Jan 5, 2015 Letters from Mexico

On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 10:01 AM, Amy wrote:

Dear Elder S. Hackleman,

I have a favor to ask you. I have been on one of my remodel kicks painting and beautifying our house. Anyway, I wanted to update some family photos for above the tv so I need a recent picture of you. I want to make a poster of all you boys that is more or less matching. I was wondering if you would have someone take a picture of you and email it to me?

So, how are things in Mexico? We are trying to get back into the swing of things. The Christmas break was sure nice, but school starts back up today, so my break is over. Everyone is back to our regular schedule now.

What is new with you? Monday is my favorite day, because it is the day I get to hear from my boys!

Love,

Mom

Hey mommysma! que tal? So I will get that picture taken and send it to you next week ok? I do have a few pictures to send so I will send them after this. Thank you for sharing your temple goals with me. I am grateful for all of the opportunities I had to go to the temple before I went on my mission. I’m so glad I got to go so often because I can’t go now, but I agree with Jaren. I think many times missionaries get so caught up with baptismal numbers that they forget the most important part of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is our purpose as missionaries, To invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and PERSEVERING TO THE END. That means in no way do we finish with baptism. We are commanded in 2 Nephi, multiple chapters in Alma, all over the bible and many more in The Book of Mormon, that we must continue to put our lives in harmony with Christ if we want to receive eternal life in the kingdom of God. The temple is a perfect way to measure how we are doing with that fifth part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If we are worthy to enter the house of the Lord, we can know that we are on the right path. If not, well at least we know what we need to Drop Out Of Our Lives in order to put our lives back in harmony with Him. As a missionary, this is one way to motivate me to help people strive for that goal after baptism because I can go to the temple with my converts during the last year of my mission if they perserverar hasta al fin.

Ok random question, where did Tanner Beck go on his mission? I can’t remember what part. I might have an investigator for him haha.

Ok I have a story for you. I have a firm testimony in the spirit of the First Vision of Joseph Smith. I have never ever spoken or listened to the first vision without feeling the spirit, and this story is evidence of that. The first vision is:

I saw a pillar of light, exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. When the light rested upon me, I saw to personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name, and said pointing to the other, this is my beloved son, hear Him. (If you would like to read the unedited version of this quote you can find it at: www.lds.org/topics/joseph-smith/testimony?lang=eng)

Sorry if a few of those words are off. I haven’t said it in English forever so I was translating it from Spanish so I hope I got it right. Anyways we found this guy a couple of days ago who owns a little bread shop that he sells out of a window in his humble house. He was extremely nice and graciously accepted to hear our message. He couldn’t stop working at the time of our first lesson so he continued making bread as we talked with him and his wife. (The bread is amazing by the way, not that that is important to the story though.) We talked with him about the message of the restoration which begins with explaining what a prophet is and how we can be blessed when we follow the prophet. We also explained the life of Jesus Christ and how he established his church on the earth. We finished our first lesson with the great apostasy and asked if we could come back another day when he was less busy to explain how the church was restored on the earth. He said he would love to talk more. (He was Catholic so we were very surprised). So we returned on Saturday night to talk with him. Here is the amazing part, when I finished reciting the first vision (not sure if you care but this is what it is in Spanish),

Vi una columna de luz, mas brillante que el sol. directamente arriba de me cabeza. y ésta luz, gradualmente descendió hasta descansar sobre mi. al reposar sobre mi la luz, vi en el airre arriba de mi a dos personajes, cuyo fulgor y gloria no admiten descripcion. uno de ellos, me habló, llamandome por mi nombre, y dijo señalando al otro, este es mi Hijo amado, Escuchalo!

When I finished that, he started crying. Preach my gospel always teaches that as missionaries, we shouldn’t be afraid of silence. I have come to absolutely love silence in lessons because it means that they are feeling the spirit, so I just sat there and waited. After a while he began to tell us why he was crying. He said that he has always had dreams. Not just any dream, dreams about his life. He said he had a dream about his cousin dying in an accident and a few months later his cousin died the exact way he saw it. So he prayed to ask God to take it away from him because he didn’t want to see the bad things like that. He never had another dream until a year ago, when he was living in a different town close by here in a different house. He told us he had a dream that he was in a completely different house, selling bread out of his window and that in his house were two men, he thought to be about 20 years old, in white shirts and ties. They were from a different country. Both of them and they were sharing a message of Christ. They wanted to share a message about how he can receive more blessings of peace and comfort in his life.

The house that was in his dream, is the same house he lives in now and we are the same two people from another country he saw in his dream. He told us the reason he didn’t tell us about this before was because he didn’t think we would believe him, but when he found out that we believe people like Joseph Smith had visions, he trusted that we wouldn’t make fun of him or anything and realized that because of this, the information we had to share was one hundred percent true.

So many things about this story touched my heart. First off, he is probably the most humble man I have ever met. Second, we obviously found him at the right time and in the right place, which is proof that God prepares his children to hear His word. I have been in this area for almost four months now and never talked with him before with my other companion but Elder Martinez is from Mexico so that wouldn’t have been the right time. It’s amazing isn’t it?

OK one more story really quick. This one is kind of a goofy story. So many words in Spanish sound similar and you have to be careful because they might have completely different meanings. For example in the MTC, I accidently said Jesucristo murió por nuestros pescados. The word Pecado is sin. But Pescado is fish so I accidently said jesus christ died for our fish not sins. Oops! Anyways this morning I was talking with one of the other elders about who we were going to wash our clothes with. The lady we usually do it with was sick so I told him I didn’t want to bug her. The word for Bug, or annoy, in Spanish can be very rude if said in English.  I didn’t even realize I accidently said a word in Spanish until he started laughing because obviously that word isn’t a very good word choice in English. The joys of trying to speak two languages.

Ok that is all for now! I will send some pictures though! I don’t have many but I do have one with me and my comp.

Love You All!!!!!!

Elder Hackleman

On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 6:43 AM, Tim wrote:

Dear Elder S Hackleman,

How was your week? You can write one long email to your mom if you want, so that you can save time. Hopefully you have your camera working again. We love to see pictures of you and hear your stories, Peanut. I miss you a lot, but the excitement for you and knowing all the wonderful things you're accomplishing makes everything all better. Did you ever hear back from Mrs. Renschie?

All is well here. It's super cold and we're starting to get a little snow. The National Championship for college football is set. Oregon crushed Florida State and Urban Meyer and his Ohio State team came from behind to beat Alabama. So next weekend is Oregon vs. Ohio State for the championship.

Your mom has been doing projects around the house over the holidays. It's looking really nice. She refinished the dining room table and chairs and we stained a lot of our wood in the living room to a darker color. It looks really good!

Anyway, I am so proud of you! Keep working hard.

¡Ámele hijo!

Papá

ps. Tomorrow is Uncle Jeff's birthday. May you would be able to send him a quick email?

Hey dad! I actually have time today. I didn’t get to many emails so I don’t have as many to respond to. Yes my camera is working but I will send all of the pictures to mom if it is ok. I have a couple. I AM SO CLANKING HAPPY ALABAMA LOST! Sorry I had to get that out of the way. I want to see the house! Send me pictures! 

Tell Elder Wamsley that I said just because he is about to go home doesn’t mean he should be a frito. Then ask him if he understands because I don’t know if they use that word in Nebraska haha. I sent uncle Jeff a short email wishing him happy birthday. How is life in Nebraska? Anything else interesting going on? 

What is the timeline for the Laws and the Hadleys? 

Oh and one more thing not to be nitpicky about your Spanish but Ámele hijo, is like command form. haha when you say that, it’s kind of like you are commanding me to love haha its hard to explain, but te amo, or le amo, is better. or te amo mucho, cual quier, usted puede escoger lol. te amo is informal so you use it with family and friends and le amo is more formal. Anyways Timmy, te amo mucho y tenga exito en su trabajo! How are your teaching jobs coming along?

Love Elder Hackleman

So this computer wont let me send pictures... I am sorry! I'm terrible with this whole picture thing. Next week I promise! At least this time it wasn't my fault.