Week 41 General Authorities and What Not

Hey fam, 

Congrats to all those who survived another year of school! The learning never stops! We had a good teaching week but the moral of this story is patience. I need more of it. 

Tuesday

This was a crazy day. We taught 7 lessons and it was all beautifully executed. Elder Montgomery is a wizard with the phone so we're always getting team ups and what not. He uses my one hour of language study as secretary hour and it's pretty awesome. By the time I finish my studies we have a bunch of set appointments. Good guy! Hah we saw the cat lady and we continue to meet outside. I've decided sweating a lot is better than not being able to breathe. That night Hermano Fuentes and I went down to Lewisburg for a Spanish lesson. We introduced the Book of Mormon to some Puerto Ricans named Giovanni and Pepe! Pepe seems interested and looks like Daddy Yankee so that was kinda neat. 

Wednesday 

Had a pretty good district meeting! The walk elders fried up a bunch of chicken and we had a picnic with our district and theirs! Good times. We went up and saw Nadia who is feeling a little bit better about baptism after she prayed about it! She is a true test of patience. On our way back to Muncy we stopped and got some ice cream at this awesome homemade place for our dinner with the Fuentes family. It was kinda  good that we did because as we got there Sister Fuentes' water broke... She's super pregnant. Pregnant women usually need ice cream and we were right there. Clutch. Needless to say, they went to the hospital and we hope all is well. Brother Youmans later took us on a tour of our area to show us our next service opportunity! I'm going to need a machete for this one... Super long grass. It was funny because he was pointing out all the land and who owns what and it reminded me of driving around the ranch with Grandpa Halls. Rednecks are the best. 

Thursday 

Bishop came out with us to see a few people which is always good. He does a great job teaching with us and he wants to meet all these members! We went and saw J who is one of my favorites here. He's 23 and really down to earth. He's living with his girlfriend right now and she is interested in the church! We're going to be spending some good time over there. That night we went and saw Mary who is really starting to progress! We taught the plan of salvation using little pictures which was a stellar idea. She really understood it and asked a few great questions! Good stuff. 

Friday

We went to MLC in Altoona! I always really like MLC because I feel like we talk about things that we can actually change and fix. President values our opinions and a lot gets done! We were trained on how to teach with the pamphlets in seven minutes. The idea is to give people a quick preview of the restoration and invite them to study more on their own. It makes us more of the guides to their gospel learning instead of just teaching at them. It's pretty interesting. I like the idea of it, but it's pretty hard to teach all those things in 7 minutes. Practice, practice, and more practice I guess. It was also pretty ironic that we had a 7 hour meeting to talk about simplifying and teaching quickly but hey, that's life. After the meeting we did the usual and invaded Texas Roadhouse. Those people had never seen so many Mormons in their life... 

Saturday 

We had the priesthood and adult session of stake conference which was great! Elder Dunnigan from the 70 came and he is amazing. We were all sitting in the priesthood leadership meeting when Elder Dunnigan asked President Johnson to send up one of his missionaries. Well what do you know... He chose me to go. So I walk up and Elder Dunnigan shakes my hand and asks me where I'm from. I'm pretty dang nervous about this time and he proceeds to ask me to recite the first vision to everyone. Only the Spanish words came to my mind, but I managed to get it out in English. He then asked me to share my testimony of that event to everyone and I broke down. It was one of the most spiritual filled moments of my life as a general authority stood by me and I testified of my experience in the sacred grove. (I went in December if anyone remembers.) I shared the quote from Joseph Smith where he says: "I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it." I think that is so powerful!! I shed many a tear but it was great. 

Sunday 

Stake conference was good even though we were on the very back row and I could hardly hear anything with all the kids running around. That's how the cookie crumbles sometimes... We went and saw the Lakes who have a daughter that wants to be baptized! It's hard because the parents don't do a ton to help out... We're working on it. We also saw Jackie who told us that he believes the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet! We are so pumped about that!! Buuuut like always he is having a hard time committing to join the church. He has a hard time with the spiritual experiences he has had in another church and he doesn't want to discredit them. Then to wrap it all up we got into a "scriptural discussion" with this hard core bible lady named Shannon. She has read up to 2 Nephi of the book and she was trying to point out all the ways it contradicts the Bible. She has spent HOURS on this. We explained everything to her and the spirit was there, but it's going to be a process!! Super good discussion and I'm getting to know the bible a lot better! 

This week was tough! It seems like all these people are so close to making that next step! I'm having to learn a lot of patience and understand that these people aren't on my time frame or schedule but the Lord's. This is His work and things will happen in His time. 

Hope all is well and you're enjoying the start of summer! Enjoy y'all! 

Peace out Girl Scout,

Elder Halls

Pictures: Puerto Rican preaching; Texas Roadhouse with some homies. Featuring Sister Birch for some reason