Letter #25

Sent:	Mon 8/12/13 10:50 AM

Hi mom! How are you?? This week was probably the best week of my mission so far!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Roberta was baptized on Saturday and it was so amazing!!! The spirit was so strong and I am so incredibly proud of her. I love how this gospel changes peoples lives and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be apart of something that brings so much happiness and joy not only to my life but the lives of every person we teach. The baptism was so special. She has polio, which means that she doesn't have any leg function at all. When she was baptized the Elder baptizing her picked her up out of her wheelchair and carried her into the water. It was the neatest thing I have ever been apart of. I can't express how truly grateful I am to be here serving our Heavenly Father and to have part in something so meaningful and life changing. There is so much more I have to tell you about it but I have very little time today. It's transfer day and guess what? Sister Marble is being transferred :( I am very sad about it but i'm excited for her to continue her adventure in Klamath Falls. Plus she's going to be moving to St.George when we're off our missions so we'll see each other all the time! So you're probably wondering who my new companion is and well, I can't even tell you that cause I don't even know yet. She is still in the MTC and won't be here until Wednesday! I'm not quite sure what President Young was thinkin' but he gave me the assignment of TRAINING A BRAND NEW MISSIONARY!!! I am super excited but also nervous. I know that this will be a growing experience for me and I am anxious to see what the Lord has in store! I will be going up to Eugene tomorrow afternoon for a trainer's training and then meet my new "greenie" companion on Wednesday afternoon! I was also told that we are getting 2 Elders in the ward as well as us and that one of them is Elder O'Neil. And seeing the last picture that you sent i'm guessing that Trevor was companions with him?? I don't know? I thought he was companions with Elder Taumeolau. I kinda feel outta the loop but that's alright. Oh!!! So last week we also met with Jill and her boys again and oh my goodness, Nickolas was being so so silly! All of us were laughing so hard that we had tears in our eyes! I love that family so much!! AND guess what???? Jill's husband Richard came to church yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sister Marble and I couldn't contain our excitement we were so happy! Our Ward Mission Leader kept telling us to put our eyes back in our head! Haha! Anyway, this week has just been so fantastic!! McKenna and Bryce are now on date to be baptized for the 24th of August! They are seriously the most polite kids i've ever met and so so sweet. I hope that you are doing well. I didn't get much of an e-mail from you this week so I hope that means everything is okay. I love you so much and can't tell you how much I appreciate all you do for me.

Love,

Sister Hall :)

Letter #24

Sent:	Mon 8/05/13 12:51 PM

Hello Mom! GUESS WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Roberta is getting baptized this Saturday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't explain how excited I am for her!! She is the cutest little old lady I've ever met!! (Except for my grandma's of course!) I can't even tell you how amazing she is! She truly has been prepared by our Father in Heaven. It's so incredible to think that we only met her 4 weeks ago this Thursday and she's already getting baptized!! I love this work so much and I can't wait for her to experience all the blessings and joy that this gospel holds! Since she has Polio and has no function in her legs, one of the Elders that will be baptizing her will have to carry her down into the font and then she'll sit in a chair and when she's emerged, they'll just tip her back. I really just can't wait to see her in her white jumpsuit! :D Another amazing thing happened this week! We were told by one of the Young Women's leaders that McKenna and Bryce both want to be baptized!! I don't remember if I told you about them but their mom was recently baptized in February and when we met with them yesterday, McKenna said in her prayer that she's excited to be baptized and to be able to go to the temple! They are such great kids and so polite! We also met with a couple last week and they took us out to breakfast. They're pretty great too! There names are Amy and Jerry and they've got 4 kids all above the age of 8!! They were a referral from a member in the ward, and told us that they are very interested in learning more about the gospel. Amy is an animal adoption caretaker so she has like 34 cats at her house and 13 dogs... I don't know how people can live with that many pets. Haha! Anyway, i'm sure you've heard about the fires that are going on right now. I think they said there's 5 or 6 of them and Grants Pass is getting all the smoke from them. People have been telling us that we are now in the "Hazardously Unhealthy" stage of smoke so we're supposed to be wearing face masks...They look silly but make us feel like we're in some horror movie so that makes it fun! We met Tim again on the street this week, this time with his big black friend Ray! They are hilarious!!!!!!! They're moving though so we probably won't see them around anymore :/ but they gave us their information and told us to make sure we write them. Transfers are coming up on Monday, so if you send anything, send it to the mission office address just to be safe. I have a feeling that Sister Marble might be getting transferred. She's been her almost 6 months and at interviews President said something about it.. I really hope we both stay though!! We are like best friends and I just love her! Oh! Another thing that's happening, we are going to be getting 2 Elders in the ward so there will be 4 of us serving in the Redwood ward now. I'm not really sure how it will all work but it will be nice because our area is so huge! We haven't even been to all of our area just because it's so big. Interviews with President went great!! I love that man so much! He is seriously THE BEST!!! We mostly talked about Trevor and how he's doing and pretty much just how amazing he is! ;) It sounds like he is doing wonderful and that makes me so happy and so proud! I am so blessed. Thank you for always being there for me mom. And for always supporting me in all I do. I truly appreciate all that you have taught me and for the way that you have raised me. I am so grateful for our family and for the relationships that we have. Thank you for everything mom! I love you so so so much! I hope you have a great week, with less stress and busy-ness!

