February 7, 2011

I thought there was a fraudulent charge on Brady's account (this is the 2nd time, the first time was real, this one was my error, oops) and I intervened with the bank. They closed down his debit card and then wouldn't let me order him a new one. Because he was out of our "region", they would require him to go into a bank with his ID. There are no bank branches in his town. What a mess.

MOM and DAD,
Ok, so when I went home last Monday after e-mailing you, the debit card was there. I just activated the new card over the phone this morning so I'll buy a little something with it today to make sure all is well. Next time I go on a mission I will remember to leave all bank accounts in your name, what a hassle. Thank you so much for watching out for me. I'm aloof to all that goes on around me besides missionary work. I'm not even sure how I would have solved this problem if it were in fact real. There is a vice president of the bank in our ward and I'm sure that he could lay down some smack talk to anyone that was giving you a hard time.

So I'm curious what pictures Sister Anderson sent you. We had dinner with their family last Friday night, and she took a couple of pictures of Elder Curtis and I.

Here are a couple of the pictures - thank you Sister Anderson, it warms a mama's heart to know these missionaries are being taken care of . . . and what an awesome Christmas gift basket!

I'm putting together a package for the family. You know that means that it will be sent next week or the following week but I thought I would build up the suspense. I'm going to print out a bunch of pictures today so they will all be labeled for you when they come.

So I had some awesome letters come this week from the family. So the house is paid off!!! That is so cool. It sounds like dad took a big step of faith by paying the house off, but that was the council given from a prophet of God, and when we are obedient the blessings follow. I have a testimony of that. I think that you are already seeing the blessings flow with dad being so busy and all. Besides, I don't think that there is a better time to take a step of faith than when your son is on a mission.
This week has been a crazy one. A big storm hit Tuesday night. It wasn't that bad in my opinion, but President told all missionaries to go inside for the night. We also had to stay in until 12:00 on Wednesday morning. So in the meantime, Elder Curtis and I had a Monopoly championship. It was fun.

We did get to do a lot of tracting this week though. As you know, our teaching pool shrunk when J's family moved, but we did find two more investigators. Their names are D and W. They are both young guys (19-20) and very interested in the gospel. W came to church yesterday and brought his sister. It was a powerful testimony meeting, and I think he liked it. Last night we went to his home and went over the restoration and watched the DVD with him. He's a little quiet so its hard to really know what he's thinking, But D, on the other hand is awesome. We just tracted into him, and he let us right in. We just started to get to know him and see where he was at in his life. He then just started asking us question after question. We answered them through the Book of Mormon. It was amazing. By the end of the visit we asked him if he would pray about the Book of Mormon to find out if it was true from God, then he just blurted out that it was true and he did not need to pray, because he already knew. We are going back tonight with a recent convert to go over the plan of salvation and set a specific date for baptism.

I hope you guys are great and doing well. I LOVE YOU ALL -Elder Hale

Here is a little taste of some pictures to come: