Monday, December 26, 2016

Week 21: And a Happy New Year


Hey Everyone!

I hope you guys had a great snowy Christmas! We had a busy week, and a great Christmas down here! This week we had a Christmas party as a mission! All of us went to the offices and played soccer, basketball, had a dodgeball competition and then a steak dinner! It was super fun and great to see some of the other missionaries that I haven't seen in a while! We received 21 references from members this week so we've had a lot of work to do! We haven't been this busy in a while, and it's great! We have been trying a lot lately to work more through the members because that's honestly the best way to work! This Friday we had a ward activity where they sang songs, showed a couple Christmas clips from the church website and ate Paneton (some giant muffin thing that Peruvians eat for Christmas) and hot chocolate. We weren't expecting many people to come because our ward is pretty un-united and not many people usually come to the activities, but we had a great turn out and lots of members brought their non-member friends! We were running all over meeting people and writing down names and addresses. 

On Christmas eve we didn't have too many lessons because people said they were busy but a lot of people invited us to dinner so by the end of the day we were STUFFED after eating like 3 dinners. That night my comp told me to not even try to go to sleep because I'd just get woken up at 11:30 pm by all the fireworks. When it turned midnight, basically every single Peruvian was lighting off fireworks at the same time—it was crazyyyyy. We live on the hill so I can see all of Lima out of my window and it was one of the coolest things I've seen—I'll send pictures. On Christmas morning, we had church and we actually had a great turn out!! —despite the fact that everyone was up to 3 in the morning the previous night. Luis is doing great and will be baptized next week! He loooves the gospel and loves learning! I am excited for him! My comp is still super weird but we get along alright!! He is pretty disorganized and sometimes that leaks into the missionary work and effects others which bugs me a bit but we are doing good!

Oh, and something awkward/embarrassing and funny that happened this week is we were going to a new investigators house and she answered the door, we talked for a sec and we asked if she had a few minutes that we could teach her and she said that she already had somebody teaching her right now and we looked in the door and saw the Jehovah's Witness missionaries on the couch. Hahah, it was so awkward and confusing. Hahah but yeah, anyways... 


Love you guys and have a great New Year!


Pic of our Christmas activity the other week while we were having our dodgeball competition.

Our steak dinner! 

Our district went caroling in the streets after the activity 
(couldn't fit everyone in the picture!)

The fireworks on Christmas (the picture doesn't do it justice!)

Monday, December 19, 2016

Week 20: Merry Christmas!


Hey Everyone!!

Well life is good here in the mission! The comp is doing good still! He's super, super strange and dorky, but he's awesome!

Last week there were some big changes in the mission for P-day! On P-days since I got here we always were together as a zone but now they changed the rule so that we aren't together as a zone anymore at all. Which is nice because we have lots of time to buy groceries and rest or do whatever we want! But its also a bummer cuz I don't get to spend time with people that speak English, haha. So last P-day, now that we had a bunch of time, we went to a huge supermarket and I found PEANUT BUTTER! I was sooo excited and also I found DIET PEPSI and normal foods that I haven't seen in months it was great, haha. After that, Elder Galindo and I cleaned our apartment hardcore! Elder Ramirez was a slob and left everything dirty so we cleaned everything and it's nice to live in cleanliness again. 

On Wednesday we had a work visit! Our district leader Elder Tirado came to my area and we put in woooorkkkk. Contacted a ton of people and found some new investigators! Then we ordered pizza and listened to conference talks when we got back home—it was great. We always order pizza for work visits and its a great time.

Thursday was the opposite, haha I got super sick with a cold and was sneezing and sniffling and was super tired aaalll day. and to make it better, all of our appts fell through and basically nobody let us in! It was pretty frustrating. 

On Saturday we had a "Blitz". It's where everyone from the zone comes for a couple hours and takes a specific part of your area and contacts and knocks doors to find new people!! It was awesome and now we have a ton of appts this week!

As far as investigators goes, Luis, who I mentioned last week, is an investigator that other missionaries were teaching that now found out he belongs to our ward. His baptismal date got moved back till the 31st because he didn't feel like he had truly repented yet. I was disappointed that it got postponed, but I was also very happy that he cares enough and understands the covenant of baptism well enough to be sincere and truly repent!! He is the best! The other day he told us that he wished church was longer because 3 hours wasn't enough and he wants to learn more! 

Our investigator Vanessa has a baptismal date for the 14 of January! Buuutttt...she didn't come to church yesterday! She seems so interested and reads the Book of Mormon and is praying and is doing everything, except coming to church! Each week something comes up and she cant go. It's kinda frustrating!

A new investigator that we have that is really cool is Eric. Eric is an 18-year old that is sooooo smart and knows the Bible tooonsss! He has such good faith. He teaches a class at his Baptist church, but he has accepted to listen to us and said that he would pray and experiment and "examine" the Book of Mormon. He would be the best convert ever so I hope things will go well with him! 

Have a merry Christmas back in Utah and talk to y'all later!
-Elder Hale


Me and Tirado in our work visit, eating pizza and listening to great talks.

Killer Sunset

A picture of me and my large noggined comp, Elder Galindo!

My cute Christmas tree next to my seeds and globe of all the pals and their missions.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Week 19


Hey Everyone!

