Mon, 28 Jan 2013
January 28, 2013Hello,
It's been really cold this past week, between ten and fifteen degrees the whole time. Today it warmed up again, though. Right now it's 45 degrees. We baptized an investigator on Sunday; it was very exciting. The water heater in our building doesn't work, so the water in the font was freezing cold (about 45 degrees, we have a thermometer). Elder Celis and I poured about ten gallons of boiling water into the font in hopes of heating it up a little, but no such luck. In addition to the baptism, we had a lot of success last week. We found several very promising new investigators and taught a lot of lessons. On Saturday, we spent most of the day tracting, and after about three hours of knocking doors without success, we left for an appointment. As we got out of the car, we saw a man standing in a park. When we spoke to him, he told us that he wants to raise his children with a strong relationship to God. We have an appointment to meet with him and his entire family later this week. Afterwards, our appointment fell through, and we were about to leave, when I felt that we should knock on our appointment's neighbour's door. Previously, when we had tracted that building, we had knocked on that door twice, and nobody had answered even though we could hear them inside (that happens a lot). This time, however, when we knocked, the door opened. The woman we met inside has eight children from 17 years to six months and a recently deceased husband. I don't think I've ever met someone like her. Elder Celis and I are doing very well as a companionship, and everything's fine here.
Love,
Elder Bryan Hall
Mon, 21 Jan 2013
January 21, 2013Hello,
The past week has been really good. We had transfers on Tuesday, so Elder Smith left and it's just been Elder Celis and myself in our area. We fit much better into our apartment with just two (and with Elder Smith's stuff gone, we were actually able to clean the place, and I was able to unpack). We've had really good success, finding lots of new investigators and working to get them ready for baptism. On Sunday, we had a member baptism, which was a great experience. I picked up a cold somewhere, so the last few days have been kind of unpleasant, but on Saturday we found the most amazing new investigator. The only problem is that she's English. We only get to teach her a few times before we have to pass her off to the English Elders. We've been keeping pretty busy which, for missionaries, is a good thing. Elder Celis knows a lot about all sorts of things. He's 27, so he's been around a bit. We seem to be doing pretty well together. I'm excited for my first baptism on Saturday. I hope things are going well at home and you're all healthy, happy, and hopeful.
Love from,
Elder Bryan Hall
Mon, 14 Jan 2013
January 14, 2013Hello,
This is my first preparation day in the field, so I get to email home. This will be a fairly short letter since I already wrote this week, but some things have happened since my last letter. First, we found out where Elder Smith is going after this transfer: Chicago city. We've been working hard and having good success; on Sunday we had four investigators at church, and right now we have two investigators on date to be baptized, one for the 26th and one for the 2nd. We're also making really good progress with a couple, Maria and Leo, who really want to be baptized, too. When we first encountered them, Maria was very interested in our message, but Leo only sat through our lessons because Maria made him be there. In our last visit, though, Leo seemed to have had a great change of heart. Since our previous visit, he had read some of the Book of Mormon himself, and he was engaged in our lesson. After church yesterday, he told us that he'd really enjoyed himself and wanted to come back again. On Sunday, we had three back to back dinner appointments with members — I've been eating pretty well here (and the food is actually good, unlike the MTC cafeteria). We've also had great success contacting this week. We found four new investigators, and twelve potential new investigators. I've met pretty much all of the active members of our branch, now (it helped that Elder Smith has been in this area for six months and wanted to say goodbye to everyone before he left). Now, I just need to work on remembering who they all are. As much as I like Elder Smith, I'm pretty excited for transfers tomorrow, because our car apartment, etc. are not big enough for three elders, and being in a trio is hard in general. I'm looking forward to the coming weeks and the experiences I'm going to be able to have.
Love,
Elder Bryan Hall
Thu, 10 Jan 2013
January 10, 2013Hello,
I am here in the Illinois Chicago mission, It's actually unseasonably warm in Chicago right now, so I haven't been freezing in my Mexican clothes. My preparation day is on Monday, but I am writing this email because I have time on the computer to do some mission things, and I was given permission to email home this week. The field is much different than the MTC; there is much more flexibility in the schedule and more to get done. The President of my Mission is called President Fenn, he is a former lawyer and ex-president of Centurylink. He seems to know the scriptures very well. I have had the opportunity to meet my zone already; we had a meeting yesterday. It's been fairly crazy, meeting so many new people in such a short period of time, but I'm getting on fairly well. My trainer is named Elder Celis, and we're actually in a trio with a third Elder, Smith, until regular transfers next week. I'm in an area called Bloomingdale second which is in a town called Schaumberg a little bit south of the city of Chicago. It's a fairly new area, only about six months old, but the members I've met seem very friendly, and we have several progressing investigators, a baptism scheduled for a few weeks down the road, and some new investigators that we've found since I've been here. Last night we taught the plan of salvation to a man named Freddy who contacted the missionaries last week and told us he wanted to be baptized. There's lots of exciting stuff happening here, and, even though I have been looking forward to Mexico, it's great to be working in the Lord's vineyard.
My mission address is:
1319 Butterfield Road #522
Downers Grove, IL 60515
Anything sent to this address should get to me eventually. I love you all, and am very glad to be out here working.
Love,
Elder Bryan Hall
Sun, 06 Jan 2013
January 5, 2013
Hello,
The exciting news for this week, in case you
haven't heard, is that I got my temporary re-assignment: Illinois
Chicago Mission. Spanish-speaking. I am going to freeze to death. But
it's alright. The Lord will provide for me. I am super excited to get
out of the MTC. I didn't get the super exciting stomach bug that laid
out five hundred missionaries this past week. And I am about to lie down
in my grave. And these plates are full. And I make an end to my
speaking.
Elder Hall
Bryan Elliot Hall St. Peters, Missouri
Page created: 09 November 2008
Page modified: 09 December 2017
