74th Letter 8-18-14

 Me with Elder Pontes

My Family,

Wow do I miss you guys!

This week has been very very different! Now I am in Santa Marta which is another city on the side of Santa Maria. I am working in a ward, so we have about 170 members that are active and the area is a lot smaller than Itaqui. The walking is up hill and down hill and the altitude is a lot higher, so I am getting a pretty good work out! Ha-ha!

My new companion is Elder Pontes and you wouldn´t guess it, he is from São Paulo.  He is cool, but completely opposite from me. I feel like this transfer will require a lot of patience and humility, which will be good for me! We will see how things go.

Surprisingly the Ala isn´t having too much success as far as missionary work.  Our teaching pool is pretty weak and we aren´t having too much success finding solid new investigators.  We did find a few though.

One family that we started to teach is Rose, her Mom and her daughter. They are awesome and have great faith, but are kind of slow to act on that faith. We marked a date for baptism, but they ended up skipping out on church, so we will have to move it to another day.  Another family is the family that lives next door in a chapel of an evangelic church.. The Dad is an in-active member that started his own church, which is in his home, and he has a few kids. We talked with him the second day I was here and he told us of his strong testimony. Cleuden is his name. He knows the Church is true and actually uses our church material to teach and also our hymns.. ha-ha! He told us he wants to return and that he is praying for help to repent and return.  He is very sincere! His son named João is super cool and we talked with him and his brother. They both ended up visiting church with us Sunday.

We will see how these two families progress this week! We have a lot of things to change!

Sunday, church went awesome! I felt almost at home, with the full chapel, busy halls, good singing, and powerful leaders! I loved the feeling there this Sunday! I was able to give the spiritual thought before Preisthood Quorum and it went super good! After we learned about Eternal Marriage and we talked openly and boldly about it. It was super-cool and opened my eyes a bit of what I want in the future!

The week was rough and I am super-tired but I am loving the busy work! Time is flying by faster than ever!! I think this week will be a lot better though!

Mom, yes, I am sad that I had to leave Itaqui and Elder Cotrim, but I feel like it was time for me to leave there. The area I am serving does have more college students, but I'm more in the out-skirts of the city. Sounds like a lot of things are starting to change there!! I am excited for Amy moving away for college. It will be a great opportunity!

Dad, I am working as a co-companion zone leader...so we are both zone leaders. We have 2 districts that we cover and about 20 missionaries.  I am pumped for the sports news!!! :)

I love all of you so very much and I miss you all like crazy! Take Care!!

Elder Hauck

73rd Letter 8-11-14

Photos: 1-Raissa's Baptism 2-These Southernests like knives!

Dear Beloved Family,

I don't have too much time today to write because I have been transferred to Santa Maria and will be a Zone Leader here.

I love you all so very much! Please keep your love and prayers coming towards me! :)

Mom & Dad, hey, I will get the new address for you guys. I think I will ask for one more care package here in Brazil! :) I will think of more things I want this week, but Elder Cotrim wants 2 photo albums, that are clear covered, like the family tree one you sent me. Also, maybe Chips Ahoy.. but I'll check becsuse they may have them here in Santa Maria. I love you both so much and am so grateful for your love and support in everything!

I will try to write you more this week, but if not, until next Monday.

Love,

Elder Hauck

72nd Letter 8-4-14

Pictures: 1-At the ward mission leader´s home. 2-In São Borja with the Assistants.

Família Marvalhosa,

Can you believe it? I am down to 6 months! I found out I will leave here January 27th! It’s crazy how fast time went by. I feel like finally my vision is clear, my Portuguese is good, and I know how to work in the way most affective! Now I can just bring as many people to Christ as He needs me to! I am excited to finish these 6 months strong!

This week went by great! So we had a surprise meeting Tuesday with the President´s assistants in São Borja, which went very good! They taught us about how we can work better and bring everyone to Christ. It was very spiritual and I learned a lot of new things that we applied in our area this past week. Elder Cotrim and I have a vision much more clear. We are now working, finding, and teaching to baptize! This is what President Parrela wants us to do.

