the killing of the rincon spiders

hey family i am glad you all got a good laugh out of my experiences. thats what i am here for, to be mocked...haha but ya this has been another awesome week. just to keep you guys updated i checked my weight again and guess what?!? i am up another 5 pounds... haha wow i really dont know how i can fit into my pants. i think i need to go on a diet or i am going to have to buy all new cloths. mom just to let ya know i got the wedding invite but i still havent gotten the package that you said you send like 5 or 6 weeks ago... haha hopefully whoever got it is enjoying my stuff haha. 

ya well just to let ya know i got changes. i was not expecting it at all. i have only been here for 6 weeks but the lord knows what he is doing. it is crazy how close you can get to people in only 6 weeks. i have many ward members here that i really love. oh man, i hate changes. but wish me luck and dont forget to pray for me. i am leaving behing my little friend constanza who will be baptized in 2 or 3 weeks. 

so we had another adventure this week. i dont know why all the sudden all this weird stuff is happening but hey what can ya do? we were in the house and my comp went into this back room that we never use. there are 2 old love seats back there which had blankets on them. my comp decided he wanted to take off the blankets to send them into the office. 

i was reading the Book of Mormon and all the sudden i hear this scream like a little girl... so i go running into the back expecting to see a dead body or something. haha my comp is standing on a seat screaming and pointing at something in the corner...it turns out to be a rincon spider. this is the only deadly thing in chile besided the water and traffic... if you get bit by one of this things you will die in 24 hours. and these things are fast so i was a little afraid. finally we kill the spider but we know that there are probably 20 other rincons in the seats. so we just went insane and started throwing stuff around and killing these spiders. i am not going to lie, it was scary but fun haha. at the end we found 7 rincon spiders and killed them. it was a sweet adventure in the land of chile haha

but ya this week i saw a miracle. about 3 weeks ago we taught this family that lives in our sector and they had a friend there visiting. the family wasnt very interested but their friend was really interested. so we got her information and sent it to the missionaries in a different sector. i didnt really think about it any more cause we never see what happens to the references that we send and this family ended up not wanting to listen to us anymore. so i was feeling bad like it was a waste of time. 

then this sunday we had a meeting in the church. we left the meeting and this member of another ward called us over. i was pretty confused and to my suprize i see this woman who we had taught a couple weeks back...she wanted to come to church but she didnt know what time it was at. she was explaining to this member that she was looking for a missionary who was tall, white, (fat) and a red head. that is when we left the meeting that we had and see saw me...she explained that the missionaries had passed by 2 times during the week but didnt tell her where the chapel was. she wanted to come to church and she somehow found my chapel. we gave her the direction to the other chapel that corresponded to where she lived. and right now she is preparing to get baptized... it is so cool to see that even when you dont know that you helped someone you can. you have a bigger impact on the lives of people that you know. it was awesome to be able to see that i was able to help someone even though she isnt in our sector. 

ya well that was my week. i hope you guys have a awesome thansgiving. i will be down here at the bottom of the world working my butt off... haha shae i hope all goes well with your baby. also it stunk to hear about byu and how they got destroyed but its all good cause i am down here and it doesnt matter. haha i love you all tons. i hope you have a awesome week. thanx for everything fam. 

love

elder hall

the adventure of elder hall

hello family. wow it sounds like you had a crazy week. i hope all is well with all of you now. first, sorry for writting late last week. we had to change the p-day because we went to the zoo on tuesday. so that was pretty sweet. not as good as the zoo in utah or california but it was fun to get away and do something different. also i have noticed on letters and packages that you guys have sent you put "Santiago 2a" it is "Santiago 29". so if you could fix that, that would be good. mom, you said that you sent a package like 5 weeks ago and i havent gotten it yet but maybe its cause the mail office is still trying to figure it out, or it ended up in china...haha i dont know but ya. 

so mom ya if you could send a tie for my comp and some candy and whatever else you can think of. i am sure his parents will send him something cause they live here in santiago but he might be changed this next week. we will see but ya thanx for everything mom your awesome. also i have a question. some members have said that there is a rumor that they are going to get rid of the dollar and change it to some other type of money...if you have any info on the subject it would be awesome to know. i havent gotten the wedding invite for amy´s wedding but tell her congrats from me. 

so this week has been crazy here. well, saturday was crazy, the rest of the week was the normal but dang do i have a story for you guys. 

so saturday we only got into one house the whole day, and it was for lunch. after lunch we left with a member to go to a visit but our investigator was packing up and leaving. so we lost this awesome family but hopefully the missionaries will be able to help him where he is moving. but anyways we decided since we had a member we were going to knock a couple doors and try to get into a house to teach. haha, i am not going to lie to you guys. never in my mission have i had this type of rejections...we knocked 5 houses and every house was worse than the first. people slammed the doors so fast i didnt have time to open my mouth. and when they didnt slam the door, they yelled at us. i felt so bad for the member but at least they know how the mission is now haha.

