Dear Family,
I am so glad that I got to talk to all you in the airport. A nice gentlemen came up to me when I was about to use the pay phone and let me use his cell phone. I'm glad I get to serve the Lord for this time after all that He has blessed me with. I hope I continue to grow in faith and maturity while I'm out here. So the areas that I am in are close to Aurora. Tuscany and Copperleaf are the 2 areas Elder Tonga and I cover. Elder Tonga is awesome and is helping me get used to teaching people. He is from West valley, Utah. He had a car before the transfer, but they took it away. We have to walk a huge area. The members sometimes give us rides though, which is way nice. Especially when it was snowing and freezing outside. We stay in the stake president's (Brother Todd) home which is massive. We get the whole downstairs to ourselves. A kitchen, table, couches, and twin beds that are way comfy. It's seriously too nice. The members here are awesome too. We have a member make dinner for us every night. I met one guy that trained uncle Court, his name is Brother Lund. He went to Germany on his mission and freaked out when I told him Court is my uncle. Ask Court about him.
About Portuguese, a ton of the members speak Portuguese so I get to practice with them. I also get a extra hour a day to study the language, which I love. I have forgotten some of the stuff, but I knew it would happen. I hope I don't lose it all though. I just need to use it as much as possible! That's a great idea Dad. One of the Elders from my district is at the area just next to ours so we see them a lot and talk to each other in Portuguese.
I hear the house is looking amazing! I'm excited to see pictures! Thanks for getting all my stuff put away safe and sound. haha
Conference was awesome! I have never gotten that much out of them before this one.. haha, kinda sad, but I loved the talks! I went in having many questions and they answered all of them. They are amazing men of God. I felt the same way while listening to the speakers at both GC and talks at the MTC. It's amazing how all this changes someone. I realize now how there is so much worthless stuff in the world today and a lot of the stuff I left behind are the things I don't need anymore, as far as worldly things. They just cloud your focus! My mind has never been so clear since serving the Lord. The Holy Ghost really does teach you all things. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the good Godly things of life is all that matter! The field is definitely different from the MTC. I feel the MTC really prepared me for teaching the gospel and many other great things, but the learning is in the field, through experience. Thanks for all your great information Dad.
Mom, thanks for getting me all those emails. I love you so much. I love this area that I'm in, and the people here are great. Thank you for your strong testimony Mom. You and Dad are strong parents that love the Lord with all your heart. You both have raised us perfectly and are going to be truly blessed in Heaven. Sometimes I don't understand why I have been so blessed. I don't deserve all of this. My family is perfect, my mission is amazing, my friends love and support me. Heavenly Father lives and loves me!
Some cool experiences this week:
So the first lesson was Lilia, a Hispanic Catholic. Tonga told me it was our first time meeting her. He tells me to take the lead and to introduce ourselves. Lilia answers the door and after I explain who we are she asked how old we are. She then says, "You thing you 19 year olds can teach me!!??" she continued yelling at us and I was kinda scared..haha. Then Lilia started laughing and let us in and I was confused. Turned out she has been an investigator for awhile and it was all a prank. We taught her a great lesson on the Word of Wisdom. She says she is a Cath-Mormon.. haha
We then taught Lemont, who is on date for Baptism. We brought him to church also. We ran into a Catholic basher on Thursday, which was pretty crazy. Some of the stuff she said about Joseph Smith and Brigham Young just made me sick. That was kinda a bad day in all. Later that night we went to the Ecrons, a less active fam with a non member son. I guess his friend showed him a video on Youtube that someone put up about the SLC temple and what goes on in there. This horrible man videotaped the whole endowment and posted it on youtube! This 18 year old guy we were teaching was so confused about it all, it was so sad! I cant believe someone would do that! It makes me sick! Hopefully they can take that video off and find this guy! So Thursday was a bad day, the other days went great though!
So on Saturday Elder Tonga wanted to do another prank. I thought we were just tracking so he told me to take the lead on this house. We go up and introduce ourselves, she lets us in. She tells us her husband is a atheist, so we just taught her for a bit. She really liked our lesson and i was spilling my heart to her. I told her about the first vision, and the restoration, gave her a BOM and did a soft commitment to baptism. I was so pumped and thought I was doing so great. The husband comes down and is shaking his head and kinda mad. Elder Tonga asks to use the bathroom. I was like "What are you thinking?" you don't use a new person's bathroom! I got her number and address, but it turned out they were members already... way lame! haha
I love you all so much and miss you a lot. I show some of the close families we teach pictures of you and they think you are all beautiful. They remind me of the greatest blessing Heavenly Father has given me, my family. My family means everything to me!:) I love you all sooo much. Keep me updated with cool new things.
-Elder Hauck
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