Que Tal!?
Freak. Email time is probably one of the most intense parts of this mission hahah.
So this week had it's ups and downs but we tied our highest number for lessons in a week, so we're continually more confident in our work down here.
This last week started out with cutting chickens heads off haha it was sick (good thing). hahah I'm sending pics/vids home today so they should be up next week! hhaha so awesome.
We talked with a member who reminds me a lot of my bro-in-law and he printed us out a couple brackets for March Madness...so we call a certain number and get updates on games before we go to bed haha. I picked Gonzaga to win it all....yup they're out. SUCK.
It's crazy how small things in a small town become such big problems hahah. Everyone knows everyone here. Someone forgot to put the chairs back up at the church, and it was a HUGE problem hahah. Just some adjusting for us to make.
A couple of my goals for my mission are 1) read the whole bible 2) be converted over to a Spanish Missionary. WE've had SO many experiences where people use their language as an excuse. One time while on an exchange with Elder Donaldson, we started talking to this lady who was out working. She spoke fairly good English. Then after talking to her for a few minutes, we told her who we were and what we did. She then said "no speak English" so I was like...."So you can't understand anything that I'm saying??" she was like "Noo" hahaha. Pretty dumb.
I ran out of money like a week ago. Crap.
We were teaching someone about forgiveness whose sons were shot by someone and one was killed. He doesn't want to go to heaven if there's a chance of seeing those certain people there. Let me just type my journal entry from then:
"Today was another strengthening day. We just got back from a very good lesson from a less active non-member couple. Last time we talked we really focused on forgiving others. Bro. Lowell had 3 sons relentlessly shot at and one was killed. He says he can't forgive..just found out on my my final 4 teams lost. SUCK!..so we went over forgiveness. We watched a powerful 'mormon' message' video, then talked about forgiving others. It was a lesson run off the spirit and I felt so inspired to say so many things. Busted out 3Nephi12:42-46 & Ether 12:27. He looked at the versus for a long time, and it stumped him. he doesn't want an afterlife where he lives w/ people he doesn't like and won't forgive. Both of them have a really good heart tho. They offer to feed us always haha. So grateful for opportunities to share what I've learned in my own life in lessons. Experience is a great teacher if you get your points across using the spirit and not focus on entertaining them. So many humbling experiences by making sacrifices for obedience in order to take advantage of special events..."
Just an example of a lesson of the week!
A couple of us sang "Come Thou Fount" at a baptism...wow it felt so freakin' good to sing again! Music is definitely one of the hardest things for me to adjust to. Worth it.
hahaha so we gave a talk yesterday in church, and everyone knows how I 'freakin' talk. Apparently I said 'crap' and 'heck' in my talk....apparently I shouldn't say that here in a small town. After I spoke, Bishop got up and was like "we'd like to thank our past speakers...except for a few choice words (looks back at me) who needs to polish up his language." uhhhh WTF. The spirit was there in my talk, and tears started to come during it too. No one else really said anything about it. It kind of irritated me a little bit, but we were thanked by a few people, and Bishop called me later and apologized haha. Overall, it was a really good talk and was guided by the spirit.
My family are all training to run the Salt Lake City marathon soon...I train probably once a week by running 6 miles....it makes me feel involved hahah.
Last night we were asked to go over somewhere and bless someone's house because they had some weird ghost experiences haha. Elder Flint allowed me to say it, and it was cool to dedicate a house...it really was a pretty creepy house.
Some thoughts I've been thinking about lately is how important exact obedience is for us. Why should the Lord trust us with special events if we don't make necessary sacrifices? Already have seen blessings come from what I believe is striving for that exact obedience. Although all of our baptism dates have dropped because of their parole, not attending sacrament and other reasons, we're improving. Deming was known as where they sent the 'apostate missionaries' so we're changing that with all of us being new to Deming.
I've lost like 5 lbs....wtf!
Alma 9:21 & Romans 8
Thank you everyone for the support again and again. Finally to the point where I love missionary work and am comfortable living our here...although I'll never live in a small town if I can help it.
Love you all!!
-Elder Hales
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