Febuary

Feb 6 2012

ok so My new Companion is Named Elder Glad and from what he told me he is not related to any Glads in Cedar City but i think he looks like a Glad so who knows.  he is from Orem utah and he has lived there in the same house his entire life.  he has a twin brother that is serving in Argentina.  He likes to work with Flim and wants to direct movies or maybe just be a carmea guy his not too sure at the moment.  his been in the feild for one year and speaks good spanish and a little guaraní I`m very happy to have him as a companion and He cooks he makes Banna pancakes every morning its wounderful and today we made two baches of brownies and apple pie and a cheese cake if everything goes well we`ll have desrests all week and transfer long.  i`m excitied to get to know him a little more here as we go along. OOO but funny story it was our thrid night here and it rained and rained and the dtreets were rivers and Elder Glad and i needed ot crossed so after hopelessly looking for a way to cross these rivers without getting wet we realized that there was no chances so right before i was about to try to jump to a dry piece of ground way out of my reach a man a littel short man told me to wait and then he stepped in front of me and told me to get on his back.   on our thrid night here together Elder Glad and i got carried (piggybackride) across the street by a complete and utter stranger i had no idea who this Guy was but he carried us across and we continued on preaching and teaching the gospel.  our goal for Bautism this week is three and it looks very promising that we will achieve this goal O random story again so Elder Glad and i Were teaching a lessona dn right in the middle of the Lesson my Nose strated bledding lucking i caught it before it got all over my shrit and luckly elder Glad had tolet paper so i stuffed it up my nose and continued teaching it was just very funny because all of a sudden my nose starting bleeding  in a middle of a lesson they all told me it was becasue of the heat and sun and that we shouldnt walk so much in the suna nd i told them that the worth of souls is greater then a little heat and a bloddy nose.  

ANywhoo  hope evrything is going were and that you are all Happy healthly and wise LOVE YOU ALL VERY MUCH

ELder Hafen. 

Feb 13 2012

Just a few things that i´ve done this week,  friday i bought a leg of a crocodile (croc) from a guy carring it on a stick his son was carring pairahan ( that fish that eats everythign in like 2 seconds)  i for soem reason was feeling a little crazy so i bought one leg for 60mil about 12 dollars it weighed 3kilograms about 7lbs  and today i decide to cook iot but i have no idea how to cook croc so i just threw it into the oven with seasoning and covered it in tin foil and lefted it on low  while we lefted to come do email so we´ll see what it looks like here in 20 minuets. hopefull the house didn´t burn down. 

This week was been good i have two investigadores that are amazing that are stopping to smoke and do drugs one has been smoking for 28yrs about 25 a day and this past week he only smoked 5 and the other was at about 70 a day becasue he smoked instead of doing crack but this pat week he smoked only like 70 in a week i know that when we pray read and go to churcha nd invite the lord to take away your pain adictions and worries we will do it but it most be done with full intenction of heart we can´t hold yourself back from teh lord becasue he will always respect our angency our ablilty to choose and if we choose not to go to him he cant lift us up or health us in every case that Jesus did a mircile FIRST they come to Him and we must do teh same if we want to see miritcle in our own lifes.

Feb 27 2012

First off I got the CAre package from Aunt Pam and Mom and the rest of the family aswell as a chritsmas card in spanish from the familia.  THe care package was amazing It was packed so well that not even one cookie broke i was very impressed i was a litte thrown off by the random pieces of bread that were hidden with the cookies but i figure they had some prupose.  i am so very grateful that i have a familia as amazaing as you are that care enough to send love and COOKIES THANKS YOU AUNTIE PAM  got the box last friday and i may have like half of the cookies left but don´t worry i shared with my companion a little i think i gave him a half a cookie or so.  jk he got a whole one but only ONE!!¨:)  we had zone conference this friday as well it was amazing i loved it we didnt have any special speakers but the whole conference was on caridad and faith and the Power of God.  it was a real boost for me there are so many amazing things we can laern from Moroni 7 Ether 12 and alma 32  Moroni 7 is my favorite by far The words of Mormon are like Firey love daggers right to the heart,  but the best part by far was to end every zone conference the Elders that are going to leave in the coming change get a chance to bear thier ¨final Testimonio¨  their testimonios were amazing and i hope that when i leave my mission i cant look back and say i have no regrets i did my best and I WIll keep the faith.

So this friday, i have to tell you about my companion, he recieved a package but i didnt know who it was from i figured it was from his family no más.  so has we were walking home from the zone confernce, its about an hour ride in the us and about a 15min walk to your house from the bus stop,  he told me he was fighting wether or not to open right now as we are walking and i told him go for it i was a little confused why we couldnt wait till we got home back Hey a package is very exciting,  so he opened it in the street and didnt say much of anything.  But we got home and we openned my package together and i shared what i recivied and then ask so what was in your package and he starts to pull out valetine candy and other gifts and i firgure o how fun his family likes to celebrate every hoilday but then i came to realize that this packeage was from his girlfriend!! i knew he had a girlfriend but we had never talked about it much but she sent him a Tape that she had recored her voice on and it is an hour and 20 minuets long!!   and i realized no wounder why he could wait it was a valentine box from his girlfriend they have been in touch every week through email and they send tapes back and forth to each other Talk about CUTE right!! so now i just give him a lot of crap all the time about it but in a loving way as companions should.  elder Glad is a great Elder wants to do whats right and has a testimony doesnt talk much but yup its been alot of fun.

