16th Letter 6-24-13

Pictures: Ronnie Hicks' Daughter's Confirmation,  Elder Tonga and I

Hey Family,

This week was great! Tuesday we saw some great people! Lilia is still progressing, but it's getting to the point where she can't go much farther unless she gets baptized! Pray for her husband's heart to be softened! We are so close! Lamont is doing well, but his mom is still holding him back! Janette is doing well, she just is so attached to her little Baptist church group... We tell her she can bring all of her friends over with her! We will help them! Tuesday night was kinda crazy. We went to this house that used to have investigators.  We got there and the mother is way nice. We go inside and the Uncle (Moms brother) was way mad and pretty much told us to leave Haha. They kinda argued for awhile to have us stay, but it turned out they let us stay and the uncle actually started to like us.

Wednesday was tough! Eric keeps looking for anti stuff.  It's ridiculous the stuff he finds! The thing I got out of that lesson is that you can never argue over a strong spiritual testimony. Eric really feels like we are lost and he wants to convert us. So that lesson was kinda rough.

Thursday was a normal day. Met with a few awesome people. We watched the Doctrine and Covenants Restoration video and the investigator loved it! She almost cried during all the hard things Joseph Smith went through!

Friday we went to a service project. I don't know if any of you have heard of Project Cure, they get a bunch of donated medical supplies and sends them to 3rd world countries. We helped organize a lot of the donated shipments.

Saturday we saw Ronnie and actually got into her home, which has never happened! haha. Tony and his family are doing great and I think we might be able to teach them a lesson soon! They tell people there is something different about us.

Sunday I talked in sacrament meeting at the Copperleaf Ward. It was pretty different from our home ward. I don't think they thought my jokes were that funny... Haha. The broadcast was amazing!!! Did you guys go to it? I hope you did!

Brother Scudder is on date for the 9th of July. He really is working hard towards it! He's a good guy! One of his daughters even came to sacrament!

Mom, the camera works great! Thank you so much! I will most likely be sending some stuff home that I don't use. As of right now I don't need anything else. Thank you though! : ) Alma 32 is amazing and I think it really changed Sister Geoffroy. She answers questions in Sunday school and seems to have a lot more confidence! Sad to hear about Papa Joe. Tell him to get better quick for me, okay? Sounds like he is healing well though, which is awesome! Tell Grandma Hirschi Happy Birthday for me! Sounds like home is great as always! I show pictures of my girl waiting for me back at home, Emme, all the time! They think she is so adorable! : ) Crazy how many people know the Piano Guys!

Amanda, I gave one of your CDs to a girl in our ward. She loves you! She is adding you on Facebook so she can talk to you. Her name is Natalie. Thanks for the care package and of course the pictures of Emme! You are the best!

Jeff and Cam, Glad to hear you are representing our family well with your talks in sacrament meeting...Haha. Keep up the good work. Love you both!

Steph keep that kid away from you! Boys are bad news; ) Amy, same goes for you!

Dad, the new improvements on the house look amazing!! Great job Dad! Thank you, Dad. I'm just following the great examples I have had in life. You are by far the biggest example! Oh, and you do have some great kids! : )

I love all of you guys so much! I want all of you to look for missionary opportunities in your life! Be bold and full of courage!

Miss you all,

Elder Hauck

15th Letter 6-17-13

Dear Family,

Happy Fathers Day yesterday!!

This week has been a great week! I'm starting to think I'll never have a bad week!! Haha, now I probably will... An amazing experience happened to me this week. I know that we are prompted in what we teach, but I never saw it this clear. So Tuesday we taught the Geoffroy's. They are a recent convert part-member family. The Mother is preparing for the temple, but is feeling like her testimony is weak and that when she goes through the temple her testimony won't be strong enough. That morning before we even talked to them I was really thinking about what could help them. They have been taught every lesson so it was kinda a hard decision.  Patience came into my head and I found Alma 32: 41-43. I know for a surety that Heavenly Father prompted me to this scripture. During the lesson I had Sister Geoffroy read this scripture. Tears swelled into her eyes and the spirit was stronger than ever. After reading she turned to me and told me thank you. I responded softly and told her it wasn't me it was Heavenly Father who chose that scripture. It helped her so much and brought her so much peace. I was in shook after that, realizing how easily I can be prompted. The Holy Ghost really is my senior companion.

Another amazing thing that happened is we got Chris Scudder on date! We taught him Lesson One. When we got to Joseph Smith and the first vision he stopped us after and said, "Wow, I just got the goose bumps." We told him that it was the Spirit testifying it was true. That Joseph Smith really did see God and Christ! The spirit was so strong!! I have been so amazed with the power of the spirit. It really does guide us in our everyday life if we allow it to. I cant believe I'm blessed enough to have the Holy Ghost direct me in my life.

I don't know if I have told you about Tony Hahn. He is the kindest guy I know. So humble and loving. He is a recent convert and used to be the guy who goes around blessing the sick in the hospital. His family aren't members, but they love Elder Tonga and I. Next P-day we are going to an animal sanctuary with them. Crazy because when I first met them the family didn't want anything to do with us. Now they sit in on lessons and pray with us. Mary Hahn tells her husband there is something different about us from the other missionaries.  I pray she will come into the Church! Tony deserves it. He is one of the best men I know!

On Saturday we went to Janette's church for a Fathers Day brunch.. WOW!... Haha. It was crazy how they worship there! A lot of Hallelujahs and Amens. Mostly an all black congregation so Elder Tonga and our two ward missionaries were a little out of place. We gave out a lot of Mormon.org cards and they seemed to really like us and want us so come back. Fun experience. The kids all thought we were part of the CIA. Haha...

Everyone else is doing great! Lilia is having a hard time with her husband smoking again. She could use some prayers.

Dad, I hope you had a great Fathers Day! You and Mom are the greatest blessings in my life! You have been an amazing Father and have taught me so much! Thank you for being such a good example of how a loving father truly is. I think I have a pretty good idea how much Heavenly Fathers loves us just from having an amazing father like you! I wish I could Skype again on Fathers Day.. Kinda lame.

Service is really one of the best ways of missionary work! That story of you in the snow carrying the Christmas tree is really cool, Dad! That would be very tough for me to do! Haha. That guy that pulled us out of church might be really interested. He wants to read the BOM first and then we will meet with him.

Mom, I'm sure you spoiled Dad a ton on Fathers Day! He deserves it! He is one hard worker. He has blessed our whole family! I'm glad to hear the family is doing great and that Amy is doing amazing in dance! Alma 32 is an amazing chapter!  Your exactly right, Mom! These Recent converts and soon to be baptized investigators have to have soooo much faith! All that you have talked about in your letter will really help Sister Geoffroy. Thank you! : )

Amy, what the heck are you doing!? You are amazing! I can't believe you did so well at the dance comp! Haha. You keep up the good work and remember how blessed you have been! Something my coaches always told me was always be humble and teachable! I wanna tell you the same thing! I love you Amish and am proud of your accomplishments! Keep it up.

Your pictures are awesome! Thank you so much family! You are the best! I hope you all are doing well! Miss you guys like crazy!

I love you,

Elder Hauck

P.S. This is a picture of Elder Brown and I at the temple and the lady is Sister Drake. She made us a HUGE meal! So good!!

14th Letter 6-10-13

Qurido Bonita Familia,

I love you all so much! This week has been amazing! We had zone conference on Tuesday and I learned so much. They are implementing a new way of finding and serving people. It's called Just Serve. We have to get 10 hours of service a week and they are really working on establishing some big projects around the mission for us to go serve at. I think this will work amazingly! I absolutely love serving out here. I get to use all the great skills Dad taught me and I get to see the happiness in others. I also learned a lot from the AP's and President Maynes. This is the last time we meet with him, though. He leaves at the end of this month and the mission is splitting. So the Arapahoe Stake, where I serve, will be in the Colorado North Mission. Because they are opening a Fort Collins Mission. Pretty much I am going to serve in 3 different missions! :) -Haha, Crazy right??? President Toons will be our new mission president in the north. So I got some cool changes ahead of me.

Wednesday we all got to go to the temple. The Denver Temple is amazing! Sister Lindsay took us to Snooze, a pretty good breakfast place. I'm glad she sent you a picture, Mom. She is such a nice lady. Bishop is a great man as well. What did he say in the message he sent you, Mom? The members here are awesome and really love us. It seems the biggest thing going on in the stake is missionary work. Is this how it is all over the U.S.?

Thursday was a rough day, but ended out amazing. So we had no luck with any of the lessons we planned so we had a lot of extra time. We started tracking and found one person that let us pray for him and his family and we gave out a few service cards...after knocking over 30 homes, sweating our shirts to death.  For 2 hours we had no luck.  We then went to dinner at the McPhalls.  They said, "We have a neighbor that could really use some service. Her husband died and is really sad." We went over and met her and she loves us! We went back Friday and mowed her lawn, trimmed her bushes and left her with a lesson. She is letting us come back. Amazing how God blesses us when we do all that we can.

Friday we were with the AP of the North mission. Just so they could get to know all of us and see how we are doing. That was one busy day!

Sunday was crazy as well!! So during our sacrament meeting a man pulls us out of the meeting and said, "Someone outside wants to talk to you two." We went outside and a guy was parked in the middle of the parking lot standing in front of it. We went and talked to him and he said he wants the lessons and he wants to get baptized in the church. That was so amazing! I was so thankful. We will definitely meet with him this week. This whole week will be insane!!

Overall the week was amazing and it flew by. We got 5 new investigators so we will be working our tails off! :)

Nothing else has happened with the whole prank thing from last week. We see the punks sometimes and we just wave at them. I think they learned their lesson! :) Haha.  Elder Tonga just has to go to the court date. It isn't too big of a deal, President Maynes said, 'cause we didn't do anything wrong. Dad, that was exactly what I was thinking about! It would have been so hard to take all that persecution back in the day. What strong members they were! Crazy stories like these are what make a mission really exciting! Haha

Dad, I think that is the biggest influence Satan has on this world. What is real and what is fake. So many are blinded with seeing good as bad and bad as good. It is so sad to see how lost some people are and how easy they can change. They just need to recognize the light of Christ in their life.

Mom, wow...your talk made me cry in the library. I knew I should of printed it out and taken it home...Haha. You're amazing Mom. I love you! Tell the ward that I miss and love them!

I love you all so much and think of you a lot. Thank you for all the emails. Makes me happy. Sorry if I don't get back to you all every week. Always remember I love you!

Love, Elder Hauck

Surprise Text Message & Photo

We got this photo text message today from a sister in the ward in which Brad is serving. 

Such a fun surprise!

Breakfast with the Elders after a temple session :) Your son is an outstanding missionary and we're grateful to have him in our ward!
Jan Lindsey

13th Letter 6-3-13

Sweet Family,

WOW, this week was something else. First of all, thank you for the care package! I'm going to get the smaller copy of the "Line of authority" laminated, so I can have it with me everywhere! The new camera couldn't have showed up in better timing! I LOVED the little video on it! The cookies are amazing! I miss those things! I remember making those almost every Sunday! The letter from the whole fam was great too. Emme's little hand print, so cute!! Really, thank you so much! The pictures are beautiful!! I feel the love from you all everyday!

