July 28, 2010

We visited the primary on Pioneer day!
Hey Family,
P-day got moved to today because of transfers. On the 6th week of the transfer, p-days are now moved to Wednesday and transfers are moved to Thursday. So anyway, I am staying here in Clinton! I did not think I would be here another transfer, but now I will be here until September, I'm going to see all four seasons. The last couple of days I have been getting pictures with the members, just in case, and have been telling them that I might go. It's weird to see how attached you can get to an area. This place feels like my home here and everyone at church is my family. Everyone was telling me that they are going to miss me and I can't go. Bro. Jones wanted to call president and make me stay if I was going to get transferred. Lakeena cried when I told her that I might be leaving. It's just crazy to see how much love there is in missionary work, and I LOVE IT. There is nothing else I would want to be doing right now than this. Working with the spirit for a full time job is the greatest.
I do need another pair of dickies shorts, I ripped one of mine during service the other week, but just make sure that they are size 36. Ive got some cool pictures that I'm going to send home soon and a couple tapes (probably next week).
but I LOVE YOU ALL, and hope to hear from you. -Elder Hale

July 19, 2010

Hey family,
This week has been a great one getting to know President and Sister Jergensen a little more. We had interviews with him, I thought it would be hard to get to know the new mission president, but I already love him. Elder Wilson has become accustomed to tracting so, we have been doing that a lot more. He's now taking over the planning every night to plan what we will do the next day, so we are beinning to tract some of the outside communities around Clinton, such as Cammanche and Albany. Both towns are a little more receptive to us rather than Clinton, they are much more friendly-er.
For the last 3 days we have had youth with us all day long. It's a program the stake does every year. They were awesome, but I think we really wore them out. They kept falling asleep at appointments, it was so funny. Elder Wilson had a great time with the junior missionaries. He lead out real well and actually came and told me at the end of the day that he felt bad for me because it was really hard to go to an appointment when your companion says nothing, so now he's working on sharing more when we go to appointments. We got to go the the fireside and hear all of them bear their testimonies. It was great.
It's good to hear that you guys are safe at home now, must have been a long plane ride.
As for transfers, they wont happen until the 29th so send anything you want. I won't know if I'm leaving until the 28th though. Most likely what I think is going to happen is that I will be here for another transfer trainning Elder Wilson until the 1st of September, but I'll let you know.
LOVE YOU ALL -Elder Hale

July 12, 2010

Hey Family,
So Elder Wilson and I have been working so hard this week to help the Nears get everything ready for the Pioneer day activity. It was held at their home so we have been over there a lot doing all the chores around the house. The Nears said that out off all the missionaries they have had over the years, we here the hardest working ones. It was great to hear that from the members. But we invited everyone to go to the activity. We had 11 investigators show up! Some friends of some other members came so we had 13 non-members to the activity. It was so crazy trying to run around talking to everyone and introducing them to everyone.
This is the zip line platform we helped build. A storm took out the tree it was originally hooked to, so it was rebuilt into a full platform. The kids dropped out into the pond.
And yesterday we had 2 investigators come to church and 1 foof (friend of other faith), so 3 non-members, it was great! We also had zone conference this week and met the new mission president, President Jergenson, he is from California. We have interviews this week with him so we can start to get to know him better. A couple questions, Did you guys get the cd with the slide show on it? And do you know about the tax return money, I need to get a new shaver so let me know when that comes. And I got the girl's package, thank you so much, the peach rings did not make it I have to tell you, but I love all the other stuff you guys got me thanks!
LOVE Elder Hale

July 5, 2010

Yea this week went by really fast! This week would be the last week of the transfer but since we are merging with Des Monies we have 2 more weeks added onto this transfer, so its going to be a long one. I hope the trip is going well for you guys, it sounds like Tom set up everything real nice for you two. Its been a hard week, I let Elder Wilson take over our planning every night, so he wanted to go tracking all day every day, so that's what we've been up to most of all this week. Saturday morning we re-roofed a house for a members son and then we went over to brothers Near's home to help build a plat form for a zip-line that is going to be for the pioneer day activity coming up this Saturday. I got so sun burned and was wiped out when it was all said and done. We had a lot of appointments lined up this week but little went through as usually with missionary work. But we did get to meet with Angela, and at the last minute Bro. Estes invited us over to teach her at his home. So we went over the restoration again, since it has been a long time, but after the lesson Sister Estes and Angela hit it off. By the time we left they had set up a time to go to the movies together! They said that she was opening up a little more. Angela is really quiet and doesn't talk much, but she will surly listen to what we have to say, and she even said she felt something! That's huge, for the last couple months she said she never feels some anything when we are there or are teaching her so its a huge step in the work here. Lakeena had surgery on Thursday, so we have been going over every day to see how she is doing and if she needs anything. She is a single mother and lost her job, has 4 kids, and is scared of what the future holds for her. We had a appointment to go and teach her Saturday with a member, but the member fell through, so I ended up making cookies and taking it to her. She loved it and now we are trying to get her to come to the pioneer day activity this Saturday! Its going to be awesome.

I LOVE YOU ALL AND BE SAFE! -Elder Hale