Week 57 - What a coincidence. NOT.

Elder Simpson and I hate starting emails home....so there's a start.

This past week was generally pretty swell yo. The first week of my 3rd transfer in Sierra Vista is over. Nothing drastic happened, but a lot of really awesome cool things. I could potentially have only 2 areas left in my mission. That just blows my mind. 

Our zone meeting setup yo.

This past Wednesday was our Zone Meeting where we focused upon Ward Council and members. It went really well as training about working with members always requires a lot of motivation because it requires work not just from missionaries. It went well and we ended with talking about the Atonement. My favorite moments is when you know you're teaching by the spirit when you teach yourself something new...from your own mouth. Word. We were talking about 'accessing the Atonement' and I said, "You can access the Atonement by going out and sharing the Gospel with others." It was cool and I had never really thought of that before. Woot. It went well and we hope our zone starts picking up with member-missionary work. Sister Tanner (a senior missionary in our zone) texted us this after zone meeting. "The mtg. today was wonderful. Thanks for all your hard work. Also, thanks for the kneeling prayer. It really toughed my heart.." Her son has been struggling and they still managed to come to Zone Meeting. Families are blessed incredibly from this service. 

Done helping out at a homeless shelter place where they fed a bunch of people. #chefmissionaries

The wife of one of President Killpack's counselors passed away this past week from cancer. It was sad to hear as she's been struggling the whole time we've been out. 

 A couple weeks ago we saw some people moving and they accepted us to help! It took like 30 mins of moving stuff out of moving truck and a few days ago we got to meet who lives there. Her name is Gale! She's so rad and has never been involved with many churches before. Although she was busy and couldn't come to church, she was so energetic with everything and we hope for the best. I love black people. 

One day, a member was with us one day while contacting people. I was driving and we decided to go do a little street contacting. There was a guy walking down the street so we parked and started walking his way....here we come..The Mormon's are coming! The guy was on his way to an interview and gave us his apartment # and told us to come by! TBA...

Loretta was sustained in church yesterday. She is so awesome. I remember while teaching her the past few weeks that we promised her that her husband would notice a difference about her with everything after she was baptized. This past week we taught her the Restoration as part of the new member discussions, and she went on about how her husband is a lot more receptive to the spirit and everything. Although he's not really interested, Loretta says she's noticed a big difference of following the spirit. Loretta has a visiting teaching companion and is involved with activities, so she's good to go :D

One night we did a study with Laeke and Elijah, a couple YSA's looking to getting back into things. They rock and are entertaining to be around. One night we had a really intense talk about life and then they both pondered on getting a blessing.

We try to spend some time with the YSA down here to be involved as we try to get a branch going. One night they played suicide ball...probably the most intense game yet. haha.

Our mission cut 10% of miles, so we walk more! It's sweet. One day since our appointments fell through, we decided to walk to dinner where a member was meeting us. Before we headed out, we made sure we there was 3 copies of the Book of Mormon ready to place. While waking 4 military dudes were walking towards us. YES! They were awesome and it was there first time off post haha. One of them wouldn't really talk to us at all and walked away from us, but the other 3 all accepted the BoM's! "We talked to who God wanted us to talk to." - Elder Simpson. What a coincidence. NOT.

Out walking to meet some members. This is probably the biggest intersection in Sierra Vista. haha. Great stuff. There's somewhere around 46,000ish people here. About 500% to small in my opinion, but all is good. :D

One of our close to progressing investigators name is Ashley. She's a former Jehovah Witness but is seriously one of the most solid investigators I've taught. She reads the BOM and understands it very well, comes to church weekly, and is SO close to accepting a baptism date. AH! In our lesson last night, Elder Simpson and I were talking about the process of becoming ready for baptism and what she's looking for in an answer. It came out as, "Ashely I think what you're waiting for is the feeling that will come from your baptism." It was pretty cool. She could accept a date and be baptized within the same week, it's just a matter of when that happens. Nothing a little fasting and prayer can't handle.

Our Zone this past week did really well with finding! We have the most BD's we've seen yet, but our progressing is lacking. It's only a matter of time before things get going. You have to start somewhere. 

Another companionship in the zone has bed bugs.....the 2nd companionship that will be living with us within 2 months haha. Bed bugs are attacking the mission. If we get them, I will punch a brick.

This morning helping out cleaning out some bed bugs. Wee better not get bed bugs. 

Herr's some scrips. 

1Nephi11:1

Galatians 2:20

Galatians 4:18

Here's a way that Satan uses truth to try and deceive us.

1Nephi16:38 - "STRANGE wilderness" - "he may deceive our eyes"

compared to:

Alma 13:23 - "STRANGE lands" - "highly favored of the Lord"

Well. The church is true folks. In Amos3:7 it talks about God revealing secrets to prophets. Since we are all God's children, God will reveal to us everything we need to know because they are not secrets. I'm so grateful to be serving here. This area has taught me so much about myself, being happy, compromising, and so many other things. The Gospel has blessed my family more than anything and I'm so grateful for that. The church is true. The BOM is too. Jesus suffered for our sins. 

Love you all. I miss so many things. But there's nothing else I'd rather be doing.

I'm getting a haircut today. We're going on the military post for sports today! :D #pdaysports

-Elder Hales