Teaching from the heart + 4th of July

     "So today is p-day once again :) WOOT WOOT ! That's so exciting that she made the news, make sure you guys laminate that ! LAMINATED ! hahaha and sweet I am excited to get a package those are the most prestigious things here, and Sally gave me one so WOOT ! Thanks Sally ! It WAS as good as it sounded and I made sure to share with elder Jensen. So what else is going on? How was hanging with everyone at the beach? How was the 4th of July with everyone? By the way that letter all you amazing people sent me was the most meaningful thing ever and I am gonna hold on and cherish it forever. I love you guys ! 

     I can't say that I am really homesick right now cuz I haven't felt homesick yet, but I can say that I miss your guys's voices. I picture them every time I read- I love you guys ! So on our 4th of July some crazy stuff went down. It was a normal day like any other until the devotional that night we had a judge talk about freedom and religion and stuff and it was way sick but before we even started They told us we could take off our jackets (thank goodness cuz it gets so hot !) and we started singing stuff like popcorn popping and the snowman one and the MTC president asked anyone with a birthday on the 4th and on Christmas and int this month to come up and we kept singing happy birthday, and then we sang happy birthday to America. And the best part was the president asked all those that had gotten a dear john or a dear Jane to come up and when we did we all sang love one another to them hahah. It was such a stinking rowdy devotional and there was a bagpipes player in the end and a bunch of flags from all over and they showed pictures of every mission and it was sweet and after we left the gym to eat magnum ice cream bars and watch the fireworks. We couldn't go to our rooms until after they were all over and it wasn't even a good show. Even if the beach boys were there. 

     So we went to bed at like 11:30 and it was me Elder Jensen Elder Bever and Elder Willis that were hanging out. It was crazy fun even though we got a lack of sleep. Oh and I got a haircut today . The reason I was bearded upon arrival to the MTC was because I left my razor with you guys and I got the razor the morning of me entering, oh and no music in the MTC so lame! On the mission I can so that's good. OH sally please send me that cd ! I would love it ! 

    HOLY CRAP PEOPLE !!!!!!!!!! So I was reading my scriptures and you guys . . . the church is true. All you endowed people reading this look at the Abraham facsimile #2 and just read it and look at all the pictures VERY carefully ! ESPECIALLY fig.7 SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZYYYYYYYYYYYY !!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ! I was on a freaking cloud yesterday when I saw that, cuz yeah I was just praying to figure out some new stuff and learn something new . Ended up having my MIND BLOWN !! so yeah read it look at it freak out a little bit at the awesomeness of it ! yeah. 

     Anywho so in other news I'm getting amazing at volleyball, all we do is play that or soccer. Days when we have late gym is volleyball in the AC gym and morning gym is soccer or futbol. Oh sally can you do me a favor and look up the history of how the church got a hold of the facsimiles of Abraham and can you look up the Joseph Smith papers info on LDS.org and send that to me or something? that would be great!

     12 minutes left. So we had this really cool devotional the other day about Joseph smith that was amazing and I have such a greater respect and understanding of him and what he went through, and after we sang praise to the man and the spirit was tangible it was like his spirit was there just listening to us sing. 

    And the other really cool spiritual thing this week was this workshop we had. We had to teach someone on the opposite side of the room with a random person- luckily I got Elder Willis and the instructor said k 6 minutes to teach the first lesson. So normally you get to know the people you teach but we had no time so we taught as best we could and super quick but when we got to the first vision I slowed down and really tried to speak from the heart. After he said you guys need to focus more on teaching people not lessons but he had felt a difference when I said the first vision. Then I found this awesome quote on missionary work that says basically are we just giving people information or are we giving them salvation. Totally changed my life. So after I tried my best to teach from the heart the whole lesson and we taught an investigator named Luis (my teacher) and before we left the room he was like hold on a second. That was the best first lesson I've ever been given by anyone, in all the time I've been at the MTC. Totally made me feel like all my hardwork trying to learn and trying to really teach from my heart paid off . ! And we had the same experience that night teaching our sub "jonathan" and he said that he felt a tangible difference in the spirit. It makes me feel so good, like I'm actually progressing because at times I feel I', not. Then when we taught Macario my other teacher I said the first vision again and now every time I teach and every time I say those words and every time I bear witness to truth, I can feel the spirit. It's tangible. And it feels amaznig. I have been so blessed with all you wonderful people. So thank you guys so much for being the amazing people you are. Just know that I love you guys and I want to hear everything that is going on. I love you guys ! 

     Thanks for sharing that you shared your testimony at girls camp with me, that whole letter I was tearing up in my room hoping no one was watching me. Did Liz go to singles ward? CONGRRATS JACKAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY on being able to do your paperwotrk !!!!You are gonna be such an awesome missionary! Cody your inhaler makes you twice as cool as a gazeboo and your celestial potential is officially like a 12. Sorry you haven't gotten anything back from me letter wise I have been super busy I will try to be better. k no time I love you guys. 

