Week 32

Ahhh... another week.

Hello, family and friends, hows it all shaking down in real life? From what I read, it is sickness and oil rig explosions. Pretty crazy. This world is an amazing experience, no matter what time period someone lives in. Before Christ, one had to watch out and be on his toes, or he would get himself sacraficed by to some crazy idol god of the sea. In Christ's time, there were nations conquering nations willy-nilly, and the Savior was doing so many great things with the faith of so little. After Christ, we had the Dark Ages, with kings, castles, and people being turned into newts but spontaneously getting better. In the 1800s, we had a whole load of wars. And now? We have people going to space and volcanoes erupting and famine and what not. This is one heck of a world! Always something going on. But its a beautiful life, isnt it? And would be a load easier if we just paid a little bit more attention to the commandments.

Or would it? I was reading in Mosiah about the people of Alma, and how even though they were good righteous people, the Lord saw fit to test them with their bondage at the hands of Amulon and the Lamanites (that sounds like a band name). The Lord saw fit to try their faith and their dedication. And they fulfilled with his hopes! They had all the power sufficient to do so. They could succeed and they did, a wonderful story to encourage whoever. They prayed to the Lord in their hearts because their masters would have killed them if they did it openly. They found a way to be on the side of the Lord even when the outward and obvious was impossible. And the Lord blessed them, relieving their burdens, but not taking them away. Talk about faith and patience, both on the side of the Lord and His people. In time, they escaped, and were blessed to live in peace, but even then, they showed their love to the Lord by giving thanks. These were not the normal Jews, who, when the absolute need of the Lord was aliviated, quickly forgot. These were true disciples of Christ in all places and times. Let us be, therefore, of the people of Alma, who were called the church of God, and not abandon our great Master.

I am glad to hear that all is well at home, especially with the surgery of my father. And with his leg, that all is well. Sometimes I wish I could just sit back and relax on the Lazy Boy, have my dog at my side and my wonderful mother to talk too. But now is not my time to relax, but to work. This has been something that I have been thinking about lately, and something that alot of people realize, and at the same time, dont realize. I am here for 2 years (17 months now), and what do I have to do with thinking about the things of my house or what I want to do. Everytimes I feel really baggy, or want something from my house, or even have the desire to go home, I realize that there is something in common with every one of those thoughts. And it is this: They all start with "I". It is what I want, I care for, and not what the Lord wants, or what others need. I am reminded of the song "Have I Done Any Good in the World Today", when it says something like, "So waaaaaake up! And DO something more than dream of your mansions above. Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure, a blessing, a duty of love." I should wake up! And DO something MORE than just thinking of my mansion in Vegas with all its comforts and joys. Missionary work is not supposed to be glamorous, comfortable, or anything like that. When a certain man desiring to be a disciple of Jesus expressed said desire to the Master, He said something like, "Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of man doth not have a place to lie his head." How comfortable was it for Jesus to walk place to place, not having a set home, as Nazareth cast him out. Doing good, as we have experienced, IS a pleasure, much more than just sitting at home with myself and watching poorly translated movies or playing solitair. I remember fondly when we would go help move people, what an event it was, and that I really felt happy in the end. To be able to serve is a gift from God, a blessing in deed, and we should do all we can to use such a gift, indeed it is our duty, and just like the difference between the sacrifices of Cain and Able, our sacrafice of service should be done with faith and love in God and toward the recipient.

Wow that was a random tangent. I like it though. My comp is doing better, but we still took it kinda easy this week, as doing alot of things still tires him. He has to hold onto me to climb hills, for example, because the lack of strength. In pouch, I recieved the letters of David and Aimee, and also a letter from Eric Taylor, which was really cool. It was cool to hear from him. I actually just finished a letter to him, so I hope to send it soon, and have it arrive in Vegas in 2-3 weeks.

I did a little bit of calculation, and i realized that, yes I will definitely need a new journal sent in this package. and that the last day of my journal will be about July 26th, so...um... :D porfa! It takes 2 weeks for anything from the states to get here via pouch.

I love you guys, and next week is changes. Once again, make your bets. As for me, many think im finally leaving, but I think I will stay just one more change. Next change is 8 months and my birthday, so it would be awesome to stay in the area with people that I know well and celebrate with them. But hey, will of the Lord, right?

I will try to do better! Brazil beat Chile, I was rooting for Brazil. Cheers all around!

-Elder Hale

Week 26

Ho-lee Crap.

6 months! Tomorrow, I am gonna burn a tie, and gonna enjoy every ash of it.

How is it all going family and friends? You know how on your TiVo or DVR thing on the tv, or even on your DvD player, you push fast forward, and it starts going 2x as fast. Then you push it again, and it goes 4x as fast, then 8x if you push it one more time. That is what if feels like every change, that God is playing with some cool godly remote and speeding up time. It is crazy. 6 months already!

What have I learned?

I have learned it takes 2 weeks for mail to get from home to here and that it costs a literal buttload to send something there.

I have learned when your stomach tells you to go to the bathroom when you are in a foreign country, you listen the heck up.

I have learned that the difference in culture is only as great of a jump as we make it.

I have learned that I am not as awesome or christlike as I thought I was before the mish.

I have learned a little bit of what I can become, and how much more awesome and Christlike I can become through the mish.

I have learned that to think of oneself as awesome and Christlike is not either, and therefore doesnt matter.