Okay, so Tuesday started out a pretty normal day. We saw Lilia and helped her with the yard and taught her a lesson. She is doing great still, by the way. We also saw Lamont and challenged him to sincerely pray about our church. We then walked to dinner and after a new members house. We waited for them, but they never came home so we started walking to another house kinda by the church. We turned the corner and there are these 3 teenage kids (all around 17 and 18) walking towards us on the other side of the street. They saw us and one of the kids came across the street and had a little smirk on his face while walking towards us. When he reached us he jumped on the ground in front of us like he was trying to trip us. Elder Tonga and I just walked around him and started laughing a little. We kept walking and the kid starts following us, saying stuff like, "Tell me about your special Bible!" The kid went on talking bad on our church, saying how we are worthless and that everyone hates us and feels bad for us. At this point the kid's older brother joined in while the third kid sat back shaking his head. These two brothers kept talking bad about us and our church and Elder Tonga let it get to him. He turned around and took off his backpack and told the kids to stop talking or fight him. The younger brother got really close to me where I thought he was going to swing at me. He backed up and kept mocking us saying a few choice words that started getting me a little aggravated!  Elder Tonga called them out while they just kept yelling bad words and throwing up gang signs. The older brother started walking towards Elder Tonga and was flinching every time Tonga would move. A neighbor came out and ran to break it up, even though there was no fight. His wife called the cops and they showed up. We waited for an hour or two while the cops decided what to do. They said it was pretty much a hate crime because they came after us only because we were Mormon. We told them we didn't want to make a huge deal about it, since it was just a joke that went too far. The stupid cops ended up giving the two brothers and Elder Tonga a small disorderly conduct ticket.  That ended the night on a high note..haha.

Another thing that happened was my old camera deleted all my pictures from the MTC and everything! That made me so sad. Sister Lindsay, the lady that comes with us to teach Lilia, told me there's a way to undelete things and I was able to do so today! What a relief! I bought a flash drive to keep them safe.

Crazy week huh?? 

Some good things that happened is that a lot of people saw us on the side of the street with the two kids hand cuffed so that got us a few more lessons and a lot of people felt bad that it happened to us. Eric is doing great and said he will read the BOM!!! We also got to help Ronnie Hicks with her roof. We saw many others this week and they all made up for the beginning of the week, haha.

Amy, that's cool you did a pageant! Don't be discouraged about not winning. You are the most beautiful, smart, true girl I know! Keep your head up in everything you do! I love you. Oh, and you and Emme stop growing up!

No!! Emme needs to stop growing! She cant be getting teeth already! Tell Shaye congrats on his promotion with the Piano Guys! There are a bunch of people that know the Piano Guys here! One of the girls in my ward has Amanda's song on her ipod! The Piano Guys are popular! Its pretty sweet my bro-in-law and sister have something to do with them!

Mom, the camera and the great video are perfect! Thank you so much! You're beautiful! I'm sure you are loving the summer! I want you to relax this summer! Don't work too hard. You need a little rest! Funny about Shaye's phone..haha, sorry it got wet in the pool! I'm sure your testimony touched the hearts of many, Mom! You have a very powerful testimony! It's great to hear Chris is doing great in your Sunday School class! You are right. He will be a great missionary!

Stephna, is this Jordan guy really that great? I hope he treats you well. You deserve the best. You seem very happy in the pictures and from what the family says it sounds like you love him and he makes you happy! This is hard to say...but..if you want to marry him while I'm gone I'll be okay with it. I love you Steph!

Dad, do you mean that they might get married??? Nooooooooooo ;) I'm sure he is great. I do talk to Kurtis quite a bit! He is doing awesome! Dad, thank you for that great story! I never knew that happened! That is an amazing story of Hope and Faith! What strong men! There are many people here that don't see the true happiness of this life. Sharing the Plan of Happiness is by far one of the greatest messages we share. The light in their heart opens when they realize God has a plan for them and they are part of it. So many people don't think they matter to Heavenly Father. Helping these great people realize that God does love them brings so much happiness into my soul! I can feel my prayers getting stronger and it's quite amazing. Something I really learned this week from all the lessons and people we met is that even in the darkest and loneliest times in our lives we still have someone. Heavenly Father will always be there for us.

I love all of you so much and think about you guys a lot!

-Elder Hauck