October 1, 2012

Hey Family

Today we are writing kind of early so sorry, I got dads letter but I may have to wait till next week to see the rest of what you all wrote me :)

So I have lots to tell. It was a very interesting week. In the first of the week Hermana Sanchez got sick with the gripe. Down here it’s like the common cold but its lots worse. You can have it for a month if you are not careful and it comes with aches and pains and fever. Really bad... so we didn’t go out to work on Sunday or Monday and we spent most of our time in the house. But now she is feeling a lot better thanks to all your prayers. Please keep praying for her family and her, she is amazing and has so much faith. I have learned so much from her and it’s only been 2 weeks. We had a good heart to heart and she told me a lot about her family and everything and her feelings. She is so strong in her faith; I could never have gone through what she did. Dad I wanted to tell you thanks for your advice to give her about writing her family. I thought she was and she does every once in a while but not every week so I told her what you said. It didn't come out right because I don’t have the language down so that I can say what I want in the loving way I want to say it.

I realized this week that I want to become a better listener and listen to others and then listen to the spirit and find the perfect time to say what he wants me to say and say it in a way that will help them and not hurt them. It’s a talent and I am going to work on getting it because that is practically all I am doing all day every day so I defiantly have time to practice ha.

Okay so you were asking about my heath. I went to take a test this week to see if all my amebas were gone and guess what… they are!!!!!! Woot! Ha! And lice, gone!!!!! Woot even more! So no more health problems, just the fact that everything here to eat is covered in grease so I am really scared that I will come back really fat so don’t be surprised if it happens. I am trying my best not to.... but the food is soooo good. Please pray that my stomach will shrink so I can’t eat as much because as it is right now I can eat so much it scares me. Hah! but really I am completely fine heath wise.

Ok so stories from this week we have been teaching Carlos Mauricio a lot. He went to the Temple open house we had last Saturday and he said he had a couple of questions. We were a little nervous to see if we could answer them all. But we went to visit him and he said he had 3 questions. We took a deep breath and said ready go... the first question was easy, it was about angel Maroni and who he was an angel of, so that was easy and he was happy with the answer. The next was how can you be baptized for someone else? That one me and my companion looked at each other and I don’t know how but I lost our stare down to be the one to explain ha. It was amazing though, I explained it and it made perfect sense to me and I felt like I explained it with the spirit. He asked another good follow-up question, how do we know if the people have accepted the baptism. Hermana Sanchez shared an experience about when she was baptized for her great-grandma and the feeling she had. The spirit was so strong and Carlos felt it. It was so great!!!. The last question was that he didin’t understand who was leading the church and if it was one or a lot of people. We explained about how we have a living prophet and we showed him the organization of the church and his eyes got wide as we were explaining. At the end of explaining we told him that we had a special opportunity next week, two times a year the prophet speaks to everyone and we can go and listen to him in the chapel... before we were done explaining everything he got really excited and said " I have to be there!" I almost started to cry; his answer was so simple and so powerful and showed his faith and desire to learn more. He said if there is a prophet, I need to hear him to see if he is a prophet and we were like Yes exactly! we were so happy.

I want to put a question to you guys. Do we understand the importance, the great significance of the fact that we have a prophet today ?  Are we looking forward to the time when he is going to speak to us with the same excitement and the need and importance of being there? Think about that this week as we prepare for general conference. If you have questions write them down and I promise you if you go with a heart open you will get every one of your questions answered. God speaks through his prophets and god knows us perfectly and knows what we are going through and what questions we have and if you listen God will answer your questions through his servants. WHAT A GREAT BLESSING!!!

Anyway, that was just the beginning of our lesson with him, after we started to teach him about the word of wisdom. He understood the drugs, smocking and alcohol but when we said tea and coffee he was surprised. Tea is not hard for him but coffee.... everyone drinks coffee here and he ...wow he drinks 6 to 8 cups a day for work and everything else, he understands that it is addictive but he likes his coffee. He said that he is going to have to pray and get and answer to know if he should stop drinking it. We challenged him to make a goal for and start cutting back little by little. Family, please please pray for him that he will have the strength to stop and to continue learning about the gospel.... He came to church yesterday!!!!! It was so great... Satan was working against us and it started to down poor by the time we got to church we were all wet and me and Hermana Sanchez had to go get more people. we were so wet that after the sacrament we had to go to our house to change so Hermana Sanchez wouldn’t get sick again. But we had a really good lesson in Sunday School about repentance and Carlos got a blessing after church to help him and his family because they are going through a hard time. His sister got into a car accident and it was bad. She was in the hospital for a while and is now out but can’t do many things for awhile and so the family is helping lots but his family is all a different religion and he is the first to be investigating another church so he wanted a blessing. It was so great. Boys, be worthy at all times to use that power you have to bless others. What a great blessing that is. I look at the Elders and I am a little jealous that they can give that blessing to others at any time!!! Be worthy to have and use it. It is a great power.

Oh so now for the funny story. We were walking yesterday and we came across a well dressed woman but she was talking to herself and she couldn’t walk. She was swaying from side to side and we realized she was drunk and walking in the middle of the street. We were talking to her, inviting her to church and everything but she was not doing very good. She said she needed help and she began to cry so Hermana Sanchez took her in her arms and hugged her. I pulled out a handkerchief and gave it to her and we were telling her it would be ok and that God loved her and that we were there to help. She said she was on her way to a birthday party at her sister’s house so we started to walk her there holding her steady and talking to her. Man she said some pretty funny things. She said that I was white and was always saying I love a daughter like you, really really pretty in the U.S. She said that when we got to the party she was going to introduce us to all her family. We kept telling her we couldn’t stay. But the whole time we were walking with her she was saying “come on babies” in English really loud. I will have to write you the rest next week, I am out of time sorry but it was really funny.

Well family, I love you all. I love what I get to be doing all the time, my Spanish is getting a little better but still pray for me and pray for Magdalena that she will put in the effort to know for herself. I really don’t what to lose her. Know that I have seen miracles this last week and that I will tell you those too next week but I know God is aware of us and that he is in this work working hand in hand with us and it’s so cool to see. I know this church is true that Jesu Cristo is our savior that it is through him that we can obtain all happiness and all joy if we do our part. I love you family and am so grateful I have a family that is supporting me the way you guys are. Mom and Dad, thank you for loving each other and us, your children, thank you for your temple marriage that you have and the promise you made to each other that you would never get a divorce. I don’t think I have realized how great of a blessing it has been in my life until now but thank you so much!!!! I love you all so much and miss you tons.

Love Hermana Hale 

September 24, 2012

Hey Family
So I have a new companion and she is so great. She is so hard working and the spirit is with us when we are teaching and I am finding that I feel like a real missionary. One that gets home at night as is so dead tired but who is so unexplainably happy. It is the best feeling and one that I am going to work on keeping with me my whole mission. My companions name is Dalia Sanchez, I already told her that her name is like the coolest cause it’s the name of the coolest flower ha! She is so great. I love her already. If you could pray for her, she is sick with what they call gripe down here we had to come home early from church because she was not feeling good. So keeper her in your prayers, we have a big week and I don’t know what we are going to do if we can’t go out and work. 

So I have to tell you guys I have seen miracle this week; three to be exact but I know there have been so many more. We have two new converts that have wives that are or were very against the church and didn’t want to have anything to do with the church even though they loved us missionaries. This week we went to go visit one of them who happens to be the mother of Magdalena, she is very proud and set in her ways, but what shocked us was that Magdalena said that her mother wanted to know if she could have a Book of Mormon to read. This was a interesting request not just for the fact that her mom wanted to read the book but that her mom was sitting in the chair next to Magdalena while she was asking us for her mother. But any who, it is a miracle that she even wants to read the book and we are so excited to start teaching her as well so if you could, keep her and Magdalena and her son Jorge in your prayers.

Especially Magdalena, we had a great lesson with her on Saturday, the spirit was so strong it was the lesson we were committing her to baptism because we thought she is ready. We shared a great scripture one Alma 7 11-15 even 16 and 17 are great but read them and think about why Alma introduces baptism with first talking about the atonement it is truly amazing. I love it. But the spirit was so strong and I wanted her to say yes so bad because I know the blessings that will come. She said not yet and that she wants to read the whole Book of Mormon first. We explained that one doesn’t have to read the whole thing before they can know that it is true. She told us she thought she had an answer and we talked about that and how we can help her get a firm answer from the Lord. I began to cry as I told her how much we loved her and her family and that we are here to help her make this sacred covenant with the Lord  and that we know it will bless her life. It was the first time I felt true love for the people I am serving and it was amazing to see that we are the instruments in his hands to show forth his and our love and to minister to her and others needs.

That’s what we do as missionaries is love and give and then give some more. We warned her that Satan will be working hard for her not to get baptized because he knows when she does she will get the spirit and he will have a harder time tempting her. We asked her to make this decision a priority in her life because it is the biggest one you will make in your life. I think she understands the importance of this decision and that is why she wants to be sure. Her and Carlos Mauricio are like that, they know the importance and what to know beforehand. Please pray that they will be able to show forth their faith and show God that faith by being baptized. Pray that they will get answers to their prayers. 

That was one miracle, the other is like it. A recent converts’ wife, who wanted nothing to do with the church, is starting to listen and read the Book of Mormon. But I need your help. Her name is Maria and she and Carlos told us they were coming to the open house that we were having on Saturday for all investigators at the Temple. They arrived so early, like an hour early, and were waiting for the bus to come and five minutes before the bus showed up Carlos came up to me and said that they were leaving and that is wasn’t worth this wait. I tried to get them to stay and tell them that the bus was coming it was just late because there was a parade that morning in the streets that made traffic really bad but they left and I was so sad because Maria really needed that trip to feel the spirit and know that she and her husband could be together forever. Please keep her in your prayers that she will still have an open heart to the gospel even if our busses are late and that she can come to feel the spirit and know for herself.

The other miracle that happened this week was an investigator found us as we were out tracting. We were walking down the train tracks, Hermana Sanchez had a pamphlet of the restoration in her hand to fan herself, it was very hot and this man stopped us and asked if he could have one. You could imagine our shock and happiness to give him one and to talk to him about it and set up an appointment to talk to him later that week. We went back and he was sitting at his kitchen table waiting for us. We sat down and were amazed to hear he had read the pamphlet and liked it (no one reads the pamphlets!!!). We had the best first lesson  I have given so far. He had been looking for the truth and he knew that the church of Christ had apostles and prophets and 70 men that were called to preach to all the world. We told him that we had the same organization today. we showed him the picture of the organization, the one that is in the Ensign with the apostles and prophets and shows the quorum of the 70. He was so excited to see we had the 70 too and that we had order in our church. He said that God is a God of order. We told him of the first vision and everything and afterward talked to him a little more. He said that he had felt something in his heart as we were teaching him. I was so happy because I knew the spirit was there. It was great that he knew that too. We set up another appointment and came back and taught him the Book of Mormon. He is accepting everything we are teaching him. He has good questions and oh just a great investigator who found us!!! God works in small ways to bring great things to pass. To change hearts. To have a man pass us on the tracks and something in him said ask for one of those. 

I love this work, it is the work of the lord the most important work in the world and it’s great to see that God is in it, it is his work and he is the one that is orchestrating everything. I know that this church is true that Joseph Smith saw God our Father and Christ our Savior. We have the authority on earth to work miracles in his name. The same type of miracles that Christ did while here. Faith is a principle of action and power and it is through this faith that Christ can work miracles. Have faith and be obedient and you will see miracles in your lives. The spirit is a wonderful gift from God. Live worthy of it and you will be able to know where you stand with God. Never suppress a good thought. We all have a mission to do here on earth and each person in our path each day is a person that God has placed there. Uplift them; teach them; and give them your time and love, it is what Christ did and it is what he has asked us to do.

Miss you all tons but love you so much more.color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> 

Hermana Hale

P.S. can you believe it! Next week, I will have been out 4 months! Time goes by so fast!!!