Whatta Week its been!

Hey Yall! 

This week we have had a ton of cool, scary, awkward, and everywhere in between stories! 

This week has been so good! It started on Monday with a lesson that we taught. There was a random lady that called our church and told the clerk to go and check on this lady named Shaylon. Her whole life is basically falling apart. She was trying to find food for her family, keep her family underneath a roof cuz she cant pay the bill, while her car doesnt work and keep a job as well as trying to survive herself. We did all we can to help her physically, but just as 2 Nephi 9:39 says, "...Remember, to be carnally minded is death, and to be spiritually minded is life eternal." So we taught them the Restoration and worked on their spiritual mind of things. You could feel the spirit so strongly and we were able to set a baptism date with the entire family of 5, the mom, and 4 kids. We went back on Thursday and she wasnt there, her cousin from Tupelo was there though. He is staying in Madison for a couple weeks. Well we asked if we could teach him and he let us right in! So we taught him the Restoration and set a baptism date with him as well! Its so cool to see how the humble ones accept our message because they know that itll help them. 

We were able to go on a blitz with the Madison 2 Elders. I went with Elder Barben and it was a good day. We tracted and talked to people if they were outside. We got maybe 1 return apt but we still worked hard and did our job. The Lord maybe didnt need or want us to have instant success but those missionaries will be blessed for what we did and our efforts to find. Then we had zone conference. I will tell you about that at the end of this email. But we had a really cool experience afterwards. We took the Cullman Elders back to Cullman then came back to Madison. Well we had about 20 minutes before we had a dinner apt with a member. So we decided to tract right by the members house for a little bit. As we went to the first door, there was a pretty big black man that said he didnt want to pray with us tonight. So we left and knocked the next door, that lady had the same response, but we kept going with a positive attitude determined to find one person before dinner. Well as we walked back to the sidewalk, the man at the first door yelled and told us to come back. So we started walking back and he invited us in. He told us how he had told his wife that there were two boys at the door that wanted to pray and how his wife responded, "You never turn down a good prayer!" She then told him to hunt us down and to come back. We prayed for a few family members and friends that were in need. Then told them that we share a message of hope as things in life seem dark and gloomy. They told us they wanted us to come back. We will be going back this week to teach them. 

Then the next day we tried to follow up with a family we have been teaching and hadnt seen in a week and a half. Well they still werent home. So we asked a neighbor if they still lived there. She said yes and told us she would have them call us. Well later that night the husband, Roosevelt, called and said that he had been having a hard week, and didnt have any money for gas and his wife would be stuck at work 30 miles away from her house at 1 in the morning. So we met him at a near by gas station and filled up his car with gas. He was so grateful, we also talked with Pres Noland to see if we could help him get a job so that he can help his wife out. We are still in the process of helping him do that. Well we asked him if we could come over saturday and he said yes. So saturday rolled around and we went down to their house. This is where the TOAST experience came into play. We got there and talked with the wife and kids and she sent her kids up to the neighbors house where he was. He still never came down so she ended up going up herself to get him. I guess he had been pretty mad at her and when he came back down wasnt happy at all. They sat in front of us and yelled at each other for about 10 minutes before I jumped in and told Roosevelt to go back to his friends house. We talked with Carine, the wife, to help settle her down. They are going through a hard time right now in their relationship and financially. We told her we could come back another day when things are better and talk to both of them and set goals of how they can improve and help each other instead of tearing each other down. It was a very toasty situation for a while though...

The last thing I want to share is 2 really cool emmaus experiences I had this week. One was in Zone Conference. President Hanks had did something very crazy but it put things into perspective. He told us that one of the 12 apostles denied the truth and went public with it, that another one of the general authorities committed adultery and murder, that there was massive resignations at the church office building, and that there were many people leaving the church over gay rights and women holding the priesthood. Now the last two are true. The first two arent true today, but technically the first one is the apostle Peter who denied Christ 3 times, and the 2nd was king David and Bathsheba. This exercise helped me realize where I stand with my relationship with Christ and if my testimony is strong or not. I want to tell you that I felt the spirit really strongly as I contimplated one of the Lords Apostles denying the truth. I felt the need to rise up! I felt that I need to be better and do more to show people that I am a true disciple of Christ. I want to tell you right now that I made the decision in that meeting that I am all in to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I will not falter, leave, or get close to falling out. My tesimony is in Christ the Lord and the Atoning powers that made it possible for us to be here and have the truths we have and not in a man, though I love and respect the men that the Lord has called. I will never doubt that. In my patriarchal blessing it says that when I return from my mission I will have a testimony that will be mine forever. I feel like every day I have worked so hard to do that. And it was so cool to notice for a little moment how strong my testimony is. It hasnt always been like this and its something I struggled with, being put on the spot and in that situation I now know what team im fighting for. I will stand by the Lord to the very end and never ever leave. I want to challenge yall to think of if one of the quorum of the 12 left the church, what would you do? Who do you have a testimony in? If your not far enough into the church youll fall out. Be so far in that you dont even think of falling out. I know that yall will be right by my side fighting for the right and truth! Let us stand together for Christ! 

