April 25, 2011

I just read the e-mail from Roxanne, that's exciting!! When is the big day? I hope I will be able to be there. I can't believe that. I will have to tell all the missionaries, it will break their hearts. Everybody likes Roxanne...tee hee! That's really is cool though. Wow great news.
Things in Ankeny have been great as well. Sister F is progressing so fast. She came to church yesterday in a skirt! That is big news for us. One of her concerns was that she didn't like to wear skirts and had a bad experience attending church in Utah with some of the women there. But she came yesterday for the second time now wearing a skirt. There is so much evidence that her faith is growing. She has a new continence about her, she just glows. We had a lesson with her before church on Sunday. We brought over the 1st councilor to the Relief Society, Sister Hrygil. The two of them bonded so well together. Sis. Hrygil now wants to come to all of the lessons that we have with Sister F. After church R, her oldest (he's 8), was interviewed by the Bishop for baptism. Everything is coming together. Tuesday President Jergensen is coming out with us for the night again, so we are going to take him over to sister F's for a lesson. I think he will enjoy the lesson.
In the ward we are trying to do anything we can to build members trust and work with them to do their missionary work. This Sunday we are teaching Relief Society about missionary work, and as of yesterday we are now going to be working with the Priests to get them on missions. We are going to do a little lesson Wednesday night at mutual and will be attending Young Mens every Sunday. They have a few young men they want to focus on right now to get on missions and we are going to bring them to new member lessons and less-active visits. I love this ward so much and I don't want to leave. Some of the members are going to try and call President Jergensen to get me to stay, that would be cool.
We are allowed to skype for mothers day. We are going to try and set it up with the members that did it last time for Christmas. We will see how it goes. I thought last time was a little weird, I didn't know what to say and there was like a 2 second delay, but we will give it another go. Bring some questions...
Thank you for the Easter packages, they were great. We both wore the ties you gave us to church on Sunday. Elder Perfili wants to thank you for the basket. I received your letters this week. You guys are so busy. I don't know how you get every thing done.
I LOVE YOU ALL -Elder Hale

April 18, 2011

FAMILY,
I had to get some things done today so I'm sending this out late. This week has been busy. We had ZLC in Des Moines on Tuesday. And leadership training on Wednesday and Thursday. Elder Perfili and I actually had to do some of the training on Tuesday. It was the first one that I have done. I was hoping that I could just fly under the radar until I was released. We had to train on how to receive revelation through the Book of Mormon for an hour. It went well. I'll attach some of the things that we used in our training. A lot of what we focused on was teaching to concerns from the Book of Mormon. We felt like a majority of the mission took the Book on Mormon for granted in their teaching. The whole group of elder that I came out with from the MTC were at leadership so it was fun to see everyone there and catch up.
Sister F and her family came to church! Sister B and her family came too and Sister S. Sister B moved her baptism date back to June 11th. She wanted some of her family to come to the baptism, they live out in Utah. She is ready and could be baptized tomorrow, but i think the main reason she moved it back was because she wanted her husband to baptize her and he needs a little time to get up to par. we had a great lesson last night with sister F. We brought Sis. G, the relief society president, to get to know her. We first taught R, her 8 year old son, the first lesson. It was short and with legos, but I think that he got the gist of what we were saying. We then started to answer one of sister F's main questions/concerns. Last time we were over there she said that she didn't know why her family couldn't be together forever as they are right now. She felt that God favored one family over another because one was sealed and one was not, and because the one was sealed the other couldn't make it to heaven. She didn't understand why God would do that. I have been studying on that question for 2 weeks. We brought over "The Family, A Proclamation to the World". We read a few paragraphs out of it with her showing her that God did indeed loves and approve of her marriage that she was in. We pointed out that that is what God wanted, a family married to rear children into the world. So not to say that a sealed family was better than a family married by the state, its not, it just wont last forever. Then we went over Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We showed her that Adam and Eve were married by the Lord to work together to bring other spirit children in to the world, God told them to work together. Then we showed her that all of this happened before they ate the forbidden fruit. So when God married them, they were immortal. Their marriage would last forever but because us as humans, we make mistakes, that marriage was broken, because death entered the world. The spirit was so strong, and she understood what we were saying clearly. I know this was a long explanation of what happened but it was so powerful when we were there.
Family I LOVE YOU ALL -Elder Hale Happy Easter!

