Monday, October 16, 2017

The Lord's Work, Isn't it About.....Time?





Hey from Oregon! First of all, I hope you guys get the subject. I thought it was quite clever! If not, look up, “LDS Homefronts”. It is officially autumn and it is amazing! We’ve had some stunning brisk Fall weather this week, along with some crazy storms!! It’s been awesome to hear thunder and see some lightning! That’s not super common here like it is in Utah. Well anyway, here’s my week!

First things first, I caught a cold last week. I won’t lie, I felt pretty miserable. But, thanks to many prayers and modern medicine, I’m feeling much better. Not quite 100% yet, but 80% is better than 40%.

On Tuesday we had an incredible lesson with the Oregon City Elders and their YSA aged investigator. Her name is Hannah, and she is amazing! She has been through a lot in her life and has finally found the peace she’s been looking for in the Gospel. We are super excited to work with her! She set her baptismal date for November 25th and we are super pumped! She really is a miracle! I’ll tell you more about her in a bit. 

Tuesday night we had an awesome lesson with Austin! He’s doing very well, and the ward really loves him! We brought bishop to the lesson with us, and another member of the ward. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ and it was incredible. We invited him to read Enos and he said, “Oh I’ve already read that.“ This guy! Holy crap! We are so pumped for him and his baptism coming up in December!

On Wednesday, I woke up feeling like absolute garbage. But, the work goes on so I go on! We don’t have a washer and dryer and the guy we do laundry with was out of town, so we went and did laundry at the sketchiest laundromat I’ve ever seen. It was exciting! It smelled like marijuana and death, but that could’ve been the homeless man sleeping inside. When he woke up he was very nice though! It was pretty awesome. I will definitely never forget that. 

Thursday morning Hannah let us know that she wanted to go to Institute at Clackamas Community College, so we went with her so she would have someone to sit with. She LOVED it and made more comments than anyone else in the class! She is seriously so amazing! After class we talked about the Plan of Salvation and she understood it well. She is truly a miracle. We are so excited for her.

Saturday was a really crazy day! There’s been an issue with an individual and the safety of some missionaries in the mission lately, and basically the issue made its way to Milwaukie. So we spent the day with the APs and President to figure out that situation. Being a zone leader is basically putting out fires. It’s pretty great.

Austin had to work yesterday so didn’t make it to church, but Hannah came and she loved it! She introduced herself to almost every member of the ward. Not only was she commenting in Sunday school, she volunteered to say the closing Prayer! We were blown away it was so great!

This week Elder White and I really dug down for some needed inspiration in behalf of our zone. The answer was this: This work is not about filling time, it’s about helping people. It’s not about filling your day with “meaningful activities” rather, doing all that you can to help people become converted. In the Book of Mormon, King Lamoni sits for several hours in silence pondering the prophet Ammon’s words. Ammon does not go to find more effective things to do while the king thinks, he sits with him. Because of Ammon’s loving persistence with King Lamoni, nations of people were converted to the Lord. When we stop treating people like checklists, they begin to see their divine identity as a child of a loving Heavenly Father. I know that’s true. I can’t believe it’s taken me 15 months to figure that out. Effectivity was never about a pretty schedule, it’s always been about helping people. I love you all, I hope you have a week of time spent effectively. 

With love,

Elder Hall


I washed my flag!

   
              Snoozing on the job

   

At the laundromat


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