78th Letter 9-15-14

Picture-The sunsets here are amazing!

Dear Family,

Another awesome week here in Brazil! The work is going awesome; like last week, and we are very close to having many baptisms. The ward here is doing awesome and I feel a little closer with them now, after having a little more time to talk with them. I was also able to give a talk in sacrament meeting about Missionary Work, which went well! Like every week we had some surprises. Found some new people to teach, had moments very spiritual, and of course those funny moments.

It is crazy how awesome the Mission has been to me. When I look back at my trials that I had they seem very small to me compared to the success that we have here. I am so grateful for the trials I have had and that I will continue to have. I know they will make me the man I need to be. The gospel is true brothers and sisters!

Alright, so this week we had some great stuff happen! We had 7 investigators at church and we have 3 baptisms this Saturday! We taught like crazy and if you didn´t know, this is what passes the time faster than you can believe.

The 3 people that have a baptism date are José, Sara and Filipé.

José is 90 years old and doesn´t look a day older! Ha-ha. He is elect and loves us and the church. He was mad with us on Tuesday because he thought we had church again and he was waiting in front of his house from 8:30 until 9:30AM all dressed and ready to go. We apologized for the misunderstanding and he forgave us. Ha-ha! The lessons with him are usually difficult because his 33 year-old wife is sitting in with us now. She likes our message a lot and visited the church Sunday, but when they are together they fight like a married couple! They almost act like little kids arguing about the smallest things... ha-ha! At times it is very annoying and very funny at the same time. José is very excited for his baptism this week and we will work with his wife and kids to baptize them the next week!

Sara is very special. She has meet with the missionaries for a long time and actually knows Elder Jones, who is Stephanie Abraham´s husband. If you could talk with The Abrahams or Steph it would be cool to let Elder Jones know that Sara will be baptized this week. This week we taught her a lot and she loves our visits. She is about 50, but acts a lot younger and has a very humble spirit.  She has had very many problems in her life but is still staying positive and faithful! She explained to us of an experience where a man almost killed her and she was left very hurt. She actually received the backside of an axe to the back of the head. Well after she recovered a bit she prayed to know if God really existed. She explained of the overwhelming feelings of love and peace that she felt. The spirit testified to me that this truly happened and I felt of the love that God has for her and I began to cry. It is amazing the love that Heavenly Father has for every one of his children.

Filipé is 11 and is super solid! He has visited the church quite a bit and likes everything about it. His family likes the church a lot. His parents need to get married and will be baptized after and his brother and sister are struggling on attending church on Sundays. But we will help them out and they will be baptized here in a few weeks.

This week we had an experience that taught me a great lesson. Alright, so here in South of Brazil the people usually like to talk a lot. When we ask them a simple question they will talk for 5 -10 minutes until they get to the response. Well, we were following-up with a couple we are teaching and we asked the husband if he prayed and received an answer about Joseph Smith. He started off his “answer” talking about his prayers in his other church and some story about how he stopped praying for a time but then returned to God and a bunch of other stuff. I was having a very hard time paying attention and I missed the end when he said he had received the answer that he knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Luckily Elder Pontes was paying attention and after that we were able to have a great lesson with them. There is a story very similar to this in Preach My Gospel.

I learned from this that we always need to pay attention. Yes, even when they are talking about things that don’t matter too much…we still need to listen! I felt a little guilty after for not listening closely like I should, but it actually strengthened my testimony to listen always!

The week ended great with an awesome Sunday and now I will have a great week! :) I will let you know how the week goes and the baptisms! :) Transfers are this next week, so I will find out if I will stay here or be moved. I think I will be here still.

Mom, I love the pictures of Emme! She is so cute! I am glad to hear that everyone is doing great. Let everyone know I love them!:) Dad, the sports update went awesome.

Thank you. I love you guys!

Elder Hauck

77th Letter 9-8-14

Pictures: 1-Mission Companions "Trio"   2-Maravilhosa Family

My Sweet Family,

How are all of you? I hope you are all super well!

This week we had some big changes! We had a surprise Tuesday from President Parrela and we ended up receiving a new elder, Elder Jordan Peterson (Wisconsin), who was serving in California for 11 months! Now I can´t feel too bad for my 9-month delay there in Colorado. But now we are in a trio and are training him, mostly in Portuguese. He is a stud and is learning very fast! It is good because I know how he is feeling so I can help him out. So another Trio! I didn´t think it would be possible as a zone leader, but I was proven wrong. Ha-ha! I think the Lord is telling me I need to be a better companion or something. Ha-ha.

But this wasn’t the only big change! The work this week took a giant jump!! We had a ton of success finding 11 new investigators, having 9 investigators at sacrament meeting and we marked a few baptism dates! We have a vision to baptize 5-7 people this month! It is true how everyone says after a trailing time always will come the blessing! This is what happened this week! Also, It was super cool that I got to do a bunch of splits with members to teach some people. Was a good challenge for my Portuguese being able to talk a lot more during the lessons, because usually the members will testify and teach only a little. But every lesson went very spiritual and a great blessing for me and the members that taught with me!

