Mon, 25 Mar 2013
March 25, 2013
Hello,
Greetings from México! It's delightfully hot here (hovering
around 40 degrees), and the sun is bright! With the weather report taken
care of, we can shift into the boring stuff that nobody wants to hear
about. Lots of exciting opportunities for teaching and for fun. We
didn't actually get a whole lot done this week because of the heat (the
mission office asked us to stay close to our apartments), but we're way
animated for next week.
We've been working with an investigator who keeps backing out of her baptismal dates (three so far), but I think that we've finally got her on a date that will stick. We're looking for some new ways to work to use our time more effectively, so we're going to start teaching classes of music and English. I don't know how I feel about that (having never taught either subject before), but we're going to do what's necessary.
There's a fair in town which we visited this
morning. Almost everything was closed, so not very exciting. In other
news, the Church has altered the missionary regulations with regard to
email. We are now authorized to communicate with all of our friends and
family (outside mission boundaries) via email. So if you've wanted to
write to me but haven't (perhaps because you've forgotten how the
regular postal system works), now you can! My email is bryan.hall@myldsmail.net. So, to all of my fans, I'd love to hear from you!
Love you all,
Elder Bryan Hall
Mon, 18 Mar 2013
March 18, 2013 two more pix
I couldn't get these two pictures to open earlier, but with Marc's help I will post them now.
Doing laundry with a parrot on my shoulder.
March 18, 2013
Hello everyone,
Greetings from México. I am here, working hard and
finding people to teach. Here in my area, the big problem is with
inactivity, so we´ve been doing a lot of work with less active members
and organizing the branch to do a lot of the work themselves. On
Saturday we got permission to call ward missionaries and also to include
less-active members on the home and visiting teaching lists, so maybe
we'll have more time for our investigators, but there's still a lot of
work to do. The weather has changed from merely hot to sweltering. I
hope something changes soon (there's a rumor of a hurricane; that would
cool things down nicely). We have a couple baptisms (re)scheduled for
this week, and I hope they go through this time. I have some pretty
exciting pictures for you all, so I'll send those next.
Love from,
Elder Bryan Hall
This is Reforma, Chiapas as seen from the roof of the house of one of our investigators.
A picture of my room.
The circus came to town and brought this cuernas largas. And the cow in back has five legs.
My companion
And finally, a Mexican cat.
Thu, 14 Mar 2013
March 11, 2013
Hello,
Wishing everyone a happy Monday from here in México. Our work
has been progressing apace, and we are doing a lot to improve this area.
Our goal for this coming time is to make our branch into a ward (and
we're almost there). There is lots to do, however, we have 185 inactive
families in our branch that we need to work with. This past week I was
pretty sick (probably the worst cold I've ever had), but we still got
good work done. On Friday there was a baptism (not one of ours, a
member) and there was a very exciting fire behind our church building
that I put out all by myself (we had plenty of water because of the
baptism, so that was good). On Saturday we left the city and taught a
bunch of lessons in one of the colonies (Colonia Carmen). We're
preparing a noche de hogar for the less-active members there, but we
invited everyone we saw to come. On Sunday we had stake conference and
found when we arrived in Villahermosa that it was a very special
conference with Elder Scott and Elder Bednar in attendance. So that was a
highlight of the week (although I enjoyed reading your emails, too).
We're going to continue working this next week to have even more
success. Hopefully the weather cooperates, it's been scorching hot (and
everyone says it's only getting hotter).
Love you all,
Elder Hall
Addition from Jan: Evidentally Bryan has not been getting mail. I've written at least every week but most of that has been pouch and I think these are all at the mission home still. He asked us to send via computer now so I've done that the last two weeks. But I got a surprise phone call from the mission president on Monday night asking why we were not writing to Bryan. This letter implies that Bryan heard from someone, so we will have to get him to clear this up. I think the mission president should talk to Bryan about his short letters that leave me with more questions than answers… For example, this letter makes that comment about the fire. Don't you think that merits at least a paragraph?
Mon, 04 Mar 2013
March 4, 2013Hello,
I am doing well here in Reforma. The last several days have been pleasantly cool, so everyone has been complaining about the cold. We had a baptism in the rain on Friday; there was not enough water in the church's water tank to fill the font, so we had to carry water in 19 Liter buckets (they don't use gallons in México) from our house to the church (it's about 200 meters) to fill it. And then it started to rain, and we spent the whole day soaking wet. But that's alright. One of our investigators got shot and couldn't come to church on Sunday (we'll see how that goes). We are working on getting our branch its own chapel (and not just something rented). There are still some things we have to do, but the purchase for the land has already been approved. The family we live with is building us a house in their backyard and that should be ready for us to move in in another month or so (the way they build in México is very different from the way they build in the U.S. I'm working hard and, so far, I haven't starved to death, so don't worry about me too much. I would like to hear from you, though. Email is fine, I have time to read it.
Love from,
Elder Hall
Bryan Elliot Hall St. Peters, Missouri
Page created: 09 November 2008
Page modified: 09 December 2017
