November 25, 2013

Sorry I don`t have time to write individually today, but I wrote this for everyone. I hope it helps in some aspect of what you are all going through.

This last week passed even faster than the one before that, and I feel as if they are just going by faster and faster. I am loving argentina and the people here, and have slowly been adjusting to the heat here. It is a little different than in Moab...about 85 degrees with 100% humidity. I literally feel as if I showered and never dried. I have learned that a dog is a mans` best friend until each man has like 10 dogs...then they aren`t so friendly because they are all in the street tearing open every bag of garbage in sight. I have learned that Patience is not only a virtue, but it is the only way possible to be a missionary. I have learned that the saying "there is no place like home" is as true as always, except for when you are able to Love the people here as if they are your family, and then you feel as if you are at home. The only difference is I can`t hug my mom here :( (Love ya mom) 

Right now there are so many things I want to write about, but so little time to write it all, so I am gonna summarize. This last week I have been studying a lot about self-Confidence and Pride, and the difference between the two. Pride is what leads to the destruction of man. I say it boldy because it is as simple as that. DESTRUCTION. Families are destroyed, lives are destroyed, and more than anything, the relationship that you could potentially have with the only person that can help you to change (God) is weakened. I have met so many people here that have let something as small as a misinterpruted text message and their pride, destroy a relationship that was once a beautiful gift from God. From there literally everything goes downhill. Now to the more important and happier half of this comparison. Self-Confidence. Self-Confidence is what motivates ourselves to develop the talents that God has given us. IT is what inspires us to be our best, and helps us to have the courage to bear testimony. As I have been studying these two topics, I have found that really the only difference between the two (in the beginning) is that the motivation of one of them is to be better than someone else, and the other is to better than youself. Better than the person you were yesterday. Always thinking of little things that you can change to be a brighter Light in this world of Darkness, not a brighter Light than your companion. Or a brighter light than your enemy. God has given us all talents that are unique to us. He wants us to be succesful and develop those talents because they help us to be happy. But HE also expects that we use them worthily and not abuse them. Recently Elder Holland came and spoke to us about the importance of "US" as missionaries. The importance of the abilities that we have been given and what we should do with them. HE used a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 88:33 (if I remember right ) Something along the lines of receiving a gift and then abusing it or rejecting it is also rejecting the giver. Who gave us our talents? Who Gave his Only Begotten son to Die for us so that we would be able to Develop those talents? Who Loves us more than we can even fathom? GOD. God did all of that for us! So, who are we to abuse or reject those talents that we have been given? The answer to that question is WE AREN`T. This life is the time for men to prepare to meet God. How are we supposed to meet God, look him in the eyes, and tell him that we love him when we couldn`t didn`t even accept his gifts? He will still accept us, and he will still tell us that he loves us because he will ALWAYS love us. But how little he really asks of us, His Children. "Accept and love me as your Father. Be obedient to what I "Teach you", (teach because the commandments are for our learning and not just for doing) and use what I give you. Three things that are not hard to do, but are the difference between a lifetime of pain and suffering or happiness and rejoicing.

I love all of you! I felt inspired to write this because it is something that had been causing me to suffer both as a misisonary, but mostly as a Child of God. I know that God is our Father and that he Loves and wants the best for all of us in all we do. I know that "Sufrimos cuando no lo Cumplimos" (we suffer only when we don`t complete what God has given us. Don`t let Satan and his slandering harden your heart and cause you to be prideful and I can promise you that you will see, feel, and love the difference that you have in your lives and in your missions. I love this Gospel and I know that it is true! In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.    

--

~Elder Hazlett

November 18, 2013

MY letter to president.

I had been struggling with a couple things and Elder holland helped a lot, but I still didn´t feel really good about everything. Then I read in dyc 88 and in 2 nephi 4 and it helped me a ton! Love you momma! Hope everything is going well. Thanks for the meditation thought, it is so true :)

Dear President Carter,

Today I feel incredibly humbled knowing how incredible the Gospel really is and how perfect the lords timing is. Following a really rough week with a lot of things happening to get me down, we were able to hear from an Apostle of the Lord. His message was Motivating and Inspiring as expected, but it was also exactly what I needed. The rest of that day I was a little bit tired and still a little bit frustrated but I was able to think a lot. Think about what I wanted to change, what I thought the problems were, and whether I was willing to put forth the effort to make the changes neccesary. 

As I was reading the Sol this morning, I thought about the different  topics that you shared that we could focus on to help us and the one that definitely stuck out to me was the "Control your thoughts and Repentance" The others I have been really good at, my desires of what I want to become are goals that I know and feel are going to help me serve a sacred mission, and I have a testimony in the importance of Obedience for sure. So I am working on the control your thoughts one.

This morning I was reading in 2 nephi 4 and thinking about when nephi speaks in verses 16-35. "..my souls delighteth in the things of the lord..""...neverthleless, notwithstanding the great goodness of the lord...my heart exclaimeth: O wretched man that I am! Yea, my heart sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul grieveth be cause of mine iniquites. I am encompassed about because of the temptations and the sins which do so easily beset me. And when I desire to rejoice, my heart groaneth because of my sins; nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted. MY God hath been my support...he hath filled me with his love even unto the consuming of my flesh.

With these scriptures and my desires set on acheiving my goal of " a sacred mission with Deep personal Conversion" I know that the fruits of my diligence and obedience and especially Faith in my Savior Jesus Christ will give me the strength to overcome Any and Every temptation that I will face during the next 14 months and the rest of my life after that.

I have rededicated and consegrated myselft so that I will be able to fulfill whatever callings I will have, but more importantly, to be able to testify of my Savior JEsus Christ in all times. I spent the last few weeks praying for humility and I was humbled, even to the point of having almost no confidence in myself, so that I really could be prepared to listen and feel the spirit when the time came. That time was this morning during my personal study when I studied 2 nephi 4 and DyC 88. God has his own schedule, but his schedule has no mistakes and no skipped appointments. He will get to us exactly when we have our "Hour". 

Thanks for everything president, I am looking forward to whatever the Lord has in store for me with both Faith and Excitement.

a few pics! MY new comp and my new area. We are in the country "campo" for those who speak spanish haha. Love ya´ll hope everyone is having success! And our latest baptism :) That is pretty much our whole branch there... haha

Elder Hazlett

November 11, 2013

Elder Holland is coming to visit this next saturday and I am so excited. HE is gonna look into our souls and know exactly what it is that we need to do to become better missionaries! 

Sounds like things are pretty crazy there in Moab, I was almost in tears when I read that part about JAcob and his Dad. IT is so true. He is such a stud. Tell him I love him for me next time you see him. And Take State! haha

You have my letter to president so you know kind of what I am going through right now. I have an incrdible amount of patience somehow and I love my companion to death, so I want the best for him. HE is such a great kid, he just is really straightforward and sometimes it doesn´t feel like he loves you at all...so that is that. We had like 13 people that had dates to get baptized because he like chastized them and then when we called them to make another appointment they would tell us that they didn´t want to talk to us anymore. IT is very hard because I am used to Loving people so much that they want to change, and the way he works is basically opposite. So yeah, that is that. IT is a bit frustrating because I want to be succesful and help people but we can´t even talk to them long enough to let them nknow how much we care. I have learned the importance of being bold however. The people won´t ever follow through with the committments if we just tell them things as if it isn´t a big deal. Repentance is a big deal. IT DOES matter. So yeah. 

In church on Sunday, one of the sisters in my branch spoke about the importance of the scriptures. She talked about how there are so many books in the world today that talk about how to be a good parent or how to be more confident in yourself, but that those books can only do so much and that the scriptures and the guidance of the prophets is the best way. I got to thinking about the difference and how those books are like the churches that don´t have the preisthood. They teach good things, and the pastors are such good people, but when they miss out on that one important thing...they miss our on everything. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of the scriptures and that I can have the help and guidance of prophets and apostles in my life.

Oh, more things I am grateful for!

-Prophets and Apostles

-The Scriptures

-Water (a lot of people here don´t have water at all)

-Good examples in my life

- Good medical care

There is a sad story with the last one. We visited a recent convert yesterday that lives in a little shack house in the back of the prperty of his kids. he is 84 and is so awesome however he is struggling more and more because the medical is bad. Also, his great great grand daughter is 2 and has a hernea. I don´t know how to spell it but yeah, her intestines are literally out of her stomach. Like you can see them. They only thing she has covering it is this clear plasctic bag that is taped on to catch the juices from inside of her...her family was all outside drinking and smoking and she was just sitting there looking so very sad :( I was in tears as we walked past and I just wanted to pick her up and carry her to a hoppistal and pay whatever it took to have surgery. The government here is very corrupt so it is hard, but the hardest part is that the people are even more corrupt. IT is n´t their fault. Satan has worked harder and harder throughout all the generations but now they are all so used to a certain style of living that it just is in their blood. They ae all living co inhabitated and don´t want to get married because they don´t want to pay for a divorce if they sperate. their kids all live in the street all day and get into drugs early, and there are 13 year old girls that are having babies because they don´t know any better. IT is very sad, but it makes me so happy to see the random few members that are living there as a light of hope. you can see an obvious diference in them and I don´t know hwy people can´t see it too. They don´t want change, and they don´t want to be any better :(

Anyway, I lvoe you momma. And miss you a ton, but I know that you are receiving blessings for what JEd and I are doing, and more importantly, the people here are being blessed with the knowledge of how they can be more happy and live with their familes forever!

Have an awesome week and I look forward to hearing from you! :)

With Love,

~Elder Hazlett

President Carter,

First of all, thank you for the message in the sol this week. I have seen how important the key indicators are throughout my mission, but I have also seen how destructive they can be when used to "appear" better than the other missionaries in the Sol. I feared that the missionaries in this mission were beginning to focus more on the numbers and less on the quality. Your message helped to strengthen my testimony of Lidership in the mission field and how you really do receive revelation for the benefit of us.

I do however have a couple concerns about our district here in Lujan. As you can see, they are struggling a bit. WE are struggling a bit. I have been praying fervently since the first couple days that I have been here to be able to know "why" I am here in General Rodriguez, and "what" it is that I am supposed to do. After only 1 District meeting and talking to the Elders in our district, I have received my answer that it is to help re-motivate the elders that are here. To help them feel the Love of Christ so that it is easier to have desires to work hard. They are very very frustrated. It is a very hard subject because it is never the fault of just one person, and almost always the blame falls on the Leadership but it is something that I have tried my best over these last 2 weeks to fix or atleast improve. This is the problem...None of the Elders in our district have any respect for Elder Eraso. I have a more respect and a better relationship with him because he is my companion and I know how he works, and I know that he has the desire to be the best he can. I also have a better understanding of how the other Elders feel because I feel the same frustrations. Basically, Elder Eraso has taken the "Ser directo" to a whole new level. Every night without fail, he succesfully chastizes and demoralizes both companionships. Calling them to repentance and to humble themselves because they lost the confidence of the Lord. It is true that that is what they need to do, but it is very wrong the way that he does it. I consider myself a pretty patient and a very loving person and I am finding it hard to love him when he is destroying the faith of the other companionships. We had a companionship inventory last night and he told me that what he wanted to do this next week was be more direct. I asked him what his reasoning for that was and he said that it was because he felt like he wasn´t fulfilling his calling of inviting people to repent. We have 3 investigators as of now and we have found 20 new people in the last 2 weeks. You can see that the numbers there dn´t really match up. That is because he has succesfully called them to repentance and also succesfully offended them to the pint of them calling US and telling US that they don´t want us to visit them. I know that being bold is good, but the amount of Love that you have has to be stronger than how bold you are. He always tells me to be humble so that I can have more of the lords confidence and he can help me to change, and he comitted me to talk to everyone and knock on doors even when I don´t feel the spirit (which is fine with me) but then he asked me what it was that he could change and I said, "Love the people more. Love the other Elders. Help them to know that they are loved and that because they are loved so much, they have been given the gift of repentance." He then sat there for a few seconds and said, "ok what else can we do better this next week?"

I am getting along fine with him, as I have been blessed more and more with patience and Love, but I am thinking more in the well0being of our district and I know that they are struggling. I don´t know what to do and I would love it if you could help me. I am continuing to pray for help and serch the scriptures, but I haven´t yet found an answer.

I know this is more then you want to read but it is a concern that I feel is very important. Lidership changes missionaries, and one bad situation with leadership can change a whole mission. I don´t want that to happen to the missionaries in our district as I am seeing it start to happen.

They have told me that their motivation is to do better than Elder Eraso so that when he "calls them out nad drops the cane" they can say that they did better. To me, that is the worst motivation that you can possibly have in the mission and I hate to see that happening! 

Thank you for your time president, your example as a humble and obedient leader, and especially the love that you have for all the missionaries. We really can see it and it makes the difference.

Elder Hazlett

November 4, 2014

DO NOT WRITE MY MISSION PRESIDENT! HE WOULD KILL ME! haha I didn´t get a chance to do e-mail or anything last p-day because I was traveling. Right now I am in my new area "General Rodriguez" You cangoogle it.IT is super great. A hundred percent different than my last area. it is outside of the city and people have yards and stuff. 

I am sorry I didn´t get the chance to write you. Missing a week of emails is weird...I didn´t even feel like it was 2 weeks. Time goes so fast here. I hope you are having a good week momma.

I miss you a lot. The beginning of this new transfer was really hard. I had developed really strong relationships with the members of my old ward, and I had grown to love everyone. I felt like they were my family which made it a little easier not to miss you guys so much. Now I am in a new area that is super great and I am excited to be here, but it is hard being new and not knowing anyone. My new companion is great. He is from Colombia and is the District leader here but in 4 weeks he is leaving and I will be taking his place and leading the area. IT has been a struggle because I feel as if I only have 4 months in the mission not 8. MY time is SLC wasnt wasted, but compared to here it feels that way. So now I am behind a little bit in every aspect but I am being put in positions that I feel are more than I can handle. I know that I can handle them, well I have Faith that God will help me, but even with faith things are not easy. I am gonna copy my letter to president to put in this e-mail right now so that you can kind of know what I write him. He has A LOT of faith in me, and it kindof scares me because I don´t want to disappoint him in anyway. IT is like what you would always tell me, "Remember who you are and what you stand for, and don´t do anything to disappoint me" I feel as if I am not going to be able to fulfill that sometimes.

Hola President,

Sorry I couldn´t write last week...we got here late and we both chose to get to work. I love my new area. It is a little different than Ciudadela (a lot different) but it is really great. Elder Eraso is a Champion. I have learned so much from him over these last couple of days. He is an incredible teacher and is very Bold, which is what I am lacking. I have devoted myself to try and learn from him as much as I possibly can. 

This first week has been a little bit rough (getting a new area is always hard) but I am getting the hang of things. I have been a little bit nervous because I know that there are 4 weeks left in this transfer and than I am going to be leading the Area. I have been on the mission for 8 months now but I feel as if I really only have the time that I have been here because this mission is completely different. 

I was thinking throughout the week of different things that I could tell you, or ask you, and I had a few things in mind, but as I began to type them I received my answers. I know that I am where I am supposed to be, that I am with the companion that I am supposed to be with, and that I am being prepared to help not only the people here in General Rodriguez, but the missionaries as well. 

In my last letter to you when you asked if we were ready to be leaders in our areas or to train, I began to think about that. I decided that spiritually I was ready, my Faith and my Testimony are strong. Physically I am ready, Rain or Shine, Hot or Cold, I want to Work. But where I lacked was the mental prepardness. That has always been my weakness. Whether it was when I had a Par putt to win a tournament, or when I had to make only one freethrow to win a game, I always lacked the self confidence. Here, in these last couple of days in Rodriguez with Elder Eraso, I have felt the Love of Christ in my life more than ever knowing that he is there to guide my thoughts and actions so that I can sink the putt, make the freethrow, or in this case Open my mouth and Speak by the Spirit. I still struggle with the Spanish, but because of the faith that I have been able to exercise I have been confident enough to open my mouth. It isn´t easy and I the first few days have been really really incredibly hard and frustrating, but I have felt the spirit guiding me. 

I now have a clearer vision of what I want for the rest of my mission. I want to always be in tune with the spirit so that I can rely on Christ whenever I am struggling. 

Thank you for all of your advice President and the opportunities that you ahve given me to learn and grow in my mission. As I am learning more to be confident in myself, I hope that your confidence in me grows aswell.

Elder Hazlett

That is about where I am at right now. Sorry if it is a little mixed up. MY thoughts are always super scattered on P-days. I am not sure if I like it or not. I love all of you so much and Pray for you all the time. Say hello to everyone for me and know that I am doing my best to not let you down :)

Love your Son,

Elder Zakariah Hazlett