Turkey Week 11/25/13

Hey so first thing is first. I have a question straight  up for Season! I am going to send pictures of my Mission President and his wife. So as the Zone Leaders we are in charge of getting them presents, They are pretty well off and we wanted to be original butttt... I thought of a cool idea. My sister Season is really good at caricatures! Soooo... I was wondering if you Season would be able to draw caricatures of my Mission President and his wife:)))) It would be so awesome! Like big heads in a suit and stuff. That would be the best Christmas present for me! Because I am like working hard and serving and stuff. So I will send the pictures of their faces attached with this email. Send to 5931 96th st w. Bloomington, Mn for this is the Mission Home address and if my name is on it they will forward it. If you could put it in a big envelope or something like the bubble ones prob like 8x11 or bigger I am not sure the cardstock style paper, that would be sosososososososososo cool. Anyways:) Oh our Christmas Conference is December 5th! So if I could get it by then that would be soooo awesome.  Pre Dec 5th. 

          Well I am doing well. Me and Elder Alpert had 2 exchanges this week, 1 Monday night. I stayed in the area no gps or anything just bossed it up 4th day in the area. Taught a lady but she wasn't interested in further meeting and also set up an apointment and stuff. Then we taught a reactivating family. We are gonna make Temple vision boards of their faces and help them get to the Temple. The Rannings. Super funny couple. Gave Sister Ranning a blessing she had eye sight surgery. Me and Elder Alpert did a lot of finding. Including a young bf/gf from Kenya. A cambodian bf/gf combo who are like 35 but look 20. They are Buddhist currently but they like us alot. We taught a teenage girl who really like the restoration but was under. So it was good week. We worked with a Micronesian family. Islanders possibly Tongans, Sizumu Lowary, his 9 year old son wants to get baptized .. So they said they wanna start coming to church and get Baptized! We were super excited they came to Church. 

        So busy I wish I could remember everything. Hey dad I wrote in my journal  6 times this transfer check that out!! Things are going really well. Just going to lots of District meetings. accountabilities. Numbers night. Set Zone goals just so much stuff and then take on a full proselyting schedule. It seems to work out though cause we spend 1 hour of finding and get an investigator and teach a lesson. I kinda throw down. Elder Alpert is a way good teacher and a good finder as well.  Today we are helping some Sisters on the college campus. Me and Elder Alpert both served in Mankato on college campus and I went to Dinkytown sometimes. Well our Zone did pretty decent this week. We have lots of people getting Baptized. Two families. December will be a huge month. And we are gonna Baptize a person as well it will be so awesome! Well let me know of anything I missed. I am doing welll. Thanksgiving we might have 3 dinners. Our new Cambodian friends. PM the Matsons with recent convert Angelo (17)  who might go to outpatient. And one with  Sister Robinson. Oh ya church I went to church we have this Muslim investigator from Iran, I thought he would know Bahram, I guess I was stereotyping when I asked him that.

 Also we sent a message to our Zone from the Australian Sister in our Zone, It was Like Dingo Ate my Baby!  It was awesome. We sent it to the Zone and she is a little mad. 

Well love ya all so much!!!

-Elder Hall

President Jordan and Sister Clements

Love Burnsville and working hard. 11/18/13

 Man, 

       I am going to be so tired! We spent a lot of the first day planning out exchanges and events  like District meetings and stuff going on on a big map calendar. We also do a lot of calls our phone gets wrecked in a day the battery at least. We also do a lot of paperwork and goalsetting and working with Missionaries. Last night was number night we did training evaluations for all the trainers in the Zone and reported the numbers of key indicators and Baptism date sets. We were up til like exactly 10:30 then went to bed got up, didn't exercise, did more stuff, faxed all the paper work in. We didn't get to plan Sunday night either. Elder Alpert says we never do cause of all the stuff Sunday night. We did make a Zone goal to have 7 date sets going into December. That is pretty decent,  we have 9 right now and 4 get baptized in November.  Yep here in Burnseville. Headed down last Wednesday and even forgot 1 suit and stuff which Bro. Malinka non-member drove to the Mission home. President texted us and said 1/2 of Elder Hall's wardrobe is at the Mission office come and get it! We are right next to Bloomington which is nice. It has been a crazy week. A lot of Zone leader stuff. We have 12 zones in the mission. Ours is the 3rd biggest. So it is a lot of work. We have calls all the time and do a lot of Zl stuff. So when we go out we have to make it count. It is good though because my companion is good. Elder Alpert. From Moorpark California. He was excited when he heard that my Dad served there. I also told him about kraproom (Moorpark spelled backwards) but he already knew that. He is a good Missionary he is 1 transfer (6 weeks ahead of me) he was Elder Cluff's first trainer and also Companions with Elder Pinsent from Canada as well. My MTC companion. Last night and this morning he was cracking down on these people who wanted to go outta their area for lunch, so he was smacking it down. I think we will compliment each other good. I am not very good at that stuff. I have met everyone in the Zone, a bunch from Cali, two Elders from Kaysville. Talked about Cherry Hills, it was good. 

