87th Letter 11-17-14

Photos: 1-Our crew. 2-The baby birds nesting in our kitchen.

 Dear Family,

All right, so this e-mail will be short, so I will say sorry right now....Nada muito legal.

So as you know transfers where this week and it all went pretty smoothly. Transfers are always a bit nerve racking, because if something goes wrong it is the Zone Leaders fault usually or at least we take the blame…ha-ha! But thank goodness it went well! In our Zone we received a lot of new elders. We still need to get to know them and everything, and tomorrow we will have our Zone meeting so we will get to meet all the new guys in the Zone. 

This week we traveled almost all week because of the Mission Council in Santa Maria. All the ZL´s have to travel to SM, which is an 8-hour trip on bus. But the Council went very well and we shared the subject of doing the Prayer Approach, an approach that worked very well in the U.S.  So I prayed and thought a lot about it and felt like we should apply it in our mission as well. President Parrela loves the idea and looks like he will study it a little more and apply it in the mission here soon. I am super excited for it! 

After the Council we had some extra time so I was able to go with Elder Silveira and visit Sara, a recent convert that was baptized in Santa Marta. She is doing awesome. She is staying active in the church and trying to be a missionary too! I was glad I was able to surprise her with a visit! :) 

A cool/crazy thing that happens when we have mission council is that all the ZLs stay in Casa Grande, which is a big house with a bunch of beds. So we slept there 2 nights and of course we ordered pizza and ate until we were knocked out with sleep…ha-ha!  So you guys can know we did this both nights...I think I gained my weight back that I lost. ;) Ha-ha!

When we returned home we got to work and were able to have some great lessons. This week will be crazy too because we will have a new chapel inaugurated (dedicated) here and we have to organize with the bishop and stake president, so it will be a crazy busy week!

Mom, so the weather is warming up and that means the LBS will start to drop... ;(  I am super excited for Amanda and the new baby! I will be an uncle of two!! Thanksgiving here isn´t too big. I think the only holidays they really celebrate here are Christmas and New Years, along with the other Brazilian celebrations. It will be cool to hear of the changes Amy will make in the next few months as she prepares to serve a mission! She is going to do awesome!

Dad, yes, a member here in the mission makes the scripture covers for missionaries. They are super cool! :) So on P-day we usually clean the house and sometimes play basketball, volleyball or goal to goal, which is like soccer but without contact. The missionaries here in a Brazil can´t play soccer. It is a rule. Here in Uruguaiana, there aren’t many cool things to visit…ha-ha! The missionaries in the Zone are doing very well. Of course there are some problems, but nothing serious. To tell you the truth about the sisters we have here, they aren´t a distraction. They are usually very obedient and respectful but some of them bring some drama to the mission, ha-ha! I will finish the mission strong! No regrets, right?!

Keep Millie alive until I get home!! Thanks for the sports update! :)

I love all of you so very much! :)

Elder Hauck

86th Letter 11-10-14

Photos: My new scripture case!

 Maravilhas!

So the newest news is that I will stay here in Uruguaiana with Elder Silveira as Zone Leaders. I am excited to stay here and see some more miracles happen! This city is very blessed and in the zone we are doing super good and are leading in baptism in the mission! Things are going great!

So this week we taught a lot more lessons than usual! We also were blessed with 4 new investigators that seem promising! One new investigator is from a part member family and he was in the Spirtism Church, but is seeing some lies there so he decided to accept the lessons. His wife was very happy with this decision! We taught him a little about the resurrection, because he believed in reincarnation.  We also taught the Restoration. He is liking the lessons a lot and even went to the ward activity that we planned! :) We need to get him married to his wife and baptized so they can get to the temple!

If you all remember that one young family that we are teaching…the lady that stopped us in the street about 4 weeks ago. They are doing super good! The lessons we have with them are incredible! They have awesome questions and are feeling the spirit very strong. Actually after our last lesson with them we asked them how they felt during our visits and they both explained how they feel at peace and happy. We testified to them that it was Heavenly Father manifesting the truth by the Holy Ghost. They accepted that manifestation. :) Saturday they went to the ward activity and loved every second! They have 2 kids and they loved it too! Sunday they came to sacrament meeting and loved that as well! Went perfect with it being the Primary program and they only talked about eternal families! What a great blessing! So Tiago and Patricia are looking super solid and we are growing a great love for them!

