Week 65: Howdy!

Well, well, well!!! 

Another p-day and another crazy week! haha life is never boring over here in the M.P.L.N.! 

We have been busssyyy. We had zone conference this week so my comp and I had to clean the whole church and prepare trainings and stuff, but we had a great conference!! Pres exploded our minds with full doctrine about the plan of salvation and then he talked about how we can help our investigators understand and get converted with inspired questions. 

On Saturday Luis was baptized!! Woohoo! it was a interesting experience cuz the church was out of water on Saturday so we couldn't fill up the font!! We had to rig up hoses and fill it up from far away haha, BUTTTTT...the missionaries that were in charge of turning it off, wern't paying attention and it OVERFLOWED!!! hahah. There was a lot of mopping...but it all turned out good.

Have a good week folks. 

A pigeon sniped me from the telephone wires....DURING A CONTACT!
Hahah but hey you cant win em all right?

Just another pizza pic!

This bad boy tried to sneak up on me when I was opening the church...he was huuugeeee!

WITH LUISSSS :)

Week 64: Tough Week (Kinda)

Hey Everyone!

Sorry for not writing in a week or 2 or 3! Life is good and busy!! This week was good and bad! We have been doing work visits with our zone all week to help them with their investigators with baptismal dates. It has helped a lot and our zone is getting better!!! BUTTTT...since we've been working so hard with the zone we have lacked organization and planning in our own area and we had a slower week. :/ We only had 1 investigator come to church....BUTTT he will be getting baptized on Saturday!! His name is Luis! He is an awesome guy, his wife died a few years ago and he started drinking, but we found him and taught him the gospel and it has filled the hole in his heart!!! He hasn't missed a Sunday since we found him and is super ready for Saturday. :)

Yesterday, all of Peru has a census!! Everybody in the country had to stay in their house from 8 am to 5 pm! Church meetings were canceled and we stayed inside. My comp and I took advantage and did some hard core planning and organization so we can hit this week strong!! Also, I got to read the scriptures with I sadly don't have as much time for anymore....and wow let me tell ya, I LOVE the Book of Mormon! That book is FULL of truth and light! It literally is like a big ole bag of problem fixers! These past 3 weeks I haven't had much time to study cuz we've had lots of meetings and interchanges so my study time has plummeted and my spirituality too! But yesterday when I read the BoM I realized how much I've missed it and how much I love it! It brings the spirit into our lives!

Well...I'm out of time but I love you all and may the force be with you!

-Elder Hale

We had a pet for a day! Made me miss being a puppy deliverer, hahahaha.

Exchanges with Elder Anderton—we tried some coco water.

Week 63: Busy, Busy

(This is just an excerpt from my letter, because he didn't write a group email and just sent pictures.)

I talked again in sac meeting yesterday. They called me on Friday to prepare a 10 min talk for Sunday—haha, these rascals. But it went good! I talked about elder Sabin's talk of being "all in". and challenged the ward to think about what they need to do so that they can be "all in". 

Being a ZL is fun and cool but it comes with stress too! haha. Our zone had a badddd weeek and I'm really feeling the pressure of it. In our mission if your zone doesn't have success, then you get taken out of your position really quickly. My zone has a lot of new missionaries, so its tough to train them to do the right things, but we're working on it. My comp is a little disobedient, but he knows a lot and still works hard. We get along pretty good.

On Thursday everyone and their dog watched the Peru game to qualify for the World Cup, 

which made teaching very hard, but earlier in the day a member gave us funny Peru hats.

My comp contacting with his hat, hahahahaha!

Just being a goofball.

Week 62: Good Week

Hey everybody! 

This week was awesome. Sorry I don't have time to talk but here's a quick summary:

We had interviews on Tuesday. Meetings on Thursday. Work visit on Friday with Elder Christofferson's nephew that is in our mission, he is a cool guy, he's new in the mish. Saturday I got super sick and we had a baptism!! Donna got baptized but I couldn't even go cuz I was so sick, haha. I couldn't even open my eyes cuz they were all swollen and red, it was a doozy. So, I don't have pics. :( Sunday the bishop gave me a surprise call out to give a testimony/talk in sac meeting. 

-Elder Hale

Me and the comp.

With Cheetos stuffed in my mouth.

Week 60: Here Comes the Sun

Well, well , well—Howdy everyone!

Life keeps cruzin by and its going great! Its warming up finally, I'm feeling pretty happy about that. I've missed the sun.

We had a great week. The best part of the week was The Quiroz fam's baptism on Saturday!! Man they are just the best. I'll tell you a little about them:

They were a reference that we found like 2 months ago and they were Jehovas Witnesses for a few years (if you know about the JW's, then you understand how challenging it is to teach them), and to make it even harder, they are pretty rich and down here the rich people are notoriously a lot harder to teach. So basically, we had our work cut out for us but...NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WHEN YOU HAVE THE SPIRIT ON YOUR SIDE! haha They said they would never get baptized but, 7 weeks later, they haven't missed an attendance and they are baptized!!! (All of them but Carlos, the dad...BUTTTT, he is applying for new jobs so that he can start coming to church and be baptized in October!!!)

This last week Satan has been working HARD against them. Jenny invited all of her friends and family to the baptism but EVERYONE told her she was crazy and that the Mormons are this and that and all kinds of stuff. She has seen basically it all when it comes to anti-Mormon material but THEY ARE STAYIN STRONG! When she gave her testimony in her baptism she started crying and said that her life has completely changed since we've met with them and that she's "ended the search that she didn't know she was on." I love their family, they are some of my favorite converts in my mission.

Well, everyone, this church is so true. Jesus Christ guides it from heaven today. There is NO other path to follow that leads to a happy life now or salvation in the eternity.

Love you folks, have a good one.

-Elder Hale

The district

Me with me pals from my first district 

(Elder Sanchez the AP and my best pal Elder Tirado).

The Quiroz Fam

Saturday's baptism

Week 61: Transfers

Hey Everyone!

I don't have much time today...and from now on my email time will but cut hard core cuz I have to do a ton of reports and stuff. :/ SORRY!

But life is going GREAT and I'm still loving the mish! 

Sadly I got transferred and had to lead Bayovar!!! It was easily my fav area, we had a ton of success there and the ward was great!! And I had to leave my kid, Elder Java too. But he's in good hands so that's good, haha. I got transferred to Mariategui. It's only like 10 mins away from my old area but its in a different stake and a different zone. My comp is Elder Gutierrez. He's from Bolivia, and he's a good fella! A little interesting but he knows how to work smart! He does have like 15304 ideas an hour and a bunch of them are super random and bad but besides that he is great. We are the zone leaders over the Wiesse Zone. We are prepping for a GREAT October; we are trying to break the record for baptisms that our zone has had! More saved souls for the Lord! Woohoo!

Conference this week was KILLER as always. I was a big fan of Elder Holland's, Christofferson's, Anderson's, Oaks', and Callister's talks! And it almost jerked the tears when the choir sung, "I believe in Christ!" Man, sometimes a good hymn just pumps me up!

I'm grateful for my mission and I love serving the Lord. I know that He is in the very details of His church and in the very details of our lives as Elder Rasband said this weekend! 

Have a great week everyone! :)

-Elder Hale

Saying goodbye to my kid :( ELDER JAVA

Anotha one

Reuniting with the MTC pals after a meeting