Hey Hey - Again

Hey Yall!

So This week has had its ups and downs just like every other week. But before I go into everything that happened I wanted to tell ya how the south is, how my companion is and things like that.

The great old south haha down here people are very poor. Mississippi is the poorest state in the U.S. I have come to realize how blessed we really are. Like Dad always tells us how much we are blessed but it is very very true! Even most of the members that have come here from Utah are still very poor. So I have come to love the people, even though the houses are horrible and smell and some people smell cuz they dont have water to bathe and other things. But the one thing that I cant understand is that even though everyone here is pretty poor, they all have dogs and cats everywhere! People down here love pets! Each home has like 6 dogs and 11 cats and you think im joking when I say that but its true! haha so I have come to love animals a little bit more haha and there hair getting all over me and everywhere! Me and my bike:) we have become good friends now haha.

Now a little about the food. We have gotten to eat at some southern restaurants, members houses, non members houses, and regular fast food hah. Some southern foods that yall might wanna try sometime are chocolate gravy and biscuits (ooo yummy i love them!), chocolate covered potatoe chips, and fried foods like steak, fried spicy chicken, they love sweet potatoes with pecans, they love pecans haha, they love ham and potatoes. Now some things that I have had some problems with... Fried okra isnt too bad but its not the best either, Chitlins. Stay away from chitlins haha. There is a member named Mary Rogers. She is kind of poor but has us over for dinner. She told us she would make us boiled chitlins. I knew from the missionaries that they were some part of a pig but didnt know what part. So i ate them to be nice. They tasted um ok, but they smelled horrible! Then after we had dinner they told me that chitlins are pig intestines! haha I knew it was going to be something gross so i wasnt to taken back. But I did find out the story behind them. So back in the civil war days all the whites would kill a pig then take the pork, bacon, and all the other good meat from it. Then they would throw everything else out for the slaves. Mainly the intestines. So the slaves learned how to cook them and it has been past on ever since through the blacks haha. When I told other missionaries that have been here for a year and a half they couldnt believe it! They hadnt even tried them. But anyway just a few foods that I wanted to tell ya about!

So now a little bit about my comp. He is from LA. He is a good trainer and loves to help and serve others. He is always asking if we can help in anyway. He always waves to others when we go anywhere which is good cuz thats what missionaries do! But he is not to athletic. He and 2 other missionaries, as well as a lot of others in the mission love to play a card game named magic. I thinks its pretty lame so i just watch them play it. But they buy cards all the time and play it alot too haha i think heavenly father is laughing his head off cuz he keeps sticking me with kids who arent into sports or anything that i like! But thats ok cuz we get along pretty well:)

Now onto my week! So my and Elder Stankey, the district leader, went out on a split and we decided to tract. So we biked around 5 or 6 miles over by the church and stopped in a neighborhood. We started off by saying a prayer which I had never done before, then we headed out. The very first door we knocked on was a German lady named Mckela, or however you spell that. So we went in and talked to her and she has a lot of questions about our church. The amazing thing that I figured out is that each question she would ask went perfectly along with the 1st lesson, the Restoration! It was so cool to see all the pieces fitting together! I now know that Preach My Gospel is truly an inspired book! There may have been some people who wrote it, but truly God told them what to write!

On saturday we went over to a town called Selmer to help the young mens president build a ramp for a non member out there. So we headed out. One thing that I thought was funny is that on friday and saturday it started to "snow". On friday there were microscopic snow flakes and everyone here was freaking out about how much snow there was haha. On saturday it was blowing bigger snowflakes but still nothing at all stuck to anything. So I thought that was funny. But we worked in the snow the whole time and I loved helping build the deck and ramp and I was impressed with alot of the handy man things I knew cuz of working with dad! My comp and a member Matt who is 21 and is gonna go on a mission soon, didnt even know how to screw things in and didnt know how to use a nail gun haha so i showed them and helped them but that was fun! We are going back to finish it because we ran out of wood but ill take pics of it and send them to ya! But we also got to talk with the husband and wife and left blessings with them!

Ok now the sad part of the week. So I told you about John getting baptized. We went over and taught him, interviewed him and he was so excited to get baptized on march 3. So we told him that Bro Hunting, the first councilor in the bishopric, would come get him. He usually gets picked up around 6:30 because Bro Hunting has meetings. Anyway so sunday comes around and we get to church early start filling up the font cuz it usually takes around 5 hours to fill and getting everything ready. Time is going by and its around 8 and neither of them are at church so we call bro hunting and ask him and he said that John wouldnt answer the door or his phone. We went strait up to Johns house and tried but got nothing. So we went to church. After church John called us and was so so mad that we didnt pick him up and he had to wait 2 hours til 8, then he just went back to sleep. Then he said he didnt want to do with anything of the church anymore and hung up! Well that was a lie because br Well I had all of yesterday and this morning to think about that until he called us a few minutes ago. I talked to him and told him we are sorry about the miscommunication, even though he lied to us and we know that bro hunting and us were there to pick him up. But anyway I did get him to allow us to come back and talk to him tomorrow so maybe we can get him back into things and he will wanna get baptized this sunday:)

Well I just want you all to know that I love this church! It is the only true church on the face of the earth. Yesterday in the CES fireside president Bednar said that it is better to not shrink then to survive. That is so key and important! It is so much better to stand tall and not shrink down to satans level. Never let him get you down! I have learned this principle so much on my mission. I have had 2 baptisms fall through, people slam doors in my face, lessons and appt fall through and much more. But Im not going to shrink. I need to keep my faith strong in Heavenly Father and he will help us be positive and get out of the trail! If we are on Heavenly Fathers side we will always win! He will never forsake us, and we know that satan will! I

love you all so much!

Love Elder Hall!