December 31, 2010-Happy New Year!!!

heyyy guys!
happpyyyy newwww yearrrrssss!!! i hope that you all have an awesome new years! for me its been an amazing year, and im really looking forward to this year also.
well there hasnt been alot of new stuff since i talked to you all on christmas hahah. im sending you all some pictures of when daiana got baptized last thursday. that was really awesome. its cool cause shes been telling us lately that shes thinking about serving a mission in a couple years. it would seriously be so awesome if she did.
but yeah, sounds like christmas was really fun. especially since sean and emily have been down to hang out too. hahah i got a good laugh when i heard that dad whooped up on sean in tennis haha. sean dude this whole time youve been tellin me that you´re gonna take me ;) . i guess we´ll just have to see who can take who...
ok so i really dont have more time right now. its no big though cause there hasnt been anything too new going on this week. we´ve gotta get back to the pension now cause argentina is crazy on christmas and new years, and they dont let us stay out past 6. so my comp and i are gonna get going. but HAPPY NEW YEAR! again. have fun, drink some cider for me or something hahah. you´ll be hearing from me this monday though. so we´ll be writing again really soon haha. love you all. until next time...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

December 27, 2010

hey guys,
i just had to let you all know really quick that we´re gonna write
emails this friday instead of saturday. its gonna be really hard to
find an internet place thats open on new years, so we´re gonna change
to friday. so yeah, i just wanted to let you all know now. hope that
you have a great week. it was awesome to talk to you all on christmas.
until friday...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

December 14, 2010-Winter In Southern CA

buenas de buenos aires!
sorry about not being able to write yesterday. like during the middle of last week, they told us that we had to change our pday to today cause yesterday we had a conference with president foster, from the area. but thanks for all of your guys´ emails this week. it really got me excited about everything thats happening. like mom, i wanted to thank you for that email you sent. there were alot of awesome things that you said that i liked alot. like that quote from elder holland...everytime i hear something about missionaries and just how everyone else sees them, it just makes me wanna work that much harder. i really do have a respect and a soft spot in my heart for the missionary work now. i dont know why, but hearing stuff like that always gets to me haha...but about being able to talk over skype. sorry, i really wish that i could tell you all that i can do that. but the thing is is that we´re trying really hard to be obedient and do alot of things right in our zone. its just something that we arent allowed to do in this mission, so calling you guys is just gonna have to do. but i did write everything down for the calling card. so im gonna call you guys with that information that you sent me. im still not sure when im gonna call though. id just guess between 11 and 2 your guys time. dad, thanks for the email too! i actually just got it and was way stoked to hear from ya. it sounds like everything is going really well. thats awesome that you guys have had 5 really good baptisms this year in the ward. i know that those people who are preparing themselves to get baptized also really can, cause ive been really blessed to see changes in peoples lives through the gospel. if they truly put their faith in God, and pray to know if these things are true, they will receive an answer. but one thing ive seen alot and something that we learn from moroni 10 is that every person that reads the book of mormon and prays to know if its true has to do it with true intent. that means that they have to be willing to follow that answer from God whole heartedly. but those people really will know that the church is true. sean, dude we´ll just see what happens with the chargers. lets hope for some kansas city loses though haha. lakers are fine. and as soon as binky bynum gets back, we´ll be right back on time in dominating form. and be sure to have fun with all those finals this week dude haha. trust me, next year ill be having my fair share of all that hahah. paige, hahah dont have too much fun at that cheerleading party today hahah. but have an awesome time tomorrow at the dance. and bridg, i hope that all that choir stuff goes really well. sing like youve never sung before hahah!
alright so this week has been pretty awesome, im not gonna lie. elder gutierrez and i are really excited cause we were able to take out 2 more baptismal fechas. they´re both wayyy awesome too! the first one is another one of mary´s daughters haha. her name is diana. shes 18, and really cool. like she was actually the one with alot of interest when her mom was the only one listening to the missionaries. but i dont know why she didnt listen to them then. like she went to micaela´s baptism 2 weeks ago and then went to the confirmation. that sunday was testimony meeting and alot of us went up and bore our testimonies. but then on monday, we had an activity with a bunch of the family and we started talking to her. she told us that when she heard everyone´s testimonies, it made her really want to keep listening and stuff. so we were way excited! we took a baptismal fecha out with her for the 23rd of this month. we´ve taught her a couple times since then and shes really excited about it...the second fecha was with a woman named romina. we´re actually teaching her and her husband. but we talked with just her that day cause her husband was sick. we talked alot about how baptism is an act of faith and putting a goal for a baptism brings alot of blessings. so we put a baptismal date with her for the 29th of january. we´re gonna work hard so that her husband gets baptized with her. we actually found out later that they´re already married...we were super surprised cause you hardly ever find people who are married here hahah. so we could have put a closer date. we might have to put it sooner, but we´ll see...either way, we´re really excited cause we see all these awesome things happening here. the Lord is really blessing us and we´re starting to see those blessings more and more everyday.
hey i wanted to give you all a heads up...next monday, we arent going to have pday cause we changed it to christmas day. so i wont be able to write you emails. but its all good cause ill call that day and well talk...but ive got some pictures here of micaela´s baptism and also one of when we were all in mary´s house. ive gotta get going now, but i love you all and im way excited to talk to you on christmas. have a great next 2 weeks. until then...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

December 6, 2010-It's December

heyyy guys!
wow im really excited about hearing how good of a week its been for all of you. its cool to know that youre all finishing up with school, tests, and all that good stuff. its kinda weird to think about how fast christmas is coming up cause it really doesnt feel anything like christmas right now here in argentina hahah. weather wise, its like the opposite of everything that you guys are having up there. but things are going awesome and my comp and i couldnt be happier. we actually had transfers the other day and were really excited to find out that we were gonna be together another transfer. it wasnt a surprise at all though. next transfer is gonna be a different story, but we´ll deal with that when it gets here haha.
well to start this email off with some good news, micaela got baptized on saturday. it was really sweet. she asked me to baptize her, so that was cool. she was really excited for it too. and it was even cooler cause mary, milagros, agustina, and their older sister diana went to support her. elder gutierrez and i are both really excited about diana now too cause she went to the baptism, then went to church on sunday. we were talking to her alot those days and she told us that she really liked everything and that shes gonna keep listening and doing stuff with us. so it looks like little by little that family is all getting involved in the church. ill keep you all posted for when we take a baptismal date out with diana soon or something.
yesterday we also had a really good experience. we´ve got a recent convert thats been a member for about 10 months now. we´ve been teaching his son, jorge, and jorge´s wife (not actually married), romina off and on since ive been here. the thing with them is that romina doesnt feel ready to get married. how often do you find the girl not wanting to get married, but the guy wanting to?! hahah but yeah, thats the situation. but yesterday we had a really good lesson with them and we talked about their goals in life and stuff. they told us that they do wanna get married, but they have to get some things straightened out first. so we took out baptismal dates with them for like the 3rd week of january. jorge told us that he felt like crying and i know that we could all really feel the Spirit. i hope that they can keep wanting to have those feelings everyday in their lives, and that they start taking the commitments even more seriously. we think that they will now...
mom, i cant really remember what the system was that we had last time with calling home. like i know that it worked well and i think we should do it again, but i cant remember exactly what we did. if you could refresh the old memory for me that would be good...meetings with president stapley were really good last week. i think we were all kinda tired after, but it was all good. and no, i havent played him in basketball since then hahah. ill have to tell him that we´re gonna have a rematch again sometime soon haha. dad, ive now officially posted those kobe pictures on out bulletin board in the study room. but i think im gonna have to take them down for a little bit cause one of the quorum of the 70 is supposedly coming to our mission in a few weeks and they always check out a couple pensions while theyre here. sean, dude bummer with the chargers. ill try to keep a little hope going, but im not gonna get my hopes up on them gettin to the playoffs now. but i am way excited about byu basketball. dude jimmer freddett is so tight! and of course i know that muh lakers are gonna bounce back. it would be nice to have bynum back though. paige, guess who i was with earlier today...your husband!!! hahah and just so ya know, gub-daddy´s lookin lean and mean haha. he says that hes gettin in shape for some relaxation on the sands of so cal with you know who hahah. oh yeah and he also said that he sent you a letter like 2 months ago and that he hadnt heard from ya since, so you should probably get on that haha...and i hope that that driving goes well this week. bridg, going to the vista cif game sounds like alot of fun. hopefully they win! let me know how that goes.
well thats about all the news that ive got for you guys this week. thanks for always thinking of me and remembering me, my comp, and these investigators in your prayers. i love you all. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

sorry, i wanted to send some pictures of the baptism, but the usb drive isnt working on this computer. ill send em next week.

