Wednesday, January 28, 2015

The Adventure Begins

This blog is designed as a way for family and friends of Christian Hawkes to follow him as he fulfills an LDS Mission. He is serving in the California San Diego Mission. He is teaching people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Arabic.

A little background about the language he is speaking.

Christian began attending a local charter school when he was 10 years old (5th grade). When he began 6th grade, he came to us and said "I'm going to sign up to take Arabic as my language choice." As parents, we supported him in this decision and waited to see what he would do with it. He took Arabic from 6-9th grade at his school and then attending two intensive month long Arabic immersion camps at BYU. By the time, he finished 9th grade we felt that the choice he made in 6th grade would have long-term results.

As Christian prepared for his mission, we knew that there were no countries in the world where Arabic is the primary language that allowed LDS Missionaries. Our hope was that he would have the opportunity to meet someone somewhere and his knowledge of the Arabic language would open the door and allow him the opportunity to teach someone about the gospel.

Imagine our surprise when he opened his call to the California San Diego English speaking mission. Southern California was no where on our radar as where we thought he would go. But, the Lord has plans that we aren't aware of and that's where faith comes into play.

Several Sunday's later, Christian was asked to come visit with the Stake President of our Stake. When he returned from that visit, he was beaming. He told us that the Church Mission Offices had spoken with the Stake President and asked if Christian would be willing to modify his mission call a little and teach the gospel in Arabic. What do you think Christian's response was like? Imagine our surprise.

For those of our friends/family that are new to missionary training, the missionaries go to a training facility (MTC) in preparation for their mission. For English speaking missionaries, this is only 2 weeks training. For foreign language speaking missions, it is 6-8 weeks. The MTC doesn't train missionaries in Arabic because there aren't any countries open. There are materials available, but he got to order them and bring them with him.

Thus the adventures begins for Elder Christian Hawkes who is serving in San Diego and speaking Arabic.

We'll update this as often as possible. Feel free to write him at christian.hawkes@mylds.net. His mission address is:
Elder Christian Morgan Hawkes
California San Diego Mission
7404 Armstrong Pl.
San Diego, CA 92111-4912


His P-Day is on Tuesday. This is the day he does laundry, sends letters, etc.

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