So after the meeting Elder Taxeira came with us to Itaqui to do an exchange with us. He also gave me a little training on how I can be a better District Leader. The exchange with him went very good and Elder Cotrim and I learned many new things with him. This same night we had an amazing lesson with Simone and Marecelo. So we showed up in their home, and it was just Marecelo. He is super cool and very open to us. Actually, after a bit of talking about what we have shared with him so far he opened up a lot and explained how a few months ago they lost a baby. The baby was born dead. It was very sad to hear this, but was a joy to know that we have the Plan of Salvation to teach them. He told us not to say anything to Simoni yet, because she is still very emotional about it, but after we explained a little of the Plan of Salvation he knew it would help her understand things better. I remembered the first lesson she asked us why we (humans) are here on the earth and also why we have problems here. The spirit was very strong and we didn´t get to teach all of the Plan of Salvation, but we will return this week and explain much more! Simone showed up later and we shared a little about the Plan of Salvation and followed-up on their reading. They are super sincere and have a great desire to learn more. I can´t wait to teach the Plan of Salvation to them this week!

President Parrela visited us here in Itaqui this week and took us to lunch at a very nice restaurant and after he did our interviews. President and Sister Parrela are awesome! He helped me a lot with some goals that I want to complete, and also how I can be a better leader. We had a good time with him and learned a ton! 

Later this week we gave a tour of the chapel to Agostinho. It was very spiritual and he talked about the good “energy” he felt inside the Chapel. We then entered the room where the Baptismal font is and we asked him to say a prayer. We kneeled down and he offered a very humble prayer. He asked to know of the truth and he explained to God that he is feeling well here. The spirit was very strong here with him. We then opened the doors of the Font and showed him. He went to the railing in front of the Font and he folded him arms above the railing and leaned himself against it. We joined him and kept silent for a bit. We then asked him to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized. He said he will when he knows it is true. The spirit that we felt there was so awesome! He felt it for sure and I think it kind of shocked him. Lets see how he follows his answer.

We had many lessons this week very powerful! We invited everyone to be baptized!! We talked to so many people in the street as well! We are trying to bring the work more towards the center of the city, where the Chapel is and all the rich people live. It will be a slow transition, but will be very good! We had a lesson with Neide and invited her to be baptized and she said she would after resolving doubts about her baptism in the Catholic church. Elder Cotrim and I are working well together and have some great goals for August.

Mom and Dad, President Parrela invited me to tell you that I am doing great! He said that I am using the time here on the mission to do what is right and that I am giving my full effort. He said that not one cent of the money used on this mission is being wasted. I want to let you know that this is true and that I am serving with all my heart, might, mind and strength. It is kind of sad at times how tired I am. After 1 year and 6 months of working everyday your body gets tired..ha-ha! But it’s more than worth it!

I love you both so much!

And to the rest of you awesome people, Os Amo!

Love,

Elder Hauck

71st Letter 7-28-14

Pictures: 1-Before Cesar’s confirmation, 2-The cookies I made! : )

 Dear Best Family Ever,

Another great week here in Itaqui! This week was very cool because Elder Cotrim had the opportunity to be senior comp. for a week. This plays part of the new missionary training program. It was awesome to see how great he did and to feel proud that I did a well job training him as a missionary. He is very organized, obedient, diligent, spiritual, and teaches great! He thinks I have helped him a lot, but really it is me that was helped in this whole process! He has helped me a lot with my vision as a missionary. I feel a lot more confident in all aspects of the work and in my testimony of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ! I feel like Alma the younger! Ha-ha

This week we had some great opportunities to teach. We taught a lot of people about the Plan of Salvation. I am understanding more about this plan! Some things that I didn´t quiet understand completely about Adam and Eve and the Fall (Agency) are much more clear now. How amazing is the Plan! And how amazing is it that we can always learn new things. This is a sign to me that our Heavenly Father loves us so much.  He will never limit our learning! Yes we limit our understanding and learning when we sin and don’t have faith, but if we are faithful and act with our faith we will learn line upon line and precept upon precept! 

