Nov. 22, 2014; Only one week left in the office...

Dear family and loved ones! 

I am so glad to hear that you guys are having a good week. or that you had a good week. I love hearing about them and thank you for being so diligent on that! =) You are definitely a lot more diligent with that than I am on my journal... there are nights that we are so busy that we get home when it is bed time and I am so tired I don’t even have energy to write. I hope that Alex and Adam keep doing well. I love those guys. They are great young men and examples to me and many others. I hope their families are doing ok. 

Well I will start on my week. 

Q&A

1. Well our week was good. On Monday we went up to Buin because we had a few things to do there. On the way up there was a big semi-truck that was in the right lane and I was in the left. I was getting close to him to pass him and then all of a sudden he decided to change lanes. I had to slam the brakes and thankfully the car responded well. We got within a foot of the truck I bet. It was scary but I saw the hand of the Lord protecting us in that moment. I am thankful for His vigilance. Then on Tuesday I am not sure what we did.... stuff here in Rancagua, nothing too exciting. Wednesday we went down to Constitucion to finish up on a few things we had to do down there and take some study tables to the missionaries there. That night we slept in the car and it was a terrible night. I took a blanket but it was still cold and hard... not a very good night of sleep... but whatever. It was cool to hear the ocean all night. The next day we went and painted an old apartment of the sisters and got it ready to go. We also took out old carpet and cleaned up. It was fun but a lot of work. I don’t think I will ever paint again with a roller brush after the mission. Ha-ha I am so tired of painting!!! We got back to Rancagua late Thursday night. Yesterday we had many tasks to do here in Rancagua. We got a lot of stuff done. Later in the afternoon I went up to Santiago with Elder P to take a missionary to the airport that went home. While we were there we met a member of the church who is from Salt Lake. He said he works for mines and that is why he was here in Chile. He served in the Santiago north mission in 95- 97. He was a cool guy, Brother Hales. He still speaks Spanish very well. Then Elder P and I returned home. There were a bunch of smaller adventures included in there but I would write a novel if I told you all of them!!! Today we cleaned the house, dropped a car of for maintenance, ate hot dogs for lunch, and now here we are. Sorry if the weeks seem kind of boring... but I will just kind of do an agenda of what a typical day is for me. We wake up and have to walk out the door pretty much right after we get up because we have something that we need to do. Throughout the day missionaries call us with problems that they have with their houses, bikes, money, materials, etc. with a lot of that stuff we can’t do anything about. We usually are occupied with trying to figure out those problems until we sleep.... ha-ha it is fun but it wears me out. The biggest project I have started while here in the office is a bicycle inventory. We made a spreadsheet of all the bikes we have; model, brand, color, repairs needed, etc. We have been going to every sector to give the replacement bikes for a week or so while we take the bad beat up bikes that have been neglected for years to a trust-able workshop in Rancagua. (All of the repairs that the missionaries do are cheap and only last a day... so that is why we are going to all the sectors and fixing bikes) so that has been the big project. It has been a lot of work but it is still fun!

 2. I have no idea where I will be going.... I am nervous as all get out... we will know next Saturday, maybe a little before. NERVOUS! And I think I will be able to email next Saturday and maybe just a small email on Monday saying I am doing alright. We will see how it plays out but with the rate of speed that the weeks are going by it will be hardly but a moment! 

Me and Elder T

 3. When I leave the office I will miss the relationships I have with the other office elders, and the senior couples, Elder and Hermana Ditlevson, Elder and Hermana Johnson, and of course, President and Hermana Warne. I love all of them so much and it will be weird not seeing them often as I do.... makes me a little sad. I will also miss the car and air conditioning... :/ the heat might kill me! And also my queen size bed! ;) ha-ha

 4.  We have slept in the car 3 nights and counting! ;) Ha-ha I don’t mind it I am still young... but I am not certain if President knows... he probably does! ha-ha

Cool sculpture in Rancagua

 I will write you guys a letter! I hope that it gets there for Christmas! =) I have been keeping my eyes open for the packages! Thank you! I am going to give a bottle of Dew to Elder T. He loves it! =) You know what is bunk? I have never seen fresh jalapeños here in Chile... I gave Hermana Warne the recipe for jalapeño jelly. She said she would make some and give me some! =) Thank you for being so thoughtful! I love you guys so much. I really have life too good but I love it and accept it! =) I am anxious to see where I go too, but wherever it is I know that the Lord needs me to be there! I am pretty excited to go back out to the field! =) It will be great! I will miss the office though. These have been 6 months of a lot of learning and blessings. I hope you all have a good week! I miss you! Talk to you next Saturday! Thanks for the pics! The Ball kids are so cute! Miss those guys! They have grown a ton! Tell everyone hi for me. Talk to you later!! 

