August 16, 2010

Hi Family,
We had some ups and downs this week. We have an investigator, L, that had committed to baptism a number of weeks ago that has not been coming to church, this last Sunday was a make it or break it to stay on track for baptism. We reminded her of her commitment the night before at her appointment, but she did not come to church. We were pretty bummed but on the other hand we had a different investigator, LB, show up to church. He came with his daughter, who is 11, and stayed the whole time. He and his daughter loved it. They are planning on coming to stake conference this Sunday so he can hear Elder Wilson and I sing in the choir. We also had a lesson with him Sunday afternoon and watched, Joseph Smith prophet of the restoration DVD, you know the new one that the church put out. He loved it and felt the spirit there in his home. We committed him to baptism on the 28th of this month, and he was excited about it. Its going to be great, in order to fully prepare him we'll be at his home twice a week teaching. We have only 2 weeks left but we felt we needed to commit him then. He truly is a humbled man who was prepared by the Lord. Our recent convert, D, is doing much better. We have met with him a couple of times and took him to 2 teaching appointments. Last week he wasn't feeling accepted at church any more so we have been visiting him often. We just found out that on September 22 we will be hearing from Elder W. Craig Zwick, of the Seventy. That's always sweeeet to hear from one of the brethren. Elder Wilson and I are pushing the work here very well together. We have our differences at times, but there must be opposition in all things or we wouldn't know how great we really have it.
I sent a package home this week, and I hope you got it. It had a ton of pictures for you mother and a couple of tapes too. And I also received a package from Grandma, she truly knows what missionaries need.
I LOVE YOU ALL -Elder Hale

August 9, 2010

Hey Family,
This week has been a little bit different. For 3 days, I was in Des Moines for a training meeting. It was all the Zone leaders, District leaders, trainers and of course the AP's. It was awesome, the church has changed some of the ways we learn out of PMG. Its called "Simplified curriculum" It is absolutely great. The way we use PMG has now been more concentrated in certain principles along with these PMG dvds, which are video clips of real life teaching situations. It was awesome how much more we can do to bring the spirit into our teaching. And I just love President Jergensen, he's like every body's grandpa. He's always giving hugs to everybody and just so lovable. I got a lot of things answered in training that I had questions about the past couple of weeks. You can't believe how much the PMG video clips really helped me and I can't wait to get those into district meeting and with training Elder Wilson.
We have a baptismal date with our most solid investigator, Lakina (I thought it was spelled Lakeena but I was wrong). She loves us so very much and we are teaching her 2-3 days a week. After this training meeting I committed her to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover and to my surprise she has been reading every day. The only thing is that we cannot get her to come to church. She commits Saturday night and we call her in the morning and even went over and knocked on her door, but she has not come yet. She has her agency, and I don't want to take that away, but it is so hard to see some one prolong their baptism just because they won't wake up in the morning. Our most recent convert, Donald is having some problems. We just found out yesterday that he doesn't feel accepted any more at church. This week we are going to change that, with a dinner appointment and also a branch party that is on Friday. It's just great to be a Mormon, there is always something to be doing.
I did not get the package sent, but TODAY I will send it off, I wasn't done getting it ready last week and I ran out of time to get over to the post office. AND Roxanne I wrote a letter to you last week but did not have time to sent it on Monday. You will be getting it this week to your new address. I LOVE YOU ALL and thank you mother for the package, I loved it. -Elder Hale

August 2, 2010

Hey Family,
How have you been for the last 4 days? Being here in Clinton is definitely awesome. Some of the other missionaries tell me that I need to leave this place, so I can see the mission and know what it's really like. But I know everyone in the branch and many, many people around town. We just got our hair cut right before writing this, and 2 people I knew walked in and we got talking and tried to set up an appointment with one of them, but got his number instead. It's weird, even on the river walk where we contact people I run into people that I know so much. The last week or so we have met people on the street and a few days later tracted into their home. Its getting smaller and smaller here every week. But staying here this long isn't an uncommon thing, for a greeny it is, but I have heard of an elder that stayed in an area for 13 months! It will be hard to leave the branch and the town though, I was thinking about it when we were waiting for transfer calls, I was worried I would have to leave, but luckily not for now. Things are progressing though, we taught Lakeena a lesson with President Nickles the other night. It was a learning opportunity for everyone. We were on the porch teaching and the guy next door started mowing his lawn while we were trying to read Enos 1:1-12 about prayer. President and I almost started laughing as we were yelling the story of Enos over a riding lawn mower. No worries, the spirit came back once he was done with his yard work. she is so close to baptism, Tuesday night we will commit her, keep her in your prayers. I LOVE YOU ALL -Elder Hale (I should send off a package today so keep an eye out for it)

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