Breaking the vow

Proof I biked for a day!

Hello family and friends! What a crazy week of adventures it has been for us here in the Murrayhill ward! Between snow, bikes, and even a baptism, the week was pretty eventful! I apologize in advance, this is going to be long, so feel free to skim. I won’t be offended.

Tuesday was a long day. We spent the day “zone leadering” as I would call it. Tuesdays usually become that and it is seriously my least favorite day of the week. We get ZERO time in our own area to work while we take care of everything else. Tuesdays always have me exhausted! We did get to judge the youth’s cake baking competition, but that event was cut short because it started snowing that night.

Which leads me to Wednesday. We were supposed to go to the temple on Wednesday, but due to the 2 inches of snow we received the night before, all mission cars were shut down until the roads cleared. (For those of you that don’t know, Oregon isn’t equipped for snow, and it’s really wet and heavy snow that freezes quickly, so the roads just turn into a mess.) Thankfully, the snow melted by noon and we could go out and get some work done! 

As we were walking around a complex looking to contact a guy, we saw a little blue book half covered in snow, smeared with mud, laying in the grass. It was the Book of Mormon we had given to a guy just a week earlier. The book had obviously been outside for several days, and was completely ruined. My heart sunk when I first picked it up. I didn’t feel anger, I didn’t feel grief, I felt love-filled sorrow of sorts. It pained me to see this book of scripture treated so poorly. It hurt to know that someone threw away their opportunity to feel God’s love. But then I stopped, and I realized the only way I would be feeling any of this is if this little blue book was true. In that moment, my love for the gospel, for the Book of Mormon, and my Savior grew! I kept that very book to remind me of that day. I’m STILL drying it out, but I can’t wait to show all of you when I finally get it dried!

Thursday was the day I broke a vow I swore I would never break. I rode a bike again. I know, I know, you’re all shocked. I was too. We went on exchanges and I went to the Reedville ward with Elder Schugk and Elder Bode, while their companion Elder Otteson went to Murrayhill with Elder Hadfield. It didn’t get above 35 degrees, and the wind chill was frigid, but we biked. And I survived. And one day was plenty for me. Haha we actually had a ton of fun together! Schugk and Bode are going to be lifelong friends whom I love very much. They are great guys!

We went and visited a little lady in the ward named Peggy Jo on Friday and I just have to say I love that sweet little lady. Many of you know I have a very special place in my heart for the elderly, and Peggy just fits right in! She is so sweet. The rest of Friday we ended up zone leadering again, but you do what you have to! It’s good I love this zone a lot!

Saturday was the day!! My pal Dana got baptized! It was such an amazing day! The baptismal service was absolutely beautiful and full of such a sweet spirit. She is such a neat lady! I’m very blessed that I’ve gotten to know her and be a part of her amazing journey. 

Earlier this week we had double miracles right in a row! We were street contacting in this shopping complex when a member pulled up and told us to meet her at Jamba Juice so she could get us a smoothie! (Miracle #1 right there, we love Jamba but it’s freaking expensive). As we were walking there to meet her, we saw this guy sitting on a bench with earphones in, smoking. We thought we should talk to him but we were in a hurry so we passed him up. It was half an hour later when we walked by and he was still there. This time, we realized God was giving us another chance, so we went over to talk to him. He introduced himself as Shaun. Shaun was from Hong Kong, and after a few years of living here, just had an experience where he felt God was real, and was looking for a church. We gave him a Book of Mormon, and invited him to church! It was so cool.

Throughout the week, Shaun kept texting us questions he had. We met up on Sunday before church and had such an incredible lesson with him! Come to find out, he had read SEVERAL chapters of the Book of Mormon and loved it! We ended up setting a baptismal date for April 7th! The spirit was so strong. Shaun stayed for church and the ward was so amazing with him! He felt welcomed and was enjoying every minute. We are so excited for April 7th!

I’m sorry this was so long, but we had such an awesome week! I hope all of you have a great week this week, and I promise next week will be shorter! Love you all!

With Love,

Elder Hall

Adventuring in the snow

Dana’s baptism!

   

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My biking pals, Elder Bode and Elder Schugk.  Wednesday morning out our apartment window.

The Book of Mormon: The band-aid for life

I FOUND THE HISTORY OF PLEASANT GROVE HERE!!!!

A good snowy morning from Oregon! We got a good dusting last night but thankfully Mr. Sunshine is melting it all away. We had a really good and busy week over here in the Murrayhill ward! Our zone is going through a lot of challenges and trials right now, and they are pulling through like champs! We are very proud of them.

Elder Hadfield and I set a pretty high goal of handing out 25 copies of the Book of Mormon this week. We quickly went to work and we were seeing miracles! The other night we only had an hour of finding time, so we said a prayer and asked God where we needed to be. In that short hour, we talked to 13 people, and handed out 9 copies of the Book of Mormon! It was super cool and we were very excited about it! Not to mention, we hit our goal of 25 copies handed out this week! We were pumped!

We are getting ready for Dana’s baptism this Saturday! We had a lesson with her this week and she is so ready! We are very excited for her and the knowledge she has gained of her Savior these past few months. The ward loves her and is *almost* as excited as we are for her! 

We went on exchanges this week during Valentine’s day with the Aloha 2nd elders and it was a lot of fun! I stayed here in Murrayhill and Elder Jacob came to party with me while Elder Hadfield and Elder Gard partied in Aloha 2nd. We had a successful day and a lot of fun while doing it!

Just a quick side note, we found out Steph Curry’s godmother lives in our area, so we went and knocked on her door because he was in town for the Blazers game so we thought he might be there. Nobody answered, but we felt pretty cool so we took pictures.

We had interviews with President Bullen this Friday and it was great! I love that guy so so much. He is a good man. We had a very good lunch meeting with President Bullen and President White that afternoon as well. I love taking President Bullen out to restaurants because 99% of the time he has never been to these places and it is super entertaining to help him order.

This week was a tough one for our zone. Two sisters with the flu, an Elder with an ear abscess, one with a sprained ankle, another with pink eye, and we had another sister go home for medical reasons. We are literally hurting over here in Beav West this week! So much sickness and it is always so so so hard to send a missionary home early. Not only that, her companion (my pal Sister Bray) was transferred to another area for the remainder of her mission. It has been tough on everyone, and especially sad for me because my last area, the Farmington ward, no longer has missionaries. 

You know, in all of this our zone of missionaries have stuck together and stayed strong. Despite this pretty sad and difficult week for everyone, we have persevered through it all! I credit all of our success to one simple thing: the Book of Mormon. Goodbyes are so hard. Sickness is so hard. Working out in the whipping wind and freezing rain is hard. Life is hard. But the Book of Mormon makes anything achievable. The Lord will always look out for us! I love you all, have a wonderful Presidents’ Day and an even greater week!

With Love,

Elder Hall

   

My amazing valentine from my mother!             Steph Curry’s Godmother’s house!

The snow this morning!

I'm a Jazzminton Pro!

Teaching at Zone Conference

Happy Monday everyone! I hope everyone has had a fantastic week! I look forward to Mondays so much. The week always goes by so fast, and then you hit Sunday and the day is SO LONG but then Monday comes and the world is ok again! Anyway, we had a pretty fun week!

We’ve been seeing miracles this whole week as we really push to accomplish our goals. Every night last week we needed to hand out just one more Book of Mormon or talk to just one more person and every time we decided to stay out and try until the last moment, we would accomplish our goal! It was super cool and a lot of fun. The other night we needed to talk to one more person and after walking around our apartment complex for like 15 minutes we weren’t seeing anyone. So with only like 10 minutes left in the day, we jumped back in the MAV (Mormon Assault Vehicle) and drove down the road. Someone was walking on the sidewalk so I pulled over and Elder Hadfield jumped out of the car and ran to talk to them. They were super mean and said some nasty words, but we got our goal and made it home on time! It was awesome!

We had zone conference on Wednesday and it was so good as always! President Bullen is such an amazing man who I love very much. We were tasked with teaching how to plan for people and planning for finding people. It was pretty fantastic, mostly because Elder Hadfield and I taught it. Haha! After lunch we were getting ready to head back in for the last hour or so when President and Sister Bullen brought out paddles and birdies for everyone and we all played a huge game of Badminton! (Well it was called “Jazzminton” but pretty much the same concept). It was a huge surprise and definitely a highlight of the week!

