Crazy, Busy, Safe!

Hey Yall!

Wow has it been a crazy week! I dont have to much time but just wanted to let yall know about everything thats been happening! Does this not look like a white Matt with a little more hair on top??

• This week has again been filled with service. We have been helping our less active lady at radio shack and continue to help at the food pantry which both have been great! 
• On Wednesday we went to go do another baptism interview. We got there and to make a long story really short the sisters were driving with a member and the investigator being baptized and they ran outta gas, so we did the interview on the side of the road! haha but none the less the work goes on and satan cant stop it! No matter how funny it may have looked we got er done;) 

• Me and President Hanks with his shirt on. The Man, the Myth, the Legend, and that's his grrrr face to show his tenacity which he wants all of us to have;)
  
  

• Friday we had district meeting then I went on exchanges and spent friday and saturday in Amory. We did a lot of tracting out in the boonies but to our surprise we had a lot of success! We met a ton of great people and taught a few lessons! 
• Saturday night and Sunday were stake conference and Elder Teh from the 70, that spoke at general conference came and spoke to us! We also got an investigator, Donny, to the sunday session for a little bit before he had to leave. But no other missionary since about 2 years ago have been able to get him to come to church, so that was great:) 
• Monday we had a zone activity with the South zone as well. President was doing interviews and then what do ya know, we have tornado watches, then warnings. So we all went into the chapel and started to sing songs. The power started to flicker then darkness. We still just kept singing. It turns out that the tornado started right above the church that we all were in.

• These are some people in the Corinth Ward i was able to see! John Atichson is on the very end with a blue shirt. He was the first man i baptized. Something i forgot to put in the letter is after the Sunday session of stake conference, me and my trainer, Elder Galorath were able to be in the circle together when John got the Melchizedek priesthood. Last year we baptized him and now, a year later, we both were there to see him get the priesthood! So dang cool!!

• Heavenly Father has been protecting us and watching over us! We were there for 3 or 4 hours. Then President sent out the first missionaries to go home. That was me and Elder Black, and the sisters in our area. Then a few hours later all the others got sent home. We drove past some of the spots where the tornado hit and there were powerlines down and tress in half. One major spot that got hit was the mall in Tupelo, which the crazy thing is, is that me and Elder Black were there just a couple hours before it hit! Nuts! But we are all safe and sound! We have to stay in our apt all day today. 
• It was Prez Hanks B day yesterday as well. Wow what a crazy one. I made him a shirt and ill send ya a pic of it. But he loved it.  

So that was my week kinda in a nut shell. There was probably a lot left out but thats ok haha. Transfers are the wednesday after mothers day just so yall know. But I have to make this short so i can get back inside. I love yall so dang much! Have a great week! Keep the south in your prayers. Remember to be happy! Those who are prepared need not fear!

Love Elder Hall:)

Busy, Serving, Love it!

Hey Yall!

This is Camron the older boy and Jayden the younger. They are my buddies! Wow is all i can say. The past 2 or 3 weeks have been probably the busiest weeks of my mission so far! Let me catch yall up with the main points. 

• We've been contacting and tracting (my way) haha the reason i say that is because in my last area I came up with a way thats fun for me. You knock on the door with either a Family proclamation, Living Christ, BOM, or Pamphlets and tell them your sharing a message today about families, Christ, etc.. Give it to them, then ask if we could come back and teach them. If they accept awesome! If not, they still have something the can read or look at later. Elder Black has learned alot from that and says he loves this way of tracting. This is the whole family! I love this family. The Moms name is Ebony. Her, her mom and Cam all got baptized in Dec and Jan of this year. 

• We have been serving like crazy!! At the food pantry, for less actives at radio shack, moving members, Mowing lawns for our neighbors. It has been my goal the past 2 months or so to just forget about myself and literally serve anyone and everyone I can. I want to invite yall to do the same. Look for every opportunity to serve. Even little things like opening up a door, smiling, making someones bed, etc. I have felt so much happier, I have been busy, and I havent had to worry about myself because the Lord takes care of me! Its amazing to see! 

• We have had a ton of great meetings! (Ill talk a little about those later) 

• And I have been able to do a ton of baptism interviews in the past 2 weeks, because of my amazing district and all the amazing missionaries in it! Just my district in the past 2 weekends has had 7 baptisms. I was able to drive to the different areas and interview 5 of the 7! I love being able to help others and feel there strong testimony and desire to come closer to Christ through the interviews! 

I bought Jayden the shirt and tie. He calls it his "Elder Shirt" :) We have been finding new investigators too! We just now need them to help us out and let us back into there house haha;) that would be nice! There was one guy who walks up and asks, "Do yall preach Joseph Smith?" Me thinking he is just gonna anti us says, "Ya and we preach about Jesus Christ too." "But you talk alot about Joseph Smith right?" He says. "Well ya, why do you want to know?" "Because I love that man! Have you seen the History Channel documentary on him? If not you should! Anyone who doesnt believe in his story is an idiot!" HAha i couldn't believe it! We found out he was a friend of one of our members and wants us to come teach him more. His only problems are that he has a hard time believing that a merciful God would let Joseph Smith die the way he did. And he thinks our church services are boring hahaa but we can fix that and just every now and then throw in a few AMENS and Hallelujahs haha:)

Last p-day we spent all day helping a less active lady move all the stuff from one radio shack store that they closed down into the one in New Albany! It was so much fun though! O and on Easter we went to church, then went and gave the sacrament to some people, then we met a family and ate and had a water balloon fight with them, which i eventually took the hose and soaked all the kids and my comp, then we played basketball, then we went and talked with Ebony and her family for a while and had some fun with them:) Great Easter! This is one of the families we saw yesterday for easter:)  This is a dog wood tree. There is a lot behind them, but basically dogwoods are the tree they used to make the crosses, they think that the dogwood tree was cursed so it now only grows to be about as big as you see in the picture. Dogwoods are everywhere in the south and super pretty:) 

Well i dont have to much more time, but i wanted to leave yall with a thought that has changed my mission completely! It was something I trained on in a District Meeting a couple weeks back. It comes from 2 talks i found. And if you have time, go listen, watch or read them. They are life changing talks! The first one is by Elder Bednar, Becoming a Missionary. The second is by Elder Oaks, The Challenge to Become. I combined both talks and the point i want to focus on is this. We need to Become something in this life. We are all trying to become more like the Savior and Heavenly Father. But we all need to Become Missionaries. Missionary work isnt for those with name tags. Its not a 2 year contract or event that takes place. Its a life style. Its who we are! When we realize that we arent just supposed to go on missions or go to church, or go to the temple, but become better sons and daughters of God through those things, thats when we realize how much we can really do. Thats when missionary work becomes real to us! Thats when we can find joy and satisfaction in doing missionary work. I made a list of

5 things we can do to Become a Missionary. May i have fans forever;) 

1. Know and have the right desire in our Heart
2. Realize who we are, and gain a testimony
3. Become Converted

We know we are converted when 1. We lose the desire to do evil and 2. See, think, hear and feel as Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ would see, think, hear, and feel

1. Be obedient
2. Declare-Invite-Cry

As we do these things we can become the sons and daughters that Heavenly Father want and need us to become! Remember its not so much about the journey but about who we Become:)

I hope that yall have a great week! I love yall so very much and am grateful every day for you and your prayers! Remember that Christ is with us every step of the way! Remember to be Happy:)

Love Elder Hall

Elder Hall is so busy…..

Elder Hall has been so busy this week that he didn't get to send a normal letter. Here are a few snipets of that he sent to us…

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"Haha so on Monday, we helped a less active move a ton of stuff from one store she owned, but closed down to the store in New Albany which took from 10 am to 7 pm so we weren't able to email monday, and yesterday we had a meeting in Tupelo and then we stayed up there to do a couple things and didn't get back to New Albany until 7:30 and today we helped with a huge thing going on at the food bank so we have just been super busy! hah I'm actually glad we have a little break to email cuz even the rest of today and the week are gonna be insanely busy!!"

"I was helping an older lady here at the library, she didn't how to use a computer, i wont be able to write yall this week. Tell everyone hi, im sorry for not writing, and i hope they have a great week! Ill be back on Monday:) haha until then just know ill be running with my head cut off with how busy we are til then haha i LOVE IT!!!! The work of the Lord is Hastening! 

I love you so much!!!

Love Elder Hall

I think im in love......

Hey Yall!

So to start off I just want to clear up any rumors that may spread with my subject line. Yes im in love. In love with the gospel, with the prophet, and with Christ! I fell in love again after the amazing sessions of general conference we just had! I will get to those at the end of the email, but just wanted to let everyone know how I truly feel right now!

So just some highlights of the week.

• Transfers on Wednesday. We got a set of sister missionaries in that are great! Sisters Hazelgreen and Mcdowell. They are gonna help the branch out a ton! 
• We found out a family in our area thats part members, the mom and her fiance arent but the kids are members. They were gonna lose there home, we had to go over and comfort them and help them with anything they needed. Well they have a little more time now and we have helped them out tremendously with feeling more of the spirit. 
• Went on exchanges and taught a man, Ladarious, who "has" telekinesis, and thinks that the government is taking over everything and everything they do is of the devil, who doesnt exsist but is in everything all at the same time haha. #crazysouthernpeople 
• Conference!!! 
• We saw an eternal investigator last night that every set of missionaries that have taught him have asked if he wanted to go to church. He still has never been. Until.. Wait for it.... I made a comprimize with him that we would continue to pop in and see him every now and then if he comes with us to stake conference at the end of the month. He AGREEED!!!!! haha i cant wait! 
• O also i know have 2 men that i baptized that hit there year mark and both are doing great! Scott and John! 

So one quick story. There was a tornado that hit Pontotoc, So it hit a city about hal half hour away from us. There were some sisters in my district that it hit close to them. Then traveled south down mississippi, so it never came our way. Well we have this weather radio that goes off during times like these and its a loud high pitched beep. We keep it at the foot of my comps bed on the floor. I heard it go off. I was still half asleep at the time but all i remember is walking over and I guess i bumped my comps leg cuz he woke up and I slammed my hand on the floor to try and get it. Well i missed cuz it was completely dark, I had the cord in my hand though and i threw the cord and the radio crashed agianst the wall. Haha my comp said he remembers feeling something on his foot, waking up and hearing a big crash. Then he told me I walked back to my bed and said, "IM SO SICK OF THIS." haha I didnt even know there was anything going on. Then i went back to sleep. Well our zone leaders were trying to do a txting tree and i never heard the phone go off so my comp txted everyone making sure they were ok. Well about half an hour to an hour later they did another one which i woke up to and txted everyone then passed out again. In the morning I woke up and my comp asked me, "Could you believe that storm??" I said "What storm?" haha he then went on to explain about all the lightning and thunder and wind and rain and how loud and freaky it was. Haha so moral of the story is that if a tornado ever comes at night time, Elder Hall is dead. So i say goodbye to you now:)

Now real quick I just want to send clips of conference that i loved. But first i just gotta say that i love how kindly they "Rebuked the crap" outta the whole church! haha ok Prez Monson, "We are temple building and temple attending people" Its nuts that the past 2 conferences we havent had any temples announced! We can do more:) Elder Holland "Live the gospel, Defend your beliefs. In pursuing this course you will have unshackable faith." Linda Reeves, "Take responsibility for your own spiritual well being." I wish i could send you all of them but i dont have to much time, so just a couple more real quick. Elder Oaks "Men and women are both endowed with priesthood power!" Elder Packer, "Be faithfully devoted to Jesus Christ." Elder Christofferson "In the reality of the Atonement, our lives are His" And lastly by Prez Monson, "God is our Eternal Father taht lives and loves us. How close He is willing to come, how far He is willing to go to help us!" Remember that Christ team WILL win, lets stay on it and play the best game we can:)

Love yall so dang much! Im in love with my mission right now! I cant tell yall how much it has helped me and how much i have grown and strengthened and have been so much happier. When we give our lives to the Lord thats when we will truely find ourselves:) Remember to be happy and have a great week!

Love Elder Hall:)