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
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