Comin at you live from the 716. We've had a solid week!! It's been fun and super busy but I'm always happy to be busy!! Here's what we did!
Monday
Had a good lesson with Sis. Sharon who is a recent convert!! She's awesome!! She has totally changed her life around from drinking, smoking, and partying to now getting ready to enter the temple!! We're so excited for her!! I don't know if I've mentioned before but out here we hold hands basically every time we pray with people! Like when we bless the food everyone puts their hands out! Members, investigators, it doesn't matter it's just what we do! At first it was a little weird for me because I never did it back home and I thought it was a little different, but now I like it!! Definitely brings a sense of unity and friendship to the prayer! Thought I'd tell you guys that!
Tuesday
Taught a few lessons to some less actives but the saddest thing of the day was that Faye had to cancel... Nooooooo. It's super important to see your investigators at least once a week, so I was pretty sad that they had to cancel! After that we drove to Erie to stay the night because we have zone conference this week in Cranberry which is just a few miles outside Pittsburgh. Should be good!! I also had Chick-fil-a for the first time in months and let me just tell you, it's still amazing. All in all a pretty slow day!
Wednesday
We had zone conference all day in Cranberry! Suuuuper long day! We woke up at 5 and finally got back to Fredonia a little after 9 PM!! Lots of driving!! The conference was amazing and I learned so much!! There was a bunch of amazing musical numbers and President and Sister Johnson spoke a bunch which is always great!! They are such great people! We watched the new mission video which was super funny and well done!! The elder that put it together did professional filming before he came out so it was stellar. The spirit was there all day and you could just feel it. Every message, testimony, and musical number brought the spirit and I was super grateful to be there! During the video I felt almost a whisper say to me something like: "Austin, you're in the right place." I am finally starting to feel like I belong here! I can't point to a day where I just felt like I was a missionary. It kinda just snuck up on me! Maybe for some people they wake up one morning on their mission and it all just clicks. For me, it's been a slow process. A little here, a little there. I am definitely grateful for days like today where I get to feel like hey I'm a missionary and that's pretty dang cool.
Thursday
Had an interesting day... Quote of the day goes out to one of the less actives we teach. She said: "You guys need to call before you come because sometimes I'm out walking around naked, and if you see me naked you'll never want to get married." Well, I will be making ABSOLUTELY certain I call if we ever go back there again. Good-ness. She has a lot of land and some issues in the head so I guess she just runs wild around the place. Yet again, welcome to western New York. We also went and did about 3 hours of service over at the Sharon's. They live in a house that was built it 1834!!! Yes that is 1834. It's amazing. Obviously they've put a lot of work into it, but the basement is still the original foundation and everything. We ended up putting in a lot of insulation to get ready for winter! Super sweet! Also it was -25 degrees in this area last year and today it was 51 at 6:00 PM Soooooo I feel blessed. Hah I really love doing service because it kinda breaks up some of the monotony that sometimes is the life of a missionary! You get to put on normal clothes and just do manly things I guess. Haha I really like it. I also did some of my first real door to door today. Elder Renteria doesn't really like to do it and since we have a car it's basically just driving from appointment to appointment all the time! Anyways it's funny to see all these houses with Christmas lights and all ready for the big day but when we ask to show them a short CHRISTmas video they say nope, not interested. I couldn't help but smile at what some of these people were doing! They definitely do not understand the reason for the season. I hope and pray all of us will let Christ into our hearts a little more during this CHRISTmas season!! Share the good news!! #ASaviorIsBorn
Friday
We showed the new Christmas video to our neighbor Johnny!! Haha Johnny is my boy. Little old black man that wears a wife beater and gold chain with about 5 earrings in each ear! he's such a homie! The other Pday he knocked on our door and after I had cracked in open a hair he just walks in and says: "I seen y'alls Christmas tree from outside and I thought I need to come see it for myself." This guy is obsessed with Christmas!! Anyways we decided to go show him the Christmas video and when we came over a bunch of other people were there too so we ended up showing it to 5 people and gave them all the pass along cards! One was very interested and asked us a bunch of questions about what we believe! We were able to explain it and he's super prepared for the gospel. We just need to get over there when it's not so crazy! There's some promise with our loud and beer thirsty neighbors!!
Saturday
Highlight of the day was the ward party. They did such an amazing job!! Filled with super good musical numbers and talented people! Everything was decorated really well and Sis. Young did such an amazing job with the whole thing! Some of Jamestown's investigators came which is awesome! Quote of the day comes from one of the Dawson kids. They were pretending their candy canes were guns and they were "shooting" people. So when I walked up they "shot" me so I let out a little scream and said: "Ahh you got me!" Haha right after he "got" me he said: "Oh no, I can't shoot you! You're a missionary! I'm sorry!!" Hah I love the ward here and there's just a lot of people that I respect a ton! It's not easy to be a member of the church out here. They really have to work! Everyone does! There's no room for people to just kinda float by and not really contribute to helping out and I love that! That's how the church should be! Everyone working together to build one another up!
Sunday
The Olroggs fed us and we had a good meeting with them! They're the part member family that has been tough for us! She served a mission but is now inactive! Anyways every time we go over there it gets a little better so we keep trying! She said the prayer tonight which may sound little, but it's HUGE! We were pretty excited about That! They're a great family and suuuuper nice to us! I keep hoping they will come around! The gospel is here to bless families and I know it can bless theirs! We will see!
It's always an honor to put on the tag every morning and to be a missionary. I'm forever grateful for the things that I've learned, learning, and will learn! There is no other way to learn these things except to be here! I have such a strong testimony of tithing and as I've been studying more I've come to realize that this is the tithe of my life. I was listening to a song called "Bless my Son" (missionary mommas should listen if you want to cry.) In the song it says: "Funny how 2 years adds up to 10% of his life." It truly hit me hard and I'm so glad to be here giving the "tithe of my life."
I hope all goes well wherever you are as we get ready to celebrate the birth of our Savior!! I hope everyone is safe in all of their travels to and from family stuff!!
Feliz Navidad!!
White less winter in the North Pole,
Elder Halls
Pictures: Found an old friend. Bingham boys representing!; Westfield/Barcelona area
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