January 28th, 2013 Stephainie

Dear family

 Wow so much to say and not much time.  I am going to attach the letter I wrote to the President to save some time in the amazing stories I have this week.  Family, God is a God of miracles. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever and he is in our lives every moment just like with the Children of Isreal  (shadow by day fire by night).  He is always there and visible .... are we able to see him every day? If not what should we do to see better?

Dear President

Wow I can’t express my feelings enough about what I saw this week.  We literally saw miracles happen. I am so happy.  It’s hard to believe anyone can be this happy.  We have so much work to do and I am a little stressed out cause we have two baptisms this week and like 5 people we are preparing to be baptized the 16th.  One of the people that is going to be baptized this week is Danny.  He is a brother of a returned missionary and we have been trying to teach him for a while. We invited him to be baptized. He said yes but then that night we saw him at the church and he was crying.  We knew something was wrong and Denny his brother said he needed to talk to us.  He told us his parents weren’t too happy with the idea and he was really nervous that they weren’t going to let him get baptized.  We had an appointment with the parents the next day. In essence Danny asked us to work a miracle and change the mind and hearts of his parents the next day ..... no pressure right.  Well to say the least, we prayed, we fasted, and we practiced lots and the next day as we talked to them it was incredible.  I literally just opened my mouth not knowing what to say and the words just came and they were perfect.  It was so cool. Our prayers were answered and they gave their permission to let him get baptized.  God uses us to work his miracles.  It is our job to be worthy for him to call upon us and be in the right place and be doing the right things.  If we do, he promises us that he will use us as his instruments.  There is no greater feeling than to know that God blessed others through you.  I feel very blessed with this experience.
Not only that, but we saw the faith and the love the members have for their Lord through service this week.  We have 2 investigators that live at the bottom of 200 stairs and they both only have one leg.  One of them was able to go to church this week and the members carried her wheel chair and her up those 200 stairs to help one of Gods children partake and enjoy the blessings of the sacrament.  I was very much humbled and felt very blessed to see and be a part of Yoland and Freddy’s lives. They have a faith that is incredible.
We have so much work in this area.  We found a family of 7 yesterday !!!! Thanks to your reference.. We are going back next week to teach them !!!!  If you are thinking about putting 2 more sisters in our area, it would help this area and the work so much.
Thank you for all you do for us !!! We are praying for you and your wife.
Hermana Hale

 We are doing so much good in this area. I was realizing the other day that I have grown to love this ward and the members so much I feel like this is my home and I am so scared for the day of changes.  I want my mission to be El Salvador, Cuidad Delgado. I have seen this ward change from having no investigators to now where we have 9 investigators that are preparing for baptism.  Family we had nine people at church yesterday !!!!! It was a miracle. So many miracles .....My heart is full just writing you guys about all these things that happened. I have literally seen a change in myself this week. The lord does not just work miracles in the lives of the investigators but he has the power and what happens more often is that the missionary is the one that learns more and is more blessed and is founded deeper and deeper in the faith and increases in their confidence and has a change of heart and for that miracle I will always be indebted to my Father in Heaven. This work is the work of the Lord. He is in it every minute.  What a privilege to be working alongside the maker of the universe and of all mankind. To bring the greatest joy and peace to those who are down trodden, those whose hearts are heavy, those who are sick.  The family of seven we found was a reference from the President. He got a call from the states from a member to send missionaries to give a blessing to a woman in Cuidad Delgado.....We found the house and entered. The woman was lying on her bed.  She was 24 and her sisters were taking care of her.  I am not sure what she has but her body was so frail and as skinny as a body could be.  She had a disease mentally that was affecting her body.  She grabbed a hold of my companions hand when she reached for hers and she wouldn’t let go.  We brought with us a young man that is preparing to serve and mission and Denny the RM in our ward. They gave the blessing and the spirit was so strong.  The woman was asleep at the end of the blessing.... The family was very grateful and I told them we were missionaries and that we were here to serve and help and that we also are here to share a message that will help and  bless their lives and that we wanted to come back the next week. They said yes !!!!  Family I walked away from that house with the feeling .... you did something good today.  This gospel is incredible it changes people, brings comfort and peace, gives us what we need to live through this live with faith in the Lord and endure to the end.  The great blessing of the sacrament  I am just beginning to understand.  Family I don’t have much time and I haven’t even written to Maren or said HOW EXICTED I AM THAT GRANDMA WILL LIVE NEXT DOOR!!!!!! OH WHAT A GREAT BLESSING. I am so excited !!!! We are going to paint so much together when I get back I need to learn all her tricks.  But even thought I haven’t had too much time to write to you all  individually,  I want you all to know that I love you and I wish I had more time to write you. I will try and write more letters.  I am so glad that you send my letters to Grandma and Grandpa Dalton and I am so glad they enjoy them.  They are a big reason I am here.  They and so many of our other ancesters have left a legacy of great faith one that I am trying to live up to.  We are so blessed as a family ......you will never know how much until you see children so dirty you can barely see their eyes playing in the streets with blocks of wood, families living in tin huts and sleeping on makeshift beds. We have so many blessings and the greatest is this gospel and I feel so sad to see all these people suffer physically but I find comfort in the fact that I am working to give them something that will heal them spiritually and find the strength to live each day with faith and hope in the Lord and if they endure it well they will be exalted on high in the world to come.
     I love is gospel I know that it is true.  Four brothers would not climb 200 stairs if they didn’t know that this was true. They know as do I that every soul is great in the sight of God. I know that our Savior lives and loves us. That he is the way, the only way to return to live with God again.  The gospel is very simple ...faith,  repentance, baptism, the spirit and endure to the end. These things are so simple but as I have been teaching and trying to live by these principles the last 8 months, they are so profound and we can learn and change so much in our lives with these principles.  Through this process true conversion takes place.
    I love you all. I pray for all of you. Maren give this work your all. We have been given so much we can’t afford to do any less than everything we can.  I love you and pray for you every night and morning aww..... I am so excited for you to feel what I am feeling and see the miracles God has in store for you.  Increase your faith with great prayer and fasting.  God will direct and protect and use you for his good......and in the process change your heart and help you be more converted to the gospel. Watch for that miracle for it is a great experience. Love you all
     Hermana Stephanie Hale

January 25, 2013 Maren

Hey Family!

Thank you all for your letters this week! Nothing is better than getting letters and when they're from Family its THAT much better! Still waiting to hear from Jake... (feel guilty yet?)

Boys this work is so amazing! Its hard, but its amazing.

Its so hard to figure out exactly what I want to write before I get here and then I dont have much time but I'll do my best.

This week I had the first of what I'm sure are many moments of discouragement.  Our teachers did a teaching demonstration for us and it was amazing! But for some reason all I felt was discouraged. Actually it was worse than that. I felt scared. Completely paralyzed. I couldn't even really tell you why I was just scared. My companion and I just left class because I couldn't speak without crying. She Just listened to what I had to say and let me figure out what I was really feeling by talking to her.

What it was was this... They were so good at simplifying the Gospel. They weren't scared of saying too much or saying the wrong thing they were just speaking the truth... I was scared that I would never be able to think that way. To simplify the gospel down to such terms that someone who doesn't know anything about it can understand and feel the spirit. The biggest fear though was that I would say something wrong to an investigator and they would miss their chance at receiving the restored gospel... My heart ached to think that I might be the reason someone rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We just sat in silence for a while... and when my companion spoke she said the exactly perfect thing. She said, "If Christ were here, what would he say?" With those words she invited our savior to be there. I swear in my mind I saw him walking towards me with a look of pure love on his face. He understood exactly what I was feeling and even though it wasn't rational he empathized with me. He was there in that moment. Immediately I felt peace. Immediately I remembered exactly what kind of God he is... He assured me that no one is going to miss their one and only chance because of something I said. He assured me that "rejection" means truly understanding that which is rejected, it will be their choice with the full knowledge of the gospel... Not because I do or do not know how to perfectly teach a gospel doctrine. Don't get me wrong. I know the responsibility I have to learn all I can so that I can be a tool in the hands of God in bringing his Children, my brothers and sisters to the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He loves me so much, he loves all of us. Everything he did was for us.

The spirit is so strong here. All we have to do is invite him into our lives and he is there immediately.

I hope that made some sort of sense.

The other thing that has really hit me this week is the name of our church. "The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints." Do you have any idea how powerful that is? The Church of Jesus Christ. Its his church. We say that all the time but we have absolutely no idea what it really means. There are so many churches in the world that all teach something different. They all interpret the Bible differently. They all have different beliefs about the Nature of God. There are so many people out there who, just like Joseph Smith, want to know that a church is true... that what a Church teaches is exactly what Christ taught while he was here on the earth. That is why it is so amazing... Its not the church of Joseph Smith. Its not Joseph Smith's doctrine. It is the Church of Jesus Christ... Its his doctrine. Thats all we have to teach, thats all we really have to share. The true doctrine of Jesus Christ, the way he taught it, they way he wants us to live it. People only have to look at our name to begin wondering if its true... is this really the Church of Jesus Christ. That is what I get to share with the world. That is what I have been called to New York to do.

I am almost out of time. Its weird this place is still home... its still in Utah County, its still on BYU Campus... but I think of those things that they seem miles and miles away. This is a whole different world.

I am so excited to be here! I feel so amazed that I have the opportunity to share His Gospel. Every day is new and a little bit scary and here its comfortable... in New York I have a feeling its going to be a lot harder... but I know that I will be given the strength to endure. My teacher yesterday asked us if we ever noticed how quickly Men start to age as soon as their called to be General Authorities... It happens fast... He said its because its exhausting to be so surrounded by the spirit all the time. Its the same for missionaries. Its exhausting to be so surrounded by the spirit (kinda like how Moses felt after he talked to God). I have a theory that that is what truly helps young 18 and 19 year old young men "grow up" while in the mission field... They come home looking older, not just acting older. Idk... just a random thought.

  Hermana Hale

P.S. Jacob... make sure you actually watch "The District," Its the one thing I didn't do that I really wish I had. They talk and teach from it all the time. Watch it! and really pay attention to the missionaries, how they teach, it will help you a lot, I promise!

January 21, 2013 Stephanie

Dear Family,

                So below is the letter I wrote to the mission president this week. It has a great experience in it and I need your help to pray for Hermana Gregoria so she will make the decision to get baptized !!!  She is the strongest person I have ever met and I haven’t met a person who needs the gospel more in her life.  So please help me with your prayers to help her take this step towards Christ and feel the wonderful healing power of the atonement.   

          I am loving my mission I think I am starting to feel like I am helping the work along. We have so many investigators and so many that are ready to be baptized and we have goals for 6 new fechas by the end of this week. We are seeing miracles left and right I love seeing the hand of the Lord in the lives of those we teach and the work it is incredible.
          I have been teaching a part member family. We are teaching a 16 year old and also the grandma for many many weeks and the grandma is really hard headed and wouldn’t have anything to do with us at first but I have seen the Lord work on her hard while we are visiting her and her family. It is incredible. She told me yesterday that she started to read the Book of Mormon and that she hasn’t told anyone but she told me. She is praying to find out if she should get baptized!!!!! For her this is a miracle .... this is a woman that would not even think about baptism unless we could take her to the river Jordon and baptize her where Christ was baptized.....now she is thinking  and praying to find out if she should be baptized here!!!! I love this family with all my heart and it is my deepest desire to see the whole family united in the faith and helping one another go to church and endure to the end. The grandpa is praying so hard for his wife to be converted so that he can get sealed to her in the temple. I know she will get baptized I know it.  I am so excited to hear or see that day come.  I love this work. It is the most rewarding work there is in the world and I feel privileged to be a part of something so grand and important as this.

        So I am really happy and I don’t know why. Ha, ok, So I know why but I am surprised with how happy I am.  At church yesterday someone asked me how I was. I said really good and he said you always say that. I have never seen you with a sad face or sick or what ever. Just always really good. I was able to testify that is was because of the gospel and he was a little surprised but he said that’s true ....Sorry this person is an investigator  Jose Alfredo and he has an amazing testimony.  He is always at church and he wants to get baptized...the only problem is his family. They do not feel the same and his wife doesn’t want to get married to him so he can get baptized so we are working with them and need your prayers for his wife and his children that they can open their hearts to our message.

         Ok, and I should tell you all that I didn’t have cambios.(transfers)    I am still in the same area !!!!!! I feel it a great blessing to be here and help the people here. I love these people so much I will spend half my mission in this area after this change !!! crazy hu?  I don’t ever want to leave. Oh that will be a hard day ......so  you ready for this. I do have a new companion......I know.  Every change I have a new one. I am really starting to wonder if what Dad says is true and I am the hard one to live with. Ha.  But get ready for this.  My new companion is Hermana CAAL. She is amazing. We were companions before in the mission. Well for like 4 days on our way from the Guatemala MTC to El Salvador !!! She is a power house.  We are planning to baptized like 8 people this change and it’s a shorter change it will only be 5 weeks instead of 6. So  I will come home one week earlier from the mission ....I am not to happy about that. The time is already going too fast. But Hermana Caal has an incredible story. She is the only member in her family. Her sister just got baptized but went inactive ....oh sorry. She is from Guatemala and lives in the mountains. Her name is native.  She has 6 brothers and sisters but she doesn’t live with her real family. She left her house at the age of 13, a year after her father died......for very sad reasons that were not related to her Father’s death. But circumstances what they were she needed to leave and she went to work and was taking in by a family who are members. This is how she was introduced to the gospel. She has had a hard life but she has an amazing testimony and is such an example to me......her prayers are WOW.  I  wish and I am working to have my prayers like hers.  You know she is talking to her father every time she prays. It brings the spirit so fast I love to have her pray in the lessons because it brings the spirit so fast. So we are working hard and effectively !!!!  I am so happy.  Each night I have a great feeling and we can see the hand of the lord in what we did that day.  I love it.  We are seeing miracles..... oh we are going to have a baptism this week.  Jesus Marces is going to get baptized if we are feeling good about it.  He didn’t come to church this week and we are kind of worried. But we have faith and hope that everything will work out for this Saturday. We are also going to have a baptism the 2nd of Feb ....well if our plans work out we will have 3 baptism that week and two the next !!! Pray really hard for us to accomplish our goals I feel like this is one of the reasons I am still here. There are still so many people I need to baptize here.

      What else to say ......I hope Maren is liking the MTC. I am getting her letters thank you so much for sending them to me.  I just don’t have very much time to read them while on the computer. I am planning on printing them out and reading them tonight.  I got the Christmas cards from the ward and I felt so blessed and I remembered how many people have helped me get to the place where I am now and the person I am and I was so overwhelmed with gratitude.  Thank the ward for me.

     So I have been reading the general conference magazine and its like the first time hearing all the talks because when I heard it, it was in Spanish and I couldn’t understand really well. But I have to say that wow this conference was like incredible. Every talk, I have found answers to questions and see the solutions to so many of the world’s problems.

   One quote that I want to share is from the talk about the bees !!! Love that talk !! Read it. Love it.  Lets live it !!! I love the quote that said " Only when our testimony transcends what is in our mind and burrows deep into our heart will our motivation to love and serve become like unto the Saviors.  It is then, and only then, that we become deeply converted disciples of Christ, empowered by the Spirit to reach the hearts of our fellowmen." We must learn to put what we believe into action and live it.  One thing I have learned about myself is that I have really good thoughts but that I have a hard time putting them into action. It is good to have good thoughts but it’s better to do good deeds. I am working on that right now.  I love this work and I love you all. Thank you for your support and your prayers especially for my investigators. This gospel is true and ...wow what else is there to say.  If it is true, the Book of Mormon is and I testify that this book is inspired of God. I have come to love that book with all my heart. God lives and loves each and every one of us.  Christ lives he is our Savior and is willing and ready and has the power to help us in our daily ...  lives. If we but will ask for his help and show forth the effort needed to show our faith, to let him in and work through our faith to help us.  I love him so much and know I will see him one day with my whole family and have the joy he has promised us.

     Love you all ...Maren enjoy the MTC it’s the best. You learn so much.

   Hermana Hale

January 18, 2013

Hey Family!

Sorry, I''m sure you are all super confused right now... my P-day is actually on Friday's. The first three days in the MTC is kind of its own schedule so they gave us a half P-day on Saturday so we could so some laundry. The schedule we will follow for the next 5 weeks didn''t start until Monday. Its nice to finally feel like I know what is going on here, it doesn''t stress me out quite as much and the days fly by. Before I can even blink its time to crawl back in bed.

Some pretty amazing things have happened this week. Guess who came for Tuesday Night Devotional! Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. I don''t think anyone expected him to walk through the door because he had spoken to the missionaries on Thanksgiving, some of the people in my Zone had been able to be there for that but they left just hours before the devotional for their various destinations so they missed him the second time. That man is such an amazing representative of God. The moment he walked in the room my eyes started tearing up. He has great love for the missionaries and loves being at the MTC. He spoke about how this, what we are doing right now, this is REAL LIFE. It doesn''t get anymore real then this. What we do now is one of the more important things we may ever do, it starts now. He also talked about how all of the dispensations of missionaries before this one, Nephi, Moroni, and many of the Old and New Testament Prophets knew that they would fail. They had seen the future, they knew that theirs people would reject the Gospel and be destroyed. We are just the opposite, we know the future too. This is it! We will not fail, we are apart of the dispensation that will welcome the Son of God back to earth. This is it! We Can Not Fail! Isn't that amazing. But of course with great power and knowledge comes great responsibility. He told us that because of this we had to be better then any missionaries that ever came before us. Its Humbling. Also, he talked a little bit about how Preach my Gospel came into existence, did you know that it was written primarily for the missionaries, not the investigators. It was written becase Pres. Gordon B. Hinkley said one day, ""Brethren, there is something wrong with the Missionary Program."" (here Elder Holland interceded that that is an unnerving phrase when you (he) happen(ed) to be the one incharge of the missionary program). He said the reason it wasn''t right was because Missionaries were coming home and becoming inactive and that was just not tollerable. It begs the question ""where were you?" It was written to convert missionaries and then we''re sent out to figure out how to teach and convert everyone else.

Tuesdays are probably going to be my favorite days.

Lets, see what else?  We just finished teaching our First investigator David for the last time. It is a sad thought, even though its "pretend" its hard not to love their character and want so badly for them to accept the truth. He did want to get baptized by the end so I hope we were doing something right. But guess what! Now, he's going to be our teacher! Its kinda crazy. We know him as this person and now he''s going to teach us as a completely different person. It should be interesting but I think it will help us.

My companion and I have had our fair share of challenges. We're a lot the same but also very different. We've gotten really good at listening to each other and being there for each other and not letting anything fester between us. I think that is really important in a companionship. Often people can say something and we take is compeletely different then how they mean it. Its important to talk about it because then neither person is offended and we learn a little bit more about the other person and how it is best to comunicate with them. I love her so much! It makes me sad to know that we wont be companions once we get to New York, I think we would do really well together. But there is so much more to learn and different people that will be able to teach it to me.

There is another district that has class around us that is also going to New York, when we fly out there will be 10-15 of us all going. Its crazy! Its like we''re going to flood New York with a huge missionary force! I can''t wait to go.

The 6 week program moves fast. The teachers are trying to learn how to handle the pace just as much as we are. They''re a little more blundt with us because we dont have time to figure it all out on our own.

Sorry, I can''t remember a lot of the questions you asked.

O Mom! I got the boots! Thank you thank you thank you so much! We did really well on shoes. My companion has some flats that she can''t even wear because they give her blisters so bad. All my shoes are extremly comfortable. I put them on in the morning and dont even have to think about them until I take them off at night. Thank you SOOOOO much! A lot of girls have problems here because of their shoes. Good footwear is key. Also, the coat we got is AMAZING!!!! I froze the first few days because I was trying to walk around in just a jacket like I normally would in Provo at this time but even in class I would sit an shiver. I finally just started wearing my big coat around and it does its job! Its going to work well in New York. The Alarm Clock we got is a different story. Remember how it was a ""smart"" alarm clock and supposed to know where in the country it was at...? Yeah it thought it was in california. It went off at the wrong time every single morning! We finally just let it think it was in Cali and set our alarm accordingly and then guess what!? It thought it was somewhere else and our alarm went off at 4 in the morning. I finally decided after that that we needed to break up and went and bought a new one from the bookstore. It worked really well this morning.

Well I am almost out of time. I hope this letter answers at least some of your questions... Isaac, Simeon, Jacob, Nathan.... TANIA!!! I'm still waiting to hear from you. Dear Elder is a great great blessing. Hint Hint Hint. I know I''ll be writing a letter to Simeon and Jake today and hopefully some others so look for those.

Okay I am really almost out of time. Testimony Time.

This Gospel is AMAZING! There is nothing in this world that can bring greater comfort and peace and blessings. My # 1 goal is to be obedient because great blessings come through obedience. Everyone''s favorite quote here is that Obedience brings blessings and Exact obedience brings miracles. Its those miracles that I want not only for myself but for you guys. (In case you didn''t know a lot of my blessings get sent home to you because I dont have enough room for them in my suitcase). I think that applies for non-missionaries just as much as it applies to missionaries. You can be exactly obedient too and through that you will see great blessings and even miracles in your life. Its a lot easier to be 100% obedient then it is to be 80% obedient and have to even think about it. My companion has had to figure that out and I have seen her life blessed as she has done things that she didn''t want to, just really little things, but they have made a huge difference in her attitude and countenance. Obedience is a blessing. It brings us closer to our Father in Heaven and his son.

I love it here! I couldn''t ask to be in a better place. Before you know it I''ll be in New York and I have a feeling the obedience thing will be a little bit harder when Every Minute of my day is not scheduled for me. It''ll be okay though. Good habits here will transfer over there.

I hear you figured out how to blog! I''m so glad. I think its cool that we all share a blog because I know that people that Go to read my letter will also read Stephanie's. Double dose of missionary experiences.

I love you all! I love getting letters more than anything in the world. :D (<-- Subtle I know)

Until Next week

Hermana Hale.