Monday, September 30, 2013

Which Road Will You Travel?

Which Road Will You Travel?


Transfers




This is my companion Elder Ramos. He´s from Chimbote Peru. He is my 3rd Companion.




Monday, September 16, 2013

Elder's letter to his Dad

Well I had a really good week. We had a baptism on saturday. Her name is xxxxxxx. She is 9 years old.

I´d like to talk about it as my spiritual experience as well because it was fantastic. So my companion and I got a reference a couple weeks ago for a less active family. We went to the house and met the grandma who lives there named xxxxx. She has been member of the church for more than 20 years. She raised 7 children alone while they were growing up. One of them went on a mission and is now the pensionista in Antares, one of the areas in our zone. Two of her daughters live with her with their children and esposos. (not married) They were both baptized and very active in the church for many years bet had problems and went in active because they felt unworthy to go to church. Well this and maybe some other things that we don´t know about caused the sisters to have a huge fight with the sister who was always active, the pensionista. Up until last week, xxxxx and xxxx, the two that live with xxxxx, have not spoken to their sister for many years. We went and visited them and invited them to church last week and all 3 and their children all came and they loved it. They really want to come back to church and start fresh. xxxxx is xxxxx´s daughter who we found out was 9 and was not yet baptized. She has been going to church with her grandma and has wanted to be baptized for a long time but wanted her mom to be there. Now that her xxxxx had gone to church, she was ready to talk about xxxxx being baptized. So we had her baptism on Saturday together with a baptism from antares as well, not knowing before-hand that they had a bad relationship with the pensionista from antares, or that they were even family. The pensionista was at the baptism for Antares and when we all walked in, and she saw her family, and we told her that her niece was going to be baptized, they all burst into tears and started hugging and apologizing to each other for whatever had happened before. It was so beautiful, and the baptism hadn´t even started yet!!!!

Anyways that was my spiritual experience because I know that we didn´t have those baptisms together by coincidence, now the entire family is together, going to church, and we are talking to xxxxx and xxxx about going to the temple just as soon as they can get married and talk to the bishop about what they need to do to prepare.

Something more to make it even cooler is we had an investigator named xxxx at the baptism who has a fecha for this saturday. After the service she told us she knows that she made the right decision and can´t wait for her baptism. We are going to baptize her and her two cousins, xxxx and xxxx, this saturday!!!!

Well I love you dad. I´ll be praying for grandpa.

Elder Hackleman

Stake Conference In Peru

Elder Hackleman Got Glasses! I pulled this picture off of Facebook. Someone in this picture tagged Jaren. Elder Hackleman said, "Elder Scott´s talk during stake conference was about women. Every man on earth who has ever caused a woman to cry, should repent. Women are chosen beings from God. It was very cool but very strong and blunt as well. The sister´s sure liked it =)"


2 Weeks Worth of Football

Nathan #89


Nathan #89


Nathan has Arms Up


Nathan in Action


Nathan #89 Game got called at half time because of lightening. We were ahead.


Nathan #89


Seth Holding the Ball


Seth Center



Bellevue's Homecoming Game.  We Won!


Seth #55



Seth made it on TV Sports Section.  Papillion wasn't expected to win, much less trample Bellevue.


Here is the news guy getting coverage of the game.


This week

Elder Hackleman,

Good morning sunshine:) How are you doing today? I know my words are redundant from your dads sometimes, but I like to tell things my way so here goes. This will be all about Seth's football game on Friday. So he played at Omaha Central. They are the team that hosted the football camp that we went to last summer in downtown Omaha.

We won the coin toss, which means Seth had a while longer to wait before he would see the field. I had texted him earlier in the day to see how he was feeling, and he was not feeling very good and was extremely nervous for some reason. Again, probably because he wasn't feeling very good. Knowing my Sethybear and seeing him on the sidelines, waiting for the offense to take the field, I knew that the sooner he got in the sooner he could get over the butterflies. Well the entire first quarter was basically Omaha on the field. The defense held them from scoring all but one touchdown, but the offense hardly even stepped on the field. The one time they did, they went 3 and out. Our really good play maker, was having a sore shoulder and since this game is not in our conference, they weren't sending the plays his way very often.

Seth told us later that night that Omaha was very prepared for them. They seemed to be able to read every play. This is the point when the quarterback should have called an audible and changed the plays at the line, but he never did. Seth said he could tell that they needed to change the plays, but he couldn't do anything about it.

Anyway, by the time we were going into the half, it was tied, 7 to 7. In my opinion our team basically has 3 things that makes us above and beyond.

1. A real good kicker, who always kicks into the end zone and punts all the way down the field.

2. A great punt returner, who turns punt returns into touchdowns a lot.

3. Run up the middle, created by a whole Seth makes for them. 5 to 7 yards at a time, but they usually do it all night long.

As long as these three things are working, then every once in a while they can thrown in a pass play and we are money, money, money. Since our buddy Drew Cline was not playing much, again do to shoulder issue, it knocked out 2 of the 3 major play makers. Then to add insult to injury, our long snapper, for punt snaps, missed 2 major snaps. And when I say missed, I mean threw the ball completely over the punters head by a long shot causing severe loss of yardage. Since our teams were so equally matched, this was devastating.

After the 2nd major miss, that resulted in a touchdown for Omaha, the coaches grabbed Seth on the sidelines and told him to start warming up for long snaps.

They already had him long snap the point after since the snapper had missed the first punt snap. Realizing that Seth didn't get to warm up that snap at all. His long snap has taken a toll because of the brace he is wearing. He told us he wasn't going to be long snapping at all this year so it didn't matter. Little did he know. Luckily for him, it was like riding a bike and went off without a hitch.

Tim didn't even have the camera ready to film his long snap because we didn't realize he was going to be put in that position.

In the end, we lost by 6. It was so close though. Went down to the very last 2 minutes of the game, we kept thinking we were going to make one last push for a touchdown and win the game with a point after, that as long as we get the snap off, our kicker never misses. It wasn't to be.

So after Seth got home, we found out what it was like for him on the field. Early on in the game he got his pinkeye caught in someone’s helmet and torqued the wrong way so that was hurting, on his right hand. Then he ended up in the bottom of a pile and someone came down real hard on his left hand and wrist. When he came home Friday night, his left wrist was totally swollen and in a lot of pain. Then, he pulled a groin muscle. Not severely, but enough to make matters very uncomfortable all evening. And, by Saturday evening we took his temperature and realized he was running a fever. He is home from school right now. I am just getting ready to take him in to the doctor to run a strep test. Apparently one of his teammates had strep throat.

As far as Seth's playing, you would have never known any of it. He had a better game this week then the previous last two. He tore it up. He ended up going to the team meeting last night where they watched film, and after seeing it all over again, he realized, he really had a great game. At one point he got into a bit of a fight with the nose guard. Who by the way was a beast. They were talking all kinds of smack and started going at each other after a play. A ref pushed them apart.

During film, they watched his "fight" over and over and the coach used him as an example of what you "should do". He said, if you don't get angry out there, then you aren't playing hard enough. He said, take Seth for instance, this guy is talking bad about his mother right now and Seth is telling him what for. Seth said it was really funny because his head was bobbing up and down as he was yelling at the guy and the coaches were putting words in his mouth that went right along with the video they were watching. Too funny. After all was said and done, everyone on the team made mistakes and it essentially cost them the game. Although the only criticism Seth got was after a great chop block that Seth put on a guy, the coach told him, I have some advice for you, and this is just being really picky, but after you chop block a guy, and you are both laying on the ground, roll around a bit to make it harder for him to get back up. After the entire game, that was the only place the coaches could find any improvement for Seth.

Now we just have to make sure he doesn't have strep and keep him as healthy as we can. This week is homecoming week. Thursday we are having the team dinner at our house. It's going to be a fun ride. It's ironic that they kept his buddy out because of a sore shoulder, yet Seth plays with a sore shoulder every play. Seth never complains, and even though he popped it out doing a trick with the dance team, it is fairing pretty well during the football games, thanks to the brace. Oh, ya, and did I mention Seth is joining the other senior football players for a dance team special during the pep assembly this Friday. At some point he throws his partner up in the air for some sort of a twist, that really does a number on his shoulder. Darn kid!

Grant had a bye week, and Nathan's game got called at half time because of lightning. Nathan was doing good, although he didn't play as much as he would have liked to. His team was ahead, so we are calling it a win.

Love mom

You made it sound better than dad did! Haha I´m so proud of my brothers mom. Seth has grown up so much and as much as I would like to go the rest of my life saying I was the best football player in our family, I will still be proud to say that Seth trumped me, and then a couple years later, nathan ruined me, and then a few after that, grant crushed me. Haha but oh well.

Our stake conference this last week was a transmission from salt lake. Elder Bednar and Elder Richard G Scott spoke. Elder bednar had a translator speaking over him but Elder Scott spoke spanish and his spanish is amazing. It was awesome. Elder Scott´s entire talk was about women. That every man on earth who has ever caused a woman to cry, should repent. Women are chosen beings from God. It was very cool but very strong and blunt as well. The sister´s sure liked it =) hehe but it was all so true as well. I love you mom!!!!!!!

Elder Hackleman

Monday, September 2, 2013

Thinking of my Little Buddy Back Home

The cars picture is for Jace! Tell them (Walker family and Law Family) I am having a hard time finding time to write them but I think about them everyday and will write them all as soon as I can. And I went through a lot of hoops to take that picture because supposedly.....it isn't allowed. SSSHHH! Haha


This Week's Pictures From Peru Lima West Mission

Awesome story. This 90 year old man in the picture with me is the first person in Peru to have his endowment taken out. He was the first one to go through after the Lima temple was dedicated. He's not in my area but he's in my zone and I´ve visited him a few times on work visits. His name is augustine. He has his own liahona issue from the 60´s that is written all about him. 




We had this activity on Wednesday called Gastronomica. Every group (I don’t remember what it´s called in English. Relief society, young mens, Priesthood and so on..) cooked an authentic Peruvian food and then everyone came and ate until they were stuffed. I was the only person not from Peru. Everyone in the ward made my plate for me and all watched me eat it to see how I liked it all. You can see how many people were there from these pics. It was all soooo good. I did it on saturday and didn´t eat again until after our fast on sunday and it was still the easiest fast I have ever had because I was soo full.


Elder Hackleman, his companion and bishop



My First Baptism


The water was cold so my little buddy was crying, he was sure happy after he got warmed up though!



From Father and Son This week

On Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 12:41 AM, Tim Hackleman <timhackleman@live.com> wrote:

Dear Elder Punkin Sonshine,

How was your week?? We had a great weekend! I hope you are sitting down while reading this: Papio South beat Papillion Lavista Monarchs 44-34. The Monarchs' QB is one of the best in the state and we picked him off 6 times!!! 2 were pick-sixes!! Seth was so excited. He played every single offensive down.The crowd rushed the field at the end of the game. It was so much fun. It was crazy hot though. The game ended at 10:00 and it was 85 degrees and humid. Ugh!

We have 4 football games this week. Tuesday is Grant's first game, then Thursday both Grant and Nathan play, then Friday is Seth's away game against Bellevue East. You know your mom and dad, WE LOVE IT!!!

Did you have any baptisms this past week? You and your comp sure have been working hard! I am so proud of you. I had the ward bulletin changed to include your email address. Maybe you'll get some emails from some ward members. I know you are super busy, but we sure do love to hear what you have been up to.

I love you son! Keep up the hard work. I hope you are feeling well. Grant says that he fasts for you every fast Sunday.

¡Ámele! Papá

ALRIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is the best football news I have ever seen! Papio south beat Papio! Seth played every down. Nathan and Grant are getting ready to start. Utah won. BYU and BSU lost. Wow. My week has been made. Haha

We had one baptism. His name is xxxxxxx. He´s nine. If you are wondering if he’s crying in the picture, it´s ´cuz he is. They don´t have temperature control over the water in the bap fonts here so the water is arctic cold. He started crying in the font and said he didn’t want to do it. I told him in 10 seconds it will all be over just look forward and I will do everything. It was way cool though, especially to shed some light on a dismal couple days before.

xxxxxx, the other person we were supposed to baptize that I told you about last week didn´t get baptized. So on thursday we had a work visit with the zone leaders so I was in a different area with one of them and the other was in my area with my companion. It worked perfectly because xxxxxx needed to be interviewed by the zone leader anyway. He got interviewed at the stake center. His interview went great and everything was set. He was talking with my companion and the other zone leader outside the church for awhile after the interview. Our ward was having an activity there so the bishop and all the ward were outside doing their own thing. Well while they were talking his wife showed up. She has never been to church, I don´t know how she even knew where the building was but she walked up and shoved him and began chewing him out over how he was making the worst decision of his life and that their relationship is on the line if he decides to be baptized. She does this in front of the entire ward. And seriously dad, this guy is golden. This guy is how I understand when missionaries talk about how strong their love is for their investigators. This guy was ¨him¨ for me. I have never seen a stronger testimony in someone as new to the church as he was.

Well anyway, we had a visit with him the next day to make sure everything was ok and when we got there, he starting apologizing for everything that had happened and for wasting our time but he won´t be able to get baptized or even attend church anymore. It was all I could do to keep from crying. He returned his book of mormon, his manual for gospel principles class, and even his hymn book. All of which he had for himself already. He told us his wife won´t even allow the book of mormon in the house. He said that he knows this church is true, he has no doubt about anything we have taught him or what he has learned from coming to church but he knows how important families are and if he gets baptized now, he will ruin his.

It was easily the hardest experience I have had so far on my mission. I now know that the difficult experiences that I am going to have are not going to be something that I have to go through for myself, because I can handle that. It will be the struggles that my investigators go through that I have to witness and try to help them in any way I can but, sometimes, may come up short because of various reasons. It is definitely a testimony challenger but a builder as well. Sorry this letter is so dismal. It really was a good week with the exception of that.

We had this activity on Wednesday called Gastronomica. Every group (I don’t remember what it´s called in English. Relief society, young mens, Priesthood and so on..) cooked an authentic Peruvian food and then everyone came and ate until they were stuffed. I was the only person not from Peru. Everyone in the ward made my plate for me and all watched me eat it to see how I liked it all. You can see how many people were there from these pics. It was all soooo good. I did it on saturday and didn´t eat again until after our fast on sunday and it was still the easiest fast I have ever had because I was soo full. Haha

I have a bunch of pics so I will send some more to mom. Love you dad!

Seth's 1st Home Football Game 2013


Visitors had a whiteout.  The stadium was so full they had to sit on the grass.


20 Minutes before Kick-Off The Place Was Hopping.  The Band Gave a Pre-Game Performance




Seth is #55








There were official timeouts every 15 minutes or so to re-hydrate.  There still were many kids who went down with leg cramps.  We are happy to report, Seth was not one of them.




Notice all the fans.  You have got to love Nebraska.  Folks around here really support football.  We had people sitting all around us in the stadium who didn't know a single player, but they were out cheering their hearts out.  They were thrilled to learn that #55 was our son.  It gave them someone to cheer for ha ha. 


Seth's Trainer Becky, was awesome.  She ran over and checked on Seth every time he came off the field to make sure his shoulder was doing ok.  She has watched him carefully ever since he had a concussion in the off season as well.  We sure are glad they have such a great staff!



The Temperature was 95 degrees at kick-off.  By 10:30 it was still 85 degrees.  Seth took his helmet off when the Defense was on the field to help cool him off.  He was in every single offensive play.





Seth's Fan Club!




Tim Law gave us Digital Badges.  It said, "Go Titans #55"


Final Score, Papillion La-Vista South 44, Papillion La-Vista 34.  This is only the 2nd time South has won in 11 attempts.  The game was an upset since Papillion has the #1 quarterback in the state.  South picked him off 6 times. Notice his left arm has a black sleeve.  This is his brace he wears to help keep his shoulder from popping out of joint.  Luckily it worked!


After the Game the entire student section stormed the field.  We decided to join them and get a picture:)  Seth was soaking wet because he kept pouring water over his head to help cool him off.