July 14, 2012

Hey Family,

Hope everything is going well for you this week and Mom is doing better and Maren is doing okay. When I found out I was so sad.David was an amazing person, always happy with a smile... I couldn’t believe it when I heard it. I am so sorry. I will be keeping his family and the family of the girl in my prayers.

So this week lots has happened. The old missionaries left the CCM and for a whole day there were only a few missionaries here. We had a total of five Hermanas. The day after everyone left all the missionaries went on a city tour.... I didn’t go because it was the only day so far that I got sick. I woke up at like 3:30 in the morning and had to go to the bathroom every 20 min. I felt horrible so I decided that if I went I wouldn’t see anything, I would just be in the bathroom all the time and there was a good chance there wasn’t going to be a bathroom everywhere we went. I was sad but I got a 4 hour nap instead which was nice.

So because everyone left they chose new leaders for the next group of missionaries and me and 2 other girls are the coordination sisters. It’s fun, we get to hold evening prayers and make sure everyone is doing okay. The Latinos here are such an example to me, many of them are the only members in there families. And some of their families don’t even know they are on a mission. Their faith is so strong its amazing.

So I am officially going to get fat on my mission, just saying. I told you it was rude to not finish your food here, right? So they give you a lot of food, I can eat so much now its crazy hah! I am just hoping I’ll get a parasite right before I come home hah. I am totally kidding.

So this week has been really good for me, I have learned so much and my testimony has grown a lot. I wrote a letter today for all my brothers that I will be sending on Sunday so be looking for it. I don’t know how long it will take to get there but it explains a lot of my feelings about this week. I’ll just say that it is so great to be a missionary!!! All I have to worry about is learning the gospel and becoming a better person and a better teacher so that the lord can use me more effectively to share his gospel with others.

I had a moment this week.... you know those moments where everything makes send and you know the gospel is true and... oh it was cool! the gospel is so simple, we complicate it so much, too often. Literally it is just living the first principles and ordinances of the gospel which is faith in Christ and repentance and baptism (or taking the sacrament each week) and receiving  the Holy Ghost and then enduring to the end or I like the word “repeat” better, repeat steps 1 to 4. Everything else in the gospel rests on these points, if we have faith it will lead us to action and lead us to repent and renew our baptismal covenants weekly.... one of these days study what we truly promise at baptism its so cool because everything builds on everything else and its so cool how everything connects…I am so grateful that the Lord knew that we needed the ability to renew out covenant each week and gave us the ability to start over each week and try a little harder to be better. What a merciful plan to help us increase in our faith and abilities to live the gospel while being able to have the blessings along the way. Sorry that was my spiel today, I don’t even know if it made sense, hopefully it did.

we have been studying the Book of Mormon this week and my gratitude for that book had grown stronger in my life. We take it for granted so often when you stop and think about how many prophets and faithful saints died to help bring this book to us, so that we could hold it and read the words of God. It seems a sin to not use (read) the gift that we are given...everything we need is in the scripture, just by reading them we receive strength to withstand temptation. Maybe this week to try and read the Book of Mormon a little more each day and see if you can tell a difference. I want to testify that this book was written for us!!! For our day, why not use it more?

I have to go,I love you all and hope everything is going great.

Simeon thanks for your letter.

Love you all!

Hermana Hale

July 7, 2012

So sorry we have been so behind on updating the blog. Stephanie is doing really well. Read about it here!

Hey Family !!!     

So much has happened this week so here it goes. When we were street contacting on Tuesday it was so crazy, they gave us a Latin companion and sent us out on a bus that was jammed packed with people it was crazy. They sent us to this neighborhood and told us to preach the gospel it was so scary!! Haha! But a good experience, there were a couple people on the streets we talked to and the people here are so nice and will listen to anything. Some of them are really busy and didn’t have time to.

Funny story, we were talking to this man and I gave my spiel on the Book of Mormon and how I know God loves us and how this book will bring you closer to god and after I was done the guy just started talking so fast and I was like
wow, what is going on? I looked to my companion for help and the next thing I knew the guy was hugging me. I stiffened and he stepped back and said you very pretty in English and I had no idea what just happened or what to say. I kind of laughed and said “uh huh.” It was so wired... but we also  had some really good experiences.

It is so great to be able to testify of Christ’s Gospel all day, everyday. We talked to this young man and he said he had an aunt that was a member. We gave him a book of Mormon and got his info so we could send the missionaries to him.

Oh, I was so tired after that morning but it was so good I was
walking the streets in Guatemala and it felt surreal. It is everything I
pictured, green everywhere and so many people living in a small area. I saw a family living in a shack with kids, the youngest one with no shoes
and playing in the dirt. I was very humbled to the fact that I have been so blessed in my life.

So I know you guys wanted pictures and all but the sad part is I haven’t had my camera sense I got here. They keep them in a safe, I think they are scared of other missionaries stealing them so I just got mine back today, I will have it for 3 days and will take lots of pictures. We are going on a tour of Guatemala on Tuesday morning. Super exited about that. I probably wont be able to
send the pictures until I get to El Salvador though. Sorry.

So to answer questions, I haven’t gotten sick from the water yet so that good. I have a cold though. I am so glad to hear Mom is doing okay. You boys
better be helping out lots. I know that you are but just saying. I wish I
was there so I could help out. I felt so bad that I missed saying happy birthday to you last week. Its hard to keep track of days here. So…. HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY!!!! Welcome to the world of grownups and reasonability!!! No, but really, I cant believe your 18 its crazy!!! Congrats on the Eagle too, I heard it was super close haha....

Nates in drivers ED!?! Wow! Watch out all you people that live in Orem and lindon. That’s crazy!!! I am excited for you . BE SAFE.

 Okay. So to answer more of your questions, the CCM stands for Centrlo de Capacatacion Missional. So yes it stands for the MTC in Spanish. I am loving my time here and am learning so much. I am scared, I only have 3 more weeks left in here. Everything is going to fast! The weeks are flying by. I feel
like it was yesterday I was writing you... Any way, my companions name is Hermana Danelle Massina. Tania might have  met her at the Brittany, she was friends with CJ and Shawn and she knew who Rhett was too.. she has reddish hair and really full lips.

Ok funny stories. So I don’t know if I told you I said something really funny
in class. I wanted to say “to increase your faith you need to read the
Book of Mormon”, but instead I said  “in order to kill your faith you
have to read the Book of Mormon.” My teacher gave me the weirdest look.
I was like what?! and he told me what I said and everyone started to
laugh. It was so funny.  

So…. Testimony,  the gospel is so simple. Our Father in Heaven has so much love for us and he has given us every opportunity and tool we need to get back to Him. He has made it possible to succeed. We cannot fail unless we choose to. We just have to try our best and even if we mess up, it doesn’t matter how bad or what we did or even if we mess up with the same thing over and over again, if we come to Him with a contrite heart and faith He will
forgive us. All we have to do is ask. That is another thing I have learned. Nephi said he saw sadness with our generation because we didn’t speak the scriptures and seek for spiritual knowledge when all we have to do is read and ask. I thought it cant be that simple but it is. I was asked if I know how the spirit talks to me and I said no so I decided to ask God to teach me how the spirit talks to me and he told me it was amazing. All you have to do it ask and he will answer but he has to wait to give us what we need until we ask for it
first.

Sorry have to go. I love you all!

Hermana Hale

June 30, 2012

Hey family!

I want to thank you for all of your letters. You are so great to write me. Please use dearelder.com when you’re writing me because I only have a half hour on the computer and I cant read your emails and write you and they wont let us print. Sorry if this makes it hard. I did see that Mom is doing better and I am so glad I read that Grandma is doing as good as can be expected. I am so sad I could not be at the funeral and hear all the stories and Jake sing. I was thinking about it and I don’t think I have heard Jake sing publicly that wasn’t in a play. I bet he did really well.

I saw that Simeon wrote me an email and I will try and read it before they kick me off, thank you all so much for writing me. I am so so very blessed to have my family and friends that are so supportive and love me so much and know why I am out here and are excited for me. There are so many natives here that are the only members in their family and their families are mad at them for going on a mission and can’t understand and don’t want to understand why... I am so blessed.

You are all so blessed with where you live, the people that love you, the opportunities you have and the knowledge of the gospel. I was wondering why I was given such a blessed life and dealt a great hand. I don’t know if it was because the Lord knew I needed the extra support and help in this life or he trusted me with his knowledge because he knew that I would want to share it. We have such a huge responsibility having the truth to share it with others.
 

Okay sorry, that was a spiel I was not planning on making hah.

Okay so life in the CCM is so great. You spend all your time trying to be a better teacher, to have the spirit with you, and to learn the language. We have two things here that are so cool. Okay three, we get to go to the Guatemala temple, that was so cool. The temple has become one of my favorite places. The second is we get to do temple walks and try and contact people that are outside the temple, sometimes they are members and sometimes they aren’t.... its scary and so cool at the same time. We also have a house we get to go to called the casa CRE. We go and teach sometimes members and sometimes its people off the street that have questions about the church. We answer them and teach them. You don’t know which one you’ll get so you have to be ready for anything. It is so scary!! ha ha. 

The Spanish is hard. I have gotten into really bad habits like saying ‘they’ when I mean ‘we’ and I get all the conjugations mixed up so pray for me that I will be able to sort everything out in my mind so that it makes sense.

Okay, so cool experience. Me and my companions were walking around the temple yesterday and we stated talking to this women that was sitting on the grass just looking at the temple. We started to talk to her she said she was there to just think. We started to get to know her and found out that she joined the church 4 years earlier and she was the only one in her family that was active. She has 3 kids and she was trying to raise them herself. She was coming to the temple to try and get strength and comfort. It was so hard cause I wanted to tell her so much and didn’t have the words. She started to cry and I started to cry as I tried to bear my testimony on what I thought she needed. It was such a great experience for me. I have no idea if she even understood me and she was talking soooo fast!! Hah. Nut it got me exited to be able to testify and teach about Christ and the church to others for the next year and be able to try and help them as much as possible. How cool is my job!?! I am so exited and terrified to get out into the field. At least now I know that I can at least bear testimony in Spanish and if I have the spirit that will be enough to start out with.  

Ok so Maren asked me to bear testimony each week and I really like the idea. So I testify that God helps us in the work he calls us to do. If we have a willing heart and try our best he will be there to do the rest. I have come to understand why we need the atonement in our lives and why we need a
savoir. The great goodness of our God to for see this and provide a way for us to get back. The Lord has comforted me as I have tried my hardest and come up short. He comforted me when I found out that grandpa had died. The spirit is real and testifies of truth. I have learned that the scriptures, like Nephi said, speak plainly of what we have to do and if you do what they say we are blessed. This gospel is amazing and it is true.

I have 30 seconds.

I love you all and want you to know that I know why I am here and am so exited to do this
work.

I love you!

Hermana Hale