Qué pasa calabaza!!!
Hope everyone had a stellar week! We sure did up here in what's called the frozen north of the mission... It snowed a little so the Colombian and I are getting ready!! I hope you guys have an excellent thanksgiving with family and friends, or wherever you might be! Some people in the ward have had mercy on us and we have a couple places we're going to eat! Hope you allll have a greeeeat week!!!
Heeeeere weeeee goooo:
Monday
Played a little soccer with the Colombian brother of mine. I think he's finally decided that if I'm gonna teach him how to be an American he's going to teach me a thing or two about being Colombian. We had a good day and I was super thankful for all the emails I received! Thanks for all the support everyone!
Tuesday
Had all 3 of our appointments go down the drain... Haha that's always fun. But you can always find the positives! We found a member that hasn't been to church for years and really knows nothing about Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon or anything like that! She invited us to have dinner at some restaurant next Monday so we'll see how that goes with her! We also had an appointment scheduled with my two favorite Puerto Ricans: Jan Luis, and Luis. We got there right as they were leaving the house with cleats and a football in hand so you better believe we went and followed them. We ended up getting to toss it around with them and just talk about how they were doing which was nice! Plus all their other little buddies showed up, and it's honestly like a little Puerto Rico out here in Dunkirk. They're all just yelling Spanish at each other and I felt like I had left the country for a second. Good times. We started talking to a few of these kids many of whom don't speak any English and it was awesome to get to know them! Hopefully we can get back to teach them!
Wednesday
Elder Foster came up to Fredonia from Jamestown for exchanges! We had a super successful day! We taught four people and two of them were investigators!! Right now we're teaching a 9 year old girl named Fay. She's super awesome and wants to come to church and be baptized!! The only thing that's holding her back is her parents... They're both members of the church but have picked up the nasty habit of smoking. Fay wants her dad to baptize her, but obviously he can't right now. They have started with some medicine that's supposed to help them stop smoking and they've set Monday as their day to go cold turkey!! I hope they can follow through with everything!
Thursday
Had district meeting up in Jamestown! We have two new elders in our district and one of them is fresh out of the MTC!! I was pretty stoked because guess what!? I'm not the youngest one anymore!! Hah it feels good to be moving up the ranks a little bit! I also found out that I'm related to my district leader so that's pretty neat. Hah it really is such a small Mormon world after all! We got talking about Blanding somehow and turns out we share Lemuel Hardison Redd as our Great-Great-Great Grandfather. We're practically brothers. Hahah it was kinda cool to find that out!! There's some good hole in the rock gang blood flowing up here!! So for all my family and friends from San Juan county, this one goes to you!
Friday
Had our weekly planning session... For those that have served missions or are serving you know it makes for a looooong day haha! It takes us about 3 or 4 hours to do! I get the shakes about half way through because I need to be outside but it's a necessary part of missionary work! We also got to have a lesson with Sister Beattie. She is a less active convert that we're teaching right now and she is amazing! She's been coming to church every week and is preparing to enter the temple! We showed the Mormon message "Lift," and I highly recommend watching it. It's worth every second!! It's about an Elders Quorum and how they were able to help out a lady who has had a rough go at life. Super powerful. Many a tear was shed during the video and the spirit was definitely there with us! Little side note action, our investigators dogged us so that was a big mistake. Haha Elder Renteria and I always make up stories about why they don't answer the door, or why nobody's home. Today's episode was the shutters were all closed because they were reading the Book of Mormon and didn't want anyone to bother them. They couldn't answer the door because that would distract them from reading. Yupp, that's why. Haha I guess that's how we keep the optimism up in this area when it's not always easy!! Sometimes you have to lie to yourself a little bit, and no that's not official church doctrine so don't quote me. That's an Elder HALLZ-ism. We capped the day off with dinner with some members. Hah they're one of the more interesting families I've met to say the least but I love them haha. One day we were talking and found out the 9 year old daughter didn't know her birthdaaaaayy..... How is that possible? When I was 9 my birthday was my favorite holiday hahah! So I think we need to do some more work there. People need the gospel, and to know what day their birthday is. That's all.
Saturday
Nothing too crazy to report. Did some service with Rob Pryzybsz, and saw my main man Charley. (Our old friend of African descent.) We also got invited to have thanksgiving with the Pryzybsz's so I'm pretty pumped about that!!
Sunday
What a day. Haha church is great here and Elder Renteria and I usually end up doing a lot! I taught the lesson in gospel principles, played the piano in sacrament meeting, and said the opening prayer. A lot different from back home!! Anyways the good part was we got to see the Olrogg's!! He's one of our investigators who we haven't seen in a month. We stopped by at 4 o'clock just asking if we could share a message with them, and his wife said to come back in an hour for dinner and a message! First of all, super surprising because she doesn't really want anything to do with the church... Second of all not good because we literally had just come from a MASSIVE lunch appointment so I'm about to explode. But figuring this was our only chance to get in, I said: "We'll be there." I think Elder Renteria wanted to kill me. Hahah anyyywhoooo we go back and eat dinner and ended up having a stellar time. They were all laughing and having a great time, and you could just feel their hearts softening up. Elder Renteria was telling them about his life story which is pretty awesome, and they were loving it!! She even asked us to practice Spanish with her which is super surprising because she has basically tried to forget every tie she has with the church... Ahh it was great!! Untillllll about 9 o'clock. I had an absolute smashing headache for most of the day and it just kept getting worse. I ended up passing out on my bed at like 9:30 no problem. My stomach just felt terrible!! So if you can tell where this one is headed, this big guy right here throws up at about 2 o'clock this morning. Nice. Moral of the story: "No sacrifice, no victory." Never thought I'd have to put my stomach on the line as a missionary in the states, but my oh my you certainly must.
So it was a good week!! My testimony of this gospel continues to grow. It's amazing to see how much the Lord looks out for us and blesses us for our efforts. I've seen that so many times out here already! I also never thought I would love studying the scriptures and words of the prophets as much as I do. I can testify that when you study for a purpose it makes all the difference. Study for a family member, a friend, or someone other than yourself and you'll see a difference! I promise you that!! Take care everyone!!
Pictures: A sweet lady in Fredonia-Grandma Joyce who is not a member. We helped set up her Christmas tree; It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
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