84th Letter 10-27-14

Photos: Beautiful Uruguaiana and The District on P-day!

Coisas estão melhorando!

Alright alright, so can you guys pray that the time will slow down! It is flying by super, super fast. This week we found more success, which means the time flew by even faster! Sometimes I don’t like this rule...ha-ha!

So this week went a lot better than the others. Elder Silveir and I had a good talk and we are going to change some things in our way of working. The following day we saw some great changes take place in the area. 

We have been working a lot with 2 girls that want to be baptized this week. Their dad is a member, but the mom isn´t and she doesn´t want to change yet. But she likes us a lot and is always inviting us over to have dinner with them. The 2 girls, Luisa and Laticia, remind me a lot of Amy, they are a little quiet but very sweet and they will be baptized this week! It should be a great baptism! I am excited! :)

We had a good activity in the ward for the youth and it went well! I was in charge of the Ping Pong, so I was able to play a little. :) Here in Uruguaiana the youth are a great force, which makes the activities very fun and productive. The wards here have a great capability to grow a ton!

Last week we ran into two sisters that are very cool. We taught them the restoration and they loved it and seem to understand and desire to learn more. I think they will progress.

We taught our beloved Carlos again. He still is an emotional wreck but we are taking those baby steps! That´s who he reminds me of! The guy from that movie “What about Bob” Haha! But no…the lesson we had with him went very spiritual and it helped him a lot. We talked about the Atonement. :)

On Friday we were walking in the street and a lady with two baby kids pulled up in a car and called me over. She asked if we were from the Mormon Church and I said yes. She asked if we could visit her and her family for they don’t have a religion anymore and want to learn more! ELECT!! So with an overwhelming happiness we got her address, number and we marked a day to return, which is today! So pray for us tonight! :)

This weekend was stake conference here as well. Seems like Presidente Parrela is keeping me in the areas where they will have stake conferences, because I think this is my 4th this year…haha! The conference went very good and Presidente Gonzage was there from the area 70. Sunday we taught a guy that is elect and already has a son baptized, so we will work with him. And we have Ruth and Gabriel that are praying about baptism next week! :)

As you guys can see the work is speeding up and it is a great blessing! :) I love the work and I know it´s true! Every single day my testimony is being fortified and growing. I love the Lord!

Mom, I hope the trip went great for you and Dad! From the pictures it looks like it went fantastic! Going to Puerto Vallarta as a family would be awesome! :) Great to hear Amanda and Shaye had great talks Sunday and that Emme is staying crazy! The work is going a lot better here…not to much that went wrong this week. You can pray for our investigators Luisa, Laticia, Ruth, Gabriel, Igor, Patricia and Tiago! :)

Dad, you are right about the blessings that we have for living in the states. After so much time away from the states I don’t remember exactly how it felt, but clearly things there are much nicer, cleaner, and calmer. I still love Brazil and for sure will visit here after the mission! :) The humidity is a problem at times, but now it is hot HOT so things dry up quick. Also, we have a lot of wind here so that means dirt in our eyes, dirt in our shirt collar, but also a nice breeze in the shade to help keep us cool. I have only seen a few monkeys here, but out in the jungle I hear their are a ton. At times we can here them screaming like giant beasts, but usually the tiny ones make the big noise. Ha-ha! Oh, and It is GREAT to hear about the U!!! :) Go UTES!!

I love you all! :)

Elder Hauck

83rd Letter 10-20-14

Photos:1-The view from our apartment. 2-Zone Conference with Elder Cotrim. 

3-We had a bird friend that entered our apartment.

 Dear Family,

Another pretty good week here in Uruguiana! We had a zone conference, which went super well, and we learned a bunch about temple and family history work. I don’t know if you guys heard of the change in Preach my Gospel, about how we need to teach lesson 5 (laws and ordinances) before baptism now. This change is a great change that is helping in the work! I feel a lot more comfortable sharing about the temple, priesthood and the other amazing things we have in the church. Before it was a little complicated, not wanting to share too much information and scare the investigator away, but with the change many people are ready to receive the good news of the restored gospel! Now we are using the temple and family history work a lot more in our proselyting.

The Zone Conference went awesome and I was able to see my son, Elder Cotrim. He is doing awesome and it was good to catch up with him. Elder Silveira and I gave training on Russell M. Ballard’s talk on “Staying in the Boat.”  It was rushed but went super well!

This week we found some new investigators and we will see how they progress. The work is very tough here. Many people are closed off and want nothing to do with religion. If you remember how Sâo Borja was, it is kind of like that city...But we are working hard and trying to find the elect.

We had a great family night with Luisa, Laticia and their family. We watched 17 Miracles and I made cookies! My specialty! ;) The family night went great and these two young girls are planned to be baptized in 2 weeks. They love the church and have been going to church for a few months. Their dad is a member, but wasn´t letting them be baptized, but now he is letting them.

We also have a lady and her son that are very close to baptism. Her name is Ruth and her son is Gabriel and they are both very smart. Gabriel is only 9, but is smarter than some 15 year olds here. Ha-ha!

It is crazy to think that I may only have one more zone conference and I will be sharing my departing testimony there...I get sad just thinking about it, but a little happy too... :)

I hope you all are doing awesome and are trying everyday to be a missionary!

Mom, it looks and sounds like your trip is going awesome! :) Dad, here in Uruguiana we have a bunch of people that pass over the bridge from Argentina and sometimes we get to talk to them. I can almost understand everything they say! :) Oh, and don´t worry, we aren´t joking too much with these elders. Ha-ha! Awesome to hear about Grandpa Hauck going to Oman!! As always thanks for the mini sports update! :) Love you guys!!

Elder Hauck

82nd Letter 10-13-14

My Beloved Family,

I have realized my e-mails have been slacking and I am sorry. I hope this e-mail will make up for the past few. 

So, I am doing well in my new area and I am learning many new things about the gospel, the work and myself. Learning is a great blessing of the Lord. I can´t stop thinking about the scripture D&C 50:24 which talks about light and how we can receive more and more light until our understanding is bright! How true this is! My new companion is a goof and we are having fun. On occasion we do our pranks (false pizza orders in his name, early morning alarms and what not) with the other elders in our apartment, but I think they are getting mad so we may have to stop. Ha-ha! Elder Silveira likes to talk about cars, dogs (mainly pit bulls) and girls. Ha-ha! He is a good elder though. So don’t worry. Ha-ha!

I am starting to grow a better relationship with the members here and we are growing the work together.

So this week we had some exciting stuff happen. On Monday we had an appointment planned to talk with the father of Luisa, liessa, and Laticia about their baptism. So the dad is an in-active member but still has a testimony of the church. He works out of town a lot so it is hard for him to go to church. But we talked with him and it went well! We explained our purpose and told him he has to authorize their baptism. He said that in the end of the month he would see if the girls are ready for baptism. These 3 girls are super sweet and love the church, so I don’t see any problem arising soon or ever.

Tuesday, we had a good day of work and it was super HOT! I think my tan came back in just one day! : ) Ha-ha!  But one super cool thing that happened today is we had our meeting with Irmão Sando, our ward mission leader who reminds me of Shaye. The meeting went very well as we planned for the activity that would happen Friday. After our meeting he bought a big pizza for the sisters and us. We have sisters that work in our ward too, and they are very good sisters. So this topped off the night great!

Wednesday was a busy, busy day as well and it was hot as well! We taught a lot of lessons and found some new investigators. Besides the spiritual lessons not too much happened.

Thursday, the weather changed quickly and it was cold again! This weather is just asking for me to get sick! Ha-ha! But we used today to invite everyone to the family night activity that was Friday.

Friday, we taught a very sad man. Before this day we only talked with him through the intercom in the front of the apartment complex, but today he let us enter. He was crying like a little baby and explained to us that he has nothing and how his family has abandoned him. He told us how he wants to end his life because he can’t handle the pain and sadness anymore. Also, before we got there he was at the hospital and was diagnosed with something that doesn´t seem too great. The spirit was very strong as we comforted this 60+ year old man and we had a prayer and shared the plan of salvation with him. The lesson cheered him up and by the end of the lesson he stopped crying and accepted the invitation to be baptized.

