Dear family, friends, and all of those who have had an
effect on my life for the positive,
A great week in Uvalde. We haven't gotten much done
unfortunately. Elder Bertelsen came down incredibly sick this week, which
prevented us from going to much of anywhere. This, however, did give me time to
catch up in my journal, which I was in dire need of doing. At one point I was
10 or 11 days behind. That doesn't lend to the publishing of much detail, but
it was barely possible anyways. We did visit some choice people and get some
work done so that in the end, I really ought to not complain at all.
Uvalde is an interesting ward. It covers the city of Uvalde,
and a few of the nearby cities, including Camp Wood, a little in the middle of
no-where'sville. Our area is about an eighth of the entire mission, so we have
a lot of ground to cover. Recently this ward was covered by Sister missionaries
as well, but now that it isn't, we have many places to look for who is ready to
receive the gospel. Some areas of this area can be extremely ghetto. Elder
Downer is progressing really well, and I guess it is a regular thing in the
TSAM for missionaries to come pre-trained. We have a trainer and trainee
meeting this Tuesday that we have to leave our apartment at about 5:45am to
arrive to on time. Ugh. One of the biggest downsides of living in an area that
basically is so remote is that we have to drive for forever to get anywhere
that we want to. I feel bad for Elder Bertelsen however, because while I can
sleep a little, he has to drive. Well, I suppose he can sleep too, but if he
does, we'd be in trouble.
No too much to report
on this week. A squirrel almost got ran over by a car on the way here to email.
This Sunday we got a new move in to the ward. Lorena, has a really large
presence. But, during the majority of her testimony, the spirit didn’t seem to
really be present. She had a lot of personal concerns to lie out, but finally,
as she testified of Jesus Christ, the Spirit re-entered the room. She's a
really sweet lady, but she has surely gone through many tough things in her
life. She has two unbaptized pre-teen daughters who we aim to work with, and
with regular appointments each week, they should be ready soon. It total, the
circumstances in which we met her are just a little bit funny.
This Saturday was very significant. We had a mission wide
meeting where we drove about two hours to meet two members of the Quorum of the
Seventy, from the 6th Quorum and the 2nd Quorum, and Elder Russell M. Nelson.
What an amazing experience, even life changing! He shook everyone's hands, and
I could sense an almost super-human love for each and every one of us. It was
funny when he made references to his talk, "Ask the Missionaries, they can
Help You." He mentioned in a variety of circumstances that we need to be
full-purpose missionaries -- able to do whatever the leadership of our wards
and stakes need. He even talked a little bit about marriage, and how a mission
helps prepare us for that. As we learn to treat each of our companions with
respect, we can be assured we can treat our future spouse in kind. I had many
personal questions that Elder Nelson was able to answer for me, and I will
treasure this day for quite a very long time. Maybe I'll prepare a report of
the meeting for next week. I didn't come prepared to do that today.
Questions
and Answers:
So how are you and
your companions doing this week in the beautiful little city of Uvalde?
Doing well with exception to the sickness and all -- which I
cannot be blamed for, as we annalyzed his symptoms, and they didn't match up with
mine. Uvalde is a great ward, it's the only one that meets in this small
building. It could well be called a branch building, because while it isn't
someone's basement or house, it is fairly small.
Did you bring your
bike to this area?
Yes, I did. I won't be using it, probably. Elder Downer
ordered a bike but it didn't arrive the day he got here, so even if we plan to
do some local biking, it won't be until he gets his bike.
"Desolation," as I named it, won't be getting much use in the next
transfer or so.
Are you speaking much
Spanish?
A fair amount. I need to push Elder Downer to speak it more
often, and speak it as often as I can.
Could you tell us
more of your great ward people?
It's a small ward. The average attendance each Sunday is
about 120 members, and it hardly fluctuates from that, as it seems. Most of the
Ward members work on the oil fields or the hospital in town, and if they don't,
they likely work at HEB or Walmart.
What part of Missouri is Elder Bertelsen from?
I want to say Jackson City, but I might be getting a little
mixed up.
How are Aida and
Daniel & Gina doing?
Because of Elder Bertelsen's sickness, we weren't able to
visit any of them. Aida did make it to church however, and we plan to give
service to Daniel and Gina later this week.
Good news from Universal City. As I talked to Elder Vergara,
it looks like Rocky will be baptized. I'm excited for that, and if I get any
pictures, I will be sure to send those to you. They taught the Law of Chastity
to Tony and Staniel, so hopefully they took that well, and will want to get
married so that they can also get baptized, and eventually sealed in the
temple.
And how is the Spirit
guiding you this week?
Another couple, Ramon and Fransis, have several questions to
give us and they rarely relent. So the Spirit is really important in these
lessons.
What things that
happened to you last week that put a smile on your face?
Uvalde could be nicknamed the city of trees. Do you want to
know why? Because there are trees that sit in the middle of the road, randomly!
It's like the people who paved them were too lazy to even cut the trees. George
of the Jungle would have trouble driving here. Even out the window of the
library we're emailing from, I can see another one of the doggone trees,
mocking us with its presence.
We went to go visit a potential this week, and we decided to
tract the nearby area. So when we got to this one trailer home, we knocked the
door, and this cat parts the curtain at the window, meows as if to say
"Nobody is home, go away!" and then leaves. When we knocked again,
the cat responded the very same way. Elder Downer and I were very entertained
by this.
--
-Elder Hall
Texas San Antonio Mission
P.S. No pictures this week. In addition to slow interenet,
the computers can't read the pictures. At least, I hope that's the deal, and
that it isn't that there aren't any pictures to view!
P.S.S. Many droplets
of love to y'all.
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