Who burnt the popcorn?

MTC life is back to normal now that I'm over the 'plague of confined quartered living'. I have to say there were some perks for being sick. My roommates totes did my laundry, I didn't have to go to a long, boring meeting and I got to ride the elevator for like 4 days! I made sure to cough real good before I got on so everyone would know I had a pass to use it and they would also stay super far away from me. Win win. ;) I finally had to visit with the doctor and he gave me a sweet prescription, but they forgot to deliver my meds so I had to walk across the street to the BYU Health Center. It is a short trip, but just as we headed back , the heavens opened up and dumped a whole lot of wetness on our heads. As I walked as quickly as I could (which everyone knows is about the same pace as a snail) I thought how pathetic this must look to passersby and I was glad I had sympathy. No worries, I'm all better now and I'm sure I'm better for the experience...at least that is what people around here always say. Optimisticers.

 

One night in my virus induced coma, I was awakened by a piercing siren. It was the fire alarm. I rolled myself down the bunk, grabbed my badge, keys and jacket and stumbled down the stairs and out the building. Hundreds of missionaries were standing out there. Plenty of the us were in PJs, others with towels on their heads. I was standing there, without any corrective vision, no supportive underclothing (you know what I mean) and a pounding head cold. We all stood out there, some missionaries were taking photos - because this was clearly the most exciting thing to happen at the MTC ever - waiting for any kind of information. Finally, after about 15 min we were told it was all clear. As we headed back to the building, the question answered itself. The aroma of finely burnt popping corn filled the air and smothered the stairwells. Late night snacks have proved to be deadly. The moral of the story is sisters should not be allowed to microwave popcorn.

 

A few days later, we came back to our room after gym and headed to the showers. Right as I was rinsing the conditioner out of my hear I heard my companion squeal. The door had been locked behind us by some mysterious gnome. (no one has yet to confess to the offense, but it wasn't me!) There we were, all four of us, dripping wet, standing in towels all sheepish in the bathroom with no idea how we were going to save ourselves. I offered to walk to the main office in my robe, but they stopped me concerned I would be immediately escorted from the campus, I figured that was better than hanging out in the bathroom so just as I was about to step out the door, we found clothed sisters in the hallway who selflessly volunteered to retrieve our key from the front office. We had some nice girly bonding time in the showers that day while waiting for our heroines to rescue us. Later that day we learned the Elders have a secret trick to get back into their rooms. It involves an envelope, dental floss, wire hanger and a vacuum. Hmmm. Hurry, go - solve the door unlocking dilemma with just those items! After they explained it to me, I have to say it's about the most ingenious thing ever...aside from my idea of walking across campus in my robe.

 

President Brown (of the MTC) sat down by us during lunch a few days ago. He is the nicest man, I mean, I knew he was nice, but he was so nice in real life. Of course now that he knows our names, we could easily be called out in the next meeting for anything. Yikes. But it was probably worth it. We had another awesome devotional last night from the President of the Quorum of the Seventy. He talked about ways in which we could be sure to have the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost - something we especially interested in here since that is the only we can survive. We learned that there are three things you can do, bridle your passions, garnish your thoughts with virtue and ask the Lord for it. I'd never really thought so deeply about using these three principles together to ensure you have the constant support of the Lord. At first when he said 'bridle your passions' I thought oh yeah, this talk is for the Elders, but as I thought about it more - what 'bridling' and 'passion' really mean, I could see how it applied to me. A horse is bridled so he can be broke and then guided. We don't have to shun everything, we have to bridle it, we have to learn how to control ourselves and be guided. It is when we are disciplined we learn the most. Garnishing our thoughts with virtue just makes them the more beautiful.

 

Well since we have no media of any kind here, we thrive on Mormon Messages. I watched a wonderful one the other day so I'd encourage everyone to check out the 'Power of Hope'. It brought me a lot of peace and a big smile and I know it will do the same for you!

 

XOXO,

Hermana Hall

 

P.S. On the board in here is written: "God is always watching...so is Santa." Ahh, such is life at the MTC.

