Elder Jansen Hall - February 25, 2014

Hey Yall!

So sorry this is gonna be super short but im doin great here!

Just some highlights!

1. Tansfers and now here in New Albany, Mississippi. Its a branch. The people are great. We dont have any investigators. We are gonna start buildin it up into a ward baby!

2. Got to go back to t town to see natalie get baptized by her dad lee! He has been less active and there family has had a really hard last couple years. This day was so great for them. There grandpa in the picture was in tears tryin to thank me. Im so happy i could be an assistant with the Lord in bringin about this miracle!

3. I got to go golfin for the first time in almost 2 years. Loved it! Did ok haha but great to be outside!

4. We had district meetin this week and have a new culture. We need to get up each mornin and put on our SHOES!:)

S acrifice

H appy

O bedient

E nthusiastic

S elfless

Remember without shoes your feet would be really cold ahhah

Love yall so much! Have a great week and be happy:)

Love Elder Hall:)

Elder Isaiah Williams - February 24, 2014

Wassup errbody! K so this past has been pretty sweet! Umm I'm teaching a ton! About 5 lessons a day! So that's a lot here in Illinois! I have about 6 people on date to get baptized. Rick and his girlfriend, the Suarez twins, Angela, and Adrian. Rick has a solid testimony about the Book of Mormon. He just doesn't come to church. Because of "work". But I believe that's bs haha his girlfriend is the same if HE comes I know SHE'll come! The Suarez twins are hilarious. They re 9 years old, and bounce off the wall! They remind me of me when I first joined the church. They have a dad that's from the phillipeans. And he joined there but married someone whose not a member. That is what is sooo bad about here. There are so many part member families here. So I'm gonna get this off my chest. DONT USE MARRIAGE AS A CONVERSION TOOL! It doesn't work! Anyway they are committed, and their dad is too. But the mom isn't feeling it. :'( we'll show her. ;) Angela is from Utah. She went to school in west valley. She has a boyfriend who is a member and he wants to come back so we have been teaching both of them. She lives together so that's a set back but they are engaged. So we'll get them married quick and in a hurry. Adrian is the one who I'm afraid for. He KNOWS what's right but he doesn't quite want to commit to giving his all to heavenly. He keeps postponing his baptism. -_- but that's that I haven't done much tracking and don't plan on it haha I hate it. We had our stake conference his week and it's about HASTENING THE WORK. Great topic. A lot of people spoke on how missionary work is the most important work of all. Us missionaries spend most of our time tracking and not teaching when members haves friends who can be taught. Amulek, wasn't a missionary. He was a MEMBER who eagerly wanted to share the gospel with alma. BE an AMULEK! Stand as a witness of Christ at all times! And don't be afraid to share something that's means SO much to you to someone else. I'm so excited to come home and teach all of you to do that. :)

It's getting a little warming here it's about 40. But next week is suppose to be 20 degrees. Another thing I've learned is that Heavenly Father has a great sense of humor. I see where I get it from. Anyways, keep the gospel in your hearts and actions everyday and missionary work will come naturally. I promise. I invite all of you (whoever reads this) to read your scriptures Dailey and apply the principles in your lives. Your life will be a lot better, happier, and surprisingly easier! "THE MORE YOU KNOW, THE LESS DESIRE YOU HAVE TO SIN" - that's by me. Hehehe

Piece!

-Baptizing Like Cray Cray

Hey guys!

So it's been a week in my new area which is in Caldwell and it's a pretty good place! The members that we live with are really nice and we get along with them! So that's good! In this new area we will be doing a lot of work because there hasn't been much work done here.  I'm excited to dive in and get started and help those looking for the gospel. We are going to kill it!   My new companion is Elder Fuller he goes home in just about 5 months! I've still got 18 to go! haha but Elder Fuller is awesome and we get along well and we have a lot in common kinda... but I like him and I'm excited to be working with him and to see what he can teach me!

The area I'm in used to have a car, but that got taken away and now I'm back on a bike.  I'm just waiting for my legs to adjust but it doesn't bother me to ride at all! I'm glad to be back on a bike although I almost got hit by a car last week and had to slam on my brakes and fell and tweaked my shoulder and broke the light on my bike!  The guy totally pulled right in front of us.  It was either the car or me.  I don't think he saw us.  

We both have a gym membership at a place called the YMCA.  It's really cheap cause they give us a nonworking discount and we go there every morning.  So that's nice to have and its only about a mile away!

Sunday I got the 24 hour flu and it didn't want to work with me! We went to church and the first hour Elder Fuller said that I was super pale so we decided to go home.  I took a nap and now I'm feeling so much better! But now Elder Fuller has it and is down today.  

We just got a new investigator and we think that she will be our next baptism.  She says that she has tons of questions so thats good and she also says that the church has been calling her since she was little, so we will see where she takes us!  Hopefully to a baptism!  

That's what happened this week! hope you guys have a good week!

Love Elder Riley

Elder Jansen Hall - February 18, 2014

Hey Yall!

So this week has been great! Well every week is great! But this week for whatever reason has gone by super fast, but everythin that happened seemed like its been years since it happened haha. Its been snowin this week and now its back up in the 60's, we've had rain and beautiful sunshine and weather all around haha nothin to much though has changed this week except one thing. That is that we got transfer calls and I will be leavin t town. Im really sad that i have to go, but at the same time i figured out where i will be goin and i cant wait to go there. I will be goin to New Albany Mississippi! Thats about 30-45 mintues south of my 1st area Corinth! Plus that is where is Ellisons are servin right now, so i will be servin with them and will be there district leader for about a month! I cant wait:)

This is Charles, he got baptized on Tuesday:)

On to this weeks events, so Monday and Tuesday were both crazy days! Monday we had our p-day but we were tryin to get Charles Minchew's baptism interview done as well, which the weather and Charles work were causin to much havoc!! We werent sure if it was gonna happen, but i knew that Satan was the cause of all this and i wasnt gonna let him win! He may have won a few battles, scratched, bit me a couple times, and also may have pushed me in the mud, but i got up and each situation that came up we were able to resolve it. I had to talk with our Heavenly Father and Coach Christ a couple times, but they gave us the pointers that we needed and they also helped with the weather! We were able to get Charles interviewed Tuesday mornin and baptized Tuesday night! We won the War!! Charles bore his testimony right after he was baptized and it was great. He could not stop smilin and you could tell that he had been prepared his whole life for this one moment! What a great experience we were able to be apart of:)

So then we had to go to Birmingham for a Dr apt for Elder Hullinger, Sister Hanks came and met up with us and wanted to take us out to eat. Well we went to Red Lobster for the first time for me and Elder Hullinger, I had some cat fish, my first cat fish of the mission and it was great! I also had like half of elder hullingers plate because he didnt like it, he had lobsters tail, shrimp and scalops haha and then Sister Hanks couldnt finish all her meal so she gave the rest of it to me it was fettichini with shrimp ahah it was all great:) Im tryin to like sea food now beacuse i used to never even look at it haha

Just one more quick story. So on Valentines Day, we had a couple things we did in the mornin and early afternoon but after that we didnt have anything for the rest of the night. So we walked to different stores and talked with people and handed out the valentines day candy my mom sent me. Well we walked a couple miles down the road. It was startin to get late, so we decided to head back. It was gonna start rainin and my comp was exhausted and kept complainin and i just wanted to have a good night. Haha well what i did is just said a little prayer while we were at Wal Mart the last store we were at. I asked if Heavenly Father would send a member of our ward in our path so we could get a ride home that way i would get my comp happy, i would be happy and we would have a good night. Well we started walkin and it took about 20 minutes and then a car pulled over and a man said, "Hey you mormons wanna ride?" We said yes and got in. I had never seen the guy before. He was younger in his late 20's. But turns out he was from virginia and lived in Mississippi and was just up in T town to give a lap top to a friend. But he knew a lot of different mormons. He was Agnostic but took a Book of Mormon that we gave him and loved our message. Im glad we got to meet him!:)

On Saturday I got to baptize the daughter of a recent convert that the sisters taught! Her name is Kyla and she is 8. She was really scared of the water but everthing turned out great! Great things are happenin here in North Port now!

