May 24, 2010

This week has been a hard one. It's been a little frustrating with my companion and all of our investigators. We had 3 days that were booked with appointments back to back, and all but one of them would fall through each day. Mitch still hasn't been back to church. We called him the day before because we had an appointment, but he wasn't there, so we reminded him about church and he said he would be there, but he wasn't. We actually had 4 people lined up to come to church, but no one shows up. Its really crushing as a missionary. We met a woman last week, Angela, who we tracked into and gave her a great lesson on the porch. We were able to set up an appointment at the church for the stop smoking workshop we teach. Even with a SSW the spirit was there. We then taught her the plan of salvation on Wednesday for splits and then taught her the restoration on a church tour and extended the baptismal commitment. We set a date up with her for June 26th, and she said she would be at church, but she wasn't. I keep thinking that no one is progressing because of my teaching, but I'm inviting and that is what my purpose is as a missionary, so we'll just keep on trying.
This Saturday we will know if I'm getting transferred or staying another one here in Clinton. But I will not know until next Wednesday where I'm going . . . if I am leaving, that is.
I LOVE YOU ALL -Elder Hale
p.s. Are you feeding the missionaries in the ward?...often? just making sure.

May 17, 2010

Hey family,
Yeah, I got the shirts last Monday, they are the right size neck wise but they are the tall ones, so I tried one on and it looks like I put on a lab coat. They are a bit big so I'm going to send them back and write a letter if they could sent the same shirts but regular, not tall. Thanks mom. And I will be sure to get a picture with Elder Thurman. Did you get my package? I sent it last week so it should be there soon. There really are not many good pictures in it, I'm not good with that kind of stuff, but there are some that you could use for the blog.
Well, President Ericson has asked of all the missionaries to go through all of the former investigators we have in the area book and visit with them by the end of this transfer. He has also asked us to give a hard baptismal commitment to every sit down appointment we got to. This is all because of a big push we have to hit our goal of baptisms by July 1st before president leaves. We have a huge stack of formers we are going through and have been busy. We only have 2 more weeks left of this transfer so we are running around. We now have three people that have committed to baptism this week, Mitch, Justin and Kiara. Mitch and Justin are very solid commitments, but we are not sure how committed Kiara is. Mitch has been getting a lot of anti against joining our church from his other pastor. He has now lost a sponsor for his fighting because of it as well. But we were talking with him and he is so solid about the decision he has made, he even had a guy training in his gym and we walked into the gym to see how he was doing and this guy started yelling scriptures at us and giving us a hard time. Mitch stood up for us and kicked this guy out of his gym. There was also another fighter training that we don't even know that stood up for us, it was great. So this week was awesome, Donald got the priesthood last week and we passed the sacrament with him at church. Things are going good, here in "Clintonia".
I LOVE YOU ALL hope to hear from you -Elder Hale

May 10, 2010

Hey Family,
It was great hearing about everything going on. I felt bad I didn't even get to say Happy Mothers Day! But I'm glad every body is doing good. I'll get the package sent out asap for you. I was starting my study in Preach my Gospel this morning and was going to ask you if you would send me a picture of Lehi's dream, the new one, the one that was hanging in Melanie's room. I like that picture a lot. But as for things needed, I'm really doing good right now once I get the shirts. Ill check when I get home if they are there.
A couple more people have dropped us. Shana and Eduardo dropped us. They left their house and told their neighbor to tell us that they did not want us stopping by any more, weird. And Catherine and Eric have found a different church to go to and are not progressing so we have to drop them. Jordan and Aneda, we had a baptismal date lined up for them, but they moved and turned their phone off, so they are still lost sheep. We have been doing a lot of follow ups and a lot of new finding to open increase our teaching pool. Mitch did not come to church yesterday so we now need to reschedule his baptism date. Amanda has been canceling her appointments with us the last 3 weeks so we haven't been able to meet with her for a long time, but tomorrow we have a time set to meet her and have a member coming with us. We have been able to meet with a guy named Justin and he seems very open and sincere about the gospel. He actually has been reading and had many questions. The only thing is that he lives with his mom and she is becoming more and more hesitant about us.
Elder Thurman and I have been bonding really well and have adjusted our selves to each other's teaching nicely. He's a real knowledgeable guy and has been helping me learn things daily.
I forgot to tell you that yesterday.
I really am ok on just about every thing else. But a package of socks wouldn't hurt.
Thank you so much for all you do for me and I LOVE YOU ALL!
Hope to hear from you -Elder Hale

May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day!
Things are going good here in Iowa. I hope this card got to you before Mother's Day. I tried my best to get it out. It still haven't put together my package yet. I know you're waiting for it. In due time . . .

I just got back from Nauvoo. We had zone conference there and got to go to the temple. We also went to the brick place and got Nauvoo bricks. We also toured Carthage. I'll tell you about it on the phone. I can't wait to hear from the family. It should be Sunday evening, and I only have 45 minutes so I'll talk fast. Our area is doing good and Mitch is excited for his baptism. We have to teach him a few more things before he gets baptised. He really has had a change of heart and has prayed about what we teach him. Hope the girls and dad take care of you for Mother's day. I love you very much and can't wait to talk to you. I love you all!Elder Hale

And he was commanded to study! It's just me, every morning. This is my tracting face.

May 3, 2010

Hey Family,
Yea, on Sunday I'll probably let Elder Thurman use the phone first, so I'll probably call around 6 your time. I'm guessing all of this, they don't tell us any sort of information until the day before or the day of. But right after this e-mail, we're driving down to Davenport to have Zone p-day with everyone and then we are spending the night there too because tomorrow we are having Zone conference in Nauvoo. We're having a huge sha-bang because President is leaving so we get to go to Carthage, then Nauvoo and actually get to tour the place. Its going to be fun. I'm hoping to get me a Nauvoo brick and we get to go to the book store! I'm thinking about getting a old school Book of Mormon because I dont know if I'm going to be in the Iowa or Missouri mission, So I'm not sure if this is going to be the last time I'll get to see Nauvoo on the mission.
I haven't got the shirts yet, I think they might have been sent to the mission office in Peoria so if they are there I will have a chance to pick them up tomorrow. I'll let you know if I got them. Dad was asking about Quinten and Melissa. They are doing great, the Estes family has really become friends with them and plans all sorts of cool stuff with them. Quinten just got a job at a plastic company here in town, but he works third shift, so its hard to see them through out the week, weekends really work out for them. They have 3 girls I'm not sure on the names - one is Dakota, I'll try to remember the others. Mitch has really become our main focus though. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday, but he is still on track for baptism on May 21st, he's a stud.
This week we went on splits with the AP's and with the district leader, its been a sweet week. Elder Thurman and I have been getting along and have had more time to adjust to how we both teach. It really takes a few lessons to get used to how someone else teaches.
I'm really excited to talk to you guys this Sunday! I LOVE YOU ALL -Elder Hale

April 26, 2010

Yes I got the package from you guys with all the ice cream and food! It was awesome, I didn't know that you could do that. I had a great time with the dry ice too. (It was Brady's 100th day of his mission a couple weeks ago.)
I was going to write a letter and send a package off this week but I didn't have time to put it together. We had transfers this week so Wednesday we had to travel to Peoria, Illinois. I got a new companion, Elder Thurman. He's been out a year this week so he's more versed than Eldredge was. I keep getting companions from Utah though. Elder Thurman is from the Provo area. He's excited about the area with our big teaching pool, but we have already had to drop a few people. Laisha had dropped us. She didn't keep her last appointment and then we went into her work to go and set something up again, but she is just not interested. Is weird because we have really taught her everything all with a member present and I know she has felt the spirit, so it was a little disappointing. We had a appointment planned for Amanda yesterday in a member's home, but just like last time, she texts us 2 hours before the appointment and cancels. It seems like a lot of our investigators have lost the desire to learn. But Mitch is solid. We set up a baptism date for him on the 21st of May. He came to church yesterday and was telling every one about his baptism and he liked the meeting. He's planning to come next week and has gone cold turkey with chewing tobacco. So we are excited for him.
Thank you for the shirts, I haven't received them yet but I'll keep an eye out for them. On Mothers day, I don't know for sure but it sound like after 7 pm I will be calling so that's like after 5 pm your time, I think. We get to use our cell phone so that's why we have to wait till after 7 for the free minutes. Oh I wanted to ask you if you had any information on the genealogy I sent a little while ago? The one I got from a member the had some Hales in her family.
Anyways I LOVE YOU ALL -Elder Hale

April 19, 2010

Hi Family,
This last week was the last week of this transfer, so Saturday we got word from president that I would be staying here in Clinton and Elder Eldredge is going to be moving on somewhere else, he is also going on to be a zone leader. So Wednesday I will find out who exactly my next companion is going to be. I get to go to transfers, so this Wednesday I will be in Peoria Illinois. There is also going to be a new Elder coming into our district, besides the one I'm getting. Clinton is doing good though. Saturday Elder Eldredge and I were fed by another investigator. Their names are Quinton and Melissa. They have a little family with 3 young girls. So we invited Bro. Estes and his family to come with us to the BBQ. Bro. Estes has three small children and they were the exact same age as Quinton and Melissa's kids. So the fellowshipping begins. The BBQ went so good that we finally got them to come to church! We have been working for them to come to church for a month now. Needless to say that we are going over for another BBQ this Saturday. So we finally were able to get some new investigators to church. It was funny because the day before all this happened I got Dad's letter about getting members over to meet the investigators to help get them to church.
Mother I need some shirts. I've been putting this off because of transfers because I did not know where I would be going, but now that I'm staying here I would like to ask you if you could send me 5 white shirts, short sleeve, its a 16.5 collar, the wrinkle free ones if you can. Thank you.
I'm about ready to send the tape, well actually it's 2 tapes, they are real good. Thanks for the letters this week, I like to hear what you guys are up to. How is Michael doing? Roxanne, write me! Elder Eldredge is bummed that you didn't write him, but you still can, you just have to sent it to the mission office in Peoria, mom should have the address.
I LOVE YOU ALL hope to hear from you.
-Elder Hale