Monday, February 22, 2010

February 22, 2010-how's it going?

hey everyone,
dang so its just been crazy this week. lately its been raining pretty hard. today its raining up to our ankles. its been an off and on week of rain, so its kind of a bummer for me cause i was liking the hot weather. but its all good because the work is going well and mortensen and i are enjoying it all.
we´ve been able to find some new investigators this week that are really awesome. the other day, mortensen and i were just walking back to the pension for the night. we walked past this one lady and just said hi as we went by here. but then she was like, ¨hola elderes¨ and she kept walking. when i heard her say ¨elderes¨ i just stopped and asked my comp if he heard that too. there aren´t alot of people that know us by ¨elders¨ so whenever i hear it i start talking to them. usually that person has listened to the missionaries in the past and knows the church a little bit. but my comp told me that he wasn´t sure if that was what she said. i was pretty sure that she had, and i felt like i should run back and start talking to her. so i stopped walking and ran back and started to talk to her. her names veronica. i found out that she was listening to the missionaries in peru like 3 or 4 months ago. she told us that practically all her family got baptized too. it turns out that her husband (actually they aren´t really married) really wanted to get baptized, but they couldn´t because they weren´t married. but we´ve been able to talk to her since then and she seems really great. her husband invited us over this thursday for lunch which was pretty awesome. we´ve actually never met him yet because he´s working all the time, but she told us that he wanted us to come over and he wants us to give him the lessons. so we´re pretty excited about them.
theres another family that we found that seems pretty cool too. its this lady named sara and her husband (not really married either) luis. sara came to church with us yesterday with her daughter whos like 14, and they really loved it. luis hasn´t been able to listen to us for a couple days because hes working pretty far right now. but their really awesome, and we´re thinking about trying to take our baptismal dates with them this week. i really believe that they are prepared, but it might take a little while if they have to get married. but if her daughter wants to get baptized we might be able to baptize her this transfer. a bunch of the girls in the ward invited her to some activities this week, so she seemed really excited about that. i feel like both of these families have alot of potential. mortensen and i are way excited for the way this area is looking right now.
hey mom, it sounds like everything is going well at home right now. i´ll definately be excited for that b-day package. i´m really trying to not think about my birthday though. its still a while away anyways. dad, sorry that you guys came up with a zero on the fishing trip. its alright though cause you can save all the fish for when we go haha. itll be sick to reel in a nice 5 pounder ya know. sean, che me mojé tanto el otro dia haha. cuando salimos, nos parecio que no iba llover. pero nos equivocamos hahah. me hizo pensar si llovía asi alla en nicaragua. but dude i´ll bet you´re having a good time making plans for the wedding. dude its coming up soon! hey i was thinking, there are a couple things that i actually don´t know about emily...well actually i don´t know anything about emily haha...where is she from? i´m guessing somewhere in utah. whats her last name? (yes i know that shes gonna be a hall but her maiden name). how old is she? i really don´t know alot about her and since she´s gonna be my sister-in-law i thought i should know more than just her first name hahah. paige, sounds like everything is going awesome. thanks for sending me the email and the picture hahah. it actually made me think of that picture that you and rachel took when you had all that lipstick on hahah. i know you know what picture i´m talking about...about rachel writing me a letter. she can really write me by either letter or dear elder. its up to her, but i´d say that sending an actual letter would get here faster. but its really her call and i´m happy to hear from my 3rd sister in whatever way. bridg, i definately think that you should try out for the girl´s basketball team! that would be sweet! you´re already tall enough to play and once you practice a little more you´re gonna be a dang good baller. i say that you do it!
well i think thats about it for now. its nice and rainy and its callin my name. i hope that you´re all doing well and enjoying yourselves. thank you for everything that you do for me, my comp, and our investigators. i would really appreciate it if you prayed for them. i know that your prayers have already helped a bunch of our investigators change their lives. i love you all and hope that you´re having fun. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

