Friday, February 1, 2013

January 28, 2013


Dearest family,

Thanks so much for your emails I love hearing from you guys all the time it´s really the best and just makes me one happy missionary.  Mom thanks a ton for getting that little package ready and being able to fulfill my requests you´re literally the best mother ever!  Dad to answer your question we are in the dry season right now.  I think that the last time it rained here was 2 or 3 weeks ago it´s hard to tell time just seems like a big blur to me.  I hope Stephen is doing well and that he´s getting good grades but make sure to let me know whether or not he makes it into BYU cause that would be so fun to be at school with him again after he finishes his mission!

Well changing gears this week for us was a little bit odd.  It´s hard to explain but it seems like last Monday was just yesterday but at the same time there are so many things that have happened and that are going to happen in the next week it´s hard to know exactly where to start!  Last week was time for the financial secretaries to pay all of the owners of the houses and the cooks for the mission.  They also had to make payments on all the houses electricity, water and garbage.  Needless to say their plate was full.  Luckily a lot of the payments are online so they can be done in the office but the tough thing is that it´s about 95 houses with the three payments each so it takes quite a while.  As a result we had two late nights in the office on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thursday was pretty normal and we got out to contact for a little while.  We decided to work in a different, richer part of our area and it turned into about 30 contacts with 1 lesson.  It was a funny coincidence because a long time ago we were playing basketball and this kid came and played with us.  We talked with him for a bit but he was really shy and we kind of didn´t think much more of it.  Thursday we were contacting and guess who´s house we contacted?  Our basketball friend´s!  It was cool cause he was there with his little sister and then with his mom.  They let us in and all sat down and listened to us.  Unfortunately they weren´t home on Saturday for our return visit and couldn´t make it to church for one reason or another but we´ll see if we can get a hold of them and keep teaching this week that´s coming.  

This coming weeks marks Elder Wade´s last week with us.  On tuesday he´s leaving to go and be a Zone Leader for the last two months of his mission.  It´s exciting for him and it´s going to be good for Elder Cottrell to take up the reins as the financial secretary and do it his own way.  It´s gonna be different with Elder Wade gone and I´m gonna miss him he was honestly one of my favorite companions.  We worked really well together and always got our office things done and made it to the area.  I´m excited for him though to leave and go finish his mission off strong and have the success that he deserves!  It´s fun to meet and have companions that you can keep in contact with after the mission.  With the two I´m with right now it will be really easy because both are going to BYU so there will be plenty of time to catch up and build lasting relationships with them afterwards:)  

To be honest there´s not a ton else to report.  It´s still sunny and I still sweat every single day but I couldn´t love it any more!  I´m having a lot of fun and making sure to balance the fun with the work.  I think that a lot of missionaries get too worried and worked up with being serious all the time and forget that they´re supposed to be themselves and use their personalities to preach the gospel.  I love being here and having the opportunity to spread the good news to the people of Panamá!  

I love you all and hope you have a great week!  Until next Monday:)

Elder Andrew Hawks




Note to Korban:  KORB!!!!!!  You´re 20 what the heck?!  Congratulations man not gonna lie it´s kind of weird that we´re no longer teenagers even though we may still feel/act like it!  Happy Birthday man, really you deserve to have the best day!  Thanks for being one of my best friends for about 16 of those 20 years haha It´s crazy to think that we´ve kept the same group of friends for so long and that we were always so close doing things together and now we´re all doing the same thing just on different sides of the world.  We literally couldn´t be luckier to be doing what we are and having the opportunity to help other people come to know about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  I love you buddy and hope you have a really wonderful birthday:)

Andrew Hawks




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