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snsmissionaries · 7 years

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12/11/17 -- Elder Dalton Hall, Kansas, Wichita Mission

11/15/2017 4th letter home

Hello everyone!! It has been yet another great week in the MTC!! It is just so awesome to be here!! We are so blessed to have the opportunity to feel the spirit and have the "perks" of being here such as the residencies, the electricity, the food, the speakers, class rooms, etc.

So our lessons with our investigators this week have been amazing!! We had 2 lessons with Stefanie, I think 2 with David, and 3 with Sofia! I have been praying again to have the spirit and the gift of tongues with us through the week and I have seen the blessings of both of those in our lessons. Elder Carter and I have been teaching very well together and we have been feeling the spirit in all of our lessons. With Stefanie, we talked with her about faith, patience, and hope, and how they can bless her life especially because she has school and a lot of things going on in her life. We also invited her to church and she accepted! We had peace and comfort in our lessons with her. Our lessons with David were alright, but he is always rushing the lessons and we only have 15 minutes or less with him! He is trying to be hard on us and we have done a good job at teaching him, but he doesn't seem too interested and he has a hard time keeping commitments. He cut the lesson short the other day because he had to go to the park with his family and we couldn't even end with a prayer. We invited him to go to church with his family (his wife and 3 kids are members but he isn't) but he said it might be hard because he has to watch the Cowboys play on Sunday lol. It's kinda hard with him, but Elder Carter and I are really positive and we're just going to keep trying. Now with Sofia, we have had a bunch of lessons with her and the 2 that we have had so far have been SO SPIRITUAL. We talked about church and answered her questions about the Book of Mormon. We shared personal experiences about our families and how we have been blessed by going to church, praying, and reading the scriptures. We also shared 3 Nephi 27 which talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (get out a Book of Mormon and read that chapter!). We really get along well with her and I love teaching her. She is basically a "golden investigator." She reads her scriptures all the time, has questions, wants to learn, and she wants to be baptized! She is going to church this week and then we will also be talking to her on Friday about her baptism! So it's super exciting! I have been able to speak so much better this week in our lessons and I have been feeling the Lord's love that he has for his children.

PLEASE READ: This week we had the opportunity to listen to 2 talks from Jeffrey R. Holland and they were very inspiring. I don't even know what to say... he is so blunt and so powerful and he really makes me want to be better and be the best missionary I can be. Go on lds.org and search for, "Jeffrey R. Holland MTC talks" and I bet it will pull up. So in his talk, he straight up told us what we had a hard time studying and planning and that we need to be better. He told us that we need to stay strong and that we are missionaries for life. He told us that there is no way that we should fall away from the church after our missions especially after sharing the gospel and doing the Lord's work. He shared a story about Peter and how after Jesus Christ left them he didn't know what to do. Peter and the other apostles returned to their nets and continued to fish. Jesus Christ eventually came back to them (and this was when they weren't catching fish) and Jesus told them to cast their nets to the right side of the boats. Anyway, they eventually caught more fish than they could hold and they recognized that it was Jesus that was talking to them. Peter jumped in the water and swam to the shore to be with the savior. The Savior made dinner for the apostles and asked Peter 3 times if he loved him. Peter replied yes all three times and then the savior said... then go feed my sheep. Peter and the apostles went on to preach the word of God. I was filled with a burning fire in my heart after hearing the phrase "go feed my sheep" and I thought of it as the Savior telling me to feed his sheep. There is so much more to the talk, but I realized how much I love the savior and how much I want to spread his love and his truth to all those in the world for my whole life. I want you to know that this church is true and it is Christ's church. This is the true church on the earth and I know that without a doubt. This church is the Lord's church and we all have the opportunity to share God's love and to help others to know of the joy and happiness that they can receive by being members of this gospel. This church is the way that we return back to live with God and our Savior.

So some great news!! On Saturday night the Zone Leaders (who left on Monday) told Elder Carter and I that we needed to go to the zone meeting in the morning and hinted to us why. Sunday morning Elder Carter and I were called to be the new Zone Leaders. I am so excited to serve in this position. There is a lot to do but it is going to be so awesome! It is also so cool to have the support from the other Elders and Sisters! We are in charge of the like 6 districts in our zone. We are in charge of keeping everyone on task, meeting with the new district (which we will do tonight) and talking to them, making the priesthood classes for Sunday, and a bunch of other things. We also get a cute little flip phone just in case the office needs to contact us! Haha, we are stoked to be serving.

So on Sunday after the meeting we had our regular classes and then for sacrament meeting I got to play the prelude music!! It was cool to get to play!! I figured I should give it a shot so my mom wouldn't yell at me lol. After sacrament we had some time to study and look at the murals around the buildings. We had a devotional and we got to hear from a member of the MTC Presidency. After the devotional we had movie night where we watched another Jeffrey R. Holland talk! He is so fun and so blunt it's great! Sunday's are awesome here because we get to relax and go over the week. I have really seen the hand of the Lord in my time here at the MTC, especially with all of the things we have to do here. None of this is possible without the Lord. (I also got to talk with Brandon for a while before he left to Florida and it was so cool to get to catch up with him and talk about our time at the MTC and our missions! He's a stud!)

Last night we had our Tuesday night devotional which I think are the best! We got to hear from Elder Parrella, a new member of the Quorum of the Seventy, and his wife. He told us to ask the Lord the question "What do you want me to learn tonight" and I did. Throughout the devotional I took notes on his talk on faith and hope, but nothing stood out to me too much, until the end. For our closing hymn we sang "How Firm a Foundation". I felt the Lord tell me, through the spirit, that he wanted me to know that he will always be with me even through the challenges that I will go through in Ecuador and that I need to have faith and know that he has my back. I love feeling the spirit and I know that you all can feel the spirit and receive answers from the Lord as well!

So yes the MTC is great and the weather is perfect too! Soccer is great to play! It's weird that it's mid-November and that it has only snowed once though!! So the other day, my squad and I (our district) played against the Cantonese speaking District (the district with the British Elder and the other pro soccer players) and we had like a 12 v. 13 game going on (there were also some other Elders out playing). We tore them up though!! Our defense was solid and our offensive killed! I had a goal, Elder Carter had a sick one, Elder Bodily had one, and Elder Turner had one. We won 4-2. I also almost scrapped with one of the Elders. So he was on defense and he had the ball and I was running up to him to steal the ball and he was trying to block me off from the ball, so I juked him out and ran around to steal it, and he elbowed me in the mouth! It was so cheap and I was spitting out blood and I called him out and confronted him and he said that he "slipped." Anyway, I tried to chill because we are missionaries, but I made sure he knew that it better not happen again lol. Anyway, I had to include that because y'all know I'm competitive and it's fun to talk about all the battle scars I get out here from playing sports lol. (p.s. we have an intense match on the pitch this afternoon with our British friends and it's gonna be raw)

This week was amazing, and to be honest, I haven't had a bad day in the MTC. However, I am trying to cherish the time I have here because Ecuador is going to be way different. I am very blessed to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and I am so honored to be a missionary and representative of our Savior. I know that this church is the only true church on the earth and I know that the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. I know that the gift of tongues is real and that anything is possible with the Lord on your side. This church is amazing and can bless all of your lives. I know that the atonement is real and that we can all use it in our lives to be forgiven of our sins. My love for the Savior has grown so much through reading the scriptures, praying to the Lord, and having faith in Him. I love all of you and I am so grateful for the friendship and love that each and every one of you have shown to me in my life. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Yo testifico que fe en Jesucristo es muy importante y que el libro de mormon es verdad! Yo se que Padre Celestial amoramos nosotros muchos! Te amo nuestro salvador y estoy agradecido por su expiacion. Yo usar su expiacion en mi vida cada dia. Oracion a dios es muy importante a hacer nuestro relacion mas fuerte con dios. Es muy importante a leer el libro de mormon cada dia a hacer nuestro testimonios mas fuerte. Te amo el libro de Mormon y te amo el profeta Joes Smith. En el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.

-- Elder Dalton Hall

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