[Transfers] Week 20 - He asked me to be the new District Leader.

What's up blogodians.

So this past week was crazy, we had something going on every single day that wasn't related to work. We went on exchanges, went up to Silver City for Training, tons of different things! We crawled and killed ourselves to make it to standards, but we got it...barely.

Keepin' pday interestin' yo.

Transfer calls were this past Sunday, so here's the scoop. I have a new companion, he's pretty chill and we should do a good amount of work. President called us on Sunday which usually means you're getting bumped up in leadership or you're training. So he first said Elder Dayley is getting transferred and bumped him up to Zone Leader at the YSA ward on the University of Arizona's campus! That's so awesome and there's no doubt that he will do some serious work out there....gotta "lock the heart" haha a term to focus on missionary work...and not other distractions. He then talked to me and said he'd like me to stay here in Deming, New Mexico one more transfer, so after this one I'm out. He then asked me to be the new District Leader out here...so I'm now the DL as of today. Although I haven't really been in the field too long, I'm grateful for this chance so I can improve on things. Let's do work. So now I get to call our district a couple times a week for various things and get to train once a week or so. Pretty surprising! My past two companions were DL's, so I am grateful to have watched and have seen how they did things to help me out. So that's the throwdown yo. Get up, less goo.

Elder Kite's exchange with me in Lordsburg...a very trippy place to be haha.

Okay, now then! Last week we went on Zone wide exchanges to try and pump up the missionary work with excitement...it was cool, and I went to Lordsburg where it's SMALLER than Deming and is TRIPPY. The first guy we talked to was a member and just pulled over someone for Weed...he held it up and we smelled it...freakin' gross haha. We tracted 3.5 hours while fasting to hope for more opportunities, in the 105 degree heat haha. Pretty great. Every single person we talked to was CATHOLIC except one person, who started her own church. But we were able to get a new, and a few potentials, so all is good. Elder Dayley (will kill me for saying this) went to the wrong area in that day, so we didn't get any news for our area hahaha so funny. They got a lot of success tho, just for the other Elders. hahaha

hahah yes they're serious about the name

Many of you probably watched the broadcast on Sunday. WOAH. Facebook? What the is that? Tablets? Computers? I have no idea what those are anymore. Technologically inept at the moment...although I'm the go to nerd. Go figure. President emailed us and told us he'll let us know, but change will be coming within the oncoming months. Tracting will be not nearly as popular (thank freakin' goodness) as it's not very effective, at least here in Deming. Missionary work is completely changing. It's awesome.

We also got some news on the Tucson temple. The process is going faster than they thought and we WILL most likely see the ground breaking on our mission, for those that are relatively new. SICK!! It will be 2X the temple in Gila Valley and there's only 2 missions in the world that have two temples in their mission. Awe yeah! Our mission is massive haha.Our mission now has 250+ missionaries which is INSANE. They had well under 200 when I came out. There will be 85,000 missionaries by October. There are now 405 missions world-wide. Wow.

Last week, we taught a man who is a member. He has had many concerns and wasn't sure about a lot of things and told us he was insanely close to ex'ing himself. He brought up a story asking about what would happen if a man did 'stuff' with another dude....first of all, it was an unusual lesson. I had another prompting to bring up my bro. So we pulled up my brother's video on youtube, having previous permission from President Killpack, and he watched it. They were rather blown away and it was completely new to them. I told him that his video might be on mormon.org (if a few changes are made hahaha "You don't like boobs??-" - Christy) he was surprised that the church was in support. We went over parts of Romans 1 which says "practices" and things such as that, and told him there is marriage in the after life. We now know more about this guy. Thanks to my bro., otherwise I would have absolutely no idea about any of it.

This is (#%^(*%), if you can't tell, we're watching my brother's radical youtube video....he has multiple concerns...but we recently had a lessons on "homosexuals" in the church, no it wasn't planned, but it was the second prompting I've had to bring up my brother. He was very amused...we're getting somewhere with him...we're hoping. haha freakin' crazy.

We had some J-Dubs (Jehovah witnesses) come knock on our door. Elder Dayley and I were eyeing them down the whole time hoping they were going to come knock on our door haha. "It's game time!" hahah. I feel bad for them, as they continued to use bible verses to try and deny this faith's teachings. They said things like how they belive only 144,000 people are saved, but other go to Heaven.....soo...what about people that are born later, they aren't given a fair chance? Is God not a just God? Does he change? We brought multiple things up with them, from prophets, to baptisms for the dead, to the afterlife. They can't read BOM's because they'll get excommunicated....perfect! We asked them to pray about it, they said no, and then asked us to pray about the bible.... I said,"Sure! We'll do it right now!" in a nice way haha. Then they left and we wished them luck. Feel bad for people who are confused with faith and aren't willing to listen. Suck.

One of our recent investigators got thrown in jail last week because of her warrant..well crap.

Elder Meriluch. He's a stud haha such a funny dude. He got transferred out of our zone.

We currently have 3 BD's. One for Linda, Christene, and Mike. Mike and Christene are SICK kid. Mike is almost 14 and Christene is 10. They are a recent convert's children, Matt and Carol Smith. I've seen those two get married, baptized, receive the priesthood, and now have his kids from South Carolina move here. They were running from the cops, involved with multiple things, but now are some of the most incredible people you can meet. After one of his interviews for priesthood, the Stake President dude said "I've never met a convert so incredible and solid." They rock. Their whole familiy have really hard Georgia accents, but are seriously awesome. We set a date for July 6th for them, as soon as we set it, Carol and Matt sort of freaked out...they turned and looked at us and said, "That's the day we got clean from drugs." Well let's dunk your kids shall we! Now Matt will be able to baptize his own 2/3 kids. The other one isn't here yet. The Senior missionary couple were the ones to baptize Matt and Carol back in March. Way back when there's a pic. of us at their wedding, next will be their kids' baptism. Awesome. I had a very strong prompting that they were goint to be my first baptism. Such a blessing.

This is Christene...strange pic I know. She and her brother Mike moved to Deming a while ago and are getting baptized July 6th! Their (and their parents') story is a remarkable one. I felt a prompting (before transfers) they were going to be my first baptism, seriously can't wait.

Exodus 33:13

I really really want a BMW.

Our latest landlord just got kicked out of our place...so no one owns our apartment and our water and electricity could be shut of soon...well awesome.

"After Midnight" will forever be stuck in my head.

Gettin' pics with our sick t-shirts we made as a district. Awe yeah. We all just woke up.

Well things are good, and looks like I'll be here in Deming until beginning of August! I was hoping to get washed away or thrown down while biking by some monsoons in Tucson, but the wind here will do.

The work is hastening!

Thanks again for the support, it means a ton. We won't get mail until Friday or Saturday because of transfers, but will write back asap when there's free time.

Trying to take some pics of the places we teach at. Pretty SKETCH sometimes. Awesome.

This transfer should be a good one...and interesting. We're having a pig cook this Saturday for our ward. AWE YEAH.

Love ya'll!

Good things to come.

Peace out homie G's. Keep it real. Drink a Monster for me. :D

-Elder Dallin Hales

Week 19 - "Be patient with ourselves."

AAAnnd somehow it's already PDAY again.

 

This past week was a pretty trippy week (like usual) but the work really is hastening. Ashley left Deming, we took a less active to the hospital last night after talking to Pres., casting out evil spirits (again), but man, this work is crazy.

Got an awesome package from the Green's! Man I miss those guys.

The beginning of last week we went over to Julie's house, a recent investigator whose been an alcoholic for YEARS. She was actually talking to us at Brian's house and she kept tearing up...because she's basically going through...hell. We taught some things about trials and things to comfort her, and then gave her a blessing. I was able to give her that blessing and it was quite the blessing. There were many things that were said that her pains will be gone if she wants them to be, by making the right choices...then out of no where it said something referring to the people she's had to deal with the past SEVEN years...blessings blow my mind. God is incredible. We gave her the blessing and she was tearing up and was so happy afterwards. There's nothing quite like seeing a non-member going through so many struggles feel the spirit. We then went over to her ghost-invested house and blessed it and casted anything not from God out of that place. Julie has been very mad lately and we haven't been able to contact her. She leaves lots of signs up on her door that say "do not disturb" even when we have an appointment....lame.

 

Motab should do a song featuring Eminem.

Finshing up a morning run yo

Last Wednesday we were invited to a crazy church called the "Living Word Family Church." It was crazy and I was on an exchange with E. Huffcutt who is one of our current ZL's, cool guy. They have "holy ghost parties" and run around like crazy acting like they're taking over by the holy ghost....so weird. The service was kind of like a comedy sketch, and he was a pretty funny guy....but very different. The service usually ends at 8 apparently, but it ended a few minutes early for some odd reason. After hopping on our bikes and headed to our next appointment, we took a pic. of a Deming water tower (no idea why), then we came across Ashley who was walking home with a 6 pack....suck. She hadn't smoked or drinked for days and was still worthy of baptism, but she came up to us excited to see us and said she wasn't sure if she was ready to be baptized because of all that she was going through. She kept talking to us about how hard things are, and she truly had the WORST environment to live in. She had friends stay with her that were big partiers. She teared up and said she missed Todd. I asked her what made her happy when Todd passed away, she said reading the BOM/bible and praying. She promised us (without us asking) that she wouldn't drink that night and that the beer was for her neighbors, she texted us later saying thank you and that she went home, ate something, then went to bed. We prayed somewhere for her to stay since she was getting kicked out of her place soon (thankfully). I called some members asking if they knew anywhere but we couldn't find anywhere. The next morning during studies I asked Heavenly Father to help us find somewhere. Then while we were out walking, Ashley called us saying she was leaving in 45 minutes to go live with her mom. We ran over there and talked to her, shared a message with her (Alma 4:19) and then helped her pack up and she's gone. Missionaries should be headed over there soon. Glad this prayer was answered quickly. Pretty awesome. Hoping for the best for her!

Saying bye to Ashley, for the second and last time.

While walking home to have some lunch, some members from good ol AZ (where I thought I would be serving) came by and asked us if we had lunch...we hadn't, so they took us out! He served his mish in Vegas and she served in Russia. Dang. They were awesome people and were so kind to buy us lunch on their long trip to Florida. Thanks Bro. and Sis. Manning!

 

We've taught people smoking weed, overdosing on narcotics, chewing tabacco, the WORKS!

Reppin' the LW yo.

Elder Nelson said "Be patient with ourselves" as we are all imperfect people continually striving for perfection. Ain't that the truth.

 

I found mouse crap by my food with holes in my bread....that mouse is going to be murdered.

 

One of our former investigators had the most DUI's in New Mexico. Awesome.

 

We recently taught one of our former 'golden' investigators, Ryan. He basically dropped us. Looong story short, I asked him if God told him he could be with his kids in 15 years would he be okay with it? He said no. It's rough coming out of jail trying to get everything we want all at once. God's timing is so crucial for us to have patience with. If we all knew God's schedule, there would be absolutely no purpose to this life.

 

One of our BD's just quit smoking! We see her everyday almost (daily nourish) and she is so stoked to get baptized. Although she was overwhelmed yesterday and said she can't afford to pay tithing, she still hasn't smoked. When we went over with a member, we talked about how she should fast from smoking instead of food the coming Sunday. Our member who we were with bought all of the tabacco and cigs she had in her house. AWESOME. hahah I pulled out my wallet and was going to buy whatever I could...but didn't think a missionary should be buying tabacco underage...hahah

 

Mosiah 3:19

 

Last night we had a pretty crazy experience. Our good friend Brian, who has severe schizophrenia, bi-polar, depression, and other mental challenges, recently got surgery on his foot like 3 months ago. He called us last night at about 9 saying he got a really bad feeling and that he heard screaming, a window break, and that things were "moving." wtf. We BOOKED it over there, and he could barely walk, and couldn't even hold up the phone. His window was shattered and he was twitching and very delusional....we saw rocks on the ground, so someone threw it through his window. He was sleeping...on his arm he had two narcotic Fendenayl patches on his arm...we found the box and it said take 1 every 72 HOURS. Crap. I called Pres. and he said to take him to the emergency room. Brian's face was puffy, he could barely walk, breathe, and was twitching like crazy. Apparently lots of his pills were gone too....we took him to the hosptital where they hooked him up to the IV and started pumping him full of crap. He had a 103 fever and his heart was beating about 155 beat/minute. The hospital down here is probably the worst I've ever seen. They were SO slow, and were flat out mean. Brian said so too haha. Anyways, his caretaker showed up so we were home by about 10:15....still haven't talked to him since, but hope he's doing okay!

 

The work is hastening down here, it's awesome to see.

 

That's all for this time. Love hearing from everyone. Crazy that it's already the last transfer of the week! Next email home things could be very different...or barely change....but we think something's going to be changing. We'll find out this coming Sunday!

 

Love ya'll! :]

 

Stay real.

 

-Elder Hales

 

D&C 100:4-8

Week 18 - Maybe my farm will grow BMWs.

What's going on everyone! We only have two weeks left in this transfer, it's kind of ridiculous how fast time is flying by. Two weeks from yesterday(sunday) we'll know what's happening with transfers.

 

So this week....let's start off by keeping things interesting.....

 

We had a freakin' investigator that was kidnapped!! Typical Deming. The guy is now in jail for SEVEN different charges. His name was Ray and he stole some drugs from someone, threw Ashley in the back of her car, locked her in, took her phone when she was trying to call the cops and broke it, then somehow got someone's attention who then called the cops! Ray tried to go back his place where he said he was going to "rape" her and do all that crap, but then he finally showed up to his house (insanely high) and then was surrounded by cops who then tazed him to the ground because he was so non-responsive. We have been teaching Ashley how Satan will work through her surroundings if she's not careful, but wow, no one expected this to happen. We all got a bad feeling after she wouldn't respond to our texts, a member asked us the night she was apparently kidnapped if she was still in town, it's crazy how things work out. She is fine now, and has had some terrible surroundings while trying to prepare herself for baptism, but we're now shooting for June 22nd for her date, the last Saturday before transfers. We also gave her a healing blessing where she has very minimal pain since the blessing and said ever since then it's been feeling much better. The power of God is incredible.FINGERS CROSSED.

 

I want a Monster.

 

We had an investigator's 'ghost' attack one of our members while laying on a bed and their dog was going absolutely crazy and then he said he couldn't move for 30 mins! Julie is an investigator who we are working with and has been an alcoholic since she was really young. If we don't catch her when she's sober, she will just push us off. She has had an 'evil spirit' of someone she used to date who was later killed haunt her in her home. I don't think we'll ever cast out more evil spirits in our lives than we do here in Deming, but you can tell a difference immediately after. Cast out spirits a couple times on my mission so far, and looks like that isn't stopping hahah.

This is the place where the 'ghost' or whatever attacked  of our members. haha. Pretty trippy.

We also found out one of our less-actives is in jail for shooting an endangered hawk hahaha so funny...but sucks fo real.

This is where the drunk lady passed away...pretty creepy. 

Apparently a good 50% of Deming smokes meth, never been surrounded by so many drugs before haha. Elder Dayley says this place is much worse than his last place, Nogalis, which is supposedly one of the highest drug imports in the world hahah. We've seen quite a few drug deals go on around us...we've even been asked if we smoke...Go Deming.

They dug out that car that has been covered with dirt years! Not sure why they did....but it was cool.

We were up at a Zone Meeting and we were doing introductions since it was the first one of the transfer, and when I went after Elder Bouwhuis who lived in Layton as well, and I said that I went on a date with his Sister....hahah it got a good laugh. Small world.

On an exchange with E. Jones, we were rivals this day. SUNDEVILS.

My brother might be on MTV. WTF. AWESOME.

 

Cool quote: "Making these sacrifices, there is a possibility of having enjoyment in the anticipation of what will be the final results."

I've learned more about farming here in a few months than I've known in my whole life. E. Dayley knows just about everything about farming...maybe my farm will grow BMW's.

Another one: "Pray as if everything depends on the Lord, work as if everything depends on us."

 

There's often a lot of interesting people on the streets down here. Yesterday we came across a guy named "Bill Russel" who I'm sure was on speed because...he was going nuts. It's sort of sad when one of the first things you do when you talk to people on the street is check their pupils and then check to see if they have track marks on their arms hahah. He had some. We also have talked to a guy named James who has some interesting beliefs and tried to use Joseph Smith against us...but he got shut down pretty hard. He goes out and preaches some bible stuff with an interesting way of doing it, but while he was trying to pull up the bible app on his iphone, he kept saying "In the name of Christ I rebuke thee thine enemy!!" over and over and was completely serious...E. Dayley and I just looked at each other and tried not to laugh. He acted as if Satan took over his phone or something...pretty strange.

 

3Nephi12:10-12

 

Green lights = drug dealer. Red Lights = prostitution. Blue lights = ...something not very good. A green light was just put up outside right next door to us haha. Our neighbors like us tho, they're pretty chill.

 

I got poked by a cactus one day and my arm went numb...so weird.

 

(In the middle of writing home my testimony, the power freakin' went off here at the library hahah, luckily it was saved! Go Deming)

E. Dayley right after the power went out here.

Yesterday, we played soccer with the Spanish branch and Sister missionaries. It felt SO good to get back on a field. Our church is one of the very few places that actually has grass down here haha, it's not the best, but it's enough to play some futbol on! It was about 100 degrees when we played... holy hot. Luckily we were playing with a bunch of kids so they started a water fight with us all with a hose and water bottles and what not. Man, too bad we can't go boating on PDAY...guess there's no lake here anyways..

Right after the waterfight.....a very big tan difference we know hahah

Later we went and taught 'Orlando' a 23 year old hispanic who has had his girlfriend 'April' for years along with her 5 kids. They love having us over and told us that it's the highlight of their day. We always go over there and have things to talk about with them, they have had a pretty crappy situation and Orlando was actually just fired from his job for no reason and is a really hard worker, and now we'll have to see what happens when he talks to his probation officer since he has no job - a requirement for being on probation if you don't want to go back to jail. We got him a BD! Although he might have to get approval from the 1st Presidency (as does most of the people we have get baptism dates for down here) he's so stoked and we taught him the Plan of Salvation yesterday and answered a lot of his questions. We love going over there, and will be going over there lots now. He's looking for a job everywhere, but Deming is rough to say the least so it might be a struggle. -_- Fingers crossed again!

 

The weather is supposed to be in the 100's here all week, and apparently in Tucson it was 111 the other day! It doesn't get cool here until like 9 or 10 at night is when it'll start dipping down. We taught Orlando at about 6pm with the sun beaming down on us outside, it was 102 degrees, and we were out there for a good 1.5 hours or so. hahah so awesome.

This is where we teach Orlando and his fam. 102 degrees babay! Going to try and get more pics with people we teach

We have 15 dead big cockroaches on our floor.

 

Missionaries love the Sonic shakes. We usually get one every week :D haha.

 

Anyways, although fasting, biking in suits in 104 degree weather may be rough, we can do anything with the help of God. Grateful for this work.

 

Not sure if I have bore my testimony for the fellas back home...here we go blog world:

 

The Atonement of Jesus Christ, eternal families, power of prayer, and the gospel of Jesus Christ have never meant nearly as much to me as they have now. It's such a comfort to know that when anyone of us make a mistake here on this life, that our Heavenly Father never looks DOWN at us and shakes his head in disappointment. He is sad when we make mistakes, but is there 24/7 for us to rely on to get us out of the ditch we have dug ourselves. Christ created this remarkable world for us, it's a comfort to know that creating a plan for every single human being, was an important task that he would never overlook. Not one of us is put through things we can't handle. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father, and am grateful for this outlook on life this gospel and mission have given me. In Romans it says "If God be for us, who can be against us?" It's a true statement, and it effects everyone of us. If any of us have doubts in what we're doing, we can have our goals backed up from our friend above. There's nothing better than to have our Heavenly Father pushing us along the path we're striving to excel on. I am so grateful for my family, and eternal family has only recently meant something to me, as we will be together for an amount of time that isn't even fathomable. D&C 31:2. I love my Savior and his perfect example. I am so grateful for my friends and everyone I've encountered over the past years and over these past weeks. In the name of our Sacred Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

Thank you everyone for the support! Always rocks to get letters to hear how everyone is doing. I have some daang awesome friends and family.

 

YOSO - You Only Serve Once. Awe yeah

 

Have a good week everyone! :]

 

-Elder Dallin Hales

-----

Just read our email from Pres. Here's cool quote that would be awesome to be stuck on the blog as well.

 

It's from the first black president in South Africa, so I thought it'd be alright to share:

 

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we subconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

Thank you all!

Week 17 - We now have 4 baptism dates!

"All God has to work with is imperfection." - we all suck, but God understands.

Anyways, what's up ya'll!

This past week absolutely fleew by. Me and E. Dayley were planning one day and we just realized that we're already started our FOURTH week in this transfer...we joked around 'cause we didn't think it really was....but holy crap, we're halfway through this transfer.

This past week was awesome and we now have 4 baptism dates! We've been greatly blessed. Yesterday was fast sunday, which are always a little bit of a struggle, but I asked to get me through it and it was an awesome day. Sister Hallet and Hale gave us a referral to two girls who are 18 and 15 who had a baptism date set and are so stoked to get dunked! We haven't been able to see them at their house (having a car half the time doesn't help either) but we should get those two dates soon as well! Yesterday, we've been working with a part member family, the Lowell's. AWESOME people. Bro. Lowell is a member but doesn't hold the priesthood and Sister Lowell is a lifelong catholic. We've been working with them for 2-3 months now, and they both stayed the whole block at church yesterday. SICK. After Gospel Principles class, Bro. Lowell came up to me and put his arm around me, grabbed me and looked at me and said, "Your testimony was an answer to my prayer, something I've been looking for since you and Elder Flint." He said specifically when I said one of my favorite quotes by E. Holland: "All God has to work with is imperfection." Wow. During the testimony we had a couple people reference to missionary work. The member missionary work is exploding in our ward which we are so grateful for. Their prayers are changing from "Please help the missionaries find people to teach" to "Please help us find opportunities." Prayer is mind blowing. Holy crap. One said "I'm grateful for the missionaries and their impact on Deming." If this ward wasn't so awesome, Deming would be a freakin' downer, but there's a lot (for a small town) of awesome people and for that we're grateful.

Oh the joy of weekly planning

Is it Books of Mormon? or Book of Mormons? This is a mission wide turmoil hahaha never again will we be entertained by such dumb things hahah.

The drunk lady that lives next to us...passed away last Tuesday. Not sure how, but she mixes street drugs with her prescription...not good. We looked our the window one morning and saw the paramedics and some cops. We were questioned, surprise they didn't book us right then because we're mormon...we've come across so many people that hate Deming, it truly is a creepy place, but it's changing!

RIP

Our recent investigator family, Orlando and April's family, are flat out awesome. We went over there one day where they started talking about how one of their friends that just drove up was recently shot in a nearby park because of drug dealing and what not...I wasn't sure I was going to email home about this...alwell. They went on to say they're looking for him, and they all are people from Mexico. They went on to say that they will shoot anyone that they see to try and get to him. The man's leg was absolutely horrendous, but now we know who was shot like a month ago. We're teaching their family tonight so it should be an awesome lesson we're hoping. They love to have us over and to talk to us about all sorts of stuff, but they should be (hopefully) moving soon so we'll be somewhere a lil more comforting hahah. All is good, and we haven't felt in danger once. One day while we were leaving I told Orlando to "Don't get shot!" hahah we get a good laugh out of it.

we are all certified to volunteer at the animal shelter hahah

We went on 24 hour exchanges about a week ago with the Zone Leader's up in Silver City, and I went up to Silver while E. Dayley stayed in Deming. It was fun to serve somewhere else even for a short amount of time. Met some really down to earth-cool people up their, and then one guy we went and talked to is a sign music producer and used to be signed by a company that was owned by Universal Studios...we had an awesome talk and he looked up my (1) song that's on itunes and we had a good, nerdy talk about music. We talked about what classes to take and what not...dang that would be so awesome to major in that stuff and to be signed one day as a producer/writer. I wonder how Majoring to becoming a Doc. and then minoring in music would be...haha who knows.

We've been teaching Ryan a couple times since that one lesson with the Quintana's. They next time we went over multiple things again and then we asked if these visits and teaching him helped him at all, but then asked him to be completely honest...he said he truly enjoyed the company, but no. At least we know better what we're facing. Ryan is such a cool dude, he's 28 and has so much on his plate right now. I pulled out Mosiah 23: 21-22 and he said he got a lot from it, between trusting in God with his Faith and having patience, as all 3 of those we will are being tested very well with him. He couldn't come to church yesterday because of a probation class he had to go to, but he gave us some money to give to bishop for tithing, and he's still shooting for the 22nd for baptism, but only God can tell him his own path. We just do anything we can to help him get there and recognize it. We're teaching him tomorrow night, hope all is well with him.

We are doing a service project where we were asked to go kill all the rattlesnakes there....holy sketch hahah.

This is homeless man named Daniel who we've taught a couple lessons to. I bought him a burrito. Yea.

Ashley's date may or may not have to be moved back a week. It's originally set for THIS Saturday, but she couldn't come to church because her knee's in so much pain. Dang Satan haha. We're praying to see if what to do. We could have anywhere from 4-11 dates by next week...the work is hastening. No doubt!

At Ashley's she had a couple friends over...one of them was talking about how her place is haunted by one of her ex's that was killed years ago...it wasn't a good feeling and I had chill's because of the depth about the Demons and what not she told us about. 

The sister's decked out our apartment since I 'accidently' left the door unlocked...hehe...happy late bday Elder Dayley!

You have to learn to eat literally anything that's given to you. In the Spanish culture, it's an insult to reject food.. and yet I've lost wait. Wtf.

Almost 4 months out already! whaaa?

Love you all! Hope things are awesome. Sure miss a lot of people, but there's nothing else I'd rather be doing...except maybe wakeboarding...or blasting music.... 

God is great.

Satan sucks.

Congrats to all those that graduated! Wootwoot!!

D&C 31:6

-Elder Hales 

Week 16 - The Deming P's: Probation. Pitbulls. Pot.

[My apologies that this post is a week late.  We moved and I got behind on life.  -CB]

In the words of my 'dope' companion. "Let's baptize the hell out of people. Literally."

Fair enough hahah.

Our New Mexico Zone at Zone conference. Small world. I went to Cotillion one year with the Elder on the very bottom front's Sister. Awesome. Also found out that another Zone leader Elder Banner went to Layton High and we actually hung out with the same people a lot....we had a good time about that hahah.

The Deming 'P's':

Probation: almost have our dates for baptism have been on probation.

Pitbulls: they're stupid and mean.

Pot. Deming is known as 'Dope City' haha...another reason to why I love my mom's shirt so much :D 

This past week was an incredible week. So many things happened I wished I had an entire day to recount all the stuff that happened. 

It started out by after we got done teaching a lesson with Ashley, my comp's blood sugar was low and we didn't have much to eat at our place. Since he's diabetic (and we really wanted a shake for 1/2 off) we went around the block to the nearby sonic. We only had like 20 mins before curfew, and we legitally thought that we needed to go to sonic....we go there, and fare enough we met Orlando and April. Two awesome people who have been together for 5 years, he's also on probation, but you would never guess it. We've already taught today. One time we approached his motel room to teach him where there was tons of people (high schoolers) everywhere and a tricked out Chevy Avalance chillin' outside their motel with bass BLASTING like no other...it was awesome. There was a drunk black dude sitting outside...we had to talk really loud because of his bass haha. I started talking to him about his system where he was 2013 15" Kickers in a ported box running 500 watts RMS to each of them....ahem. We got talking, and we eventually went over hypocrisy within all these different churches...but it goes to show, you can teach in any situation and environment if you focus on what needs to be done.

We were out talking to anyone we could in the small town of Deming where we ran across 3 guys and started talking it up...we picked up a new whose name is Zack and he's pretty cool and accepted a BOM. His dad really appreciates what we do, and told us he was baptized in the Salt Lake temple....then he told me that he was a hardcore pot smoker.....and then he stared at me and put his hand on my head for like 15 seconds....when I asked what he was doing, he said he was showing me his appreciation....yup, he was high as crap. hahah

We just barely got done talking to a hardcore Jew. It's hard to reason with the unreasonable, not because he was Jew, but because of his outlook. The fact that they don't believe in Christ and that we just disappear until the "1st Coming" in their words, blows our mind.

We went to the "City of Rocks" yesterday for pday...Elder Vang was literally a few inches from stepping on a Rattlesnack. Earlier that day, the Sisters texted us and told us they had a surprise for us....as we went over (thinking they made us cookies or something) they showed us a huuge black widow that was in Sister Hale's (Hale not Hales...trippy I know) purse! Neither were bitten, basically a blessing from the good man above. They told me to climb this tree, and then soon as I jumped up and climbed up they yelled "SNAKE!" so I basically thought I was going to die. 

Here's a chorus to a song I'm making up.. 

"Success if a type of commitment.

We have to do our best in the given moment.

Faith if the future. Charity is key.

We have to live life right so we can see."

Boom. Missionary style.

Thanks to my Sister, I found some awesome facts out about Deming. 

There's an average of $20,000 of income/year.

New Mexico is the poorest state in the nation. Dope.

It's about 9 square miles big....hahahah

Got this shirt today! YESS! My mom thinks I'm dope! Our district will be jealous of this shirt.

While the weather has only been in the upper 90's lately, it sure is hot biking around in it...it's awesome. We've taught a few lessons in our Proselyting clothes out in the very hot sun, and during the hot part of the day. Tucson is supposedly 10 degrees hotter, then Phoenix is about 10 degrees hotter....sometimes....here I come!

Last night we went over and taught Ryan who was scheduled to get baptized on the 8th of June, but has had many doubts. Bro. Quintana from the Spanish branch called us up and invited us to their family home evening that night with Ryan. Ryan addressed many doubts as we were talking with him, and many of the people their had served missions, so the spirit was there, including the recent converts that were there as well. The spirit was so strong, and it was not possible to get through the first vision without choking up. Ryan had tears in his eyes, and has SO many challenges right now. But as we kept saying prayers within our hearts that we would be able to present something and teach something that would be beneficial to Ryan. I went on about our 'temporal controlled by the world' path and then our 'spiritual path.' If we trust God with everything, those two paths WILL come together and everything will work out. All we have to worry about really is our spiritual path, because if we're doing what God is encouraging, he will not let us down nor let us be disappointed. He has 4 kids and can't see any of them. We got him a new date for the 22nd and things are definitely looking up.

Once President Eyring gave a talk about how he prayed for a trial to help him become stronger....a few weeks ago I decided to try it out, but asked that I may be given a challenge/trial that would not distract from the Savior's work....the first day of the transfer is when it hit me, and now I'm able to focus more than ever. Trials...suck, but they're temporary. We had the most people at church we've seen and the whole chapel was almost full. People kept commenting on how many people showed up to church that day, it was freakin' awesome! Suck it Satan.

Ashley's date had to be pushed back, but is set for the 8th. We've taught her everything, so our job is to keep her going as Satan does wuurk. 

It's crazy that two of my dance dates in HS are engaged....wow. Congrats!

Our district at the "City of Rocks"

Pretty sure I lost like a gallon of freakin' blood from a bloody nose I got during dinner with a member. Good crap.

We duck taped our plates to the table once while eating with some members outside because of the crazy wind hahah.

We did "Red Shirt Contact" again this past week and we came across Andrew "Big Blue" who is super chill and was in the clothing color we asked to be directed too. Crazyiness. His dad is a pastor for a baptist church, and "Blue" later called us and said we couldn't ever come over...he probably talked to his dad. Suck. He was a sick dude.

We have some members who have tons and tons of training in music. We went over there and talked about anything from Music Theory, recognizing different cadences, and tons of instruments. It was great...we came up with a lesson that was revolved around music. 2Nephi22:2&5. It was sick hahah.

Sometimes I wondered if I was sent Stateside because of some effects of the past related to health...but to know that where you are because of a man called of God sent you here, is enough to overcome...anything really hahah.

1Nephi8:6

D&C 130: 18,19

..popping out scriptures like it's my job or something...

Have a good week erryone. Stay real yo.

:]

-Elder Dallin Hales