June 17, 2013

Family,

Jen and Kylan congratulations on having graduated from Stanford that is so amazing! Stephen you're a big time high school graduate which means that you now have more education than most of the people here in Colon haha bad joke I know.  Thats a lot of fun that you got to see what Colon is like in that t.v. show its pretty amazing to see how poor some of the people are and how content they are living in that state.  It makes me sad that they don't do anything to progress they just stay in their same old ways making ends meet when if they could get some education they could change their future.  

This week was another good one for us in Cativa.  We have a few investigators that we are getting ready for the 28th of June but the key is going to be that they come to church this coming sunday.  If not they will have to wait until July.  I feel like we are falling into the same routine right now so this week we are going to try and spice things up.  Changes are going to be next Wednesday and from what I understand I will be staying here in colon and my companion will have changes so we have to work hard this last week in order to make it a succesful end of the change.

The zone is struggling right now.  There are 3 companionships that dont get along all that well and what always happens is that if they dont get along their work rate goes into the ground.  Its unfortunate and a bummer when they dont get along because the cause is almost always pride and an unwillingness to find compromises.  The more I think about it the more I realize that companionships are like mini marriages (not like the ones in San Fransisco though).  When one of the two wants to dominate the relationship the other gets offended and it doesnt work.  When neither want to make decisions nothing gets done.  But if both can work in harmony and bring together their ideas and forms of doing things there is almost always success.  I think the more time I have in the mission the more I realize how blessed I have been with an ability to get along with almost anyone in almost any situation.  I dont know why its that way but im thankful that the Lord has blessed me with that ability.  

The mission has been an amazing experience and realizing that Im coming down to the last few months just motivates me to work harder and have as much success as possible before going home.  But its amazing how what motivates me now is really being able to help the people come to know Christ because I know that when we know who we are and what He has done for us is when we find the power within ourselves to change and become who he wants us to be.  

Thank you so much for all of your support and love getting your emails every week makes me feel so good and is a great support, comfort and motivation to keep working and making it through the times that arent so easy!  I love you all!

Elder Hawks

June 10, 2013

Mom and Dad thanks a lot for your emails it was great as always to hear from you and know that all is going well in the motherland.  If I´m not mistaken it´s Dad´s birthday this week and then Father´s day is also coming up pretty quick.  Thank you Dad for all that you taught me.  Whether it was in the backyard doing yard work, or coming home late on a Saturday night and seeing you reading your scriptures you've helped me become who I am right now and set an example of what I want to become.  

Wow this week went by way too fast.  Wednesday we had Consejos with all of the other ZL´s in the mission the Ap´s and President Ward.  It was a ton of fun to see a bunch of the boys that I came to the mission with.  While we were there I couldn't stop thinking about how much we've changed and how much the mission has changed in the year and a half that we've been here.  It´s amazing.  We learned a lot and mostly about our responsibility to animate, inspire and motivate the missionaries in our zones.  My companion and I actually were assigned to teach in the meeting which was a fun experience to share a few of the things that have helped us have success in Colón this past month.  I liked the meeting because it filled us with new ideas of things that we can put into practice in the zone in order to have more success and to help the missionaries reach a higher lever of success and efficiency.  

Something that I ate either Tuesday or Wednesday didn't fall right with me so to keep a long, gruesome story full of throw up, diarrhea and accidents in the street short I spent most of Thursday and Friday in my bed recovering.  Ah it was awful and only the second time in my whole mission that I've been sick enough to not leave to work.  It was horrible and to be completely honest really really boring ha-ha.  I´m over it but I think in the space of two days I lost 10 pounds which I will probably gain back in this week ha-ha.  

Saturday we had a baptism.  Her name is Nedelka Gracia and she´s freaking awesome.  She´s 30 years old and has gone through so much in order to make it to her baptism.  It was an awesome day and she was so happy to make the decision.  After being baptized she stood up in front of everyone during the baptismal service and gave her testimony.  It was short and simple but the most important part is that it came from her heart.  Sunday she was confirmed and is now a member of the church of God.  

