Well whaddup erryone!?
Holy crap another week has come and gone. Let me start out by explaining the pictures:
The one of me holding the ipad next to my Mission President's wife Sister Killpack is because she let me watch my brother's video! Holy crap it's awesome. "What a bummer." "....you don't like boobs?" and mom's classic jaw dropping hahahah. It was so awesome. We had to go to Tucson on Friday for Trainer-training which meant we woke up at 3am and drove for about 10 hours that day and then hours of class, but it was awesome since we got to see a lot of people. I went and talked to President and Sister Killpack about if they had seen my bro's video and they had! She then offered to show it to me, I didn't even have to ask! They are awesome and are very supportive of the whole situation. Go gay mormon bro! hahah. A few other Elders watched it and all have their support for James/Jimmy. Including one who I have a hunch is struggling with it by the comments he said about it, so I'm glad he saw it.
The other picture is of my companion Elder Flint....let me just copy it out of my journal:
3/7/13 4:23pm "hahah so one of our investigator's just drove out of state...Delia. haha so Cindy and Amanda both weren't freakin' home, but we tracted and talked to a few guys and placed a BOM. When we were walking back to our place to train me about the area book, we were walking by Delia's house and her truck was there so we decided to knock..then we heard someone knock back , shut the door and started yelling in Spanish or something. She opened the door while yelling at Marcus her son and gave us a tire....uh wtf.. She came outside and told us to hop in.. we aren't aloud to be w/ one girl in a car, so we just hopped in the back of her very very old Ford Pickup. We had NO idea where we were going or what was going on..but we didn't feel the spirit telilng us we were in danger, so we just rolled with it haha. She drove over to her daughter's home across town , talked to a bunch of people in Espanola, then parked. Still having no freakin' idea, she told us to come w/ her to her daughter's apartment where she cointinued yelling (not at us) then knocked at the door. They didn't answer, they went around looking but no luck. Melissa who was the aprtment next door said no one was home, Delia said "it's none of your business!" snd swore at her in like 3 languages. Delia gave us a Spanish Children's bible, 6 dollars, and a bandaid and told us to teach her grandson a lesson. She then grabbed us and had a random picture taken w/ us, then I took one her and Marcus. Then I asked her if we'd see her again and she said she didn't think so....well crap. We were about to lose an investigator...suck. She said she was going to another state for a construction company. She thanked me, shook my hand, and just like that, being fetching confused, she left her fam.."
Well that's the just of the story...we lost like 2 or 3 investigators this week because they're being pretty unreasonable, but we feel we're doing our part.
This week we were tracting and were invited by a spanish couple to attend "The Light of the World" church....so we did by invitation! It was in Spanish so we had to have a translator but it was all good haha. It's crazy what other religions do. We found out there are 57 CHURCHES in this tiny town of Deming....there are literally churches EVERYWHERE and only 1 LDS church. After the church session was over we were surrounded by a ton of people who came and talked to us...long story short, we gave out a couple BOM's and went through lessons 1 and 2 and taught a lot. It's so cool so see the spirit work amongst people. I'm stoked to bust out Act 19 since they worship Paul haha.
Remember a while ago I said something about Christene's thug sons? yup. FILL THE FONT YO! Being a 'greenie' you're given the opportunity to invite the first person to be baptized, and so I did. His name is Tony and he got out of jail 42 days ago after being in prison for 7 years for attempted murder.....he hasn't done drugs since, and read the bible a ton. We gave him a challenge to read 2Nephi31 I think and he did it in one night and we talked about it the next day during sacrament! He had to leave after sacrament to go take care of some parole stuff hahah. It's so awesome. He said he felt like a changed man, and loved the way it made him feel. It's crazy how the spirit can work amongst all people. My comp. said that Tony was "the sketchiest person I've had come to church." hahah, too awesome.
We found out more things about Jack and what he's done....holy crap. He's quite the playa for
an 75 year old. Yikes.
I bought a ASU shirt. Woot!! Everyone in Tucson is a huge U of A fan so I'm glad to support the school I'm going to go to eventually. Sun Devils!
I can feel myself getting out of shape....I hate it. We're out in the sun a lot and it'll be in the 70's all week so we're getting a pretty gnarly farmer's tan hahah.I weigh 150 with all my church crap on...and I've never eaten so much and didn't gain weight. Eff.
We recently are doing a 40 day fast which persists of giving up things that are distracting from our work. Our mission is lacking and is actually in last place compared to the missions around us, but that's why we're here. We're so stoked to bring this mission back up and we were given to "Standards of Truth" for our entire mission, which means working our butts of in Deming New Mexico to read those standards, but we can do it. We got 4 new investigators last week, and we're continuing the work knowing the Lord will prepare those for us if we are obedient and do our complete best.
Something we're doing this week is flat out going up to people and asking, "Are you Mormon?" ...I'm stoked.
We killed a massive cockroach in our kitchen the other day....freakin' nasty.
It's funny to see people's reactions to when I talk about my fam....they don't know how to react really hahah. I can take the things my family is doing and use the stories in lessons. I use Christy's and Ben's miracle "Cave Story" a lot of the time, especially to couple's. It's perfect because it shows that by following Christ and making the butt load of sacrificies that they made to get married in the temple, they were literally saved....then it's a pretty transitioner to the Plan of Salvation and Eternal Families hahah.
We had a few discouraging moments this past week, and Elder Flint came from an area of 10 baptisms a transfer, tons of people at church and all of that. It's been an opportunity to test us and we're making progress as time goes.
Well we are going to hike Red Mountain today in a our minimal spare time, hopefully the rattlesnakes don't eat us...that would be a bummer.
Letters are basically Christmas, and I love to read them whoever they're from.
Stoked to hear about what people are doing in their lives!!
Love you all!
Don't be stupid. Take advantage of everything you can.
"Do and I say and not as I do" hahah we learned a new motto from a member.
Peace yo.
Elder Hales out.
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Dallin sent home his flash drive with his first round of pictures (lots!!). The night before he left for the MTC, he had some friends stop by before he was set apart.
The morning he left, he took a few more pictures for the last time for two years.
12 days in the MTC:
Off to Arizona they go!
Sorry forgot one thing!
I'm insanely curious about his upcoming General Conference. We were talking to an Elder who knew someone's dad that worked for the twelve with missionary work. He said that they are strongly considering making ALL mission's 18 months because of the huge surge. If they were to go through with that announcement, it makes the most sense to announce it before summer when the surge actually hits. Who knows!
Also very curious about what they'll say or not say about gay mormons....crazy to think the impact my bro. is able to have on people.
Okay now I'm out.
Times up!
1 Chronicles 19:13
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