Hey Yall!
Life down here in bama is great! It is starting to cool down just a little. Its usually in high 60's low 70's in the morning and evenings and in the low to mid 80's in the middle of the day. Its still a little hotter then I would like, but its not to bad. There are spiders and there webs are everywhere! You always find yourself running strait into a huge one! Haha its funny cuz you wouldn't need Halloween decorations since you got them all already! But other than that nothing really to crazy has happened around here. This area isn't full of any crazy people, just country layed back folks that farm haha This week has been kinda rough. Not a lot of people have either been home, or they have been sick and don't feel like havin us come over, but I do got a few good stories to tell yall for this week!
This is a sign we pass every week makin sure that we know that a church is coming up haha the funny thing is ive never seen any other sign like it down south, and the church is so teeny tiny!
The first one I wanna share happened on Thursday. We had gotten a call from a man named Joel. He is a member of our branch and a huge farmer. Well last week he had fallen off of his tractor and hurt his back. He asked if we could come over and help him farm for the day. We told him we would love to. Especially since I haven't gotten to do any service for a while and I wanted to do some good old hark work in my jeans again! So he came over and got us in the morning. We helped him with his fences. Now they were already up, and they were just a couple strands of wires. So what we had to do was unhook all the wire, then pull the whole string out into the field. Then we had to go back and pull up all the posts so that Joel could come through and bush hog all the weeds that were up there. Then we would put the posts back in and drag the wires back where we could hook it all up again. I also gotta use his machete to cut down some branches and limbs and things that were in the way which was pretty fun. But we had done that all the way down one side of the field, then we had to go down the other side. He wanted to take a break and go and eat some lunch. So we did that then started down the other side of the field and did the exact same thing. Once we finished that we were done for the day, he was so grateful that we would come help him with that and he kept saying it helped him out so much! He asked if we wanted to go to the cow sale they are having tomorrow and we told him we would love to! So ill have to tell yall about that next week and send pics:)
The next story is kinda similar it happened on Saturday and it kinda goes along with this story. So a man named Greg Sexton (he is my hero! I wish I could bring him out to Utah with me for my homecoming so that everyone could meet him. He is so dang funny. I love him to death) He is another man in our branch. He had shattered his elbow back in January and just back in July was able to go back to work. He needed help with moving a stove outta his house onto the porch. So we helped him do that. We had to do surgery and take the door off which seemed like it was 100 years old. But we did it. After he told us, " Yall to boys are very good missionaries. Your helpin out an old man that could never do this himself." Or something along those lines haha but as I sat back and look at it I realized that is just as much missionary work as is teaching a lesson. Even though they are members they are still in need of help! Well on Sunday we helped another man move the stove from the porch to his trailer so he could sell it for scrap metal. It has been so nice to be able to do so much service. Me and Elder Hodge were talking about it and this next week we are gonna take a day and dress in our jeans and a shirt and go around and just ask if we can do service. That way we can not only help people, but we can develop relationships with active members, less active members, and investigators. And it could possibly be a finding opportunity for us in maybe someone would want there friends to talk with us. I don't know what'll happen, but we figured it was a good out side of the box idea and we could have fun with it too!
Like I said earlier we have had a hard time trying to see people this week. So its been a lot of the same people we have visited. We were able to visit a man named Chris. He is a return missionary and is in his 30's. He has a girlfriend, Sarah, that's not a member, but he has wanted her to take the missionary discussions. Well we went over to there house one night and both of them were there and Sarah's friend Kayla, who also isn't a member was there. And after we talked about regular old boring things, we asked them if we could practice the lessons with them. That way it didn't put them in an awkward situation and we could get practice, which is what we need. But also at the same time we are really teaching them the lessons. So its kinda tricking them into it but hey whatever works right? Haha but we were able to give a really good Restoration lesson to them and they understood everything, Chris was able to help teach us as well and everything went really well. So we are going to "Practice the lessons" every time we go over there from now on.
Last story of the week. It happened yesterday at church. I attached a picture of the Mom, Dad and baby. So Jamie is a member of our church. We visit with her and her family a lot. She had a baby with Brandon, one of our investigators. The picture last week of the guy who I thought looked like Petey from remember the titans. Well aren't married, but they wanted to bless the baby in our church. They asked is I would hold Raylan, the baby, and if another member would bless him. Well the other man didn't feel like he could do it, so they asked if I would bless Raylan. It was me, Elder Hodge, the branch president, one of his councilors and 2 other men in the branch in the circle and I was able to give him a name and bless Raylan. It was so cool, cuz I have never done this before and had no idea what to say. Im not even a dad yet, but just as other priesthood blessings, as you listen to the spirit, it will tell you what to say. There were things I wanted to say before hand that I never said in the blessing, and things I had never thought about that I blessed him with. Its cool to know that Heavenly Father knows his children and how He knows what blessing they need. It was a very cool experience. Brandons whole family who aren't members were there, and Jamies family was there. They all came up and told me thank you so much and what a great job I did. I told them your welcome and as much as the human part of me wanted the praise I just knew it was all from Heavenly Father. Besides it was his priesthood I was using! But what a great opportunity for me to do that!
Our week was great and im looking forward to another amazing week! Time is going by so fast! It feels like we just started the transfer, but there are only 2 weeks left of it! Our bible studies and FHE are coming along great! FHE is still kinda small but we have had people show up every week! Our bible study is increasing in numbers and we have seen 2 of our less active members that have been coming there, start coming back to church! Its so amazing to see how little things can effect the lives of people!
Now let me tell yall a couple things I learned this week. One is how important it is to create friendships with people, but also being a spiritual guide. Making sure that you are inviting people to repent. In the Book of Mormon they invited by crying repentance to the people. That's why we invite, to help others repent. there is an article in the September ensign its by Brad Wilcox called "His Grace is Sufficient". If yall haven't read it I STRONGLY encourage you to do so. It made me think about grace in a totally different way! It made me think about why im here and what I should be doin in a totally different way! The other thing I learned this week was something that the Holy Ghost taught me. So one night me and Elder Hodge were coming up with acronyms for different words. We were trying to come up with one for our district. We never got one but we did do some for finding, like Fear Is Never Desired, and Faith Is Never Doubting. Just a couple of cool ones we found for find. But the next morning, I was still in that thinking mode for acronyms. And one popped into my mind about faith. Its made me think of faith in a whole new perspective. Its
Foundations
Attained
In
Thinking
Hopefully.
When that thought came to me I just thought, "O man that's cool it actually works." But then I started thinking about it more and more. Then I realized that what I had just written down was correct!! Any foundation we have whether its that our gospel is the gospel of Christ, the BOM is the word of God, our testimonies, all of those we get from thinking with a hopeful mindset. "Its not until after the trail of our faith" that we receive the blessings! When we are put into hard situations that's when we are put to the test and see if we have true faith. That's when we really need to have hope and look for a better future, look for Christ to come help us. Just a cool little thought I wanted to share.
The last acronym we came up with was with our district. I had our district think about what our culture could be. What we want to be known for in the future and how we could share that with the zone, then get the zone to share it with the mission and we could all be united. I gathered ideas from each member of our district and we came up with this.
Fearless
Unified
Noble Service
We are fearless when it comes to finding, teaching baptizing. We are fearless and wont let anything come in the way of our purpose and mission. We are unified as a district. We communicate and help each other in times of need, always looking out for each other. And we give noble service. We are always looking for opportunities not only to service those in our area but other missionaries as well. We want to serve others, and we to it nobly! Put all of those together and we have FUN:)
Wow sorry this email is really long! Haha hopefully yall aren't getting to bored of them by now! But I hope yall are safe, in good health and happy! I hope you have a great week! Even if its not always think hopefully and you can develop more faith! I love yall so much!! Remember to be Happy!
Love Elder Hall:)
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