     Thanks for the letter I love you guys! Buena suerte con todo. Nuestro padre celestial siempre esta contigo. LOVE YOU GUYS.

-Elder Hawkins "

Soccer & the Tree of Life

Friday, July 13, 2012, 3:42 PM

     "So my p-day is on Fridays and I actually sent out my first letters today, sorry it's just been super busy on my end. 

     

     Just so you all know I appreciate the dear elder letters that I keep getting from you guys :) they make my day ! Estoy muy agradecidos por mi familia y mis amigos ! Oh and could you send Louis and Jon my information and get their addresses, because I need to talk to them ! So every Tuesday we do service and what normally ends up happening is I do showers hahaha ironic huh mom, but the ground gets super wet so I glide everywhere in the bathroom. And this one personal bathroom there's a mirror and secretly I danced in there twice after I went to the bathroom haha. I'm a nerd I know. So Elder Nelson is from Idaho and we were just hanging out and talking about stuff and he's super into hip hop and he knew what popping was so that was cool. And Elder Wood and I have a mutual friend ! OH MY GOSH my good friend Kate Stromberg whom I had a crush on freshman year works here ! I see her now and then at dinner, she's awesome . Winston is up here now which is sweet and elder Fisher (Andrew) is still here because his visa hasn't processed yet. Make sure you tell Izzy that I play volleyball with Andrew all the time. Which reminds me Katie when I get back, we are sooooooooo playing it all the time I've gotten so stinking good ! Not to toot my horn too much but my sets are like yours now, aka perfect and I back set well now and yeah it's awesome I LOVE VOLLEYBALL ! But soccer has been so amazing too there's good competition amongst the elders and we play as a district now. Elder Glassett and Elder Jarvis play and were on clubs and such in Utah and Arizona and they both play center mid they work really well together. I have gotten sooooo much better at my passing game, make sure you tell bishop that I'm back hahaha cuz when we played I was off.

      

     So what else is there to talk about. I just got done cleaning the temple which was pretty cool . And it's been a really chill day :) My Spanish is coming along ! I am so thankful for that, but I know it's not me hahha. Oh my goodness gracious so we have this thing called TRC and it's every Friday the elders go in and teach members and yeah it's really fun and last week we were teaching this one couple who are getting married on my birthday- so cool- and we were teaching about the plan of salvation. And I just felt like talking about the importance of families in the eternal scheme of things and how important it is that families stay together, and stay together in the gospel . then I told them how my two older siblings are kind of inactive right now, and how it's hard at times because you want them to realize the happiness they're missing out on. And how it's gonna suck after this life if I can't be with them because,hello you people are my world and I love you all to death. So I wasn't sure how the lesson went. But we get review sheets back from the people we teach and the girl I taught said that her older siblings as well have gone inactive and that now she feels the importance of being an example to them. And it just made me feel like wow. I'm actually a difference in someone's life. It's like the tree of life, you know how when Lehi takes a bite he wants to share it with his family ? Well the joy isn't just in the eating of the fruit, or learning the will and word of God, it's in sharing it. I feel that joy so much when I am teaching, and when I feel I'm making a difference. I feel the spirit when I teach and it's the coolest thing. I definitely need a lot of work with my teaching skills and Spanish, but for now I'm just happy that I've been able to help a select few with what little capability I have. 

 

 

     So about my plaque , I gotta look good. Straight up hahahaha. So I will either send you a picture from out here cuz I just got a shnazzy new haircut or some really great thing. Oh and for a scripture the one that gave me a reason to go on a mission was 2 Nephi 2:8 but my favorite scripture is this really short AMAZING verse in Isaiah 49:16. I absolutely love it. So yeah just make sure I look good and PLEASE send the package soon I am sick with an upper respiratory tract infection (according to the doctors) and I need my netti pot hahaha and then I can send you all the pictures and all the fun I am having hahaha. K well I gotta go get dinner I love you family. You are ALL an example to me. I love you sooooooo much and Sally you are in this equation too and you too Jackay and Liz so love you gotta go BYE !

 

your favorite white boy elder,

Elder Hawkins"
  

Que WOW! Who's That Bean Pole? MTC Week 2

Friday, June 29, 2012, 9:53 AM    

     "Today is the first "real" p-day. Last week it was more of a half p-day. By the way I left the letters in my room from all of you so I am not going to remember any of the questions you have for me haha sorry. 30 minutes isn't a long time to go back get em' read em' and email you guys so I think I'm gonna just stick with this.

