Hey Everyone!!

Hola family...oh wait...C'kemi!! 

So to start off, I just wanted to comment about something my mission president said to me in my weekly email. He told me that our key indicators from last week would be just about perfect for any missionary. I laughed in response and when I told Motra Smith she did the same thing. This entire time we have never considered how our success might compare to others and we have never thought that our success is anywhere near perfect. I guess my idea of perfect would be a baptism every week and all of my investigators attending church so it'll take a bit of time for that to start happening. And then the next step is baptizing entire congregations..but that is going to take some time. We have been very blessed this past week and we have seen many miracles, much like every other week I guess. There have been some problems with investigators coming to church because they have been sick or visiting sick family members, but I believe that once the weather becomes a bit more regular things should start looking up.  

With the arrival of the new sisters, Motra Smith and I have enjoyed the search for lost members to go and teach since we gave most of the known members to them. It was hard to give them up but we are excited to work and support new people. It has been nice to sit down and visit with them and encourage them to return to activity! It is a hard job and sometimes I don't know what to say but the Lord always provides. 

It's great to see the progress of this branch and I know it won't be long until they will be ready to be a steam-engine ward!! Now we need to start finding and teaching those who will make up the new branch they will have to establish to compensate for all of the new members. :)

One interesting thing that happened yesterday was that I had the opportunity to give a talk in sacrament meeting. Now remember that this is a nerve racking thing to do in English, but imagine doing it in another language with 10 minutes notice. The branch president came up to me right after we arrived and said that the supposed-to-be speaker did not show and asked me if I would do it in her place. The old me would have said "No way Jose, find someone else because I need time to prepare." but this is something I have been working on lately- to never back down to hard challenges and so the challenge was accepted. I have to admit that it was probably the best sacrament meeting talk I have ever given in my entire life. When the Spirit teaches and you are simply the tool, that is when the greatest amount of people learn (and that was me included!).

Some fun things that we did this past week includes: we found a pumpkin (which is basically like finding a rare pokemon) and made a sweet jack-o-lantern and then some pumpkin bread and pumpkin pancakes as well, we made a sweet apple pie! (see picture below), we had a surprise leadership training which was phenomenal, I was kissed in the ear, we almost drown from all of the water that has been coming down, and basically just had a great week. This next week is exciting because we are celebrating Thanksgiving together as a mission and will be having a talent show and a dessert contest. It's going to be great!! 

I love you all. Have a great week!!  

Motra Hawkins