October 11, 2010 - Baratas!

Hey Family!

All is good here in Leme! I was not transferred and neither was Elder D. Souza. Im definitely excited to stay here in Leme and also to have the same companion. A little part of me wanted a new companion, just to be able to learn new things. I have much to learn from Elder D Souza and I´m super grateful for him. Time really is flying. Already one transfer down. I already know that leaving the mission will be hard haha.

Barata is the portuguese word for cochroach. Yup. We came home one day this last week and there were 5 in the bathroom and a couple in the kitchen (which is actually outside, i´ll take a picture). It was disgusting! I hate bugs haha. Elder D Souza killed them and we cleaned a little bit haha. We found one more a day later, but since then its been all good haha.

      

The picture this week has a story. Look closely at my shirt. You will see lots of dirt. We were walking to our last appointment one night this week week and it was raining. Not super hard but the roads were wet. I was closer to the rode with Elder D Souza by my side. A car flew by and muddy water just drenched me haha! At first i couldn´t believe it and was a little mad, but i immediately started laughing and so did Elder D Souza. He only got a little dirty. I learned a good lesson. If we can laugh, we won´t be mad and we will be happier. I could have gotten mad, but because i laughed everything turned out all right. I got some good pictures and a good story haha. We scrubbed the shirt and it actually turned all normal haha. Still white.

 

Questions

We loved the pictures you sent.  Your companion looks awesome!!!  And you are taller than he is.  Are the people shorter than you there?
Not everyone is shorter than me. I would say i´m maybe a little taller than average, but I don´t stick out or anything.

Your poor feet!  Did you take any tinactin with you?  I know that Grandpa found some really good stuff in Chile that they used.  He was going to look it up and see what it was and send you the name of it.  Maybe you can find it there.

Haha I started using tinactin and its helped a little bit. I got an email from gma and gpa and will look for the stuff they recommended. My feet are doing awesome though. It doesn´t hurt to walk anymore. They just look bad haha.

What is the kitchen like in your home?  Do you have an oven, stove, refrigerator?  Send some pictures of your place, inside and out.
We have a fridge, oven w/ stove, blender, and a sandwich maker that i use more than anything. I will send some pictures of the house next week for sure. Its a good place though, I like it a lot.

You mentioned that you were teaching some great families.  Who are they?  Tell us a little bit about them.  How you found them, etc...
We are teaching one family that I made contact with near the beginning of the transfer. We are having a hard time finding them at home right now, but will keep trying. Satan is working hard against us haha. We will teach first lesson and think, they´re going to be baptized! Then the next week they don´t even want to go to church haha. I dont think its something we´re doing wrong, but I don´t know. We can only keep looking for people to teach. The only way to find those who are ready is to talk to and teach everyone and that is what we are doing here in Leme. No baptisms yet, but its been a good lesson for me. If you look in Preach My Gospel Chapter 1 it talks about the characteristics of a successful missionary. Notice that it doesnt talk about baptisms there. Elder D Souza pointed this out to me. Success is not in the numbers. It is definitely harder to maintain desire sometimes without baptisms haha. But this experience will only make the next difficulties easier.

Have you received your package yet?
Nope not yet, but transfers are happening today and I hope to receive it this week at district meeting. I also hope to receive some LETTERS! haha

 

I sent rachel a letter last week. Hope she gets it. In there is a letter for Sra Dillard. I invited her to listen to the missionaries. If she accepts I need your help haha.  What a blessing about Tyson´s teeth. I will keep praying for him. Say hello to Elder Maiers for me. Hope the work is going well there. I can´t believe that Colton is almost there. Thats awesome for him! Thanks for the money for the plaque. I´ll get that ordered here soon. Whats the word with visas for Mexico lately? Hope that all works out.  More possibilities for the christmas package are: gum/mints, 2 more blue refills for marking scriptures, vitamins haha. Let me know before you send it.

 

Rachel - congrats on the tennis! Keep it up. and I´m so proud of you for sharing the gospel. The spirit will be with you to help you. Be bold. The worst thing they can say is no. And unfortunately, they will be worse off because of that "no". But we have to try. How did the other tennis match go??? I love you a ton.

Well I love you guys a ton! Glad to here that all is well. Hope Tyson and Pehrson and Kate are all well! I love you all and your examples to me help a ton. The Church is true and commandments are a blessing. Disobeying them will only hurt us and lesson our joy. Keep them to the fullest!

 

Elder Hawkley

October 4, 2010

Oi Família!

I´m sending more pictures. (They are after his letter)

Questions

What are some things that you learned from conference?  Were you able to understand it?
We were able to watch 4 of the 5 sessions of conference. We are two hours ahead of oklahoma time. We missed the very first session. We watched conference in the city of Pirassununga, a city about 30 minutes away. Priesthood started at 9, but Pres Prieto gave us permission to watch it. We rode home with the branch president here in Leme and got home about 11:30 haha. All of conference was in Portuguese. It was translated live. It was interesting though because some of the speakers had pre-recorded their talks in Portuguese. Elder Andersen, Elder Scott, Elder Jensen, and Elder Mazzagardi all had their talks pre-recorded. Elder Mazzagardi is the area presidency of Brasil. I was actually able to understand conference for the most part. I took notes in english haha. I had to focus a lot in order to understand. Every time i got distracted, i got lost in the talk haha. The spirit is the same way though i think. We have to focus a lot in order to recognize and understand the promptings. I had a harder time understanding Elder Andersen´s recorded talk than the Brazilian translators haha. Conference was good though. My favorite session was Priesthood. I saw Elder Tyler Bean singing in the choir HAHA! It was cool. What an awesome experience for him! I'm sending him a letter today. Hope he gets it. In conference they talked a lot about pride and decisions and agency. I liked Elder Uchtdorf´s talk on pride. He said that pride is humbling others instead of ourselves. We must humble ourselves. I also liked President Monson´s talk on gratitude.

You always say you eat beans and rice and some type of meat.  Do you know what type of meat it is?  Have you had any avocado smoothies?  What has been the best/worst thing you´ve eaten?
Meat is usually some type of beef or chicken. Haven´t had the smoothie yet, but my comp makes them for breakfast. The best thing i've eaten was a key lime pie dessert haha. Hadn't had anything terrible or wierd yet. Always beans and rice. Also they eat spaghetti with spaghetti sauce a lot with the rice and beans haha. Its good.

We are starting to get your Christmas package together.  We need some ideas!!!  What do you need?
I really want an ensign of the conference in english haha. I don´t know if i will get one down here or not, so please send me one! Snacks are always good. Granola bars, mosquito net, and i will think about more stuff and let you know haha.

Are you feeling better?

I am feeling a lot better. Things are still hard at times, but all is good. Looking back on this transfer and my time in the CTM i truly am grateful for the trials and the hard times. Looking back on them I can see how I´ve grown and I find joy in looking back and seeing how I made it through. I think that is what will happen when we meet Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ at the Judgement. We will find joy in looking back at our trials and hardships if we endure well, because we will be able to see how it helped us and the things we learned. Never Give Up, Only Trust in the Lord. I´m still not very good at this haha, but I´m working on it.

It was a good week. We had interviews with President Prieto. I really like him. My interview was quick. He asked about my family, health, companion, and area. It wasnt robotic though. It was good. Pres. Prieto told us something interesting. He said that there are only 35,000 missionaries in the world right now and that Brazil is really lacking. The area presidency has a plan for every stake in brasil to send 5 missionaries by the end of the year. If the stakes cannot meet this goal, 6 missions in Brasil will close! Thats nuts! Im a little confused though because in conference, Elder Nelson said that we have 52,000 missionaries and thats the number we had last conference. Anyway it was interesting. 10 areas in our mission are going to close by the end of the year due to more missionaries leaving than coming in. We need more missionaries i guess! It is an honor and privilege to serve. Everyone should!  

Its been cloudy and rainy for the past week. Today is the first day of sun in a while. I like the sun, but it is hot haha. 

Transfers are this next week. I hope to stay and I hope that Elder D. Souza stays, but all will work out. Elder D Souza taught me this week that we need to be positive. If we go into a transfer thinking it will be good, it will. If we think are companions will be great, they will. We must look for the good in everything. If I am transfered, you probably wont receive an email. I cant believe ive been here for 5 weeks already. Time is flying! 

Well got to go. I love you and thanks for the support. The gospel is true! We are teaching some great families right now! Endure to the End!

Love,

Elder Hawkley

 My companion, Elder D. Souza

This was after a lunch this week. I always eat a ton, but then we had watermelon for dessert. I almost died haha.

 President & Sister Clark (CTM President). They were super nice. Sis Clark is one of the happiest and nicest people ever!

 My right foot. I don´t know how well you can see, but its a combination of the aftermath of lots of blisters and athletes foot. haha and my pinkie toes were destroyed, but are getting better haha.

 Putting the clothes on the clothes line this morning haha.