April 22, 2019 Call me Chuey

Hey all! 

I definitely managed to eat an entire bag of Cadbury eggs all by myself this week, so good thing those aren't in the Word of Wisdom... think I'm an addict! 

I hope the little Easter sketches didn't drive anyone nuts. I figured if they would help anyone who wouldn't normally think about Jesus think about Jesus (even for 5 seconds) it was worth risking crowding people's feeds. 

We had a good week. Full of knocking doors and cornering people out watering their lawns. Some elders gave us even more copies of the Bible than we already had, and half-joking we started brainstorming how we could have a "two-for-one" deal and hand them out along with the Book of Mormon. It ended up being the spark to maybe one of the best ideas we've ever had. We've started using the two scriptures that correlate in John 5 and 3rd Nephi and talking with people about the "other sheep" that Christ talks about in the Bible being the people in the Book of Mormon. It's amazing! It has helped these die-hard Bible fans see the Book of Mormon as something precious rather than a threat to what they love. It doesn't guarantee a return appointment, but it has allowed for some rich conversations and introductions to the Book of Mormon. Recommended for anyone working with people with a strong Christian background--for us, that's everyone. 

One of my very favorite people I've met my entire mission has to be the Hermano Esteves, our ward mission leader. He's this tiny little old man with a smile so big his silver tooth-caps shine in the sun. He reminds me of a little turtle (the one that would be the town librarian in a Disney movie). He marches around, kind of tipping back and forth as he walks, handing out pass-along cards like there is no tomorrow. He drives around in this olive-green bubble van (which is legendary throughout the mission and looks identical to the bubble van he just sold) which he loads up every Sunday with recent-converts and people we're teaching and "the lady he just met from the Dinomart." He's always wearing a straw hat and an olive green suit coat with huge shoulder pads. The man can't conduct a meeting or set up member appointments, but man is he a missionary. If there's a Spirit of Elijah I think there's a spirit of Hno Esteves and it inspires me to talk to more people about the gospel! 

I love this season because I love more than anything the promise of the Resurrection. I remember little Christl Fechter, who adopted me as a kind of "grandchild" when I was 11 or 12. I was in a serious "ugly ducking" phase; I still had my buck teeth and fuzzy hair and never felt really comfortable with myself, but Christl just made me feel like something special. She was wearing down fast, but still had so much energy. It drove her nuts not to be able to do everything she wanted to. I remember, especially as she started nearing the end of her life, she started repeating herself. Every time I came over, she'd sit me down next to her, smile really wide, and say to me with her thin German accent and in sort of a business-like way, "Now, we need to talk about when I go home." Then, very matter of fact and always happily, she'd tell me all her plans for when she passed away. For me, someone who had always seen death as something so scary and ominous, it was strange. "I have a little wish," she'd say, "I hope that Christ will take me in His arms, just for a moment, and tell me 'good job.'" She planned to do cartwheels too, she said, first things first! 

That lesson that Christl taught me was the most precious thing she gave me. In a way, it was her testimony. Death, to her, was not an end point, just a step. Only a part of the whole big adventure. Nothing more than "going home." Christ, with his sacrifice, did away with any real endings. No one is beyond hope, and no one is ever really gone for good. We CAN go home, because of Him. I know I'll see Christl, and all my other loved ones again because of Easter, and I'm so grateful for that. 

Love, 

Hermana Hawkes 

"Chuey, se me olvidó!!" --Hna Alvarado (Somehow I've become "Chuey"??) 

"Life is all about change. You either change, kid, or get left behind. Under a rock." --Hna Alvarado

Note: She keeps coming up with these "rock versions" of all the Youth album music which she sort of sings to herself. One of them went like this: 

"He already healed the sick. He already raised the dead. Leave Jesus alone! What more do you want??" Maybe I'll try and document it...