Elder Christian Hall in TSAM: All Land is the Lord's

Dear everyone, essentially,

"This is my Father's world," and while it doesn't always seem like it, God gave us the world to learn and grow it. Doubtless many people don't keep it spiritually clean. Anyways, I am still loving missionary service down here. I know I will come home soon. That is important, but so is this lemon that I like to call Texas. It has endless good if we make lemonade. I feel like writing deep complicated words right now.

That is not the Lord's way! He speaks to us in the language we can understand, even when that language is Texan. Ja ja. Last Monday after emailing I had a load of stress fall on me. The other elders gave me a blessing and I still feel the effect of the blessing work. From then to the zone conference, we were stressed. Quite simply, stress hangs heavy. Elder Anderson astounds me every day with his willingness to work. That makes me happy too.

After the zone conference, which was quite sentimental, we felt a boost. Then we crashed emotionally again, but we picked things up from there. When church came along I sorely needed it. The Sacrament is a vital ordinance for us. And since then, I've felt powered up.

Actually this morning we went to a Memorial Day breakfast held at the ward level. I knew nearly everyone there. That astounded me. We got to enjoy the food, and there were leftover pan cakes, toppings, and everything, really. We're going to a member's home later to pick the food up. Leftovers really do boost a missionary's weekly budget. This has been an exciting p-day already.

And it is regrettable, or whatever, but I need to out of necessity plan how I'm getting back home. Packing this round will be a bit tougher. Not too tough, as Elder Anderson is a moving expert. He'll likely give me practical advice of how to pack 2 years of my left to send home. I'm not going to cry, I hope!

Questions and Answers

How was the zone conference?

It went fantastic! All of the people that I saw made it heartwarming to attend. A leader in the mission asked me to take down a paragraph or so of the experience to save for "mission history." Because that is something important to do, I'm going to make sure I write that first. Hopefully I will have described the conference before this email is done.

What are your thoughts on pressing forward?

Awesome. My thoughts are awesome. Just kidding. Pressing forward seems to be a principle of enduring to the end. I bet we all at times hit a point in our life where we think, "now what?" I'm going to do my best to keep busy when I get home. A "charitable busy" will be very therapeutic to engage in. Pressing forward "with steadfast faith in Christ" is the essence. We feel and understand that essence during the sacrament, scripture study, and untold many other ways we worship God.
How often do you have 'Ammon days'?

We've been thinking of doing those once a week. We ourselves schedule Ammon days, so the day can and probably will vary. We've gone out two Fridays thus far.

Are the Texas lizards and frogs coming out in great numbers?

The reason why animals are bigger in Texas is likely because of how green it gets out here. Growth of trees and things is fantastic. We've seen lizards, frogs, snails, mice, a fox, several dogs and cats, and a faun that made it into someone's house. Animals are hilarious.

How are your people doing (including Sister Smith)? How has the Lord blessed you with his loving Spirit this week?

Sister Smith is doing quite well. She went to a wedding of her family this past weekend, and so she was not able to come yesterday. I do not worry for her however.

We've discovered that our teaching pool may be smaller than we wanted to suppose. Finding H at home can be tough, and we've needed to move on with others. The ward has so much sincere growth. Even when people have been baptized already, we love to see people familiar and not attend with us. Brother R was an example of that, as he has been working enough that it was fantastic to see him again. Elder Anderson hadn't met him yet. Plenty of people came to visit as well, and the B family made it to church as well.

Pictures!

We parked near a familiar member's home and saw the fox prowling his grounds. When it left, Elder Anderson took a picture.

Do you remember how we said we did service a while ago? We helped build a tree house. Our help was little in comparison to the actual project, but I loved being a part of it.