December 3, 2012

Hello dearest family and friends,

Wow this week was crazy, hectic, stressful but awesome all at the same time!  Gotta love the life of a missionary!  This week were the Consejos for the Zone leaders of the mission so basically all the Zone leaders came in from all over Panama to be capacitated on how to be better missionaries and especially how to be better leaders.  Being in the office we have to go and speak about a few things that are going on in the mission and talk about how we can help the missionaries and their zones more effectively.  It was a good meeting and we were lucky to have Elder Drake (the area doctor) with us in the meeting.  He capacitated us about our health and talked about how our physical and spiritual health are linked and if one or the other is off it´s going to have negative effects on the other.  Another point that he hit a lot was stress.  He talked about all of the negative affects stress can have on our bodies but then went on to say that one of God´s principle purposes of sending us here was to put us under stress and to see if we would handle it well.  We talked about how there are two responses to stress one negative, and the other positive.  Dealing with stress in the negative way will cripple us and make us absolutely ineffective whereas dealing with stress in a positive way will help motivate us and make us more effective.  The way that we can know how we´re dealing with stress is what we say when a big pile of stress is put before us.  We can either respond saying "Why me?  I already have so many other things to do, poor me" or we can respond "Ok, what does God want me to learn from all of this?"  After the meeting I thought a lot about that point and how a lot of times when stress is introduced into our lives it suffocates and makes us want to just throw our hands in the air and quit.  I got down to thinking about how I dealt with "stressful" things before the mission.  I noticed that when "Stress" was put onto me in terms of school assignments, family issues, work problems I seemed to just not want to do anything and would throw my hands up.  But then I got to thinking about my time playing sports and playing in important (stressful) games that really truly meant a lot to me.  In the big games I almost always was able to up my performance level and do a little bit more than I would have under normal circumstances.  As I realized this difference and thought a little bit about the "why" behind the two i realized that my attitude was the difference.  I was ALWAYS excited to suit up and get out to play a soccer game but wasn´t always excited or even mildly happy for that matter about sitting down at the computer to write an essay.  I truly learned in this moment that stress is a good thing, I know I sound crazy but I know that it is!  I came to understand that really it depends on us and the way that we choose to take it!  Those of you have served know that the mission is stressful and when you have special assignments and extra responsibilites that stress level can be doubled.  However you also know that this stress can be fueled and converted into energy which can then be used to do a little bit more than you would have been able to otherwise.   

Besides the consejos, standing in the mail office for four hours two times this week and going to the U.S. embassy to take out my drivers license this week was rewarding on the missionary end as well.  Little Camila was baptized today and couldn´t have been happier about it.  Saturday night we went to her house and finished teaching the word of wisdom and then at the same time did the interview.  She did so well and passed everything!  The only thing that we forgot to do was ask who she wanted to baptize her.  We figured we would choose someone from the ward that would be there to support her so we called our stake patriarch and made the appropriate assignments to have him perform the baptism.  Everything went well in the chapel and they showed up (unlike our baptism last week) and finally after church came the moment of the baptism.  The patriarch was getting dressed when Camila came up to me almost hysteric telling me that she didn´t want to be baptized by him and that she wanted me to do it.  I explained to her that it didn´t matter who baptized her and that it would be cool if he did it because he´ll always be there to so support her whereas I´ll be leaving in a few months and may never see her again.  She insisted that I do it.  Camila´s mom came up to me as well and insisted the same thing.  By this time the baptism was supposed to start in about 10 minutes and I didn´t even have baptismal clothing.  So we made a choice, explained to the patriarch what was happening and then kind of had to invent.  He was so nice about everything and told me I should just baptize here if that´s what she wanted.  I ran into our tiny bathroom, rifled through some baptismal clothing, found a dirty pair of pants that didn´t fit very well and by some miracle even found an extra white tie.  I got all dressed while Camila did the same and finally we walked in and got the meeting started.  It was weird and super late notice to have to get ready to baptise someone but what could I do?  Haha after the initial confusion everything worked out well and in the end Camila got baptized.  I couldn´t have been happier for her or the decision that she has made to join the church.  Even though she is young I´m faithful that she´ll receive the proper support from her mom and from her leaders that will help her to remain active in the church.  It´s a neat story because Vanessa, Camila´s mom is recently activating herself.  She took the step without any type of visit or anything just decided that she needed to be back in the church.  I´m so proud of her decisions to come back and to support her daughter in her baptism.  

As for all of you chumps I sent you a package this last friday so you should hopefully receive it before Christmas.  I hope with all my heart that it will get to you before the big day!  I´m starting to get excited for Christmas in the next 23 days and it´s crazy to think that it´s the last one that I´ll spend as a missionary.  I´m excited to be able to see everyone and to talk to you all face to face with some skype.  It would be nice to know what would work well for all of you on that end so that I can plan ahead for how I´m going to do it here on this end.  The blessing is that we have permission to skype you guys from our computers here in the office.  Thank you so much for all of your love and support it really means so much and is so humbling to know that so many are praying for me.  I´m praying for all of you and I hope that all is well and that this Christmas season gets going just as well for all of you as it has for me.  I love you all so much !

Elder Hawks

November 26, 2012

Family,

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you!!!  I´m glad you all got to go down to Richfield with Grandma and Grandpa Hawks and I´m not going to lie I missed that it´s one of my favorite traditions that we have as a family.  Thanksgiving was honestly awesome for me because sister Ward invited our whole zone over to eat at her house and then have a short little devotional.  Unfortunately we didn´t get to help cook because she had a "couple companionship" and her ayudante help her out the day before.  We did get to help set the table and do a few little things like that which was fun!  The best part of the whole meal may have been that she has a dishwasher (that´s something you NEVER see in Panama) so we only had to rinse the plates and stick them in there:)  She cooked us a real American Thanksgiving dinner with a turkey that she made in the oven, mashed potatoes, stove top (my favorite), yams, gravy and even wheat rolls.  I must say she went the whole nine yards and ended up cooking for about 26 people.  Ah it was so dang good but I´ve found that my stomach is accustomed to rice so I was STUFFED after just one plate.  I know it was so unlike me haha.  It was such a fun day and we were so blessed to get to go!  After we ate dinner we sat down and had a small fireside type thing where President Ward taught the importance of being thankful for everything that we have.  He challenged us to pray that night without asking for one single blessing and to really take time and thank God for his goodness towards us.  After that challenge we went around the room and all said one thing we were thankful for.  Mom I said I was thankful for you because of the way you raised me to be patient and loving so thanks mom I´m so blessed to have a mom as awesome, fun, loving, patient and caring as you you´re the best!

I couldn´t be more proud of Scotty and his choice to serve a mission.  I love that kid to absolute death and know that if he puts his mind to it he will be an excellent missionary.  His call is way cool and pretty relaxed cause he doesn´t have to worry too much about any type of language barrier and can just get out and hit the ground running.  I think this is the week that Korban goes back out on his mission and I couldn´t be more proud of  him.  He will be one of the best missionaries this world has ever seen and mom make sure to go and see him before he leaves if you can!

Other than our wonderful Thanksgiving day this week was one of the more disappointing of my mission.  Due to our office duties and an increased load of things to do because of the Christmas part coming up it was hard to leave when we wanted to and as a result we had less time in our area and with our investigators.  Camila ended up not being baptized this week because we were unable to get to her house to finish teaching the commandments.  It´s ok we just moved her fecha back a week to this Sunday coming up.  Yesterday she and her mom came to church and participated in everything.  It´s neat to see how the mom took the initiative to reactivate herself after a few years of inactivity.  She told us one morning she just woke up and knew that she needed to get going back to church and without making excuses about the members or worrying what they would say or think she got herself up the next week and came to church.  I love how the Spirit can work in people without them even realizing it sometimes.  Our other investigator Neri was supposed to be baptized yesterday as well.  Saturday night we didn´t even go to the area because we were running around our area looking for her baptismal clothing, Sunday we got to the church and the bishop didn´t have the key so we had to take two taxi´s to and from the office to pick up ours, we cleaned to font (It was nasty and when we started the water it came out brown) and had absolutely everything ready.  Her family didn´t show up...After Sacrament meeting we went outside and called them and it turns out that she randomly went to work and her recent convert husband who was going to baptize her had run off to Colon (a city about 30 minutes from Panama city) to go fishing with his friends.  Ah it was tough man because we had already filled up the font and everything.  Oh well what can you do sometimes.  It will be interesting to go by their house this week and see what happens and what they say about the baptism.  I know she wants to it may just be a lack of support from her husband who is also really new in the church and obviously doesn´t understand 100% the importance of this covenant.  

