May 17, 2010-Another Saturday Night

hey everyone,
wow so its been quite that week for elder chavez and i here in platanos. i was about to write alto san lorenzo cause i´m so used to it. i´ve been really liking my new area though. all the people have been really great and welcomed me to the area really well. but yeah its been pretty crazy so far. on tuesday, we went to buenos aires for my comps documents. everything went well even though they tried to tell him that his documents were expired. but we showed em whos boss and got it all taken care of. so then on wednesday, i had a leader´s meeting. it was really good. we talked alot with president and the assistants about how we as leaders really need to step up a little more and set the example for some of the other missionaries.i definately want to be a good example for other missionaries. it was alot of fun though...but even with those 2 days where we couldn´t work that much in our area, we still had one of the best weeks that i´ve had in all my time in the mission. i´m saying that in a good way too -I´m not saying that i´ve never worked before in the mission and that this week was just really good. but we just had an awesome week of lessons even though we were 2 days behind after tuesday and wednesday. it was really awesome to see. elder chavez is a really good guy. he´s a hard worker, but we´ve both been having alot of fun. it makes it alot easier when you have someone like that as a comp. we still don´t have any baptismal dates, but after all the stuff that we´ve done this week, i could see us baptizing some people in the next couple weeks. i really think that in the next few months, this can be an area that baptizes like crazy. so we´re both really excited about that.
we met one family the other day. they are from another area thats like 30 minutes from here called lanus. they´ve been listening to the missionaries there and really like them. the dad and the kids are already baptized, but the mom hasn´t been baptized yet. but she´s really loving the church and is really prepared. so on sunday, we figured that they would go to church there in lanus. but instead, they came here in platanos. we talked to them and found out that they´ll probably be staying here to live now. i don´t know all of the details yet, but it sounds like they´re gonna live with one of the members. so we think that she could get baptized in the next little while, depending on her situation. we´ve also got a couple kids who could be getting baptized in the next few weeks.
mom, i know that you were asking a little about if i was still liking being district leader. and i really do. i like it alot cause i´m able to get to know the other missionaries alot more. i´ve never wanted to be a district or zone leader for the sake of just being one. but i´m really loving it for all that i´m learning. so its been alot of fun and a really good experience for me so far. dad, sounds like the lakers are dominating again as usual. dang, after they win this years championship, they better know that i´m gonna be home for next year. so they better still have everything rolling for this time next year. sean, che i still sing that song every once in a while. of course its from ma band, all time low. hahah so good! i don´t remember what the song title is, but who cares, i think i still win that trivia haha. but dude, thanks a bunch for sending some of those pics too. now i can have a good visual of where you and emily are living. so thanks bro. paige, 20 more days of school! just 20. actually its probably less by the time you read this email hahah. just finish the year off strong and then have an awesome summer vacation. bridg, it sounds like you´re way excited about going up to utah this summer to visit the fam. thats gonna be way fun. you´ll have to let me know if brookie ends up coming down to california to stay for a little while too.
well i thought that i would end with a couple pictures for you all. i don´t know if i´ve already sent the first one to you before. but this is when enzo, from alto san lorenzo, got baptized the other week. i thought that you all might like to see it. the second one is of javier, viviana, nahuel, and i the night that i left. gosh that family is so awesome! hahah
alright elder chavez and i have to get goin. we´ve got some baptismal dates to take out, ya know hahah. but thank you all for all the emails and all the support. take it easy yals haha...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

May 10, 2010- Mother's Day Phone Call

hey everyone!
wow so it was so awesome to be able to talk to you all last night. it was sweet to actually be able to talk to sean and dad in spanish and be able to understand everything...thanks for the laughs last night too. it was really great to hear from you guys.
alright so i´m officially in my new area. its kind of a bummer to leave alto san lorenzo after more than 7 months. i was able to get to know some really amazing people and just make alot of great friends there. but at the same time, i´m really excited to be here in my new area with my new comp. so the area is called platanos. like i told you last night, its in the zone of quilmes. it seems like a pretty sick area. i haven´t been able to see a whole lot of it yet, but from everything that i´ve seen, i´m really excited. alot of people tell me that this is a really great area. i´ve hear that on average we get over 110 people in church every week, which lets just say, is alot more than we were getting in my old area. it doesn´t sound like we have any baptismal dates yet, but i know that we can start finding some awesome people here. its just a matter of following the Spirit and letting the promptings of the Spirit lead us to the Lord´s chosen people...i´m also really excited about my new comp, elder chavez. he´s a really nice guy from chile. so that makes him my second chileano in the mission. but i´m really excited to be able to learn more of the language by speaking all the time with him. he has about 5 months in the mission. but its actually way cool cause he´s only 18 years old. he told me that, and i was like ¨whatever! thats not even possible! you can´t leave on a mission when you´re 18¨ . but i guess that his dad is a mission president or something in chile. apparently, he was able to leave on the mission early cause his dad is a mission president and he´s finished high school already. so i think that its safe to say that i´m with the youngest missionary in this mission.
mom, i wasn´t really able to read all of your email cause well its pretty long and i didn´t have a bunch of time. but i kinda just read as fast as i could and tried to get the jist of it haha. but thanks alot. it sounds like everything has been really great this week. dad, i´m glad that ¨i´m more important that food¨ hahah. thanks for letting me know that you put me before food paps. sean, dude it was sweet to be able to talk to you in spanish. pero para que sepas, realmente no he visto un pajaro azul en argentina. it was tight to be able to talk to you wife too. paige, that is a sick picture of you and rachel at that disco dance. i´ll bet that it was way fun. it was also really awesome to be able to talk to you last night. you´re one of my best friends too. bridg, you´re just a goof. i thought that it was way funny for you to pick up the phone and react the way you did. plus you sounded a little sick so it was just funny to me.
alright so i gotsta get goin. it sounds like this week is gonna be full of us traveling. tomorrow my comp has to go to buenos aires to do document stuff. so who knows how long that´ll take. then on wednesday i´ve got a leaders meeting. so we´ve gotta work that much harder to make up for that time. but i love you all. thanks for everything. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

May 3, 2010-Thinking Of You

whats up guys,
so thanks a bunch for the emails and pictures. it was awesome to be able to see how the reception was. its really crazy to see the house and everything again. but yeah thanks alot for sendin all that...i wanna be sure to tell sean ¨happy early birthday¨ hahah. i know that i´m gonna be able to talk to you on sunday, but thats gonna be a day late. so i thought that i should just let you know now. che eres viejo ya jajaj. no just kidding man. but seriously happy birthday. i´m way stoked to be able to talk to ya on sunday.
so this week has been pretty sweet. we had interviews with the president on like friday. it was just nice to be able to talk to him and hear that he´s really happy with what we´ve been able to do in this area. i feel like there is still so much more work that can be done here in this area though. i´m really trying not to think about it, but i really don´t know whats gonna happen to me after this week. this is the last week before transfers. it was like, before i talked with president, i kinda felt like i was for sure gonna stay in this area. the thing is that i just started training and you usually stay with a new missionary for longer time. but i´m not sure after talking with president hahah. he was talking about how this area has turned around alot and stuff and he kinda thanked me for the work that i´ve done in this area. i don´t know, but it just kinda felt like he was saying that i could leave. but personally i don´t care what happens because where ever i am i know that thats where the Lord needs me to be. so i´m just trying to have the mentality that i´m staying in this area for another transfer. but we´ll just have to see what happens.
so we´ve got enzo´s baptism this saturday. thats gonna be really cool. he´s been way excited about getting baptized. he really likes when we come over to teach him. and while we´ve been teaching him, i´ve been learning more guarani. i don´t know why i like learning guarani so much. its such a tight language and just something that hardly anyone knows. the other day i learned how to say ¨we´re from the church of jesus christ¨. its ¨oré haé tupaope ga ñandierara¨ hahah. to me its way sick. i haven´t been able to do a contact with a person from paraguay with that phrase yet, but i´m hoping that i´ll be able to use it...but yeah anyways, enzo´s baptism should be pretty tight.
one think that i´m really excited about lately in this area is that we´re starting to find more youth. we´ve actually been able to find enough that they could start a seminary program, which is sweet. there aren´t a whole bunch yet, but all of them are really liking it and getting to know each other alot better. we´ve got a kid who i already know is gonna get baptized. his name is alan acuña. his parents are inactive members, but we´re trying to help them get back to church. but alan has already told me that he´s gonna get baptized. hes like 14, and the only reason we haven´t set a baptismal date with him yet is cause he wants his grandparents to be there. i can´t remember if i´ve already told you about him. but yeah, he´s way cool.
well thanks alot mom for the email. i really like to just hear about how everyone is doing and what they´ve been up to. so thanks for always doing that for me. dad, sounds like you pulled out some of your ¨rockin moves¨ on the dance floor during the reception. i wish i could´ve been able to see that haha. but be sure to get some tennis in for me now that seans at home for a little bit. and yeah, you guys better go to a padres game or something. sean, dude thats sick to hear about all the sports stuff thats going on. i´m keepin the faith in the padres dude. and be sure to keep me posted on the lakers! we´ll talk more on sunday. and dude about this chargers running back...i´ve never heard of him. i hope that he turns out to be a beast. but i´m way excited about that. paige, mom tells me that you had scripture mastery the other day. i´ve gotta tell you the truth, i´m so glad that i did that now. you have no idea how much that kind of stuff has helped me on the mission. bridg, thanks for the pictures. i´m glad to hear that seans doing a good job of taking my spot in teasing you. if he starts slacking, let me know.
well i definately owe you all a couple pictures. so the first 2 that i sent are of valeria´s baptism. its of elder livingston, me, valeria, and her mom sara. the third one is just of me and elder mclean at some plaza one day. i hope that you like em...well i gotta get going now. i´m way excited to be able to talk to you all on sunday. have fun this week and you´ll be hearing from me soon.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

April 26, 2010-Congrats to Sean and Emily

hey guys,
i wanna be sure to tell sean and emily right now ¨congrats on getting married¨! i think that thats so awesome! it was way cool to be able to see some of the pictures. i´ve gotta admit that on saturday i was really trying to work hard and think about other things, but i was still thinking alot about you guys getting married. i hope that you guys have an awesome honeymoon and that you enjoy the couple days at home with the fam. be sure to get some sports in for me, that you watch some movies, eat alot of food, do some dancing (at the open house and outside of the open house hahah), and just have a great time together. it will be way cool to be able to talk to you 2 on mothers day because we´ll be able to talk about all these good times. and emily- just between us your husband kinda sucks with telling me about you so you´re probably gonna have to tell me a little more about yourself hahah.
so this week has been nice. we were hoping to take out some more baptismal dates with a couple people, but it didn´t happen. both people that we wanted to take out dates with are basically ready to get baptized. one is a guy thats been going to church for a while. he´s known the missionaries for a long time. his wife (actually they aren´t married yet, but they´re planning on doing it) is a member. the only real problem with him is the marriage date. they were planning on getting married on the 7th of may, but now they´re thinking about waiting til like september. i told them to pray about it and whatever they feel, they should do. so we´ll see what happens with that. the other one is a kid whos parents are members. he´s way solid and is excited about getting baptized. we´re just waiting because he wants his grandparents to come for the baptism and they live like 16 hours away. but things are going really well...the baptism that we have for the 8th is going really well to. enzo is a really cool kid and he´s super excited about the baptism coming up.
hey so it was cool cause today i met a missionary from bountiful. we went to this other area called quilmes to play soccer and i met him there. i saw that he had bountiful brave shorts on for wrestling so i asked him if he knew dan kidd. he told me that he did, so i told him that i was his cousin. small world huh! i think his name was elder wanless or something like that. but yeah i thought that that was pretty cool.
mom, it was sweet to hear everything about sean and emily getting married. thanks alot for filling me in on alot of that. dad, dang thats so sweet that the padres are starting to win. be sure to keep me posted on that roller coaster team of ours hahah. but yeah, i´ve still got faith in the lakers. theres another missionary that i know thats a huge basketball fan too. we were talkin today about the lakers and everything. don´t worry, they´re gonna get it together and still win it all. sean, che felicidades! es buenisimo que se casó. dude just know that i love you and that i wish you and emily all the best. love ya bro. paige, looks like you were able to have a good time at the wedding. i hope that you told the fam that i said hi and everything. So it sounds like you´ve only got a couple weeks left of school. work hard so that you can enjoy the whole summer. bridg, i got another good laugh out of your little ¨wedding dance¨ story. sounds like you were happy about who you got to dance with.
alright, i should get going. i hope that all is well in sunny san diego. i hope that you are all doing awesome and that you´re having a great time. keep safe, work hard, have fun and i´ll be writing to you again soon.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

April 19, 2010-Hello From Argentina

hey everyone,
wow so it sounds like we´ve got some pretty big things going on this week back at home. first of all i wanna tell cameron congrats on finishing the mission. be sure to tell him that i love him.
well its been another sweet week for us here in alto san lorenzo. it was really cool cause valeria got baptized on saturday. she asked me to baptize her, which i was really glad to do. for me its always amazing when someone asks me to baptize them. so that was really cool. i´ll have to send you all a picture or 2 sometime. but yeah, she got baptized on saturday and then sunday she got confirmed...now elder livingston and i are trying to find some new people to baptize. we still have 2 baptisms coming up in the next month or so. enzo is getting baptized on the 8th of may and sara (valeria´s mom) is getting baptized on the 22nd. but really we want to keep finding other people. there are really thousands of people in every area that are waiting to hear the gospel. you just have to find them...
what else has been going on this week. i don´t think that i´ve told you alot about my comp, elder livingston. hes really a good guy. id say that the only thing that we are having trouble with is speaking spanish when we´re in the streets. since hes new, he really doesn´t like speaking english when we´re outside of the pension. but i don´t think that you should speak english unless you really need to. since i´ve been in argentina, i´ve really come to believe that you´re only gonna learn the language if you choose to speak it all the time. we can speak english when we´re in the pension, but any other time we should be speaking spanish. we´re working on it though.
i´ve been really having a good time being district leader too. its cool cause elder mclean is in my district, so we´ve gotten way closer in the last couple weeks. its also really cool cause i can go on intercambios with the people in my district, which is way fun. for me its been a really cool learning experience so far. so i´m just trying to enjoy it, learn from it, and become a better missionary.
mom, thanks for giving me the down low on everything that you guys are doing. i hope that you have a good time going to utah tomorrow. be sure to tell dyl and sister bitton that ¨yo mando mis saludos de argentina¨ hahah. but yeah i hope that the wedding is awesome and that you all have a great time. oh yeah and i got the info for the calling card, so thanks alot. It will be sweet hearing all of ya. dad, thanks for the email too. yeah with your smooth talk you´re still the ¨hippest¨ dad i know. but it sounds like everything is going well. i´m excited about hearing more about the lakers. sean told me that they won the first one which is tight. the padres are the padres though. hopefully they can get something together with that team we´ve got and start getting some wins. but i love you, hope that you all drive up safely, and that you enjoy the wedding. sean, che que te puedo decir? es increible que te casas en sabado! no lo puedo creer. pero quiero que sepas que te amo. quiero que disfrutes el sabado y los dias in su luna de miel (yes thats actually what they call it hahah). esta bien que no te voy a escuchar en la semana que viene. pero despues de algunas dias, yo quiero ver las fotos che hahah. paige, i´ll bet that you´re way excited to be going up for the wedding this week. sounds like you´ve only got a couple more weeks of school and then you´re out. thats crazy. work hard and finish strong. bridg, thanks for the email too. i thought that the memory of you and the sandwich was so dang funny hahah. gosh i still tell people about that story here. but thanks for the good laugh. i also heard from your teacher mrs seabrook. be sure to tell her that i say hi, and thanks for writing.
thank you all for your prayers and support. i hope that you all know that i love you. be sure to tell everyone that i know that i love them too. que disfruten el casamiento! be sure to send me some pictures when you can too. i´d really appreciate that. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

April 12- A Quick Good Morning....

