101st Letter 3-2-15

Photos: 1-Samuel & Ana’s baptism.  2-The 2-year mark party!!

Mas bah... barbaridade tchê,

The time is coming to an end. I can´t even keep tract of the minutes! I am sad that I have to leave Brazil and the mission, but I know I need to move on to the next stage of my life. It will be a good change. Just nobody laugh at my English when I get home. : )

So this past week we had 2 great baptisms! Ana and Samuel were both baptized and confirmed. I was able to confirm Samuel and Elder Longo was able to baptize Ana. It was a very spiritual meeting for the baptism and the following day in Sacrament meeting. I am super grateful for the work we are able to be a part of here in Santa Rosa. The members here are awesome!

We spent most of the week preparing these two people for the baptism and almost everything ran smoothly. I am noticing a lot more things in my life that will change soon. Seems like the Lord is opening my perspective a little more to prepare me for the real world after this mission. I am so grateful for Him and for his mercy. I truly feel Him changing me and preparing me for the smallest of things until the greatest of things. I am blessed to been able to see this change in many other people as well…investigators, less active members, friends, missionaries, and specifically family members. The Atonement really is infinite and eternal.

So this last week on February 27^th when I was coming home I thought a lot about the mission and the time I have had here in the service of God. The spirit touched me very strongly and I almost cried with excitement that I was able to finish the work of a whole 2-years to my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I was able to celebrate with the elders here in our house, but they don´t quite understand yet. They have a lot of time left…ha-ha! I hope I am able to help them out by knowing how we need to finish up a mission. Working hard and loving the people everyday is the secret of a good mission!

Shortly I will be arriving home and I will see many of you again. I want you all to know how excited I am to see you and how much I love you! The mission has changed my life and I will forever be a witness of Jesus Christ, His work and His glory! I want you to know that I am here for you for anything you need. 

Mom, I love you soo much Mom! Thank you for the letter. 

Dad, thank you so much for the letter…it really touched me. I love you Dad!

I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ and that His work is in acting, we need to be apart of it!

I love all of you!

Until next week,

Elder Bradley Jason Hauck

100th Letter 2-23-15

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Picture: Us smashed in a bug before lunch on Sunday

Dear Awesome Family,

Another awesome week of work here in Santa Rosa. We have two baptisms that will happen this Saturday, which will be awesome. And I am just trying to stay focused on the work...I am thinking a lot about home and preparing for what lays ahead. It´s going to be an exciting change.

It’s crazy that, here in a few days, I will accomplish my 2-year mark as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. What a blessing I have to serve the whole two years and a little extra. I have seen many changes happening in myself right now that I don´t think could have happened without being on the mission. I am being very blessed for living the gospel and I know I will continue to be blessed. 

This week we had many experiences that sparked up the work a little. We found new investigators and the ones that we have been praying a lot for have progressed. Ana and Samuel are two of them that will be baptized on the 28^th and we also have another family incomplete that is super close to baptism. We will pass by their house again tonight and challenge them for baptism on March 7^th. 

This week we also got to help prepare some paper work for the marriage of Ludwig and Tatiani that will be married on March 13^th and baptized shortly after. We have found a lot of work here in Santa Rosa. I am so grateful that I was blessed with a great area to die in (die= finish the mission).

So I think that this will be my second to last email that I will send out. I have so many things that I want to share with you that have changed my life and strengthened my testimony. These experiences and testimony builders have showed me and given me the certainty that God lives and the Jesus is his only begotten Son that he was sent to die for us and through him we can have faith, repent and gain eternal life!

I love all of you so very much! Paz seja convosco! 

Mom, I will remember that girls have cuties when I get home. : ) Here it is in the 90´s and it is very rainy now. Sounds like a bunch of new things are happening there. Good to hear…But what did Shaye do with his old Porsche?? I love you Mom! I will send some pictures, but use whatever picture you would like to use for the newspaper. : )

Dad, crazy to hear about the storms there in the US. In São Paulo is where the main problem with the drought is happening here in Brazil. They are getting cut to only be able to use the amount of two days of for an entire week. Where we are at in our mission we have a ton of water from the river Uruguay so we aren´t suffering. Good to hear Millie lasted the two years. I am sure she will remember B-rad 2.0. :) Ha-ha! I love you Dad!

Elder Hauck

99th Letter 2-16-15

Dear Fam,

Sorry they don’t celebrate Valentines Day here, but Carnival is arriving. Ha-ha!

Well, it’s been another speedy week that was full of great adventures. We are finding a lot of work here in Santa Rosa and we are growing in our faith. The members here are very special and are helping a lot in the work. I think this is one of the areas that we get the most lessons with members that I have already passed through. The work with members is the best work. It seems like the wards or branches that haven´t figured out how to work with the missionaries are falling behind in the hastening of the work.

This week we went on a lot of splits. One of the days Elder Hayes (American) came with me to my area and the other two days Elder De Melo (Brazilian) came to my area as well. Elder Longo (DL) wanted to do all the splits this week. It went well and it was nice to take ahold of the work a little more. 

This week we taught a lot and found 12 new investigators, which includes 3 families! What a blessing! We are working with Ana and Samuel so they can get baptized on the 28^th and then Ludwig and Tatiana will get married and be baptized on the 7^th of March. So we have a lot of work to keep us busy. I don’t have too many worries about getting trunky…I think this is something that runs in the family. We don’t have this weakness.

One thing that happened which was cool was our lesson with Ludwig and Tatiana. We shared a lesson about the Book of Mormon and how God works through plain and simple things. The family liked the message a lot and Ludwig bore his testimony of how he came to recognize God in his life. He understands that we don’t need to be scared in this life because there is a life after death.  He said we can be sad about this life, but we shouldn´t be scared. His testimony was very strong and really touched me. He is a great man!

Mom, are you counting the days until I get home? Ha-ha! I am super excited to come home! But I will miss the people here…and I will miss the mission life. I am reading a book the President Parrela sent us about maintaining the Sprit after the mission. It is helping me and will help me a lot after I get home. I like how you explained coming home, Mom. I do need to come home. My mission will be there after my mission here is done. And mom don´t worry I will be patient with you guys. You will have to be patient with my English. Ha-ha! Thank you for the information about our family, Mom. You are awesome! 

Dad, my companion and I were having some problems but we resolved the problems. Now we are doing great! I am glad the ward is doing so well. I am excited to see everyone there! Ya, I think I will stay in St. George until August. We will see how everything goes. I have so many stories to tell you guys! It’s awesome to hear about Kurtis´ homecoming. Let’s go up to it!

I love all of you so much! Only 3 weeks and I will give you all a big hug! : ) Ha-ha!

Love,

Elder Hauck

98th Letter 2-9-15

Photos: 1-The Mission Tour 2-My posterity! My sons had sons!!

Mucho bueno,

The time is falling away from me! Many people told me the time would pass by super fast at the end of the mission, but I didn´t imagine it this fast!

The work is going very well and Elder Longo and I are working well together. The Ward is awesome here and I like the members a lot. I was able to give a talk in sacrament meeting about teaching others by our example. Many members thanked me for the talk afterwards. The Bishop and Stake President are men super spiritual and love others. Working with them is super good. 

This week we had my last mission tour. The 1^st counselor of the presiding 70 was there to give us a training. The training was purely about following the spirit and he answered any questions that we had. Some things were a little confusing but overall I think everyone was edified...I learned a lot of new things so it was awesome! 

It is kind of scary. I am getting emails from the mission office with my travel plans, when I will have my departing interview and stuff...ha-ha! I am excited to come home! : )

Something exciting that President Parrela is doing for us Americans that stayed longer on the mission, he will let us go to the temple in Porto Alegre! I think we may have time to even go inside and everything! : ) I am even more excited now. It has been more than a year with out seeing the temple.

