July 18, 2011 - Letter to Family

Picture of Cáceres

Haha so I had a pretty eventful week this week.

First off a funny story that is pretty cool actually.  So this last Thursday my companion and I decide to make a Spanish meal called tortilla de patata and it requires a lot of oil to cook it all.  So we cook all the onions and potatoes (is that how you spell it? I don´t remember it in English anymore).  So yeah after that we have a whole bunch of hot oil we don´t need; so my companion grabs this big glass pitcher we have.  Puts the oil in the pitcher scalding hot and 20 seconds later as I am standing right next to the pitcher it sounds like a bomb blew up!!! The pitcher blew up and shot shards of glass at high speed everywhere including hot oil.  So you are probably wondering what happened to me because I should have glass shards stuck in my body and my skin should be burnt off.  But no the Lord loves me!!  Nothing happened to me besides a piece of glass shot and hit my ear and cut it and my finger!!  Somehow nothing else happened to me.  I have a picture of our kitchen.  I really felt the spirit not gonna lie I should have gotten hurt I was right in front of the pitcher when it blew up!  By the way that was the worst mess in the world to clean up.  Oil and shards of glass everywhere!  I would rather go back to foothill and clean up poop off the floor.  Good times I miss foothill haha.



The remains of the blown up picture

So also this week our Zone leaders came and visited us and stayed the night with us Tuesday night and we had companion exchanges.  I got to serve with one of the zone leaders all day and lead all the lessons and talk and all that by myself for once!  It was awesome and I did a good job speaking the language and teaching!  It is probably one of the best times I have ever taught in my entire life along with last week in Badajoz with Elder Manning.  I learned a lot with the zone leader and he said I am a good missionary! haha

President Clegg and Elder Shaver

 Next thing that happened this week that was really cool is Friday morning President and Hermana Clegg came to our piso and we taught them a lesson.  The lesson is called lesson 0 and we teach a review of all the lessons we teach as missionaries!  They said we taught the best restoration they have heard in the WHOLE mission!!! So that is the picture of us with President Clegg.  I love them so much they are the best people I have met!  Hermana Clegg treats us like her sons she actually feels like a mom kinda!!  So that was good to hear and they are proud of us and said our piso is super clean.  Oh piso is apartment, and Hermana means sister.

Second thing so this girl of a recent convert said she wants to be baptized before we leave and she is the sweetest girl I have ever met!!  Her name is Sofia and she said we are her missionaries and she wants to be baptized before we leave Cáceres!!!! 

So Liliana couldn´t baptize this week because the lady that was covering for her this Sunday quit!!! But she will have someone cover for her some Sunday this month! She had her interview and everything and they said she is super ready!!  So we are excited; keep praying for her please!!

So the mom and the boys are not progressing.  But the one boy that likes me a lot he is 13 or 14 just showed up to church and he says he reads all the time.  But the mom, we can tell doesn´t really want anything to do with us.  We know that the boys think it´s true but the mom we can´t break her.  We have tried everything we can think of!!

Receiving another box of Books of Mormon

So a couple of things I need mother.  More tooth paste and things to burn my wart off my arm.  It´s getting big and that cream doesn´t do jack crap!  So could you send a mini package to me with that stuff and pictures of me playing soccer and swimming???  Please I love you!!!!!!  Oh a couple of fast breaks wouldn’t hurt and a love note.

So this morning I finished the BOOK OF MORMON holy crap that book is true it’s my favorite!  I love it with a passion I want to read it 5 times on my mission.

So that was my week a lot of stuff I am doing good and the time is flying by!!

Cody

July 11, 2011 - Family Email

Carlos, Elder Shaver, and Me

Hey errrrbody,

So this week was crazy and great! A lot happened and I only have a little time to tell you all!

So first off Badajoz was a freaking blast!!!!! Me and Elder Manning worked so hard together and had a lot of fun. Not only did we work hard and have fun I have never taught with the spirit like that before. We taught two gorgeous girls while I was there. One of them liked me a lot. Her name is Irina and she thinks she has seem me before. She kept saying that a lot. We taught her super good with the spirit it was super cool. She hasn't been coming to church and all that and she has a baptismal date but Elder Manning told me that she went to church yesterday!! So good I am glad I got to help with that a little. I had a lot of fun and Elder Manning is a brother to me for life. The one picture is of me in Badajoz; the others the baptism with Carlos.