This week we were walking to an appointment and we saw a man named José who has 90 years sitting in the front of his house. We stopped to talk with him and he told us that the elders talked with him once before. We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the spirit was very strong! He is super funny and says funny stuff about the surrounding churched in the area and asked us a lot of question of how ours is. His wife, who is 33, gave her church R$1.000, which is about $500 and José was very mad about this. He is very healthy still and can walk slow but well. He wanted to learn more and go to church. We passed by his house and taught him more and at the end of the week we had a chorrasco! He came with us and loved it! He was even able to eat quite a bit of meat with his dentures! : ) Ha-ha, We invited him to be baptized on the 20th and he accepted and he went to church Sunday! He looks pretty promising and loves all the members. He really likes me for some reason and calls me an angel. Ha-ha-ha!

This week we had an amazing opportunity to help a drunk man, who was passed-out in the middle of the street. So, we were walking to an appointment and we were a little late so we were rushing. We passed by a man in the median, middle of the road, with blood on his forehead, ragged dirty clothes, and his shoes were off. You should know that this isn´t something too strange here in Brazil. But as we rushed by I received a prompting that we needed to help him. I called the 2 other elders and we went back. We woke the man up and asked him if we could help him. Being hung-over it was difficult to understand him, but we were able to put his shoes on and walk him away from the middle of the road to the side of the road. He was thanking us very much and kissed our hands as we were helping him walk to a bench so he could sit down. He said he was very hungry so we went and bought him some food and water. We sat with him on the side of the road as many people passed by, and we talked about Jesus Christ with him. We marked another visit with him, but when we went there he wasn´t there. This experience was very amazing. I never felt so good giving service as I did that moment. We all felt the spirit and the love of Heavenly Father very strong. I don’t know if we will ever see him again or if he even remembers us, but I know I felt the Savior’s love for him...What a humbling experience it was.

The week really went great! I am feeling a lot more content with the work and we are finding success! I hope all of you are blessed with opportunities to serve others this week and to feel this love the Savior gives to every one of us!

Mom, we are all doing very well here. We 3 are getting along well! I am glad Amy dropped her Calculus class. She had like 6 classes! It would have been tough work! Amanda and Shaye’s house is looking awesome! Wow!!! I love the pictures as well! : )

Dad, the zone is doing awesome. I am finally being able to meet all missionaries and become good friends with them. The sisters in the pictures, two are Americans. The one on the middle returned home this past week. Cool to hear about the Piano Guys! Everyone loves them here! When I tell them about Shaye and Amanda they can hardly believe it! That is super sad about Breck´s car burning up!! Will he receive another? Looks like the football season is going awesome!  Looks like I will arrive home just in time to miss it all! : (

I love you all very much! : )

Elder Hauck

76th Letter 9-1-14

 Picture: After District Meeting

Wow!

Another very busy week here in Santa Marta. I will have to say sorry for this e-mail, because it won’t be too long and the computer I am using doesn’t let me use a question mark, or exclamation marks...ha-ha. Like I said, the week went busy and as I reflect back it is kind of hard to remember all the things that happened. Good thing I am keeping my journal up to date so I can remember all these awesome things that have happened.

The Zone work is doing well. All the missionaries are doing supper well, and Elder Pontes and I are working hard to help the missionaries do better here as well as making our area a model for the rest the zone and mission.

Something really cool that happened this week was one of the lessons that we had. It was late at night and we were very tired. It was funny because I was thinking about what I would eat when I get home and how excited I was to return home and sleep. Ha-ha, but I caught myself thinking about this and stopped myself. We still had time to work. So we continued and found a family that aren´t all members at home. We were sitting there getting to know them and we called everyone to join us to hear our message. There were almost 7 in all. Also, they were very excited with the fact they had an American in their home. Ha-ha, they asked me a lot of questions, one question from Marcelo who is about 18 asked, “And the girls there, are they pretty?” When he said this we all had a good laugh. Ha-ha!

So we started to teach them the restoration of the gospel and the lesson went super well. They all understood very well and paid attention. When we got to the first vision the spirit hit very strong. The outside world seemed to be silent and they all were wide-eyed waiting to know what happened next. We finished the lesson very well and invited those that have not been baptized to be baptized. Marcelo, the guy who made the good question, was very touched by the lesson and I asked him how he felt and he said he felt different. We explained to him that he was feeling the spirit. We will continue to work with this family as well with Marcelo, who is reading the BOM and seems to be elect now.

We had a lot of good lessons this week, but the other I want to talk about was with Ivone and Sara, two middle aged ladies that understand well. We talked a lot about the priesthood with them and they understand well of the importance of authority and the importance they have to be baptized with this authority. This lesson went so well that it strengthened my testimony of the priesthood. It is so important that we priesthood holders act worthily in all that we do. This power and authority we have is special and not many people have it or even understand it. They both ended up coming to church today and loved the meetings.

Time is flying by... it scares me. Ha-ha! I know my efforts here are going to a great and beautiful cause and I am grateful for every minute I have to serve as a missionary in the true church of Jesus Christ.

Mom, I am excited to receive the package. Sounds like you and dad like the house all for yourselves. Amy is taking a lot of classes. I hope it won’t be stressful for her. I remember I had 5 classes at the U and it was rough. I love hearing of your joy and loving spirit mom. I love you

Dad, things are improving in all aspect here in Santa Marta. I feel more comfortable giving advice when it is needed and Elder Pontes has more respect for me now. Our area isn´t too big, like 15 minutes to walk from one side to the other, so we walk the whole time. When we have to go to the city we always use the public transportation. Our area is at the entrance of Santa Maria, so it isn´t too big, but is busy with a lot more people. Dad, “O que um bando de maricas?”  You are calling the Utes a group of gays? Ha-ha! Thank you for the sports update man. Ha-ha! Love you!

I love you all!

ELDER HAUCK

75th Letter 8-25-14

Picture: Elder Sessions is the son of members in Colorado, Tuscany Ward!

Wazzup,

Another week here in Brazil! Things are going great here! Elder Pontes and I are working a little better together and we are putting our good ideas together so we can be a lot more effective. This week was very hot! We have a rule here in the mission that we can’t use short sleeves until the end of this month and I will admit that it has been a hard rule to keep. At times I am dying of heat and I want to change to short sleeve, but what keeps me using the long sleeve is that I need to be a good example to the other missionaries. 

Things in the work are going a little better. This week was rough because we had interviews with President on Thursday, a zone conference on Friday, and Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference! This Stake has more members than our stake in STG!! It was so cool to see all the faithful members there! We heard some great talks and they had a choir that was super good as well. Many of the members brought non-member friends and we were able to give a few BOMs to them.

This week we worked a lot with this family that has a son who is less-active. The mom, daughter and grandma are interested and the father left them a few months ago for a job in a different city very far from here and there isn´t any sign that he will return. We had a few lessons with them this week, but I want to talk about the lesson we had with them yesterday.

So we invited the whole family to the stake conference and they all agreed on going. We arrived at their home at 8 o’clock to walk with them to the bus stop. They weren´t awake and they ignored us. We ended up leaving without them. We then returned the same night (Sunday) to see why they didn’t come. On the way to their house Elder Pontes and I were talking about what we will say to them. Elder Pontes is a very nice guy and at times isn’t too bold because he wants to please the people we teach. He told me to be less bold this time so they won’t feel bad. I didn´t agree with this. We arrived there and we started the lesson. He told me to not be bold, so I let him drive the lesson. He asked why they didn’t go to church with us and they gave their excuses. Elder brushed them off as not a huge deal and shared a scripture. After he shared the scripture I felt a prompting that they need to hear the truth right now and I need to be bold or they will never progress.

I continued by explaining about the importance of going to church and our role as missionaries to help them follow Christ. I then asked them the questions, “What does God hope from you?” They responded correctly. I then asked them why they aren’t doing these things. They opened up a lot and they seemed to get a little emotional. I said a lot of things that I don’t remember, but I know the spirit was guiding me in every sentence and word. It was amazing! After they understood more of their purpose and ours. I felt very good about it and Elder Pontes did too.

This experience was a reminder to me that I shouldn’t ever resist on speaking or following the promptings of the Spirit. WE need to always be bold in a loving way. Exactly like Jesus was!

Another great opportunity was to give training with Elder Pontes in the Zone Conference. We talked about the convincing power of God. I was able to talk about the Holy Ghost and the role he plays in this convincing power. It went very well!! Also, it was super funny because we started off the training with a practice. No one knew what we planned before so it was all a surprise to them, but we called a companionship to be investigators and we said we would teach part of Lesson 1 to them clearly and simply. We started off normal, teaching them of our pai celestial, and then we started making questions ridiculous! Ha-ha, like “How old do you think Heavenly Father is?” and “Do you know the name of the higher priesthood?” Questions like this that are horrible. He-he! We did this to show them an example that we need to ask questions that make a difference and help them understand their salvation.

In all the week went very good! : )

Mom, our relationship will continue to grow. Don’t think that when I get home I will stop talking with you and Dad! I won’t make that mistake again! Amy will do great at BYU and things with Steph moving home will be good! I love our family so much!

Dad, everything is going much better! My comp. has 1 year and 3 months on the mission. Hudson will be Amanda & Shaye’s baby’s name? When will he be born? Thanks for the sports update! : )

I love you all very very much! Stay well! : )

Elder Hauck

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