If You Love Them Let Them Go 10/31/16

Que paso? (What’s Up/Happening?) Well first off this week has been super good! Referring to the title, my companion got transferred to Matamoros. I stayed in the same area and I met my new trainer today! His name is Elder Muñoz (see picture). So far he has been amazing. The first thing we did was clean the whole house. He is super obedient from what I have noticed. I am super excited, he told me today that there is no such thing as a bad area. It’s just the attitude of the missionary. He is so awesome. He speaks no English which is going to be a struggle, but I am excited to be able to learn Spanish faster. He is from the state of Chiapas and is super cool. He has a year in the mission and we are going to do great things in this area!

As far as Halloween here lots of the churches here say that it is of the devil so they can’t go out, but lots do. There are people here that dress up as clowns and try to kidnap people but the drug lords and all the bad people are going around kidnapping all the adults dressed as clowns. Haha it kind of reminds me of Hells Angles the biker gang.

It has been super super hot. It rained a lot one day so today and yesterday was super hot, but all the people are telling us that the cold is coming.

This week I want to tell a story, in the most missionary appropriate way. I almost had an accident. We had just finished eating a super super good meal and we were walking the 30 minute walk back to our house. Of course about half way through me and my companion had to go to the bathroom. Oh man and when I said we had to go to the bathroom I mean that my two greatest desires in my life at that moment were to use the restroom and to find people to teach. I was walking as fast as my body would allow and then I saw a different path and for some reason decided to take it. It lead us through this giant flea market and took so long to find a way out. By the time we got out I could not handle it anymore. I decided that we were going to use the rest of my money for the week and take a taxi home. We ran to a line of taxis’ and jumped in the first one. As soon as I sat down and paid the driver the need to use the restroom was gone. So mad haha. I just used the rest of my money to take the taxi and now I didn’t even need it. Turns out that the taxi driver was an investigator of an elder who taught him the beginning of his mission but when the elder left the area he lost contact with the church. We gave him the number of the missionary and he called him. He was so excited to go to church that next week. I know that we were more or less forced to that taxi. I love the church and all the cool experiencias we are having. I love you guys.

Elder Hawley!

Fall Weekend A Letter To Elder Hawley 10/30/16

Hey Elder,

I cannot believe how fast Sundays come. The weeks seem to be flying by. How was your week? Do they seem to be going fast for you too?

It will be Halloween when you read this so BOO...Happy Halloween! Is Halloween celebrated in Mexico like it is here?

It was a busy week for us with all the Fall festivities going on and the last week of 1st term already. Megan worked at the ranch all week and long hours for the Fall Festival. She had a date Friday and carved pumpkins. She also went on a date to an EFY conference Saturday. She wanted me to tell you that Brad Wilcox spoke and taught to "Act and not React". She also liked the acronyms that were taught for GOSPEL-Godhead, Only true church (we have all the piano keys), Spirit, Priesthood, Everyone-it's for everyone, Living prophets.

Malia had her orchestra concert and Miles had his school pajama party in his classroom. Mom was able to help with that which was fun. Saturday was crazy busy. Miles attended a birthday party for Will Hoeksel who turned 6. After that we had the Hawley family Halloween party. We sure missed you there. Everyone asked about you and said they enjoy reading your letters/pictures and get a kick at the titles you name your letters. After the family party, we had the ward party that dad and mom helped at. Dad made root beer and mom made chili. It was a good turn out and all the food was gone. We were all warn out. Miles said, "Wow three parties in one day!"

Today was Malachi's farewell. He gave a great talk. He spoke about all his friends his age and you and your age group who went on missions and how that was part of his decision. He knew that it was his time to serve his mission. He also talked about how right after high school he didn't know what he wanted in life and got so sick of everyone asking him if he was going to go on a mission. He just stopped going to church for a while. He knew it wasn't the best decision but he said the Lord didn't give up on him. He enjoyed attending the U though.

Mom learned about JOY in relief society today. We should think of Jesus first, Others next, then Yourself.

Dad says, "I had some training before stake conference. Thought I would pass it along to you. We talked about the parable of the lost sheep. You are probably familiar with the painting of Christ holding the little lamb in a peaceful meadow.  If you read the parable closely they went in search of a lost sheep in the wilderness, a dangerous place. The shepherd went in search of a sheep not a lamb. He threw the sheep over his shoulders not cradled in his arms.  The sheep was no doubt wounded or hurt (that is why it was carried). Rescuing sheep is hard, dangerous work. Carrying a heavy wounded sheep out of the dangerous wilderness is no small task. That is what you are doing. It's hard work, but the rewards are out of this world."

Here is a scripture for this week that goes along with our letter. Ezekial 34:11-13

"...I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered...And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries..."

Can't wait to hear about your week!

We Love You, Pray for You Always, your companion, and the people of Mexico.

Love, Your Family

In the Desert of My Afflictions 10/24/16

Haha the title of this week relates to the climate of Reynosa, my experiences, and the photo attached.

Well this week has been a rollercoaster of a week, lots of trials. I learned that the area I am in is one of the hardest areas in Reynosa which comforts me a little bit, but its still so hard. I went on an exchange with one of the assistants named Elder Mullins. He is from Orem, Utah and he leaves this week. He taught me some awesome things and really changed my point of view on things. He was in my same area at about 1 year into his mission. and he told me that this area was the only area that he didn’t have any baptisms. We have a saying when things are going bad and stuff just kind of stinks, “well at least we have our health”. This week was a trial of my patience. I read in Preach My Gospel that it is one of the most important traits to have, so I decided to try to be more patient not only with the people of Reynosa but also with myself. We had appointments fall through, grandmas yell at us, and drunk guys crashing their bikes into us, but I tried in every moment to have patience. At the end of the week we found almost 10 people that are super cool. It was honestly an answer to my prayers. In Alma 31:31 it talks about patience a lot and it is super great. I know that if we rely on the Lord he will strengthen us in our times of trials. Like the family of nefi (spelling in Spanish) in the desert of their afflictions, if we are faithful we will make it to the promised land.

This week I ordered a corn on the cob in the street from a little cart. It was so good. He put it in a cup for me haha I dont know why but he did. It was delicious. It had peanuts and other stuff and was super spicy. Also it rained a ton and is finally cooling down a little here. Miracles really do happen! Also the one picture is one of the members house. It is an old abandoned warehouse. He just lives there with a ton of dogs and guards it. But boy can he cook.

Love you all! Elder Hawley!

Stake Conference A Letter To Elder Hawley 10/23/16

Hi Elder, How have you been? Was your week more positive than the last week? How has the weather been there? Any cooler? Utah's weather has been the perfect Fall weather. Perfect 70's during the day and cool at night. All the leaves are falling. Our big tree in the backyard has lost all of its leaves so we have been raking and raking. It was a short week for school as it was UEA weekend. Megan, Malia, Miles, and Mom went to Gardner Village (see pictures) on Friday and did a treasure hunt with clues to find witches. We ate at Cup Bop and thought of you. Afterwards we went to a movie and saw Storks. It was a fun-filled day.

We had stake conference over the weekend. It was pretty awesome. Miles got to shake an area seventy's hand and told him he had a big brother serving a mission in Mexico. The area seventy (we don't know how to spell his name) spoke about the Abrahamic covenant. The Lord promised Abraham he would bless all the human family through Abraham's seed. That's why we are here in this place at this time. To this purpose we were born. Mitch, you are a son of God. It is his work. Do your best, that is your offering then let him bless the people of Mexico through you. It is fulfilling the covenant he made with Abraham. This is why you have the priesthood. In Nephi 14:14 it talks about the last days and the war between good and evil. We are outnumbered but we have God on our side. In the end God will be victorious. It's just whether or not we are going to have a part in the victory. President Hill talked about the difference between knowing "about" Christ and knowing Christ. Megan really liked his talk. Megan says that you are doing good, keep it up, and she loves and really misses you. She has been busy working at the ranch for the Fall Festival. She has been dating a guy named Tyson. Malia is looking forward to this week and her orchestra concert Wednesday. She has been practicing on Smart Music. Haha good memories, huh? Miles pulled his loose tooth out tonight and is so excited. He said, "It didn't even hurt". It was literally just hanging on. He had fun on our family hike we went on today up North Canyon. We pray for you daily. God bless you. We Love You! Love, Your Family

Video From Mexico Reynosa Mission FaceBook Page

Who Forgot to Fill the Baptismal Font 10/17/16

First thing I want to do is tell you a story. It is about a wonderful baptism we had this last week and how the Lord performs miracles. We had a baptism of someone the sister missionaries taught in our district and as we were setting up chairs one of the sister missionaries ran in and was kind of freaking out. She asked us if we had filled up the font....(cricket sounds). Nobody filled it up. Oh man. So we ran to the place to turn it on and we found out that it normally takes almost 3 hours to fill it up. We didn’t know what to do. Then I was like well we’ve got to try something. I ran with my companion. We started to fill up buckets and ran them down the hall and dump them in. After like 2 minutes I was soaked in sweat and I didn’t know what to do because it wasn’t really working. We decided to pray. We said a prayer and then said we would go as hard as we could for 30 minutes. If it wasn’t close or kind of the bishop said he was going to cancel the baptism. I really didn’t want that to happen. So we kept going. We were filling buckets in the sink in the bathroom and the janitor closet and I was running up and down the hall haha. One time I slipped and spilled like half the water on myself. Thirty minutes later the font was almost full. The bishop was like so confused. It was so awesome. I don’t think it was us that really filled it up because we spilled half the water in the hallway, but I know that if we have faith the Lord can work miracles.