The activity went super good! Two members shared a message and the sisters did pie your face with questions that we had to answer and if you didn´t get it right the opponent pied you in the face. It went super good but made a wild mess of the church building...ha-ha! We spent the next morning cleaning the chapel and now it is very pretty! : )

After cleaning the chapel we had a baptism interview of a 9-year-old girl in another ward. She is super smart and you wouldn´t believe the response she gave when I asked her what she understands about the law of chastity. Ha-ha! Later Saturday night she was baptized. We also had a great lesson with a new family.

Sunday, we had a lot of people at church today! We also had 5 investigators that we hope to baptize this month!

The week went by fast and we found good success! My excitement is growing in this new area and I am praying we will build this ward up! 

Mom, I hope that the email was able to answer your questions. I am studying in the Book Of Mormon about Captain Moroni and also about the atonement, which seems to be a lifelong study…ha-ha! Studying the Atonement in Portuguese seems so much different...I don’t know why, but I think the words that are used in the scriptures are a little clearer to me. It is super cool! Mexico will be a great trip for you and Dad! Mom, you are right, your husband is a stud! Ha-ha! I love you Mom!

Dad, that picture I sent last week is of my new zone here in Uruguaiana. Sounds like you are keeping busy with all the work you do! I am excited to help you out when I get back! Love you! Oh and it’s sad about the BYU cougars.

Have a great week!! : )

Elder Hauck

81st Letter 10-6-14

Photos: 1-The Zone   2-My companion & I

Dear Family,

I hope you all had a great Conference weekend. Here in Brazil all the members and we were very excited. My companion and I made invitations and invited everyone in the streets! The words of the leaders of the church are so inspiring and really bring back that fire that we as missionaries and member need! I am so grateful for the Prophet and the leaders of our true church. They alone are a witness of the restoration of the true and eternal gospel.

This week was a pretty good week. The work is slowly improving by means of our efforts and the help of a few members. We have a long way to go though. We were able to teach a few good lessons that turned out to be very spiritual. We have about 5 investigators that seem they could progress, but the rest are a little light.

It is hard going from an area so strong where we could teach all day long and receive a ton of success and spiritual promptings to an area where we spend the whole day walking and looking for new people to teach. It is rough, but makes part of the mission and challenge. The Lord has something great for me here and I want to find what it is!

The highlight of the week was watching General Conference! So after using the whole week inviting everyone we could we ended up having not one investigator show up.... ha-ha. But we did have a less active lady named Vilma come, which made us very happy. So usually when we Americans watch conference we can watch it in English, so after helping the bishop here set up the projector, satellite and audio I set up a room, with a TV for us Americans to watch it in English. Well after the first talk on Saturday we received a message from President Parrela saying all Americans will watch GC in Portuguese this weekend! So this kind of upset us Americans, but it turned out all right watching it all in Portuguese. I just feel bad for the 2 sister missionaries that arrived here 3 weeks ago and can´t understand much yet. But I think it turned out all right.

My favorite talks were from Christofferson, Uchtdorf, Monson, Holland, Scott and the talk from Bednar was super good too! I seriously loved Conference!

Also, Presidente didn´t let us watch the priesthood session. So you guys will have to let me know how it went.

Mom, so my new companion is from São Paulo and has 1 year and 6 months on the mission. He talks a lot of slang and it is pretty funny at times. We are getting along well and want to improve the work here. To be honest I don’t know too many of the members yet. Mainly the bishop and ward mission leader. They are both awesome. The bishop got us a new investigator Saturday night and the lesson went super good with him!

Dad, it’s sad to hear about the Cougars. About school, I think I will study at Dixie for a bit and then move to the U after…Don’t know for sure yet though. Estou falando com algumas moças, mas nada serio pai. :) The football season sounds crazy!!

I love you guys!! : )

Elder Bradley Jason Hauck