Elder Christian Hall in TSAM: The Divine Role of Mothers

Happy Mother's day to all mothers,

And I should add to all those who have mothers. That includes ALL Y'ALL. At any rate, mothers have taken a different role for me in these days of my mission than they have thus far. We are children of heavenly parents, and of parents on earth. We can live with our families we have on earth as we follow Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus Christ, any family that at this time is imperfect (all for them) can be healed and enabled through His Atonement. If I were to forget those truths, it would change me, and not in a way I would like.

Mother's day is a great opportunity to recognize our Mother's for their divine role. If you haven't had the chance recently, you should take some time out of your day and communicate that. The way that you do that will depend on you.

I've thought of my family much this past week, and I've loved serving families that we meet with here. Venita had another family emergency. For her privacy I won't mention what happened except that she herself is not injured. Because she has earned Elder Anderson and my trust so well, we did not even panic one bit at the news. She didn't make it to church, but we knew that it was not of her own accord. Keep her and her family in y'alls prayers. She'll be in ours.

We decide to give some people extra time. Scott has been busy, and may not be ready for us to visit more, so we've moved on with faith in him, and especially in the Savior. Feel free to send questions if you wonder about someone else.

Another great family/individual is H and his family. For reference, he and his wife have two sons, and he is one of the most righteous souls I have met. If the Lord prepares the way for him and others in his family to be baptized, it will be because the timing is right, and we have qualified through our efforts, to a degree of course. He wants to come to church and wants to do many good things. He works like crazy. We have felt in planning for him that he needs to move forward with his family. He wants to be baptized, with his family. He wants to go to church, with his family. Indeed all of his wants are righteous, and we can do our part.

Yesterday we visited him after the church block and the famed Mother's day calls. He was on the phone, but we talked for a little bit. It is clear that the Lord wants him to come closer to Him. The biggest evidence of that was Saturday night.

For the first time in a while, we sat down in his home and talked about the Restoration. I'm not sure if any missionary has sat down with him talking about it in reasonable detail before. That is why we thought it was important. I could not believe the language barrier that existed then. No TV was on. His boys weren't crazy. Even then, for some reason I couldn't focus on his words, and my tongue felt tight. At times I had to say "¿mande?" A number of times. I think the Lord was trying to humble me. It worked. We testified that if he came to church, the Lord could and would provide for what might have been lost. I wanted to be careful that passion did not replace the Spirit. He felt affected and he committed. It was in this same visit he talked about how important his family was to him. His plea was heard.

Questions and Answers

What are some of the most important things that you would like to experience in you last 5 weeks on your mission?

My-oh-my is that an open ended question! Lake Travis is an area that like the previous 7+ have touched my heart and will stay there. It's not really the weather, or even the nature that stays there. Those can be bonuses. It is the people, not the things that I remember. I have collected some random trinkets along the way that will help in the remembering process.

That was a tangent. I want to find a family that can learn about the gospel together. We may have already found that family, and we can boldly invite them to learn together. Or it might be someone we found. This is a great motivation for me to keep working hard to the end.

How are B and A and H?

B reads regularly and A works a fair amount. That being said we want to invite A directly to read and pray about the message. They have a bunch of family.

I think it was a weekend some time ago that we found B, A, and B's father J together for a family gathering. They invited us to grab a plate, and we ate and talked with them. J has lived in many places around the world, and he knows many languages, including English and Spanish, of course. He seems to approve of us meeting with B and A, and he may take interest too. I mean to imply that there is more to their family than B and A. We can share more to the rest of their family.

H is a hard worker. We've began to work closer with him. See story above.

Who else are you teaching in Espanol?

We found a young man (about our age I suppose) on Sunday. E is his name, and openness is his game. Unfortunately, we didn't speak to him in Spanish. He might still speak it. He was receptive, and continues to be so. It was a miracle that we were able to meet him:

Saturday was the day of a baptism of someone Elder Smith and Elder Águila had been meeting with. That story was a miracle, and we were glad to hear of the process as it went on. The temptation was to go to the baptism, when we knew there would likely be people to find. We did find some people. We were blessed. But in the same vein, we recognized a need to build courage. This week was stressful, so I wasn't as bold as I could have been with people we met. This stirred us up to action, and Sunday was a powerful result of it.

That Sunday we met E. Remember J? They're related. Longish story. Anyway, looking for him, we saw him pull out of his parking spot. He left us in the dust. Even so, we decided to knock on his door, and met E, his Mom. I take what I said back, it isn't a long story. We testified of prophets being on the earth, and she took interest. We're going by again share the Book of Mormon. Bold preaching power!

Then when we passed by E, we saw him and his friend working on a truck, and struck up a conversation. Turns out his friend is a member, and she has done a great job of teaching him. We're extremely excited for E.

There are others that we have found, and people like C that make take interest in the future. I am filled with energy.

What are some things that the members in your ward are doing that are assisting you and Elder Anderson?

The members around here are quite flexible. Doug, one of the members here (last name withheld [I'm grinning as I type this]) is a ward missionary. He enjoys coming out with us, and he is as flexible as he can be. I could count on many other members to do the same.

I think a great quality of the ward here is how friendly everyone is to everyone. We never worry about visitors feeling lonely. That releases stress big time.

How hot is it?

Heat is quite subjective sometimes. Because of the time I've spent in the area, it isn't really all that hot to me. When it rains, things get cool. When it doesn't, the air cooks like an oven set to, say, 100 degrees?

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