Nov 4th 2013 Stephanie

                                                          Nov. 4^th 2013

Dear family 

   

   So I attached my letter to President. Sorry they took away a lot of our time to write so we can’t write as much now. But to answer some of your questions. I would love to see the extended family but if it is Thanksgiving or another day it’s ok with me. Surprise me hah I am game for anything. 

    Mom thank you so much for taking care of everything for school ......so I have been thinking about housing I think if you could go up and see what is there and see what is cheap and close to campus that would be great.

   I have so much to tell you all and now I don’t have time. You’ll all just have to wait hah. These stories are just the beginning of what happened this week. 

This week has been really crazy with everything going on after the meeting. We are super excited to help the sisters’ plan and then commit to their goals. We are making plans on how to help them more and how to follow up. This week we have had some interesting experiences we are seeing God in this work more than ever. We are seeing miracles. We put 4 fechas in one day!!! There are so many people trying to do the right thing in their lives. Last Sunday we had an entire family just show up at church and we have been visiting them now for the entire week.  The husband and two of the children have fechas!!! They are so great. You feel the spirit with them so much. It was amazing this last lession. We taught the Book of Mormon and we talked about how we can know if it is true. I was on divisions with a member and it was so great to have her there.  Roberto, the father, asked the perfect questions.... ¿  “How did you know it was true? What did it feel like for you?” I bore my testimony and I felt the spirit so strong and then I was able to say that it is different for each person and turned to the member and asked, “How was it for you?”  The member bore a beautiful testimony and the spirit was so strong and then after his wife (member) bore her testimony. I love working with members!!!!!! They are so great and bring the spirit. They truly speak what is in their hearts and we bare our testimonies so often I think we forget to do that sometimes, not all the time but sometimes. They bring a spirit that is so strong. We are trying never to have a lession without a member. 

     Oh other cool story, we went to go to a lession with an investigator (Friend of MA) and we went with the Mission leader. It was so cool. This family that is MA, the father had never even talked to us before but at the end of the lession our ward mission leader went and found the husband. They were friends when he was active and they talked hugged and had a good time. Now we have a Family night with them planned. I think this is the answer to the wife’s prayers to finally wake up her husband and have him come back so they can get married. And she ( non member) can get baptized!!!! This is the time for members and missionaries to work together. We are seeing miracles when we do!!! 

     We are also seeing Satan hard at work with all the success we are having. He is always there trying to destroy ours and others happiness. (Man I hate that) I got really mad at Satan the other day. We have a golden investigator who asked God if this church is true after the first visit. We came back and he said he felt a tickling in his heart and he thinks it’s true. Hey so a miracle there and  wow this young man has such a connection with the spirit. It’s amazing. His grandparents are members and they have been praying hard to have their family come to the knowledge. But his mom was really mad when she found out we were teaching her son. She had given her warning to him as to what she will do if he continues listening to us. It breaks my heart to see him close to tears as he has to make the choice of family or God. We are praying so hard for him. 

I love you family. Dad I am praying for you and I hope you feel better.

Brothers I can’t wait to see you all!! Know that I love you. 

Mom thanks for all you are doing to help me. 

Love you all 

Hermana Hale 

October 21, 2013 Stephanie

                                                          October 21, 2013

Hey Family,

    Dad I am so glad to hear that the operation went well!! Take it easy for the next couple of days please. I have been praying for you and the fam lots this week. Wow, I was reading the letter mom sent. Wow, things have changed so much at home.  Everyone is getting big it sounds like. I have mixed emotions about that. I still don’t know how that happened and Simeon wrestling wow, hah, I can’t wait to see you in action bud!!!  I can’t wait to go to all your concerts, games, tryouts, primary programs and ordinations.

      I wish I had more stories to tell this week. I had a boring week, mostly because I was stuck in the house on Tuesday. I had a 103 fever .......it was not fun. We thought it was dengue (what they get from the mosquitoes here) but I went to the doctor and found out that I have a bacteria in my stomach. I was shocked that bacteria would give me a fever so high; but I got medication and I am on the mend. I am on a strict diet. I can’t eat anything other than apples bananas potatoes and carrots and yogurt. Hah, not much but I am also suppose to drink tons of water and juices. 

       Oh I do have a great story what I am I saying. We had a baptism this Saturday!! Herbert was baptized and oh it was a great baptism. He has so many friends in the ward and there were lots at his baptism. Denny, a returned missionary baptized him and wow family it was so great to see him come up out of the water. This young man has been through a lot and needed the forgiveness of God. As he came up out of the water, he stood in the water and paused for a second and then smiled and a small laugh of joy and surprise as he evaluated the way he felt. His smile was so big!!! I love baptisms. The spirit that is there is so strong. I love to see the atonement in action and the forgiveness of God. Oh and then yesterday it was so cool. Denny, the same person, put his hands on Herbert’s head and gave his a beautiful blessing and told him that he would serve a full time mission to serve the Lord. I didn’t even know that was something that he wanted to do but talking to him after, he was talking about how much he wants to. I feel so blessed to be a part of seeing these miracles day after day.

      Family, I love you tons and pray for you all. This gospel is true; my testimony has grown so much. Things have happened this week that I have realized the change of heart that I have had. The atonement is real and has the power to change our lives if we will let it. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it. 

   Love you,
Hermana Hale  

September 30th, 2013 Stephanie

                                                                   September 30^th, 2013

Hale family,

To start off, yes I am coming home actually Thanksgiving Day. We have change meeting on Wednesday and I think I leave the next day which is Thursday. Wow, really comet? Yes I want to see the stars again. I can’t see them here. I miss them so much. I am looking forward to spending that time with you again dad.

This week was really good. We had high goals and we reached a lot of them. We planned to have two baptisms and we only had one. What am I saying? I am super excited that we had one. I just hope that this next month we can baptize Manuel. He is 24 and lives with his aunts. He is super prepared but something happened this last week. He was so ready for baptism and was looking forward to Saturday. This week we went to his house every night to try and find him. He was never there. We went one night while it was raining and his aunt came out really mad. (she doesn’t like us. She has slammed doors and played music really loud while we have taught her nephew) But this day she was really mad and said that he was eating and couldn’t talk to us. We just asked to see him for 2 second to ask a question to see if he wanted to get baptized.  She said again that he was eating and couldn’t see us. So we told her we would wait.....in the rain until he was done. We waited 20 minutes and no one came out. So, we were either thinking that he doesn’t want to get baptized, his family doesn’t want him too or he was scared to do it. Please be praying for him that we can find him this week. 

Man, I am really enjoying being back here. Many people think it’s a curse to spend so much time in one area in the mission. I find it a great blessing. I am teaching people I taught before and I have seen the hand of the Lord in preparing them while I was gone to help them accept it now.  Many are progressing and it’s amazing to see. We are teaching 2 families and I really hope they will start to progress. They are so great both of them and they both need the gospel so much.

I love the mission more than ever. I don’t think I have ever been happier. I love my companions. We laugh all the time in the middle of the street. It’s great fun. We are planning the activity for the soc soc and Hermana Dumay is going to teach us how to make comida Dominicana. We are gaining the confidence of the members and they are starting to work with us and give us references. This last baptism was one of the best I have had on my mission. The spirit was so strong. During the time Jessica was changing, I and my companions shared our testimonies. It was so great my mission daughter bore testimony in public in Spanish for the first time. She did such a great job. It was so great to watch her succeed. We had 3 investigators at the baptism and after the fact one of them said to me that when I was saying my testimony, they felt something different. In that moment, we taught about the spirit it was a really cool experience.

Family, thank you all for your letters and testimonies and words of faith; they help us missionaries so much on the mission. Thank you for your prayers and love they are felt. If you could keep us in your prayers for protection, that would be great. Some of the gangs are starting to be more active where we live. It’s nothing to get scared about Mom and Dad. We are trying to move soon anyway so, no worries hah. 

I know this gospel is true. My testimony has grown so much and my conversion has deepened as I have tried to live my testimony. I am so excited for this weekend to hear the voice of the Lord through his prophet today. Pay close attention and I promise you that you will receive answers to your questions. 

Love you family more than you know. 

Hermana Hale 

September 9th 2013 Stephanie

                                                          September 9^th 2013

Hey family,

So I have had an interesting week.  First off though I am super grateful with the news you gave us about dad. I am glad the surgery went well. I can’t believe he is on a business trip right now after the surgery. My prayers are with you all. I have felt a great pez ... sorry peace this week. I have been able to focus on the work more than I have ever been able to before and I don't know if that is because I am in my first area again and I am also training a new sister training leader and also a new missionary that my time is just so pack full that there is absolutely no time to think about anything else. 

My new companions are great Hermana Dumay wow so much faith and energy and animo (it’s like a combination of energy and excitement to do the work.) She is from the Dominican Republic ...I know exotic right ha ha. She is so much fun to be around. We sing hymns at the top of our lungs in the streets diva style hah. It’s fun to be with her. Our new daughter is Hermana Merrell. She is from Idaho and wow can’t speak Spanish very well ...but I am not going to lie she has improved a lot in the last few days. I was really scared at the first because well she cried the first two days and I hah didn't know what to do. But in these last days I have seen a change and she is less afraid to talk to people in the streets. I think I under the principle that God finds joy in seeing us succeed and progress. I was sitting back watching her do one of her first contacts in the bus and I was smiling from ear to ear. I truly find joy in watching her grow.

   Well I am back in Cuidad Delgado and it’s been interesting. I love these people so much and I want to help them so much. Hermana Dumay says that this ward makes her sad because it’s like it has an open wound and everyone is hurting. Pray for us. We need some serious revelation to help this area. I feel blessed to be able to give my all and put my heart and soul into helping the ward become more than it is where I know and love the people so much. I figured it out. If I stay here until the end of my mission, I will have spent a year in this ward. Wow, that is a long time and I wow truly love these people here. 

 Here is what I wrote to my President

   Dear President, 

    This week has been good. I am happy to be back in Cuidad Delgado ...but I am not going to lie things have changed. This ward is hurting. The members are struggling. I feel so blessed to spend this part of my mission serving these people I have learned to love and care so much for. I have made a covenant with God that I will be his tool here now to do whatever he needs me to be or do to help these people become come converted to the Lord and to find the blessing of the atonement in their lives. I want nothing else than to see these people and this area happy and well before I leave. I made the commitment to do all in my power to do so. 

   My dad is doing great. He is on a business trip believe it or not after his surgery. Thank you so much for keeping me posted. It means a lot to me to know what is going on.

    Thank you for the conference of leaders. I learned lots and I am excited to go back to my area and put all of it in to practice. We are going to change this area with the help and the direction of the Lord. I have never felt so full of faith before and I know that miracles can happen and I know the power of the atonement and how it can heal any wound and any scar no matter how deep. 

   So that is this week in a nutshell. Oh CALEB!!!! Sorry man FELICIDADES dud that is so awesome that you got in to the play and that they were considering you for the lead man. I can’t wait to come back and see and hear you perform!!! I know you will do great. I love you so much. Thanks for keeping us posted. 

    Family I feel like this area will change me a lot. I feel like God is teaching me so much and I feel so blessed to just suck it all in. I love my mission so much and I hate time ha. I have never been more stressed and more at peace in the same moment. I am truly feeling the saying that says that God uplifts and enables those who he calls.  I know this Gospel is true. I have felt the spirit testify of it too many times to question and to doubt. I love my Savoir so much and am grateful for his atoning sacrifice.  I had a thought this week. We as members of the church are so blessed to know and experience the love of the Savoir in our lives. We literally are the only people on the earth that can truly testify of the atonement because we are the only ones to have felt it in its fullness. Wow think of that for a moment and then think of the importance to make these things known unto the world. This is the work of the Lord and the most important work we will ever do.

I love you family. You are all in my prayers (daddy) 

Love your sister, daughter 

Hermana Hale  

August 19, 2013 Stephanie

                                                                   August 19, 2013

Hey family, 

So I am trying really hard to send you all picture of the baptism but the computer I am on is a little weird.

So I learned a lot this week family. This week has been one of the hardest ones on my mission. The beginning of the week was super hard. I was super depressed. I was not feeling the spirit. Our investigators were all dropping and no one wanted to let us in and listen to our message. I was getting stressed with the number, with our area, and our daughter. We are training and also with all the sisters in the mission the President has asked us to baptize in every area and since we are over the sisters we are called to help them achieve this goal.  Lots are doing it, but also there are some that don't even have fechas. My faith was really down and I knew it. I had an interchange and I felt like I did nothing to help the sister I was with. If anything she was the one building my faith. I started to ask myself what am I even doing. I was actually on the brink of asking to be released from this calling because the pressure and responsibility was making me sick. I was not having the spirit and my Spanish was horrible and no one understood me. 

     Wow, that was really hard to admit all that. Hah I don't like how it sounds even now.  I had one good pity party with Hermana Messina one night with a jar of peanut butter. The next day we had a great meeting for all the leaders on faith. Family I have never seen a greater need in my life for greater faith than now and I am very humbled to know I have such a long way to go. What the President and his wife said I felt was directed at me. I realized my attitude was reflecting my faith. I realized that faith is a habit of thinking. It is reflected in everything you say and do and in your attitude you do it in. Family something changed. I realized that if god called me to this calling, it was for a reason and that in questioning my own abilities and what I was even doing, I was questioning him and his faith and confidence in me. Wow, it was a hard blow and I did a lot of repenting after that. 

    The next morning I woke up and I made the decision to have faith that day and things started to get better. We got through half of the week and realized that Satan was working really hard against us because A...... was going to get baptized this week. We needed to show forth even more faith. Yesterday, Saturday and Sunday family were two amazing days. Saturday we had an activity in the chapel and we hung around to support the activity. Just as we were about to leave a sister from another ward came up to us and asked us to teach her friend the first lession. She said they were supposed to have met the Elders the day before but they could not make the cita, so, she asked us if we could teach her right then. We said yes. We entered the room and started to sing “I am a child of god.” From the very first line the girl, C........ she is 22, started to cry and could not continue singing. She was hiding it well which is probably why Hermana Herrera didn't realize. After the song she when right on with the prayer like nothing happened, hah. But after the prayer we stopped for a second. I asked if she liked the hymn. She said she did. I asked why.  She went on to say that when she heard the phrase I am a child of god ...something happened. She felt something so beautiful. We were able to right then and there testify of the love of God. How she is a daughter of God. The spirit was so strong and I knew it was going to be a great lesson. 

    We invited her to be baptized and she said yes and we put a fetch for her the 14 of September. It was a really fun phone call to our zone leaders to tell them we had a reference for them and that she has a fecha.

  Oh, oh, and then the baptism was amazing family. I want to send picture because his face says it all. After he was baptized my favorite question to ask is “how do you feel now?” He said he felt really good.... it was all he expected and hoped for for 2 years! Knowing all the sins this man had and the great weight, he must feel great. 

Out of time. Sorry.

     Family I love you so much. Pray that I will be able to have greater faith in the Lord. 

 Hermana Hale