This week has been a great week! We had transfers and I have a new compy! His names Elder Galindo, he's from Huancayo Peru. He's got 21 months in the mission so he's ending pretty soon. He's more obedient than my last comp which is really nice! And less weird, haha. Together we are trying to get our area back to where it should be and workin hard. He is a chatter box, haha he talks a ton! in lessons, in contacts, and when were at home. Haha, he's just like a funny, weird Latino guy. And his head is huuggge, hahah. One thing that is awesome is that he is a grubber and he looooves pop. We eat a ton and drink a ton of pop now. I'm gonna get fat...and broke, haha. 

As far as investigators...Vanessa isn't progressing super fast because we haven't been able to find her! Our appointments have fallen through and she didn't come to church yesterday. It's kinda discouraging but we haven't given up faith with her! I'll report good news next week I hope. We have a new investigator named Luis! Luis is kind of a miracle!  He was going to church in a different ward for the past few months because he had friends that invited him in that ward and was being taught by the Hermana Missionaries of that ward. Just this week he found out that he lives in our ward and we are gonna be teaching him from now on. He came to church yesterday and he is progressing really fast! He loves the church! He has a baptismal date for this Saturday and an interview with the Stake Pres. so we are crossing our fingers that all goes well!

Another cool thing happened this week...I was reading a talk called the 4th Missionary and I learned a lot and it changed my perspective. 1) It helped me to be more obedient. 2) It helped me actually WANT to be obedient instead of just being obedient because the Lord wants me to be obedient. Proverbs 3:5-6 says "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths." Saying that if some rule or commandment doesn't make sense to us so we just trust in our own knowledge and continue in our own ways instead of trusting in the Lord's, we will be deprived promised blessings and guidance. We need to put our TRUST in Him, and have faith that He knows more than we do and things will be better His way. (Like the scripture in Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts; neither are your ways my ways.") It's like if a kid wanted to go to Disneyland and decides to ride his tricycle. And his dad is saying to the kid, "just hop on this jet, it is a lot easier and will only take like 2 hours". But the kid is afraid of air planes and he is accustomed to his tricycle, he feels safe with his trike. His way seems reasonable to him. The kid trying to go to Disneyland is like us trying to get to heaven and the tricycle is like our own knowledge and our own ways and, God and his ways are like the dad and the jet. I hope this silly analogy made sense, haha. But there are often commandments or mission rules where we think that our way is better and its hard to put our trust in the Lord and just give it up. But if we do and just do trust Him and just give up our will, we will be significantly blessed. Matthew 19:29 says that anyone who forsakes something for the Lord's name will receive 100 fold and shall have eternal life. When we understand the reward of trusting the Lord and doing his will, it becomes so much  easier. In the talk that I was reading, there's a paragraph that says, "For the missionary who understands the benefit of this bargain, there is nothing of equal or greater appeal than to do the Lord's will. Everything pales in comparison. There is no real sacrifice for him because he knows its the only intelligent thing to do."

This week that has helped me change my perspective on obedience and doing what the Lord wants and just giving up my will to His. I find myself still trying to "ride the tricycle" from time to time, but it's made a big difference in my attitude and actions.

I hope all of that made sense, hahaha. I love you guys and see ya later. 

-Elder Hale

Monday, December 5, 2016

Week 18: Last Week of Training


Hey everyone!

This week has been good! It's so hot and humid down here too. And no buildings have A/C so that is a bummmerrr. There is just no way to escape the heat. Haha, but life is good! This week was the last week of training! I should be getting a new companion tomorrow and I'm pretty excited!!! We will get informed about transfers later tonight so we aren't positive yet, but its basically a sure thing. It's about time! Haha, but I've learned a lot of patience with this guy and learned how to just get over something or let things go cuz you just can't do anything about it. 

Our area is still really slow right now but there is hope! A new companion will hopefully help me out and bring in some fresh ideas and more obedience. And we have a couple people starting to progress, especially Vanessa Molina. In our last visit she told us how she feels "this peace that she hasn't felt before" and that she feels the same feeling when we come to teach her. She is starting to recognize the Spirit and really has strong faith! In our next visit we are going to try to set a baptismal date for her! 

Also, good news with our most recent converts, Eliana and her family. They are doing so good and looveee the church! They have never missed a Sunday and go to every activity! Eliana was just called yesterday to be the secretary of the Relief Society. It has been such a privilege being able to teach her and her family! The restored gospel has changed their life sooo much and I'm so happy that I have been able to see it and be able to teach them. 

Not much more to update you guys on this week! Love u folks!
-Elder Hale

(I think a virus just destroyed my SD card because there's a bunch of crap on it now and I can't send pictures!)

Monday, November 28, 2016

Week 17


Hey Everyone!

Another week gone by here in Peru! After the baptism last week it was kinda like "whats next?" It's been kinda slow because we don't have too many people progressing. So this week we tried again to concentrate on finding people! We taught a lot of 1st lessons and found a couple good people! There are some that I really have hope for. In a lesson this week with a woman named Vanessa, and after explaining Joseph's First Vision and the Restoration, we asked her what she felt and she said, "I believe it! It makes so much sense that Heavenly Father wouldn't leave us in the dark and that he'd bring back his church!" And she seemed super excited to read the Book of Mormon. We have an appointment with her tonight so we'll see! Hopefully her faith turned into action and she read and prayed to know for sure if it's true. But...besides her and a couple others in the beginning stages, we don't have much, which is a bummer because my comp is getting a lot better and becoming more obedient, but the fruits of our labors have been less than ever! You just gotta keep your head up and keeping trying I guess!

But we had a cool activity on Saturday to help find new investigators. It was in the stake center and each ward from the stake took a part of the Plan of Salvation to act out or teach! It was super cool, people went from room to room like in stages to each different part and we gave them cards to write their questions and info so we can go and contact/teach them! It was super fun and it was a great turn out. 

That's about all thats going on down here! Haha, this week for Thanksgiving I ordered a pizza so that was my "feast". The closer it gets to Christmas down here people are starting to light of fireworks like crazy! Our window looks over Lima Valley so its super fun to watch those while eating some Oreos and milk at night time, but it sucks when you're trying to go the bed. Well, love you guys and have a good week!


-Elder Hale

Monday, November 21, 2016

Week 16


Hey Everyone!!

We had a good week down here in Lima! It started off great last P-day after internet, we took taxis to the Central of Lima! It was awesome! There were so many huge old cool buildings and we ate at KFC. It was soooooo goooood, haha, and we saw a lot of white people! Haha, it was fun to speak English with the tourists and explain who we are and our missions and stuff. We saw a few Mormon tourists too and got a picture with them! 

The next day (Tuesday) we had another work visit because the Zone Leaders are trying to help out/keep an eye on my comp. So Elder Millar came to my area and my comp went to the other. And it was a good time and we found some new people and worked hard and it was great! Wednesday we had a service project in the morning. We hauled huge jugs of water up a mountainside to help this lady in our Stake start a garden. We hauled an old bathtub up the hill too, haha. I'll send a pic of that. Thursday we had a multi-zone conference and that was awesome. Pres. Godfey gave a great talk/lesson and our zone leaders did too. My comp was super motivated by it and he is trying to be better!! 

Saturday we had the baptism for Lia and Alexandra! It was great, a lot of members showed up, and I had to give a talk/message last minute which was stressful but it went well. Spanish is getting a ton better, haha. AND, their dad came to the baptism! He has had bad experiences with religion and actually didn't really want his daughters to be baptized but when he came I could see his heart soften and we are going to try to start to teach him, and help them become an eternal family!! Something cool too was that their grandpa, (Eliana's dad) read all of the Book of Mormon! Haha, we didn't even have a clue he had interest in the church. He is a hardcore Catholic, and when we talked to him it was still hard for him to accept us, but he knows to BoM is true.

Sometimes its hard not to get on my soap box about the Book of Mormon when we are teaching people, haha. It is literally the evidence of the truthfulness of our church laying right in your hands! If you have any doubts about the church they can basically all be resolved with the Book of Mormon. Because if the BoM is true, that means Joseph Smith was a Prophet and he had the Priesthood keys restored to him, and that means that all the succeesors of Joseph are all prophets and that means that this really is this really is The Church of Jesus Christ, and he guides it. I want to go on for a long time about this but I'm out of time and we are gonna be late to go to CHILI'S!!!!! I love Chili's, haha, and I love all of you guys.


Bye! 
-Elder Hale

Some really cool building in the central of Lima.

Me and the pal, Elder Horsley in front of some more old cool buildings.

And another pic of the same kinda stuff, haha.

Us with Eliana, Lia, Alexandra, Juan Carlos (the dad), and their baby at their baptism!

Us with the Ward and their family.

And this is just a pic of when I was eating a delicious sandwich
and had a tasty Coke Zero and was just havin a good time!!

Monday, November 14, 2016

Week 15


Hey everyone!!

We had a pretty slow week down here in Comas. A lot of rejection, haha. A couple days this week we didn't even have any lessons! We heard a lot of "he's not here" and a lot of ¨"I'm really busy right now." BUT....life is still good!!! I'm glad to be a missionary! Yesterday was the Primary Program in sacrament meeting and it was adorable. Pure innocent little Peruvian kids talking and singing about the Gospel and it almost brought tears to my eyes! Haha, and they sung "Armies of Helaman" in English and that was so cute, haha. 

Also, something fun this week is that we were in a store and they were playing Michael Jackson, Earth Wind and Fire and some other claaasssiiccs and it reminded me of throwin' on a pair of skates and getting groovy at disco skate night, hahahaha. 

This week we watched a video called, "The Atonement and Missionary Work" and it was probably the most powerful video I've ever watched. In the video, Elder Holland and Pres Eyring talk about Priesthood responsibilities, diligence, and how Christ was the perfect example of this. It's so cool that we have living Prophets and Apostles and when you watch that video its so apparent that they are literally men called of God to lead us help us and teach us. There is a scripture that they shared in the video, D&C 107:100. It talks about the importance of magnifying callings and not being slothful—good motivator.


-Elder Hale


No pics this week :(

Monday, November 7, 2016

Week 14

Hey Everyone!

Good morning everyone from Lima, Peru. Life is good and it's getting warm here! And people are finally starting to eat ice cream! People here don't eat ice cream in the winter or really drink cold pop either! It's so weird. They think that ice cream and cold pop will make you sick hahaha. But its gonna be pretty weird to have a hot/humid Christmas. Anyways it's been a good and busy week! Earlier this week and the past couple my comp was extra lazy, haha I think he is bored of this area cuz he's been here for about 5 months. BUT we had a work visit this week and one of the ZL's came to my area with my comp and I went to his with the other ZL. He helped motivate my comp and help with some obedience issues, and since then he has been so much better!! He wants to work harder, and be more obedient and is a lot more easy to get along with and that has been such a big blessing for me, and for the people in our area! And its always better doing the Lords work, in the Lord's way!! Because just like it says in D&C, ¨if it be by any other way, it is not of Me¨.

