Big Blessings

Big Blessings

Shout Outs! 

Grandpa you turn 80 today!!! W.O.W! I hope your birthday is one to remember! I'll work extra, extra hard today to find and teach elderly people ;) 

So apparently I am worrying my parents haha! I got an email from my dad letting me know "life does NOT end with the termination of your mission." I’m still praying over that piece of advice ;) But it was funny to read and sister Maeta and I got a good laugh out of it! 

Sister Maeta and I had a very tender spiritual experience last night while we were out and about. We were dropping by a member and after our appointment we felt prompted to stop by Sister Martinez. Sister Martinez is a less active and is SO hard to get a hold of I mean for goodness sake we have been trying for 8 weeks and we got nothing! We walk over to her place not really knowing why we are going there and knock on the door. Silence. We knock again. More silence. We are about ready to leave when she answers the door! Shock! She welcomes us in and it doesn’t take long to see that she has a very strong testimony of the gospel. She lived through the civil war down in El Salvador and the miracles she spoke of that her and her family experienced were incredible! When I asked her why she stopped coming to church she told us that it all started with work. She told us that after missing one week of church that it became easier and easier to find excuses not to go to church but that as she did so she felt a huge part of her was missing. She felt empty inside and sad and depressed.

àThis is where our understanding of why we were prompted to go see sister Martinez that night comes to light. ß

On Saturday night she told us that she asked God to take her life so that she would stop making so many mistakes. When she woke up in the morning to find that she was still alive, she asked "Why! What purpose do you have for me?" That is they day we knocked on her door. The Spirit was so strong! God knew that His daughter was alone and without hope. He sent us over to show her that He loves her and wants her to come back to church. 

This week I got my very first blessing I've ever received on my mission. About time I know haha. Before I go on to explain, Tyson will you fill everyone in on what a priesthood blessing is. (A priesthood blessing is when someone that has been given the authority to act in Christ's name, lays their hands on another head, and gives them a blessing similar to a prayer, but is given with the purpose to heal, comfort and encourage) Thanks! So I have felt for a while like I should get a blessing of comfort and council but I kept putting it off. Classic Sister Hall trying to do things on my own cough *stupid* cough! Finally I gave in and called our District Leader and asked him if he could come down and give me a blessing and he says yes. At this point I have no idea why I’ve asked for a blessing.

à àFast-forward a few hours 

So the Elders are there and I’m sitting in a chair, still not sure why I need a blessing. Elder Anderson asks me if there is anything I want him to think about for this particular blessing and all that comes to my mind is that I just need to hear from my Father. The moment they put their hands on my head I immediately start crying like a baby. Next Elder Anderson expresses that Heavenly Father is proud of the work I have done. Cue the running nose. Sooooo embarrassing, haha! I hadn’t realized how bad I needed to hear from my Father In Heaven. I feel so bad for those Elders! After the blessing I was just a complete mess hahaha! 

Then later that day I get a call from Sister Castro saying when she went to the temple she felt prompted to put my name on the prayer list and was asking if I was all right. Cue MORE tears! 

To top it all off I just received a call from President Clayton while writing this email. For the past week he has been pondering on giving me the extension I've asked for. All week I've been praying that he will be guided by the Spirit to make the right choice. When asking me just now why I wanted to stay out I told him about how much I love my mission, how I wanted to spend as much time as I could out serving etc... At the end of it all he told me that while I was talking he was over come by the Spirit. He told me that Heavenly Father was proud of the work I am doing and that 18 months of service will be enough for me to accomplish all that the Lord has for me to do. Looks like I'm coming home in October. 

What have I learned this week? God knows everything! He knows my thoughts, my desires and my heart. He knows exactly what I’m going to need. This week is proof of that! 

Scripture of the Week: 2 Nephi 9: 39 

"... remember to be carnally-minded is death and to be Spiritually Minded Is Life Eternal." 

Don’t forget to Smile this week =)

Sister Maeta and I out on a nature walk! It felt like I was home in Alberta! 

Roasting some dogs at our ward mission leaders place!