Tuesday, December 29, 2009

December 28, 2009-Happy New Year

hey everyone,
so i thought that i should go ahead and tell you all ¨happy new years!¨ right now hahah. hopefully you´ve all got some fun plans. i think my plans are just about set...get back to the pension at 6:30 and stay there all night because we can´t do anything else. yup ¨its gonna be a new years to remember for sure¨ haha. hopefully you all enjoy it for me.
so lets see, i´m trying to think of things that i haven´t already told you...araya just told me to tell you all thanks for the tie and the socks. i wanted to thank you all too for everything that you sent me. it was sweet to be able to open them on christmas morning.
gosh not that much has changed since i last wrote you...i guess i just wrote you like 2 days ago so not many things would be new. umm this is the last week of the transfer, so araya and i are wondering whats going to happen for us. my guess is that he´s leaving and i´ll be staying in alto san lorenzo. It will be a bummer if he leaves, but its just a part of the missionary life i guess.
oh yeah, so i had interviews with presidente asay on saturday. that was pretty awesome. it was just really humbling all the things that he said about me. i told him about some of the things that have been kind of hard for araya lately and i just told him that i´m trying to keep him positive about the mission. he told me that thats why i´m with araya. he told me that the mission needs more missionaries like me. hahah it make me kinda laugh to hear that because i think one elder hall is enough for this mission. i really don´t know if i deserve a comment like that, but i was really humbled to hear it. i hope that he can always say that about me.
alright so i can´t think of anything else that has happened lately...but i want to thank you all for writing me, for keeping my investigators in your prayers. thats huge for me. mom, sounds like christmas was a good one for the whole family. i really did enjoy talking to you all too. dad, i´ll bet you´re pretty excited for uncle jeff to come down to visit. be sure to tell him ¨hi¨ for me and to pass it along to the rest of the fam. tell him that i love em all. sean, don´t have too much fun this week alright hahah. se que tiene que ver un monton de deportes y todo eso esta semana, y que ¨la gata¨ (haha i actually don´t know if you understand that or not) va a venir tambien, pero recuerda que tiene que volver a la escuela tambien. but have fun with the fam and be sure to get some tennis in for me...and hey ¨mandame esa foto cuando puedes.¨ haha i´ll bet paige is ¨stoked¨ to have mom and dad at the new years dance. thats the reason i never went to those dances, i think i had a fear that my family would all show up or something haha. but hey i´m glad that you like them paige! don´t have too much fun dancing while mom and dad are watching. bridg, thanks for telling me that story about rylan (shoot i can´t remember if its rylan or ryland). he´s a capo! haha that whole family is awesome. have fun with brooke this week.
ok, i guess thats about it for this week. thanks for everything. be safe, play some tennis for me, watch some sports for me, play some phase 10 for me, and all that good stuff that we always do. i love you all. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

December 25, 2009-Christmas Day

hey guys!
ok so araya is talking to his family right now, and since its our p-day today, i thought that i´d just write a little bit to you all while i wait. wow so it was seriously so awesome to be able to talk to you all today! its crazy to be on the other end of the line like that but i thought it was so cool to be able to talk to all of you for a little bit. i think that that was the quietest paige has ever been hahah. but i seriously loved to be able to talk to you all. it sounds like everything is going pretty smoothly back at la casa. dad, don´t give in to paige driving just yet...i know that she´s trying to woo you into it, but don´t break under pressure with only 3 girls in the house. stay strong amigo! haha mom, really i just want to thank you for seeing me for who i want to be, and not just who i am. you have really helped me to get as far as i´ve come. sean, i hope that your playing some ¨from first to last¨ right now hahah (theres your comment that you were looking for) ;) love ya bro. don´t have too much fun with dad watching sports and all that good stuff hahah. paige, i think that was the quietest that i´ve ever heard you haha. que paso mi hermana?!? bridg, it was nice to hear from you too. still a little shy talking to the brothers on the phone though hugh? hahah
ok i´ve got to get going. i love you all. i´ve got p-day on monday again so you´ll all be hearing from me soon. thank you for everything. merry christmas everyone!
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

December 21, 2009- The Week Before Christmas

hey everyone,
ok so i´ve got to make this quick. what happened is they changed our p-day this week because of christmas. now we have p-day on christmas day this week. so i´ve only got a little time to write and tell you what is going to happen this week. ok so first of all, i´m going to be calling you around 3 o´clock your time. i´ll be able to talk for like an hour. whats happening is we´re going to go to a member´s house to call families at 3 (your time). araya and i flipped a coin to see who would call first and i won so i´m going to call you first (actually i don´t know if that would be winning or losing to call first hahah but oh well). but yeah so the family where we are calling only has one phone line so i have to call and then araya´s going to call right after. so yeah we can only call for an hour each, but don´t worry, an hour is a lot better than not calling at all hahah.
ok so yeah i think that´s about everything that i had to say. but really quick i wanted to tell you 2 things. the first is that we set a baptismal date with ester. we´re pretty excited because we´ve been trying for a while now and we were finally able to set a date. we put it for the 16th of january so she wouldn´t get too overwhelmed with a baptismal date really soon hahah. we´re still working on maria, but i think that we will be able to baptize her too. we´re going to be working hard and try to get her ready...oh yeah so there´s actually 3 things that i wanted to tell you all. so the second is that we had intercambios (sean i still don´t remember what that is in english haha) on tuesday this week. i stayed in my area with another companion and araya went somewhere else for the day. but it was awesome because i found this family of 7 that we´re kind of excited about. out of the 7, 5 are old enough to get baptized. i really hope that they keep progressing. i would really appreciate it if you prayed for them..they are the gomez family....ok and the third thing was that i met someone in our ward who knows travis vongsawad haha. she served a mission in bolivia (i actually don´t remember her name right now, but she´s from peru) and apparently travis was her zone leader at one time. kind cool hugh. i just keep meeting people who know the vongsawads haha. small world hugh?
ok so i´ve got to get going. i love you all and can´t wait to call you. thank you all for your emails and prayers. i know that you are praying for me because i wouldn´t be able to do some of the things that i´ve been able to do without your prayers. thank you all so much. i´ll talk to you in a couple days.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

Monday, December 14, 2009

December 14, 2009- hey everyone

hey everyone,
wow so first of all i want to thank you for sending that package. i got it on tuesday! i was way stoked for that. i tried to do what you said and read one letter everyday, but after the second day i ended up reading them all. but i want to be sure to thank everyone that wrote and sent things- be sure to thank keeley (i got a package from her too so be sure to thank her for that also), the kidds (i got a letter from them also), uncle jeff, aunt krista, kenzie, brooke, aunt julie, brother ord, the vanwagoners, the andersons, the vongsawads, gracie, the livingstons, the rodebushs, the stanges, and the invitations for dylan and brian´s farewell. i hope that i didn´t forget anyone. if i did be sure to tell them thanks a bunch for me. it really was awesome of all of you.
ok so this week has been a little crazy. so we went over to visit lujan on like thursday or friday. the owner of her pension saw us and told us that she had moved away that morning. we have no idea where she went because she doesn´t have a phone or anything. she just told the owner to tell us that she was moving. it was kind of crazy for us. so we don´t have any investigators that are really ready to get baptized. but i feel like something good is going to happen soon. i really feel like there is someone here that is looking for this gospel. its just a matter of finding them.
so one thing that i thought was kinda cool this week...elder araya and i were going through some stuff in our pension and we found a dictionary from some other missionary. but its a dictionary that transfers words from spanish to guarani! elder araya didn´t want it, so i took it. i think its sweet. i really want to be able to learn some stuff in guarani. but i don´t hear it enough to know how to frase sentences. we´ll see if someone from paraguay can teach me about sentences or something haha.
mom, thank you again for putting that package together for me. and also, thank you for sending me that email. it all really means a lot to me. dad, it sounds like you´re doing an awesome job with the missionaries in the ward. keep working hard and i know that you are going to have a lot of success. one thing that i think could really help would be if you asked like every family in the ward to give one reference to the missionaries. one person that they know that doesn´t konw about the gospel. but thank you alot for writing me this week. that was seriously awesome to see. about the accent thing...if i do have an accent, i think its only when i speak in spanish. i couldn´t tell you if i have an accent in english though hahah. sean, dude i´m stoked about everything going on with sports. chargers are on a roll and lakers are tearing it up. its seriously so awesome to hear. but dude work hard this week with finals. i know that you love them alot, but try to have ¨a little fun¨ while you´re at home too. dad tells me that he´s trying to get all the work done right now so that you can all just play for 2 weeks hahah. paige, thanks for writing me also. its nice to hear that everything is going well for ya. i know that you´ve got some tests and stuff coming up this week also. just pound through it so that you can enjoy your break. bridg, thanks for writing me too. i think that it would be awesome if you play tennis. but you´ve still got some time to decide which you love more- to keep doing dance, or to switch over to tennis.
well it sounds like everything is going well for everyone. i hope you all know that i love you. i´m excited that you are all gonna be home together for the next 2 weeks. you´ll have to be sure to tell me everything that goes on. i love you all, again. i hope that you´re all well. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

Monday, December 7, 2009

December 7, 2009-hey family

hey everyone,
i want to thank you all for fasting and praying for elder araya this week. he really needed that and i know that you all helped him out a bunch...i can´t believe that evan is home now! you have to tell him congrats for me and that i miss that kid. also be sure to tell erica roth thanks for writing. its awesome to see that i actually understand everything that she wrote me (since it was all in spanish). but yeah be sure to tell her thanks too.
i´m sorry to hear that some of you got the flu back at home. i hope that by now, you´re all pretty much better.
well it´s been a good week here in buenos aires. i´m trying to think of somethings that have happened. i felt like this week went really well for us. we were able to work really hard and find some new people to teach that we´re excited about.
mom, thanks for filling me in on everything that has gone on this week. it was awesome to read you email this week. dad, i really hope that mom´s right and that you don´t get the flu also. but i´ll bet what will make you feel better (if you do get sick) is some rest at home watching the lakers and chargers hahah. Sean, i hope that everything´s going awesome up at byu. hopefully you´re still excited for the sports world this week too. i´ve got a question...when you were in nicaragua did anyone ever call you a yankee? they always call me a yankee here. i was just thinking about that. i met a missionary from nicaragua, but he wasn´t from your area. paige, you´re awesome for still going to school and taking three tests even though you had the flu. keep working hard because soon you´ll have christmas break and be able to relax for a while. bridg, you´re not making mom take jillian out already are you?! hahah just kidding. you know i like to mess around. but i hope that school is going well for you too and that you´re feeling better after that flu thing.
well sorry this is kind of a lame email this week. i really can´t think of something new that has happened this week. its still raining here in argentina every once in a while. but other than that i can´t think of what else to write to you. sorry fam, i´m thinking next week will be better for news to write. but i hope you all know that i love you. keep working hard. i´m excited to be able to call you in a couple weeks, but i try not to think about it too much hahah. we´ve still got some time before that. ok i´ve got to go. i love you all. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall