Our new Mission President is awesome!!

Colombia Bogota Temple
July 6, 2009
Hola Familia,
It has been an all over the place week and a great one. I’ll tell the story of the week and then the details. President and Sister Hacking arrived last Monday night. We went to the airport at about 7 P.M. with Pres. and Sis Camargo to wait for Pres. and Sister Hacking. Their flight was delayed so we waited about 2 hours for them to arrive.

Everyone greeted and introduced each other and then we threw their stuff in a van and we headed out in the Camargo's SUV to take them to the mission home. We got there and they showed them around and took a few pictures. We headed back to our apartment.

The next morning the Hackings had interviews and trainings with the Area Presidency and then we had a meeting at about noon with Pres Camargo and all the missionaries from the office. ha It was sad. Pres Camargo handed over the office keys, the car keys, they talked a little bit about how to get around etc. and he headed out, no longer the Mission Pres. President Camargo really was a great president and a great leader and I will miss him. It’s always exciting to have a change also. President Hacking wants to meet every missionary and Stake Pres in the first 3 weeks, so the schedule has been stacked full of interviews and dinners and mini conferences etc. Elder Corro and I have been very busy organizing these things.

President and Sister Hacking are great. They were both born in Utah, met in high school and afterwards both went on missions and then were married. He joined a business that makes chemicals for pipes when he was young and basically climbed the corporate ladder. Within a few years he was a Regional Manager. For 20 years he was the boss of the company in Latin America. It turns out they have a cabin about 30 miles south of Evanston towards the Uinta Mountains so they know Evanston (Will’s hometown) very well. President Hacking says he even met BJ (Will’s handicapped brother) in Smiths about 3 weeks ago when they were shopping - that's amazing even in a town of 12,000 people - what a small world.

They are both very nice people and very humble. Haha I can’t imagine what it would be like to spend 4 days in the MTC and have them send you out as a Mission Pres.

It’s been a change because President Camargo, after being in for 3 years, was very sure and concise in what he did. You would ask him a question and he would say "you need to do this..." and answer right away. President Hacking is getting to know the missionaries and the culture etc. so right now he is depending a lot more on asking what was usually done and then he makes a decision. He has said that he knows the mission has been doing amazingly well, so he just wants to keep it the same until he gets everything down and then start putting in his ideas, which to me seems excellent. He used the comparison of a train. The mission is a train going 100mph in the right direction so he doesn’t want to turn it around or start changing things, but rather figure out how we can get to 120 mph.

They have spent about the last 12 years traveling South America so he knows a lot about the culture and you can tell he is a business man. He knows how to work with people etc. He is very humble and very loving and will be an awesome Mission Pres. One thing I can see is that he is very spiritual and he puts emphasis on working directly with people and their needs etc. and doing the little things. For example we have been with him all day for 3 days this week, doing interviews with every missionary just to get to know them. They have said that they want to be at the airport when every missionary arrives and have great dinners to wish them off when they leave etc.

The first day he did interviews with Elder Corro and me individually. It was great. It’s amazing how fast you can start to love people. Sister Hacking is great - just really, really happy and friendly. She knows her basic Spanish. Pres Hacking knows how to speak Spanish and say what he needs to say. He just has this excitement and happiness that he transmits. Sister Hacking actually reminds me a lot of Mom. Pres Hacking prefers to talk to me in English which has been helpful but a little strange also because I've gone a long time without talking a lot of English, but it makes the communication a little more natural also.

Elder Corro and I have been very, very busy with everything this week. We have been organizing maps, calendars and answering about a million questions about how the addresses in the city work and how we travel to the other parts of the mission, what we do in interviews, zone conferences, comp interchanges, and about everything else that you only know when you’re a missionary.
But it really is amazing, we already love the Hackings and I can tell within a transfer or 2 the whole mission will also and we will all be doing great things.

It was also a great week in that Saturday and Sunday we were able to work in our area all day and we found some new people as well as committed a couple we have been working with, to get married and baptized with their daughter on the 25th.

Ha The fourth of July wasn’t exactly the same here as it is in good old Evanston. I remember it was always about the best time of year (especially in Evanston) because the town really came alive with tons of fireworks going off in every neighborhood and the family was all together etc. I really am grateful to be a Red Devil (name of our sports teams), Wyoming Cowboy, and Gringo also. Even more, I have realized from being in a third world country just how great we have it back there. For lunch on the 4th, we found a TGI Fridays here by the office, so the four of us (Corro, Zari, Amador) went for lunch to have some American food. We also have some English hymnbooks in the apartment, so I convinced and taught every one to sing the Star Spangled Banner. It really is evident, even in the scriptures, that there are so many blessings our country and continent are promised if we don’t forget where they come from and why we are so blessed. Even if there are some bad things going on there, the church is strong and I think there is a bigger share of the best.

So anyway, to end my letter, thanks for everything "always and all ways" as mom says. I think the testimonies of little kids are the best, and that is my testimony too... I know the church is true, I love my mom and dad and my family and my country, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen. ok that was a little dorky, but much love and talk to ya next week. Elder B