Badajoz, Spain

So Liliana is going to be baptized this Sunday! A miracle happened. This lady had to leave for vacation for 15 days so Liliana got to come to the baptism of Carlos and come to church this last Sunday. President Clegg told us just to baptize her. So Sunday we get to dunk her into the water. I am so excited and she is the bomb. We have been teaching her for 10 weeks!! So there will be new photos this next p-day of baptisms again!! We are going to plan her baptism in about 30 minutes haha! So we will see who she wants to baptize her. It will be Elder Shaver I bet, he deserves it! I hope I don´t have to give her the Holy Ghost that is super scary! But Liliana is amazing and I love her!

Carlos and Me (He's originally from Brazil)

 The baptism of Carlos was awesome, none of his family showed up though that was kinda sad. But the ward will be his new family. He is a little dramatic sometimes. He is really mad at us today because we didn´t go eat Burger King with him! haha we have stuff we have to do! He doesn´t realize how busy we are! I am sorry I am having a really hard time typing today a lot. I am sorry I am trying my hardest I feel horrible. I am also out of time almost.

Setting up the baptismal font

So we are probably going to have to drop the two boys and the mom. They aren´t progressing at all. The aren´t coming to church and only the boys will read their scriptures. We are pretty positive the mom wants nothing to do with us anymore. We tried everything with them. This last week we didn´t talk to them for like 5 days and the 14 year old called and asked where we were. Its sad the boy want to progress. We are going to have a talk with them tomorrow. Well I love you all!!!!!!!!

Carlos' Baptism



Carlos' Baptism with the ward family


¡OS QUIERO!
Elder Hafen

July 4, 2011 - Family Email

Hello Family,

How are all of you?  I am doing great!  Anyways so this week was good but, nothing too crazy happened. 

Elders Manning and Peterson

So Carlos is doing really good and he loves everything that we teach him.  He loves the Bible and reads it a lot.  But he believes the Book of Mormon too.  This Saturday he is going to be baptized.  Elder Clegg is going to baptize him.  Elder Clegg is a senior companion and he used to be President of the Lisbon Portugal Mission.  Anyways they visited us last Sunday and got really close with Carlos so he wants Elder Clegg to baptize him.  We have pretty much taught Carlos everything and he is super ready, he´s just a miracle.  He wrote me a big old letter and it was so sweet he loves us so much!!  The mom and the kids are...well they are okay we try everything we can but they just don´t think our message is important or something.   I love those two boys so much it breaks my heart.  Last time we taught them which was Thursday I believe (just the boys) the mom was at work but, I had to tell them if they don´t start progressing and pray and read and find out if this church is true for themselves we can´t teach them anymore and I started crying.  I was crying!! I think they listened though and understood that this message is important and only through this gospel they can live together forever.  I love those kids so much it will kill me if we have to drop them because we can´t waste our time with people that don´t want to listen.  Other than that our other investigators are doing really well.  I think we will baptize Liliana soon even though she works Sundays because she wants to be baptized and she has come to our church a lot before she started working.  But we are going to wait and pray for her job situation to change.

So tomorrow I get the opportunity to go to Badajoz and live with Elder Manning and his companion for 2 days because Elder Shaver has to go to Málaga for district leader training.  I am STOKED I love Elder Manning and I am excited to work with him in the field with his investigators.  I get to do a service project while I am out there too.

So this last week I had to buy a new camera card because the other one is jacked up or something.  Like the pictures are there I just cannot see them or view them.  So I got a new card with 8 GB so this new card is nice and it should work without problems. 

They language gets better every day and I teach a little better every time.  I am tearing apart the Book of Mormon I am in the Book of Mormon and I am almost done with it.

This picture is of our district leader leaving Badajoz, he trained Elder Manning and this is his new companion Elder Barret from Dallas, Texas.  Good guys I love them.

Mom and Dad I LOVE you so much and miss you more than you think.

June 27, 2011 - Email to Family

So I am still in Cáceres another six weeks no worries!!!

