Whatta week!

Hey Yall!

I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas!! I know that I did! haha its a weird feelin now that the Christmas holiday is over and we have to go back into real life, but refreshin none the less. I love how the seasons are so conveniently lined up. We start with Thanksgivin and we have feelins of gratitude and thankfulness. Then we go into the Christmas holiday and start to serve each other and think and reach out to others. We act upon our gratitude! Then we go into the New Year with happy, lovin, thankful hearts and make plans an new self commitments for the new year. Its just a great way to end an start each year!

So Monday and Tuesday we spent a lot of time seein people and gettin ready for Christmas day! On Tuesday we were supposed to interview a lady, that the North Port sister missionaries have been teachin, for baptism. Well that fell through so we had them set up another apt in the next day or two. Her baptism was scheduled for Saturday. It was kinda a weird Christmas eve because most of our plans fell through and no one else was answerin there phones. We didnt wanna go tract and make people mad at us for botherin them. So we stayed home and studied, I made cookies that we were gonna pass out for Christmas, ill tell ya about that a little later. Then I spent the rest of the night gettin ready and preparin for playin the guitar all of Christmas.  Funny plate some member had!

This brings us to Chirstmas day! What a wonderful day it was! We woke up at 6 in the AM and opened up our presents, cuz we wouldnt have time the rest of the day to do it. Then we got ready and did a little bit of our studies. Then we went to a sr couples house. Elder And Sister Madsen, had our whole district over for a Christmas breakfast! It was so good! Then i got my guitar out and we sang to the Christmas hymns and some other hymns. Then we all headed out our separate ways. The madsens have been takin us down to a town to see a less active family, the murrys, that we are tryin to get to go to the temple. Well the Murry's invited us over for Chirstmas for a little bit. Some how they got me to spill the beans that I play the guitar, so they wanted me to play for them. Thats the whole reason i got one in the first place haha then everyone wanted me to play for them. But we went over and Elder Madsen gave a little Christmas lesson, then I sang Silent Night for them and had them all join in with me for Joy to the World. It was great! Then we came back and we had the Demopolis elders over and me and Elder Mckinnon exchanged for the day so that we could go carolin and pass out cookies.

Now I got this idea from Elder Holland. He wrote a talk in one of the ensigns. I think it was Dec 2012. But he talked about how on his mission the first year durin Christmas, they opened up a couple presents, then tracted the rest of the day. That made me feel bad cuz we are so much more blessed then that. I wanted to try and do somethin like that so I decided we could make cookies and we could go tractin and just carol and pass out the cookies. Also we could go to stores or gas stations and give them to people who are workin and wish them a Merry Christmas. So we ended up doin that for a couple hours, then we went to my ward mission leaders house and played with him and his family for the rest of the night while me and Elder Mckinnon skyped home! It was so great to see my family and talk with them! It felt like a little vacation!

On thursday I woke up to another surprise. That of my voice bein gone! I could only softly whisper! haha and it stayed that way and even got softer an softer each day. Saturday night I decided not to use it at all. I went 27 1/2 hours without sayin one word, basically all of Sunday. Now its kinda back. I can talk a little bit, but i cant wait to get it all back! But on Thursday I got to interview the North Port Sisters investigator. Renee. This was a good interview, but also in interestin one. Now im not gonna go into detail, but basically she told me things that needed the mission president to interview her. This was the first time she had brought them up with anyone, so with my whisper voice I had to keep her calm and explain that I need to call some people. Then I needed to keep the sister missionaries calm and my ward mission leader who were all there. It took a little bit longer then i expected, but we said that she would be interviewed again on satuday at 10. Keep in mind her baptism is scheduled for 1:30! haha after we got done at her house both the sisters and ward mission leader kept askin me questions and said Will she get baptized?? haha now at the time of the interview and as she told me things in her life, I could feel the spirit testifyin to me that she was tryin to repent and she wanted to change, so i felt confident. Well after the interview with one of presidents councilors she passed and was able to be baptized! It was so cool to see how she can change through the gospel! I also know that we interview people for baptism not to catch them, but to help them truley repent!

We were able to meet with mike again! He had more questions, and i asked him that next time we came over if we could just be a little more structured and actually teach him lessons then he can ask questions. haha that way it will be more effective. But we also invited him to baptism. He didnt say no which was great! He wants to know more and do a little more before he can answer us. Also the other person is Stephanie. She is older in her 50's and we were able to teach her the restoration! She loved it! She had read the pamphlet we gave her and wants us to come back over! Things here for us are startin to pick up and look good!:)

Well I hope yall know i love ya! Have a happy new year! Remember yall are sons and daughters of the most amazing powerful high God! Be patient with yourself and trials and remember to be happy and enjoy life as you live it:)

Love Elder Hall!:)

merry ChristMas yall!

Hey Yall!!!

 

This is my Trainer and me and one of our Assistance. Which actually knows Kensie and Troy and that Hales family haha Elder Munns:)  First off I just wanna make sure I wish a Merry ChristMas to yalll!!! :) I hope everyone has a great Christmas day and has people to enjoy it with! I hear that it is very cold and white back in Utah. It sounds like its christmas time there haha. Here its been kinda cold but very green and brown! Also it has been kinda weird weather, on saturday and sunday it was in the 80's. Saturday night we had a tornado warnin that was pretty suviere. I dont know if yall remember 2 years ago when the tornado came through t town but it caused thousands of dollars worth of damage and they have finally just got things built back up and lookin good again. So this was worryin people but I actually slept right through the whole thing. I guess there were heavy winds, strong thunder and lightnin, but I didnt hear any of it. Woke up sunday mornin and was just fine hha. Ive come to the conclusion that if sometime bad happens here while im asleep then ill just say goodbye right now. hahah

This is our other amazin Assistant to the Prez Elder Del Francia!  But this week has been so full of miracles, parties, work, and fun! Lets start off with Monday. After we had our pday, we exchanged with the T Town Elders. Elder Morley went with me back up to North Port. Well I didnt really have to much to plan for since we dont have any investigators and all the things I planned fell through. We dropped off the sisters car at there apt then started the walk back to ours. Not only 20 steps we took an we see this older man walkin. We said hi and he stopped and wanted to talk. His name is Mike and we figured out he loves sports. So we asked if we could come to his house, which just so happened to be in our apt complex!, the next night. He said yes! Then that night we were able to get into a less actives home that ive never been able to get into since ive been here! The next day we were able to serve another less active and get to mikes house. Well the ZL's came down so what ended up happenin was that we had 2 apts at the same time. So Elder Morley and Elder Lealiiee went and talked with Mike. Me and Elder Osiemo went with our ward mission leader and saw another less active. It was such a great exchange. They said that Mike had a lot of questions and they taught him a little bit, but I didnt really think to much of it and neither did they.

Wednesday mornin we got one of the Sr Couples to take us down to Demopolis and there we would exchange again with those Elders. I would be stayin down there for the day. Well we had a good day and were able to see a lot of people. I was with Elder Oslapas and he loves to talk with everythin that moves which is good but in some cases kinda uhhh awkward i guess when people really dont wanna talk and he kinda forces it. But it was good for me cuz i got excited about sharin this with everyone not just a few people haha :) Then came the big day of Thursday! This was a multi Zone Christmas Party! It was so so good! First we started off with a devotional and spiritual side of it. Ill explain that part a little later, then we had lunch, then our talent show! Any one who wanted to could do a talent. I was so suprised at how good everyones were! That could have been somethin to put on TV! I was so impressed ive never seen such good talent from Mormons before haha but Kofi uhhh Elder Johnson played bongos. Everyone loved that, and the Sr Couples, some of them in our mission, which included Elder and Sister Elliason did a sing along while they danced haha. We did a district skit and did the 12 days in Bama. Haha it was great! But afterwards we got to watch Ephriams Rescue! That movie is so dang good! It made me appriciate the pioneer even more. But I just love how prepared and in tune with the spirit Ephriam really is. Because of that he is able to bless so many lives! What a great example he is to us in our day!

On Friday we met a lady while we were walkin home from the library. She worked at a retirement home and said that the missionaries would come and had come for years. They had stopped all the sudden and she had been lookin for us and finally found us again. We are gonna start goin over there next week and that will open up a ton of missionary opportunities! Another miracle. Then we were able to go with the Champions, a sr couple, and go to another church, where they were makin boxes of canned food an other things to give to retired veterans and there family or widows. The Birmingham news came and filmed us and even got a close up on me and Elder Bean haha it was so much fun!!

This is what our chirstmas looks like so far haha. Everyone loved my chirstmas tree and are goin out to get some of there own haha.  This brings us to Saturday. Which started off really really slow and with nothin to do. I started callin different people. One was Mike. I was hopin we could go meet him and get to know him and he said we could come over that night. The other 2 were the man from Utah, Bob, that came to the christmas devotional. He wants us back over once he gets back home in January, but still loves us and is excited. The last was a lady we tracted into that said we could come over this Thursday an teach her! Man i was so excited. That night we went over to Mikes house. It was right before our district meetin so we didnt have to much time, but we were able to get to know him a little bit. He served in Vietnam and the CEO of a pest control company. He is 73 i think but looks a lot younger. Loves football and is way into fantasy. He was born and raised up Catholic, but has kinda lost his faith in them because of a couple experiences. So he is tryin to find his faith again. He had so many questions for us so we did a Q an A session with him. Then we had to head to district meetin which was great! We talked about bein obedient to rules and set a standard of excellence for our district with some of the major rules. Then we had a little trianin on christMas which again will explain a little later. Then we played volley ball and some games and had a little bit of fun an another christmas party. But now its Sunday. Church was great and there were 2 less active families that came! I was so stoaked for that! Then right after church we went with Bro Lewis, the institute director and moved out from Highland Utah, to go see Mike. Again he had a ton of questions. None of his questions though were to try and tear us down. All of them went in with the lessons we teach, and even though we havent been able to just teach him a lesson we have been able to answer his questions and teach him that way. So we are teachin him just in a different way then normal, but I invited him to come to church and he said he would love to! So he is now our first legit investigator!!!!! Im so dang excited. He loves us and the things we have told him and is just excited about it all. Man can I just say that it feels so good to know after all our hard work that the Lord does have people prepared for us, its just in his timin that we need to figure out. An for some odd reason all the people he has prepared for me live just a few doors down! hahah. But im grateful for all the miracles the Lord has provided for us this Christmas season!

The last thing is the things we have learned in our meetins this week. President Hanks came up with 5 presents we can give to Christ for Christmas. 1. Our knowledge of his life. 2. Our Testimony of Him. 3. Our gratitude for all he's given us. 4. Our very best effort 5. Our service to our Brothers and Sisters. I know that as we do these things we can find ourselves in Christ. And somthing I trained on in District meetin was somthin yall have probably been wonderin about this whole email. Why do I keep spellin christMas like that? Well this thought hit me while we were teachin someone about the true meanin of Christmas. Lets take the word part. Christ, he is our savior and redeemer and we all need him in our lives. Mas, in spanish means more. We all need more of Christ in our lives all the time. As we give those 5 presents to Him we can find more of Chirst in our lives. We can help others have much more of Christ. Let us remember what the true meanin of Christmas is. 2 quick quotes. " May we all make th journey to Bethlehem in spirit, takin with us a tender carin heart as our gift to the Savior." President Thomas S. Monson. "We put Christ in Chirstmas when we give what He wants us to give. The gift of ourselves." The reason behind Christmas mormon message.

I love yall and hope you feel the spirit and miracles of this wonderful holiday season! An remember to be grateful and happy:)

Love Elder Hall:)

Christmas Time!

Hey Yall!