And if the last 2 statements made no sence, then you havent been in Guatemala for 6 months. :P

I have learned to an extent that it really takes effort to love everybody, especially when they offend you, and that fact only makes Jesus Christ that much more of a God to me, and makes me that much more willing and wanting to worship him and do what he says.

I have learned how to shine my shoes and different ways to tie ties.

I have learned a bit of Spanish, and that I still dont like French.

I have learned that I have grown up in a priviledged home, with a family that, although is dorky sometimes, loves the heck out of me and only wants me to succeed.

I have learned and experienced the power of the Spirit, and why it is so desirable, and why it is so awesome.

I have learned how easy it is to fall, and how willing Christ is to help us back up when we have the correct desires and the fruits of repentance.

I have learned that sometimes the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, and sometimes the flesh is ready, but the spirit is the weak one.

I have learned the effect a mouth can have if the ear will hear, and how worthless it is when the rest of the body does the opposite.

I have learned that the coolest things and the most entertaining are not always on a computer screen, but in a conversation with other people.

I have learned how to stretch an email by saying I have learned over and over and then just filling in the blanks.

I have learned that typing in one language on a keyboard that is programmed for another is really annoying.

I have learned alot. I love you all. Lets see what these next 6 months bring.

Next week is changes. Time to place your ¨bets¨ to see if I stay or go!

Stay awesome.

-Elder Hale

Week 23

It has been a while since we posted an email. Sorry! This is a wonderful letter from Richard. We are so thankful for the Lord's watchful care over his messengers everywhere!

Week 23

Another sweaty day in Guatemala City. You know, it didnt really hit me when I first arrived, or even for a really long time, but this week, it has been hitting me every once in a while the truth of my situation, that I am in guatemala, that I am speaking spanish, and that I am on a mission. Its not like a punch in the face, knocked off my feet kind of deal, but rather, just a nice little tap on the shoulder on where I am and what I am doing. Just a cool experience.

I have been intrigued by the past emails that I have been sent about our garden. I then think about the vineyard of our Heavenly Father, and that I am but one of his many servants. Planting, sowing, reaping, I really don´t know which of the many tasks I am doing at a time, but in the end, the vine takes the help and produces fruit and flourishes or doesn´t and slowly withers by itself. But If I dont sow, reap, whatever with these wild vines here in Guate, they never have a chance to flourish, or if they do, it would have been alot easier if I were there.

This week, I experienced something interesting, and slightly lame. I feel as though right now, I am decreasing in the amount of spanish I am learning and retaining, and even the amount of help and clear thinking I recieve from the Spirit. Now why is that? My comp gave me a good response that I think fits. When I was with Flores, I had to be the pants, the push and the power of the companionship. And although he was the ¨senior¨ comp, I was in reality, and the Spirit helped me alot more, there was the direction, a real direction, in a way that I cannot describe. Now, with Morales, a good missionary, he has the role of senior comp, and I am back to a learning position, studing for my own knowledge and for investigators, but the fact is that I dont need the Spirit as much, and I am feeling that lack. It stinks. And, in my opinion, I feel just the smallest part of what I imagine I will experience when I get released as a missionary, like what my brothers felt.

This week was somewhat better workwise. There were two days eaten up by responsibilities, and a close call in regards to having to eat duck feet, but all in all it was a good week. We had 3 investigators in church, all new first timers, and the one we have a baptismal date with really was chill and liked it. I am so blessed with my companion, and I feel that with him, I will be able to learn and grow out of good measure rather than absolute necessity.

The rainy season will start soon. I took a video because we had one day this week where we couldnt leave the house for about an hour because of the sheer downpour of rain. Nothing like Vegas, right?

One last experience, and it is this: I found a scripture in Psalms that says something like: A mans heart deviseth his path but the LORD directeth his footsteps. How cool is that? and it has direct correlation to me. This sunday, I gave a talk, but because of lack of time and wasted time, I didn´t plan my talk all that well. So, I was a little unclear in my speaking, and the talk ended earlier that I wanted it too without covering some of the things that I wanted to. The end result is this: If I don´t do my part, the Spirit won´t do his.

I am also reading Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith in spanish, and not only am I understanding 90%, but it is reeally cool.

I hope you all have a good week. I love you all, and cant wait to talk to you. The details: I dont know yet, this friday is Zone Conference, so I am sure we will be instructed in that.

Peace!

-Elder Hale

Week 14- Pica Pica!!!

Ok, time for the good parts of my week, and let me tell you, there are many. I'm just going to bust out my handy dandy notebook and see what my past week had for me.

On tuesday we had a good day with everything. Tuesday was some sort of holiday, I don't know what it was called, but it essentially consisted of people hitting each other in the head with Pica-pica. Pica-pica is a dried out egg shell, mostly intact, filled with little peaces of paper, then has a piece of paper glued to the hole and painted random colors. And all you do is go up to another person and CRACK it on their head! Its cool because it is super easy to clean up (unless it goes down your shirt) and doesnt hurt at all. But sometimes, kids fill it with other stuff, like I got hit in the head with one full of sand and More-caf (its like Postum, but tastes better), so all this powder was in my hair and whatnot.

We also taught a family, I don't know their family name, but the grandma is named Comacita. Comacita is a tall, gangly old woman. In fact, she looks like an old version of Olive Oyl from Popeye. She and her daughter and granddaughter listened to us and participated as we taught about the restoration, in which I made the...mistake of up and up saying that the Pope was not a prophet and didn't have any priesthood authority. The daughter is catholic. So, we spent the next part tip-toeing and answering questions and while I think we ended well, and she said she would pray, I just hope I didn't mess the whole lot up and offend her. Pfffffff.

Wednesday, we had district meeting which turned out well. Especially the part where when the whole zone came out of the chapel, our district pegged them all with Pica-pica! We all joined in,the whole zone, and it was awesome. But besides that the rest of the day, every single appointment fell. :(

We celebrated my comps 20th birthday on wednesday. Some really good cake. I normally dont like the cake here, and this is why: They always buy the cake frozen, so when they serve it, it is thawed. Good right? Wrong. Because there was the excess of liquid that was produced by the freezing, the cake is soggy. I am literally swallowing bites whole just so I dont have to have it in my mouth for too long. :P

The whole week, we have been taking a boy with us to go teach. He has been having problems. He is the youngest, picked on by his brother, and no one really pays attention to him. So he hangs out with the wrong peepl, and acts up for attention. Once he almost swung a machete at his grandpa. Yikes. So we have been taking him, and it has really helped boost his esteem. He hugs and helps his grandma, brings his own Bible and BoM, and although he is too shy to help us teach, I try to involve him by asking him questions that he can answer with some form of confidence, like "What did Adam and Eve do?" or "Who baptized Jesus?" and the like. Hopefully he will recognize what he needs to do and do it, thereby making him happier with his family in the long run.

On Saturday, we did alot of service. We moved some people from one house to another by essentially handcarrying everything that wasnt a dresser about a half a mile through houses and traffic. Heavy awkward stuff too. Once, we were walking down the street, and an old man came out of his house, saw the sheer number of elders and said "Oh Dios mio, gringos!" Lol!

Then as a district we had a carwash. While some elders were washing, others were talking to the people about our message. Some people didn't believe us that it was free, but we got alot of work, alot of pilas references, and a nice sunburn. I got the whole red-ish face, but white lines where my glasses go. :)

We also discovered that one of our long time investigators, Geovanni, who wants to be baptized and attends everything, but his dad wont sign, was drinking. We passed him on the street after dinner, and he was with his friends, saw us and hung his head. Man, that just sucks. Fear can rob us of honesty, and honesty is the only thing that can set us free, honesty with ourselves and others.

Things are going good with the spanish. I am understanding people more, getting accostumed to the accent and the speed, and all it is now is learning the words that they are saying. Man my vocab is limited! I figure that next change, which is next week, I am probably going to get put with a native comp, and then necesity is going to  help my spanish leaps and bounds.

Not much time to answer questions, the cafe closes soon.

Dad, awesome job on working with neighbors. Keep it up. And the maps you have are right, but the lines that google added for the streets are way wrong. Nice fish.

Mom, killed the fleas with a flea collar. Stomachs fine, but cant go.  I still dont like cilantro, but they dont use it much anyways, just eggs and beans. Lots of wards.

2 minutes. Time is against me like scott said. And yes scott, I am tall. :P

I am not going to upload pictures because last time I tryed, I got a virus on my sd card. It is fine, along with my pics. More stuff? I dunno. More ties, not blue ones.

 Love you all!
 Elder Hale

Week 13

So, my entire email was just deleted because I tryed to upload some pictures, and that really annoyed me. I am going to try to do a cliffnotes version of my email because I dont have time to write another one:

Hi family and friends!

It was really foggy this morning!
I love you!
Progressing investigators are awesome!
People going inactive because of other people is not awesome!
I have cool pictures!

Bye!
-Elder Hale

No, I am not going to do that, because it is not fair to you or anything, however sucky it is. So a slightly less cliffnotes version.

The weather here is really interesting right now, because during the day it is really hot, and at night it gets colder that you would think. And this morning it was really foggy. I have pictures of it, but I am not going to try to send them, lest I fall into a fit of computer nerdrage.

I really like it when investigators progress. When they hear what you have to say about this gospel of hope, and then act for themselves to find out if this is true through prayer, it is so cool. We have two progressing families and its going to be cool if we can get them baptized. One of them has a son that is 17 years old, so future missionary, aww yeah.

More on the point of people finding out for themselves if the gospel is true. This wasn't in the original, erased email (don't miss it too much, it ended feeling a bit depressing). When God saved Noah and his family from the flood that would cleanse the world of the evil that was there, he didn't save them all by lifting them up into a cloud, or doing some miraculous thing. He had Noah build an ark. He had Noah do everything he already could, and then Jehovah filled in the rest. We need to do the same. God always did that too, now that I look at it. When the people of God, the ones that choose to follow the prophets and commandments of God, try with all their might to do what is commanded to save them, the Lord fills in the rest. So if investigators or even we as members desire salvation, we need to do all we can. It is kinda cool.

We had an elder here, Elder Aranda, get a Dear Juan (spanish joke, ha) today. I am really glad I don't have to worry about that.

I am going to end this email with the same ending as the deleted one. I am going to leave you all with a really cool scripture that was told to my zone by my old branch president, Pres. Shumway, the Sunday before we left the MTC. It is 2 Nephi 33:6

I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell.

I glory in my Jesus. :)

Love you guys,
Elder Hale

Week 12

Familia!

Buenos Tardes de la paiz de calor!

Today is Tuesday, and it is 3:27 pm. And appearantly, because of an email I just read, you won't be able to read this till Thursday. Sorry about that. We found out Friday that we were going to have temple today, therefore, our P-day for this week changed from Monday to Tuesday, and that meant that I would have no time to tell you of this. Lame, I know but at least I had an opportunity to do a session in Spanish.

And that deserves its own paragraph. We woke up at 4:30 this morning and got ready. When we left, we went to the bishop's house because the bishop owns a couple busses. By time we get there, it was gone! Dang, so we walked around a bit, making sure we didn't miss it or something. Then, with some panicked heart prayers, we turn the corner and there was the bishop driving down the street in his truck. We hopped in the back and off we went, hanging on for life and limb, because, dang, to get a license in this country you need to be one of three things: a crazy person, a blind person, or you just dont care about your life. CRAZY drivers down here. We caught up with the bus, met the rest of our zone and off we went, in one of the few yellow busses. One interesting thing though, while we were riding in the back of the bishops truck (oh, bishop in spanish is obispo), we saw a bunch of busses and people walking. But this was different than normal. These were all legit school busses with kids on them. Kids here have to wake up early to catch a bus for school because of traffic and it is also super far away. What a great tracting opportunity :) yeah right.

So we reached the temple at about 6:30, and went in. Despite the fact that it looks like the same design as the Las Vegas temple, the layout is nothing like it. In fact, it is surprisingly small (is it suprise or surprise?). After changing, we did the session. But this session had 2 members of the seventy in it! Elder Martino and Elder Clark. Elder Martino said something interesting to me while I was changing that made me think. While I was putting my stuff in the locker, he came up and openned his locker and asked how I was doing. I replied with an alright, because I was trying to speak a language to people that I only had almost 3 months with, and also I was tired. He then responded with, "Only alright? With the work you are doing, I would hope you are better that 'alright'."

Huh. I thought about it. I am doing what I have been wanting to do for nearly all my life, I am in a foreign country, speaking a foreign language, preaching the true and everlasting gospel, and I am "alright"? I remember back to my earlier years, especially the one right before my mission, and I thought about my mission. I knew I would have hard times, but that was alright because they would be sprinkled with baptism, success and good times. I find that I had accounted for the bad times, but I also skimmed over them, while now, in the mission, I am living through the difficulties and challenges, and you know what? You can't skim over the hard times. You just can't. The hard times are your tests in school when your faith, knowledge and character are put to the grinding stone. You can't tell your teacher, "No thanks" and pass the class, let alone graduate because you are only there for the highlights. Hard times come, and that is when you need to work your spiritual muscles and your leg muscles (spiritual muscles with faith, and leg muscles with kneeling). The next time someone asks me how I am, I going to reply "Calidad", which literally means quality, but here means something like awesome.

Anyways, the session. Was weird, not going to lie. It was the same normal presentation but in spanish. Besides that it was...calidad. :)

Now. On to other matters. Wow, Mom and Dad, that is...just crazy. I'm praying for you, Dad. Its good that you caught it early. Let's just get the thing taken care of, and all will be alright.

And Carlos, the guy I baptized, is anything but young. He is probably about 40 years old, and his hands are stiff, so every time you shake his hand, I holds it kind of funky because of the stiffness of his joints. But its all good. He has been coming to church.

Oh, yeah! We went to another store today and it had real American products, like REAL Heinz ketchup, Nutella, and...mmmmmm, A&W Root Beer. I think I told you this before, but Root Beer is worth its weight in gold down here because it is so rare. So I bought some. And a thing of Oreos, cause they are rare too. So delicious.

Now, about the warnings from my mother. I have some bad news. I took off my socks on Friday, after we had just got our laundry back and I noticed I had some red spots all over my feet. I have fleas. /facepalm. I changed my sheets, and doused them with those bug sprays (I killed about 4 bottles of bugspray just on my bed. Then I took a shower and sprayed all over me. ALL over me. Don't spray those things directly on your face, my lips went numb for about 10 minutes. It has helped, but If you could please send some flea collars, I heard those work well.

I am sleeping alright. My back hurts every once in a while because of the matress. I never thought I would have that kind of problem, but it was kinda like back at home when my back was hurting till we double stacked the normal matresses. I felt like a woose, but I didn't really care. I slept and sleep well. Except when dogs bark for 30 minutes straight (not an exaggeration, and it was one of the small dogs. I hate small dogs like nothing else except for probably rabbits) or people shoot firecrackers at 3 in the morning. lame.

Rachel, I don't blame your baby for liking red meat. I miss my Capriotti's Cheesesteaks.

Which brings me to my next point. Not that I am coming home anytime soon, but this is what I want to do as soon as I get off the plane, in this order: talk on the way to an In'n'Out burger, get a Double-Double Animal Style with fries and a chocolate shake, eat it on the way home, when I get home, take a long hot shower, then go to sleep till I wake up. When I wake up I want to have freshly baked, right out of the oven home made bread with honeybutter. And that is all i can think of right now. I hope this isn't too demanding ;)

Super thanks for the chocolate chip cookie recipe, dad.

It hasn't rained here yet, but it was threatening to do so the past few days, but it is also clear right now. I heard that it is likely to dump in March.

We cook ourselves, and all that time at Cap's is paying off because I can cook pretty good stuff with the stuff we have. We had french toast this past week, and while I was eating it, I thought of you, Rachel. For some reason, French Toast reminds me of you.

Speaking of reminders, I think dad will like this. (Oh, and I can believe that the music at the dances are too loud. We passed a house on our ride home, and it was blasting music. It was loud at 200 ft away. Their kids were dancing right in front of their 2 giant subwoofers. Deaf kids, I'll tell you what) Anyways, on my first full day in Guate, we went to the mission office, which was apart of a giant complex tower, one of the ones with businesses inside of it. So here I am, it Guate, walking with people I hardly even know, and we get inside this building, and what is playing on the speakers? Chicago. Oh man, I started laughing. I cant remember what song, but who cares. It was awesome.

Well, I spent alot of time here, and my eyes are hurting. I hope this email makes up for my lame last one.

I love you, and i lol'd pretty hard about my cocoholic neice.

Love you all,

Elder Hale

Life in Guatemala - Week 11

Hi everyone!
Its going to to be a somewhat short email today, and the reason for that is=simple: Boo.
What is boo?  it is not cool.

My stomach is churning right now, and I am a bit frustrated with my own lac= k of computer savie right now, seeing as I am making lots of  typing errors = because of the funky keyboard.

All is well though, I am just feeling under the weather for the past week b= ecause the bugs finally hit my system and I am suffering. But dont worry. I= ts all good. This past week was faster and we are working hard.

I can't believe i forgot last time I emailed you to tell you this: I baptiz= ed someone on saturday! It was a continuation of my companions teaching, so= I didnt really do anything, but it was cool that my comp gave me the oppor= tunity to baptize him. His name is Carlos and he is an older guy, with his = right eye always shut. One eye willy style.

 Dave, thanks for your letter. It was really cool, and i agree with you comp= letely. It was one of the lessons that one of my teachers at the MTC taught= me. He loves the gospel. He loves it with all his heart. And he shows that= love in everything he does, from teaching the lessons to teaching missiona= ries.

 Mom, I love you guys. Thanks for all of your letters. I am taking some cool pictures and I hope you all like them. My comp is cool, but the way he eats would make Rachel want to slap him.

I really don't feel well, so I am going to end this email a little early. D= ont worry though. Every missionary here goes through this. Love you. Love God.

Somewhere im 2nd Nephi, last chapter, Nephi calls Jesus "his Jesus"

 I love my Jesus.

 Love my family,

 Elder Hale

Frist Pictures of Richard from Guatemala!

I saw these photos on Richards Mission Blog today and I thought that I would share them with you! He looks so happy! What a sharp looking group of young men!!

Week 10

Oh man, I am tired. It has been a long P-Day and I am pooped. In fact, this whole week, I have been pooped by the end of the day. I guess that is a good thing. :)

First, there is appearantly a new email service that the missionaries are going to be using, it goes something like this:(www.new.myldsmail.net) and I should be switching over to it, but don´t email anything there yet till I email you from it (obviously).

Second, Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang. Guate is different. The food. The people. The stores. The language. The churches. The homes. Culture shock, man, that is all I can say. I woke up the past 4 days with morning sickness, feeling like I was going to vomit. Our house is small and evem the little things are nothing like America. We had Corn Flakes for breakfast, except the Corn Flakes were funky, the milk was powder in water, and the sugar dissappeared.

I am not going to lie. The mission is hard.

But...

Why should I cry or think my lot is hard? Tis not so, all is well. Why should I think do earn a great reward, if I now shun the fight? Gird up my loins, fresh courage take, my God will never me forsake. And when I'm home, I'll then exclaim: All is well, all is well!

Now for the crazy and good things in my mission. First, MyLdsMail no longer has a timelimit, so the whole 30 min emails are a thing of the past.

My companions name is Elder Fusi. He is Tonghan, from California, and a funny punk... I mean, elder. He helps me out alot, and we are cool.Its good. Here is a story for you:

It was Wednesday, and we met a sister in the ward that was walking home. We were to eat dinner at her house that night, and I found out, her son was not a member. By time we got there that night, she was cooking dinner, and her son was in the back, drunk. After a bit, we went back there and started doing a little bit of teaching. Elder Fusi gave me the lead, and while I was teaching, the investigator son, named Estevan, was throwing curve balls at me. I got a few of them, but when I got to the point where I couldn't answer the questions anymore, I just bore my testimony. The investigator then said that I was beginning to convince him, but in English. He then openned up his desk and pulled out three things: A white bible, a black name tag, and a white name tag. The black name tag said Elder Giron. The white nametag said Hermano Giron. He is a teacher at the CCM down here at Guate. Oh man, was I laughing.

I am not sick yet, but I expect I will be soon. Oh, and Mom, I did get that package. It is a sweet blanket! Pilas (a way they say awesome down here)! At first, I thought I wasn't going to need it, but after the first night I realized I was wrong. It gets chilly down here at night. Thanks for that present! We use the box as a trash can. Nothing goes to waste except for the rice that Fusi burns occasionally.

A little bit more on Fusi. In mission lingo, he is my father, and I am his son. He has been in the area I am now, Las Ilusiones, for about 6 months of his 9. Yeah. Chances are in this next transfer, he is going to be transferred out, and I am going to be the senior comp here. I feel like pulling the Home Alone scream when I think about it.

Probably the hardest thing about the mission right now is understanding people. I don't know words, I don't understand the accent, and I don't understand what they are saying, and it is difficult. It is steadily getting better, but still, not very cool. It will come with time. It is suprisingly hard to remember words that I have studied. I guess that just means I am going to have to change my language study plans to acomidate.

Sleep. Never enough. When I get home, I am probably going to sleep for hours on end.

We listen to some cool music at the dorms. Two of the coolest things we listen to are a guy named Brandon Heaton (kind of christian rock) and a group called Eclipse, a vocal accapella group.

Hot showers? (laughs) Never. Never. Never.

People are poor here guys, but I am sure that that is not a surprise to you all. It is just crazy what we walk into.

Mondays are p-days. Today was pretty awesome. First we went to a chapel or stake center thing and played dodgeball. I got hit in the face twice :P and then got towels and flung water balloons like it was badmittton, and that quickly degraded to elders throwing buckets of water onto people. We then went to a restaurant called Pecos Bills where we had actual, legit, real hamburgers and root beer. Rootbeer is a raaare commodity down here, and this stuff was the bomb!

Oh, and transportation around here goes like this: imagine every type of school bus you have ever seen. Then take that same bus, and paint it red. And there is the mass transportation in Guatemala City. Those and Took-tooks. Took-tooks are like three seater bikes with engines. weird.

In general, all is good here. All I need to do is have faith and perservere.

It was awsome to hear that Danny really liked my letter to him, and that he also wants to email me (finally ;P). The Mission Pres said that I wasnt to send email to my friends though, but I figure that if he just sends them to you guys (my parents) then I can just answer him through these same emails.

I am going to bring my camara next time with my cable and download some of my pics here.

Love you all. I am tired (-.-) zzzzzz

-Elder Hale

Photos from the MTC

As most of you know, Richard flew to Guatemala yesterday. We were able to visit with him as he waited in both the Salt Lake and Dallas Fort Worth airports. He sounded great and in very good spirits ready to serve the people of Guatemala. We received a package today from him containing all the letters he received and the memory card from his camera. I hope that I can figure out how to attach some of these photos so you can see what life was like in the MTC. Thank you for your continuing love, support and prayers. They truly mean a lot!

Week 9

Wow, I can't believe it. Week 9 already, and I will be leaving for Guatemala soon. Loco. Mi vida es loco, pero esta bien porgue yo se que yo estoy en las manos del Senyor (I dont know how to make the cool tilde above the n to make it a nyah sound:S)

Entonces, how are things at home? They sound good. I got alot of letters the other day and that was good. I also got the memory card. Sweet (dulce in spanish). And I just sent you a package today. Inside are nearly all the letters I recieved while I was in the MTC, as well as some letters written to the family, and a birthday card to Ashton.

All is well here. We are busy packing for the flight. We are taking American Airlines, and they are kind of pricy for extra bags, and that sticks for my companion because he will have an extra bag, and one of his bags will be overweight, so he will probably have to spend an extra 120 bucks. Lame.

Speaking of bucks, I withdrew 100 dollars from my account into cash today. I figure you want to know that so that you can have an explanation why that money is missing.

Today was my last temple day in the Provo Temple. Very beautiful temple, and lots of good memories. I wonder where I will be assigned in the field, whether it will be in the city or in the jungleness. Either would be cool, not going to lie. According to a map that we have here at the MTC, Belize was once part of my mission. Loco.

I'm glad to hear you recieved my letters (Estoy feliz escucharles recibido mis cartes.) I am especially glad to hear that Danny loved his letter. Man, isn't it nice when your best friend writes you? Oh, that would be so nice ;).

Dave, its cool to hear you are being productive with your time, especially with my beltbuckle. Woot. I do have to say tho, some C&C3 isn't bad everyonce in a while. I am learning alot about time management out here, mainly because I need to, and the Lord is blessing me for it. Something good you can do to make sure you don't run through hours of VG playing could maybe be plan out your day the night before, and allot only a certain amount of time for that. I don't know (No se.) It is also really cool to hear your spanish is getting better. I can see it now, all the Hale boys speaking fluent spanish about theoretical physics or something else along the lines of what we used to tangent about. How i miss those days.

Speaking of spanish, we had two major large group meetings this week. On monday was a meeting where an old doctor dude explained all the ways we are going to die. I quote: "Make sure you wear your sandals, because if you dont, you will get a hook worm, which will go inside you, hook to your intestines, eat what you eat, grow 5, 10, 25 feet long in your body, and make you have chronic diaria for 3 weeks. Be careful. Be careful. Be careful. Be careful. etc". Fun. PERMETHRIN!
Anyways, the other one was about speaking the language, and in field language study. On a scale of 1 to 7, 1 being you dont speak a foreign language, and 7 is you are "Jason-Borne-infiltrate-the-government good where you sound like a native", most missionaries leave the MTC between a 2 and a 3, and finish their mission between a 5 and a 6. With the program we were on here, the Spanish Pilot Program, our teacher said that we are about anywhere between a 4 and a 6. WOW! Loco! Esta bien.

