Pretty normal week

November 11, 2013

This week was just alot of contacts. We have some good families that we are teaching but we have alot of empty time during the day so we went looking for more people. it was hard but we ended up finding good people to teach. I really like my area and my comp. Its hard working in a branch but i really like the members. my comp is the man too. he hit a rough patch when his mom died (understandable) but he got back really well. it was really like a normal week though. nothing really exciting happened, we kind of just worked but nothing really happened like interesting. 

hows everybody doing? I hope everything is well back home, I miss everybody a bunch. Its getting more real that its coming to an end. its kind of a bittersweet thing but im excited. I love you all ill talk to you guys next week! byeeeeeee 

A letter to his Dad

 November 4, 2013

i am writing you from beautiful Parnaíba in a sketchy internet cafe. here it is roughly 110 with no clouds in the sky and the forecast for tomorrow is 110 with no clouds in the sky. I had no idea that soccer players were getting beheaded. Brasil likes to focus on  the worlds problems and not Brasils problems. Ive heard of everything that goes on in the US but here in Brasil I only hear the terrible stuff. 

Hope everythings good with your health. mother told me a little bit but i wasnt really in the loop. I think being like 7,000 km from you guys its a little hard to be in the loop. I think i need to see a doctor when I get back. im 90% positive that I have worms and i have sleep problems. I talked to the President like over a year ago but he didnt do anything and nothing has really changed. its nothing serious but i will be visiting the doctors office once i return. 

im excited to see everybody. I keep thinking about the people here and im really gonna miss Brasil and everybody here but im happy that its almost over. its one of those bittersweet thoughts. I really like it here but theres alot of things im not gonna miss but its gonna be hard to get on the plane.

But i hope everythings good with the stores and life. take care of lola for me. <3 Elder Hal

They were picked up by a member of the Seventy!

Sending him packages has been a difficult thing the past 2 years.  It takes forever for him to get them.

11/4/13

so i got one package a little while ago and one got here to Parnaíba im getting it tomorrow at a zone meeting so ive got 2 so far. tell sister bennett that i appreciate her generous donation to the soccer jersey fund. fortaleza is the next mission over its only like 4 hours from my mission actually its really close. ive heard that its awesome i really want to go there someday. são luis is awesome i miss it alot. i really like parnaiba.....well not really. I love the members but the city is terrible. we lost power last night at about 6 and it didnt come back til like 2 in the afternoon, we had to sleep outside last night cuz it was so hot inside our house without fans. but kind of a cool thing that happened a few weeks ago that i forgot, we were walking to lunch and it was like an hour away and i was super sad cuz it was hot and this car went flying passed us stopped came back and asked us where we were going and offered a ride and turned out that it was a 70! Fernando Araújo  is his name, i dont know anything about him but somehow he knew my name.....not sure if thats a good thing. anyways his brother lives here so he comes here all the time but it was a good day for him to be there. anyways that was pretty much all that happened this week. We had a baptism that went awesomely but other than that it was pretty much just a normal week. I hope everythings good back home and that everybody is well. The President sent me a message through the Zone Leaders to cut my hair.....he knows me all to well at this point on my mission. well love all of you byeeeeeeeeee

We found awesome people

A week full of Miracles...

10/28/13

this week was just full of miracles. we found a bunch of people like without trying, i dont even know what we did but we found awesome people. we found some lady that her house caught one fire and everything got ruined and in the middle of the scorched wreckage they found the book of mormon completely intact and fine just covered in ashes. awesome, she still has the book im gonna try and get it from her. and then some guy just showed up and church and was like baptize me so he came out of nowhere and is getting baptized this saturday. and we found another family that was taught like a year ago and the missionaries just never went back so we started teaching them and they liked it and want to get baptized. unfortunately like all the less actives that we spent so long searching for didnt work out but we found other people. it was pretty fun working this week. we had alot of work.

anyways i hope everybody is good back home, love all of you. im trying to send dads birthday card but the post office is still on strike. oh and dont send any more packages. I just dont think its gonna get here in time. oh and btw we bought risk today so when that shows up on my debit card just know it was for a good cause and my roommates paid me back, we just didnt have enough cash with us at the time... love you byeeeeeee

Conference week

Conference is awesome...especially when you are on a mission!

10/7/13

Conference was awesome. Its always fun hanging out with Americans for a few hours. Its good but everybody ends up just talking about America and all the things we miss. It was also a little bittersweet knowing that it was my last conference as a missionary. I really enjoyed alot of the talks, President Uchtdorf is still my favorite, his talks are always awesome. Conference always seems to come at the perfect time, funny how that is. This lady we have been teaching decided to get baptized and passed her interview so shes getting baptized on saturday, she watched conference and said that it was unlike anything shes ever seen and that she loved it. We also spent alot of time this week hunting down less actives that had their birthdays this week. Its funny how when you go with a member to say happy birthday people are waaaaaay more receptive. We spent a week by ourselves doing the same thing and got nowhere but as soon as we went with a member we found a bunch of people. The work is coming around, we found some families that live in a city about 30 an hour from Parnaiba and are gonna go visit them this week, we are hoping to open up a group there and start working there too. Theres alot of places that dont have the gospel here its crazy.

Thats sad that marvs wife died. I loved them growing up. Hows he doing? I want to visit him when I get back, he was the man. Well thats super sad to hear that she died. Hows everybody else doing? Prepare Sammers for my homecoming, shes got 2 years of lovin coming her way. Everything is going well here, transfers are next week and im not sure whos gonna go. If I get transfered Ill end in that area if not im gonna end here. I would prefer to end here, I really like it here in Parnaíba. But anyways Elder Hal loves all of you, have a good week byeeeee

Working hard to strengthen the Branch

 Kyle is in an area with a branch.  The branch needs strengthening.  He has felt like the most important thing he could do would be to strengthen the branch.  It doesn't do any good to keep baptizing people if the branch can't keep them active.  I told him to pray about it and do what is in his heart.  Unfortunately...zone leaders think missions are all about numbers...

9/30/13

im not feeling so hot either. I dont know why but i passed all day yesterday with a fever and headache, luckily we had monthly planning so we stayed at home planning and then i slept. Oh and I have a members address if you want stuff to get here faster. And I never mailed the bennets a thank you because I threw the box away and lost the address...If you want to get me that Ill send it or I can send it home to you guys and you send it.

unfortunately everybody doesnt see everything how you guys do. The mission is really number driven. Missionaries that are baptizing are the "best missionaries" so I dont know whats going to happen this next transfer, I want to end my mission here in Parnaiba but im not sure if thats gonna happen unfortunately. I really like it here, I like the members alot. The work isnt the best but the people are trying their best at least. And we are starting to see more members trying. At least we got the attention of a few members.

Send the Sniders my love and make sure Brandy knows that Im upset she didnt name her Kylee. Im still not 100% positive on where im gonna go but im pretty sure its gonna be UVU. Alex Peck emailed me last week and said hes going there and offered a house to live in with him and some other guys from his mission. Any college that doesnt offer portuguese ive written off, and i think that the best option is UVU but im still waiting on Jesus to answer me. 

We found a guy this week that speaks english and it was weird cuz he really wanted to speak english with me and me teach him in english but it was super weird, I didnt like it. Its really different teaching in  English, I didnt think it would be but it was hard. he was super cool but hes jehovahs witness and didnt want to believe us but told us to be his friend just not try to baptize him. it is what it is. but I love you guys and miss everybody, byeeeeee