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

the fleas love me…

Hola family. So I will let you guys guess where I am… Ya keep on thinking, I don’t think you are going to be able to figure it out. Right now I am in a place called San Antonio. I am on the coast my friends!!! Ya it is pretty sweet, it is every missionary’s dream to be on the coast so I feel really happy. It is so cool here. San Antonio is actually a port but we are about 10 min away from a awesome beach. And I got here right in the perfect time. The president doesn’t let the missionaries enter into the beach during summer, because of the women… But in about 2 weeks summer is over so he is going to let us go to the beach, I am pretty excited. I realized that I haven’t seen the ocean for like 5 years cause the last time you guys went to California I was in ohio (you punks).

But ya life is good. But here there are ups and downs. Literally ups and downs cause san Antonio is like just 3 big hills. It reminds me a lot of san Francisco cause it has some big hills. But that isn’t a very big problem. The biggest problem that I have right now are the pulgas or in English, fleas. Ya remember when I had them in my first sector, well this sector is the worst sector for fleas in the mission. Lets just say that the fleas love me… I have oven 50 flea bites and they kill. They itch like heck. I have oven 20 just on my waist. My first night here they just attacked me. But its all good cause of my “wife point theory”. Everytime something bad happens when you are on the mission your wife gets hotter. If you want proof, just check out nephi and his wife. But ya I am fighting with the fleas right now but I think I will win, but its going to take time.

Well my sector is huge. It is two big hills and there are tons and tons of houses. It has a lot of people waiting I just hope I will be able to find the people who are ready. My comps name is Elder geisler. He is from the north of California. He has 3 months in chile but he speaks Spanish pretty well. We get along really well, he is a good guy. He is kinda crazy but all my comps have been a little crazy. He is a really big fan of death metal which will give you guys a pretty good description of him. But he likes to work and is a really good comp. We life in an apartment with the zone leaders in the tallest building in san Antonio. But it stinks cause he live on the 2nd floor and there is a building between us and the ocean so we can only see a little bit of it. But we might move soon to a higher apartment. Also I have had problems with my big toe. I got another ingrown toenail but this one is on the other foot. It is a lot harder to have it cause we are walking up and down hills all day but I think I will be able to fix it soon. 

This is becky and gina the 2 little girls who are going to be baptized in like a week. they were so awesome!!!

This has been a good week. There are a couple cool people here that we are teaching. But I think the way we are going to have success here is by finding a lot of new people. My first day here we found this awesome girl named maricela. She is 21 years old and really smart and spiritual. A member told us that she had a friend who wanted to know about our church so she invited her over. We got there and the first thing that maricela asked us was how she could be a missionary… 

Wow that took me by surprise. So we explained that she could but she would have to find out if this church is true or not. So we left her with moroni 10 and challenged her to read and pray. So we came back two days later and she told us that she had read and prayed and she received her answer. We challenged her to be baptized right there and she accepted. So she will be baptized here soon. So we are already seeing miracles, its awesome. 

Thanx for everything family. Make sure that you keep praying for me and my investigators. I hope you guys know how much I love ya. Have a awesome week ok? Make sure you keep reading and praying and doing all you can to follow Christ. 

I love you all tons. 

Elder Hall

“They are servants of Jesus Christ…”

Hey family how are you all doin? Sounds like you guys had a good weekend and are still having fun down in mesquite. All is well here. The biggest news right now is that i have changes again… Man i am not going to lie, i was really really mad last night. I wanted to stay here, cause we are seeing so many miracles and there is so much to do. I love this sector and the ward members and i am going to miss it here. But it is all good, the Lord knows what i need to do and where i need to be. So i will put my trust in him, and i know all will be well. 

This week has been another awesome week. In the church we had 7 investigators and 4 of them are going to get baptized in this next change. I will take pics of them today and send the pics to you guys. Also i was able to see all 3 of my converts in church. Belen and her family were there. Also anastasia and her brother came. Then my comp had a interview in Las Naciones, my last sector, so we went to that chapel. There i saw constanca, the girl that got baptized there a week after i left. Oh it was so awesome. All of my converts are active, a lot of missionarys cant say that. I am so proud of the work that i have been able to do so far in my mission. I dont have any regrets and have worked my butt off. I only have half my mission left but i am going to keep workin my butt off and do my best till the end of my mission. 

So i had a pretty cool valentines day. First off we were knocking doors during the day to find new people to teach and this young guy and girl pull up in their car behind us. So we go over to talk to them and i get shocked out of my head when the girl starts speaking perfect english. Then i realized that she had a accent from austrailia… Haha it was so weird doing a contact in english. I explained what we were doing, who we are and she said that we could pass by this week. It was so fun talking to someone in english but it stinks that i wont be able to teach her, cause i am leaving. But it was still cool. 

Then we were walking down the street and it started getting dark. This drunk guy aproched us and started talking to us. He was plastered but he wanted to talk about christ. So we talked to him for a little but for some reason he really liked talkin to me. Then at the end he asked me for my number and said that he wanted to call me… Haha at that point i realized that he was a little too friendly. So we told him we had to go and he took my hand and wouldnt let me go… OH man it was scary but after it was funny. So on valentines day i had my own little secret valentine… Kind of haha. 

Lastly the other day we were walking down the street and there was this little girl playing with her friends. They were probably 6 or 7 years old. They stopped playing when they saw us and one of the little girls asks her friend, “who are they?” The answer the other little girl gave was so incredible, it really shocked me. She said, “They are servants of Jesus Christ…” Wow that was so awesome. It really hit me hard. A little girl can reconize that we are servants of Christ, but older people have no clue. In the scriptures it talks a couple times about “out of the mouth of babes, the wise are confounded,” and it is really true. I love being a missionary. 

But ya fam thats what happened this week. I will keep you guys updated on what is going to happen in the near future. Who my comp is going to be, where i am going to be and everything. But i love you guys so much. Hope you have a awesome week. Keep reading your scriptures and praying and doing all the thinks that you know you need to do. 

Love ya. 

Elder hall

I am so blessed to see so many amazing miracles

Ok family this week has been one of the best weeks I think I have had on my mission. I have seen so many miracles it is so crazy. First off I am going to let you guys know that in this sector I have lost tons of weight. It is really good and nice not to have my pants really tight… haha I figured out the secret is that you cant eat at night. If you do then you are going to blow up like a balloon… but ya that is the first miracle that I have seen this week. But don’t worry it gets lots better.

So we started teaching this girl named Joanna. She is about 24 years old and has been dating the brother of Belen, (my little red head convert) for about a year. So we shared with her lesson 1 and 2. Also a couple days ago her sister in law fell from a 9 story building and died. So she had tons of questions and concerns. When she hear lesson 2, which is the plan of salvation, she believed in everything and said that she is going to share it with her brother. Then we challenged her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. So she did it that night. She told us and so got on her knees and started praying with all her might. She said that she asked for forgiveness of her sins, she prayed for her brother and last but not least, to see if this church is true. She said that she had never felt feelings like that in her life. She said that she felt a peace and she knows came strait from God. After she got done praying she fell to sleep immediately, something that she hasn’t been able to do for 2 weeks. She told us that she wants to be baptized!!! First thought, she is going to talk to her mom, who is hard core catholic, so if you guys could make sure to pray for her that would be awesome. 

That was my first miracle. Second, we got home from church yesterday and went to lunch. We were sitting there waiting for the member to make our food and she introduced us to her 2 nieces who recently moved here from another part of Santiago. They are named Becky and Gina. Becky is 12 years old and Gina, 10. we found out that they want to get baptized more than anything. They already received the missionary´s but were never able to go to church cause their dad works Sundays. But here they have gone 3 times now and they both bore their testimonies last week. They are really smart and said that they are going to pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We already put a baptismal date with them, for the 22 of this month. So we are really excited for them!!!

So as you can see we are seeing tons of miracles. but that’s not the end of them. I don’t know if I have told you guys that my dad in the mission, elder Hansen right now is assistant to the president. So last week our fridge broke and he came to give us another one. While we were talking he told me that one lady that we were teaching in Melipilla, my first sector got baptized about 6 months ago!!! She was this really awesome lady and I am glad that she was able to take this huge step in her life. Also in Las naciones, my last sector, Alison, a girl that we were teaching is going to be baptized in a week. 

Man it is crazy to see all these things that are going on here. One person can really have a huge effect on lots of people. I am so blessed to see all these amazing miracles. I love the mission, I have been able to grow so much and I just keep on growing. Make sure you guys keep on praying for me and my investigators. I love ya tons. Hey tell Tyson congrats from his cous at the bottom of the world. Let G-ma and G-pa hall know how much I love them. Tell G-ma lam that I love her tons too and sorry for not writing her, I never have any time. I love you all. Have a awesome week. 

Love

Elder hall

Font of cold water

Hey family sorry for not writting you guys yesterday. I have been having so many problems with the stupid computers here. Yesterday i spent the first 30 minutes trying to get logged into my account. Then after that I got to read all the emails that you guys sent me but it took forever. Then when I tried to write you guys it kept erasing my emails…oh man I was so frustrated. So after about a hour of fighting the computer me and my comp finally gave up. I guess the church site is having problems so I am sure all the missionaries in the world are having problems talking with the families. But ya now everything is all good…

Haha this have been a pretty good week. We are working as hard as ever to find new people to teach and trying to help the people we have to progress. This past Saturday we had the baptism of Anastasia. It went really well, but at the first I was about to have a heart attack. We got there and started the baptismal font and went to go visit a investigator. Then we came back and there was barely any water. And it was 8:30. the baptism was suppost to start at 9. so I was freaking out. So then at nine the only people that were at the baptism were me and my comp, Anastasia, her brother and grandpa, and the president of the primary…oh man I was freaking out. And still we didn’t have very much water. So we turned off the hott water and turned on just cold. Finally at 9:30 we had enough water and about 20 other people showed up so it all turned out good. At the end all went well and it was a very nice baptismal service. Anastasia said that the water was kinda cold but that it was ok haha. 

Also this week we found this really awesome lady. We were knocking doors in the blocks (really getto) and we knocked this door and this lady came out. We told her that we are reps of Jesus Christ and we wanted to enter to leave a blessing on her house so that she would be more calm and happy. So she let us in and we did blessed the house. After that, she told us that she has been passing through a really hard time. A little while back their 14 year old daughter told them that she is pregnant. The dad flipped out. So the mom send her daughter to the south with some relatives so that the dad wouldn’t do anything stupid. So the dad left a couple days ago and still hadn’t arrived when we got there. She said that she hasn’t felt peaceful or calm for 2 weeks and then when we got there she felt so calm. We taught about eternal families and that this life is for us to progress and learn. We taught about the atonement and it was awesome. She said that she loved it and wants to learn more. So we are going to go and teach her and her husband and hopefully in the near future her daughter. 

But ya I better go cause I don’t know if this email is going to work or not. I hope that it doesn’t get deleted again. I love you all tons. Hope you have a awesome week. Keep praying for me. Chao!!!

Love

Elder hall