I was able to baptize maricela and that was a sweet experience

Hey family it is good to hear from you all. It sounds like everything is going well. I am glad that you all got my pics and that you liked them. Mom don’t worry too much about the pulgas. Ya they are annoying and hurt like heck but after a while you get over it. But I think they are dying down cause it is getting colder. I haven’t gotten so many bites this week so that is good. Also my toe is still bugging me but its not too bad. I think I am going to go into the doctors soon and have him cut it out cause I cant do anything more. 

So yesterday we found out that my comp has changes. He will be leaving and have another adventure in a different part of the mission. As for me, this morning I got a call from the mission president. Looks like I am training… I am pretty nervous but really excited. I will be training a latin comp. There are 21 new latins coming in tomorrow. So I will have to let you guys know next week who is it and how everything is going. Just keep me in your prayers cause I am going to need all the help I can. 

This week our awesome investigator maricela was baptized. Man she is so awesome. She is going to be a really good member. I was able to baptize her and that was a sweet experience. That is the first time I have done the ordinance on the mission. The day was a pretty stressful day but all turned out fine. I ended up burning a hole in my white tie but its all good… She is such a missionary already. She has handed out 2 book of mormons and now we are teaching her mom. She invited a cousin to come to church and just is doing so much. She is awesome!!!

Also a little 10 year old kid named matias passed his baptismal interview yesterday and will be baptized this Sunday in between sessions. By the way I am so excited for general conference. I have learned to love it so much on the mission. It is just a spiritual boost and an incredible experience. We are privileged to hear from God, through His servants. It is so awesome, something that no other church has. Make sure that you guys watch all the sessions and just soak up every word that is spoken. They are speaking directly to us and if you will apply what you are going to learn, you will be so much better off. 

The other day I realized something that has happened on the mission. It was when I finished a really sick lunch in about 5 minutes. I realized how much I really have power over my body. The power is mental and also spiritual. When Christ was going to start His earthly ministry, what he did was went into the desert and fasted for 40 days. Why did he do that? So that he could have complete power over the natural man. That is what I have been able to do on the mission. I have been able to overcome the natural man. I just decide to do it and I do it. I decide I am going to be obedient and it happens. I decided I am going to find more people to teach and it happens. I decide that I am not going to let sickness get in the way, and it happens. It has been a lot of work and still is hard but I have seen that we are stronger than we think. The flesh is weak, but the spirit is strong. I want to challenge you guys to try to over come the natural man. Do all you can. Force yourselves to do what the Lord wants you to do and not what the world wants. 

I love you all tons. Thanx for everything that you are doing for me. Tell gma hall that she is in my prayers. Also dad you are in my prayers. Keep doing what you guys are doing and never do anything that you are going to regret. 

I love you guys, chao!!!

Elder hall

my pulga bite count is up to more than 200…

Hey fam how is everything going? Man this has been a crazy but awesome week. The mission is flying by so fast I cant even explain it. It feels like I wrote you guys a couple hours ago when really its been a week. I love the mission so much and I don’t know how to slow it down so I am just trying to work harder and harder so I can make everything out of every minute I have left. I am not going to lie, I have been a little trunky this past week. One of my zone leaders, elder wilde, who also lives with us is going home in a week. He is always talking about home and what he is going to do and also his parents are coming down to pick him up. So that has made me a little trunky but its all good. 

Before I start I just want to tell jenna happy bday for the 24th!!! I hope you have a good one. Also I sent you a card a little while back and hope that you got it. Also mom, I got the package that you guys sent me and it was awesome thanx. It had exactly what I needed and a little more. Also this week was a big week. I hit my year mark in chile. It is so so so weird. It doesn’t seem like I have been here for a year. Everything just feels like a long dream. Also to let you guys know, my pulga bite count is up to more than 200… These stupid creatures have found their home and they are having party after party but it cant get me down. When I come back and I look like a leper just know its not my fault. My comp wants to burn my bed but I told him that I wouldn’t have a place to sleep and he told me he was willing to take that risk. Then I told him that I was going to switch him beds and he decided to take back his words… haha 

But ya this week we have kept up with the tradition of knocking doors for a full day. It was such a good day and we found tons of people to teach. We found this awesome young couple that got married about a year ago. They were really awesome and invited us in without us saying anything. If any of you guys know anything about knocking doors, that is a miracle. Usually we have to pay them to let us come through the door. Haha but it was awesome. They said that they believe in Christ but not in the churches. We taught a little about lesson 1 and said a prayer to end. Then they asked us when we were going to come back… which is another huge thing cause usually we have to fight to get a return appt. They are really awesome and we are going back to teach them tonight so I hope everything goes well. 

We had another huge miracle this week. On Sunday we had 6 investigators in the church. This one lady walked in and we didn’t know her. So we went to talk to her and it turns out that she has been receiving the missionaries in another sector but could never go to church cause she lived far away from a chapel and she had to work Sundays. But she moved in with her mom and now she wants to come to church. So we went by yesterday to teach her and she said that she wants to be baptized… Man we have seen so many miracles these past 4 weeks its crazy. The Lord really blesses us when we work with all our hearts, might, minds and strength. We personally didn’t do anything but I think the Lord saw that we are working hard to he decided to trust His sons and daughters in our hands. A quote our mission president has is “the Lord gives golden investigators to golden missionaries” and it is really true. He is not going to give His children to missionaries that aren’t going to be able to help them. I am so grateful that I have His confidence. 

On Saturday maricela passed her baptismal interview and she will be baptized this Friday. Oh man she is so awesome. She has a way strong testimony and loves the gospel and especially the Lord, Jesus Christ. She chose me as the one that gets to baptize her. This will me my first time in the mission when I get to do the ordinance and I am really excited. She is going to make a awesome member in the Church of Jesus Christ. 

Ya well that was my awesome week. I am loving everything down here and just having a blast. Thanx for always writing me you guys, I hope you all have a awesome week. You are all in my prayers, keep my investigators in yours. 

Love ya tons

Elder Hall

Lehi's dream of the tree of life

Hello family. How are you all doing? Everything here is going really well. We had a awesome week. Dad asked about my comp and how we are getting along. He is a awesome kid. He has only been in chile for 4 months but he speaks really well. We get along well and are just having a blast. He loves Mexican food and metal. So today for pday we are having a huge Mexican party. We bought veggies and tortillas and chicken and mean and shrimp and we are going to eat like true Mexicans. To answer moms question, yes I got the letter from the Andersons. It was so nice you will have to tell them thanx a ton from me and my comp and the zone leaders. They gave me 40 bucks and that went into the Mexican fund. They said it was for subway but I don’t know if I will ever go back to subway on my mission so I spent it on the second best thing!!

This week we put on this really cool activity that was the dream of Lehi. We has investigators and recent converts go through the chapel with blind folds on following a rope. And every now and then they would enter a room that was nice and warm and bright and we talked about faith and the holy ghost and a bunch of stuff like that. Then they left again into the dark and dreary world (hallway that was dark and cold) and had to follow the rope. Also in the hallway we had loud music going and we would scream and try to get the people to let go of the rope. And at the end they entered this big room that had the motab playing and was warm and had a huge tree up. They took off the blind folds and every missionary in our district bore his testimony and it was way powerful. Then for the fruit we had brownies that everyone ate. It was a really awesome activity and we had a lot of fun as did the investigators. 

Also we had a conference with the mission president this week and it was awesome. I learned something that I never thought about before. I love scripture ether 12:27. it has always been one of my favourites. It says that we are going to have weak things become strong. It also says that as we come unto Christ he will show us our weaknesses so that we can fix them. That really hit me hard. I have wondered a lot on the mission why I saw all these weaknesses I have and I just see all this crappy stuff that I do. Then I realized that means that I am getting closer to my savior. And so he is showing me the stuff that I need to do better so that I can be more like him. It was a awesome lesson to learn. So when we see all the weaknesses that we have it isn’t a bad thing. 

Ok so yesterday we had a huge miracle happen. We were sitting in sacrament meeting and I see this family of 3 come in. I have never seen this family come to church. So after the meeting I went to talk to them. It was a mom and her 2 daughters. One of the daughters is 10 years old and the other is 17. So the mom explains that she is a member but her daughters aren’t. She told me that her 17 year old daughter has a big problem with panic attacks. So on Saturday she was praying so that her daughter could get better and she asked God for a sign that everything would be alright. Then she went into her daughters room to talk to her. They were talking and the daughter said that she wanted to go to the church that she used to go it. (When the daughter was 5 they used to always go to church but stopped going.) So yesterday they decided to come and her daughters felt so good in the church. Now we are going to pass by to teach them and they are really excited. The daughters want to be baptized!!! It is so awesome, it was a sweet miracle. 

Also maricela came to church and is really excited to be baptized. She has a baptismal date for the 28th of this month. If all goes well she will be baptized. She is so ready and is so strong. She loves the church and has a incredible testimony. So make sure to pray for her so that she can keep on being strong. This is the time when the trials and everything starts coming so she needs your prayers. 

We are doing so much here. It is just exploding. This Sunday we had 5 people in the chapel and so did the zone leaders. We are in the same ward so that means together we had 10 investigators in the chapel. It was a awesome Sunday. We are just working hard and trying to stay worthy of the Lords help. I have learned that the lord gives golden investigators to golden missionarys. I just hope I can keep on having his trust. Well thanx for everything fam. I love you all tons. Have a awesome week. Keep praying for me, I need all your prayers. 

Love

Elder hall

I really have grown to love the people and culture of chile

Good afternoon hall family. How is everything going in good ol alpine. This has been a pretty hard week again. I don’t know why but I am just trying to work through it all. My pulga friends are still around keeping me company. I got this huge bite right now that is bigger than a golf ball. I have to go into Santiago, (2 hours away and about 15 bucks to get there) and have the doctor look at my toe and my bite. I hope I am not dying… haha jk I will be fine. But over all my toe is doing a lot better. But also this week everyone in the apartment, besides my comp, came down with parasites… Oh man it has been heck. My stomach has been killing me for the last 4 days and I wont even talk about the side effects… Haha but its all good, its just part of the mission. I just hope soon it will go away. 

A couple questions really quick. First off, did I have any relatives that served here in Chile? Cause I am always hearing from people that a elder hall served here and he was really awesome. So I have just been wondering about that. Second, if you guys want some kind of souvenirs you just need to ask me. Ill try to look for stuff that you guys want but keep in mind that I am here to serve the Lord and I wont have much time. But if anything comes to your minds, just let me know. Also this week I sent you guys a package of pics so make sure to write me and tell me that they work. One last thing, my batteries and charger for my camera are dead. If you guys could it would be nice to get a new set. They are really expensive here or I would just buy some. So if you guys could send me a little package with that, my aussy hair gel, a couple American dollars and maybe one or 2 old spice deodorants (the after hours kind, I love that kind) that would be nice. If not, I will just live with what I got haha. 

So this week I found out that 3 of my investigators that I was teaching in my last ward got baptized. Manuel, the 17 year old kid, and Gina and Becky, the 2 sisters that we were teaching. They also have 2 others on the way. It stinks that I cant go but its all good. 

This week we decided since we don’t have very many people to teach that we would go a full day of knocking doors. It was the first time in my whole mission that I have done it but it was awesome. We knocked door after door for a whole street. We knocked the whole street, and the street was a nice big street. We ended up finding about 7 new people who are awesome to teach. We found this atheist and we are going to go back tomorrow to talk to her but she is awesome. We are having a couple challenges with the investigators that we have but its all good. With maricela we have had a lot of challenges but if all goes well she will be baptized in the next couple weeks. 

Also we have had problems with our ward mission leader. He would always flirt with our investigators and with young women. Then when we told him confidential info about one of our investigators he went and told her about it… So we told him and asked him to stop and he freaked out. Now he is trying to spread rumors all around the ward and it is just a big mess. We are hopping that we can solve the problem soon but I don’t know how long it is going to be. 

And there ya have it, that was my week. Me and my comp are getting along and we are working hard. I love the mission, it is just so awesome. There are so many people that are in need of our help and we are trying to find them right now. I really have grown to love the people and culture of chile. It is awesome even though some things that they do doesn’t make any sense. I love my Lord and Savior for all that he has done and all that he continues to do. Jesus is the Christ, the only begotten of the Father, the Redeemer of the world. Thanx for all your love and support and prayers that you guys are always giving me. I hope you all have a awesome week. I love you all more than you will ever know. 

Love

Elder hall

The people here are so loving and giving

Hola familia hows it going? Everything here is awesome, we had a really awesome week. Last week I was really feeling like Job, like everything was going wrong and I was being punished but it is all good now. I still have tons of pulga bites, more than 100 to be exact, but the good thing is that they don’t itch very much any more. Also my ingrown toenail has gotten a lot better. I have been taking medicine and soaking my foot in salt water so it is getting better. So I am feeling a lot better about life. 

This week I got kissed by a drunk dude. He came up to us and was trying to be nice and I knew the next words that would come out of his mouth would be “tienes 100 pesos?” or do you have 100 pesos? We told him no cause he was wasted and would most likely take the money and buy more beer. Then he said something that cracked me up. He said, “don’t you know what the Lord said about giving money to the poor?? The Lord said, Give until it hurts…” haha that made me start laughing. I asked him where in the scriptures it says that and he told me that in John it say that… So I told him that was not true cause the Lord never said that. He told me to look it up. So I took out a pass along card and gave it to him. It was the one with Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalen and he got calmed down. He put out his hand and so I shook his hand. He would not let go of my hand and just looked into my eyes… So I tried to pull my hand away but the harder I tried, the closer he pulled me to him. Finally my hand was up to his lips and he was kissing me. I finally got him off of my and we went on our way, but it was a really funny experience. 

So about our investigators. Right now we are trying to find new people to teach. But we have maricela who is so awesome. She really is a miracle. Last week she didn’t come to church after she said she would and I was kinda disappointed but we found out it was cause the member she was suppost to come with left early and she didn’t know where the church was. But this week she came and she loved it. One problem we had with her during the week was that we found out that she reads cards for people… Like a witch but not that hard core. She said that is was a gift from God to help other people. She never accepts money but that still doesn’t make it alright. So we explained it to her, that God gives us gifts but we don’t have to use cards. She understood and decided not to do it anymore. But people here are really into other people reading their future and stuff like that. It is a real big problem that they have here. Also in this sector there are a lot of poor people. It is probably my poorest sector that I have had on the mission. It is really sad to see the conditions that the people live it. Little tiny houses, with dirt floors and not very much food. But they are so awesome here. The people here are so loving and giving. It is incredible to see dirt poor people offering us bread and coca cola, when they barely have enough for their own families. Its very humbling. But I know that they will be blessed just as the widow was blessed when she gave to Elias.

Well that is basically all that happened this week. We are having a awesome time. My comp and I are getting along really well. We are working hard and seeing the miracles that the Lord has for us. I hope you all have a good week. I love you all tons. 

Love

Elder hall