Monday, September 28, 2009

September 28, 2009: como andan todos?

hey everyone,
wow it sounds like its been an awesome week back at home. it was really cool to get to read your emails and hear what you all did last week and what you´ve got going on this week.
so its been a good week here in bosques. i really appreciate that the family fasted for matias to come to church. i wish i could tell you that he was able to make it, but it didn´t happen this week. we still need him and abril mesa to come to church one more time so that they can be baptized. we have baptismal dates with the both of them for the 9th of october, so if they both come to general conference this week we can baptize both of them. speaking of general conference, i´m seriously so stoked to go. we go to florencio varela to watch it, which is like 2 stations down from us. i really hope that we can go to the saturday session. we need to have investigators to go to the saturday session, so i´m really hoping that we can get some to come. but yeah i´m definately excited for sunday, to be able to see the prophet (haha i just wrote ¨profeta¨) speak. its going to be awesome.
we are really close to having 2 more baptismal dates with people. we have this family, familia vizgarra, who is praying about a baptismal date. they are a family of 5 who we´ve been teaching for a while now. we asked them to be baptized on the 30th of october, so they are going to pray about that. we also have 2 other kids that we are teaching, the familia vubadillo. we asked them to be baptized on the same date and the mom told us that she thought we should wait a little longer. i would really appreciate if you would keep them in your prayers.
mom, thanks for your email. i haven´t gotten your package yet, but don´t be worried because we are supposed to get mail tomorrow. i´ll definately let you know when it comes. but i really appreciate you sending that for me. to answer your question, its still kind of cold, but for now i don´t need any warmer clothes. i can last out the rest of the spring with what i have. but thanks a bunch for the email that you sent, it was really awesome. dad, i hear that this week is kind of busy for you work wise. i know that you´re awesome and i hope you know how much i love you. keep working hard and don´t go too crazy with just girls in the house hahah. sean, thanks bro for the email this week. it was sweet to hear about everything going on at byu. dude, i´m stoked to hear that both byu and the chargers won. it may not have been too impressive on byu´s part, but i´ve got faith that they´re going to get it going. but try not to have too much fun with those midterms. i know that you love them so much, but remember ¨they're just tests...they're not love¨ hahah. paige, i hope that you´re doing well and everything. it sounds like everything is going well in school. keeping working hard and remember to have fun with it. bridg, thanks for your email too. it sounds like you´re having an awesome time with jillian. i´ve got to admit, i´m excited to meet this dog of ours someday too.
i love you all so much. thank you all for your emails, prayers, and the love that you bring me. i pray for you all everyday. i hope that everyone is safe and having an awesome time. and remember ¨keep it classy san diego¨ (haha whats up with me and these quotes today haha¨). until next week...
con carino,
elder ryan hall

