Monday, February 23, 2015
Solo el principio
Hola!
Well it was a pretty sweet week! Dario Do Santos was baptized on Saturday. He has been ready forever, but wanted to wait and it was way awesome cause a lot of people were able to come and he was way prepared! There was 2 cakes. haha Also his neighbor Graciela came and she had already been talking to us and came to church and is gonna get baptized in March! And Dario invited his friend who also came to church on Sunday and has a lot of questions and is way interested to learn.
It´s just the beginning! We are way excited cause we are both staying here in Tacuari!!! So we are going to get it done this next change. The ward is growing a lot! We have several families who are coming back to church and the ward is excited and starting to work even more. I know there are going to be hard times, but I am so excited to stay here. It is what I need. The other missionaries in our ward are being pulled out cause the mission is losing a lot of missionaries so we are going to have the whole ward to ourselves. It will be a challenge but it is going to be way fun cause we are going to have a lot of work to do!
President LaPierre was in our ward on Sunday and he gave a cool talk about how anciently people gave offerings of the best of their flocks to the Lord and how now we don´t really kill animals but our offerings are the callings and the assignments that we are given. Do we give the best of ourselves to our callings or whatever is left over of our strength? The Lord needs us to give our best and as we do it we will be a lot happier.
I just wanted to thank all of you for all that you do for me. I really have received so much strength and support from all of you. I have the best family ever! I really have been so blessed. So thank you!
I also have had some time to reflect on my mission and I have realized how much I have been able to learn and how grateful I am for everything that has happened to me in this time. Everything has been engineered by the Lord exactly for my progress and happiness. I am doing my best to take advantage of the opportunities given to me and trying to become who he wants me to be. I am in the school of life. And I`m loving every minute of it.
I love you all so much!
Con amor, Elder Hawk
Well it was a pretty sweet week! Dario Do Santos was baptized on Saturday. He has been ready forever, but wanted to wait and it was way awesome cause a lot of people were able to come and he was way prepared! There was 2 cakes. haha Also his neighbor Graciela came and she had already been talking to us and came to church and is gonna get baptized in March! And Dario invited his friend who also came to church on Sunday and has a lot of questions and is way interested to learn.
It´s just the beginning! We are way excited cause we are both staying here in Tacuari!!! So we are going to get it done this next change. The ward is growing a lot! We have several families who are coming back to church and the ward is excited and starting to work even more. I know there are going to be hard times, but I am so excited to stay here. It is what I need. The other missionaries in our ward are being pulled out cause the mission is losing a lot of missionaries so we are going to have the whole ward to ourselves. It will be a challenge but it is going to be way fun cause we are going to have a lot of work to do!
President LaPierre was in our ward on Sunday and he gave a cool talk about how anciently people gave offerings of the best of their flocks to the Lord and how now we don´t really kill animals but our offerings are the callings and the assignments that we are given. Do we give the best of ourselves to our callings or whatever is left over of our strength? The Lord needs us to give our best and as we do it we will be a lot happier.
I just wanted to thank all of you for all that you do for me. I really have received so much strength and support from all of you. I have the best family ever! I really have been so blessed. So thank you!
I also have had some time to reflect on my mission and I have realized how much I have been able to learn and how grateful I am for everything that has happened to me in this time. Everything has been engineered by the Lord exactly for my progress and happiness. I am doing my best to take advantage of the opportunities given to me and trying to become who he wants me to be. I am in the school of life. And I`m loving every minute of it.
I love you all so much!
Con amor, Elder Hawk
 |
Elder Hawk and Elder Graves standing in front of their
apartment after a run
|
Monday, February 16, 2015
Estaba embarazado y di luz
Hola,
Y aconteció que en el segundo año del reinado del Presidente LaPierre que Elder Hawk, habiendo pasado muchas aflicciones sin embargo siendo muy favorecido del Señor dio luz a un hijo...
Google translate:
"It happened in the second year of the reign of LaPierre President to Elder Hawk , having spent many afflictions yet still highly favored of the Lord gave birth to a son ..."
That´s right. They sent us a child. haha There was a small emergency and there had to be some changes, so President sent me and Elder Graves a missionary who recently finished a month in the mission. He is way cool, but has passed through some pretty rough times in his first change. I talked to him a lot when he got here and I think he is starting to do a lot better. We are doing our best to help him and he is going to be a great missionary. It is kinda weird being in a trio, but it is way fun to have three people in the apartment. haha
So this week we had a huge miracle. We went to visit a less active sister in our ward and she is a widow of like 2 years and we talked to her and she said she can´t go to church cause she fell and hurt her toe and head. She has been messed up for like 7 months and she showed us her toe and it was pretty repulsive. Like twice as big as the other one, because of all of this she has trouble walking. So we gave her a blessing and she thanked us. I don´t remember everything we said but we said that according to her faith she would be able to go to church and keep all of the commandments. So we went back 4 days later and her toe was completely back to normal. She told us that she could walk and dance and jump and she was very emotional. She said that she had never experienced anything like that in her life and it was what she needed to pass the test of her husband passing and her poor health. She came to church on Sunday and payed her tithing. It was way awesome to be a part of such a huge miracle. I know that the priesthood is real.
We also had divisions this week with Ituzaingo. It is this sweet beach city and probably the only part of the mission that doesn´t have red dirt. It is all beautiful white sand! It rained super hard for like an hour and I got soaked! But then it stopped and the sun came out. We helped this lady move bunch of wood by the side of her house and although she didn´t want anything to do with us, we had a good conversation and her neighbor invited us over. The neighbor was awesome and she is actually the mother of a less active member. She has a lot of desire to keep learning to help her family.
The ward continues to grow. We had ward council on Sunday for the first time in I´m not sure how long. We presented a lot of good ideas and the ward members are way excited. We are having a lot of success with less active members who we had never even heard of before but who just kind of showed up and started progressing. We have been incredibly blessed in our time here! I hope that I get to stay, but for some reason I feel like I may be going. We will see what happens though. I love it here. I love being a missionary and I am going to make the most out of these last 6 months that I have. Thank you for all of your prayers and support! I love you!
Con amor, Elder Hawk
Shout out to Parker for placing 2nd in state and having an incredible wrestling season! Also to Jordan for getting that good job. And also to all of you for being awesome.
That is all.
Y aconteció que en el segundo año del reinado del Presidente LaPierre que Elder Hawk, habiendo pasado muchas aflicciones sin embargo siendo muy favorecido del Señor dio luz a un hijo...
Google translate:
"It happened in the second year of the reign of LaPierre President to Elder Hawk , having spent many afflictions yet still highly favored of the Lord gave birth to a son ..."
That´s right. They sent us a child. haha There was a small emergency and there had to be some changes, so President sent me and Elder Graves a missionary who recently finished a month in the mission. He is way cool, but has passed through some pretty rough times in his first change. I talked to him a lot when he got here and I think he is starting to do a lot better. We are doing our best to help him and he is going to be a great missionary. It is kinda weird being in a trio, but it is way fun to have three people in the apartment. haha
So this week we had a huge miracle. We went to visit a less active sister in our ward and she is a widow of like 2 years and we talked to her and she said she can´t go to church cause she fell and hurt her toe and head. She has been messed up for like 7 months and she showed us her toe and it was pretty repulsive. Like twice as big as the other one, because of all of this she has trouble walking. So we gave her a blessing and she thanked us. I don´t remember everything we said but we said that according to her faith she would be able to go to church and keep all of the commandments. So we went back 4 days later and her toe was completely back to normal. She told us that she could walk and dance and jump and she was very emotional. She said that she had never experienced anything like that in her life and it was what she needed to pass the test of her husband passing and her poor health. She came to church on Sunday and payed her tithing. It was way awesome to be a part of such a huge miracle. I know that the priesthood is real.
We also had divisions this week with Ituzaingo. It is this sweet beach city and probably the only part of the mission that doesn´t have red dirt. It is all beautiful white sand! It rained super hard for like an hour and I got soaked! But then it stopped and the sun came out. We helped this lady move bunch of wood by the side of her house and although she didn´t want anything to do with us, we had a good conversation and her neighbor invited us over. The neighbor was awesome and she is actually the mother of a less active member. She has a lot of desire to keep learning to help her family.
The ward continues to grow. We had ward council on Sunday for the first time in I´m not sure how long. We presented a lot of good ideas and the ward members are way excited. We are having a lot of success with less active members who we had never even heard of before but who just kind of showed up and started progressing. We have been incredibly blessed in our time here! I hope that I get to stay, but for some reason I feel like I may be going. We will see what happens though. I love it here. I love being a missionary and I am going to make the most out of these last 6 months that I have. Thank you for all of your prayers and support! I love you!
Con amor, Elder Hawk
Shout out to Parker for placing 2nd in state and having an incredible wrestling season! Also to Jordan for getting that good job. And also to all of you for being awesome.
That is all.
Monday, February 9, 2015
Apresurar la obra de salvaciòn
Hola!
Well it was a pretty fantastic week. We worked way hard and on Sunday we had a lot of people who were able to come to church. Not only investigators, but the whole ward is growing. We were way excited in the first few meetings of church and we just felt a different spirit with the members and in the classes. It was way different from the first few weeks in Tacuarí. I was mostly just excited that a lot of people were able to come (including the lady that we found in the grocery store the other day) and so I didn`t think a whole lot about it. Then I was able to sit and hear the best sacrament meeting of my life and maybe my whole mission. The first sister got up and talked about the importance of visiting the members who aren`t coming and helping them to feel comfortable and loved. It was extra powerful cause even though she was baptized only 4 years ago, she is out doing visits like almost every day. Then at the end the counselor of the bishopric talked and gave maybe one of the most powerful speeches I have ever heard. The Spirit was way strong. He talked about how much he supports the bishop and wants to work with him and then started just creating a vision for the whole ward. He talked about how when we are baptized we have responsibilities and how if we just fulfill our responsibilities that the church will be filled. He said "We have a responsibility to fill these benches!" Everybody was pretty pumped about it. I almost did a fist pump in the middle of his talk like 3 different times. After the meeting everyone carried that Spirit with them. I have never felt anything like that in any ward, branch or group in which I have ever been in during my whole life. Something special is getting ready to happen here and I am happy to be a part of it, even though I realize that I am really just a tiny part of what the Lord is planning.
Missionary work is like yeast. If we don`t have it, the church stays small and normal. But when the members get excited about working in the work of salvation, that ward will grow. I am way excited to see what is going to happen here.
Also, I had a cool experience the other day when I told a kid that I had a year and a half in the mission. I think that is when it really hit me. I left and we were walking and I was thinking about how crazy it was and then I just had this peace come over me as I thought that when I go home it will not be the same as the mission, but I will still be working in the work of salvation. I will still be doing all I can to help others to return to live with God and their families. Sure, it will be with lots of other responsibilities, but it is the same great work. Later I thought about death and how that really is just passing into a different phase of the work of salvation. I may not be a full time missionary 6+ months from now but my entire eternity will be used to work for the salvation of souls. But I need to take advantage of this last time to focus completely on the work. I am way excited and so happy to be able to be a missionary!
I love you!
Con amor, Elder Hawk
Well it was a pretty fantastic week. We worked way hard and on Sunday we had a lot of people who were able to come to church. Not only investigators, but the whole ward is growing. We were way excited in the first few meetings of church and we just felt a different spirit with the members and in the classes. It was way different from the first few weeks in Tacuarí. I was mostly just excited that a lot of people were able to come (including the lady that we found in the grocery store the other day) and so I didn`t think a whole lot about it. Then I was able to sit and hear the best sacrament meeting of my life and maybe my whole mission. The first sister got up and talked about the importance of visiting the members who aren`t coming and helping them to feel comfortable and loved. It was extra powerful cause even though she was baptized only 4 years ago, she is out doing visits like almost every day. Then at the end the counselor of the bishopric talked and gave maybe one of the most powerful speeches I have ever heard. The Spirit was way strong. He talked about how much he supports the bishop and wants to work with him and then started just creating a vision for the whole ward. He talked about how when we are baptized we have responsibilities and how if we just fulfill our responsibilities that the church will be filled. He said "We have a responsibility to fill these benches!" Everybody was pretty pumped about it. I almost did a fist pump in the middle of his talk like 3 different times. After the meeting everyone carried that Spirit with them. I have never felt anything like that in any ward, branch or group in which I have ever been in during my whole life. Something special is getting ready to happen here and I am happy to be a part of it, even though I realize that I am really just a tiny part of what the Lord is planning.
Missionary work is like yeast. If we don`t have it, the church stays small and normal. But when the members get excited about working in the work of salvation, that ward will grow. I am way excited to see what is going to happen here.
Also, I had a cool experience the other day when I told a kid that I had a year and a half in the mission. I think that is when it really hit me. I left and we were walking and I was thinking about how crazy it was and then I just had this peace come over me as I thought that when I go home it will not be the same as the mission, but I will still be working in the work of salvation. I will still be doing all I can to help others to return to live with God and their families. Sure, it will be with lots of other responsibilities, but it is the same great work. Later I thought about death and how that really is just passing into a different phase of the work of salvation. I may not be a full time missionary 6+ months from now but my entire eternity will be used to work for the salvation of souls. But I need to take advantage of this last time to focus completely on the work. I am way excited and so happy to be able to be a missionary!
I love you!
Con amor, Elder Hawk
Monday, February 2, 2015
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Confesiones
Hola!
They all told me that it would happen eventually, but I doubted them. Maybe it was that with time I began to feel too comfortable, too relaxed. Perhaps it was just the perfect storm of events coming together at the same time. Whatever the case may be, after one year and 5 months in the mission it finally happened... I crapped my pants. And I had crapped them good.
Just in case anyone wanted to know... haha
Anyways, now to the real stuff. haha This week we had interviews with president LaPierre. His lung collapsed a few weeks ago and he has been in the hospital but the whole time he was still answering our emails and working. That man is amazing. At the beginning of my interview he started like he always does and said "Elder Hawk, what´s on your mind?" and I told him "Well president, I just wanted to tell you that you don´t need to fake a lung collapse the next time you feel like you need a break from all of the pressures of being a mission president." We laughed and he thought it was pretty funny. But then he told me how it had happened and all the crap he had to go through, but then talked about how he was able to talk with the surgeon and several nurses and other people about the gospel. He said he gave the surgeon a Book of Mormon and was going to do the follow up the next week when he had his check up appointment. He told me that he knew it wasn´t "just a collapsed lung" but that he was meant to come into contact with those people. I was pretty amazed.
We also built a house this week for a single mother who is getting thrown out of her apartment. We showed up and a less active members was with a bunch of people from the neighborhood and they started to build the foundation so we asked to help. We went twice in the morning this week and it was a great experience. Maybe the coolest part was to see a group of like 5 men who were smoking and drinking cheap wine, but at the same time giving service to someone in need without even expecting to receive anything in return. It really made me think about how even though sometimes we see the outward appearances of people, they still have many good qualities and are willing to help each other. The house is actually turning out pretty nice for the materials we had to work with. I am pretty sure that dad and Dusty could have built a much better house in half the tie if they had the tools, but we had a rusty old saw a couple of rusted makeshift hammers, and a homemade ladder. So we did a pretty good job considering the situation. haha
Also, we had divisions this week and I went to the center of the city. It was way cool cause it was a way different way to work. Instead of clapping house we stood at the bottom of a huge apartment and hit the buttons so they would let us in through the intercom. No one let us in cause rich people aren´t very nice sometimes. haha But we actually found a lady who moved right in front of the stake center a week ago at the very end of the day! She had always had like a maid who would talk for a minute with the missionaries and take the pamphlets. She would read them, but never talked in person with the missionaries. I think she could really progress.
Just another week in the service of the Lord. Putting my life and my pants on the line. I love you all so much!
Con amor, Elder Hawk
They all told me that it would happen eventually, but I doubted them. Maybe it was that with time I began to feel too comfortable, too relaxed. Perhaps it was just the perfect storm of events coming together at the same time. Whatever the case may be, after one year and 5 months in the mission it finally happened... I crapped my pants. And I had crapped them good.
Just in case anyone wanted to know... haha
Anyways, now to the real stuff. haha This week we had interviews with president LaPierre. His lung collapsed a few weeks ago and he has been in the hospital but the whole time he was still answering our emails and working. That man is amazing. At the beginning of my interview he started like he always does and said "Elder Hawk, what´s on your mind?" and I told him "Well president, I just wanted to tell you that you don´t need to fake a lung collapse the next time you feel like you need a break from all of the pressures of being a mission president." We laughed and he thought it was pretty funny. But then he told me how it had happened and all the crap he had to go through, but then talked about how he was able to talk with the surgeon and several nurses and other people about the gospel. He said he gave the surgeon a Book of Mormon and was going to do the follow up the next week when he had his check up appointment. He told me that he knew it wasn´t "just a collapsed lung" but that he was meant to come into contact with those people. I was pretty amazed.
We also built a house this week for a single mother who is getting thrown out of her apartment. We showed up and a less active members was with a bunch of people from the neighborhood and they started to build the foundation so we asked to help. We went twice in the morning this week and it was a great experience. Maybe the coolest part was to see a group of like 5 men who were smoking and drinking cheap wine, but at the same time giving service to someone in need without even expecting to receive anything in return. It really made me think about how even though sometimes we see the outward appearances of people, they still have many good qualities and are willing to help each other. The house is actually turning out pretty nice for the materials we had to work with. I am pretty sure that dad and Dusty could have built a much better house in half the tie if they had the tools, but we had a rusty old saw a couple of rusted makeshift hammers, and a homemade ladder. So we did a pretty good job considering the situation. haha
Also, we had divisions this week and I went to the center of the city. It was way cool cause it was a way different way to work. Instead of clapping house we stood at the bottom of a huge apartment and hit the buttons so they would let us in through the intercom. No one let us in cause rich people aren´t very nice sometimes. haha But we actually found a lady who moved right in front of the stake center a week ago at the very end of the day! She had always had like a maid who would talk for a minute with the missionaries and take the pamphlets. She would read them, but never talked in person with the missionaries. I think she could really progress.
Just another week in the service of the Lord. Putting my life and my pants on the line. I love you all so much!
Con amor, Elder Hawk
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