Umkehr

Hello world! I have SO much to talk about this week, and I’m so excited to tell you all about it! First things first, I know my subject for this week looks like gibberish, but stick with me to the end of this email and it will make sense!

First of all, Elder Lott has finished his mission and will be returning home shortly. It has been so much fun being his companion! I’ve gained a lifelong friend. He has shown me a lot, and taught me many things. I am so grateful for him. I will see you soon enough my friend!

My new companion is Elder White! He is from Highland, Utah and we were in the MTC together! He has never been a zone leader before so I get to show him the ropes. I’m so excited to be his companion! We are going to convert nations!

This last Tuesday, President Bullen told us we needed to attend a meeting with him that night, so we threw on our suits and went to the stake center. At the Meeting was all of the Milwaukie Stake bishoprics, the Milwaukie Stake Presidency, President Bullen, and Elder Blunck, the Area Seventy. The meeting was about the efforts to rescue less active Melchizedek Priesthood holders. As the Milwaukie Stake, priesthood holder numbers are some of the lowest in the United States. 

It was an amazing meeting! As Elder Blunck taught, he said, “I will now do a demonstration on how you should teach these brethren. Elder Hall, will you be my companion?” I tried to look cool and collected, but I just got asked to role play off the cuff with a freaking general authority in front of my mission president and all of our member trust for our whole zone hangs in the balance. I said a prayer in my heart and then went up and proceeded to teach with Elder Blunck. By the end, the spirit had entered into the room so fully, it was almost tangible. After the meeting, President Bullen said he was very proud and impressed. I was so grateful!

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to give a blessing to sweet Sister Huggard, a sister in our zone who I also happened to go to high school with. I am always so humbled and honored when I get to be the Lord’s mouthpiece for someone else. 

Wednesday night we taught our investigator Austin! We planned to teach the Word of Wisdom, which teaches us to refrain from coffee, alcohol, illegal drugs, tobacco, and tea. We got there right as he arrived home from work so he was just moving a million miles an hour. He invited us to sit down while he got some things put away and such. When he came back to finally sit down, he had a big cup of hot tea in his hands and he went on to rave about how much he loves tea and how he couldn’t live without it and how he just spent like $150 on some tea. Elder Lott and I looked at each other with eyes I’m sure the size of dinner plates, but we both knew we needed to move forward. We taught the Word of Wisdom. At the end, Austin said he couldn’t give up tea. We were devastated, but we asked if he would just continue to read his scriptures and come to church for now. He said he would. Then he said the closing prayer. He asked God to give him the desire to give up tea, and to help all of the investigators and members that struggle with the Word of Wisdom. He asked for strength to keep the commandments, because they were true and from God. We were blown away. I’ve never in my life heard such a sincere prayer. I was almost emotional. I’m excited for Austin to be baptized on the day he chose, December 30th! 

The hospital called us on Saturday and let us know of a patient requesting a blessing. When we walked into the shared room, we met a nice woman named Cassie who had just suffered a stroke the day before. As we sat and visited, her fears and anxiety were raw. Her biggest fear was passing away and leaving her 15 year old son behind. I went back to the time a few years ago when my own mom was in the hospital on the verge of passing away. It was a scary time. We gave her a blessing of healing and of comfort and reassured her she would be ok, and that her boy would have his mom still. Elder Lott had to use the restroom on our way out of the hospital so I sat down nearby and prayed with all my heart for her son. I knew how he was feeling. I had been there. I asked God to be there for him, just as He had been there for me. And I know He will.

Last night we had dinner with a member of the ward named Kylee and her family. She just returned from a mission in Germany and made us the most incredible German food ever! It was amazing! Not only that, she had invited her non member friend and we taught her! She is coming to FHE tonight! We are pumped! We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Kylee told us the most amazing thing ever. In Germany, the word for repentance is “Umkehr” pronounced oom-keh-r. The literal translation of umkehr is to turn around, or change. In fact, the word umkehr can be see on many street signs in Germany. 

I have been seriously pondering how profound that word really is. When Christ visited the people in the Americas in the Book of Mormon, he said, “Repent​ all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me” (Moroni 7:34). Christ never turns His back on us, but He won’t come to us either. It is completely up to us individually if we come to Him. It is our conscious effort and desire to umkehr, turn around, and place ourselves closer to Christ. We do that not by just making good resolves, but by making righteous choices. I know there are physical and spiritual blessings as we umkehr to Christ. I invite you all to get your own umkehr on this week, and see the miracles that result! I would love to hear your experiences, feel free to shoot me an email! 

Bridger.hall@myldsmail.net

Love you all, keep up the good fight! Have an amazing week!

With love,

Elder Hall

  

Zone Bowling!           Milwaukie or die!

        

Moreland District

  

Throwback to 1890 with the Riverside District!       I make one good looking weenie!

   

Working hard or hardly working?    Champion of the garbage can!

IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY!!!

My Birthday breakfast burritos!
(Mom always makes Birthday breakfast with candles)

Hey everybody!! Thank you all for the birthday wishes! I have felt so
much love from all of you this past week. It's made for a truly
memorable birthday! I'm not a teenager anymore, thank goodness. Onward
and upward! We had a really fun week this week, and I'm excited to
tell you about it!

Last Monday we went and played football with the guys out in
Beaverton! It was so fun to see my old pals and play football! The
best part is that all of us actually played football and most of us
played against each other in high school so we had some fun
reigniting some old rivalries... Haha!

So last week, we stoped by a former investigator's house. His dad told
us he wasn't there and probably not interested. We left our card
anyway. Let me tell you, ok. I've left THOUSANDS of cards with people
or on their door. Not one has ever called back. Low and behold, a few
hours later, this guy calls us back!!! I couldn't believe it! We
invited him to come to FHE. A few hours later, he came! It was
awesome! His name is Adrian and he is the greatest guy!

We met with Adrian the next day and he told us that a year ago the
missionaries were teaching him, but he decided to join Catholicism.
Recently, his Parrish has been doing some shady things and he has felt
like God doesn't approve and he needed to find another church. The
next day, we left our card! He said he felt like God was telling him
he needed to listen to us. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon
and pray to know it is true.

A few days later we went and had lunch with Adrian at his work! He
related to us his experience when he read and prayed. He said, "The
whole room filled with bright light, and I just felt so peaceful. Is
that the answer I'm looking for?" Elder Lott and I couldn't believe
our ears. Let's just say, Adrian is going to get baptized pretty soon
here!

We have another investigator named Austin who is super cool! He lives
down in Oregon City. We went and had breakfast with him Friday
morning and taught him. He is deciding on a date to be baptized! It's
super awesome!

The rest of Friday we had to drive out to the mission office to get
our tiwi fixed in our car. Tiwi is what monitors your driving and
yells at you when you don't drive well. It's super annoying. So while
we were out there, we went and had lunch with the old gang again! It
was a lot of fun! I'm grateful for all of these lifelong friends I've
made out in Oregon.

We went on splits with our zone all day Saturday. It was pretty fun!
We have some struggling missionaries right now, and I was grateful to
spend some time with them and help them continue in the work. Missions
are hard! I was humbled when I remembered the times I struggled and
the help I wish I could've had from mission leaders. It makes me want
to do my best helping all those in my stewardship.


Sunday was the big day! I turned two decades old! Thank you all for
your love, gifts, birthday cards, Facebook posts, and prayers. They
were all appreciated! We had an awesome day at stake conference and
then had a wonderful dinner with some members and their YSA son in
Oregon City. Not to mention, it rained all day and it was amazing!
Finally! I really have felt so much love and I am so grateful.

Yesterday for stake conference, our bishop in the YSA spoke. He said,
"There is a difference between believing in the Book of Mormon and
exercising faith in the principles of the Book of Mormon." Many people
I've taught can believe in the Book of Mormon or pray to know it's
truthfulness, but they are not willing to act on their answer. It's
not until we exercise our faith and act on the principles found in the
Book of Mormon that we find the sweet knowledge that the book is true.
I know the Book of Mormon is true, and with it comes joy- pure joy. If
you have that testimony, don't let it wilt. If you are seeking for it,
keep seeking! Your answer will come.

I love you all so much! Thank you for making this a birthday I'll
always remember. Have an amazing week!

With love,
Elder Hall



Throw back to our zone at the temple.

SHORT ON WORDS, HIGH ON ADVENTURE!

Me saying how much I love chips mid sentence!  Hall's love their chips!

Hey from Oregon this week!!! The fire is out and it rained a little
bit! It was so nice!  Well, we didn't have a ton go on this week, so it
will be fast.

Last Monday we went roller skating! It was terrible and I'm still so
bad at it. I did NOT enjoy myself.

We had interviews with President Bullen on Wednesday and it was so
great! We had a really fun time doing some training in the morning and
then interviews were so good. I love President so much! He is amazing.
I'm so glad I get to work so closely with him!


On Friday we went with the bishop to see our investigator Jordan. He's
been struggling with some things but is such a champ! I love him!!

I'm sorry this has been so short! It's been a crazy day and I don't
have much time. I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder Hall

   

Doing training with President Bullen


   

This is a true Rainbow Trout.  We found a floating neighborhood!  It was super ritzy!


   


   


We found a bench in the middle of nowhere

THERE WERE GHOSTS AND GUNS!!!

''

Homemade Sunday dinner!

Hey everybody! I'm excited to tell you all about my week, it was

weird. Seriously, what a weird week. Sorry, it won't be super long
though.  Funny enough it was a pretty normal week with just a few
things.

It's still super, super smokey out here Today you can look at the
sun and it doesn't hurt your eyes. Praying for relief!

This last Tuesday we got to go to the temple for a session! It was
just the most peaceful incredible morning. The temple grounds were
absolutely stunning! It was fun to have our zone all together in that
holy place. It's always a treat when we get to go! I wish it was more
often.

On Friday we were on exchanges and I had Elder Jensen, a greenie, with
me here in Alder Creek YSA. I had to laugh at the things he did and
the ways he acted. The whole time I just thought about how I was when
I was a greenie. Man, I thought I was king of the world back then and
that's just funny. I was an idiot. I've come a LONG way.

Anyway, on Friday night we were in a leadership meeting at the
Sellwood building. This church was built in the early 40's and is so
spooky. It's the one with the tower I climbed up in a few weeks ago if
you remember. Well, I was standing at the front talking with everyone
facing me and a big window behind them. As I was speaking, a very
large white figure very fluidly went past the window. I kinda freaked
out and everyone thought I was being stupid, so we kept going with the
meeting. As Elder Lott was in the front talking, he went white all the
sudden and said he saw the same thing I saw. We decided to go outside
and investigate. The window was covered in bushes and placed between
two walls, with no possibility of walking past it like this figure
did. In short, I'm pretty sure we saw a ghost. So yeah, that was
crazy.

Sunday night was crazy. We went to church and had a lovely
Sacrament meeting and classes. It's amazing that we can get so much
out of church! Well, we knew we didn't have a dinner, so Saturday
night we prepared and bought stuff to make food. We found a recipe for
a dish you get at Macaroni Grill.   A pasta Romano dish. We made it for
dinner yesterday and it was incredible!! We were also amazed that the
only thing we had to borrow was a pot. Missionary apartments are not
usually well equipped with anything really.

Well then the evening came. We got home from working and being out and about and
had just changed into our pajamas. We were sitting, just enjoying our
personal time, when BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!! Gunshots. Fairly
close. We sat in silence and listened as we counted over 30 gunshots.
We turned our lights out and hunkered down low. Gunshots kept going
off every minute or so. Then we heard a negotiator on a loud speaker.
A guy in an apartment across the street had a few felonies and when
they went to arrest him, he barricaded himself in the house and
started shooting, threatening to kill police and then himself. We
called President Bullen and let him know what was going on and that we
were safe. We didn't feel threatened, so we just went to bed. We found
out today that no one was injured and the guy ended up surrendering.
All in all, the standoff lasted over 10 hours. We are sure glad no one
was hurt! Way to go Milwaukie PD for doing a great job!

I've been really missing my family this week, I won't lie. When it's
Fall, my favorite season, football is in full swing, my little nieces
and nephew are so big, I miss them all. But, perhaps more important
than a physical storehouse is a storehouse of happy memories. When the
times are tough and things are lean, dip into that storehouse of happy
memories. I've dipped in there quite a bit this week, but thank
goodness I've got QUITE the storehouse. I love you all so much! Have a
good week,

With love,

Elder Hall

   

Found a great sign up in Sellwood.  Trying on the neighbors ENORMOUS glasses!