still doesn't want anything to do with our religion, but he seemed to like us as people and said that he respects us and that we are trying to bring people to Christ. And then I was like... hey, we have a little pamphlet that has our articles of faith which is what we believe in. Would you like to have one to know a little bit more about our religion, and he took it!! It was awesome!! And he was like  thanks. We'll see where that goes, hopefully he likes it and doesn't get more mad! haha. Right after Luis was shocked that he took it. Luis was like.. I cant believe he took that because he never takes anything from the missionaries and no other missionaries have been able to talk to him like that and give him something.. Power of the Lord if we will but only open our mouths. We weren't planning on talking to his dad but the Lord softened his heart so we could talk to him and have a good conversation. I didn't even realize how amazing that was until I was sharing it with you guys right now.. 

Well, I hope all is well with you guys and I love you all. Have an amazing week!

Con amor,

Elder Hakes

September 21, 2015

Glad you guys are having fun! Its awesome here in the Favorita! 

Where should I start.. we had ward conference yesterday that no one knew about until the day before. We had lunch with a counselor of the stake presidency who is in our ward Brother Pinto. He is an awesome guy. His wife knows English and when I don't understand something, she helps me out haha. It's kinda nice. Lets see... We had priesthood with the stake presidency. And it was awesome! We had people who never show up, show up this week!! We had 62 people in our ward!! I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but for here it is a lot so it was awesome! Also, during gospel principles we eat bread and listen to Hermano Chandia speak. It's pretty chill. We had an investigator show up for sacrament meeting but the only problem....it is the snake, the girl who goes after American missionaries. She wanted help with her English homework and was asking if I could come over to help her. Elder Pinedo told her that if we had time during the week we would try to come and pass by her house to try and be nice. And then Elder Pinedo was like we need to go talk to people real quick but we'll see if we can pass by this week. Bye. So we walked away. I felt kinda bad because it was kinda mean.. Had sacrament meeting. It was good... and then she wanted to talk to us again. She was telling me that there were 2 other missionaries a long time ago who would talk to her in English and she would talk back in English or Spanish. And my companion left to go talk with someone else right before this to set up a family night with them and left me standing in chapel alone with her. Well.... he was in the chapel too and there were tons of people in there too but he wasn't there to help me leave. So I told her that there is a rule for missionaries to talk only in their mission language and I could not talk in English. She didn't like that too much but it is true. I told her that there are institute classes that can help her with English but she didn't like that either. But hey, What Else Am I Supposed To Do??? I tried to help her but she denied it.. I don't think we will pass by her house again because she isn't progressing at all and is lying to us about different things too. So there's the crazy story for the week hahaha. 

Now a better one. So we went to visit this inactive family on Saturday. The Martinez family. They were there with their daughter and husband who live in Guaymiyen (they are inactive too) so we taught like their whole family. We taught about how to keep the Sabbath day holy. We were talking and usually I don't understand everything, but I could understand what they were saying. pretty much every word. And usually I don't talk more than Elder Pinedo, but I could talk and I talked probably more than he did. And honestly I don't remember every word I said. Actually, I can't remember half of what I said but what I do remember is that when I was speaking, I could feel the Holy Ghost and the spirit was strong. My words didn't feel timid but they felt powerful. It is amazing what we can do if we have faith in the Lord and that he will put the words we need to say into our mouths. I don't remember the scripture that says that but it is true. I can bear testimony that the gift of tongues is real because without it I would still be speaking my "Italiano Spanish" that Brent told me I had before my mission and I wouldn't be able to speak Spanish. It's kinda funny. When I started this letter, I started in Spanish and was trying to translate to English for the first couple sentences. Moral of the story, put everything you have into the Lord and he will Multiply your blessings and your abilities. Faith isn't easy though, it's work. James 2:17-18. 

I love you guys and I know you guys are doing great things over there in the US. Love you guys and I challenge you guys to try to strengthen you faith in Jesus Christ. Also, look for the blessings that God gives you every week. Because there are way too many to count. Just take a moment to pause and think about it. Its an awesome feeling to feel blessed and all of us are. 