Talk about time flying by this change is almost over already i feel like i just got to together with elder glad and here the 14th i´ll most likely, like 97.34% likely, be leaving Del Maestro and Elder Gald.  Well as of right now i dont have any time but Thanks again for the package and all the love and support i know that this church is true and if you have any doubts all you have to do is ask God its that simple.

Love you Good luck with school work CF life boys Girls you are all a huge inspiriation to me stay good looking like uncle david

ELder Hafen.

January

January 2 2012

Well it sounds like you all started the new year with a lot of Stress but its best to get it all out of the way now instead of having it drag out through the entire year.  i now its hard but with faith we have hope for a better world Ether 12;4.  this last couple of weeks i´ve been teaching a lot about hope and faith unforntently with the way the world is going especially here in paraguay People have lost hope and they just drag through day after day But i Give testimony that this is not the way of Jesus Christ This hopeless saddness is not of CHrist and its not the plan that God prepared for us Way back in the premortal life.  Man was created to be happy 2nephi 2;25 and we are happy and blessed when we keep the commandments of christ mosiah 2;41  Christ sufferied for all of us!! every pain and affliccion and every tempations that we have every felt and will feel he suffed so that He could know how to give us comfort and strength Alma 7; 11-12 But God repects our agency and he can not give us comfort or help or strength until we ask for it, because if he did he would be taking away our agency and God will never force anything upon us,  So when you feel the need for strength or comfort hit your knees to the floor and ask  i have seen outlooks on life make a complete 180 after the indivduals humbile themselve enough to ask God in sincere pray Why and please please help me understand and give me strength.  a lot of times bad things happen to good people beacuse of the choices of others or bad things happen becasue  its just life and we don´t understand why 1nephi 10;19.  however i add my testimony to those of the prophets that Gods arms all always outstrechted to ALL his children.  He never turns his back on us however through our actions whether we know it or not we´re turning our backs to him  so my invition for all is to turn back to christ and be filled with everlasting hope, joy and peace.  its like it says in Helaman 5 the winds and stroms of life and the devil are going to come we will face challegesa and  feel real pain but IF we are built on the foundations of christ we will not Fall.  Take up the yoke of christ Matt 11: 28-30   work with him not against him make this year an easy one.

Well that was really preachy but please know that this is true seeing how people live and feel here in paraguay with out christ and the change that happens when they accept him is incredable and i know the change can be that real for all that just ask and then do.

the New year and christmas was very different this year and the best part was getting to talk to my family it was wounderful i feel like that was so long ago becasue so much has happen.  But Sariah asked me a question she asked what would she like the best about paraguay and i told her that she could wear a bikni  everywhere and no one would care then she asked what mom would like best and i couldnt think of anything so this whole week ive been trying to figure out what everyone in my family would like about paragauy.  One thing that i´m sure everyone would like is that is is so pretty here just beauitful.  sure it takes time to learn to look past the trash that litters the street and the dead anmial carcasses the are left to rot on the side of the road but when you open your eyes you see how beautiful the sky is just a crystal clear blue and the trees Stunnly green every one and the bannanas and mangos that are ready to pick  hmmm the fruit here is so good fruit all the time they have the best fruit salads every here i love it.

 and Danny i live in a thrid world counrty there is no mailing system here the address i gave you since i got my call will be my address for ever (its the mission office)  

Paraguay Asuncion North Mission

Avendia Satísima Trinidad N 1280 C/ Julio Correa

Casilla de Correo 1871

Asunción, Paraguay

January 9 2012

For the team for regions

REDMEN!!!!

Lift up your heads and look around.

Here in this holy ground awaits your destiny.

Here in these scared waters we will Swim For our school and our City.

Faclons and Thunder have gathered from afar to Destroy all that you have work for.

For months and months you have waited and prayed for the opurtunidad to Show What you are made of

As the redmen of old you are outnumbered and outgunned and just as General Custrad thought at his last stand ¨those redmen dont stand a chance¨ so do the Falcons and Thunder.

However Just as general Custard was tramble into the dust So will we do the Same to our enemies WHY

Becasue we Swim and Fight for a better world a World were Cedar high once again is the Regional Champion 

No More shall Our name be dragged in the dust Lift Up your heads Redmen and SMell the Clean Air a New world is in your Hands FOr months you have prepare.  for months you have sweated bled, and dried and now is your chance to Make it all worth it

When the Indians CAme cashing down upon Custrad not once did they look back to the safety of there hill they took off and fought with all their might mind and strength holding nothing back Now its your turn Leave it all in the Water Hold nothing Back Fight REDMEN and become That which your were made to BE

Be the Champion within you!!