Things are going well with me and I can´t complain about anything.  I love you all and am so thankful for all of your love and support.  It´s fun being a missionary right now because I finally feel like I have a feeling of what to do and how to do it.  Thank you so much for all of your love and support I love you all!

Elder Hawks

June 4, 2013

Parents,

So thanks so much for all of your emails and love.  It´s so good to hear about Stephen being ordained to the Melchesideck priesthood that´s so awesome.  I´m glad to hear that the selling of the house is going through.  It sounds like there´s going to be a lot more looking done in the next few weeks which will be kind of exciting.  I hope that everything goes well and that we can find a new house quickly. Sorry for not writing until today. Yesterday we literally had no time at all so we had to wait until today in order to be able to do it. 

This week was a good one for us.  We finished the month of May with 18 baptisms in the zone and the fun part is that 7 out of 8 of the companionships had baptisms.  It feels good to know that they were all able to have success.  It´s been interesting to learn all of these lessons about how to deal with people and guide them in such a way that they all have the chance to succeed.  I think the best lesson that I´ve learned is that in this work no matter how weak a missionary is, how disobedient, or how unwilling they are to work every single one has a reason for the way that they are and within each of them is an amazing potential.  I think the hardest thing has been finding out how to help each and every one of the missionaries find the best way for them to have success in there respective areas.  I love the mission and I know that all of the lessons that I learn within this short two year period are going to be important for the rest of my life.  

Ok so this last week in church our ward mission leader(a 19 year old future missionary)  decided to make cards for all of the members to use to write down references for us.  We ended up leaving church with 7 new names of people to work with and through the course of the week went contacting each and every one.  To be honest most of them were pretty worthless haha but the last one that we contacted with was awesome and made of gold.  He´s a 21 year old boy who´s the husband of a member in the ward, he´s married (that´s the biggest miracle) and he wants to be baptized!  We put the fecha with him for the 15th and now it´s looking like we´re going to have baptisms this weekend the 15th and we´re hoping for the 22nd as well but I´ll make sure to keep you all updated weekly on how things go.  

This Saturday we have a baptism of a girl who´s been investigating the church for quite a while.  She´s 30 years old single and has 3 kids one of which is 12 (that´s the culture here they just start early haha) Her name is Nedelka and she can´t wait to be baptised and have all of her sins washed away.  I can´t wait for her baptism it´s going to be awesome.  I´ll make sure to send you pictures.  

Family I love you so much and am so thankful for how much love and support I feel from home.  It´s great to get emails each and every week from all of the people that I love most and are most important to me thank you for everything:)

I love you so much!

Elder Andrew Hawks

May 27, 2013

Mom and Dad,

Thanks a bunch for the emails and the updates on life. It sounds like things in the Hawks home are heating up and getting going for this move! I can hardly believe it and it will be crazy to come home and have all of my stuff in boxes but that´s OK it´s exciting to make changes and to adapt to new situations that challenge and stretch us. This week was a good chance to experience just that.

In our zone we have the privelage of having 4 sister missionaries and one of the companionships is not getting a long at all. They fight, cry, and ultimately don´t work so it´s become a problem. On Tuesday we had interviews with President and a lot of the problems came out but I guess not very many solutions were drawn and throught the course of the week everything just got worse. On Saturday we decided to bring the 4 in and talk to them about what was going on and figure out a few solutions so that this can stop and they can start working again. We ended up having about a 2 hour conversation and figured out a few areas that we can be better. The sad part is that the grand majority of their problems stem from pride and an unability to adapt to their situations and make it work out with their companion but in the end we gave them blessings and they were all hugging and crying together so I think that was a good sign haha.

Saturday afternoon we had our baptism and it worked out awesome. All three of the girls made the decision and were baptized. The little 9 year old girl was so cute and just looked at me when we were all dressed in white and said "we look like angels". Everything worked out perfectly and we ended up having a good amount of support at the baptism especially from the young men and women in the ward which was awesome.

Saturday night we had an activity for couples called "porque te amo". It was really neat because they planned it so that all the couples came dressed up like a prom with a dinner, activites and even dancing. It was a ton of fun and we participated by doing a "sychronized swim" Haha it was awesome and we had 4 couples of investigators come which was awesome. The only issue is that 2 of the 4 aren´t married so this week our goal is to see if we can start that process for them and help them be baptized in June.

