Week 86 Danli

There are more and more things to share lately regarding how things change at home.  Perhaps we shouldn't share so much? but I doubt we could hide much of what happens until he returns.  You can see how excited he is about a few of the changes such as Trey Sparks' mission call.  What a great opportunity for him.  it will be work but it will be the best thing ever for the future.  In fact much of the news at home is good but as you can tell change is different and new for him.

Dear Family,

Well that is crazy that Chelsey broke up with Jake, Emily is having another girl, Trey is going on a mission, and who knows what else you guys wont to tell me!! I am not going to lie its been hard to keep focus at times because my time is running down really fast!! Less than 2 months and time just flies by like nothing. Yeah sorry about the fees for withdrawing money and checking money. I didnt know until a couple of days ago. Congrats on the new callings gees you guys have a lot of responsibility on your hands especially dad lol. But I am sure that he will be fine and do what he needs to do. I am so excited that Trey is going on a mission!! Tell Trey congrats and I am super bummed that he leaves before I get home!! I am sure that Chelsey will find her boy in Utah like Emily did lol. Emily why cant you have a boy already!! I wanted a nephew not another girl. Oh well what are the names for her??? I say Sydney!! 

Also that is weird that my records are now in Washington. What do the members say about me?? I am sure that Mom and Dad tell a ton of embarrassing stories about me all of the time lol. Oh well and I sure that I am going to stay in Washington for a few weeks and then make my move to Utah. My release date I have no clue and my flight plans I have no clue because the missionary that is in charge of things like that he hasnt said anything to me at all but I will ask this week because we are going to Tegus for the Christmas party of the mission so that should be lots of fun!! 

As for the work we had a crazy week with new investigators and possibly 7 baptisms this saturday!! We were working in this pueblo called Arauli which is kind of far from where we live. We have to ride bikes out there and we have been receiving a lot of references from members out there to teach and work with. That area is pretty big and we want to put a new branch there and hopefully another pair of missionaries. The baptisms that we could possibly have are kids from 9 to 12 years old and they all have been to church and want to be baptized so we are going to see what happens this week. Also they announced the temple dedication on March 17th!!!! So Honduran members are going to be crazy on that day!! The Open House starts on February 7th till March 4th. Ahhhhhh the week I leave is when they will have the open house!! That makes me frustrated!! haha I wonder if I can get special permission to go see it inside before I leave!! I would love that sooo much. I hope I can at least see the inside of it. Anyways the work is going well and the Christmas season is amazing. As a zone we decided to plan a special christmas dinner this year that I think no one has ever done. We decided that we are going to have christmas dinner for the poor people that live in our areas. We are going to invite a certain amount of people to come and have an awesome christmas that they have never experienced before. I think its a really goood idea and I am going to use that 100 dollars for this activity. So why not make a memorable christmas before I leave the country that I love?? Well I hope all goes well with you guys this week and I cant wait till we can call each other for the last time in Honduras. But thanks for all of your love and support. I hope that all of you have an amazing christmas and remember why we celebrate the season. Love you all and thanks!!

Tu Hijo,

Elder Hall 

Week 85 Danli

Based on his title of his letter to us we may be too anxious for his return.......

Dear Baggy Family,

Well I knew that you all would be super excited to use skype haha after mom just pleading to me to use skype even though I wasnt suppose to. Also who is all going to be there at the call?? Just the family or grandma, grandpa, Dicksons, Lawrences, and all of them. Or are you saying that they all will be there for my homecoming??? I cant believe december is here already and I just completed 22 months in my mission yesterday!! Mom I cant believe that you have the count days going lol!! Now its going to be a challenge to focus. Sweet Chelsey wants to go to Utah with me that will be really fun!! What about this Jake kid? What are his plans? Well my homecoming sounds like a huge blast now and I am way excited to see you all!! I just have to keep going you know. Some days are hard but I am really going to be super sad when I leave. Also the family thing yeah 100 dollars would be enough and if not I will let you know. I need to buy a new long sleeve shirt because I gave my last one away to my convert because he doesnt have one. So could you help me out with that please?? 

Well this week was crazy as usually going to Tegus for a meeting with President Hernandez and the other ZLs. That meeting was super spiritual and great because we watched the talk that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave this last conference and he talked about being disciples forever and never going back. We all shared our testimonies and how we need to keep working and being disciples in this mission and after the mission also until we Jesus Christ comes. It really impacted everyone!! I loved the part that we need to love God and serve him forever!! Very powerful speaker. Then our Zone Workshop was really good with the zone and they all seem super animated and willing to work really hard. After we had to get some marriage papers out in a far away city called Trojes!! That is so far away from where we are in Danli. We had to take a 3 hour bus ride and that took up our whole day!! We were so exhausted afterwards. Then Saturday we found some positive investigators and they are interested in our message. They are an old couple who are really funny and cute they have lived together for 47 years and have never been married but they do want get married. Then there nephew is really interested and wants to learn more about our church. His name is Marvin really good kid. So yeah we are working hard and keeping focus even though its hard in this time of the season. Sunday we watched the devotional which was really good and they were all very good messages!! President Monson looks pretty old now and I wonder if he is still going to keep chugging along. I heard that he has been sick lately but I am not sure if thats true. Yeah thats about it for me haha. I can tell everyone is super excited for me to get home you know. I am too no worries the day will come. Thank you so much for your prayers and your help haha. I love you all and I wish the best for you all. Take care!!

Tu Hijo,

Elder Hall

Week 84 Danli

We are now to Week 84 in Honduras and Thanksgiving just passed.  We can see that he is starting to talk more about life to come here in WA and in his future.  Yet he still remains engaged in the work and wanting to finish with the people there.  The news that we will be able to Skype is very welcome as we can get a chance to see him live for a few minutes.  Time is moving fast....yet seems very slow on a daily basis for us.  

Dear Family,

Well it sounds like your thanksgiving was a success and you had lots of fun with the family. I can´t wait till I can come home and do things with all of you guys and I am sure that Josey looks super different. Also whats the word with Chelsey and Jake?? Also I have the essays done now so no worries I am going to see President Hernandez this week and I can get that endorsement done. We as a zone just went to Pizza Hut to celebrate thanksgiving haha nothing huge. Also yes I talked with Elder Unitt about my flight plans and I am going to give him the information so he can fill everything out. I am actually pretty excited to go home to a place that I dont know. New adventures area always fun! Well I have some really good news for you guys haha. I know mom is going to flip but we had zone conference this past week and president gave us permission to us to use Skype to call home!!!! I know its pretty crazy but I am super excited to call home now lol. Please dont cry when use see me when the time comes or I will start crying also but anyways awesome news right?!!! 

Now as for the work we found some new families that had some really good questions for us to answer and they are really receptive. We taught them the Restoration and they loved it. There names are Wilfredo and Deysi. We are hoping to have them be baptized this next month. We are finding more but we still need to visit them again to see if they will progress more. Also on Sunday we had tons of investigators in church from a little area called Arauli and they all loved it. We have been trying to get out to Arauli all this week but we were to busy with receiving a new missionary, zone conference, phones we had to fix and stuff like that. Also we have a meeting with President this week with all of the Zone Leaders. So I feel super bad because at times we just leave our area to die because we dont get to work to much in the area. I would love to stay and work but at times we had to do other things for the zone. But to be honest we had a pretty good week with working and helping out the zone. We had some pretty good success this month and the zone feels really good about it!! Man I love this work! At times its just hard to think that I am leaving soon and I dont want to. At the same time I do need to leave so I can see all of you guys and start my life. Anyways not much is happening here and I love all of your help and support all of you are awesome. Thank you for the packages and I am sure that I wont open them till the day of Christmas!! Well tell everyone I said hi and I love you all. I will talk to you guys later!! 

Tu Hijo,

Elder Hall

Week 83 Danli

Still in Danli for now.   He has expected to be moved from Zone Leader to Trainer but nothing yet.  He seems fine either way but if he finishes in Danli that will be great.

Dear Family,
How is it going my favorite family in the whole wide world?? Wow Chelsey is going big on Thanksgiving huh?! Who is her friend Maddie?? lol Also Dad I will work on those essays today and send them to you tonight. So watch your email for later tonight to see the essay. Also I talk to my mission president about the interview and I need to finish my application first so he can fill out things. I need my ID number?? Yeah stuff like that I need but I will get those essays done today.  Also crazy about the Ward splitting and stuff!! Never thought that JD would be released as Bishop, but I am sure the Lord has something in store for him. Also I have been thinking that I should go home to Washington because it would be a little more easier and we are all going down to AZ anyways. Plus I dont want to carry all of my mission stuff around when I am in AZ like that. I might as well go to Washington and get settle in a bit then we can go to AZ as a family to visit. Thats what I feel about it. So I probably need those records in AZ to go to WA right?? I am super excited to see the california friends again!!! Yes I am still writing Taylor. I bet she is excited to see me too lol. Also BJ sister is going on a mission???? crazy!! That is crazy how fast time flies and I am just excited to see everyone again. Thanks for the christmas package!! Now I am thinking of what could I give to you guys for Christmas or to all my viewers of my email??

This past week was really good and really boring haha. So Honduras had some elections and our mission president told us that we had to stay in our house on Sunday because supposedly here it gets crazy with voting for new leaders haha. To be honest nothing really happened to us or anything like that. But there were tons of people everywhere wearing red or blue!! Red is the crazy party and blue is a little more calm. I was super bored but I did study some awesome things about the Atonement and how Jesus Christ was completely alone when he had to suffer for the sins of world. There is a talk or mormon message that Elder Holland gives about that experience its super good. Since I have started the mission I keep reading more and more things about the gospel and I am always lead back to read about the Savior. I have come to know Jesus Christ a little more now and how to be like Him in all aspects of His life. At times its so hard to be like the Savior because I am such a big sinner but through Him I can be saved and never have to suffer spiritual or physical death. So I was talking about this with my companion Elder Jensen and Denis and we read in Jesus The Christ about what happened. Then there is explains why Jesus Christ had to be alone to take such a huge task even without the Father. There are multiple references of this but one that is very specific and its in Matthew 10:38. Jesus Christ had to make a choice of willingness to do the Fathers will. He had to deny Himself completely to show His love for us and our Father in Heaven. Now my thoughts are am I denying myself to do the will of the Father?? Or am I just selfish and only thinking about myself?? Now I challenge all to apply this to them. Another thought came to my mind when we had one Christmas back when we lived in Utah, and Mom and Dad had us all run downstairs excited to open our presents on Christmas morning. We get down and in the living room we see a light shined upon a beautiful picture of the our Lord Jesus Christ and nothing else. I remember we all paused and didnt say a word for about a good 3 minutes and the tears come out of course. What an awesome Christmas to remember!!!! Now the Christmas time has come and now we have to think now in why we do celebrate this majestic holiday. Now my thoughts went to agency and how much power we actually have to choose. Christ could have not gone through the Garden of Getsemani? Eve could have not partaken of the fruit? I could have not gone a mission? I know that we have so much power to choose our lives and we usually have two choices 2 Nephi 2:27. Do I want to do Gods will or Satans will?? If you think about it everyone makes choices everyday and usually that choices changes our acts and atittudes for the rest of your life. For example Eduardo the young man that we baptized, he made the choice to be baptized and now he will go on a mission and baptize more people and the people that are around him. What a difference that makes!!!!! That is one of the greatest gifts God has given us!! Sorry that is sounds preachy but it was something awesome that i learned. We received a reference for a family and they are super awesome!! We have been helping them with there English and the missionaries have passed by that house a ton!! They have some doubts of being baptized again and we are going to explain that to all of them this week. They seriously need to be members because they are look like a mormon family seriously!! So we are super pumped to talk to them about that. Also with temple coming up we can get them excited to go to the temple as a family!! Well thats about it for investigators then changes past and I stayed here as a ZL in Danli so I am pretty sure that I am going to finish my mission here. Very exciting feeling and sad feeling also because I love the mission so much!! But yeah thats all I have to report to you all. Thanks for everything and enjoy your thanksgiving tell hi to everyone and send me a picture of all of you guys. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Love,
Elder Hall

Week 82 Danli

It seemed a little odd to talk with him in more detail about when he gets home but I think that is the next step.  The Holiday season is coming and we will surely miss him but that also means the end of his mission is near.


Dear Family,
How is it going? The wooden carvings of yours is 140 dollars  and mine that I want is 180 dollars. Does Emily and Kyle want one or no?? If they are let me know the date of their sealing. Also thank you for the help on the college application and I will talk to my mission president about the Ecclesiatical interview. Also I cant believe how fast time just flies here and how much time I have left in my mission. I am not going to lie its hard to focus sometimes but I just have to keep my mind occupied and how are you guys holding up?? At this time of the year its tough but who knows whats going to happen. I know there are changes this week and I am not sure if President will be put me to train or keep me at ZL. What ever happens I will be fine I just know that my time is running short here. I am so excited to hear that Travis is going on a mission though!!! Its so worth it and what about Zac and Dallin?? I also have some news haha. Madie Rowan do you remember her?? She sent me a letter and guess what it was a wedding invitation!! She got married on the 3 of this month. Crazy huh?! I am happy for her though!! It freaks me out that all of this is happening so fast but you know I will be next. But I just want to focus on whats infront of me right now. In the Christmas package I would like Reeses, Milky Way, Christmas PJ´s for me and my companion for sure. Umm to help a family out here I was thinking of a certain family that we are teaching. They are struggling really badly with money and I figured they would need clothes or I dont know what do you think we can give to them?? This family is needing a divorce in order to be married with the current wife and she wants to be baptized and all but the divorce is the hardest part. They are a super nice family and love to have us over. But I am not sure what to give them you know?? As for Eduardo he was baptized!!!!!!  It was an absolute miracle because we needed to ask permission from his mom to be baptized and when Eduardo tried to talk to her she got mad and didnt want to hear it. So on friday we went to his house and we only talked to the father in law but he gave us permission and sooo HE WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!! It was a miracle but it was awesome. Everyone was happy and its good to actually see a child of God be baptized and literally changing his lifestyle to be better. Eduardo actually said that he feels a complete change in himself and its awesome because he was convertered the right way. It brings me peace and joy to my soul. We are teaching some new investigators to and we keep finding young people to teach more than families but we will baptize a family soon!! The excommunicated member is coming back to the path and will be a member in March if everything goes well. I love him a ton haha. He knows a lot!!! As for coming home to Washington or Arizona?? What do you think? I am not entirely sure though because I figured I had to get the Jeep from AZ and then drive up with it to Washington but what do you think I should do? For me either way if you are making it sound like I will go to Arizona and Washington anyway so I dont know though. Well for the package maybe some cool music or another book I can read?? Maybe photos of course and maybe a tape recorder?? lol or just surprise me!! Anyways thanks for everything and love you all soo much!

Tu Hijo
Elder Hall

Week 81 Danli

More questions about home and school but he is still amazingly engaged and applying what he is learning to every day challenges we face.  I think our family has been so fortunate and blessed by what he is doing but it doesn't come to any of us without trials as well.  As he shares.....we walk by faith and not by sight.

ps who is Nefi???

Querida Familia,
Well for my grades all that I remember is I had straight A´s and 1 B in Biology. Thats all that I remember and give me my stuff to look on my EA account because I think there is a weird way to look at grades. Also mom I need to know the date that you guys were sealed in the temple!!??? Its for the wood thing. Also does Emily and Kyle want one?? Can I get one?? Also awesome story about Josey and vball haha. God works in mysterious ways but its like the scripture dad shared 1 Cor. 5:7. I love talking about faith and how putting our full trust in God. We had a zone workshop on Thursday after the meeting in Tegus with President on wednesday. We as a zl´s always give a class to the zone and give the message of President on what he talked about and whatever we feel that we need to talk to them about to animate them more. So a excommunicated member that we talk to all the time named Denis, still trying to come back to full membership, gave us some cool relations in the scriptures on how we need to be better and how we can do it with all of our faith and trust in the Lord. He gave the example of Nefi on how he received the plates of brass from Laban. So how many times did Nefi had to try to finally obtain the plates?? he tried three times and on the third try he had success but why?? If you read chapters 1 Nefi 3 - 1 Nefi 4 it explains that the first two times he failed because he was trying to obtaint he plates by the arm of the flesh or mans plan. Then the third time Nefi goes without even knowing how to do it but was guided by the spirit on how to obtain those plates. Because the angel that showed up when Nefi and his brother were being smitten said to them after Laman and Lemuel hitting them. He said go unto Jerusalem again and the Lord will give Laban to them. Crazy huh?! So Nefi goes back and follows the spirit of the Lord or follows the plan of God and was success. Pure faith!!!! I explained that to the missionaries that sometimes we work with the arm of the flesh or the plan of man, but if we kneel and ask God for help he will guide us to what we need to do in our areas. Do not fear to fail because everyone is going to fail at some point in there life but we can lift up ourselves and fix what we are doing by asking the Lord for forgiveness and ask Him what does he desire for us to do. Something cool I learned!! I love the scriptures and how we can apply them to ourselves nowadays. This week we taught a black young man who is getting baptized this week or next week. He is super pilas to teach and wants to change his life. We are hoping that he goes on a mission because he talks about it. So we will see what happens his name is Eduardo. Then we found some new investigators to teach with some other young folk and possibly a new family to teach. I really want to teach progreessing family so I just want to look for new families. But I love being out here and I dont like thinking about how much time that I have left because it makes me sad and nervous. So I just need to focus on what I have left and do everything that I can to help others come unto Christ. But thats all that I have to say and I love you all!!! I hope you have an awesome week. Tell dad Happy Birthday!!! He is awesome!! talk to you all later!!

Tu Hijo,
Elder Hall 
P.S.- For gifts for a family let me keep looking because I think the ward wants to do something for the people that are poor here and they might need some help. But let me get back to you on that one.

Week 80 Danli

Sounds like he has met some very nice people in Danli.  He sent a few pictures of what these wood carvings look like and they are very nice.  Not sure how they would get home to us though.........we'll see as it gets closer.  I truly think he enjoys his time and has mixed feelings about what coming home will mean to him.

Hola Querida Familia,
As for the wooded temple things they are like 150. So they will have your guys name, date of sealing, Holiness to the Lord, and the picture of the Salt Lake Temple. You guys were married in the Salt Lake temple right?? Also Emily and Kyle want one?? Then I was thinking about getting one that is super sweet which is like 200. The size of them are like kind of the size of the Mesa Temple picture that we have or bigger. Also I will look into the applications for my GPA and stuff. I am trying to remember the username and password. But I am excited to apply for college again. What is Chelsey going to study?? I am sad that I didnt get to see her play at all!! But I am sure I will want to coach or something when I am married as a side job or something. Maybe my future and wife can do that later on in our lives. I willl think of ideas for that gift thing for Santa and also the package. I still cant believe how fast time is flying by right now!!!! Its absolutely incredible and I am trying to enjoy every moment that I can. 

Recently I have been talking to this excommunicated member that is super awesome is coming back into full membership this March and he gives us some advice and counsel on how to become better missionaries. He is so cool, he is the guy that carves the wood stuff his name is Denis. He is one of my favorite members to talk to because he knows so much of the doctrine and was a big leader in the church until he fell hard in a transgression but now he is repenting and doing a lot better. I just love talking to him because he knows so much and even though he doesnt have the Holy Ghost with him he still has a light of Christ which is super cool. That he still wants to come back. Investigators that we are teaching are Eduardo a young man that is seventeen and just is soo ready to be baptized. He is super smart and wants to become a member and then go on a mission so we are hoping to baptize him in November. Also another family that we could baptize also  at the end of the November. The wifes name is Norma and the husband Alfonso. Norma wants to go to church but the husband we are not sure because we havent met him yet. We still continue to keep looking and I feel like we can do more and I need to do more so I am going to keep looking for more. At times I feel like I stilll have a lot to learn still in my mission and after because everything is going by soo fast. I still dont have any regrets in my mission but I still want to keep working until I am officially done. I am going to be super sad leaving this place!! As the zone is doing okay not the best we didnt do to well as a zone. I figure that the things that we are still doing in the zone are not working so I want to try something more different now because I am not seeing any success in what we are doing. I feel like we need to use members more to help us out in the work and also for the temple opening so we can get the work of the Lord going. The stake is really down and they dont seem to have the ganas to work with us and help us out because using our own efforts doesnt work all of the time. So we are going to be meeting with the ward leaders more and the stake president so we can be on the same page. I figure this willl help the work of the Lord and the animo of the members. At times i just feel tired and exhausted dealing with missionaries but something keeps me going because I have to do it because I need to do it. I just got to keep pushing on until I cant no more. This week will be good because we have a meeting with President again with the ZLs. I am excited to see what he is going to talk about. Then next week is Zone Conference for the mission so we will see what President says to us. Well I have nothing else to say and thanks for your letters and love. I really do appreciate it. I love you all and I hope that all goes well for you all. Take care. 

Tu Hijo,
Elder Hall