Monday, September 21, 2009

Que Pasa

hey everyone,
its great to hear that you are all doing well back at home and at school. it was awesome to get emails from everyone. i really appreciate that.
well its been a really good week. i´m trying to think about everything that has gone on. we had 9 investigators in church yesterday, which was pretty good. we were hoping for more than that, but i know the Lord has blessed us with alot of success. we were hoping to have a baptism with matias ponce this week, but he´s going to have to wait a little longer because he didn´t come to church yesterday. i would really appreciate it if you could pray for him. he works as a security guard, so he works alot in the nights. so its a huge sacrifice for him to come to church at 9 in the morning. i would really appreciate it if you would pray for him and the rest of our investigators also.
we are working really hard to find new people to teach. what we´ve been doing is every time we have a lesson with someone, no matter if they are members or not, we ask for names of people that the people know. we´ve been able to find some pretty good people to teach from that. and really the most important thing is that you just talk to people. everyone has something in their life that you can apply the gospel to. just listening to them and getting to know them. one thing that i´ve been trying to do lately is listen to actually understand the person. to listen with a purpose. to really pay attention to what they have to say.
Today is the first day of spring (yeah i know its weird for me too). but today has been one of the first days that its actually been really warm. its supposed to get way way hot in the next couple weeks. but i love the weather alot more now than when it was cold and raining all the time. its time for me to start workin on my tan hahah.
mom, thanks for your email. i forgot last week to thank you for that story about grandpa. that was seriously so awesome and really special to me. but i want you to know that i love you. dad, i hope that you´re doing well. and since everyone ended up telling me about this new dog of ours, i´ve got to ask...what made you give in?!!? and why did you wait until i left to get another dog? i was seriously thought that there was no way that you would get one. i saw the picture of bridg and the dog, it looks like an awesome dog. jillian right? i was hoping that you would name is something like scruffy hahah just kidding just kidding. but thats cool, i can´t wait to meet our new dog. sean, dude thanks a bunch for sending me an email. it means alot to get emails from you. dude, what happened with byu and the chargers. maybe its good that i´m not there right now because i think i would be wayyy bummed right now too. but don´t worry, i´m sure the chargers will still go to the super bowl this year. actually i´m gonna call it right now, they´re going all the way (thats right i´m going all out haha). but all i´ve got to tell you bro is that no, no signs of any bluebirds yet. i´m "keeping my eyes out for them," but so far no signs of any bluebirds. dude keep me posted on all the sports and how everything is going for you. i love ya bro...paige, thanks alot for your email too. it was really great to hear from you. i saw the card of all the fam...wow you all have gotten so much bigger! especially bridg its crazy! i thought i´ve only been gone 4 months, not 4 years. but bridg, how did i lose this bet of ours?! are you kidding me?!? i´m way surprised that you got a dog...i guess that means i owe you 5 bucks. actually i´ll just give you those 5 bucks in pesos. that´s almost 20 pesos, which can get you a long ways here hahah.
well i guess thats about it for this week. thank you all for your letters and everything. you are all in my prayers and know that you are in my heart. i love you all. until next week...
con carino,
elder ryan hall

Thursday, September 17, 2009

hey everyone, como andan?

Hey everyone, como andan?
Ok so i´m sure you´re probably wondering why i´m writing you all on Wednesday instead of Monday. What happened was that on Sunday we found out that we would be going to the temple today. The Buenos Aires Temple is actually closing for like 18 months in November, so this could be my last chance to go to the temple here. But sorry that i wasn´t able to tell you that i wouldn´t be able to write you on Monday. I just didn´t have any way of knowing.
Ok so first off, i want to tell Dylan that i´m so proud of him for getting his call. Dude you are going to tear it up in Provo. I´m seriously so stoked for you. and look on the bright side, when i come home from the mission i´ll be able to go to school and visit you...its a win, win buddy. You're going to be awesome.
Last week i got to go to capital with my buddies from the MTC. That was seriously so awesome. Tt was so awesome to be able to see all of them again. They are all doing well. I took some pictures and videos with them, so you´ll get to see all of that sometime.
You also have to be sure to thank Aunt Lorraine for her letter. It was really nice of her. I also got letters from Beehives in the ward, so be sure to thank the Beehive class also.
You´ll never guess what happened at the temple today either. So Elder Garcia and I were a little late for the temple session with our district this morning, so we had to wait until the 11 o'clock session instead. When we went in, guess who I saw...just the Assistant to the President of the Buenos Aires West Mission. Yeah, Zach Woodmansee was there. How awesome is that...and even cooler was that he was in the same temple session as me. It was seriously so sweet. We talked for a little while, and then after we took a picture together. I´m sure by the time you get it he will already be home, but thats cool. After that i went with him and a few others and we all ate across the street. It was seriously so awesome to see someone from home. He´s a capo. The temple is really beautiful also. I took some pictures of all that.
Let's see, its kind of been a crazy week. We´ve been having to do some rearranging with baptisms. I ended up paying for Carlos Fernandez to get married. He set a date for like the 16 of October, so he can´t be baptized until after that. We are going to have to change the baptismal date for familia Oliva also because they still need to be married. They will definately be baptized but it might be a while longer. We also found out that Agustin Dussauge is really only 8 years old. His parents kind of lied to us and told us that he was 9, which would have meant that the baptism would go to us. Instead it goes to the ward. But honestly, with all of this, i don´t care about my numbers. The mission has never been about me and never will be. What matters is that I help to make a difference for these people. I don´t care if i don´t baptize anyone personally. If I help someone get ready to be baptized and then I´m tranferred, I´ll be just as happy as if I was the one to baptize that person. I just want to help with the work.
Thank you all for your letters and prayers. I really appreciate everything that you all do. Mom, thanks for telling me that you sent a care package. That means a lot to me. I´ll be sure to tell you when i get it. Dad, i love you. You are so great. And be sure that if you give in and get a dog, its not a huge dog. I´m with Mom on that one, the smaller dogs are better-hahah. Sean, thanks alot for writing me...i´m stocked to here about the Chargers. I haven´t heard any news about them from other missionaries so I´m kind of in the dark here. Be sure to keep me posted. It sounded like BYU tore it up, which I´m way excited about. Keep working hard up at school. Be sure to keep my posted on the love life too-hahah. Dude it was so funny cause the other day I was just thinking about your little celebratory dance. I can´t even explain it, but was so funny. I don´t know why I thought of it, but it was hilarious. Paige, thanks for writing. Your email was really great to read. I hope that you are doing well and liking school. Bridg, you're awesome. Keep doing what you´re doing. It sounds like i could lose the dog bet...but i still don´t think so.
I love you all so much. Thank you all for your prayers for our investigators. That means alot to me. You are all in my prayers. You´ll be hearing from me soon...it will only be like 5 days now. until Monday...
Con Carino,
Elder Ryan Hall

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Sept. 7, 2009: Hey Everyone Que Tal

Hey Everyone Que Tal,
It's awesome to hear that everything back at home is going well. Thank you for all your emails. I especially want to thank you for your prayers and for fasting for our investigators here in Bosques. I know that you had a huge part in all that has happened. So first off, I'm excited to tell you all that we have 2 more baptismal dates from this week. One is a kid named Matias Ponce. He is about 21ish years old and is actually the son of the Bishop here in Bosques. We've been teaching him for over 7 weeks and he has been progressing really well. He was really excited about his baptism and we are too. We set the date for the 26th of this month. The other baptismal date that we have from this week is with a little 9-year-old named Agustin Dussauge. His parents are members but have been inactive for a really long time. We met them a couple of weeks ago and the dad has been coming to church the past 2 weeks. We are really excited for Agustin and he is really excited because he's been making a lot of friends in the church. One thing that he told me a while ago is that he doesn't have any friends here in Bosques. We are really excited for him. We set his baptismal date for the 19th of this month.
I've got a pretty sweet story that I thought I would share with everyone. So on Friday we had interchanges. Elder Garcia went to El Parque and this other Elder came here to Bosques. He was a pretty sweet Elder from Northern Argentina. He doesn't know much English, but it was still cool. So that day, we were going down this street and I decided to knock on this door...actually we don't knock on doors here in Argentina. Everyone has fences around their houses, so everyone just claps outside the house. Just a fun fact about Buenos Aires. So anyway, I thought we should go to this house. It's definitely one of the nicer places. But we started talking to the guy who owns it and found out that he is in the band Los Dinos. It's a pretty popular band here in Argentina. It's awesome. Then on top of that we were about to leave and he runs inside and comes back with 2 CD's. He signed the CD for me and for the companion I was with. It was so sweet. We got an appointment with him and his family too. We'll see if anything happens with that. I just thought it was pretty cool.
Things have been really hard with Elder Garcia. When we had transfers, I talked to a lot of people and everyone that found out I was his companion told me two things: number one was that Bosques is one of the more dangerous parts of the mission; the second was that Elder Garcia is probably the most difficult Elder in the mission. Neither was news to me - haha. But people tell me that this will probably be my last transfer with him so I think I can hold out.
Another thing that I'm glad to tell you all is that I set a goal that I would memorize D&C section 4 in Spanish in 2 weeks. I'm happy to tell you all that I was able to do it. If you don't know the section, you should definitely look it up - it's a great one.
I want to thank you all for your emails this week. They were seriously awesome. Mom, your email was great as usual. Your story was really great and I hope that something awesome comes out of it. If I've learned anything from the mission it's that we should always listen to the promptings that we have. Even when we don't understand why, just do it because the Lord is guiding you. Dad, I'll be sure to look that scripture up when I get back to the pension. Thanks for keeping me posted on sports and all too. Sean, dude...BYU!!! Are you serious?! How did they beat Oklahoma. That's crazy. I didn't think they had a chance. Wow that's seriously so awesome! Be sure to keep me posted on all that. And by the way guys...what's up with that saying of yours. I've got to say that I got a good laugh out of it - you two are ridiculous. haha. Paige, thanks for writing with Dad and Sean. In answer to your question, you can use whatever you find that was mine. Bridg, thanks for writing again this week. Your dog story was hilarious again. Maybe you can turn those 5 bucks into pesos because I don't think you're getting a dog. But if you do, just make sure that it's nothing like the dogs here in Argentina. They are everywhere and pretty gross. That reminds me, Dad and Sean, I've only been bitten once but it wasn't even a big deal. For the most part, the dogs here only chase you for a block and then they usually leave you alone.
Well, I think that's about it for this week. I want you to know that I pray for you all. I love you all so much. Thank you for everything that you do for me. You are all amazing. Until next week...
Con carino,
Elder Ryan Hall

