10 April 2011 - Pedras Area

[I made a comment about Jeffrey's tendency to write in stream of consciousness mode.] It's hard ok, I can't waste my time writing outlines and then proof reading them so they pass your webpost standards, that's why I hired you as my editor. I'll give it a try though

[Michael is not engaged, so apparently he hasn't embraced the counsel of the prophets yet. Michael and Lauren have just two weeks of school left, the funnest part, finals and all that.] Verily Verily, Michael, my beloved brother, has not asked a young lady's hand in marriage yet? Outrageous, simply revolting! He should be aware of his eternal life rather than ponder on this pathetic, secular world. By jove! Finals are a tif are they not? However, after my return I will bring many reputable saints from the Brazilian Catholic community to aid me in my tests in the designated testing areas. I will have to procure a suitable place to light my candles though.

[I missed the special on Christ between General Conference sessions.] There was indeed a special about Jesus Christ in between the sessions on Saturday and surely enough Sunday as well. It was split into 2 ravishing episodes if I do say so myself.

[Hm, there must be some sort of job where you can study history and travel around the world and get paid lots of money for it.] Sadly, after receiving information about the BYU Jerusalem center, my hopes were dashed asunder by the capital required to assist such a fine institution. $10,000!!! (Roughly R$17,000 if I were to assist such a place here in Brazil ) However, I do meet all the other requirements to go. I will just have to find a suitable location to sell my "rubbish" organs that I don't use much.

[Yes, Jesus the Christ does come in a hardbound copy, but most LDS folk are too cheap to buy it. I have a leather-bound scripture-like version, but that is from the prehistoric days of my mission where people didn't have anything else to spend money on.] Is it bound in geniune Mammoth leather, or T Rex leather to match your coin purse?

[Do they know where the Fortaleza temple will be built yet?] Why of course! They have already purchased the land to build the temple! It is in Aldeota, residing near the downtown area of the city, where, in fact, the Mission Office happens to reside as well! It is in the area duly named "Dunas" perhaps because it is near the beach and thus the dunes. I haven't the foggiest though why it has that name to be honest.

I pray for the people in our humble area quite often because, sadly, many don't put much value to the attendance of Sunday church meetings. We teach many people about the Restored Gospel, but, in turn, many of the people don't desire such messages. They simply stop after the 1st lesson. Transfers occurred today and I was blessed enough to remain in the same area, with the same companion as well. So we have precisely 6 more weeks to do our Savior's work here. Things should begin to make a truly miraculous turn aroud however. We were blessed by finding an inactive member that stopped us on the street to ask if the church was functioning (since the building was recently constructed, 2 stories too, I might have already said that). We told her that it was, and we stopped by her house another day. We were surprised to discover that she was already a member. We have been able to teach her children though and to help in get married so that her husband can get married. Things should be rather blissful if all goes well!

And thus ends the tale of Elder Hawkes. The Lord lives and He is our Savior. We can repent for any sin that we may committ. I am sure about that, hand your life over to the Lord and let Him work miracles.

Was that better? I even made paragraphs for you and a conclusion.

3 Apr 2011 - Pedras Area (Mom)

[Asked if he was able to get the sessions of General Conference.] I was able to listen to them this time. I wasn't able to listen to them at all the last time. This time I watched them all live except for the Priesthood session, that one is 7-9  AM  Sunday morning here.

I told Dad that sadly I was probably going to keep going on my history major. The stuff they showed in between sessions was good, and I loved it. I also decided I want to go to the BYU center in Jerusalem :) it's just a dream. They showed the Rome temple too and I had the desire to go visit that place. It would be cool. Ever since I left the US I have had the desire to go and visit places, see historical places, etc. Who knows, they are just desires, they weren't answers to what I should do for a living. [A choir from BYU-I was featured in General Conference.] I recognized a few people from the choir. I'm pretty sure it was the music major choir because all of the people that I saw are music majors but who knows. I saw Evan's sister, she was singing. Evan writes to me every week so I talk to him a bit. He was complaining that he needs to get married now, along with Michael and Sean :)

3 Apr 2011 - Pedras Area (Dad)

[No more BYU sports news for a while.] Make sure you keep me up to date on the BYU cricket matches at least ;)

[General Conference.] I got to watch it this time, all the sessions in English. Nobody drove their truck into the power lines this year. The times are just a bit later, 1-3 pm and 5-7 pm my time. Priesthood is 7-9 AM on Sunday morning. It's good to watch it in English because you can appreciate the jokes they tell and it's easier to understand how much they want you to get married jeeze.. I hope Michael has gotten engaged already. The last thing missionaries want to hear is how much we need to get married, everybody was groaning. Saturday was a blast from the past since the BYU-I choir sang and they showed the new conference center there. (Man there goes my old job, one of the main parts was putting up/taking down chairs for the weekly devotionals in the Gym.....dang) I saw a few people that I knew from the choir, and FHE sister, a girl I use to talk to in my Math class, I saw Evan's sister too. I LOVED the special they had about Christ in between the sessions, if I wanted to be poor and only get work from generous donations from members I too would probably be a Professor of Ancient Scripture ;) I think I have decided that I will continue my history major though, I just can't get enough of it. They showed pictures of Rome too, and I wanted to visit Italy, I just want to travel and learn more! I've decided that I'm going to the BYU center in Jerusalem too ;) That would be the coolest thing ever. I started reading Jesus the Christ for the 3rd time too ;) I was wondering if they have real Jesus the Christ books or just these ghetto paper back ones.

Conference was good. I have repented of my youthful ignorance and follies, like Joseph Smith did. Conference seemed soooo long back in the day, now that I want to soak up every word it passed by so fast. I have sent out a few marriage proposals too so don't worry about that. It's nice when they are thankful for the missionaries too, yep that's me!! I have some news, I don't know how reliable it is, but the temple here looks like it will be completed....never :) Some say 2014-15. It was a good conference though, I loved it. When Thomas S Monson was prefacing the Rome temple, giving a few hints, talking about it was in a special place etc etc one of the missionaries screamed "No way they are going to build a temple in Jerusalem!!!" what a goof. I really like Dallin H. Oaks talk about desire, it's all important as a missionary. You can go and teach people and do the right things, but desire will make you so much more effective. I loved the story he told about the Korean War too, because I like war and because it was a roundhouse drop kick upper cut to the jugular. He was talking about how he gave up his own comfort etc so he could save everyone one of his 'boys' Then I realized that is what I need to do. I should have the desire to do anything for these people because I will see them in heaven and they will wonder why I gave up so easily or why I didn't want to talk to them etc. I like Jeffrey R. Holland, he is my all-time favorite. He does have the best name too, but he is soo powerful. I have every talk I could find of him on my pendrive :) He gave us an undeniable witness of our prophet and a timeless reminder of the importance of General Conference. It was a good end to a terrible week. We have been working our fingers to the bone, teaching teaching, and just when we stopped teaching...we taught some more. Sadly, all of the people we taught this week have already told us they don't want to talk to us anymore. That is the summary of my transfer so far,  it's heart breaking. The beginning of this week, we taught a WONDERFUL family, the same people we helped move...and destroyed their furniture ;) The spirit was so strong and I knew this was an elect family. Unfortunately, the husband kept ducking down or running away from his balcony when he saw us etc. It took us awhile to find him at home and when we talked to him he said he didn't want to give up work so he could go to church. He didn't have the courage to do it. I was crushed, this family was perfect in my sight. I felt during other experiences that they were blessed. I walked the streets sad, and I got home sad. I prayed for this family, I still do. I poured out my heart, but I was a little bitter I guess. I then had an indescribable spiritual experience, maybe one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. The moral of the story is don't let silly things keep you from entering the kingdom of God, just give them up and show faith in the Lord. I don't know what I was supposed to learn from this, but at least I received a powerful witness of the Spirit. God is mysterious, but He is plain and clear in His commandments.

28 Mar 2011 - Pedras Area (Dad)

Well it is heartbreaking that BYU didn't make it. It will also be heartbreaking to tell my kids that I didn't see one single second of the best season that BYU ever had (yes ever ;) ) Oh well :) I'll connect somehow the fact that I went to BYU-Idaho was just like being there rooting for the team. I agree if Jimmer doesn't win [player of the year], he should go play basketball in Mexico or something. They will appreciate him there, and we will lots of tamales!

I don't have much time to write, because everyone decided to write sermons to me today. [I'm not sure I fathomed the full depth of your poetic revelation, but what you're doing certainly qualifies you for a bigger mansion.] The poetic revelations was obvious. The more you work on your mission the greater your mansion is. Obviously fat people will need a bigger mansion so they can roll/wiggle around too. [I told him about the group date Michael, Lauren, and Amanda went on.] Lauren told me about the date, she said she went so Michael would get out of the house. [You might want to pass up that dirt water you mentioned though and stick with reasonably pure soda. It may rot your teeth, but at least it won't test your intestines.] I drink sooo much soda here, and I never want to drink it again. They have those huge water tanks we use to get that you flip upside down. Most houses have that, most don't. They are clever though because they put juice mix in to take the edge off of the dirt flavor so you don't even notice. Maybe my stay at the Marriott this Saturday was because of that (Marriott is what we called the outhouses at Philmont, maybe it's widely popular who knows.) It probably was :) but it's all in the memories. My companion almost died too as we helped some investigators move furniture. They had a huge cabinet/entertainment center and four 20ish year old people were in charge of moving it....so we tied it up and lifted it up on a pulley. Then at the top it broke in half and the bottom part all fell and broke from the 2nd story apartment. It was funny. Nobody was under it though. I have to write my other adoring fans, so this will have to suffice until next time.

28 Mar 2011 - Pedras Area (Mom)

[I fully expected that Michael, being in Thailand, would see more poverty because I associated Thailand with India. But you are by far experiencing the poverty thing more.] I don't know what poverty Michael experienced, but I have seen some legit poverty :) Oddly downtown is worse than the countryside. I have seen houses smaller than your master bathroom, but they smell like pee and dead animals. All the sewage is open here and it just runs down the street. When it rains, it just goes everywhere. The "middle class" here is deep south ghetto poor in the US. It's cool though, it's easier to teach people though because they all live in the same small house. I can't even explain the poverty of some people, but there are a lot of houses (just made out of bricks) that are nice and decent. It just depends on where you go. [I was wondering what Heavenly Father has in mind. It may be that you will be salary challenged in your life.] I'm glad that you think that this means I will be doomed to poverty for the rest of my life :) My patriarchal (I don't remember how to spell it in English) blessing says that I will have enough to give generously. Who knows, I don't know that's for sure. [Speaking of money, how come you run out of your allowance?] I run out of allowance the same reason you have a tight paycheck and the same reason everyone else does :) I don't even remember what exactly you are talking about. I probably didn't actually run out 100% but I just couldn't spend as much. [Are you giving your companions/ investigators some?] Heck no, I need my money, I wouldn't give it to my investigators! Besides we aren't supposed to do that. ;) I get money every 2 weeks so I was probably exaggerating. I know I have a debit card, but I'm not going to spend my own hard earned money to buy bread and cookies on my mission! [I love you, and am so happy that you are soaking up all the experience that you can.] I hope I soak it up, I hope I never forget :) I try hard but sometimes my mind isn't 100% in the work. I am working harder than I ever have in my life right now, honestly 16 hours a day. Maybe not because of me, but because of my companion but I'll get there someday. I don't like to think about the end because I want to change so much, but it's hard to know if I am really changing. But I'll keep chugging along.

21 Mar 2011 - Pedras Area (Dad)

This week was a week of exploration. We had lunch in the depths of our area, in the wilderness of Ceará. It's a green wilderness for now until the winter comes and the rain stops. It was just a bunch of underbrush and palm trees. I got to see some mountains though. The chapel is a 2-story chapel, so I got a good view of the mountains and took a picture. It's a refreshing site seeing mountains without snow, and full of palm trees I suppose. One day for lunch we got off waaaay too early so we had to walk for a long time through the wilderness. As the famous saying goes, every man must walk miles on a road running through the middle of the wilderness in Ceará, in the BLAZING sun, at least once in his life. By golly I did it and now I'm a man. To pass the time, and keep my hopes up, (your attitude is what keeps you alive when you are trapped on an island, mountain, long road) I was thinking and pondering. Then all of the sudden I was hit with poetic revelation. This is what I came up...."The sweatier missionary walked farther, worked harder...or he's just fat; either way his mansion in heaven needs be larger." Feel free to send that to Church Headquarters to print in the Missionary Planners. Man I'm a stud. There may be some of you that don't get it, but that's because it's divine poetry. Anyway, it wasn't really that bad. All the walking made the food and dirt water taste better anyways. The Lord has blessed us a lot this week. we have been having a hard time getting people to come to church, but this week, after more hard work, we were able to get 13 people at church. That's 4 times more than we had last week. One of the families was an accident. We walked up to a door, gate really, and realized it was the wrong house. It was too late though because we had already clapped (that's how you "knock" a gate door) and the people were already staring at the two mormons madly flipping through their planners for the right address. They caught us... so using my wit and charm I pretended like this was just the house we were looking for. They weren't fooled though, so we just talked to them and they invited us in. The message went well. The miraculous part was that they actually went to church and the people we were looking for wanted nothing. It may not seem like a miracle to ya'll, but we have been working hard 16 hours a day for 3 weeks just to get 3 people at church every week. So one more family is always good. It may also seem like we just knocked the wrong door and got lucky. I don't think so though, the Lord helps us in mysterious ways!!

21 Mar 2011 - Pedras Area (Mom)

[On Tuesday the Elders came for dinner. On Thursday the Hansons came for dinner and games. On Saturday we spent the night with the Andersens.] It's good here, the time is flying by. The 16 hour work days are starting to take affect after 9 months, but I'll make it. Sometimes I miss the sleep though. Those lucky American missionaries getting good American meals ;) Is the dinner and games a regular thing now? Is it one of Austin's Duty to God to help 2 old people cope with life ;) My bad I'm sorry. Soak up the wonderful college sports for me Mom. I'll be back someday, and I'll be watching them someday :) Do Michael and Lauren see each other at school or anything? [The lesson in RS was on charity. People always associate charity with service, but charity is a state of mind, and when you feel charity, the pure love of Christ, then you will feel the desire to serve. I think there is more to charity than service.] Well if you have charity you have to do so much more than help people. After all, the definition of charity is the pure love of Christ. Not the hard work and service of Christ. Well that's my 2 centavos.

I will be needing some BBQ sunflower seeds for my birthday ;) My companions think that I am weird for eating seeds but whatever. It would be nice if you sent deodorant too, Old Spice pure sport. The deodorant is spray here, so it just makes you smell good but it doesn't do much to the sweat. TE AMO