So the sisters taught a lady named renee and baptized her in Dec, well 

this is her daughter Kyla who is 8 years old that got baptized on Sat:)

 Well last thought. We had a district meetin on Tuesday and I trained again on bein a Good Shepard. But also I learned somethin new about John 21. The story where the disciples go back to fishin and Christ is walkin along the shore and asks "Peter do you love me?" Well right before that when they all come in, Christ asks them to gather up all the fish in the nets, then once they bring them to the shore thats when Christ asks peter. Well as i read it that time, I imagined Peter holdin the fish nets, while Christ asks him "Do you love me, more then these?" Then i related it to me and our lives. What sins or trials or bad habbits are we holdin onto while we keep tellin Christ we love him? Peter answered him 3 times that he loves Christ but still had the fish and the nets in his hands. We need to drop our nets full of fish (Sin, temptation, bad habbits) and follow Christ! What are we wilin to give up? Just so things to think about:) Hope yall have a great week! I love ya so much! Hope ya had a great Valentines day! Remember to be happy and drop the nets!:)

Love Elder Hall:)

Elder Clement, 02-04-2014

Latest from Elder Clement: 

As we entered a lesson yesterday I thought I heard something familiar, sweet, and extremely exciting. As we entered I quickly noticed that they had their televisión turned on. There were people screaming. Our of the corner of my eye I could see a lot of blue, green, and orange. No. It was the Superbowl. As it was in one of the last quarters. Ay... I snuck a peek at the score. No way. I leave for one season and they go and win the superbowl! Well, that is really cool I guess. I will watch reruns of their games in a year and a half. Ok back from Babylon... 

We got the exchange information yesterday and our district shuffled around a bit. I am going to... stay in Centro for another month and a half! Elder Chamberlain is still my companion but he is having really bad headaches so we are going to see a specialist and he might change to a colder mission. Also, the district is going to get two more latino sisters so we are now 10 missionaries strong. We went from 6 to 10 in a few changes. This is going to seriously affect my district meeting treat funds. 

We had a really slow week because we always had something going on so we didn't get a single full-day. Nevertheless we got out and worked. 

We had a great special conference with the Mission President on Friday. We had some really great trainings and I learned a ton on how I can improve. A lot of times I am trying so hard to teach every point of the Preach My Gospel lessons and to extend every invitation and every little thing that we need to do (like ask for references, set a return appointment, etc.) that I often lose myself in checking them off. I learned that I need to take a step back, and let the spirit guide. To put my heart into every moment and to always remember why I am here and who I am here for. My brothers and sisters and my Heavenly Father. It is so easy to lose track of this in the hustle and bustle of trying to get everything done. I know that as we trust in the spirit, he will guide the lesson. And I know that he will guide the lesson how it needs to be led.

I taught my first lesson with devout Apostolics yesterday. That was a new experience. We were searching for Jesus, a newer investigator who is very good but very busy, but he wasn't home. We checked two houses down because sometimes he is at his wife's parent's house. He wasn't there but his father-in-law answered the door. He was really nice and we presented ourselves and asked if we could stop by sometime and share a message about Jesus Christ. He let us in. (It was in this moment when I glimpsed the score of the superbowl...Go Seahawks!) We sat down as he welcomed in his wife and a bit later his daughter and her boyfriend entered, all Apostolics. 

We asked if we could start with a prayer and Brother Aguilar (the father-in-law of Jesus) said he'd like to offer it so they all stood up and the ladies put on viels over their heads. I gotta say it is the first time I have been in a prayer like this. We started to teach about the Restoration starting with "God is our Loving Heavenly Father". We progressed through the lesson (with wee side comments from them in the section about the prophets how they only had them back then) and we entered the life of Christ and the Apostasy. We explained why there were so many churches and why the people were in darkness in this time. I was able to share the story of Joseph Smith. We asked them to open their Bibles to James 1:5 where we explained that if we lack wisdom, we can ask of God and as we ask in faith, He will answer us. They randomly started pulling out a few other scriptures they knew from their religion. I think they were trying to prove something but I wasn't quite sure what it was because we agreed with what they said. We went forward with the first vision and they remained quiet for a bit. Sister Aguilar expressed her doubts about why Joseph Smith's writings don't appear in the Bible and we simply said because they had already compiled the Bible before he existed. We showed them a few scriptures about the apostasy after their doubts about there being an apostasy and they seemed to sit still. (and I gotta say I think I was praying harder than in any other lesson before that we could be helped by the spirit. There wasn't any arguing, but there was a feeling of heat) We also told them about the Book of Mormon and they seemed to be interested. We explained that Jesus Christ himself said that we could know if someone is a prophet or not perfectly by their fruits, or by what they produce, which in this case is the Book of Mormon. We had given the last book in my bag to a boy in the visit before so we didn't have one with us which was really unfortunate but they said they would like to try it to see if Joseph Smith was really a prophet. We will see how it progesses. I think I learned an important lesson in that lesson. That a lot of times the people we teach will say some things that are different from our doctrine while we are talking but a lot of times it is better to keep on the course of the focus of the lesson rather than stop to correct everything they say. For example, in one point of the lesson during the point when we were explaining the story of Joseph Smith they started talking about why God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one and we could have explained how they are three distinct personages but we felt like there was another time for that. We focused on the theme of the lesson, (not to be confused with teaching a lesson instead of teaching a person because we felt like the spirit was leading us to explain the restoration instead of the random points of doctrine) and I felt like it went well. We are going to return with them Wednesday to talk about where we came from, why we're here, and where we're going. 

In the conference President Munive also explained how he feels strongly that we will have success as we talk with 10 people every day. The past few days I have tried to reach out a bit more in the street, the bus, houses that are close to appointments, etc. and we have found a lot of new people. I am excited to take on this new challenge. 

We had a great Sunday and I was able to play the piano. I played a special version of "I Stand All Amazed" and it went well. 

Some bad news, I am getting chubbier and the food continues to be delicious... hmmm... there may not be a solution to this one. The main problem is that there is almost no time at night or in the morning to write in my journal so I end up doing it a lot during excercise time. I need to change that this week. 

We are doing well here and we hope to have a week full of lessons, fulfilled commitments, and a lot of work. I am grateful for the chance to stay in Centro for a bit longer and I know that the Lord wants me here. I want to be an instrument in His hands more than anything here in Mexico. Thank you for your support and love. I know that this church is true and that Jesus Christ leads it in these the latter days. I know that we have been called to a marvelous work and a wonder and that it will fill the earth until everyone has heard the restored gospepl of Jesus Christ. And I know that He works through us. 

Elder Clement 

Hey Guys!!

This week went well.  We did move into our new house and it is awesome! I had to buy some allergy meds cause when we cleaned the house it was super dusty and I got some allergies! But the house is great!  I will send pictures soon! This next week we will be really busy it's going to be insane! But I'm kinda excited! 

So yesterday we got a call from Bro Christensen in our ward last night because he needed help.  One of his cows were giving birth and it gave birth to twins and I was the lucky one to stick my hand inside of the cow to feel it it was alive or not! It was tons of fun! I do love working on a farm.  Reminds me of times at Shawn's dads farm!

We went hiking today as a district and that was way fun.  It's called Jump Creek and I did a ton of climbing and I'm working on getting the pictures from that.  While on our hike, we did our personal study time and together.  It was really cool and we want to do it again.  But this week nothing much really happened.  We have some pretty crazy neighbors and one of them have pitbulls and they bark sometimes but they are kinda ugly dogs! Right now we are working on getting a new refrigerator and a couple couches and a dinner table so I think we found some but now we have to wait to see if we get them! 

and Notus... well the only thing interesting thing about Notus is the train that comes through! haha But the population is 537 so its not too small... haha umm there is one place to eat and its called the Garage Cafe, never been there cause I cant afford to eat out!  

Okay so I forgot to mention something! We have a new investigator named Zahira Granger and we got the call from Bishop Garner saying she was requesting us and so we went to go and see her but she had admitted herself the night before into the psych ward in the hospital and so we went to go see her and we were able to go and see her and she has been soo good! She is a little crazy but that's okay it makes things interesting … but yeah 

Well the library is closed at 12:00 but they let me in anyway , but need to head out.  

love ya!~

Elder Brad Riley