Week 52: One Year!

Hey Everyone!!!!! 

Wow! What a week. 

Life is gooood here in Bayovar! We had a great week, probably the most successful week we've had this transfer!! We have a bunnnncchhhhh of potentials and it's honestly been hard to make time for everybody and plan all of the things we need to do. This week we organized ourselves a little bit and were able to set 2 more baptismal dates! Right now we have 5 and they are all for the 12th of August. We are praying that everything will go well with them! Keep Jocelyn, Orlando, André, Angelica, and Felina in your prayers pls:)

This week we had what might have been the best lesson I've ever been in! We found a new family this week that was a reference from a member (their relative) that lives in the other side of the country but was visiting for the week. She introduced us to the family and shared her testimony to them during the lesson and it was so powerful and clear. The family came to church the next day and loved it! ALSOOO...they are already married! (which is suuperrr rare here). Tomorrow we will invite them to be baptized.

These past 2 weeks I've learned through experience, a little more about faith. The first few Sundays of this transfer were really hard, we worked so hard to help investigators come to church but they didn't come. It made it hard to believe and hope for success the following Sundays. But in personal study I remembered the passage in Mark when Jesus says to the father with the sick son:

"If thou canst believe, all things are possible to he that believeth."

and the father responded:

"Lord I believe, help Thou my unbelief." 

In this situation I felt like the father that believed but still didn't have perfect faith and trust. I still doubted a little. But I wanted to have sufficient faith to be able to receive the blessing/miracle of having our investigators really come. I prayed for more faith and for trust in the Lord's power and promises and....we were blessed!!!! Last week we had 7 investigators come to church and yesterday we had 9 come!!! I am grateful that God was able to help me increase my faith and trust in Him.

I am SOOOOO grateful for my mission and all the blessings it's brought to my life, including the blessing of preaching the everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ! I can't believe its already half way over....its bittersweet! 

Well, have a great week y'all.

-Elder Hale

Selfie with the comp right before I cut my hair last week.

Living the bald guy life.

They had to close the church so we ate our pizza outside on the street.

Hope you folks enjoy this one!

Week 51: Pioneer Day

Hey everyone!

Happy Pioneer Day! I'm soooo grateful for our pioneer ancestors that sacrificed EVERYTHING so that we can live in peacefully in "happy valley" and worship God in His TRUE church today! 

We are going along happily down here in our reino de Bayovar. Lots of crazy stuff! so much happens that I can't remember/put it into words. The mission is NEVER boring and I'm sure that's why it goes by so fast! 

We have some great people progressing! 

Jocelyn: is fighting through the mannnnyyyyy trails in her life (separating from her husband, a sick baby, looking for a job) and finding peace and happiness in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She understands something that I wish aaallll my investigators would understand: That the Gospel isn´t something we do/follow when we "have time" or "when I don't have problems/obstacles." Following the Gospel is something that we do SO THAT we CAN make it trough problems and obstacles. It's our daily fuel that makes it possible to face and conquer daily challenges, problems, temptations and hardships! She has a baptism date for August 5th.

Andre: a great 18 year old that is looking for the truth and looking for the remission of his sins! ANDD he is looking in the right place...he has a baptism date for the 12th.

There are others that are also progressing and getting ready for baptism but I'm out of time!

I love you guys and have a great week!

—Elder Hale

Everyone putting up their flags for Peru's Independence Day.

A zombie that was creepin on me during my personal study from next door.

Cute little Jeremy! Such a chubbers!

An extra pic

Week 50: HAPPY

HEY FOLKS!

I hope everyone over there had a great 4th and is having a good summer. Sorry for not writing last week. It's been super busy. But life is good! I'm training now! My kid (new missionary) is from Iquitos, Peru (the middle of the jungle). He is a convert as of 1 year ago!!! And therefore doesn't know much about the gospel, haha. The other day in a lesson he said that the 1st vision was in 1982. Later that day I brought it up and he honestly thought it was in 1982. He thought Pres. Monson was the 2nd prophet of the restoration...BUTTTT it's all good because he's learning and growing!! He is a REALLY good guy. I'm happy that I got blessed to be his trainer. He is humble, happy, innocent and ready to work!! I feel blessed. :) 

We have been working super hard and have been seeing great results. Last Saturday Victor was baptized. He received the Aaronic Priesthood and baptized our other investigator, Leandro, this Saturday!!! Woohoo! As a zone we broke the record for baptisms that our zone has ever had! It's been a time of miracles here in our zone and in our area! But not all is flowers and roses because the Adversary has also been working SUPER HARD against us and against the cause of Zion. On Sunday we only had ONE investigator come to church...it was a humbling experience...caused for reflection and pondering. 

I am grateful for the good times and the hard times in the mission. Both serve for experience and growth! I love Jesus Christ and I love His Gospel. I'm soooo happy that he has entrusted me to work in his vineyard. :) This is Jesus Christ`s church and this is His work! He leads it and he is pulling with us. I have a strong and passionate testimony of Him and His church. 

Life is happy :)

-Elder Hale

Grubbin

Leandro's Baptism!

My kids first "Pizza Raul"

Week 49: Training New Comp

No group letter this week, so this is an excerpt from mom letter

We were so busy on Tuesday that I forgot it was the 4th of July! I FORGOT ABOUT MY FAV HOLIDAY?!?!?!? Haha, we had transfers and I had to go to the offices to pick up my new comp and it was crazy. But I am training!!! I have a kid as we say here in the mish. He's a convert and he got baptized a year ago! He's from the jungle! Iquitos, Peru. Suuuuppperrrrr great guy, really humble and nice! But super klutzy and not street smart. He already broke my camera kind of, haha. But I don't have much time this week.

-Elder Hale

Week 48: No Time

Hey everyone! 

I don't have any time right now but it was a crazy and a good week here in Bayovar. We just finished moving as of an hour ago haha, we started at 6 AM. I love my area and I love being a missionary. We have transfers tomorrow and they don't tell us until tonight. I hope to stay but we'll see what happens. 

Read the Book of Mormon!

-Elder Hale

Just finished moving this morning

Pizza on Saturday

Cleaning out everything and getting ready to move

My district

Week 47:  ÉXITO! (Success!)

Hey Everyone!!

I hope y'all had a super great week! Sorry for not writing last week, there is this new form that I have to fill out and I didn't have time.

But this week was awesome over here in nuestro reino de BAYOVAR! I love this area. This week we have started to see so many blessings and miracles; I feel as though God is blessing us tons for our faith and hard work! We have gone many days without eating dinner and walking on blistered feet this week, but hey without sacrifice, there is no victory. 

Our ward is changing a lot. Members that used to not like the missionaries are warming up to us and really taking part in missionary work. Moral is boosting and there's a spirit of unity and love growing here! Yesterday, there wasn't enough seats in the chapel so that everyone could sit in sac meeting! The Gospel Principles class was so full that we barely fit everyone in the room!

On Friday Juan and Andrea got married! It was super stressful to get their papers ready and to get the money by the deadline, but it all paid off! Andrea and Fabricio were baptized on Saturday! (Crazy story: Juan didn't get baptized because 2 weeks ago he told us that he got baptized as an 8 year old!!! He went inactive right after and didn't even remember what the church was when we contacted them in the street just a month ago!) But now the Huaman Family are all members and I love them so much! I am sooo happy that the Lord sent me here to Peru and I could find and help the Huaman fam to change and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ! 

One thing that I am learning lately is that if we want success (whether in missionary work or life in general) we need to cultivate and exercise FAITH! We need to TRUST in the Lord's promises and we need to keep a positive attitude. We need HOPE! 

In Preach My Gospel it says: "Hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises to you. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance. It is believing and expecting that something will occur. When you have hope, you work through trials and difficulties with the confidence and assurance that all things will work together for your good. Hope helps you conquer discouragement. The scriptures often describe hope in Jesus Christ as the assurance that you will inherit eternal life in the celestial kingdom."

This has helped me be more positive and be more patient through hard times.

I love you folks, have a great week!

-Elder Hale

BBQ WINGS!

The hills of BAYOVAR!!

Baptisms on Saturday!

The Huaman Family

Week 45: Sickness, No Water, Busy and Miracles

Hey everyone!

The title of the email is 4 words I would use to describe the week. And I'll explain how:

So first of all, sickness. On Friday I got a little tickle in my throat and thought it was no bug deal till I woke up Saturday morning with the stuffiest nose and I was sneezing all over the place. Eyes were super runny and soooo tired.Haha, I think it was the worst cold I've ever had! On Sunday I had to give a 15 min talk in church too!!! I looked like a zombie giving a talk, haha. AND to make it even more stressful, a member of the Seventy came and made a surprise visit to our ward. But it all went good and I woke up this morning feeling a lot better. :)

No Water: Since Tuesday we haven't had water in our house and I've felt like I've been on an episode of survivor. We had to go to the ZL´s house twice this week to shave and shower. And we cant use our toilet. Its been rough...BUT this morning WATER CAME BACK and I finally took a hot shower for the first time in a week! #blessed

BUSY: This week has been crazy with baptismal interviews, work visits and getting documents and stuff ready for this couple that we are marrying! This week has honestly felt like 2 or 3 days. Time went by WAY too fast. 

Miracles: The couple that we are marrying, Juan and Andrea are SOOO AWESOME. I love them so much. I have a deep care for them and preoccupation for their spiritual well being. They are a young couple with 3 kids and are super dedicated to changing their lives and coming to Christ. They were willing to get married ad baptized as soon as they could. Juan doesn't have a job right now so they were getting discouraged thinking that there was no way to get enough money together to pay for their marriage. BUT we had a great lesson about faith and sacrifice and they were willing to arrange a pollada (an activity, selling chicken to neighbors and friends to raise money) the next day. We scrambled to get everything prepared and they made EXACTLY enough money that day to pay for their marriage. COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT! It was a huge MIRCALE. :)

We also had the miracle of watching two of our investigators, Isaac and Cosme, make their first covenant with their Heavenly Father on Saturday. We had a really tender and spiritual baptismal service for them. 

Also, I just wanted to add a kind of weird but super spiritual experience I had yesterday at church: We were singing the closing hymn in sac meeting (I know that my Redeemer lives) and I noticed a super old lady in the ward sitting by herself and she was singing her heart out. She had a terrible voice, but it was so evident to see her devotion and her love for the Lord just by her character and appearance, I was filled with the Spirit in this moment and felt so much love and gratitude.

Welp....have a great week! READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERYDAY

—Elder Hale

Pic with the zone playing soccer last p-day.

BAPTISM!

With Isaac

With Cosme