As far as investigators go..I don't remember which ones I've explained and talked about and which I haven't so Im sorry if im repetitive,

Luis and Jennifer finally came to Church this week! We've been teaching them for weeks and weeks and they always say they're gonna go but they never show up! But this week they came and it was great! We have to marry them before baptism and hopefully that doesn't become a huge dilemma. Luis has had drinking problems in the past and Jenifer has thought about getting separated so we really need to work with him on the Word of Wisdom too.

Lia and Alexandra are good but slow. They still come to church every week with their mom (Eliana, our latest baptism) but I think their friends in school are telling them stuff and having a bad influence because they are still timid and hesitant to be baptized. Its a bummer cuz they come to church more than a lot of members! haha! They even have parts in the primary program next week, They are just timid to take that big step of baptism and entering in a covenant with Heavenly Father. So were praying and working on that too.

Pedro is a guy that we have been teaching that has accepted the lessons and the Book of Mormon really well but he has had a drinking problem in the past too so were gonna try to help him overcome that.

Fun things that happened this week was that I found milk that wasn't in a can so I stalked up on that so I can have Oreos with real milk now!! Also this week at lunch, I found a chicken foot in my soup....wasn't too excited about that. I don't know if they expected me to eat it but ya no way.

Well yeah, the mission is great! Super challenging at times but super rewarding! Love you all and cya!

-Elder Hale


Another killer sunset.

This week was Gustavo Jr.'s birthday, so we bought him a 5 dollar cake!

Monday, October 31, 2016

Week 13



Hey Everyone!!

I hope all is going good and you are all having a good Halloween. Life is good down here in Lima. WE HAD AN EARTHQUAKE this week it was super cool and scary! It was pretty big too! It was about 10:45 pm, I was about to fall asleep and the house just started shakin!!! Crazy stuff haha. This week we had transfers, but my comp stayed and so I have another 6 weeks with him! I was kind of disappointed at first, I was looking forward to getting a new, less weird, and more obedient trainer. But it's not all a bad thing because I get to learn how to be more patient! Which I still need lots of work on, haha. And I learned something that has helped a lot and suggest this for any missionaries or future missionaries. A few weeks ago on a work transfer I was talking to our zone leader and I was venting about all the things about my comp that frustrate me and all the things he is doing that he shouldn't and vice-versa. And all he said to me was "you just gotta love him man" and at first a was frustrated by his answer, but after a few days and weeks, after focusing on the things he is good at and the things a like about him, though they may be few, I am happier, and our relationship is stronger and we are more effective. 

And well as far as investigators goes...here are the ones that we are focusing on right now a lot. The daughters of Eliana, the Hermana that we baptized last week, are saying that they feel more prepared for baptism, and you can tell that their faith has really increased! Yesterday Eliana couldn't make it to church but her daughters came anyways without her! It was a cool sign of their faith  and obedience.

Rosa and Orlanda, are parents of a girl in our ward and she has been trying to get them to church and convert them for years. And just last week they came to church for the first time in years and they are warming up to the Gospel so we are starting to teach them and have high hopes!!

Some funny stuff that happened this week is when some guy that we were teaching asked about my family and I showed him a picture and he said CAPS (Andrew) looked like Stewart Little! Hahahahah! Also there is a special guy that is like 40 that is always out in the streets and this week I guess he found a whistle and he has been standing in the middle of the street trying to direct traffic and it is sooooo funny—he is adorable. And one of the most awkward things is when we are walking down the street and we pass the Jehovah's Witness missionaries hahaha. 

Love you guys and cya next week! 

-Elder Hale

(Sorry for not sending pics last week—here they are!)

Saw the pals from the MTC at Chili's the other week and that was just a great time!
Me when I got my package, I was pretty stoked...good day!
Just a view from some of the killer hills we have to walk, haha.
Hermana Eliana's Baptism last week!!!!

This week's photos......

Killer sunset and the view of peoples lovely roofs.
Me and Will"s cousin, Elder Edwards!! He just got into the field on Tuesday! 
We just happened to be at the offices because my comp had an interview with 
the President so I got to bump into him right as he got here!



Monday, October 24, 2016

Week 12


This week was good! This week we had the baptism for Eliana! Her daughters decided not to get baptized yet but they said they want to! So we are going to try to work with them and help them. Eliana is a really good convert, she loves church and has gone every week since we met her and she always asks so many questions!! Which is great because it shows that she actually cares and is careful about her decisions. After she solved her problems with the Book of Mormon through prayer, she has been really excited and willing to keep all the commandments! You could tell that when we taught her about the Word of Wisdom she really didn't wanna give up coffee and tea but she was more than willing to do so after receiving a testimony. 

As far as other investigators...we don't have too many people progressing really good. We have hope for a few people but it's really slow right now. And whenever we find new people and set up an appt to teach, they either aren't there or say they're busy. 

Something good though is we have been helping a lot of less active members and reactivating them! Hermana Luz, Juan, John, Lily and Edwardo, Jajan, and David and Elizibeth are all some people/families in our ward that haven't been to church in forever and we've helped them out a lot and got them excited about the Gospel again. And with David and Elizibeth, when we reactivated them, they had a daughter that just barely turned 8 and said that they would want her to be baptized so we had her baptism a couple weeks ago! They told me last minute that I had to speak at it too which was fun and stressful haha. Spanish is hard. But its a lot better! It doesn't really frustrate me too much anymore because for the most part I can understand everyone now. 

A cool thing this week was we had a member of the 70 come and speak to us this week! Elder Godoy. He was great and gave a good talk! ALSO this week a finally got my package!!! SO much snickers and candy and beef jerky, and the photos album thingies were like the best part haha. 


Weeks are starting to go by faster now and they will probably only get faster!! See you folks next week. 

-Elder Hale 

Monday, October 17, 2016

Week 11: Crazy Week


Hey everyone!! It's been quite a week! Our investigators kind of took us on a rollercoaster. I'll explain: 

Our best investigators, Eliana and her daughters, were progressing really fast. They have gone to church every week for all 3 hours since we met them and one of the last times we were with them they had us download Gospel Library on their phones for them and they were just super excited! Well the next appt we had with them was supposed to be a fun family home evening with a lesson last Monday night after P-day, and we got there and they we could tell something was off. The spirit wasn't there like it usually was and in our lesson they kept asking questions about the history of the church and stuff and it was pretty obvious that they saw some anti-Mormom stuff on the internet. They said that they didn't believe that the Book of Mormon was true and that they didn't want to be baptized anymore. Well my companion and I shared our testimonies of the BoM and the restoration and said that if they read it and sincerely pray then they will actually receive an answer. They didn't seem too excited and said that they were really busy this week so we couldn't set up another appt. That was a BUMMMERR. BUTTTT this Saturday they called us and said that they've read and prayed and they have received a testimony of its truth!!! We are super excited and we will be meeting with them tomorrow and hopefully all continues to go good!!

Second roller coaster ride was with Juliño and Tatiana. Juliño is an inactive member that saw us walking down the street a few weeks ago and pulled over and said that he hasn't been to church in forever but he misses the gospel and invited us over to his house. His wife Tatiana isn't a member and they actually aren't married. Hah, like nobody is married here they just live together and call each other their spouses. Anyways, we've been teaching them and Tatiana wanted to be baptized! But Tuesday morning Juliño called us crying and saying that they got in a big fight and she is way mad at him and they've separated and he wanted our advice. So the next day we met with him and talked about his situation and told him to be very humble and patient with her and to pray. And as of yesterday they are getting back together and working things out!! You'd be surprised how many people talk to us about their relationship problems I feel like a marriage counselor, hahah.

But this week was such a HUGE example of God answering prayers. He really listens and wants to help His children. Being able to pray and communicate with our Heavenly Father is such a big blessing, and I am so grateful for His love for me, and for all of His children. Also, something that I'd like to say is READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. The Book of Mormon is so powerful and we are so lucky to have it. We are lucky enough to have it at our fingertips in our phones and you can buy it for like 4 bucks at Deseret book! The key to a happy life, and the best "self help guide" literally costs like 4 bucks. I am so frustrated that I didn't take advantage of it before my mission. I didn't read it that much and when I did, I did like it was a chore or just something to check off. Reading the words while your mind wanders off about something else isn't how we should do it. We need to study it! Mark it up and put your thoughts in it. 


So yeah thats my week! We also had interviews with the President this week which was good I got to get all my frustrations about my comp out. And he told me just to be patient and just do my part cuz you can't control other peoples actions! Also, something cool was when we were waiting for our turns in the interviews, the Presidents son was skateboarding and learning how to ollie and so I taught him how to ollie and did a few tricks! Hahah, I realized after that if the President saw me he probably wouldn't be too happy with that. But that was pretty cool, haha. Also we go to CHILI'S TODAY!!! I am super excited because I only get like 1 normal meal a month and that's at Chili's. Sometimes the food here is terrible. They eat every part of the chicken. I often get handed a piece of chicken and just wonder where on the body this came from, hahah. Also I had to eat liver and what seemed to be the yolk of a large bird egg. It had vein thingies in it and it was terrible. I miss eating fast food everyday. 

Hah, well I love you guys and talk to you in a short week! 

-Elder Hale



This is me and my pal Elder Horsley at our service activity hauling dirt/sand 
up the mountain on Wednesday!! He came from the MTC with me and he's like 
my best friend since my comp and I aren't super tight, haha.

Some hermoso clouds

Pretty cool full moon from our apartment!




Monday, October 10, 2016

Week 10


Hey Everyone! 

Quite an interesting week! I got super, super sick and still don't feel good but it's getting better! I guess I ate something really bad on Friday! They took me to the Clinic last night and they hooked me up on the IV thingy. But it helped and they gave me a bunch of pills and I'm staring to feel a little better! The bummer is that we are going to a little amusement park thing as a zone today but I can't go, haha. 

