Week 42 - Turkey time, yo.

What's up everyone :D

Turkey time yo.

Week 4 of the transfer is already done, which is ridiculous. 

Blessings. General authority. Another freakin' bike stolen. Walking in freezing pouring rain. Another week in the mission life.

One of the days we got DUMPED on. Good stuff.

It started by talking to a member who is active but had been really depressed. He talked to us about "the spirit was working in me" and a joyful feeling came over him. The Priesthood blows my mind, and what a blessing it is for imperfect beings to hold and be involved with such a perfect power. 

haha back when Elder Auva'a and I were comp's, some guy pulled up next to him and yelled, "Hey! Joseph Smith was gay!!" Elder A said, "Thanks! You too!!" haha I don't know if he thought about what he said or what. The Samoan culture is crazy. haha good stuff.

This is Valerie who is getting baptized in Utah on Wednesday! Crazy. She took us out to Chilis (hehe)! It was so good, and without hesitation, she ordered two deserts. Wow. She is one of the most knowledgeable people I've seen taught. Was able to give her a blessing once. She rocks. 

We've been teaching Jerilyn a couple times now. Our last visit with her was on Thursday and 10 hours later, she had a baby haha. But at our visit, we were teaching her and her husband the Restoration and we heard a 'ding' sound outside by the rail....where our bikes were. Elder Hall and I weren't planning on teaching them, but Jerilyn's husband was there so we could go in. They asked us if we locked our bikes....suck. Never have forgotten to lock our bikes, until now. They said one of the bikes was gone and sure enough, Elder Hall's brand new bike was gone...dang. Nothing like walking to your next appointment because a bike was stolen. He has good spirits and didn't let it get him down. Other than than, Jerilyn's doing awesome.

Another investigator named Mosette was one we 'coincidentally' ran into at the park. She had just gotten out of jail and wanted to get closer to Christ. Perfect. We were out talking to her on her stairwell when she broke down and talked about the things she had gone through. It's times when people reflect on events that have happened in their life when they want to feel the spirit. We're seeing her soon and hope all is well.

It DUMPED on us for two days...but hey, the work must go on! Even if it's on foot.

Ether 14:30. Shiz happened.

I keep finding more people who know who my brother is. One day the Sisters in our district crashed on their bikes, so they walked to our place so they could get fixed up...while we stood outside of our apartment haha. Sister Ah Sue saw a picture of my brother and was like, "Wait...he's your brother??" haha yup! Everyone supports my bro. and it's rad. Still blows my mind, but meh, a lot of things do.

Right after the Sisters crashed into construction stuff and walked to our place. We fixed up their bikes, and then exchanged back the next day. Pima Ward FTW.

The Sisters wrote down our dinner calender for a week and put "McDonald's Value Menu" as one of the dinners....I switched a couple of their's. Guess what was one of THEIR's....? We found out when we got to our dinner.

Yesterday at church was a day I'll probably remember for the rest of my life. After sacrament, a member turned to us and handed us a note talking about some things....one things led to another, and he reflected back on a time he was in a lesson with us and we were going over the Restoration. While reciting the 1st vision, he said he felt the spirit really strongly and said he wanted that feeling and then asked for a blessing right then. My heart started pounding hardcore, which generally means the blessing is going to be quite spirit-driven. We all talked and he had some evil feelings inside and said he felt "pulled in every direction." I don't want to get into it to much, but the blessing was very powerful. Not too often do I cry in blessings, but man, the spirit was definitely there. He said afterwards, "I don't feel hooked anymore." The Priesthood is such a blessing given us, as imperfect as we are. He was insanely happy and said that he felt the spirit a lot more that day. The gift of the Holy Ghost saves our lives. 

Mathew 6:21 "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." 

"You can't stand still and receive guidance. Take that step forward. We have to move for the Lord to guide us." - Elder Johnson who came and spoke to us this past Thursday. It was awesome to hear a General Authority speak to us.

 Zone Conference with Elder Paul Johnson of the 70. 

Well it's Thankgiving week, and I've been reflecting on a lot of things lately that I've been blessed for. It's almost times up, but I just want to thank everyone what you've done. The blessing and comfort I've felt these past almost 10 months have been incredible and will be something to reflect on the rest of my life. I know there's people watching over me and the care does not go un-noticed. I'm thankful for my Heavenly Father and his kindness in listening to everything I have to say. He's the perfect councilor and wants us to succeed more than anyone else. I'm thankful for our Saviour, and the perfect example He set for all of us. It's remarkable to think that Christ "never thought of himself" which is a life long goal for us. I'm thankful for my family and friends, and all they do for me. Now go eat some Turkey :] In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Peace homies.

-Elder Dallin Hales

Week 41 - The wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land.

You basically have to accept the fact of being tired 24/7, but, there's nothing else like serving a mission. 

"Everything good that's happened to me, in all the years that have since passed, I can trace back to my experience as a missionary." - President Hinckley. 

Setting the bar high!

This past week was quite the week. Blessings. Bikes stolen. New investigators. Appointments falling through like no body's business. Lots of peanut butter and honey sandwiches.

Let's start with last night!

Last night after two appointments fell through, bleh, we had a elderly lady who's a member who wanted a blessing in the hospital. We went over and gave her one and then went from house to house to see who was home. While on exchanges earlier in the week (we went on two 24 hour exchanges and one two hour), Elder Hall and his comp. found where a member lived. So our member went with us to her house. She's a full blooded indian! Pretty rad. She's pretty active but has been sick. Her daughter was there which we've never seen before. We felt inclined to share a message about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Elder Hall shared Alma 7:11-12 and later I shared Mosiah 7:11 before leaving. The lesson went well and her daughter's concerns was fear of her kids having to grow up in this world. Can't blame her really. She will be having another kid THIS Friday. Crazy. Both Jerilyn and her mom had tears in their eyes during the lesson. The spirit was there and she wanted us to come over....BEFORE her belly pops on Friday.

This is Elder Banner. Awesome exchange.

You get entertained by the smallest and dumbest things on a mission. It's great.

One of the exchanges we went on was with Elder Banner...guess where he's from?....Layton! Awe yeah. He goes home next transfer, but turns out, we know each other pretty well. We probably hung out together and know each other's friends. It was crazy to tell people we're both from Layton, Utah when we asked. It was a good exchange as we found a couple new investigators and taught a few lessons. Sick. Also went on an exchange with Elder Bouwhuis who is a Zone Leader in another zone. We are also both from Layton. Goood stuff.

Another exchange serving in the only ASL part of the mission. Brushin' up on some ASL!

While walking down the sidewalk, a group of people yelled, "Heyy!!....do you know you look like Eminem!?" hahah Elder Banner and I started laughing. We later learned he just came out with a new album or something haha. Pretty funny. I'll rap about the Gospel I guess.

Checkin' out a referral yo. 

One of the new invests. we found this past week is Don. He's awesome. He was very accepting of a return visit this week and also accepted a BoM. Really hope things work out with him.

This past week was a weird week...in a sense that our district's #'s weren't as high, along with ours. Everyone said they were out working and just couldn't find anyone interested and that tons of appointments fell through. I remember in this past District Meeting focusing on 'consistency' within our own efforts. It seems it's just a test of our faith as a whole, and feel that things will look up in a couple weeks. We tend to go through something to help us recognize more, right before something good happens. We're hoping this follows that.

We have a General Authority speaking to us this Thursday! YES! Elder Paul Johnson of the 70 will be speaking to us missionaries down here. Man we are stoked as. That should give us all a good chunk of motivation to be diligent. WOOT!

Alma 29:10

Ether 6:8 "..the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land." God has prompted us towards the promises he has given us. We must keep pushing forth and do our best!

D&C 6:11, 22-24.

"No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care."

boom.

PDAY!

If you don't enjoy what you do, you're screwed. Yup.

Well time is about up. Thank you everyone for the prayers and support. It's just an awesome thing to have so many loved ones back home. Peace out yo.

Stay real.

-Elder Dallin Hales

Week 40 - How do you have a blog on the mission?!

I have no idea who reads this blog, but to whoever does, you rock.

This past week in the ATM was a pretty chill yet chaotic week.....a former investigator is sitting next to us..his name is JW. He's rad. 

This was this morning...at 5:45am, we've been going to the gym....never thought I would wake up early volunteeringly for stuff. Hah.

My comp. is kicking butt and is constantly wanting to improve and is very motivated for missionary work, which is sweeet as. Nothing really crazy happened this past week, but lots of little things.

The entire zone thinks I look just like Eminem...so there ya go.

This past week, we had some encounters with an (sort of) investigator. She's 'prayed in tongues' to us, which was quite the experience. She's knocked on our door and talked to us about how she thinks we're wrong....funny enough, she found out her 'answers' about the BOM....online. Yup. There's so much anti stuff, it's ridiculous. She talked about how at first the Book of Mormon brought to her good feelings....then before you know it, anti crap kicked in and she gave us back the BoM. I talked to her about recognizing her feelings from the BOM compared to online and why it may be different feelings....she came back again later, and apologized to us. We see each other and she's chill. Got to love Tucson.

I'm trying to type and talk to the two people in here too..

"Are you Mormon? No? Well I'm MORE MAN than you!" hahah our investigator John.

Yesterday at church, no investigators showed up, and we were expected 3 or so. Somewhat frustrating, but meh, it's the missionary life. Our progress with some investigators is coming along. We set a date with an investigator last night who said, "I have no doubt that it could be true. I would love to read and pray and fast about it." Holy awesome. 

Nick is coming along too. He still has a date for the 30th and is working towards it, but he didn't wake up in time to go to church. 

John and Laura are doing pretty good! They both committed to living the WoW last night, and we're trying to get them married so then they can be baptized. John now has a job, and a car, so they are being watched over.

How many missionaries does it take to put up a flag?

After church yesterday, we had to bike over to the Stake Center so I could do an interview. Right before the interview, a member came up to me whom I've never met before and said, "So how do you have a blog on the mission?" hahah whattt? He looked up some blogs and found this blog. Awesome. 

Alma 32:25: "For I do not mean that ye all of you have been compelled to humble yourselves; for I verily believe that there are some among you who would humble themselves, let them be in whatsoever circumstances they might.

John 16:4

Romans 8:25

At the "Heritage Festival" we rocked the parking lot yo.

This past Saturday, we were invited to a city-run "Mormon Heritage Festival" at a really big park. There was about 130 missionaries or so helping out all throughout the day. We got to wear the sweet "helping hands" vests. SICK. Elder Hall and I were assigned to the baptist parking lot to help people park....good thing we're awesome, because we directed about 4 cars in a few hours. haha. It was a good turnout though, people just parked elsewhere..

HALESTORM. We were in the same district down in Deming for a while.

Sister Shimitzu...I think. It only took about 9 months for us to see each other haha. She used to hang out with my bro! My brother told me to add her on Facebook friends before I left....so we finally met haha. She rocks. 

Life is crazy. I've learned more and more that if you gain patience for yourself, than comes the patience for others, or else it just stacks up. Got knows our weaknesses, otherwise patience would be a very very hard thing....

I continue to reflect on my brother's 'story' with many people. One invest. asked about our church's stand point with "gay people." So I pulled out Romans Chapter 1 and went from there. There's so many people out there struggling with something. If it weren't for my brother, I would have no knowledge about it. 

Well. Time to go. I'm surprised these computers aren't closed down for Veteran's day. This church is true. It's there to help us! Not to discourage! 

 I saw this on a letter...Elder Kunz is now home in Idaho, he must have seen this letter the day he went home. That dawg. 

JW is talking to me about insurance haha. He's still rad.

Love you all! Next week should have more things happen!

Peace.

Elder D.Hales

Week 39 - I received my mission call OVER a year ago.

High School throwback. Miracles. District Meeting. Two Jews. Appointment with the Lord. Talking with Weed dudes. Training comp. Tears in lessons. Missionary costume. Fixing cars. Fasting. Boom. 

It was quite an awesome week! My new comp. Elder Hall is loving the work out here, even though the mission is nothing like he imagined it to be haha. I don't think the mission is what ANYONE expects. WELCOME TO THE ATM!

Part of training! 