The other emmaus experience I had with studying is in 2 nephi chapter 9, which is now one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. its in verse it talks about those who are righteous and faithful and Endure the Crosses of the world and despised the shame of it, they will inherit the kingdom of God. I looked at the footnote and it took me to Luke 14:27, But the whole thing is in verses 25-33. Vs 27 says, "And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be called my disciple." He also talks about those that do not forsake all cannot be called a disciple. I have thought alot about that recently. Especially bearing the crosses of the world, and bearing our own crosses. In missionary work we have to bear a lot of different crosses, but the Lord wants that. He needs us to do these things, and despise it not, so that we can be humbled and rely on him! If we dont bear our crosses and just give in then he cannot help us. If we dont have any crosses he will never be able to help us. He asks little, then helps us through all of it! The Lord wants to help us but we need to be willing to allow him to do so. 

This week has been great! I cannot wait for another great week. Each day it seems now that as I go out and work its a good day. Even those days that are hot and humid, when no one answers, and you feel like your gonna die, you get to experience a little of what Chirst went through. I love doing missionary work. Time has been flying way to quickly for my liking and I feel urgent to do all i can. I love you and hope you have a great week! 

Remember to be steadfast in Christ! Remember to be happy! 

Love Elder Hall:)

Meetings, Blitz, Cleaning!

Hey Yall! 

Boy has this been a week. Ill tell ya what, life has been so busy and its great! If you want to have fun, feel accomplished, be completely exhausted, happy, and love life then stay busy! Haha Ill just jump strait into the action and hopefully yall can hear about the funny, spiritual and crazy times Ive had this week.

It all started Monday night, we had just gotten done playing basketball at the stake center, we rushed home and changed then went to a members for a dinner apt. The lived at the end of the road. So my comp decided to park on the street outside their house. It was right by 3 stop signs and inside my head I was thinking that this wasnt the best place to park but I never said anything, my comp thinks he is the best driver ever, and no doubt he is good so I just let him do his thing. Well as we go in and sit down we start eating and we hear a knock on the door. It was the neighbor and come to find out we had parked right behind his driveway. Well he was backing up his truck and ignored the sensors beeping at him saying, "O its just the curb." And backed into our car..... Haha so this week we have been trying to take care of that. It does nothing to us and our drivers side doors are bent in, but we just need to get it taken care of haha. 

On Tuesday we did a lot of service. Then Wednesday came around. We went to district meeting in Cullman and that was good as usual. Then right after we went over with the Cullman elders to their home. I wish I wouldve been smart enough to take before and after pictures because this place was one of, if not the worst apt ive seen in the mission. The lawn was pretty much a forest over grown. The inside had rat poop all over the place and trash everywhere! So Elder Johnson, my comp, took Elder Arrington outside and they mowed down the safari, while Elder Riding and I were inside and de junked the entire house, every nook and cranny! It took about 4 hours to finish it all but afterwards it looked fantastic. Then we told them, "Now you better keep it up, and now yall know how to do it so you dont have any excuses!" It felt good to get that done. We blitzed their area which means we both stay but go on exchanged and all 4 work in their area. Elder Arrington and I went to a coordination meeting and taught a spanish recent convert about the bible. It was fun as neither me or him or the sisters knew spanish! haha. This is all the trash we cleaned out from the house. And Elder Arrington:)

Thursday we went to Mission Leadership Council. That is an 8-9 hour meeting. But its always so good! We talked about preparing for baptisms and making sure they go through, but proably the highlight of it was about prayer. Elder Johnson and I are giving a training in Zone Conference this week about the prayer section so next week I will write about it all:) Then on Friday we had another district meeting in Athens. We stayed their after the meeting and Blitzed the area with them. Elder Hixon and I tracted and store contacted the entire day which was great! Then Saturday we were able to work in our area. We tried to go see Adrian, and investigator, at his home. We had never been there. Well we knocked and his parents answered, they said he wasnt home. So we asked if we could teach them about Christ church being restored on the earth. They said yes so we taught them the restoration. We are going back to teach them again this week. I know that even if we have a feeling to go somewhere and what we think is going to happen doesnt, God has something else in mind, we just need to continue to act and figure out what that is. 