Spanish is still going! Some people are still way hard to understand though like our new investigator Ricardo. He literally talks as fast as Busta Rhymes in that one song—its crazy! Haha, and he is really weird. He has back problems and in our last lesson with him he made me massage his shoulders for a minute and it was so weird and random. I don't even know if I'm aloud to do that, hahaha. But some good news is that we have a family that is progressing really great and they have a baptismal date for the 22! Right now they are super excited about the gospel and learning more so hopefully that continues to go great!! We also had a work visit earlier this week so I went with one of the zone leaders to his area and that was great!! Got to take a little break from my comp and we found so many new people to teach! It was a really successful and happy day! So yeah, that's life out here! Going great, aside that there is an alien in my stomach but the food out here is whack so I'm not surprised! 

Love you all!

-Elder Hale

Remember the dog that wanted to kill me? Haha, well we are friends now and she 
follows us everywhere! Like all the way to the other side of our area! Haha, we like 
to call it ¨lessons with a member present¨ haha.

And this is just a nice view from one of our investigators houses!

Monday, October 3, 2016

Week 9


Hey Everyone!!

Life is going well out here in Peru! Spanish is still coming along too! Little by little, but I find that there's less situations everyday where I'm just lost. There are still sometimes though when we are talking to someone and then they ask me a question and I just have to guess what they said. Also drunk and crazy people like to come up and talk to me because I'm white. Haha, anyways, fun stuff has happened this week! We got to eat at Chili's last Monday which was heaven—it made me miss eating normal food!! Haha, this week we were eating at a members house and I'm pretty sure we ate pig skin!! Ands it was pretty terrible! But it's really disrespectful here to not eat all of your food so you just have to man up and do it. Another fun thing that happened this week was our little service project on Monday, we hauled bags of concrete mix up super steep stairs to get to this old home on the mountainside. I'll send some pics of that. My comp still bugs me a bit but its getting better and I'm learning to get over it! I just wish he was more, obedient, clean, and taught me how to do stuff, but I'm figuring it out, haha.

This week we had Gustavo's baptism! We had it on a Friday which is unordinary but it was good!! His kids were kinda rambunctious and didn't really understand what was going on and but they're kids. The Bishop shared some thoughts and feelings after and it was a really cool experience. Gustavo was really happy. ALSOOOO I got to watch CONFERENCE in ENGLISH!!!! My prayers were answered and I am so grateful. Us gringos just went on splits with each other's companions and watched it on a computer in the secretaries office of the stake center! And it was great! How cool is it that we live in a time to be able to listen to living Prophets and Apostles every 6 months! They are truly men called of God and it is really evident while listening to their talks. We had a few investigators come to the Sunday morning session too which was good news!!

So yeah, life gets better and its going good!


Nos Vemos—Elder Hale


Gustavos baptism!

Me mastering the digital camera selfie at our service project at the top of the mountain

View of the North Lima Valley from the service project

View of the stairs we had to climb for our service project

Killer sunset

Monday, September 26, 2016

Week 8

Hey Everyone! 

Week 2 into the mission. Life is good! Spanish is getting better too! It’s really weird though because somedays my Spanish can be pretty good and then others I feel like I can’t understand anything. Like sometimes I am able to hold up conversations and ask questions and all that, and other times I have no idea what people are saying and I just smile and nod, hahahah. And Peruvians start talking for soooo long about random stuff and telling random stories that I just don't have the vocabulary to understand. Like earlier this week we were talking with an investigator and I thought he was talking about his job but I guess he was talking about tornados and I guess I accidentally told him that there are tornados every day in Utah, hahaha.  And my Comp got super sick this week and lost his voice so I had to do a lot of the talking and whenever he would talk to me I couldn't understand! hahaha. A lot of the little things he does are starting to bug me, but I defintely need to learn how to be more patient so its kind of a blessing. 

This week I think I figured out why people call it the best two years, and I also figured out why some people struggle really badly. Lots of ups and downs—it’s defintely a learning experience! One of the best feelings though is being able to teach somebody and watch their countanance change as they feel the Spirit. You feel so happy for that person and just want them to continue to feel it and progress! And you feel like you are really making a difference and I love it!

But then there are the times where people just don’t accept it or just don't care, and you can’t speak the language very well and stuff so that just bums you out from time to time. I only have 2 weeks here so I’m not super experienced, but that’s at least what I've noticed so far. 

Something great that happened this week though is yesterday at church we had 3 of our progressing familes come to church AND 3 less active families come too! Very cool, we are really hoping that they let the spirit in and noticed the joy of the gospel. Hopefully I’m not just getting my hopes up. 

Our investigator, Gustavo, and his family didn't get baptized on Saturday because they couldn’t make it to church last week so the baptism is set for Friday! 

Also, general conference is this weekend and I’m praying that our mission Pres lets us gringos watch it in English because I wouldn’t get too much out of it in Spanish and that would bite because GC is my fav. ALSOOO we are going to CHILI’S this afternoon and I am stoked out of my mind! Also since I couldn’t send pics last week—here are some now.

-Elder Hale


This is me and Elder Ramirez!!

This is the dog that's outside our door that wanted to kill me the first week but now we are pals!

This is the view from my front door.
This is the hole in our roof, which I like to call the sunroof because it makes me feel fancy, lol!

This is just the daily view!!

This is my area—super good view!

Monday, September 19, 2016

Week 7

First week out here in the real world


Hey Everyone!

Life is crazy! I left the MTC Tuesday morning and got to the mission home and got assigned to my trainer Elder Ramirez! He is a good guy! He has been out here for about 15 months. He is Chilean so he speaks super fast and mumbles a lot so that it's so hard to understand him. Haha. I thought I knew Spanish pretty well until I got out here the first day and heard people speak. The first few days I got wrecked and just nodded and said "si" to everything people said—but I can understand them more and more each day. People that have teeth are a lot easier to understand, which is actually more rare than to find you'd think, haha.

Our area is super poor. It's crazy how different it is here. We live in a members house on the 3rd floor, and it's super trashy but we have hot water!!! kind of... it's this little electric thing in the shower head, and it you touch it you get electrocuted, and its not even 6 feet high so I have to duck so I don't shock myself all the time. My comp is really nice but he's a cochino (which means dirty person). So basically in all the extra time we have I am just cleaning the house.

Our ward is great! Lots of members—the Bishop pulled a fast one on me and told me to speak for 5 mins in sacrament meeting which was really hard and scary but I pulled through, haha. We do a lot of work with less active members here. Basically half of all of our missionary work is teaching and visiting less actives. People here have faith and believe, but they don't act on it and it just dies. They need to read James 2:11-15 "faith without works is dead." It's hard to teach them the importance of obedience.

We have a few people that are progressing really well though—one family, Gustavo and his children have a baptismal date for this Saturday the 24. He is keeping his commitments and sees the importance of obeying commandments, so thats pretty exciting. Moises has a baptismal date for the next Saturday after that but he just doesn't show up to church. It's really frustrating because in our lessons you can sense him feeling the Spirit and believing and having a desire to live the Gospel but he won't act on it so I don't know what will happen with him. So, all is well here! Spanish is coming along, although it is super frustrating at times, and we are working hard! 

-Elder Hale

Friday, September 16, 2016

Week 6


Jarett left the Peru MTC (CCM) on Tuesday to head out into the field and to his first area. I was hoping to hear from him on move day, and it looks like he did write, but it was just delayed in getting to me. This handwritten letter was emaied to me today from the mission secretary. It looks like he is doing well, and should be able to write more on his new P-day, Monday.


Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Week 5: Last Week in the MTC


Hey Everyone!

Last week here in the MTC! I leave on Tuesday to Lima Norté! It's been so great here in the MTC. I've learned so much about the Gospel and a lot of Spanish. I used to think that when missionaries left the MTC that they were fluent in their language, haha not really how it works out. But!! I can speak a lot of Spanish. I am able to speak about the Gospel really well and can understand most of what people are saying, but for not Gospel related talk—I have a ways to go, haha. My teachers have been the best, their names are Hermano Valera and Gavancho. Hermano Valera speaks no English so the first week here was super tough but now that we can communicate, he is one of the funniest people I've met and a really great teacher. I'll send  pictures with them next week. 

New things that happened this week are we had KFC style chicken this week (with rice of course) and it was super good and reminded me of home. I finally lost in ping-pong here, it was a tough loss but I got over it. I ran out off all my American candy and they don't sell too many sunflower seeds down here as far as I'm aware so that is a bummer. It’s the last week with my companion Elder Perkins! He's super smart and very driven, he is going to be a great missionary. Earlier this week he said ¨If you're around someone 24/7 for 6 weeks you start to talk like them¨. Haha, I guess I talk a funny way. He's going to Lima North too so I'll probably see him from time to time. 

This week was awesome because I finished to Book of Mormon again!! I love reading the Book of Mormon. I am so sad I never took as much time to read it back home as I do now. It is just filled with plain and precious truths and so much to get out of it. I definitely know it's true and if I could give anyone advice back home it would be to take advantage of what a great gift it is for us and read it! Im very grateful for that God let it be translated through the Prophet Joseph Smith so that we can learn and grow from it! I hope to someday know and be able to quote the Scriptures and the Book of Mormon as much as I know "The Office" and am able to quote it! Haha. I also finished "Our Search for Happiness" by Elder Ballard and that is such a great book! It was definitely a testimony booster and such a well rounded book about the truthfulness of The Church. Sunday was also a great day like always. We watched a video about John Moyle who was a stonecutter for the SLC temple and he walked 22 miles each week to Salt Lake for 20 years to work on the Temple—it taught me a lot about diligence and enduring till the end. He said ¨callings are seldom convenient" and that’s true–sometimes being obedient and doing the right thing is hard but it is The Lord's work and so it is important that we give it our absolute best. 

Some great scriptures that I read this week are all of 3 Nephi!! But especially chapters 9, 11, 13, 18, 27, and 28, Ether 3, and 12 Moroni 7, 8 and 10. ALSO Elder Holland’s talk called "The Only Living God and Jesus Christ Whom He Hath Sent" is one of the best talks I’ve ever listend to! 10/10 would recommend!

Bye everyone!!

Elder Hale


Me and Elder Perkins lookin smug

View from our dorms. The vegetation on the mountain is a garden, so don't be fooled
to think this place is tropical. The mountains are all just big piles of dirt here, haha.

This HUGE bird landed on top of Angel Moroni today so I had to take a pic.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Week 4


Hey Everyone!

Week 4 in the Lima MTC and life is good here! Really busy and lots of learning! This week we had some cool stuff happen but our whole district got sick too haha. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were pretty long because an Elder in our district gave us all colds and we were all pretty miserable. On Sundays for Sacrament meetings, 4 Elders or Hermanas get randomly called up to give a talk in Spanish and this week Elder Kunz got called up to speak and he kept calling the 4th article of the faith the 1st and kept saying a few weird things in Spanish that he thought were making sense it was pretty funny. AND remember last week when I said Elder Varney and Perkins think they are really good at singing?? Well they did a musical number in Sacrament meeting and it was pretty bad hahah. Another funny thing this week is while we were playing soccer the other day Elder Perkins got drilled in the stomach so hard with a the ball that he made a goal on accident and he had a ball shaped welt on his stomach!

Well a really cool thing we got to do this week was go proselyting! All of the older missionaries in the MTC took like an hour bus ride and got companioned up with some of the trainers from the Lima South Mission. It was really cool and a big eye opener. I was really nervous going into it because I don´t know that much Spanish especially when people talk really fast but once we got out there it wasn´t so bad. We went to an appointment that fell through and then visited a less active member that didn´t want to talk to us so that was pretty discouraging and humbling but after that we did street contacts and one man standing outside a store saw us walking and ran up and asked us if we were the Mormons and he said he really wanted to hear our message and we got an appointment with him for Monday, I wish I could´ve been there for the appointment. But anyways after that he asked me to do the next one by myself and it was super scary and I tried to stop someone and after I stopped him I got so scared and I forgot all my Spanish and didn´t say anything and it was way embarrassing. The next person was a family out on there front porch/dirt patch area. I went up to them and introduced ourselves and asked them a few questions and gave them a tiny lesson thing and it was pretty awesome! We gave them a couple pamphlets and a Book of Mormon and they seemed pretty interested. When we left I was so hyped and excited to get out in the field! It was a cool experience.

Sunday was also a really cool spiritual day along with last night. On Sunday we got to watch Mountain of the Lord which is an awesome movie about the Salt Lake Temple, it´s kind of old and cheesy a little bit but it was a great movie! The opportunity of having temples all over the world now is so cool and a great blessing. We also had some great lessons and watched a devotional of Elder Bednar about Christlike attributes and overcoming the natural man. As representatives of Christ and His Church it is really important to grow closer to Him daily and trying to do as He would do. Last night we watched a old devotional from Elder Ballard and it was great. I am running out of time but the mission is great and the Church is true!!


Elder Hale


This is me in my natural habitat.

This is me in my favorite tie, shoes, shirt, and pants. I wore all my favs because it was the day that we became the ¨Avansados¨ or older missionaries in the MTC. It was supposed to be a really good day but I was actually super sick and it was terrible hahah.

This was our district on our way to the Temple just a few hours ago!


Lima, Peru Temple



Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Week 3


Hey Everyone!

Another week in the CCM, it flew by I can´t believe its P-day again! Life is good here, learning a lot and having fun!

Some fun stuff has been happening this week the old missionaries that came 3 weeks before us left and new missionaries came! There was this super nice Latino Elder that is trying to learn English and he left this week and it was super sad, we were close haha. So now we are the ¨old¨ missionaries here and there are a lot of new Elders that are in the shock stage haha. It´s weird to think that I´m already halfway done with the MTC. This week I got humbled with my Spanish learning. We got assigned to a new ¨investigator¨ that was a lot less forgiving and it made me realize that I’m not as slick in Spanish as I thought I was. It showed me that I need to spend a little more time studying Spanish than reading the Book of Mormon. It´s still coming along good though and I can communicate more day by day!

My companion and district is still awesome and we get along great. Elder Varney has been sleepwalking a lot and it´s hilarious. He tries to have random conversations with us at like 3 AM and randomly does weird stuff it´s hilarious. Also, someone told Elder Varney and Elder Perkins that they are good at singing so now they sing all day that has been suupper annoying haha. And one night this week Elder Perkins and I were trying to figure out our tie swap and we got in a huge argument because he has way ugly ties and mine are fresh so we still are trying to come to conclusions. We finally had a meal that wasn't chicken and rice so I had to take a picture I´ll show you guys. A lot of this stuff probably sounds silly and boring but I promise it´s pretty funny for us haha. Due to some arguments between some Elders we play volleyball for physical activity now instead of soccer and I can throw down some wicked spikes.

I had some really cool opportunities and spiritual experiences this week. President Clayton of the Seventy came and talked to each us and he had a great message about the getting rid of the natural man. Sunday was another super spiritual day! The gift of The Holy Ghost is quite a cool thing. We have the oppertunity to have a personal companion with us all the time to testify of truth, prompt us, comfort us and that is such a great blessing and advantage in our lives as members of the Church. We watched Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration on Sunday too and that was great because I love the Restoration and learning more about it. I love the quote ¨Save Jesus Christ, no man has ever done more for the Salvation of the world than Joseph Smith¨ by I think John Taylor. It´s cool to me that The Lord took a pretty uneducated young man and made him a great instrument to bring Christ's Gospel back to the earth in its fullness and to translate the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is amazing. Alma, Amulek and the Sons of Mosiah are like the best missionaries ever and I hope that I could be like Ammon in Chapter 26, also chapter 24 and 34 are great!


-Elder Hale

This was ugly tie day! Although it wasn't too hard for my comp to find an ugly tie, haha!

This is one of the only dinners that wasn't chicken and rice! Miracles are real!

So I used to think Inca Kola was overrated, but now we are all addicted, haha!