Good mornin' y'all!!

Good mornin' y'all,

I'da like tah use this eh Taxus accent, but dat wood take too long. Never mind that.

I drove safely during exchanges. We had a wonderful dinner with the Coats family, a part member family. Brother Coats expressed a great deal more interest in our message than he ever has before, and we answered a fair amount of his questions over dinner. He asked us what the most rewarding thing was about our missions. And I had to ask that of myself as well. He'll progress on his own terms though, but seeing as he accepted a calling to be the assistant cub scout leader, he'll come around one day. I'm happy that he loves his family.

This week we got this special black box that sits in the upper left hand corner of our car and judges us. In reality, it gathers data as we drive and warns us if we are driving too fast, turning to quickly, or driving recklessly. While Elder Bertelsen is still the assigned driver and so I haven't taken on this responsibility (I only drove during exchanged when he wasn't with us,), using the black box we could theoretically trade off, because we would be attributed and accountable for our own driving. Elder Bertelsen likes driving though, so he probably will do most of it, if not all of the remainder of this transfer. I don't mind working the GPS, backing him up occasionally and recording miles, however, so I have nothing to complain about, really.

Anyway, this Sunday I gave a talk, the first one since I gave my farewell, almost nine months ago. Almost a third of my mission has been used up and gone. That was the first time I can remember ever using a piece of paper and pen to write my talk, rather than just typing it. I was blessed to speak on the topic of preparing to serve a mission. Daniel and Gina came to church for the first time, and their neighbor, Mauro, who incidentally is a catholic priest, also came. But don't imagine that he came in a priestly robe or anything. it was because of Mauro that Elder Bertelsen and his last companion were able to find Daniel and Gina. They went looking for him during Christmas time, and they found them at the front porch talking, so they shared He is the Gift with them. They were touched by the message, invited them back, and the rest is history. While I didn't see too much success coming directly from He is the Gift, it obviously affected me in the future.

We had tons and tons of success this weekend. We had been planning a missionary activity for some time, and this past Saturday was finally it. Together with our Ward Mission Leader we planned an activity where return missionaries would bring a food or two that came from or represented their missions. There was catfish, empanadas, funeral potatoes, and plenty of other foods. With Daniel and Gina's family, included, we were able to get 11 investigators to the church for this activity, where they got blanketed in fellowship and the testimonies of a few of the RM's. At the end a few return missionaries gave testimonies, and I bet that it touched them fairly well. Casey, Daniel and Gina's friends George and Lucy and their kids, Casey, and Christina and Johny, a boy and his mom who live next door to our 1st counselor in the ward all made it. If things progress the way they ought to, many people will join the church in this area. I'm excited for all of them.

Then after church on Sunday, Daniel and Gina came to the Bishop's home and we ate dinner with them all. We were only a tad bit disappointed because they didn't bring their kids with them. Their kids didn't make it to church either, but we did make it as clear as we could that their kids were invited next week.

If I didn't talk about them in previous emails, George and Lucy's family is nearly inseparable from Daniel and Gina's. If you find one family, you'll certainly find the other. After the missionary activity Saturday night, we took them on a church tour where George expressed a strong desire to discover his roots. We'll get him to the Family History Center and let the spirit of Elijah take over. Gina and Lucy seem to want the gospel a lot, and their husbands are understandably skeptical. They all need to read the Book of Mormon though, so we will approach all of them in a similar manner. Keep them in your prayers. Oh boy, I just hope they don't transfer me out of here so I can be there to see them become members. But if I get called away, it'll be fine.

Questions and Answers:

How has the new driving responsibility been for you?

It was only that day, so it hasn't really been prolonged at all. I might drive in the future, but like I indicated, I don't think it's terribly likely.

Has the Spirit helped you to be calm?

Sí.

What kind of car do you use?   

Ford Fusion. Much better turning radius than a malibu.

How was your meeting on Saturday?

Did I say I would have a meeting on Saturday? Well we had that activity. The day before when we got the black boxes President Slaughter talked about the millennium. That was great.

Were Daniel and Gina and Casey and others able to come?   

Oh, so you did mean the activity. Yes and yes. This was a real success at the ward level.

Were your ward people able to participate?    

Many were there.

Are you taking the EmergenC vits to help your body heal your throat?   

Sí.

What was your most important Spiritual experience this week? 

On Saturday there was a child of record baptism in the ward and the confirmation on Sunday. I love confirmations because you can feel the spirit strongly. Mauro was dumbfounded by the confirmation. "Was that a written prayer or something?" "Nope, it was spirit lead." Maybe Mauro was touched sufficiently as well.

What else besides Texas road kill was sort of funny this week?

Well, this wasn't as funny as it was per-say, weird.

In Uvalde there is this person, woman or man cross dressing as a woman, we're not sure, who pushes this baby stroller all over the place with two baby dolls inside of it. On Saturday we saw this person. To be honest, when you see what I'm explaining, you're not going to be sure whether you should burst out laugh or stop whatever you're doing and put as much distance as humanly possible between you and the pretender to motherhood. Uvalde, city of trees in the middle of the road, little to nothing to do recreational, and fake mothers pushing strollers.

--

-Elder Hall

Texas San Antonio Mission

P.S. Why did the Lamanites' legs all hurt?

Because of all the Knee-fights.

Awesome Onion ring.  (Not a bunch of action shots this week.)