New Record in Steps

Hello everybody. Another week has already come and gone and I get to write to you once again! Pretty simple week this week, nothing too out of the ordinary happened. 

Taught zone meeting this week. Went really well! The Sisters taught about Nephi and his story about going back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates. Then we taught about the the 'To Do's' and 'To Be's' of life and also of a missionary. We enjoyed teaching the lesson and we ended up having a pretty good discussion about it similar to what we had at mlc. It was pretty split on whether it was better to be a 'To Be' or a "To Do'. We enjoyed listening to everybody's opinion then bringing it all together and finding that you need the one to do the other. There are a lot of things we need to do in this life and there are a lot of things we need to become. In order to do one you need the other. If you just do and don't become, it's like being a hypocrite. You come unto Christ with your words but your heart is not there. And to be without doing just doesn't work. Faith without works is dead. All in all it was a very fun lesson to teach and I think the entire zone enjoyed it and could relate it to themselves. After that we went out to lunch with a couple other Elders then went to work there in Alicia. We had baptism interviews there but they weren't until around 5 so instead of going back to Echague and turning right back around to come back to Alicia, we just split for a few hours and worked in their area before the interview. I worked with Elder Odchigue. We had a pretty good time working together. He's a really good teacher. Great at sharing personal experiences. I love attending his district meetings as well since he is so great at teaching them and involving the members of his district in the lesson. We got the interview finished a little later than we wanted since the investigator was a little late coming home. Anyway, the interview went well then we finally made our way back home to Echague.

We had a sickness come through this week and hit all of us except for me. Not sure why, I guess I got lucky. But Wednesday morning the other three were just taking turns rotating in and out of the CR. Then it turned into coughs and runny noses. Then Elder Labrador's back was beginning to hurt to the point walking was difficult for him. This took a hit on the work this week since it delayed us getting out Wednesday and Thursday. We were still able to hit the appointments that we had set for those two days but we didn't do a whole lot of finding like we normally do. Wednesday there was a baptism in the ward so we went and witnessed then we hit a few appointments. We went to the Quisisem family and ate dinner with them. We were able continue strengthening our relationship with them which was great. We had them all committed to church by the time we left however the dad is the only one that ended up attending when Sunday morning came around. We have an appointment with them tomorrow so we'll get to follow up on that. Thursday was probably the worst day of people being sick in the apartment. It was a long day not really doing anything. Did a lot of resting, reading and playing cards. I guess it paid off though since they all seemed to be doing better Friday morning.

Friday we did splits just with the other elders in the apartment. This was my first time working with Elder Carrington and we had a way fun time together. We went to work in his area so I enjoyed meeting some new people and seeing some different places. Before we went out, we went to a lunch appointment with the Galera family. It's a family in the other ward but he came by the apartment in the morning and invited all of us to lunch. They are an awesome family and really fun to talk to. For work, we went to a really far area. Broke my personal record of steps during work. Ended the day with 22,000. We didn't just walk forever, even though sometimes it felt like it. We were still able to teach a few really good lessons. We shot hoops with a couple kids for a little as well just on a ring that was attached to the tree by the road. They thought it was awesome playing with two foreigners! Then like all the people in the neighboring houses came out and just watched the 5 of us shoot around. It was awesome. Anyway, we enjoyed the day together then finally got back to town and had dinner with the Rivera family. Made for a pretty great day.