     Thank you so much for the letters everyone! They make me really happy. There is this other Elder in our district who also has a "girlfriend" and there's this joke in Spanish what's the difference between a pear and a girlfriend waiting for a missionary ? A girlfriend no es-pera in Spanish the word pear is pera and the word wait is espera so the girlfriend doesn't wait and isn't a pear hahaha ohhhhh Spanish how you make me laugh. Elder Jarvis the other Elder with a girl waiting for him was like . . that's not funny. . . I thought it was though hahaha probably helped that Blanco told me that one before I left on the mission. 

     I'm praying for you guys everyday, and just so you know Heavenly Father said he'd answer mine so keep being the great people that you are and Heavenly father will bless you. So I came to the MTC right as the new 110 mission presidents came to get trained which is pretty cool in and of itself, but what's even more cool is that a bunch of general authorities were here. We even had a devotional where 10 apostles were in attendance, L. Tom Perry gave the talk. Only Packard and Hales weren't there it was way sweet! Before they all got in there my companion Elder Jensen was like who do you think is gonna be giving the talk/who's gonna be there and I said hmmm L. tom Perry ? I must have the spirit of revelation or something because that's exactly who spoke hahaha. Which reminds me we were playing a Spanish game in class yesterday on how to conjugate verbs, and I named our team los segundos , because second is best, and we ended up winning a WHA ?! 

     Oh yeah and on my way exiting the temple today I straight up ran into that center divider for the doors . . . awkward. Good thing only my companion saw haha we had a good laugh. So today was the first time going to the temple and so you know Aunt Pam I got that little paper like what we got at the Timpanogas one , and turns out the temple won't be open for the following 3 weeks to go to. I guess we had to choose awesome devotional with 10 apostles or temple for three weeks. Oh well I'm happy and I will be able to go for 6 weeks of my mtc stay. 

     So when the apostles were here the cafeteria started pumping out real food. The food has gotten progressively better. We've been teaching this "investigator" named Edin with an accent on the I so it's Edeeen and the last lesson we gave was my absolute best so far! I was so pumped after that. Oh and we had this hard one the other day we had to determine this guys problem and teach him a lesson about the problem to help him and we went last so instead of having the general 30 minutes like normal we had like 10 to get in find a problem solve it and get out-turns out it was alcoholism- only one companionship got it. My new phrase is Que WOW! Josh Cadden decided he was gonna steal it from me. We had a good talk last night, love that guy. 

     I seriously need a haircut. Sorry this email is so one track minded it's just I have like 5 minutes left and it's insane. Which reminds me no music in the MTC. Once I get to the field hopefully it will be better. Oh and my companion is big into singing and he's got a pretty great voice it's cool. Oh and Edeeeeen became our new teacher he's awesome. I am loving the MTC. In soccer my companion plays defense and I play offense and everyone comes up to him and says who's that bean pole running through everyone up there hahaha yup I'm a bean pole. Oh and I am Elder Circulo because I drew a perfect circle on the board without trying hahaha they are easy to please in the MTC I guess. I learned the first vision before my first lesson and it didn't flow so perfectly as it does now and yeah I've been memorizing things like crazy to help my district learn em it is so cool. Oh and coolest thing 1 minute left. So we had a workshop about Christ and we switched companions and mine was Elder Parco who seemed shy at first but holy cow when he talked I could feel just an overwhelming amount of the Spirit. We had to tell each other one thing to improve on. I said talking he said humility Ether 12:27. Got to go love you guys. LOVE YOU SALLY ! Love you Aunt Pam and Cody and chad and Grandma and Grandpa and Jamess and EVERYONE LOVE YOU BYE"

-Elder Hawkins

The Adventure Begins! MTC Week 1

Saturday, June 23, 2012, 7:22 AM

"A missionary leaves his family for two years so others can be with theirs for eternity." 

Here are some updates from Elder Hawkins via email :)

"How's it going Family?!?! It's Elder Hawkins ! I gotta say I love the MTC so far. I left Aunt Pam and Cody, went with an escort to get my badge and everything, checked out my room, then I went to my classroom, did an orientation and assessment of my Spanish and came back. At that point I met my companion, who is a total boss, Elder Jensen and it's been going great so far. Our district is all in our intermediate Spanish class and we have a pretty bomb teacher, he has the coolest Guatemalan accent, but he's not Guatemalan he just served his mission there. Everyone in my district is so chill and some of them went to school with Josh and Michael and roomed with them so we have mutual friends and it's sweet. 

OH MY GOSH ! And the one who roomed with Michael is Elder Bever !!!! BEVER PEOPLE ! But it's not pronounced beaver like mine, but I was like a wha ?! that's my nickname! 

So in our district we have me and Elder Jensen, Elder Cook and Elder Tarr, Elder Willis and Elder Bever, Elder Glassett and Elder Jarvis, and Elder Nelson and Elder Wood. So I'll give you a little low down on everyone. 