Love you guys and see you next week! :)

Elder Hakes


**** When asked about the earthquake in Chile.....

We were in a lesson and we didn't feel it at all. It is a really old house too and so I believe that there were some angels there protecting us because every other person told us that there lights were swinging and it was a really really bad one. There were people like 4 houses down that were outside in case the house fell down. I guess it happened at the end of our lesson because when we were outside everyone else was too. But yeah, we didn't feel anything. There were a couple replicas that night but it wasn't bad. I only felt one and it was like when you'd hit a kind of  bumpy spot on a quad. Nothing bad. Elder Pinedo couldn't sleep well though. He woke up at every replica. haha.

September 14, 2015

Hey mom!! 

I hope all is good this week!! Did you get my pictures??? I sent them with the wi fi I had in the hotel in San Luis. This week has been a bit crazy and a lot of fun! I went to San Luis to become legal for the next 2 years which was awesome!! It was weird too.. it was kinda like a vacation to be honest. kinda weird. We woke up and did all the normal eat shower things, went to the place to be legal and sat there while everyone started to do the first part. It took a while because there were 17 of us.. then we ate lunch at a restaurant and studied for a couple of hours.  Then that night we went out in the centro for ALB. then back to the restaurant for dinner really late and to the hotel to sleep. Woke up and pretty much the exact same thing. We had some other missionaries show up that night too  to start their stuff so that morning we did second part while they did the first. Met up, ate at the restaurant again and ate some ice cream then  pack to go home. I was back in Mendoza around 9. Got back with Elder Pinedo then we went back to the pench. Crazy first 3 days. Then on Thursday I had diarrhea... it sucked. It was like straight water. TERRIBLE. But the day after, I was fine. 

Oh yea, Monday and Thursday Elder Pinedo woke up at 2:30 and woke me up too. In the morning we recite the missionary purpose right when we wake up. So, I wake up while he has started the purpose thinking I missed the alarm, which is not normal, but I went with it. I asked after we were done... did I miss the alarm?? He was like yes.... but I thought it was still dark outside from what I could see from my bed through the window so I asked, what time is it?? He was like.... ohhhh it's 2:30. So I Said....good night. So that was a little crazy. 

We had two family nights this week..both with members inviting nonmembers. We have 3 investigators because of it!! It was awesome!!! The first one we talked about families and the importance of families and then gave a historia familiar folleto to them. Sorry family history pamphlet to them. Mind switched to Spanish for a moment there. It was really good. The pamphlet is actually really cool!! The second one we had dinner with the lesson.  It was awesome!! We ate some food that is Peruvian, it was rice, egg, beef, chicken, and some other things but it was good and that's all that matters!! hahaha. Then we taught a quick lesson about the restoration because we didn't have time to talk about what we wanted to. It was already like 9 and we needed to leave. So we taught a quick 20 minutes on nothing we planned and I think we did really well! 

And yesterday I had a talk in church. Manuel who is the secretary and just got home from his mission like 3 months ago so he likes to go to lessons with us. We know him really well. He asked me in Sunday School to give the talk and I said sure, why not. Our church ends with sacrament. The reason he asked me to do so and not the bishop is because our bishop isn't at church very often. He has work a lot so he isn't always there. It's kind of a big problem that we are trying to work out. Anyways, I spoke about enduring to the end. I don't really remember everything I said but I think the Lord was helping me because it didn't feel hard. I just spoke like I speak English. well... a bit slower but more fluid than I normally do. hahaha. 

Oh yea, we have a snake investigator, scratch that. We have a dragon investigator. She only was talking with us because she likes gringos. It was terrible. Before I made my one comment she was looking at me much, but after then she just wouldn't stop staring at me. Like I kid you not. Straight 15 minutes of her staring at me. I tried to talk less and didn't really look at her much but she wouldn't stop staring at me. It was like kinda creepy... I asked Elder Pinedo and he said she was staring at me the whole time. When we were trying to leave she was trying to show off that she was learning English and that she knew it. So she was like.... by friends, good....... bye and all this really bad English. Yeah, it was bad. 

What else happened.. nothing much. It has been a good week other than the dragon. haha. Spanish is coming along really well I feel like my spanish is 10x better than last week. It was after San Luis that I just started speaking better and I don't know why? But I ain't complaining!!! haha. 

It's awesome here. We can see the Andes Mountains from anywhere in our area. I need to take my camera one day and take some pictures for you guys. I don't know if you have googled the Favorita on google maps or not but I'll take some pictures for sure. Well, hope everyone is having an awesome week and I love you all!!!

Con amor,

Elder Hakes