How are WE!!!???!??!? 

Letter

WEll nothing to crazy has happened this week this week Elder Mckeon and i tought 29 lessons to investigadores and  17 to menos activos  its not much but it is the most we have ever done together.  the trick with this area or the mission in Paraguay is that you can almost get in every way but the trick is to know if they what to learn or just talk and waste time  because they have nothing better to do anyway even with all these lesson we still had no investagodes in church just like every other week since i have been here with an expection of Adriana i believe that this Area is trying to teach me the importance of Keep the sabbath day holy it bugs me because i hear a lot on the streets those mormons they just what me to go to church No!! we dont want you to God wants you to it is one of the Ten commandments but people dont like to hear that God wants them to go to church they want to hear You´ll all saved just confess in your heart that Jesus is the Christ and You´re saved.  God is misericoridia ( mericful) but not that much he has to complete the laws of justis just like anyone else and the laws are the commandments.

once again i dont now how i got on that little soap box but what ever sorry i forgot to start putting pictures on first thing so you wont be getting any pictures this week hopefully next week.    but i bought a sombreo to wear it is a HUGE help with the heat and today i got to sit in a Paraguain dentist waiting room part of my companion´s tooth fell out so he had to go get it fix love you lots 

 Elder Hafen  

January 16 2012

To start i have the best mission in the world there is no mission in the world like the one i´m in right now.  to start most of the people i teach dont even know there real birth date.  they were born out inthe middle of no where and their mothers have forgotten so they just pick a date or change it based on how they feel. trash litters the streets and every three days about they rack it all up into a big pile and then burn it all i love the smell of burn diapers jk.  i also never teach inside houses becasue it is hotteer int he house then outside so i teach seating on buckets or bricks sometimes on the ground i love it it makes me feel like im back on the ranch if you find something to sit on great if not pull up some grasss and take a squat.  the other day i had a really cool experience i was on a division with elder Brasher we were out in his area about 30minuets from mine.  it was a little after noon and our lesson had just fallen through do we had so one to teach and we were stuck out int he paraguain sun.  well we were walking about looking for people to teach prayer for inspiriation Elder Brasher said he just had a thought to go visit a sick home bound siter in the ward he had never visited this siter before he only know where so lived beuse one time his companian pointed out her house while they were walking by.  so went to her house and were invited in by here daughter she took us into the house and into a bedroom where this sick old grandma as resting. right when we walked in she ask us for a blessing for the sick and to pray for her daughter that was sick in the hospital.    so we prapared some oil and then gave her a blessing and prayed for her daughter. but the thing that was awsome about this experience is that durning this whole time she told us about her desire to go to church and how she knows that she was going to see her husband again soon becasue they were married in the temple for time and all enternity and right before we left she told us thank you and that we were an answer to her prayers she told us that she was parying all night moniring and afternoon that some one fromthe church would come and give her a blessing.   I felt so honoried to be an answer to a pray of a humble faithful daughter of God and i Pray that i will be forever worthy to answer the call to give blessing and be senitive to the spirit to reconize spiritual whispers.
Another great experience was that we had invetigadores in church this SUNDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!   we found them much the same way elder brasher and i found that old sick grandma through following the proptims of the spirit.  one night elder Mckeona dn I were walking home adn as we past a coner there was a couple sitting down on some steps and i said the usally ¨adio¨  which means hey i´m just passing have a great day.  but about 10meters away i had an inpression to turn back and talk to them so i did and i am so greatful that i did.  we turn back adn i told them that i felt like i had something that they needed to hear we explained that we are missionaries of the church and that we represent Jesus Christ  they gave us their address ( more like the general area where they live becasue no one has addresses here) and we found them just this week adn they are so amazing i dont have time anymore to explain how these people are but there names are Christian and German. i´ll tell you about them more next week they have a baustial date for the 2nd of febuary adn are going to get married on the 26th of january  they are probale on of the most hapy couple i´ve ever seen. 

i love you all very much good luck mom with school Great job by the way with teaching yourselves calc thats amazing pray always Eliza keep working hard and use enjoy the new world of sight you poor thing sorry it was so bad for so long but just do what the doctor sasy and more importantly what mom says.
Love Elder Hafen. 

I made apple pie!!!!!!!
My somebro!!!
My companion´s teeth or at least a part of it.
MTC pictures

January 23 2012

its amazing how i can go through so many amazing experiences in one week and then get to the cyber and not know what to write i feel like the weeks are just flying by and that my time as a missionary is going by too fast its very scary.  for example its already transfers agina most likely i´ll be staying in this area becasue Elder Mcken has four changes here and i only have three usaully they change the guy with more changes in one area but we never really know.  so most likely I´ll be saying good bye to Elder Mckeon here next week.  we´ve had a look of fun togehter not as much success as we wanted but i feel like we have done our best and have lefted this ward better then what it was.

i had some fun experiences this week

first one night after teaching a lesson to an investigafore Elder Mckeon ask if he could have a hamburger. ( this lady works on the side of the street and cooks hambugers and empanadas)  so while see was cooking Elder Mckeon´s hambuger another ladycome up adn asked for three empanadas so me wanting to be nice offended her my seat so she could sit and wait but when i offered she said ¨No no i´m super busy i can´t sit Come find me another day.¨  ANd i was like no Hermana i just thought you´d like to sit while you wait.  but nope she wouldnt sit next to us she just stod the whole time instead of taking my seat.  it was pretty funny and is funny the way some people act around us . 