Back to the Future

This past week has flown by! Yesterday, Elder L Tom Perry came to speak at our Devotional. I had no idea how tall he is! He's tall and I don't mean my interpretation of 5'6" being tall I mean he is like 6'3"! I was shocked. When you just see these men on tv, they all look about the same height, which I think in my head is 5'6". Perspectives. They happen. I've also decided that all old married couples look exactly the same. You know, how people say dogs look like their owners, well...old husbands and wives look the same too. At least that is how it goes for the entire Mission Presidency and most of the general authorities that have come. Last week Christofferson came and I swear his wife was him with a pretty blouse and some make up. That might be blasphemy, but it's also fact.

 

Speaking of perspectives...we aren't aloud to listen to any music here and we can't dance in public. I had no idea how much I'd miss these things. So I get all my dancing out in the shower and my room. Since we are so music deprived, except for the constant humming on campus of Come Thou Fount and There is Sunshine in my Soul, we resort to some strange measures. At night, there are a few girls that will get in the showers and sing hymns in harmony. I love it so much that sometimes I'll just take a sit right there and listen. I never thought I'd hang out in a bathroom just to hear some sweet music. This is who I've become. We do other silly things around here to bring enjoyment, like finding silly cards in the MTC bookstore that I'm pretty sure would not be funny anywhere else and telling Gospel related puns in class. You do what you have to do. I realized how desparate I was getting for shopping when I wanted to go to the MTC bookstore just to 'look around'. You know you are in bad shopping withdrawals when looking at phamplets, MTC clothing and highlighters starts to become super exciting. I'm in trouble. What I wouldn't do for a Macy's catalogue!

 

The other day in class something reminded me of Back to the Future so I started reenacting a scene, it wasn't until I was a good 5 min in that I realized everyone was giving me blank stares. Oh right...no one here has EVER seen that movie. Yikes. Since every day, all day is all about Gospel it is pretty easy to forget the age gap I'm experiencing, until someone starts talking about Barney or other cartoons I've never heard of. Then when I try to relate words of wisdom learned from movies like Back to the Future they have no idea. Shame on this generation!

 

On to the spiritual side. Can I just say how much I love the Book of Mormon?! I really do. It's like an entirely new book to me. I can't believe it. I remember when I was being set apart as a missionary and the stake president said I would find joy in the scriptures and the doctrines there in...I can also remember chuckling slightly to myself because I've always been so terrible about reading them. I used to use them as my lullabies. Not anymore! What a blessing that has been to really find the tasty sweetness of the scriptures. I think it also helps that I don't have anything else to read or watch, but I'm sure enjoying reading about all the Nephite adventures and their really dumb and yet totally common misfortunes. Sometimes I find myself yelling at them...come on you Nephites, just listen to the prophets and stop wearing fancy scarves! Geez! I've also been learning a lot about prayers. We pray a ton here, it is like the thing to do. Everyone does it. All the time. I still don't pray in the cafeteria, it looks weird...actually I look weird because I feel like I'm the only one that doesn't. Don't worry I am still grateful for my food. But, what I've learned about prayers is they are so much more involved than I ever thought. Learning to have a real conversation with your Father in Heaven takes practice and having the faith to poor out your soul and know that someone is listening and will answer is quite remarkable. I'm gaining a stronger testimony of prayer and I'm starting to not be afraid to ask for the help I really need...like Espanol. I can feel the impact of my prayers though the day. I know they have changed me and I can see how they've changed the other missionaries here too. What a sweet, simply miracle prayer is!

 

I'm heading back to quarantine. Hopefully I can kick this nastiness quickly, I've got lots of super important things to do here!

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

Everyone is leaving!

Another week has come and gone. It is true what people told me how the days go by slow, but the weeks pass you by. I had my first bout of homesickness last weekend. Our teacher was talking about going to see the Avengers with his roommates and then he was going to have a Cinco de Mayo party with his friends. I couldn't help but let my mind wander off to what I'd be doing if I were home. Surely, Tara would be making an amazing meal and I would for sure be at the Alamo to see Avengers. It twinged my heart, and I really missed my life - for about 10 min - then I got slapped back into missionary land. There are a few things here that keep me connected, there is always The District, a missionary reality show if you will and it has become my Gossip Girl replacement. I can't wait to log on and see what happens next with Elder Murray and Sister Payne! Ahh the drama is so intense it leaves me hanging every time - is Jynx going to get baptized?! Is Eric going to quit smoking?! I won't know until next week.

 

Two of our Elders left this week for the Guatemala MTC. It has been quite sad, we really started to love those Elders even though they were complete space cadets. One of them made up this conjugate rap for us so we could appropriately conjugate all our verbs, but to a beat. It was pretty sweet and occasionally it plays in my head: voy, vas, va, vamos, van. You can't hear the beat, but I just did it for you and it was grand. The three week fever has hit the rest of the Elders and they have begun to have chair races down the hallway. They can't be stopped. And yet, when the time comes, their spirits are so strong. I love watching that juxtaposition. It's truly marvelous.

 

So, there is a lot of spirit floating around here. It's a crazy amount and it is really hard to get away from. We sing and pray ALL the time. I can't tell you how many times I've sung Called to Serve. But, it's great because you are hardly tempted with anything. The worst thing I could do is...well there is probably a long list so I wont go there. Don't worry I'm uber obedient. But, with all this spirit, there is always a lot of emotion and with four sisters in our district there are a lot of breakdowns. Last week, I had to deal with four of them. One night after quiet hours, I even had to call the Branch President and he had to come down here...that was a long night. I feel so bad for the sisters that are struggling. I can certainly feel the trials and stresses the MTC piles on and I'm grateful for the experience I've had in my life to allow me to handle it, but the rest of the time I'm just trying to help the other sisters. It is so hard. There is often nothing you can do but let them cry and just listen. This however, is the duty of the Coordinating Sister which I've been asked to be. Scott informed me it is not a real thing outside the MTC, but it is certainly extremely valuable here. It is my job to make sure all the sisters are doing alright, I represent all the sisters in my zone in meetings and with the Branch President and I'm accountable for them. It has kept me in many a meetings, but they have taught us good things about being loving leaders. It's also nice to make sure the female perspective is shared.

 

I'm still like a little child with Spanish, it's very difficult for me to literally not be able to express myself in discussions. We've been practicing speaking with pens in our mouths in hopes to 'loosen the tongue' so we can gain a better accent. For me, it's been a miracle. After I take that pen out of my mouth I can roll all the r's in the world and I don't sound so...gringo. However, my vocab is still greatly lacking. It's those times I have to remind myself that I've only been doing this for three weeks, and in actuality I'm not the worst...well at least I don't sound like a robot. The other day we had a Devotional and the speaker went on and on about the Olive Garden. I was quite perplexed, but then he said the waitress brought out the plain Olive Garden salad with a big smile and said, "isn't it beautiful" in a sweet Spanish accent. His remarks were directed to the manner in which she offered what she had. The salad was so so but the method was love, happiness and kindness and for that reason they keep going back. I've been thinking about this silly little analogy all week. My Spanish is terrible, I mean, it's bad - when you tell someone that "Joseph Smith translated the golden bananas" you are in for it, however, I keep my smile and I speak with love and hope in my eyes and for some reason, it works. It's not what I'm saying, if it was I'd ruin the Gospel for all, it's what I bring with it. Understanding this principle has really helped me this week to not feel discouraged and recognize that sharing God's love is all I need to do to reach people. A few days ago, in fact, while teaching a new investigator, I was bearing my broken testimony and I could fill the room being filled with love and the spirit and I knew that the investigator felt it too as I looked in his eyes and could see the love swelling within. No matter what I said, the love was felt. I'm so grateful for that. I can however pray and extend commitments in pretty good Spanish so I know things are getting better!

 

Sometimes I hear an iPhone ringing and I start to salivate. I don't love that. I can feel my 'old' life calling me from time to time. I certainly miss all my friends and my family. There is no way, however, that I could turn away from this wonderful experience. It has brought me so close to the Lord and as I can feel myself getting closer to the Lord the more I can see how distant I had become before. I'm truly grateful for the patience of the Lord to wait for His children to come to Him and when we do we begin to see how much love is really there. I am so glad I get to bring that knowledge to others and I pray they will feel it too through me. This work is certainly not without challenge. It's quite unique to anything I've ever experienced and I had no idea, nor do I think anyone could have prepared me for it. To be a missionary is to give of oneself completely. I sold my car, quit my job, left my beautiful apartment, my friends - everything, but what I didn't think about was giving up my entire self...any pride, weaknesses, fears - they all have to go. Understanding this now has given me even more gratitude for those who have done this before me and so much love for my brothers who are currently serving (and all my family that has). This sacrifice is challenging like no other, but I'm slowly learning and as I do, once again I can feel the impact of the Atonement and the spirit in my life even more. That is the true miracle of this Gospel and to that I attach my testament. God loves us all.

 

xoxo,

Hermana Hall

525,600 stairs

I've been here at the MTC for 2 weeks today! This week has certainly moved a lot faster than our first week here. I am getting into the routine of being a missionary, at least at the MTC...but basically it's get up super early, study, eat, study some more, eat again, study and maybe teach someone then eat again, then study some more...then you drag yourself to bed and before you know the alarm clock is going off again. I bet that sounds about right to everyone who has served. It is certainly not as painful as I thought it was going to be, but I have never worked for 16 hours straight like this in my entire life so it is quite the adjustment. Go go go all the time. That sure makes the time fly by though. I met with the Branch President the other night, he asked if there was anything he could help me with. I told him yes, I can't keep my eyelids open. He chuckled and actually taught me some good tips on sneakily moving muscles to keep the blood flowing, but so that no one thought I was a crazy person, ninja style.

 

They make us eat so much food here. It is so brutal. Ha, no I joke. I am finally starting to learn what is safe to eat and what will have you suffering the rest of the day. For example, the ice cream is really tempting and it's is really good, but if you eat that at lunch then 3 hours later it is going to be very hard to sit comfortably. I learned this the other day when the ice cream I shoved down my mouth at lunch was putting on a quite the musical performance in my stomach a few hours later. One of the Elders in my district noticed and later during class when he starting making bird noises (Elders, I tell you) I asked if there was a bird in the room and he said yes and there was a bear too. I laughed so hard I cried for a good solid 5 minutes, bright red and all. The rest of the district had no idea what was going on, but man we needed that good laugh. It would probably be funnier if you were there. Trust me. I believe that Heavenly Father also really heard my fears of gaining weight here and he so kindly put us on the top floor of our residence and classroom. We have to go up and down 5 stories to our classroom at least 4 times a day so my quads are like massive bricks right now. It reminds me of walking up to campus at BYU every day. Stairs are brutal, but I asked for it. Darn. Once we get home at night, we have only 30  min to get into bed before lights out, but we are such a popular room (it's true, I swear) that it is basically impossible to get all you want done. Then it becomes a race for my roommates to see if they can fall asleep before I do otherwise they will never make it to sleep with my sweet night time snoring performances. I win every time. I only feel a little bad.

 

I have run into several missionaries I know here, that has been fun. I see Sister Garcia, she's so adorable, just as adorable as she was when I taught her in primary. I see Sister Aly Cook all the time, she is so gosh darn pretty, but she has to go to Romania haha. I also see Sister Julianne Bishop, not as often but sometimes in the cafeteria. I know everyone, I'm so popular. haha. Oh man, life as a missionary can be like high school too. Speaking of high school, since everyone here basically just graduated from it. The poor Elders keep getting their foot stuck in their mouth about age comments. They recently found out that my companion is 23 and they just can't believe it. That seems so old to them, which of course make me chuckle - silently. Then they make more intelligent comments like how did you graduate BYU without getting married (to her) and you better get married before you are 25. And the best one yet, if you don't get married by the time you are 30 you probably won't ever get married. I've just play along, acting like my 23 yr old companion is super old and I can't imagine being that old. It's great. If only they had any idea...it might actually shock them so much they may pass out.

 

We have been playing a lot of volleyball recently. I like to play outside in the sand, which always reminds me of you, Gavin, and I keep a watch out for any missionary that is trying to sneak off to the 'bathroom'. Our Elders have been super fun to play the game with and it turns out I'm not so bad and they beg for me to be on their team. Man, I could have gone to the Olympics as a volleyball pro - I missed my calling!

 

My feet are basically disfigured. It's impossible to wear 'dress' shoes for 16 hours and not suffer some kind of disfiguration, I'm convinced. I figure though that if I disfigure my feet for the work of the Lord one day I will be healed and I can walk around telling everyone about the miracle that is the foot refigurement. I really miss real socks. I also miss English. My Spanish is still really really terrible, however, last week we met with an investigator and some how (I know how - I'll tell you) with my terrible Spanish we were able to commit her to baptism. I could not belive it. I also can not tell you how bad my Spanish is, it is SO bad, I can tell you that my investigator laughed for a good minute and half after something I completely butchered until I begged my companions "ayudame!" BUT, it did not matter. They keep telling us this, that when you have the spirit of the Lord, there are no barriers to teaching His word. I testify that is 100% true. I am a living, breathing testament of that and I will keep on doing it. Hopefully, one day the language will actually come out of my mouth and make sense. It will.

 

We were assigned last week for service to clean toilets, as I was bent over looking that bowl squarely in the face, all I could think about was the Turkish Toilets. Man, toilets are going to haunt me all the days of my life. If you havne't heard that story...it's a gem, ask me and I will tell you some time.

 

I am truly amazed at the spiritual progress I have experienced over the past two weeks. I came here with a strong foundation, but the Lord has taken that and tripled it and there is still so much more to go! What a wonderful blessing this has been for me and I am only on week 2. I can not explain how the change has taken place, but I feel it. The Lord has taken what I brought, and with my obedience and faith he does His work. I have nothing else here, but my faith in the spirit and let me tell you that really does a body good!

 

Please keep writing me, I had no idea how much it would help. I love you all so so much! Thank you for your support.

 

Love,

Hermana Hall

First week - check

Well I officially made it through my first week at the MTC and it was something that's for sure. I overheard someone describe this place as a big umbrella and it certainly is that, figuratively and literally as all the walk ways are covered. Spiritually speaking, this is a bubble where the holy spirit hangs out and brings help, comfort, and understanding to everyone here. It's wonderful! It's also quite a bit of a roller coaster, an emotional one. So far I've done super great keeping my head on straight, I'm way proud of myself and chalk that up to having my breakdowns years ago. Here I just kind of stand back and watch as other sisters go through about 500 emotions in under 5 min. It's truly amazing. My companions are so tenderhearted and some of them are really suffering from home sicknesses, it's hard to watch, my heart aches for them. I certainly miss all my family and friends very much, but some how I'm running off the knowledge that all of you are with me, rooting for me and I'm not alone here. I'm so very grateful for all the letters of encouragement I've received, nothing replaces the simple words of people you care about when doing this kind of work. I simply can not thank you enough and please don't stop!

 

I am still trying to adjust to the food. It almost feels like going to another planet, where all the food is brown and your belly just doesn't stop expanding. The Elders seem to like it though, I can see why - it's endless and they get to have whatever they want without even eating their veggies. I love the Elders here so much.  There are 6 in my district and they have already become like adopted brothers. In fact, every time I look at them I'm reminded of Sean and Scott out there serving right now. There is certainly plenty of shenanigans from them, but when they are in missionary mode, it's truly beautiful. They lift my spirits and I've witnessed wonderful acts of pure faith from them...19 year old boys in the MTC for only one week. Miracles. Seriously. We are extremely out numbered here, the sisters that is, by a sea white shirts and ties. The other day I had a meeting with 15 men and just me, so weird.  For the most part they are so respectful. They open our doors, they move out of our way, they say hello, they look to us - well most of us - for advice and support. I'm grateful to their parents and to them for learning respect to women and the real sacredness of their calling, and 90% of the time they have it spot on.

 

There is a girl that sings hymns while in the shower every morning...at 6 am. When I first get in there I usually want to shake her, but then after a few moments her sweet voice and spirit calms my heart and mind. I love that kind of simple change. Especially since all the other kind of changes around here seem to be really hard and a tad painful. The past few days I've really been focusing and learning on how to keep the spirit with me as my #1 goal. I have been so overwhelmed by learning all this doctrine, memorizing scripture AND speaking Spanish that I fail to remember that what really teaches and the only thing that can really express the feelings faith in Christ brings is the Spirit. So, I've been telling myself my terribly broken Spanish doens't matter, my spirit will make up the difference in my poor grammar and lack of vocabulary. I've never had my tongue tied like this before, expressing myself never seemed so impossible in my entire life. Hence, the challenge I have here...of course. As I continue to focus on my personal study, the words of God and keeping myself with the Spirit, I know it will come and no matter what words come out of my mouth, the people I talk to will feel it too. Win win. The good news...I can understand the Spanish and I can read it, almost without fail...but no yo hablo.

 

So, President Monson's nephew is in our Branch Presidency and that's pretty awesome. He looks very much like him and as some of the same expressions and way of speaking, it makes me giggle. He is also of course very wise, loving and fluent in Spanish. Last night we were also pleased to hear from Russel M Nelson during our Devotional. That was so fun, to have him so close. I'm not going to lie, it was kind of boring, but he did bring a strong message. He taught us 9 principles of The Doctrine. He compared The Doctrine to a diamond, with many facets - I liked that...because he was talking about diamonds. I'm running out of time so I'll try to talk about those 9 Doctrines later after I've had time to let them sink in.

 

Don't worry, I've learned a strategy for getting off my top bunk. Everyone can rest easy. Thank you all for your love and support.

 

Love,

Hermana Hall

 

P.S. I could use some cute stationary paper to write everyone that loves me so. :)

I'm at the MTC!

It's Saturday here at the MTC, but it sure does not feel like a Saturday here. In fact, all the days so far have felt the same. The first day here was very strange. I felt like I did Freshman year at BYU, clueless and bug eyed. There are four sisters in our district and we are the only sisters in our entire zone. We share a small room with 3 bunk bends. I was the last to arrive so I'm on the top. I didn't mind it so much until I got up the next morning and realized I had no idea how to get down because there isn't really a latter. I acted cool for awhile not wanting to tell anyone that I was stuck for some dumb reason so I straightened my sheets really good. Finally after 10 min another sister asked if I needed help, to which I yelped with joy. She then held a chair as I not so gracefully half slid and jumped onto the chair below. Now it's a routine...at 6 am. Today I was in the shower...at 6 am...thinking, this is really weird and it's a miracle I'm awake. And yes, the food is as people warned...scary and terrible. I've keep myself out of the dismal digestive darkness by hanging out near the salads, but every day, every day - man it has only been 3 days and I'm tired of it. I found the cookies you were talking about Mom, they were delicious and they have saved me. Now to get over my caffeine withdraws...

 

I was called to be the coordinating Sister for our zone which basically means I have to go to a ton of meetings on Sunday. I am, however, looking forward to the opportunity to work directly with the Branch Presidency and to help the sisters in my zone in any way I can. It's already become clear a few ways in which I can help the others so I've been slowly figuring out how to make that happen. We've already turned into quite the popular room, we had 6 sister visitors last night. Up until then I'd done a really great job staying under the radar as the oldest person in our building, but one sister wanted to chat about personal lives and asked all of us point blank how old we are. When they got to me, I asked them what they thought. In unison they agreed I was surely 23. I chuckled and thanked them kindly and then told them I was actually 31 and I kid you not I had to plug my ears from the squeals and pick every single chin off the floor. I just blew their minds. It was so adorable. And that is how it is around...adorable. Elders are...well they are 19 and I keep reminding myself they are just like my wonderful brothers serving right now, only younger and I have to make myself love them. It's like being in the YSA ward only, the men out number the women by a billion and it feels like you are in a really religious boys locker room all the time. However, they are all so kind to the Sisters. It's really sweet. They open our doors and greet us in our language. For the most part they really get the respect their calling has come with. I appreciate that so much.

 

Yesterday we gave our first lesson to an investigator...in Spanish. I'm sure you can very much imagine how that went. Uh...hola,soy Hermana Hall. There was a lot of silence, but my companion and I somehow managed to do alright. We bore our testimonies in as much Spanish as we could pull out. I'm pretty sure all I got out was corazon and Dios amor, but it is has they say, the spirit is with you when you've asked it to be there and even with the terrible language barrier, the spirit could be felt by all. I found myself thinking a lot yesterday that if only I could speak in English I could answer all this sisters questions and no doubt she would be baptized. This silly language is holding me up! It is so very challenging, but then I wonder how the English missionaries feel. Surely this is not a cake walk. There is still so much to learn about being completely and utterly inadequate and helpless. This is what the teachers keep telling us, we must first realize we rely entirely on the Lord and after all we can do, when we open our mouths, he will fill them with words. I'm certainly not there yet, and it has become very clear it is going to take a very long time, but the purpose of missionary work is rumbling around in my heart. After all, He called me to be a Spanish speaking missionary and He must know I'm surely capable of it. The Lord doesn't let anything stop His work.

 

I love you so much for your support. I'm grateful for the loving friends and family I have who are backing me up on this. It's sure weird and it's hard, but it is going to be amazing.

 

Today is an unusual half preparation day, my normal preparation day for the rest of the time I'm here is on Thursdays.

 

Love,

Hermana Hall

 

P.S. A special shout out to...Rebekah! Thank you so much for sending me a letter on my first day. It felt so good. Thank you so much. And to Lizzy, my BFF, thank you for the greenie package, that was so much fun and I just got your letter this morning and that was so wonderful to read. Feel free to send me some colored pens, I like the Pilot G2 gel thingies. :)

Miracles Still Happen

In about an hour, I will be set a part as a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s a strange feeling and I can’t really describe it…but I am excited.

There have been a lot of tiny and some large miracles occurring in my life, my families’ life, and even my friends since my decision to serve a mission. All of these things have been a glorious testament to the value the Lord has placed on missionary work and a direct blessing to the faith of people who honor and support one who is called.

One of my biggest fears when Bishop first encouraged me to serve was how on earth was I going to pay for it. Last year was extremely expensive for me and to top if off I drowned a lot of my woes in shoes and trips around the world (totally worth it, by the way) but this left me seriously lacking enough funds to pay for a mission on my own. As usual, the first words out of my mother’s mouth were to not worry about that, she knew we would find a way. I simply couldn’t see how to not worry, left to logic alone, I knew I didn’t have the money and she was already paying for two full-time missionary sons. I couldn’t let her be burdened with a third missionary payment. But, I trusted her words and let it lift from my shoulders so I could focus on other problems like what to do with my lease, my car payments, my four auto repairs and a pending speeding ticket. Like I said, it was an expensive year.

As I moved forward with mission preparations, sure enough unpredictable things started to happen. A friend purchased my car, relieving me of a heavy loan. Still more dear friends and family began to offer generous monetary donations towards the mission. The Lord is not joking when he says the effort of missionary work is extremely important and He has made it clear the lives that serve as well as the family and friends that support them will be blessed. This has been made undeniable clear to me.

As I’ve set out to serve a mission for the Lord, miracles have truly happened. I’ve seen money appear from thin air and this is no accident. Move over Red Sea, surely there are many more miracles to be had!