Hey Yall!
This week was a great week! It has been sunny and hot some days and cooling down other days. On Saturday we had a ton of rain but that was good for this area we really did need it. Today its overcast and there is a breeze that feels amazing! It is reminding me of back home and how I should be in pad and practicing right now:) haha but I have better things that im doin!
We were able to do our Family Home Evening and we had 4 people show up. Right now its hard to see the success of this because we are just starting out, but I have to keep being positive and seeing how it can affect families in the future. I can start it off and help it grow for future missionaries to come in. Everyone that comes loves it so hopefully tonight will be a success as well:)
This is a family that usually never gets together. Maybe like 1 time in a year and I got them all together so I could take a pic with them. This is at the birthday party we went to:) I was so excited to get a pic with all of them!
On Tuesday we went up to Birmingham again to met with Elder Kopishke. He is in the first quorum of the 70. He is German. Our meeting I thought was only gonna last a couple hours. It started at 11. Well when he got up there made a comment about our meeting lasting til 5. I thought he was joking until after a couple hours of the meeting and we had a lunch break and came back in and realized that he wasn't joking. It lasted til 5:30. That's a 6 and a half our meeting! It was all so dang good though! I learned so much and have made goals to become a better missionary. I want to mention real quick one thing that he talked about. And im gonna mention another one later on in the letter. Well he talked to us about what our dreams were. When we first opened up our call letter what did we dream we wanted to accomplish on our mission. He said to never give up on that dream. To keep working towards it and doing little things to help it! He quoted Moses 1:39, " For this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." He then told us how that was Heavenly Fathers Dream. And how it hasn't changed, but has been the same dream for years! Even before we were born as spirit sons and daughters that was his dream. He is working on accomplishing it. So if we have long term dreams keep them. Work toward them and don't ever give up! I remember something my brother in law, Chad, told me when I the age change for missionaries happened and I was getting scared and didn't know if I was gonna go on a mission or not. He said, "Elder, cuz that's now my name;), if you really want something then you will go get it." How true that is. When we put our minds to things and don't let anything stop us we can accomplish anything in this world. And think if you have the help of the most powerful, all knowing being in the universe! But that meeting was amazing. It changed me for sure.
On Wednesday we were able to see and teach a lot of people. One of them being Audrey. We have been reading out of the bible, teaching her the lessons and helping her try to act on our invitations. She has been doing amazing at all of it. We invited her to pray about baptism and she has been doing that. One thing we haven't been able to do is get her to pray out loud in front of us. Well we had just taught her a lesson. Then outta no where I just asked, Audrey will you pray for us. She said yes I will then without thinking just started praying and gave one of the best prayers Ive heard. After wards she was so shocked! She didn't have any words to say, neither did we. It was so amazing! She has been progressing so much! Just to even say a prayer in front of us is a huge accomplishment! Its so cool to see how people can progress and change! When we were leaving she said, "Thank yall so much! I never thought I could do that. I just feel so happy and proud of myself!" I love to see people change in the gospel!
On Friday and Saturday we did an exchange with the Zone Leaders. Elder Hodge went up to Montgomery with Elder Gale and I stayed down here with Elder Schneider. It was such a good exchange!! On Friday we had district meeting. Im not gonna lie it was probably the best district meeting ive had so far. It was weird though because the sisters in Greenville were on an exchange as well we we had a zone leader and a sister training leader there haha president Hanks is probably making sure we aren't doing anything to funky down here. But we talked about how to be a successful missionary. In Preach My Gospel it says, "You are successful when you are obedient, live righteously, and do your best in helping others live the gospel." That's it. I feel like when you go on a full time mission you go because of 2 things. 1. To help others grow. 2. To help yourself grow. But the meeting was really good. And on the exchange we were able to see a lot of people, we both are very sarcastic so we had a lot of laughs and we even went to another birthday party! In all it was very successful!
Now on Sunday it was a very crazy day. Last Sunday one of the ladies in the primary presidency talked with me and asked if we would teach primary next week. I said yes. Well Saturday night I remembered that we needed to teach that! Ahh and me being the smart man waited til morning to start on it. So Sunday morning we get up and I had a couple minutes to think about what to do. The lesson was on service. So what we ended up doing is I had a little activity where I would blind fold one of the kids and have them try and find me, btw everyone of them cheated and peaked, haha but then I had then blindfolded and someone helping them. Then we talked about how in Lehi's dream people needed to help eachother stay on the iron rod. Then I had them color a picture of a family and on the back write a note to someone they loved either mom or dad, or friend. After that we listened to Love One Another. It turned out to be really good! And it was so cute. One of the little boys wrote his letter to me haha as I was talking with every one I said, "Ok now when you get home make sure to give this to the person you wrote the note to and give them a big hug." So he walked up to me, handed me the paper and gave me a big hug haha. But then we had to run over to the trailer to teach Gospel Principles. As we were walking over there the 2nd councilor came up to us and asked if we would give a talk for sacrament meeting. My comp said no, so I told him I would do it. He then hands me this long article and says I want you to talk on this. It was about the 2nd coming so I said ok I will haha Well with that little time, and trying to make it a good talk I tried hard. I talked for a good 20-30 minutes, cuz they only have one speaker, and told the parable of the 10 virgins and how the oil in our lamps is our testimony and experiences we will have when Christ comes again. We cant just share those. And I talked a lot about preparing and not procrastinating the day of our repentance. It went very well though and a ton of people told me is was great. I hope it was haha
So now I want to tell yall what one of the best things that Elder Kopishke taught me. It was a really cool experience that I keep having to re learn over and over again. At the start of the meetin he told us to think about some questions we had, then to write them down. Then he said I don't want you to write down everything I say. I don't wanna look over there and see your hand moving at a million miles an hour trying to write down everything. But just listen to the spirit. If a thought pops into your mind while I talk, write it down. If you think of a scripture write it down and look at it afterwards. If I say something that may answer your question write it down. But listen to the spirit. So that's exactly what I did. It was amazing that there were things said in that conference that answered my exact specific questions! It was nuts! I couldn't believe it. Then he quoted us a scripture. "Ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you." Its only when we ask our questions that they can be answered. Its only when we seek that we shall find. When I was giving my sacrament talk I invited the branch to do something that I want yall to do as well. Its pertaining to General Conference that is coming up. I feel that we should be preparing just as the Apostles are preparing for us. As they prepare what they are going to talk about, we should prepare what we want to receive. So in the next couple of weeks think about problems, trials, questions you have in your own life. Try to make them as specific as you can. If you want a specific answer, ask a specific question. Then write it down. I will promise yall that if you do that and as you listen to General Conference, your questions will get answered. You will figure out how to overcome your trial. Your problems will be resolved. Heavenly Father can put into the minds of the Apostles what each individual needs to hear. But how will Heavenly Father know what you need if you don't know what you need? Try this experiment and see if it doesn't work. I tried it and figured out again that it works every time. "We will only receive the blessings that we are prepared for!"- Sister Christofferson.
I hope that yall have a great week! Keep enjoying every moment. Keep serving and helping move the Lords kingdom forward! Im so thankful to each and everyone of yall in my life! I love yall so much! Remember to be Happy Happy Happy!
Love Elder Hall:)
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