Write to me! 5/27/2013

So just so everyone know I have been in a trio the last three weeks and I Knew who my companion was gonna be. Still Elder Reynders (Samir) from Fresno California. I got a call this morning though and I am going to be the District Leader. It is just pretty intense cause this is a good ward. The Karen are going into a trio and we already knew that. Elder Wolz (no legs guy only member in the world that has the Melchizedek priesthood and is fluent in Karen and English) still has 30 days. Elder Mumford leaves tomorrow morning. That will be kind of nuts. He has been a big part of my mission. We are really good friends. Wednesday we get 2 sisters too. I wasn't too excited when I first heard about that, but it will be fine. One of them came out with Elder Weatherford and she seems nice. I don't know the other one. They are whitewashing my old English area so iIwill probably be helping them out a lot. The Nepali is coming alright. We have been really busy. Even though I am going to be District Leader I think things will slow down and I can focus on that a little bit more. I am memorizing things with flashcards and stuff. Elder Mumford leaves with his Nepali book. But I think me and Samir both have packages with those books waiting for us at the mission home. It was a good Memorial day we went to a Ward activity with food and sports this morning. We taught a lot this week as well but Elder Mumford was saying goodbye to everyone. I was on exchanges three times this week. But it has been a good week. Just a little bit of change. Wany is graduating that is cool. Hope everyone is doing well. I am doing really good. Just write me:) Love you all!

Pictures 5/20/2013

Pictures 5/20/2013

Elders cook salmon:) ! 5/20/2013

Man one week until Elder Mumford leaves... crazy. We are working hard. We have taught a lot this week. 16 investigator lessons no way I could tell you all of them but it was good. The best part about this week was that Deanna Danielson got baptized! It was so good. She has been searching for this. There were also a lot of trials as she accepted this into her life. As I think there always is. I will send a picture of the baptism after I write my email. Trios are super fun. This morning me and Elder Mumford pretended to be making salmon we literally had nothing, we were just shaking spices and making noises with our mouths then we acted like we over cooked it an hour later cause the fan was still on and opened all the windows and fanned the "smoke out" Elder Reynders was so confused. We mess with him a lot cause we love him. I think we call him Samir 90 percent of the time over Elder Reynders it's so funny. His Nepali name is Samir. We did an exchange and Elder Mumford was gone. We taught 2 Nepali people. It was terrible but one of them a granddaughter translated. I have the writing down and know the vowel/consonants sounds but I need to work on grammar. Then after that I need to get vocab down. I have only had 5 language studies too, which is crazy but that is how a mission is! We are getting sisters in the district next week after transfers and the 2 Karen missionaries are combining. Elder Mumford goes home. so it's possible I might be the district leader which will stink cause I want to learn the language so pray I don't. Deanna's baptism was sweet. Her new best friend is in the ward and she spoke, my companions did the restoration interlude and I baptized her. She was so happy. President even came for a little of it. Luckily not for the ordinance cause he doesn't like when missionaries baptize he wants the members to do it! She will hopefully come teaching with us this week. We taught some new English people we will see where they go. And I think the family (badminton girls) that we work with will get baptized next month. I might not work with them but I will be in the ward. On the 29th! We had a super rainstorm/thunderstorm yesterday. Not too bad but pretty good. It is definitely getting humid! Thanks for all your support. I am loving my mission. Even though it has major ups and downs, it is the best. I hope I am growing and I know I am still the same punk a little bit. But I will try not to be! I love you all!!! Mu maya gurchu mayro pureebar! Ruh mayro sahtis! I love my family and my friends!

Mothers Day Skype:) 5/13/2013

It was good to see a lot of you yesterday! Especially Myles and Sky and Tay. I love them and I really miss them. Myles looks the same so he is not growing up too much. Also man Olive loves me. That is always sweet! I love and miss Olive, Eleanor, Lucy, and Donald. Things are going good. I have improved a lot on my mission but you would be surprised how much I feel like I am just flying by my seat and holding on. The cool thing I know is it is just going to get harder the rest of my mission. Ya will you send the Nepali bible and the "Lonely Planet" Nepali phrasebook and dictionary. Blue and grey. Will you do that today?? I have 2 weeks to learn the language before we are on our own. So that would help a lot. It is pretty urgent so do it today:) Thank you so much. Remember to do it today. I hope you all had a good mothers day. After I got off Skype we went to a Nepali families and had Chaparti some crazy Nepali food. I don't like the food too much except Curry and Roti(sweet bread) but I guess I will get used to it. The Nepali curry is totally different from the curry rice and stuff that you think of, it is way good. Speaking of curry Stephan Curry is lighting it up. I hear he just drains em. Doesn't even touch the rim. He signed my shoes. Colby don't wear those. PS will you send that stuff today that would be sweet. We have a busy week this week as well. We kind of planned for it. I just hope I can learn a lot of the language in 2 weeks. Blah its lame but I have already learned to read and write in a few days so I know the lord will help me out more. The call went super fast. I feel like they are gonna get faster. I am perfectly content being a missionary. Honestly, those calls I feel like are for you guys way more than me. Obviously it is awesome for me. But I am so busy I have to work as hard as I can for 2 years cause it's not that much time. You guys will always be around. I won't be a missionary again. I really do love my mission a lot. It has been really random but I have worked hard and have seen success. Not all the time. There have been a lot of challenges. Especially with missionaries that are struggling cause I don't know how to help them other than get over it, the mission is just going to get harder. I am not a very good counselor for missionaries. This ward is sweet, I will be here for at least 9 months, hopefully more. Usually at least with English work you are somewhere for maybe 2 or 3 transfers. It is not unusual for a missionary to have 10 areas or so. I have only had 2 so far. North St. Paul keeps missionaries a long time. Unless they are my companions:) Next transfer I want to push for a Nepali baptism. Cause there has not been one since Elder Shreestha got here. That would be a huge miracle. Pray for it. There is a lot of church opposition among the Nepali community and a lot of anti. So it is probably important that I have a Nepali bible and phrasebook. They are the nicest people. We just walk into their homes, it is the best. There will be a cool zone conference tomorrow that is really cool. I will see Tanner. He goes home in 2 months. Elder Mumford is super ready for home. He loves his mission but he is just funny. I wonder how I will be in 15 months. I hope dad gets feeling better and that you all do something fun this week! Send me a letter if you want. Colby is almost 25 this month. Man that is old. Not like way old. But a considerable amount. I am 21 in a month. It is so weird. Mission birthdays stink but Hopefully I will be spending it with some cool Nepali people. The 26th is Avayah Slaughters birthday. Then after that on the 29th Avayah 10 and Astasia 13 the girls we played badminton with are getting baptized. They are a family that I have worked a lot with. I am glad that I am going to be here for that. I won't be teaching them after this transfer I bet. But.. I know that I will be in the ward. So I can be at their baptism. I love them a lot. I think North St. Paul will be one of my favorite areas for sure. We might come here sometime and you will meet a lot of cool people. Elder Mumford wants to have a North St. Paul farewell and give a talk and have food at a members house and stuff ha he is so goofy. He is writing is goodbye or his what I learned letter to President. It is called Elder Mumford's greatest adventure. I have grown a lot. I am really grateful for this opportunity. I definitely was supposed to be here! I know and the lord knows each and everyone of us. I know I am not the most spiritual in my letters, and probably a lot different than the average missionary letters. But I don't believe I should be anyone other than myself. Be yourself, everyone else is taken. Right Dad? Man I love you all. I don't know what I am sure of, but I am working hard and trying to live the gospel I preach. Don't ever stop being like Christ! He is such a good example. I am starting up "Jesus the Christ" again. I only got 100 pages into it when I first started reading. It helps with context of Christ's life, a lot. Namaste! Funny thing is Namaste us pronounced Nuh-muh-stay . You also want to smile like crazy when you say it! If you do that people will love you! Til next week! Elder Hall

Namaste 5/6/2013

So check it out. I am going to be doing Nepali work for at least 9 weeks. Elder Cluff had a really hard week. We had interviews with President and 2 exchanges where he did not do very well. He is pretty sad. While on exchanges Saturday during companion study Elder Smith got a call from President Clements then he handed the phone to me. Because so many new missionaries are coming out a lot are going home because of health reasons, being too fat or mental health reasons. So I guess a few are going home. Elder Cluff is going to Plymouth a suburb of Minneapolis and he is serving with Elder Checkett's who goes home in 6 weeks. His uncle owned RSL, but recently sold it. He was my zone leader for a while. And I am going to North St. Paul Nepali. They teach English and we will still teach all the English people that we have been teaching for 3 weeks until the new English team comes in I presume. Then after that President told me I would be with Samir(Elder Reynders the new Nepali Elder who has been in 3 weeks) the next 6 weeks and be in a trio with Elder Mumford and he then replace Elder Mumford when he goes home. So Me and Elder Reynders have to figure out Nepali work by the end of the transfer. So I am with Elder Mumford and I am killing him. He goes home in 3 weeks. I will be learning Nepali. I just bought a bunch of flash cards and a notebook to write words in. If you could send me a Nepali Bible and a Nepali learning book "Lonely Planet Nepali, with phrase and dictionary" that is what it is called. If you could find that online and a bible that would be sweet. If Colby could do that today that would help a lot. Try to send it today if you can. Send it to the mission home. 5931 96th st W Bloomington, Mn you should have the address. I moved apartments this morning. So that is what is happening in my life. That would help a lot if you could do that quick! like today. Will you do that? For mothers day we are going to try to do it around 6pm here Skyping or whatever. So what is that 7 o clock there. I would hold 7 clock to 8:30pm to be safe. I hope to talk to all of you. It is going to be crazy I am going to try to learn the language a lot. I have to learn how to write it then that will help with the consonants and the vowel sounds. It is written in Sand-script. so pray for me as well. It is a tall order, but I have been learning to be very dependent on the lord lately and giving up my will. So hopefully this will be an addition to that. It is going to be hard. I am going to love it, I think. Man dad maybe we can go to Nepal after my mission!:) It has kind of reverted back to winter lately snowing a little bit. It is about 50 degrees today and kind of feels like spring. Things are going well. I am gonna have a crazy/fun 3 weeks before Elder Mumford goes home. He is so weird you guys don't even know but we get along pretty well. Mero Nom Zwala ho. My name is Zwala. Ya I don't know too much maybe like 12 Nepali words. That's better than zero I guess. I am excited to talk to all you guys soon. Remember if you write me send it to the mission home... and send me that stuff please. Go eat some Curry! Danubat!

Badminton with the Slaughters- 4/29/2013

It is an awesome day! The snow is pretty much gone. It is seventy degrees out. We have been doing a lot of biking. It is pretty good. Elder Cluff keeps wrecking his bike though. Man mothers day is kind of soon. But that's weird. My week has gone pretty good. We had 7 people to church. That was really cool. A Karen investigator brought her friend to church and we are teaching her Friday. A bunch of people were sketchy that we stopped by before church even a lady who we are getting furniture today got mad at me she was like you shouldn't be so pushy about church. I was just like I don't care if you come to church its between you and God. It is important to come to church. We are getting her mattresses and stuff today. So that is good. She has been sleeping on the floor. People in poverty can be pretty prideful it is weird. But ya Chrisy's mom came to church we taught her this week. Freddy a funny black dude came. Deanna. She is getting baptized may 18th!! Quaya her family 30 year old single mom and her 18 year old cousin. Also a Baptist lady named Sharon. It was sweet. Things are going well. I taught like a banshee this week. We through down. A 17 year old black kid also tried to bash us. I told him He doesn't pray to God about things. He doesn't know the bible and he needs to repent. I also made him read 2 Nephi 29 "thou fool that shall say a bible a bible we need no more bible... know ye not that there are more nations then one" He read it and was like this ain't the bible!! These names ain't the bible. Then I told him to repent. Will you repent. No i didn't do anything wrong. I would repent man. So that was sweet. I might be getting a farmers tan. Things are going well though. I think Minnesota is going to get pretty hot in the summer, I used to doubt it. Thanks for the stuff I have to hurry, I am helping that lady. Here is a picture of us playing badminton with the Slaughters; Avayah(10) and Astasia(13). I love you all. Hi Elder Hall, It was such a treat to meet Barb Thibaudeau, what an energetic and amazing support system you have in your ward. I am so glad she took time from her short family time here in Utah to visit and tell us a little bit about you and the work you are blessed to be a part of. She even brought us yummy cookies! They say you are a thoughtful teacher and ask good questions. They all love you very much. How tall is Elder Cluff? Have you been able to play more basketball on P-days? You can really influence those boys playing ball. Love Mom