Saturday morning we got up and went to Alicia to attend a baptism. The service was pretty good. It was a good thing we went since there were only like 4 members there to support him. Baptism was good then we went to brunch at Jollibee. While eating, a bus pulled up and like 30 white couples got off. Just so you know, I don't know why but it is weird seeing white people here. Almost to the point that I don't even want to go talk to them. So... I didn't. Just watched them walk around and take pictures. Kind of interesting though since they were taking pictures of things that just seem normal to me now. I guess it means I need to take pictures of almost everything since you might really not know what we see everyday. Went back to Echague, took a 20 minute nap then went to work with Bishop. Super nice since we used his tricy for work. He used to work with the missionaries once a week but he had a surgery right before I got here and that kept him from work until this last Saturday. He is now going to work with us every Saturday and we will go out to Pag-Asa which is very far. Even though it's very far, we still have members that come to church every Sunday which is great! This was our first time going there since it is not worth it without a tricy. It would probably take a good 2 1/2 hours to walk there. So we contacted a lot of people and Bishop introduced us to some of the investigators that they taught before in Pag-Asa. Overall we had a great day with Bishop then ended the day eating dinner with John Garcia. It was his daughters birthday so he invited us over to eat. Finally learned the reason why they always cook spaghetti or pancit (noodles) when there is a birthday! You'd think someone would have told me this after over a year of being here but it symbolizes many more to come. The fact that the noodles are long is meaning you will still live longer and have many more birthdays to come. Totally makes sense now after about every birthday I have ever gone to here has had spaghetti or pancit. So that made my night when John told me that's what it meant!

Sunday was pretty good as well. Had few less actives at church again that are on their way to returning. The only bad thing was that sacrament meeting was super noisy. Kids were running everywhere and the parents just let it happen. Like they didn't even notice their kid was there! Anyway, we made it through and ended up having a pretty good priesthood class also about the peace we can find in Christ. We were able to split after church as well and work with some that are preparing to go on missions. I probably should have done that before I left but at least now I get to help others prepare. They are all so ready to go they are just waiting for the semester to finish in school then they plan on passing in their papers.

Overall we had a great week. President called a couple hours ago and told me that his family is here in the Philippines and they will be coming to district meeting tomorrow! That should be super fun. I'm looking forward to meeting them. Hopefully I meet the one that works at Klim and have him hook me up with some stuff. ;) Anyway, I will let you all know how it goes next week. Love you all and have a great week!

Love Elder Haacke

 Lunch appointment on Friday with the Galera family.

 

 Took Elder Carrington's GoPro for some nice pics on the tricy with Bishop.

 

Echague missionaries group picture at church. Some of my favorite Elders and Sisters in the mission!

 

 Splits on Friday. The road going out to their area.

Meetings With President and Sister Rahlf

Another week as already come and gone. Pretty crazy how fast the days go by! Glad your report on Sam and I in sacrament meeting went well. Dad I started laughing when I read what you said! Tried to picture it but I don't know if I'm picturing it right. Anyway, it made me laugh though!

Start this week at district meeting once again. We had interviews with President and Sister Rahlf. Elder Labrador and I got up early and got to Alicia by 7:30 to open up the Bishop offices for the interviews. We saw the one bishop leave on his bike right when we got there so we figured everything was unlocked and ready for interviews. Well, we went in and he had only unlocked the one office. So of course we started calling everybody we could but nobody was answering. I know President doesn't really like it when the rooms aren't open on time so I really wanted to get everything ready on time. The building we meet at isn't our church building so we didn't really know who to call. Anyway the other bishop showed up right after President got there so it turned out alright. We got interviewed first and it went well. Talked with Sister Rahlf about the area book and then she had some quotes on her iPad so she had us pick the one we like the best. Then President Rahlf shared a thought with us from the scriptures about Nephi. From 2 Nephi 4, Nephi talks about how he still feels like he has faults and he still needs to improve his life even after everything he has already done. We related it to us especially at this time of the year that there is always something we can change and improve on. Then we led into talking about goals for the year 2016. Too bad I didn't know I needed an endorsement last week since I could've talked to him about it in the interview but we did talk a little about school. He encouraged the fall track and just to go straight into school. After the interviews we had the normal district meeting. President and Sister Rahlf still weren't done with interviews after district meeting so those that hadn't been interviewed stayed there but we left and went to lunch.

Wednesday we had MLC. Got there pretty early so we could be the first to jump on the computer and update the baptism list for Alicia zone. We didn't update it last time so we had quite a few to update. For MLC we finished making a new standard of excellence for 2016 that we will introduce at zone conference in February. Also made a new vision statement for the mission. Then we had lunch. We ate KFC. They ordered each of us like a little party box with a variety in it. But it was super good. Then we went back to the meeting and Sister Rahlf shared with us about footprints. What kind of footprint we leave behind. And President taught us about magnifying our calling. Overall it was a good meeting and we finished everything we needed to get done. Zone meeting is tomorrow so we get to modify the message a little bit and share it with the zone. Ate lunch with Teikauea again and hung out with him for a while. He's down in Solano so the only time's I ever see him are at MLC.

Here's an update with the work from the last week. Brother Neo was out of town like all week. We knew he was going to Manila last week and coming home on Tuesday. We decided to visit him on Wednesday thinking he would be there but his wife said he took off again and went to Pangasinan. So we didn't get to teach him all week.

The Quisisem family is still doing great. We don't teach them a lot anymore but we do quick drop by visits every once in a while. They were all at church this last Sunday except for Nanay. We have a dinner appointment with them tomorrow so we will be able to continue to help them on their way back to church.

John Garcia is doing well as well. He wasn't there last week but he did come yesterday. He was in Cauayan last week so he wasn't able to come. He still only comes to the first meeting though then leaves so we want to help him attend all the meetings in the next few weeks.

We followed up some new investigators from last week and one of them stood out a little. His name is Jesus Resurrection. Quite the name huh? Anyway, we left the lesson 2 pamphlet with him and he read the whole thing. He's pretty old and he wife has already passed away so we thought he would like that. When we asked him how he like the message, he said he really liked knowing where we came from. So we had a lesson and talked about that and all was going well. He said he wasn't doing anything on Sunday so we invited him to come to church since he had time. That's when he just said straight up no. He was born a Catholic and will die a Catholic. We actually heard that from 2 different people as well this week. So anyway, there is still work to do.

We continued to get some more new investigators this week by just finding and teaching on the spot. I actually really enjoy doing that now unlike before.

We had the area broadcast yesterday that talked about the Philippines goals for 2016. It was pretty good. It's kinda funny though because most the Filipinos can understand English if it is pronounced well but Elder Ardern is from New Zealand and has a super hard accent so like nobody knows what he is saying but there is still a ton of people there. But it was still a good broadcast and got to see some of the other missionaries from the zone. Finally made it home and did the usual Sunday night KI's. Last night actually all came in before 10 for the first time since I've been here so that was super nice. Anyway, that's pretty much the week this week. Love you all and have a great week!

Love Elder Haacke

 Because of the new time of church, we all see each other every Sunday.

 

 Best tricy setup I've seen!

Spaghetti

Well it's the start of a new year once again. Crossed off the last month of 2015 on my calendar this week and I just sat and thought about the time the mission gave me that 2015 calendar. We got it at the Christmas devotional in 2014 and I was standing with Elder Walstad from my batch and we looked at each other and basically said at the same time that we have to finish this entire thing. It seemed so far away and that it might never even happen but all I can say now is it went by in a blink of an eye! (That rhymed by the way:)) And with it being January 3rd yesterday, I have 7 months exactly until I leave. If one year went by that fast, I can't even imagine how fast 7 months is going to go! But I am looking forward to this new year and to the things that lie ahead!

So a few weeks ago I summed up the entire week in one word...rain. This week I'm going to sum up the entire week in one word...spaghetti! Can't even tell you how many times I ate spaghetti this week! As in like multiple times each day! I've eaten enough spaghetti to last me the rest of my mission. The good news, we had lots of appointments. Bad news, ate spaghetti at just about every appointment! Haha life in the Philippines.

But with this week being New Years, it was very enjoyable and people are still going around with smiles on their faces constantly wishing others a happy new years. The week stayed busy with it being New Years and also transfer day on Wednesday. Transfer day went pretty well. Other than the fact that they changed it a little bit so instead of the zone leaders waiting for the other missionaries to come from the other transfer points in the mission then all going back together, the zone leaders have to commute back home by themselves right after we read the transfer list. Definitely did not like that since before we could go eat in Cauayan. (The only place with KFC.) So after we read the transfer list, we helped the missionaries get their luggage in the right vans then we hopped on a bus and went back to Alicia while the other missionaries waited for their companions to come from the other parts of the mission. So transfer day was a pretty short day for us and we didn't really do that much. We did get to see a few other missionaries which was nice. My anak (child) in the mission, Elder Estuaria, is training so I now have an apo (grandchild) in the mish! So that's pretty cool. I hope I'll get to be in the same zone again with them before 7 months is up.

Thursday we had district meeting and got to meet the new zone. I had everyone come up and introduce themselves since we have a few new missionaries in the zone. Not new to the mission but new to the zone. Also we had the AP's attend the Alicia district meetings so that was cool. Had a good meeting, finished accounting, ate some lunch then went back to Echague. We only had a few hours since we had a lock down at 6:00. We worked for a couple hours then had a dinner appointment with the Dumaliang family at 5:00. We invited the other elders and the sisters in Echague so we all had a new years eve dinner together. Dinner was good and had a couple different food options but of course one of the choices was spaghetti. After dinner we went back the apartment and just chilled, talked, played cards, etc. I'd say the firework show was a little better in Bambang than it was here in Echague, but that's alright. We still had a good time as the four of us just hanging out together.

New years day was pretty great actually. Had a lunch appointment with the Layugan family along with the other four missionaries in Echague, then we went out to work. First we visited are investigator Brother Neo. Got there and he's like, Hey elders this is great, we have extra spaghetti from last night! So before we taught... had to sit down and eat some spaghetti together. Then the lesson went great. It went a little long like it normally does with him just because we start to talk about so many things. We taught about Joseph Smith and introduced the Book of Mormon. He learned a lot from that visit. Mainly that he always thought Mormon was the God that we worshiped. So we were able to share with him who Mormon really was and then asked him to read and pray about it. We will talk more about the Book of Mormon with him next time. But teaching him is always a lot of fun since he asks so many great questions. The only fear I have is if he will begin to take this just as a bible study more than us asking him to make commitments and progress in gaining a testimony of the gospel. I think we'll do some more HTBT next time to try and get that point across. After are visit with him, we went right to another appointment with the Gaffud/Acosta families and once again, ate some spaghetti. Had a good time visiting with them and talking to one sister that served in Arizona. Worked a little more in that area before we went to the last appointment of the evening where once again, we ate spaghetti. Never eaten so much spaghetti in one day my entire life but I guess that's just how it goes. We were very thankful though for everyone being willing to look after the missionaries during the holiday season.

Rest of the week went well. Actually went to some new areas this week which was cool. I've been here for 3 months and still haven't been everywhere. Come to find out our area is HUGE. We just have some areas that are crazy far. Sunday we went out to one of them and we had to walk all the way back since there wasn't a tricy. That was a great experience. Took an hour and a half of walking nonstop to get back to town. But we still had a good time just like we always do while out at work. Plus we had one member with us, Brother Cesar, to show us where to go out in that area.

All in all we had a great week. Church was pretty good as well. We start at 10:30 now which won't give some people any more excuses to be late. Something that's been a problem in the ward. The only problem was it was super loud every time the other ward got out to go to their next class. Hopefully we can fix that in the next couple weeks. But just want to say Happy New Year again to everyone and I love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

 Elder Labrador and I inside the tricy.

This is a bridge going out to a far area. You can see how much mud covered the road when the river was high a few weeks ago. It reminded me of snow drifts covering the roads back home. I guess mud takes the place of snow in the Philippines!

  

 Elder Labrador and I at a house we contacted. Decided to take a pic while there.

 Brother Cesar, our hard working, diligent fellow shipper.

 

The road going out to Anafunan. Pure corn fields. 

A Short Note

Hello everybody once again! Only been a few days since we Skyped and not a whole lot has happened so I think that's pretty good justification to not have to write a long email!:)

So here are a couple pictures from the last couple days and earlier today. I guess we did get some news that I should tell you about. We got the transfer list today and none of us here in Echague are transferring so we are all looking forward to another cycle together.

Something else is we broke record attendance at church on Sunday! We hit 100! Crazy being that last week there were barely any people there. Anyway, it was super good because we had two visitors from the stake there. One of them came up to me and said, "Wow! The attendance has gone up a lot" and I was just like, "uhh yeah it has!" Haha it was a nice Sunday. Meetings were all pretty good and work was great as well. We couldn't split like we normally do because there wasn't enough priesthood to come with us but we still made do with what we had.

That's the big stuff for the week. I'll get back to the normal emails next week, just feel like I get a week off cause of Skype. :) But I love you all and have a happy new year!

Love Elder Haacke

 Skype from my side of the camera.

  

 Us on Sunday night waiting for the KI's to come in.

 The 6 Echague missionaries at lunch earlier today.
From left to right: Elder Romo, Elder Labrador, Elder Carrington, Me, Sister Delinila, Sister Villa.

 Pictures of the damage from the floods last week.

Rain

Hello everybody once again! The week for Skype has finally come! I can't wait to talk to you later in the week!
As for this week... All I can say is what a week we had this week! I can sum it all up in one word.. RAIN! I should just end my email right here because that's about all I have to say about this week. But I don't think that will be appreciated very much so I'll try to write a little bit more. 

The rain this week was honestly a killer. It made work not fun and not nearly as successful. We've had rain everyday since last Monday. Yesterday it rained, stopped for a bit, then was raining again before we went to sleep. Then today it is raining once again. I don't think I have experienced rain for this long my whole life. It actually brought down the entire zone. This week was the lowest ki's for the zone since I have been here. Some companionship's would say sorry as they sent us their ki's for the week since it affected them so much. There were a lot of not good things that happened this week because of the rain.

Lots of people lost a ton of rice and corn that they had planted. It actually led the last branch president of the other ward here in Echague to drinking for the first time in over 15 years. The other elders went to their house Thursday night for dinner and he was drunk because all his crops are gone and they need to start over.

There is a part in our area that crosses the river but the bridge is really small and low to the river. That bridge was covered by water for 2 days and while it was covered the bank on the other side going back up was destroyed. So those people couldn't come to town for a few days and a lot of people couldn't get back across to their home and had to be placed in Jones (a different city).

Clothes do not smell good when they don't dry normally after washing and because of the rain, they took forever to dry. So we've been wearing clothes that don't smell great all week. 

Good things that happened this week. On Thursday, President Rahlf was down in Santiago for the Christmas devotional for the zones down there. On his way back, they came through Echague and ate at a restaurant here. President called us and had us meet him there since he had something to give us. We met him there and he gave us some money that a past missionary had sent to Echague ward that we needed to give to Bishop so he could use it to help some families in the ward with Christmas. Then he bought us some pizza for us to take home! That was the awesome part. I've never eaten at this restaurant but I think I will now because it was super good! The cook is from Italy but also knows German so President got to show us his German.

Last Sunday we had a lot of less actives at church and 4 that were close to returning. This week there were 16 of us when we started church. Rain kills everything. But two of the less actives that were close last week were there and we considered them returned this week. It was the Quisisem Tatay and his daughter Roxanne. It would be nice to see the entire family return so we will work on that. All the other less actives that were at church last week will now restart on their count to be returned but we should be able to bounce back in the next few weeks.

Overall alright week. Hopefully this rain will leave soon and we can have a few days of good weather. We had a zone activity today. Just got together at the chapel and played games together, did white elephant gifts and ended with a big water fight. Turned out way better than I thought. I think everyone had a really good time. Looking forward to this week especially Christmas then Skype! Love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

Picture from zone activity. Seniors vs Juniors, this is the senior group.

Finding and Returning

Hello everybody! Another week has flown by here in the mission! Another week with ups and downs but there were a few pretty great things that happened this week that made it a great week!

Started off on Monday night, we had dinner with the Quisisem family and was able to build even better relationships with them, especially Nanay. We have been trying to work with her to come back but still have not been able to find the reason to her not wanting to come to church. Every time we are with her we laugh and joke a lot and she is very friendly to us. Even in the lessons she participates pretty well by commenting and asking questions. I guess time will tell with her but we won't stop what we are doing.

Tuesday we hopped on a bus and went to Cauayan for the Christmas devotional. It was a ton of fun! Learned a lot as well about the birth of Christ and the reasons behind the things that happened. For example, I never new why it was important that everyone had to be taxed. Why that played a roll in the birth of Christ I had no idea. If there was no decree sent forth taxing everyone in the land, Joseph and Mary would have had no reason to go back to Bethlehem. But because they had to go back to the land of his house, the prophecy was fulfilled that Christ will be born in Bethlehem. So everything that happened happened for a reason. Shows you the planning that has taken place in the pre-earth life. We had a great lunch, acted out the 12 Days of Christmas, did zone skits then ended with a great testimony meeting. Our zone skit was something else. I have winged a lot of presentations in my life and this just added to it. We just winged the entire thing and you could totally tell but we still laughed and had a good time. Also Elder Brandon's zone was there as well so I got to see him again before he goes home this Wednesday. Can't believe how fast time has flown since we were together a year ago in Bambang. He is going home a couple weeks early so he can be home with his family for Christmas. Over all the Christmas devotional was super fun and everyone had a great time.

We finally taught brother Neo again! We had seen him a few times lately by the way. Last time he was in his car while we were crossing the highway and he stopped his car right in the middle of the road and we talked right there while we were standing in the middle of both the lanes. Guess you can do that in the Philippines. But we were finally able to catch him at his house and sit down and share with him. It was another great lesson and he asked a ton of questions. It was awesome because while we taught prophets, he asked, "If there were prophets back then, there should be prophets as well right now right?" We just looked at each other and were like, "Exactly! Let us tell you about our living prophet!" Then while teaching about Christ's church and the apostasy, he asked,"So when and how are we going to get 12 apostles? Who's going to replace James and them? And what about God's authority?" Once again, we just looked at each other and were like, "Let us tell you about the restoration and about prophet Joseph Smith!" It was an amazing lesson and super fun to teach. We will be able to follow up his prayer next time we are able to visit him. Investigator wise, he is about the only one that is active like that in the lessons.

 

On the other hand, we are really progressing with quite a few less actives and continue to meet new ones! The Quisisem family has continued to improve. Next week, Tatay and one of the daughters will be considered returned. Roxanne (the daughter) has totally began to enjoy coming to church. That goes the same with Tatay. He has another less active friend, John Garcia, that we are teaching and bringing back at the same time. The other two daughters and Nanay still having taken the few steps to returning. The other two daughters are doing alright. They come to church sometimes but not like Roxanne and Tatay do. It's been cool to see the change in them and hopefully it will effect the rest of the family as well.

John Garcia has been doing good as well. He didn't come to church last week so his count had to restart but he came back this week. We have been working with him for a few weeks now and he is really coming around as well. His wife is abroad in Canada so he raises his two kids here. He has a job as well here but his wife just asked him to quit so he can spend more time with the kids and worry more about raising them.

We have another Sister that is returning as well. I have actually never taught her. Elder Labrador always teachers her when we go on splits. Every time I have gone with him there she has been busy. But she too has come 3 weeks in a row now so she will be considered returned next week. She made a mistake a couple years ago. She is young and already has a baby but since she has been coming back, the ward has showed so much love to her making her feel more than welcome.

In all, last Sunday we had 6 less actives there and 3 of them are very close to being considered returned. We also had the primary program on Sunday. It was fun to watch all the kids sing and speak their parts in the program. Something cool on Sunday was we traveled to Alicia to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and we traveled with our 4 fellow shippers. Last week we traveled with them as well and they watched Elder Labrador and I each contact somebody on the way to Alicia. When we got off the all said they wanted to be able to do that someday. So this week, we got them ready and encouraged them to do it. Then they all did it! We all sat different places on the bus so we could each contact someone different and everyone did it! It was so awesome to see the progress of the ward missionaries and their confidence and desire to share the gospel!

Overall we were very happy again with our week this week. I am loving this area and my companion is great! Christmas is getting closer and closer so let us all do our part in sharing to others the real meaning of Christmas! Love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

 Elder Brandon and I

Alicia zone at Christmas conference

Finding Sucess with Inactives

Happy December everyone! Less than 20 days until Skype! I'm looking forward to it so much! Don't count on me having the same account as last Mother's Day or last Christmas. I will be making a new one once again since I have no idea what my username or password was for either of those two accounts. I'll let you know my new username so you can add me when I make my new account in a couple weeks. Oh by the way, got the letter with the kids' school pictures. I can't believe how much they have changed! They are growing up way too fast! To be honest, almost made me want to cry when I compared the first pictures I got of them to these most recent ones! Can't even imagine what 8 more months is going to do to them!

Another week down and another week closer to Christmas. Everyone is already saying Merry Christmas to each other like it is Christmas day. Everyone except this one Nanay at the Christmas party Saturday night. It made me laugh when I heard it. Everyone was saying good-bye and Merry Christmas then when it got to this one Nanay she's like, "It's not even close to Christmas yet!" Then she just walked out. I thought it was pretty funny! But Christmas season in the Philippines is so awesome. You can honestly see the difference in the people. Everyone is just all around more happy! Then we get to go around and teach them the reasons why they are happy! All around just a super happy season.

Work was okay this week. Still are not having good luck with investigators. We don't even have that many. The sad thing is, members always ask us how the work is doing and they only ask about investigators. We have to tell them we are struggling with investigators but then I'm like let me tell you about the less actives that we're teaching! But by that time you can just tell they don't have the desire to listen. They just focus on baptisms instead of retention as well. It's not bad because baptisms are important as well but they don't see a lot of the progress that we actually are doing. That's okay because we are happy with the progress and the Lord knows what we're doing. The Quisisem family has had heaps of progress! They came to church the last two Sundays and the children are starting to build relationships with the other youth and single adults. We have also been able to build a strong relationship with them just in the last week. We just need to work with the mom to come back. She hasn't attended church with the rest of the family. She came to the Christmas party and had a great time. She even participated in one of the games and ended up winning! We have a great relationship with her as well but for some reason she doesn't have the desire to attend church. They are probably the most progressing less actives. We have quite a few that we are teaching and even came to church last week but a lot of them didn't return yesterday for church.

Saturday night's Christmas party was great! They just planned last Sunday after Church that it would happen this Saturday. Great planning right? So it was never announced in sacrament meeting. All week, we were asked to go around to all the members and spread the word that it was happening this Saturday. With late planning and nobody knowing about it, it turned out to be pretty well! When we got there, there were more less actives than members! It was great! We met a lot of new people and spent a nice night together. Had lots of people there and a lot of fun with the performances and games.

Sunday morning, get to church, no people. There was barely anyone there! I'm thinking, what happened to everyone that was here just 12 hours ago?? Then Bishop announced that we were starting and there were only 24 of us! Bishop was the only one there in the Bishopric. Probably the lowest there's been at the start of the meeting since I've been here. I was shocked. By the end of the meeting, it had gone up to around 80 which is about where it is normally. Almost everybody was late. Like a Christmas party hangover or something. But church was still good and we had some good lessons. Even in Elders Quorum we had a good lesson! Focus was home teaching related with pure religion.

Sunday night we went to Alicia and President and Sister Rahlf had a devotional for Alicia stake. They taught about the birth of Christ and the importance of some of the people and objects in the story. One of the things I learned was that angel Gabriel is prophet Noah in mortal life. I never knew that! Alicia zone has Christmas devotional tomorrow so we will learn more about the birth of Christ and President will expound more on the significance of the people and objects in the story. Definitely looking forward to that!

Over all we had a good week and continue to find success in teaching and returning some less actives. I hope you all have a great week this week. Love you all!

Love Elder Haacke

Imagine harvesting all this corn by hand! At least its in batches so they don't do it all at once but still, that would take forever!

 The elders at the ward Christmas party.