Carlos is a very sad man that is suffering with many problems. He has told us many times that he wants to remove his life himself. During our lessons he cries a lot and we try our best to help him out and feel the love of God. He went to the ward activity and I think it helped him a lot. The members treated him well!

Well, there is a little of what happened this past week here in Brazil! We are ready and faithful for the future success. I hope you all are doing awesome! 

Mom, I am glad you all heard of the great news about Amy! She will be a great missionary! Sounds like the spirit of missionary work is strong there as well! :) Also, sounds like Emme´s Birthday went awesome! I hope you told her Happy Birthday from Uncle Brad!:) I love the pictures! 

Dad, I would like a copy of your talk if that is possible. Ha-ha-ha, what a good story about Uncle Todd! I am sad to hear about the Utes losing. And dad I am sure your talk went awesome!

I love you all!!

Elder Hauck

85th Letter 11-3-14

Photos: 1: Our LMA bought us Xis! 

2: Us and our LMA ready to baptize 3: Baptism

Yay!

A great week here in the south! We had two baptisms and in the ward, in total, we had 4 baptisms!! It went super good! We had a good show up of the ward members and many non-members were there as well! Luisa and Leticia are two awesome young women! They are already looking for friends that we can teach. They always say, “Elder, she/he is 10 so she/he can be baptized!! Lets baptize him/her!!” It is super cute and of course the more people we teach and baptisms we receive the better! :)

This week we taught a good amount of people. It is awesome seeing the work move along. I love looking back at the numbers we had, or just remembering how just 4 weeks ago we were struggling with the work and now we are doing well. I know the work will continue moving along how the Lord wants it to. The Lord is truly full of mercy!!

This week I have been using part of my studies and extra time studying the Atonement. The more I study and learn the more I realize how little I know. Ha-ha, but I finally understand some key sacred principles of the Atonement, which have really moved my look on things, and desires. From reading and rereading Alma 34 I understand a lot more. Imagine if we didn´t have the Book of Mormon to restore the truth that was lost. The Book of Mormon is so awesome!

This week we talked with a man named Igor. His son is a member, and he wants to learn more and be baptized. He is an awesome guy and has a lot of desire to move his life around. We taught a great lesson to him and invited him to be baptized, as we always do the first visit, and he said yes!

Yesterday we taught the elect family again! Patricia and Tiago. They are so awesome! We taught them the Plan of Salvation today and they asked great questions! The spirit was so strong there as we taught them about how their family can be eternal! I feel very good about them and feel like they are learning great and fast! I am super excited for them. They seem to already love us after the 2nd visit!! :) What great blessings!!

So today we will have the Zone p-day and we will eat a lot of ice cream!! Elder Silveira and I bought 20 liters of ice cream and a bunch of fruit!! :) We will play basketball, volleyball, and ping-pong with the zone!

All right....so now for some news that could be a little upsetting. So I talked with President Parrela and I will be going home in March instead of January. But everything is for a reason so I am excited with the extended time! :)

Mom, so Halloween doesn´t really exist here. Ha-ha! I think the stake had an activity, but I think it is considered an American holiday. But we did have the Day of The Dead. Sunday we went to the cemetery and handed out pamphlets of the Plan of Salvation and explained a little about what we believe. That is awesome about Mason Paxman´s family going to our ward now! Our ward is celestial! Mom, I want you to know you have done everything that our Heavenly Father desired of you raising us children in LOVE, CHARITY and in the true and everlasting gospel! 

Dad, so the official release date is March 10th. The extra time is an answer to my prayers. I feel a lot more confident now in reaching my personal goals. The work is going great in the Zone! We had 7 baptisms this week in the zone! My companion and I are doing well…I am learning a lot of patience. He talks a ton, so I just wait for my turn and will talk when he lets me. Ha-ha!

I love you all so so much!

Elder Hauck

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