so after this hard day all i wanted to do was go home and just pass out and go to sleep. so we get to our door and my comp starts looking through his pockets and what does he find? nothing, he left the keys inside the house...haha so after 10 minutes of trying to break into the house through the front we realized that we couldnt. so i decided i was going to climb on the roof (cause there isnt space in between the houses to go to the back yard), go to the back and break a small window in the back to get into the house. simple enough right? wrong, i realized how bad the chilean roofs are when i finally got on top of it. they dont know how to make a roof and i almost died like 3 times. i ended up running the length of the roof so that i wouldnt die. then i jumped down off the roof. at this point it hit me how stupid this idea was... the neighboors who live behind our house were in the back part of their house. if i broke the window they would come out and see some guy trying to break into a house and call the cops...at this point i tried for like 15 minutes to get back up on the roof but i couldnt...haha finally i somehow got up, ran back across the roof and my comp said i was safe to come down...

that isnt the end of the story though...i was almost off the roof when my comp says, "stop, stop, las hermanas..." i look across the street and see the sister missionaries crossing the street. so i scramble back up, hid but my comp is in front of the house alone. he hids behind this tiny tree and somehow the hermanas didnt see him. i jump down and the next day we have to go to the office which takes like 2 hours. but finally sunday at 6 we got back into our house. haha but it was crazy.

but ya that was my week hope you guys enjoyed the adventure of elder hall. but i love ya all tons. i hope you have a awesome week. and i dont know when is thanksgiving but have a awesome thanxgiving. thanx for everything fam. 

love ya

elder hall

PS.  Ok mom this is for the ward newsletter. if you could go through it and spell check it for me that would be awesome. thanx mom love ya!!! 

As i reflect on the last 10 months of my mission and what i have learned one this in particular sticks out. Its what i call my Personal Gethsemane. 

We all know that the savior suffered more than we know during the last week of His life. He was mocked, scorned and spit upon. He suffered unimaginable pain in the Garden. He was scourged and beaten. And finally He was crucified on the Cross. 

I am not comparing myself to the Lord, because i cant even start to imagine what He went through. But i have been in my own personal Gethsemane for a moment or two on my mission. 

While on my mission i have been spit at, sworn at, yelled at, screamed at. I have been mocked, rejected and had countless doors slammed in my face. My Church has been attacked, my beliefs thrashed. I have walked around all day in the rain, the mud, the heat. I have felt so sad and depressed that i wanted to lay down and die... 

But at the same time i have never been so happy in my life. There are days that make every hard day worth it. When you see a family come back to church after 20 years. To see people who have smoked since they were 15 stop and never look back. Every pain is nothing as you watch people totally change their lives and follow the Savior. Those days make every sorrow, pain and affliction worth it. 

The Savior says in Luke "...let him take up his cross Daily and follow me." Christ gave everything and He expects all in return. I know that by doing what He asks we will be blessed. He lives, there is no doubt in my mind about that.

"If we are not willing to walk a step or two in our own Personal Gethsemane, we are not worthy to be members of His Church. I love you all so much. This church is true. Let us follow His example and overcome our Personal Gethsemane in His name, Jesus Christ, Amen. 

Elder Hall

we learn the same way as babies

hey family. it has been another hard but awesome week. we have been able to find a lot of people this week and we are teaching a couple families. when you work the lord really does bless you. he just wants to make sure that you are working are hard as you can. 

so this week was hard because my little friend alison lost her baptismal date. we went to teach her and she came out with her mom. we saw the dad standing in the doorway looking at us and i knew something was wrong. i looked down and alison had 3 book of mormons in her hand. she said that her dad said if she didnt give the books back to us he was going to burn them. it was so sad to see her face. she was so so excited to get baptized and her dad took that oportunity away from her. i know that she will be fine and in a few years hopefully she will have the oportuinity again to listen to the missioneros. 

but my other little friend constanca came to church with her mom and dad. it was so cool to see this family come back to the church. the dad talked to the bishop and he is going to get prepared to be able to baptize his little girl. it is such an awesome feeling to see a family that hasnt been to church together for years come back. they are so excited to change thier lives and come back. it is days like that, that make every long, hot day of walking around worth it!!!!

ok well i have officially gotten my first blisters of the mission. but the weird thing is that i didnt get them from walking... i got out of the shower with my flip flops on and i decided to leave them on even though they were wet. so now i have two great big blisters in between my big toe and my other toe... haha it stinks but asi es la mision. also i havent heard anything about amy and if she is still getting married, if there is a date or anything so if you could update me that would be awesome!!!

ok so mom here is my christmas wish list. 