Things are going well for me and to be 100% honest I havn´t had time to buy new shoes but I have my pair of brown shoes that we bought before I left that are holding up pretty well. A little bit of money for souveniers is never a bad thing especially since I´m coming down to the last months of my mission and will need to bring stuff home :) I´m fine on clothes and won´t need anything new before I come home so I´m not super worried about that. Thanks again for all of the love and support that you show me and I hope that you know How much I love you. Little Ruby is beautiful and I can´t wait to meet her!

Elder Hawks

May 20, 2013

Mom,

So the changes affected our zone big time but our companionship no.  I´m staying with Elder Aguilar!  Can you believe it I´ve spent almost all of my time with Mexican companions maybe the Lord is trying to teach me something?  So in our zone all of the other 7 companionships had changes which is kind of weird because finally after the 6 weeks of last change we were all coming together and the unity of the zone was looking awesome and now we have to start over from nothing.  It´s fun to see changes though and the new missionaries always come in looking to make a new start, work harder, and be more successful. I love the challenges and opportunities the mission brings to grow and become better you always have to be adjusting and improving or else you get left in the dust.  

That´s some big time news on the house it´s amazing how you can go from nothing to sold in the space of one week.  Not going to lie I was praying that you would be able to sell it quickly so obviously the Lord heard me ;)  That´s exciting and change is almost always a good thing to bring us out of our box make new friends and adapt to new situations!  I can´t wait to come home and give my homecoming talk to a brand new ward:)  

Things here are going well for us.  We had five investigators at church yesterday and three of them were the gals that are going to get baptized on Saturday.  We finally were able to set up an hour and day when all the people they want there can make it so it should be a special day.  I think in the zone for the 25 we have about 12 more people getting baptized and if everything goes how it should every companionship in our zone will have baptized which is amazing and couldn´t make me happier!!  Being a zone leader has taught me that the people who you work with need to have success in order to be truly happy so my job is to do whatever it takes to make sure that they have success.  When they succeed they want to work more and when they work more they have more success.  It´s funny how it all works and the role that we have in helping them become what the Lord wants them to be.  

I love Colon and it´s been a lot of fun to serve here and get to learn new things about Panama and the mission.  We have our interviews with President Ward on Tuesday and I´ll be sure to ask him and sister Ward about when I´m coming home so that you can have a better time frame.  I love you all so much and am so grateful for your love and support!  I´m so happy for Courtney and Jason for bringing little Ruby into the world she looks adorable!!!  Mom my retainer broke and I don´t really know what to do...I think you have the mold of my teeth that you could run into Doctor Skanchy´s office to have a new one made that you could send to me but if that´s not possible I´m not quite sure what to do!  Let me know what you guys decide to do.  Thank you for writing me every week and always sharing ideas on how to improve.  I´ve noticed that sharing stories is always a powerful way to help people feel the spirit.  If you think about it the restoration of the gospel is a story about a young man who had a question.  Thanks for all that you do and we´ll talk to you next Monday:)

Elder Hawks

May 6, 2013

Momma,

thanks for your emails and all of the pictures it´s a baby having fest out there what the heck happened?  Good luck everyone that´s pregnant I´ll be praying that all goes well with everyone.  5 de Mayo has no significance here and even my Mexican comp forgot about it haha.  To celebrate I made an orange freeeze for the family that we ate with last night and they loved it.  Everyone was amazed at how sipmle and delicious and simple it was.  Hopefully they liked it.  Afterwards that lady asked if she could have the bottle to make a food storage container and it made me think of mom and all the food storage we have down in our basement.  We´re really blessed in this area to have awesome members that bless us with food and their support.  All of sudden we´re starting to receive references and things are moving forward. 

On Saturday we´re going to have 3 baptisms and the rest of the zone is going to add 16 more.  I think it´s going to be a really special week and I can´t think of any time in my mission that I´ve seen a zone do something like that so as you can imagine I´m proud of the chavos and chavas from our zone!  I love to see them have success and it makes me almost as happy as when I´m having success it´s funny how that works.   