         

Burnseville. There is some good work going on here, we should have a Baptism or 2 in December. A partmember 11 year old girl. And maybe an ex muslim guy. So it is looking good. I am glad to be back in the city. Haven't learned the area too well yet cause of the Zl stuff, but it looks good. It is really nice! The nicest part of Minnesota I have seen. Oh a  guy in our ward Dave Dickson, he played for the Vikings for 12 years. He was on the O-line. He is huge. That was cool. Also this member almost rage quit the church he didn't get picked up to go to the Temple. Bro M he is like 69 and Melody his wife is a  investigator. But he was waiting for 3 hours in his Church clothes to get picked up to take his names to the Temple and didn't get a ride. He was understandably upset. But we had a lesson he was still mad but it was good for him. He ended up going to Stake Conference and receiving the Melchezidek Priesthood. Whoo. 

I went to the Lakeville Stake Conference as well, so I got two. We got to hit up the Adult session as well cause it was Missionary oriented. Just like St. Cloud. I went on an exchange Saturday in Farmington with a young Missionary. He was pretty intraverted. I think Missions are good for young kids like 18, but they come out pretty intraverted, or just not used to real life. That is the biggest difference I have noticed. They don't know what is coming as much as maybe they could. Burnseville Ward is awesome.  There is actually an ex missionary of the MMM Koti Palinetai who served in Princeton and Burnseville that lives in the Ward now. So we talk about Princeton. 

  I am doing well. I have a good companion. He is part Jewish/ Mexican. He is pretty funny!  He is good at the guitar  and kinda skinny. His dad is Jewish, He is workin hard. We are gonna work hard and do awesome things. We have a gym at our apartments. I am gonna get ripped. Just watch. I am loving it here. Hope it doesn't go by too fast. It is a 5 week transfer. I think me and Elder Alpert will be together for 2 transfers but idk. I am kinda overwhelmed with all the stuff we do I wouldn't be able to take over esp after 5 weeks. But pray for me i am trying really hard. Love ya!!

-Elder hall

Burnsville near Apple Valley, Here I come! 11/11/13

Transfers, I am going to Burnsville Minnesota.  I will write more about it in a second but it is right next to Applevalley and part of it might be in my area I will at least go there for sure. So send me al and patty's info!!


        It is going to be a weekend at Bernie's if ya know what I Mean! So i am getting transferred to Burnsville, Mn. Which is just barely below Minneapolis and under the Minnesota river. 15 minutes from downtown Minneapolis. I should be in this area about 6 months that's just a guess but that is what I think. I am going to be a Zone Leader. Weird. But it should be good. I hope I get to see Al and Patty, if you send me their information like number and address! that would be sweet. Any other Minnesota friends in Burnsville? Hit me up. It has 61,000 people in it. I am pretty excited. It should be like almost really urban suburbs. YAY, I have missed black people a lot. Elder Tubbs new companion is gonna be Elder Brown no clue. I think they are both young. They will do good. Gave him his posterity belt to hand down the generations. My new companion is Elder Alpert. He has been companions with 2 of mine. Pinsent and Cluff. We should get along well, he is pretty funny I guess. Our Zone seems pretty decent sized. I thought it would be smaller but while I am looking at it lets see, this Zone has 24 missionaries including us in the Zone. So it will be good. 

         It has been a great week! It is kinda sad we taught a bunch of new people. Had some awesome moments. Always hard to leave an area even in the stixx. I have learned so much about Ward structure here. The Ward is awesome. It was the best Sunday since I have been here. You could just feel the love of the Ward. I am gonna miss the Junckers a lot! They arent in our Ward anymore anyways. Special assignment to a Branch. A lot of changes always come with transfers but I have come to learn that change is good, even necessary or it would defy the Atonement of Christ. We are here to change. 

 

           We had 4 investigators come to Church. That was pretty sweet. Debi, Joe and Rinehart, and last but definately not least, Gilbert. Gilbert is the Bomb. He was on drugs for most of his life. He is late 50s. Looking for change in his life. So this is how we tracted into him. (edit for the kids) (Mom is editing now) Taught him and his girlfriend the restoration. We said hey we can get you a shirt for church if you want cause he said he would come. He was like- not my thing. We were like whatever. We got him a ride to church and picked him up with a member he had jeans and a tank top on, the tank top read" bad a**", from that point I was excited. He was super nervous cause everyone was in suits and stuff and was like guys you should have told me. But a lot of people talked to him and when he got to the chapel he kind of calmed down and felt the spirit. But he talked to me literally all sacrament. I was teaching him about our church and stuff but he talked a lot. He said he wanted change in his life cause he has messed up big. The only time he didn't talk to me was when i bore my testimony cause it was my last Sunday there. I kinda knew.  But He said he recognized the Bishop whom he had never met before. It was kinda crazy.  He has a tentative Baptism date for Dec 28th.  In gospel principles he was getting heat flashes cause he has hepatitus c. It was awesome. It is crazy how I have learned to love everyone. Elder Tubbs is gonna have a awesome time teaching him.  We are going tonight bringing him suits, pants, ties, and shirts, and we are gonna teach him. Last night at 1am he sent a hilarious text, it was really heartfelt and said I love and respect you guys for helping me change my life. That is the watered watered watered down version.  But he is awesome. I love Gilbert ,hahah. 

             So transfers are wednesday, Sister hatch (in princeton ward) has a 32 year old companion. Guy from finland staying. And Burnside newish elder in buffalo is staying and is the new Dl.  Things are going well. Whooo! Burnsville. love you guys.  --Elder Hall. write me. 

Worked on a Farm Grandpa 11/14/13

Hey Everyone!

           It has been a good week. Mission tour is tomorow. Elder Godoy is coming of the Quorum of the 70. That will be a good Conference. My last mission Tour:(. This week we had Zone Training and Interviews. It was the last week of the month so we did bike a lot. Maybe 20 miles 1 day, it was pretty rainy too. Our Ward had a special Halloween trunk-or-treat activity, and Halloween itself. Also we got to go to a play and work on a farm. Stay tuned for the details!

         Interviews were great, I had a really good interview with President and got to talk with him it helped me out a lot. I have been worried about a few things lately. Just wanting success to happen and a lot more going on. He gave some good advice. That was good, it was in St. Cloud. Nothing special some planning and quality teaching trainings, President taught about the doctrine of the trinity being false. 

           Trunk-or-treat was good. We passed out some candy and I interviewed  the Sisters investigator for Baptism. and that made things interesting. I missed the rest of the party. I don't care but it was long. It was the first time, I didn't pass anyone but I didn't feel too strongly about some things, but I didn't know how an investigator could bounce back from something like that. I talked to the Mission President and he reaffirmed things. Gave some advice. He didn't like that he couldn't get baptized. It was the worst members and the Bishop got involved and members were giving me advice, blah it was dumb. I was really worried that the investigator would just hate it and quit. But he got interviewed again by a member of the Mission Presidency and passed. They talked and the 2nd counselor felt he was ready. It was just a really stressful weekend.  But it's over and I am bouncin in a week! 

              Halloween went out teaching! Normal night. Passed out some candy before our member picked us up to take us teaching. Gave double for anyone who could guess my Nepali name tag. Went to Debbie's and played LDS jeopardy. So that was my Halloween. That was pretty much it. It wasn't very bumping in Princeton on Halloween. Sad. I miss doughnuts and hot chocolate. Well not literally those would kill me. Speaking of which I think I maybe lost a couple of pounds. I was a little healthier.  

            At interviews I got permission to go to a play that was about pie baking it was a comedy , a members non member daughter was in it. So that was fun. Don't get to see plays often.  A member just told us to try teaching her husband!  We will get on that. He comes to church already. So we will see. I need to be more bold! Ah missionary stuff. The play was fun and funny. Some people had their lines memorized some people didn't, some people forgot, it was really funny. The play was at a Church, in Bock Minnesota- population 115. Funny stuff. 