Okay so this week the Lord blessed us a TON.  I am just going to start telling you all the story because it´s kinda a long one.  This last Wednesday, the 22nd, a day before my fourth month mark a weird thing happened.  We were walking to the computer place, where we email all the time, to go print out names of baptismal dates, because we pray for every person in the Málaga mission with baptismal dates.  As we were walking into the store this kid says hi to us.  Which is weird because the kids around our age here never say "hi".  They usually yell, make fun of us, and/or throw stuff at us.  So when we leave the store, this kid is out on the corner of the street just staring at me.  My companion didn´t see him.   Anyways, we walk up like two streets and are really close to our apartment.  There are like 10 minutes of the day left to work and we decided to go contact.  The crazy thing is that right as Elder Shaver said "Let´s go contact" the kid had followed us and stopped us.  We talked to him for over an hour in the street and answered all of his questions about our church.  He is a pastor of the young kids in his church.  He goes to a Evangelist church.  Anyways we asked him if we could teach him tomorrow and he said yes and he will meet us below our apartment because he lives on our street.  Oh I forgot to tell you, HE IS FROM BRAZIL.  Yeah so at the next appointment, which is at 5 o'clock, we walked out of our apartment and BAM! There he was waiting! This was the day of my 4 month mark, a Brazilian walks into my life.  That day we taught the Restoration and he liked all of it and gave him a Book of Mormon.  We gave him 3 NEphi 11 to read and pray about it.  The next time we taught him again about the organization of the church, because we taught him there is a prophet living today.  He had read all of the chapter and liked it and prayed but said he didn´t have an answer yet.  After we taught him we ran out of the door because we had to catch a bus to go teach people.  He watched us run out of the door, and he went into his room and he had a CRAZY experience.  We aren´t allowed to tell anybody because is super sacred.  But his prayer was answered and he believes in our church.  That night, Friday, we played fútbol with some of our investigators and Carlos came.  That is when he told us his experience and everything.  He left in the middle of playing with us because he went to call some people to get his membership papers withdrawn from his church.  He is doing all of this on his own!!!  Anyways his pastor told him he can´t come back to his church and his girlfriend broke up with him because he left his church.  All of his friends are mad at him.  We taught him again Saturday, he made us dinner!!  This kid is a beast.  On Sunday he came to church with us all dressed up in a suit and tie.  Then after church he called us and told us he wants to get baptized!!  So on the 9th of July, that is less then two weeks, he is getting baptized!!  The Lord is spoilling us!  I don´t deserve this type of blessing!  He wants to preach and stuff, we told him he can serve a mission.  So that is our next goal, the first missionary out of Cáceres Spain!  Oh and he said he recieved his answer to get baptized through the scriptures.  He has read through Nephi to Alma 21.  A beast!

So that is a lot that has happened this week.  He is super cool and super prepared.  Our other investigators are doing good we are still working hard with them.  We are having a hard time with boys' mom. She doesn´t really do her commitments, so we are working hard with her tonight.  But I am doing really good, I love the mission and time is flying by!!  IT¨S SOOOOO HOTTT.  It is 111 degrees here and I am dying.  I feel hot all the time.  They say it gets hotter too! NO!!! 

The spanish is still hard but I am seeing improvement.  I just want to be fluent already, but there is so many words!!!

Dang Brady looks older with all that on!!  Good for him I am proud of him!

Dad I was laughing so hard that was horrible!!  But it made me happier! 

I am happy, no worries.  My companion is good I like serving with him.  I no longer get to see Elder Peterson because he got swtiched to another zone.  But I am still in the same district as Elder Manning and I love him so that is all good!!!!

June 20, 2011 - Email to Family

Hey how is everyone?? 

That is awesome that you got to go to the beach in Texas!  I have wanted to do that!!  I am jealous but, not really.  It is really hot here in Cáceres too.  It is super hot today and it´s only 12 in the afternoon.  I am getting fried because we are always out in the streets contacting so I am not doing face pills for a while. Sorry.  The sun is super strong here.  I am putting sun block when I remember which is like once a week haha.  But I am good I cannot believe this but it´s the last week of the transfer!  I am on week 6 in Cáceres and it feels like I just started!  I hope President doesn´t switch me out of here already because I don´t want to pack up my stuff I am sick of packing!! But I am good; the knee is good I can play soccer feeling normal now besides the fact that I am no where as good as I used to be!  But I play good, they think I am pretty good because I am from America!  It has been in the upper 90´s here this past week and the people here all tell us that in July, August and September it is hotter than crap and no one is outside!  So hopefully we will have investigators by then!