Monday, February 15, 2010

February 15, 2010- Como Estan

hey everyone,
so i hope that you all had a good valentines day and some nice vacation. sounds like you were all able to go up and do some fishing for the weekend, which sounds awesome. i´ll bet you all had an awesome time.
so its been a pretty tight week, i´m not gonna lie. javier and viviana got baptized on saturday. elder mortesen ended up baptizing javier and i baptized viviana. then they asked us that we switch for the confirmation on sunday. so on sunday, elder mortensen confirmed viviana and i confirmed javier. it really was awesome. the baptism was great because almost all the ward was there. it was by far the best baptism that i´ve had here in the mission. javier and viviana are just so awesome! i think alot of people in the ward really realize that and that they are going to be great members for this ward. its awesome because they are probably the closest family that i´ve been to in both of my areas. they really are both mortensen and my friends. but yeah so that made the week really awesome. we´re really stoked for them both.
another really exciting thing that happened this week is that mortensen and i are staying together here in alto san lorenzo for another transfer! we were seriously so excited when we found out saturday night. i figured that if one of us was going, it would be me. but from when president had told us, we had alot of hope that we would be together for at least one more transfer. it really shows me that president trusts us even though we don´t have a whole lot of time here in the mission. but its tight. when we got the call saturday night, we just started screaming and and stuff. mortensen is definately going to be a good buddy of mine, not just during the mission, but after too. we just really get along and that helps us to work even harder. honestly this past transfer was the best one i´ve had in my whole mission. thats not just because the baptisms that we´ve had either. just in general, we´ve done better this entire transfer than any other transfer that i´ve had, but at the same time we´ve been loving it. i really can´t believe that another transfer has already gone by. it really doesn´t feel like its been 6 weeks already. so yeah, i guess you can say that its been a pretty good week.
now that javier and viviana are baptized, mortensen and i are excited to start finding some new people and setting new baptisms. we haven´t been able to take out any new baptisms with people for a while, so we don´t have a whole lot of progressing investigators right now...but thats definately going to change. i know that we are going to find more of the Lord´s chosen people. we just have to keep working hard, be ourselves, be obedient, and try to share the spirit with everyone we meet. the Lord will be able to help us with the rest.
mom, sounds like camping in cuyamaca for vacation is going to way fun. be sure to let me know how it goes. thanks alot for your email and just for everything that you do for me. dad, i hope that you can catch a fish for me. i´m really hopin that you´ve got some vacation luck and catch a nice 5 pounder or something. we´ve never reeled in a fish that big up in cuyamaca, but from what you tell me, they exist. so be sure to bring one home for me. sean, dude thanks for the email. i´ll bet its a bummer that you weren´t able to go camping with everyone else. but i´m sure the little vacation was nice for sure. dude i´m stoked to be able to hear some new angels and airwaves. lets just hope that you haven´t lost your taste in music hahah. i´m trying not to...i hear so much cumbia now its crazy when i hear something else. just so you all know, cumbia is lame. but yeah dude i definately miss those pruebas y examenes during school hahah. paige, i´ll bet you´re excited to a couple days of vacation too. be sure to have some fun. but how have you not written to gub-daddy yet?! how is he going to be my cuñado if you never write him haha. i just talked to him today and he tells me that he´s just ¨hopin to get a letter sometime soon¨. para que sepas. bridg, were you able to take jillian up with you guys too? if so, i´ll bet she loved it. but keep having fun in school and everything.
alright everybody, i gotta get going. i love you all and hope that you are all doing well. have a great week everyone. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

Monday, February 8, 2010

February 8, 2010-Que Tal

hey everyone,
thanks a bunch for your emails this week. i´m glad to say that we haven´t had any new adventures with getting robbed this week, so we´re all good there hahah. its been a pretty good week though. more than anything, we´ve been working really hard with javier and viviana. its actually a really cool story because the other day we were talking to them. we had just talked to them about the word of wisdom because the day before during church they had talked alot about that. so we were teaching them that and javier started to tell us that after he heard about the word of wisdom, he decided that he wasn´t going to drink anymore. he told us that he never really drake that much before, but he decided to give it up all together. it was pretty cool to hear because he gave up drinking before we even taught him about it. since then we´ve taught them every other lesson and they´ve even had their baptismal interviews already. they are all good to go for the baptism this saturday and are super excited.
another cool story with javier and viviana was that during one of the lessons, we talked about the difference between a church and a temple. i think that came up during church one time, so javier and viviana wanted to know more about temples. i just remember telling them really fast that in a temple, we can be married for time and all eternity. then we just kept talking about something else. but a couple days ago, we were in another lesson with them and they told us that in a year, they want to get married in the temple. it was such an awesome thing to hear. its also cool because if the temple here in buenos aires opens up again before i leave, i might be able to go with them. it was seriously just something that amazed me because they´ve only known the church for like 3 or 4 weeks. but they already have all these goals like being married in the temple and stuff like that.
it was cool because we actually just went to the beach today. its the first time that i´ve seen the beach in like 8 months. gosh it was so tight! it was freakin dirty looking water (yeah argentina doesn´t keep their water that clean), but it was still awesome. in one of the areas close to ours, you can take a boat out from this river and it opens up and heads out to the ocean. so we decided to do that earlier today and it was way cool. we went to this one island and walked around until we found this really cool beach. of course we couldn´t go in hahah...i´m not trucho (disobedient) don´t worry. but it was still cool to just hang out there for a while. so yeah, that was something new that i´ve never done for p-day before.
mom, thanks for all the news going on back at home. i´ll bet that its been a bummer with the rain the last couple days. but if it makes you feel any better, it rained the last 2 days here too. its pretty lame because it´ll be hot but its raining. i never want to wear a sweatshirt because you´ll be too hot at the same time hahah. but today is a nice day so hopefully it doesn´t rain again. dad, thanks for the email also. i´m actually alright with the saints winning the super bowl. i probably would have been rooting for them if i was home. i don´t really have a problem with brees winning a ring but that just means that rivers has to win us one next year. thats pretty lame with ladainian talking about leaving next year though. no one wants to see lt in another uniform. dude didn´t we say that it would be my last time that i saw lt in a chargers uniform?! i think that was something that sean and i used to joke about. dang it...sean, dude you have to send me like a dvd or something with some ¨angels¨ if you know what i mean. that would be so tight, just like in the background or something. but you better tell me about that next week. oh yeah and i thought that you might like to know that i still haven´t seen any ¨blue birds¨ here in argentina hahah. its been a while since you´ve asked so i thought that you might wanna know haha. paige, thats a bummer that you weren´t able to see the end of that movie. i´m down with seeing it when i´m back too if its like ¨the notebook¨ haha (just for the record i thought the notebook was a good movie until the ending). but yeah i´m thinkin that we´ll have ¨a few¨ movies to see once i´m back. be sure to tell rachel that i say hi. bridg, it sounds like you and the fam are definately going to have to do some camping this weekend. that would be so much fun! i hope that you all have fun on your vacation. cause you asked, there are 2 dogs left here in my pension (plus negrito and another ugly white dog that annoys me like crazy hahah).
well i think that thats about it for now...mortensen and i are hoping to stay together for at least one more transfer. when we had interviews with president the other day, he could tell that we wanted to stay together again and he was like, ¨i´ll try to keep you together, but no promises¨ hahah. so we´ll see what happens. i know that whether i stay here or go, whether i´m with mortensen or some other comp, the Lord is with us. as long as we keep working hard, the Lord will protect us and help us to find the people who need the gospel in the lives at this time. thank you all for all that you do for me. i love you. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

Monday, February 1, 2010

February 1, 2010-buenas de buenos aires

hey guys,
well it been a pretty crazy week, i wont lie. i thought that i would just get right to it this week. so javier and viviana are doing really well. they´ve come to church the past 2 weeks and really love it. they´re always participating in the classes, which is really awesome for people who don´t know anyone in the ward. usually people are a little more shy and wont talk as much at first. but they´re such an awesome couple. they are progressing really well and are excited about their baptism coming up in 2 weeks.
so on saturday, we were actually walking back from javier and viviana´s house. it was like 7 or 730. at that time in the day, its really not even dark yet. but we were walking back from a lesson with them and like 7 guys on bikes came up to us. i´m actually pretty used to stuff like that because kids always think that its funny to talk to a ¨yankee¨ for some reason. but yeah they came up to us and started saying a bunch of stuff. mortensen and i pretty much ignored it and kept walking. i was in front of elder mortensen. then one of the younger kids pulls out a gun and asks me, ¨do you like it?¨ i kept walking and told him, ¨yeah dude its nice.¨ mortensen told me after that he knew the gun was real because he saw the bullets in the chamber. but then the kid got off his bike, took the gun out and started telling me to give him my wallet. there were like 4 other kids (without a gun mind you) that were trying to take mortensen´s wallet too. but the guy with the gun kept telling me to give him my wallet and i was like, ¨no i don´t have anything.¨ we kept walking hoping that they´d take off, but the chavon wouldn´t leave me alone. the one with the gun just kept telling me to give him the wallet, so i was like, ¨bueno...¨ and i handed it over. i had 24 pesos in my wallet, which isn´t alot. i shouldn´t have even carried that much around, but i had just come from el bosque (another area) and i had to take a taxi to get back to my area. but he took the wallet and took out my money. but it was kinda weird and funny because once he took out my money, he asked me, ¨do you want your wallet back.¨ hahah i was like, ¨uhhh yeah i do.¨ so he gave it back to me. i actually got pretty lucky though because 1.) he didn´t ask me for my cell phone. the other kids asked mortensen for a cell phone and even gave him a little pat-down to make sure hahah but all he had was a wallet with no money in it (they ended up taking that from him). 2.) i had remembered to take off my watch earlier in the day, so they didn´t take that from me either...i guess all in all, it wasn´t the worst way to be robbed. we were pretty lucky that it wasn´t worse. i would say that i was only mad because i get robbed by a bunch of kids. but it really wasn´t a big deal.
other than that, nothing really too excited has happened this week. mortensen and i are working hard...really it would be awesome to stay here with mortensen for another transfer or 2. we work hard, but we´re alot alike so we have fun with it. i hope that we can stay companions for a little while longer. but tranfers aren´t for another 2 weeks, so we´ll just have to wait and see what happens then.
mom, thanks for the email. sounds like everything is going smooth back in la casa right now. dad, i´ll bet you´re excited for the super bowl coming up even though the chargers aren´t in it. you´ll have to give me the ¨d-l¨ on that and everything thats goin on. sean, che no recibí tus fotos pero esta bien porque es buenisimo para escuchar de todo que esta pasando. i´m excited to hear how that angels and airwaves cd is in 2 weeks. you best let me know fool hahah. paige, thanks for the email this week also. cheerleading sounds fun. i´d like to see that 6 pack of yours when i get home hahah. but keep havin fun in school...it seems like you´ve got a good balance of work (thats awesome about the grades by the way) and having fun so keep up doing both. bridg, i´ve gotta tell you something kinda sad...so the owner keeps selling the dogs that we have in our pension. we had 3 left. but the other day one of them died. we don´t know why, but we found it and it was kinda sad to see. but we´ve still got 2 left. we named one ¨baxter¨ and we named the other ¨dumb fat¨ hahah. dumb fat is the coolest, funniest dog ever.
bueno fam, tengo que seguir trabajando. pero muchisimas gracias por escribirme y por todo que hacen. i love you all. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall