Service project!
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Mercies and Miracles 9/14/15
Hey People!
This week has been another fantastic one. Last Sunday Elder Davidson and I were able to stand in on a baby blessing in Sacrament meeting and I ordained a convert of last year to the office of a priest! I love participating in priesthood blessings, ordinations and ordinances. I feel part of something greater than myself. This week was bitter sweet since about half of our district was transferred. We got lunch together on Wednesday and said our goodbyes. It stings how fast everything goes by. There's almost no time to stop and take it all in. Our week went about as normal with all our work. Saturday we went to a really cool service project with the Missouri State YSA Elders on campus. There was a giant food packaging drive and we went to help package and seal meals to be shipped all around the world. They played some pump-up music the whole time which was the best part! Any chance that I'm "forced" to listen to music is a tender mercy ;) Last night was awesome because we got a new investigator! We stopped by the house of a man named Charles because we saw that missionaries had tracted into him in March and talked to him for a little bit. We went to follow up and he was a really nice older man who's wife passed and he now lives alone. We gave him a BoM and he said we could come back and talk to him about it! So last night we went back by and he said, "wait here, I made you boys something." So he went inside and came back out with two gospel music CDs that he had put together for us haha! He eventually invited us in and we were able to teach him about the restoration. He's had a long religious history and has basically given up because there are too many unanswered questions. We're excited to answer them for him. He wonders about things concerning the nature of God and the plan of salvation, and we can tell him all about it! So that is a major answer to prayers. I feel a little bad for Elder Davidson, he really hasn't had a lot of new teaching experiences because all we do is work with less actives and try to find new people to teach in this area! But we slowly seem to be finding some which is great. It's hard in such a religiously saturated area, everyone thinks they're content and we're just another random christian church (either that or they think we're some non-christian cult and they won't have anything to do with us.) We get doors slammed and rude remarks everyday, but hey its fun! This ward has been a little frustrating as well. There is no missionary effort whatsoever and no one really helps us.. especially our ward mission leader who has no idea what his calling entails. They're nice enough people though and once they see us finding people on our own and bringing them to church I think it will spark the fire we need. In other news my ankle is healing pretty quick still which is miraculous.. but I'm starting to get reeaally bad shin splints on both shins. So that's annoying. One thing after another! Guess I'll have to take it easy on the court for awhile. Being district leader is fun and a nice little dose of added responsibility which is nice and will keep me focused. The weather cooled off this last week which was glorious with a cool breeze, but apparently it was just a teaser and will heat back up again this week :(
If there is one thing I treasure on this earth more than anything it is the Book of Mormon. If only I understood even the hundredth part of the miracles, mercies, prophecies, blood, and lessons contained within it. I love reading it every day! It's what gives me the power I need.
Elder Hakes
Another transfer down 9/7/15
Greeting from misery (that's what most people call Missouri).
Life's good! Transfer calls came in, and Elder Davidson and I are both staying in this area! But I'll be the new district leader so that's pretty neat. About half of our district got transferred out so we'll have a bunch of new people coming in! It'll be fun, we'll miss a lot of these cats though, they're all great elders. This week's been a blur, highlights are that my ankle is almost fully healed (miracle) and I can walk normal again, and we taught Travis two more times with a member of the elders quorum named Peter Upton-Rowley who is a great guy. Peter's wife came for the second lesson and invited Travis and his wife and kid over for dinner, so they're fellowshipping really well and we're excited to keep teaching them. He is progressing slowly... but we'll work with it. He needs to be sincere in his prayer and read more of the Book, but he'll get there :) Well that's about all the update I can muster, Elder Davidson and I are excited to spend another transfer in Nixa! I have no idea where the time went, seems like I barely even know any of the ward yet. We've fasted and prayed that we can do even more work and really pick this place up this transfer! Remember, the Book is blue and the church is true, so let it change you! (I made most of that up). Till next week <3
Monday, August 31, 2015
Baptist Showdowns
Hey guys!
I am out of time. Sadface. But I would like to let you know this week has been yet another great one! And the gospel is still true, so that's nice! Elder Davidson and I are moving right along. This week we tracted into a guy named Travis and talked to him on his doorstep for like an hour. He invited us back later and we taught him the restoration. He's baptist, and just doesn't get some of what we try to tell him. It's kind of frustrating. Plus, he went online and found a bunch of anti mormon questions to ask us, so that was fun. But he didn't do it in an antagonistic way, he just wants to know! So we'll teach him the plan of salvation tomorrow. But our time is filled with trying to find people to teach and serving the members of the ward. We've really solicited our services well apparently, a lot of people have been asking for our help! Its fun, I love serving people.Thursday night I rolled my ankle reallly bad playing basketball. I'd attach a picture, but my camera just died :( It's swollen and bruised, but I've been able to limp around all weekend and get everything we need to done. A physical therapist in the ward examined me and said I got lucky and it's not too bad (despite it's appearance) and should heal up nice and quick! Already I'm walking better. But things are about the same around here! We can't believe how fast the transfer has gone by!! Transfers are next week?! We will likely both stay here, but who knows! I like Nixa, its a good place. Missouri far outclasses Oklahoma. I'll send pictures next week, love you guys :)
Elder Hakes
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Life in the Ozarks 9/24
I look up the word Ozark, I don't think it means anything, it's gotta be some weird Indian term. But its a gorgeous region.
Elder Hakes
This week has been a lot of ups and downs! I don't even remember what happened... highlight is that we finally got a new investigator! Woo hoo! Her name's Patty, we talked to her outside our apartment a couple weeks ago and finally had the chance to have a first lesson with her. We taught the restoration and it went about as well as it could have! We're excited to keep teaching her.
My faith has been tried this week, the adversaries messin with my brain! I always find strength in the Lord though as I put my trust in him and keep his commandments. Every time!
Wednesday night we had dinner in a mansion estate out in the middle of the woods. It was incredible, their home was enormous. They made some bomb food too, I kept expecting a butler to pop out fill my glass or refill my plate. Great people!
Thursday was such an awesome day, I was so happy all day. We drove down to Branson and worked on a huge service project with our zone. We mulched some trails in the lakeside forest. The forests are thicker and greener than anywhere I've seen. After we got back to Nixa we helped a ward member cement their new mailbox in their yard (and by help I mean we did it for her) and then we went to help a family move out of the ward! We spent all day in our service clothes just helping people, it was the greatest! Then we had dinner and played investigator basketball like we do every Thursday night, which is fun. This Sunday I announced in priesthood that we play and that everyone should bring a friend. Hope they come!
Sunday Elder Davidson and I were kinda sick, it was rough. Our dinner appointment was kind enough to bring it over to us and we got some rest and played some chess.
Today we went exploring some really cool caves in Willard MO. We dropped down into some muddy pools and water and had to squeeze through some tight spots it was awesome. Then we washed off in the river nearby after we got out. Don't worry, it wasn't swimming ;)
Gotta go, have a great week!
Elder Hakes
Monday, August 17, 2015
Ozark Country
Hey guys!
Sorry my email last week was kind of lame, after I sent it I realized all the cool things that I wanted to tell you. Oh well:) This week flew by. You're probably getting tired of hearing me say that. It's crazy weird. We did some cool things this week! We've met some great members of the ward, I love a lot of the families. On Tuesday this old less active guy named Charlie Donelow took us to a restaurant called Lambert's. I had been hearing about it since I got here, It's a huuge tourist attraction apparently. They're famous for the "throwed rolls"; a guy comes around with a cart of hot rolls and throws them to everyone who wants one. It was pretty neat. And servers walk around with big pots of free appetizers like fried okra and potatoes and black eyed peas. It was fun! I got chicken and dumplings which was essentially just glorified chicken noodle soup... shoulda got the chicken fried steak. Wednesday we had zone training down in Branson which is about 30 miles south of us. We got to meet the rest of our zone and do interviews with President Loveland, it was great. Elder Davidson and I instructed the zone on the pattern of learning: prepare, interact, invite. We did good! Afterward we went to buffalo wild wings in downtown Branson. Branson is a way cool place, the drive down there is gorgeous, soo many steep rolling hills and green in all directions. It's basically a Mormon Vegas, they're famous for tons of shows and performances, a lot of which are done by famous LDS families. There's theme parks and magic shows and country shows and all kinds of stuff there. I'd be a fun place to serve. President called Elder D and I into interview him at the same time, there was a missionary that went home in an area north of us and he wanted to know if we could help cover that area for awhile if we had to and be in a "tri-panionship" with Elder Merryweather who was serving in that area. We told him we could! But I think he decided on something else, because it didn't happen. Would've been cool though, because that ward is the YSA ward for Missouri State University and we would've spent half our time living on campus. We've been playing investigator basketball Thursday nights which is way fun, us and 3 other companionships just invite everyone we're teaching to get them into the building and fellowship them haha. We did a lot of service on Friday and Saturday for members of the ward who needed help with their yards and whatnot, it was great. And the weather was relatively cool this week so that was way nice. SundayElder D and I spoke in church, I loved it. I spoke on personal revelation and I wish I had more time, the spirit gave me utterance. I called Elder Murdock last night, he's training a new missionary in Owasso where I just left. My old area is doing so good, and he's seen some awesome miracles with the people that I love there! It was great to catch up with him, feels like I've been gone for ages even though it's not even been 3 weeks.The work in our area is starting to pick up ever so slightly. The ward is getting more involved now that they realize we're here and we wanna work. We had a great ward council and got our ideas out there to get the work rolling. We've been tracting our feet off and giving out as many Books as we can. We found some more potentials last week so hopefully we can go follow up with them! It's been a lot of fun though. A ton of the missionaries get together every P-day which is a blast, today we played football on MSU campus!We talked with an evangelical couple that we met in their driveway for like an hour last night. We taught essentially the whole restoration! But they wouldn't have it. They were such kind people, and she wanted us so badly to come to know "the one true Jesus and be saved". We told her we do believe in Jesus... I'm tired of trying to tell people that haha. They believe all the have to do is confess Christ as the Savior and then they're saved and nothing can change that. It's nearly impossible to change their minds and tell them there's more to the plan. She teared up several times because she was so passionate about it. But we ended up on a friendly note and she said we could come back sometime if we wanna talk and then she invited us to her church and prayed for us that we would come to know the real God. While she was praying, I was praying the same thing in my heart.."Heavenly Father, please help us help her come to know you." We'll see if it goes anywhere or if she'll just keep trying to convert us haha!Mission life rocks, I love it. I was thinking today this is the last time in my life where I'll be so carefree. Sure I'm constantly busy and always working, but I really don't have any worries! I'm just out here trying to help other people. And the Lord takes great care of us.Do everything that you can everyday to strengthen your testimony. If you're not, then you're slipping backwards. There is no middle ground.Love from the mid west,Elder Hakes
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