Last week, we hitched a ride with the ZL's and apparently Elder Banner went to Layton High and was friends with a lot of people I hung out with too...it was awesome. We started listing off people and we were both really close friends with them. Haha small world!

Let's move on to the miracle part of this past week. In District Meeting, I focused the training that week on 'finding'. We set apart a time of the week to do 2 hours of specific finding and to do an appointment with the Lord. Elder Hall and I prayed, looked at a map, tried to focus and pick one we both felt was a good one, then prayed about what time and what day we were going there. Saturday came, the day we had the appointment with the Lord. We showed up to the (disappointing park) at 1pm and there was like no one there haha. Crap. I still had a good feeling. Sometimes you only have your Faith to run on. 3Nephi27:21. 

We talked to a couple people who are homeless. Their names were "Jersey" from New Jersey and then Brian. They were nice to us but then quickly had to leave. Then we headed over to the other side and saw some college kids 'passing around' some stuff...nice. So we went and talked to them haha. They were really chill, maybe because some were stoned, but hey, whatever works. One of them was Eli who was super chill and just got clean and was interested in the institute at UoA. Awesome. Had a good time talking with them. But then a family of 4 walked up to the park....YES! We slowly secretly made our way over to where they were...and the lady was really friendly to us! They are a black family. My blessing says "many nationalities" when talking about my mission, so I always feel comfortable around people, regardless of their ethnicity. Her name was Mosette and got talking and said she just recently started reading the Bible and accepting Christ more into her life. We had a good talk, Elder Hall introduced the BoM to her, and we got an appointment to go back! Wow. So awesome. While we were leaving, Elder Hall said, "Wow...did that just happen?" It was pretty cool. Been praying all week to try and get some cool things to happen to start off Elder Hall's mission well.

Just found out my dad is leaving the Mo-Tab (spoiler alert)...it's sad and sucks, because Waldo will be even harder to find....buut it's for the best! :D

Nick is one of our investigators who we found on the street. He came to church yesterday and still has a BD! He's one of the nicest people I've taught, and we're excited for his progress. He had a picture of Moroni on his wall the first time we met with him....that's quite the 'sign'.

Then we also have John and his new gf/fiance Laura. They both came to church yesterday and looked like new people....holy crap. John was all cleaned up and has been sober for a week! Laura was dressed nice too and had tears throughout fast and testimony meeting. We've been trying to go over there most days, and it's such an awesome experience to have worked with John for weeks now. John is sober, and at our lesson last night, he read! He usually can't read! John is like a new person and he wants us coming over. Last night he grabbed some sunscreen and he said, "I love the way sunscreen smells. Makes me think I'm at the beach!" and then wiped a huge glob on his face haha...it was 8:00pm. John gave me an Irish Necklace (which I forgot to take a picture of, crap) and gave it to me. Apparently he's had it for years. The Gospel certainly has enlightened them both, and they are both comfortable at church now and are receptive in lessons. Man they rock.

A shirt from my Mom given to her by my Sister Jolie. YES.

It's crazy to think that I received my mission call OVER a year ago. Wow. It literally seems like yesterday I got home from WSU and was waiting for my call to come. There's nothing else I'd rather be doing than serving the Lord. It BLOWS my mind to think I've been out for almost 9 months (on Wednesday). Especially with having my comp. being out only 3 weeks...so crazy. It seems like Demnation was yesterday, but now I'm creepin' up on halfway. Whaa?

This morning at the bank haha

I love you all and all the support that's been given. My family, the Ward back home, my friends, and everyone else. This church is so awesome...and although I still think of drinking a Monster EVERY time I see one....and sometimes think of blasting music in my truck when I see a Tacoma....I know there's nothing else the Lord would want me to do. Elder Hall and I were just talking about how we get to separate ourselves from the world for 2 years, and have a simple lifestyle, although stressful at times. I'm grateful for my Savior. Even though my sins and pains added to His, I know his sacrifice was out of love for His Father and his brothers and Sisters. The church is true and can bless families, whether you're in much contact with them or not.

3Nephi26:9:

"And when they shall have received this, which is expedient that they should have first, to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe these things then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them."

Hope everyone has a good week! Don't be a total tard.

-Elder D. Hales