August 6, 2012

Hey Family!!!

So I am here in El Salvador! It’s crazy! So different that anything I have ever seen. I am having a little culture shock. Everyone here lives mostly in tin houses with dirt floors. I am reminded daily how blessed I am. The country is really dirty; there is garbage everywhere and it smells. B the people are so nice and welcoming they will give you the last of their food if you come to visit them. It has humbled me so much.

The people are so ready to hear the gospel, I was overwhelmed with the number of investigators we have here. I am so bad with names and it’s hard to put their stories with their face and then the name, man! I have lots to learn. But they are all such great people.

I have to tell you a great story that happened this week. Apparently the two sisters that were here last found a huge family that was interested in the church so they taught them once but they had to turn them over to the Elders because they were outside our area. But because there are so many of them they asked us to come to the church to help them with a church tour. I thought there were going to be like ten people there ...no there were over thirty small kids, teenagers, and adults. It was so crazy! It was an amazing site to see so many people trying to find the truth. We sat in the chapel and read 3 Nephi with them and then all of us missionaries got to bear testimony of the savior, it was amazing experience. I was so scared to testify in front of so many people when my Spanish is not so good but I did it and it was sooo cool! I love the fact that I just get to testify all the time here.

Sounds like we have a baptism lined up for next week if everything works out. Her and her family have received the discussions and everything but they have to wait because she has to get a divorce before they can get married and then get baptized. Sound like that is a big problem down here. My trainer, Hermana Baird, has been in our area for 6 months and she will be here for another 3, half her mission in one area! She knows everyone here and she is working with a lawyer to try and get at least 3 divorces to take place, its crazy.

Every investigator has an amazing story I don’t know all of them yet but I plan too. Their faith here is so strong, everyone, EVERYONE believes in Christ so it makes our work easier when we can get them to listen.

So I have pictures finally!! I am going to try and upload them. The blue house is where I live, it is a four-room house with tile and a bathroom that has a toilet and shower (I’m really lucky) and a study room and our bedroom is really small but it works. It is so hot here already and its the rainy season!! I had a hard time sleeping last night because it was so hot. We have fans though and that makes it better. We do not have a sink instead we have this concert water thing I don’t even know what it´s called but the water is so cold it feels so nice. It feels like I am at girl’s camp all the time its great.

So I sent the picture of my feet cause it reminded me of the scripture of  “how beautiful are the feet that publish peace." The blisters are all from eating sugar, its crazy, I have never had it this bad. It itches like crazy and walking is a little hard but they are doing better and I will be calling the nurse here cause I don’t know if it is an allergy or something else. Don’t worry about me its fine!!! Just thought it was funny.

Any who, this week was great and I can´t believe that I get to do this for everyday all day. It is hard work, we walk so much!!! We have our own cook for lunch and I swear I will  probably come back three time the size I left! Haha, her food is good....but everything is fried here in grease. Everything is greasy! Oh I had first pupusa in El Salvador on my first day. It was so great! I got beans and cheese they were really good. There are so many things here that we cant eat so we have to be careful but the pupusas I am so glad we can have.

The city at night is my favorite. Its so pretty cause you can’t see the garbage and its cooler. The lights are so many different colors I’ll have to get pictures and send them but  haven´t taken them yet. We as sisters have to go in an hour earlier than the Elders. We go in at 8 instead at 9.

Everything is so cheap here it’s crazy. I have to get us some change cause you use change for everything and I don’t have anything right now.

Thank you so much for writing me, I just found out that I can print off here so you can write me all much as you want and I will print them off and read them later. Tell Maren I did that with her letter so I will write her soon. I am glad you guys got my letter and I am glad you liked it. Thank you all for writing me, I love to hear from you so much.

So I have come to have a really terrible fear of dogs. They are everywhere here and they bark at you all the time, even run at you. I swear I will never have a dog again! Haha, I am defiantly going to have the full missionary experience.

Anyway I am going to try and upload my pictures now.  So I am having a hard time, no surprise, I will ask my companion soon so no worry’s.

The ride here was good, I was so tired and I feel asleep for a little bit. It was pretty, everything is green here and I love it!! But the trip was uneventful.

This week I have learned that as a missionary you are truly led by the spirit and the Lord. We were walking many times and all of the sudden my trainer said, “Oh! there is a investigator around here we need to visit.” and we would turn around and find them walking on the street and they just needed to see a familiar face and to hear that someone loved them. It’s so great to know you can be an instrument in the Lord’s hand. I am so grateful for this time in my life, I feel like I have already learned a lot and its only the beginning. The Lord lives, he loves us so much and it is because of the Atonement that we can become clean and have hope I am so grateful for that.

Sound like the family’s summer has been crazy. I miss so much love you tons

Hermana Hale

July 28, 2012

Hey Family!!!!

So there is lots to write and not very much time sohere it goes.

Jake thanks for writing me !! Yours was the only letter I got this week so thanks.

Okay so funny story this last Sunday I got called up to give a talk in sacrament meeting. So every week all the missionaries are suppose to write a talk about a topic and be ready to give it cause they call up like three to five missionaries each week to give talks, my turn was last week and the topic was the apostasy. What do you talk about for the apostasy? Well it went fine, I always cry so atthe end I cried a little. I hate that, I will work on that on the mission... but other than that it was fine and I did it all inSpanish! Wooot!!!

Ok next topic. We went out on the streets preaching on Monday. It was so much fun we talked to so many people about the gospel. We met one man and he invited us into his home/work. He invited us in and he was saying how he was looking around at a lot ofdifferent churches and meeting with a lot of missionaries. We talked with him about the example Christ is to us and took down his info to have the missionaries come talk to him. He asked us to pray with him and we started to pray and the spirit came in to the room so fast and so strong it was so cool!!

After him we came a cross an older woman with a two year old. She was buying food and we stopped and talked to her for a minute her grandson was so cute he had the biggest head of hair and all of it was curly. He was so cute! She told us very strongly that she was catholic but that her God and our God were the same and that she was so amazed that we would come all the way to do the Lords work. She said God bless and she gave us a hug and she told her grandson to give us a kiss. We all kneeled down and he gave each of us a kiss. It was the cutest thing and it made my day. It was awesome!!!

Well the cool story is we got 12 referrals and that is pretty good for a day so that made us happy. So every day this week we have been practicing with Mateo, another district, to sing for our last Sunday here. We are going to sing the EFY medley in Spanish. It reminds me of the times we sang it all the time at home and I got just a little home sick. I think of Maren on the piano and everyone just coming in on the parts wherever they are in the house, its great, I miss that.

Anyway here the Latinos... well they cant sing very well, or like at all, so its wierd to go from an okay voice in the U.S. to a ‘you sound like and angel’ down here. Haha, its really weird. There are only 4 Hermanas that are singing the girls part, Kinda scary so keep me in your prayers...

Okay so last funny story. Yesterday in field orientation we had a lot of workshops and talks it was really good. We had them all day and the very last hour of the day we had a little free time me and my district when to our room and we help our own district Olympics. It was awesome! We played Bachy ball and left handed
target practice and basketball with the garbage can with paper balls, it
was so fun. Elder Neson (reminds me of Nathan so much, a big goof ha love
ya Nate) and Elder Gates and Elder Rowch all won. We had a closing
ceremony and presented them with their metals (ties). It was awesome!!!
So much fun....... don’t you worry, we are working hard here too.

I can’t believe I am leaving for the field on Monday!! They changed the time, we leave at 7:00 in the morning our mission president called and they want us there earlier. So please be praying for me, I will be needing it, especially these next few weeks where everything will change. I have to say that I am scared but not as much as I thought I would be. I am also really excited. Knock on wood. I want it to stay that way. But I am realizing more and more how much our message can change a person’s life. It is so powerful and I love teaching about it. It brings so much hope to people. I am so exited to start teaching and meeting real people and helping them start to come to Christ. Jake wrote me a letter and said that I am fulfilling prophecy. The cool part of it is I get to tell people the Book of Mormon is a story of your people and it tells of all the blessing your people can and do have. It’s so powerful! It shows that God has not forgotten them.

Family I know that Christ lives, that he suffered for us and that it is through him we find all joy and all peace and I have come to know that a mission is not easy, it is as the rode of a disciple is, hard because we have to walk where Christ walked
and its not always an easy road but there is so much love and joy that comes from walking that road so never give up. Nothing will bring you more happiness. I love you all please keep me in your prayers. I love you!!! Miss you tons love you more....

Your Missionary Hermana Hale

July 21, 2012

Hale family how is everyone doing !!!?

Everyone I haven´t heard from in a while; Jake, Nate, Caleb, Isaac; you all have homework to write your big sister.

Well I have lots to share so here it goes.... I am leaving in 9 days!!! Crazy it has gone so fast being here. I will be leaving on Monday the 30th at 9:00am and I will be taking a bus to El Salvador. Its apparently only 4 hours away so not too bad on a bus... its really nice because now I don’t have to worry about weight anymore.

So mom you asked where we all go when we leave, this MTC services a lot of countries, like everywhere in Central America, like panama, Mexico, etc. To answer you question about writing you can still use dearelder.com but once I am in the mission field you’ll want to email me, I’ll get it way faster.

\ So cool story I was in an earthquake!!!! It was so much fun! It wasn’t really big but big enough to feel. I´ve always wanted to be in an earthquake. weird I know but now I can say I was in one!!!

Other cool/scary story is that me and my companions were going to teach our investigator (our teacher) outside when he came running up to us saying “change of plan, you’re going to teach that man over there, he is from Honduras and he is inactive ready go!!” We were so scared. We walked over there and started talking.. I didn´t understand a word he said, it was so hard. The people form Honduras the drop there “S” in half their words, it was so hard to know what he was saying. But after about 10 minutes I could start to understand him. The funny thing was that the man was not inactive, he was a member but had a story because he use to be inactive. My teacher had asked him to pretend to be inactive for us so we could teach him but I guess he didn’t understand cause we ended up just talking to him about the gospel one of my companions wasn’t understanding anything that was going on so she started to ask him questions about why he didn’t want to go to church and stuff and he was so nice about it. We had a good laugh. It got me excited and scared for the field. Scared because it will all be Spanish, there wont be anyone to speak English with. And excited because the gospel changed this mans life and I could see what it meant to him to have it back in his life. I know how much it has blessed my life and I am excited to bring that same joy to others.

The MCT is going great. I think or at least I hope that my teaching has improved, its so cool to walk into a lesson totally prepared and then throw your lesson plan out the window and do what ever the investigator needs. Its so cool cause you know the spirit is the one guiding.

So aunt Erin and Uncle Jason are going to JORDON !!! That is so cool! But I don´t think you should go ever over there to see them for your 30th. You should totally come here are pick me up the land of the Book of Mormon! Its so much better! Hahaha, I’m just kidding. If I had the choice I would go there too, but still, come here too! haha....

Man everyone is getting married tell them all how happy I am for them all that is so exciting! I wish I could be there for all of them.

Well that’s about all I have to say for now. I want to bear my testimony on what I learned this week. We listened to Elder Holland and Elder Christopherson many times this week and one thing that both of them said many times was to give you whole heart or whole self to the Lord. They said this can be hard because you don’t always know what that will entail, it could be hard. But they said “who better to take care of your heart than the one person who knows you better than you know yourself. The one that knows what you need better that you. All we have to do is trust him.” I have realized that to be a true disciple of Christ and we have to become like him. We have to walk some of the same things he walked, and say thing things he said and get rejected the way he was rejected. This life is not easy all the time but the wonderful thing is that because Christ walked and talked and did what he did we do not have to do it alone. I am so grateful for that. Put your trust in the Lord. It may be a little scary but trust that what will come ,comes from the Lord and he will help you through it. I love you all and can’t tell you enough how amazing it is to be a missionary. It is so great to testify of Christ all day every day.

Love you all!

Hermana Hale