yo was up everyone?
really quick i wanted to tell isaac rodebush congrats on getting his call to michigan! thats way cool dude. i´m not gonna lie...i was hopin that you´d get your call to somewhere in south america so that we could talk it up in spanish when we´re both back, but i´m way happy for you. you´re gonna be a bomb missionary in michigan.
i´m glad to hear that you all got the memory card that i sent home a couple weeks ago. i was surprised that you all said that i looked tan though cause i really didn´t see any difference...i took a bunch more pictures since that memory card though, so i put them all on a cd. i don´t know when i´ll be able to send that but just know that i´ve got some more pictures and videos that i´ll try to send you guys sometime soon too.
dang so this week has really been a great one for me. as far as being district leader goes, its been really good. i´ve got elder mclean in my district so its way tight. we were already good buddies, but we´ve gotten way closer since then. training has been going pretty well too. elder livingston is working hard to learn more in the language and participate in the lessons. he´s a good missionary for sure...yesterday i had a really cool opportunity to give nahuel´s (javier and viviana´s son) baby blessing. the bishop told them that he could get a blessing, so they asked me to do it. it was really special that they would ask me though. i was actually not expecting to give a baby blessing until i had my own kid, so it was a really cool surprise for me. then right after, javier asked me to stand in when he received the priesthood. for me both of those things were really special cause i´ve gotten to know them so well and its so amazing how well they´ve grown in the church.
we also had another really cool thing happen this week. we went over to a member´s house the other day because they haven´t been able to come to church alot lately. the mom is working almost all the time, and they don´t have a dad, so its tough. but we went over there and learned that the 9 year old son hasn´t been baptized. so we were able to set a baptismal date for him. and yes i chose this day on purpose hahah...may 8th. i thought that it would be cool to baptize someone on sean´s birthday. its also viviana´s birthday so you 2 already have something in common. but the kid´s name is ezno. hes super cool and really likes when we come over. i really think that its awesome too cause they´re from paraguay, so they all speak guarani. i´ve been learning alot more from them lately so i have a little extra motivation.
so valeria is getting baptized this saturday too. we´re way excited for that. she´s super prepared and is really looking forward to it. i´ve been really lucky to meet some super prepared people in this area just waiting for the gospel. the other day i went over to her house and gave her some invitations. i told her to invite some friends and family members to the baptism if she wanted to. it made me laugh a little bit cause she didn´t want them at first. but on sunday she came to church and told me that she had already invited a bunch of family and some friends to come. so i was like, ¨ha! i knew that you were gonna need them!¨ but i think that everyone in the ward is excited cause we´re having alot of success right now and it makes them want to help us even more. thats really been the difference for us lately. if the members become friends with the investigators, its going to help them always stay active in the church cause they aren´t doing it alone. they always have someone who can help them, because things aren´t just instantly solved once someone gets baptized. so yeah shes getting baptized this saturday and alot of members are planning on coming. i´ll be sure to let you all know how it goes.
mom, the whole idea about sending the calling card info in the next email sounds sweet. its crazy that we´re even talking about calling on mother´s day. i really can´t believe that its been over 4 months since i called you guys on christmas. its gone by way fast. i really like the idea of putting sean and emily on skype when i call too so that i can talk to them at the same time. that sounds like a plan to me...dad how ya feelin about them lakers? sean told me that they´ve been losing lately even though they´ve already clinched a playoff spot. and how do the padres look this year? who do we even have now, cause i really have no idea hahah...sean, dude you know that i got that quote. thats definately napolean dynamite...dude i´m gonna be so down for playing tennis despues de 2 años! shoot i can´t wait. but i´m not gonna need to use that excuse about not playing for 2 years cause i´m still gonna take you to school haha. so ya better bring it che. the bachelor party sounded way fun too dude. you better have taken some pictures or something because i wanna be able to see it sometime too...paige, i heard that you´re already taking the online drivers ed. thats pretty sweet, i´m not gonna lie. plus it sounds like you´re gonna be able to drive the honda around for a while which is gonna be way cool. sounds like mom and dad really trust that you as a driver cause you´re getting your license before either sean and i. be sure to tell me how thats going and how you´re liking it...bridg, i´m glad that you liked the video of the dogs. but to be honest it doesn´t surprise me at all hahah. its too bad that none of those dogs are living with us anymore though. now we just have the original dog and this huge white one. but i´m glad that you liked all the pictures and stuff.
well i guess that i should get going now. i have a felling that this is gonna be a really quick week. i´m guessing that its gonna go by fast for all of you too. i hope that you´re all having fun doing what you´re doing. in no time, you´ll be hearing from me again. until then...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

April 5, 2010-General Conference

hey guys,
dang so it sounds like its been a pretty crazy week for you all. thats crazy about the earthquake that you all had over there, but i´m glad to hear that you´re all doing fine. thanks for the emails and for the prayers. i know that your prayers have really helped here in my area.
so to start off, i´ve got a new companion...i guess you already know cause they sent you a picture when we were in the mission office. but his name is elder livingston. he´s from spanish fork, utah. he seems like a really great guy and has alot of desires to work. its been kinda funny this week cause its still really tough for him to understand people. hes still really learning the language, but he really wants to learn and i know that he´s gonna pick it up quick.
its been a pretty great week for us. thank you all for praying especially for valeria. she´s alot better since that trip to the hospital. they still don´t know what it was, but atleast she´s better. but on wednesday we decided to go over and visit her and her mom. we talked to them a little bit to see how everything´s been going. i felt like we should talk about putting the baptismal date with valeria earlier, so we started to talk to her about baptism. we basically told her that we wanted her to do whatever she wanted, and she told us that she wanted to wait and be baptized with her mom. i told her that that was fine and we just kinda kept talking...so we were talking about how her or her mom would be baptized first and then the other person would get baptized after. all of a sudden valeria was like, ¨wait so we wont get baptized at the same time?!¨ i was kinda confused about her question and she told us that she thought that when we said that they would get baptized at the same time, she actually thought that it meant that they would go in the water at the same time. i just kinda explained to her that they would have to take turns to get baptized...like one of them would go first and then the other person goes in the water after. when i said that to her, she was like, ¨oh so it doesn´t even matter cause we would still get baptized at different times! i´ll get baptized right now then!¨ that was pretty awesome to hear. so we put the new baptismal date for the 17th of april. we would have done it earlier, but this week was general conference and i wanted to make sure that they announce it in church.
speaking of general conference, this conference was really awesome. i´ve always thought that jeffrey r. holland is the man, so i always end up thinking that his talks are awesome. but i don´t know if i really had a favorite. i really didn´t get to listen to any of it in english this time either. since my comp has only been here for like a week, i told him to go listen to it in english and that i would stay with the investigators that we brought. so i probably missed alot of things from the conference because of that, but i´ll just read it when it comes out in the liahona. for the second session yesterday, i asked javier and viviana to sit with our investigators so that i could watch it in english. they told me that it was fine, so i ran up to watch it with all the other yankees. like 15 minutes later, viviana came up and told me that they were gonna take nahuel, their son home cause he was sick and kept crying. so i ran back downstairs to watch it in spanish with our investigators. it really was a great conference and it makes me excited for the next one in october.
mom, i´m glad to hear that you´ve all had a nice week of spring break. be sure that everyone gets another good week of rest for me. dad, i actually didn´t know that the easter bunny doesn´t get down here to argentina. they don´t really have any cool parties for easter. they just make it a weekend holiday so that everyone can take the weekend off from work. but its been pretty cool anyways. sounds like sports are going well. be sure to get in a few padre games for me this year. sean, mom tells me that all the wedding plans are about done. or that they´re coming together. thats awesome dude. tell the cuñada-to be that i say hi and everything. love ya bro. paige, hope that you´ve been having a good time for vacation. mom told me that you had a dance like the other week or something. how was that? bridg, thanks for the email. thats cool that you´ve been able to go to the beach and stuff this week. i thought that your story about the earthquake was super funny cause i can so picture you doing that. i´ll bet that that freaked you out for a little while.
well i think that thats about it for this week. my comp and i are hoping to find some more people that we can invite to be baptized this week. i know that as long as we do what the Lord asks us, people will be put in our way. thank you all for your prayers, emails, and the love that you send. i love you all. until next week...
con cariño,
elder ryan hall

p.s. here are 2 pictures for you guys. the first one is of that baptism of that girl that i told you about. the other one is the morning of my birthday, when mortensen wrote me a ¨lovely card,¨ made me an awesome cake, and blew up some balloons hahah...enjoy