hey guys, its been sooo long!! hahah
sorry that i wasnt able to call back last night. it kinda went down the way you thought. like we got back a little later than i was expecting and then i was like, ¨ehhh well my comp needs to talk to his family.¨ so i just let him go in and talk. like no worries though. it was cool cause we were able to hear each other and everything. it sounds like things are going well. there were a couple things that i wanted to say that i didnt have time to mention last night. im planning on leaving like all my short sleeve shirts too cause ill never wear them after. seriously, never haha. ive got enough long sleeve ones that ill be able to use any other time that i need one. but if theres like any reason why you think that i shouldnt leave either of these behind, let me know.
well we werent really able to talk a lot about my week last night. but it was honestly a pretty crazy one. but the thing was, we seriously had hardly any time to actually work in our area. on tuesday, like i mentioned last week, we had to take a nice double decker bus for 6 hours to get to adrogué. the first time i took that bus ride, it was somewhat fun. now im just over it hahah. but my comp and i had a ton of time to talk and stuff. and i talked to this one lady for a really long time too about the gospel. it was weird to be back in adrogué though. it felt alot like christmas cause it was kinda colder and there were alot more people and stuff. but then on wednesday we had a leadership meeting for all the zone leaders of the mission. i got to see all my friends and stuff. but that meeting was also pretty sad cause whenever some missionaries are about to finish, president stapley asks them to bear their testimony. and it seriously just got to me really strong. like when it was my turn it was just so weird. it kinda hit me that there wasnt that much time left. its a good thing that the tears dont go shooting out of my eyes that easily cause it was definately tough. there were some of my friends and people that i might not see again or atleast for a couple more months. but overall, it was a good meeting and alot of fun. that night we spent the night in the mission home so that we could take the bus early in the morning. we left around 8 on thursday and got back around 2ish. its so crazy how much that ride actually takes out of ya haha.
the rest of the week was just us racing around our area to try and get in some lessons with people that we´re teaching. i think one of the coolest things that happened this week was that monica´s step son (monica is the lady we´re trying to get married and baptized) got home from his mission in ecuador. its sweet cause hes really excited to help in the missionary work and really wants his step mom to get baptized. so hopefully he keeps up helping us and everything. i know that he told us that hes got alot of references of friends that he wants to give us...score! haha
mom, here we were allowed to go on skype to talk to the fam too, but i decided not to do it for 2 reasons. first, my comps family didnt really know how to do it. so i was just figured that we could both talk on the phone. second, i figure that ill be seeing you all in just a little bit, so i just thought that id wait. but yeah, i know some people that did it. but i think that it would make them kinda trunky so im kinda glad that i didnt end up doing it. dad, it was good to hear ya last night. thanks for not giving me the entire run down of my flight plans and stuff though haha. its probably better that i just dont know about that stuff yet. sean, dude happy birthday again. hopefully you liked the little seranade that i had prepared for ya haha. bummer about the lakers and everything. but hey, not all of our teams could win while ive been here on the mission. no te preocupes, en un ratito empieca el futbol americano hahah. paige, we´re probably not just gonna have to go to the wave this summer. im in need of a tan, so im thinkin that we should get some beach days in there too hahah. bridg, havent heard alot about jilian in awhile...are you already sick of her? hahah where have i heard, ´no mom ill always take care of her!¨ and a couple months later, moms the only one feeding or walking the dog hahaha.
hey guys so i was thinking, and this might actually be the last email that i send. like next week, im not sure if ill be able to write or not. like id say that you should write and stuff just in case, but since its the last week, i dont know if im gonna be able to write. but we´ll just see what happens. if i can write again, we´ll be hearin from each other next week. if not, well you all know when we´ll be hearin from each other hahah. but either way, i love you all!
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
May 2, 2011-Hey
heyyy guys,
well well its been another pretty good week i must say. im definately enjoying things here in mar de ajó. elder baggaley and i have been working like crazy with the people that we´ve been teaching. we´ve seen some progress with certain people, and others havent been as great as we´ve been hoping for. but overall we´re happy, working well and having fun.
i think that the person thats been progressing better than anyone has been monica. shes the ¨not-yet-wife¨ of hermano diaz. like shes been the one who has been helping the family to get more active again in the church. shes been reading all the stuff that we´ve left her. its nice cause we´ve been able to teach them atleast like 2 times a week. the only thing we´re waiting for is the marriage. last night we had a lesson with them and we challenged them to talk and set up a marriage date together. i know that they´re gonna do it too. they both want to, so it doesnt look like there would be anything else that would prevent them from doing it. we´re gonna have to see if they can get married in the next couple weeks though hahah. if not then i guess elder baggaley and (i had to say this) someone else might have to reap the fruits of our labors hahah. but its all good. as long as they get married and she can get baptized. and i know that theyve got an 8 year old girl too, and yesterday we were saying how she can get baptized too. it would be awesome if they got baptized together.
we´ve got another really awesome family that im pretty excited about. the mom´s name is laura. she was a reference from the branch president cause they work together. so the missionaries have been teaching her for like 2 months, but the last 2 weeks, we weren´t able to teach her. but on like thursday we found her. and her son and daughter just happened to be there hahah. so my comp and i took advantage of the opportunity and asked them to listen also and they both sat down and listened to us. it was cool cause i could tell that they all really enjoyed it and laura especially cause she told us that she didnt think that theyd accept to listen haha. but now from what the branch president told us, the kids are really excited and stuff too. so we´re gonna hope that in the next couple weeks, they can keep progressing well.
ok so today was pretty sweet. earlier today, we went over to santa teresita and played golf on a sweet golf course. when i say ¨sweet¨ golf course though of course you all have to remember that im in argentina haha. so its not like it was the greatest course in the world, but ive gotta admit it was pretty sick. we played 9 holes. and now i remember why i always chose to play like basketball and tennis and stuff hahah cause i kinda suck at golf. but we all did, so it was way fun. we were all having a good time and just kinda messed around for a couple hours.
dang so this week, elder baggaley and i are really thinking that we´re gonna have to take advantage of every little moment that we´re gonna have to work. cause listen to this schedule for the week: today, pday-only like 3 hours to work. tuesday, we work in the morning, then at lunch we have to take a 6 hour bus ride to the ¨rest of the world¨ where our mission is haha. so we´ll get to adrogué at like 9ish tomorrow night, where we´ll stay the night with some of my best friends from the offices. they on wednesday we´ve got a leadership meeting with president in the morning. after that, we take another 6 hour bus ride back here to la costa. so we´ll get here at like 9 or 10 at night. then on thursday, we´ve got a district meeting in pinamar, so that gives us like less than 5 hours to work. then on friday, we dont work in the morning cause we´ve got weekly planning. saturday is gonna be our only full day of the week. then sunday we´ve got church in the morning, and then around 6 my time i´ll call you guys for mother´s day. what a week hugh?! so we´re just gonna have to work as hard as we can with the little time that we have to actually be working. its gonna be a fun week though.
mom, thanks for the update on everything going on at home. i actually wont be able to go to the temple here in argentina before...well you all know before what haha. i dont know if ive ever told you guys, but ive only been able to enter the temple here one time during my mission when i was super new cause right after they closed it for repairs, and they havent been able to open/rededicate it since. maybe ill have to make a trip back here once they open it again...? haha dad, whats new in the sports world? lakers? padres? are we gonna have to make any downtown san diego trips to see mah padres dominate? hahah sean, thats awesome that you and emily moved to salt lake. bummer that we wont be able to be in provo together and see each other allll the time, but salt lakes only like 45 minutes away. dude where are you working now? ¨someone¨ told me that you guys are gonna be living close enough for you to walk to work. paige, congrats on getting a job at the wave. i actually didnt know about that. i guess we´re gonna have to make a trip there one day and soak up the sun hahah. bridg, thanks for the email. haha youre right though i didnt really care for the update on the time left though hahah. its all good though.
k thats about it. but youll be hearing from me again on sunday. crazy that we´re already almost at mother´s day again. AAANNNDDD i know that im gonna be able to say this over the phone, but i might as well give sean an early b-day shout out. hope you have an awesome day bro. love ya...so i guess that we´ll be talkin then. ill give you guys a call probably around like 6 or 630 my time. have a good rest of the week. until sunday...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
well well its been another pretty good week i must say. im definately enjoying things here in mar de ajó. elder baggaley and i have been working like crazy with the people that we´ve been teaching. we´ve seen some progress with certain people, and others havent been as great as we´ve been hoping for. but overall we´re happy, working well and having fun.
i think that the person thats been progressing better than anyone has been monica. shes the ¨not-yet-wife¨ of hermano diaz. like shes been the one who has been helping the family to get more active again in the church. shes been reading all the stuff that we´ve left her. its nice cause we´ve been able to teach them atleast like 2 times a week. the only thing we´re waiting for is the marriage. last night we had a lesson with them and we challenged them to talk and set up a marriage date together. i know that they´re gonna do it too. they both want to, so it doesnt look like there would be anything else that would prevent them from doing it. we´re gonna have to see if they can get married in the next couple weeks though hahah. if not then i guess elder baggaley and (i had to say this) someone else might have to reap the fruits of our labors hahah. but its all good. as long as they get married and she can get baptized. and i know that theyve got an 8 year old girl too, and yesterday we were saying how she can get baptized too. it would be awesome if they got baptized together.
we´ve got another really awesome family that im pretty excited about. the mom´s name is laura. she was a reference from the branch president cause they work together. so the missionaries have been teaching her for like 2 months, but the last 2 weeks, we weren´t able to teach her. but on like thursday we found her. and her son and daughter just happened to be there hahah. so my comp and i took advantage of the opportunity and asked them to listen also and they both sat down and listened to us. it was cool cause i could tell that they all really enjoyed it and laura especially cause she told us that she didnt think that theyd accept to listen haha. but now from what the branch president told us, the kids are really excited and stuff too. so we´re gonna hope that in the next couple weeks, they can keep progressing well.
ok so today was pretty sweet. earlier today, we went over to santa teresita and played golf on a sweet golf course. when i say ¨sweet¨ golf course though of course you all have to remember that im in argentina haha. so its not like it was the greatest course in the world, but ive gotta admit it was pretty sick. we played 9 holes. and now i remember why i always chose to play like basketball and tennis and stuff hahah cause i kinda suck at golf. but we all did, so it was way fun. we were all having a good time and just kinda messed around for a couple hours.
dang so this week, elder baggaley and i are really thinking that we´re gonna have to take advantage of every little moment that we´re gonna have to work. cause listen to this schedule for the week: today, pday-only like 3 hours to work. tuesday, we work in the morning, then at lunch we have to take a 6 hour bus ride to the ¨rest of the world¨ where our mission is haha. so we´ll get to adrogué at like 9ish tomorrow night, where we´ll stay the night with some of my best friends from the offices. they on wednesday we´ve got a leadership meeting with president in the morning. after that, we take another 6 hour bus ride back here to la costa. so we´ll get here at like 9 or 10 at night. then on thursday, we´ve got a district meeting in pinamar, so that gives us like less than 5 hours to work. then on friday, we dont work in the morning cause we´ve got weekly planning. saturday is gonna be our only full day of the week. then sunday we´ve got church in the morning, and then around 6 my time i´ll call you guys for mother´s day. what a week hugh?! so we´re just gonna have to work as hard as we can with the little time that we have to actually be working. its gonna be a fun week though.
mom, thanks for the update on everything going on at home. i actually wont be able to go to the temple here in argentina before...well you all know before what haha. i dont know if ive ever told you guys, but ive only been able to enter the temple here one time during my mission when i was super new cause right after they closed it for repairs, and they havent been able to open/rededicate it since. maybe ill have to make a trip back here once they open it again...? haha dad, whats new in the sports world? lakers? padres? are we gonna have to make any downtown san diego trips to see mah padres dominate? hahah sean, thats awesome that you and emily moved to salt lake. bummer that we wont be able to be in provo together and see each other allll the time, but salt lakes only like 45 minutes away. dude where are you working now? ¨someone¨ told me that you guys are gonna be living close enough for you to walk to work. paige, congrats on getting a job at the wave. i actually didnt know about that. i guess we´re gonna have to make a trip there one day and soak up the sun hahah. bridg, thanks for the email. haha youre right though i didnt really care for the update on the time left though hahah. its all good though.
k thats about it. but youll be hearing from me again on sunday. crazy that we´re already almost at mother´s day again. AAANNNDDD i know that im gonna be able to say this over the phone, but i might as well give sean an early b-day shout out. hope you have an awesome day bro. love ya...so i guess that we´ll be talkin then. ill give you guys a call probably around like 6 or 630 my time. have a good rest of the week. until sunday...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Monday, April 25, 2011
April 25, 2011-Congrats Sean
hey hey hey!
first of all, sean congrats on graduating this week! i saw the pics and it looks like it went really well. but dude thats awesome that everything went well.
im excited to hear that it sounds like everyone has had a good week back home. here we´ve also had a good week. we weren´t able to baptize nilda and her granddaughters though. atleast now i can tell you their names though hahah. they´re andrea, ayelen, and karen. but we talked to them on like tuesday morning and were trying to get them excited about getting baptized. but nilda told us that she still feels like they need to wait a little more. when we started trying to figure out what it was exactly that was preventing them from getting baptized now, she told us that it didnt have anything to do with the teachings of the church or anything. she believes that what we teach is true. but from what she told us, she still wants to know more people from the branch. like i think that my comp and i are gonna try to have more lessons with member now with her. i think that if we want her to get baptized in the next couple weeks, she needs to be able to feel love from the members and that when she goes to church, the members are gonna be there to make her feel good. thats always been a weakness that ive seen here in argentina hahah. its sad but true. alot the members arent always as strong here. there are alot of great members, but we need more that can help out when the missionaries arent there, ya know? but we´ve got a couple ideas for who we can take with us to visit them. elder baggaley and i are working hard so that they can get baptized this transfer. id appreciate your prayers for them.
besides nilda and her grand kids, we´ve found some awesome people this week that we think that also get baptized in the near future. we found a family that was listening to the missionaries a couple months ago, that really liked the church. the problem was that during summer, the basically had no time to talk to us. but now summer´s over and they seem really excited to start going to church. we talked about baptism with them the other day and they said that they want to get baptized. the only reason we didnt take out a baptismal date with them that day was cause we wanted to remind them that they have to get married. i think that someone can get married here within a couple weeks. so we have to get them pumped for that. their names are leo and fabiana. if you could pray that they agree to get married, it would be much appreciated hahah...we also found a lady, named monica, whos the wife of an inactive member. well shes actually not the ¨wife¨ yet, but theyre working on that hahah. the inactive member´s wife passed away a couple years ago. sinc then, he met monica and now theyre working on getting married. but she went to church yesterday with the whole family. it was awesome! we´re gonna work so that they can get married sometime soon also. we´re shooting for a couple weeks from now.
so besides that, my comp and i are just working ¨aful¨ to find more people and help them progress. we´re seeing alot of improvements too. and on top of that, we´re trying to have fun while we do it hahah. i sent you guys 2 pics- one was of the sunrise last week. when we went running to the beach one day in the morning. the other was when we were in a place called pinamar. we were right there on the beach, so we snapped a couple pics.
mom, about the apartment thing, i havent been able to talk to elder rader for a while now. but id say that if those better known places arent gonna work, we should start looking at something else. but i dont know. like glenwood or raintree would be sick i think. maybe we can try to convince them. honestly im not exactly sure hahah sorry. i cant do alot right now though. theres just no time to do anything. dad, i hope that the lakers were able to shake off the rust and beat the hornets. im sooo far away from all the other missionaries here that i seriously dont hear anything haha. sean, felicitaciones otra vez por graduarte. eso es buenisimo che. espero que sigas estudiando para que podamos graduarnos juntos en algunos años mas. paige, looks like you enjoyed the spring break fo sho. now its back to lovely school. yeahhh! bridg, you said hi to all the cousins and stuff for me, right? hahah
hey my comp just reminded me that on the 8th, we´re gonna call you guys for mother´s day. so im gonna call you guys around 6 my time, which is like 1 or 2 your guys time. just to give you all a heads up.
k so i better get goin. thank you guys for all your emails, your prayers, and everything else. have a great week! until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
April 18, 2011-La Costa-So Far So Good
hey everyone!
so im writing here from mar de ajo in la costa. last week was a little crazy just having the change and everything really fast, but now that im here, im loving it and having a great time. its different for sure. its soooo clean!! haha and the people are super nice. thats something i havent seen in 2 years haha. theres alot of sand, which is kinda weird, but its all been really cool. im here with elder baggaley, who is from salt lake city. hes got 6 weeks less than me, but hes been an awesome companion for this week. he seems like a really great teacher and stuff. ive gotta say that ive kinda known him for a while and i never really took the time to really get to know him thaaat well. but ive really been wrong about him. hes alot of fun and we´ve already had alot of laughs together. im thinking that its gonna be a good transfer...
so as far as things go in the mission work here in mar de ajó, the people are fairly more wealthier here, which makes talking to people a bigger challenge. it makes the members of the branch (its a small branch. more on that later...) even more important. but the good news is that we´re working right now with a couple families. we´ve got a family that we´re teaching right now and really trying to get baptized. the lady´s name is nilda. shes an older woman. he husband is named juan. hes kinda listening to us, but hes never gone to church before and we dont have a baptismal date with him yet. its in the works though. but yeah so we´re teaching nilda and her 3 little grandchildren. i actually dont remember their names right now, cause im trying to learn a bunch of different names of the investigators and members that we have and my mind is still in a jumble hahah. but we´re really trying to get them baptized this saturday. theyve already gone to church twice and they seem like really good people. i think that they want to get baptized, but we´ve definately got to get them excited for it. if not, i think nilda´s gonna say that shed like to just keep waiting a little bit. so our main goal this week is talk to nilda and her 3 grandchildren, get them super excited about the baptism, and baptize them this saturday. if its what the Lord wants to happen, it will.
alright so what else has happened...? hahah ok so yesterday was about the weirdest day of church that ive ever had. or maybe not the weirdest, but id definately say the day where i had to do more stuff than ive ever had to before. so get this...in the morning, our branch president calls us and tells us that he wouldnt be able to make it to church. he was really sick so he couldnt go. so he asked us if we could set up and prepare the sacrament meeting. i talked to him and told him that thatd be fine. so we left around like 8ish and then we realized that we werent gonna have any bread for the sacrament. so reluctantly, we went to one of the bakeries and bought a thing of bread. so then we got to church, and started right away to prepare the music, the anouncements, and all that good stuff. by the way, the branch president had also asked both elder baggaley and i to give talks hahah fun. but we set that all up, and then started setting up the sacrament table. we finished that before church started. but there we probably like less than 20 people that showed up, so i had to direct the music, while my comp blessed the sacrament. then i had to pass the sacrament hahah. and as soon as that was over, i got up and gave my 30 minute talk hahah. literally, i had to talk for 30 minutes. i dont know how i was able to talk for that long being so unprepared haha but the Lord definately guided me on that one. during on of the parts of my talk, i actually talked about the conversion of grandpa, with the little deacon that told him to get baptized hahah. but then my comp gave his talk. lets just say that it was a different kind of sunday. im always glad for new opportunities, but id rather not do that again haha.
ohhh but heres an awesome thing that we did. so today we had a zone activity cause in february our zone completed all our goals. so as a reward, president stapley came to pinamar (which is like an hour from where we live) and made us breakfast. we had pancakes with syrup, eggs with bacon (its been awhile since ive had bacon), and orange juice. for me it was amazing haha. but it was cool cause my comp and i were trying to think of some fun stuff that we could do after the breakfast. and last night i was laying in my bed thinking and all of a sudden, i sat up and was like, ¨easter egg hunt!!!¨ haha i mean this week is easter! elder baggaley liked the idea, so we bought all the candy this morning. and while the rest of the zone was watching a movie, we hid all the candy. we didnt tell them until the end of the movie, so the were all surprised and everyone told us that they really loved it. i thought it was wayyy fun too. just another one of those dorky ideas of mine haha.
mom, my comp is definately from the us haha. hes as american as you can get. but an awesome kid. dad, bummer about the lakers losing the first game against the lame hornets. but im not worried. we just need the mamba to do his thing. no te precupes haha. sean, sounds like you guys are gonna have some fun this week with the rest of the fam. be sure to have a good one and send me some pics with them if you can. paige, spring break...fun. hahah and hey, i read that letter from the newer guy in the ward. just for future references for all guys: theres only one guy for you, mrs. gubler ;) . bridg, hopefully that the carita is doing alot better now. thats kind of a weird thing that happened, but hopefully is all cleared up now.
well im hoping for an amazing week. it should be a little crazy here in our area since this week is easter. lets just say that im glad that i wasnt here when it was really hot outside hahah. but we´ll see if there are alot of people that come down here for easter this time of year. but i wanna wish you all a happy easter. i hope that its alot of fun for all of you. and yeah we´ll talk more next week. love you all!
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
so im writing here from mar de ajo in la costa. last week was a little crazy just having the change and everything really fast, but now that im here, im loving it and having a great time. its different for sure. its soooo clean!! haha and the people are super nice. thats something i havent seen in 2 years haha. theres alot of sand, which is kinda weird, but its all been really cool. im here with elder baggaley, who is from salt lake city. hes got 6 weeks less than me, but hes been an awesome companion for this week. he seems like a really great teacher and stuff. ive gotta say that ive kinda known him for a while and i never really took the time to really get to know him thaaat well. but ive really been wrong about him. hes alot of fun and we´ve already had alot of laughs together. im thinking that its gonna be a good transfer...
so as far as things go in the mission work here in mar de ajó, the people are fairly more wealthier here, which makes talking to people a bigger challenge. it makes the members of the branch (its a small branch. more on that later...) even more important. but the good news is that we´re working right now with a couple families. we´ve got a family that we´re teaching right now and really trying to get baptized. the lady´s name is nilda. shes an older woman. he husband is named juan. hes kinda listening to us, but hes never gone to church before and we dont have a baptismal date with him yet. its in the works though. but yeah so we´re teaching nilda and her 3 little grandchildren. i actually dont remember their names right now, cause im trying to learn a bunch of different names of the investigators and members that we have and my mind is still in a jumble hahah. but we´re really trying to get them baptized this saturday. theyve already gone to church twice and they seem like really good people. i think that they want to get baptized, but we´ve definately got to get them excited for it. if not, i think nilda´s gonna say that shed like to just keep waiting a little bit. so our main goal this week is talk to nilda and her 3 grandchildren, get them super excited about the baptism, and baptize them this saturday. if its what the Lord wants to happen, it will.
alright so what else has happened...? hahah ok so yesterday was about the weirdest day of church that ive ever had. or maybe not the weirdest, but id definately say the day where i had to do more stuff than ive ever had to before. so get this...in the morning, our branch president calls us and tells us that he wouldnt be able to make it to church. he was really sick so he couldnt go. so he asked us if we could set up and prepare the sacrament meeting. i talked to him and told him that thatd be fine. so we left around like 8ish and then we realized that we werent gonna have any bread for the sacrament. so reluctantly, we went to one of the bakeries and bought a thing of bread. so then we got to church, and started right away to prepare the music, the anouncements, and all that good stuff. by the way, the branch president had also asked both elder baggaley and i to give talks hahah fun. but we set that all up, and then started setting up the sacrament table. we finished that before church started. but there we probably like less than 20 people that showed up, so i had to direct the music, while my comp blessed the sacrament. then i had to pass the sacrament hahah. and as soon as that was over, i got up and gave my 30 minute talk hahah. literally, i had to talk for 30 minutes. i dont know how i was able to talk for that long being so unprepared haha but the Lord definately guided me on that one. during on of the parts of my talk, i actually talked about the conversion of grandpa, with the little deacon that told him to get baptized hahah. but then my comp gave his talk. lets just say that it was a different kind of sunday. im always glad for new opportunities, but id rather not do that again haha.
ohhh but heres an awesome thing that we did. so today we had a zone activity cause in february our zone completed all our goals. so as a reward, president stapley came to pinamar (which is like an hour from where we live) and made us breakfast. we had pancakes with syrup, eggs with bacon (its been awhile since ive had bacon), and orange juice. for me it was amazing haha. but it was cool cause my comp and i were trying to think of some fun stuff that we could do after the breakfast. and last night i was laying in my bed thinking and all of a sudden, i sat up and was like, ¨easter egg hunt!!!¨ haha i mean this week is easter! elder baggaley liked the idea, so we bought all the candy this morning. and while the rest of the zone was watching a movie, we hid all the candy. we didnt tell them until the end of the movie, so the were all surprised and everyone told us that they really loved it. i thought it was wayyy fun too. just another one of those dorky ideas of mine haha.
mom, my comp is definately from the us haha. hes as american as you can get. but an awesome kid. dad, bummer about the lakers losing the first game against the lame hornets. but im not worried. we just need the mamba to do his thing. no te precupes haha. sean, sounds like you guys are gonna have some fun this week with the rest of the fam. be sure to have a good one and send me some pics with them if you can. paige, spring break...fun. hahah and hey, i read that letter from the newer guy in the ward. just for future references for all guys: theres only one guy for you, mrs. gubler ;) . bridg, hopefully that the carita is doing alot better now. thats kind of a weird thing that happened, but hopefully is all cleared up now.
well im hoping for an amazing week. it should be a little crazy here in our area since this week is easter. lets just say that im glad that i wasnt here when it was really hot outside hahah. but we´ll see if there are alot of people that come down here for easter this time of year. but i wanna wish you all a happy easter. i hope that its alot of fun for all of you. and yeah we´ll talk more next week. love you all!
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Monday, April 11, 2011
April 11, 2011
heyyy guys,
alright so im gonna apologize right now cause i know that im writing this really late. but let me explain...we had transfers this week and i got changed. president called elder gutierrez and i saturday morning and let us know. he told me that i was going to mar de ajó in la costa (the coast). im seriously still really surprised. like most people that go here are here for awhile. but i really never expected it to happen. i figured that id finish up in el triangulo. but president told me that they needed me in la costa. so to explain why im writing this so late, we just got off a 6 hour bus ride. we went from the mission house and just road all the way out to nowheres vill hahah. like seriously, all i saw for 6 hours was field and cows hahah. but we just got to the area. i guess that we live like 10ish blocks from the ocean. still havent seen it so i dont know exactly what its like. but its kinda crazy cause alot of the streets are all sand haha...but this area is insane as far as ive heard. la costa has always been labeled as a ¨hard zone¨ as far as finding people to baptize. but im seriously just like, ¨who cares, we´re just gonna work and find and convert these guys.¨ i think my new comp, elder baggley, is relieved for some fresh blood in this area, cause its been tough from what they tell me. so im ready to get things going. starting tomorrow haha cause as soon as i send this, we have to go back to the pension. its almost 9 haha...but yeah from what my comp has told me, this is a district (which i think is the same as a branch...or something close). its gonna be the first time i havent been in a ward. but im excited. like saturday afternoon, guti and i were just thinking about all this. i think both of us were a little bummed about it. but while i was walking, the scripture in isaiah 55 came to my head. i cant remember which one it is, but it says, ¨my thoughts are not your thoughts; neither your ways my ways.¨ when i thought about that scripture, it really helped me. i realized that it doesnt matter that i think its weird that i got sent to this area. it doesnt matter that its not something that normally happens. cause my thoughts aren´t the Lords thoughts. the Lord knows what needs to happen and where every one of his servants need to go to have the most success and bring others unto Him. i think that was a little humbling lesson that i learned. now im ready to get going and get this area going...it was really funny though when i talked to president today about it all. he told me, ¨ill bet that youre wondering why youre going to la costa...i just wanted you to get a little view of the beach haha.¨ haha and i was like, ¨president im from california!¨ hahah
ok so im sorry that i dont have time to talk about the week or anything. i dont have time to read really any of the emails right now either. i just kinda skimmed through it all. but mom, i really just kinda flipped through your email. sorry about that. but i did read the part about the kid that went into the mtc with me hahah. trust me mom, im not gonna be home in 22 days. you already know that i left on may 20th. but ill tell you right now, more than anything so that sean and emily can plan to come down, that i should be home on may 24th. the 23rd is my last day and i should fly home that night, and be home the next day. but stop asking about it! hahah to be honest thats about all i know. if you really have to know something else, ill let you know in the next couple weeks. but if not, ill let you know about flight plans and stuff a week or 2 before i get home hahah. dad, padres...boo. lakers, whats up? we cant be losing like that. sean, its only cause you have to know that im telling you the day when i ¨should get home¨ haha. ive got this transfer and then now we all know what happens after that. but no, i still havent seen any of them bluebirds. do you think the coast is gonna change that? id like to think not, but if youve caught glimpses of bluebirds on campus, anything is possible hahaha. paige, haha i thought that it was way funny how you did the ¨fish thing.¨ but maybe the real ¨catch¨ would be an elder gubler...whos getting ready to come visit in the summer hahah. bridg, sorry i couldnt read your email either. but ill try to read it super quick. but i hope that youre doing great. sorry, ill think of something to tease you about next week hahah.