Some people have asked me about the influx of missionaries that we´re going to see and the truth is that it´s dramatic.  We have a group of Elders and Hermanas who are coming in the 19th of December and it´s the biggest group of missionaries to come into Panama at a time at 29 missionaries.  It´s super exciting but being in the office it´s been fun and stressful to do the logistics of where a group like that is going to stay, what they´re going to eat and what we´re gonna do to keep them from getting too bored.  We´ve had to be really clever with this one and we´re gonna have them stay at the hotel the church has right next to the temple and they´re going to go to a session and everything their first day it´s going to be really cool.  Turns out a girl from Kenzie´s  stake got her call to this mission and it was funny because I receive the information and recommends of all the missionaries and she showed up on my system this week.  Sometimes it´s fun being in the office:)

Our office was a mess this last week because I got a shipment of folletos and books of Mormon but the best thing that came in this shipment was 200 miniture Preach My Gospel´s in Spanish!!!!!!  They are literally the coolest thing in the whole world and are going to be so useful!  I´m sending you two pictures the first is one Sister Ward took of me and Elder Echeverría one of our assistents at the Thanksgiving dinner and the second is Elder Wade, Julian, Camila and I!  Enjoy:)

Thank you so much for everything you all do for me I am so blessed to have such an amazing family with so much support and love from everyone I´m excited to be an uncle again and to have all of these things going on at home.  I´m getting really excited for the Christmas season and it´s gonna be sweet to decorate the office with the stuff you sent me mom so thanks a ton for that:)  I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week full of all kinds of happiness!!

Love,

Elder Hawks

November 12, 2012

Family,

First of all this storm sounds like it was the real deal and that picture of Stephen did not make me miss home...haha being in Panama has made me realize that realistically the snow is only good for skiing but otherwise it can be a little bit of a headache.  Dad make sure to be safe on your trip and thank heavens it´s the rental car and not the Fusion!!  I´m glad everyone is safe and enjoying the wintery weather.  Truth be told it´s been hard to accept that it´s November due to the extra little heat and humidity wave we had this week.  As you guys are making the transition into the winter Panama is going to start coming out of their "winter" and into summer.  As things cool off for you all the ovens gonna start heating up down here:)

Wow sorry again for the email last week it was a bummer to say the least.  Hopefully this week we can improve that a little bit this time around!  Life in the office is getting a little bit hectic because this Thursday we have our changes and as the secretaries we´re in charge of doing a little capacitation for the new missionaries and making sure they know all the ways they can utilize us for their benefit.  In turn it´s stressful because I have to put together boxes of materials for all of the Zones in the mission and make sure mail is going to people in their new Zones!  Things are going to get really interesting in the next few weeks with our influx of 29 missionaries coming the next change and all of the mail that´s going to come in correlation to the Christmas season.  Yay.  Haha it´s a fun time to be in the office to say the least:)  Another thing that I´m in charge of is a publication we do in the mission called the "Forever Strong" it´s usually full of missionaries and their spiritual experiences but due to the lack of response in this area I had to make some things up and take some iniciative.  It´s something totally new and that I never thought I would have the opportunity to do so needless to say it´s stretching my abilities as well as my patience!  Sometimes I feel as helpless as mom on the computer these days...

On to another note.  In my time here it´s been really suprising how little I´ve been around and for that matter even seen President Ward.  He is a really active person and truth be told I think being in the mission office is something boring for him.  This week, on Tuesday, he left to go to Costa Rica and have meetings with all the other mission presidents of Central America and a few General Authorities.  The trip lasted until Friday which meant that we got to use his car!  Yes.  I´m going to need to get my license in the next little while here.  On Friday Elder Wade and I got to go to the airport and pick up President and Sister Ward from their trip and we were stoked because we knew he would be getting off that plane full of new ideas and new ways to make the mission better for all of us.  We were right.  The minute he got in he just said "Elders the mission is going to change a lot in the next little while"  The first big change that´s coming is he´s getting an Iphone (I only say that because he is literally technologically handicapped), second in the office we´re going to have more ready access to a car (Thank heavens for me in this time of year), we´re going to meet with Pres. and Sis. Ward every week in their house to make sure things are running smoothly, and we´re going to receive a new secretary.  It goes without saying that I´m excited for my time here in the office and for the change and growth that our mission is going to experience in the next few years.  It´s an awesome time to be serving the Lord!!

