Ranas y sapas

I heard there was a cold front in Austin and I guess there has been one here in California, but I'm still walking around in short sleeves and doing just fine. It has, however, been raining like crazy. We were talking to a family the other day and I said it was raining cats and dogs and they corrected me and said no, it was raining bullfrogs and toads (ranas y sapas). I don't want to sound like a white fool so I'll be sure to use that from now on.

 

I have an amazing new companion and we are super pumped to recharge this area. She's from Canada, is 5'11" and a redhead so she's really just a taller, foreign version of me. It's hilarious to see the faces of people when two, beautiful white girls with flaming red hair approach them and start speaking Spanish. It's like the best thing ever. I should take a picture of everyone's first reaction of us and start a tumblr - it'd go viral. I warned her early on that we have a sketch area and there are a lot of places we can't go unsupervised at night. Not totally believing me (as if my precious face is questionable pshaw) she wanted to go check them out herself...I was more than happy to oblige. As we stepped out of the car she said yup, I see what you mean, we probably shouldn't come here at night. I chuckled and we went forth to preach the loitering men the gospel and she decided not return after the safety of the sun goes down. baha. Told ya.

 

Yesterday the Elders had a baptism and they made us give the talks. Don't worry we had 5 minutes notice. Of course the President showed up to this baptism, which I didn't notice until I got up to speak and saw him staring at me. Awesome. At least I looked cute. Anyway, I talked about the Holy Ghost and I took advantage of the Christmas season and talked about the feeling in the air right now that makes everyone smile, be a little more kind, feel good and hopeful. To me, this was the best way to describe the feelings of the Holy Ghost, a confirmation of all the perfect and pure things God has to offer us. As a baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we get the special blessing of having the comforter, the Holy Ghost, with us all the time. It's like Christmas all year round and as we live worthy of having him be our BFF we get even more blessings from our loving Heavenly Father; we receive inspiration, spiritual gifts, confirmations of truth and of course feelings of comfort, peace and joy. As missionaries we are just banking on the Christmas spirit to help people see what they could have with them forever! We couldn't ask for more. So take a few moments with me this week to remember the wonderful, eternal gift of the Holy Ghost as our chance for Christmas cheer all year round.

 

Also, if you haven't already heard, there is a new Christmas website: mormon.org/christmas that has a beautiful short nativity video, free music, e-cards and offers for a free bible. There are tons of ways to share this awesome tool with friends and family with a click of the button - take advantage!

 

xoxo

Hermana Hall

Cheese Fries

I know I'm a missionary and the highlight of my week should be that we got a new baptism date, but it actually was that we found the best cheese fries in the world! haha jk...a little. I need to be more excited for this baptism and I am - eternally speaking - but this investigator has started to leave us serenading voice mails so things are getting a little weird. Oh well, this gospel isn't just for those who can sing, it's for everyone. But seriously, the cheese fries were amazing.

 

My recent missionary role has been the word of wisdom police, walking into homes and demanding all the booze walk out with me. They don't seem to fight me too much which is rather shocking. I think they aren't exactly sure what the redhead will do so they'd rather not take their chances, but in the meantime it's helping them all keep their heads clear. win-win. The best part is the priceless looks on the neighbors' faces when they see the missionaries carrying around a bunch of six packs. Good thing President trusts me.

 

I can never stop bragging about how much the seniors at BINGO love me. I'm going to be so sad when I have to leave that place. We haven't been there in such a long time because of the holiday and meetings, but I finally made it back on Friday and there were gasps when I walked in the room. I'm starting to wonder if they can see my angel body guards. We were late so someone already started monotone BINGO, but she couldn't wait to hand me the mic and as soon as it touched my hands the room filled with applause. They love me! They really love me. I might have gotten a little teary eyed at that moment. I bet I could get them all to follow me to the baptismal right now. I'm gonna try it next time.

 

Christmas season is the best for missionaries! People are actually taking our cards without mocking us. I think the twinkling of the Christmas lights goes well with repentance. We've been handing out invitations for a free nativity exhibit the church is putting on in Palo Alto this week (which I actually get to host today and I get a free cardigan and scarf!) and people have been thanking us for the invitations. What? No one seems to want to hear about Jesus Christ any other day, but they are all about hand carved nativities - maybe people don't know what nativities are. It doesn't seem to matter what you know about Christ, this time of year changes everyone and it's blindingly clear as a missionary. It's magical how Christlike everyone becomes without knowing it during a time set apart for the birth of our Savior - people just can't help it. If only we could bottle it and sprinkle it around the rest of the time. We are really hoping to cash in on all the love walking the streets these days and help people find the happiness they feel right now be with them all the time. I am so lucky I get to share the gift that never stops giving, the gospel of Jesus Christ every single day. Ahh it's happening, I'm a cheesy missionary! Warm fuzzies.

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Confession: I danced

Thanksgiving was a blast which was a huge relief because I was all ready to be super sad missing my friends and family and outlet shopping at midnight. It wasn't sad at all! I mean I missed everyone but it was so wonderful to spend time with so many great families and I actually got to eat white people food! Yay! That might have been a tad racially insensitive, but I speak Spanish so I think it's ok. At one of the dinners I was a complete disaster. I needed to just lay flat down on the ground for a second (which is not lady or missionary like but whatever) and of course my dress flapped right on up, flashing everyone. Then at the table I spilled coke everywhere, used all the napkins and then I broke a serving spoon - I was on fire! Strangely enough the family loves me even more now or maybe they just feel so bad for awkwardness that it's super adorbs. 

 

The day after, we had a ward party eating more turkey and being a Spanish ward there was obviously music. We had TONS of non-member families show up so us 4 missionaries stayed the entire time and at multiple points I realized that I was for sure 'dancing'. My bad. It's just not possible to put me near dance music and expect me to sit there, it's against nature! The members were loving it and kept trying to get me in the middle of the dance floor the entire night. Several of them even came up and asked me to show them how to move like this white girl. ha! I'm sure I'll be getting a call from President in a few days...let me know if any bootleg photos of me show up on the interwebs. Oops. Totes worth it.

 

Our possessed investigator has been upgraded obsessed/stalker investigator and yesterday after church I literally had to step in between her and my companion because I'm pretty sure she is in love with her or is going to eat her heart. My sweet companion from Utah knows nothing about the wayward directions of the world. She'll for sure be transferred this next week now. Ahh the joys of missionary work and the often confusing warm, happy feelings of the spirit mixed with crazy obsession. Just another day here in San Jose Spanish program! Whoop whoop!

 

I am ever so grateful for everyone that has been so supportive of me on this mission. This is a trip like no other. This is the Lords work and he blesses us for it, but I would not make it without the love and support for all of you. Thank you.

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Repent Ye Sinners!

Saturday we hit up our usual locations for some street contacting. It's a nice little street with lots of boutiques, food and people. This Saturday, however, much to our enjoyment was a Beerwalk! Hundreds of people were roaming the streets from store to store sampling beer. It was a missionaries' dream. We talked to almost 300 people in 30 min, giving out pictures of Jesus, mormon.org cards and calling all to drop their glasses and come sing praises to the Lord. haha. You could see some people's head's hung in shame and others were very grateful for the religious reminder.  All in all we did our duty and we sure cried repentance that day. It was fantastic!

 

Our family of baptism dates finally made it to church again and they've decided to get married this weekend so we really could be having a huge baptism in a few weeks. This is nothing less than a gigantic miracle since they've stood us up for every appointment the past two weeks and we've resorted to stalking them outside the house in our car - obviously with the seats down - waiting for them to come home. I am not going to hold my breath, but they know what they need to do to get baptized and they know they want it so we are going to do everything we can to get them there. Since this is part of a huge part member family if they all get dunked we will have plenty more in no time and we might actually double the ward with this one family. whoop whoop!

 

Yes, our possessed investigator is still after us. Our phone continues to ring and we have creepy messages. She even showed up to the chapel one day last week and talked to the Elders. She said she was going to come to church so we had some ghostbusters on call yesterday, but she didn't show. She did however, just call us again 2 min ago. Yikes.

 

On the brighter side, I've been reflecting (ooh that sounds so fancy) a lot on some of the things Elder Gavarett and his lovely wife said during his visit with us last week. He reminded us to never be afraid to declare ourselves. Our purpose is to serve the Lord, to spread the word and to make sure everyone we come in contact with knows of Jesus Christ. That turns out to not be super easy. However, there is no reason we shouldn't have the confidence to be bold in our declaration. This is the truth, this is the Lord's work and we have Him on our team. The only fear is of man, what other's might think or our own levels of pride. It's something I'm trying to remind myself of every single day when I look at my name tag. I know who I am right now, I know what I am here to do and I know whose name I bear every single day - I truly have nothing to fear. The same goes for every member of this church, we need not fear declaring the word of the Lord - I promise, He promises, He has our back. Elder Gavarett's wife also reminded us that we control the weather in our own mind. If we want a sunny day we need only put up a sun in our window. Although the world may be rainy or dark, we can make our own mind bright by remembering who we are and again what we are really here to do. Which, by the way is to keep the commandments and be happy forever. Yay!

 

Another one bites the dust

Another possessed investigator: check. I'm starting to gain a reputation around here as the Sister that brings out the crazies...but also the one that has the best weekly stories! This time I actually got to witness what happens to someone's face when they let the demon inside. yikes! Not to worry, I was prepared with my garlic and stake...wait that's not for...anyway I was prepared to pounce if needed and protect my baby companion and I also had the word of God in my hand to bonk her unconscious. We survived unharmed although the President informed us we are not to have any contact with her. She's been calling us every 10 min for the past two days...the voice mails are even creepier with just stale air. Eek! The devil is calling but we ain't answerin'. Take that Satan! Needless to say she will not be getting baptized Sunday. Oops.

 

I spoke this past week at the Mission Conference with Elder Gavarett. I had no idea how nervous I'd be until I got up there and my knees were shaking so hard I almost knocked myself over. Not to fear, the talk was well received and I even got a nice firm handshake from the man. I spoke about the Book of Mormon and told a story about my mom and me when we first moved to Texas. We were trying to get to the Target on MoPac and 290, but if anyone recalls, it's confusing and if you don't know anything about u-turns like we didn't at the time, it's impossible to get there. So I was sharing this experience about how we just couldn't make it to the Target, we could see it, smell it and practically touch it but we just couldn't get there. We eventually gave up and went home. Later someone mentioned to us that you have to take the u-turn to get there. We had no idea what they were talking about, but ventured out again and as we approached, this time really looking, we saw the tiny lane under the bridge that brought us safely to the Target. We didn't stand a chance getting there until someone pointed this little road out to us. I then compared this to life and how we often have no idea where we are going. Thankfully we have a loving Heavenly Father who has given us tools to help guide us, one of these is the Book of Mormon, a modern day GPS. Then I shared 1 Nefi 16:16, about how Lehi and his family were guided on their desert course by the Liahona. What I love about this verse is that not only were they guided by the ball, but they were taken to the most fertile parts of the land. Sure, in life we can be moving in some direction, but without the holy guidance of our modern GPS, the Book of Mormon, we won't be able to find the most 'fertile' paths of life. I then reminded everyone how as missionaries (or as members of the church) it's our sacred responsibility to help our brothers and sisters that can't see the path or that think they are going in the right direction but are clearly not find those little u-turns by studying the scriptures. It is only by following the direction of the Book of Mormon that we can have the most happy life, to have all that God has promised us, to obtain all the blessings and to make it back to that big red bullseye, eternal life with our heavenly family. I obviously also bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. Because it's true. Amen. Apparently I done did a good job because he requested a personal interview with me after. I'm a gold star missionary! yippee!

 

Ack! I don't have time today to share our mindblowing Friday night adventure when I had to get the Elders to break into a member's apartment...on the second floor...by climbing a tree, jumping over a 6 foot gap onto a dark balcony full of dangerously sharp objects, but I'll be sure to fill you all in on the adventures of our super hero Elder next week. Stay tuned.

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Lucky Hair

People have been touching my hair a lot...for good luck. That was new and a little odd, but I really can't blame them and it probably does bring good luck. I should sell it.

 

Daylight savings was a little treat from heaven, but my body just absorbed that hour and wanted more. The only thing that really changed was the sun now blinds me in the morning and we have another awkward hour each night where we can't safely do any work in about 80% of our area. So that's going to be interesting. Halloween was weird. California is weird. There are a lot of gun shots and drunk people. It's likely the part of town we are in because I heard in the rich area there were awesome, free haunted houses and all those missionaries got tons of candy and free food. We had to be home early, we couldn't dress up or participate in shenanigans so we went home and watched Legacy and I made my companion rewind the kiss scene a hundred times and giggled each time. When there is a drought, you'll drink whatever you find.

 

The other day a precious little toddler asked me if I had a baby in my belly. At first I thought I misunderstood him, but when his mom covered her face in shame and giggled I knew I had translated that right. I told him no but he didn't believe me so he poked me to find out. I don't know what he determined from that poke but I assured him there was nothing but beans and rice in there. At least the old people still love me. It kills me every time I walk into that place and they start clapping and chanting BINGO, BINGO like we're at a pep rally. My 90 yr old Filipino boyfriend gave me a huge bag of persimmons and some weird green fruit that smelled like a dentist office, but I ate it. An old Asian lady came up, squeezed the crap out of my arm, smiled and in broken English said "B-Four" in my exact same sing-song voice. Best thing ever.

 

We had to walk an investigator from the bus stop to the capilla the other day and I quickly realized that she walks a lot. I could not for the life of me keep up. I was huffing and puffing and getting further and further behind. Then all of a sudden a little tiny dog started following me, with a little yap and nipping at my heels. He was taunting me! It's like he was yelling at me, "you're not even trying!" (thank you 80's Matt). Needless to say I think I got my exercise for that day.

 

We stopped by two former investigators a few days ago to see if they'd be interested in learning more again. They graciously let us in, because they are Latin and they are all nice like that. I told them I was from Jalisco, Mexico and they totally believed me. haha good times. They also had a dog that loved to nip at my feet. Maybe my tiny feet look like little hot dogs. Anywhoo, as we were sitting there listening to them I realized this might be the time they actually do accept the gospel and just how important the Lord's timing is in all of this. We really never know when someone is going to be ready to accept the gospel, we just do everything we can to bring the spirit into people's home and hope that something pricks their heart so they have a desire to grow a little closer to Jesus Christ. Sometimes that happens immediately and for others it takes years and a lot of missionaries. Then as it goes, I realized that's the same with us. There are so many things in my life, like scripture reading for one, that have taken me years to accept. How many times have I chosen whether knowingly or ignorantly to reject an invitation to come closer to my Savior. The signs are all there but they can often be easy to overlook. As missionaries we have to be very patient and loving with people, just as the Savior would, but it's also our job to help them see the things they just can't. I'm grateful for this opportunity because in the process the Lord is showing me those things that I've missed too. That's the bonus of the Lord's work, any time we do something for him, he blesses us even more. Blessings all around.

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Senior Scarefest

Friday BINGO was cancelled as a result of the senior Halloween Party and it was totally worth it. I'm still kicking myself that I forgot about it so I left my camera at home. I cannot believe how spirited these seniors got and I haven't laughed so hard in a long time. They went all out with their costumes and they were parading around the place like they were in middle school. There was even a 90 year old lady of the night. I couldn't believe it, tears were shooting out of my eyeballs when she walked in with her fishnets and corset top. My poor companion was mortified, completely frozen solid. Then Wendy, our Asian friend, brought us costumes she insisted we put on right then. I glanced down at the description of the bag she handed me, "Sexy Cat", complete with studded ears and bell collar. She watched as we both put them on and I could feel my companion's innocence shriveling up inside. It was glorious! There we were, two missionary sexy cats standing among 90 year old hookers. Halloween is amazing.

 

I've been in some serious hot sauce training and it's paying off. A few days ago I ate some freshly made salsa that really kicked up in my mouth, but I pushed through the sweat and the tears and yesterday I was able to eat two jalapenos like they were pickles! My Spanish isn't any better, but I feel like they take me more seriously when I can eat the hot sauce. It's the sacrifices we make for the gospel that bring about those miracles. I'm just talking one for team Jesus.

 

We had a pretty rough week so I needed a restaurant break. We were driving around, but I was so grumpy nothing sounded good. All of a sudden I saw the green lettering of the Olive Garden. For some reason I had a double take, asked my companion if she liked the place - never been! - so I flipped a u-ie and we went in for some serious breadstick/alfredo therapy. After we were seated, a lovely waitress came up and welcomed us with 'hi, sisters'. Naturally, our ears are up, we're so famous! Sure enough she was a member...that hasn't been to church in 7 months...and had just moved into our ward boundaries. WHAT?! After she took our drink orders and walked off I looked at my companion and our mouths dropped and I said, whelp I guess the Holy Ghost talks to me through my stomach. We had a great chat with her about church and the blessings of coming back and all chuckled as this was clearly a call from God to get back there. We left happy, stuffed and hopefully helped a lost sheep return back to the fold. It's the Olive Garden miracle!

 

Satan has been a big fat jerkface to us recently. It wasn't until the mission that I realized how hard he works on discouraging us. I love how everything is so cut and dry on the mission because you're only worried about one thing so if you feel anything bad or negative, it's Satan - it makes things so easy! I don't think I was prepared for how much Satan would try to discourage us, but it got me thinking about other times in my life when he was doing the same thing and I didn't even realize it. He's so sneaky and he uses these little negative feelings, moments of frustration or discouragement to take away our feelings of hope and peace so it becomes harder for us to feel the promptings of the Holy Ghost. It's a mad genius plan and it works! It's hard to remember that it's the adversary beating us down when we feel that way because nothing seems to be going right but really it's those times when we have to remember that there is only one reason the adversary is working so hard on us...it's because we are capable of so much!

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Jungle Gym

This week went by entirely too fast that I can't even remember what happened. I'm sure miracles occurred, they always do. San Jose rains miracles. Yesterday popped our bubble when none of our investigators (and we have a ton because we are just that good) showed up even AFTER stopping by one of their houses and helping pack up the car. No clue what happened, but it sure hurts as you watch the clock tick by in Sacrament Meeting and that door is not opening anymore. I sang again in church yesterday because everyone thought my piano playing companion was going to get transferred (which she did not) and they wanted to hear her one last time...that and I think they like to hear me try and say Spanish words. Something happened with her fingers and the piano so there was a bit of a disaster which I was really tempted to cover with some kind of clever joke until I remembered that I was at the podium in front of everyone in the middle of a spiritual number. It ended fine and they all still think I sound like an angel. Presh.

 

We've been teaching a lot of people with kids recently. It's not my favorite. I mean I enjoy a kid as much as anyone, but they don't love boring lessons about the Restoration. Shocker. I've been trying to explain this to my companion, but I don't think it's quite clicked yet. Anywhoo...why she goes on and on I try to distract the children aka I turn into a jungle gym. Now it's strictly against the rules for us to babysit or basically touch children, which I support 100% but I really don't know what to do when three kids start climbing up my lap on top of my head. What blows my mind even more than that is when their parents don't seem to notice it happening. Oh well. Turns out I'm better than a park.

 

Language mishaps continue, but they only make people love me more. The other day we were retelling the wonderful Conference Talk by Elder Holland about Peter and the fishing. I started talking about how Jesus was like come on Peter, get with it, if you want fish I can get you fish, what I need is for you to...eat my sheep. Laughter ensued...white girl doesn't get it. Then last night at a dinner appointment instead of saying 'sangre' (blood) I started talking about 'sangria'...the alcoholic beverage. My bad. Good thing I'm so precious.

 

My current pet peeve is the response to all commitments, "God willing". Will you read this scripture? "God willing". Will you come to church this Sunday? "God willing". Will you stop breaking all of the commandments? "God willing". GAH! Trust me, God is very willing for you to do all of these things. Isn't it funny that people use the excuse of God to not do things that God wants them to do. haha. I love it! But I also hate it. Then I realized, I do it too! I never use those words, but I'm sure I find plenty of reasonable excuses to not do things. We have some investigators that won't get baptized because they are waiting for the voice of the Lord to tell them to change churches. They know everything we taught is true, but they want more, it's God willing or nothing. This happens over and over in the Book of Mormon when people forget they have a part in the matter of faith. We must do out part too. If we want the support of our Heavenly Father, if we want the blessings and the understanding that is just waiting for us, we have to do something about it. I'm learning this starts with simple, honest and grateful prayer. We must do as they teach us in the Book of Mormon and humbly ask our Father to help us with the things we need, make up our weaknesses and bless us with guidance. Of course, God knows what we want and what we need but he only gives us what we wish is often not what we want. Surprise! Ah that's the joys and the pains of life. Isn't it great?! Woohoo!

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Dirty Work

This was a week of charity and taking out the trash. The golden contact we found last week met with us 2 days after General Conference and had already read and MARKED all the way through 2 Nephi. We were floored. She loves it all. She committed to be baptized on Oct 27 and then the bomb, she's not in our area so we had to hand her over on a silver platter to the Hermanas in our rival ward. That was so hard. Our transition lesson was amazing though and those sisters made me realize how much work I have left to do. I think my mouth was open the whole time at their ability to teach powerfully and to the point...and under an hour. It was amazing! I scribbled as many notes as I could and I'm for sure going to copy them. Two days later we got another golden couple from street contacting and sure enough...they aren't in our area either so basically we just handed that ward 3 baptisms in a month. You're welcome. Charity: check.