But not too much new is going on. We are working hard and planning some baptism for the next weeks. : )

Mom, Santa Rosa is awesome and my companion is a good guy! Ha-ha! Amanda and Amy can sing whatever they would like to. I like a lot of hymns. I love the hymn “The Merviloso Morning” that talks about the first vision. I will look in the hymnbook. I don’t remember the name in English...ha-ha!

Mom I will love what ever you do for the party and what not. I may have been picky before the mission, but now I am not at all. I trust your opinion! : ) The chicken roll-ups would be one meal I’d like to eat when I get home. : ) And I am good with whatever day going to the temple with Amy. But she doesn´t need to wait for me. She should go right now. It will help her prepare for the mission! The new bishopric sounds super cool! Ha-ha! Brother Little is awesome! I want to take biology at Dixie in the summer. I love the pictures! : )

Dad, so gaucho means the people here in the south. Like the people in whole. Ha-ha! I will think about what I will do with a car this week.  As mininas não querem um Gaúcho como eu. Te amo pai! 

I love all of you so very much!

Elder Hauck

97th Letter 2-2-15

Photo: Fernanda’s Baptism

Hello From Santa Rosa (Holy Rose),

Amy, congrats on the call! Mexico will be an awesome mission. I think we will be able to communicate with the Portuguese that I learned which has a Spanish twist. I have talked to people that speak Spanish and I could understand them, but they couldn´t understand me too well. Ha-ha--Amish será uma missionaria poderosa!

So the new area is super cool. If you have time look it up on the Internet. It is a beautiful city. There are almost only decedents from Germany and Italy so the Portuguese they speak is a little different. A lot of people speak German here too, so maybe I can learn a little German while I am here. The members here are very loving and help a lot in the work. When I first got here I told some members that I was from Germany and they got very excited. But when I told them that I was just a normal American their excitement left quickly....ha-ha.

My comp is Elder Longo and is from São Paulo. The better part of my companions were from São Paulo. I usually get along well with them and so far Elder Longo and I are getting along great and working great! President Parrela called me and told me that I am to train him as the distract leader. That I can´t leave the mission until Elder Longa knows everything that I know. So I am excited to help out Elder Longo and the mission in anyway I can before I leave. President Parrela is a great man.

So with us both be new in the area that work was pretty slow this week. We spent most of the time finding our away around and meeting members. We were blessed with a baptism of a young woman that is super awesome! From the look of things we have a lot of baptisms coming up. :) Ha-ha! I am so thankful for everything the Lord has given me in my life. The mission has been awesome, yes difficult at times, but the difficult times have helped me recognize blesses and be humble…I love serving the Lord, not just because we need to, but because it brings me joy!

I love all of you so very much!!!

Mom, you are silly with teasing me about Amy's mission call and the Super Bowl! I love the pictures that you sent me! Looks like the weekend went super well! : ) The Christmas and birthday package still hasn´t gotten here.

Dad, I am excited to share with Amy the things that I have learned out here in the field. The president wants to give time for other zone leaders to be trained because a ton of elders will be going home in the next 2 transfers. And the Super bowl??? Who won?

I love you both,

Elder Hauck

96th Letter 1-26-15

Photos: Two awesome families in Uruguaiana.

My Cute Family,

Wow...Mais seis semanas...Another great and busy week with some sad news as well. Elder Silveira and I had a great week of work and at the end of the week we got the information for transfers and guess what? We both will be transferred. ;(

I will be going to Santa Rosa as a junior to the District Leader and Elder Silveira will go to Cruz Alta. I was surprised with the information because Elder Silveira has more time here than me and I thought for sure he would be transferred and I would stay here to finish up my last transfer, but President lowered almost all the Zone Leaders this transfer. But I am excited to visit one more area and finish up my work here in Brazil. I am excited to learn more as a junior companion. It will be great for me. I have 6 more weeks of Hard Hard work! :)

I hope you are all doing awesome! I miss you all a lot and am super excited to see all of you! The end of the mission gives you a strange feeling. I feel nervous and a little sad, but I just keep reminding myself that my work will never be done...I like to think of it as a long transfer to another area...There in the US! :) I am so excited!

This week we had a great time with Alex and his family. Him and his wife will get married at the end of this week and he will be baptized shortly after. I am sad that I will miss his baptism, but all will be well! Tiago and Patricia made us lunch yesterday and they said their goodbyes to us. Amanda is talking with Patricia on Facebook. She loves you Amanda. It was very sad saying goodbye to our recent converts and the members. Some cried and that just puts a dagger in your heart when you see that. What a great love I have grown for these loving people! I will miss them...

So I got my flight plans and I will be flying a lot! I will arrive in STG March 11^th at 9:45PM...I hope to see all of you there at the airport! :)

Mom, some very exciting things are coming up at home! I am super excited for Amy to get her mission call! Send me the video of her opening it. :) I think she will come to Brazil! For when I fly into STG you can invite whomever! It will be a party!! The plans for family trips sound great Mom! What time is our sacrament meeting at? Please invite the leaders in the church that have helped me out a ton, like Ray Cox, Brother Carlson, Bishop, Sister Ford, Brothers Vance & Brad Bowler, and anyone else! You know how I am Mom…I am fine with anything! :) Just being with you and the family will be awesome alone!

Dad, so you look more handsome without the beard I hear. Ha-ha!  Janu-hairy isn´t your cup of peas! Dad, what do you think about us making a chorrascoria when I get home? This week got pretty hot. Yesterday was scorching hot! Let me know who is called as the new Bishop! I will miss Bishop Denos. He helped me a ton!

I love all of you guys! Have an awesome week!

Elder Hauck

95th Letter 1-19-15

Pictures: 1 & 2 - Our chorrasco!! :) This is the best family in the ward!! 

2 - I bought a new jersey here in Brazil! :)

Família Haucky e amigos,

Wow, another good week with some new successes! Elder Silveira and I are stepping up the game and working even harder than before. We finally found 6 new investigators that look promising! The weather here is crazy, with a rain storm one minute and a humidity/heat attack the next...At times it tries to hold back the work, but we aren´t having it! 

We had a great family night this week with a family that aren´t all members and it went very well. We had 2 of the daughters on date, but one didn´t go to church so we are thinking about moving the date back to baptize them together. We found 3 young men earlier in the week that like the message and the church. The missionaries already visited them, but stopped visiting them for some reason. We will work with them and see if their mom will let them get baptized.

We had an awesome lesson with Ruth, where we were able to resolve a lot of doubts that she had. She is doing much better now and went to church Sunday! We had a great frequency at church Sunday with 93 people attending! It is good because last week it was only 60. So the members are coming back! :) Ha-ha!

This week the assistants to the mission president came and did a split with Elder Silveira and me. It was good to be ale to work with Elder Heans for a day. We taught a bunch of people this day, because Elder Silveira was in our area too, with the other AP. 

We had a lesson with Alex, who is the husband of a member. We marked their wedding and his baptism date for Jan. 31! We taught with the bishop and his counselor, so the lesson went super good! A lot of things in the work are improving! I like this ward a lot! We started a new thing as well. Every third Sunday of the month, which is missionary work Sunday, we have a lunch at the church with all the recent converts, investigators, less-actives and ward missionaries. We did it for the first time yesterday and it went well!

The feelings I am getting are very strange. I am dreaming a lot about home. Ha-ha

Mom, I am excited to hear where Amy will serve! Sounds like you are busy busy! You are a super Mom! Thank you for the pictures, she is very pretty! :) I love you Mom!!

Dad, do you know what time I will arrive there in St. George? And dad you are exactly right about the end of the mission. I feel like I am staying focused on the work and everything, but of course I am thinking about home and what will happen when I get home. I am pondering a lot about the changes I have made and how I can keep these changes. I think I will take a picture of my goals and send them to you. I love you Dad!

I love you all!

Elder Hauck

94th Letter 1-12-15

Hey Family,

I had a great birthday and I felt of the love you all have for me! Thanks for all the great emails! :)

For my birthday we had a family night with some of our recent converts and they bought me a cake! Then we bought pizza with the elders in our apartment!  Also, our district here made a cake and sang to me after out district meeting! My birthday went awesome! :)

The work is going all right. A majority of the city is still pretty dead and we aren´t finding too many new investigators, but I think this week things will liven up a bit. This past week we had an awesome family night where we had questions to be answered and if you were wrong you got pied in the face! Ha-ha! I got to pie some people but I also got pied in the face 2 times. Ha-ha!

I am sorry this email will be short, but know that everything is going great! 

Mom, Sounds like you are teaching some great things to the members there in Gospel Doctrine class! We use the new Bible videos here to teach all the time, they are very powerful! Your question asking who, beside Jesus, I’d like to meet from the New Testament is a very good question. I think I would like to meet John the Baptist because he was the prophet who prepared many things for the Lord. I’d also like to meet John the beloved because he may have had the best relationship with the Savior of all the apostles. Emme is such a cutie!! :)

Dad, I would like a copy of your talk you gave last Sunday about Joseph Smith and the Godhead!

I love all of you guys so very much!

Elder Hauck

93rd Letter 1-5-15

Photos: 1-At Church, 2-Teaching Investigators, 3-Four Missionaries.

Dear Awesome Family,

So the New Year is here and it gave me some more energy to finish the mission fighting hard! The fireworks were awesome here and us and some of the other elders in the zone got together to celebrate. It went great!

The New Year is awesome because we get to start new goals and plans! This year is going to be a great year! whoohooo 2015!! 2014 was a great year and I will always remember it is at the one whole year that I served the Lord with my whole heart might mind and strength on the mission! 

I hope all of you had a great New Years Day and that you all can fulfill your goals and plans! This week was a little slow with the holidays, but we did get to work after the new years day. Some people were even more kind to us for the first few days, but that shortly burnt out... I think they made some new years resolution that ended a little early for them. Ha-ha! But that is all right! Ha-ha!

For New Years our ward mission leader and us missionaries made cookies (using the best recipe of yours, Mommy!). We gave them to all the recent converts and investigators! They LOVED them! Our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Sandro is a Boss! He is helping us out a ton and is being a great leader here in our ward. A lot of things are going to change in the ward with him and the other leaders pushing forward in the work!

All of our investigators are doing well and we are working hard to find new ones. Here it is very hard to find new investigators, but the Lord will bless us soon!:)

Mom, I am feeling very strange turning 21. I feel like ever day that I get closer to 21 I am growing a new hair on my chin! Ha-ha, just kidding!  Thanks for the awesome presents! :) The New Years Day here is pretty lazy. They just stayed with family and cook food. The missionaries in the zone are doing awesome! One elder had his dad die last week and my companion and I went to his apartment to talk with him…he is doing well now. But that was pretty sad.

I really liked the quote, Mom, and how true it is! “We need not visit the Holy Land to feel him close to us. We need not walk by the shores of Galilee or among the Judean hills to walk where Jesus walked. “In a very real sense, all can walk where Jesus walked when, with his words on our lips, his spirit in our hearts, and his teachings in our lives, we journey through mortality” (Ensign, May 1974, 48).

You guys don´t need to pick me up. I think it is too late now anyways. And, it isn´t recommended by the church. The picture of the fondue party is awesome. Shaye has a cute little face in it! Ha-ha!

Dad, it’s awesome to hear that Amy´s mission papers are going in and that she will have her call in no time! You are right; she will be an awesome missionary! Also, that´s cool you will speak in church with Tadd again! I hear he is doing awesome! I will pray for little Tessa! I love you, Dad.

I love you all so very much! 

Elder Hauck