Elder Christian Hall in TSAM: Fresh Winds from the Lake of Change

Hello everyone from home,

I'm glad to be here in Lake Travis for yet another transfer. Unfortunately Elder Hansen is leaving the area. I will receive a new companion, Elder Anderson. From what I hear he is a great missionary and quite easy to work with. He was just in the area called Canyon Lake with Elder Drennan which I find very hilarious. And also today I am trying out a new experiment. I'm using this app that we recently received in our iPads as missionaries that allows us to dictate our, well, anything that we wish to and I'm going to try to use it for an email. I think the best part about this app is it makes me practice my English so I can actually be understood, to minimize the amount of mistakes that I have to go in and fix later. Here goes nothing, everyone!

As all of you are aware of the accident last week, a funeral occurred on Saturday that was for the young woman who passed away. Elder Hansen and I were able to guide traffic in these nice florescent vests. They look snazzy and I'm sure no other missionaries have ever worn them before. But that was beside the point. We guided traffic into the parking lot and after about an hour and a half or so we went in and watched the rest of the funeral. The woman's grandfather came to speak, and he gave many insights on her life that I didn't know before. My heart is so full for that family. I hope they are doing the best that they can.

We went into the cultural hall and ate some of the food that volunteers provided for people attending the funeral. We did our very best to talk to as many people as we possibly could, and we did have some good conversations. While we did not find anyone that wanted to be taught, we were able to talk to the father of the young woman later on in the day. He told us that there were some families that they had in mind. We hope to share the gospel with them when we are given the opportunity. So cool to hear of all the families like his support to this family especially those that are not members.

V finally came to church yesterday. I cannot believe how excited I was to see her walking, a little bit late but otherwise in good condition, and enjoy the sacrament. A returned missionary from the ward spoke on Sunday and a lot of the people that she taught had concerns similar to V’s. It may be that the talks really applied to V. For all of you that prayed for her, I think you sincerely. She is doing her best to keep the word of wisdom and we came over on Saturday to help set up a plan how she could do it. If she can make it till Sunday pretty much be clear.

It's kind of funny because up to this point, the speaking app or whatever has messed up a lot of things that I said. It can't seem to spell the neatest thing mind even in this paragraph. The problem that I'm going to see with using this app is that the paragraphs are going to be smaller than they usually are. Usually when I'm writing with my fingers I can keep going even without running out of breath because my fingers don't need breath to keep going. :-) One black beetle bled only black blood but the other black beetle bled blue!

Another great piece of news is that we were able to find P and his wife B on Sunday again. Been a long time since we last saw them, and this time a member was with us. We taught in the plan of salvation they finally seem to understand what authority is. B is not too inclined to read the book of Mormon though.

But on the other hand, P has read a couple chapters of the book Mormon and seems even more committed than he was before. I'm so excited for all the people in this area, I can't wait to see them progress even more.

The odd thing is that for transfers only Elder Hansen is leaving among the people in the apartment here. Elder Greene is going to you Uvalde (the app said Valby), my past Ward. I asked him to visit a couple people like J and C. So the district pretty much stays the same.

Something also interesting about the ward is that it is really gotten close together since the recent tragedy. I don't know if I've seen a ward rally that quickly after the tragedy of that kind. It also makes me happy to know that the members are going to work with us and to receive help from us too. There's plenty of work to do here in Lake Travis. Also, including the recent sister missionary that came home from her mission, there is another one that is willing to visit some people with us, all we need to do is provide another priesthood holder so that we can actually walk inside the house.

Something else that I've had to come to grips with, is that this is my second to last transfer. I probably will not see another ward and I probably will not see a new area. While I don't want to go ahead and jinx myself, I'm not sure that much change will happen. Lake Travis would be more better. Yes yes yes, more better. Much more better-er.

Now the app has quit working. I'll give it a break and begin to type all that I want to share with you lovely people.

So you probably heard the news about, wait a second, this happened this week, so you didn't. Anyway, so S has been reading the Book of Mormon as far as we know. On Wednesday morning we get an ominous text from this number that says nothing but "Please do not bother us again", lacking punctuation of any kind. We were heartbroken! Those three that we taught were wonderful. But we thought it was a little fishy after we responded, asking if there was a particular reason why. He didn't ever respond. So later in the week, I think Friday or Saturday, we tried to call him again. No answer. Then we called B and asked if he caught wind of what had happened. He didn't think that S and T hated us or anything. So we finally texted him, and found out that he did not in fact send the text, but that someone had taken his phone and texted that. We were right. We asked him about his reading and he did say that he needed more time. We would hate to come to this conclusion, but we think that T may have sent the text. Hope not. She seemed nice enough, anyway.

