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:)

Gonna Miss Highland Home

Hey Yall!

This week has been so busy, fun, sad, happy and everywhere in between! Probably the biggest news of this week is that im gonna be gettin transferred. Now there is a story for this which I will tell later on in the letter. But this week has been full. The weather down here is still nice. Its started to get back up into the 80's, which is still a little hotter then I would like. It is hotter the further south you go in Alabama, so maybe if I get moved up north it will be cooler, Well see. So transfers will be on Wednesday and ill email yall after we get the news and I get into my new area. And like it says in the title. Im gonna miss Highland Home a ton. I have said a lot of goodbyes. Now im ready to move on to the next exciting adventure that awaits. Thats one thing ive learned about a mission is that there is always change. It better to just enjoy the moment, whether good or bad, then roll with the change and make the best of it, cuz there are more people waiting for you to help them and they can help you. So im also excited:)

Now onto my crazy week! On Monday it was nice and relaxing as usual. Which reminds me. Im not gonna have nearly as much time emailing as I do now. Just for future reference, if yall write me and I dont write back a response as big as they have been, I still love you just as much, I just wont have a lot of time. But we had our family night. More and more people are startin to come. And I have started a tradition now. I brought UNO the card game a few weeks back. Well some people didnt know how to play and others needed a refreshment on how the game went. So we started playin and man, little did I know everyone would love it so much. Plus I would add more emotion to get everyone excited about the game and into it. Well now everyone asks, " Are we gonna play UNO at FHE?" Haha funny how big it got. So now thats what we do. But everyone is enjoying it so much! On Tuesday we had a zone training up in Montgomery. That went so well! I love those meetins cuz they get you excited and re motivated about the work! After that meetin we shopped and went back to have our bible study. We are now studying about the Sermon on the Mount. It was weird, I was tryin to think of a little activity or something to get the people involved with the lesson. Well in Matt chap 5, it talks about the salt of the earth and how we should not mix it or else it will lose its savor. Well I thought of the idea to put some salt in the sacrament cups. Then pass them out to everyone. When we would start talking about that I would go around and mix either coke, or hot cocoa mix into there salt. Then I asked them if they didnt have any other salt in the house and it was Sunday so they couldnt go buy any and they wanted to make cookies and thats the only salt they had left would they use it. Well obviously not. And we had a good discussion on that. Its amazing how the spirit can work with us and tell us what we can do. We just need to make sure we are praying and listening.

The next event of the week was interviews with President Hanks. This was on Wednesday. So we went back up to Montgomery again and had them. Can I just say that President Hanks is one of my heroes. He has taught me so much and loves all the missionaries like crazy! My interview went so well! Well right after the first part haha.... I walked in and sat down. After a prayer He asked me, "How ya likin Highland Home?" I said, "O its great i love it down there!" He said, "Good cuz your leavin!" Haha and that is how I found out I was gonna be transferred. We did talk about it a little more, and im glad he brought it up because I had a week to say goodbye to everyone instead of the usual 1 or 2 days. The interview was so great though. We talked about a ton of things that I really cant mention in the email, but he told me things that will change my mission and my life!

The rest of the week has been super busy tryin to see everyone, and saying goodbye! Its been a fast and slow week. But we have been able not only to see a lot of people, but to teach them and help them as well! That brings us to the end of the week. On Saturday we were able to help the Greenville sisters with a baptism. There was a man named Justin, and a little girl named Raina. Which turns out that I had taught Raina and talked to her about baptism so it was so cool to see the sisters teach her and get her ready for it. Well no one from the branch presidency in Greenville was gonna be there. So the branch president asked me to preside and conduct. It was a great service! On Saturday night and Sunday we had stake conference. It was so great! We had an awesome conference up there! We had the temple president, stake patriarch, president and sister Hanks, and the stake presidency all give talks! One of my favorite was on patience with others. The man based the talk on one of Elder Uchtdorf's talks. One thing that really stuck out to me is that he said when people to things that bug us, or they sin and that makes us mad, we need to re think. He said some people are under a lot of pressure and temptation. Sometimes they do things that they think are normal and just a natural reaction. What ever it may be we need to separate the action or sin from the person. They are 2 totally different things. Which I had never thought about it like that before. It opened up my eyes. Before we go around blaming others we need to look at maybe why they did it, and see things from there point of view. Something that i've learned the past 2 transfers with Elder Hodge, and both our difficulties, is that instead of blaming others for what they have done maybe ask forgiveness for something you did. Thats something that I started doing with Elder Hodge. When I would get frustrated at him, instead of blaming him, or asking him to stop doing something, I would ask forgiveness for something I did wrong at that moment. I have come to figure out that its a good way to get ride of contention, because then he would apologize and ask for my forgiveness. Its something I have struggled with the past year and a half, but I feel like im over coming anger, bad thoughts, jealousy with this process. And its something ive come to get better at, as well as just being happy.

I cant wait til next week to tell yall about my new adventures. I hope that yall have a great week! I hope yall know I love yall! Be Happy:)

Love Elder Hall:D

Amazing Conference Again!

Hey Yall!

I hope that everyone enjoyed conference as much as I did! Even though I had to dress up in my suit and it was pretty much me and my comp only up at the church I still loved it! Haha this week it has cooled down a little. Im not sure if any of yall heard anything about the tropical storm that was gonna hit the gulf shores, but that was supposed to happen yesterday. We were supposed to get pretty severe weather here, but it wasn't even as bad as a usual rain storm so Heavenly Father protected this part of the country that way. We will probably get transfer calls this Saturday so ill tell yall about that next week. I really hope I can stay at least one more transfer, but we will see where the Lord needs me. Other than that its been a really good week!  Hey these pics are for AAlyiah! Haha she is so dang cute and I loved the picture she sent me so I got some for her! Hope there good!

This week has been such a good week full of happy fun and spiritual moments. Ill start off with our FHE and bible study. Now usually we have only been havin around 3 people come each week. Well this week we got 7 adults and 3 children, under the age of 11, up at church for it! It was great! We had another lesson on families, then we played some games. I pulled out Uno, and playin Uno with 9 people takes a while if yall didn't know haha but it got to be an intense game, but we all we havin so much fun! We got done and everyone wanted to play again! So im hopin that everyone can pass the word around to come and have tons of fun with us! And our bible study we had another successful one. I think we had around 8 people up there again. 

They are also starting to participate more which is good so that everyone can teach and learn. We are still learning about Christs life while relating everything to the lessons in Preach My Gospel and read from the Book of Mormon too. So now that we have a good set time and game plan we can worry about how we get more people there each week:) So far Heavenly Father has helped us out in so many ways!

Now are where the fun stories begin. This week we were able to go to the cattle sell with a member named Joel, his wife, his LA son and daughter in law Davey and Prissy. I love them all so much! They are so fun to be with and it was so great to be with Davey and Prissy. I haven't been able to be with them to much while ive been here but it was great to get to know them even more then I did. They are great people, just as everyone is down here! 

I have sent pics of cattle sale. Man I love it! It was so much fun, and I learned so much about farmin and cows and sailing them. We got to meet some of the men that owned the place and we talked with them. I loved the actioner! Haha at first it was super hard trying to understand what he was saying. Mainly because I had no idea what was goin on anyway. But later in the day I caught on to everything.  For anyone that is interested I figured out that the calf's were sailing way high that day. It was there 10 year anniversary, but some calf's that weighed about 280 were sailing for as high as 2.40 a pound.  Chick-fil-A would not be happy with this place!

For those that don't know anything about what im talking about then you would've fit in with me for the first hour of the sale hah but that basically means that that little calf would sell for $672. There were some 300 and 400 pound calf's that would sell for around $800-900! Haha that sale changed my whole view on how I look at cows now. I look out into a field and just count up the money it would take to have all of them haha. It was such a great time, I loved every moment of it!! Some of the cows in there pens. This place was huge! And there were thousands of cows and calf's.

On Wednesday and Thursday we did exchanges with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Gale down in Highland Home! It was so much fun those two days! We got a lot accomplished, we "Got more food then ive ever eaten before" says Elder Gale, and we had fun with the whole thing! On Wednesday we spent the day in our service clothes and went around just to offer service to anyone who needed it. Well it didn't turn out quiet the way I expected. Not a lot of people had things for us to do. None the less we were still able to see and talk with people. One being a man named Chris Holt, who has a girlfriend named Sara, who isn't a member. Well we were able to go over there, and see them. Well I wanted to get to know Sara a little more because I haven't been able to talk with her a ton. Well Elder Gale started talkin a lot with Chris, so that gave me an opportunity to talk with Sara one on one. So I was able to learn more about her! She is such a good girl and I really hope we can get her to realize how much this gospel can help her in her life. We were able to talk with both of them and leave a short thought.  

Now Chris owns a Subway down in Luverne and Sara is now workin for him. So I asked if we could see them Thursday down there. So we went Thursday for lunch and they gave us free subs! Haha and we were able to talk with both of them so that was so dang sweet! One other thing about our exchange was that Elder Gale used to be in the rodeo and he owns cows back home. He is a huge farmer and cowboy from Ely, Nevada. He did ropin and bronco riding in the rodeo. He had brought a rope out with him that was just a little kids rope. Well him and 2 other missionaries in Montgomery found a store that sold even smaller kids ropes. Well a few weeks ago I had given money to one of the Elders up there to get me one and he did. Then on this exchange Elder Gale brought his rope down. I had him teach me how to rope and then he said I could have his too! Haha so that's my new hobby now! I even was able to rope one of the McGoughs cats the other morning so im getting better!:) haha

Practicing my ropin skills. And this brings us to conference! O what a conference! It seemed like all the talks were a little different this year but they were all so dang amazing! Me and Elder Hodge went up to the church to watch it. The 2 Saturday sessions we were by ourselves and the priesthood session we had a huge total of 3 other men come besides us haha its totally different then back in Utah! But Sunday morning we had John and 2 of his girls come as well as Dyana and Olivia! So that was good to get someone else out to the church! And I keep hearing how all the women that watched the priesthood session felt special. Haha I think that's great! But now getting to the serious stuff haha so I don't know if its just me that picked up on this but I thought the two main themes were missionary work and families. Especially women. But I just wanted to share a couple things I love about the talks. First off I thought that Carole M. Stephens laid down the hammer when she talked about families and then at the end of her talk asked questions about the sons of God and daughters of God. "Sons, do you know who you are and what you have? Are you worthy to exercise and receive power and blessings of the priesthood? 

Do you show respect towards women and motherhood? Daughters, do you know who you are and what you have? Are you worthy to receive the power and blessings of the priesthood? Do you show respect toward men and fatherhood?" I thought that was awesome! I could go on about all the talks but yall watched and know. Let us remember our purpose here on earth. To have a family and to help and serve each other through missionary work! I feel like those two things were the highlights of conference. I enjoy it every year. Now that im on a mission and pretty much have to watch it I learn so much!

Other than that everything else is pretty much the same. We are just trying to do everything we can this next week since its the last week before transfers. I was able to give 2 more baptismal interviews for a couple of investigators in Greenville. They will be baptized this Saturday. I always love doin those because you can see how much people love the gospel. I hope that yall have a great week. Remember who yall are. Remember what you have. Remember where your trying to get and who you want with you when you get there! I love yall so much! And always remember to be Happy! Sometimes its hard but its always worth it!

Love Elder Hall:)