if you don’t have the spirit you wont be able to teach

Hey fam hows it goin. All is well in villa sur I guess. Haha ya thanx for writing me you little punks. Well at least jenna and jansen and shae love me…jk but no its all good im sure I will have a couple old emails next week when I get on. Just a perfect way to finish a hard week eh? 

First I want to talk about something that is so sad but it is so true. It says that “if you don’t have the spirit you wont be able to teach.” This is so true and I have seen it in the last couple weeks. A week ago I was able to go on divisions with my district leader. This elder is so awesome. You can tell he has a strong testimony and lives what he teaches. He taught with such power and authority it was incredible. The next day I came back with my comp. I don’t want to bag on my comp, don’t get me wrong. He is a awesome guy and I really love him. But ya, we went to teach a lesson when I got back with him. And we taught about prayer. And my comp never says prayers unless he has to. He doesn’t say them before going to bed, before studying or anything like that. When he taught about prayer and bore his testimony it was so sad. I felt nothing. I could tell and the investigator could tell that he didn’t have a strong testimony of prayer. The spirit wasnt there and they could tell that it was just a 21 yr old boy talking by himself about a subject that he didn’t know very much and didn’t really care about. Without the spirit we cannot teach. Without living the gospel principles we cannot have a testimony. DO THE SMALL THINGS AND YOU WILL BE BLESSED. READ EVERY SINGLE DAY. SAY YOUR PRAYERS EVERY NIGHT AND MORNING. GO TO CHURCH. I KNOW THAT YOUR TESTIMONY WILL GROW AND YOU WILL BECOME SO MUCH STRONGER. The gospel is true and don’t you ever forget it. 

Ya well a couple days ago I was reading in my personal study in alma 24:27. here it is talking about how the Lord works in different ways to save His people. When I read this, a strong feeling came to my heart and I couldn´t stop thinking about Bishop Cummings. I kept thinking about how much he changed my life since he has been gone. Because of him I really have become a better person. Because of his example I have not missed a day of reading the scriptures since the night he died. Just to see how much he has helped me and my life is incredible. But to think of the impact that he has had on others is even more incredible. I am positive that his example and all that he did has helped many people. Also there have been many times that I have used Bishop Cummings in my teachings. His example and his life is still making a huge affect on peoples lives. Its incredible how the Lord really knows what he is doing and he knows all. I am so thankful for Him and for his infinite wisdom.  

This week we got the opportunity to listen to Richard G. Scott as a mission. It was really cool to be able to see and him from a apostle of the Lord. What is more incredible is what he talked about. He said lots of things but something that really stuck out was when he talked about his own mission. He told the story of one comp that he had. This comp wanted to be a painter when he got off his mission so when they were suppost to leave and work he would want to go and paint the beautiful landscapes of Argentina. Also he liked to sleep in and do things that were not approved as a missionary. Elder Scott said that this was really hard for him. He wanted to be the best missionary he could be but with a comp like that it was difficult to do so. 

Elder Scott said that he started slacking off a little, sleeping in a little and doing things a little less than how he knew they should be. He said one day he realized what was happening and he thought, “Am I going to let my comp control what kind of missionary I am and what kind of mission I have?” he decided that he was going to work extra hard and do things how they are suppost to be done. He started waking up on time and getting ready and doing his studies and everything that he needed to do. He was a obedient missionary and he tried his hardest. He said that he remembers sitting by the door all ready to go work and hoping and praying that his comp would wake up and get ready to go. He said in time his comp did and they started seeing success. He said make sure you don’t let your comp define who you are. 

Wow, so that was way awesome to hear. Even an apostle of the Lord had a hard comp and hard time on his mission. Then yesterday I had just a really really hard day. We show up at the church and 2 investigators who said that they would be there, weren’t there. Then out of the 10 recent converts that we have, only 3 came. Then only 57 people came in total to church. When I got to villa sur about 90 people assisted every week. I have seen this sector showly dying even though I am trying my hardest to keep it going. To top that off, all 3 of the families that me and my comp re-activated in my last change didn’t come… 

Oh man I was way way down. Then we went out to work and no one would let us in, not even members. It was so hard. I was thinking about home, and other things and I just was down. Then last night we had a meeting with our bishop and talked about the ward and the recent converts. Then out of no where he starts telling stories of his mission and a bunch of hard times he had. He told us experiences and then told us something that really hit me hard. He said that “no matter what, if you try your hardest, your efforts are never ever in vain. Never! As long as you serve and maybe you don’t get the success that you are looking for, it doesn’t matter. God knows what you are doing and he will help you. He does things in his own time and not ours.” 

…Oh my gosh it was so awesome. Out of no where the bishop starts saying all this stuff that I needed to hear and he had no idea of our day or what was going on in my mind. There you have it, elder Scott and Bishop Lopez, 2 examples of leaders who somehow knew exactly what I needed to hear without even knowing that I needed to hear those things. I have such a strong testimony of leaders and that they really receive revelation to our needs. WE HAVE TO FOLLOW OUR LEADERS. THEY KNOW WHAT IS BEST FOR US!!!! 

I love you guys. Keep going always. It will be alright, God knows all and he is there for us. Kneel and pray and pray and pray until you feel his love and know that you are all right. Keep up the good work and God be with you all. 

Love

Elder hall

Fording the river on main street

Yo fam what is goin on? All is well here in santiago chile. I am loving the mission with all the trials and things that i am going through. I know that my savior is just putting me through the refiners fire so that i can become the best that i can be. He has faith in me and i need to show my faith in Him. 

This has been a hard week with the health. My comp was pretty sick so we had to stay in the house one day to let him rest and get better. We are getting along it is just i have to push him and push him. It is really hard to take care of myself and him but its all good. I have such a strong testimony that my president recieves revalation from God and that i am with elder viraldo for a reason. I just need to look for it and continue forward always and try my best. That is all our Savior asks of us and i am trying. 

My health has been a little iffy this week also. I have had a pretty bad headache and also a sore throat. But its all good its part of the mission. But ya it is awesome, there is this awesome member family that is in this sector. I dont know if i have told you bout them but they are awesome. There are the parents, miguel and maritza, 2 daughters who are like 12 and 9, roxanna and rocío, and a hyperactive 5 year old named matí. They are so sweet. They are really like my familiy here in chile and migue isnt a member yet but he is probably stronger in the church than any of the members besides the bishop. The bishop already told us that he is going to call him to be a councler in the bishopbrick. He is just in the long long process of divorce here in chile and once that is done he will be baptized. But ya anyways, we went to their house and my and my comp were like dead. We were sick and had been walking around all day with little success. We told maritza that our throats hurt and she went and made up this little pocion of water, honey and lemon and said that this would help our throats. So we decided to take a try and it turned out to be the nastiest thing i have ever drank...and it didnt help the throat situation but ya they are awesome anyways. 

Ya well i had my first bible bash this week. It was the first one that i could actually understand what they were saying and reply to it. I realize now that is was stupid but in the moment it was hard cause it has been a hard week and we were walking around all day. So he starts saying how we worship joseph smith, (like everyone says) and all this crap about how the mormons are wrong and we are all goin to heck. So i layed down the law and told him that he is wrong, we dont worship joseph smith. I also pulled out scriptures from the bible and tried to destroy him but i realize now that it was stupid. All it was was me and my brain against this guys brain. I did not feel the spirit and i felt like crap after. Neither of us won and it was just a waste of 15 minutes of my mission. I have realized that is why we have been told not to bible bash. I realized that i cant convice anyone, i cant. I am way to stupid haha. The only thing that can convince the people is the Holy Ghost. It was a cool lesson to be able to learn and to humble myself. 

Also it rained for 2 days this week. It is really hard when it rains cause no one wants to let us in and there is no one out in the streets. But we still worked and worked and it was about 8 and we came to this street that we had to cross called lo oaville which is a main street. And we arrived and realized that there was no way we were going to cross this thing. It was seriously a river. It was a good 2 ½ feet deep and wide and fast. But we had to get to an appointment that was on the other side of this street. So we decided that we were going to cross it. So first i let my comp go in and he steps in and just about gets sucked under because of the strengh of this thing. So i hop in and the same thing happenes to me. But we fought and found and finally made it across this street but our shoes were soaked and so were our pants. So we show up at the appointment and teach them and then leave and it was like 9:15 so we headed for home. Then it hit us, we had to cross the river again... haha so we crossed it, basically swimming and got home and huddled around our itzy bitzy tiny heater that we have to try to get somewhat warm. But all in all we are alive and well. 

So i am ways excited cause tomorrow we get the opportunity to listen to elder Richard G. Scott!!!!! I am way way excited and it is only our mission so it should be awesome. I love listening to the bretheren, they are so wise and really recieve words direcly from God. I CANT WAIT!!! And today i hit my 5 month mark in chile. It is crazy how fast time flies but its awesome. I feel like i just got out of the mtc a week ago. That is why we cant waste a second ever. We have such little time to do so much. 

Ya well this week has been hard and we were having this really hard day and we were walking around and knocking doors and doing all that and not getting into any houses. It was one of thoes days that people reject you, every door gets slammed in your face. So we finally came to a reference that we had gotten and we knock the door. This guy comes out and we had already seen the huge statue of the virgin Mary and so we knew he was a hardcore catholic. Finally i tell him that we are servents of the lord and that we have a very important message. I ask him if we come in and we basically started walking away when i asked him, thats how sure we were of what he was going to say. The guy says sure come in... we were caught off gaurd. I was about to ask him if he was sure that he wanted us to come in, cause we are mormons and if you let us in your never going to get rid of us. Kinda like a dog when you feed it, it keeps coming back and coming back... but ya, before i talked him out of letting us in, we entered his house and found a family waiting for us. They are cool and i see some potencial with them. I love being a missionary even when its hard. There are miracles that we see every single day. 

Well ya that was my week. I hope all is well with you guys. Have a awesome 1st week of school and work your butts off. The church is true and i love you all tons. Keep up the faith and never lose hope. All is well, all is well. 

Love Ya!!! 

Elder hall

“Hello, how are you..”

Good morning family. All is well in villa sur. I am still here and still working my little butt off. This has been another hard week but thus is the mission. It has been so incredible to see how much I have grown in the last 2 weeks alone. I can really see a difference in myself. I think I have become more of a leader and I have progressed a ton as a missionary. It is really hard to be the junior comp and try to be the senor comp as well. But I know that I am here with my comp for a reason. I am going to keep working hard and try to help my comp.

Hey keep me updated on the outside world. The olimpics, BYU and anything else cool goin on. Thanx guys. 

So there is one sentence that every single ”joven” here knows. Joven by the way means youth or something like that. Anyways it is “Hello, how are you..” every single time that we walk past some jovenes they always yell this. Something that is really funny is that a lot of the older people do this too. It is funny to see how immature people really are. Also many times these jovenes decide to be funny. This week we got a lemon thrown at us. Another thing I have found out is that these kids have a very colorful vocab in English… but its all good they are just little punks.

Another thing is that we have a fan group so to speak. They are called snakes. Snakes are girls that like the missionaries. We are use to snakes cause they are everywhere here but we have run into a unusual group of snakes. Somehow they always find us and they aren’t your typical pack of snakes. We are used to the snakes yelling hello how are you, stuff like that. But this group is different. When we pass by they say those same things but once we are a couple steps away from them they start to yell stuff like “God doesn’t exist” or “your going to heck” or stuff like that but in a really deep and devilish voice. Also I think they cursed us but I cant be sure…

But ya the mission goes on. Right now we are trying to find new people to teach. I don’t like this part very much. Our president told of that one day the members will be full time finders and the missionaries will be full time teachers. I cant wait till this day comes. But I want to challenge every one of you to try to find someone for the missionaries to teach. What I have found is that people have a much much better chance to come into the church of God if they are references from the members. Knocking doors and doing contacts takes a lot more time and is not very effective. Help the missionaries please. Thanx guys. 

Mom and dad I want to wish ya a happy anniversary!!! You guys are awesome and have always been there for me. Thanx for your example. Also, congratulate tyler and Tyson for me. That is awesome!!! Shae and lyndsie, keep on marching. You guys will be fine and make sure to send me pics when the little rugrats come k? Torky, love ya little sis and keep on choosing the right. Tell danny boy hi and that if he tries anything I will come home from the mish and hurt him. Jansen, have fun in school sucker haha jk bud school is cool. Landon and jenna, keep up the good work. Keep writing me and do good in school. Everyone else, you guys are awesome. I love you all so much and thanx for the prayers, I really need them and so do the people of Chile. 

I hope you all know that I have a strong testimony of the Gospel. I am not able to speak in eloquent words or talk very beautifully but I know without a doubt that Jesus is the Christ. He is my Lord and Savior. He is my Elder brother. He is my best friends. I don’t know how many times I have knelt down and plead my heart out to him. He knows every single one of us personally. He suffered and died for us. He knows our pains, sorrows, sickness and infirmities. He is always there for you. All you have to do is kneel down and talk to him. When things are hard, when you are sad, when you have no one else to talk to or to help you, he is there. But don’t forget him when things are good, when you are happy, blessed, and everything is goin well. Make sure you are humble enough to go to your knees when things are good or he will bring you to your knees. We cant find peace, joy, happiness anywhere else in the world. It is impossible!! You cant do it. Sure you can find a little fun or excitement or pleasure. But with that comes pain, sickness, misery. Don’t do it. Don’t let satan lie to you. He is so so good at it. He has had many years to perfect it. He knows exactly what you need to hear. Don’t listen to him. He laughs every time you fall. Make sure you are the one laughing at him when he puts that song on the radio and you turn it. When that show comes on tv and you turn it off. When your friends say “its not that bad” stand up, show them who you serve. Who do you serve? Make sure you know right now, before the temptation comes. We can only serve one master. We cannot serve God and Satan. “What side are you on?” this church is not for the weak. None of you are weak. None of you!!! You already choose the plan of God. You already beat Satan in the pre-existence. You can do it again. This church is for the Valiant. Be Valiant!!! I cant wait for the day that we are standing in the presence of God. You look at Jesus and he says “Father, Jordan was on my side. He made many mistakes. He did stupid things. But he tried his hardest. He knew what side he was on.” We will all make it to the Celestial kingdom. We can do it and we will do it!!! I love you all. Don’t forget who you are. You are a son or daughter of God. We cant fail. Nos vemos en el otro lado. LUCHAMOS!!!

Love ya tons. Have a great week. 

Elder hall

i love the rain, NOT!!!

Hey family how is everything? All is well here in villa sur. It has been kinda a hard week. Its hard to go from such an amazing week to such a hard one. Pretty much all of our investagators have died and we are trying to find new people right now. It has been really hard, this part of missionary work is so hard. And to add onto that it has been raining... i love the rain, NOT!!! it stinks so bad to be walking around all day trying to find people and there are no people in the streets cause it is raining. And then when you knock doors they dont want to let you in caue we are soaking wet but thus is the mission. And just to add onto that i have been sick this whole week as well. I have had a headache and a really bad cough but its all good, ill live.

Jenna i heard that you bore your testimony and you want to go on a mission. It is the best thing in the world and if i could go back i would choose to go on the mission in 2 seconds. Jansen and landon you guy are going on a mission, i want you to write me back and promise me the next Monday k? It is the best expirience of my life. I wouldn´t change it for anything else.

Mom, there is this hermana in my ward and she sent you a email a couple days ago so i dont know if you got it or not but if you did then you can try to write her back. The only problem is that she doesnt know english...she wrote ya in spanish so you guys can send it to me the next week or just use the dictionary to try to find out what she said. Its so cool cause her daughter just got her mission call to columbia and she is so excited. It was sweet to see the missionary packet and to remember all the feelings that i felt when i was waiting for mine and when i recieved it. Also mom, if you havent already sent off the package if you could send me some floss for teeth that would be awesome. i have been looking all over chile for some but they dont have any. Ya and you were making fun of me caues i couldnt find my mountain dew, well guess what, they have it. The only problem is that we cant go into the store. But that is were the magic comes in. There is this incredible family here and they love me so they decided to get me some. The members here are so awesome.

Ya well that is it for this week sorry that it is short but it has been a really hard week and there isnt much to say. I am really really sad that i am going to be gone for BYU games but its ok i know i will be blessed. But when BYU season comes around i am going to be trunky but it doesnt matter just keep me updated. Thanx you guys are awesome.

Se que esta es la iglesia de Jesucristo. El vive y quiere que tengamos felicidad y solamente podemos lograr esta felicidad si somos obedientes y queremos usar la expiación. Cuando estamos en el servicio del Señor, realimente somos bendecidos tanto temporal como espiritual. Ustedes son tan increíbles. Todos de ustedes son ejemplos para mi. Siempre siga adelante y algún día vamos a ser una familia eterna. Escocer lo bien. Les quiero mucho y tengan una buena semana.

Con cariño,

Elder hall

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