Random fact about paraguay did you know that in stead of knocking doors i clap at gates.  

January 30 2012

well i feel ten times better today then i did last week and its all because for the past three weeks we have had investigadores in Church yesterday we had five in church four of them it was there first time but still it was amazing to see there progression and their faith.   we have one man that i love he is 38 years old and has like 11, if that, yellow teeth and a desire to become something.  he is a single guy we used to have a family but we got into drugs and other women so his wife lefted him and took the kids and now he is a straving man that cant buy food becasue he spends all his money on cigerates  he has a huge smoking problem for the past 27 years he has been smoking 20 cigeragets every day but for this past week he has went from 20 to 13 a day and this week that is coming we plan to have him off completly.  there is nothing better then to see someone change their live for the better when i first met this man, my first week in the field, i fell in love with him but at that time he was not ready to progress. however know he feels and wants to BE something not just another poor paraguanin. 

But anyway did you get the pictures i sent of me and wardy and roman and my apple pie you never say anything so i can never know But YES i did get the milk duds and no they didnt make me sick they made me so happy they were all melted into a big choclate carmel mess but i broke it up and made  that popcorn  treat it was amazing and that herb cheese favor was very good as well Eliza i{m so sorry i didnt get to write anything for state but YOU HAVE TO LET ME KNOW WHAT HAPPENS AND SEND PICTURES AND DO YOUR VERY BEST SIS AND NO MATTER WHATS HAPPENS KEEP YOUR HEAD HELD HIGH AND BE THE SUPPORT OF YOUR TEAM THEY NEED YOU I¨M SO VERY PROUD of you and what you are doing...  MOM you are amzing you do so much i have no idea how you do everything you dod and do it so well  you are just a super hero i guess.    any ays i dont have time becasue i wrote a letter to my presdident and danny and dad before all ofd this and i´m already late but I am so happy adn i pray for aall you of you every day!!!

Good luck God Bless and SMILE!!

ELder Hafen.

December

December 12 2011

ANywhy so this week some fun things happened first at this one house elder mckoen and i were talking to this young adultand teaching a little trying to get in so we could teach more but his Dog would bark and bark and bark his dog was a big bulldog scaring looking dog but anyway it would not shutup so finally i reached my hand in and started straching his ears and Boom he didnt make one noise after that.  its just weird becasue never in a hundred years would i have thought to stick my hand through a fence to pet a unknow and untrained bulldog up i did and he just barking i didnt get bit and we got in and tought a lesson and he accpet the invation to be baptised  cool stroy so hopefull hear in three weeks he`ll be baptised.

ANywhy here are some random picture of paraguay and of some art and some christmas decirations  because paraguay is a thrid world country they have no trach pick up people well they have some but not enough and so it help clean up the area for christmas they mark decerations out of 2 liters pop bottles  they are actually kinda pretty and creative.  thats one thing that paraguay has going for them they are creative they know that they arent the smartest riches and cleanest people but they are still a very happy people.

on no i´m running out of time and i havent written everthing yet.  first off i want all my brothers and sisters to kow that our parents are amazing and that we are so blessed to have them and been raised by two people how know how to love and have patience and are kind.  here in paraguay it is not the same.   i have seen child abuse and i have seen the effect not only do the recive bruise but they learn to hit back or they learn to always by afraid.  just yesterday i lady of about 25 years old was tellling my that she smokes becasue she is all ways nervous that her father is going to hit her and that me and my companion are her only friends because we dont hit her.  and there is no laws or program of the goverment to stop this behavior like there is in the states so the best i can do is love and try to teach people that hitting solves nothing and that they have worth and that the have vaule.  i dont have time to write everthing i planned but i would like everyone to read the family procalmation to the world from the first presidence they one from Prisendet Hinkley.  i read that just this week with a girl how what to know how to be a mom and what the purpose of the family is.   it takes let five minuets to read but it explans so much how to have a amzing family i pray for you are everyday

all is well here the church is true and i am one of the happiest missionaries around
Love Elder Hafen.

