April 12, 2010

Hey Family,
I didn't get a letter out this week, but I did send out that question thing that you sent me a while back. I'm making a tape with a new hit jingle, produced by Elder Eldredge and me. I had to get Elder Eldredge on the tape because this week is the last week of this transfer so I don't know if I will be here or going somewhere else. We are most likely going to be split up after this week. Not many missionaries stay together more than 12 weeks.
I received your pictures in the mail, it was really great to get them. This week was another disappointing week. We mostly focused on follow-ups, catching up with new investigators and meeting with people for the first time after they had offered to have us over when we found them out on the street. Many appointments fell through. It's been like this for the last 2 weeks after we had our last power week. Yesterday we were supposed to have 5 people come out to church, but none of them did. It gets so frustrating when you're trying your best, but no one else will keep their end of the bargain. We have a baptism date set with Mitch, the MMA fighter. He is a really solid guy and loves when we come over to talk to him in his gym. He loves the story of Joseph Smith and is always talking about him. He feels like that story describes him to a T. We might have to move his baptism day back a week because he didn't come to church yesterday. We are also teaching a woman, Amanda, I think I was talking about her in the past. We had a very good lesson with her at the Near's home (members in the branch). They have agreed to teach her in their home. So we taught her and really helped her recognize the spirit. She had been feeling it there while we were teaching her, she recognized it, but did not know what it was. So we helped her know what that feeling she was having was. When she was describing what she had been feeling throughout the lesson, she pointed at me and said that she felt it a couple times when I was talking. That was the first time anyone had said something like that to me, it hit me really deep to be told by someone that they had felt the spirit when I was talking.
This week is our last power week of this transfer, so it's going to be another long one. Hope to hear from you. I LOVE YOU ALL
-Elder Hale