My last thought I want to share. As Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders we wanted to get our zone to focus on specifically Finding. I had the idea of making a new key indicator so that the missionaries would report that to us. Sister Millard taught us about TOAST. Thrive On Awkward Situations. You may ask what about the last T, what does that stand for... Well i dont know its just Awkward. So we decided to make a TOAST key indicator. We all know that going up to random people and asking if we can teach them about Jesus, is awkward. So we need to Eat the Toast, and go for it! I have loved focusing on this. Our mission president heard about it and its now spreading throughout the mission. So the one TOAST experience I have for this week is this. Elder Johnson and I went to Lowes to find and contact. Well I needed to go to the bathroom. So we ended up going to the back of the store. There was a young couple and the mother took her older boy into the womens bathroom and the father took the baby into the mens bathroom. Well i walked in behind him and what do ya know its just me and him in there. So as I was peeing all I could think about was wow, this is a perfect awkward situation for TOAST. So i got done and as I washed my hands I said, "Well its never fun to change stinky diapers!" haha he was kinda thrown off that anyone would talk to him in the bathroom. But we talked about how parenting is hard but worth it and we talked about eternal families! I invited him to have us come over and teach him about it but he said no. I thought it was still great and fun and I fulfilled my purpose by opening my mouth. So i invite yall this week to eat the TOAST and have an awkward moment:) 

I love yall so much and hope you have a great week! Remember to be happy and laugh!!

Love Elder Hall 

Rainy, Dirt, #feellikechamp

Hey Yall!

This week again has been crazy busy! We had transfers and boy was it good! We got to drive some missionaries down and see everyone. The picture is of me and 3 missionaries that i have grown to love 2 of them were my companions and the other one I got to serve with and be a district leader over. The 2 on the right went home this transfer and I will miss them. 

But this week we have been helping missionaries all week. Since we are the only Elders in our zone with a car we got to play scoffer. Haha We also got to go to 2 district meeting in one day. We are going to focus this transfer in our zone on finding! There are 3 brand spanking new missionaries in our zone and we need to get them to realize how important it is to find! Once you find you can then teach and teaching leads to baptism, but it all starts with finding. We are going to be blitzing the other missionaries areas, which means all 4 of us will be in there area to help them find investigators. Other than that its been a normal week. We bought cake and ice cream for a family of investigators in our area and had a birthday party with them:) Also on Saturday I was able to be on exchanges with a new missionary in Decatur. Our comps went to a baptism in another part of Alabama, but Elder Hamblin and I biked all day in the rain! We found a couple new investigators and taught 2 lessons. In the end we were soaking wet and the bike of my shirt looked like Isaiah, black!! hahah its probably the worst its been on my mission which means im working harder and harder. I did feel like a champ that day!:) hha well again sorry this is short, hopefully i will have more time in the coming weeks. 

I love yall so much though! 

Remember even in the hard times to be happy:) 

Love Elder Hall!

Having fun while Loving!

Hey Yall!

This week has been great! Another super busy fast week! I cant believe im actually here emailing again haha but its been good none the less. There were 2 big events that transpired this week. One was in the missionary world, transfer calls. Elder Johnson and I are both staying! Im excited, our zone is changing a lot but thats what happens while your on a mission. On Wednesday all the sister missionaries that came out with me will all be going home, thatll be kinda weird! Plus that marks our first round of age change sisters that will be going home, all the first sisters that came into the mission before 21. Then each transfer is going to be huge with sisters going home. This transfer there are 30 sisters going home haha nuts. The 2nd big news is that this past weekend in Alabama they had tax free weekend.... Now you might have to be picking your jaw off the ground haha but thats right, everything you buy from Friday to Sunday they dont charge any tax. Its a cool thing that they should start in Utah, people were shopping like crazy! haha

Here are some other things we did this week.

• Tract, and store contact like always. I even went on an exchange and all we did was tract. Its good for missionaries. Make us into real men and women! haha 
• Did more service helping restore a house 
• Had 2 District meetings which like always was great! 
• We have been working with a few people that i will tell ya stories once they progress alittle more. Right now its that in between where we dont know if they will go anywhere. 
• Galen is doing well. He continues to amaze me every day at how well he is changing and all he is doing to continue so he doesnt fall back into his patterns! Enduring to the End is so key to everything! 

This week we will go to transfers and get many new missionaries! Everything is great! All we need to do is remember 2 things and everything else will fall into place. 1. Love God 2. Love our Fellowmen. These are the 2 great commandments as we make decisions each day ask yourself am I doing this to love God? Am I doing this to love others? When we love others we are loving God! haha 

I hope yall have a great week! 

Keep being steadfast in Christ! Remember to be happy!

Love Elder Hall