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