December 19 2011

I`m going to have my first baptism on dec 22nd!!! i was supposed to have it this week but when the day come around there was no water pressure in the church to fill up the font and there is no safe river near by so we canceled it till next week.  i am way excitied to see her baptised her name is adriana and she has been through a lot in her life and when i say alot i mean hell she has sufuvied a lot and has been a victum of some major crimes but through christ and his atonement she has laerned that she can forgive and forget.  she can forgive those that abused her and more importantly she can forgive her selve and relize that her father in heaven loves her and that jesus christ died for her. i have seen her life do a complete 180 from what it was to what it is now.  now she is a confundent young 19 year old lady that know she has vaule and knows that christ lives and that the best way to live is with christ not fighting against him.  i`ll be sure to send lots of pictures and such if i`m even here for it im sure i will be but tonight we are going to receve changes so i could go anyway really but general the younger missionary stays in the area and the older one leaves.

well my computer just freaked out and now i have no time to write. know that i love you and that God is with you just open the door and let him in.  i`m so excitied to talk to you all one christmas eve stay strong and have a great week. sorry eliza that i didnt get to write but know that i wantd to and no there is nothing that is going to be coming to you on 26 i`m waiting to change my money still and i plan to have one there hopefully for valentines day i`ll see what happens .

 

Ok here are some pictures of the bautism and a picture of the momnet on the hill that explianed the last battle of the gaurni indians  

It was so so sos os os so so os so ssooo great to talk to you all today hopefully for mothers day we´ll have more time but i loved to hear your voices and see you smiling faces you are all so amazing.  i´m so happy that you all got skype to work that was great the only bad thing is is that i spent 10bucks on skype so that i could call your phones and now i dont need it o well totally worth it!!

Thatsa for the great christmas cards and gifts

 

 

November

November 14, 2011

This great was great and i have a couple of things i what to write about.....

Play boy bunny at the baptism, Finshing the book of mormon, and the Bible

 

First playboy bunny

this week in my ward we had a baptism!!!  it was great i think it was the first baptism i have been to since my own 11years ago.  now before you get all crazy it wasnt my first baptism it was just a baptism of a little 8 year old girl still amazing spiritual and very important but not mine.  me and elder mckeon have been working with her family for the past months to get the dad ready to give his son the preisthood and baptize his daughter  adn this week he got to do both!! it was so amazing to see his progreesion and the difference the gospel made in his life in just two months i have just i strong testimony that if we just humbile yourself and give yourself to the lord we willmake us more then we could of ever been be ourselves all we have to do is believe and then give ourselves to him through keeping the commandments and much prayer.  anyway back to the playboy bunny.  the baptism was thursday night and everyone was in their best clothes that werent sunday clothes and one of the daughters of brother Ramirazes ( the man who baptised his daughter) came in a very clean very nice look yellow shirt that in the bottom right corner of the shirt on the front side had the logo of the playboy company which is the bunny thing and if you dont already know what it looks like DONT look it up ill sent the picture of the baptism next time.  i just thought it was so funny because her i am giving a spiritual thought at this girls baptism about the holy ghost and her sister right next to her is wearing a playboy bunny shirt.  But wow when i saw her enter the water and be baptised i know with out a doubt because the spirit testified to me and i know that Baptism is a real ordenece and that that baptism is my purpose out here.  sure i want to help people in every why i can but the best thing i can do for them is help them make covenants or keep covenants because once the are doing that God will do the rest.

 

I finished the Book of mormon for the frist time on my mission in english this week.  i love that book it has changed my life and i now that it is true that it is the word of god and that josé smith only translated it through the power of God.  once i finished it i wanted to restrat right then but inside i have started reading it in spanish and my gaol is to have that done in like 4 months or less and then reread agian and agian becasue the thing about the spcriptures is no matter how many times you read it the spirit will always testifive that it is true and you will learn something new that applies to your life that is a promise and not from me but from God 2Nephi 32:3.  im running out of time so ill skip a little hear and talked about the bible.

if you really understand the bible you know that from the beginning of time God has called prophets to lead and guide his people and each time god blessed the people and then with time the people rejected and killed the prophets and this continues till Jesus Christ came and set up his church in its prefect form but then as we now Tthe people reject Jesus and his apsotels so once again the poeple didnt have the power and authority of god to run his church and for thousnads and thousands of yyears that power was not on the earth but has we know from the bible God is the same yesterday today and forever so today like he did from the beginning he has called a prophet to lead and guide his people and he started with Joseph Smith and restorted his church once nore on the earth.

 

i explained all of this to a man the other day and he accpted all of it until i got to joseph Smith  and he said i quote ¨ Thats not true it doesnt say anything about jose smith in the bible thats not true it cant be true, he is  not in the bible!!¨   well duh he is not in the bible he lived almost 2 thousand years after the bible was finished of course he´s not in there at least not in name i know that there is a prophesise about josé smith in Isaiah.  i just dont understand some people cant wrap their head around the fact that there are prophets today God never changes he call prophets in the old times he calls them now and his name is Thomas S Monson.  well i have to go this is a wierd spot to end but ill finish later.

Paraguay is great im doing very veyr god my spanish is so so but better and i love my mission and the Lord Jesus Christ.  He is knocking at the door please dont shut him out that him help you let him heal you.   i love you all very  very muvh i wish i had more time to write personal letters but o well stay strong and mom keep fighting the good fight you are amazing and if for some reason you forget reread that letter i wrote you for your birthday becasue it is so true every bit of it.

 

 

 

 

Love ELder Hafen

November 21, 2011


in six days i will have been out for five months WHAT is happening where is my mission going i dont understand way does tmie go faster when you´re having fun.  the mission has been great is great and will always by great.  this week i had my  first zone confernece  it was great about 56 elders and two sisters and wow it was amazing great spirit and i learn awsome things about how to better my live personal and build my testimony as well as work better with the members of the ward.  i have gained a testimony of work with the members it is so hard to great people to come to church one because people are such lazy and forget that church is a blessing not a sacrifice it is a chance to renew your baptism convent and feel the spirit in oder to have it for the rest of teh week and two way would you go to a place were you dont know anyone.  the church in my area has 450 members but only but 70 go if we are lucky the past three weeks have been better slow only about 40ish or so last week we had 29 no good no good (it rained that day and when  it rains in paragauy everybody stops and does nothing)  these week we have weeks with members in order to try and build friendships between the investagator and some of the members also so we have tried to bring back so inactive families which in my mind is as good as investagatores.  for example this week we had a family come to church that hasnt been to church in years and it was like a pary everyone was so hapy to see them again and just welcomed them in like they were a good lost friend(which i guess they were)  the church is true did you know that? if not, i testitif  that it is and it is worth looking in to.
any way what happend this week hmm this morning a man called us over and wanted us to pray for him and touch his wound so that he would be healed.  a little weird but we taught him how to pray so he could pray on his own and than we prayed together and ask god to heal his wound according to that man´s faith and left a blessing on his home.  what the outcome was or is i dont know but i felt that maybe we helped him grow a little closer to god.   this week one of our old investigatores asked why we pray to Nephi and not god?  this i dint understand becasue not two seconds ago we just prayed to God in the name of Jesus christ sometimes i feel like people dont use their ears but hey who am i to judge.
me and elder mckeon are great having fun and doing the work both at the same time becasue really the work of god is fun its joy its great and i dont even have a baptisum yet i cant even image how happy i´ll be whne i get to see MY first baptizum and watch has a person changes their life and stars their journey towards the tempol the tempol being the goal for everythig i do  i want to do through the tempol with my converts.
i wish you all the best thanksgiving ever how exciting to have family and big get togethers eat a lot of good food for me and give everyone a huge hug.
so if this was every where and didnt make much since but good luck mom with finlas and eliza get off gmail you´re in class!!!  jk love you

ELder Hafen 

Thanksgiving

 Happy late thanksgiving

I guess the food wasnt very good this thanksgiving becasue out of everyone i heard from no one mention food at all but i guess with a new baby two puppies there wasnt much time to eat.  i m so happy that you are and a great weekend.  sorry i dont send more pictures but to tell you the truth i like never take pictures mostly becasue one we can only take pictures on monday or at bautisms and two i feel really weird dressed as a missionary and just standing taking a picture.

THis week i learned how awful satan is i remeber one time thinking ¨poor satan he just doesnt understand¨ Now how ever i realize how unmerciful and absoulutly evil he really his.  I have tought families this week  where they were so far trap sown in the worldly things that they couldnt see the light of christ anymore they asked us how much we get paid to be missionaries and we told them nothing that it was all service and all totally worth it.  and they could just not get there head around they fact that we dont get paid to be here that we actually paid to be here to preach the word of GOd and help his children.  there where others who feel like the church is selfish and cruel becasue they spend all this money on building big beauitful buildings well people are starving in the streets.  we tried to explain that they church spends millions of millions of dollars on program that are free that teach people how to help them self or job skills and like the first repsonse units for huge natural destruccions the church has huge program all people have to do is be humblie and go to this program to accept that they need to change.  but he didnt believe us and said that if the church really wanted to help him they would give him money to feed his family at this point i said if you really want the money to feed your family maybe you should stop smoking and drinking and use that money to feed your family.  i dont think he liked that much he just wasnt ready to change.

this sunday we had two investagators at church one of which willbe my first bautism she is 18 her name is andriana and she will be bautised before christmas that way elder Mckeon and i can have a bautism together. and we had two menos activo families come to two aswell both just the mom´s and their kids because the Fathers are drunks and have lost all faith.  it hurts me so bad to see these poor mothers sitting alone with out their husbands but we are working with them and with time and faith i know that we can get these brothers to come back to the light.
the mission has opend my eyes to a whole new world and has helpped my realize how amazing my family is and how lucking i was to be first born in a country that takes education serisously and to have a family that knows how to love.
I love the mission and i have seen the gospel change lives: give hope to the hopeless strenght the weak and build up the broken.  that is what the gospel is it is hope , hope for a better world.  there´s a scripture that talks about that i believe it is Moroni 7 40 something to something.  welp love you all very much keep my updatede with test scores and swim meets and CF and school and did Alvie have something that i need to worry about so confused any whoo love you
Elder Hafen   

October & November Updates

Oct 24th
...MY first week was three days so it doesnt count nothing to special on my first day out i got yelled at in Guarani i had no idea what she said and nether did my companion but whatever.  i thing she yelled at me because i was bearing testimony that this was the only true christ and she didnt believe that there was such a thing as a true church.  my second week we had conference and that was great and we went to the temple and i got to do baptism for the dead in spanish i had an awful time with puncution but the power of the priesthood made up for my mistakes. o and durning my second week i anotined two differnt poeple for the blessing of the sick.  so my first time blessing and doing temple work was in spanish very cool had no idea what i was saying but i could feel teh spirit and i knew that God´s hand was behind my words.  o and i went through the temple in spanish it was really cool and i felt like i understood a lot of what they said mostly because i had done it so much and provo that i knew what i was supposed to say.  in the thrid week nothing to unormal for a misionary just thought great lessons and felt the spirit.  but Just yesterday i got to give a talk in sarcement.  that was bretter scary but from what i was told i did a very good job and they were able to understand what i was saying.  i talked about missionary work but i talked about how the two great camandents are love god and thy niaghbor and how jesu said to simon peter if you love me feed my sheep.  so i dropped the cane on the ward and told them if they love god then they would share teh gospel with their nieghbors friends and family....

i´ll tell you a little more about the people.  a lot have no or very little education.  i teach people how can´t read and people how´s grammer is worst then my.  the education here is very very poor but at the same time these are really intelligent people to start they all know two langues spanish and Guarani.

i have servel very great people that i am teaching and servel others as welll but first.  let me tell you that i lovwe my companion he is a really great guy adn we talk and get along so well it is great its so nice to not have that worrying or uncomfortablness.

ok first Juan,  juan is a single man you is a druk and wants to change his life and be an example for his grandchildren.  we met him at a dispensa ( a little family own store)  i was looking for a watermelon and he come up his three huge empty bear bottles and said i have a watermelon for you come to my house with me so you know where i live and then you can come visit me tomorrow.  a great man and i really want to help me...

Oct 31st
...Where did this week go i have no idea time flies on the mission it is crazy crazy.  one great thing that i have noticed this week is how much better my spanish is now i´m not prefect and i still at times have no idea what people are saying but has far as talking about the gospel and teaching people the simple pure truths of the doctrine i go just fine and i have a testiomino of the gift of tongues.  there is no way by my selves that i could of learned spanish this fast. i and i now i could learn a lot faster but i dont but in all the evort that i should i study the gospel in english and then me and my comp speak english all the time the only study i do is read the Book of mormon out loud with my companion.
the gospel is just a amazingly simple and great thing.  all it really is is God loves us so he sent his son to atone for our sins and so that if we follow him and repent we can return and live with god, and all we have to do is keep the commandments,  so because God loves us he calls prophets to Guide and teach us with a loving hand and the commandments are all for our proctection and profit.  i love the saying that says :::  you can not break the commandments because the commandments are prefect and from God, you can only break yourself against the commandments:::  or somthing close to that and i love it because it is so true God gaves us commandments inorder to keep us safe from the devil and from physical and spiritual harm. or in others words to keeps us happy.  mosiah 2:41...
 ...i am teaching some really great people right now and i hope that they will progress but has i have been teaching one thing that i have learned is that people need to have a testimoiny of the book of mormon because if the book of mormon isnt true then josé smith is not a prophet and then he never recieved the priesthood and are church is just like ever other church in the world .  but if they have a testiomony of the book of mormon then they know that one jesus is your savior becasue that is what the BOM is all about 1nephi6 (cant remeber that verse but nephi tells us why he is wrighting the book and it is a very short chapther so you can find it)  two that josé smith was a profeta and that he has and we still do have the authority of God and and three this is the kingdom of God and the earth today. ( the last two paragraphs of the intrudcion of the Book of Mormon).  i´m sorry i didnt get to tell you about my investagatores specficly but i dont have time any more but know that i know that the book of mormon is the word of god and that it is a gift and a guide for us all 2nephi 32:3  i love that book never before have i loved this book like i do now. i wish i could go back in time and take advanteg of reading the book of mormon more before my mission but more than that i wish i studied the book of mormon becasue it truly is writin for our day there are times and times again in the book where profets talk to us and say i am writing this to you us in the latter days.  i invite you all to read the intruducion of the book of mormon and thne serisous thing and proper about why God in hevan and the Profets of old would want you to have this...

Nov 7th

...the feild has been a little crazy this week a lot of druken people and things are only going to get worse hass we get closer to chirstmas.  o YEA i am in summer down here and it is hot and very very hot i never knew a place could get so hot.  i dont have much time today because we are running a little late however  i want to tell you about  hmm i can never remember what i do or what i have already told you about
Wait i got one this week i went on a division with an elder that speaks worse spanish then me  it was so amazing becasue i literally say the gift of tongues becasue there is no way that him and i should of been able to teach but together and with god we where able to teach and to add to that we found four new investagotres.  ( in our mission in order for a person to be a new investagator they have to accept the invitaion to be baptized)  and we saved kittens who were stuck in a tree...

In Paraguay! October 3rd

MY dear family

 

ok i have no idea what is goning on the key board i´m useing is all wierd looking and has the numbers in the wrong spots.  i kow my last quick email gave no real description about paraguay so i´ll try to do better right now.

 

once we arriveds in Paragauy i went up to the conter thinbg and they just looked at my passport and gave me a stamp and on i went i never showed any medicail papers or anything like that.  Our Mission president was waiting there for us at the baggage claim the first thing he did was give us all a big huge then we grabbed our bags and loaded them on a big truck and then we all piled into two vans and six went with the mission president´s wife in there car.

 

we all went to the church office buliding.  one of the coolest things about paraguay is there is no traffic rules people, cars horses and motocycles go where ever they want at what ever speed.  the office building had a huge eight foot tall razor covered fence arounded it it looked more like a fortress.  every person that can afford it has the same thing or close they have sharp poking sticks or metal fences and if they are solid stone walls the put cement on top and stick glass srads (broken glass)  on top so if you touch them you get cut up.  its really cool in my opinion.

 

the first night here i got to sleep at the president´s house in asuncion it was nice enough to be in the states and yes it too had a razor wire fence. the roads here are really cool the main roads are like ours theya re paved but the rest are cublum stone  and not even that they just throw stones on the ground and pressed them or the roads are just dirt.

 

on wednesday all 27 of us new elders got to go to the last stand of the Gaurin indians.  it on top of a mountian and they built a huge staute thing that tells the story and history of their last stand it also looked out over all of paragaauy it was really cool  then after that we went to go get our new companions.  i was very ecitied and i still am.  My companion is Elder McKeon he is from Oregon in a city near portland.  he is a great Elder and i would be very lost with out him he has been out here for about a year now and i would be lost with out him.  i am serving in a area Call DEL MASTREAO  i probale spelt that wrong but in english it means ¨´of the Master´´  it is a little suburd about 30 minutes from asuncion.  in this area there´re both kinds of people there are the very ´´rich´´ meaning they have a real fence and painted houses to the very poor one lady that we tought lived in a house made from 2by4 peices of wood cardboard and sheets of pli wood  one room and what not but she was great very happy and kind. the thing that is cool about paraguay is that the people are so great but at teh same time so weird.

 

first they wil give you everything they have but yet there is a huge problem with stealing hence the walls of death around everyones home.  second instead of knocking at doors he stand outside the fence and clap.  and if they dont want to talk to us the send there little children over to talk with us and tell them that they the parents arent home and so we tel them to go tell there parents that we want to come back another day and what day and time would be best for them so then the kids go back and talk to the parents that arent there it is pretty funny. the other weird thing is that everyone just throws there trash on the ground i have a new apercation for trash cans.  there are no trash cans for public use and there is only one in our house which i will tell you about later.  paragauy is beauitful the countryside is great and the people are great too.  everyone sits outside and drinks maete which is just water with hay in the cup,  what they do is cruch up this herb stuff then the have a special straw thing and they pass it around in a big circl and they all drink it is a very social thing and they very cool thing to do is one drive a motorcylce and then make leather covers for your big two liter water coolers.  the leather work down here is very impressive i´ll try to send picture some time soon and the picture i have attached i have no idea what they are because i cant see a preview of them because this computer can´t think that fast or just doesnt work that way so hopefully there of something important.  i am typing this before i have readed anyones email to me so i´m sorry if i dint get to answer every question i´ll be sure to prepare poperly for next week.

 

my house is one of the nicer houses in the mission and wqhat they mean by that is that it is bigger.  unfortanly it s a huge mes so so so so so os os os os  so  dirty me and elder McKeon are going to play spring cleaning today so that will be fun i guess.  we live behind a little store and these store owners have like a peacock, 4 parrots and a monkey and dog in there back yard right infront of our house its really cool to see them but they are the most noising things on earth i never knew that a bird could make so much noise. evry morning they wake us up early and keep talking through out our personal and compion studies.

 

i know this is a vewry poorly worded letter and the grammer is awful but learning spanish has destoried my english. i love you all thanks for the love and support love alway Elder Hafen

D-DAY for Drop Off! July 27, 2011

Things have changed at the MTC since the swine flu outbreak.  Now it is only a curbside drop off.  You spend more time waiting at the intersection to turn into the MTC, than you do saying goodbye to your missionary.  The elders wear White Tags over their black name tags.  They say simply "HOST".  and they are very good at what they do.  Jonah's luggage was almost completely unloaded before I had the car turned off.    My reccommendation to all future missionary moms is this:  take an nonaffilliated individual with a automatic digital camera.  Let them out of the vechicle first and just keep clicking away and take hundreds of photos.  I do not have a picture of Jonah infront of the MTC or at the corner by the pretty brick wall that says "Missionary Training Center".   but here are a view that we took at BYU marriage housing were Jonah's brother and sister-in-law live.  there home is less than 3 blocks from the MTC.

Missionaries are Soooo Handsome

I think this is the 8X10 I should hang on the wall.

Jonah's last free moment.

Dedication

What a GOOD day!

Big brother Danny is a fine missionary example.

Eliza's goodbye drawing.

Look no tears!

Elder Hafen will be an uncle in October.

<3  Brotherly * Sisterly love  <3