Good Week Everyone,
This week is for Bryson and it is dedicated to him. I will be talking about in my letter today, a Temple Trip that took place on Tuesday, July 30th, 2013. Me and Elder Boynton got up at 5 o' clock and we had to drive to St. Cloud which is actually in the opposite direction of the Temple, and the church building on the same property where we would also have a Leadership Conference included with our Missionary Leadership Temple Session. Next, I will slightly refer to a Zone Conference that happened on Friday, August 2nd, 2013. Lastly, I will talk about our slower than normal week and the P-day which took place today. Included in my letter will be miscellaneous matters.
Leadership Conference was really good even though we were out of my area (My area is Princeton in case you haven't heard from me for 4 weeks.) We went to the St. Cloud (our Stake Center) and arrived at 6:20. Elder Boynton tracted all day with another Elder's companion and me and 2 District Leaders (Elder Grakowfski a red head who has never listened to music other than Disney or Church Hymns... in his life, and Elder Chappell who came out with me, (came out with me means that he came to Minnesota on September 26th, 2012). He is a good Elder, a little bit goofy. Then we drove to Oakdale and the Temple. We arrived at about 8:30 and went into the Temple. Our whole leadership was there, even Elder Gum (Elder Gum is a buff dude from my MTC District who knew Nathan Nuzman from Suncrest) was there and he is serving out of the Country in Thunder Bay, Canada. It was cool to all be there. We brought in folding chairs and the workers had to do the circle cause the six Coordinating Sisters who were in the Temple couldn't do it. It was my favorite Temple experience outside of the MTC. I think Temple MTC trips are so much better because the MTC stinks, so the Temple is just the best. Then we went to the Chapel in the Stake Center in Oakdale and had our Leadership Conference. I was able to see pretty much everyone from my MTC District except Elder Lawton. They are all District Leaders now. It was good to see people there and everyone is starting to get really young. It is weird. We brainstormed how we can baptize families and help keep up baptisms with the rate we are getting missionaries, we need to maintain the quality in consistency with the quantity of Missionaries because our quality is going downhill. It was a good meeting. Then before we left we were giving bikes to the other Elders and I brought other stuff for people- and we couldn't find the bikes! But they were just in a room we didn't check in the Church, someone brought all the bikes inside during the meeting. It was a quick scare. Then as me and the other 2 elders were getting ready to leave, one of the Missionaries I had talked to who served in Edin Prairie were talking to a lady. She asked about me and they said, well he is right there. She was Rita Pico who is Raylene Anderson's sister and I met her and she is really nice. I will mail you my memory cards and you can find the picture. She probably wants it because she asked if I would give it to Mom. That was good and on the way out Elder Chappel wanted Panda Express and Oakdale is right next to North Saint Paul so I knew where a Panda Express was. Right at the Maplewood mall. Come on now. So we went there and I saw some Mong people and they asked if i knew Mong. I said some random stuff I knew and they were impressed, wow! Then I said, "That's all I know". I miss Asian people. But check out this miracle there was a Cinnabon at the mall, right. I said to myself, I am getting a Cinnamon Roll before we leave. So we go over to Cinnabon on the way out and I take a sample and said out loud, mmmm. The Cinnabon worker said these boxes are 10$ today, to which I replied "That is just ridiculous!" Then a I looked around at the variation of boxes of Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls. Cinnie Minnies, and also normal sized Cinnamon Rolls. The nice lady in front of me said, "Get a box and I'll buy it"! So I did. She was an angel! I am adding her on Facebook in a year. She said pray for her though, so I have been praying for her. But what are the odds! I love Cinnabon Cinnamon rolls. It took us three hours to drive home at the end of a very good day. End of the Temple trip.
On Wednesday, the 31st the Sisters went to Bloomington and grabbed my bike. So now I have my bike and am putting the miles on it!
Oh Friday we had a Zone Conference. We had training by the Mission Presidency, very good training. President Clements did a training on an acronym RPM restorations, pick 3 up to Church, and Maps. We need to focus on return appointments and getting people to come to church, we teach the restoration like it's hot. Then Sister Clements trained on singing to our investigators and gave us all lyrics to the children's hymns. We got food there and pretend taught (role played) a lot. It was OK. I bore my testimony for the first time in one of those and just told everyone to repent and to change. We got free lunch and went home in the evening and taught an anti, home church, self proclaimed Pastor who tried to prove Mormonism is wrong. It was the worst, I told him we just invite others to pray and invite others to read. If you choose not to listen, it doesn't matter. Elder Boynton was arguing with him. We had a member there too, it was funny. But I have learned tons about the Bible I read the New Testament through and read good books in the Old Testament, a lot. I have learned a ton, it's sweet.
Today we got up early and shopped. Got ready and studied. Then took our laundry to Sister Juncker's who does it every Monday for us. Then we went to St. Cloud. We had pizza with our Zone and watched REMEMBER THE TITANS. It was epic. Afterward we played a 4 on 4 b-ball tourney. I was a captain and picked all the Foreigners! Here is a synopsis of my Basketball team. We had a super Japanese Elder Meguro who was my first exchange when we were both in the field 4 days. The Elder Leppanon in my District from Finland. Sister Topi from Albania. Elder Jacobson from the Country of Idaho. And Me. I didn't realize how bad they were, it was so funny! But we won the tournament. I even sat out 1/3 of the time. The Score-15 points in 2 games to 11! Call me a baller! So that was fun. Then we played 3 step basically FFA dodge ball for 2 hours.
I did get one package with garments, pants and books contained. I'll keep a lookout for more. No bag yet, I am down to shop for a suit when I go to the outlets in Elk River next Monday so the new Suit fits really well. Idk if my body is totally different or not. It might be hard to guess. I'll send some memory cards home. I like those pics. I'll send the Nepali photo card and my last 4 weeks of photos on the memory card!.
We have dinner tonight with the Juncker's and have a few appointments, it should be a good night. Ya, we taught only 5 times last week which is really low and had one new investigator. We are gonna go hard this week. Love ya all. Way better experiences this week than twins game that the city Missionaries got to go to... Not! Love ya!
Sincerely,
Elder Hall
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