So this week was great I guess.  We taught 13 lessons which is still not very good but Tuesday was a good day.  So Tuesday we went to Badajoz where Elder Manning is serving for our district meeting.  They had just barely baptized this lady from Mexico and she made freaking authentic MEXICAN TACOS I was dying.  It was the best thing I had ever had in my life.  It was super spicy too.  I ate like 6 giant tacos and I almost literally threw up everywhere.  After we all shared our favorite scriptures!  Elder Manning started and his was one of my favorites too, Alma 26:12.  He´s a crier and he got me starting to cry and the Mexican lady is crying way bad too.  It was super spiritual.  I was last to share and I shared my other favorite which is one of Elder Manning favorite too, Mosiah 28:3.  It´s about the Sons of Mosiah.  It is so good.  Right as I said the reference Elder Manny started crying way bad, it was hard to speak Spanish because I was trying to hold back the cries, I got teary eyed though.  But the spirit was soo strong and the Book of Mormon is the Word of God.  I can promise that!

But this week we got another baptismal date!  Liliana the lady that works on Sundays knows that this gospel is true!  She wants to be baptized so we set a date when she thinks that she can find a new job.  So the date is July 16th the same day as our other baptisms.  The oldest boy Miguel that is one of our investigators with a baptismal date loves me!  He is a beast and we are pretty close!  The two boys played Fútbol with us Friday that was fun to play with them.  We want the mom to know that we love them and they can feel our spirit.  So the little 9 year old girl that will come to church, we finally met with her and her mom.  The mom gave her permission to be baptized and the little girl said NO.  We just got turned down by a 9 year old girl.  She said she wants to wait to be older like a woman age.  Oh well it took us 5 weeks to meet with her once.  We are trying to work with the family and get them all back active but the kids hate church.  So yeah all I know is that I am SUPER blessed to have amazing parents that raised me in the gospel and love me enough to actually discipline me so that I can be a good adult.  Thank you parents for all you do.  I really am extremely blessed to have you!  Words can´t express half of how grateful I am to have a good life. 

FATHER: Happy Birthday and Fathers Day.  I have a card on the way to you!  I am glad you got to go to Texas for you b-day and take a break from work.  I pray for your tobillo (ankle) everyday haha! I love you and I was thinking about you yesterday on your b-day.

So yeah that´s about all I have got for you.  Oh yeah I got water and fireworks thrown at me this last week that was pretty close to getting my face blown off.  It was late at night but we weren´t late getting into our apartment yet!  Oh well it was close; kids were throwing stuff from on top of a building at us.  They always yell at us and honk horns at us.  They think we´re a joke!  I just think "Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they do".  Oh this week I contacted this guy and got his number, he´s from Mexico!  My first Mexican!  His name is Hector that is Gus´s first name!  I am gonna baptize him haha!

Well I love you all and good luck with work this week!  You are all amazing and I love you all!

June 13, 2011 - Email to Family

Hello Father it was nice to see you at the top of the letter.  I know you can´t type because you have no fingers. But I love you and thanks for the time you took to write me.  Good luck with the boat it will look sweet.

Mother! Thanks again for the package it was wonderful and still is.  However there is only one Fastbreak left, so that´s kinda depressing.  I love me some Reese's. 

I am doing really good and having fun!  This past week was zone conference and we had to go to Sevilla, which is a four hour bus ride which is horrible and kills the little lessons we can get with people here.  So yeah, this last week was a little rough we only taught 6 lessons.  I don´t know if you know, but that is horrible.  Everyone this week cancelled on us even members so we were in the streets almost 6 hours every day and we only got 3 peoples numbers.  So far we have found 16 people's numbers and only have been able to teach 1 of them and it´s this little old lady haha.  The Spanish people here are HARD even the South Americans are a little different.  I just finished the book of Alma and it was SUPER good.  Captain Moroni is a BEAST.  But my favorite part was the stripling warriors of course.  When it was talking about them and how young they were and the famous verse about how "they had been taught by their mothers, if they did not doubt God would deliver them."  Yeah that verse is on my wall in my room in Orem and it made me start crying because I am finally one of those Stripling Warriors of the army of Helaman.  Yeah it was just super good and that was written for missionaries I swear.  Anyways that´s why that one song is my favorite "We´ll Bring The World His Truth."

So here in Spain, everything is great. This week was rough but we saw a MIRACLE.  So we have 3 baptism dates!!!!  The Mom Gloria and her two sons Luis and Miguel!!  We work so hard on them and we love them to death.  I love them to death!!  This last Thursday night we taught them about how the Book of Mormon has blessed our lives and all that!  Now that I have a good testimony of the Book it was a lot easier to teach them! And bear testimony on it.  IT is TRUE.  I love the Book of Mormon.  But Gloria came to church with us yesterday her sons are sick so they stayed home.  But Miguel really wanted to come and he wanted to get baptized the first time we asked them.  We had to ask twice and switch the date to next month, July 16th.  Which is good I think I will still be in Cáceres!  But investigator wise that´s all that really happened this last week.  We didn´t have a lot of lessons!! 

It´s starting to get really hot!! They told us that July and August are just MISERABLE.  But it’s cool Elder Manning is still in Badajoz which is an hour away and he is in our district but, he is training already!!! He´s a beast and the language is easier for him.  Also Elder Peterson in back in our zone and us 3 love each other so the lovers got to reunite this last Thursday.

The language is sooo hard still.  I have to listen to Argentina accents, Spanish accents, Columbia, Ecuador, Bolivia freak seriously that´s all of the different people in Spain and in the ward.  We hardly teach Spanish people.  They are so hard to get.  I am alright though with time comes the language I need MORE faith in my calling and the gifts I have been given.  I will be okay!  I just have to wait on the Lords timing of all of it.

I wrote josh back but he needs to write me!  I will write him a little letter.  Tell Carly I am working on it. I LOVE you.

June 6, 2011 - Family Email

Hey so I get to write on time today,

How is everyone?

So I am doing good not a lot has happened since Wednesday when I wrote you.  But I will try to do my best in making this email long haha. 

So the investigators that are the mom and her two sons are doing super good.  The mom's name is Gloria and her sons are Miguel 14 and Luis 9 or 11 years old.  The sons love us and they pray every night and they read the little verses we assign them every night!  They love us because we just try to be their friends and all that.  They are the coolest and nicest boys I have met in Spain.  They are from Columbia.  But this past week we taught all 3 of them together 3 times and we can see progress in the moms face, she really listens to us.  She has listened to the lessons before but would never progress; I think it´s because she has been waiting for me and Elder Shaver.  With that family you just have to keep on them and make activities and stuff to keep them entertained and listening.  So get THIS.  The little one Luis had a dream that he was talking to God and he told him that the Book of Mormon is true, that this church is true and that the missionaries are true.  His mom and brother were kind of laughing at him and so did Luis but, he literally was serious.  His face was serious and everything.  It was amazing to me, this church is true and he DOES live and answer our prayers.  The mom is going to be the hardest to convert the other son I think knows it is true he always reads the scriptures we give him.  Elder Shaver and I feel a strong connection with them and we want to ask them to be baptized this week.  We are making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches this week and prayer rocks.  But yeah we just have to keep on them and get them to church this next week and the week after and then just keep on them.  Our other investigator is Lillian she is about 45 and works on Sundays.  She is hates her job and is searching for a new one.  She already knows this church is true and is starting to read the Book of Mormon and takes NOTES.  So she is the bomb and we love teaching her.  The little 9 year old girl is good, we haven´t taught her, we go over to her house almost every day and try to teach her.  I don´t get it, she will come to church every week with us but we can never teach her.  It´s hard because she is NINE years old.  But we will meet with her parents soon, she is all but baptized.  So our investigator that is 11 and has a baptismal Date, we still haven´t taught him again yet.  We always set up times and his mom always cancels.  We can´t just go out there either, it´s a 30 min bus ride.  So we just keep trying hard to teach him.  I think he still wants to be baptized and his mom is a member but she hasn´t been at church for the past two weeks.  We have no idea what is going on.  So that is about what has happened this week.

I GOT THE PACKAGE.  Yes thank you sooooooooooooooooooooo much.  You all are the best, and I loved the package so much.  I got it on Thursday and it´s huge.  The dictionary is great I use it every day.  The pictures were awesome thanks.  Lacerta?????  I am proud of him, he changed a lot and that is tight he is going to Brazil.  The pictures are awesome and Zac looks so much older and better looking. I didn´t have to pay anything for the package, so yeah, just send stuff to my home here in Cáceres. 

So I still don´t understand people and that´s alright but I think I improve more everyday and I am really just trying to talk more so I hope it gets better.  I know that one day I will speak it without even thinking I just expect more out of myself.  I just need to try harder.  But everything in the package was perfect; I laughed soooo hard at the hot tamales, that was GROSS and HORRIBLE.  One of the worst things I have ever heard in my life time.

Mother I love you and YOU are the BEST.  You are too good to me, ya know that?  Thanks for all you do, I really do appreciate everything you do for me.  This work is true, the church is true.  We really do have the same church that Christ established on the earth.  I don´t understand when people don´t believe that!  The Book of Mormon is awesome, I am about to read about the stripling warriors and the verse about MOMS.  I LOVE my MOTHER.

LOVE,  CODY