June 24th, 2013 Maren

Hello Family!

Wasn't the broadcast last night awesome?!? I was crying through the whole thing too Mom. I am so pumped for what the next few months are going to bring. Me and my companions think that our mission definitely needs to be one of the first that is phased into the internet usage thing... then again everyone probably does. But my Companion, sister peacock, majored in communications (basically that means social media) so she is super super pumped. I know that what was said were true, if missionary work everywhere worked like they said is should the elders would just be standing in the font all day baptizing people. Family... this is amazing stuff.

This week for me has been good. But the highlight was definitely this weekend. On Friday we had Training Sister Leader Exchanges. Guess who I was with? :D Yup! Sister Megan Chipman. O man that was so much fun and so needed. It was me and her and Sister Sandberg together. We were working in our area but looking up names Sister Chipman had from the YSA ward (the ward she works in), which covers the whole island basically.

My Father in heaven was so wise to send her to me. I needed her. Its so comforting to have someone you know from home close by. I could go on and on.  Here is what I wrote about exchanges in my President's Letter.

Sister exchanges this week were so so so good. Thank you so much for sending us such wonderful sisters to teach and stregnthen us. I learned a lot about the potential that Riverhead has, ever since I've been here people always talk about how we have to do thing differently because we're not in the city. Its always bothered me a little bit, why should that be an excuse to talk to less people? With Sister Chipman we were able to set the goal to talk to 10 people, we knew that meant we would not be able to let even a single person pass us by but that was our goal. So we did a carfast and started walking. We talked to everyone! we must have talked to 15 people or more and ended up getting close to 10 people's information. That was a wake-up call and a really good experience for me.

It was also really good to just have the chance to talk to Megan about everything (oops! Sometimes I still call her that without thinking). She speaks by the spirit, every word, it was amazing to see her work and she really helped me to realize that I am a better missionary than I think I am and that the Lord is blessing our work here in Riverhead.  Basically she is the BOMB and we are lucky to call her a friend Tania. :D

Real quick, another excerpt from President's letter about the street contact we got last week.

Unfortunately we went to track down Dack and met his wife instead who was, if not completely opposite Dack, close to it. She was nice enough but not open to even letting us come in. Sounds like they have been going to the same baptist church for over 40 years! WOW! Talk about loyalty. We are still going to try to talk to Dack before we walk away but it was a little disappointing.

Also this week, just after our exchange, we had the chance to go to the temple with Mirna, a reactivated less active, to do baptisms for the dead. I was so humbled to watch my companions put everything that we had learned into practice as we rode the subway into the city. The moment they sat down they were talking to people. We even had a really cool experience where Sister Peacock talked to a Less-active who said he had been feeling like he needed to go back he just didn't know how. I need to be so much better, a better example and a better missionary (yes, I realized that I am better than I thought but there is always room to grow!). I have learned that it will come one day at a time and little by little.

Family! A mission is an amazing thing. I received yet another witness last night while watching the broadcast that this is exactly where I am supposed to be. Its where I need to be. My Father in Heaven needed me to be a missionary at exactly this moment in time. (I mean come one, missionaries using computers? Does that sound like me or what? Haha). But it was also witnessed to me that it is still going to be hard. Its always hard. Even when they seem golden its hard. Satan fights hard to keep the souls that are already his but he fights even harder for the neutral ones. You can believe in God, you can be a righteous Christian, but until you are baptized by one holding the authority of God you are technically on neutral ground, and Satan wants to keep you there. He knows his limits, he knows where to get us, be careful. I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and, like Dad said, the weapon that it is to each of us. Like President Packer said, its the only thing we've got, its the only way to do this work. Without the spirit we are nothing! Nothing! But with it we can do Everything! So much more than we can do on our own, because we can't do any part of this work on our own, not one little bit! Its his way or no way. Learn to listen to the spirit, pray for experiences and opportunities to learn how it talks to you, that's the only reason I am here, because I asked to know what it feels like when I am being guided, I am no where near perfect at it but I at least recognized that voice when it said "go on a mission!" So here I am. And I will keep learning. I will keep testifying until every word that comes out of my mouth is carried by the Spirit into the hearts of those we are teaching. 

I love you all! Don't hesitate (that is something else Sister Chipman Taught me), Just don't hesitate to open your mouth, to invite others to come unto Christ. I Hesitate WAY too much, and I miss a lot of opportunities because of it. Don't be like me, Don't Hesitate to put the things the Apostles and Prophet taught us last night into action. This is it! You can feel, we are so close, Our Father is Hastening his work and he has called each one of us to the Work. Answer the call. Paint the name tag on your heart and never take it off.

-Sister Maren Hale

June 24th, 2013 Jacob

Wow, I feel terrible. I had a letter all typed out for you guys and everything, but for some reason it did not send. Grrr!!! Haha it was a good one to I think. Oh well, i Re-sent it and hopfully you will receive two letters from me and that will make up for it. Haha!

