Letter #73

Sent:	Mon 8/04/14 2:55 PM

Hmm... Where to start. Well, yesterday was quite interesting.  We went tracting and were having absolutely no luck at all. We were walking on the main road and decided to cross to the other side. We saw a man walking his bike up the opposite side of where we were walking so we then crossed back over to the side that he was on which was the side that we were originally on. He then crossed to where we just were... we followed. LOL! It probably looked like we were stocking him but in reality we just wanted to teach him about the gospel. He stopped, turned around and said, " Can I help you?" It kind of reminded me of the part in Finding Nemo when Marlin was following Dori.... Haha! Anyway, we said that we were representatives of Jesus Christ and that we know that The Book of Mormon can help us to overcome the trials and challenges that we face in this life. He said that he was Christian and that he went to church growing up but stopped going and got into some not so good things. We talked to him about the Atonement and gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to read Alma 7. We tried to get his address or phone number but he said he wouldn't be that interested. We gave him a mormon.org card with our phone number on it and told him that if he had any questions to give us a call. We went our separate ways and started tracting again. As we were walking up the sidewalk to one of the houses, we noticed that the front door was open (that actually happens quite often). Right as I was about to ring the door bell, Sister Aguilar said, " Wait! There's a naked man! We quickly walked away. It was the most awkward moment of my life! Besides all of the other times that people have answered their doors naked. I honestly do not understand. People here in Oregon are waaaayyy to comfortable with themselves! We then were on our way to one of our appointments with a less active. As we were about to get out of the car, our phone rings and it's a number that we don't recognize. We answer and the man on the other end said, Hi this is Tony. I just met you about 2 hours ago on the side of the street. He said that he looked through the chapter that we had left him to read and that he was going to come to church on Sunday! It was a total miracle! Heavenly Father knows exactly what he's doing and I am just amazed everyday at how perfectly he guides our every foot steps to put us in the place where we need to be.

We also saw Walker this past week!!! He is the 12 year old that we've been working with forever and are still waiting on his mom's permission. We talked to him all about baptism and asked him what he thought about it. He said, well I think that everyone should be baptized if they really think about it and pray. He is seriously so so ready! Hopefully we will get confirmation this coming week from his mom. Another sweet experience was when we went out to dinner with an 18 year old girl that comes out with us to appointments all the time. She is such a life saver! I think I've actually told you about her before. She's from Hawaii and has been debating on whether to serve a mission or to go to college in Canada. Her family is inactive and she's recently been coming back to church. We've really been encouraging her to serve a mission- she would be incredible! Anyway, at dinner she told us that she had an interview with the bishop and she's getting her patriarchal blessing!!!!! She just received it yesterday and we are meeting up with her later tonight because she said that she wants us to help her start her mission papers for real this time!!!! I just love her so much! She reminds me A LOT of me before my mission.

So...  I received a letter this past week from the mission telling me of my release date and all of the preparations that I need to do before that day comes............. it caught me way off guard and it hit me hard that this is actually going to happen. It still doesn't feel real and probably won't until i'm on the airplane- at least that's what everyone i've talked to has said. It really is such a weird thing. I feel like I'll just be a missionary forever, in a way I will be. Every member a missionary, right? Right.

So, you said that I will be speaking on the 31st of August. What time does your church start? There is a sister missionary in my zone right now that is also going home the same day as I do and will be flying into St.George as well and she said she would like to come to my homecoming talk.

 Well, i've got to run but thanks for all that you do! I hope you have a great week!

I love you!

Love,

Sister Hall :)

P.S. Have you gotten Trevor's past few e-mails? I haven't gotten them in about 3 weeks...