alright guys, we need to get going. its already past 9. i gotta unpack a little bit and then its off to bed. the bus rides always take alot out of you. its weird. but tomorrow its off to work...have a great week. ill write more next monday. love you all
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
alright so im gonna apologize right now cause i know that im writing this really late. but let me explain...we had transfers this week and i got changed. president called elder gutierrez and i saturday morning and let us know. he told me that i was going to mar de ajó in la costa (the coast). im seriously still really surprised. like most people that go here are here for awhile. but i really never expected it to happen. i figured that id finish up in el triangulo. but president told me that they needed me in la costa. so to explain why im writing this so late, we just got off a 6 hour bus ride. we went from the mission house and just road all the way out to nowheres vill hahah. like seriously, all i saw for 6 hours was field and cows hahah. but we just got to the area. i guess that we live like 10ish blocks from the ocean. still havent seen it so i dont know exactly what its like. but its kinda crazy cause alot of the streets are all sand haha...but this area is insane as far as ive heard. la costa has always been labeled as a ¨hard zone¨ as far as finding people to baptize. but im seriously just like, ¨who cares, we´re just gonna work and find and convert these guys.¨ i think my new comp, elder baggley, is relieved for some fresh blood in this area, cause its been tough from what they tell me. so im ready to get things going. starting tomorrow haha cause as soon as i send this, we have to go back to the pension. its almost 9 haha...but yeah from what my comp has told me, this is a district (which i think is the same as a branch...or something close). its gonna be the first time i havent been in a ward. but im excited. like saturday afternoon, guti and i were just thinking about all this. i think both of us were a little bummed about it. but while i was walking, the scripture in isaiah 55 came to my head. i cant remember which one it is, but it says, ¨my thoughts are not your thoughts; neither your ways my ways.¨ when i thought about that scripture, it really helped me. i realized that it doesnt matter that i think its weird that i got sent to this area. it doesnt matter that its not something that normally happens. cause my thoughts aren´t the Lords thoughts. the Lord knows what needs to happen and where every one of his servants need to go to have the most success and bring others unto Him. i think that was a little humbling lesson that i learned. now im ready to get going and get this area going...it was really funny though when i talked to president today about it all. he told me, ¨ill bet that youre wondering why youre going to la costa...i just wanted you to get a little view of the beach haha.¨ haha and i was like, ¨president im from california!¨ hahah
ok so im sorry that i dont have time to talk about the week or anything. i dont have time to read really any of the emails right now either. i just kinda skimmed through it all. but mom, i really just kinda flipped through your email. sorry about that. but i did read the part about the kid that went into the mtc with me hahah. trust me mom, im not gonna be home in 22 days. you already know that i left on may 20th. but ill tell you right now, more than anything so that sean and emily can plan to come down, that i should be home on may 24th. the 23rd is my last day and i should fly home that night, and be home the next day. but stop asking about it! hahah to be honest thats about all i know. if you really have to know something else, ill let you know in the next couple weeks. but if not, ill let you know about flight plans and stuff a week or 2 before i get home hahah. dad, padres...boo. lakers, whats up? we cant be losing like that. sean, its only cause you have to know that im telling you the day when i ¨should get home¨ haha. ive got this transfer and then now we all know what happens after that. but no, i still havent seen any of them bluebirds. do you think the coast is gonna change that? id like to think not, but if youve caught glimpses of bluebirds on campus, anything is possible hahaha. paige, haha i thought that it was way funny how you did the ¨fish thing.¨ but maybe the real ¨catch¨ would be an elder gubler...whos getting ready to come visit in the summer hahah. bridg, sorry i couldnt read your email either. but ill try to read it super quick. but i hope that youre doing great. sorry, ill think of something to tease you about next week hahah.
alright guys, we need to get going. its already past 9. i gotta unpack a little bit and then its off to bed. the bus rides always take alot out of you. its weird. but tomorrow its off to work...have a great week. ill write more next monday. love you all
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
April 5, 2011-To All My Peeps Back Home
whats up muh peeps?!?
well its been another one of those roller coaster weeks. we´ve had good things happen, and not so good things. but all in all, elder gutierrez and i are here and happy. we are kinda wondering whats gonna happen to us though. this is the last week of the transfer- i cant believe that this transfer is already almost over! every transfer goes by faster and faster. if i had to guess, id say that my comp is gonna go somewhere else. pretty much neither of us is thinking that we´re gonna stay together again. hahah after 6 months together, we´re both betting that one of us is gonna be somewhere else next transfer. both of us would be totally down to stay together again, but ive never heard of that happening. who knows? but we´re both expecting that one of us is gone. i think that we´re both thinking that its gonna be him too. but next week ill give you all the down low on that...
so about last week. the bummer was that 2 of the people we were hoping to baptize this month probably arent gonna get baptized soon. i already told you what happened with silvia the other week. well when we went over to her house this week, we knew that we just needed to ask her. my comp wasnt gonna step up to ask her if luis had gone back to live there (i dont know why its such an uncomfortable thing to ask haha), so he left it up to me to do it. haha so i asked her and sadly enough, she said that he had. she said that she was gonna give him another chance. and i mean thats great cause no one wants a woman to be alone with a bunch of kids. but its just a bummer cause shes not willing to marry him. she doesnt love him enough to marry him, just enough so that they live together. dont ask me why that makes sense...cause it doesnt hahah. but theres really nothing that we can do for now. hopefully she decides sometime in the future that they need to get married. and im sure that sooner or later thatll happen. only God knows...and it looks like ezequiel doesnt want to get baptized right now either. the bummer with him is just that he doesnt want to right now. its really not a good reason. but its better that he doesnt get baptized if he isnt willing to keep all the commandments. so for now, we´re gonna give him a little space unless he decides on his own that he wants to start listening to us again.
ok enough of that stuff. we´ve had some really great stuff happen this week also. after going like 2 weeks without being able to find rosa, we were starting to think that she didnt want to listen to us anymore. but the other day, we finally found her in her house and got to talk to her. shes just be insanely busy with work and stuff. she still wants to listen with her kids. so we´re super stoked about that...and this week we also got a really great reference from one of the members. this member asked if the family that lives next door to him wanted to listen to the missionaries and the said that they would. the husband´s name is ariel. he´s actually silvia´s nephew. but he seems like an awesome guy. he told us that when he was living in corrientes, his family had listened to the missionaries, but they never gave them the book of mormon. so when we gave it to him and started explaining it, he got super excited. we also explained the entire message of the restauration and he told us that he believes that its the truth. he seems like a capo! we´ve gotta find out if hes married (ill try to keep the faith). and it might be tough with his work to go to church, but theres nothing that God cant do (i think its luke 1:39...you should look it up, its a faith-builder). so i believe that He´ll help us with that. but it just goes to show that the best way to do the missionary work isnt though contacts by the missionaries. the most important people in the missionary work are the members of the church...i invite you all the try to be bold and invite someone to either listen to the missionaries, or go to church with you, or an activity. the blessings are more important than a rejection, trust me. dont be afraid of someone telling you no.
mom, you know that i thought the general conference was bomb haha. my comp and i werent able to bring anyone to the saturday sessions, so we didnt go. but the sunday session was awesome! i really liked the talk by elder holland. hes such a powerful speaker! i also really liked the talk by president monson in the first session on sunday. it was so cool how he talked about temples and their importance. i thought it was so cool how he talked about the temple being built in rome. we all know that thats impressive and really significant. but i think that those 2 were my favorites. dad, bummer that the cougars had to lose in the sweet 16. but hey, when was the last time we got that far?!? and to lose a tight game like that...aveces pasa eso haha. oh and be sure to say hi to uncle jeff for me in vegas! haha sean, thanks bro for the email. it means alot to me that you keep writing me. i know that i didnt last all 2 years writing you hahah. but thanks for always takin a little time out to write me. hahah and i wouldnt get tooo excited about them padres just yet. its a long season. we´ll see where we are in a couple months haha. paige, i heard about what happened. just know that ive been praying for you. i hope that youre doing alot better now. thats pretty crazy, but i know that youll be alright. it looks like you were all able to enjoy the trip to disneyland haha. good stuff. bridg, tell brookie cookie hi for me too haha. have fun with her there. then in another week, just get ready for some more school fun hahah.
we´ve actually got a lesson that we´ve gotta be at in 30 minutes. its a pretty long walk from here since we live outside of our area. but that means that i should probably get going hahah. but i love you all. have a great week and we´ll be talking again next monday. until next time...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
well its been another one of those roller coaster weeks. we´ve had good things happen, and not so good things. but all in all, elder gutierrez and i are here and happy. we are kinda wondering whats gonna happen to us though. this is the last week of the transfer- i cant believe that this transfer is already almost over! every transfer goes by faster and faster. if i had to guess, id say that my comp is gonna go somewhere else. pretty much neither of us is thinking that we´re gonna stay together again. hahah after 6 months together, we´re both betting that one of us is gonna be somewhere else next transfer. both of us would be totally down to stay together again, but ive never heard of that happening. who knows? but we´re both expecting that one of us is gone. i think that we´re both thinking that its gonna be him too. but next week ill give you all the down low on that...
so about last week. the bummer was that 2 of the people we were hoping to baptize this month probably arent gonna get baptized soon. i already told you what happened with silvia the other week. well when we went over to her house this week, we knew that we just needed to ask her. my comp wasnt gonna step up to ask her if luis had gone back to live there (i dont know why its such an uncomfortable thing to ask haha), so he left it up to me to do it. haha so i asked her and sadly enough, she said that he had. she said that she was gonna give him another chance. and i mean thats great cause no one wants a woman to be alone with a bunch of kids. but its just a bummer cause shes not willing to marry him. she doesnt love him enough to marry him, just enough so that they live together. dont ask me why that makes sense...cause it doesnt hahah. but theres really nothing that we can do for now. hopefully she decides sometime in the future that they need to get married. and im sure that sooner or later thatll happen. only God knows...and it looks like ezequiel doesnt want to get baptized right now either. the bummer with him is just that he doesnt want to right now. its really not a good reason. but its better that he doesnt get baptized if he isnt willing to keep all the commandments. so for now, we´re gonna give him a little space unless he decides on his own that he wants to start listening to us again.
ok enough of that stuff. we´ve had some really great stuff happen this week also. after going like 2 weeks without being able to find rosa, we were starting to think that she didnt want to listen to us anymore. but the other day, we finally found her in her house and got to talk to her. shes just be insanely busy with work and stuff. she still wants to listen with her kids. so we´re super stoked about that...and this week we also got a really great reference from one of the members. this member asked if the family that lives next door to him wanted to listen to the missionaries and the said that they would. the husband´s name is ariel. he´s actually silvia´s nephew. but he seems like an awesome guy. he told us that when he was living in corrientes, his family had listened to the missionaries, but they never gave them the book of mormon. so when we gave it to him and started explaining it, he got super excited. we also explained the entire message of the restauration and he told us that he believes that its the truth. he seems like a capo! we´ve gotta find out if hes married (ill try to keep the faith). and it might be tough with his work to go to church, but theres nothing that God cant do (i think its luke 1:39...you should look it up, its a faith-builder). so i believe that He´ll help us with that. but it just goes to show that the best way to do the missionary work isnt though contacts by the missionaries. the most important people in the missionary work are the members of the church...i invite you all the try to be bold and invite someone to either listen to the missionaries, or go to church with you, or an activity. the blessings are more important than a rejection, trust me. dont be afraid of someone telling you no.
mom, you know that i thought the general conference was bomb haha. my comp and i werent able to bring anyone to the saturday sessions, so we didnt go. but the sunday session was awesome! i really liked the talk by elder holland. hes such a powerful speaker! i also really liked the talk by president monson in the first session on sunday. it was so cool how he talked about temples and their importance. i thought it was so cool how he talked about the temple being built in rome. we all know that thats impressive and really significant. but i think that those 2 were my favorites. dad, bummer that the cougars had to lose in the sweet 16. but hey, when was the last time we got that far?!? and to lose a tight game like that...aveces pasa eso haha. oh and be sure to say hi to uncle jeff for me in vegas! haha sean, thanks bro for the email. it means alot to me that you keep writing me. i know that i didnt last all 2 years writing you hahah. but thanks for always takin a little time out to write me. hahah and i wouldnt get tooo excited about them padres just yet. its a long season. we´ll see where we are in a couple months haha. paige, i heard about what happened. just know that ive been praying for you. i hope that youre doing alot better now. thats pretty crazy, but i know that youll be alright. it looks like you were all able to enjoy the trip to disneyland haha. good stuff. bridg, tell brookie cookie hi for me too haha. have fun with her there. then in another week, just get ready for some more school fun hahah.
we´ve actually got a lesson that we´ve gotta be at in 30 minutes. its a pretty long walk from here since we live outside of our area. but that means that i should probably get going hahah. but i love you all. have a great week and we´ll be talking again next monday. until next time...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
March 28, 2011
holaaa!!!
hows it going guys? hope that everythings gone great in the week. ill bet that youre all living it up since you have spring break.
as for elder gutierrez and i, things are going well here in el triangulo. we havent had alot of new things happening this week. we´ve been working really hard with the investigators that we already have. but this week we werent able to see all of them. alot of them have been really busy with work and some other stuff. my comp and i are really trying as hard as we can so that alot of these investigators get baptized in april. we did go over to see silvia this week, but we´re not really sure what to think right now. the other day we went to her house to teach a lesson and luis was there again. it was kinda weird cause we dont know if he just came over that day to pick some stuff up, or what. silvia really didnt seem to pay much attention to him, so im really not sure what to think. i did kinda wanna be like, ¨uhhh hey whats up?!?¨ but i didnt want to do it in front of luis though. so we really need to talk to silvia this week and see if she let luis come back, or if he was just there that day. like obviously, we´re here to bring the family together and not tear it apart, but at the same time she told us that she doesnt love him like a husband and really doesnt want to be with him. and she really wants to get baptized. shes just not willing to marry a guy she doesnt love hahah which is a really good thing haha. but its still tough for us. we´ll see what happens this week...as for ezequiel, hes doing alright. like whenever we talk to just him, he talks alot to us and participates alot in the lessons. but i think mercedez makes him really nervous though (if you knew her youd understand haha). whenever shes there i think he feels really pressured to talk and it makes him even quieter. but from everything that hes told us, he still wants to get baptized. he needs to go to atleast one of the conference sessions this week though. we´re gonna do everything that we possibly can so that he goes...the good news is that this week, weve got some lessons with people that members introduced us to through references. i think that we might be able to take out some baptismal fechas with some of them. we´re gonna try to do it with all of them though hahah. as long as the Spirit´s there and tells us to do it...
mom, i really am stoked for general conference this week. its gonna be the second time that i see it here in adrogué. haha i think its funny that 6 months ago, i was already in this area haha. but yeah all the yankees are gonna go upstairs and watch it in english. and there are couches up there so we´re gonna watch the conference in luxury hahah. and about that panel...sorry but im not gonna be home yet. id be totally down for it, but i wont make it in time. hahah i think its funny that your counselor asked if i would be horrified to do it. whatever! dad, cougars? are we still playin? im actually curious to know if we even made it to the second round. sean, are the lakers still dominating? hows the mamba doin? oh and by the way, still no sign of them blue birds. me parece que no viven aca en argentina hahah. tal vez en nicaragua, pero argentina es otra cosa haha. oh and hey, if you see dylan again, be sure to tell him that i say hi, that i love him, and that i wish him luck on the mission. paige, have an awesome week off. have a good time tomorrow at disneyland. we´re gonna be hopin for sunny weather. but either way, itll be sick! bridg, hahah how did you get luckier than paige and get to have 2 weeks off for spring break?! what are you gonna do with all that time off? play some xbox and stuff for sure hahah.
alright well thats it for this week. i already know that this week is gonna fly by though cause we´ve got a meeting on wednesday, another meeting on thursday, and then saturday and sunday we have general conference. we need to either take a recent convert from the last 3 months or an investigator to go to the sessions on saturday. so you already know that were gonna do everything we can so that someone goes with us hahah. i wanna go! but have a great week. thank you all for your prayers and all the support that you give me. i love you guys.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
hows it going guys? hope that everythings gone great in the week. ill bet that youre all living it up since you have spring break.
as for elder gutierrez and i, things are going well here in el triangulo. we havent had alot of new things happening this week. we´ve been working really hard with the investigators that we already have. but this week we werent able to see all of them. alot of them have been really busy with work and some other stuff. my comp and i are really trying as hard as we can so that alot of these investigators get baptized in april. we did go over to see silvia this week, but we´re not really sure what to think right now. the other day we went to her house to teach a lesson and luis was there again. it was kinda weird cause we dont know if he just came over that day to pick some stuff up, or what. silvia really didnt seem to pay much attention to him, so im really not sure what to think. i did kinda wanna be like, ¨uhhh hey whats up?!?¨ but i didnt want to do it in front of luis though. so we really need to talk to silvia this week and see if she let luis come back, or if he was just there that day. like obviously, we´re here to bring the family together and not tear it apart, but at the same time she told us that she doesnt love him like a husband and really doesnt want to be with him. and she really wants to get baptized. shes just not willing to marry a guy she doesnt love hahah which is a really good thing haha. but its still tough for us. we´ll see what happens this week...as for ezequiel, hes doing alright. like whenever we talk to just him, he talks alot to us and participates alot in the lessons. but i think mercedez makes him really nervous though (if you knew her youd understand haha). whenever shes there i think he feels really pressured to talk and it makes him even quieter. but from everything that hes told us, he still wants to get baptized. he needs to go to atleast one of the conference sessions this week though. we´re gonna do everything that we possibly can so that he goes...the good news is that this week, weve got some lessons with people that members introduced us to through references. i think that we might be able to take out some baptismal fechas with some of them. we´re gonna try to do it with all of them though hahah. as long as the Spirit´s there and tells us to do it...
mom, i really am stoked for general conference this week. its gonna be the second time that i see it here in adrogué. haha i think its funny that 6 months ago, i was already in this area haha. but yeah all the yankees are gonna go upstairs and watch it in english. and there are couches up there so we´re gonna watch the conference in luxury hahah. and about that panel...sorry but im not gonna be home yet. id be totally down for it, but i wont make it in time. hahah i think its funny that your counselor asked if i would be horrified to do it. whatever! dad, cougars? are we still playin? im actually curious to know if we even made it to the second round. sean, are the lakers still dominating? hows the mamba doin? oh and by the way, still no sign of them blue birds. me parece que no viven aca en argentina hahah. tal vez en nicaragua, pero argentina es otra cosa haha. oh and hey, if you see dylan again, be sure to tell him that i say hi, that i love him, and that i wish him luck on the mission. paige, have an awesome week off. have a good time tomorrow at disneyland. we´re gonna be hopin for sunny weather. but either way, itll be sick! bridg, hahah how did you get luckier than paige and get to have 2 weeks off for spring break?! what are you gonna do with all that time off? play some xbox and stuff for sure hahah.
alright well thats it for this week. i already know that this week is gonna fly by though cause we´ve got a meeting on wednesday, another meeting on thursday, and then saturday and sunday we have general conference. we need to either take a recent convert from the last 3 months or an investigator to go to the sessions on saturday. so you already know that were gonna do everything we can so that someone goes with us hahah. i wanna go! but have a great week. thank you all for your prayers and all the support that you give me. i love you guys.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
March 22, 2011-Happy Birthday Paige!
hey guys!
first of all....happy birthday paige!! wow the big 1-7! haha thats awesome. i hope that youve had a good week. hopefully you were able to eat a bunch of cake and stuff for me hahah.
well for this week...i told you guys that guti and i were thinking about doing a zone fast this week. we didnt end up doing it as a zone, but we were able to do it as a companionship. it was really awesome cause the next day, we went over to silvia´s house. i dont know if you remember her, but she was with a guy who we were teaching with a bunch of kids. she always wanted to get baptized, but was scared to commit herself to get married. but we havent been going over to their house that much in the last couple months. but we went over the other day and she told us that the guy that she had been living with left the house. like she didnt want to be with him anymore, so he took all his stuff and left. so we kept talking and she was actually the one who told us that she felt like it was an answer from God telling her that she needed to be alone with her kids for a while. she said that she thinks that God is giving her the chance to get baptized in the church. like shes always believed that it was the truth, she just didnt want to get married. but it was really cool cause as she was telling us all of that, in my head i was thinking, ¨wow we really need to fast more often. it works really well!¨ hahah. like the Lord has really answered our prayers and blessed us alot in this area. so we´re trying to baptize her the week after general conference...we´re also teaching ezequiel like i told you all. this week we were able to take out a baptismal date with him also. we had put it originally for this saturday, but he wasnt able to go to church this week. so we decided to put it back to the 9th of april, which would be the same day as silvia´s baptism. we´re actually trying to baptize almost all the people that we have baptismal dates that day. its been really tough for us to talk to rosa and her family that last week or 2 cause shes working alot more. but i know that shes gonna be able to get baptized too. shes been able to feel that its the truth.
alright so my birthday was also really awesome this week. i wanted to thank you guys for sending the package also. it was awesome to get. guti and i are enjoying the airheads and everything that it had hahah. but we ended up having a combined birthday thing on sunday cause a lady in the ward had her birthday on the 20th also. so we went over to their house. they made me this huge boca cake. and i thought that it was hilarious cause i was messing around, pretending to lick the cake and stuff and guti totally stuck my face in the cake hahah. i was laughing so hard. i cant send the pictures right now cause we´re kinda late already, but ill try to remember for next week...but all in all it was a really good week.
mom, the birthday was really good. thanks alot for the shirt and all the candy. my comps probably enjoying it just as much as i am hahah. dad, thats awesome that you guys were able to have those 2 baptisms. keep helpin the missionaries as much as possible. i would consider myself the luckiest missionary ever to have a ward mission leader like you hahah. sean, dude keep me posted on them cougars. but im stoked about applying for that job. that would seriously be awesome to be able to work there. thanks for talkin to your supervisor for me bro. paige, happy birthday again! dont have too much fun and those dances and stuff hahah. but 17 is a fun age fo sho. bridg, sorry paige stole all your birthday thunder hahah. it happens. but i hope that you guys all have a good spring break. be sure to let me know what you all do.
alright so i was atleast able to send you guys these 2 pictures. ones of when guti stuck my face in the cake (the after picture) and the other was one of me with a boca towel that someone bought me for my birthday. but i hope you guys enjoy them! ill try to send me next time.
k guys i gotta go. but thanks for everything. have a great week and we´ll be hearing from each other soon. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Monday, March 14, 2011
March 14, 2011-Oh What A Crazy Week!
HAPPY BIRHTDAY PAIGE!!!
wow i cant believe that paige is already turning 17 this sunday. ¨they grow up so fast (little tear)¨ hahah. but its really awesome. i hope that you have an awesome birthday. sounds like the weekend is gonna be pretty crazy for ya. but enjoy it...
well what can i say about this week? it was an ok week. we worked as hard as we could. its just been hard for us to get our investigators to church. we´re doing everything that we can so that more people go to church. we talked to rosa, daniela, and rocio on friday. there was a tiny hickup in their progress, but now things look like theyre going smooth again. they committed to going to church, but on sunday they werent there. we went over right after church to see what happened, and rocio told us that rosa got called out of the blue to go into work. sometimes that happens. but the thing is that rosa and daniela would still be able to get baptized on the 26th. but rocio still hasnt been able to go to church. so elder gutierrez and i have talked alot about this and we decided that we really want them to all get baptized together. so we´re gonna have to push the baptismal date back more. and its not gonna be on april 2nd cause thats general conference. so i think that we´re trying to get them baptized on the 9th of april. what elder gutierrez and i have been talking about also was to do another fast in the zone for the missionary work and especially so that we can have more people in sacrament. well see if we end up doing it again this week...but we did have a kid named ezequiel go to church yesterday. hes actually mercedez´s other grandson. hes 18 and he just came to live with mercedez and all of them a couple weeks ago. hes a good kid, but really quiet sometimes. we´ve been able to gain his confidence though so he actually talks to us alot now. we were about to take a baptismal date out with him the other day, but mercedez went off and started talking alot. so we werent able to do it. but i think that we´ll be able to take out a baptismal date with him this week. probably tonight cause we´re going over there around 730.
so last week we finally got a ward mission leader. after 7 months going without a ward mission leader, and asking that they call one, they finally called one. his name is fede. hes a kid thats about 19 or 20 years old. i thought that it was an awesome idea cause hes kind of on the border right now on whether he wants to serve a mission or not. i think that this called could help him alot. the only thing is that since they called him 2 weeks ago, he hasnt been to church haha. we only see him every once in a while. it doesnt make it that useful if our ward mission leader goes inactive haha. that would mean that we would be without a ward mission leader again, without an elder´s chorum president, and without a full bishopric...again haha. no one ever said that the mission was easy. they only said that it would be worth it. and trust me, it is.
mom, its good to know that nothing ended up happening there in so cal with those tsunamis and everything. we´ve heard a bunch about them here and stuff. but its good to know that the Lord is lookin out for my family. dad, you were right, i just got that email from ya. but thanks alot. it means alot. its a bummer about byu. i was hoping that we´d actually be able to contend this time. but without anyone in the post to help us out, i think we´re gonna go right back to the normal byu. even with a star like jimmer as our point. sean, dude muh lakers! someone told me that they were starting to do well this week and i got so stoked. them lakers always know when to turn it on. and dude, para que sepas, me falta muchisimo todavia hahah. y sabes de qué estoy hablando. pasa rapido, pero hay mucho para hacer todavia. paige, happy birthday again! and in a couple more years, your gonna be able to date too...maybe hahah. have an awesome weekend and know that i love ya. bridg, ill bet that you were suuuupper scared about the tsunamis this week hahah. you havent changed that much to not get nervous about tsunamis hahah.
guys i gotta get goin. we´ve got some work to do here in this area. theres still alot to do and we need to just keep doing everything that we possibly can. but i wanna let you all know that i know that this church is true. im so grateful for being raised in this church and for having these 2 years to serve the Lord. i love you all. have a great week. until next time...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
wow i cant believe that paige is already turning 17 this sunday. ¨they grow up so fast (little tear)¨ hahah. but its really awesome. i hope that you have an awesome birthday. sounds like the weekend is gonna be pretty crazy for ya. but enjoy it...
well what can i say about this week? it was an ok week. we worked as hard as we could. its just been hard for us to get our investigators to church. we´re doing everything that we can so that more people go to church. we talked to rosa, daniela, and rocio on friday. there was a tiny hickup in their progress, but now things look like theyre going smooth again. they committed to going to church, but on sunday they werent there. we went over right after church to see what happened, and rocio told us that rosa got called out of the blue to go into work. sometimes that happens. but the thing is that rosa and daniela would still be able to get baptized on the 26th. but rocio still hasnt been able to go to church. so elder gutierrez and i have talked alot about this and we decided that we really want them to all get baptized together. so we´re gonna have to push the baptismal date back more. and its not gonna be on april 2nd cause thats general conference. so i think that we´re trying to get them baptized on the 9th of april. what elder gutierrez and i have been talking about also was to do another fast in the zone for the missionary work and especially so that we can have more people in sacrament. well see if we end up doing it again this week...but we did have a kid named ezequiel go to church yesterday. hes actually mercedez´s other grandson. hes 18 and he just came to live with mercedez and all of them a couple weeks ago. hes a good kid, but really quiet sometimes. we´ve been able to gain his confidence though so he actually talks to us alot now. we were about to take a baptismal date out with him the other day, but mercedez went off and started talking alot. so we werent able to do it. but i think that we´ll be able to take out a baptismal date with him this week. probably tonight cause we´re going over there around 730.
so last week we finally got a ward mission leader. after 7 months going without a ward mission leader, and asking that they call one, they finally called one. his name is fede. hes a kid thats about 19 or 20 years old. i thought that it was an awesome idea cause hes kind of on the border right now on whether he wants to serve a mission or not. i think that this called could help him alot. the only thing is that since they called him 2 weeks ago, he hasnt been to church haha. we only see him every once in a while. it doesnt make it that useful if our ward mission leader goes inactive haha. that would mean that we would be without a ward mission leader again, without an elder´s chorum president, and without a full bishopric...again haha. no one ever said that the mission was easy. they only said that it would be worth it. and trust me, it is.
mom, its good to know that nothing ended up happening there in so cal with those tsunamis and everything. we´ve heard a bunch about them here and stuff. but its good to know that the Lord is lookin out for my family. dad, you were right, i just got that email from ya. but thanks alot. it means alot. its a bummer about byu. i was hoping that we´d actually be able to contend this time. but without anyone in the post to help us out, i think we´re gonna go right back to the normal byu. even with a star like jimmer as our point. sean, dude muh lakers! someone told me that they were starting to do well this week and i got so stoked. them lakers always know when to turn it on. and dude, para que sepas, me falta muchisimo todavia hahah. y sabes de qué estoy hablando. pasa rapido, pero hay mucho para hacer todavia. paige, happy birthday again! and in a couple more years, your gonna be able to date too...maybe hahah. have an awesome weekend and know that i love ya. bridg, ill bet that you were suuuupper scared about the tsunamis this week hahah. you havent changed that much to not get nervous about tsunamis hahah.
guys i gotta get goin. we´ve got some work to do here in this area. theres still alot to do and we need to just keep doing everything that we possibly can. but i wanna let you all know that i know that this church is true. im so grateful for being raised in this church and for having these 2 years to serve the Lord. i love you all. have a great week. until next time...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
March 7, 2011
heyyyy!!!
ok so i gotta let bridg know that i didnt forget about her birthday yesterday! last week i had been meaning to mention in the entire time in my email, and in the moment i totally forgot to say something. but im just gonna tell ya a day late bridg....HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY!!! wow i cant believe that youre already 14! thats seriously crazy to me. hahah and i just looked at the pictures that mom sent me. wow you and paige both look alot older. and bridg that room of yours...its lookin a little scandelous hahah no just kidding. it looks really awesome. i want a zebra comforter! haha actually a penguin one would be wayyy sick! but either way its way cool. and ive gotta say im not too surprised about the birthday dinner decision, going with the orange chicken haha. thats a classic bridget choice. but yeah bridg, happy birthday! i may have forgotten to mention it last week, but at least keeley was able to take my spot on the whole ¨wishing you a happy birthday¨ thing haha. hope you had an awesome time yesterday, even though it was fast sunday. aveces pasa haha...
well mom i was thinking about what you said in your email. how you thought that president stapley must have been really inspired to pray and feel that i needed to stay here in el triangulo again. ive been thinking the same thing. i know that he really does transfers by revelation from God. and sometimes i dont know who we´re gonna even teach in the transfer, but something always happens. and it looks like this transfer is gonna be the same way. so i told you all that we´ve been teaching a lady named rosa for a little bit. she was the one that went to church all by herself 2 weeks ago. well we´ve been working really hard to teach her and her family and ive got to say that its paid off a ton. they´re all progressing super fast. like after church last week, we went over to her house on like tuesday i think. she told us that she felt like when she was in church, it felt like something really familiar to her. ive gotta say, that made me smile. in the mtc, our president told us that sometime during the mission, we were gonna share the gospel with people and some were gonna say that it seemed familiar to them. so that was really cool cause its so true...anyways, rosa told us that she felt that really this is the true church because she can feels like God is telling her through the way it all makes her feel. her and her family seriously seem super awesome. there are still 2 of them that arent listening all that much to us, but i know that in their own due time, their gonna start to listen. but that tuesday, the Spirit was really strong in that lesson and thanks to that, we were able to take out baptismal dates with rosa and her 2 daughters, daniela and rocio. we´re trying to baptize them all on the 26th, so id appreciate it if you could all pray for them so that they can accept the gospel in their lives and be able to go to church the next 2 weeks.
