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