May 30, 2011

FAMILY,
We have an apartment!! We moved in on Wednesday. My new address is:
423 N. 20th Street
Quincy, Illinois 62301
We have a bed and an air mattress...that's all we have for the time being. Sorry for the usage of my home account. We needed some things for the new apartment. The last few days we have been doing our planning on the floor, it's killing me. This week we should have some desks, and were going to borrow some chairs from the church. Working with 4 missionaries in the same area is a little tough. There is only 1 or 2 other areas in the mission that have multiple missionaries in the ward. President just started doing this the past transfer or two. There has been a lot of missionary work done by the members here in the area. We are teaching 2 investigators from the members. We are working with a girl named H. She committed to be baptized and came to church this past Sunday. She got along with all of the young women. She is awesome. We have been trying to meet all the members in the ward as well. It's another big ward. I know these e-mails haven't been very detailed the last couple of weeks, we have been using members computers. The library has been under construction for the past 2 weeks. Next week we should be at the library, and I'll have some more time to talk.
I LOVE YOU ALL. -Elder Hale

May 23, 2011

FAMILY,
I am now in Quincy, Illinois! Its a neat story. So I'm still a zone leader and my new companion is Elder Phillips. He's a new zone leader. At transfer meeting there was an interesting assignment given to us. One of the old zones was split and a new zone was created within the mission, The Quincy Zone, and we are the new zone leaders of the zone. Its almost like white washing again. We both got here with no idea what is going on. There are two other missionaries here, one was transferred in and the other is a brand new greenie. So out of the 4 missionaries here only one knows what is going on and he has been out for just a couple of months. We don't have an apartment, we just bunk with the other elders for now. we should get beds today. We went and looked at an apartment this morning. It looks good so we should have a apartment by the end of the week. It's just been very crazy to try and organize everything needed to get a zone running and to coordinate the efforts of 4 missionaries in the same ward. We had to split the area for proselyting purposes. The ward is huge! It's also the only chapel that has a stained glass window. That was neat.
MOTHER!!!!! I have a huge favor to ask of you. do you remember, in a package i sent a while ago, there was a DVD called, "Preach My Gospel" with lettering at the bottom that said "District 2" It was blue with a picture of John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. Could you send that DVD to me over night? We need it very badly and we wont be able to get one from the mission office until next month.
My current address is: 1660 1/2 Kentucky St. Quincy, IL 62301
Sorry I'm a little scatter-brained right now. I can't seem to think straight.
I LOVE YOU. -Elder Hale

May 18, 2011

Family,
We had another Gnar-b-que at our last district meeting for the transfer this week. It was actually Elder Wilson's "one year click day" so we celebrated after district meeting with a district lunch Gnar-b-que! It was great. There are a couple of pictures of the whole event out side of Elder Wilson's apartment. I grilled, this has been my 4th Gnar-b-que on the mission, and it turned out great. I was also able to go to Ginelle on exchanges and was able to hold in my hand a 1830 edition of the Book of Mormon. I don't think the pictures turned out very well, I wasn't allowed to use the flash but I am holding an original copy of the Book of Mormon.
On one of the pictures you can see the date at the bottom of the page. I even folded down the corner like Hyrum Smith and am pointing to the verse that they read and found solace in. It was great I felt like Elder Holland in general conference when he explained the story just a few years ago.
While I was on exchanges, Elder Clarke and I went to Brooklyn!
Yeah Brooklyn, Iowa...It was fun, thought I would get a picture.
This morning Elder Bennett, Pratt, Perfili and I took a tour through the John Deere factory here in town. I wasn't able to take my camera in, but I did get a picture of the sign out front. It was amazing how big that place is and seeing the assembly line with these huge 18 foot tall cotton harvesters in different stages of assembly. They make everything themselves. They take 50 foot long pieces of steel and laser cut every part of those tractors, with welders everywhere welding and building everything. They have about 1800 people working at the factory. I thought Dad would get a kick out of it. We will have to come back and go through together.
I will be transferred. I don't know where yet, but I will still be a zone leader. So that means there are only 7 areas that I can go. Hopefully I will go to Peoria, Davenport, or Nauvoo. Illinois would be great.
Not much else going on, We had the first the new member lesson with the F Family. They took us to Chucky Cheese for dinner, it was a fun evening. I guess later that week, their middle child, hes only 5, started to baptize the neighbor kids in the swimming pool. Sister F recorded it and showed us. He was very accurate, full name, arm to the square, he said by the authority of Jesus Christ. Then slammed them underwater, some of the kid's heads didn't go under so he started to push their head under. It was hilarious.
I LOVE YOU ALL -Elder

May 9, 2011

Family,
Mom I'm glad that you like the mother's day gift. Sister Syme made them, she is our meal coordinator. I totally forgot to ask you about it.
We had a baptism this week. R was baptized first, so Sister F stood out in front with everyone else while Brother F went into the water with him. When Bro. F started to say the prayer, it was a powerful moment. This was the first time in years that he was able to use his priesthood, and the added fact that it was with his son. You could hear the emotion and love felt between them at that time. Meanwhile Sister F was crying while she was watching her son being baptized. It was neat. Then Sister F went in and was baptized. This was such a unifying moment for them. The whole program went very smooth. We watched the Restoration dvd in the chapel while everyone was getting changed. A large amount of Sister F's family was there who are not members and they loved it. President Jergensen was even able to make it with his wife. It was amazing.
I dont know what more to tell you I told you everything yesterday, but just to let you know trtansfer calls are this Saturday and transfers are next Thursday so I will be e-mailing you next Wednesday.
I LOVE YOU ALL -Elder Hale

May 2, 2011

(e-mail subject line today "Bin Laden is dead - neat")

FAMILY,
Ok, so about the skype thing. We have church in the afternoon and we just set an appointment with a lady this morning for after church, so the soonest we could connect would be around 5, so that would be like 3 your time. I think that will work out for everyone. We will have to make our time count because this could be the last time I will see you guys.
I have to inform you that the rapture is happening on May 21st (around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, when it is convenient). So the world will end before I ever make it home according to a "billboard prophet". We will see what fruits come from him, then judge him...
It's tornado season. I heard that there was a big storm that hit the southern United States. Our mission office informed us today that all of the missionaries are accounted for and ok. Maybe this summer I will be able to get some footage of one. Just kidding Mom...
Saturday there was a service project at the church. We were cleaning up the grounds. It lasted about 3 hours, but I got very sunburned. I didn't think the sun was going to be out, it's never out. As missionaries we are allowed to take our suit coats off when it is 70 degree outside. Let's just say that we have only taken our coats off a few time so far this year, so I wasn't expecting the sun to be out. But I got very, very burned. At sacrament meeting the 1st Councilor to the Bishop was conducting and thanked everybody that helped at the service project even though everyone got sun burned, then he said, "..but not as bad as Elder Hale". He totally called me out in front of everyone. It was a bad burn.
There are a couple of pictures attached, this photo is of the whole generation family starting with Elder Wilson, Me, Elder Eldredge, and then my brother Elder Dearing.

The second one is with President Jergensen. I almost forgot to get a picture with him because I know that you wanted one, so we were in a gas station and snagged the clerk to take a picture of us. President went out with us Tuesday night for some specialized training. We went to Sister F's house to cover some of the last commandments for baptism. President Jergensen is a talker so he started throwing questions at Sister F. He asked her how she came into contact with us, how she thinks about baptism and that sort of thing. He then asked her about when she knew it was true, since she had been taught by other missionaries in times past. This had been a question that we had never asked. We saw her countenance change and she was accepting and keeping commitments and felt that she knew, but we never had been so blunt as President Jergensen about the matter. I was a little nervous when the question was asked because Sister F is timid and a little shy about personal things and we didn't want to push that line. She answered the question referring to, I think, the second lesson that we had with her. She talked about what we covered and how it was taught. She talked about how she was totally open to learning this time without trying to find doubts. Learning for herself to find out and not for the sake of her husband or his family who are members. She shared a feeling that she had during the lesson, she said that it was an overwhelming feeling that told her "its ok, its ok". At that very point I knew that she was converted. She had felt the Spirit and it had changed her heart. I have never experienced a night like that before.
I LOVE YOU ALL. See you Sunday, -Elder Hale