HOLA mi familia y amigos! 

Estoy en Salt Lake City en estos momentos porque necesito mi Visa para Argentina. Pero me encanta. Estar en el campo de la misión real es tan bueno. Estoy feliz de decir que he tenido 2 bautismos hasta ahora y estoy continuando a enseñar.

I don't know if you all can understand that, but it basically says that I love it here in Salt Lake  and everything is going Great! We have had 2 baptisms so far and it is the coolest experience ever. Our most recent baptism was for a woman named Erica. Her husband is a member and they are about to have a baby. He has been less active and wanted the baby and his wife to have God in their lives to help them with everything. It really was a Miracle because he came to Us! We were super excited to be able to teach them and we know that they are going to be blessed for the choices that they are making. They now Have a goal of going to the Temple 1 year from now! :)

The work here is pretty amazing. Everyone always asks us if there is anyone to teach here because they think everyone is LDS, but that is the great part about speaking spanish. Almost everyone we teach has recently come from mexico...which means 99% of the time they are Catholic. It is pretty funny because we see a lot of houses that have this sign hanging in their window or on their door, "Este Hogar es Catolico" which means, "This Home is Catholic." 

I love it. We start talking to them and they say, "Soy Catolico" or "I am Catholic" and we simply reply with, "Oh, that is so great! We believe in Jesus Christ Too!" They love talking to us (I am pretty sure it is because we sound like gringos) and they are so fun to talk too! Most the time we talk to them for a few minutes and come to find out that they are "Super Activo en la iglesia catolica." Which means they go to church on Christmas and Easter. We continue to talk to them about whatever we feel like they need to hear. In other words, whatever the Spirit directs us to teach!

There is one problem with the Hispanic people though...They are too nice! They will never ever tell you "No" if you ask to come back at a different time. So we schedule a lot of appointments that end up being exactly when they aren't home. Let's just say that my testimony of Back-up plans for our back-up plans has really strengthened! 

Being out in the actual mission field is completely different then I had imagined. Well, not completely different, but not exactly what I expected. It has been full of new experiences both good and bad. I have one short little story that happened this morning. It helped to strengthen my testimony of prayer:

"This morning, I was stressing out because I couldn't find my name tag and we were trying to leave to go do our usual P-day things. I looked for a solid 30 minutes...it was ridiculous. I looked EVERYWHERE in our apartment (and it is very small). Then I said a little prayer and asked heavenly father to help me find it. I then stood up and walked back to my desk, and it was sitting right there underneath my tie. Before my mission I would have probably just thought "well I am dumb, i looked there already" but because of the things I have gone through over the last couple of months, my testimony of prayer and faith have both strengthened so much, I knew that God helped me to find it" 

I know it seems like a small thing, but I knew that my prayer was answered because I was sincere in my concern. I know that everyone can have that blessing in their life if they have faith.

My testimony of this Gospel has been strengthened so much! There have been so many little things that have helped me to recognize the Hand of God in my life. Especially as I serve a mission. There is a quote that I received in a letter from one of my Friends that goes like this,"God doesn't just call you on a mission...He goes WITH YOU on your mission!" That is so true, and I think about that often as I have recognized his help!

One more short story that I have that helped strengthen my testimony and Faith is from a couple weeks ago. "Elder Potts and I (who are both new) decided that we wanted to try going out on our own. Up until that point, we had always been with one of our trainer's either Elder Brown or Elder Maldonado. They both speak very good spanish and have been kind of a crutch for us...but now, we were on our own without the good spanish. We headed out with a few houses in mind and our only goal was to set up a return appointment so that we could come talk to them again once we had our trainers back. As we started walking, I swear, God told every Hispanic in Salt Lake City this, "go hang out with your families outside so that poor old Elder Potts and Elder Hazlett can talk to you. That way they don't have to be so scared about knocking on the doors." There were literally sooo many families outside that we didn't even have to knock on doors! We just walked up to them and started Talking (Trying to Talk). We were able to set up way more appointments than we had thought and we came back knowing that Greenies can do it too, if they rely on the Lord! We definitely had said a prayer before we left and I know without a doubt in my mind that God answered that prayer! 

Miracles like that happen everyday on the mission and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be a part of that! I love all of you and hope that Everyone is doing well and Trusting in the Lord!

~Elder Hazlett

Conference was soooo Good! We got to watch 2 of the 4 sessions in the conference Center with Plaza seats! When Holland spoke, I was 7 rows away from him! One of the most powerful speakers for sure! The messages were all great. I felt like the messages were not so much about getting after people for their wrong doings, but showing compassion for everyone no matter what they have done or been through. I have been working on Charity and the messages that were spoken almost all had to do with the pure love of christ and being more like christ!

I really liked Elder Claytons (i think it was him) about marriage. I know it is far away, but a lot of the people we are workign with right now have kids but aren't married and it made me think about how important marriage really is. And not being able to play with holly and violet or hold babies has made me kind of go crazy! My companions all have lots of siblings too and because of that we talk about how we can't wait till we can hold a baby again. And then that turns into talking about us getting married. I am pretty sure that the mission just gets everyone excited for marriage too because that is the next step? Not saying I just want to get married!! I am just excited for these next two years and the opportunities I will have to become a better person and a better teacher so that eventually I can be an even better Dad!
Elder Oaks talk was way good for sure. It is so hard when we get criticiszed and stuff because we sacrifice a ton to go out of our comfort zone for 2 years to bring others the happiness we have had! It is frustrating when they don't listen or don't want to understand what it is that makes us mormons so happy. I loved how they stressed "every member a missionary" as well, because if every member would teach one person they knew then we would have SOOOOO  much work to do and that would be so awesome! I hope people take that seriously!

Yesterday I saw like my whole stake from BYU because they were singing up at temple square. And they all saw me and came running towards me. That was probably some of the pictures on facebook. I always forget my camera so I can't send pictures today. Next week hopefully! I saw Andrew, Dani, and Mary. That was nice :) I think you got a picture of that? I don't have time to write anything for the Blog today, so do you think you could write something up real quick and post it on there?

"Hola mis amigos! Estoy tan feliz de estar sirviendo aquí en Salt Lake City! I am currently serving in the Salt Lake City, Utah Mission while I wait for my Visa to Argentina! It is a pretty cool opportunity to serve in my home state as well. I have already run into a few people that I know which does make me a little homesick, but Esta todo bien! I am learning spanish fairly quickly! It is amazing how fast you can learn a language when you are using that skill to teach others.

I currently have 4 companions because 2 of us our Visa waiters. My Trainer is Elder Brown who is from Olathe Kansas! He actually knows (Taylor Wofford and Ryan Thomas) from High school in good ol' Olathe. My other Trainer is Elder Maldonado from Mexico City. He is also awesome and has helped a ton with my spanish because he is fluent obviously! Elder Potts is from Orem, UT and is also awaiting his visa like me and he is awesome! He is not afraid to talk to ANYONE! And I mean anyone. It is great! 

We have a couple investigators right now that are super awesome, and the one that has been the biggest miracle for us is Joseph. He is 17 years old and he called the missionaries wanting to go to church! Pretty Awesome right? We went and visited his family and we are starting to teach them all. They are super great and make some delicious Pan! (Bread) 

Well, I wish I could sit here and write down everything that has happened so far in my mission, but there is work to be done! Until next time!

Con Amor, 

~Elder Hazlett