So Christmas is commin faster and faster. The weeks an days get busier and busier. I hope yall are enjoyin and havin a happy holiday season! Now im tryin to remember what all we did this week. Hah usually by this time of the week I have forgotten what happened in the past week. But its been good here. Nothin much has changed. Its cold just like the rest of the US.

O yes yes. So this week somethin very special happened. This doesn't happen very often as a missionary, but we got to go to the temple! I was so excited! I love goin to the temple! You can always feel of the spirit so strongly there, and you can receive answers to your questions that may not come anywhere else. Now a lot of people not of our faith think that we keep people out and only certain people can come into the temple and we have secrets in there. Totally wrong, first off its not secrets, but its sacred. Anyone and everyone is invited into the temple as long as they are livin the way they are supposed to and can treat the temple as sacred, like its supposed to be. I was also able to have a talk with President Hanks and he again taught me a very powerful lesson about bein unified, not judgin, an not holdin someone to a higher standard that they cant make at that time. One thing I have learned so much as a missionary is to be interdependent. We all have a little bit of independence in us where we want to be by our selves and do our own thing. We all also have dependent in us where we depend on someone to help us. But as we are interdependent we can rely on each other and help each other as companions. Now this can relate to missionaries, marriages, and anything else when ya have a partner or companion. Its a very good skill to develop, a hard one none the less but will bring tremendous results!

So a lot of this week was spent tryin to take care of the ward Christmas party. Im not sure what all ive told yall but basically our ward mission leader and the sister that left North Port signed us up to be in charge of the Christmas party since no one else wanted to do it. We were gonna do that Mormon.org slide show and then have food and play games. Well on top of that, our ward mission leaders wife had someone in her family pass away, so they had to up and leave a few days before the party. So we went over to his house and finalized all the plans. Now for the slide show. I didn't realize how long this would actually take, an let me tell all yall that haven't worked to much with technology, it gives ya a big head ache. What ended up happenin, was we got as many voice recordins as we could of families answerin 3 questions, Who are you? What is your testimony? How do you live your faith? Then I told everyone to email me pics and I would put it all together. Well one, I don't have a personal computer so we ran back an forth between the library and members houses tryin to get this thing done haha I spent 3 days workin on it and got it done a few hours before the party started. But to make a long story short we got the party all set up and everyone was amazed at how well we did! Everyone loved the slide show and we had a couple non members there to view it which was great!:) There could've been more people to show up at the party but it was good none the less.

The reason why I tell ya that, is because since we as missionaries had to run the whole party by ourselves, that took up most of our week. We were able to tract some more and are goin out tomorrow to see someone that told us to come back. We are still tryin to find 1 investigator but I know that we will! Today I was readin in the scriptures in Alma. Its Ammon, Aaron and his brothers talkin. I feel like this answers so many of my questions and gets me to stop complainin. So this is them lookin back on the beginning of there mission. Everyone thought they were fools for goin to preach to the Lamanites. Then when they tired the first time, they got rejected so they were gonna go back to there city. Well the Lord stopped them and told them to go back. So they went back and over a little bit of time baptized thousands of Lamanites that ended up burying there swords and dying because they would not dig them up. Here are the verses.

26 But behold, my beloved brethren, we came into the wilderness not with the intent to destroy our brethren, but with the intent that perhaps we might save some few of their souls. 

27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success. 

28 And now behold, we have come, and been forth amongst them; and we have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation; yea, we have traveled from house to house, relying upon the mercies of the world—not upon the mercies of the world alone but upon the mercies of God. 

29 And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them; and we have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again. 

30 And we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul; and we supposed that our joy would be full if perhaps we could be the means of saving some.

31 Now behold, we can look forth and see the fruits of our labors; and are they few? I say unto you, Nay, they are many; yea, and we can witness of their sincerity, because of their love towards their brethren and also towards us.

When we feel like we are doin the Lords work and cant see any success, just remember this story. They were physically beaten and scourged and still knew the Lord needed them. They were PATIENT and because of that were able to effective tools in the Lords hands! Right now I haven't seen a single investigator in North Port. Everyone all around us is baptizing and I have asked so many times why we cant even have just one person. Well my afflictions are nothing compared to Ammon and Aarons, but I need to have a little more patience and pray and the Lord will help me. Let us all take this story into our own lives when we cant find answers to our questions or have a trial that seems a little to long and hard, the Lord will help us out!

I know that this Christmas season as we reach out to others and help them in their trials we can see ours start to fade away. I Love yall so much and hope yall are doin well and have a great week! Remember, "Blessins brighten when you count them." Hope yall are happy!:) Love yall so much!

Love Elder Hall:)

Hmmm Nothin is commin to my mind about this title thingy...

Hey Yall!

So this week Ive heard that its freezin all around the United States. Well its no different here. Its been cold, and windy just like always, and the past couple days really rainy as well! But hey cant complain cuz I guess it could be snowin and then everyone here would freak out like its the end of the world and crash there cars and t town would blow up haha so ill stick with the rain.:) Did I ever tell yall how bad Bama drivers are?

Merry Christmas! Haha my lovely humble charley brown tree:)  This week has been full of funny, good, sad, moments. Well start off with Tuesday. We headed out of our apt and started bikin down our hill. Well Elder Bean was in front of me and he crossed the road. I saw a car and it was comin, it wasnt to terribly close, but I wanted to hurry up so as to not get in its way. So i took about 2-3 pedals and then my foot slipped..... Well it hit the ground, and that knocked me off my seat onto the bar of my bike hittin my man parts, then i guess i hit the breaks cuz all of the sudden i flipped over my handle bars, smacked my head on the cement, and then did another flip and rolled over by the curb. It was so fast i didnt even know what had happened. My comp saw a little bit of it, but it felt like one moment i was on my bike and the next I was layin on the ground next to the curb with my pride shot down the floor and my body in pain hahah I wasnt gonna get up until I heard the car slam on its breaks and it was a lady inside she was horrified haha so i got up painfully and told her everything was ok and she left. So thats the sad story of the week.

The rest of the day went better. We went to the stores because thats where everyone was an we were able to talk with people. That night I interviewed another man for baptism! Our district is amazing right now!