We had a lesson with Algostinho this week that went very well! Algostinho is a guy that likes to joke around a lot. He is reading the Book of Mormon and has doubts, but we are responding to every single doubt. He begun to joke around about the gospel again and said a few things disrespectful and we waited patiently until our time. The spirit returned and I bore my testimony with as much love and strength that I could that The Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet! And that if he would sear (seek & hear) with a sincere heart he would find answers that would change his life forever. The look on his face changed completely. Elder Cotrim then bore his powerful testimony and Algostonho said few words after this...he said, ”Give me a little time to read and pray.”

Another night this week we taught a couple that are new investigators. They are so nice and welcoming to us! They remind me of Chris and Debra! Ha-ha. We taught them the restoration and it went so well! I won’t lie I was a little nervous because this family is elect!! Ha-ha, but the lesson finished great and we will return this week and follow-up with their answer from Heavenly Father! The spirit is very pure there in their home and makes it very peaceful to teach!

This week we had a great activity with the Branch! We had a few trainings for the teenagers and the adults about how they can prepare for a mission and how they can prepare their kids for the mission. Also had some fun trainings, one being learning how to cook Mom´s Famous Cookies! : ) Ha-ha. It went very good! The branch paid for the ingredients so I could make over 120 cookies! Ha-ha. 

Yesterday night we had a lesson with Jucelino that went very good! Joabel, a member, helped out with the lesson. Jucelino is doing very well, just is sad that his “wife” (girlfriend) is being so difficult with things. She isn´t against the church, but definitely isn´t for it. Ha-ha! Her son Matues wants to be baptized, but she doesn´t think he is responsible enough. We believe differently. Jucelino has a lot of the Light of Christ! He has changed so much in his life! He had many problems with the law of chastity, but when he found the true and living gospel he changed completely! He has such a strong testimony! What a great example to me and all the other members here in Itaqui!

This week went very smoothly and I know things will only improve! We have a baptism this week that will be awesome! It is the baptism of a 9-year-old girl that is the daughter of two less-actives that are returning now.

Mom, that is awesome everything is going well! Looks like the weather there is very good! It was pretty cold this week here! I hope Papa Joe’s birthday will go great! Give him a hug for me! Love you so much Mom! : )

Dad sounds like you had an awesome week! The air show is super cool!  Did someone teach you Portuguese? Patos means duck or swan...ha-ha! What are you trying to say? Love the Pictures! Love you Dad!

I love all of you so much!

Elder Hauck

70th Letter 7-21-14

 Photos: 1-Cesar's Baptism, 2-Family Night

Querida Família,

Another great week here in Itaqui! Elder Cotrim and I are really finding those elect that hear His voice! Everyday is a great blessing and being a missionary is an even better blessing. This week we worked a lot more in the city and found some great new investigators that seem elect! The weather here is very nice! The daytime is warm and the night is cold. The people here are saying that this winter won’t be like the other winters. It usually gets a lot colder, but this year nope. I hope this doesn´t mean summer will be hotter...Everything is going very well here and we were blessed to have another BAPTISM! 

César was baptized Friday and it went awesome! So his whole family is members and he held off to be baptized for 8 years. After many, many missionaries helping him out, we were the blessed elders to baptize him. It has been so amazing to see him change so much in the past 3-4 months. When I arrived here he had many doubts about the Word of Wisdom, tithing and why people aren´t perfect in the church. After many spiritual lessons we began to see a great change in his heart. He began to accept and understand the truth and he followed the truth that he received. If you all remember we gave Cesar a blessing about a month or ago and it was very, very powerful the feeling that we felt with him. I believe that this is when he began to make those big changes in his life and he truly has a testimony now. The light that he has in his appearance is very different from before.

Thursday, Elder Bento (LZ) traveled here to give the interview to Cesar. Cesar passed and said one of you will baptize me, but I don’t want to choose. Of course I wanted to, but I knew of how happy and grateful Elder Cotrim would be to baptize him. So I told him he would! He was very excited and gave me a big hug. Ha-ha! The baptism was on his wife’s birthday and it was very late, because he had to work until 7. The baptism went very well, and everyone there felt the spirit very strong! Romilda, his wife was very emotional and bore a strong testimony, which brought tear to all of us. Cesar is awesome and is kind of funny. He reminds me of you Dad! Ha-ha! He loves cars and is super goofy, but serious when he needs to be.

Remember the baby we gave a blessing too? Well, a miracle happened with this little baby. So when we gave the blessing I didn´t remember too much of what I said, but the Mom and the family remembered. The aunt of the baby, who is a member told me, “Thank you so much for the blessing for Eduardo and for blessing that the doctors would be guided to perform the surgery perfectly, because when the baby arrived in Porto Alegre the heart doctor was studying the examinations on the heart and realized that the heart wouldn´t be able to handle the surgery. He called the other doctors that were ready to do the surgery and told them to not do the surgery!”

Now the baby is doing well, but does feel a little pain in his chest, but the doctors said if they would have done the surgery the baby would have died. What an amazing miracle. But it wasn´t me or the doctors that saved this baby. It was Heavenly Father working through us with the Spirit.

This week was full of amazing experiences, but I don’t have time to share them all. I barely have time to write them all down in my journal every day! I get to see the work of the Lord everyday here on the earth! He lives!! (Mormon 9: 8-10)

Mom, I love the pictures of you girls having a blast together! Wow, are the girls in my family beautiful! Ha-ha, Tell Cam and Grandpa Porritt happy late birthday! The Graffs will be great senior missionaries! There is one senior couple in our mission. In Colorado we had like 4 couples. Cool that you were able to teach the Gospel Doctrine lesson Sunday! The lessons here in Gospel Principals are all right. I miss the organization we have in the US. Ha-ha! I also miss the temple so much! At times I think a lot about the temple! I am super excited to find my wife when I get home and be sealed for all time and eternity....But, glad I don´t have to think about this yet. Ha-ha!

Dad, glad to hear you and the family are doing well. Amy will leave for college when? Then you and Mom will have the house to yourselves for a few months and then I will crash the party. I am pumped for football to start again! I hope the updates will be as good as last year Dad. Make them good!

I love all of you so very much and miss you too!

Boa Sorte com tudo,

Elder Hauck

69th Letter 7-14-14

Photo: I got my hair cut!!

Dear Amazing Family,

A Seminal Joya! All right, so I don’t have too much time to write today, but I hope I can share a few experiences that happened this past week! The work here is going well. We are working really hard to keep the work moving strongly and we pray it won’t slow down! Elder Cotrim continues to do awesome and we work great together. I think he is the companion that I have made the most progress with in the work as well as in myself. I feel very content with everything. The District is doing great. The other elders are improving and finding more success!

So this week we had a zone meeting that went super good! We got to hear two trainings, one from Elder Henderson and the other from Elder Bento. Both trainings were very good, but Elder Bento´s was top notch! He is a stud and brought some great ideas and understanding to all of us. He talked a lot about goals and how we can improve our manner of organizing and accomplishing goals. He taught a lot about faith and how using faith intelligently we can accomplish these goals diligently, effectively, and more in harmony of the will of God. I want to improve my goal making skills a lot! 

Another experience that happened this week was when we got a call to give a blessing to a baby that was born 1 month early and has many physical problems, including problems with his heart. The Mom is not a member but almost all of her sisters and daughters are. I remember when we entered the room where the baby was I saw the baby and knew at that moment that the baby would be fine and that he would continue his life healthy. The spirit there was so pure and calming. I had the great opportunity to give this baby, Edwardo, a blessing. My spirit felt very calm and I was able to give the blessing clearly and I was guided by the Lord to say what was needed to be said. Don´t remember exactly what I said, but that he would be cured and the doctor would perform the surgery with exactness! I will never forget the spirit that we felt there. Felt like we were in the presence of an angle. This little baby is very special to Heavenly Father!

This week was full of excitement, but sorry I don’t have time to share everything! The mission is amazing and I feel my spirit grow everyday! I feel like I understand things better. Heavenly Father really does love us and will give us wisdom if we just act with faith!

Mom, sounds like the visit to the Haucks went awesome! I would have loved to be there with all of you! I miss those times with the family! I definitely won’t take them for granted after the mission! Ha-ha. Super funny about the car searching. You always stay strong in your decision! The van is pretty cute still! Ha-ha...I can imagine Dad´s reaction when you told him you want to keep the van. Sounds like the whole trip went very good! Glad to hear Jaden´s farewell went great! He will be an awesome missionary! Tell Cam happy birthday from me! And I love the pictures! Thank you for the testimony, Mom! You are exactly right about the gospel being the great blessing in our lives. We owe it to Him to dedicate our live to Him! I love you Mom!

Dad, I am glad you were able to see all the family this week and talk with them! The weather here is very strange! A few days this week it was pretty hot! Ha-ha. Many people talk about the cold, but where is it? Ha-ha!  Love you Dad!

I love all of you so very much and can´t believe how fast time is flying by! Stay well!!

Love, 

Elder Hauck

68th Letter 7-7-14

Photos: 1-Thaliene’s baptism, 2-The flood! 3-Tasting the bean and chicken stew!

Hello Família!! :)

Can you say flood!? Ha-ha, here in Itaqui and other surrounding cities have been suffering because of Rio Uruguai raising 14 meters in the past week! Maybe you heard of it on the news, but I doubt it. Ha-ha! I will send some pictures.

Other than the flood, the week went very good! We finished the week with the baptism of Thaliene and it went great! We worked a lot with her this week, preparing her for baptism and everything. She is awesome and invited friends to the baptism and we had a family night with her family and 2 of her friends after the Baptism. One friend of hers is very interested now! This teenager is elect! She reminds me of Amy! Ha-ha!

This week we spent a lot of time checking in on the members close to the river to see if they need help with anything. Some members lost a lot of things because the river raised so fast they weren’t ready and couldn´t move furniture out of the house fast enough. It was raising about 1.5 meters per day.

This week we found a new investigator through a less-active family. He is a boyfriend of a member and he is very interested and has great questions! We will try meeting his family this week to help them receive the restored gospel. 

I want to share one experience that was very spiritual! All right, so we were walking to a less-active family’s home and stopped to take a picture of the river. Which was surrounding some of the homes in the street, as Elder Cotrim was shooting some pictures a lady was finishing taking some pictures and said a few words to me about the muddy roads. I said a few words back to her and she started walking back to her home. As she was walking back to her house IT his me! “What are you doing Elder, You need to talk to her!” I then said to Cotrim, “We need to talk to her!” We rushed normally behind her to catch up to her and once we caught up to her we started talking to her. She isn´t from here and is from a city that doesn´t have missionaries yet, but we begun to share with her about Jesus Christ! She had a few questions that we answered and then she opened up to us and got a little emotional as she told us of how her 16-year-old son died recently and that she has lost her faith. She asked us why this happened to her. We answered this question by teaching a little of the Plan of Salvation. The spirit hit me very strong when she asked, “Is there really a life after this?” The spirit was so strong as we talked with her and she told us that she feels we are sent from God to talk with her. She understands that everything happens for a reason and the God has great purposes! This experience was very cool because it was almost too perfect to be true. Felt like a dream! I know how powerful the promptings of the spirit are and that we must fallow them!

I don’t know if we will ever see her a gain, but we left her with the restoration and Plan of salvation pamphlets with our number and invited her to read and pray about the Plan, if it really is true. She will be baptized someday!

How amazing is the Holy Ghost and how He worked with us!

Mom, sounds like Cuzzy Camp was awesome! I can’t believe I will be able to go next year! Ha-ha! Awesome to hear Amanda and Shaye’s move-in went well and that you got to play with Emme! I love the pictures!

Dad, I feel like the big family we were teaching will warm up to the gospel over time. The flood completely covered their home and we, as well as members, went by to help them out. Maybe this will humble them for the gospel. I am excited for Dresden! I am thinking of how it was for me starting the mission! It truly is a change of life! Ha-ha...Dad thank you so much for everything! (I keep saying it, Dad! :) You and Mom have helped me so much in life. Like it is said in Alma 32, and 3 Nephi 14 good fruit can only come from a good tree! I am a fruit of my parents! I believe I am a good fruit because I was grown on a good tree! :) I love you all so much!

Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Hauck