-Elder Jensen is a very confident, open person, which I greatly respect. 

-Elder Cook is a huge laugher and is always smiling.

-Elder Tarr is a friendly (funny thing is though, he looks IDENTICAL to the kid in Drillbit Taylor that says I AM NOT A HOBBIT !) but he is way more cool haha. 

-Elder Willis is a kindhearted guy who has these little jokes every once in a while that are just outstandingly witty.

-His companion Elder Bever is a total boss, super chill and friendly and funny. 

-Elder Glasset is pretty laid back but is hilarious too 

-Elder Jarvis, & Elder Glasset are the most laid back guy in our district both play soccer ! 

-And last but not least our roommates, Elder nelson is funny and kind of sassy, and Elder wood always smiles and is always cracking jokes. 

Basically everyone is amazing ! So first day p-day we played soccer ! SO SWEET and I scored 2 pretty sweet goals that everyone was like WOW ! Elder Jensen was like "that's my companion!" It was great :) lame thing is no headers so every time it was in the air (which is a lot cuz these missionaries are crazy) I wanted to head it but last second I would have to chest tap it, ah well though. And it was a really good sized field, much better than playing soccer on a small field and accidentally murdering your bishops face hahaha. 

So the first day we "taught" some "investigators" thankfully in English. So we sat around in a semi circle around an "investigator" who was being taught by 3 sister missionaries and then we just raised our hand to testify or something And the second guy had his leg amputated and I felt very strongly impressed to tell him that although we may be nothing (which he had said) to God we are everything and through Jesus Christ we can become everything.. . and kept going but it was so cool. I totally experienced the joy that I believe it was Ammon felt when he was able to share the gospel. It's such a great feeling. 

I have 6 minutes left to type ! so much has gone on ok short sentences. I love it here, pero la comida es loco en la cabeza (food is wack) So me and my roomates just eat wraps and whatever looks edible that day (for the most part it's ok) Elder Jensen got called to be district leader, so now I am senior companion to the district leader hahaha, I had a feeling one of us would be called. We taught our first fake real investigator and it went so well even though my Spanish is lacking. It's been so frustrating! it's like a funnel over my mouth, I have so much to say but very little can escape my mouth through the funnel. I can feel the spirit strong even in Spanish and it is so cool, my companion has a good voice and I tear up a little bit every time everyone sings a song in Spanish I love it. 

Sally don't worry your letters are getting to me along with all of you guys thank you so much! I have received the most letters so keep em coming ! Haha I really need more white socks and my grey pants and all the other things that I left thank you guys for your support and love I hope everything is going well."

-Elder Hawkins

Important Information!

Hi everyone! Its Sally Boughton, Steven's friend. Elder Hawkins, before he left told me that I am responsible for his blog! So I am here to keep everyone up to date on what our Elder Hawkins is up to! So far he has been able to send out two emails, which I just recently was able to receive. I am going to post the information needed to write Steven and some other cool stuff :) Lets give him all the support that we can! Ready? 1..2...3... go!

Basic info & things you need to know:
          
Elder Steven Michael O'Malley Hawkins
MTC Mailbox # 276
CHI-OSO 0821
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Email: steven.hawkins@myldsmail.net

(Sent from the Provo MTC Presidency)

• All missionary mail must come through the US Mail or commercial delivery services.  These services should not be used to send pizzas, fast foods, ice-cream, or any items that will spoil if they are not refrigerated within 24 hours.  Missionaries are not called out of class to receive packages, nor do they have access to a refrigerator.  For security reasons, we cannot accept any items delivered by hand.
• Communication with family can be done through your missionary email account on your weekly Preparation Day.  Communication to you from friends should be through letters mailed to the above address.  We cannot accept telephone calls for missionaries.

www.DearElder.com     (pretty much the best thing EVER!!)

• While in the MTC, this is the best way to get letters out to Elder Hawkins. This site enables you to write and email "letter", and if submitted before noon, it is printed and given to him the same day! Also, they are sent at no charge. How could you beat that?
• You will need to set up an account to use these services. Basic email and mailing info is needed. The site is run by donations so it will ask you for one from time to time, but you do not have to donate. 
• Once an account is made, you can select "write a letter" at the top. Once Provo MTC is picked from the drop down menu, you will need his info above for the letters to reach him.
• Also, this site has many care packages that you could send Elder Hawkins. If you know Steven you know how much he can eat! So send away!

• Once our Elder goes international, this site can also be used to send "pouch" mail, for just the price of the stamp! I'll post more about that later, once it is needed. 

That is pretty much it! If you run into any problems or have questions about how something works, you want to talk about the weather or shoot the breeze, please don't hesitate to email me! I will help in any way that I can. :)

Sally Boughton
Skboughton@hotmail.com