 Love, 

 Elder Teg Hall

Nov. 15, 2014; I LOVE this Gospel!

"Riding a Wave" on p-day

Dear family,

  We have two more weeks until the changes come and I am out of the office!..I am nervous and maybe a little bit anxious to leave... it will be a big change. Man, we have been leaving so early and getting back so late that I have lost count of how many days I have in the mission and I haven’t written my journal for almost two weeks! I really get home dead.... it has been tough and lots of work. I am glad you have some snow! Is Olivia going to snowboard this year? I miss the crazy weather! ;) It is a blazing 95 degrees here at least.

 I am glad that you guys had a good week. Thanks for the pics! That will be fun to see Olivia without braces when I get home! Did she have them before I left? I don’t even remember?!

 Q&A

 1. Our week was good. This Monday Elder Christensen of the Seventy came to Rancagua and the whole mission got together for that conference. It was awesome! I got to see a bunch of my buddies and also listen to an inspired servant of God. He did a great job and I learned a lot and quite a few of the things he said have stuck with me. He also did a question and answer thing for the mission. It was cool. On Tuesday we had to go up to Santiago and pick up a new cell phone for President Warne. We also went and replaced a couple of Garmin GPS for the mission. In the Garmin store they had this cool camera call the Garmin Virb. It is the same concept as a Go Pro. Check it out. We ate lunch at Denny’s. It was so good! Just spendy.... they charged me about $2 for a glass of water! Ha-ha but same quality!

Before repairs

After

That night we finished the house in Rengo we had to repair. On Wednesday we went down to Rengo to give the house back and then later we went out to Pichilemu to get the bicycles there. They are really beat up! So that will be good to fix them. That was a good trip. On Thursday we built a roof in our back porch area where we park the car. The roof is to protect the articles (fridges, ovens, washers, microwaves, etc.) that are there. That was an all-day project but it turned out well. I forgot to take a picture but I will send you a picture this next week! (If I remember...) that night we went down to Talca because the next morning we had to go to Constitucion to help the elders move houses. That was a long trip but we got there safe. We helped the elders move and we were so tired because we had slept in the car the night previous for only about five and a half hours.... we went and ate lunch at an open pavilion close-ish to the ocean.

My delicious salmon lunch

It was delicious. I ate salmon. That is the second time I have had it in Chile! Loved it! Later we got together with the two past house owners that we will be giving back in Constitucion. (driving there is like driving to Salt Lake... or maybe Ogden, pretty far) so that was good we were able to take advantage of that. Today we went to a skate park with a tarp and some bikes and skate boards. We used the tarp to make a "wave" it was awesome. We went "surfing". Lots of people participated. I got sun-burned though. I couldn’t find my sunscreen. Later we went back to the house to have a bbq for Elder Troncoso’s b-day today! =) It was a good time and we invited bro and sis Johnson (the senior couple who helps us) and the Ditlevsons (financer and wife) over. It was a great time! Now I am here. I am darn tired though. Hopefully I will be able to recuperate some of my strength before I head out to the field again!

 2. Yes we have a good amount of tools. We have a Skil saw, battery drill, electric drill, painting gun, and a bunch of hand tools. We are able to make do with what we have! But we have enough to make life a lot easier! 

 3. For a liter of gasoline it is about $2, for a liter of diesel it is about $1.25, a liter of milk costs a little more than a dollar, 12 eggs cost about 3 dollars. All of the measurements are in the metric system down here.

 I really appreciate all that you do for me. I love you all so much and I feel your love and support. I am so happy to be a missionary especially here in Chile! I love you guys a ton and not a day passes by when I don’t pray or think about you! I hope that everything continues to go well for you and that you have a great week. This week I have been able to learn a lot more that when I am trying my hardest and as I forgive others of their trespasses, then the Lord accepts my efforts and forgives me of my trespasses. I LOVE this gospel and the happiness that it offers. It offers us the opportunity to have a peace of mind through our Savior’s atonement; it offers us the chance to be with our loved ones for time and all eternity. It offers great friends, cherished moments, and a safe haven from the "shafts in the whirlwind" in this world. I love it so much and I am so thankful for all that you do for me to support me! I hope that you have a great week! =) I love you so much. I will talk to you next week! 

 Love always, 

 Elder Tegan Hall

Nov. 9, 2014; I Am Happy With Whatever Comes My Way‏

Me and Elder Tronky

Dear Family!!

How in the world are you guys doing?

 Q & A

1. Our week was great. On Monday Elder T and I went up to Santiago to try and fix a problem that both President and Sister Warne had with their cell phones. It is so nice having a Chilean comp because he knows how to deal with the people better than anybody! Also I get to observe and learn and sometimes even get my feet wet! ;) On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we repaired a house that was pretty destroyed. I took some before pics and will soon have some after pics. We have had to paint the place, put in new outlets, some sheet rock, glass, and a whole variety of things. I have become pretty handy with the time I have as commissary. I have learned a lot of stuff. We worked like dogs in that place... it was a lot of work and we still aren’t done! Tonight we will go back and finish! Then next week we will probably be giving the house back to the owner. Lots of fun! 

Yesterday we went to Constitucion (a beach sector =) to help the four sister missionaries there move. They moved from the third level in one building to the fourth level in another. It was a LOT of work... ha-ha but I am getting some killer muscles. Then later the owner came and was going to repair a couple things on the apartment but he had no idea what he was doing. We tried helping him but he would just intervene so in the end we sat back and watched him struggle. By the time we were done it was too late to drive home (three hour drive) so we stayed the night there! We slept in the car. Ha-ha it was pretty fun. We drove back this morning and had a sweet p-day! We blew up about a 1000 balloons and put them in a small area. Then we played a game to find a single golden balloon and two silver ones. In the end it turned into a party of kicking balloons around and having a good time. Elder L filmed it so I will have him pass me the video. It was a killer week but went by sooo fast! I couldn’t believe it! 

2. Well I don’t know where and with whom I want to serve with after I leave the office.... I think it would be awesome to go to Pichilemu but we will see. I would love to train but we will see. And...I would like to be comps with Elder M but we will see how things go! I am happy with whatever comes my way. =)

Well this week I learned that even when we are tired and we might want to quit but we are engaged in a good cause, we just have to keep going. The Lord will always help us when we are doing our best to build the Kingdom of God over the earth. No matter how small or big, easy or hard, short or long the task is, He helps us! I have felt that in my life this week. I love you guys and I hope that you are able to have a great week! 

I am going to send some pics your way! =) Love you so much!

Love, Elder Hall 

The moon over the ocean last night

Nov. 1, 2014; Do A Good Deed Daily

Dear Family,

How are you?! Another week gone... what? I am glad that you were able to go to the new ward and enjoy it =) Last Sunday we had stake conference and the stake presidency got reorganized. The bishop from Recreo is now the second counselor! That was cool for him.

Q&A

1. Well this last week we delivered some materials and we have been focusing a lot on making the mission bikes better. All of the repairs that the missionaries do are bad so we pick the bikes up and bring them to a trustworthy repair shop in Rancagua. It has been working out really well for us. We also gave a house back to an owner. Elder T went to Santiago with Elder P and I did divisions with Elder P (new sec) and we took a phone and some visa stuff to some missionaries that day. It has been really good. I have been slacking at writing in my journal this week. It has been hard because I get home and all I want to do is rest.... I just need to kick myself in the rear end and get to it! Today we went and did paintball and it was awesome! We played in a forest and it was cool!

2. Yes Elder A has begged me to go running and I say NO! Ha-ha maybe once I will go but I am not certain... I just don’t like running. I haven’t really talked to him a whole lot about our time as companions but that is okay... I don’t care. I like him a lot now and am glad that I am able to get to know him a little more now that I know how to speak and understand Spanish better. =) 

3. Halloween was really normal... didn’t even feel like Halloween other than the people dressed up. We did some office work and then we had to take a mattress to a house later in the day. It was low key and not much going on. Our neighbor has a little boy who dressed up as batman so I talked to him for a minute and that was fun. One kid stopped by at our house and did trick or treat and I said we don’t have treats so it has to be a trick and he said "well I can throw an egg at your head" and I said you will regret it! Ha-ha it was funny but we did see a motorcycle gang cruising around in costumes. That was cool I want to do that when I am older! 

4. Singing at stake conference was awesome! It was a good stake conference but very few speakers and long talks. It was hard to stay focused but that is okay. I already told you a little about it. I saw a lot of people from Recreo there! =) It was cool! 

Sometimes with this assignment that I have it is a little harder to keep the big picture in mind and I feel like life is that way too. But I know that as we read the scriptures, pray often, and always try our best the Lord will bless us with the chance to get better and with an ability to always have the bigger picture firmly set in our heads so we can aim high and achieve our goals. It has been a lot of fun and interesting having this assignment because I have learned so many things that I couldn’t have learned being a normal missionary. I think this assignment has definitely helped me prepare for life after the mission. I hope that all of you have a great week and that you are able to do a good deed daily! =) I love you with all of my heart! 

Love always, 

Elder Teg Hall

Oct. 25, 2014; Tansfers Make for a BUSY week!

Dear Family,

How are you this week?! I am glad to hear from you. Ha-ha I swear I always say this but the week just flew by.... it is scary how time is flying. Sounds like you guys had a good week with lots of fun. Man, I want to see Meet the Mormons really bad!! It looks like a really good one. I am excited to see it when I get home...there are a lot of movies that I will want to see!

 Q&A

1. So on Monday we had to make a trip up to Santiago with 5 sisters and the secretaries to help the sisters get their visas ready to go home on Tuesday. It was a crazy day. We had gone to bed at 2 the previous day and woken up at 5. It was a long day but we got all of their legal documents done. Then that night we went to bed at around 12 and had to wake up at 3 to take missionaries to the airport and then go to the MTC. I was able to drive president’s car. It was fun and a lot of work. I got 6 hours of sleep in a 48 hour period... super tired. And I was only able to get a couple naps in the car but now I am recovered. =) It was fun to meet all of the new missionaries and see their excitement for the mission work. On Wednesday we went to the other end of the mission to take proselyting materials to them. It was also a long day and right when we got home a missionary called us telling us he left the keys inside his house and they couldn’t get in any other way.... so we had to make about an hour drive to open their house. Ha-ha Elder T wasn’t too happy. On Thursday and Friday we just helped fix things in the mission and it was a good time and a little more relaxed than the first three days of this week. Ha-ha it was a crazy week and a lot of work. It is also getting hot at

night so I have a harder time sleeping because I am hot! But that is alright we have a fan in our room. Also this week I got a package from the best family in the world! =) Thank you for that. I love all of the treats you put in there. The Chicken in a Biscuit crackers are really good=) and everything else too. Thanks for the dew and the jalapeño jelly. =) I love you guys so much!  Miss you tons.

2. No our investigators didn’t come to church and we weren’t able to visit them either... they had asked us to take them food the next time we went. They are poor people and really we shouldn’t give them food and help them out in material terms but I still wanted to go and invite them to church... but it’s ok. We will get there soon. Today we have stake conference and we will be singing in the choir. It will be fun !=) 

3. All the housemates are good! Really happy people and we are having a good time in the house. Elder A is really enjoyable now. We also have two other elders living with us temporarily because the owner of their house sold it and we couldn’t find a house for them on time. Thankfully they live close to us. All is well =) 

4. Well I don’t know why I think Elder T is a better commissary than me... just because when I was with Elder O I never took as much initiative to organize as Elder T did. I also have to remember that Elder T is on his home field (he is from Chile) and I am sure he has an advantage there. He is just a solid guy and I am thankful that he knows how to do a lot of stuff. He is an electrical engineer so he knows how to work with electricity quite well. I have learned a lot with him =) and we are just being more organized and prepared to fix things on the spot! That is the biggest change I think which is awesome. 

5. I am not sure why President Warne chose me to be a commissary. I have wanted to ask him the same thing. Maybe he saw in my missionary application that I moved pipe and saw I was a hard worker... well I like to think that I am. I cannot tell you exactly why... but I know that he is a very inspired man and that he receives very personal revelation concerning the missionaries and I don’t doubt that the decision was for a reason. I think it has been a personal growing experience more than anything for me. I have learned so much patience. 

I liked Jorg Klebingat’s conference talk as well. His talk was straight forward and good. I am glad that you are reading all of the talks. They were so good and just like you said can help us in so many facets of our lives in different ways according to our needs! I love you guys so much and am glad to hear that you are doing well. I hope that you all have a great week this week and that you enjoy Halloween. I miss you a ton but I know that the Lord answers my prayers and watches over you every day. I will talk to you next week and until then have a great week and be safe. I love you =) 

 Love, 

 Elder Tegan Hall