1. electric shave (the green thing that you put on to shave)
2. some byu stuff (surprise me!!)
3. photos of you guys (its incredible how fast you change)
4. chocolate chips (this is one thing they dont have down here, and a recipe so i can make some chocolate chip cookies!!!)
5. 3 things of the auzzi hair gel (the hair gel here stinks)
6. some treats like snickers, twix, recess pieces...

ya well i learned a awesome lesson this week. its the ways that we learn in this life. there are 2 ways and both ways can be described by examples of babies. 

first, is we have to learn by doing. a baby will never ever learn how to walk if it doesnt try. it cant sit there and listen to its parents and watch other babies then walk. it has to get up and fall and get up and fall again. 

second, we can learn from the examples of others. our parents can tell us that the iron is hot and that we shouldnt touch it. the baby can listen to his parents or it can touch it and see if it is really hot. 

we learn the same way as these babies. God knew this also and because of this he sent us to earth so that we dont have to crawl for the rest of eternity. we can walk and run. many times we have to try to see what is going to happen. but the times when we can learn from others examples is just as important. we have parents, leaders, friends, prophets, bishops, companions and we should trust in them. not always but we can learn a lot from others. lets make sure we dont settle with crawling in this life and make sure not to get burnt. 

i love you all tons. hope you have a awesome week. mom and dad i am jealous but have a awesome time in hawaii. kids i love you all. fam, you guys are awesome. keep up the good work. love ya. 

elder hall

Go Cougars

elder hall jr.

hey family. how are you doing? man it feels like it has been an eternity since i have talked to you guys. this has been a good week but hard. the weather continues to rise and we continue to walk. haha in my other 2 sectors it has taken me 3 months to get to know the whole sector and the people. this sector has taken 3 weeks. i am sure i havent walked this much since my first month in chile. 

i think the people here are sick of us. we have contacted the same people over and over. it is sad when we walk down the street and people start running, bolting into houses, jumping infront of cars...haha no its not that bad but close. we have knocked tons and tons of doors and done more contacts than i can count. but hey, at least i am getting a sun tan :) you guys arent going to recongize me when i get back. i am going to be a black round ball with red hair.   

i dont know if this will work but my mission leader sent me this photo of mariela and her baptizm. she is so awesome!!!

i was really disappointed with halloween here. there was no one in the streets, no one. we thought, "ok we are going to be able to find tons of families and people to contact" but no, nothing. there were a few kids here or there but nothing like the states. and ya mom, they dont celebrate thanksgiving here but i wouldnt be suprized if they started in the near future. 

this week i was able to go on divitions with my distric leader, elder hurtado, who is going to leave the mission in 3 weeks...crazy. but ya we were able to go and teach with the sister missionaries in our district. one is named hermana smith from orem, ut... who would have thought. but ya it was so awesome so be able to teach with them. hermana smith has 4 weeks here in chile and speaks incredible spanish. but even more impressive than that was how they taught. i dont know why but they just have a different spirit. they taught and it was just powerful. we taught the law of chastity and it was incredible to see the power of 2 young women, who have lived in such a way that they are pure and clean. you dont see that very much here in chile, or anywhere in the world. how incredible is the gospel and what it teaches us.

but ya, alison, our little investigator is still preparing to be baptized. she is so cute and loves coming to church. we have helper her mom start coming back to church and is suporting her. i love watching people come back to the church, it is so incredible to see the change in their lives. also i dont know if i have told you about constanca but she is another little girl who loves going to church. we have helped activate her parents as well and tomorrow we are going to put a baptismal date with her. 

one other thing really quick is my little amigo named martin. his mom was baptized 2 months ago and he is 7 years old. he is the coolest little kid. he is always asking us when he can come and help us do mission work. we gave him a little mission bag and he loves it. the other night we had a family home evening and he gave the lesson on faith. his little spirit was so powerful. it was awesome to see how strong he is already only being 7 years old. he always says that he is a gringo and he has put his nick name as "elder hall jr." haha he reminds me so much of myself when i was his age. he is awesome. 

but ya i love you all so much. tell gma hall thanx for the letter and the money for halloween. i got it the day before so it was awesome. you guys the church is so so so true. it blesses so many lives and really can change the world. there is nothing else in the world that can compare to this work. i love it, even thought at times i want to die on the spot, i love it. i have grown more than i thought was possible. i thought i was really strong before the mission but now i am 10 times stronger than i was. jansen and landon, get ready because your going to serve a mission. get ready now, dont wait. read, pray, read more and pray pray pray. i love you guys. 

Lyndsie, i love you so much big sis. i am sorry for what is going on in your life right now but you are so so strong. you have been a awesome example of what the gospel can do. i love you. just keep going always. god loves you and so does your family. i am praying and thinking about you. and dont worry, you are beautiful. you are smart, and funny. your awesome. you are so strong and i know that you will be fine. i love you

well this is a long letter but ya i hope you guys have a awesome week. keep on praying for me and for the work. hasta la vista, chao

elder hall