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.