Elder Christian Hall in TSAM: In the Heartland of Texas

Missionary work just got interesting. Hello Family, Ward Family, and Significant others (aka friends),

I'm now in an area called Uvalde. It's a town that as my new co-trainer companion Elder Bertelsen explained, "exemplifies a small Texas town. When I went to church yesterday, a majority of the older members there wore cowboy boots, including one who wore boots plastered with a Texas flag on the upper part of it. I had never intended to buy boots, but if I find a pair like his, I will be thoroughly tempted to buy them. This area is a choice!

My trainee is named Elder Downer. If Scarecrow and the Joker were to combine together, become a 20 year old and receive the gospel years ago, he would be the result. He's an utter jokester. He got here from the Mexico MTC on Wednesday, and we picked him up during the transfer meeting on Thursday. It was funny, because as we heard from the missionaries, the new ones of course, introducing themselves, I felt impressed that I would be training him when I heard him introduce himself. He's from Provo, incidentally, which is funny too. Because nobody typically knows where my home town is, I simply respond to the classic question, "Where are you from?", with "Oh, Provo Utah area." This satisfies a majority of those we meet, occasionally they will ask more. But it always brings a smile to my face when I don't even need to answer anymore. Elder Downer will say, "We're both from Provo." As a result I save just a few words. Elder Downer has a bunch of potential. I loved it when he told us why he came on his mission. As a employee of Dish, he didn't believe in what he was saying day in and day out. He didn't ever have all of his heart in him as he went door to door. But as a missionary, even if people didn't accept him, he would know in his heart that what he stood for was completely and undeniably true. His conviction is precious!

From transfer meeting we drove a little under two hours to Uvalde. We live in the middle of no where basically. As a general rule in Texas, if the city has a Dairy Queen, than it qualifies as a City. And while Uvalde has a little more than your average Texas town, it's still pretty small. Luckily we have a Walmart and an HEB, but no Target, and not too much more. Plenty of ward members have offered to cut my hair. Thankfully. I'm in dire need of a hair cut. I counted on a LA member to do it Wednesday, but the weather was bad down in UC, and he declined it. He brought over this wonderful Texas flag. It's huge. I'll probably end up sending it home, after I get some awesome action shots with it.

Saturday we taught lessons like crazy. I've never taught so many lessons in the same day. While we had many people cancel on us, we still managed to teach six or so lessons in the same day. And many of the people we taught are choice too. This area is amazing! We have a few recent converts to work with, something that UC lacked on, as well as some LA members who have the potential to return to activity. One investigator that we are working with in particular is Aida. Aida has been going to church actively for quite some time now. It was funny, because Elder Bertelsen and his past companion, Elder Ianziti, thought she was a member for a while. She, like Sister Rubio, is what you would call an active non-member. Because we identified that she wasn't a member, we were able to teach her the restoration. She's afraid to be baptized because she's seen other religious people in her life fail, and she doesn't want to fail. She also doesn't want people to judge her, because she is afraid her anger would go out of control. More and more I'm seeing that baptism involves a leap of faith. You won't see perfectly how things will turn out for a while.

Another family seems fairly choice. They could go either way. Daniel and Gina seem very choice. Daniel is a police chief, and he's talked about working as a sheriff. They invited us over for dinner yesterday, and we also met their friends who may also be choice. I'll pray for them, and I'll update you about all the other people we'll work with. We've got a great Bishop, a great Elder's Quorum President, and a real great Ward Mission Leader.

I've been torturing my companions with my snoring. I'm really sorry for them. Because of the new bed, it was horrible for them the first night. So I gave them permission to hit me with a pillow in the middle of the night to stop me. The experience is pretty surreal waking up because of the pillow.

Windcrest, Universal City, Uvalde, all these cities ending in end-of-alphabet-letters.

Q & A

As you were traveling to your new city, what were you thinking of?

I honestly can't remember. Probably imagining what my new area what would be like. Sleeping. I was tired.

Please tell us of your new area and your new companions.

They are wonderful. Elder Bertelsen is from Missouri, and his mother and step-father are both converts. He told me of the efforts of his loving bishop to bring him to activity, and it was wonderful to hear how his life has changed as a result of his mission. He's been out for a year or so. About as long as Elder Vergara has been out. He went to the Mexico MTC, just like Elder Downer. It was interesting that just as I took German for two years, and then Spanish for 2 and a half, he took Spanish 2 years followed by German for two years.

Will you be speaking more Espanol?

Claro. Y ?Por qué no? Los dos de mis compañeros hablan Español. Qué bueno.

Did you see ny armadillos on the road on the way?

Nope.

How (in what ways) do you hope the Spirit will aid you this week?

I hope that the Spirit will help us to find those who are ready this week. To extend baptismal invitations, and to help them come closer to Christ -- effectively improve their lives too.

-Elder Hall

Texas San Antonio Mission