The Letter Hiatus has ENDED!!!!!

The letter hiatus is officially over.

Hoots wrote the first letter in a month or so last week.  I didn't get a chance to post it, so here it is. 

Haden also wanted me to post a few updates on some past people that he has mentioned:

Jose Luis, Isaac and Andres all from his first ward in Granjas have received the priesthood.  He is happy that even after he has left he is having an impact on those people's lives. 

Below is last week's letter.  I will post this week's letter ASAP.

Hey guys. Well sorry that I have been pretty lazy for about....what?....five weeks?  I have had to figure myself out a little bit more. This work is tough and the past five weeks have been especially tough. I thought that I had hit the point where I was good enough.  I soon came to find out that there isn't a point like that. This area has been hard. But now its starting to pick up. We have been working like dogs and have some great people that we are teaching. I'll tell you about a few.

We have this one lady named Adriana. She is so awesome. She is like 27 and has a little boy named Emilio. We are teaching her and her mom but her mom is working a lot lately and hasn't really had time to listen to us. But when we started we got to teach both of them.  Her mom is awesome too.  About two or three weeks ago we put a date for her to be baptized, that date was the 25th.  Once we set it she said "I don't think that I will get an answer that fast."  We said that if she read and prayed that she would and she would be ready. Unfortunately, we didn't end up baptizing her yesterday but she was ready.  It's been more difficult for her though because of other reasons. One big reason is that nobody in her family would have been able to come to the baptism, even so she keeps stressing to us that she knows it's true and she wants to be baptized. Before I came on my mission everyone told me that these people down here are special. They receive answers from God that are really strong. She has told us about some dreams that she has that are really special. It's funny with her I don't feel like I have really done anything. We have only shared the lessons and that's about it. She was so prepared to hear and to change that it was easy for us. Her new baptism date is set for April 7th.

Next we have a funny guy named David Sanchez. He is funny.  We met him because we were walking past him and I could see him kind of looking at me. We got a little past and I felt like we had to turn around and talk to him. So we turned around and started talking to him.  He told us that he had a Book of Mormon and has read a lot of it and that he understands it well.  That made it easy for us.  We taught him some lessons and now his baptism date is set for April 16th.

So I know you all heard about the earthquake. It was pretty big. For us we were in the street sitting down so it wasn't that scary. But I definitely felt it.  First we were sitting there and I felt weird, almost like I was on a boat in the middle of the ocean. And David like jumped up and started grabbing his hair and was like freaking out.  It was so funny.  But I really just thought I was passing out.  I was thinking "dang I am thirsty and all...but really?"  I even turned to my companion and told him I thought I was passing out.  Haha...funny stuff.   But overall it wasn't that bad here. People here were definitely freaking out more than they needed to. But you know how they are.

The only sucky thing about the earthquake is that the water pipe broke for the city. We took a shower Thursday morning and didn't take another shower till Sunday in the afternoon. We were pretty nasty. Once I got that shower on Sunday morning the first thing I did was change my sheets because they were pretty gross too. 

We also have a lot of other great people.

On March 11th, we had a baptism with a man named Nestor. He is a great guy. We only taught him for about three weeks before he got baptised. He was super prepared for it. We met him in the street and he told us to stop by his house that next Sunday and he would go to church with us.  We told him we would be there at 7:40 so to be ready. Well we ended being a little later, like 7:43, and he was on the corner of his street, whatever you want to call it waiting for us. I was so happy and smiling. He got baptised and wants so bad for his wife and his son to listen. But they are being a little stubborn. Hopefully one day.

I don't know what else to say. I will try to write more often so I wont have to think back for the last six weeks. These have definitely have been the hardest six weeks of my mission, more then I ever thought it would be. But i know my Heavenly Father will protect me. Just have to have faith.....right?

I miss you guys so much. All of you. If you don't think I miss you you are crazy. Haha, I especially miss golf and the Lakers. And the angles are going to win the world series this year and so that is about it.

I love my work here. Even though I feel at times completely lost like I cant do anything to be happy and that I am all alone. I don't know where I would be without this. And I wouldn't change it for the world. All the people here are amazing and time is absolutely flying bye. But I will work until my absolutely my last day here. It is so fulfilling when you see people lives change and to know that if you didn't talk to them then they wouldn't have the opportunity to feel that same joy. Its amazing how things work.

I love you all and miss you all. Go Lakers. Till next week

Haden