November 29, 2010-Gobble, Gobble

heyyyy!
alright so guess what i got today...? your guys´ package came today! i opened a bunch of stuff and was wayyy stoked. thank you all for that stuff! now, im definately set on memory cards for the rest of my mission haha. i even gave elder gutierrez a 2gb card that i had but hadnt used yet. since he didnt have one with alot of memory, i just gave him one. but i freakin loved the magazine clippings of kobe! those are soooo sick! im so gonna stick em up somewhere hahah. i also read a couple of the letters. seriously be sure to thank all the people that took the time to write those for me. its awesome. the pictures were super sweet too! dan looks a little older now. haha my comp and i were joking that you guys were trying to make me trunky or something for sending those pictures of when he got home hahah. but no worries, cause it doesnt make me trunky at all. ive got too much time left anyway.
alright well im writing you guys with some really great news this week...milagros and agustina got baptized on saturday and were confirmed yesterday. it was actually kind of crazy cause during the week, a member called us and told us that milagros wanted to ask us if they could change the baptism to this week. i dont wanna say exactly why she wanted to cause its kinda personal, but ill just say that for personal girl reasons, she wanted to wait to be baptized this week. but my comp and i talked about it for a little bit and we decided that we still had to get them baptized this week. were just persistant like that i guess. but the thing was, we didnt want to baptize agustina on saturday and then wait another week for her sister to get baptized. its way better for families to get baptized together. so we went over to milagros and agustina´s house and started talking about it with them. after talking for like an hour we were able to convince her that she could still get baptized on saturday. after she talked to us, she felt alot better about it and agreed to still do it that day. but it was a really great baptism. we had a pretty good number of members that showed up, so that made it alot better. so yup, theyre officially members now...now we just need to help mary. she still just needs that signature from her husband to get divorced. shes planning on going to visit him again sometime soon. so keep her in your prayers. we´ve also seen a little progress in the dad too. he told mary that if they were gonna get married by court, why not get married in the church too. so we´re gonna try to work with him also. thats cool cause at first, he wouldnt even say hi to us.
even more good news is that that girl that i told you about, agustina´s friend micaela, is gonna get baptized this saturday too. we´re pretty stoked. we´re gonna try to work with her mom too so that she can go back to church. but the mom is really nice too and really wanted micaela to get baptized. so we´re just teaching her everything and this saturday she gets baptized. its awesome cause shes already gone to church twice and really likes it.
other than that, elder gutierrez and i are working hard to find new investigators. we´ve been focusing so much on getting some of these people baptized that we havent been able to find as many people as we´d like to...its gonna be a little tough this week cause all week weve got leadership meetings with president stapley. but still with the little time that we´re actually gonna have to work, we´re basically gonna be teaching micaela and looking for more investigators.
mom, thanks a bunch for sending me that package. i thought it was so awesome. my comp is soooo excited about all the candy haha. but for me, more than anything i just love the letters. dad, i dont know if you had anything to do with those pictures of kobe, but if you did, just know i think its way sick. im gonna show em to all the lakers fans here . oh and i didnt get to read your letter that you wrote yet, but im plannin on readin it soon. but i did see that at the end, you just wrote, ¨peace out¨ which is something you would definately do haha. but yeah i laughed alot about that. sean, dude i heard that the lakers lost to the jazz! how do we lose to the jazz?!? and i think someone told me that we lost to indiana or something too...que?! que onda che?!? im definately not worried or anything cause the lakers can pretty much turn it on whenever they want, but still...we should win those games. paige, wow i saw that video of you singing. wow! First of all, i really like that song. but wow you sang super well. i was telling my comp that it sounds like your voice has matured alot over the past 1 and a half. it was really good. bridg, i know youre not ¨thrilled¨ about going back to school and everything, but its only a couple more weeks. in no time, its gonna be christmas break again. these are the best times in the school year...right now and finishing of course.oh yeah and be sure to tell dylan, rylan, tyler, and jared mcdonald (yes i know who he is by the way) thanks a bunch for those letters. i was cracking up so much. those kids are so hilarious. dylan´s letter was super funny...he drew me a turkey haha. sorry i couldnt understand a word in rylan´s, but he wrote his name really well so i understood that. and tyler asked if i played baseball when i was little...i never played for a club, but i always loved it. hes probably better than me already though haha.
alright guys, we´re gonna take off now. we´ve got to go teach micaela in 30 minutes. but thanks again for the package and everything. i love you guys and hope that you have an awesome week. as dad would say, ¨peace out¨ haha...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall


ps- enjoy the pics guys! 3 of them are from are from the baptism and the last one was just for fun while we were doing service at someones house haha

November 15, 2010-Grateful

heyyy everyone!
hey so i didnt even remember that michael howells had gotten home already! wow it feels like just a couple days ago when he left. thats so awesome! be sure to tell him that i say hi and to tell him congrats for me.

well its been another good week for elder gutierrez and i here in el triangulo. i think that i told you all that we were hoping to take out more baptismal dates with people this week, but unfortunately we havent been able to do it. i am really excited though cause there have been alot of really good things that are happening...as you know, milagros and agustina are going to get baptized on the 27th still. we had stake conference here on sunday, and we were able to take mary and agustina there. milagros couldnt go cause she woke up and was feeling kinda sick. but shes all good now. mary and agustina really the conference and all of them are really excited for the 27th...rossana is still getting ready for her baptism on the 27th also. we´ve been working really hard with her cause she has smoking problems and also drinks. the drinking isnt really a problem for her, but shes been smoking since she was like 15. so this week when we went to her house, we brought her a big back of mints and hot candys so that whenever she gets the urge to smoke, she can just suck on a mint hahaha. hopefully that it works. she seemed to like the idea haha...we´ve also got the baptism of hugo for the 4th. he wasnt able to make it to the conference on sunday, but really really wants to get baptized. like as soon as possible, so he keeps telling us that ¨si-o-si¨ hes going to church the next to weeks so that he can get baptized hahah. its pretty crazy cause when we first found hugo, i felt like something wasnt right. like he was just so excited to get baptized and asking us when he could be baptized and all this stuff. like i was way excited too, but i just felt like something was weird. but now that we´ve talked to him more, it just looks like hes one of those really prepared guys that you find every once in a while.
Ok so ive got another crazy story for all of you. so the other day, we were walking in the morning and just kinda trying to find people that we could teach. i saw a guy outside of his house and decided that we should talk to him. so when we first started talked, he seemed like he was gonna try and bible bash with us. but we just kinda bore our testimonies, instead of bashing back at him, and he completely changed his attitude. he let us in and started talking to us. but here´s the crazy part, when we asked if we could start with a prayer, he stands up and takes out a revolver and a huge hunting knife. the first thing i thought was, ¨crap, i was hoping to live a little longer than that.¨ hahah but he just took them out and set them on the table. then he asks us, ¨do you know why i have these on me?¨ and i was like, ¨hopefully they arent to kill us...¨ hahah but he told us that he always carries them on him and that he was a marine before he retired. hes just super super protective and wants to protect himself from all the people ¨outside of his house.¨ im just really happy that we got along with him well while we were talking to him outside of his house. but hes turned out to be a really awesome guy...just a little intimidating with the gun and knife haha. but its cool cause the first time we talked to him, he told us that there were 3 churches or doctrines that he thought could be the true ones of Jesus Christ, one being ours. the second time we came by, he told us that hes started to believe that ours is the true church. so yeah, i thought that you guys might get a kick out of that little story. you just never know whats gonna happen here in el triangulo.
mom, as far as thanksgiving goes, lets just say that most people dont even know what you do for thanksgiving so im not expecting any kinds of plans for that day. argentines seriously have a holiday like everyday for whatever reason, but they dont celebrate thanksgiving. kind crazy huh. oh and to answer your question on whether you or dad look any different, ive gotta say no. i guess that means you dont look any older, so ill bet youre both happy to hear that ...dad, bummer that the lakers had to lose on moms big day, but from what people have been telling me, its sounds like we´re still dominating. be sure to keep me posted on those guys. sean and emily, how are you guys doin now that the snow is about to start falling. wow that sounds so crazy cause here its starting to get alot hotter. but im actually super excited for the heat. i guess im just more of a sun guy. paige, so whats new of there at home? are you doing anything besides dating and stuff like that hahah just kidding. bridg, i saw the picture that mom sent with you just in the backround. what are you doing? youre making such a dorky face hahah. its pretty funny though.
well i think that thats about it for this week. other than those things that i told you, its been pretty normal. elder gutierrez and i are hoping to have a better week this week and just keep getting these investigators ready for their baptisms. id really appreciate all of your prayers for them...i love you all. i hope you have an awesome week. oh and before i forget, it sounds like we´re gonna change our pday next week to wednesday again. so plan on me writing wednesday instead of monday. until then...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

November 10, 2010-California Hugs

hey guys!
well first of all i want to be sure and wish mom a happy early birthday! i noticed that you didnt mention anything about your birthday in your email hahah so if that was your way of testing me to see if id remember haha i think i passed. but i hope that you have an awesome birthday tomorrow. be sure to let me know next week how it went and what you guys did and stuff.
well i know that i said that we were gonna change our pday to today cause we were gonna go to capital, but what happened is that monday morning, president stapley called me and told me that he felt like the missionaries for now shouldnt be going to capital. it was actually really cool what he told me cause he said that he felt like something inside him told him that he hadnt been listening until then and that he had to start listening more. i told him that we would all respect that. so we actually had pday on monday like normal. we just didnt write emails that day. but it was fun cause it rained on monday, but we went and played soccer in anyways. it was seriously so much fun, cause we were all racing around in the rain. it was a blast hahah...
well to fill you all in a little bit on everything that has happened, i guess ill start off by telling you all that brenda got baptized this sunday at like 8 in the morning. i wanna thank you all for your prayers for her and her family. we didnt end up sleeping over in the church like we were kinda planning, but we did end up waking up at 5 that morning to get to the church at 6:30 to fill the baptismal font. we made sure that it was nice and warm for her and everything too hahah. the baptism was really great too. i think we were all a little tired, but it turned out really awesome. then she got confirmed right after when church started. im attaching some pictures for you guys so that you can see. just ignore the dorky face that im making in the one. my comp is making really weird faces too, but thats just cause it was super bright and he couldnt see anything.
we´ve also had some other really awesome things happen this week. i think that it was either last monday or tuesday, when we had a lesson with mary, milagros, and agustina. we had a really good lesson where we talked about the plan of salvation and the importance of baptism here on the earth. we were able to take out a baptismal date with milagros for the same day as her sister. so they´re both gonna get baptized on the 27th of this month. they were also able to go to a baptism from another ward and able to see what its gonna be like. milagros came back from that even more excited for her baptism, so we were really excited about that...then i dont know if it was that same day or the next day, we went over to visit rossana. shes seriously progressing so well now! like the other day she told me that she read in the book of mormon for like the second time in her entire life not counting when we´ve read with her! it may sound like something little, but coming from her that was huge. but she told us that she has her answer about the church and everything, so we were also able to take out a baptismal date with her for the 27th of this month. i know that the Lord has really blessed us here in this area, especially lately. the thing now is that we want to keep up with that. we´ve been focusing alot this week on working with all the people that have baptismal dates, and finding new people to teach.
mom, happy birthday again! i hope that its a great day for you. oh and it sounds like its gonna be alot of fun since uncle jeff, aunt krista, and all them are coming down for thanksgiving. be sure to tell them all i say hi. dad, i heard that the giants won the world series, which surprised me alot. from what i heard, they had a wayyy good pitching staff. well i guess its better than some team from the east winning. gotta support a west coast world series, right? sean, dude im way stoked about the lakers. i cant believe that theyre already starting! crazy stuff dude. theres a friend of mine in the zone that i always talk to about the lakers. and hopefully the chargers are startin to bounce back a little too. im gonna try to not get my hopes up though. paige, it looks like the dance was alot of fun the other week. im also looking forward to seeing some of those cheerleading moves that mom told me about. i may have to show you some of my own too. bridg, i looked like you had a really good time at the halloween dance at your school with your friend.
alright guys, well im gonna get goin. but its all good cause this monday ill be writing again like normal. hopefully ill be able to tell you that we´ve had more success and been able to take out more baptismal dates with people. thanks for the prayers on behalf of our investigators, and for me. i love you all. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

November 1, 2010-Halloween Hugs From Home

happy halloween everyone!
dang from everything that youve all told me and showed me from pictures, it looks like this halloween has been way fun up there in the northern part of the world. I remembered about halloween the day before, but totally forgot about it the day of. then i remembered again yesterday. so as im sure you can guess, halloween isnt the biggest thing here in argentina. to be honest, alot of people dont like celebrating halloween down here cause its not one of ¨their traditions¨ but whatever its all good. there are alot of people though that have an awesome time for halloween too.
well alot has happened here in el triangulo with elder gutierrez and i this week. to start off, we have a little nine year old girl named brenda diaz whos how family are members. weve been teaching her off and on since i got here, but her family was kinda inactive, so we didnt want to baptize her just for the sake of baptizing her. we want her to be able to go to church all the time and stuff too. and she really loves going to church on sunday which is awesome. but weve got her mom coming to church alot more often now, so we decided to put a baptismal date with brenda for this sunday. we were planning on doing it this saturday, but the dad wouldnt be able to be there, so we just said that wed do it sunday morning before sacrament. we´ve been talking about how we´re gonna do it exactly cause the hot water comes out super slow in the font here and brenda cant be in cold water or she´ll get sick. so elder gutierrez and i have been talking and we´re thinking about sleeping over saturday night in the church and starting the hot water early in the morning. but whatever we end up doing, i think that itll all turn out well...ok so heres a cool story taht i think youll all like. so we´ve got an investigator named rossana. we´ve been teaching her since a little before i got here. but from what she had told us, her life has had some challenges and 3 times in her life, shes prayed and asked God to send her help. and all 3 times, the missionaries came by a little after. the missionaries had come by 2 times before us over the span of a couple years and she would listen, but never read, prayed or went to church. like seriuosly never. shes always willing to listen to us but we could never get her to complete any of those 3 things. to be honest, ive been more than ready to drop her for a while. but last sunday, we got her to come to church for the first time in her life! the next time we went to visit her, we asked her what she thought, and she seriously loved it! like she loved everything about it! she told us, ¨if i had known that your church was like that, i would have started going a long time ago!¨ hahah can you believe that?! it was seriously so amazing. she told us right after, that she was finally really believing and she told us that she was going to read and pray. i was seriously so shocked. its the fastest change in someone that ive ever seen since ive been in the mission. we´re planning on taking out a baptismal date with her tomorrow. it was cool also, cause yesterday we said that we were gonna pick her up to go to church. but we got to her house a little late, so she took her kids and just started going by herself hahah. i guess you can say that she ¨kinda likes church¨ now. but its really true that getting someone to go to church can change everything. after years of refusing to go, she went once and it changed everything about what she thought about the church...and the last little miracle of the week happened yesterday haha. so the other day, elder gutierrez and i were walking and trying to focus on finding new investigators. we passed a house and i looked in and saw a guy in the window. he kind of nodded with his head and we just kept walking. but once again, i got like half a block away, and i got that little prompting in my head saying that i had to go back and talk to him. so i told elder gutierrez that we were gonna go back. so we went back and talk to him, and he told us that he had listened to the misisonaries before, got to church, and was about to get baptized but had moved away before he could. he said that he wanted to get baptized in the church. so yesterday we went by and taught him a lesson and set a baptismal date for like december 4th. it was just one of those unexpected things that happen in the mission. but ive learned alot about those things. one is that there really are people who are just waiting for the missionaries to come by and to talk to them. the second is that you always have to listen to the prompting as soon as you feel it. you never want to have to live with the thought that you ignored that prompting of the Spirit telling you to do something. cause you never know whats gonna happen...ive gotta say that im really happy with everything thats going on here in this area. for the last 4 weeks, we´ve taken out atleast one new baptismal fecha with investigators every week. and in that span of 4 weeks, we´ve taken out 8 baptismal dates in total. and the best part is that we´ve still got more to go.
mom, to answer your question about being fed here in el triangulo, the members are actually all really awesome. any day that we realyl wanna get fed, we can set up a lunch with someone. its pretty cool haha cause i know that there are alot of missionaries who dont have that. dad, i know that youve gotta be excited about the lakers starting up again. can you believe that we´re already saying that?!? shoot the lakers are playing again! hahah and it sounds like all is goin well from what sean tells me haha. sean, hahah i was laughing so much when i read that first line in the email. ¨sacked! and delicious!¨ dude i totally remember that will ferrell commercial thing with the football player and the twinkie hahah. ¨nothing can stop me from getting that twinkie!¨ hahah ¨spinmove!!¨ haha so funny dude...about the picture of emily for halloween. haha wow umm to be honest i realyl dont know exactly who she is hahah. but its sweet costume! hahah. sounds like you guys had some fun...dude go lakers, atleast the chargers arent totally tanking either, and you know youre gonna have to listen to all that music with me later. paige, have fun at homecoming. shoot 2 homecomings in a couple weeks! thats impressive. and about going back to blonde, im sure gub-daddy´s gonna love it hahah. it doesnt really matter, blonde, brunett, he´ll love either one hahah. bridg, sounds like trunk or treating was alot of fun. dang i remember doing that when i was way younger and it was awesome. ill be the halloween dance was alot of fun too.
well even though this week was pretty crazy and awesome, i think this week is gonna be right up there with it. we´ve got some good things going and we´re realyl excited. thank you all, especially for your prayers for the investigators that we have here, cause we can definately feel them. i love you all. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

ps- by the way, this week we´re changing our pday to wednesday cause we´re going to capital or something. so just so you all know, ill be writing you guys then

October 26, 2010-This and That

hey everyone,
sorry that im writing this on tuesday instead of monday like normal. it was weird cause the internet just wasnt working. but i wanted to thank you all for your emails. i was able to read them all and they were all really awesome.
so this week i think that the coolest thing that happened was with a lady named mary that we´ve been teaching since before i got to this area. shes a really awesome person, but hasnt been able to get baptized yet cause she has to get divorced and remarried first. but we´ve been teaching her and trying to teach her family since i got here. when i first got to this area, the kids really wouldnt even say hi when we went to teach mary. but with elder lucas, we worked super hard so that they would talk to us and stuff. but now we´re teaching 3 of her daughters. but yeah this week we were able to take out a baptismal date with one of the girls. we were hoping to take out at least 2 but one of the girls hasnt decided yet. she told us that shed let us know this thursday if she wanted to get baptized with her sister. we´re trying to get them baptized within like 2 weeks. the good thing is that one of them has already gone to church 3 times and really likes it. and i think that us teaching mary´s daughters has really gotten her excited to work on her divorce. cause with mary all she needs is the signature from her old husband. the problem has always been that she didnt know exactly where her husband was living. but we talked to her yesterday and she said she was going to the place where she thinks he lives and is just gonna hang outside his house til he comes home. shes a capa. but it would be awesome if you could all pray for her so that she can get the papers signed and that her kids will decided to get baptized.
as far as luis and silvia go, we talked to them about getting married last week. it turns out that they were already wanting to get married. silvia has already gone to the registro civil to try and set a marriage date, but they told her that she had to wait til the beginning of next year to get married. so they wont get married in november but they could definately get married by january. elder gutierrez and i were both really excited about that.
mom, thats really awesome that you saw patrick aspel the other day. if you see him again youll have to be sure to tell him that i say hi and that i hope hes doing well. dad, bummer about the chargers, but hey the lakers are gonna tear it up like we´ve gone fore the past 2 years. so no worries haha. sean, che lo podes creer que ya estamos en octubre?! che tu mision voló asi tambien? hahah espero que estés preparado para jugar tenis y todo eso por que te voy a dominar hahah. paige, it looks like homecoming was way fun! i thought that they had homecoming alot earlier in the school year, but thats way awesome that you had such a good time. bridg, hahah sounds like dressing up as a ninja turtle for halloween is gonna be way fun. youre gonna have to send me a picture of that fo sho haha. and ill definately be taking you up on stealing some of your candy next year hahah.
k guys, my comp and i are gonna head out now. we´re lookin to have a really good week so be praying for us. just know that youre all in my prayers. thank you all for everything. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

October 20, 2010-Hello

whats up guys!
sorry for not being able to write you all on monday. i forgot to tell you last week that i wouldnt be able to write til today. we had to change the transfer day to today, so we skipped pday on monday and made it today. but i wanna be sure to tell dad happy birthday!! the big 5-2 hugh? congrats paps.
so this has been a pretty good week and a half. im trying to think back to all last week. ummm, we took out baptismal dates with 2 of the luis and silvia´s kids. we put it for the same date as them. we´re just trying to get them married and to start coming to church. we also took a baptismal date out with a lady named mirta. we´ve been teaching her for a couple weeks now. we were gonna take 2 more baptismal dates out with her daughters, but they werent there when we taugh mirta. so like its all really cool, but i was actually hoping to take out some more baptismal dates with people. the good thing though it that we´re teaching families now.
we found this one couple a couple weeks ago named ramon and rut. rut was really awesome from the start, and ramon wasnt really interested at all. we taught them both anyways about the power of prayer and then 2 weeks ago we passed by their house again. we talked to ramon really quick and he basically told us that the whole church thing just wasnt for him. so we decided not to go by for a week. but last week we went by again just to see how they were doin. ramon saw us and was like, ¨come in guys!¨ we started talking to them both and ramon told us about what happened. i guess ramon was without work and having a really tough time. but after we went by and he told us he didnt want to listen anymore, he decided to pray one day and ask for help to find work. i guess that that day, he got a call from someone telling him that he had a job. so he really changed and realized how blessed he was by just praying once. alot of people could say that thats just a coincidence, but for me the Lord really does bless us even when we do some of the most simple things. but theyre both really liking the lessons and we´re gonna try to get them to go to church this sunday.
so like i said, this was elder lucas´ last week. i was really proud of him though cause he finished the mission really well. he worked hard til the very end...im now with a new zone leader named elder gutierrez. hes from el chaco, resistencia (its a provincia in northern argentina). but he seems really awesome. hes only got like 13 months in the field, but he seems like a good guy. we´ve gotten along really well from the get go, so im really excited for this transfer. i really think that alot of good things are gonna happen here. i think that sometimes as missionaries, we look at our investigators and say that nothing good is happening. but what we forget is that the Lord is already preparing people and especially families for us to teach. like today i got to see javier, viviana, their son nahuel (whos wayyy big now haha), and another kid, allen, who was another convert of ours in alto san lorenzo. they all came to transfer meetings. it just made me think how important missionary work is. like i dont know, to see such amazing people who are so solid in the church now, its seriously like theyre all my family. i really do consider them like that. thats what im looking for here in el triangulo too...
mom, the lakers tickets for dads birthday sounded pretty tight, im not gonna lie. be sure to let me know what you ended up doing. dad, happy birthday again! i hope that youve had an awesome day. love ya...sean, dude bummer in the sports world. dont worry though cause next year is when it really matters. cause you know why next year is gonna be different hahah....paige, sounds like youve got a busy week full of rehearsals and stuff. have an awesome time. hoping you guys can record some of your songs or something. bridg, haha i dont know if you would have said that im always happy when i was at home hahah. at least the picture didnt show my character of liking to mess with you and paige hahah.
alright guys, ive gotta go. ill be writing you all again on monday like normal, so dont worry about that hahah. thanks for all you guys do for me. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

October 11, 2010-Greetings

hey guys,
wow so a bunch has happened back at home. congrats wayne sleight on getting married! shoot like all you guys are gettin married now. thats really awesome though. i also wanted to wish emily a happy early birthday. i know that its this thursday, but i cant write then, so i just have to tell ya now. how old does that make you? just out of curiousity hahah...
so this week has had its ups and its downs. i think that the best thing that happened this week was that we took out 2 baptismal dates with a couple named luis and silvia. we found them a couple weeks ago and they seem really awesome. with like all their kids that live there with them they´re like 10 or something. i know that like at least 3 are older than 8 so we might be able to take out a couple more baptismal fechas. we´ve got a lesson with them later tonight so well see what happens. it would be so sick to have them all get baptized. i really think that itll happen. luis and silvia are married yet though. we put the baptism for like the middle of november so hopefully they can get married before that. but the really are a pretty poor family. like the house that they live it is really small and really low, which makes it tough for me to go inside haha. i usually just have to crouch down to walk in. it doesnt make it alot easier being a family of like a million either. both luis and silvia work as people that collect bottles and plastic and then take it all to capital. its a really tough job and lets just say that it doesnt make the best money in the world. but both of them are really humble, they like everything that we´ve taught them alot, and were excited when we asked them to be baptized. the wife, silvia probably understands things a little better than luis, but hes really willing to do things that will help his family to be happier. ill be sure to keep you all posted on how they progress and if we can set a marriage date for them soon.
other than that, it was kind of a tough week for elder lucas and i. like compared to the other weeks that we´ve been having here, we werent super happy with everything that happened. alot of the people that we thought we were gonna teach this week, werent there or werent able to talk to us then. but i guess that just means that this week is gonna have to be awesome then. i feel like it will. its lucas´ last full week as a missionary, so we both really wanna work hard so that he can end well. im really proud of him cause alot of the missionaries get pretty trunky by the end of the mission, but hes done really well. he tells me alot that he doesnt feel ready to be done. so this week we´re just gonna go all out and try to invite as many people as we can to be baptized.
mom, im gonna take ya up on that albertos burrito hahah. in our pension here, we have 4 missionaries. one is a new missionary from mexico and the other day we made tacos. it was like the second or third time that ive had tacos in the mission. dang they were sooo good. and one of our members here in this ward has an avocado tree, so we made guacamole too. so sweet. dad, it sounds like it was a sad week in sports this week. sean broke the news to me that the chargers lost to the raiders. what a bummer! i guess its better that i cant see any of it this year, hugh? sean, dude be sure to tell emily happy birthday for me. dang that a day to remember cd is gonna be way sweet too. as long as there isnt all that screaming hahah. remember when you would always want to buy the songs where they´d scream alot and i always wanted the acoustic ones or something? well i havent changed at all dude. im stickin with the stuff that isnt like that lame screaming. paige, hope everything is goin well with school and stuff. keep havin fun with cheerleading too. some of the missionaries saw a cheerleading picture of you and i just told them that you were already a gubler, so dont worry hahah. bridg, here in argentina we dont really celebrate halloween. like everyone knows what it is and stuff. but its definately not as cool as back home where everyone dresses up and stuff. only a couple people do it.
k guys i gotsta go. thanks for the prayers and everything. id really appreciate the prayers for luis, silvia, and the rest of their family (i cant remember all the names cause there are too many hahah). i love ya all. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

October 4, 2010-Congrats Makenzie

whats up guys!!
well i wanna be sure to tell kenzie right off the bat how stoked i am that she got her mission call. i was bummed that she wasnt going to lovely buenos aires sur but i know that shes gonna be such an awesome missionary for the people there in missouri. i think the tips that id give her right now would be to read the book of mormon from cover to cover, start reading as much from preach my gospel as she can, and eat a burrito from albertos/philibertos cause you never know if youre gonna be able to eat it for another 1 and a half hahah. i also wanted to congrat ryan carnohan on getting engaged! thats awesome! oh and be sure to tell dan congrats on finished his mission as soon as you see him. dan is such a capo!
well this week here was actually really different from what normally goes on. it was mostly cause all week we were in leadership meetings. like monday to friday we were just all sittin and learning. ive gotta say that i was pretty worn out. it was weird cause i was more tired from just sitting there most of the day than i am from working all day. but it was cool cause like all my friends were there...mortensen, gub-daddy (mi cuñado), nalder (who i dont know if i mentioned it, but came back to the mission like 3 months ago...its so awesome to have him back in the mission again!), mclean, cockriel, palmer, and just like everyone else. i ended up hanging with all of them most of the time. it was so sweet to be able to see all of them again. but like the rest of the week was pretty tough to work. like we didnt have that much time to be in our area. plus with conference, it just made working in the area almost impossible. we actually decided to not go to the saturday session of conference cause we hadnt been able to work that much and we wanted to get a full day of work in. so we had to kinda sacrifice the conference, but its all good.
speaking of conference this week...dang it was sick! like we had some good investigators that showed up for it and everything. but me and a bunch of other yankees went upstairs during the session and we listened to conference in english. it was sick cause upstairs you have the church offices and they have couches there. so we were all just sittin comfortable on the couches and eating hahah. and i really loved the talks! i thought that the apostles and leaders of the church really talked alot about parents and their role and sin, specifically related to the law of chastity. but i thought that they were all awesome! it made me really grateful for having you 2, mom and dad, as my parents. like i know that i wasnt always the easiest kid to handle, but i can say that you taught me and the others well. thanks...
mom, i think that its really awesome that you sent that email the other day. be sure and let me know when you hear back. dad, when m. russell ballard talked about fishing, it so made me think of goin with you on fishing trips and stuff. they showed the rivers and the guy catching the fish and i was just like, ¨awwww!¨ hahah. then when he realed it in, i was like, ¨its not even that big! my dad, my brother, and i would catch a bigger one!¨ hahah were gonna have to make a trip sometime. sean, dude im stoked about chargers. they better get things going now. i was bummed to hear about the padres just missin out on the playoffs. well i guess we shouldnt have gotten our hopes up. just another normal padres year hahah. byu is just bad this year. when i hear that they lost to utah st. i had to hold back from throwing up hahah just kidding. i dont even care if utah st is doing well or getting better, we should still beat them. but for your movie trivia, dude of course its ¨nacho libre.¨ haha one time i was in a members house and they had it on right during that part hahah. i was laughing so hard dude. paige, hope that youre still loving cheerleading at the academy and stuff. mom may be a big fan of some of these guys there in the academy, but as they say here, ¨no los hagas caso¨. maybe dad or sean can translate that one for ya. bridg, thanks for the email. bummer that you had to go back to school today and all, but hey, only like 4 more days and its the weekend again.
well i best be gettin goin. thank you all for your emails, prayers, and everything. be safe and have a great week. until the next one...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

September 27, 2010- It's Monday

hey guys!
well its been another really awesome week here in el triangulo. things have been going well and elder lucas and i are working really hard to find more people that can get baptized this transfer. one thing that we´ve been focusing on alot lately has been teaching to complete families. i know that the mission is really asking that we do that too because we got a new rule just recently that we cant teach the second lesson to a woman unless we´ve already talked to the husband or tried to teach him. thats really the point of the gospel...to bring families closer together and have an eternal family. so one thing that we´ve been doing alot lately is just trying to talk to all the guys that we see outside of their houses. we´ve actually had alot of success with it.
so we had 2 really awesome experiences that happened this week...on like wednesday, we decided to have exchanges. since we´re zone leaders, we can pretty much do them whenever and with anyone in the zone. so we did it with a companionship, with a missionary thats training this transfer and his ¨hijo¨. but i offered to stay in the area with the new missionary and let elder lucas go to the other area. but now im really happy that i did. so i was walking with the new missionary and we were heading to a lesson that wasnt super fixed. we passed a family sitting outside their house just drinking mate and talking. the dad look at us and said hi. we said hi back and just kinda kept walking. after we walked past him, i kept thinking to myself, ¨why didnt we talk to them?!?¨ then i just had a super strong feeling that we had to go back and talk to them. but i kept walking and wasnt really sure what to do hahah. we got about a block away, and i turned to the new missionary and was like, ¨we´ve gotta go back and talk to them.¨ so we walked back and started to just talk. it turns out that that dad had listened to the missionaries like 7 years ago and he thought that we were the same ones. the wife is a less-active member. but the let us in and we had an awesome lesson. for me it was just really spiritual. one thing ive learned in the mission is that if you ever get a feeling like that, you have to follow it. don´t ever ignore that feeling to do something because its a prompting from the Spirit.
the next experience was actually that same day. so we were both just really excited about finding that family. but we had like an hour or so to just do contacts, so we went to this new area that we started working in like 3 weeks ago. the first door we clap, a little girl comes out and says, ¨my mom´s busy!¨ (trust me thats one of the most common things that you hear here), but i was like, ¨just have her come for 2 minutes...¨ so the girl goes inside to get her mom. the mom comes out and is like, ¨come in!¨ to be honest, it kinda surprised me after what her daughter said. but we went in and talk to her and her son. we had such an awesome lesson. we talked about baptism and everything. they were super excited about it and we could actually baptize like 3 or 4 of them...it was a really awesome day.
mom, sorry i havent been able to read all of email yet so i cant really respond to that much stuff that you said. i just kinda had to skim through it, but im gonna print it off and read it later on or something. but from what i read...i think that the thanksgiving card is really awesome. i really like all the pictures. the one with javier, viviana, nahuel, and i is one of my favorites. that family is so special to me. they gave me one of the pictures right before i left, so i always carry that around with me too. dad, dang bummer week for sports. i think that youre right about the chargers though. for some reason, we can never seem to get things going right off the bat. but i think that we´ll get it going and take control like we usually do. sean, che gracias por el email hoy. en verdad, me ayuda muchisimo cuando escucho de vos (si te voy a hablar en vos hahah porque me acostubre ya haha). pero me parece que te gusta la escuela mucha ahora haha. te vas a divertir. che los deportes van mal ahora porque yo no estoy alla. me van a esperar hasta que yo esté haha. mandá saludos a emily. paige, mom attached a picture of you in one of your games cheerleading. it still really surprises me to see you with dark hair, but i think ill get used to it after a while haha. its just hard to see something different after seeing the same hair color for 14 years. but it looks really good! bridg, thanks for the email from you and dad. sounds like this week was a really good one for ya (cant say the same thing for dad haha). going swimming sounds way awesome! hahah we´re definately gonna plan for some swimming when im home.
so this week is gonna be good. we´ve got meetings all week so it should go really fast...but thank you all for your emails and everything. i hope that you all have a great week. until the next one...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

September 20, 2010 - worn out shoes

hey everyone,
well im glad that you were able to get the pictures that i sent this morning. by now you already know from the pictures that julian got baptized. it was a really cool experience. he got baptized by one of the members on saturday and then was confirmed sunday morning during church. mercedez was able to go to the actual baptism on saturday, but had to miss the confirmation on sunday cause she couldnt leave her daughter at home by herself. i dont know if i ever told you, but her actual daughter whos like 21 has a brain problem. its where like her brain stopped growing. so its really tough for their whole family. they cant really ever leave her alone cause every once in a while she has some kind of attack and if no one is there to help her, she could die. so mercedez had to stay at home on sunday. but julian was really excited. we were super excited for him too.
oh ok so ive got some pretty awesome news. At least its way cool for me haha...so you all remember javier and viviana from alto san lorenzo? well elder mortensen was sent back to that zone in villa elvira this transfer. his area is actually right next to alto san lorenzo, so i always like to make fun of him for basically being sent back to our old area. but anyways, i guess that the alto san lorenzo ward had a party for javier and viviana last friday and elder mortensen ¨just happened to have to go to the church¨. so he got to see and talk to them and everything. i guess he was talking to viviana and she told him that shes pregnant again! he called me this morning to tell me all of this. apparently she thinks that shes been pregnant for the last month or 2, which means that she could have the baby before i go home. but its actually really awesome because for a really long time, the doctors would tell viviana that she would never be able to have kids. then she had nahuel...and now im gonna be a ¨tio¨ to another martinez child. i was way stoked about it. we were laughing so much this morning saying how if its another boy, they better name him like michael ryan martinez or something.
well now elder lucas and i are working really hard to find more people to baptize this transfer. we´ve got a few possibilities. what we´ve been focusing on doing alot this week is trying to challenge like everyone we talk to to be baptized. 2 people that we challenged to be baptized this week told us that they would be baptized (one being susana), but they didnt want us to put a baptismal date yet. but i really like inviting as many people to be baptized as possible. its really helped us to be able to see whos going to progress and who we can kind of pass by less often.
we had a pretty awesome lesson again with susana this week. the only bummer is that she doesnt like us to come by her house more than like once a week. but we were able to teach one of her sons too. susana has a really bad drinking problem. like ever since her daughter died a couple years ago, shes become an alcoholic. now she really wants to stop and she cant. so we were talking with her and her son. we were telling her that the way God loves all of us is alot like how a family loves each other. then we turned to her son and said, ¨you love your mom dont you?¨ and he was like, ¨yeah of course.¨ but the thing that touched me the most was that when susana heard that she spun around in her chair and looked at her son with tears in her eyes and was like, ¨really?!?¨ im just guessing that that was the first time in a while that one of her kids had told her that he loved her.
mom, i think that sending a debit card is something do-able. or if you really wanted to, you could just put it on my debit card. but i think that either way would be fine. thanks for checking all that so fast for me though. dad, so how is the sports life going? it sounds like you still get to go play tennis with brother waldron alot, which is sweet. its nice to know that youre trying to be ready for when i get home haha. im way stoked to play. sean and emily, whats new with you guys? how do you like the new apartment where youre living? paige, im excited to see some pictures of your first football game. it would be sick to be able to see you cheer. bridg, thanks for sending the pictures and email. sounds like youre having alot of fun with alexa.
alright guys, well thats about it for this week. thanks for all your love and support. have a great week. until the next one...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

September 13, 2010-Greetings

hows it goin guys,
i just wanna let you know really quick that im so glad that kevin johansen and the other missionaries that were with him are all right. its true that the Lord really does bless His missionaries where ever they are. im glad that nothing happened to any of them.
well this is the news on transfer...elder lucas and i are staying together for another transfer! im way excited about it. elder lucas and i get along really well and we both think that there are some good things going on here in el triangulo. it means that im gonna kill him off though cause he finishes up the mission this transfer. im just gonna try and keep him as focused as possible and working hard. hes really not that trunky though so i think itll be all good...but it is kind of a bummer cause elder mortensen is leaving the zone. i was hoping that he would stay, but i guess it wasnt mean to be haha. hes actually heading back to villa elvira where we were together. hes in the area next to alto san lorenzo, called los hornos. i told him that he better be sure to say hi to everyone from the ward cause you know hes gonna see them all.
lets see, so julian is just getting ready to get baptized. we have to teach him a couple more little things this week, but hes getting baptized this saturday. we´re all pretty excited about it. i can tell that hes excited and i know that mercedez is really happy about it too. so things are going all good in that...oh so the other day, elder lucas and i were just walking down this street. there was a lady outside her house so we were walking over to talk to her. we talked a little bit and she was like, ¨so you guys dont believe in Jesus Christ, huh?¨ we just looked at her and pulled out a pamphlet. we were like, ¨who do you see on this cover right here?¨ so we talked about Christ and then started talking about the church. after like 5 minutes she was you, ¨you guys convinced me, where´s your guys´ church?¨it was pretty funny. but we went back to her house like 2 days later and i really think shes one of those people thats just prepared for the gospel. i asked her to be baptized and she said that she wanted to read the book of mormon first, but she really seems like someone whos gonna get baptized soon. her name is susana. one of her daughters died a couple years ago, so we talked about the plan of salvation too. she really liked that and seems super excited to hear more. i really hope that she progresses well. id say that she will. i just feel like the Lord is preparing people for us to find. we just need to keep following the Spirit and act when we feel like the Spirit is telling us to do something.
mom, im actually not sure how much it would cost to get my shoes fixed. im guessing that it wont be too much, but id guess around 200 pesos, which is like 50 bucks. im gonna have to change the sole and get them sown on the sides. the only reason i suggested getting new ones from missionary mall is cause i think that getting them sown here will only be a short fix. im not sure if theyd keep tearing on the sides or not. if you all think that that would be the better idea, ill do that though. oh yeah and be sure to tell brance michaelson that i say hi back. dang its been a long time since ive seen that kid...or really anyone else. but ill be awesome to be able to see him and other guys again when im home. dad, sounds like youre gonna have to start practicing some tennis with bridg if shes gonna try out for the tennis team. i still think that she should go out of the basketball team, but you might be able to change her mind hahah. sean, hope everythings going good up there in utah with your esposa haha. im hopin that byu is doing well, that the padres got out of their funk, and especially that the chargers are all ready to go this year. paige, congrats on making the cheerleading team. you guys are definately gonna have to take some pictures of that. but yeah, sounds like youre having fun...im sittin right next to gub-daddy right now and he says that he got your letter. he wrote you back, but hasnt sent it yet cause he hasnt decided what pictures to put with it. operation ¨gub-daddy es mi cuñado¨ is already under way. bridg, bummer about the volleyball try outs. but dont worry about it cause seriously you can always practice and just do it next year. ya know what would help you alot...playing basketball!. over summer, well practice a bunch in volleyball and stuff so youre all ready to go next year haha.
oh before i forget. i got the package you guys sent. thanks alot! i really havent been able to look through it, but i saw the pictures and the miniature pmg. that was so tight! ive always wanted one of those, so thanks a bunch...alright guys, i gotsta go. thanks for all your emails, for your thoughts, and for your prayers. have a great week. until the next one...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

September 8, 2010

heyyy guys,
sorry that this email is coming a couple days late. what happened was that we decided to change our pday to today. here in adrogue some of the missionaries in the zone work in the offices. so they always have pday on wednesdays. and we wanted to have a big zone activity together, so we decided to change it for that. so sorry for not being able to write on monday.
im finally sending a couple more pictures for you guys. the first 2 are from the baptism that we had on saturday...thats right, mercedez got baptized on saturday and then confirmed on sunday. it was a really awesome experience for her and we were all really excited. thanks for all the prayers cause i know that she needed that help to be ready for her baptism. now we´re getting ready for her...shoot i totally forgot how to say the word in english...anyway its her ¨nieto¨, julian, to get baptized. we´re teaching him right now. he has to go to church this week and then we can baptize him next saturday. hes pretty excited about it. the other ¨nieta¨, is probably gonna wait for a little while to get baptized. really she could get baptized, but the thing is that she wont really be able to remember anything after a while. she really likes the church and everything. but for me, its not worth it to baptize her just to baptize her. so i think that for now, we´re just gonna wait til shes a little older.
so today has been pretty fun too. we all went and made and asado. then while that was cooking, we played soccer and basketball. president stapley showed up when we were about to finish and he was like, ¨alright we´re playin one on one¨ to me hahah. we only played really quick, but lets just say i still got my game hahah. but it was way fun.
mom, the other picture that im sending you is a picture that we took earlier today. im sending it cause the missionary that im with is named elder gibbs. hes one of the assistants here in the mission. but ive talked to him before and knew that he was from san diego. his family moved to utah a couple years ago. but i was talking to him a little more today and found out that he was living in oceanside. so i was like, ¨wait, what ward were you in?!¨ and he told me that he was in the vista 9th ward. its crazy, he totally knows a bunch of families like the woodmansee´s and the fronks. we also both went to roosevelt. he was a grade older than me, but its pretty sick cause we were both going to roosevelt at the same time. then he moved to utah or something. but i was wondering if you knew his family. he said that theyre a pretty huge family, like 15 or something. dad, whats goin on with the padres!? they´re losin it for us! dang theyve gotta pull out of this funk. sean, dude i hadnt hear that byu was gonna go independent. to be honest, im not really sure how thats gonna work. But dude keep havin fun with all that homework stuff. i cant wait for all that hahah. paige, it sounds like the academy is really awesome. id like to see what its like and everything. i heard that youve got some kind of tryouts this week, so i really hope that all goes well. bridg, i hope that youre volleyball tryouts turn out well too this week. be sure to let me know how it all goes.
alright guys, thanks for the emails and everything. i seriously cant believe that this is already the last week of the transfer. its seriously flown by. im pretty sure that nothing is happenin with elder lucas and i. im really excited to stay here in el triangulo. i really hope that elder mortensen and a couple other missionaries stay for another transfer here too. it would be so sweet. ill let you all know how it turns out. but i hope you all have great weeks. youll be hearing from me again really soon, since ill be writing you this monday.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

August 30, 2010

hey guys,
so i wanted to be sure and ask you to tell mckenzie that i got her dearelder today. i was way stoked to be able to her from her and everything. im super excited to hear when she gets her mission call too! thats gonna be awesome...
well the week was all good. we´re trying to just really focus on teaching mercedez the last couple things that she needs so she can get baptized this saturday. but we´ve already done a pre-interview and she didnt have any problems at all. so it sounds like everything is gonna go well and that shes gonna get baptized. the kids cant get baptized this saturday with her cause they havent been able to go to church. but we´re working on that and hopefully theyll both get baptized in the next week or 2...other than that, things have been pretty normal. im trying to think of something that happened this week. ive been having a really good time doing zone meets and stuff. its cool cause every tuesday we have either a zone meeting or a district meeting, so we always go to the church in adrogué with all the missionaries in the zone. i think that one thing ive really started to learn, since being here in the mission is that i really like teaching and talking to people. i always think that its way fun to just be crazy and goofy (just so you all know, ive only gotten worse since ive been on the mission hahah) when we have meetings with the zone. i dont know, its just something that im really having fun with right now.
i really cant think of anything new thats been going on this week...oh but before i forget, i was wondering about something. so my shoes are startin to get a little worn now. they´re kinda startin to break. but i was wondering if it would be better to take pictures or the shoes, send them to you guys, and have you guys get new ones from the place where we bought them, or if i should just pay to get them fixed. like right now, they arent thaaattt bad ya know? but in a couple months, im guessing that they´re gonna be kinda done. so i should probably do one of those things before its too late and they´re just trashed. what do you guys think would be the best?
mom, i thought it was cool cause youre actually reading in the exact same place as i am in the book of mormon. for language study everyday, i read the book of mormon out loud. it was something that i thought would be cool and started back when i was in platanos. so i was excited to hear that you were reading that this week too. oh yeah and your question about the misunderstandings about mormons here in argentina...alot of the people that i talk to atleast recognize the name when we say that we´re mormons. but alot of people have no idea what we believe in or why they even call us mormons. alot of the time, people get confused with what we believe and what jehova´s witness´ believe. its kinda funny cause what we believe isnt even close to the things they believe. but yeah, thats mostly what i hear here in buenos aires. dad, i hear that the padres are slumpin a little bit this week...¨noooooo!¨ we better get things goin again and not turn into the same old padres that we know. we need some padre magic here! are you still doin your situps for every run that we score?. sean, dude no he visto ningun pajaro azul todavia y esto es la verdad hahah. but dude im startin to get that charger fever even though im like a bajillion miles away from there right now. even if we´re losing all our preseason games, that doesnt really mean anything to me. come game time, we´re gonna start dominating. emily, thats for being able to write me this week. its sweet to hear from ya. its true, its gonna be awesome to be able to actually talk to you and meet you for reals in a little while. paige, im way surprised that you arent going to vista anymore! like its way cool and i hope that you really like this new school, but it just surprised me to hear that you werent gonna be going to the good ol´ vhs . but hey, have an awesome time with the academy! im way excited for ya. bridg, keep havin alot of fun at school and hangin with brenna.
ok well sorry i dont have alot of new stuff going on right now. i need to get goin, but i wanna thank you all for the emails and for always praying for me. i really can feel your prayers cause i can see that ive been blessed alot lately, especially since ive been here in el triangulo. i hope you all have a great week. until the next one...
love always,
ryan

August 16, 2010

hey guys,
well it sounds like its been a fun last couple of weeks up with sean, emily, and all the fam. ill bet that youre all happy to be home now though.
so the week started off kinda different...so monday was elder lucas´ birthday, so some of the members wanted us to go over to celebrate. so we went over, ate some cake and stuff, and left for a lesson that we had. we were crossing the train tracks (of course, right where we were there just happened to be no lights), and a guy on a bike comes up to us and tries to rob us. hes like, ¨hey give me everything you have...give me your phones, cameras, everything.¨ then he sticks his hand in his pocket to make it look like he had some weapon or something. but he didnt pull anything out, so elder lucas and i didnt really believe it. we both told him that we didnt have anything. my comp actually happened to have his camera that one time to take pictures of the cake and stuff. but elder lucas was like, ¨ive got cake if you want...¨ now its funny that he said that, but at the time i was like, ¨dude be quiet, cause everytime ive said something stupid like that, ive gotten robbed¨. but i think the guy started to get scared cause he really didnt have a gun or anything. plus we wouldve been able to take him easy. so he was like, ¨ohhh ok¨ and took off. as he was riding away on his bike, he kept shouting, ¨you guys come to my house, you guys come to my house!¨ yeah, alright dude....like nothing ended up happening, but its just annoying ya know? i think that thats one of the things that bugs me the most, its people trying to rob us. but i guess thats just something that happens to me and my comps...
the rest of the week was really awesome though. so i told you about mercedez last week. shes progressing really well. and we were able to take out baptismal fechas with her 2 kids also. so we´re trying to get them all baptized on the 28th, but im pretty sure that they can all for sure get baptized this transfer. the kids are way awesome also...we´ve also found 2 other kids that are friends of this member in the ward. the family of the 2 kids is pretty crazy right now though. the mom is in the hospital for some reason, one of the brothers abuses the other brothers and sisters, and the dad is in jail. so lets just say that its a family in need of the gospel. but the 2 kids are capos. the girls name is bianca and her brother is named rodrigo. we always have the lessons in a members house just cause things are pretty insane in their house right now. but we really want to be able to teach the rest of the family too...other than that, we had a cool thing happen. we found out that this one lady thats been going to church for a while now, who we thought was a member, hasnt been baptized yet. she told us that at first, she liked the church, but that was it. she wasnt gonna keep going. but then she felt like she should give it another chance. so she kept going to church and now she knows that its the true church of Christ. its pretty cool. we havent been able to teach her any of the lessons yet, but we´re hoping that she can get baptized this transfer too. it would be awesome if you could keep all these people in your prayers. id appreciate that...
mom, i think thats awesome that sister Roth is gonna be coming down here to good ol´ argentina sometime soon. be sure to ask her what parts of argentina shes gonna be in for me. we all know that buenos aires is da best though haha...dad, i heard that you and sean were able to get in some tennis before you all headed home. dang that sounds so sick! dont worry cause ive still got ma game. even though you and sean wont believe me, im gonna bring it when im back. sean, dude it sounds like the padres are actually a team. why is everyone tearing it up when im not home though?! you better be wrong about how you said that when i get home, everyones gonna be rebuilding. theres no time to rebuild. im stoked about the chargers too. i hope that this matthews guy really proves everyone right and that he can fill the hole of LT. youre gonna have to keep me posted about that bro. paige, thats awesome that you got the letter from elder gubler with the picture of us 2. ill be sure to tell him next time that it got to ya and that he should be expecting one from you too. bridg, have a good week with Gordon and the fam at the beach this week. enjoy it cause after that its back to the fun life of school. i know how much you looovveee that hahah
k guys, i gotta get goin. have an awesome week. until next time...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

August 9, 2010

hey guys!
shoot so i dont know if any of you have heard, but these last couple days here in buenos aires have been some of the coldest of the decade...atleast thats what the argentines say haha. they say that its supposed to snow either this or next month. from what ive been told, it snowed here in buenos aires like 3 years ago. but other than that, it hasnt snowed in like 50 years or something. its been a really long time. but honestly i havent felt like its been that cold. for me id rather have it snow so that it doesnt rain anymore. but the cold really isnt that bad. dont worry about us missionaries, we´re all good here. ive got a bunch of warm clothes and stuff so im gonna be able to last it out at least.
dang so this week has been a really good one. i feel like elder pepito and i are finally getting some good stuff going here in platanos. we had a cool thing happen the other day. so elder pepito was here in quilmes before he went to the offices. and apparently he came here to platanos like once or twice on intercambios. but one day we were walking and we decided to just randomly clap a house. a guy came out and we started talking to him. but he recognized elder pepito right away. i guess that one of the times elder pepito came here on intercambios, he went to this guy´s (his name is fabian) house. fabian had been listening to the missionaries then, but stopped after a while. but elder pepito didnt remember that he lived there in that house. we just randomly decided to clap it. but we taught him for a while and he told us that he knew the book of mormon was true. so we took out a baptismal date with him for the 31st of this month. it was pretty sweet. i think that thats the first time where ive met someone for the first time and taken out a baptismal date (not counting like 9 year olds hahah) during that same lesson. it was really cool. since that day, we havent been able to find him, which is a bummer, but hopefully we can help him be ready to be baptized on the 31st. id really appreciate it if you could all pray that we find him and that he keeps progressing.
we also found a lady who seems really awesome. we started talking to her one time at her house. it turns out that she already knows the bishops wife and family. so hopefully we can keep teaching her. her name is jorgelina. shes got a little daughter too, but i forget her name. its like nes or something. i feel like shes gonna progress really well too.
mom, about the package...there really isnt anything that i can think of off the top of my head that i need. if i can think of anything, ill be sure to let you know though. dad, shoot it sounds like the padres are just dominating right now! why is it that all of our teams are doing really well now that i can never see them?!?. they better all be doing this well when im back. it sounds like youre gonna have some fun times fishing with sean and uncle jeff. be sure to catch a fish or 2 for me. sean and emily, thats sweet that you guys are gonna be moving to another apartment this week. atleast its not that far away. it sounds like you guys have a pretty good location already. dude sean, i wanna hear that cd from the singer or owl city! it sounds sick. that movie is gonna have to be one that we see when im back too...along with like 1000 others. paige, i spent a bunch of time with gub-daddy today. he says that hell write you back sometime. but he really liked the letter and the pics too. im trying my hardest to make him my cuñado so keep helping me out here. bridg, ill bet that you´re way excited to be up in utah now with all the cousins. be sure to tell them all hi for me.
oh yeah i also wanted to say that i thought that it was way sweet how kenzie is gonna send in her mission papers! you guys may all be hoping for san diego (kenzie just so you know, if you get sent to san diego and actually see my family sometimes...im sorry hahah), but im definately hoping for buenos aires sur!
alright guys, i gotta get going. i hope that you all have an awesome time up there in utah. you are all in my prayers. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

July 19, 2010

hey guys!
shoot so i dont know if any of you have heard, but these last couple days here in buenos aires have been some of the coldest of the decade...atleast thats what the argentines say haha. they say that its supposed to snow either this or next month. from what ive been told, it snowed here in buenos aires like 3 years ago. but other than that, it hasnt snowed in like 50 years or something. its been a really long time. but honestly i havent felt like its been that cold. for me id rather have it snow so that it doesnt rain anymore. but the cold really isnt that bad. dont worry about us missionaries, we´re all good here. ive got a bunch of warm clothes and stuff so im gonna be able to last it out at least.
dang so this week has been a really good one. i feel like elder pepito and i are finally getting some good stuff going here in platanos. we had a cool thing happen the other day. so elder pepito was here in quilmes before he went to the offices. and apparently he came here to platanos like once or twice on intercambios. but one day we were walking and we decided to just randomly clap a house. a guy came out and we started talking to him. but he recognized elder pepito right away. i guess that one of the times elder pepito came here on intercambios, he went to this guy´s (his name is fabian) house. fabian had been listening to the missionaries then, but stopped after a while. but elder pepito didnt remember that he lived there in that house. we just randomly decided to clap it. but we taught him for a while and he told us that he knew the book of mormon was true. so we took out a baptismal date with him for the 31st of this month. it was pretty sweet. i think that thats the first time where ive met someone for the first time and taken out a baptismal date (not counting like 9 year olds hahah) during that same lesson. it was really cool. since that day, we havent been able to find him, which is a bummer, but hopefully we can help him be ready to be baptized on the 31st. id really appreciate it if you could all pray that we find him and that he keeps progressing.
we also found a lady who seems really awesome. we started talking to her one time at her house. it turns out that she already knows the bishops wife and family. so hopefully we can keep teaching her. her name is jorgelina. shes got a little daughter too, but i forget her name. its like nes or something. i feel like shes gonna progress really well too.
mom, about the package...there really isnt anything that i can think of off the top of my head that i need. if i can think of anything, ill be sure to let you know though. dad, shoot it sounds like the padres are just dominating right now! why is it that all of our teams are doing really well now that i can never see them?!?. they better all be doing this well when im back. it sounds like youre gonna have some fun times fishing with sean and uncle jeff. be sure to catch a fish or 2 for me. sean and emily, thats sweet that you guys are gonna be moving to another apartment this week. atleast its not that far away. it sounds like you guys have a pretty good location already. dude sean, i wanna hear that cd from the singer or owl city! it sounds sick. that movie is gonna have to be one that we see when im back too...along with like 1000 others. paige, i spent a bunch of time with gub-daddy today. he says that hell write you back sometime. but he really liked the letter and the pics too. im trying my hardest to make him my cuñado so keep helping me out here. bridg, ill bet that you´re way excited to be up in utah now with all the cousins. be sure to tell them all hi for me.
oh yeah i also wanted to say that i thought that it was way sweet how kenzie is gonna send in her mission papers! you guys may all be hoping for san diego (kenzie just so you know, if you get sent to san diego and actually see my family sometimes...im sorry hahah), but im definately hoping for buenos aires sur!
alright guys, i gotta get going. i hope that you all have an awesome time up there in utah. you are all in my prayers. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

July 26, 2010

que onda todos,
dang so i thought that it was so sick that carter livingston is gonna serve a mission in salta! thats tight! be sure to tell him congrats and that hes seriously gonna love argentina. when he gets back we´re gonna have to talk it up in castellano.
alright so this has been a really good week. elder pepito and i are both really excited because the people that we´re finding seem to be really awesome. but we went back to visit fabian the other day and he basically told us that he didnt want to start going to another church. he goes to an evangelist church and doesnt want to change. so i dont think that he´ll be getting baptized for now hahah. but we´ll try visiting him every once in a while and see how he´s doing. but it was pretty sweet the other day cause we´ve been teaching this one girl named jesyca for like 3 months now. shes all ready to be baptized, but her ¨husband¨ has to get divorced to some other lady so that they can get married. so shes just waiting for that. but it was cool cause the other day we were at her house and we started talking to her younger brother, yonaton. hes like 16. i had seen him every once in a while before, but never really got to talk to him. so we were talking the other day and it turns out that he had been reading a little bit of the book of mormon before when he was living in florencio varela (thats where bosques, my first area, is). so we left him a chapter to read and set a day to come back and teach him. so we came back on like thursday or friday and we decided to read 2 nefi 31 with him, which is a sick chapter. we were reading it and he seemed to really understand the importance of being baptized. so we took out a baptismal date with him. we´re pretty excited about it. the only thing was that yonaton wanted to wait to be baptized on his birthday in like october. its fine, but we´re still gonna see if we can put a closer day for him to get baptized ya know?
we also had an experience with a lady that we saw working in her yard the other day. we both felt like we should talk to her, so we went up and started talking a little bit. at first i thought that she was gonna tell us no, but we started talking about pray and she told us that she felt like it would be really good to say a pray in her house. so we went in and not only said a pray, but ended up talking about alot of different things with her. shes been going to an evangelist church for a really long time, but lately the members have kind of stopped talking to her and she doesnt no why. so she had been praying that someone would come to visit her. after we talked for like 45 minutes she told us that she really felt like we were meant to talk with her. it was really cool and i really hope that she keeps listening to us.
oh yeah so i had interviews with president stapley for the first time the other day. it was really cool. he seems like a great president and im pretty excited. he tells me that he thinks he can take me in basketball, but im not too sure. i told him we´ll have to see when we play one on one...but since transfers are coming up next week, im guessing that elder pepito and i will stay together for another transfer. i would be really surprised if anything changed.
mom, i thought that it was way funny how you said that paige and elder gubler are gonna get married. im glad that you agree with me hahah. he is gonna be my cuñado! But those little jokes about moving to utah just arent gonna fly. im stayin in california just so you know. dad, im glad that you dont find it that hilarious either about moving to utah. but it sounds like you, uncle jeff, and sean had an awesome time fishing. dang i heard that you guys caught a bunch! thats sweet! sean, dude im way stoked for the padres. can you say championship?! hahah not to jinx it or anything. but thats sweet about the lakers getting barnes and the other dude too. i was never a huge fan of barnes, but i hope that he helps the bench out a little bit. paige, gub-daddy and i were laughing so much today when i showed him what mom said about you 2 getting married hahaha. you might as well just face the fact now haha. bridg, hows it going up there in utah? ill bet that you´re havin an awesome time with the cousins and everything. oh yeah and that girl, maria belen showed me the emails that you wrote her and everything. she was pretty excited about it. its cool that you are all writing still.
well i think that im gonna get going. that you guys for the emails and everything. i hope that you have awesome weeks up there in utah. say hi to all the fam for me and everything. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall