Missionary Birthday in Mexico

Elder Hackleman's Favorite Cake Ever

Surprise Birthday Party

Happy 19th Birthday Elder Hackleman

Hey mom! I cannot believe Jaren comes home tomorrow! That is insane!!!!! It seems like it was just yesterday, I hugged him for the last time and saw his plane leave the Omaha airport! So crazy!!!! Does he have plans yet? Is Peru state out of the question? Becky sent me an email telling me about Austin, that is super cool Jaren will get to be a witness!!!! Who is Jake? How come grandma couldn’t stay a couple more days to see Jaren? That is super cool that Robert Gerst was a speaker! Can you congratulate him for me??

That is so terrible about Chelsey... I take it she probably won’t be coming out for conference?

Jaren is coming home tomorrow... that is so weird. I can’t stop thinking about it! I know you guys probably aren’t to excited but I sure the clank am! That is a man who served an HONORABLE full time mission and is such an example to me.

How is Nathan’s ankle doing and your pinky? What is life in Nebraska like? Have you heard from the Hadleys?

As for the Hill Cumorah, I firmly believe that there are two. I was reading Jesus the Christ, and James E. Talmage also makes it sound like there are two. It makes more sense because the hill that the 2000 stripling warriors fought on was the same as the hill Mormon died on and they hadn’t gone up that far north yet. They started in Peru, when Lehi came across the Pacific Ocean

Hill Cumorah, Upstate New York

Something I learned from James e Talmage. I always thought they came across the Atlantic and worked their way up north after the land of Nephi was lost to the Lamanites through the narrow neck of land (Panama/Central America area). The descriptions of the land and waters is EXACTLY like this area in my mission. Anyways, it is hard to explain, but I always thought they were the same, but now I am starting to think differently. It is pretty interesting.

Hey remember a while ago I told you I had a quote I really liked? Here it is:

"Great men and women in ages past were able to keep going, to keep testifying, to keep trying to do their best, not because they knew that THEY would succeed, but because they knew that YOU would."  Jeffrey R. Holland

To be completely honest, I totally forgot it was my birthday. I got a call from my district leader wishing me a happy birthday and that is when I remembered haha. One of the members, (the one we go with to see the sights), threw me a surprise party! I will send pictures of that! It was really cool. She made me my favorite Mexican cake, pastel de tres leches. It was awesome! She dressed up like a clown and everything. It was so funny!

This week was really good! Keep me posted on Jaren!!!

Love you all so much!

Elder Hackleman

On Mon, Mar 23, 2015 at 8:06 AM, Amy > wrote:

Dear Elder,

Well today is the last full day of Jaren's mission. He gets home at 12 noon on Tuesday. We have an appointment for 2 hours later for him to get released. It's crazy how fast the two years flew by. Don't take a single day for granted.

Grandma Karen, Roger, Jeff and Joe all get here today. The Laws are coming on Thursday and Austin is getting baptized on Saturday here at our building. It is going to be an eventful week.

Jake comes on Thursday.  He was Jaren's trainer when he first got to Peru and as Jaren says, his best friend from the Pre-earth life.

Grandma Polly left yesterday and made it home safe and sound.

Friday night Lindsay Lee went through the temple to take out her endowments along with her husband. I was so excited and honored to be her escort at the temple. What an amazing day. We had 26 people from our ward in the session as well as 4 ward members who were temple workers that night. What a joyous occasion!

Last night there was a stake missionary fireside. Lindsay Lee was one of the speakers. They had five speakers. One of the other speakers was Robert Gerst. They both did so awesome and it capped off a crazy spiritual week. I have done nothing but cry all weekend because the spirit is so near and dear.

This morning we woke up to a post on Chelsey Baker's facebook page that is talking about the death of her mother. I don't know any other details yet, but it appears her mother died last night. I feel so bad for her. I sent her a message but have not heard back from her yet. My guess is she was up all night last night dealing with whatever is going on.

Sorry I didn't answer your question a couple of weeks ago regarding where I think the Hill Cumorah is. I have done a lot of research in my life on the subject so I planned on writing a research paper with all my findings but let me make a long story short. There is a lot of speculation for and against the idea that it could be in a different location than originally thought meaning the battles fought and talked about in the Book of Mormon might not be in the same location as the hill itself, but after reading over everything and as my own personal opinion, I do believe they are one in the same. Here is what is listed on the church's website.

A small hill located in western New York, United States of America. Here an ancient prophet named Moroni hid the gold plates containing some of the records of the Nephite and Jaredite nations. Joseph Smith was directed to this hill in 1827 by the resurrected Moroni to get these plates and translate a portion of them. This translation is the Book of Mormon.

What did you end up doing for your birthday?

I love you so much. Have a wonderful day!

Love mom