             We worked on a farm. Shoveled poop out of a barn. Caught some geese. Built a fence and did some stuff, the Sisters helped out too. We went to the adult session of Stake Conference. Very missionary themed. Got back WAY late.... Stake Conference yesterday and it was at a college auditorium! Crazy. It was cool. Thats my week. Love ya hit me up. 

-eldehallamander

Halloween and Never Judge10/28/13

       Hello everyone. It has been a little of a chilly week, my Comp still has no coat but he will live.  Part of that agency. Just kidding we will get him one this week. So had the last District meeting of the transfer on Tuesday. That went well. Getting ready to pack up and go in about 2 weeks so get ready for that!!!! Don't go anywhere, stay tuned. I say Minneapolis but idk. I like it though, I know a lot of the people in the Ward. Oh this week we did 15 hours of service. Blitzed with the Sisters and Elk Rivers areas as well. It was pretty nuts. Our area got shafted but ya gotta do what ya gotta do ya know? I interviewed Elk Rivers investigator for Baptism. She was way cool, a 39 year old lady who looked like 20. She said she had a 16 year old child, I was like whoah. Her name is sister iiashfhasjkfhasjkfhkjsd  so wanna know something funny?

                                     Well I will tell ya we actually we aren't supposed to tell you the names of the people we are working with:)   I figured out President told us to say like for Sister Pinckey please tell our family Sister P. But, I have never done that why start now.

                                       Sister Tessa H. . . (763)489-1439 jk that number is fake. But that is her name. She wants to get baptized on the 2nd. This week it will be cool. 

                                        The Sisters in our ward have a guy named Charlie. . . who wants to get baptized. He is awesome he looks like Santa. He is set for the 9th!  I interview him this week. We went to the Elders Quorum activty with him. He was hucking full court bball shots and played this bean bag game and having a blast. Hook, line, and sinker. 

                                         We are working with Rienhart . . .who said the 16th of November works for him. He is married to a member. We will see. 

                                           Joe . . . is in the hospital, COPD. I don't know what that is but he can't breathe good. Debi played piano at church, she made some mistakes and she is super hard on herself. Her calling is stressing her out more than she feels like she is serving others. Other people to talk about to be continued when they come to church or something. Our mission had an all time high of 252 to church. That is pretty cool. Halloween this week. What is everyone's costumes?? There is a trunk-or-treat activity at the Church on Wednesday that will be fun. We will proselyte on Halloween. We have members coming out with us! 65 ish though. Plus if you live in the country no one trick or treats out there.  We have a Zone Training and interviews on Wednesday in St. Cloud. Stake Conference this weekend. We are going to all sessions. Should be good. Hopefully really Missionary oriented.

                        We went to the Sisters area to work on Thursday. Sister Hatch had the flu all week. We also went to Elk River Friday-Saturday. Me and Elder Sieler ended up stopping by a potential of prior missionaries and talked to a guy named Rob. He was skinny shirtless and had tons of tattoos. He said he had about 30 Bibles. I think he was 30. His dad died a month ago and it has been rough. Today he is off of parole/probation/everything. He has been in and out of jail for 10 months. He was really open, genuine and appreciative. It was cool to be there and taught me to never judge anyone. Sister J. . . was telling us about her son who is in our Bishopric now. He is around 35 I think. We were talking about him. I guess i went to ricks college went off the deep end out there. Got into drugs and they didn't see him for about 2 1/2 years. Then his friends mom called them and said if you ever wanna see your son come and get him now. So Brother J . . . flew down. Picked him up he was high didn't know what was going on and took him to Minnesota. Brought him back when he sobered up he was mad. He stayed there for a while and went to school. Then he was gone 1 day for another 4 months. He would show up randomly.  There car got a busted tire so they took one of a car on the street and got caught. They went to jail, and the parents sent them fair to come home and stuff on a bus. SO they did. So lots of stuff happened. He met his now wife. She straightened him out. She converted. He has a succesful siding company and is in our Bishopric. He is awesome. Playing him in horse sometime. But she said that during that time her home teacher said that all that wouldnt have happened if they did their family scripture study and prayer. They have been on a senior Mission. She was a Seminary teacher. They are driving 120 miles to Church every Sunday on assignment from the Stake to a Branch. They are obviously active. So you should never judge, people will change! The bishopric guy is their only active child out of 3. so you never know. 

                    Anyways, Isn't Season going to have a child soon. In like a week right. Well let me know if that story developes. I am excited to have 2 nephews. I will be the first to know I bet! cause everyone always tells me secrets now that I am on a mission. 

                Well tell me about all of your Halloween holiday and how it goes and what you are up to!  Love ya HALLEROONSKIS! 

 -Elder hall

20 ways to work with members! Snowing, learned to Juggel behind my back. 10/21/13

Hi everyone,

       It started snowing yesterday so it is a little colder and it is snowing right now. So I have asked Elder Tubbs if he has a coat ever since he has been here and he has this thing that is like a windbreaker style no hoody. Ha and no gloves. He thought he was gonna be fine with that stuff. So we are gonna find some sweet stuff at thrift places. Ha but he just pulls it out and wears it it is pretty funny. I was like dude you gotta get something warm. Cause there is no places to shop in our area so he might be in trouble. It isn't that cold but we don't run the heater in our apartment. At least yet and he gets cold when it is 67. So he is done for this winter. But last winter was pretty long so I think I am used to it. Things are going well. Debi wasn't able to completely quit but she is doing wayyy awesome!!!!! We set a date with Rinehart  for the 16th of November. So hopefully he nails that. We have some Baptismal interviews in the District this week so that will be pretty cool.

       We had the Zone Leaders blitz our area this week so we had a relatively successful week as far as stuff we did. Found a lot of people. Taught a lot of restorations this week. We are really focusing on working with the members. Our Bishop was like you guys need to be finding through the members, spend your time with the members. We don't need to do it that much, but it is important. That is what I talked about this week at District meeting. So we made 20 ways to work with members. I challenged all the Ward to horse! Ha. We showed it in Ward council. Bishop Izzo emailed President about us just going out members alot basically and he said President didn't necessarily love the idea. He said we as the Missionaries still need to find. I think that's cause like 42% of our Baptisms right now are coming from Missionary finding. We do a lot of it. We teach people everywhere. Our mission is pretty good at that just talking to people and teaching them right there. We got some good stuff set up this week. Me and Elder Matteson (zone leader) found a lady named Jerica who is really interested in religion and she almost came to church. We are meeting with her again on Wednesday and bringing a really cool lady from the Ward with us.

         So things are going really positive. Just in time for me to get going:( But I love the cities! Pray hard. We have some Halloween activities going on soon that we can capatilize on and a burgers and brothers thing on Saturday.

         This week I learned how to juggle behind my back. It is pretty sweet. I can do it 9 times in a row and I am working on more! So that is pretty cool. Just staying really busy. Do you know what they call a nose with no body. -Nobody knows. This guy just told that to my companion. He is super goofy he tells us random jokes when we go to the library. Ha one time in the Temple in the wating room this Temple (provo)  guy told us a joke... it was crazy. So I have since learned who J. Golden is. He was a General Authority who was notorious for swearing. In fact he hated the people of St. George. And I guess Spencer W. Kimball is notorious for a slogan- Do It! or something. Idk . But the joke was what do you get when you cross J. Golden and Spencer w. Kimball. I was like idk what. He said "Do it Damn it!" it was pretty funny. There are lots of J Golden jokes. Edit that mom! just kidding don't, i think its funny. But I am doing good. Oh we lost our phone last night but then we found it. It almost made numbers night pretty interesting. Today we are gonna play some volleyball in 30 minutes with some less actives at the church. It should be fun! we had district pday last week and we all made Tie Dye Shirts. It is gonna get cold but i have a few more long John G's so i think I am good. Any creative idea's for halloween missionary work? But I am doing good. Always busy ! I am really starting to like this ward a lot. They are cool. but the churhc is everywhere! That is a cool thing about stateside missions. You get to see a lot of leadership and mentors to help you out. Like our bishop, high priest leader, His son 2nd counselor of the bishopric, ward mission leader, and lots of people are all just awesome! I am doing well. Have a happy october. I hear wany is going to a kegger party on halloween. Might want tostop that. drugs and stuff. 

 

-Love Elder Hall