Greetings to all y'all,
Texas is really quite diverse. I love working in this part
of town because a bunch of culture hits us. As Elder Drennan and I worked to
speak Spanish as much as possible during the day, we were able to find a lot of
Spanish speakers from plenty of different places. We ran into someone who was
painting a house with his wife, and he was from Honduras. Turns out that he had
met missionaries before, and they had a profound impact on him. I'm starting to
relish every opportunity that I have to speak Spanish. I never thought I could
grow my speaking ability so much while serving in a Spanish ward.
I'm also developing a "Texan" accent. My s's and
sh's seem to whistle a little bit. It was kind of my fault though, because I
was practicing them to see if I could make them happen. No they happen without
me thinking about it. Most Texans, however, don't whistle as they say those
consonants though.
We've started to work with the grandchildren of one of the
members of the ward here. With no prompting question from us, the other day Bro
H asked if we could start teaching his grandchildren. A boy, a girl, and a boy,
and none of them are baptized, but all older than 8. His daughter, the kids
mother , wants to attend church again, and she is open to us teaching the kids.
While I'm grateful for the opportunity to help them, it can be stressful
helping them to understand. Adrian, the youngest boy, is extremely interested
and asks several questions. Francis, the daughter, is a little quiet but also
interested. The older son is Zack. We visited them three times in a single
weekend. I want to be prepared to help them as much as I can.
Karla is back on our radar, and many miracles. When we got
back in touch with her, she told us of the many concerns she's had and we were
sorry for her. During the past few weeks when we were unable to meet with her,
the Book of Mormon app that she downloaded kept popping up on her phone for
whatever reason. She thought it was creepy, but it helped her to read during
times she was stressed. I can definitely tell that God is mindful of her
family. We were able to sit down and talk about the beginning of the Book of
Mormon with her, and we finally got to meet her husband, Joe. Seems to be shy,
but he is comfortable with us visiting, and we hope to teach them as a family.
Joe, their son, Adam, and the little one seem to be doing fairly well too.
Rain has been abundant this week, and it was raining hard
before church last Sunday. Sister R and her oldest made it to church, but no
one else that we have been visiting in particular made it. It was a small,
spiritual, sacrament meeting.
Questions
and Answers
What about your new
IPad?
(We received the announcement that we would receiving them
soon a little bit ago) I don't know too much about the details, but we should
be getting them within a month or so.
Are they going to be
part of your teaching?
I would guess so. We don't know all of the details, but the IPad
will definitely change how we do the Work of Salvation.
Have you had the
chance to check out getting new slacks, or is that really impossible in your
present area?
(For those of you who don't know, I've lost a few pairs of
pants to damage and or wear and tear)
I'm hoping to repair what I can with my primary sewing and
patching skills. There are a lot of shops around here, but we don't know which
ones would be able to fix my pants.
Are you using you
bikes at all now that it is very warm at all or is the car's efficiency just
too important to not use?
Our area is hard to bike in. Not impossible to bike, but
we're being efficient with our millage. Who knows?
How has the Spirit
given you wisdom and strength as you and Elder Drennan have sought to teach
what the Lord wants you to teach your people?
In the past week or so I've had many opportunities to learn
from my leaders. In our last zone meeting, the area leaders and the sister training
leaders helped us to recognize that we need to both teach about and invite
people to be baptized when they understand. The Book of Mormon is without a
doubt the most important tool we have. We want to use it during every situation
we can. The BoM teaches us that the authority to baptized is essential to the
authenticity of the baptism (Mosiah 21: 33).
We are also trying to help those who are ready to learn, and
spend less time with those less interested to read the Book of Mormon. The
Spirit is essential in discerning the preparedness of those we meet every day,
without judging false judgments.
What has been fun or funny
happening this week?
While we were driving the other day we got a text that made
sense but was missing punctuation that makes it clear. I translated it in my
head and read it out loud to Elder Drennan, and proceeded to say, "Oh, so
that would mean (word for word copy of what I had just translated)." I had
no idea that I said the same thing, so Elder Drennan started laughing. I laughed
because I didn't know why he was laughing. It took us a while to understand
each other, but we laughed pretty hard until then.
How is the Texas
fruit tasting?
Fruit is cheap and delicious and the fruit flies that
spontaneously come along for the ride are free. Texas fruit tastes pretty good.
I have another cantaloupe and a watermelon that I need to eat before they go
bad.
I love you all very much. Christ is the reason for my happiness;
for He is the reason I am able to feel charity, His pure love!
--
-Elder Hall
Texas San Antonio Mission
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