On Wednesday during the day we were invited to take part of an activity in the Kyle Stake called "Camp Helaman." It was similar to the missionary week. We were each paired with two 14 to 20 year olds where we had a "companionship study" to teach them how to teach, focused on a person that we were assigned to teach that day. Brother Damron and Brother Harris from the Kyle ward were with me. I think Brother Damron was about 14 and Brother Harris about 17. Brother Damron had a bunch of energy that reminds me of deacons, in a good way. Brother Harris had done this a few times before and had a silent confidence and energy. They were both extremely goofy. We then had a visit from President and Sister Slaughter, dinner, and then we headed out to tract before we had the appointment with an old Vietnam veteran named W. We knocked on one door and shared the Easter video with V, and she allowed missionaries to come back. She said she was nearly born and raised there, as she was born in a hospital out of town. Not born, but raised there. That was funny.

They had name tags and everything!

This isn't his regular smile, don't worry.

Oh how fun it is to ride, in a youngin companionship!

Great opportunity to work with all them!

Then on Thursday we had a district meeting and I gave a training. I had tried to send emails to the district with a role play that I wanted to do, but everything went to chaos. I had to resend everything. But I believe they knew and it went well. Then we all got together and got a district picture.

Our district. Elder and Sister Zirkle from Lano Branch, Elder Mackay, Elder Aguila and Elder Smith, myself, Elder Greene, then Elder Hansen. From left to right.

OH BOY.

Questions and Answers

How are V and her family doing?

She is doing quite well. She is keeping the Word of Wisdom and she said she would come to all hours of church next week. She said that because she only made it to two hours yesterday. Keep your prayers for her. She is going to work hard to eject all of those substances out of her system until Saturday, where we will celebrate with her being a Word of Wisdom keeper for the rest of her life. She is excited for the health and spiritual benefits that will come as a result.

Harder than inviting her is inviting D, her husband. Seeing as he hasn't attended for quite some time, he probably isn't too inclined to come back to church. Our ward mission leader had the brilliant idea of using activities, and sometimes creating our own as a ward mission, to invite them both to. Then he might warm up just a little bit.

How does knowing that all things are in the Lord's care encourage you when people that you wish to serve move slowly or seemingly not at all?

Yes, it does give me patience when I remember that great truth. It's like playing a game of Chess that you already know you are going to win. As if you have already been told by a mighty source of wisdom that things will turn out ok. You will not know how many enemy pieces it will take for you to win. You will not know at first which of your pieces will be taken. And you especially do not know which pawns will make it to the end, and become powerful queens. All this is in the Lord's hands. If I follow his counsel and serve with all I have, moving the major pieces where they need to go, then it will be ok. Sometimes I have to remind myself that God doesn't care sometimes if I move my knight first or my bishop. Some "casualties" may occur. But those casualties never have to be permanent. Those who do not accept the gospel now may likely accept it later in their lives. Not that we need to make excused though.

What are some blessings that come working with ward mission leaders?

Now I am not sure what you mean by this question. Oh wait, never mind. It make sense now. At first I omitted "ward" from "ward mission leaders," while simultaneously using it. It became "mission leaders from the mission," and "WML's, Ward Mission Leaders.

So as I understand the question, working with our WML is great. His goal is to put us to work in an effort to bless the ward and bring converts in. He helps us to teach repentance and baptize converts.

I greatly enjoy the support we get from him. He is called of God to fulfill a capacity that is very involved and full of hard work.

What was your favorite food this week?

So this week had a Sunday like dinner on Tuesday, food at camp Helaman on Wednesday, Baked pasta and such from a family whose father served in Italy, and probably my favorite, also why I saved it for last, home barbeque wings on Thursday.

How is the ward family doing this week?

Everyone was heavily affected by the passing of the young woman. The ward is becoming of "one heart and one mind" as mentioned in Isaiah. The grieving process will occur eventually for everyone.

When and how have you felt the Lord's love for you this week?

When I see how much he loves everyone here, I can't help but think, "Elder Hall, do you think He loves you too?" I pause. The answer, coming not from me, but a heavenly source, sets in and lights me afire. Joy from the gospel is so pure it cleanses like fire, and burns the heart of hate or anything ungodly. In a song by Rend Collective, a Christian band that I started listening to sense I receive the songs form a past companion, they sing "Burn like a star like a fire in our hearts," "We will not bow to sin or to shame, we are defiant in your name. You are the power that cannot be tamed, we are defiant in your name. Our Lord, our God, our conqueror." I like those songs, but especially hymns of praise to Him. No idea if this band are members of the church or not. I like how the songs remind me of Christ nonetheless.

More Pictures

V in between us, and two of her fellowshippers in the background

Their spouses couldn't come because of the need to care for children, so we got one form each couple.

A couple of pictures that Elder Smith took in Marble Falls on exchanges. I had seen these before, so I decided to take them from him, with his permission, and pawn them as my own.