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!