 

Saturday was bursting with wackadoo, but it was miraculous. We stopped to visit an investigator and she wasn't there...but her boyfriend that we've never got to talk to us for more than 1 min was. We ended up having a 45 min lesson on the doorstep with him asking questions about everything. I felt a tiny tug in my heart to tell him to marry his girlfriend so she could get baptized. After telling my brain that was crazy I finally blurted it out. He responded surprisingly well and perhaps this was the miracle we needed! Me and my big mouth. Later that night we stopped by one of our favorite members home, a part of town we never go that late at night, only to find all the lights off. We felt like we should knock anyway and their backyard renter (yeah, that's how people live out here) answered the door, drunk as could be. It took about 30 sec to realize we were there for him as he poured out his soul and desire to return to church. We bore testimony of the Atonement and let him know he was always welcome back to church. He burst into tears as we reminded him of God's love for him and surely that is why he sent us there that night. He asked us if we could take away his addictions...uh...sure...and he went to his trailer in the back and brought a stack of...ahem digital ladies and handed them to us. I wasn't going to let my sweet, innocent companion touch that so I took it and then asked him where his beer was. He said he just wanted it that night and in the morning he'd be done, with my gentle, soft voice...let's be honest, it was the Hna Hall 'I'm right' voice I said give it to me. He stared at me like I'd just punched him in the face and I started to get a little nervous but I stood firm and said it again, no more, give it to me. He broke down, walked over to the corner and handed over his booze. Picture it as we left that house, me with a stack of dirty discs in my left hand and a 40 in the other and of course we walked to the car the members came home. Awkward...as I slyly dumped the beer out behind my back and shoved everything else in the trunk as quickly as possible. Then, of course when we got home to dump that trash our member neighbors came home...so I hid behind the bush until they went inside. It just seemed a little too hard to explain what I was doing with beer and porn.

 

As for the food adventures this week, it was rough. Let's just say that the food burns going in and it burns going out. At one house this week, they gave me three plates of food. I stared at it for awhile and just prayed. Luckily she left the room and when she did I took back my plate and scraped the food back into the pot then hustled back to my seat...in such a rush that I sat on the curtain and pulled down the entire rod. Awesome. Whatever, I got out of eating a truckload of beans. And no, we never have dessert, they don't really do dessert or at least not my kind of dessert. We get a lot of fruit, I guess some people think that counts. Speaking of fruit, the other day at BINGO an old lady with dirty hands gave me an apple and made me eat it in front of her. I'm not going to lie, for a second I thought she was trying to Snow White me to death. But I survived.

 

In closing I would like to quote...ok just kidding I have no quote. But we have been talking a lot here about service. For us, conference really focused on service and yesterday we had a recap of Ballard's talk about bees and how it takes all of us to get that honey. I don't exactly know what he said because I listened to it both times in Spanish but I think it was something like that. Anyway, we've seen miracles in this area because of the work of members and friends. There is sweet honey in the work of service. No act is too small, it all makes a difference. As missionaries, we are very grateful for even the tiniest help from others, it really does make a huge impact on someone investigating this gospel and it will lead to a change of heart and life. So thank you for all your service, thank you for helping the missionaries help others. And as Nelson said, if you or anyone has questions or needs help, ask the missionaries, we can help.

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Like a Rock Star

I feel like a rock star when I walk into the senior center at the Salvation Army for Bingo, I'm not going to lie, it might be going to my head. I walk in and they stomp their walkers, they clap for joy, they start shouting "B9er" and "BINGO". I high five them all as I strut up to the front and start a rip roaring game of BINGO. It's great! One of the highlights of my week for sure. I'm so cool...to old people.

 

This past week was a busy week, we got to take a trip to the temple, then we had zone conference all day and then we finished off the week with General Conference. How bout those mission age changes? That's all the buzz in the mission world. I can't stop thinking about how much older that just made me. There was a lot of mission talk this Conference, or at least that's what stood out being that I'm a missionary right now. I did start feeling a little sweat bead up on my brow when Elder Nelson kept telling people to talk to the missionaries. Talk about pressure! But yes, that is what we want. Please talk to us.

 

We got to see several miracles this week, my favorite is a cute little lady we ran into during some service at a clothing donation site. This was our first time there and we were about to leave when she heard us speaking Spanish and was really shocked to see two white girls doing it. She came up and asked us about our name tags and we talked a little about what we do and our church. My companion mentioned the fact that we had a prophet and her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. So I told her she could come see the Prophet speak this weekend and she agreed! And she actually came. We picked her up from the train station and walked the half-mile to the chapel with her as she talked about how she hadn't planned to come to the shelter that day but something told her to. We talked about many gospel related topics and just as the spirit does, as we sat and watched Conference each and every one of her concerns was directly addressed. Her mouth was open the entire time, it was awesome - just straight miracles from heaven, no big deal. As one of the speakers talked about the Book of Mormon she turned to us and asked how she could get one, she just felt like she needed to read it. We chuckled and assured her that would be no problem. Needless to say this was an answer to prayer, fasting and obedience. We are teaching her tonight and pray things keep going this golden.

 

I ate a jalapeno. I'm not going to belittle myself and say it was a dare, but it was a challenge of faith. I did it and now I know I have faith. Also I'm getting more Latina every day. I even had a nice dark tan the other day (yes, dark is relative) but it's all peeling off now. Bummer. In other news, humorous events of this past week include, watching the Joseph Smith movie with an investigator and the phone ringing right as Joseph kneels down for the his first, world changing, prayer (obviously). Who was it you ask, oh just their pastor. Curse you Satan - using Pastors to thwart our efforts! We re-round the clip and made him watch it again. ha. Then the other day we were with another investigator chatting about the Word of Wisdom and how wackadoo California is with it's legal pot, just as he was talking about how common and even normal around here that stuff is, the aroma of skunk filled the room. Classy. One of our investigators has a HUGE statue of the virgin Mary in her living room, sometimes I can't help but stare at it. The other day we gave her a photo of the Salt Lake Temple and when we went back to visit a few days later, there was the temple at Mary's feet, right above Jesus! It was the best thing ever.

 

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed Conference. For the record, I did not fall asleep and I even had to watch some in Spanish. There were many powerful talks as usual and I was particularly struck by the discussion of Peter and the Apostles after Christ's death. They knew not what to do, but the Lord patiently reminded them the job of followers of Christ is to feed his sheep. I feel lucky to be doing that full time right now. It's totally weird and we see some crazy crap, but we also get to see the Lord's hands working miracles in countless lives as he lifts, changes and blesses his sheep...all of them. We work with a lot of His sheep that have strayed and it can be some of the hardest work, but it's also a great blessing to see the light come back into their eyes when we enter their house and remind them of the covenants they made and the happiness they can have again. Just as the Lord did not give up on his apostles, he does not give up on us, instead he asks us to follow him, follow that perfect example and think not of fishing fish for ourselves, but with his fishes feed those he puts in our path. They are not kidding when they say there is no greater work...it's for sure work, but it's so worth it.

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Heat Wave

It has been 100 degrees here in San Jose the past two days which is not exactly foreign to me, but it is the hottest it's been since I got here so that's been weird. So I have no idea what's going on with the weather, but it's killing us because, remember how I said no one here seems to have air conditioning...yeah. Oh and how they all have pleather couches that just stick to you real nice when you're all good and sweating. I was basically dying in someone's home the other day trying to bear testimony of the gospel and at the same time realizing I was super glued to that couch. I had to stand up real fast and hold in the scream because that ripped like duct tape.

 

Well our special musical number was quite the sensation on Sunday. I stood up there and as soon as I started to sing I could see peoples mouths drop open as the voice of an angel filled the chapel. ha. Or it could have been the fact that I was singing in Spanish. But everyone was shocked and complimented me mucho. That was nice. I was praying so hard the Holy Ghost would sing for me and I'm pretty sure that's what happened.

 

Well all the gangbangers love me. I mean, it's not really something I've ever done before, but apparently I can speak the word on the street or it might be the name tag and my angelic body guards. We have a lot of ex-gang member investigators and we meet at lot during service throughout the week. They are surprisingly respectful and are always saying sure thing, lil' white girl, plus they are all about Jesus, sure that's mixed in with a lot of messed up grammar and swear words but they know about their Jesus.

 

This past weekend we got to watch the Women's General Conference...in Spanish. I actually really enjoyed listening to it in Spanish because the voices were melodic and I didn't have to hear the squeaky, crying mom voices they all have. haha I'm terrible, but it's true! Why do they all sound like that?! I don't get it. But the conference was really good. I'm always amazed when I understand what's going on in Spanish, but it turns out I actually can understand and speak it. Miracles.

 

We've been hyping up General Conference this weekend to everyone we see like it's a big ole party. The other day while contacting on the street we ran into a group of Catholic ladies that shared their love of BYU TV with us. They even watched the Women's General Conference - my mouth dropped open - like even when you didn't have to out of guilt? haha j/k j/k. They talked about how much they love the BYU programming and the uplifting messages so obviously I mentioned General Conference coming up this weekend and what a great chance it is to hear from the Lord's prophet . They were super excited and are having a party to watch it. What? Ok, yeah, do that with all your Catholic girlfriends and then call us when you want to get baptized. Perfect. It was a great reminder to me though that our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, is not just the Mormon Prophet, he is God's prophet for the entire world and when he speaks he is speaking to the entire world, whether they know it or not. It is such a huge blessing to have these leaders of God's church here today, even the Catholics know it! Since being on my mission I have a great appreciation for the words of the prophets, they have hit me harder, stronger and are much more clear. It's a gift to missionaries, so I am looking forward to hearing all the glorious council they will have this weekend. What is amazing too is how personal conference can be and that's because their words are truly inspired so the Holy Ghost can touch each of our hearts and teach us something very unique and special just for us. We've been encouraging people to have some questions, concerns or thoughts in mind as they watch General Conference this weekend and listen carefully for those individual prickles of the spirit. I would encourage all of my friends reading this to do the same and I know that as you really listen for those answers things will stand out that seem like it was meant just for you, because that's how awesome this Gospel of revelation is. Something broadcast to the whole world can hit the heart of one person like a ton of bricks. The Holy Ghost is the best teacher in the world! I'm so glad he has my back.

B9er

Well I just got back from a thrilling game of BINGO with my friends, the San Jose seniors. They were really on something today - must be some new meds but they were repeating EVERYTHING I was saying in beeps and squawks. It sounded like the Muppet Show takes over the Salvation Army. It was hilarious. I wish I could record it for all to enjoy. I was dying. I mean, I guess sometimes I sound like a Muppet, but you never really know how others hear you until they all sing it back to you in chorus. Glorious.

 

Speaking of chorus, I am going to be singing this Sunday in church...in Spanish. It was the only way I could get out of giving a talk in Spanish. It's going to be something for sure. I hope I don't start mumbling or crying. Sometimes in lessons when people stop paying attention to my terrible Spanish I just start mumbling and fading off into nothingness. They never notice. Maybe I can do that in song too.

 

I love Latinos. They are so nice. They say yes to everything! Other missionaries complain about getting 'no' to appointments, commitments or even to take pass along cards. We always get a "yes", would you like this picture of Christ, yes, would you like to have us come over and teach you more, yes. Would you like to get baptized, yes. It's so great! I mean, they don't really do it, but I love not getting no's, it makes me feel like da bomb missionary. The Elders told me that if I wanted to be even better and be fluent in Spanish in no time I should eat some hot sauce. Desperate as I am, I did it. I immediately regretted that decision as my mouth burst into flames. I cried for the next 15 min while they all laughed at me. I don't speak any better. You know what else makes me cry. Mormon Messages. I never paid any attention to those things before, but they are my most favorite things ever. We have a disk of a dozen or so and I just watch them over and over and since I'm already filled to the gills with spiritual goodness anytime I watch one I burst into tears. It's spirit overload and it's awesome! Everyone needs a good spirit cry.

 

My current Mormon Message favorite is from Elder Neslon. He is telling a story about a near airplane crash he experienced. The lady next to him was hysterical and he was totally calm. At first I was like pffft, yeah of course he's calm, he's Elder Nelson, but he goes on to explain the comfort that comes when we understand things in terms of forever. He said that today peoples' hearts are failing, failing because of fear and failure as a result of lack of perspective. He reminds us that perfection does not come in this life and we would do good to not be so hard on ourselves and remember who we are and what we really are doing here. I can remember many times in my life when I could feel my heart failing - fear, disappointment, failure, and pain can bring a cloud of darkness and remove all peace and comfort. Every time it took a pause, a refocus to lift the cloud over my heart and head. That refocus is so much more simple and so much more effective when it is on our Savior. As we look to Him, leave our burdens at His feet and move forward, trying again, we will find that we truly have nothing to fear in this world...well except a plane crash, I'm still afraid of those. ha. j/k. Yay Jesus!

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Freaky Friday

So, I just have to say this how it was, our investigator totally got possessed this week. Yeah, that happened. The Elders had to give him, his apartment and his friend a blessing and then we had to get rid of the possessed trolls he had collected from a Satanic shop. Oh yeah, that turned out to be a terrible purchase. Thank goodness for the Priesthood, it saved his life and it was super intense. I felt like I was in a movie. That crap is no joke. On the upside, after the exorcism, I told him he was going to need to get baptized in two weeks...he agreed. Phew. Glad we got that cleared up. Talk about crazy town...I've been experiencing a lot of wackadoo going down in SJ town. I think I'm discovering that my people, the Latinos, have a lot of experiences those other white people just don't have - like they see stuff. Stuff that would make me scream and then wet my pants. It's unreal. Sometimes I don't believe them, I just nod and open my eyes real big, but after this week, uh yeah...they are not kidding.

 

Anyway...after our victory over demons, a member asked me to dye her hair. I figure if I can speak Spanish I can probably also dump color on someone's head. So now I'm a vampire slayer and a beautician. Take that Buffy.

 

We also had an encounter with a free mason. Apparently there are several out here. He showed me his fancy, secret ring. Awesome. He knows more than all of us.Then I tried to give a Mormon.org card to a guy, he took it from me so I was like it's super great and it's about Jesus! He gave it back saying "ew no."  Wow, that guy is gonna be in trouble. Later that night, I discovered my real skill out here was to help a 9 yr old read fairy tales...in English. It was the best day ever. To top it all off her dad asked me how to say words in English. I was so on it. I rocked that day.

 

Sometimes I'm in a lesson and I can't stay awake. That's a confession. It's also the end of the story. Our ward has been going through some serious changes recently and we have a new ward mission leader, who is awesome, and a new Elder who eats the rest of my food when I can't and will drink the nasty juices for me. I'm pretty close to being Latina though. Maybe just like another month or two. I put Tajin on my fruit now - that's how I know. Sometimes the members trick me though, we'll be talking in Spanish and all of a sudden I'll understand everything we're talking about and I'll get really excited that I have the gift of tongues and now my mission is really going to explode and then I realize, they switched to English. Tricksters.

 

Anyway, a few weeks ago I got a letter from an awesome friend. He said he's been working on replacing the word 'lucky' in his vocabulary with 'blessed'. I love that. My blessing vision has gotten so much better as a missionary and those little tricks like changing a word, a perspective, an attitude have made all the difference. We know we get blessings every single day so it's only a matter of looking for them and trust me, they are everywhere. It blows my mind sometimes, well all the time. Being blessed is not a condition, it's a decision. Today I decide to be blessed, come decide to be blessed with me! Blessing party!!

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Not the sprinklers!

We just got back from Zone croquet and kickball. I beat everyone at croquet because it's a fancy sport and I'm fancy. I opted out of the kickball, and chose to be team support but then they brought out a ginormous exercise ball to play with. Oh man, that had to be one of the funniest things I've ever seen. People kicking and catching a ball bigger than them. Elders come up with some rather interesting 'safe' activities. It was hilarious. Then later, the Elders were blowing up carrots in the microwave. So. Yeah.

 

Let's see, more adventures on the streets this week. For the record, I am SO grateful we don't have to knock on doors for investigators in this mission. The other day we were stopping by a slippery investigator and they yelled, 'Who is it?" The Sister Missionaries. Pause..."No one is here!" Oh ok. Got it. So then we headed over to a recent convert's home. The lights were on, all things looked good. Knock, knock. Lights off. Oh ok. Got it. 10 seconds later. Sprinklers. What? Seriously. We got the message. You really can only laugh in those situations. At least I haven't been chased by dogs. Yet.

 

On non rejection days, the BINGO folks love me. I had to miss one day for a meeting and when I came back they were clapping and cheering. It was so adorable. They've started repeating how I call most numbers now. It's so awesome. I'm so popular with old people. We are kindred spirits. One of my biggest fans, mainly because I put his daily eye drops in for him, called me over and asked where I was the other day. He said the skinny one was there, but that I, the not skinny one (yes he said that) wasn't. And then gave me a lemon tart. It was good. I think he knew I would like it more than the skinny one. He is from the Philippines, is like 90, rides a wheelchair and announces his coming with 'meep meep,' like a Muppet. He's my favorite.

 

This week I had some rocking experiences with prayer. I've never been really good at praying, let's face it I'm not really good at a lot of spiritual things - how did they let me wear this name tag?! But, we had a zone meeting this week and they put all of our numbers up on the board for everyone to see. I was mortified. I felt like we'd been working really hard and doing really well and then I saw the numbers of the other companionships in our zone. Wow. They wasted us, by like a lot. Now, we had the only baptism in the zone so that made up for a lot, but the rest of our numbers were abysmal, and not Joey's definition of the word. I told my comp we can't let that happen again so we started to pray that we could meet our weekly goals. It was Friday and were down by 10 lessons and we had 3 hours left in the day and a dinner appointment with one of my favorite families but they are just never ready on time and we end up being there forever. We said a pleading prayer that we could find people to teach and that dinner could be ready on time for us to find more. Five minutes after we got out of the car we had a lesson with a member's neighbor. Sure, he was saying crazy things like he could tell in my eyes that I was intelligent so he wanted to know who birthed God, but still, it was a lesson. When we got to the members' home the food was on the table. It was a Christmas miracle! Long story short, we miraculously met our lesson goal this week. I know this was an answer to our sincere prayer to a loving Heavenly Father.

 

Prayer is absolutely vital to missionary work (and life, of course) and I'm quickly gaining a testimony of it's power that I never really bothered to notice before. As we kneel down in humble prayer recognizing our weaknesses, thanking for all the tender mercies we receive and ask for our Father to guide us, to comfort us, to help us, I know He will. I have seen this a billion times already in just 4 months and just this week I received another huge testimony of the power of prayer. I found a recent Ensign article about the power of prayer. The author was a Bishop at one point and when people would come to him in trouble the first thing he would ask about is their relationship with prayer. Many would say yes, I know I need to work on prayer, now how do I fix my problems. I chuckled as I read this because I think that is how I felt most of my life. I just didn't see the value in this thing that is, in reality, so precious. Satan doesn't help, he doesn't want us to pray, which should only add to the convincing evidence of its power. Day by day, I'm learning how to better communicate with my Father in Heaven and I'm seeing the change in my life and in my heart. There is never a time when our Heavenly Father does not want to hear from us. He is waiting to bless us, but because of our gift of agency, we must come to Him and ask in prayer. There is nothing sweeter than watching an investigator pray to their Father for the first time and we can have this sweet experience all the time. If you feel as I did: "yeah yeah prayer...now let's fix my problems" - please believe me that the answer really, truly can be found in humble prayer. It may not be immediate, but as we practice this relationship and as we search for the answers our hearts and minds will be filled. It's pretty sweet.

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Elder ladies

Yesterday was Labor Day so to celebrate our zone went to play the nation's pastime...wiffle ball. It was pretty fun, but this morning I was reminded that I'm not 20 and I've been walking around like a hunchback all morning. Classy. Speaking of being old, yes every where I go they ask how old we are. I think it's just because they are curious what we are doing with our lives. People usually guess 22. I enjoy that. And they never believe my real age, which I enjoy even more. The other day we were at a members home (English) and they were asking about my family and my siblings. I have four brothers. "So they are all older than you?" No, actually I'm the oldest. Oh. Ok. "So how old is the oldest one?" He's 29. The mother is out of the room and I can see the daughter perplexed in the corner. The mother yells, so how many older brothers do you have? The daughter says no mom she is the oldest. The mother replies, "no she can't be she said she has a 29 yr old brother." Oh...cricket, cricket. Anyway...

 

We had a wide variety of interesting lessons this week as usual. We were teaching the Restoration and Joseph Smith to a new investigator at a member's home when right in the middle in walks two Elders...then two more. And there they sat, all four of them in the corner while we proceeded to teach this poor guy about the church with the power of 6 missionaries in one living room. It worked though because he agreed to be baptized. The Elders were there for another appointment with the member's other friend and were really embarrassed to crash our lesson. As they should be. haha. We've been trying to stalk, I mean find, another investigator who is really good at hiding, but the other day we walked up to her door and found a Mormon picture of Jesus taped to her front door. We felt like this was a solid victory then I glanced over and saw the Virgin Mary and 10 other Jesuses in the window. Oh rats. Hey at least the Mormon Jesus made it to the door!

 

We had a lesson with a member family about the Plan of Salvation and somehow it moved to random question hour where we had to answer things about judgement day and whether or not they were going to have to live with their annoying little brother FOREVER?! NO!!!  We reminded them we'd all be perfect by then and then asked for a closing prayer. The cute little boy forgot our names and called us Elder ladies. It was adorable.

 

Speaking of Elders, ours had a baptism this past week. Yay! He was 30 min late - standard time - but he got baptized. We even had an investigator there, sure he happened to get a call right before the guy got dunked (Satan is a jerk) but he still got to experience the glorious baptismal spirit. He's a for sure Mormon in the near future. We also got to attend my first real Latin wedding. It. Was. Amazing! They had a real live mariachi band, lots of food and it was like 10 hours long. It was in the cultural hall so it gave us a good opportunity to talk to people about the church, but it was too hard not to dance so we couldn't stay long.

 

This week I've been thinking a lot about the blessings we get from keeping our covenants, the promises we make with Heavenly Father. As Latter-day Saints, we are a covenant people, a people of action and thank goodness because the protection and blessings are what sustain us in this life. I've learned really quickly out here the benefit of obedience and I am so grateful for the covenants of baptism and those from the temple that I've made that give me even more protection, guidance and support of the Holy Ghost. I can feel the power that comes from clinging to the covenants we make with our Heavenly Father. He is wanting and waiting to give us these blessings, He wants to protect us from that jerkstore Satan and the other follies of the world all we have to do is follow Him. We need the sustaining power of our covenants, let us all hold on tightly and remember our purpose here is to obtain everlasting life, something we can only get with the power of these covenants. Hooray for covenants!

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Power Prayer

Ah the mission life, another week full of random, strange, miraculous and awkward events crammed together in a glorious mesh. Our recent converts have been having some serious trials recently. This past week their son was shot in the street and it made the news, so I heard. He's alive and now in jail. So that's you know, totally normal. Since he's alive, we are hoping this might be kind of an Alma the Younger tale where he has some sense knocked back into him and becomes the world's best missionary. That would be awesome! Then the other day she finally got some really great news at the court, was so happy and then came home to an eviction notice - because of her crazy son. Yikes. I get nervous every time we go over to their house that something else bad has happened. They must have some big blessings ahead of them. They are still so strong, faithful and optimistic, if nothing else they have been a huge example to me in some serious trials, not just the kind of trials I have like when the cereal I want to buy is not on sale. Are you kidding me?!

 

Let's see, we were asked if we could cast out demons this week. I pulled out my wand and was ready to take care of business. But it turns out he was serious so we set him up with the Elders and we got the heck out of there. I got attack hugged by a drunk guy - he just wanted a birthday hug! Ick. I gave him a picture of Jesus and told him to go pray. He wanted a picture of the virgin Mary. Speaking of virgins, (awkward transition) we found this awesome video of the parable of the 10 Virgins. It's really captivating...until the end and all of a sudden it busts into this awesome 80's ballad talking about saving drops of oil and shows cheesy shots of people doing 'good' things. I busted out laughing the first time I watched it, then made my comp watch it and of course we took it to a family that night for FHE. I couldn't wait until that part to see the reaction of the 13 yr old. It was worth it. Oh and I think they learned something gospelly too.

 

The other day we had a lesson with a member referral and it was super awkward. They were happy to see us and invited us in, but didn't offer us to sit down. So us being polite and ladylike we patiently waited and commenced with pleasantries. Before I knew it my comp is busting out the Restoration and we are all still standing! And there we were, all 4 of us standing in front of couches for an hour. Several times I thought, it's probably ok if I just sit down, but I kept thinking I'll wait for a break to ask. Then I couldn't remember how to ask. Then the longer the standing went on the more awkward it became to say something. At one point I thought the investigator was about to sit down and I felt so relieved, but no, she just put her leg up on the couch. What?! How are you not super uncomfortable right now with all four of us standing in the middle of a couch filled room talking about Jesus! Ahh. Needless to say they didn't invite us back - my guess is they don't want to join a church they think they have to stand through. Me neither.

 

This week has been the week of prayer miracles. We pray like a billion times a day as a missionary. I am not going to lie, sometimes I don't want to pray in the car with my companion, but we do and we need to. This past week we have really seen the blessings and miracles that have come from our prayers as well as prayers from you, my family, the ward here and those in the temple. We've been struggling with several inactive families who love our visits but can't seem to make it back to church. The other day we did our usual stop by and at the door, their non-member, adult son announced he was going to take his parents to church on Sunday. What?! Yes, please. And thank you. Yesterday, a part member family we'd been working with invited us for dinner and afterward we were able to share a wonderful message on prayer with the non-member father who didn't run from us this time and at the end he committed to pray with his family every day. What?! Yeah, these are miracles from prayers. It's also very timely because my comp and I have been talking a lot about Alma the Younger recently and how the angel appeared to him to snap him back into gear because of the faithful prayers of his father and the whole town. This week I want to add my testimony to this amazing Book of Mormon story of prayer. I have never been very good with prayers, basically a prayer slacker, but I have gained such a great appreciation for them as I can see first hand everyday how Heavenly Father answers them. He never answers in expected ways, because he's God and he knows better, but he always answers with more blessings than we could imagine. I also want to thank all of you praying for me, my brothers and all the missionaries around the world. It is by the faith of your prayers that angels are truly visiting people and changing their lives - in fact, saving their souls. Thank you and never stop believing in the power of the prayer.

 

Oh and just so everyone can be at ease, I have mastered the art of parallel parking once again. It's hilarious how tedious backing up can get on the mission so you really only want to do that once. Now if only I could master backing up out of a lesson that just went an hour too long...

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Yeah, we can see you there.

The overfeeding of the short, chubby redhead has begun. This is what happens when you start becoming popular in a ward, people want to express their love with food. I love me some food, but man. I tried to be careful in my prayers about this, we really want to have dinners with members, but I also don't want to die from bean overdose. It's a rough line. I'm walking it. Also I drank oatmeal water. Exactly that, oatmeal...in water. It was a real drink. I enjoy me some aqua frescas but this was a new one. It wasn't as bad as it sounds but it does taste exactly as it sounds. Weird. After the dinner, the member wanted us, just the two of us lovely missionaries to sing hymns to her. So we did. I'm sure it was angelic to all who hearkened upon it.

 

The past week our investigators started scattering from us like roaches in the light. I just compared our investigators to roaches. My bad. But you get the idea. The other day we got stood up so as we drove off we saw him hanging out at his spot by the payphone on the corner. He saw us, we parked and he RAN! No joke. He ran from us. bahaha. That was a first for me. I couldn't stop laughing. So yeah, it's hilarious when people try to hide from the missionaries as if they think they are magically invisible. Even if we didn't have the power of sight, we have the power of God, we can feel you there. Nice try, we'll stalk you down another day. We stalked down another investigator last night and it ended up being an awesome lesson, we made her cry - the good kind - and picked up three of her family members as new investigators. Bam, bam bam!

 

We finally got to visit with our bird loving friend yesterday as well. He's a young single guy so I obviously felt it best to try a little "flirt to convert" only I remembered I can't do that so I asked the cute, single girl in our ward to come along. mwahaha. She's a little shy, but agreed. Towards the end of the lesson I felt really strongly that I should ask her to share her testimony of the Book of Mormon. I talked back to myself in my head saying that was just cruel to put her on the spot like that, but I did it, I opened my mouth and I threw her under the bus...and it was amazing! Her testimony was so sweet and so powerful. It was a perfect way to end the lesson. After she thanked me for making her do it and said she wants to do that more. Phew. I'm not telling her about the flirting thing though. That's my secret plan.

 

The highlight of the week was another baptism!! It feels a little like cheating because it was a 9 yr old girl of an recently reactivated family that we haven't taught much, but still we had a baptism on Saturday and it was awesome. We got a few potential investigators there too. Miracles!

 

Last week I had to teach district meeting again with last minute notice. I think the district leader likes taunting me. Shocking. As I was preparing for it I kept thinking man I wish I had a computer and could Google some articles about this. The closest thing we have to LDS.org google is a stack of old Liahonas so I went there. I pulled out one Ensign hiding in there and obviously the perfect article was right there! Who needs Google when you have the spirit?! Anyway, the topic was on goal setting and planning, A Time to Prepare by Elder Ian S. Arden. He happened to mention some time suckers like catapulting birds...my answer was clear - I needed to have an Angry Birds game/analogy. So I did. It was awesome. The gist, if our goal is to knock down those bricks to get the pigs (comparing investigators to pigs, I should think these things through a little more) then we must use the tools we have (different types of birds for scriptures, prayer, planning, etc) to achieve our goals. The Elders loved it and I quite enjoyed it as well. Making goals was not something I was good at before the mission. There is an awesome quote in Preach My Gospel from someone important that basically says if we don't set good goals we will one day look back on our lives and realize we didn't reach our potential (that's Hna Hall interpretation). I feel that way about my pre-mission life and I struggle with some feelings of regret by not setting better (more spiritually based) goals for my life. It's very clear on a mission how important setting goals and planning are, but I'm starting to really see the value of this in every aspect of life. If we don't set good goals with a gospel perspective in mind - goals that make us stretch a little bit - then we will never truly find our potential. What a shame. I want to be more awesome, so that is my new goal. Come be awesome with me...spiritually speaking of course. Yay!

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

 

P.S. more people should write me. Probably. :)

BINGO

Whelp this was a weird week. We must have smelled really bad because we got cancelled on a ton like we were way out of style...which just couldn't be true. We just started getting popular at church too and our dinner calendar was filling up...but then they all cancelled on us. ha! The Elders were super jealous of our dinner calendar. They only had like 3 days. haha. Suckers. Yesterday was awesome though and some how we got 5 lessons so that fixed our numbers for the week and they weren't totally embarrassing to report anymore.

 

Finally people are noticing my hair around here - geez! One lady we were visiting shouted out during my companion's testimony, has your hair always been red? haha. Yes. Then she talked about how amazing it was for 10 minutes. I enjoyed that. Later in the week someone else asked me what color I use. Uh...no girl, this is for realz. She was super jealous. I enjoyed that as well. Maybe they are a little color blind in Cali.

 

This week was a disaster at the old folks Bingo game. I guess I'm now the new caller for reals. I don't mind, except for how cranky they can be! They don't like it when you get fancy or try to make jokes. The other day I was asking if they were ready for black out and they were like 'mehhh' which is old person for 'yes'. And I shouted back all cute 'me too!' Well they thought I said B2 and it was a huge to do. Later I started spinning the balls and the latch popped open and they went EVERYWHERE! I thought the seniors were going to kill me the way they glared at me in disgust. Later though, I realized they didn't hate me when they started repeating the way I said numbers, which is just hilarious. Also they like it when I say 'niner'. ha! Later an old lady came up to talk to me about God, but for some reason she had to be really up in my bubble so much so that she kept spitting all over my face. It was so gross, but I played it cool and then I ran to wash my face trying not to think about what was dripping on my face at the moment. Ahh good times with the oldies.

 

So, I'm driving now and I feel much safer. I'm very confused with all the freeways, but slowly getting around. Thank goodness for GPS! I also feel bad for making fun of my companion with her parallel parking skills because it turns out, our parking spot at the apt is really really hard and I'm not good at it either! Maybe it's been so long I don't remember how. Someone Google and send me a diagram...or tips for dummies. ha. Speaking of cars, I keep seeing twins of Red Dragon around town. I miss her and then I remember one of them could be her! She only lives like 15 min away! How fun. 

 

I got a hilarious letter from my old college roomy, C. Oh man. That was a gem. She mentioned her first Sunday in Uruguay and how she had to conduct the music and how interesting it was. I laughed because I have the same problem. No one can play the piano or lead...or sing. Music on Sundays is very interesting. Not only that but the hymns in Spanish are different, for one I don't know the words, for two the rhythms are slightly off so when I'm leading it's...well it's a disaster. So I just smile. I find that works for almost everything. Thank heavens. 

 

This week I've been thinking a lot about grace. Since we have nothing to study but the gospel it's all I know right now. I heard there was something called the 'olympics' going on - what's that? Rebekah mentioned recently in one of her letters about the rapid learning rate on the mission. It's so true! Mainly because that is our focus all the time, but the Lord really blesses you when you focus on His word and His children. Thank heavens because I need it. But anyway, grace. We listened to this awesome talk recently about grace and I really liked it. We hear a lot of people talking about how they are saved by grace, but he pointed out yeah, we are all saved by grace but more importantly have you been changed by grace? I thought about this for quite some time and realized I don't exactly know what that means. ha. I think I'm learning a little more about it and how we are not sent here to be passive in this life, but everything we learn, accomplish and care about comes as a result of the grace of Christ. As we learn to accept his grace or follow his example, we gain more and this is how grace changes us. Simple enough right? ha. In the mornings before we study, we are told to get up, exercise, shower, pray and sit at a desk before we begin. This helps us be alert and ready and not drift off back to sleep. Most of the time it works. But I'm seeing more how this is in life too...there are several steps we should take before we start to 'study' so that we can get the most out of it and don't drift back to sleep letting all the opportunities for growth pass on by. I think I had a lot of dozing off before the mission...oopsy. I'm trying to catch up now! Lesson learned: praying while you're still in bed is just more sleeping. My bad.

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

A Fairy Tale Thing

Well, I failed at food eating for the first time. We had dinner at an inactive member's house the other day and she served us the biggest plate in the history of mankind with rice, shrimp and...MUSHROOMS. gag. It actually tasted just fine and I gulped down the mushrooms as best I could but there was just no way I was going to fit that plate in my belly. It may look like I can eat that much, but really I'm a bird. Unless it's coated in chocolate - then I can eat everything. I got about a fourth of the way and knew I was doomed so I started eating strategically - only when they were looking at me and I would put a tiny bite in my mouth and chew real slow. Then wait. Then repeat. I still had half a plate full when they offered me more. Ahhh! But luckily they took pity on me and said I didn't have to eat it. They were probably a little offended, but they are just going to have to get over it. They should probably just come back to church.

 

After dinner we watched the Joseph Smith movie with them and talked about the Restoration. They have a non-member adult son and he was like yeah I believe JS was a prophet. And we were like really?! What?! Let's talk...but then he just talked...for 2 hours. I was having the hardest time understanding him, it was really hot in there and I was stuffed with rice, shrimp and did I mention mushrooms so I was basically half asleep. Then of course, I had to pee real bad. I didn't know how I could politely cut him off so I did my best to be patient praying he'd come up for air at some point. Finally I couldn't handle it so I blurted it out and they were like of course silly goose (only in Spanish) and I stood up only to find my dress stuck in the couch and my unmentionables out on display. Ahh good times. It was just a poquito awkwardo.

 

We did a ton of service this weekend. I think I mentioned it before that San Jose is a pilot mission for no tracting and for Just Serve so we do a LOT of service during the week. The stake had a clothing donation program Saturday and it was so amazing. It reminded me of the Pismo Beach Disaster Relief (someone better get that) and it was stellar! We gave out like 30 copies of El Libro de Mormon and tons of Jesus movies. The Latins love Jesus. All things Jesus. It's great! It was such a huge success, I was so impressed. We had a few homeless people stop by too which I'm sure was very needed and thank heavens no one tried to get naked and try on clothes in the middle of the cultural hall. Phew.

 

Things are still booming out here in San Jose for the Lord! We got two new Elders - really tall. One is from Guatemala and the other is a whitey, but they are both super new and super pumped to work hard. Thank heavens! Things are just going to be bursting at the seams here. We are going to have a line at the baptismal font in no time! We have some hurdles with a few of our investigators like David A's BFF - apparently his pet bird is sick so he to be with her and can't come to church. Um. I'm learning compassion with that one or at least fine tuning my tongue biting skills. But we keep getting new investigators so we are never lacking for people to preach the word to! We've extended several baptismal invitations and they all said yes - shocking, but awesome. haha. Thank goodness for the spirit! He's pretty amazing.

 

At one of our lessons recently we were talking about the trials and stages of life and while my companion was talking and I was day dreaming...I mean, listening intently...I was thinking about fairy tales. ha. That sounds hilarious. Anyway, it's religiousy, I was thinking about how our existence really is like a fairy tale. We often say life isn't a fairy tale, but we just haven't made it to the end yet. We start out all happy, singing with the birds and bunnies in the premortal life with God then we come down here to be tortured and poisoned by the wicked step mom, but then, finally then - we live happily ever after in our kingdom in heaven with God. Ta-da! I enjoyed thinking about that this week. It gave me a new perspective. Yeah, life is rough. There are a lot of poisoned apples, but thank heavens there is always someone to save us. With the understanding of the restored gospel we know we can all have our happily ever after. I am so thankful for that. I'm also thankful for the prince I know is waiting for me...on a white horse, slaying dragons.

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall