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