Anyways, not much time left. I love you. It is sweet that it is a holiday on Monday, expect a call. Get anyone, EVERYONE that wants to come over to talk. If I call in the morning, that will be cool, and I only expect family for that one, but the one in the afternoon, have anyone over that would like to be there, like the Graffs and/or the Stoehrs etc etc.

I will call home, grandpa hale and grandpa scott. love you all. I got their numbers, so dont worry. ;)

Also, because it is my last P-day, all of the letters and packages that would come to me is now being shipped to my mission. Cool. Rad. (Teenage mutant ninja turtles live action movie lol)

Words of wisdom: Never pay full price for a late pizza!

Love you,
Elder Hale

Week 8?

I think it is week 8, im not really sure. oh well.

Hi family and friends in the world of sleeping in! How I miss sleeping in. If I could sleep in till 8 am, I would be a happy man. Oh well.

So, no joke, the letters this week are alot better from last week. 3 messages and a letter! I AM loved. I kinda feel bad for those elders in my district that only get a letter every once in a while. Makes me count my blessings.

It was really cool to hear from Ada from Capriotti's. What's up, Capriotti's?! So many cool people there, I need to make some time for a letter, which will probably come within the next couple weeks.

About letters, I am sorry, but I haven't sent the fast sunday letter yet. I was going to do it, but my time got filled with other things. I was called as my district's district leader, and man they have to do alot of meetings. So, that is one of the reasons why. The other reason is that I realized that I only have one memory card, so if i sent out my memory card, I would probably miss some important filming and photoing opportunities. So, if you could please send me out a memory card, nothing big, but enough to bide my time till you send me back mine would be awesome. This leads me into my next revelation:

I got my travel plans! It is awesome. Let me pull them out really quick. Oop, sorry, it is my (entering sophisticated mock voice) "Travel Itinerary". Hmmm, yesh. Anyways, here is the most important information: I leave the 18th of January from SLC to the Dallas/Fort Worth TX airport. I will be on the American Airlines 1052, and it will arrive in Texas at 3:45 PM. I will be there, waiting for my flight STRAIGHT toGuatemala, which leaves at 5:30 PM, flight number 2195 (also AA). While there, I will be with a group of 12 other missionaries.

That leaves the question, what will 12 missionaries do for more than an hour? Well, besides getting the last of their english in for a while, and probably giving BoMs to people, we will be CALLING OUR FAMILIES! YAY! The MTC allows missionaries to call their families while they are waiting in the airport! So, gather everyone you can, friends, family friends, best friends, the dog, and what not, for I will be calling anytime between 4 pm and 5:30 PM. I cant wait to talk to you all! Hopefully this makes up for the missed Christmas call, but I doubt it.

11 minutes >,<

Things are going good here.

I didn't forget Ashtons birthday, dont worry. I actually remember'd it about 2 days ago. Close one! I will definitely send a handmade card, from the Heart (Shiiing!). And about Noah pushing Avery down the stairs, yikes! It reminds me of The Goonie's, when Chunk said something to the effect of: "When I was seven, I pushed my sister down the stairs and blamed it on the dog!" Oh man. I love those kids.

With my memory card will be coming some videos on it. Make sure to get those off and watch them.

I am also going to send home ALL of the letters and stuff that was sent to me while I have been here in the MTC. Have fun picking my brain and finding out who loves me the most (5 bucks says it is Mom :P)

My spanish is coming along alright. We have learned all the grammar, and now need to just apply it. I need to expand my vocab, but it is really nice being able to express my thoughts in spanish to those that I need to. Of course, those thoughts will sound like they came from a 6 year old, but oh well. I will be a giant, zitty, white spanish 6 year old if I have to. I'll say what you want me to say, Dear Lord, I'll be who you want me to be.

I love you all, and hope this finds you well. The church is true, and the Spirit is a beautiful thing that can testify of the truth better that any man ever could. I have felt the Spirit, and testify that Heavenly Father loves His children, because He knows us all because we are His children. All of us, from a 19 year old white kid, to the humble people in Guatemala, to those working hard making sandwiches at a sandwich shop in Vegas, and beyond. I love you all.

Mom, you know me well. I didnt bring the questions, and I dont remember them. But I love you!

Adios!
-Elder Hale

Week 7

What? No letters? It is 1:13 pm here in the MTC, and while normally there is at least one letter waiting, today there is not. I just died a little in my heart.

Happy New Years! I hope you guys had a good new years party. Fireworks. Staying up past 10:30. A meat and cheese platter. How I miss home. We had a good party here. It consisted of assorted candies and cookies, any bottles of soda or other drinks, glowsticks from the Narnia holes, and the flicking of the light on and off. It was crazy. We partied all night long* (*10:15). It was good.

So, another fast sunday coming up, and that means a hand written letter, am I right? Yeah. I plan on sending my memory card home, so that you can dl all the sweet picks off.

I got that picture of everyone highfiving the outlined hand of mine. That is sweet! Maybe next time I can send home a picture of my outlined foot, and then have someone hold it really high, so it looks like everyone is karate kicking simutaneously. Hi-YAH!

We got a new district and lost one this week. Some left on Monday and others on Wednesday morning. It was weird to see 2 of them just waiting in our dorms in the afternoon though. Appearantly, their co-pilot decided to sleep in, and so the flight was delayed and they were sent back to the MTC, while their stuff was sent to Virginia. Fun. They left the next morning.

Speaking of seeing people, while I was getting my dinner on Wednesday, I saw none other than the newly-minted Elder Jeff Elmer! It was sweet. He is gonna be here for 12 weeks, and that is fun. I bet his farewell was good and packed.

17 minutes.

So, I found out some cool stuff about my flight out of here. First, when I am in the airport, I get to make some calls! When we get closer, I'll tell you my flight plans, and we can set up a time for when I will call. I do not think there is a limit on who or how many I can call either. Second, I should be going either one of two ways. Either we fly to Dallas, then straight to Guatemala City, or we fly to Dallas, then to Mexico City, then take a crappy plane ride to Guatemala, us and livestock, i dont know. Personally, I hope we don't go to Mexico City. Dangerous down there.

I can't believe it is week 7!

Also, this is the first year of my life that I won't see any of my family. Sadness :(.

Alot of elders here are learning how to play harmonica, specifically hymns. I think it would be cool to learn how to play the handorgan, but I think my future companions would probably just end up punching my in the gut, or covering my harmonica in peanut butter.

Things are good here. Last Sunday, we were talked to by Greg Olson, an artist for the Church, who does a LOT of really cool paintings. Definitely worth looking up.

I am a little upset that the girls didn't get me my christmas wish though. Come on, I just asked for the lyrics! Its not bad! Elder Hayden and I actually changed some of the lyrics to "Fix You" to make it even more Christ-y than it already was:

Christ will guide you home,
and ignite your soul,
and he will come and fix you.

Huh? HUH? Not bad huh?

Coming near the end. I love you guys, and it stinks that I am not going to see you this year, but it is definitly for a good cause.

I think stress brings acne, cause my back is sucking right now >.<>,

Week 6

Merry Christmas, Hale family! What a week this has been.
On Tuesday, we heard from Neil L. Andersen, and this morning from L. Tom Perry. That brings my general authority count up to 4! Perry is suprisingly a giant man. It matches his spirit. He had his family here this morning too, and they read some scriptures. It was good.

Last night and this morning were really cool. Last night, we were at the Christmas Eve Fireside and it was awesome. There were some really good music, like a sister who sang O Holy Night and she sounded like a pro. Then we heard Sister Elizabeth Smart (THE Elizabeth Smart) play the harp, and she was amazing. We also heard an elder that played the bagpipes. It was legit. And the best part by far was the MTC version of the 12 days of Christmas. Ready?

On the 12th day of Christmas, the MTC gave me:
Twelve hours of class,
Eleven loads of laundry,
Ten more commandments,
Nine outbound calls,
Eight hours of sleep,
Seven lukewarm showers,
Six-thirty wake up,
FIVE HOURS OF GYM! (Everyone cheered)
Four chocolate milks,
Three new companions,
Two haircuts free,
AND A ROCK SOLID TESTIMONY!

It was awesome.

After the devotional, we all moved our mattresses into the room with the Christmas Tree, and slept there for the night. Before we slept, we read the Missionary Night Before Christmas, and had district prayer. My district is awesome. I love these elders.

Right now, an Elder Stark is playing the Shire Lord of the Rings theme on his harmonica. Now it is Hey Jude.

Anyways, this morning we open'd presents. Thank you so much for all of your gifts. I really needed that beanie! And we were already given a BoM and Bible in Espanol, but I guess that just means I can give those you gave me to some of my companions in the field!

Christmas dinner was good. I had to serve myself up some stuffing, and the way it was being served reminded me heavily of Capriottis. I miss those guys. But I don't regret being here.

Why are hermanas so pretty here in the MTC? I bet its the testimony.

Wow, I really don't have all that much to say for the time i have been alotted. I sent a letter in the mail on tuesday, so hopefully you will get it today. You should check right now! Its got letters in it for you guys(my family), the Graffs, my Primary class and Danny. Yes, Danny's will be the thickest, but hey! You got a thick letter last time!

Next time, I am going to try to write a letter to Capriottis. I bet that will be a challenge.

So, during one of this weeks devotionals, we were sitting behind a bunch of Portuguese speaking missionaries, and the one in front of me had a missionary handbook for learning how to speak Portuguese. So I picked it up and read a bit. It is alot like spanish but not really. My thought is that I will buy one from the store, along with a English to Portuguese dictionary, and after I have been out in the field for a while, and my Spanish is fluent, ill start learning how to speak Portuguese. I don't know tho. No se.

Oh, I just remembered. Elder Hayden, the new district leader got alot of clothes this Christmas and the rule we set up is that if you get clothes, you have to wear them. So, on top of wearing pjs, he put on his sweatshirt, a leopard-print snuggie, and then on top of that, a Oreals baseball team shirt and some silver gym shorts. It was so funny.

I love you guys, and I really missed you this Christmas. Thank you for your letters, including yours, Scott and Mindy. I can just see Noah doing the Home Alone thing. :D

Im burping up stuffing mixed with poorly made yams. :P

I love you.

Ahora en Espanol!!!

Les amo mucho! Espanol es muy dificil para yo pero estoy haciendo bueno. A veces, cuando estoy hablando espanol, las palabras vienen y el es muy facil sentir el Espiritu Santo. Espero que mi espanol tiene razon a Scott. Espero yo comprendere el Espanol de los nativos y que ustedes teneran paciencia con un nino blanco. La Iglesia es verdadera! En el nombre de Jesucristo, AMEN!

-Elder Hale