On Thursday we returned to Canfield Place to do our second craft with the elderly. We picked out a relatively easy valentine to make and it was a success! Pat was the only one that was grumpy but we found out that she’s actually just really grumpy all the time. I’m pretty sure that she was enjoying herself though, she just didn’t want to admit it. 

Thursday night we were going to check the mail and it was super dark. When we were walking back to the car, I heard the slightest little sniffle. Over in the dark there was a person in a hoodie with a dog that looked like he was hungry and I was on the menu. I walked over anyway and said hello. A young woman looked up at me with red puffy eyes and tears streaming down her face. I asked her what was wrong and she couldn’t get the words to come out. I sat down next to her and told her that God was aware of her and that He loved her. We gave her a Book of Mormon and said a prayer with her. By the end of the prayer she had calmed down and thanked us. She even gave us a little smile. I’m not sure if she will ever call us back or even read the Book of Mormon, but it was a tender moment that I will never forget. 

We met a sweet little Asian man named Ly (pronounced Lee). He was so excited to get a copy of the Book of Mormon and read it every single day! We are hoping to meet with him soon, though we probably will need the gift of tongues to understand that little guy for more than 10 minutes. Hahaha!

Well, I’m just grateful for the time and love that Christ shows each of us. He is real, and He lives! I love you all, have a great week!

Love,

Elder Hall

Zone Conference

My Energizer Bunny!

Me and Elder Hadfield

Hey fam! Holy cow what a week it’s been! I’ve got lots to talk to you about and not a lot of time! It’s been pretty mild this week weather wise, so that’s been good! Especially with transfers this week!

So, transfers. I had to say goodbye to the Farmington ward and and Elder Wallace! We both got transferred out of the area (whitewashing is what we call it). So Sister Bray and Sister Jacobs took over Farmington and my new companion Elder Hadfield and I took over the Murrayhill ward from the sisters! It was sad moving areas so quickly, but also cool that I stayed in the same stake and I’m still the zone leader of Beav West.

Elder Hadfield is from Layton, Utah and has been out only 6 months! He was trained, then trained a missionary, then came to be a zone leader with me. He’s a stud of a guy! He’s made me feel like an old man this week because this is only his second area and he is so green still. This kid is gonna run me ragged! He’s a hard worker that is literally like the energizer bunny. My tiring old man self can barely keep up! But we have seen a lot of miracles and I’m grateful to gain back a little of that greenie fire that I lost many moons ago.

On Thursday night after a long day of putting out fires (as usual the first few days of a transfer being a zone leader), we got home at around 8:45. We hadn’t been able to place a Book of Mormon all day and I was frankly ready for bed. But, Elder Hadfield and his super optimistic self turned to me and said we needed to place one before we went inside. I said we could try and before I could even get out of the car he was walking down the sidewalk. There was a couple sitting on some steps with their dogs a few buildings down so we *quite literally* ran over. Danica and Joshua were super cool and gladly accepted a Book of Mormon and we got a return appointment for this week! It was a super neat experience and I’m grateful for Elder Hadfield and his faith.

So we have 11 elders in the zone and only two cars that seat 5 each. Do the math and we come up one seat short! After talking to the mission office, we were informed that we would be receiving the mission minivan! We were PUMPED! Her name is Fat Pat and I will include a picture. So now I feel like a dad with all of his little missionary children driving around Beaverton in a White minivan. Woot!

The sisters that were in our area previously had signed us up to do a craft day in a rest home with a bunch of elderly people. Well, it was the definition of a FIASCO. The old people were grumpy and we had no idea what was going on. Pat was filled with sass and Paloma kept telling me she wasn’t having fun. It was rough in the moment, but looking back, it was pretty hilarious! We are not excited to go back this week. 

Our investigator’s name is Dana and she is AMAZING! We are so excited for her baptism on the 24th! She is an incredible woman and we are so proud of her. We showed her a video of President Nelson on Saturday and when it finished she said, “Oh boys I know that man is a prophet of God.” Did I mention she is from St. Louis and full of sass? Hahahaha I love her so much! 

This ward is amazing and I’m so happy to be here! They are absolutely incredible and I love it! I am just FILLED with gratitude today! I am IN LOVE with Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It is such a beautiful gift that I will forever praise Him for. 

I love you all so much! Have a good week!

With Love, 

Elder Hall

The area of rescue assistance



MLC




Fat Pat!




Saying goodbye to my pal Sister McNeil




Conducting District Meeting