the gift of tongues

hey fam its good to hear from ya like always. it sounds like you had a fun 24th and a good summer break but it is coming to an end. the mission is incredible as always. we had a little hard week but not too bad. 

First off we had the baptism of vanessa. it was so so awesome. she is so cute and was so happy to be baptized. also along with her we had a baptism of a 8 year old who we found there family and reactivated them. so that was way cool. it was awesome to see 2 young kids get baptized and see their families come back to church. i dont know what is better, a baptism or getting a family that hasnt come to church for years, back to church. well we got to see both and it was one of the coolest things of my life. 

yesterday i had the opportunity to confirm vanessa secilia pereira valdivia a member of the church of jesus christ of later day saints. i was really nervous cause i had to do it in front of the whole church and i didnt really know what i was going to say and also i had to talk in a form called the "tu" form which is how you do blessings and prayers. and i am not very good at that type of spanish, so i was really scared. and so i prayed and prayed that i would be able to have the gift of tongues and say what i was suppost to say. but it was incredible cause right when i layed my hands on her head, my fear vanished and i totally forgot where i was. i seriously felt like a pillar from heaven opened up and Heavenly Father was putting the words in my mouth. the spanish flowed out of my mouth like i have never been able to do in my life. suddenly i said amen and opened my eyes and realized that i was in the church again. it was so cool and i cant remember what i said but the members said they understood every single word. it was one of the coolest things of my life. it was one of thoes days that makes every single hard day worth it. i love the mission!!!!

so the part that has made this week really hard is my new comp. it has been so awesome cause i have grown so much this week. i have been the senior comp this week. i have planned, led the sector and talked to all the people. it has been awesome i have grown so much in the last week. but it has been really hard because my new comp, elder viraldo, (he is a gringo) isnt the most obedient missionary... there are some things that he doesnt like to do and he isnt very strict to the mission schedule. so it has been hard cause i have to push him to do stuff and i have to work and work and make up for the slack that he leaves me. also his spanish isnt very good so that makes things a lot harder. he has a year and a half in the mission and is getting kinda trunky. but it is all good, i am just trying to be a good example and work my hardest so that we can see more success in this next change. 

but ya besides that nothing else is going on here. this morning we got to go bowling again and that was fun. i totally dominated all the other missionaries, but since i am so humble i am not going to brag... haha ok ill brag a little but thats ok no one is perfect :) haha also for shopping we went to this store that is call lider. it is kinda like a walmart but not nearly as good. but i was so happy cause i found some sweet things. i found these betty crocker double chocolate chip cookies, some of the pearl potatoes, and you would never guess, RANCH!!! well it is light ranch but thats close enough. i am sure i wont even be able to tell the difference. but i am way excited. this week should be awesome. 

mom, ya it is kinda cold here but winter is almost over so that is good. its not too cold so dont worry i am still doing well. also there is this member in this ward and her daughter is in brussels and she wants me to get the address of ryan to see if they are close so if you could send that would be awesome. 

here is a list of stuff i need but try not to spend too much sending it i wouldnt want you guys to starve just to send me a package. 

• razors for my gillette fusion (5 blades)
• american money
• pics of lyndsie
• pics of the rest of the fam (if you have them)
• a candy bar or two and maybe a watermellon sour patch :)
• anything else you think your fav son might need :)

ya well i better go but i hope you guys are doing well. i love ya tons. tell gma lam that i have gotten her emails but i hardly ever have time so i will try to write her when i can. also tell gma hall that i am sorry. i have been trying for the last 3 weeks to send her letter and i finally sent it today. so it should get there in like 2 weeks or something like that. but tell her thanx for all her letters. (it is really hard to send handwritten letters here) i love you all tons and have a great awesome week. the church is true. DONT YOU EVER FORGET IT!!!

love 

elder hall

Almost got stoned!

Hola fam from villa sur. All is well here. We are having a blast. So we had changes yesterday and my comp elder reece is getting changed. So I will be getting a new comp and I am kinda nervous but also really excited. I don’t know if I am ready to be responsible for the sector till my comp gets to know it but I hope I will be able to do it. We had a great week. We had a blast and really worked our butts off. We have decided to build this ward up so it is really strong. We have a chapel in our sector that isn’t even open. That is how bad it is. A chapel has no one going to it so they closed it down. So our goal is to get enough people coming back to open the chapel up again. I hate walking by it and seeing it closed. But not for long. We have found 12 families that we are going to work with and get them back to church. Also we are going to keep finding people and getting them to come back.

So yesterday we had church and my and my comp gave talks in sacrament meeting. I was pretty proud of myself cause I hate talks in the first place. But giving a talk in Spanish is like 10 times harder. But I got up there and gave it and the members said that they could understand me so that’s awesome. Also yesterday Vanessa passed her interview to be baptized so we will baptize her this Saturday. I am way excited, she is my first convert and she is way excited. Its so awesome, we reactivated her family and baptized her. How much better can it get?

I want to thank lyndsie for her example. I have used her story many times in my teachings. A couple days ago we were teaching this girl who is like 24 and she totally reminded me of lyndsie. I took out a pic of her and told her story and I couldn’t hold back the tears. I love the gospel and how much peace and comfort it brings to my life. So I would like to get those pics of lyndsie when she was in her “bad” stage and then the pic of her and jake and the girls in their temple cloths so I will be able to show people here and have them see the difference that the gospel brings. If you could send me those pics that would be great. Also if you could send some envelopes so I can send handwritten letters that would be awesome. Also one other thing, if you could send like 7 american dollars but one dollar bills. Also 7 dollars worth of dimes. This is so I can teach the law of tithing to the people here. They would really think it was cool to have American money. But you will need to be careful with the mail but you know that. One last thing, dad if you could look up some cool temple stories like the one about the presidents of the us being baptized for the dead and the guy seeing nephites at the logan temple or stories like that. And finding them in Spanish and sending them over email that would be awesome. And don’t feel rushed, take your time. Thanx guys

The past Tuesday we got the opportunity to go to the temple. It was so so so incredible. I love the temple more than anywhere on the earth. There is just a spirit there that isn’t anywhere else on the earth. And it was cool to see that the church really is the exact same in every part of the world, well except the part that it was all in Spanish but it was still incredible. To the kids and to mom and dad too, GO TO THE TEMPLE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE!!! ITS AWESOME AND YOU NEED THE BLESSINGS OF THE TEMPLE. ALWAYS LIVE WORTHY TO BE ABLE TO HAVE A TEMPLE RECOMMEND. LOVE YOU GUYS.

So it was cool, we were hungry and I had the idea…hey why don’t we make tin foil dinners. So one night we came home and we made a fire and tin foil dinners and made them. Oh my they were incredible. That made me kinda trunky but its all good. Also about the guy that we helped on the side of the road, we don’t know what happened to him but I hope that he will remember what we did and some day when he sees missionaries he will remember. Its incredible the difference we really make in peoples lives every day. The smallest little things can change peoples lives forever. So always remember to choose the right and act how Our heavenly father wants you to act Ok to answer your questions, no people don’t celebrate 24th of july down here. I don’t think they even know what it is so maybe ill have to teach it to the members…hahah ya but I hope you guys have a great 24th and you will have to party it up for me cause I will be down here in the bottom of the world working my butt off!!!

Lastly but not least we had a pretty scary run in with some drunks or they were high…we aren’t sure but ya. We were walking home one night and we took this really long and dark road that we usually don’t take. Well these guys pass us and go to this park that is on the other side of the street. They start yelling and screaming at us and we don’t pay them attention cause people are always doing that. Then, all the sudden this rock comes flying past my face and misses us by like inches (we are protected by angels, I have a testimony of that). So we stop and look and these guys are throwing rocks at us, and not pebbles, rocks. So my comp tells them to stop but that makes them more angry. One of them charges towards us and the other one stays back just kinda watching us, but he has his hand in his back pocket like he has something. The one guy gets right in our face and starts yelling at us and he has his hand in his pocket as well. My comp all the sudden pics up a piece of wood that is close by and almost hits this guy. Also he starts screaming in English at this guy. And so I get between them and try to calm them down. But by this time this guy is going crazy. So I am talking in Spanish trying to calm this guy down and keep my comp away from him. Finally my comp walks off and this guy tried to hit me but he missed, seriously by like inches… so we get away and my comp apologizes for going crazy and almost hitting this guy and all was well. But really I know that we had angels walking next to us always and that is an awesome thing to know.

But ya that was my week. It was awesome and I am excited for the next week. Thanx for everything family and I hope all is well at home. Tell g-ma hall sorry I haven’t written her in a while. I wrote a letter like 2 weeks ago to send her but I haven’t had time to get to a post office so I will send it asap. Well keep praying for me guys and I am always praying for you. Love ya tons. The church is true!!!!!!!!!

Love

Elder hall

Taxis, Cops and Ambulances

Good morning family from villa sur. So the mission is awesome as always. This has been a hard but incredible week. In 2 days I will have 6 months on the mission and it is so crazy. I got really down cause I have been on my mission for 1/4th of it and I don’t feel like I have made a big difference. Then I heard this talk and I realized that I am my first convert. I can truly say that I know without a doubt that the church is true and I have become 10 times stronger then I ever was. So from this point on I can start converting chile!!! 

It was fun, we had a ward baptism this past week. We went and it was so so sad cause only 18 people came and it was the bishops family, me and my comp, the primary president and her family and the little girls dad and grandma. I was so mad at the ward. The wards down here are so stupid. The people are just mean to each other then come to church and everyone is nice then the rest of the week they are mean again. I hate it. There are over 1000 people in this ward and only 80 assist. And even more, the mom of the little girl didn’t come. She isn’t a member but she could come and support her little girl on one of the most important days of her life. That made me way mad and sad. It also made me think of how much I have taken you guys for granted. I have taken for granted that you guys love me. Something so simple but so incredibly important. Thanx for always loving me and being there for me. 

So at the baptism that we had we watched finding faith in Christ. We also watched that movie 2 days before I left the mtc. I remember the teacher telling us to write down any words that we didn’t know…I didn’t know like any of the words in the mtc. But it was incredible. In 4 months I can understand almost every single word. It was so awesome to see how much I have progressed in my Spanish. I still have a lot to get better on but I feel really comfortable with it. 

Now a little funny thing that I saw. It was cool, we were waiting for a bus and I look over and see this guy. He has on this sweat shirt and I glanced at it and then did a double take. This random guy in the middle of Santiago chile had a BYU sweater on. It was so funny and random but it was cool. 

So about 5 days ago we were walking along the street and we passed this guy that was laying on his back on the sidewalk. We just thought that he was a drunk passed out or whatever so we kept on walking. This guy calls to us and asks us to help him. There is this woman who has her child and is just playing in the street so we ask her “is that guy drunk?” she tells us no I think something is wrong with him but she was just sitting there watching him. So we go over to see what is up and he says that he has had some kind of attack… we look over and his brother is sitting there watching him too. Just sitting there watching him not doing anything!!! So this guy had a heart attack or something and is on the sidewalk, cant get up, rolling around in pain and these people are just sitting there watching him. 

So we ask them, what is the number for the ambulance. No one knows…we ask like 5 different people. We are like running around trying to find this number and no one can tell us. So we finally get the number for the carabaneros or the cops and call them and tell them the situation. They start arguing with us and saying that they don’t want to come and how they have lots of stuff to do and blah blah blah. So this guy is groaning and rolling and in tons of pain. So the cops give us the number to the ambulance and we call them. They tell us that we are out of their zone of service or whatever and they wont come… we tell them that this guy is dying and they give us another number to call. So we call this number and it doesn’t work… by this time we are mad this guy is goin to die so we call the cops again and tell them to get here now. They say that they will be here in 20 mins or so. So we decide to call a taxi and take him ourselves. The taxi says he will be here in 5 mins. (it is really sad when you can count on the taxi more than the ambulance.) so the cops show up and so does the taxi and the cops call an ambulance and it shows up in like 10 minutes…I was so mad, it took like 45 minutes to get this guy in an ambulance. If I was bleeding or something I would have been dead. I sure hope nothing happens to me while I am here or I am a goner… haha but don’t worry I got angles with me. 

Ya so that was my story, but it has one more part to it. Once the cops leave the taxi driver comes over to us and says “so who is goin to pay me for coming here…” so we gave the guy like 8 bucks and he left. So that was our good Samaritan moment. 

Well last but not least I don’t know if I told you about her, but we are teaching a girl who is 9 years old who is named Vanessa. She is awesome and has come to church 2 times with her mom who is a less active member and sister who we are getting activated again. Vanessa has a baptisimal date for the 27th of this month and we are really excited, she is awesome!!! 

But ya that was my week, I hope you are all doing well. Keep up the good work. Mom and dad, jansen told me he is really excited for the bom live so make sure you get him there!!! Tell tori I love her and I just want everyone to be in the celestial kingdom so you better be good or I am goin to come and lay down the law. 

I love you all tons and have a great week. The mission is awesome and tomorrow we get to go to the temple with the president and his wife and do a session in Spanish. I am way excited. Love you and keep up the good work. 

Love

Elder hall

i am going to be in the celestial kingdom

Good morning family from villa sur chile!!! All is well here and i am living every day. This has been a crazy week. Me and my comp are getting along and having a blast. The mission is so much fun but so much work at the same time. One thing, if you guys could tell me stuff that is that is goin on in the world that would be awesome. anything special that i have missed out on? oh ya and another thing that i have heard a lot about. mom, you think i am being a disobidient missionary with my music video or whatever. just to clear that up, it is a song about joseph smith and his life. anyways sorry i just wanted to make that clear that i am a obidient missonary. i want you guys to know that i try my very hardest every single day to be obedient to the mission rules. 

to update you guys i got kissed 2 times this week. that is my 3rd for the mission...haha the old ladies here are funny... something funny that i heard is i was walking down the street and some guys started yelling stuff at us. we are use to that so i didnt pay him any attention. then my comp was like, "do you know what thoes guys just called you?" i said no and he said that they were calling me prince charles. haha i thought that was pretty funny. 

so i finally got my package. thanx so much fam it was awesome. jenna thanx for the pics, mom thanx for the sweaters...haha and expecially thanx for the mt dew!!! oh man i have missed my mountain dew so so so much haha. i forgot how good it is. dont be afraid to send me more if you get the impression :) but you forgot one thing, i want to have razors for my regular shaver. when you send the next package if you could send pics and extra razor blades that would be awesome. tori thanx for the prom pics but i have to ask how you got mom to let you go in a immodest dress. i am kinda disappointed in ya. we always have to obey every single law of god, even if they seem stupid. a quote that i found about this is awesome. "sometimes the things of god seem stupid to men. when noah built the ark all the people thought he was an idiot. but in the end who was right? when we follow the commandments of god, all of them, we will always be right!!!" i just want to tell all of you that we always need to follow every commandment we recieve no matter what. 

this week we got the opportunity to listen to a member of the 70, elder johnson. he was so incredible. he gave a sweet talk on being obedient to every law we have, and here it is. 

as a missionary who has more work. the missionary who wakes up on time, leaves to work on time, goes to bed on time, tries his hardest every day. or the missionary who sleeps in, leaves to work late, stays in members houses eating and talking and laughing, goes to bed late...the 1st missionary has more work but here is the punch line, who is more happy...? the one that doesnt do very much or the one that works his butt off. 

this made me think of my own life. when i worked construction it was one of the hardest times of my life. i had to wake up early, work all day, i didnt get to play very much in the summer. i thought that i wasnt happy. but when i got my teeth pulled and i sat home all day and watched tv and sleeped and didnt do anything i was not happy. why not? i wasnt working very hard, i should have been happy right??? WRONG!!!!!!!!! this is the biggest lie that satan uses. when i was working i was getting blessing. i got tan, got muscles (ya i got a little bit of muscles), i got tons of money, and now i know how to make a house, and i was happy cause i was working hard. when you are lazy your not happy. it may be easier in the moment but think of the blessings that you are missing out on now and in the future. 

sure right now we have to work hard but think of who is goin to be more happy in the day when we are in front of the lord. i dont want to be the lazy servent when that day comes. i am goin to be in the celestial kingdom, resting, for the rest of eternity. and why?? because i worked hard in this life. that is the key. DONT BE LAZY. ITS NOT WORTH IT. SATAN IS A LIAR AND HE WANTS YOU TO BE SAD FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY!!! DONT LISTEN TO HIM!! KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS. WORK. SERVE!!! I PROMISE IF YOU DO YOU WILL BE ABLE TO REST FOR THE REST OF ETERNITY IN HAPPINESS!!!! DONT QUESTION, JUST DO IT!!!

haha sorry fam, but i had to make that clear. you all are goin to be with me in the celestial kingdom k??? i want every single one of you to write me an email and promise me k??? :) love you guys haha

sorry ya. haha so this week we had divitions. i went to another sector with a elder from colobia named elder jimenez. he told me about his life, and he has had a hard life. 3 days before he left on his mission his parents disowned him. he didnt have anywhere to go, no money but he came anyway. he spent every penny he had to buy cloths for his mission. his girfriends dad paid for his mission. what an example he is for me. i know the church is true!!!

fam i love you all so much. tracy and shae and mekhii happy b-days!!!!! i hope its awesome. you guys are sweet. keep choosing the right and living good lifes. i love the work here. its hard but in the end its work it!!!! i have grown so so so much and its because of my mish. i love it and i love the people here. families can be together forever!!! JUST DO IT!!! have a great week guys. 

love ya tons

elder hall