The Greatest Moment of My Life!

I have never had such a spiritual experience before this!

This is one of the baptisms I am most blessed to call mine. This family are all members. The one in the middle is a former missionary and is our ward mission leader. For some reason his dad never wanted to get baptized. He has about 18 years going to church, (not always, but probably 3 times a month), with his family. EVERY single missionary that has come through Orizaba has tried to baptize him, but he never wanted to. Never wanted to give up drinking coffee and stuff. Well I made his wife a promise when I got here. By the way his wife has more faith than anyone I have ever met before. She was about ready to go through the temple with, or without him. I told her that before I leave this area, her husband will be a member. Her son, Dany Maza, just kind of laughed and said yeah that is what they all say. He learned a little English while on his mission. One day I felt it was time to talk to him so my companion and I went to his house. I just asked him the baptismal questions. I didn't tell him what they were, I didn't teach him anything, I just wanted to see how much he knew so I asked and he answered. At the end I told him, look brother Maza, you just answered every question perfectly. I then read the last question out of my Planner, that basically says, "are you ready to make this covenant of baptism with God?" Before he answered, I said, "We are preparing a baptismal service this Saturday, will you prepare to be baptized by this Saturday?" He waited a few seconds, even though it seemed like hours, and finally said, "Yeah I think it's about time I followed Jesus Christ. His wife just burst into tears! It was the greatest moment of my life! So his 16 year old son got to baptize him on Saturday and then Dany and I confirmed him on Sunday! So amazing! They want me to come back in a year to go with them when they get sealed as a family... oh that would be so amazing!

This was my other baptism I had this week. His name is Cesar. SOOO awesome. Elder Lewis and I found him one day when we were on divisions and only taught him once. He didn't live in my area so I had to pass the reference to the other elders in the zone but he progressed very quickly and the day of his baptism said he wanted me to be there to do it! I felt so honored!!!

Hey mom! This letter will be a little shorter. Daniel sent me an awesome email and I want to make sure I get one back to him, but that is awesome about Grantish!! So happy he is keeping the Hackleman legend going:) I just hope Nathan is keeping the Hackleman legend I always wanted to start but never did! (I'm talking about show choir obviously. Is he still practicing?)

I loved Nathans talk! I am glad your week was good!

This week has been really good. I decided the best way to get my comp excited to be here was to lose him in the work. I went for a different approach this week. I fasted at the beginning of the week asking for this to work. I worked him sooo hard this week, like really, I pushed him a ton. It was hard because I could see he was struggling a bunch but I didn't want to let up. I had a purpose in mind. I was by no means mean to him or anything, we just worked like horses. We ended up pulling together a few baptisms this week and finding a ton of new people to teach! Everytime he did something good I tried to shower him with love. By the end of the week, he ended up getting sick, I think for a few different reasons, the bad weather, and exhaustion, but he told me yesterday that he had never had a better week in the mission. He said he was physically drained, but spiritually full. He said he felt like he wanted to fall asleep as we were walking and didn't know how he would be able to contact another person in the street. In the moment we started talking to them, he didn't feel tired. Not even a little bit, until we left again. Then it came back in full force. At the end I told him, look you have now seen the blessings we have received from good hard work, but sometimes it isn't about how HARD you work, but how SMART you work. That is why it is soooo important that you are studying Preach My Gospel, and the scriptures diligently. Anyways, long story short, I think I am making a ton of headway with him.

So that was my week! I had a great time and pretty much never stopped sweating, but it was totally worth it!!!

I love you all so much! Thanks for being such an awesome family!!!

Elder Hackleman

On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 1:21 PM, Amy wrote:

Hey, how are you doing today? What is new this week?

We had a good week. Finally getting back into the swing of things round here. Grant has his first football game tomorrow. He was asked to play on the freshman b team, but then they were practicing long snaps with anyone who wanted to try and he was the best one at it according to what I could see during the practice. The next day he was invited to go to the a games as well. My guess is to be used for long snaps ha ha, but that's just me speculating.

We went to the first football game of the year Friday night. It was against Burk. I'm sure your dad already told you, we won! It was fun, but I still find myself looking for you ha ha.

Yesterday Nathan spoke during sacrament meeting. Oh, ya, I sent you a copy of his talk so you already know.

Things are starting to cool down a bit around here although the BYU/Nebraska football game scheduled for this Saturday is supposed to be 90 degrees. That's still pretty warm.

I can't wait to hear from you!

Love mom

Hey daddy! Sorry this email is so short! I am starting to run out of time. I am so happy papio beat Burke!!!!!!!! Good for them!!

Pero santa vaca, your week has been absolutely crazy!!!! A little like mine but in different ways:) haha

My shoulder is doing good! Sometimes if I sleep in a weird position I will wake up with it pretty sore and like... I don't know how to explain it, not dislocated, but like locked into place. I have to get up and stretch it every once in a while, but really it isn't any problem. I know that God is blessing me with it. It hasn't dislocated for... I don't even know how long. It doesn't hurt me throughout the day unless I have a bunch of stuff in my backpack that day and we had to walk a lot. Then it gets kind of sore sometimes, but never dislocates. I think I am just slowly building the strength up again. In terms of my stomach I am back to normal! Finally haha. The work is going great! We just had changes and a few of my friends from other zones came here so I'm happy about that! Today we kind of just relaxed for p-day. We went to a members house to wash clothes and while they were washing, we played Risk haha.

Thank you soooo much for supporting me on my mission! I love you so much!

Elder Hackleman


On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 8:46 AM, Tim wrote:

Dear Elder,

So this past week was still crazy busy. Thursday night I did my first Audit as a High Councilman. Not quite as hard as I thought it would be. I always wondered how they can do the audit report in General Conference, and now I know!! Then Friday we went to the Papio South football game where we watched the Titans BEAT the Burke Bulldogs 34-16. They actually looked pretty good!!! Then Saturday morning Nathan, Grant and I went to help someone move and your mom and I went to the Temple Saturday night and helped clean it. Sunday Nathan gave a great talk in Sacrament meeting, I gave the closing prayer and then I helped teach parenting techniques to the Combined Relief Society and Priesthood meeting for our 5th Sunday lesson.

Wait, I'm not done....

It's always crazy at work. Today, I start my Fundamentals of Print Design class at Bellevue and tomorrow night I start my Graphic Illustration class at Midland. Kinda bums me out because Grant is playing both A and B team Freshman football (Tackle and long-snapper). Yep! Following after his big bro!! They have games on Tuesday and Wednesday. So I'll have to miss Tuesday's games. Dad does not like to miss his sons' games!!! grrrrrrrrr.

THURSDAY: UTES VS. MICHIGAN in Salt Lake and it's televised!!! Then Jaren and Chelsey bring a gang out to the Nebraska/BYU game on Saturday.

Now I'm done.

So how was your week??? Are you keeping your shoulder safe? How are you feeling? Have you finally gotten over your stomach problems? Tell us all about your work!!! What are you guys doing for P-Day today? Last question... How is your companion doing? I hope he is finally catching the vision!

Te amo hijo,

Papá. it was fun to just chill out after a long week, but now I have to go do my district class. I am pretty excited about it today, because the sisters in my district are feeling very dis-animated. I know it hurts them when they see our numbers and can't figure out why they cant work like us. I have been praying about it a lot, and I think I have the answer; The mission, for them, right now is way to stressful. When they learn to just be obedient, but to actually ENJOY being here, that is when they will have success. I am going to attempt to scripturally prove to them today that laughter is a necessary factor in converting people to the gospel. I have a bunch of scriptures, but one I love mentions that laughter will be found in the Celestial kingdom. I think it is time to lighten up the mood in my district a little bit and start wanting to work!