The rest of the week was honestly kind of crappy. We had a really good investigator and then she randomly texted us and told us that she didn’t want to talk anymore and have anything to do with us. I was honestly so so sad. We tried calling her and she answered one time and then when she realized it was us hurried and hung up. It was kind of funny because like half way through the question of who is this she realized who it was and just got really quiet then hung up. All you can do is push forward. This happened like 5 more times with other investigators. I wanted to just be done. I think I have prayed more this week than ever before. One day I just felt at peace. And then I felt the spirit so strong.

I’ve seen some giant cockroaches and bugs. Lots of awful dogs. There are just normal types of birds here. Honestly it is just like super super poor United States here more or less and everyone speaks Spanish.  I actually like it a lot. I wouldn’t mind living here because everything is so so cheap like so crazy.

Sorry I didn’t get lots of pictures this week! We were super busy! I will get some good ones next week. The picture attached is a cake we made this week. The symbol is called puro bautismo. It means we just baptized. I also learned this week that this is like the hardest area. The missionaries before us kind of messed it up and so they put us here to start it over.

I know that even in the times of our trials the Lord is with us and will give us strength to push forward. I know the church is true, and that if anyone has a question about anything or lacks a testimony of something, if you work to develop it and do your part, I know that you can know the truth of anything you need.

Love, Elder Hawley

A Letter To Elder Hawley 10/16/16

Hi Elder,

How has your week been? Any easier than last week? Did you get your package yet? I have had many respond to me about your letter last week and the fish head in the soup. So gross but so funny! What experiences and teachings did you have last week good and bad?

Guess what??? Daniel got engaged! Who would have thought he would have been the first of you boys to be getting married. We don't know a date yet, but we are all super excited for him.

Getting updates about our ward missionaries went well today in church. Thank you for the letter you wrote to the ward. Elder Willis is the next to come home. He will be home on Thanksgiving. Elder Despain will be leaving soon from the Provo MTC to go to St. Petersburg, Russia. Oh and Marissa Despain is putting in her papers to go on a mission. Dad has been working with her for a couple of months. So that is pretty cool. Malachi's farewell will be in two weeks already. Dad was invited to go through the temple with he and his family last week. 

Thank you so much for the missionary bear you made at Build A Bear with Kristy. What a surprise it was. I had no idea you went with her. I love surprises. It means so much and of course brings tears every time I hear your voice, but we are so glad to have it. Kristy and I went to a play Friday night and she gave it to me. She told me to make sure I told you she finally gave it to me. She said it took forever to get the badge made on it. It is super cute. It will be put up with the pictures and other things we have put together of you in our missionary display on the piano. 

Dad went with the youth to Cross E Ranch for their activity last week and met everyone you worked with. They all asked about you and said "Hi".

Megan went to Sadies and had a great time! It made up for the last fiasco of a dance she had for Homecoming. There were six couples and one of them was cousin Hayley and her date. 

Malia says she joined a club at school called "Mustang Morale". It is a new club this year. Club members get together to plan activities for the school and help with other things. She also was invited to join the Exel Team for gymnastics. It is not quite the Team competition, it's like a junior competition team. She meets two days a week for two hours each and really likes it.

Miles really likes gymnastics and goes once a week. He wanted me to tell you his school had a fun run on Friday as a school fundraiser. It was like the color fest you went to. They had big bags of chalk dust they threw on each other and ran around the track many times. Parents sponsored and donated money to the school. He said to tell you he was so messy. He had to soak in the bath to get clean. The water was bluish green. It was pretty funny. He also has a very loose front tooth. Hopefully he won't swallow this one haha.

Here is a quote for this week by Elder Marvin J. Ashton: "If we look in to each other's heart and understand the unique challenges each of us faces, I think we would treat each other much more gently, with more love, patience, tolerance, and care. I think that is a good thought for missionaries.

Keep up the great work you are doing. Stay positive and motivated. We are excited to hear how your week was. 

We Love and Miss you Lots!

Love, 

Your Family