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

August 31, 2009

Hey everyone,
Wow it's great to hear from all of you this week. Thank you all for your letters and emails. Be sure to thank the Carnohans for their dearelder. That was really nice of them.

So this week has been another great one. We had transfers today. Are you ready to know where I am and who I'm with....drum roll...I'm still in Bosques with Elder Garcia. haha. I thought that would be funny. But I guess no one is really surprised that I'm still here. I expect to be here for at least one more transfer. But Elder Garcia was made district leader. We'll have to see how that goes. But it was awesome because I got to see all my MTC buddies today. Man those guys are sweet. It was so cool to see how they are all doing and I'm also way excited because I get to see them all next Wednesday too because we are all going to capital for a visa thing. It will be way awesome to hang out with them for a full day. I'll let you kow how it goes.

I'm excited to tell you that Elder Garcia and I set 2 more baptismal dates with people. One is with a 10-year-old girl, Abril Mesa, who we have been teaching since I've been here. The other is this guy named Carlos Fernandez. We've been teaching him since I've been here too. Elder Garcia and I were definitely hoping to be able to invite more people to be baptized this week but we are really excited because we have 9 baptismal dates coming up. We had to move the baptismal date of Eliana and Dennis back to Sept. 19 because we haven't been able to teach them a whole lot. But everyone is doing really well and we are super excited for them all. Please be sure to pray for them all.

I want to thank you all for your emails. They were all great. Dad, I'm glad to hear the fishing trip was a lot of fun. How come we never caught 60 fish when I went. haha. Mom, thanks for your letter. It sounds like everything is going great at home. Sean, I really appreciate the email this week. You have to be sure to tell me about all that happens up at BYU and all. Dude you have to keep me posted and don't do what I did and start to not write. Paige, thanks for your email too. I'm glad to hear that all is well. Just remember that I put up with 4 years of seminary and if I can do it you can. Bridg, don't have too much fun at school, ok. It's cool to hear that you have the same teacher that I did. Tell her hi for me.

Well, everyone I better get going. We are going to teach Abril Mesa right after this so pray for her and everyone else we are teaching. I love you all so much. You are in my prayers. Until next week....

Con Carino,
Elder Ryan Hall

August 24, 2009

Ok so I have a little more time to write really quick. So yeah, we are teaching this family Vizgarra. we were hoping to ask them to be baptized yesterday, but we couldn't fix a time. Elder Garcia and I are hoping to ask them to be baptized sometime this week. About the family Oliva, we were barely able to ask them to be baptized when they told us that they would. It was really awesome. The dad is going through a divorce right now and then the family has to be married, which is why the date is for the 30th.
About being able to speak and understand almost everything in Spanish...it's just what I said earlier: the Lord has truly blessed me with an amazing gift of tongues. That's the only way I can explain it. I was talking with a guy on the train today. I ended up flat out telling him that I'm not here to tell him a lie. I'm here to share a message of Christ with everyone. He ended up crying and telling me about his life. He's been through a lot of hard times. In the end, he wrote down his address for me and told me to come by sometime. We'll see if anything every comes out of that.
That you for all your emails, they were seriously awesome. It sounds like everything is going great back at home. I love you all. Mom, thank you for your letter as usual. Everything that you said was really great. Sean, dude, don't have to much fun on vacation and then at school without me - haha. Paige, I hope all is well. It sounds like you are having a great time. Bridg, thanks for your letter this week. Your dog story is hilarious. I hope that it all works out, but I really don't see it happening. haha. Yeah, I still like to tease ya.
Okay, I love you all, thank you for all you do and all of your prayers for me. You are all inmy prayers as well.
Con Carino,
Elder Ryan Hall