I love you!

Love, Sister Hall :)

Letter #23

Sent:	Mon 7/29/13 5:18 PM

Hi mom!!!!! I don't have much time today. We just got back from going to the Oregon Caves! President Watts took the whole zone and it was so fun! So this week was absolutely incredible!! The lady we met last week, Roberta, is amazing!! We met with her on Wednesday and also Saturday and we were able to set a baptismal date with her for the 10th of August only after knowing her for a week!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so so SOOO excited for her! The first time we met her she told us, "now you mormons don't drink coffee, now do you?" We said no and she said, " Well i've got to have my cup of coffee everyday. So after the first time meeting with her we knew that she would have a challenge with the Word of Wisdom.... Saturday we taught her about it and why it's so important. She told us that she only had about a teaspoon left of creamer left so she went and poured out the rest of her coffee and said, " okay, no more!!!!! :D She is seriously SO golden! She also told us that the day before we invited her to be baptized she woke up at 3 in the morning with a question about baptism and that she stayed awake studying the book of mormon and the other material that we left her. She told us that since she's been meeting with us and reading from the Book of Mormon, that her anger towards her stepson is starting to disappear and that she feels that what we've been teaching her is filling in the pieces that she didn't know were missing. The whole lesson was very spirit filled and I couldn't help but hold back the tears. Heavenly Father truly is preparing people to hear the gospel and I absolutely love being an instrument in his hand. I have never been so happy in my life. I love this gospel with all my heart and I feel so very blessed to be apart of it. I can't explain the love I have towards the people that I am teaching and for my Savior.

OH! We totally met Moses this week!!! Well not really but he looked like him! Haha he had a white turban and long beard with a huge staff! We talked to him on the side of the road for about 45 minutes and he even started talking in Hebrew! It was pretty awesome! We asked where he was going and he told us that he was going to work which was to milk goats... Lol! Only in Oregon! :) I'm sure you've heard, but there has been crazy fires all over and the smoke is insane here! Most of the time we can't see the mountains and it's been snowing ash. The sun was like blood red one of the days and Sister Marble and are were freakin out! It was so cool!! We have interviews with President Young tomorrow and I am so excited to see him!! It seems like it's been forever and he just always makes my day! Transfers are also coming up soon on the 12th. I'm really hoping that Sister Marble and I will both stay here in Grants Pass but she has been here for almost 6 months so there's a big chance she could be leaving :( We've become like bestfriends! Anyway, I hope that everything is going well back home. I didn't have time to read any e-mails today so I will print them out and read them when I get time! I love you so much!!!

Love,

Sister Hall :)

Letter #22

Sent:	Mon 7/22/13 11:56 AM

Hi Mom!

How's it going? Sounds like you've been crazy busy lately. I hope you are doing well! I also hope Kurtis is okay.. Let him know that him and Sheila and the rest of their family are in my prayers.

So this past week was another great one!!! The work is really starting to pick up and we found 5 new solid people to teach!! On Friday and Sunday we had back to back appointments so by the end of the day we were absolutely pooped! But I LOVE having appointments and teaching people! One of the new people that we are teaching is Roberta! She is wonderful! She is 77 years old and the sweetest lady :) She got Polio when she was 10 and so she's in a wheelchair. And she has like over 2,000 roles of yarn! Not even joking!! She loves to talk so sometimes it's hard to stick to the lesson plan but once she finds that she's off topic she'll catch herself and say, "okay, now where were we?" Haha she is just great! Another lady we are teaching is Joanne! We tracted into her in May and told us to come back in July so we went back on Tuesday and she told us to come back Friday. She is really interested in the history of the Book of Mormon and had tons of questions about the Plan of Salvation. We were able to answer all of her questions and she invited us to come back another time!! She's big into Family History work so we were able to tell her about family search and about the family history center at the church and she seemed to be super excited about that! She showed us one of her geneology books and we're pretty sure some of her ancestors are pioneers that came over from Missouri. The other lady we started teaching is Katie! She is Brandon's mom. I don't know if I told you about Brandon but he is a recent convert that we've been seeing every week. He's 16 and the happiest kid ever! He always has a smile on his face! Yesterday he told us that he's having a hard time deciding on whether he should go into the military or if he should go on a mission. Anyways, when we met with him mom, she told us that she had met with missionaries right before Brandon was born and said that she prayed, and prayed, and prayed about if the Book of Mormon was true and she said the answer she got was no.. So this week we are planning on finding out how she got that answer and help her to feel the spirit that she once felt when she was taking the discussions before. She used to be a wicken? Like witchcraft stuff so that was a little different. We also met with Jill again!!!!!!!!!!! Aah! I just love her so much! I know I've said that like a million times but she really is amazing! So when we went over to her house, we walked in and Christian and Nicholas were sitting at the table just waiting for us :) Nicholas had poured us all drinks and passed out cookies :) I sat next to Christian and he said look what I got! It was a Bible that he got in Portland. He was so excited about it and when we gave him and Nicholas a Book of Mormon they were even more excited! Jill told us that last Sunday after church, Christian asked if next Sunday he could be baptized!!! We asked if they had thought about a date to be baptized and she said that her birthday was on the 7th of September and her mom's was the 10th so she was thinking around that time but she wanted to make sure that her mom was there. I am so excited for them and can't wait for them to be the newest members of the church. She already has so many friends in the ward and everyone is so welcoming to her. It is so important that members of the ward show that love and friendship because most of the time that's what somebody is looking for when investigating the church. It's not so much the doctrine at first but the feeling that they get. Another lady that we've been meeting with is Carole. She is an inactive member and has been for over 20+ years. She is friends with a member in our ward and has accepted to let us come over and teach her! She smokes pretty heavily so we are going to try and help her quit that addiction. We also met with Charley and he is doing pretty good. He's been super tired because of the radiation but he seems to be doing good other than that. We talked to him again about baptism and he told us that he doesn't think that he can make that big of a commitment. But the thing is, he's already doing everything that qualifies him for baptism, he just has super low self esteem and doesn't feel worthy. It makes me really sad but we are not giving up on him. I really just love being a missionary and I love seeing the tender mercies that Heavenly Father shows me everyday. I feel so incredibly blessed to be apart of this work and there's nothing else I would rather be doing at this time in my life. I love you all so much and hope that you have the best week! You are in my prayers! Oh!! And that is so cool that Elder Holland is going to be in St.George!! What is the new mission they are making? And do we have missionaries in our ward??

I LOVE YOU!!

Love,

Sister Hall :)

 



 

 

Letter #21

Sent:	Mon 7/15/13 12:05 PM

Hey Mom!

How are you? So, this past week was pretty fantastic!! We met with Jill twice! On Tuesday we taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel and she was very receptive and the whole lesson was just so spirit filled! We met with her again on Friday and taught her about the Plan of Salvation! She absolutely loved it! When we asked her if she had any questions, she said, "no, everything just makes so much sense". I seriously just love her so much! We asked her if she would be baptized and she said YES! She just wants to get her husband on board with it first. He doesn't have any religious background at all which is sometimes easier. She said that he's a very shy and neutral person so he's not for it but he's not against it. When we met with her on Tuesday, her son Nicholas who's 6, was standing in the hallway with his head poking out. We turned around and he turned on Jason Aldean really loud and walked out with his plaid shirt and cowboy hat! CUTEST THING EVER!!! And then when they came to church he was wearing a little tux and fedora hat! And the other son Christian who's 10 runs his own lawn mowing business like Joshy, and actually makes quite a bit of money doing it. I just love that family so much! And when they came to church yesterday, when we were sitting in Relief Society, they had Jill stand up and introduce herself. The spirit was so strong and tears were rolling down both her face and ours. My testimony that Heavenly Father truly has prepared people for us and to hear the gospel has grown so much and I absolutely love being an instrument in the Lord's hand :) We also met a young man about 17 while walking down the street on Thursday. His name is Matthew and he looked super sad. We went up to him and started telling him about the Book of Mormon and bore testimony of how it has blessed our lives. Tears came to his eyes and when he went to talk he was all choked up. I know that we met him for a reason and it makes my heart so happy to think that I may have just made his day a little better than it was before we opened our mouth. Another thing we did this week was we went to a place called Grandma's Home. It's a place where old ladies live who have Alzheimers and dimensia. We met one lady named Francis who was very quiet. She said very few words and just starred at us. We decided to read her a book that was in the room and she got all teary when we did. There was a teddy bear on the table so I made a cape and a hat for the bear and she smiled really big and started laughing. And then said well isn't that cute! Haha! She's great! We have also been working with and ex-communicated member and she seems to be getting more interested in coming back into the church. She said that ever since we tracted into her, she hadn't stopped thinking about it. It's pretty amazing how the Lord works and lately we have been seeing many miracles happen. Last week we received quite a few referrals from members and they all seem very promising!! Sister Marble and I are so excited to start teaching all of these people who have been prepared to hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Oh! So there are blackberries EVERYWHERE here!!! Everywhere we go there are blackberries and we eat them like they're candy! Same with plumbs. They grow wild here so it's awesome! We don't have to pay to buy fruit, we can just pick it off the street :D When we were tracting the other day, we were walking down this lane and we heard a weird noise, we kept walking and there was a skunk and like 6 babies! They were so cute!! I'll try to send a pic! Oh!! Another thing! Last P-day, we went over to Larry's (Recent Convert aka BEST Ward Missionary) and he made Sister Marble and I a birthday dinner! He and his friend Gloria and her grandkids also made us a birthday cake and gave us a little gift! It was super fun :) And guess what we're doing today?!?!?!? We are going up to his house for dinner again with some members in the ward and the people he lives by are a less active/part member family and they like to feed the bears that come to their house! So hopefully I will see a bear tonight and maybe even get a picture with one!! I am so excited! I really just love being a missionary and this whole past week i've been so happy! Like happier than I've ever been.. EVER! I love this gospel and the happiness and joy that it brings into my life and those whom I am teaching. I love the Book of Mormon and feel that because of it, my relationship with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ has really been strengthened. I love this work and the opportunity I have each and every day to share my testimony. I love my companion and all that she teaches me and the awesome friendship that we have! She seriously the best! She is most likely going to move to St.George when she gets home from serving and it's just going to be great! I love my family and all that you guys do for me. I can't express how grateful I am for each of you and for the examples that you have been in my life. Thank you for always supporting me and for all of your love! You are amazing!!!

I LOVE YOU!!! I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Lyndsie Hall

Letter #20

Sent:

Mon 7/08/13 11:50 AM

Hi Mom!!! Thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much for the Birthday package!! I absolutely LOVED it!!!! The skirt fits perfect and so do the shirts you sent! I got both yours and Chelsie's package on Saturday and couldn't wait to open them until my birthday yesterday! My birthday was pretty great! It started off with a call from President and Sister Young calling to wish me a Happy Birthday! And it always makes my day to hear from them. They are like my parents away from home and they just make me smile so big :) But I would have to say the best gift I got was when our investigator Jill and her family came to church!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOODNESS!!!! She is seriously so amazing! We had our first lesson with her on Friday and it went so incredibly well! She has a lot of friends who are members in our ward so that's been nice to have fellow shippers for her. I honestly can't tell you how wonderful she is! I just wish you could meet her! We will be meeting with her twice a week and we plan to have her on date for baptism next time we see her!! I am just really excited for her and her family to be apart of this wonderful gospel! We also met this guy named David last Friday. He is from Poland so that was pretty cool. He was asking all sorts of questions and accepted a Book of Mormon and said he would love to know more about our church. He was very surprised when we answered his question about how Mormons are Christians. Haha! Sometimes I just don't understand how people don't think that we as members of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints aren't Christian... It says it right there in the name. Ha oh well! So... it's kind of weird being on a mission during holidays. On the 4th of July, they told us to do soft proselyting and we weren't really sure what that meant so we just visited people, no tracting or anything like that. We also had to be in by 7:00 which was weird cause it was still light outside. We visited a less active member that day and Sister Marble has been craving a hot dog the past couple weeks and she said if she didn't have a hot dog on the 4th of July, she would probably cry, cause who doesn't have hot dogs on the 4th! It made me laugh! Anyway, one thing I have to say is that I really miss your cooking, mom. People cook good food here but it's nothing compared to yours :] We also visited another less active couple and the husband reminds me so much of grandpa! He is just the cutest and always gives really good advice about pretty much everything.. mostly life after the mission and getting married and work stuff. We didn't really have much go on last week because we don't really have anybody to teach. We've been tracting A LOT and I think I have come up with a new definition of Grants Pass- NO TRESPASSING! I swear everyone has those signs. It's quite frustrating and we've actually started ignoring them.. but don't worry nothing bad has happened…yet! Hah! We ran into a guy that had like 6 guns just sitting on his couch and he had one on his hip and he wanted us to hold them... I’m pretty sure that's not allowed but he insisted. We're okay though. I want to thank you again for the awesome package you sent me and for all of you love and support! It means the world to me! I love you so much! Have a fantastic week!!!!

Love,

Sister Hall :)

Letter #19

Sent: Mon 7/01/13 11:58 AM                                             Hi mom! How are you doing? This week has been so incredible! We got 3 referrals last week from ward members and they are all families so we will start teaching them this week!! I am SOOO excited! We met all 3 families and they are just amazing and pretty solid!! I swear they're already LDS! We also found a man named Jim. We talked to him for quite awhile on his doorstep and he's pretty great too! He has a TON of questions and is kind of a skeptic.. Actually he's a really big skeptic but we will be meeting with him tomorrow and taking our WML along with us. Also when we were tracting the other day, we found 4 people who have never heard of the Book of Mormon. It made me so sad that they hadn't even heard about it but we were able to give each of them a copy and they all said they would read from it! So... you said that it's been pretty hot back home, well it is hotter than Hades here!! It's so humid and I always feel so sticky! I felt like I was about to throw up yesterday just cause it was so hot out! If you could send me some mesh garments or some kind that you think would be cooler, that would be very much appreciated. Oh! So.. Tuesday one of the members of the bishopric called and asked Sister Marble and I to talk in Sacrament this Sunday about missionary work. The WML and a recent convert also spoke. The whole day at church was all about missionary work and we really hope that the ward will catch the vision and help us to find new people to teach. This Friday we will be going over to Monte and Marlow's home for dinner and to teach them Lesson 2 (the plan of salvation)!!! We can't wait! They are so prepared and I just love them so much! We also went up to a Less Active members home this past week and helped them weed their garden! We got to wear pants! It was awesome!! But at the same time it was just weird! Haha! I kinda forgot that I had 2 legs...They also have the cutest dog EVER! It's a boxer and he is so cuddly and playful! How is Petey? I got your letter in the mail! Thanks so much for all of the updates on everyone! Tell Kurt and Sheila that they are in my prayers. And I'm sorry to hear about your knee, that's not good :( I hope everything is okay... I haven't heard from Janiece in a while but i'm sure she's busy with work and everything. I get an e-mail from Trevors grandparents almost every week telling me what's been going on in their family. I'm not sure where Trevor is serving right now. Last I heard was that he's a District Leader in Cottage Grove. One of the sisters that was in his district is now in my district and she told me that he said to say hi to me. It made me smile :) Anyways, I hope that you are all doing well and you know how much I love and appreciate all that you do for me. I am so grateful to be apart of this wonderful gospel and for the opportunity i've been given to serve a mission. Especially here in the OEM!!! AKA The Best Mission In The World!!! I love you so much! Have a wonderful week!! Love, Sister Hall          Hot Air Balloon we saw this morning! WWJD- What would Jesus do?             This week was sooo slow, all of our appointments fell through So we did lots of tracting... 12 hours to be exact. 4 hours one day! I got crazy tan lines on the tops of my feet. Haha!   Sister Varco and I! Ward Missionary in Albany  Medford Temple in Central Point