The next day Elder Bean was sick so we stayed in most the day.... It was the first time either me or my comp has been so sick we've had to stay in. But I was able to stay busy and keep myself productive! On Thursday we had zone trainin. It was a great meetin where we learned about how to incorporate the message of Christmas into our teachin. Then after that we started our exchange with some elders in my district Elder Mckinnon was with me in North Port and Elder Bean went down to Demopolis. We were gonna exchange til today because of how long the drive was and we dont wanna waste there miles. So this was the only way to do it. That brings us to Friday. The whole day it was pourin rain. Then Saturday was super cold and windy! We were able to go to see the Lavatai family again. It was the daughters b-day party so we told them we would come. It was so much fun we got to play volleyball and eat a ton of food! haha we actually have heard that they talk about us as missionaries alot which is a good thing! I know that as we are friends and real people instead of baptizin robots then we will see a lot of success! Then we met with the ward mission leader, Bro Posey, He is awesome! Then we went to Mattius baptism. Thats the man that i interviewd. Right before it started President Hanks showed up and watched the whole thing. It was great! Then president took us out for ice cream. He is the greatest guy! He really does take care of his missionaries really well! And he is a great example!

That brings us to Sunday. It was a great day at church and we were able to go to the Christmas broadcast! Earlier in the week I called Bob, he is the one that lived in Utah and was basically a mormon but hasnt been baptized he saw us while we were ridin our bikes? I dont know if yall remember him, but I figured I would call him and invite him to the Christmas devotional. Well our ride there made us late but we walked in and there he was sittin by himself!!! I couldnt believe that he actually came! He sat through the whole things, then one of the members in our ward afterwards got talkin to him for a while. They are gonna go out to lunch in later weeks. But this was my first sign or hope of any success that ive seen since ive been here in North Port. Its not really big or anything but it made me so happy to know that something as little as a phone call and invite could help someone, and that he actually came! He also invited us over to his house to eat and watch mo-tab with him next week! Again, he said he doesnt wanna be converted, but I know as we are friends with him and care about him the spirit will be the one to convert him. I cant wait to see how it turns out!

Well im doin great here in Bama land. Dont have to much time to email today, but hope that yall are havin a happy holiday season! I know that only a few people were able to witness Christs birth the first time He came into this world, but this 2nd time every nation, kindred and toungue will see Him. How will we usher him in? Will we be sittin back in our "Mansions above" or will we be out workin the the vineyard and helpin the Lord with his great and marvelous latter day work? Its your choice! I love yall so much! Have a great week! And remember, especially this time of year to Be Happy!:) Notice all the little blessins around ya!

Love Elder Hall:)

The deadly hush over T-Town........

Hey Yall!!

This week has been a really great, fast, weird and busy week! Its startin to get really cold down here now and when the wind blows you freeze like none other! This cold is so weird. You can put on as much stuff as you want, but you are still cold underneath it all. You shiver all the time and there is no escapin the cold haha its hard to compare with Utah cold but both are good i guess haha. This week we had 2 more baptisms in our district! I cant believe how many we have had in this district the past transfer! It seems like all I do now is interview people for baptism. Also transfers were this week and we received 3 new members of our district. We had a very good district meetin to get to know everyone and ill talk about that a little later. Everythin here is going great! Its kinda funny because when I first came out I didnt really like Alabama to much, but now its my home, and my family here. Its wierd how much its grown on me but great none the less:)

Now before I go on with the rest of my email, I do just want to talk about somethin yall are probably wonderin. Yes I know that Alabama lost... To explain the title of this email, we had district meetin durin the game so i knew no one in my district was watchin. Well after we came back to the apt and some elders cut there hair. Then we needed to go back to the church to interview a girl for baptism. It would be her and the sister missionaries there so we needed another male there with us. Well as i call down the list of men in our ward everyone would send me straight to voice mail. Haha everyone was in shock, and were super angry. Well as we biked that night, everything was just super quiet, like nothing ive ever experienced before. I called it the deadly hush haha but now today its rainin and everyone is mournin and prayin that somehow we can get into the championship haha from what it sounds like to me it was a bad coached game haha but enough of that.

So like I said this week has been very busy and weird. We werent able to have a lot of big numbers this week. But this week we have still been doin our best to stay busy and do good things. We have been workin alot with members and tryin to get the live mormon.org thing done. Elder Bean also broke his bike this week and it took a while to fix it. We couldnt go very far without it haha but this week like i said we had 2 baptismal interviews and also a little exchange.

For Thanksgivin we got up and first things first went to the turkey bowl. It was great. There were a ton of people. I played QB for our team. I had at least 7-8 throwin touchdowns and there was a guy that came later and played all time QB that I got a couple of touchdown catchin the ball as well. Our team ended up winnin!:) Then we came back and got ready and went to an older families house for thanksgivin lunch.  This is how I dressed up for the turkey bowl!!

There were only 6 people there and us which is a little different but it was great! We ate a lot and tried not to. Right after that we went to a ward activity where they invited all those that didnt have families to go to come to the church. So our second meal was also big and very successful! Then we went to another family for the last of the night. They BBQed out and fed us a lot of desert. It was a great day though!

Things here are comin along great. We are still tryin to find a good investigator. Hopefully this week we can get back into a couple homes that we've been over to. But the last thing I want to mention is our district meetin. We had some activities to get to know everyone better. Then we came up with some inspiring quotes that we are gonna all memorize and keep us motivated on our missions. The last thing was our districts culture. We all came up with it and I love it so much! I think it can apply to yall as well!

• Armor of God
• No one left behind
• Good Shepard's
• Exemplary
• Light
• Steadfast

We all need to put on the Armor of God and be Steadfast in Christ! We need to be exemplary and not just settle for the lesser things of the world. And we need to be a light to the world. (This is something that sister Hanks talked about to us) We need to be Good Shepard's and leave no one behind, that includes ourselves. As we do these things, we will be angels to everyone this Chirstmas Holiday!:) Thats my challenge to yall. Find ways to be ANGELS to yourself and to others this month!:) Also watch the new mormon message on LDS.org its so great! I love it!

Well hope that yall have another great week! Tis the season to be jolley! And Happy:) haha

Love yall so much!

Love Elder Hall:)

This is the win pipe:) they tap it every time they go out.

The stadium is huge!! I couldn't believe how big it was and everything they have in it!

Its beginning to look alot like.... Christmas without the snow:( ha

Hey Yall!

Thats me and my trainer, Elder Galorath, (He always does that face in every pic so like father like son;)) and prez Hanks, and the other 2 are the elders that were in boonville when i was in Corinth. The first 3 missionaries i knew haha those 2 are goin home on thanksgiving.

So another week has just flown right by! I cant believe how fast life is goin haha i feel like this is all a dream sometimes with how fast our days go here! And i guess ill say the excitin news first. Me and Elder Bean will be stayin together in North Port another transfer! Im excited to stay here! We will have Thanksgivin, Christmas and New Years here, also the Alabama-Auburn Rivalry and the Championship game I hear are huge down in this town:) haha so im excited. Also the weather here now is startin to chill down! The temperature probably isnt as low as Utah and out west, but the wind here is bad! It chills ya to the bones, even with 16 layers on hah but im happy with it! I love the colder weather! And it makes me happy to start feelin like Christmas time! I love Christmas time!

But this week has been a really good one! My days are gettin more and more busy. But this week started off with some great experiences! We have been workin with Elder and Sister Madsen, a sr couple and teachin a less active family, the Murrys, thats startin to come back and want to go to the temple. They know very little about the gospel, so we are goin over and re teaching them the lessons! Its been so good not only for them to hear the lessons, but for us to be able to teach together! They keep comin to church and everything is workin out great! Then later that day we decieded to bike clear out in the boonies to our ward mission leaders house to get something I loaned him. We tried to see a couple less actives on the way up but none were home.  Yup im in Eutaw alabama:) haha closest place to home!

So we kept bikin, but this time it was goin to be a very long bike ride. We came to a point with a hill that never ended. Usually I can make it up most hills but this one there was no way! So we got off our bikes and walked up it and took a little break. After about 5 minutes, we decided to start again, right after we started, a car pulled up along side me and a man in the car was just wavin and looked very friendly. Well we came up on a stop light and he rolled down his window and said, " Hey I love to see my Mormon friends!" Then the light turned green and he had to take off. Well he stopped at a gas station and so we pulled over and got to talk with him for a while. He is from Bountiful, Utah and suprisingly he wasnt a mormon. He said they lived there for a while and had a callin on the activity comittee. He said his best friend there was the bishop. And they said they knew the man that narrated the Christmas music and the spoken word and they had gone to it for like 10 years. He was excited to see us and wanted us to come over and visit with him! He said, "Now dont try to convert me, people already have." haha but as long as we go over and talk with him and be that good example, you never know what could happen!

The next day, Wednesday, we decided to go find less actives. We met a man out on the streets in West End. Thats the part of T-Town thats all black and ghetto and projects. But he was a street preacher. He told Elder Bean that he was just a baby in Christ, and told me that the Mormons had brainwashed me haha. Its funny cuz the only thing I said to him was that we were all a family and how we need to watch out for each other as brothers and sisters haha. But he was tryin to convert Elder Bean haha. But we ended up not bein able to see any of the less actives. Again none were home. We still had hours til our next apt. We had no idea what to do. So I decided to just let the spirit guide us. Im not really good at that but decided I would give it a try. Well we went to a part of town and the 2nd door we knocked on we gave away a BOM and were able to set up a return apt. Her name was Rachel and she had 2 little girls. I really feel like she will be a very good investigator! We tracted for 2-3 hours and passed out a ton of BOMs and pamphlets and other material. We found 2 potential investigators! So I really hope things here are lookin up!

On Thursday we were able to go out to dinner with an active family that invited a less active family over. The Footes are the active family and the invited the Lavatai family. They are Samoan. Its the parents then they have 2 16 year old daughters a 13 year old and 5 and 2 year old daughter. they are so awesome! We ate and talked and had a really good time! Thats some of the best missionary work you could do! Just inviting people to dinner! They gave me a Samoan name. Its Meauli Malosi Aulelei Fatu Lavatai. Haha and if no one knows what that means, it translates into Black Strong Beautiful Heart and there last name is Lavatai. Haha I kept tellin them that i was black so thats what they named me:) haha

Zone Conference was great! I learned that we really need to get members involved. Just to go over and teach them how to teach others, to be an example, create a relationship and show them that your a representative of Christ. Another thing I learned is to talk about the important things early. Holy Ghost and Baptism. It was a great meetin.

For the rest of the week we were on exchanges. I went down to Demopolis with Elder Jensen and we had an awesome time! We were able to see a lot of people and learn from each other. Elder Jensen is goin home this next transfer, and I love to learn from older missionaries and apply what I learn. So I asked him about what he thinks missionary work really is now that he has been out so long. Well it lead to a great discussion about how Christ did missionary work. He taught sermons and parables when the people needed it, He healed the sick and gave blessins when people asked, and he was there to comfort Mary when Lazarus died, the scriptures say that "He Wept". Those 3 things are all missionary work, and now we need to follow Christs example and figure out when is the best time for them. Also one other thing I learned from the exchange. There was a man named Bro White. He was black. He is older in his 60's. He was in the nursin home from just gettin outta a surgery. Well he was givin a callin to pass the sacrament every week. He told me it was the best job he ever had and how it paid better then any other job. He had such a strong testimony. Well he is gonna be in the nursin home for 3 weeks. He had already missed a ton of Sundays. Well he was talkin with us and he started talkin bout how he missed church so much. Then he broke down into tears and said, " All I want is to have that trey back in my hand, I just want to hold that trey." He knew how important the sacrament was not only for him but for all those he passed it to! I think sometimes we take for gratnted the simple things of the gospel just as the sacrament. Since this week is Thanksgivin, I want to invite yall to write a list of things you are thankful for in the gospel only. What are little things that you take for granted that are huge blessins? As we realize that we will grow and have a stronger relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ!

I love yall so much! I hope yall have a Happy Thanksgivin and stay warm:) Remember to Be Happy:)

Love Elder Hall

Workin Hard, Havin Fun and Bein Happy!

Hey Yall!

This week has gone by so fast! I cant believe another transfer is almost over! Time just keep speedin up! I wish there was more time to get everythin done! But this week has been good! It started off super cold but then ended hot and rainy haha  All the sisters:)

This week we started out by tryin to find more opportunities for servin the city. Well we walked and walked around and found a salvation army. They told us no and kicked us out... Haha not cuz we are mormon, but i guess they had a contract with someone and told them that they wouldnt allow volunteers. But we found a food bank and they told us to come back on Friday. But after we did that we had our first Scripture Study. We had our ward mission leader there and a recent convert. It was a good one. We talked about faith. We are gonna get more people out each week and this'll give members a missionary opportunity.

This is our district. This week we have seen a few less actives, but have tracted a ton! We were able to go to the Food bank and met a kid that had seen the book of mormon play. But he was interested in our message and said we could come back and teach him so we are gonna go back this next week. We also had a day where nothing really was goin right and everyone wouldnt answer there doors. We rode by this one lady and to make a long story short, she was a single mom and her daughter is 4. She said she didnt get to talk to adults a lot, but we talked with her and she said we could come back as well! We invited her to Sacrament meetin and scripture study as well. We are still just tryin to find people. But things are startin to look up from here:)

2012 championship tophy. They also had 2009 2011. The bear bryant museum was awesome:)  Sorry this letter is so short. I dont have to much time. But at district meetin this past friday, I gave one of my best district meetins I thought. It was on our purpose as missionaries. I figured out somethin pretty cool. We only need to focus on 2 things. One is to be a friend. To love, create relationships and have fun. The other is to be a good shepard. In Hymn 221, Dear to the Heart of the Shepard, it is one of my new favorite hymns. We have sang it alot on my mission and I love the last verse. It talks about how the Savior has been our shepard, so we will be others shepards. We need to help people come back into the fold. Bring them out of the rocky, dangerous mtns and back to the nice green pastures. Read luke 15 the parable of the sheep and also Ezek 34 and D&C 6 :32 til the end. They are all great scriptures on it. As we are peoples good shepards, we will want to help them spiritually. We will invite them and teach them true priciples. Sometimes they wont wanna listen. But we wont be dissapointed cuz we have done our part! I learned alot from my district as i gave this trainin!

But i hope that everyone is happy and has a great week! Love yall so much!

Love Elder Hall!

One of Bear Bryants hats

A repulca of bear bryants office

A crystal hat hah

These are the 2012 rings.

Thats right;)

This is a squirrel head. I tore out the brains and ate them:)

Dad's Commentary - "Not the smartest thing that you have ever done!"  Just sayin'

Busy Busy!

Hey Yall!

So this week has been a busy one! We have had Stake Conference, a Zone Training, Exchanges with the T-Town Elders, and much more. The weather here is still weird. Some days its freezin cold and others it gets back hott again. Haha other than that nothin really new around here. Its just a fun lovin college town! haha

We will start off with the beginning of the week. We were able to have a zone training, and I was able to train on using scriptures while we teach. I use an example, with a quarter. Now hopefully yall havent seen the Alabama quarter, but on it is Helen Keller sittin down in a chair readin a book.... There are flowers next to her as well. Do any of yall believe me? If you say no then I would suggest lookin it up on the internet or findin one.... Or just read the next sentence. If you say yes i do believe you then your correct! haha yes that is what is on the back of an Alabama quarter. And I related that to how sometimes people dont believe what we say, but if we can back it up with evidence, aka the scriptures, then our words are more powerful! I know that if we use scriptures, it will bring the spirit and the spirit can convert! 

Here are some pics of a less active mans house. O and this actually was a really good story as well that I didnt get to share. But we went out with the Elders Quorm president to help him find a less active man named Russell. He was on his home teachin list. Well we found him, but if it was just missionaries goin we would have never gotten in. Since we had a normal human bein with us we could get in talk with and get to know him. Yall can do so much for this missionaries:)  But this man is a hunting guide for all over the world! He goes to 9 different countries. pretty cool:) Especially the giraffe:)

Next is a story of us tractin. We have tracted so much! Haha and its because thats kinda the last option we have right now. But as we were tractin, I saw a boy outside and he was just throwin the football to himself. Well I thought about back home when I had no one to throw the football with me so I walked up to him and said, Hey! and then motioned for him to throw me the ball. Well we ended up stayin there with him for an hour or hour and a half. We passed the ball, talked about mormons in the NFL and gave him a BOM. We went over the next day and his parents said they werent interested, but thats not the point. He now has a good memory of mormons that when he gets older and sees missionaries he will be able to remember the time we had.  Me and Elder Jordan, from T-Town, were on exchanges and biked past the stadium and they were settin up college game day! We stopped for a sec to take some pics:)  Yall should be proud of me. We didn't even go to the game on saturday, and i have made up my mind to wait til after my mission to go to one haha I have bigger and better things to be doin!:)

Like I said before we have done a ton of tractin. Which isnt to bad. We are workin really hard with the members right now as well. We are gonna start a scripture study class like we did in my last area. We are gonna do a fun live mormon.org activity with the members, where we go around and take pics of the family and some of there hobbies, then record them for 30 sec- a minute and put it all together and have a party at the church and show it to them. We are also doin the member missionary work course that the stake started. We will probably start that next week or the week after. So things here are defiantly growin. Right now we still dont have any investigators, but thatll change. All that matters is what your doin. If your puttin in the effort and showin the Lord that you want to do missionary work. That is when He can then come in and bless you in so many ways!

The last thing I wanna mention is our stake conference. It was so good! We were able to go to the adult session and the sunday session. It was all on missionary work. Just a couple quotes from it. President Hanks said that "Now is the time!" A quote from president Hinkley is " The most Potent Missionary tool is a member of the church." We need to have the spirit with us then show love and friendship towards others. We need to get out of our comfort zone, out of the 99 sheep, and go look for the one lost sheep, the one person that needs our help. As we diligently do this we will find people, we will have missionary moments, we will be happy!

I know each and every one of us can contribute to the missionary work in some way. Just keep prayin and lookin and yall will find! Yall have been such good examples to me in my life. Just remember "By small and simple things, great things are brought to past." Just a smile, a wave, a hello, just throwin the football with someone, makin cookies, writin a note, anything like that is missionary work! I hope yall have a great week and stay busy in the most important work on earth! Last quote by Elder Bednar, "This is the greatest time in the history of the church!" Heavenly Father believes in all of us! We are here for a great cause! Remember to be happy:)

Love Elder Hall!

Where does the time go?

Hey Yall!

This week has been a super fast week! Its been full of many different experiences. The weather is chilly now in the mornin and night, and not to hot durin the day. But im lovin this weather! haha everyone says they are freezin and I just tell them, Yall dont even know haha. But this week Alabama had a bye so everyone was home and not doin to much haha. Football down here really is a religion. For stake conference next week, they planned the whole thing around the game. It gets pretty crazy!

But the beginning of this week started out with exchanges. Its weird cuz ive never had to do exchanges with anyone in my district cuz all its been is sisters. Now we have a couple elders so we have to do that. But I was here in North Port with Elder McKinnon and Elder Bean went down just south of us. Well Ive been tryin to think of how I could improve the area and make things effective. We have a map, but it wasnt that good. So we updated the map with pins where people lived, what there names were, there address and if they were active or less active. That took forever but itll help a ton with seein where people are! This is my face with my 1990's hair cut. Haha i went to a black barber and he messed up. Thats ok cuz people say i look like Joey from friends haaha:)

On Wednesday we had district meetin and I have come up with 10 steps on how to improve yourself, out of my favorite chapter in preach my gospel, Chap 7.. Learn the language. haha there are so many good things in that chapt. I will have to tell yall the 10 steps next week cuz i forgot to bring preach my gospel with me today haha. But with our district we came up with another culture. And with everyones ideas, i came up with another acronym.

• Happy
• One baptism
• Work

• Fearless Faithful Family
• Unified
• No one left behind

We want to be happy and work hard. We want to be unified and be a fearless faithful family. We dont want to leave anyone behind, wether that be investigators, LA, Members, or other missionaries, and we want to find the "ONE" and baptize. Our district is so amazin! I have done so many baptismal interviews. This transfers we have had 6 or 7 baptisms. Everyone is just so happy and focused on the work. We know How to have Fun, or thats How we have Fun haha:)

We had a branch Trunk or Treat. We all got our faces painted at the Trunk or Treat! That went really well and on Halloween we had nothin to do. Well the sisters were gonna go to a party and said we could come to. Well I really didnt want that many missionaries there so I said no thanks we will find somethin to do. Well my comp got a little mad. It was rainin we were on our bikes with nothin to do. He obviously wasnt gonna help me now. So I just thought about anything. Well the thought popped into my mind about callin this certain member and askin if we could come over. We called and he said yes. We went over and went trick or treatin with them. They drove around on with a trailer. We just acted like normal people, there were even some non members there. So if anything it was good to show them that missionaries arent weird but normal people haha turned out to be a great night and a lot better then just sittin at home:) I love when Heavenly Father helps us out!

We have also tracted a ton. Now let me make one thing clear. I dont like tractin. I feel like there is always somethin better to do. But I have realized, when you have nothin to do, tractin is what you gotta do. So we have been doin it. Well the first week and a half we were doin the same old borin and mono tone approach of We are missionaries with a message for you. Or somethin close to that. Well I was thinkin of how we could make it fun and challenging. So I took out a Family Proclamation and the next door said, "Hi we are just goin around sharin a message about families and how to strengthen them. Would you like this paper that talks about it?" That way we at least give them something, then they can slam the door in our face haha:) But it works. We have now done it with those, alot of the pamphlets about the lessons in preach my gospel, and mormon.org cards. We have our number on them so they can call. Its the best rejection we will ever get!:) haha but that way it makes it fun for me and challenging tryin to pass out all the stuff! We are gonna go throw back with it and set goals on how many Books of Mormon, Book of Mormons we can pass out in a week! Thatll be fun!

But Last thing is we are gonna start a new member missionary work course. The stake president, Prez Johnson thought of it and we are pilotin it. We are gonna sit down with members and teach them the lessons and do things to get them excited about the work! So ill keep yall updated on that! And last is the CES fireside last night! It was incredible! We need to aline our will with Heavenly Fathers and make sure we have Righteous Actions with Pure Motives! I loved it.

Now one thing I want to invite yall to do. Go to lds.org and look up Hastening the Work. Go to the website and watch the 3 main videos! They are amazin! Its so pure revelation that we know have!! Its a great resource of member missionary work!

Well I hope that yall had a great Halloween! Ill tell yall ive already started listenin to Christmas music. Elder Mckinnon got me on it the day before Halloween so now im hooked haha but Hope yall have a great week! Remember to look for ways to serve love and be an example to the ONE! Thats all we need to look for is the one. Remember to be Happy this week! Love Yall!

Love Elder Hall:)

Changes!!

Hey Yall!

This is me eatin a pigs tail.:) So this letter might be shorter than usual. I wasnt able to email yesterday because we had a zone activity and it got done later than i expected. But anyways this week has been really good. We still dont have any good investigators but we are tryin our best to find them. We have been tracting, hunting down less actives, workin with members a little, and tryin new ideas. Its kinda been hard because we literally are starting from ground zero. But its been really fun, I have enjoyed every day of it! As the title says changes, we have done a ton. Not only are we tryin to change with gettin new investigators, but also changin to be more obedient, changin the cleanliness of our apt, which I have made a goal to do at each apt for the rest of my mission, and changin ourselves. On Sunday President Hanks talked with both me and Elder Bean individually. He told me how proud he was of what I had done with Elder Bean. Im still not sure of what they talked about, but really all I have done is tried to improve in bein more obedient and workin harder than I ever have. As a result of doin that I guess I have helped Elder Bean become better as well. I think thats a good lesson that we can all learn. As we want to do missionary work and improve others, sometimes we need to start by improvin ourselves then that can make in influence on others.

On Saturday we went to the Alabama game. Now dont worry we didnt go in and watch any of it. Well actually to be honest with yall, I saw more of the games in my last area then I have here. Even bein right outside of the stadium! Haha kinda crazy! But we walked around the stadium and whats called the "Quad" the entire game. We had written our number and a name that someone could look up on Mormon.org cards, and were gonna pass them out. Well as we went and walked around, I wanted to see if I could find some good people to talk to and give a card to. Well that plan didnt really work cuz most people there were as drunk as a skunk. If skunks are ever drunk i guess haha. But we actually did get to talk to 2 different people for about an hour each and teach them some things. They were sellin stuff at the game, and we also got to see other members of the church that lived in different cities in Alabama. Well by the end of the game I had passed out maybe 5 cards of like 50 that I had. So what I ended up doin was when people would walk by I would say "Roll Tide!", and hold out my hand with the card. The Usual response was they would start off with a big Roll Tide, then kinda fade out with confusion of why my hand was out. I would put the card in there hand and walk away. Haha i passed out about 55 cards like that and Elder Bean was kinda shy so he passed out about 3. But none the less it was good use of our time:)

Now last thing I wanna say real quick is that President Hanks came and did a fireside. He did an awesome job and there were also some other testimonies given. Well one was a girl named Shelby Brown she said about the gospel and missionary work, "If its (the gospel) something that means so much to you, then share it!" Its so true. If its something that we love and means a lot to us, why wouldnt we want to share it? Pres Hanks talked about how to effectively share the gospel. He said that people arent as interested in the doctrine of the gospel as they are the results of the doctrine. How we can change, or look like mormons. Where we go after this life. things like that. So remember to be a friend and show people how to live the gospel!

I hope that yall have a great week! Keep bein happy and lovin others! Being an example is so important!

Love Elder Hall

Tuscaloosa!

Hey Yall!

So this week yall know I got transferred. And boy were there a ton of changes! First off yall know by now that im basically in Tuscaloosa. Im a district leader over probably the biggest district in the mission. There are 3 companionships of sisters, 3 of elders, including us, and a sr couple. We have a set of elders and sisters that are spanish speaking, and a set of sisters that are called just to teach and help build up the new YSA branch they have, since we are right by campus. Haha its crazy to have this many missionaries. Not only that, but right when I got here, they all were calling me about future baptisms they had and how I needed to set up interviews! Its been so dang cool!:) We have had 2 baptisms already, both spanish, and I have interviewed 3 more people to be baptized in the upcoming week! How great is that? And we have about 4 or 5 more baptism interviews that ill do this week and next! The work is really progressing in this part of the vineyard.

Well now onto some sadder news for the week. Its really not to sad, but out of all those baptisms, none are coming from our area, ill explain a little later. But my comp Elder Bean is cool. He is kinda weird, but we are all in some form or another. His last comp just got done with his mission and sounds like he was super trunky. They didnt do to much to help out the area. They always went to the same houses and places. Because of that, we dont have any solid investigators, we dont know any less active members, and Elder Bean knows a little bit around the area, but not to much. He has a GPS which helps, but we havent really been able to teach any lessons this week. Not to mention we dont have a car either. Now thats not to bad, the only problem is we cant get around to far. So its basically like being double transfered into an area. And on top of that Elder Bean is kinda in a slump cuz his last comp didnt work so he followed the pattern. Well can I just say that all of that has changed. Since wednesdsay, we have tracted basically all our time. We havent really gotten to see anyone, but we have been out and workin hard. Im gonna start changing this area around. Plus I hate tracting and so far it hasnt worked. We have already stared to change things around. We are gonna be working a lot with members and visiting less actives. We are gonna come up with diffrent ways to find other than to tract. We are gonna get out and see this city and get the work movin forward in our area as well. So as of right now I have big hopes and dreams for this area.

Saturday we had no one in sight. It was a ghost town literally! I couldnt believe how empty it was! Everyone..... I mean everyone was at the game! I couldnt believe it!! So we just kinda walked around. People here started goin to the game at like 6 in the mornin even though it didnt start til 6 at night. We still had a semi productive day. We are gonna think of creative ways to use our time better during games too:) Ill tell yall whats happenin as it goes:)  Me and the Eliasons

But as for that nothing much is new. Im just excited to start buildin this area back up. Start to get new investigators and baptisms and keep our district focused! I have loved getting to know new people! Sorry this letter is super short. We dont have a lot of time today... Next week itll be better.

Me and Kofi Johnson (From Alpine)  Something I have learned this week is how to follow the spirit. I have had to do that so much as to know what to do to help this area, how to help my companion, how to help a district that are all best friends by now and im just tryin to get to know everyone. Its been a ton of change, but instead of sitting back and bein scared about it all i figured i would change it up and move forward and proactively start to do things. It helps and the spirit can lead you and guide you to what to be doin. Its amazing how much Heavenly Father can help you. I know that this week its been all him helpin me. Especially with the bikin! Haha we bike so dang much and he has givin me the strength to do so. I know and testify that as we are busy and consumed in the Lords work, we dont have to be scared. He can help us! He will make it all possible for us to accomplish what he needs done. He will give us the spirit to know what to do. Now all we have to do is act and recognize!

I love yall, andI hope that yall have a great week!

Love Elder Hall:)