Happy General Conference Weekend 4/7/2014

Hey ya'll. It is good to hear from u's guys. My weekend been good. Watched our Prophets talk bout all the good topics. Def good to hear the word of the Lord. We blessed! 

      Hahah what if I talked like that. 

General Conference weekend was good. We had 10 people committed to come to church. Five of them bailed on General Conference.  Ha one of the guys bailed on us for the second time I am gonna throw down on him when I see him. Our Mission President says it takes 6 committed people to get 3 to Church. 3 being what he wants everyone to aim for every week. We definitely saw that math this weekend. Also Sunday morning we had 2 investigators and their kids come to that session. There kids aren't used to church and are kind of nuts. Jonathon a 10 year old makes us call him Brother William Shatner. He is pretty hilarious. He got out and started shoveling all the snow in the parking lot.  It was a crazy session I was literally playing with kids the whole time and didn't watch any of the morning session. From passing balls, to drawing, to passing out candy and toys. Chasing kids around the church. It was 2 hours of that. 

       
My favorite session was we actually went to a part members to watch it. It was a member his wife and their baby. That was the most peaceful one. They also had a hard time going to church so we made sure to watch it with them. Needless to say my notes for this conference weren't the best! Although my favorite talk was Dallin H Oaks in the priesthood session speaking on the priesthood and women and stuff. I thought that was cool and I learned that creation and Resurrection are priesthood keys. #deep doctrine. So the part members were the Watson family, his little brother went teaching with us a bunch in Princeton and now is on a mission. I told them of our family tradition but forgot to by stuff. I ended up making crepes rather than traditional German Apple Pancakes. Man if I had a lot of time on my mission I would make so much stuff. I think I had a pretty good idea of how to make food before my mission, but i didn't do it too much. I can make a lot of stuff. I have only had 1 companion who could cook anything. I think on my mission I have been forced to try cooking. I throw down a sweet fried rice and orange chicken, curry anything, crepes!  They are super easy to make I had never tried cooking, but I just started throwing down some sugar eggs and flower and bam crepes just like that. Threw some cinnamon sugar and ice cream on it. Game over. I cook lots of stuff with chicken. Call me chef boyardee. But I am glad that I get to try making a bunch of stuff! I could probably cater the wedding. What do you say Colby?  Speaking of which- that's comin hot. Really weird haha. Well your next son won't be married for like 6 years! So don't get used to it. 

     

At interviews I talked to President Clements and he said he can't do anything about an extension the new mission president would have to. He also told me to go home and go to school. Anyways it was my last interview with President Clements and it made me sad. I hope to keep in contact with him he has helped me a lot. I told him I needed this mission more than any other mission in the world. Especially for obedience. Which I still am not the best but I have grown a lot as far as obedience.  That will help me forever. Honestly I have never heard of a mission that requires so much obedience as ours. Little rules like music rules or we can't even sing any song that isn't approved, is a rule and is in the mission culture. But it is awesome what greater a time to develop spiritual knowledge and wisdom in your mission as well as obedience the first law of heaven.  President Clements told me i have come a long way but still have a lot more capability in myself that he expressively said I can not see yet. He is the man. I love him. Anyways we had a great week taught many people and I am grateful to serve at this time, I tell people jokingly man if I went at 18 I would be home about two years ago. I know I was needed at this time for myself in the very least. 

Wahan

Gonna make it! 3/31/2014

Hey everyone!  I am still on a mission. Just so you know. I know you are worried if I am gonna make it or not. Just kidding. 

Well this week has been good. A few district meetings and exchanges. I got to go on an exchange with Elder Lawton my ex comp and he was in my mtc district so I have known him for forever. We get along really well. On our exchange we were both sick and on bikes. We taught a new guy, saw a lady that moved from the North Saint Paul Ward that me and Elder Lawton taught but she didn't remember him- just me. Even though it was his area haha. We also taught a family that Elder Lawton is working with who are getting baptized. The Gonzales family They were pretty cool. A family with like 6/7 kids it will have a huge impact on their family. That will be cool. They are solid so I just got a feel for them and it was awesome to see their conversion. The Dad is pretty funny and cracks jokes all the time. He actually has the same heart condition that Taylor has. 

      

 Well we taught a bunch of new people this week. Meaning we did a ton of finding. We found 7 new people to work with and so hopefully one of those people will progress. That's one of the coolest things that I have developed on my mission is the ability to talk to anyone, in any situation. I know before my Mission I wasn't weird or antisocial but I wouldn't normally talk to people I didn't know unless I had to. In fact a lot of times I used to avoid confrontation if I could. I still am kind of like that, but if it is for missionary work no way. So I am grateful that I have been able to grow a lot in that area, just talking with people and being their friend right off the bat. If you treat someone like your friend when you talk to them then they will be friendly when they talk to you. That is probably my biggest strength. 

       

I am also definitely my own mold which could be my downside my Mission President, knows I try but I still sometimes crazy. I am not the missionary who like is crying when he types his testimony to his family or anything so I think I still have a while to go on my conversion. I will work hard and do my best to be obedient, but honestly my mission hasn't stiffened me up too much. I don't know if that is good or not good yet. 

         

Elder Mumford, I guess he is Cameron Mumford now, wrote me and said as he has talked to a lot of Rm's they all say they wish they would have loosened up a little bit more on their missions, I think with the attitude of having fun and being obedient and working hard is how you can make the mission the best 2 years of your life. Honestly it is the only time you serve God in this capacity. Many missionaries say it is the best 2 years for your life not of your life. Well i think they are looking at it wrong. Have some fun! So I just wanted to let you know I am sorry I am not going to come back like really, nazi-ish about stuff, but i know its also OK. So moral of the story is don't be loose! I think a lot of missionaries forget about life and forget how to be people. 

Things are going well with Sister Matson she may be really close to baptism. Cross your fingers. I am excited for General Conference. I am not going to make German apple pancakes because last time i botched them. I might make cinnamon rolls or something but I forgot to get some ingredients from the store i just remembered. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Gosh dangit bobby.  I am not sure what everyone is doing for it. Man this stinks my last Conference and in a month my last phone call. If I can extend, I will, I have around 6 months left though. I will ask the Pres on Thursday for an extension!  

An outline of next week starting with today p-day. Tuesday Leadership meeting. Wednesday normal day.   Thursday interviews and exchanges with some missionaries.  Friday-nothing yet and Sunday is General Conference. It should be a fun week and inspirational.

I am doing well glad to hear from all of you hey what is the date Colby is getting married and what Temple?

-Elder Hall

March Madness with Elder Wilson #leadingthemish 3/24/2014

  Hey I have been trying to eat healthy. I am down to 185! I also got sick this weekend so that helped. It was kinda lame. I think just a cold with a headache or something. We blitzed an area that only tracts all day on Saturday so I was out in the cold all day.

     
My new comp is  Elder Wilson he is 6"6 from Rexburg. He plays b-ball. He is really nice he is pretty new he has been out 9 months. I am kind of an old timer out here. Our week was ok, just did a lot of finding. Gonna work hard to get Elder Wilson a baptism this transfer. Transfers was cool said bye to young Caskey. It was moved back 2 hours because of snow. March is looking huge in the Mission and everyone is stinking for April. Our Zone has a good April set up. #Leadingthemish! Very Nice.  Elder Wilson is just barely 19 it is weird to think that I am 22 soon. Three years of an age gap is nuts. If I trained an 18 year old missionary at the end 3 months of my mission I would be 4 years older! That is weird, there is almost a generational difference. It is funny I thought there would be a lot of Missionaries who were like me and my friends, but mostly a lot of missionaries are prepared and really Mormon. I think on my Mission I have learned to be more Mormon too.

Found a family in our building who we taught from Kenya. Elder Wilson lifted a table up to their balcony while they were moving some stuff in and they loved us so we taught them the restoration that night. I am pretty busy. No time for pranks even.

The first 2-3 weeks of taking over the zone and the area are really busy. Plus I gotta figure out how to baptize! Man tough job. I love it though it helps me stretch a ton. I hope  I am not leader kid too much longer though. One more or two more transfers of being ZL  I could handle but I could get burned out after that. Going DL would be sweet!  Or normal missionary and train. That would be legit. I never realized how much I could do in an area until I was a Zone leader.  I should have done a lot more before this. There are 5 baptisms in the Zone this Saturday and hopefully we will attend one close in our building with some Gators! Our Zone is pretty much the same which is awesome cause they are pretty boss. They work hard and are making miracles happen. Got some good exchanges planned and stuff.

I received an email from Chris and all my friends, I hope this scares you all. I will probably be like this when i get back! https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=c1b6a0f2d0&view=att&th=144f4c47dbb13aec&attid=0.1&disp=safe&zw

Tlund is my fav. This computer is not working very well.

Happy March soon to be April. Have fun in Vietnam Dad and have fun planning wedding stuff for Colby and Shannon. March madness. Duke get outta here. Cya soon. Love yous guys.  

#Free Willy and the Fresh Prince of Burnsville signing out

Staying in Burnsville, Pres. C is back, Franson and Gilo are baptized. 3/17/2014

       I am staying in Burnsville! I am training another Zone leader. Elder Wilson from Rexburg I guess he is 6"5 and a baller. It should be good. A lot of the Zl's got split! I am Like one of the veteran ZL's and I haven't been here that long it is weird. I am excited for the things going on. There are 14 people with a baptism date in our Zone so I am excited!! Our Zone is bossin it uppppppppppppppppp! I am pretty excited for the change. Our Zone is mostly the same Missionaries. It should be good. 

           

We had Franson (9) Hadley's baptism and Gilo Talian's baptism as well this last Saturday.  Two days ago. Elder Caskey baptized Gilo and Franson's uncle baptized him. I confirmed both of them with the gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. It was pretty funny. Franson's Dad pranked me when I called him Sunday morning and asked if he was coming, he pranked me and said he was in Wisconsin. Sizumu. He also gave his son a diaper to change into after the baptism. He is always joking with us. 

             

President and Sister Clements are back and I was really excited to see them. They came back Saturday and I saw them on Sunday, that was really fun! At Presidents fireside. They are awesome I have really missed them. President Ehlert is a really successful guy but I am way more used to President Clements and so that was good to see him again! 

A few miracles in the Zone are happening and we should have 5 more baptisms this month which is terrific! A lot of dates are popping up as well. I want to go out and find this week and get another date set!!!!!!!!! Wahoooooooo. Missionary work is the best. Last night at the fireside I saw a bunch of people that meant a lot to me at the Mission Presidents fireside. A man I helped reactivate in North St. Paul. Also some Karen investigators that I talked to a lot. One is getting baptized on Saturday, hopefully I can go! Those firesides are awesome. Hopefully I can have a big impact in Burnsville as well. Also this week I went on an exchange with Elder Alpert. He is the assistant now. He gave me the low down on a lot of things. Transfers and stuff. We stayed up until 1am talking but it was worth it. Elder Burt is not the assistant any more. It is a missionary from the Hmong district that I served around. Elder Moss he is a great guy. He was way nervous. I am a lot less nervous this time to train a new ZL. Things should go well. We are teaching with a lot of teams tonight so it should be good. 

                  

Elder Caskey is going to Maple Grove to be a district leader and help a young missionary out. I think he will do good in that position. He has great intentions and I think that is where exactly where he fits. There are tons of new Zls most Zls are being trained in. Crazy. 

Man Abang said she loved us! And gave us  these hand made African gifts! Made out of grass and sticks. They are little baskets. I am excited for this next transfer and to continue to work in the LAKEVILLE ZONE!!! Wahan. It has been a good week honestly and I love being a missionary. Pray for me so that I can help Elder Wilson become effective. I could have done a little better teaching Elder Caskey. I didn't really teach him too much, I think cause we are just way different learners, I just watch things and pick them up, that's kind of what I did my first transfer as a new Zone Leader. Things are gonna blow up here, I am way excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Love you all. Happy Saint Patricks day.

-Elder HAll

Baptism of Gilo and Francen 3/10/2014

   Man the weather has really shaped up it is so sweet. 54 degrees today. I am loving it. It has been 0 degrees all february. It is one of the worst winters in the last few years, it is crazy. Too bad Abang couldn't have been out walking in this stuff. She is doing well. We brought some dinners over. I made some curry cause that is what she is used to, kind of.  She liked it a lot. Her 23 year old son had some and thought his Mom made it.  So it is pretty legit.  We have a member taking her to her doctors appointments and changing her bandages every night. She is supposed to change it every night so it doesnt get infected. The member said it is Looking really good. Things are going great thanks for the support.

           

Gilo and Francen are getting baptized on Saturday. Finally! We are looking forward to that. We found a cool new Jehovah Witness investigator as well. We have a investigator she is a single mom and her kids have adhd. Her name is Christina. I thought she was gonna call a member to get a ride to Church this last week but we mixed it up. We met Angela her friend at her house one day and taught her twice this last week . She misses having that spiritual side in her life because she was an active JW until she was 17 and she got disfellowshipped so she doesn't like that church anymore. She is cool. We went to her house and it was way more peaceful. She is cool hopefully she pans out. Just trying to work hard and get people to the baptism. Elder Caskey is baptizing her. She picked him cause he looks like Justin Bieber. Thats pretty sweet. I am conferring the Holy Ghost. It is a double baptism so there should be a lot of people attending their service. We are working with the kids on bearing their testimonies at the baptism. Lots of missionaries are bringing investigators.

     

Happy birthday bryson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! don't have too much fun. 

Things are going really well. I love you all. I know that the gospel blesses lives. I am so grateful to share it with others. I am grateful for 54 degree weather. I saw some grass yesterday. It looks very nice. Love ya a ton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Elder Hall

Abangs frozen hands:( 3/3/2014

Man so nothing else in my week matters but I feel so bad. We had a great week led the Zone with all of the key indicators in almost everything. Our Zone is doing the best and should have the most baptisms out of the twelve Zones in the Mission this month. Things are going great. But none of that matters!

Why, Saturday we went to go teach our date set named Gilo. We told her mom we would come at three o'clock. We went by with a member who only spoke Spanish. It gets pretty rough when I am the translator, haha. But the mom wasn't at home. They said she went to the bank. But it closed at three. She doesn't have a car and she is from Ethiopia and doesn't speak English very well. She went to a bank that was maybe 2 miles away. She got a ride there and took the bus back. But we went home we got a call during dinner from Gilo she worried saying, my mom isn't coming to church she hurt her hands. I assumed from the cold and just thought that she had walked from the bank. I thought it was a minor case of frostbite. We told them on the phone to put it in lukewarm water.

Then we went to the appointments we had. On Sunday morning we were going to stop by some people and we got a call from the friend of the family also Ethiopian, Ariat. She was with Abang (Gilos mom) at the ER. She said I just wanted to let you know. So we found out what hospital it was and went right there. We went to the ER room I was wearing my Leadville jacket and the doctor was a biker and asked me about when I did the Leadville 100. But as he was saying that he was taking all the skin off of her left 2 fingers. It was way worse than I thought. I feel so bad cause we should have gone over Saturday night right after it happened. I guess she took a bus the wrong way and got confused and started walking home 5 + miles with no gloves. I feel so bad for Abang. Like I just feel sick. 

We arranged the rides for the children to attend Church yesterday for the 10 year old daughter of Abang-Gilo, a 6 year old, and their 11 year old friend and a 1 1/2 year old baby. I sat by them in Sacrament meeting. We aren't supposed to hold babies but, whatever.  Elder Caskey was in another part of the chapel with a 10 year old Adhd kid who came to church with his mom for the first time. Langi is the baby, He was going nuts. Screaming sometimes, coloring on hymn books,  I could calm him down for like 10 minutes with our phone or this step counter we got. They gave all the missionaries a step counter cause 9,000 plus steps a day is what we need to stay healthy. Prob cause a lot of missionaries in our mission get depressed. Then Langi went to nursery but soon started balling, an awesome Sister in our Ward just walked with him around Church, and had another baby, and the 10 year old Adhd kid. By the way he refers to himself as William Shatner. Since we told him he was a child of God he told people, "Hi, I am William Shatner. You can call me Brother Shatner". 

That sweet lady Sister Wallace offered to help out the family as well. We had a few appointments last night but stopped by Abang's today to see how she was doing and we brought some food. She looks so bad! Her hands are bandaged but we went over there and we knew she was supposed to have an appointment with the burn unit to see what they need to do. Possible Skin grafts? That is tomorrow at 11 but she didn't have a ride so we are having Sister Wallace take her. We also found out she did not get her prescription. I asked her what pain level she was at she said a 10. They gave her a shot at the hospital and when she got her finger scraped off she said Her pain was at a 5. But she didn't have a car so she couldn't get her medicine. So we went to Wallmart and got her prescription this morning. It is just the worst. Please family keep her in your prayers. This is a woman who let her hands literally freeze while walking, so she is pretty tough, and she was at a 10 of pain all day . We gave her a blessing this morning. But she looked bad. My heart really hurts for her. Her husband is working 2 hours away without a car. Man I would have given her a ride if I knew where she was even though that is breaking a big Mission rule! Her 10 year old daughter is watching the baby, hopefully things are gonna get better now that she is taking the medicine.  Ugh. Poor Poor family... I hate it, like she is always so happy. She has a smile on her face, I don't think she knew the severity of walking outside like that, she should have gone to stores or something. Hopefully things at the burn unit go well tomorrow. I think we will spend a lot of time doing service for her and her family. I was like does it still hurt she said a little. Pain level from 1-10. She said 10. Man freak. She will be OK if her hand doesn't get infected. She has a wild baby to watch though... 

That is the scoop we just had District p-day.

Send letters If there is anything you can send for Abang Oman do it- like a note or anything.  I am sure she would appreciate it.

-Love Elder Hall

Dads Letter 3/3/2014

Dear Konnor,

I've been thinking of you this weekend as we had Stake Conference and our visiting General Authority (Elder Monday of the Seventy) talked a lot about missionaries and missionary work.

It made me very grateful for you and your efforts and your dedication to the work. I know our Savior is proud of you and the way you have represented HIm on your mission. I don't take it for granted as I know how hard a mission can be at times and how much is expected of you. You have truly served the Lord with all of your heart, might, mind and strength.

We are committed to being better missionaries here and supporting the work in the best way that we can. We will be praying specifically for you and your success as well.

I noticed yesterday that it was pretty cold again in Minneapolis (got down to minus 11 or 12) and hope that you are safe and sound in that kind of weather. Hoping it will warm up soon so you can enjoy some spring weather.

I was in Santa Barbara last week for a photography convention that I was speaking at and will be in Palm Springs this Thursday and Friday speaking at a Dental convention. Those are two pretty warm areas for this time of year.

I'm looking forward to your update and hearing more about the work that is going on in your area. Please know how much I love you and how proud of you I am.

Love Papa