Dear Family,
This week was a pretty good week. Had my birthday, taught some good lessons with my companion, and improved in the language a little more. First, thank you all for the birthday wishes. I really appreciate it! I feel of your love while I am here and it really helps motivate me! I hope all of you had a good week this past week. This week we worked a lot with less active members. We have like 100 members in our branch, but only 40 are active. Most the less active members are like investigators and know very little about the church.
Monday, after emailing and getting our food we went to the chapel and played basketball on the court behind the building. That was very nice and took a lot of stress away! We then taught Raul for the last time because he has to move to Urigiena for his military service. He is a super cool guy and said he would find the missionaries there and talk more with them. We then had family night with Lazero and his family. It went super well until we got attacked by a herd of mosquitoes.
Tuesday, today was a super good day. The elders in the house surprised me and sang to me and after district meeting the sisters surprised me with cake and a present! They sang to me there as well! These missionaries here are awesome! The present was a little Rio Grande de Sol key chain. We then had lunch and the rest the day went pretty normal, which was good cause I don't like much attention. We saw a few less actives and one investigator.
Wednesday, had studies and lunch and spent the rest the day teaching people. We had some luck but our investigator decided she doesn't want to be baptized yet. That was kind of a downer. We saw some good people though and maybe made a little progress with the less-active members.
Thursday, had lunch with one of the counselors to President Parrela. The sisters from São Borja were there as well and we had some good food. We met a new less-active member who is actually the Branch President's brother. Everyone here is related in some way. I think we have a total of 3 families in the whole São Borja area -haha. We taught Raul`s sister and she is very interested, she used to have a baptismal date, but something fell through. She wants to be baptized still and she has been doing what we have been telling her to do, like reading and praying.
Friday, we had weekly planning and then worked really hard today. We saw five less-actives and had a member present lesson with Jennifer. The lessons all went super well and that night Luscio, a member, took us to meet 2 other less-active families. Luscio is a great member and knows how to do member missionary work. We need more like him! We also taught Irma Rosa who is super cool! She has had a lot of spiritual experiences in her life that are quite amazing! She has a strong testimony, but something is keeping her from coming to church…
Saturday, we had another hard working day and saw a bunch of less-active members to invite them to church. We got to give an elderly lady a blessing and that was cool to do in Portuguese. Today it rained a ton and I love the rain! I get soaked a lot of the time, but it feels refreshing... haha! That night we had family night with Frenando and Michele and it went well. We had some good food after, but I think I got food poisoning from it because the next day was not good.
Sunday, everything was normal until the middle of church when I threw-up 2 times...stomach started hurting really bad and I became super tired. A lot of the members showed a lot of love for me. The whole day we stayed home, because every time I would stand up I would get dizzy and my stomach would kill. It was a pretty rough day. Members stopped by to see how I was doing, which was very nice of them, but I was out of it so I didn't see any of them. After a few hours it started to get a little better. That night I got a blessing and the sickness went away! It was the first time in my life where I needed to ask for a blessing of health and now I know how powerful they really are! I was very scared there for awhile because Sister Parrela and the Elders were talking about me maybe having to go to the hospital. I am good now though. I really have to be careful here with what I eat. Rough way to end the week, but I think this week will be better.
Mom, don't worry about my health here too much. I wish I could have received a birthday kiss and hug from you as well Mommy! Kind of feels weird not being a teen any more. I remember when I was a immature teenager -haha. Thank you so much for the prayers Mom and family! I love all of you so much. The Gospel Doctrine class is the same here and I am learning a lot of cool stuff! The goal you have of Love, Understanding and Championing each other is awesome, Mom! : ) I haven´t received the birthday package yet, but hopefully I will tomorrow. Tell everyone thanks for the birthday wishes.
Dad, you are right, as each day passes I get a little more comfortable and confident in myself and the area. It is definitely harder here than it was in Denver, but I know this challenge is for me. Thank you for telling me about the Elder in South Africa. I think of missions there a lot when I think I have it rough here. The house we live in is actually pretty nice! I will have to take some pictures and send them next week! All 5 elders are super cool and we all get along. Routine is pretty much the same as in Denver, but no dinner.. : ( Haha, you know how much I love food! My companion and I are getting along better as well! Everything is getting better.
I love all of you so very much! Keep doing great things in the U.S. and spreading the love to all!
Love,
Elder Hauck
No comments:
Post a Comment