August 27, 2012

Hey Family

First off, I did feel the earthquake. It was so cool!...I know that sounds weird to say but it’s so cool to say that I have been in an earthquake!!  We were in the middle of a lesson when it happened. People down here are so scared of earthquakes so the woman we were teaching stood up and was really really scared she grabbed on to my arm with a death grip and didn’t let go for a long time. But it was only a small one. You could definitely feel it, I heard it was 5.7 but I didn't know about the aftershock; that is a big earthquake! I hope the people that were in that one are okay. We are all doing fine the only thing that happened here was that the ground started to shake. It felt like you were standing really close to a train as it passed.

I hope you all are doing okay. I miss you guys a lot. I want to know what everyone is up to, Jake should be starting his first semester at collage!!! Oh that is crazy!  I want to know how that goes. Jake you will do so great. God has a way of always preparing us for the things that are hard in our lives. You have been prepared to do hard things, you can do them with the Lord!

Nate should be starting High School!! That is so exciting! Nate these are going to be some of the most fun times you will have in school so enjoy it! Make good friends that will help you make living the gospel easier. That is really important. But seriously go have a ball. High school is so much fun. Live it up. I also want to know how basketball is going, let me know.

Maren is starting school again are you exited or no? What classes? where are you living? who are you dating ?..... Ha I hope you are doing okay. I have been praying for you a lot and I have heard that payers of missionaries go a long way, ha ha! I hope they do so I hope you see Gods hand in your life and his love for you and those around you. I love you, never forget, I love all of you.

T what are u up to? Did you decide to go back to school or are to saving up to come pick me up from El Salvador? Because I will tell you right now if you do we are going to go on a huge shopping spree everything here is so cheap!!! Are you dating anyone? sorry I  have to keep up on these things!

Moms are you going okay? Are there any after effects of the surgery other than being tired and week? I hope you are doing okay. Maybe the boys being back in school will give you some time to sit and heal and relax ha. Dad sound pretty busy with all the campouts he went on. Which reminds me how was Zion’s Camp? Tell me everything you boys have learned this summer and how you've come closer to God. Ha ooh look at me giving you all commitments. Ha! well if I am going to do it I will do it right. Ha family will you commit to writing your sister one or two things that you have learned this summer that has brought you closer to the lord? ..........waiting for an answer  (I’ve gotten really good at this )......... a resounding Yes! Oh good I am so glad I can’t wait to read them all.

Caleb how are you doing? Are you excited for school to start or no? I would be even just for the fact that cookie day will be back.

Man I have to tell all of you boys how amazing your parents are!! We are all so blessed to have the family that we do and the relationships that we do with one another. The traditions and the memories the laughs the games. This is what the life is about and I have been blessed to have such an amazing supporting family that loves me even with my faults. Thank you all for your love for me and the relationship that we have as a family. Here some people are so lucky to have a mom and a dad many kids don’t know where their dad is or even who he is. Sorry I just realized I was going off on gospel tangents again I guess that what you get when writing a missionary. Hah!

Well I have some people that need your prayers.

First, Elena she is great but she need to have her heart soften and the desire to want know the truth and then have the faith to ask.

Then there is still William and Yaneth, they need to make some big choices in their lives. Please pray that the choice they make will bring them closer to God.

Then we have Magdolena she is amazing and I am sure she will get baptized, a small miracle happened with her this week.... oh look I have a good story after all..... We have been having a hard time catching her at her  house to teach her. She is always  working  but we have taught her the first lesson and showed her the restoration and we are so excited because we can tell she is too. She doesn’t have much time to read cause of work and all but she has read a little..... Ok ready for the miracle. .... This may sound bad but she fractured her ankle at work the other day and we went to go visit her and she had her leg in a cast. We were like “what happened?!” ......she said she broke it at work so they gave her 30 days off to heal so she is now stuck in her house all day and in a chair with nothing to do .......that may sound really bad but to missionaries we were like “yes! She can’t move that means she has to listen to us hah!” not that she wouldn't but we believe this is a blessing from God. She now has time to read the Book of Mormon and time to do some thinking and we can also find her more easily in her house because she is always there!! Sometimes God works in interesting ways, but he is in all things. Pray for her that she will take this time to think about the church and read the Book of Mormon.

Well I am almost out of time family. I hope you all know that I love you..... Oh yeah and Simeon I sent you something. I hope it gets there by your baptism!!!! I want to hear all about your big day when it happens. You are making me so happy that you are getting baptized! You will be my first baptism in the mission!!! That makes me so happy.  Who is planning on baptizing you? i what to hear all about it!

Family, know I am learning so much down here form the lives of my investigator and from your lives. Our family has gone through more in the last little bit than I can remember ever going though and I am not even there. Know that your letters and experiences help me learn and grow and I am so grateful for all of you. You are all such examples to me so thank you. Know that I know the Savoir lives. His atonement is the greatest gift we have in this life and through it we receive all happiness and all joy even in the hardest times in the life. I am so grateful for that. This gospel is true.........it’s true. 

Hermana Hale 

August 20, 2012

Hey family!!

     So Dad I have figured out why I am not specific enough for you.... it’s because I don’t know the specifics. Ha! I don’t know our address yet but I will ask my companion what our writing address is. Its different than my address I live at.  But I can tell you what it looks like down here. Think of any Latin American movie then think of it ten times poorer and you will have an idea of what it’s like. All the streets are always full of people because everyone walks everywhere. There are bigger roads with so much traffic that you have to walk half way across the street stop in the middle and wait until they're is another brake before you cross again. There are smaller street that are full of stairs and the houses are all connected. There are laundry lines hanging across the street with clothes all over it. The houses down here are so colorful, so many different colors and all bright. I don't know what it is down here but people could care less if things match so you get some pretty scary color mixes. Then there are so places like by the train tracks (I am going to ride the train today, just a side note kind of excited) but the people practically live on the train tracks and they live in tin houses, just made out of wood and tin. The poverty here is... well it’s everywhere. It’s so hard to find work, the war they had not long ago is still affecting everything. I don’t know how many of our investigators we are praying for to find work. But on thing I love about this country is that there is a tienda on every corner or like every 20 feet. People have stores in their houses and they just open up the inside door (always have two doors one metal and the other wrought iron) and sell out of their house and there is literally one every 20 feet so you can stop and get anything you want down here. It’s so hard right know cause everything down here has sugar and I am trying to be so good and not eat it, but I feel like I am missing out on all there is to offer in El Salvador. The frescas (jucies drinks, pan dulces, ice cream) hard life for me down here, Ha! Everywhere I turn there is sugar.

Well that’s a bit about where I live, let me tell you about the people we are teaching. So we have 12 progressing investigators... that’s a lot if you were wondering. We have a goal next month to baptize someone each week. We already have 3 with dates and are trying to get 3 others so keep them in your prayers because once the choice is made to get baptized things start happened and we don’t want anyone to not get baptized.

First we have Evelyn, she is so ready to get baptized. She has been investigating the church for a long time waiting for a divorce and it finally came through so we are planning for the end of September for her so we can also plan the wedding.

Then we have Yaneth and Willam.  Yaneth is a mother who has two sons one is 17 the other 15 and they joined the church not too long ago. She wants to get baptized so badly and they are finally getting to the point where they can. William and Yaneth were living together but have separated and understand that they either have to get married or separate so they have separated and they can now get baptized.... William is a little more hesitant than Yaneth so pray that his heart will be softened and that he will desire to be baptized.

Next we have Elena, she is great, she has a son that is 9 and they both came to church yesterday. The first time we meet Elena we didn’t teach her anything only gave her a pamphlet and a Book of Mormon when we returned the next week she had read 11 chapters in the Book of Mormon and was telling us all about Nephi and his brothers. It was so great. 

Next we have the Chiquillo family and they have a lot of problems, please keep them in your prayers. The thing with them is if things are going fine they dont want to hear the gospel but when things start getting hard they want the gospel so pray for them.

That’s the major ones. Thanks so much for your prayers, they are felt. And please keep me in your prayers that I may learn the language fast. I can talk in lessons because I know the vocab and even then I mess up, but I can’t talk about anything else and I want to be these people’s best friends but I can’t talk to them and it is so frustrating. I know it will come but man I am bad with patience. Ha.

Anyway, I want to hear from you guys. What is everyone up to? Where are all the letters from my brothers and sisters? Ha! What the point of having a big family? So I can brag to all the other missionaries on how many letters I get!!! Hah! But I can’t brag if I don’t get them..... Ha! Hint hint. I haven’t heard from Tania in a while, I just wrote her a letter to the house, I am scared she has already found Mr. Right and has no time to write cause she is having so much fun....... know that I love you all so much. I have been studying the family and how important it is man I am so blessed with the people the Lord chose to place me with. Each one of you is in my life for a reason and I am learning so much form all of you.

I am having a hard time deciding on what to bear my testimony on this week. I have learned so much. We have taught the Plan of Salvation a lot this week and I think it is my favorite lesson to teach. I love how simple and perfect it is. How everything makes sense with the knowledge of the plan. I love to see the look on people’s faces when we get done explaining it . They are like “oh! Well that makes sense”. I am so blessed to have been sent to a place that already has such a strong faith in Christ and why we need him in our lives. It is my favorite part of the plan and I love explaining it. My trainer says I will always explain that part because she says I am really good at it..... I hope I am. It is the basis of my testimony; I know that our savoir lives. I love telling people that the plan works with Christ and that it couldn’t work without him. That he is the only way we can return to live with God. I love showing that God knew that we were going to mess up in this life and that is why he sent his son.  That God made it possible for all to obtain the celestial kingdom!  He doesn’t just want to save some of his children he wants to save all and there are only a few things that he has asked us to do… And we don’t even have to be perfect in doing them, we just have to try our best and have faith in Christ and continue to try and be better.  I love that!!

I like the title of the book you are reading Mom and Dad because its so true, we are in many respects falling towards heaven, we are not perfect and we are going to make mistakes........many times. I feel like this life is more about what we do when we make mistakes than trying not to make them. God wants us to learn to choose the right but also to choose to want to be better and then do it. It is the harder road half them time to try and change but that is was makes Christ so amazing, that the road is made easier through him and our sins and all that keep us from entering the celestial kingdom are swallowed up in the Joy of Christ and we are able to be saved because we chose to try and be better.... not that we are all the time but that we choose to try and be better every day.  I love how simple and perfect it is that even in our imperfect state we can still make it to God through Christ if we choose to.

Well I love you family. I will try and send pictures soon. My USB thing doesn’t work but my companion knows were I can find one that will work for cheep so just a week or two more and I’ll get you pictures.

I love you all 

Love, 

Hermana Hale  

August 13, 2012

Hey Family

So I got Dads letter and I am sorry. I will try and be more specific. Let’s see, to start out I am in a city that is call Delgado. It is really close to San Salvador. If we cross a certain street we are in the capital so its practically in the capital. My companions name in Magdinlyn Barid, I think… it’s been a while since I asked her her first name… sorry. But she is from Massachusetts. She has moved around a lot but that is where her family is right now. She was studying at BYU before the mission in genetics and she still has like a year and a half left like me. I am trying to think of other specifics, like I live in a turquoise blue house and do not have running water other than the shower. I must be really bad at writing just because I can’t think of specifics sorry.

My area is really big actually, bigger than most. My trainer Hermana Baird has been here her entire mission. She has been out for 8 months and spent all of the time here in Delgado. She knows all the people, all the members, and all of their names. By the end of our time together she will have had 9 months in the same area. It is kind of hard for her, I feel bad. But we have lots of fun together.

Man this area had so many investigators when I got here and I feel like we are just getting more and more each day. Which is good but it’s really hard to get to everyone and plan for each lesson with the extra training that we are doing in the mornings for me because I am new. They apparently started a new training program that lasts for 3 months so we usually don’t go out working until around 12 or 1 cause then we eat lunch. Its weird, I thought missionary work would be more knocking doors and street contacting which we have done and I am sure I’ll get to do so much more but for the last two weeks more of our time has been teaching and visiting inactive members and stuff our time is so jammed packed with stuff, its crazy. We have about three investigators that are ready to get baptized but are waiting for one reason or another, one, her name is Evelyn, she has been coming to church and everything for 3 months and is waiting for a divorce to come through so she can get married and then baptized. We just heard that her divorce came through or will on the 21st of this month so we are planning a baptism on the 25!!! Way exciting!  Another investigator, Alex, older like 46, has to wait because he was in the war they had here. He was forced to fight as a teenager so he has to get permission from high up to get baptized. And we have so many others that we are going to try and put dates with this week so keep them in your prayers. They´re names are Yaneth and Consuello, man I am so bad with names, there is one other one but I can’t remember her name, I am so bad.

To give you an idea of how many investigators we have, yesterday at church, if everyone would have come to church who we asked (and we didn’t challenge everyone to come) we would have had 19 investigators there. Only 8 showed up but all of them were really excited and everything.

Oh I need your prayers for me to be able to teach this one investigator. His name is Ronny and he is really gay so we have to teach him the law of chastity really soon. But pray that we can teach him with the spirit and that everything will go well with him. He came to church yesterday and was so excited and said that he would come every week. He even got the number of a member so that he can go to the priesthood activities. Oh and pray for Elena she is so ready for the gospel but she still needs our prayers. Ee only talked to her for a short time about the gospel and gave her a Book of Mormon and challenged her to read. We went back last night and she read 11 chapters in the Book of Mormon and the pamphlet. It was awesome so we are trying to get a date with her soon.

So I hope that is more specific and will make you happy hah. So my feet and hands have finally gotten better from eating too much sugar. Apparently the sugar down here is refined differently so I think that I had a allergic reaction because of that. But they are all good now and my feet are finally getting accustomed to walking on the uneven roads here yeahhhh!!! We are walking so much so it’s a really good thing that I can walk faster now.

Well other than our investigator the only other news is that pupusas are soooo good here!!!! Ha all the food is, it’s because they fry everything.  I am going to come back so fat so just be prepared ha. It is so very hot here and it’s only the coldest part of the year. I am so scared for the summer here. Yesterday my companion and I were outside when it started to down pour. We were wet within two minutes it was crazy. I can definitely see how we could very easily be walking in water up to our knees here.

Ok Mom, I hope you don’t feel too bad but the shoes that you got me, the 80 dollar ones.... yeah so I got some shoes here for three bucks that have replaced them… hah! I am sure I will still use them don’t worry it’s just the ones I have know are so comfortable and so much more practical for El Salvador. I will probably bring a whole suit case full of them when I come home. I love them that much.

Maren, thank you so much for your letter last week. I needed to hear a lot of what you wrote. I am glad to know that you are doing okay and that you have such good people in your life. Remember how lucky you are for that. Down here there are people with no one in their life and no one to help them through their trails. I am so glad you have that though. I am praying for you and David’s family so much. I hope you know I love you and I hope you can feel that even when I am so far away. I remember when I got the news all I wanted to do was hold you and I was so sad that I couldn’t. Know I love you and I have a really strong testimony of the Plan of Salvation and the fact that God is in control and that the people we meet and the relationships we make here are suppose to last much longer that this life. And in reality this life is so short compared to what will come.

For the rest of the family this week I have been studying about the family and how smart God is to put us here in families and I am so blessed to be a part of ours. I hope you know how much I love you all. I think it’s important to remember that our eternal goal is to have families of our own and that we have been given this life to practice and to learn how to love the way God loves and the family is where we practice. So learn to love and love deep and don’t be afraid to get hurt because love is so powerful that the greatest act performed on the earth was done out of love and because of that all our hurts and pains are swallowed up in the love that is all encompassing. Never be afraid to love. It is the most God like ability we have and we need to become better at it all the time. I am so sorry my time is up. Know that I love you all!!!!

Your missionary

Hermana Hale

August 6, 2012

Hey Family!!!

So I am here in El Salvador! It’s crazy! So different that anything I have ever seen. I am having a little culture shock. Everyone here lives mostly in tin houses with dirt floors. I am reminded daily how blessed I am. The country is really dirty; there is garbage everywhere and it smells. B the people are so nice and welcoming they will give you the last of their food if you come to visit them. It has humbled me so much.

The people are so ready to hear the gospel, I was overwhelmed with the number of investigators we have here. I am so bad with names and it’s hard to put their stories with their face and then the name, man! I have lots to learn. But they are all such great people.

I have to tell you a great story that happened this week. Apparently the two sisters that were here last found a huge family that was interested in the church so they taught them once but they had to turn them over to the Elders because they were outside our area. But because there are so many of them they asked us to come to the church to help them with a church tour. I thought there were going to be like ten people there ...no there were over thirty small kids, teenagers, and adults. It was so crazy! It was an amazing site to see so many people trying to find the truth. We sat in the chapel and read 3 Nephi with them and then all of us missionaries got to bear testimony of the savior, it was amazing experience. I was so scared to testify in front of so many people when my Spanish is not so good but I did it and it was sooo cool! I love the fact that I just get to testify all the time here.

Sounds like we have a baptism lined up for next week if everything works out. Her and her family have received the discussions and everything but they have to wait because she has to get a divorce before they can get married and then get baptized. Sound like that is a big problem down here. My trainer, Hermana Baird, has been in our area for 6 months and she will be here for another 3, half her mission in one area! She knows everyone here and she is working with a lawyer to try and get at least 3 divorces to take place, its crazy.

Every investigator has an amazing story I don’t know all of them yet but I plan too. Their faith here is so strong, everyone, EVERYONE believes in Christ so it makes our work easier when we can get them to listen.

So I have pictures finally!! I am going to try and upload them. The blue house is where I live, it is a four-room house with tile and a bathroom that has a toilet and shower (I’m really lucky) and a study room and our bedroom is really small but it works. It is so hot here already and its the rainy season!! I had a hard time sleeping last night because it was so hot. We have fans though and that makes it better. We do not have a sink instead we have this concert water thing I don’t even know what it´s called but the water is so cold it feels so nice. It feels like I am at girl’s camp all the time its great.

So I sent the picture of my feet cause it reminded me of the scripture of  “how beautiful are the feet that publish peace." The blisters are all from eating sugar, its crazy, I have never had it this bad. It itches like crazy and walking is a little hard but they are doing better and I will be calling the nurse here cause I don’t know if it is an allergy or something else. Don’t worry about me its fine!!! Just thought it was funny.

Any who, this week was great and I can´t believe that I get to do this for everyday all day. It is hard work, we walk so much!!! We have our own cook for lunch and I swear I will  probably come back three time the size I left! Haha, her food is good....but everything is fried here in grease. Everything is greasy! Oh I had first pupusa in El Salvador on my first day. It was so great! I got beans and cheese they were really good. There are so many things here that we cant eat so we have to be careful but the pupusas I am so glad we can have.

The city at night is my favorite. Its so pretty cause you can’t see the garbage and its cooler. The lights are so many different colors I’ll have to get pictures and send them but  haven´t taken them yet. We as sisters have to go in an hour earlier than the Elders. We go in at 8 instead at 9.

Everything is so cheap here it’s crazy. I have to get us some change cause you use change for everything and I don’t have anything right now.

Thank you so much for writing me, I just found out that I can print off here so you can write me all much as you want and I will print them off and read them later. Tell Maren I did that with her letter so I will write her soon. I am glad you guys got my letter and I am glad you liked it. Thank you all for writing me, I love to hear from you so much.

So I have come to have a really terrible fear of dogs. They are everywhere here and they bark at you all the time, even run at you. I swear I will never have a dog again! Haha, I am defiantly going to have the full missionary experience.

Anyway I am going to try and upload my pictures now.  So I am having a hard time, no surprise, I will ask my companion soon so no worry’s.

The ride here was good, I was so tired and I feel asleep for a little bit. It was pretty, everything is green here and I love it!! But the trip was uneventful.

This week I have learned that as a missionary you are truly led by the spirit and the Lord. We were walking many times and all of the sudden my trainer said, “Oh! there is a investigator around here we need to visit.” and we would turn around and find them walking on the street and they just needed to see a familiar face and to hear that someone loved them. It’s so great to know you can be an instrument in the Lord’s hand. I am so grateful for this time in my life, I feel like I have already learned a lot and its only the beginning. The Lord lives, he loves us so much and it is because of the Atonement that we can become clean and have hope I am so grateful for that.

Sound like the family’s summer has been crazy. I miss so much love you tons

Hermana Hale

July 28, 2012

Hey Family!!!!

So there is lots to write and not very much time sohere it goes.

Jake thanks for writing me !! Yours was the only letter I got this week so thanks.

Okay so funny story this last Sunday I got called up to give a talk in sacrament meeting. So every week all the missionaries are suppose to write a talk about a topic and be ready to give it cause they call up like three to five missionaries each week to give talks, my turn was last week and the topic was the apostasy. What do you talk about for the apostasy? Well it went fine, I always cry so atthe end I cried a little. I hate that, I will work on that on the mission... but other than that it was fine and I did it all inSpanish! Wooot!!!

Ok next topic. We went out on the streets preaching on Monday. It was so much fun we talked to so many people about the gospel. We met one man and he invited us into his home/work. He invited us in and he was saying how he was looking around at a lot ofdifferent churches and meeting with a lot of missionaries. We talked with him about the example Christ is to us and took down his info to have the missionaries come talk to him. He asked us to pray with him and we started to pray and the spirit came in to the room so fast and so strong it was so cool!!

After him we came a cross an older woman with a two year old. She was buying food and we stopped and talked to her for a minute her grandson was so cute he had the biggest head of hair and all of it was curly. He was so cute! She told us very strongly that she was catholic but that her God and our God were the same and that she was so amazed that we would come all the way to do the Lords work. She said God bless and she gave us a hug and she told her grandson to give us a kiss. We all kneeled down and he gave each of us a kiss. It was the cutest thing and it made my day. It was awesome!!!

Well the cool story is we got 12 referrals and that is pretty good for a day so that made us happy. So every day this week we have been practicing with Mateo, another district, to sing for our last Sunday here. We are going to sing the EFY medley in Spanish. It reminds me of the times we sang it all the time at home and I got just a little home sick. I think of Maren on the piano and everyone just coming in on the parts wherever they are in the house, its great, I miss that.

Anyway here the Latinos... well they cant sing very well, or like at all, so its wierd to go from an okay voice in the U.S. to a ‘you sound like and angel’ down here. Haha, its really weird. There are only 4 Hermanas that are singing the girls part, Kinda scary so keep me in your prayers...

Okay so last funny story. Yesterday in field orientation we had a lot of workshops and talks it was really good. We had them all day and the very last hour of the day we had a little free time me and my district when to our room and we help our own district Olympics. It was awesome! We played Bachy ball and left handed
target practice and basketball with the garbage can with paper balls, it
was so fun. Elder Neson (reminds me of Nathan so much, a big goof ha love
ya Nate) and Elder Gates and Elder Rowch all won. We had a closing
ceremony and presented them with their metals (ties). It was awesome!!!
So much fun....... don’t you worry, we are working hard here too.

I can’t believe I am leaving for the field on Monday!! They changed the time, we leave at 7:00 in the morning our mission president called and they want us there earlier. So please be praying for me, I will be needing it, especially these next few weeks where everything will change. I have to say that I am scared but not as much as I thought I would be. I am also really excited. Knock on wood. I want it to stay that way. But I am realizing more and more how much our message can change a person’s life. It is so powerful and I love teaching about it. It brings so much hope to people. I am so exited to start teaching and meeting real people and helping them start to come to Christ. Jake wrote me a letter and said that I am fulfilling prophecy. The cool part of it is I get to tell people the Book of Mormon is a story of your people and it tells of all the blessing your people can and do have. It’s so powerful! It shows that God has not forgotten them.

Family I know that Christ lives, that he suffered for us and that it is through him we find all joy and all peace and I have come to know that a mission is not easy, it is as the rode of a disciple is, hard because we have to walk where Christ walked
and its not always an easy road but there is so much love and joy that comes from walking that road so never give up. Nothing will bring you more happiness. I love you all please keep me in your prayers. I love you!!! Miss you tons love you more....

Your Missionary Hermana Hale