Wednesday we had consejos with all of the other ZL´s from the mission and it was great it was just what I needed to hear in order to help myself as a leader and the zone.  They talked a lot about how as ZL´s we have responsibility for all of the missionaries, areas, and investigators in our zone and making sure that they progress and can baptize.  We set a goal in our zone that all 8 companionships can baptize and so now we have to do all we can as their leaders to help them meet the goal.

I love this work even when it rains and I get pooped on by birds haha.  I´ll send you the picture.  Things are really chugging a long and I couldn´t be happier.  Thanks for the suggestion dad and it´s so true.  We´re trying to do activities in the chapel because when they get to know it and where it is they feel more comfortable coming and participating in things that we do there. 

I´m not going to send a big long email cause we´re going to talk on Sunday.  I´m going to call probably about 2 in the afternoon here (I´m not sure what time that is at home haha) and we can chat some more there.  It would be cool to hook up like we did last time so that I can talk to some of the other chavos from the family. I love you all and will call you during the week to let you know all the details! 

Andrew Hawks

April 29, 2013

Family and Friends,

Mom first of all it´s obvious that you made dad work way too hard on Saturday the poor guy looks demolished!!  Thanks for the update on the house and all the changes that are coming.  For mother´s day we´re probably going to call on the sunday of in the afternoon.  Hermana Noris offered us her computer and is excited about having us over, I´m not completely clear on what time it´s going to be at but as you know I´ll call you a few days in advance to let you know all the specifics.  It will be fun to get to talk to you all and find out more about all the changes that are going on in the Hawks home.  Dad it sounds like your change in work will be refreshing and should help you generate some new energy to keep moving forward!

Speaking of change our zone is in need of a little bit of it.  In 6 of the 8 companionships we have missionaries that have been here since before Christmas and for some reason or another their desires to work has gone down the drain.  We finished April with only 3 baptisms in the whole zone and not going to lie it´s been a HUGE disappointment.  I feel like as the Zone Leader I´m responsible but something that I´m learning is that all we can do as leaders is teach correct principles, give the example and then they have to fulfill their parts and assignments.  We´re going to have our meeting with all the other Zone leaders in the mission on Wednesday and we should be able to get some new ideas on how to help our zone lift up and have a great month in May.  

Things for us are turning around and looking up.  Our area is pretty big and a challenge we have is covering the whole area and visiting our investigators consistently which means that they can´t progress the way that they need to.  We have the blessing though of having a lot of returned missionaries and future missionaries in our ward so what we´re going to do is work with them and try to do divisions three times a week and work with for of us in the area so that we´re 4 instead of just 2 and that way we can double our efforts and see twice as many people in our area.  Also we´ve started english classes and noches de grupo in the ward to get them animated and to generate some references as well.  It´s fun to be winding down the mission but frustrating because I feel like I´m finally getting a hold on how to work, teach, and do this thing and my times ticking away.  I know that all I can do is make these last 6 months the most effective and successful months of my mission.  

Our ward is amazing and is helping us out a lot right now.  I´ve found that the people here want to work the key is just simply asking for their help.  A lot of times we put excuses for them and just assume that they won´t be able to leave and do visits with us when in reality if we just ask they´re more than happy to and actually waiting for us to ask for their help.  Yesterday we did divisions with 2 of the returned missionaries in our ward and it went really well we were able to contact a few references, visit our investigators and then invite more people to be baptized and church.  When the members of the church leave the compromise instead of us it´s a lot more powerful and the investigators feel more committed to actually follow through with them.  

Things here are going really well and I´m being blessed by the Lord I can see it every single day.  I love being here and love having the chance to be a part of this grand work that God is doing and couldn´t feel more privelaged than to be here in Panama.  There´s nowhere I´d rather be!!  I love all of you and am looking forward to getting to skype with you on Mother´s day.  After that phone call the next time I talk to everyone will be when I get home how crazy is that?!  Have a great week and Courtney I´ll be sure to pray for you these next few weeeks as you get ready to bring little Ruby in to the world!

Mucho Amor,

Elder Andrew Hawks