Our work as missionaries is being blessed as well for our diligence and doing our best to get out of the office at 4 every day.  We have 4 investigators with fechas for baptism and they´re looking really really positive.  The moment of truth is always Sunday to see if they can make it to church and we were blessed to have 4 investigators in Sacrament.  It was such a huge blessing I was really so happy!  It´s amazing to have seen the hand of the Lord in the work because even though we don´t have the same hours as the other missionaries we are still able to get out and do some damage in the field.  I know that ultimately it´s going to come down to personal integrity and getting our butts out to work when it´s time to work and not wasting time in the office when we don´t have to!

I´m happy, safe, and well fed.  What more could I possibly ask for?  I love you all so much and am so thankful for all that you do for me!  Mom I got the Christmas package and am ashamed to say that I opened...everything...I know I´m really impatient but you know how I am with presents.  Thank you for everything it couldn´t have been more perfect!  If there´s anyway that in the next little while you could send me a new Moleskine notebook that would be awesome I´m almost out of space on those!  I love you all so much and am praying lots for you.  Have a great week!

Elder Hawks

 

P.S.  Sorry mom I couldn´t help it...(opening all my Christmas gifts)...the puzzle of the plan of salvation was the bomb because it helped us teach our little colombian investigator:) I´m so glad Elder Biesinger went over to the house he is such an awesome kid and was one of my favorite missionaries! Speaking of me being in the office you can tell any and everyone who wants to send me stuff to do so now because I have such open access to the mail. Thank you so much for all that you do mommy I love you!

Have a great day,

Andrew

November 5, 2012

Dear Mom and Dad,

Wow it´s real I´m no longer a teenager.  I broke the barrier yesterday and have made my way in to adulthood haha.  Honestly this birthday was kind of weird and made me feel a little bit older and different.  Thank you so much to everyone for the birthday wishes and for all the emails, pictures and even the little video from Jason, Courtney and Eloise.  Mom thank you SO much for the package it was so awesome and I loved everything!!  I must say the "Avengers" sheets are a huge hit and EVERYONE in the office is way jealous!  Ah you guys really spoiled me big time for my birthday thank you so so so much!  

Ok well you may not know but the 4th of November in Panamá is flag day and it´s a pretty big deal.  To celebrate this holiday all of the schools in the city prepare their students to march in parades beating drums, playing horns and doing all kinds of other things.  It´s really really cool.  Our mission office is really close to one of the main roads that goes through the city and so we got to see the parades from a birds eye view (the roof of the office).  It was a lot of fun and I kept telling everyone they were celebrating my birthday;)  Haha I know I´m way funny.  Some of the members in the ward here were awesome and brought me a cake here in the office.

Saturday was Independence day from Colombia with also meant another big parade of the same thing!  If you want to know more you can look it up on the internet I´m sure they would have more pictures and videos and stuff to give you a better idea.  Overall it was fun but the truth is that it was nothing like an american independence day.  It was fun though and seeing some of the Panamanian culture is really a good experience.  

Our investigators, or at least the two most positive bailed on us with church yesterday and so now we´re going to have to change their fecha for baptism.  I don´t know it´s tough but we´ve done everything we just need them to feel the importance of it and to come.  

Sorry this email is short President Ward just came in and is giving us news about a bus that crashed here with a bunch of missionaries in it so it´s hard to focus but here are a bunch of pictures from the last few days and from my birthday!

Thank you again for everything I love you all so much

Elder Hawks

October 29, 2012

Dear mom and dad,

Thanks a lot for your emails and your support I know I say it every week but it means a lot to have all of the support and love that I do from my family back home.  It´s always good to know a little bit of what´s going on at home and that everyone is doing well!  I love you guys to death.  To me it´s crazy to think that Halloween is this week and all the normal traditions are going on at home.  One year ago I was dressed up as a dead soccer player, Kenzie was a cave-woman and Eloise an octopus haha classic!  Here in Panama Halloween is literally nothing except for the rich people and they just go to parties dressed up and that´s all.  Whenever I tell the members about our tradition of "trick-or-treating" they are fascinated and most of the time don´t believe me haha.  This week is going to be interesting because Panama won their independence from Columbia the 3rd of November in 1903.  I´m excited to see how Latins celebrate Independence!  It will be fun because the 4th is Flag day here and from what everyone tells me it´s a really big deal but I don´t know I´ve never seen it I´ll make sure to fill you all in with the details next week.  Thanks Dad for the bank information it worked and now I can keep an eye on my accounts thanks a lot!  

As for me life is good and I´m feeling good in the swing of the missionary routine without letting it get boring.  This week was a good week in terms of our investigators.  Something that has come up between Follette and I is that he is a very careful teacher and I like to be direct in terms of inviting these people to be baptized in the first or second lesson at latest.  We have a few investigators that we´ve been teaching for a while but that just have´t been progressing the way that we had hoped or prayed and so we sat down to make a game plan.  We came up with the goal to put fechas (dates) with them to help them progress a little bit more and to get them excited about coming to church and doing all the things they need to do to come unto Christ.  It was fun on Thursday we left the office without a single fecha but Thursday night we got home with 2.  It was such a fun day and super neat to see the Lord´s hand in the work and how he touched the people with the spirit so that they would be willing to accept the goal to be baptized.  One of these investigators is a lady named Nary.  She is the wife of the man we baptized at the beginning of the change and if she can make it into the waters of baptism the family will be completed and then we will need to put the goal of them being sealed.  I love this gospel and know that it´s the only way for us to get back to God and live with Him.  My favorite part is the unity of the families.  There is no other church that preaches eternal families the way we do and I´m so grateful for the blessing that I have to be sealed to my family but also the opportunity I will have to be sealed in the temple with my future wife!  

The other investigator who we put the fecha with is named Howard.  He´s from Nicaragua and speaks perfect English.  He´s got his roots from the Caribbean and is a really humble, willing to listen type of person.  It´s been tough to teach in English just because our custom is to teach in Spanish and so to switch the words gets confusing a little bit.  I know that we´ve been blessed and as a result have been able to teach him pretty well.  

Ok the moment of truth was Sunday because we put the fechas for the 11th.  Saturday night we called and called and called but couldn´t get a hold of anyone so we passed by Howard´s house and everyone in his family was drinking like crazy which just made us so sad.  He however did tell us that he would come to church the next day but when we called in the morning he couldn´t.  We even passed by his house but he was hung over and just kept telling us that he felt so bad and had taken the wrong path.  I was bummed but we went back to his house in the afternoon and he was doing better.  He is really positive but it could be tough because he´s going to have these influences from his family the will pressure him to do things he knows he shouldn´t so I pray that he will still be able to progress and be baptized.

Other than that this week was pretty normal.  President Ward has come in the last few days to do the changes and being in the office we get to go in afterwards and see the changes that he does.  It´s kind of fun to be able to see but we´re under strict oath not to tell anyone haha.  It´s a lot of fun here in the office and the more time I stay here the more I like it.  

I love you all and am so thankful for you all and all of your support.  I want to congratulate Courtney on being pregnant and I´ll keep her in my prayers that everything will go well and the baby will be born healthy!!!!!  Have a wonderful week everyone and I will look forward to hearing from you all again next Monday!!

Elder Hawks

October 22, 2012

Mom,

Good morning everyone!  It´s fun to get emails from people and receive some news on the family about the outside world and what kinds of things are happening with all of you in the wonderful, happy land of Utah!  I ask myself sometimes if there´s going to be snow there soon.  It´s hard for me to imagine something as crazy as season because here it´s the same every single day...HOT, HUMID, and RAINY!!!  Wahoo.  I really do love it though and I´m not one bit jealous of the cold weather you´re experiencing:)

Sounds like everyone had a fun time down at St. George.  The hike sounds like literal insanity, the golf cart story is classic Stephen and Scott, and Michael took Allie?   I´m glad the house down in St. George is still being used, that´s always a really fun trip to make and it´s always always good to get out of the cold and go see some sunshine!  Thanks dad for the sports update, it sounds like the Cougars are the best worst team in all of college football and like always don´t know how to close out the big games and get the wins.  One of the Elder´s here in the office is from Oklahoma and is a huge fan of their football team and his dad just wrote him saying that OK whipped up on Kansas so it sounds like our buddy Jake Heaps is doing just about the same as when he was with the Cougars.

Ok well on to some more serious things.  The office life has settled in and I´m feeling really quite comfortable in my new role as the President´s secretary.  It´s fun to have some new and distinct ways of serving the Lord but also the missionaries here in Panama as well.  I´m in charge of taking the calls for people who need things like garments, books of Mormon, journals and pretty much any other thing missionaries may need.  It´s been a new learning experience to have to talk in Spanish and learn a few new vocabulary words to be able to please the "customer" it´s fun though and gives my work a literal "business" type of feel.  It´s funny to see the difference between a happy and an upset customer and I hope I can keep all 200 of mine happy;)  I just realized that I´m in charge of buying the missionaries underwear...that made me feel kind of weird haha but it´s fun I´m loving it!

One big advantage yet disadvantage to being in the office is that I´m in front of the computer all day long.  It can be an advantage because if there´s a gospel thing I want to look up I have free range at that but it´s a disadvantage because as we all know it´s easy to waste time on the computer doing good things when in reality there are maybe better things to be doing.  I know that it´s going to be good for me to learn time management skills and using my time effectively.  In my short time here in the office I have learned how to do a lot of little things that I never knew before for example sending faxes(I didn´t even know that existed before).  That´s a funny story because President Ward called me the other day and said Elder Hawks I´m going to email you the information from a disciplinary council and I need you to fax it to Salt Lake for me.  Haha two thoughts went through my head.  1.  That´s some pretty sensitive information you´re trusting me with President and 2.  How do I fax?  He was in a hurry and hung up leaving me thinking ok well how am I going to do this.  My Companion and office trainer had only sent a fax one time so we fought with the machine for a good 30 minutes until we could finally get it sent.  There are lots of funny little things like that that happen and keep me on my toes.  I love it though and have been blessed so much already!

Yesterday we had Stake conference and it turns out that my ward is in the same stake as Brisas del Golf.  For those of you that don´t remember that´s the area where I started my mission and spent the first 4 and a half months in Panama.  The conference was held in that chapel and so I had a rare opportunity to go back and see many of the people that had been in my first ward!  I was so excited and when I got there it was almost like coming home (ok not quite but in a different way ahah) and everyone there was giving me hugs and happy to see me.  It was cool and I was happy to know that they even remembered who I was!!  One of the absolute neatest thing to see is that every single person that I baptized in that area is still active and one of the men who I had the privilege of baptizing will be receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood soon.  That was one of the best surprises I could have possibly hoped for.  My Colombian family is doing well and staying as active as ever which made my day.  I found out that they´re planning on being sealed the middle of March and so I´ll definitely be looking forward to being there when that happens!!!!

This week was a little bit slow in the field because things REALLY picked up in the office which made it tough to be out of here on time.  A new missionary from Mexico came in on Tuesday night and we had to capacitate him in terms of who we are as secretaries and what we can do to help him out in the mission.  It was fun to see someone so new and think back almost 10 months ago when I was starting my mission and the way that i felt.  I could tell he was nervous so we talked for a little bit and I try to help him feel good about the mission being fun and being whatever we make it.  As for our investigators it was a rough week and we didn't get to see them much but this week is going to be better and the plan is to put baptismal dates with everyone seeing as how right now we don´t have a single one.  We should be able to put dates with them and get them ready to be baptized on the 4th and then again on the 11th.  I love this work it´s a lot of fun.

I just received an email about a missionary mom website for the Panama mission so mom if you want to join that would be a good thing to help you stayed updated with the news and going abouts of the mission!  The ladies name is Jill Fowlks and her email is fowlks5@q.com if you want to get in touch with her and find out a little bit more of what it is.  

Thank you all so much for your love and support I appreciate it a lot and am so  blessed to have you be my family.  I pray for you all and hope that you have a wonderful week!  Until next Monday!:)

Elder Hawks

October 15, 2012

Hello Everyone!

Good morning to everyone right now in Panama it´s a balmy 90 degrees and there isn't even a single cloud in the sky...are you all jealous yet?  Ha-ha thank you everyone for the emails and the suggestions and words of encouragement it´s been nice to hear about Jayson and Kylan´s time in the offices of their respective missions.  Something that I have already seen is the fact that even though we´re in the office we are able to leave and to get some serious work done at night once we leave so I´m not too worried about this time!  That´s really so exciting about Brea putting in her mission papers and it´s going to be fun to see how many more girls from the ward and stake will put their papers in and get to work for the Lord.  I´m happy to hear that you guys are going to have a long weekend and are going to be able to spend some quality time together and St. George would be nice to escape the cold!

Ok my companion is Elder Follette from Springville, Utah and he has about 16 months in the mission.  He´s a really cool kid and has been really easy to get a long with but the truth is that after eight and a half months only being with Latins it´s been a huge change to have a gringo companion and speak English most of the day...He graduated a year before me and spent some time at UVU before he came on the mission.  He´s a good missionary and is going to teach me a lot about this new job and the work as a missionary.  I´m excited for this change and know that we´re going to have a good time together.  He comes from a part member family with his mom and siblings being active but his dad isn't a member and he is the first missionary in the family.  He´s really dedicated and is good about getting out of the office on time because one of the big temptations that we have is to stay here and waste the whole day.  

As for my job I´m learning it little by little but I´m coming to know that my knowledge of Computer programs is pretty dang basic...I´m in charge of designing a few things and making like a ward mission letter every 6 weeks with missionaries spiritual experiences and such and I really have no talent or knowledge of graphic designing so it´s going to be a lot of fun to learn how to do these kinds of things and I know it´s going to be something that will help me out after the mission as well!  I have a lot of small responsibilities and am kind of the errand boy for President and Sister Ward but you´re right I´m going to have a lot more interaction with them and it will be neat to serve more closely with them and to learn from them as well!  Another fun little side note is that I´m going to get my Panamanian drivers license and am going to be out on the streets with these crazy people!  But no I do not have a car sometimes president lets us borrow his or we get to go in the assistants car!  

Things in the area are going well and the work is gonna chug right along.  On Saturday we baptized a man named Pedro Velasqo and it was a very neat experience.  I don´t know him super well because I don´t have much time but his story is a neat one and was interesting because God literally got tired of trying to whisper in his ear and literally had to use lightning to get his attention.  Pedro works in construction but also fishes on the side (my area is ghetto and ridiculously close to the ocean).   He had a baptismal date but was offended by something the the interviewing elder said to him and so he decide to skip his baptism and go fishing in Colon.  While he was there snorkeling looking for his fish a literal black wall of storm started to move from the coast out towards the ocean and he was out stuck with his tiny boat fishing and basically stranded.  As the wall of water came down it started to rain like crazy and started to lightning and thunder.  He and his buddy were stranded and were going to be struck by lighting because they were the tallest thing out in the water so they decided to jump in the water (They use rubber suits in case of things like this) and hold on for dear life.  He told us that in this moment the only thing that he was doing was asking forgiveness for not being baptized and he promised God that he was going to be baptized as soon as possible if he would be spared and be able to live.  He said that after this prayer not 5 minutes passed and the storm was gone and it was calm again but that he went home with a 100% conviction to be baptized.  Pedro was baptized on Saturday night and then confirmed a member of the church yesterday in the Sacrament meeting.  He is rock solid and going to be a great member.  Now we are going to focus on his wife and getting her to be baptized because she is the only one that hasn't yet and once she is they can start their preparations to be sealed in the temple.  

The Ward here is awesome and a TON of people speak English it´s crazy.  The area 70 that Sister Duffin is talking about is named Hermano Garcia but he was released as a 70 and is now the stake patriarch.  He served as a mission president in Chile from 1999 to 2002 and yesterday pulled me aside asking if I have any family that served in that mission during that time because he said he had an Elder Hawks in his mission.  So do I have any relatives with the last name Hawks that were in Chile from 1999 to 2002?  

Thanks mom for the package it was the bomb but as you get ready to send other things please do not send food items they aren't allowed to pass through.  I know it´s retarded but when we go to pick up mail they open up all of the packages to look for food because apparently they have had problems with drug trafficking through the mail or something.  But thank you so much for looking out for me and being the best!  Kenzie sent me a Joseph Smith ring a little while ago but with the fattening that has happened to me it doesn't fit...I think it was an 8 and half but if for Christmas it would be possible to send me one that´s like a 9 and a half or 10 that would be the bomb!  Honestly I´m doing well in terms of things and am actually going to send home a Christmas package to all of you in the next few weeks!  I can´t think of anything else that I need or even necessarily want but if anything comes up I´ll shoot you an email. I love all of you and am so thankful for you and the blessing that we have to be sealed together.  It brings so much comfort to me and should to all of us especially because of what happened to Courtney´s son.  I know that he´s okay and they will be able to see him again.  I´m thankful for the Gospel and for the hope that it brings to our lives even through the hardest situations and times.  I love you and hope that you all have a wonderful week, can´t wait to hear from you next Monday!

Love,

Elder Hawks

October 8, 2012

Dear Mom,

Wow it´s always so good to hear from the family and know that everyone is doing well...First of all this big change in the missionary service is going to affect our mission here in Panamá and depending on what Stephen does we may not see each other for almost 4 years!!  That was kind of a sad yet fun thought.  I know that all of this is inspired and there are already a lot of 18 year old missionaries here in Panamá so it´s not going to make a huge difference, the change with the sisters however is dramatic and it got me thinking that technically Kenzie could get up and head out on a mission right now if it was what she wanted to do!!  Crazy!!!

Ok so as you noticed I had changes.  I have been made the new general secretary of the mission and am now an office rat.  Last wednesday in the changes they announced it and I started immediately.  The honest truth is that this is going to be a 180 degree turn and change from what I´ve been doing in the mission field up until this point.  Some of my responsibilities concern buying the tickets of all the missionaries that are coming and going, for President Ward when he has to make flights inside of Panamá, collecting the mail of 200 missionaries, and receiving other little chores.  I don´t know what all of my jobs are going to be but I´ll let you know more about it as I get going in the job a little bit more.  

On wednesday when I found out the honest truth is that I was pretty dang bummed.  It´s a huge difference to get off of the streets working and sweating all day to help people and then moving into an air conditioned office building and sitting in front of a computer all day.  I was sad because I just thought I´m not qualified for this, and why would you take me off of the streets when I have been having success and helping the work move forward?  It´s going to be a big change because we have to be in the offices from 8 am until about 4 or 5pm doing all sorts of things.  As a result we get back to our area and have only 3 hours to try and find people to teach, bring to church, and baptize.  The truth is I was really big time bummed because it just changed my fast paced life as a field missionary to an office rat, or so I thought.  I am being trained by Elder Follette who is finishing up his 4th change here as the general secretary and he has been awesome about helping me out and teaching me all of the things that I have to do.  He also has been good about getting all of the things done in the office so that we can leave and still go to work in our area.  We are actually going to baptize the father of a family that was baptized this last week.  He has put his own baptismal date for this Saturday at 6 so that will be a good way to start out my time here in the area.  Something else that´s going to be new is that we don´t eat meals with the members so it´s going to be tough to build relationships with them here but I know that this is going to be a new experience with lots of things to learn and new ways to grow.  I´m thankful for it and will look forward to doing the best that I can!

General Conference was awesome as always and we were blessed to be able to see all 5 sessions in English.  We only missed out a little bit on the Saturday afternoon session because of a big time rain storm that knocked out the satellite power in the chapel where we were at.  We went to a stake center and got to be with a bunch of other missionaries to watch conference which made it even more fun!  I loved this conference so much and received a few answers to questions and prayers that I had had.  The honest truth is that all of the talks were wonderful and have helped me out in one way or another but the talk that Uchtdorf gave Saturday morning about being happy and not having regrets really made me think a lot.  To be honest when I found out I was coming to the office I wasn´t happy or excited because I just thought what the heck i´m going to be wasting so much time here int he office doing nothing when I could be out in the field bringing people to Christ but as Uchtdorf starting speaking and talking about coming to the end of life with regrets it made me think about my mission and how if I go through with a bad attitude I´ll miss opportunities to serve and to become better and I´ll finish my time in the mission field with regrets, which is something that I don´t want at all.  I realized that I have to always have a positive perspective and to learn what i can from every change and opportunity that I have.  I know that there is a reason the Lord prompted president to put me in the office and now it´s up to me to find out what I can do to fulfill with the Lord´s expectations and the potential that he has given me.  Conference is such a huge blessing in our lives and being able to hear the voice of the prophet and apostles of God is amazing and a guide to us in our lives.  I love how no matter what questions you may have, what challenges you may be facing if we go in to the conference praying for guidance and revelation we will receive it.  

I love you all and am so thankful for your love and support in my behalf.  I got the package that you sent me on Friday mom and it´s going to be super hard not to open the presents until my birthday!!  Thank you so much for thinking of me and for always loving me and raising me to love the Lord!  Have a great week and we´ll talk next monday!

Elder Hawks