i think that that was the coolest thing that happened this week. i just love how the Spirit works and really tells us everything that we have to say and teach. thats why its so important to be obedient, cause without the Spirit, its impossible to do missionary work.
we´ve got a couple other people that we´re working with right now that we´re gonna try to take out baptismal dates with this week. but i think that elder gutierrez and i are still working on finding new people to teach. the only difference now is that we´re trying not to waste time doing a whole bunch of contacts in the street if we dont feel inspired by the Spirit to do it. now we´re working alot more with the members and its really making a difference.
mom, that would be awesome if gracie could help out a little bit and kinda look around for an apartment at byu. that would actually be huge. dad, the cougars have got to be in like the top 5 now right? i mean we´re just tearin it apart. i dont know who brandon davies is but still, with the freddett-myster and our point, i think we can still take down the people in our division. but if this davies guy is key, we´re gonna need to get him back soon if we want to try and do anything for march madness. speaking of march madness...when does that start?! hahah its gonna be like in the next week or something right? sean, sounds like you´ve been havin alot of fun with the gang haha. be sure to tell them all that i say hi and that i love ´em. its too bad that we arent gonna be able to live together again with daniel though hahah. sooo funny dude! paige gubler you write your future husband ok? hahah hes giving up. but ill never give up on this. its destiny so you all just have to accept it haha. bridg, happy birthday again! have a good birthday week too haha. love ya!
yup thats about it for last week. we´re just gonna have to see what magic happens this week. but thanks for everything that you guys do for me. youre all great! have a good week. until the next one...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
ok so i gotta let bridg know that i didnt forget about her birthday yesterday! last week i had been meaning to mention in the entire time in my email, and in the moment i totally forgot to say something. but im just gonna tell ya a day late bridg....HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY!!! wow i cant believe that youre already 14! thats seriously crazy to me. hahah and i just looked at the pictures that mom sent me. wow you and paige both look alot older. and bridg that room of yours...its lookin a little scandelous hahah no just kidding. it looks really awesome. i want a zebra comforter! haha actually a penguin one would be wayyy sick! but either way its way cool. and ive gotta say im not too surprised about the birthday dinner decision, going with the orange chicken haha. thats a classic bridget choice. but yeah bridg, happy birthday! i may have forgotten to mention it last week, but at least keeley was able to take my spot on the whole ¨wishing you a happy birthday¨ thing haha. hope you had an awesome time yesterday, even though it was fast sunday. aveces pasa haha...
well mom i was thinking about what you said in your email. how you thought that president stapley must have been really inspired to pray and feel that i needed to stay here in el triangulo again. ive been thinking the same thing. i know that he really does transfers by revelation from God. and sometimes i dont know who we´re gonna even teach in the transfer, but something always happens. and it looks like this transfer is gonna be the same way. so i told you all that we´ve been teaching a lady named rosa for a little bit. she was the one that went to church all by herself 2 weeks ago. well we´ve been working really hard to teach her and her family and ive got to say that its paid off a ton. they´re all progressing super fast. like after church last week, we went over to her house on like tuesday i think. she told us that she felt like when she was in church, it felt like something really familiar to her. ive gotta say, that made me smile. in the mtc, our president told us that sometime during the mission, we were gonna share the gospel with people and some were gonna say that it seemed familiar to them. so that was really cool cause its so true...anyways, rosa told us that she felt that really this is the true church because she can feels like God is telling her through the way it all makes her feel. her and her family seriously seem super awesome. there are still 2 of them that arent listening all that much to us, but i know that in their own due time, their gonna start to listen. but that tuesday, the Spirit was really strong in that lesson and thanks to that, we were able to take out baptismal dates with rosa and her 2 daughters, daniela and rocio. we´re trying to baptize them all on the 26th, so id appreciate it if you could all pray for them so that they can accept the gospel in their lives and be able to go to church the next 2 weeks.
i think that that was the coolest thing that happened this week. i just love how the Spirit works and really tells us everything that we have to say and teach. thats why its so important to be obedient, cause without the Spirit, its impossible to do missionary work.
we´ve got a couple other people that we´re working with right now that we´re gonna try to take out baptismal dates with this week. but i think that elder gutierrez and i are still working on finding new people to teach. the only difference now is that we´re trying not to waste time doing a whole bunch of contacts in the street if we dont feel inspired by the Spirit to do it. now we´re working alot more with the members and its really making a difference.
mom, that would be awesome if gracie could help out a little bit and kinda look around for an apartment at byu. that would actually be huge. dad, the cougars have got to be in like the top 5 now right? i mean we´re just tearin it apart. i dont know who brandon davies is but still, with the freddett-myster and our point, i think we can still take down the people in our division. but if this davies guy is key, we´re gonna need to get him back soon if we want to try and do anything for march madness. speaking of march madness...when does that start?! hahah its gonna be like in the next week or something right? sean, sounds like you´ve been havin alot of fun with the gang haha. be sure to tell them all that i say hi and that i love ´em. its too bad that we arent gonna be able to live together again with daniel though hahah. sooo funny dude! paige gubler you write your future husband ok? hahah hes giving up. but ill never give up on this. its destiny so you all just have to accept it haha. bridg, happy birthday again! have a good birthday week too haha. love ya!
yup thats about it for last week. we´re just gonna have to see what magic happens this week. but thanks for everything that you guys do for me. youre all great! have a good week. until the next one...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Monday, February 28, 2011
February 28, 2011-Hello Peeps.....
how are muh peeps back at home doin?! haha
ok so what to talk about first...i wanted to be sure to thank the griffiths family for sending me an email this week. what they wrote meant alot to me and i really appreciated it...oh and be sure to tell the kidd family hi for me this week! i love them all and hope that they have an awesome time on the cruise. tell dan that we´re gonna chat it up in spanish en un ratito hahah.
k i couldnt send any pictures to you guys last week, but im trying to make up for it this week. these are the pictures from cristina´s baptism last week. the first 2 are of us, her, and her family. the 3rd one was the celebratory, ¨post baptism¨ cake that we had. we´ve got a member here whos awesome and makes a cake everytime someone gets baptized in the ward. and the last one is just of cristina, elder gutierrez, and i. i hope you guys all enjoy them!
alright so we officially know whats gonna happen with elder gutierrez and i for the next 6 weeks. do you guys have any guesses first? ill bet that youre all thinking that i left el triangulo. honestly, i think everyone was thinking that. but i think you can almost call elder gutierrez and i a couple cause we´ve been together for so long haha. after this transfer, itll be 6 months that we´ve been comps. but dont think for a second that either of us are complaining at all. we´re super tight and have a ton of fun together. plus we work really hard together. im just really surprised. president stapley was like, ¨ill bet youre kinda surprised, hugh?¨ and i was like, ¨honestly yeah, but just cause i thought that i was leaving the area.¨ i figured that i would be gone from el triangulo after 7 months. but president stapley called us friday morning to let us know and he told me that he didnt feel good about a decision that he had made for me, so we were gonna stay together again. i imagine that he meant that he was gonna send me somewhere else. but im stoked to be staying in el triangulo again!
ok so about the week...we were excited cause we had 4 really awesome investigators in church yesterday. luis went with his son. luis is still progressing really well. we´re thinking though that we´re gonna have to have the baptism on the 19th of march though cause its tough to teach him alot in a week. hes only at home saturdays and sundays. but hes excited and really likes everything that the church teaches...the other 2 that went to church are alot newer. there names are rosa and daniela. rosa is a lady we found a couple weeks ago, and daniela is her daughter. rosa´s got alot of family problems right now, but seemed to like church alot. she made it sound like shell be coming more in the weeks to come.
mom, those apartments would be awesome as long as i can afford em haha. i say that if you can find a place in one of those apartments, id be awesome! thanks for doing this. and i already took care of the email that byu sent. it was just to tell me that they accepted me again for the fall. dad, cooooouuuuugggggaaarrrrrsss!!!!! hahah we´ve gotta be for real to take down sdsu twice. i havent heard anyhing abou the game, but im guessing that jimmer took care of business again haha. sean, dude hows it goin in other sports news? lakers? i hope we still arent thinkin about trading bynum and lamar for carmelo. thats a no go for me hahha. paige, sounds like you had a good show in chorus. hopefully you recorded it so that ¨someone¨ can see it too haha. bridg, that class sounds kinda crazy, but i guess its all good if you do it til you figure out what you wanna do for sports.
aight guys, i gotta go. i love you all. thanks for everything. keep safe and ill talk to you soon.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Monday, February 21, 2011
February 21, 2011-President's Day in USA
hey everyone!
well ive gotta say that this was a tough week, but im glad to say that it all paid off. more than anything, we were focused on getting cristina ready for her baptism. and im not gonna go into all the details, but lets just say that when we were doing the pre-interview with her, we found out that she was gonna need an interview with either president or one of his counselors. its not important why...but it was really tough for us to set up an interview with any one of them. like we talked to president on wednesday night, so we didnt have any time anyways. but we talked to him and it sounded like he wasnt gonna be able to, so he had us call on of his counselors. when we talked to the 2nd counselor, he told us that there wasnt anyway that he could do it that week. we started to get a little bummed cause we werent sure what wed be able to do so that she could get baptized that week. and we really wanted to do it on saturday cause we had already announced it in church that she was gonna be baptized. so we didnt want to have to tell everyone that it was cancelled for some reason. on top of that, i got a pretty bad fever wednesday night. i dont know where it came from or anything. but i wasnt able to sleep almost at all that night. and thursday morning, i was still feeling really bad. so my comp thought that it would be better if we stayed in the pension for the morning and let me rest. it was kind of a bad combination of being sick and not being sure if cristina was gonna be able to get baptized that saturday. but i know that we both prayed alot and the Lord has always helped us when we put faith in Him. on thursday, we talked to president stapley again, and he told us that he would be able to do it saturday morning at 10 in the church in adrogué. so we talked to cristina and she really wanted to get baptized on saturday, so she was fine with going over there to do the interview. so saturday morning, we woke up and left at like 8. we met cristina in the train station and went to adrogué. and im super glad to say that the interview went great. president stapley said that she was really prepared to be baptized. i know that she was really relieved also cause shes been wanting this for a couple years now.
the baptism that night went awesome. cristina told us that she wanted one of us to baptize her, but didnt care who. and since my comp was starting to feel sick too, he thought that it would be better if i did it. im always really happy to baptize someone. and it turned out really great. there were alot of people there to support her. i know that its gonna be something that shes always gonna remember. im gonna have to send you guys the pictures next week or something though cause i dont have my camera right now...
it was also cool cause in church on sunday, we were giving the lesson in principles of the gospel (we dont really have a teacher for it, so we always give the class...if someone ever needs a sub in seminary at the end of the year, i dont think id have any problems helpin out hahah). but cristina was talking about an experience she had had with her daughter. its really tough for her cause alot of times her kids dont show her that much love. its really sad to see sometimes. but slowly, they´re changing. but she started telling a story about a lesson that we had had with her in her house, about how i had told her some things that she can try so that her kids start to change. but i guess i told her that she should try to not raise her voice to her kids, even when they drive her crazy and want her to scream at them hahah. but i guess she tried it out one night, and her daughter had a really great time with her, just talking. like cristina tried really hard to show her that she really loved her, and it really had an effect. i just thought that it was super awesome how she was able to take something that i had said to heart. and even better, that it was able to help with her relationship with one of her kids.
other than that, we werent able to do a whole lot of stuff this week. we do have a couple possibilities for people that we´re gonna try and start teaching. we´re gonna see if we can talk to them this week and end the transfer on an awesome note. ill be sure to let you all know what happens to my comp and i after this week. we´ll see if anyone leaves the area, or if we stay together one more transfer haha.
mom, i thought that that story about the returned mission was really awesome. you never know what good something like that is gonna do for someone else. the girl was just saying that she didnt want to go by herself, and it turns out that it helped the kid to kinda turn his life around and even go on a mission. thats awesome. thanks for that story...hey i almost forgot too. so this week i was talking with a friend of mine here in the mission named elder rader. hes going up to byu for the fall also and doesnt have a place to live yet either. we thought that itd be pretty sick to live together at least for the fall. but we were wondering if you and his dad would like talk to each other and see if you cant find an apartment where we can live. here´s his dads email: jeffrader@aol.com . i gave him your email too, so hopefully you guys can talk this week and start lookin around. id appreciate it...dad, bummer about the huge snow storm in cuyamaca. aveces pasa hahah. but its all good cause there will be plenty of fish to catch next camping trip haha. sean, dude im stoked that byu is tearin it up. its all good, go ahead and rub it in my face hahah. bummer that jimmer isnt gonna be there next year though. and dude, that blink cd is never gonna come out. i think youve been waiting for that to come out since you were 8 instead of for just 8 years hahah. paige, ill bet you had an awesome time curled up with jillian on the trip haha. ill bet she gave you a bunch of doggy licks too hugh? haha i remember how much you loved those when i was there hahah. bridg, thanks for the email too. youll have to let me know what you ended up doing today for presidents day. ill bet you took advantage of a day off from school and decided to give dad a full body massage or something, hugh? hahah i mean what else would you do with a full day without school? haha
alright guys, ive gotta get going now. thanks for all your emails and support. youre awesome! keep doin what´cher doin and ill talk to you all again next week. until then...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
well ive gotta say that this was a tough week, but im glad to say that it all paid off. more than anything, we were focused on getting cristina ready for her baptism. and im not gonna go into all the details, but lets just say that when we were doing the pre-interview with her, we found out that she was gonna need an interview with either president or one of his counselors. its not important why...but it was really tough for us to set up an interview with any one of them. like we talked to president on wednesday night, so we didnt have any time anyways. but we talked to him and it sounded like he wasnt gonna be able to, so he had us call on of his counselors. when we talked to the 2nd counselor, he told us that there wasnt anyway that he could do it that week. we started to get a little bummed cause we werent sure what wed be able to do so that she could get baptized that week. and we really wanted to do it on saturday cause we had already announced it in church that she was gonna be baptized. so we didnt want to have to tell everyone that it was cancelled for some reason. on top of that, i got a pretty bad fever wednesday night. i dont know where it came from or anything. but i wasnt able to sleep almost at all that night. and thursday morning, i was still feeling really bad. so my comp thought that it would be better if we stayed in the pension for the morning and let me rest. it was kind of a bad combination of being sick and not being sure if cristina was gonna be able to get baptized that saturday. but i know that we both prayed alot and the Lord has always helped us when we put faith in Him. on thursday, we talked to president stapley again, and he told us that he would be able to do it saturday morning at 10 in the church in adrogué. so we talked to cristina and she really wanted to get baptized on saturday, so she was fine with going over there to do the interview. so saturday morning, we woke up and left at like 8. we met cristina in the train station and went to adrogué. and im super glad to say that the interview went great. president stapley said that she was really prepared to be baptized. i know that she was really relieved also cause shes been wanting this for a couple years now.
the baptism that night went awesome. cristina told us that she wanted one of us to baptize her, but didnt care who. and since my comp was starting to feel sick too, he thought that it would be better if i did it. im always really happy to baptize someone. and it turned out really great. there were alot of people there to support her. i know that its gonna be something that shes always gonna remember. im gonna have to send you guys the pictures next week or something though cause i dont have my camera right now...
it was also cool cause in church on sunday, we were giving the lesson in principles of the gospel (we dont really have a teacher for it, so we always give the class...if someone ever needs a sub in seminary at the end of the year, i dont think id have any problems helpin out hahah). but cristina was talking about an experience she had had with her daughter. its really tough for her cause alot of times her kids dont show her that much love. its really sad to see sometimes. but slowly, they´re changing. but she started telling a story about a lesson that we had had with her in her house, about how i had told her some things that she can try so that her kids start to change. but i guess i told her that she should try to not raise her voice to her kids, even when they drive her crazy and want her to scream at them hahah. but i guess she tried it out one night, and her daughter had a really great time with her, just talking. like cristina tried really hard to show her that she really loved her, and it really had an effect. i just thought that it was super awesome how she was able to take something that i had said to heart. and even better, that it was able to help with her relationship with one of her kids.
other than that, we werent able to do a whole lot of stuff this week. we do have a couple possibilities for people that we´re gonna try and start teaching. we´re gonna see if we can talk to them this week and end the transfer on an awesome note. ill be sure to let you all know what happens to my comp and i after this week. we´ll see if anyone leaves the area, or if we stay together one more transfer haha.
mom, i thought that that story about the returned mission was really awesome. you never know what good something like that is gonna do for someone else. the girl was just saying that she didnt want to go by herself, and it turns out that it helped the kid to kinda turn his life around and even go on a mission. thats awesome. thanks for that story...hey i almost forgot too. so this week i was talking with a friend of mine here in the mission named elder rader. hes going up to byu for the fall also and doesnt have a place to live yet either. we thought that itd be pretty sick to live together at least for the fall. but we were wondering if you and his dad would like talk to each other and see if you cant find an apartment where we can live. here´s his dads email: jeffrader@aol.com . i gave him your email too, so hopefully you guys can talk this week and start lookin around. id appreciate it...dad, bummer about the huge snow storm in cuyamaca. aveces pasa hahah. but its all good cause there will be plenty of fish to catch next camping trip haha. sean, dude im stoked that byu is tearin it up. its all good, go ahead and rub it in my face hahah. bummer that jimmer isnt gonna be there next year though. and dude, that blink cd is never gonna come out. i think youve been waiting for that to come out since you were 8 instead of for just 8 years hahah. paige, ill bet you had an awesome time curled up with jillian on the trip haha. ill bet she gave you a bunch of doggy licks too hugh? haha i remember how much you loved those when i was there hahah. bridg, thanks for the email too. youll have to let me know what you ended up doing today for presidents day. ill bet you took advantage of a day off from school and decided to give dad a full body massage or something, hugh? hahah i mean what else would you do with a full day without school? haha
alright guys, ive gotta get going now. thanks for all your emails and support. youre awesome! keep doin what´cher doin and ill talk to you all again next week. until then...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Monday, February 14, 2011
February 14, 2011-Happy Valentine's Day
hey guys,
glad to hear that everything is going well back there in that other country of yours haha. if you get the chance to write kenzie or anything, be sure to tell her that shes awesome for serving a mission and that she is gonna do great in the mission field. shes really got nothing to be nervous about cause if she´s obedient, always listens to the Spirit, and follows those promptings, she´ll be the best missionary that there is. it really is gonna be an amazing experience for her. i was just talking to my comp about how fast she already went in and is now leaving from the mtc hahah. time really flies in the mission. on minute youre in the mtc just getting to know how everything is, and before you know it, youve got 6 months. then 6 more months go by, and then its just like you blink your eyes and the days go by hahah. its crazy and she just has to live every moment and love it all...
hahah so about that story about the world globe...just so that you all know, im pretty sure that that was something that sean got for christmas. i dont know why i would ever want something like that hahah. im pretty sure that i would have asked for something wayyy cooler for christmas when i was littler. im almost sure that that was something that sean got though hahah. but about all the other stuff that you guys mentioned hahah well yeah i did want all that. and its still all awesome just so you know!! that pogo stick was well used if i say so myself. i believe that i broke a couple pogo-stick records with that bad boy hahah. the treasure box, i remember wanting, but i never remember actually getting that haha. maybe im wrong. and the moon boots...well i almost jumped to the moon in those things haha. i think i almost touched the moon when i was wearing those things one time haha. but i just wanna make it clear for you all that i never asked for the world globe. that was my super intellectual brother that wanted to enlighten his mind with more knowledge about our world, aka sean hahah.
alright enough messing around...lets get down to business. the serious stuff...hahah ok that whole serious thing didnt last too long (ive never been good at being really serious haha). but as far as the week has gone, i feel like things are starting to come together. its exciting to be able to see some really awesome things that are happening. first of all, we´ve still got plans for cristina´s baptism this saturday. we have to teach her like 2 more times and then do an interview on friday, and shes all ready. it looks like everythings gonna go smoothly with that. shes a capa too. she always goes to church by herself. like no one has to remind her or help her go on sunday. thats something that i havent seen alot since ive been her. it just goes to show that shes already got a super strong testimony of the church. we still havent been able to teach her kids or anything, but i know that we will all in time. it may take a little time, but what ive learned is that the more we´re around and showing good examples to other people, they gain their own interest to know more. and as long as cristina is always a good example for her kids, they´ll start going and get baptized someday too.
on saturday, we had a really awesome day. like in the last 2 weeks, we had never been able to find and teach luis. he was the guy that went to church with one of the members. but on saturday we had just found a family of like 5 and were both really excited. right after teaching that family, we were like, ¨we should go over and try to find luis.¨ i think that we really did have alot of faith that we´d be able to find and talk to him, which made that difference. so we went over to his house and he was there outside. he let us in and told us that he hasnt been able to talk to us cause he started working monday through friday. but saturday and sunday hes at home, which is awesome. but we talked about the restoration of the church and talked alot about the book of mormon. he was really receptive to everything. and in the back of my head, i was thinking, ¨why dont we just take out a baptismal date with him?¨ but thats kind something thats always been hard for me to do throughout the mission the first time we teach someone. but i know that my comp was thinking the same thing, and with the help of the Spirit, we were able to set a baptismal date with him for the 12th of march. it was really awesome. id love to be here still to see him get baptized...if the Lord needs me to be here ofcourse. but then yesterday, he went to church also and really liked it. hes a capo for sure...
well mom, i hope you guys have an awesome time in cuyamaca this weekend. dad, try to catch a nice, big bass for me. or trout hahah. i think we would always catch rainbow trout, but i cant remember anymore. but either way, be sure to reel on in for me haha. sean, ive heard some rumors about the lakers trying to get carmelo anthony and weird stuff like that. whats up with that dude? if we have to give up bynum, i dont know if im down for it. we´ll see though. paige, just to be sure you know now, i didnt ask for that globe haha. does that sound like something i would ask for? ummm i think we would all be able to answer that haha. bridg, schools not treatin ya too bad is it? or are you having sooo much fun there that you never wanna go home. ill bet its the second one hugh? hahah
k guys, my time here´s up. i love you all. have another great week. work hard, play hard, catch some huge fish, and we´ll be hearing from each other next monday. until then...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
glad to hear that everything is going well back there in that other country of yours haha. if you get the chance to write kenzie or anything, be sure to tell her that shes awesome for serving a mission and that she is gonna do great in the mission field. shes really got nothing to be nervous about cause if she´s obedient, always listens to the Spirit, and follows those promptings, she´ll be the best missionary that there is. it really is gonna be an amazing experience for her. i was just talking to my comp about how fast she already went in and is now leaving from the mtc hahah. time really flies in the mission. on minute youre in the mtc just getting to know how everything is, and before you know it, youve got 6 months. then 6 more months go by, and then its just like you blink your eyes and the days go by hahah. its crazy and she just has to live every moment and love it all...
hahah so about that story about the world globe...just so that you all know, im pretty sure that that was something that sean got for christmas. i dont know why i would ever want something like that hahah. im pretty sure that i would have asked for something wayyy cooler for christmas when i was littler. im almost sure that that was something that sean got though hahah. but about all the other stuff that you guys mentioned hahah well yeah i did want all that. and its still all awesome just so you know!! that pogo stick was well used if i say so myself. i believe that i broke a couple pogo-stick records with that bad boy hahah. the treasure box, i remember wanting, but i never remember actually getting that haha. maybe im wrong. and the moon boots...well i almost jumped to the moon in those things haha. i think i almost touched the moon when i was wearing those things one time haha. but i just wanna make it clear for you all that i never asked for the world globe. that was my super intellectual brother that wanted to enlighten his mind with more knowledge about our world, aka sean hahah.
alright enough messing around...lets get down to business. the serious stuff...hahah ok that whole serious thing didnt last too long (ive never been good at being really serious haha). but as far as the week has gone, i feel like things are starting to come together. its exciting to be able to see some really awesome things that are happening. first of all, we´ve still got plans for cristina´s baptism this saturday. we have to teach her like 2 more times and then do an interview on friday, and shes all ready. it looks like everythings gonna go smoothly with that. shes a capa too. she always goes to church by herself. like no one has to remind her or help her go on sunday. thats something that i havent seen alot since ive been her. it just goes to show that shes already got a super strong testimony of the church. we still havent been able to teach her kids or anything, but i know that we will all in time. it may take a little time, but what ive learned is that the more we´re around and showing good examples to other people, they gain their own interest to know more. and as long as cristina is always a good example for her kids, they´ll start going and get baptized someday too.
on saturday, we had a really awesome day. like in the last 2 weeks, we had never been able to find and teach luis. he was the guy that went to church with one of the members. but on saturday we had just found a family of like 5 and were both really excited. right after teaching that family, we were like, ¨we should go over and try to find luis.¨ i think that we really did have alot of faith that we´d be able to find and talk to him, which made that difference. so we went over to his house and he was there outside. he let us in and told us that he hasnt been able to talk to us cause he started working monday through friday. but saturday and sunday hes at home, which is awesome. but we talked about the restoration of the church and talked alot about the book of mormon. he was really receptive to everything. and in the back of my head, i was thinking, ¨why dont we just take out a baptismal date with him?¨ but thats kind something thats always been hard for me to do throughout the mission the first time we teach someone. but i know that my comp was thinking the same thing, and with the help of the Spirit, we were able to set a baptismal date with him for the 12th of march. it was really awesome. id love to be here still to see him get baptized...if the Lord needs me to be here ofcourse. but then yesterday, he went to church also and really liked it. hes a capo for sure...
well mom, i hope you guys have an awesome time in cuyamaca this weekend. dad, try to catch a nice, big bass for me. or trout hahah. i think we would always catch rainbow trout, but i cant remember anymore. but either way, be sure to reel on in for me haha. sean, ive heard some rumors about the lakers trying to get carmelo anthony and weird stuff like that. whats up with that dude? if we have to give up bynum, i dont know if im down for it. we´ll see though. paige, just to be sure you know now, i didnt ask for that globe haha. does that sound like something i would ask for? ummm i think we would all be able to answer that haha. bridg, schools not treatin ya too bad is it? or are you having sooo much fun there that you never wanna go home. ill bet its the second one hugh? hahah
k guys, my time here´s up. i love you all. have another great week. work hard, play hard, catch some huge fish, and we´ll be hearing from each other next monday. until then...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Sunday, February 13, 2011
February 7, 2011-Missing Super Bowl Sunday
holaaaa,
mom, first of all i wanted thank you for looking into some of that byu stuff for me. i really havent been worried about it at all. it still doesnt seem real that ill actually being going back to byu at some point haha. but yeah, ill be sure and have president stapley sign that application sheet...i also wanted to thank you for sending that letter with all the christmas cards inside. its so crazy to see all those families that ive known forever and to see all the kids grown up and stuff haha. its weird stuff. but thanks alot for sending those to me.
well i think that overall, we had another really amazing week. the Lord has really blessed us and helped us to have some awesome experiences. but the coolest thing by far that happened this week was on thursday. i was actually on an intercambio (i forgot that word again in english haha...by bad), so i wasnt in our area. but elder gutierrez told me everything that happened. like so i think ive told you all about cristina, the lady that started going to church all by herself a couple weeks ago. but we havent been able to teach her cause her husband (husband without being married that is haha) wouldnt let the missionaries teach her. he didnt want us to teach her at all. so she just kept going to church by herself and that was it. but on thursday, one of the members from the ward, whos a friend of cristina´s, called us and was like, ¨elders, do you have anything to do right now? ive got someone that i want you to teach?¨ so ofcourse they were like, ¨uhhh tell us where we need to meet you and we´re there¨ hahah. the member didnt actually say that it was cristina until she took them to her house. but it was really awesome. cristina got her husband thrown out of the house. i know that sounds like a bad thing, but he was really treating her and her family really badly. but they taught her that day and were able to take out a baptismal date right away for february 19th. i went and visited her on saturday and shes just one of those people whos really prepared for the gospel. she understands like almost everything and really enjoys it. then she went to church yesterday (she goes every week...capa haha) and took her little kids. shes got a daughter that we might be able to teach also. we´ll see...but sometimes the Lord just blesses us like that. i know that its another answer to our prayers and also your guys´ prayers. so thank you...
we didnt have as awesome of a week for investigators in church as we did last week, but it was still pretty good. luis went again, but we havent been able to actually teach him yet. hes been a little busy with some family stuff and work. but we´re trying hard to find a time where we can go and teach him. and then one of the daughters of a member went to church also. shes not a member either. i think she liked it alot, so we´re gonna try to start giving her the lessons also.
lets see, what else is new? we´ve got interviews with president this week. im excited about it cause we dont have them as often as we did with president asay. now we have interviews every 3 months. but itll be cool to talk to him a little bit. ive been wondering a little bit whats gonna happen to me for the next 3-4ish months. whether ill stay in my area or if i go somewhere else. id say that its more likely that i leave, but if the Lord needs me to stay, im more than willing to do it. we´ve been working super hard here and i think any time a missionary is in an area for a long time, theres always alot of love for that area and especially the people there...aka me in this area and also alto san lorenzo haha.
but yeah, other than that, we´re doin all good. but thank you all for writing me these weeks and everything. i appreciate all the stuff that you guys do for me. i need to get going now though. we´ve got some work to do this week here in el triangulo. so have a great week and we´ll be hearing from each other next week. cuidense...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
mom, first of all i wanted thank you for looking into some of that byu stuff for me. i really havent been worried about it at all. it still doesnt seem real that ill actually being going back to byu at some point haha. but yeah, ill be sure and have president stapley sign that application sheet...i also wanted to thank you for sending that letter with all the christmas cards inside. its so crazy to see all those families that ive known forever and to see all the kids grown up and stuff haha. its weird stuff. but thanks alot for sending those to me.
well i think that overall, we had another really amazing week. the Lord has really blessed us and helped us to have some awesome experiences. but the coolest thing by far that happened this week was on thursday. i was actually on an intercambio (i forgot that word again in english haha...by bad), so i wasnt in our area. but elder gutierrez told me everything that happened. like so i think ive told you all about cristina, the lady that started going to church all by herself a couple weeks ago. but we havent been able to teach her cause her husband (husband without being married that is haha) wouldnt let the missionaries teach her. he didnt want us to teach her at all. so she just kept going to church by herself and that was it. but on thursday, one of the members from the ward, whos a friend of cristina´s, called us and was like, ¨elders, do you have anything to do right now? ive got someone that i want you to teach?¨ so ofcourse they were like, ¨uhhh tell us where we need to meet you and we´re there¨ hahah. the member didnt actually say that it was cristina until she took them to her house. but it was really awesome. cristina got her husband thrown out of the house. i know that sounds like a bad thing, but he was really treating her and her family really badly. but they taught her that day and were able to take out a baptismal date right away for february 19th. i went and visited her on saturday and shes just one of those people whos really prepared for the gospel. she understands like almost everything and really enjoys it. then she went to church yesterday (she goes every week...capa haha) and took her little kids. shes got a daughter that we might be able to teach also. we´ll see...but sometimes the Lord just blesses us like that. i know that its another answer to our prayers and also your guys´ prayers. so thank you...
we didnt have as awesome of a week for investigators in church as we did last week, but it was still pretty good. luis went again, but we havent been able to actually teach him yet. hes been a little busy with some family stuff and work. but we´re trying hard to find a time where we can go and teach him. and then one of the daughters of a member went to church also. shes not a member either. i think she liked it alot, so we´re gonna try to start giving her the lessons also.
lets see, what else is new? we´ve got interviews with president this week. im excited about it cause we dont have them as often as we did with president asay. now we have interviews every 3 months. but itll be cool to talk to him a little bit. ive been wondering a little bit whats gonna happen to me for the next 3-4ish months. whether ill stay in my area or if i go somewhere else. id say that its more likely that i leave, but if the Lord needs me to stay, im more than willing to do it. we´ve been working super hard here and i think any time a missionary is in an area for a long time, theres always alot of love for that area and especially the people there...aka me in this area and also alto san lorenzo haha.
but yeah, other than that, we´re doin all good. but thank you all for writing me these weeks and everything. i appreciate all the stuff that you guys do for me. i need to get going now though. we´ve got some work to do this week here in el triangulo. so have a great week and we´ll be hearing from each other next week. cuidense...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
February 7, 2011-BYU Stuff
hey,
im just writing really quick to ask something about byu. i was talking to elder cockriel this week and he was telling me that we have to tell byu that we´re gonna be going back for the fall semester. i tried to go on one of my other emails to respond to an email that byu sent me, but my old emails are all erased after not going on for so much time hahah. so i was wondering if you would be able to call the byu department of something to tell them and to make sure that they know that im gonna be going back for fall. like i also heard that we can start signing up for classes and stuff and looking for apartments, so i was wondering a little more about all that too. im actually planning on living with elder nalder and maybe someone else like elder mortensen (if we can convince him to go up there hahah) for the winter semester, so we´re looking for a place already. i was thinkin that itd be cool to live in an apartment for a semester then they could move in with me too. or if i have to change apartements, its all good. but i was hoping that you could look into some of that stuff for me. thanks...ill write more about the week later today.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
im just writing really quick to ask something about byu. i was talking to elder cockriel this week and he was telling me that we have to tell byu that we´re gonna be going back for the fall semester. i tried to go on one of my other emails to respond to an email that byu sent me, but my old emails are all erased after not going on for so much time hahah. so i was wondering if you would be able to call the byu department of something to tell them and to make sure that they know that im gonna be going back for fall. like i also heard that we can start signing up for classes and stuff and looking for apartments, so i was wondering a little more about all that too. im actually planning on living with elder nalder and maybe someone else like elder mortensen (if we can convince him to go up there hahah) for the winter semester, so we´re looking for a place already. i was thinkin that itd be cool to live in an apartment for a semester then they could move in with me too. or if i have to change apartements, its all good. but i was hoping that you could look into some of that stuff for me. thanks...ill write more about the week later today.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
January 31, 2011-81 Degrees At Night
heyyy guys!
its the truth! its been pretty dang hot here in buenos aires the last couple weeks haha. im guessing that that temperature thing that you guys have on the computer is about right...or close. but id say that it feels alot hotter for the humidity. but yeah even at night, lets just say that no one needs long sleeves hahah.
hey so i dont know if i mentioned this in one of my other emails, but i wanted to be sure to congradulate gracie livingston on being engaged and everything. thats awesome! bummer that its gonna be in april instead of ¨another month¨ hahah but thats just for my own selfishness of wanting to be there for it. but be sure to tell her congrats for me.
so i dont think that ive ever mentioned this before, but this transfer, we decided (just as our district, not our zone) that every week we´re gonna pray for a certain area in the district so that they can do better in the week. this week, it was our area that everyone prayed for. and ive gotta say that i believe that those prayers really made a huge difference for us. yesterday, we went in the morning and picked up olga and gisela to take them to church. when we got there, we were expecting that 2 more of our investigators would come for sure. but it was such an awesome surprise cause when church started, there were actually 7 of our investigators. and it was tight cause it was the stake presidency´s turn to come to our ward so they were all pretty impressed and telling us that we´ve got some people to baptize. and thats the truth. there are a couple of those investigators that could end up getting baptized in the near future. hopefully sooner than later. but we also had a guy named luis who came to church. hes from peru and came to argentina last week. hes staying with a member right now and she brought him to church. he seems like a capo too! he stayed all 3 hours and told us that one of his friends from peru is a member. so we gave him the book of mormon and when he said that he wanted to learn more about it, we were like, ¨can we come by tomorrow?!¨ and he was cool with it. so tonight we´re going over to teach him. i have a feeling that hes gonna progress really fast and that he could get baptized really fast also.
mom, ive gotta say that im pretty impressed that of all the people that turned the lakers on, i wouldnt have ever guessed that itd be you hahah. dad, good job giving emily that ¨little gift of yours¨ before you went back home haha. ill be she was stoked ;). sean, all i can say is COOOUUUGGGAAARRRSSS!! dang ive got a feeling that jimmer freddett has alot to do with how awesome we´re playing. and i think you told me that sdsu has been way good this year. like in the top 10 or something. we should be right up there with them. if ive every seen byu have a change to do anything, it looks like its gonna be the year where i cant see anything haha. ill take the sacrifice, but COME ON TEAMS THAT I ALWAYS GO FOR THAT USUALLY ALWAYS LOSE!! DO YOU ALL HAVE TO WIN WHILE IM GONE?! JUST WAIT ONE MORE YEAR, OR ATLEAST KEEP UP THIS AWESOMENESS FOR NEXT YEAR!! hahah i think i made my point. paige, its crazy seeing you and bridg in that picture at the beach. you 2 are wayyy different! its pretty crazy. and hey, i hope that i wont have to tell you again, but your future husband (aka- mi cuñado) sttiiilllll hasnt gotten a letter from ya. que onda?!? paige i feel like im the only one trying to keep this relationship together hahah. bridg, youre gonna have to keep me posted on the big question of whether you decide to play basketball or tennis. either one would be pretty sick.
hahah ok so i think that when you guys all look at this picture of elder gutierrez and i, its gonna give you all a good idea of the type of people that we both are haha. lets just say that it was raining today (it just happens to rain on pday...it was still hot though haha) and we didnt have a whooollleee lot planned for the day haha. we make our own fun. so yeah, enjoy!
other than that, there wasnt anything too new in the week. the truth is that im enjoying everything alot. ive found that the times that ive enjoyed the mission the most were always the times when we were having alot of success as missionaries too. so im really trying to make the most the mission, enjoy it all, and work as hard as i can...ive gotta go now though, but i love you guys alot. thanks for always supporting me. talk to you all next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Monday, January 24, 2011
January 24, 2011-Hugs From Home
heyyy,
glad to hear that you guys finally got my emails from the past 3 weeks haha. hopefully you werent thinking that i wasnt writing or anything.
so i think that this week was a good one overall. ive gotta say that at the beginning of the week, both elder gutierrez and i were a little frustrated with some things. like some of the people that were progressing really well a while ago havent been progressing very well as of late. so we´re kind of working to separate the ¨wheat and the tares¨ if ya know what i mean hahah. like i know that everyone needs the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives, but not everyone is ready right at this moment to receive if. for some people, its just not their time yet. but we´re trying not to waste too much time with those people right now. but yeah, its still frustrating having to let go to people sometimes...but i think that both elder gutierrez and i would agree that we´re excited about what we see now. like we dropped a couple people with baptismal fechas cause they werent progressing, but now we´re focusing even more on people that are. and that gives us more time to focus on finding new people to teach, which im glad to say that we did this week...i think i told you all in one of my last emails about olga, gisela, and guillermo. well theyre progressing really well now. like we went over to their house the other day and gisela had read up until moroni. like for only having found them a couple weeks ago, thats really really impressive. like she should be done with the book of mormon when we go back again this week. but theyre really liking everything. i think we´re gonna try and take out baptismal fechas with them this week.
and another awesome thing that happened at the end of this week. so one of the things that we were a little frustrated about was that we werent receiving alot of references from the members. like i think everyone thats served a mission knows that receiving a reference from a member is that best way to find people to baptize. but we really havent had luck with that in this area. its something that i asked especially in my prayers, so that the members would feel the need to give us references of their friends. and im glad to say that the Lord always answers our prayers haha. a member named gaby, whos going on a mission in a couple months, gave us a reference for one of her friends. like the girls name is sole. shes listened to the missionaries alot before. but we had a family home evening with her and gaby´s family and sole told us that she feels like now is the time. like she had listened to the missionaries alot before, but had never really asked God if it was true. but she says that now is that time. so we´re stoked about that. shes already gone to church once, which is cool. references really are the way to find people who are prepared for this message.
ohhh ok so just a weird little note...you guys are always asking if i eat anything weird or how the food is. so the other week i tried eel. ive always wanted to try it, ya know? cause people have told me that you can eat it. alot of people dont dare to do it, but ive always wanted to do it and no one´s ever had any hahah. but yeah the other week someone had some and ask me just jokingly if i wanted to try it. i think they thought that id be a girl about it or something and not want to hahah but i was like, ¨yeah ill try it!¨ and to be honest it was actually pretty good. im not sayin that id eat it all the time or anything hahah but it actually is really good meat. so yeah, thought id share that fun little fact with all of you.
mom, im glad that it didnt get to the point where you had to call president hatch so that hed call president stapley haha. dont worry, its all good. dad, have fun up in utah! be sure to tell kenzie that i love her and that i wish the best while shes on the mission. shes going to love it sooo much and really bless lives. ill see her in about 2 years. sean, che espero que todo este bien en la escuela y con ese trabajo. no trabajes demasiado hahah porque si lo haces, no vas a estar en forma para jugarme en tenís despues de la mision. pero igual, te gano hahah. paige, its awesome that you and the fam got to hang out with keeley before going to italy. its awesome to see all of you in that picture. youre gonna have to send me that one sometime. bridg, back to the lovely full week of school hahah. have fun!
well i guess thats about it. but i love you all and appreciate all that you do for me. have a great week and ill talk to you soon.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
glad to hear that you guys finally got my emails from the past 3 weeks haha. hopefully you werent thinking that i wasnt writing or anything.
so i think that this week was a good one overall. ive gotta say that at the beginning of the week, both elder gutierrez and i were a little frustrated with some things. like some of the people that were progressing really well a while ago havent been progressing very well as of late. so we´re kind of working to separate the ¨wheat and the tares¨ if ya know what i mean hahah. like i know that everyone needs the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives, but not everyone is ready right at this moment to receive if. for some people, its just not their time yet. but we´re trying not to waste too much time with those people right now. but yeah, its still frustrating having to let go to people sometimes...but i think that both elder gutierrez and i would agree that we´re excited about what we see now. like we dropped a couple people with baptismal fechas cause they werent progressing, but now we´re focusing even more on people that are. and that gives us more time to focus on finding new people to teach, which im glad to say that we did this week...i think i told you all in one of my last emails about olga, gisela, and guillermo. well theyre progressing really well now. like we went over to their house the other day and gisela had read up until moroni. like for only having found them a couple weeks ago, thats really really impressive. like she should be done with the book of mormon when we go back again this week. but theyre really liking everything. i think we´re gonna try and take out baptismal fechas with them this week.
and another awesome thing that happened at the end of this week. so one of the things that we were a little frustrated about was that we werent receiving alot of references from the members. like i think everyone thats served a mission knows that receiving a reference from a member is that best way to find people to baptize. but we really havent had luck with that in this area. its something that i asked especially in my prayers, so that the members would feel the need to give us references of their friends. and im glad to say that the Lord always answers our prayers haha. a member named gaby, whos going on a mission in a couple months, gave us a reference for one of her friends. like the girls name is sole. shes listened to the missionaries alot before. but we had a family home evening with her and gaby´s family and sole told us that she feels like now is the time. like she had listened to the missionaries alot before, but had never really asked God if it was true. but she says that now is that time. so we´re stoked about that. shes already gone to church once, which is cool. references really are the way to find people who are prepared for this message.
ohhh ok so just a weird little note...you guys are always asking if i eat anything weird or how the food is. so the other week i tried eel. ive always wanted to try it, ya know? cause people have told me that you can eat it. alot of people dont dare to do it, but ive always wanted to do it and no one´s ever had any hahah. but yeah the other week someone had some and ask me just jokingly if i wanted to try it. i think they thought that id be a girl about it or something and not want to hahah but i was like, ¨yeah ill try it!¨ and to be honest it was actually pretty good. im not sayin that id eat it all the time or anything hahah but it actually is really good meat. so yeah, thought id share that fun little fact with all of you.
mom, im glad that it didnt get to the point where you had to call president hatch so that hed call president stapley haha. dont worry, its all good. dad, have fun up in utah! be sure to tell kenzie that i love her and that i wish the best while shes on the mission. shes going to love it sooo much and really bless lives. ill see her in about 2 years. sean, che espero que todo este bien en la escuela y con ese trabajo. no trabajes demasiado hahah porque si lo haces, no vas a estar en forma para jugarme en tenís despues de la mision. pero igual, te gano hahah. paige, its awesome that you and the fam got to hang out with keeley before going to italy. its awesome to see all of you in that picture. youre gonna have to send me that one sometime. bridg, back to the lovely full week of school hahah. have fun!
well i guess thats about it. but i love you all and appreciate all that you do for me. have a great week and ill talk to you soon.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
January 18, 2011-Three Long Weeks Without A Letter
hey everyone,
alright so i dont know if you guys got my email from last week. if you didnt, my bad. i sent it, but i guess it jus got lost in that crazy cyberspace hahah. but if you didnt get it, im sending it right now:
hey guys!
its been soooo long since we´ve written hahah ok not really. but
either way, its cool to be able to write you all again. even though
its only been a couple days since we last talked, they´ve been a good
last few days.
new years was alot of fun. we didnt go as all out as we did on
christmas with food and stuff, but still it was alot of fun. we hung
out with 4 other missionaries, ate fideos (cant remember the word
right now) with chicken, played chess and a couple other games
like that, and played hide and seek hahahah yes im still a kid and i
still like playing stuff like that haha. then at midnight
evverryonneee and their dog started setting off fireworks, so we went
on the balcony and just watched them for like 30 minutes. it was all
pretty tight. it sounded like you all had a really good new years too.
so i think that the only real new thing thats happened since then
was the lesson that we had with a guy named richard yesterday. i dont
know if i ever talked about him and his family. like we found him, his
wife, and his wife´s sister like 2 weeks ago just clapping a house.
the wife´s sister, angi, came out and started talking to us. she told
us that they had talked to the missionaries once before and let us in.
so we talked with them, and met richard. he´s such a capo! like
they´ve all been going to the evangelist church, but they dont seem
super convinced about it. so since then, we´ve been going over and
teaching them. yesterday we were only about to talk to richard, but it
was such a good lesson. we had planned on talking more about the plan
of salvation, but when we started talking, he asked us a couple
questions, so we just ended up answering those questions that he had.
its awesome cause he´s super sincere to know if this church is true.
he told us yesterday that he really wants to believe that it is. we
invited him to be baptized, but i dont think we did that great of a
baptismal invitacion, and he just told us that he´d like to go to
church before deciding. but we´re expecting him and his family to go
to church this sunday. i know that if they go, they´ll know that its
the true church of Jesus Christ. so we´re gonna do everything that we
possibly can so that they all go. he does have to get married too, but
we talked to him about that yesterday and he didnt seem to have any
problems with it. i dont wanna say this too early, but i really feel
like he could be on of God´s chosen.
other than that little experience, guys, i think thats about it.
but this week, we´ve got alot of hopes. we´re hoping to take out
atleast 3 new baptismal fechas. we really do have faith that it will
happen and that the Spirit will touch these people´s hearts so that
they feel the need to be baptized.
mom, as far as new years resolutions go, ive got a goal for
baptisms that id like to have this year. but im just gonna keep that
personal for now haha, sorry. other than that, im working really hard
to not just be a better missionary, but to also help other
missionaries to be better. like i know thats not really something that
you can measure, but i think that at the end of my mission ill be able
to feel if ive really accomplished it or not. dad, sounds like you and
sean have had a blast with the wii golf. why wouldnt you ever
play stuff like that with me when sean was on the mission?!? hahah no
its cool. i prefer playing for real anyways, even though im not much
of a golfer haha. sean, now you and emily get to go back to the lovely
work/school life...you guys are sooo lucky! hahah dont have too much
fun with all that dude. paige, im still wearing a helmet the first
time i go driving with you hahah. bridg, thanks for the email. sounds
like its been a fun week. have fun this week in school. it really is
crazy that you only have 4 months before you´re 14! i cant believe it
either haha.
well guys, my time is up. thank you all for your love, prayers, and
emails. have an awesome week and we´ll be hearing from each other next
monday. until next time...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
last week:
alright so that was last week. sorry i guess this letters gonna be extra long hahah. but yeah, i think as far as this week goes, its been kinda off and on. like my comp and i were really hoping that some awesome things would happen. we had some cool things that happened, but we were hoping for a little more i guess. but we´re trying to take out all the good that happened and correct the bad. like i told you all last week, we were hoping to take out baptismal dates with richard and his family. but we went by his house and one time he wasnt there. another time, we went by and he was busy with some family stuff. he felt kinda bad cause he wasnt able to talk to us. then on top of that, he was planning on going to church with his family, but his litle daughter got sick and he ended up having to go to the hospital. so yeah, we havent been able to talk to him or have any progress with him this week. but thats the good thing about the mission. there´s always a next week.
as far as some of the good things that we´ve got going on...we found another really awesome family. elder gutierrez and i are excited cause we´re starting to find alot of families again. like this one is sweet. like last week, we found an older lady named olga. she was nice, but she talked sooooo much and made it really tough to teach. but after that, we set a day to come back. when that day came, we were thinking about not going cause shes just a talker. but im really glad that we felt the need to go back cause when we did, we were able to find her daughter, gisela, and her son-in-law, guillermo. and yes, theyre married already! but they are seriously so awesome. we taught the restauration, and gisela told us that she believed it all. and when we gave them the book of mormon, she was so excited. she told us that she loooves to read and that shes gonna read a bunch and pray to know if its true. she convinced her husband to do it with her too. what a capa. yeah, so we´re also hoping to take out baptismal dates with them sometime soon.
we had another cool experience. there was a woman that came to church yeserday with her 2 little kids. we started talking to her and found out that she was an investigator from like 2 years ago. she loooved the church, but her husband literally wouldnt let her come. but she went yesterday all by herself. i dont know whats up with her husband now, but she went to church. it looks like a miracle to me. shes coming to church this sunday and then we´re gonna start teaching her. i think she can progress fast and really well.
well this week is transfers again. its gonna by sooo fast! i dont know whats gonna happen. i could easily leave, but at the same time, id like to stay. well i guess well see what the Lord needs me to do.
k guys, i gotta take off. thanks a bunch for the letters, and especially your prayers. please remember our investigators in your prayers. i love you all. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
today:
well i hope you get this email. if you dont then i dont know what to really do. so you better get this email haha.
alright so first and formost, ill let you all know what happened with transfers. pretty much all of us were thinking that i was gonna leave. like i really didnt want to leave, but we all kinda figured that thats what was gonna happen...but its a good thing that i didnt start packing my bags, cause elder gutierrez and i are gonna be staying together for another transfer!!! its really crazy cause this is gonna be our 3rd transfer together and thats not usually something that happens. it looks like president stapley is starting to do it with more companionships. but when we found out, we were sooo stoked! we were like celebrated and screaming like crazy hahah. im excited to be with gutierrez for atleast one more transfer and im glad to be in the area again cause i really think that we´ve got alot going for us.
so as for last week...i think that we were hoping for a little more again. it wasnt a bad week though. we´ve just got high expectations and we havent been able to reach those expectations yet. but we did have another good experience this week...on like wednesday morning, we were getting ready to go eat lunch and we were doing some contacts right before. when we were walking, i saw a house that i had never seen or clapped before, and i felt like we needed to talk to those people that lived there. so we did a contact in the house and a lady came out. we talked to her and she let us in almost right away. after talking for a little bit, she told us that she had always wanted to talk to the missionaries before cause she wants to find a church, but she never did. she we had a really good first lesson. then like 2 or 3 days later, we went back and taught her again. she just seemed to believe everything and feel that everything we taught was the truth. so we were able to take out a baptismal date for her for next month. she seems pretty ready for the gospel. we just need to find out if shes married or not. that could be the only thing preventing her from getting baptized in the next couple weeks. but we´ll just see what happens when we go by this week.
lets see, we also got a reference from a member, who´s friend is dating an lds guy and wants to learn more about the church. like, she already knows about it and stuff, but we´re gonna try and start teaching her too cause it would be a really good opportunity. we´re hoping that that works out and that she starts to take the lessons.
mom, sorry for not being able to hear from me for the last 3 weeks. i really dont know whats been up. its kinda weird. dad, sounds like them lakers are starting to turn it up a little bit. someone told me today that theyve won like 8 in a row. atta boy hahah. sean, dude im way down for that job when im back at byu. that would seriously be wayyy sick. if you really can hook me up when im back, it would be so tight (ps- the other day, i almost almost almost thought i saw a blue bird fly by the window. but i was deceived hahaha). paige, im hopin that youve already sent gubdaddy´s letter cause i saw him today and he told me that he still hadnt heard anything from ya. hes startin to lose a little hope. you better get writin hahah. bridg, hows school going? ill bet that youre loving being back and everything haha. dont have too much fun...
k guys, you better get this email. i dont know what to tell ya if you dont. but either way, i love you all and hope you all have a great week. thanks for your prayers and everything. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
alright so i dont know if you guys got my email from last week. if you didnt, my bad. i sent it, but i guess it jus got lost in that crazy cyberspace hahah. but if you didnt get it, im sending it right now:
hey guys!
its been soooo long since we´ve written hahah ok not really. but
either way, its cool to be able to write you all again. even though
its only been a couple days since we last talked, they´ve been a good
last few days.
new years was alot of fun. we didnt go as all out as we did on
christmas with food and stuff, but still it was alot of fun. we hung
out with 4 other missionaries, ate fideos (cant remember the word
right now) with chicken, played chess and a couple other games
like that, and played hide and seek hahahah yes im still a kid and i
still like playing stuff like that haha. then at midnight
evverryonneee and their dog started setting off fireworks, so we went
on the balcony and just watched them for like 30 minutes. it was all
pretty tight. it sounded like you all had a really good new years too.
so i think that the only real new thing thats happened since then
was the lesson that we had with a guy named richard yesterday. i dont
know if i ever talked about him and his family. like we found him, his
wife, and his wife´s sister like 2 weeks ago just clapping a house.
the wife´s sister, angi, came out and started talking to us. she told
us that they had talked to the missionaries once before and let us in.
so we talked with them, and met richard. he´s such a capo! like
they´ve all been going to the evangelist church, but they dont seem
super convinced about it. so since then, we´ve been going over and
teaching them. yesterday we were only about to talk to richard, but it
was such a good lesson. we had planned on talking more about the plan
of salvation, but when we started talking, he asked us a couple
questions, so we just ended up answering those questions that he had.
its awesome cause he´s super sincere to know if this church is true.
he told us yesterday that he really wants to believe that it is. we
invited him to be baptized, but i dont think we did that great of a
baptismal invitacion, and he just told us that he´d like to go to
church before deciding. but we´re expecting him and his family to go
to church this sunday. i know that if they go, they´ll know that its
the true church of Jesus Christ. so we´re gonna do everything that we
possibly can so that they all go. he does have to get married too, but
we talked to him about that yesterday and he didnt seem to have any
problems with it. i dont wanna say this too early, but i really feel
like he could be on of God´s chosen.
other than that little experience, guys, i think thats about it.
but this week, we´ve got alot of hopes. we´re hoping to take out
atleast 3 new baptismal fechas. we really do have faith that it will
happen and that the Spirit will touch these people´s hearts so that
they feel the need to be baptized.
mom, as far as new years resolutions go, ive got a goal for
baptisms that id like to have this year. but im just gonna keep that
personal for now haha, sorry. other than that, im working really hard
to not just be a better missionary, but to also help other
missionaries to be better. like i know thats not really something that
you can measure, but i think that at the end of my mission ill be able
to feel if ive really accomplished it or not. dad, sounds like you and
sean have had a blast with the wii golf. why wouldnt you ever
play stuff like that with me when sean was on the mission?!? hahah no
its cool. i prefer playing for real anyways, even though im not much
of a golfer haha. sean, now you and emily get to go back to the lovely
work/school life...you guys are sooo lucky! hahah dont have too much
fun with all that dude. paige, im still wearing a helmet the first
time i go driving with you hahah. bridg, thanks for the email. sounds
like its been a fun week. have fun this week in school. it really is
crazy that you only have 4 months before you´re 14! i cant believe it
either haha.
well guys, my time is up. thank you all for your love, prayers, and
emails. have an awesome week and we´ll be hearing from each other next
monday. until next time...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
last week:
alright so that was last week. sorry i guess this letters gonna be extra long hahah. but yeah, i think as far as this week goes, its been kinda off and on. like my comp and i were really hoping that some awesome things would happen. we had some cool things that happened, but we were hoping for a little more i guess. but we´re trying to take out all the good that happened and correct the bad. like i told you all last week, we were hoping to take out baptismal dates with richard and his family. but we went by his house and one time he wasnt there. another time, we went by and he was busy with some family stuff. he felt kinda bad cause he wasnt able to talk to us. then on top of that, he was planning on going to church with his family, but his litle daughter got sick and he ended up having to go to the hospital. so yeah, we havent been able to talk to him or have any progress with him this week. but thats the good thing about the mission. there´s always a next week.
as far as some of the good things that we´ve got going on...we found another really awesome family. elder gutierrez and i are excited cause we´re starting to find alot of families again. like this one is sweet. like last week, we found an older lady named olga. she was nice, but she talked sooooo much and made it really tough to teach. but after that, we set a day to come back. when that day came, we were thinking about not going cause shes just a talker. but im really glad that we felt the need to go back cause when we did, we were able to find her daughter, gisela, and her son-in-law, guillermo. and yes, theyre married already! but they are seriously so awesome. we taught the restauration, and gisela told us that she believed it all. and when we gave them the book of mormon, she was so excited. she told us that she loooves to read and that shes gonna read a bunch and pray to know if its true. she convinced her husband to do it with her too. what a capa. yeah, so we´re also hoping to take out baptismal dates with them sometime soon.
we had another cool experience. there was a woman that came to church yeserday with her 2 little kids. we started talking to her and found out that she was an investigator from like 2 years ago. she loooved the church, but her husband literally wouldnt let her come. but she went yesterday all by herself. i dont know whats up with her husband now, but she went to church. it looks like a miracle to me. shes coming to church this sunday and then we´re gonna start teaching her. i think she can progress fast and really well.
well this week is transfers again. its gonna by sooo fast! i dont know whats gonna happen. i could easily leave, but at the same time, id like to stay. well i guess well see what the Lord needs me to do.
k guys, i gotta take off. thanks a bunch for the letters, and especially your prayers. please remember our investigators in your prayers. i love you all. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
today:
well i hope you get this email. if you dont then i dont know what to really do. so you better get this email haha.
alright so first and formost, ill let you all know what happened with transfers. pretty much all of us were thinking that i was gonna leave. like i really didnt want to leave, but we all kinda figured that thats what was gonna happen...but its a good thing that i didnt start packing my bags, cause elder gutierrez and i are gonna be staying together for another transfer!!! its really crazy cause this is gonna be our 3rd transfer together and thats not usually something that happens. it looks like president stapley is starting to do it with more companionships. but when we found out, we were sooo stoked! we were like celebrated and screaming like crazy hahah. im excited to be with gutierrez for atleast one more transfer and im glad to be in the area again cause i really think that we´ve got alot going for us.
so as for last week...i think that we were hoping for a little more again. it wasnt a bad week though. we´ve just got high expectations and we havent been able to reach those expectations yet. but we did have another good experience this week...on like wednesday morning, we were getting ready to go eat lunch and we were doing some contacts right before. when we were walking, i saw a house that i had never seen or clapped before, and i felt like we needed to talk to those people that lived there. so we did a contact in the house and a lady came out. we talked to her and she let us in almost right away. after talking for a little bit, she told us that she had always wanted to talk to the missionaries before cause she wants to find a church, but she never did. she we had a really good first lesson. then like 2 or 3 days later, we went back and taught her again. she just seemed to believe everything and feel that everything we taught was the truth. so we were able to take out a baptismal date for her for next month. she seems pretty ready for the gospel. we just need to find out if shes married or not. that could be the only thing preventing her from getting baptized in the next couple weeks. but we´ll just see what happens when we go by this week.
lets see, we also got a reference from a member, who´s friend is dating an lds guy and wants to learn more about the church. like, she already knows about it and stuff, but we´re gonna try and start teaching her too cause it would be a really good opportunity. we´re hoping that that works out and that she starts to take the lessons.
mom, sorry for not being able to hear from me for the last 3 weeks. i really dont know whats been up. its kinda weird. dad, sounds like them lakers are starting to turn it up a little bit. someone told me today that theyve won like 8 in a row. atta boy hahah. sean, dude im way down for that job when im back at byu. that would seriously be wayyy sick. if you really can hook me up when im back, it would be so tight (ps- the other day, i almost almost almost thought i saw a blue bird fly by the window. but i was deceived hahaha). paige, im hopin that youve already sent gubdaddy´s letter cause i saw him today and he told me that he still hadnt heard anything from ya. hes startin to lose a little hope. you better get writin hahah. bridg, hows school going? ill bet that youre loving being back and everything haha. dont have too much fun...
k guys, you better get this email. i dont know what to tell ya if you dont. but either way, i love you all and hope you all have a great week. thanks for your prayers and everything. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall
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