April 11, 2010

Family,
Nauvoo was fun. Thanks so much for the information of the family in Nauvoo, I find it fascinating. Too bad one of the houses would be under water. I've been to Nauvoo so many times I know my way around old town Nauvoo pretty well at this point. It was a long trip. A 3 1/2 hour drive to get there one way, but it was quicker than the 4 month trek the saints took so I can't complain. With such a long trip we didn't have much time to wander around. We went with J (a recent-convert, you probably remember him.) and his wife. It was cool because I didn't remember much of doing baptisms for the dead in Nauvoo when we went as a family so many years ago. But wow, that font was a swimming pool, it was huge. J enjoyed his visit there. It was great to see someone go from investigator to temple trip in one area. We also saw Joseph Smith's home and the red brick store. We then walked over to the blacksmith shop so J could get a prairie diamond. I didn't take any pictures, I only got one and it was on the way out of the temple. J gave a talk the next day at church and talked about how much of a great time he had at the temple with us. It was neat.
Last night we invited another part member family to baptism. It was Sister F and her son R. We have been taking the lessons very slow so that she can understand the history of what happened in the times of Christ and in the latter days of the church. Last night was a recap on the restoration and we watched the restoration movie. We answered many of her questions she had about the Book of Mormon and the importance of the book, as well as how to use it to receive revelation. We invited her to be baptized on May 7 and she said yes!! Brother F started crying at the amazement of what just happened. We told her that her husband could baptize her and their son. Miracles have been taking place in Ankeny.
Ok some answers to your letter: The pick-up truck is a missionary car. Only a few of the missionaries in the mission get one, usually the ones way out in the sticks, like the Marshalltown elders.
As for the family reference I referred to - Elder Eldredge trained me, he taught me everything I know and brought me into the mission life, so he is referred to as my "father" in the mission field. I did the same to Elder Wilson, I trained him and taught him everything, so he is my "son" in the mission. So Elder Wilson is Elder Eldredge's grandson, if you're following me. Now Elder Eldredge is training again, so he now has two sons, Elder Dearing and myself. So I have a brother now. I hope you're with me. So With Elder Eldredge training I have a brother and Elder Wilson has a uncle. Now even if my father (Elder Eldredge) is a zone leader he is still father, and always will be forever and ever just after the manner that God has instilled it within his plan.
LOVE YOU ALL, -Elder Hale

April 6, 2011

FAMILY,
Transfer calls were Saturday, and I'm staying here until May. But Elder Eldredge is training again! I'm going to have a brother, Elder Wilson has a uncle! It's going to be so cool, Elder Eldredge it still in the zone so I'm going to spoil my new brother so much. Ill give him a tie and buy his lunch and call him every night...its going to be awesome. I will get some family pictures. I attached some pictures from the week. The first one is district meeting in Newton. Elder Wengert is going home and it was his last district meeting. He is the one in the back, in the middle with the dark hair. Some of the other pictures in the corn field are of Elder Bennett burning a white shirt, it was his one year mark. Elder Taylor is the one hugging him and then Elder Wengert steps in. Then pictures of Elder Taylor and Elder Perfili and I in a picture perfect scene with the back drop of Iowa. I name it, "What to take home from Iowa". The last picture is Elder Taylor and Elder Wengert in their new car with the zone flag. They drove around waving the flag all the way to lunch. I wanted to tell you about the part-member family that we have been working with. We had a lesson before General Conference on Saturday. We taught the Savior's earthly ministry, but with the game, Don't Break the Ice. If you don't know what it is, it's very fun and only $7 at Target. We wrote Jesus Christ on all four corners and wrote the 12 apostles names, the ancient apostles from the New Testament. Then the first principles and ordinances of the gospel, Faith, Repentance and Baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost on some of the blocks. And on the remainder we wrote revelation from God and Priesthood authority. In the middle of all these block we made a clay church building to represent the church that Christ had established. We taught about the earthly ministry and the apostasy and took away blocks until the church that Christ established fell. It was a great visual to use to show the apostasy. We shared only the beginning part of the restoration due to time. We asked her if she understood what we were teaching and any questions or concerns that she had. She understood it clearly for the first time and started to say that she doesn't show emotion or affection to people, then stopped and started crying and thanked us. The new way that the church is doing missionary work is so effective at helping us as missionaries connect with our investigators, it's astounding. I have realized that a crucial part of conversion is building relationships with people, not to say that the Spirit is not converting, but to create a environment to invite the Spirit into a lesson leans heavily if the person trusts you and is comfortable. You must warm them before you warn them. And I think we have created that with this sister.
We have also had miracles fall into our laps this week. Three people have asked us to be baptized. We are working with another part-member family. We went over there for lunch last week and before we shared a spiritual thought, Sister B (a non-member) was showing pictures of the Kansas City temple being built, then she said to us, "...that is the temple we are going to be sealed in." I just gave her a weird look and started talk to her about the church. Then she said that she feels that it is time for her to be baptized. She was taught 8 or 9 years ago by missionaries, but was discontinued. So yesterday we committed her to baptism on the April 30th and she accepted. Oh man so cool. There was a part-member family that moved into our ward last week, a sister with a 12 year old son. When she moved here, she called the bishop and asked for home and visiting teachers, a priesthood blessing, and visits from the missionaries. A miracle. The son keeps asking us to be baptized and we have had one lesson with her at this point. But Friday we are going to commit her and her son to baptism for Mother's Day. She is such a sweet lady. God has blessed us.
Mom, I need to tell you that I have a Grandma out here making sure we are fed. Her name is Sister L, but I call her Grandma L. We see her every week to help her get active and get to the temple to do her husband's work. She wanted me to tell you that, "..someone out here is feeding your baby boy." I love sister L so much.
I LOVE YOU ALL, Be good, -Elder Hale
P.S. Melanie you look very grown up in the pictures mom sent me.
P.P.S.S. Could you sent me some more vitamins in your next package? not a rush but when you are sending me something, Thanks