 

First off I have to thank who ever got on to the family E-Mail and just sent a "Hi Jacob, I love you." That was awesome and little stuff like that just mean the world to a missionary.

 

I have to ask Issac if he got my letter and if he liked the pictures of Graphiti that are in my Zone. Haha! Banksie is a world famouse graphiti criminal and does some of the coolest graphiti ever.

 

This last week was a pretty ok one. We had some fun experience and we are hoping that we will be getting a new investigator soon. A freind of recently Re activated member name Yvette. She is really cool and she knows a lot about the church but she doesnt seem to want to Learn, Learn if you get me and make any changes in her life. But this last week she was there when we taught Jess and her daughter Beth a plan of salvation spiritualy thought. I got to use my cool puzzle again and it sucked everyone in. Yvette was there and I hope it kind of scared her/ gave her hope. She needs to start learning! Haha

 

This last week I got to go to a baptism and the coolest thing happened. The family who's son was getting baptised and whos friend was also started talking to me and when they found out I was from Utah they were shocked. Haha apparently they call missionaries from Utah "Utards" here. They say they basically have his innocence, or superiority, or this idea that anything different from utah was weird. They also have a kind of look about them to I guess. But I was talking to the family and they said that I was totally different from the average utah missionary. Haha! The mom said that when she first met me, she half expected me to start speaking with a british accent. YES!!! Haha! So your brother is not a Utard and is not discriminated againts. ;)

 

I dont know if you guys remember, but a week or two ago, i got to paint Thaynes ( the little 5 year old autistic kids whos a genious) Ceiling with glow in the dark paint. Well the coat was not thick enough so we got to do it again. But this time their was a little bit of extra paint so we got some. And in two weeks transfers are coming up. Well, if my trainer leaves me, im going to paint something like "oh your new!" in glow in the dark paint above his bed. Haha! hopefully it will scare him. (evil smile)

 

Im gutted to hear about the willow tree and the little birds. You guys killed three things in one day. Bird, bird, tree. Haha im just kidding. I know you guys didnt mean to. Do you guys have any Idea what you guys are going to do about the Roots underneath the padio? Or a filler for that area of the gard? Or... shade? Haha its definatly going to be a differnt garden when I come back.

 

Speaking of garden that reminds me. You guys like my turn on earth right? A mormom musical? Well the same guy who wrote the Forgotten Carols, wrote a Mormon musical called "The Garden" It made me cry it was so awesome. But you guys have to listen to it for a FHE all together and try to see if you can find the script for it to so you guys know what is going on. I'm not going to ruin for you what it is. Just know that it is awesome.

 

This next part is from my letter to the president and it has some stuff that I've been studying and that have happened to me that I want you guys to know.

So this week has been a lot of study about the Restoration, The Book Of Mormon, and Praying to Know If its true. And its been one of the best things I've ever studied. I found my self going to bed, excited to wake up and do personal study the next next. At the conclusion of studying all of these things, I just feel a sense of love. So many churches say that miricles are gone. God doesn't reveal things to us now. Prophets are things from far back. But, that doesnt make sense. Why would a loving god just abondon us? Well the answer is because he hasnt. He is still here. He appeared to Joseph Smith, with his son, so that he could restore the correct church, preisthood authority, and ordinences required for Eternal life. He gave Joseph Smith the help needed to translate the Book of Mormon. A book specifically designed to help us, in this day and age. To help us face challenges and to give us strength.

This last week, I had a terrible nightmare. I woke up from it just shaking. I havent had a nightmare like that in ages. It was so bad that I could not go back to sleep. Well, somewhere in my terror stricken mind, I had the though. " People say that reading the Book Of Mormon can help to calm your mind and give you piece. So, I reached down and grabbed the paper back version down by my bed and just started reading. It litterally took my about 3 minutes and I was asleep again. Totally at peice. Knowing that everything was going to be ok. I know thats a very different way of using the Book of Mormon than usual. But, for some reason it just hit home that if the Book of Mormon could help me when I just had a nightmare, then it could definatly help me when I was struggling with temptation, or If I was sad, or whatever. That book can just heal the soul. It is litteraly an out pouring of gods love.

 

The book of mormon is amazing guys. Use it for everything.

So one last thing i swear. I was re reading Jacob 6 and i read the best scripture ever. Its verse 12 and it is make me smile. Jacob said 12 "O be wise; what can I say more?" Those few words speak volumes. The gospel is something that can bring eternal happiness to everyone who lives it and know it. So wouldnt the wisest thing be to live the gospel. Jacobs councel to be wise is the best thing we can do every day. Be wise. Do what you know is right and live the commandemtns. I love you guys.

 

Till next week - Elder Hale

June 17th, 2013 Jacob

 June 17th, 2013

Sorry guys not a lot of time today.

This week has been a pretty good one! We got THREE member presents! Yes! A lot of them have been miricles and have been really cool to see them happen. We talked to several people we have been trying to get in contact with and have build up our bonds with them really well I think. Hopefully, they will be able to open up even more and want to progress further in learning the Gospel.

This week was a lot of fun because I got to paint a little kids ceiling with glow in the dark paint. Haha, that was really cool! Im thinking of getting some and writing BEWARE accross the top of my companions bed. Just so when a new one comes to this area, he will get a fright! Haha, it was really cool thought, because this family we did it for was a part member family. After we painted the ceiling we were lucky to teach them the plan of salvation. I used the puzzle that I got from home and it was very useful to get the kids involved. Dave (the non member father) sat there listening. He has explained him self saying that he doesnt want to learn, but yet when we teach a lesson he still stays. He listens, and will even fold his arms and pray with us. We are hoping that the more we teach, the more he will want to learn more.

This last week, I was trying to find something to teach to a recently activated family for FHE. I ended up finding the scripture mastery in Matthew 5:14-16. Let your light so shine, that all men will be able to see your good works and glorify your father who is in heaven. When I read  your letter mom, it made me think about living in the world but not of the world. Talking to this family who was recently Living OF the world it was something they needed to hear. We basically got to the conclusion that if you Let your light so shine, then you wont be living OF the world. Becasue only your light can shine, if your living OF christ. We talked about, in every situation, in every moment, of every day. If you try to let your light shine always. Then you will truly be seperated from the world and living in christ.

Dad. I love you. I dont have enough time this week, but im going to be sending you a proper fathers days email next week. I love you guys!

Till Next Week - Elder Hale

June 17th 2013 Stephanie

                                                          June 17^th, 2013

Family I have felt the joy that Ammon and all the sons of Mosiah felt. This week was incredible. Ok, we baptized Gustavo and Mauricio 2 Saturdays ago and then had the great opportunity to baptize a FAMILY!!!! The familia Lara. They are so special they have been waiting for 8 to 9 months to get married and then get baptized. They have had so many challenges and problems even more leading up to the baptisms. I have seen Satan working against us (it really is a war). They finally were able to get baptized and they were..... are so happy. The father was having second thoughts. He didn't want another interview and was sick and tired of fighting so hard to get baptized but his faith won out.  After his baptism he walked up to us and he started to cry. He took us by the hand and he said tell Hermana Call, Hermana.....he named every single Hermana that helped him and his family and then he thanked us and still all while crying this grown man ...we of course were crying as well. He told us to thank our family ....and at this time I was bawling and he said thank them for sending you and thank you for choosing to serve a mission. Family that night was perfect I never have felt the spirit more strongly and the love of God more fully in my life and in the lives of others. Me and Hermana Messina went home and we cried together. We knelt and prayed and thanked God so much for what we were feeling and the blessing we had and the opportunity to help his children he was giving us. Family this work is worth everything we can give. This gospel is true and there are people that are waiting to understand it and be blessed by it. I don’t have too much time today. We had started today at 10. We had two lesson in the morning and we have 5 today. It’s a Monday!!! We love working and I have never felt more tired or  happy.

    I need your prayers a lot for me. I am realizing the magnitude of what our President is expecting for us sister training leaders and well I am feeling very inadequate and well not really knowing what I am doing. I need the spirit more with me to help the people I am visiting. So please keep me in your prayers that I can be all that the people around me need me to be to help them and help others.

    Also we are teaching a man ... ,family, I love this investigator more than any other I have had. He has a sad story and has done some bad ...really bad things in the past and he is changing so much now that he has the restored gospel. He can’t get baptized because he has not passed the interview with the Elders and the President of our mission and he had his first interview a year ago. He has been coming to church and been active for a year.  He is now trying to pass another interview. I admire him so much. It has not been easy for him to come to church and stay active but he has done it.  He wants so so so bad to get baptized and he is willing to do anything. The thing is he hasn’t truly felt Godly sorrow yet. When he had his interview and... he needs more time but he has this week. This week we are seeing him every day. Many times two times a day and we are talking about repentance, atonement, and Godly sorrow. We had a great lession with him today where we were really blunt with him and by the end of the lession he said something that hit me and Hermana Messina hard. We both just started to cry. After trying to make him realize the gravity of his sins and what it was that he needed to do to be forgiven.....he said  " how come ... how come it is so easy to sin and so hard to repent.... we cried because we know he wants to do everything in his power to change and he sometimes just doesn’t understand how to do it. But we feel like he is getting it. Please keep him in your prayers, he will be having his next interview this weekend on Saturday and we hope then he will pass to have his interview with President. Family I am leaning so much of repentance and the atonement. Right now we are going where he is and we are trying to feel what he feels to help him know what else he needs to do I have never come to love someone more. It is the same love Christ feels for us. He has been where we have been and knows how to help. We just need to choose to come to him. Family stay close to the gospel......read more fervently, pray more sincerely, fast more often and help others at every opportunity. It is what true joy is. 

    I know Christ lives. I have seen him in the lives of the people I teach and I will always be a witness of his goodness and mercy. He loves us ......so much and my love for his is growing each and everyday 

Love you family, 

Hermana Hale  

June 17th 2013 Maren

Hey Family!

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This week has been so much better than... well than any week probably. Its been hard and yet I have felt more approval from the Lord and the service we are giving than ever before.

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Before I get into everything though....

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HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!! Did you get my card? :D I hope you liked it.

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My thoughts have been, not distracted exactly, but they have been on you and on Grandma as this last week was 1 year since Grandpa died. We listened to Amazing Grace yesterday and I thought about how Jacob sang that song exactly a year ago at his funeral. I hope everyone is feeling the love that God has for us and Grandpa close by too...

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So this week as I have tried to focus more on being obedient and serving others I have found myself happier and more willing to submit my will to the will of the Father. I read this quote on Tuesday that really changed my whole perspective and brought me clarity.

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I have learned a truth that has been repeated so frequently in my life that I have come to know it as an absolute law. It defines the way obedience and service relate to the power of God. When we obey the commandments of the Lord and serve His children unselfishly, the natural consequence is power from God用ower to do more than we can do by ourselves. Our insights, our talents, our abilities are expanded because we receive strength and power from the Lord. - Elder Richard G. Scott

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Dad, it made me think on your thought on how we gain the Power of God in our lives and I was like... well there it is! The formula is right there. I thought it was cool.

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This week we decided that we needed to stop teaching all but one of our 3 investigators. One because her family is muslim and we didn't want to divide them, and the other because she hasn't been progressing meaning keeping commitments. It was a hard thing to do but to be honest we have been fighting it for weeks. Its hard to let people go but its amazing that it was in the lessons that we told them we couldn't keep teaching them that I felt the most spirit. I don't know if they did but we all knew that we were doing the will of the Father. And we have been blessed for it.

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A few weeks ago President recieved revelation to have us pray these exact words (without becoming repetitive) "Lead us to the pure in hear, including families." We have followed that council and have seen the beginnings of the answer to this prayer.

We were trying to visit a former investigator and they weren't home. Sister Peacock saw someone down the street and said "lets go talk to him." So we did. He saw us coming and we waved hello and wow... its never been so natural to talk to anyone in my life. He jumped right in telling us all about himself and his amazing family, about his "ministry" (thats what he called it) to guide and help young kids learn about God, School, and Sports to keep them safe and off the street. He has helped hundreds graduate form High school and go on to collage. His program, or one of them is called Bible, Books, and Ball. The whole time he was talking about how everything he has he has because he has put God first in his life. After he was done talking he then said, "alright, you now know about me, now tell me about you and why you are here." So we started in, not even talking about the gospel to start with, just building a relationship, talking about our families and lives and where we were from, etc. At the end we each got to bear personal powerful testimony about why we are in new york. We talked for a little longer and he started telling us some of the trials that he has overcome, including losing both his parents at a young age. Before we left I got to bear powerful witness of Forever Families. I asked him if he thought God had more good in store for him, he answered in the affirmative and then I told him that this was part of the good that He had, we just wanted to add to all the Good that God had already given him in his life. He started crying. He said that our message had touched his heart and he knew that it was no coincidence that we walked down that street at that time.He said we looked like angels to him with Halo's and wings.We cannot wait to meet with him again. We feel with absolute certainty that this is a Man who is pure in heart, including his family, and a blessing of our obedience to the spirit.

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Heres a funny story for you. We have been working with a Less Active almost as long as sister Peacock has been here and we are planning to go to the temple to do baptsims for the dead with her for the first time next saturday. We went to visit her on Saturday to make sure she was all ready for her interview the next day. We walked in and asked her how she was and she said "o ya know, just here drinking coffee..." We were all in stunned silence. We didn't know how to respond. We had talked about all the qualifications for the temple reccomend with her, the commandments, she'd never mentioned anything about Coffee... We were ready to panic! Then she started busting up laughing and showed us that it was hot chocolate in her Mug not Coffee. We laughed for 5 minutes strait. She is a funny lady. She had her interview yesterday and Sister Peacock translated for her. Appearantly she did have a problem with coffee before we went to visit her but from the time that we first invited her back to church she stopped drinking it. Her faith and determination to journey back to God amazes me. She got her recommend and we cannot wait to go with her next week! :D

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Family. This Gospel bring so much happiness. We have recieved revelation that our mission here in Riverhead may be less to find new people to baptize and more to stregnthen and reactivate the members who are already here. We feel confident that this is the focus we need to have for the next little while, starting with making sure every family has daily prayer and scripture study and weekly FHE. Mom and Dad, I cannot tell you how grateful I am for you and for making sure that those things have ALWAYS been apart of our family routine. They really are the building blocks of a Christ Centered home, of a family that sticks together through it all. Brothers... don't fight it. Support Mom and Dad in this and be grateful that they put God first in their relationship and lives and that they are teaching you to do the same. Commit now to do the same in your family from the moment that you get married, even if its just you and your spouse. Set the patterns now that will carry you into eternal life. I promise you that you will feel the power of God in your lives as you do and that you will have greater peace and guidance in your life.

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I love you all so much! The mission is amazing, I am learning so much and am so grateful for the companions that I have by my side. We are all here for very specific reasons, our life expereinces combine to help us meet any challenge that comes our way, we have all been prepared to be here in this exact time for very specific purposes. I know that God is using us to do his work.

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Love,

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Sister Maren Hale.

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P.S. Caleb! I got your letter this morning and amSOOOO happy. I think it brought me more joy that any letter I've gotten all week (not that i got that many ;)) But seriously. It was awesome! look for your reply this week.

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To my other brothers.... See... if you write me you will get a personal response! I want to talk to all of you!

June 10th, 2013 Stephanie

Dear family,

 So the first part of this letter is from my letter to the President for this week. 

OK always start out with the best....we had two baptisms this week!!!!! And they were both MEN and both so prepared to be baptized. They will be great leaders in the ward and the kingdom. I was surprised because they both were found just a month ago and they progressed so fast. They were truly prepared by the Lord. It made me realize that there are so many people ready and waiting to just hear about the gospel and who are willing to accept it.  The baptism was so special. But, wow, Satan was doing everything he could so that it wasn’t going to happen.  Hermana Messina took a fall a day before while running (ok with you guys I can say more ....her ankle was huge and the first day she could barely walk on it I was so scared but a miracle happened. She got a blessing and the pain was gone and she could still work).  The next day we had a lesion and it ended up with a member and his neighbors contending about the word of God instead of sharing it and we felt really bad and discouraged for that.  Then to top it all off the elder that was going to baptize Gustavo came late with the cloths because he fell (ok this is crazy. He dislocated his ankle and could not a walk!!! His companion a three week out missionary poor guy had to pop his foot back into place and this Elder walks into the baptism....and plays it off like nothing happened but you could tell he was in pain). Me and Hermana Messina were talking about it later and said out loud that it was a low blow for Satan to hurt the missionaries. But in the end, the baptism went so well and the spirit was so strong and Mauricio and Gustavo both bore their testimonies at the end.  Wow they have changed so much in a month’s time and they have both had strong spiritual experiences that have testified to them that they are in the truth. Hearing that from them reaffirmed my testimony that all people can change and many of them are just waiting for the invitation to do so.  It is our job to give that invitation with no fear and no shame. To boldly testify of the truth and give people the opportunity to come unto Christ........truly our calling is great.

     So I am not going to lie this new calling is great. I love it but I have never been more stressed on the mission. We have so much to think about that there is literally no time to waste. We are planning two interchanges a week and some are to Jucuapa which is like 3 hours away from the capital. I think I will be going there on Tuesday. The country is so pretty I’ll try and get pictures again.

       We are working hard so we can reach the goal of baptizing each week and I am excited because it is so possible. The people are seeing the changes in the our investigators lives and they want in on the blessings. We are making plans to be better this week because we didn’t plan so well and a couple things we dropped that we can’t drop. So pray that this week we can do better. Thank you all for writing me.  I love to hear from you. 

      So let’s see good experience for the week. We were in a lesson that went so well. We found this woman in the Buena Vista, the magical colonial, right, and we started teaching her...we found her this week and we have already taught her the first 3 lesion and the word of wisdom.  She is preparing to be baptized on the 29 of this month. She came to church this week. We went to go pick her up for church and we came like an hour early to see if she was up and she answered the door in a dress, all dolled up, hair done and makeup. Wow she look so great and happy. It was the best sight to see, that someone was that excited to come to church!!! I love this gospel. It is changing so many people here and I see it and I want to be better and I want to change. Man sometimes it hard for me to find the faith that my investigators have.  They are teaching me so much. 

     Well, I don’t have much time. We are finally going somewhere cool for p-day. It’s called the door of the devil!!! Wooo sounds cool right ha. It’s a little hick with a great view and we get to eat the best papooses in the country. So I am kind of excited for that too. 

   I love you all and know that God loves you. He is aware of all you do and wants to bless us and is waiting for us to keep his commandments so he can bless us. It’s true I know it. I see it every day. It’s becoming a part of me and I couldn’t deny it even if I wanted to. The love of our God is so great for each of us and he wants us to be happy. Trust in him and give him all of you and he will make you into what you can be. 

    Hermana Hale 

 Have a great week 

June 10th, 2013 Jacob

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOO HALE FAMILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLY!!! ( And others)

 

This week has been one of ups and downs resulting in a kind of medium well week. We taught our first member present this week but it was kind of in a round about of a manner. We taught his kids and wife who are mormon and he stayed around to listen. Haha! But talking to his wife she says that very slowly, we will have an impact on him and that he will eventually want to hear the whole of the gospel. By small and simple things right? I actually was on exchange this week with our New district leader Name Elder Mckenne from NORTHERN Ireland. Becuase if you just say just Ireland he will get mad at you. Haha but we were on exchange and got a call from the women I was just telling you about name Louisa. She called to tell us that we probably should not come around for another 24 hours because her son was radioactive..... Weirdess call I've ever gotten in my life. Well apparenly her son went through some tests recently and they had to inject him with radioactive Isotopes for the tests. Wow that was crazy.

 

So a little miricle this week. Wendsday to Thursday afternoon I got to lead the area. The district leader, who is only 4 months older then me, came on exchange to my area and I led it for about 36 hours..... AHHHH! That was hard. Well thursday afternoon we ran into a member that we were not planning on visiting that day. In fact my companion specifically asked me not to go see her, because he wanted to do something special with them the next couple of day. Well when we ran into this member she asked us to stop by and we were kind of taken a back and just said yes... I was scared my companion was going to kill me.  But anyways we were out and about visiting potentials and we ran into one of our potentials right as she was leaving to go pick up her kids from school. This is Suzette, her kids are the ones that we played with for an hour the other day. We got one of the little kids a badge from Elder Sutcliff (one of the old and favorite missionaries from this area) and we gave it to Suzette to give to her son. We had some stuff we wanted to talk about, but it just didnt feel right, so we didnt say anything. We said goodbye and then went to visit some other potentials. We got the call from Louisa, and then we went to try by the member who asked us to stop by. Well she wasnt home and we were kind of worried about what we were going to do next. We tried to call a few people but nothing was falling into place. So we just started walking and all the sudden we hear this HEY!!! We look up and Liam (One of Suzettes kids) Is running over to us. On his shirt he has the missonary badge. He yells for his mom and 2 seconds later Suzette walks around the corner. We started talking to her again and we told her why we were still in the area ( to visit the member who she lives next door to) and she said that we could wait at her place.... Now that was crazy. We have never been able to have a sit down with the potential yet. She has always been to busy. So we went over to her house and had an amazing chat with her and got some insight on how to help her. It was amazing!

 

So that was my miricle this week. The last couple of days though have been hard because my companion has been super sick. Mom you were asking me questions about my companion. Honeslty I dont know why I was chosen to be his companion. Maybe because I do have a little bit more compassion for people or maybe because of my experiences with you. All I know is that its been pretty hard just sitting in the flat just trying to find something to do. He has bad migranes but also he has stomach problems as well. They also make each other worse so sometimes he can pretty out for the count.

 

Thank you guys for praying about Judie and Zoe. We have not been able to contact them this week and it has been really frustrating but then we were reminded that this is exam time right now. And exams are hard over here. Like ACT and SAT hard. They also determine what school you are going to for a higher education so we are wondering if thats why. We are hoping that it is and that if all goes well we will be able to set up a celebration for them or something to just get us in contact again! Hopefully their brother/son will call us also to get us to do some service.

 

Mom I will try to write chandler today. Hes going to be there this thursday? A letter from here to the MTC should only take about 2 days. So I think we will be good. I just hope I can remember the Address. Haha! Maybe ill shoot him an email as well. It will be good to hear from chandler.

 

Dad! The Narrows?? Really?? with out me??? Ouch. Haha you lucky people.

 

Well I got to go, I have Elder Gull and Elder Mckenna  are right over my shoulder and they want to go mini golfing. Cya guys. I love you. see you next week. Good luck with all the camping and running about. MOMMMMMM I love you. I still miss you every day. But its good to know that you guys are always there supporting me.

June 10th, 2013 Maren

Hello Hale Family,

I feel so much love through your letters this week. I needed to hear a lot of what you had to say. 

I feel like I am riding a rollercoaster out here. Some day are way way up and other days... well, not so great. But I can feel my Savior teaching me through every down moment. I hope the reason that its up and down is that he has lots to teach me and not that I am just not learning the lesson. Somehow I feel like its probably both but more of the second. 

There is so much to tell about this week I don't know where to begin. First of all on Tuesday we had an awesome Sisters Conference at the mission office. The theme was President Uchtdorf's talk from the General Young Women's Conference this last april, "Your wonderful Journey." I highly recommend a study of this talk. It changed me and the way I want to be. 

After the conference was over we had a few minutes to talk to the sisters that were there and I had the chance to talk to Sister Chipman a little bit. She has just been made a Sister Training Leader like Stephanie is in El Salvador. For the last little while everyone has been asking me how I am doing and I say I am good but I guess I have expressive eyes that tell a different story. Anyways, when she asked me I finally broke down. I am so so so grateful that she is here. We talked a bit and she asked me the same question you did mom. How am I doing with David's day coming up. I didn't even know she knew. I couldn't remember when she had left and if it had been before and after. Turns out his accident happened just 2 or 3 days before she left. She told me about a phone conversation she had with Tania, the last time she talked to her before she was set apart. I don't know if Tania would want me to write details but Tania, I am so grateful for you. You weren't sent to our family to be the oldest for a very special reason and purpose. You always watch out for each of us. I am feeling your love here through Megan. 

To answer the question though... its going to be hard. I thought I was okay and that I had left it all at home but the truth is there are still moments where I just want to talk to him and my heart aches. I was really hoping that that day wouldn't be a P-day... but it is. I had hoped to honor him that day by going out and working hard doing missionary work, his passion in life. Sister Chipman promised me that she would come down and we would do something to make it special. Not sure what yet... maybe service... but it will be good.

Now for the good part. We had an absolutely AMAZING day on Friday. We had 5 appointments set up... which is good out here. Unfortunately on days where you have that many appointments my experience has been that at least half, if not more, fall through and it ends up being a less than wonderful day. But not this Friday. This friday every. single. one. worked out. We taught so many lessons and had some awesome finding opportunities too. I wish I could go into more detail but honestly I am running out of time.

I wish I could say that that high from Friday stuck with me into the weekend but it didn't. We had ward correlation on sunday morning and I felt criticized for some of the things that we were asking of the branch. Anyways, don't think I should go too much into it but then that night while reporting numbers our district leader had to lovingly correct us. I got down again feeling like no matter how hard we try and what direction we move we're doing something wrong. So I hit my knees. I didn't get any answers but I had a nice talk with my Heavenly Father and he just listened to me, like a good friend he just listened and empathized.

Then this morning when I woke up he started giving me advice. My companions wanted to go running at the park so we got up a little early and I brought our conference Ensign with us to read as I walked. I must have read 3-5 talks and I noticed a new theme that I hadn't picked up before. I learned a few things.

#1 We learn that God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one in purpose. We need to become one with them as well. One in purpose. One in bringing their children, our brothers and sisters into the fold of the gospel.

#2 "Obedience to Law is Liberty" Just be obedient.

#3 When we are disobedient we are willingly giving up promised blessings. 

#4 Satan does what he does out of Revenge. He wanted to take away our most precious gift of agency. Ironically by using his, and choosing what he did, he proved to the world that to go against God is literally to enter into a state of captivity, to take away our future progression. Don't follow his example.

Mom, I also read the one about the Idaho Farm Boy and learned a lot. They're all running together in my head now but I know that I liked that one. 

Bottom line, the answer to my problem(s) is to just be obedient. We promise investigators all the time that if God commands something then he provides the way for us to do it. ALWAYS. Every time without faith. You can count on it. But I don't feel like we as missionaries and especially me put that promise to the test for ourselves. We have been commanded to only spend 1 hour at dinner appointments and yet we cry "impossible!" What a lie. Of course its possible or he wouldn't command it. "impossible is just a word, a reason for someone not to try." (thats from a song)... anyways. I need to be more obedient. 

I love you family. I am experiencing a lot of things out here that I have never experienced before and its hard. But it will be worth it. I just need to stop fighting it and become the person God wants me to be. 

I love you.

-Maren

June 3rd, 2013 Stephanie

 June 3rd, 2013

                        

Dear family
   Where to begin.....I am so busy it’s crazy.  I really literally have no time to think about you all until Monday.....Wow that sounded really mean and like I don’t love you. But I really do so don’t worry ha. We have just been trying to get a hold of this new calling, work our butts off in our area, do divisions, split our area so the assistance can come and oh yeah we moved today.  Hah it has been a crazy full week... and I absolutely love it!!!  I am so happy and I love the feeling that God is happy with what I am doing right now.   So download of that is going on in our ward that we are working in. We have the expectation, and goal of baptizing every week and you want
to know what’s cool ....we are baptizing 2 people every week this month!!! God is blessing this area and the work so much. We have found amazingly prepared people that hear of the word of wisdom and stop in
three days all coffee, smoking etc. The faith of these people I am just in shock of.

  Oh so funny stories. Really this amazing investigator is named Mauricio. He is like 50 and he is so excited for his baptism.  If he had it his way, he would have been baptized last week but he has to wait because of coffee. But the funny story is we told him he could choose who to baptize him.  He got really excited.  He came back 2 days later and started this really long and prepared speech about his thought process to choose who he wanted to baptize him. He was praising and thanking Hermana Messina for all she had done for him and then he said I would be honored to have you baptize me....... we both looked at each other. After the whole long speech it was so sad to tell him that we can’t baptize. But at the same time it was actually really funny. He was fine with her not baptizing him and we had a good long talk on authority and the priesthood. I am just amazed at the faith of this man we
literally go to the lesions and he is taking notes and ....he is like a sponge and just sits at our feet and soaks up everything we say and not just that but puts it into practice. He is truly an example to me. He will be getting baptized this week with another man named Gustavo and he has been investigating for a while. We have been
praying so hard that he would accept a date and he finally did this week. I feel a little sad the day that he accepted the date I was on interchanges and I wasn’t there.  But I heard about it after and wow.....this guy has been trying to change his life before his baptism.  We started to see some changes in his life and we started to talk to him
about a date and he always said he wanted more time even though he was ready ...but this day Hermana Messina, she is so good at following the spirit, talked about prayer and they all knelt down at the end of the lesion and he prayed to know if he should get baptized this Saturday.  She said the spirit was so strong and after the prayer everyone just waited and were listening.  After like 4 min (that’s a long time on your knees and waiting) Hermana Messina asked how he felt and.....oh I get goose bumps thinking about it.  He said he felt so good and put his hand on his heart and was saying he never felt like that before and that he couldn’t explain what he was feeling.  He just felt really good......!!! I am so happy for him. He got a strong answer that he was to get baptized this week and so we are planning those two to be baptized this week.  Next week I am excited because there is a family in our ward that after like 8 months of trying to get a divorce and get papers to get married, they are finally going to have everything ready and they are going to get married the 14^th and then get baptized the 15^th  and the President is going to come.  We are all nervous and everything.....it’s the best feeling ever.  I am so grateful for the work I have here and the companion I have.  She is pushing me to be so much more than I am now and not just be a passive worker....( you know work hard and all but be fine with the results that come) No with her this is what is going to happen and we are going to work our butts off to get it done.  I am learning to be anxiously encaged in good things and do much good on our own and not wait for the mission to tell us we are doing something wrong before we
fix it.
    We are working so hard in our area and we have a miracle street. It’s the coolest place in the world. There is a member Hermana Johnny and the family Acosta. They are recent converts and another recent convert that live on this street.  We literally go there and we teach all day long the friends of these people in their homes and we
pull people off the street and teach them for like 10 min.... the spirit in this street is like so cool. Everyone is like “what’s going on?  I want to get in on this thing. Why is everyone at these houses all the time?  Why are these two gringos here all the time? “I love the Buena Vista. It is the most beautiful place I have seen. It is on the side
of a mountain and you can see all of San Salvador and the other side of the valley is the huge volcano and there is always clouds trying to go up and cover the volcano. It is so pretty here. I love it.

   We had stake conference this week and it was kind of funny what I learned but here it is. (Oh right, I need to tell you that one of the seventies came.  It was so much fun to bring investigators too) Ok so the talk for the seventy, he talked about a lot of things but what I learned was a story of a sister missionary that had written down all the
things she wanted in a husband.  The President of the mission at the time (Him the seventy) saw the list and told the sister that it was impossible to find a man like that, that they do not exist. He told her that he was nowhere near the man he is now when his wife and he decided to get married. (Up to this point I know all this all ready. I
am not looking for perfection or anything like that) but then he said something that made me look at who I really am and what I want to be. He said the person that he was today had everything to do with his wife and the person she was. She made him good in essence is what he said. Wow I kind of had an epiphany, I always knew I needed to be the person I wanted to marry and all that. But I don’t know, I never thought that the person I was could really change the man I fell in love with into the man of my dreams, into a better man. (Just by who I was).... I need to be better ... a whole lot better hah. But it’s what I love about the gospel we make changes all the time and we can become better though Christ.
    Family know that I am happy and well. Really I am just so happy!!!! I love this work and I love helping people. I know this gospel is true.  I will never miss a day of scripture study again. I have learned that prayer is more than just a good habit. I know that our father hears us. Sundays are the best day. Church is the most important activity we do during the week. I know that the atonement is real and has real power to strengthen us (literally there is no way I can run (we really do run to all of our citas) and work all day and plan and teach (its spiritually and physically exhausting). I have learned we do not do this work alone. When we are tired and don’t have the strength to stand, God gives us the strength we need and an inner peace that surpasses, ah, any other feeling. It’s so great. In essence I have felt the atonement in my life and nothing brings more joy!!! So I tell everyone to use it!!! Ha God loves us so so much. I love you all so very much and I know God is taking care of you all while I am here.
So I don’t have to worry about you.
     I love you all.
  Hermana Hale