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

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!

Week 2

Hola friends and family!

It´s been another good week here in the MTC! It´s starting to fly by now and it´s crazy. New missionaries come in just a week and then we will be the old missionaries here which is super weird to think about. This week flew by 10x faster compared to the first week. Looking back on it the first week was pretty bad, haha. I´m probably gonna be repetitive in this because I don't really remember what I said last week. I'm getting used to the food here, I don't know how they like to eat chicken and rice every meal every day but at least its not some weird food like duck feet or goat eyes or something. But they love sauce here and I'm way happy about that because as you know sauce is my favorite food. We saw the sun a couple times this week so that was pretty awesome. They say in September it starts to warm up and get sunnier and I'm looking forward to that. I have this cardigan that is tiny but I wear it anyways because its chilly and the Elders are hatin on it but I don't care. This next paragraph is gonna be stories and funny stuff here and the last one is going to be about all the cool experiences and spiritual matters.

My companion is a great guy like I told you last week. He has been homesick and stuff this week though so thats been tough for him but he is so smart and we get closer and closer every day. The Elders in my district are so fun and easy to get along with, I truly got so blessed because I am an impatient guy. One time this week Elder Varney was climbing into his bunk and the bed slats from his bunk fell and hit Elder King and it was one of the funniest experiences of my life, oh also they love my impressions so thats fun, haha. But some of the Elders here like to goof off too much and be kinda disobedient and that tests my patience a lot but last night we had a broadcast of Elder Neil L. Anderson and he talked about how important it is for missionaries to love everyone so I am working on that. OH, ALSO—I wreck everyone in ping pong here, I hold my title as the Forehand Hero. Also there was a earthquake this morning and it was super super tiny but it was cool to say that you've been in an earthquake. Also also we get to go to the Lima Temple on Wednesdays and that is such a great blessing and a cool experience. I love going to the Temple.

It is crazy how much I feel the spirit here and how much more my gospel knowledge has increased. To be honest when I came I thought I had a pretty good knowledge of the gospel, but it is a literal feast here and I LOVE it. I have grown a deeper love for my Savior and his perfect, selfless sacrifice. It is center of this Gospel and our whole role in life. I feel His love and support for me more and more each day. Sunday was another fantastic day, I never thought I'd say this but Sundays are way better than P-days.  We had a lot of talks this week about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Atonement and there have been very few days in my life where I've felt the Holy Ghost more. I love to read the Book of Mormon now. I'll be honest, back home there were times where I thought reading BoM was a chore but now it is all I want to do, haha. I am also reading Our Search For Happiness by M. Russell Ballard and it is one of the best book I've ever read. It describes our Church so well and has so many plain ad precious truths. Big testimony builder. ALSO, if any of you haven't listened to Safety for the Soul by Elder Holland I encourage you to do so. It is soooo good. We got to listen to that this week and I am so grateful. That was like the only conference talk I got to listen to in English though, haha. I miss listening to conference talks a lot. Here are some scriptures that I read this week and are awesome: 2 Nephi 2:8-9, D&C 138 is so cool, Mosiah chapter 27 and Alma chapter 5 is great too. My Spanish is getting a lot better! In our lessons with 'investigators' I have gotten to the point where I don't have to read anything in Spanish. I just bring my bullet points and I can give a good part of a lesson. I can understand a lot of what the natives say but I still have a looooong way to go. Also SORRY this email was so long.

Elder Hale

Lima, Peru Temple

Me and Elder Perkins

Me and my cardigan that everyone is hatin on.

This is me in my lounging position.

Week 1

Hola everyone! I don´t even know how to start haha. The first week has been good! The first few days were pretty slow and stressful but then we got to Sunday and that was easily the best day here. I don’t think I've ever felt the Holy Ghost more in a day than I did Sunday it was great. Then since then time has started to speed by and I love it here more day by day. My comp is a super cool guy his name is Elder Perkins, we get along really well and we are like best pals already and he is hilarious. He is super good at Spanish though and I knew basically zero coming in to the MTC so I'm trying to catch up. But Spanish is coming along well! I can pray, bear my testimony and a lot of basic communication.  I got blessed with the best roomies and with the best district, we all get along so well and its like we’ve already been friends for months. Every meal here is just a form of chicken and

rice, its definitely making me miss eating at my favorite restaurants. It is cloudy like 100% of the time here and I want to see the sun pretty bad. Lima is huuuge and there are random mountains popping up everywhere.

Elder Perkins and I get to teach this ‘investigator’ (which is really just one of our teachers) everyday in Spanish and that is a super cool opportunity because it really immerses you in the language and helps you get more comfortable with teaching the lessons. Through doing this I also learned a whole lot about the gift of tongues, it is real. Each time we go over to teach I am amazed by what I was able to say and how the spirit was there. The last time when we left after our lesson I realized that I taught like half my lesson without my notes and I was just amazed that the Lord can basically speak through us through the gift of tongues and the Holy Ghost. The MTC is a great place because you basically get to feel the spirit 24/7. The MTC president and his wife are the nicest people on the planet and they are some of the most spiritual people too! We had a couple great lessons on repentance and obedience and my testimony has grown so much here. Obedience is super important and there is a quote we hear a lot that I really like ‘when you're almost obedient, you almost get the blessing’. Also D&C 50 and D&C 130 have some really powerful scriptures. This email probably doesn’t make sense grammatically and that is partially because I am cramming in a ton of Spanish so I get languages mixed up lol and because I don’t have time to proof read this.

Goodbye Jarett!

Jarett Flies to the Lima, Peru MTC

August 2, 2016