March 17, 2014; 8 Months!

Hey mom! I also have to make this letter short. We cleaned our house like all day and the house of the other elders so now we only have half an hour left. Thanks for the update on the week! I loved hearing about it! The things that called my attention was the spiritual progression that was made there in Idaho this week! Congrats to Brady B. and Heath!! =) That is so cool! =) 

1. The week was pretty good. We got better in some aspects that were lacking but we got a little worse in other aspects that have been better in the past. It has been pretty hard to find a balance. The highlight of this week is that we had a killer lesson with a lady named Alejandra. We taught the restoration and she told us she already believes that the message is true. It is just going to be really hard for her to go to church. But we will keep working with her and seeing how it goes. I am excited for her. Fiorella was busy all this week. Luis, the guy that was miracle number 2 last week, went to two activities with his son Cristobel who is not a member. So that is a possible future investigator! =) that is exciting! My comp is really good; he just is always trying to get under my skin with jokes and gives me crap about being a gringo. You know I am probably pretty lucky that you guys gave me so much crap when I was a kid, because now my skin is thicker! =) I fell on the darn bike on Wednesday. Long story short, I was riding without hands and had to stop so I put my feet on the ground.... ha-ha embarrassing and Elder A just laughed his head off! The bike also broke on me on Friday so we had to spend most of the day searching for the parts to fix it so that was a bummer that we lost almost the whole day. My feet are better, the therapist is helping but I think that it is going to be quite expensive..... We will see how it all turns out. I have two more sessions. But that was about it for the week!

2. I haven’t felt any earthquakes this week but there have been a few people that claimed they felt one. It sounds like things got torn up in the north of Chile.... =/

3. I will send pics! =)

4. So Miguel’s dad was going to baptize him. My comp and I were planning on going anyways. He is from a different ward. But two nights before the sisters from the other ward, who are in my district told me that his dad couldn’t and that he wanted me to do it. He is married to a member and they have two kids! He is going to be such a firm member and will be great! =) I am privileged to know him! 

5. We find out what the changes are this Saturday! I can’t believe how fast these past 6 weeks have gone..... We will see what happens. I have no idea what will happen.... maybe I will be leaving Rancagua finally! ;)  

6. It sure is feeling like fall! Sometimes I feel like it is a game night right before football! I haven’t had fall since 2012! Crazy right?! But I can notice the difference in the weather! =) I love fall! But I can’t hunt this season =/ ha-ha

That is good to hear that the chickens and turkeys are still alive! I love you guys!! I have to go now... I am sorry it is so short! Have a great week and I will get to you all next week! LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH! 

Love, 

Elder Tegan Hall 

So the computer is stubborn. I will try a different way to send photos next week but this little card reader isn’t working or it is the computer I am not sure.... but I promise I will get pics to you! Thanks for sending some to me! =)  Tell rod to get some sleep! ;) hahahhaha

Love you ALL! 

March 10, 2014; Miracles

Hey mom it is so good to hear from you!! I am feeling really pretty good right now. Nothing to complain about other than I got a little sun burnt today! Ha-ha but we played two hand touch football and soccer! It was fun!!! I really missed playing football playing it today... never thought I would have said that! I am going to do my best to shoot everyone a quick note this week. I hope that Blake is doing alright. I miss that kid. I have a pic of him, Jaden and me posted up in front of my study desk. I look at it every day! They are great examples for me =) I need to get an email to him.

Thanks for the tid-bits of news! Those are always fun to hear! It is crazy, literally crazy how fast time has been going.... I don’t even believe it. When I was a kid a day seemed like an eternity and now I get to the house at night time and I ask myself what happened today?! Nuts... 

Sounds like you all had a good week! I would love to make a comment about every day but I can’t. Just know that I love hearing about the week and what you guys do!! Olivia is so lucky to eat that burger! I am jealous!!! She looks older in the pic... it kind of scares me she is growing up so much!!!!!!! =/ ha-ha 

1. This week was pretty good. I was happy to get out and work. There were things that could have gone better but it is always like that right? I tried the best I could! We had a great lesson with Fiorella again. Her grandpa is about to die and she thinks that after death there is nothing. We taught the plan of salvation and I shared an experience about Grandma Hall. I teared up and the spirit was so strong!! I know Fiorella felt it too but she didn’t come to church!!!! Dang it. But I had a cool idea this week. I wanted to share a miracle that happened every day of this week. 

     Monday- we got our bikes. The tires were flat. We went to go and fill them up but the tires of Elder A had a valve I have never seen! I tried to figure it out but I let the air out instead..... I thought we’re in trouble! Ha-ha but then a guy came up and he looked like a biker. I asked him if he had any valve fits and he did!! The Lord sure blessed us there!! 

     Tuesday- we went to the church to go to an activity. We forgot our sports clothes. We were getting ready to go back when a guy walked past me and I said hi. He said, hi elder. I said did you come to play soccer. He said can I talk to you for a minute. Turns out this guy’s name is Luis and he is a member and hasn’t gone to church for 12 years. His wife and 10 year old boy aren’t members. He is having some marriage problems. We helped him out a lot. He told us he had the impression to walk past the church in that moment and who knows if I hadn’t have said hi... nothing might have happened! He didn’t go to church though... =(

     Wednesday- we were riding on the bikes, Elder A in front. We were going fast. He stopped in front of me and I was going to stop too. I wanted to drift the bike tire to a stop but my back breaks didn’t work. I had to slam the front ones not to hit Elder A. In the end, I fell off but I didn’t even feel one ounce of pain! 

     Thursday- I had the opportunity to do an interview with an investigator named Miguel. He got baptized on Sunday and I got to approve him for baptism! I felt the spirit really strongly!! I loved the interview!

     Friday- the less actives, Juan and Jessica, have desires to get reactivated and go to the temple! We had a cool FHE with them! 

     Saturday- the sisters that were going to have the baptism called and told me that the dad of Miguel couldn’t baptize him anymore and that I was the second choice of Miguel! I was excited to baptize him!

     Sunday- I went over to the church of the sisters and was able to baptize Miguel. It was so cool to see him come out of the water and I could just see he was clean... what a great experience!!! It made me really happy and it was such a great opportunity! 

Well, those are the cool things of the week. I had to go to a physical therapist this whole week. He has been popping some bones and stuff and I think that it is helping. My foot feels better! The bikes are helping a bunch too I think, I am just fat... ha-ha 

2. As a DL, I get to teach a concept to my district every Wednesday in the district meeting. That is a cool experience. I feel the spirit guide me in those classes! And on Sundays I get to pass the data of the things the people form my district did over the week and I also get to do interviews when they are needed. All of the responsibilities are in Preach My Gospel if you want to look at them. I have to go to an extra meeting before the district meeting an hour early just to learn from the zone leaders and no district leader is just one person in the companionship. Elder A is just my comp. That is it!

3. I did finally get the Valentine’s package!! I loved the candy in there and the clever rhymes!! =) It made my day!!! And it finally arrived! =) ha-ha what even means more is the you guys even take the time to think about me and do such sweet things for me! Thanks!!!

Thanks for the spiritual thought! I am going to read that talk tomorrow for my study!! =) thanks for always thinking about me and praying for me! It really means so much! I love you guys more than I can say!! I hope that you all have a great week. Sorry if this email wasn’t great. I want to get to some other people too. I love you all! =) 

Love always, 

Elder Tegan Hall =) 

March 3, 2014; Birthday Cake and Mt. Dew!!!

Hey mom it is so good to hear from you! I was sure looking forward to emailing you this last week. I had a lot of time to think because Tuesday through Friday I was in the house... so I thought a lot... and meanwhile my companion left to go and work with the other two elders. I stayed in the house with a member... it was a pretty good time but the whole week I saw them progress so much with finding investigators and doing lessons and I just sat in the house so that was kind of frustrating.... but this week has passed. I am not sure if sitting in the house really helped my foot out a bunch but I just found out that the office got bicycles for me and my comp to ride now so my foot won’t be hurting as bad and I will be able to work! =) I am very excited for that!

Thanks for telling me about your week. I sure love to know what you guys do without me and that you are all able to manage without me living there! ;) Ha-ha! It sounds like grandfather is just a traveling machine!! I hope that he has a good time in Florida! I am sure happy that you could celebrate my birthday too! =) I hope that you all had a great time and a great Sunday yesterday despite all of the fighting toddlers in nursery! ;) Ha-ha 

Man, I sure do have such great family and friends! Everyone that tells me happy birthday! It just means so much to me and really I am so blessed to have such great people around me =) The Lord is way too nice to me, but I love the blessings that He gives me!

1. Ok so this week, I sat in the house like I told you. I was able to get to know Brother Silva more and that was pretty cool but I didn’t really like doing nothing in the house. On Friday, we had a family home evening activity in the church and that was kind of fun! They did a karaoke thing... but the missionaries couldn’t sing songs! Oh well... it was still a good time. On Saturday I was able to go out and work with Elder A. We stayed in the house for just a couple hours extra and then we went to teach the English classes. We invited people the whole darn week but we still only had one person show up. It was fairly frustrating because we tried a lot harder to make people show up, but I think we are still going to stick with the English classes. Afterwards, my companion and Elder G played soccer while I hung out on the sidelines and watched. It was a decent time. Saturday at twelve in the night, an alarm went off and my comp told me happy b-day! It was kind of funny the only bad thing is that I thought it was already the morning and time to wake up and work.... I thought the time went so darn fast! When I woke up on Sunday I felt normal... I didn’t feel any older at all! We went to church and had a good day there. Later we went to the house and planned for the week and during that time I made a cake that my awesome family sent me!! It turned out pretty darn well! The only bad thing is when I took it out of the pan, it came out in pieces! I put the pieces together and covered it with frosting so you couldn’t tell! I will send some pics. We went out and worked for a little bit and at like 9ish, we went to a less-active family, the Silva family, and they surprised me with all the missionaries from the ward! Ha-ha! Elder G threw confetti in my eyeball and my mouth so I choked and went blind but it was still fun! Later, the Silva family pulled out this huge cake and fed it to us! It was so delicious and so very thoughtful and kind of them! I really love those guys. They do so much for me and treat me like I am their own. They kind of remind me of Grandma and Grandpa Hall. After we went to our house, I passed numbers from the district, and then we went to eat the cake that you guys sent me =) The elders smashed my face in it and then Elder A thought he was funny and threw it at Elder G... ha-ha but he was able to rescue some of the cake from the ground and we ate it this morning. I was a little upset at first but it’s not a big deal. I just know that it is the thought that counts! Thanks for sending me all of that stuff because it really means so much! This has been such a great birthday! I loved it a bunch! Definitely different than last year but that’s ok because it is part of growing up. It was the best birthday I have had without my family! =) the only one too. Well, that is it for this week. Not a bunch of things happened. School started today for Chile so we have seen kids in their uniforms.

I mixed up some delicious Dew this morning and loved it! I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH AND I AM THE LUCKIEST KID ON EARTH TO HAVE YOU GUYS! I really wish I could just explain my love for you guys but I hope that you already know I love you to the moon and back! =) 

I hope that you all have a great week and I am looking forward to a good week too. Things are still pretty hard but I am trying to just have a good attitude and keep my head up and look for the light in the darkness!

Have a great week and thank you ALL for the great birthday wishes!! =) 

Love always, 

Elder Tegan Hall 

pics next week sorry =(

Feb. 24, 2014; Ahhhhh! Mt. Dew

Hey mom, I am so happy to hear from you! =) Man, I have missed you guys so much this week! I just am so happy that we have the opportunity to email each other each week! =) that is such a blessing!

Well, that is ok that there were no mission calls but it sounds like here soon all the guys a grade younger than me will be getting their calls! That should be exciting and maybe one of them will come to the Rancagua Chile mission! 

Ha-ha right when I got your permission to open my birthday package early, I opened it all the way (because previously I just opened it to see what was on the surface) and I was so so SO pumped for the syrup. At first I thought it was an open bottle of diet Mt. Dew and I was still happy just not as happy as I would have been with normal Mt. Dew that was still closed. But then I realized the bubbles were different and I read the letter that was in the package and I was so excited to figure out it was syrup! Ha-ha that night I mixed some up and it was HEAVEN. I miss that flavor so much!  THANK YOU SO MUCH FAMILY! Ha-ha I have already had a couple night mares about the syrup running out but I still have plenty of syrup!! That was a great idea!! Ingenious I would say! Ha-ha but I loved everything that was in the package! My eagle shirt, pics, Guess How Much I Love You book (I teared up when I read it), licorice, pringles, almond joy, and everything that I asked for!!!!! I have a family that is way too good for me! I love you guys! =) I had Elder A take some pics when I opened the box. We will be making a cake this Sunday! =) 

It sounds like you all had a pretty good week! That is great for Olivia that she is growing up so much! I am so proud of her and her progress as a young woman! I hope that she likes volleyball and that she tears it up! I wish I could be there to see her grow up but I guess that I will be able to see the change when I get home in 17 months! I wish you guys the best with everything that you do and I pray for you guys every day!

1. Ok so the week was just dead. I called Sister Jett again on Tuesday and told her about my foot pains and she told me that I should stay in the house for a week. So I am going to start that tomorrow. My comp is going to go on divisions with the other two elders and I am going to hang out and do stuff with a member at his house. Tuesday we did a service and then we had to get showered and ready to leave but not a bunch happened that day. Wednesday we had divisions with the ZL. Elder Hill came over to our sector with me and Elder A went with Elder Egbert to their sector. That day we had a lesson with Sergio but he was a little crazy and just talked about random things. It doesn’t look like he is going to progress. We later contacted a reference that day. Turns out this guy Guillermo was baptized 20 years ago but now he is an atheist socialist. So he is crazy. Ha-ha he swore at about every other word and told us that he smokes marijuana and is was kind of crazy but I had the chance to bare my testimony to him and I felt the spirit pretty strongly. Thursday we were supposed to stay in the house but we have 0 investigators pretty much. So I told Elder A that we needed to leave and go find some investigators. We passed by a couple flaky investigators and they told us they wanted to be done. We just contacted the rest of the day and no one let us in their house. We contacted all freaking day!!!! I think the Lord might have been telling me that I should obey what the Sister Jett tells me to do. Friday we must not have had any cool experiences because I don’t remember it. Saturday we had a cool experience! We went and did a service for Emilio and then after the people that were supposed to give us lunch called us and said they were only going to pass by and give us money because they had to leave town. When we got the money, I told the other elders that we should go to a restaurant that I know because I went the a few times a while back. The owner is a less active member. It was just an idea. We went there and when we were getting ready to pack it up, he told us that the day previous he had prayed to have the elders come and eat lunch at his place and if they did he would go back to church. It was SO COOL! Just from a little idea that I had we were able to be the answer to a prayer! =) It was great! (That was the coolest part of the week and the Mt. Dew.) The rest of the day not a lot happened. Yesterday we had a pretty good day and I loved being in the church and feeling the cleansing power of the sacrament. That was the week. Last p-day we had we just searched around for luggage for Elder A; so nothing exciting. 

2. Worst part of my week is that I have to stay in the house for a week.... 

3. My feet just ache. Both of them have that big tendon that connects your big toe and heal together is inflamed and then the bones on top of my left foot just ache especially when I rotate my ankle in a wrong direction... but I do think the foot inserts are helping! I had Raul and Elder A give me a blessing yesterday too so that will help!  Don’t worry about it =) 

4. My shoes look to be in great shape! I need to buy a good pair of running/tennis shoes still. I will get on that in a week. The clothes and everything are doing great!

I would love for you guys to celebrate my birthday! Go to Red Robin for me! ;) Ha-ha just go wherever you want and I hope that you guys have a great time! =) 

I love receiving the mail from my other friends but really the truth is that sometimes like I have said they just get me down because I don’t seem to have the success that they are getting. But I am not alone. I just need to press forward with faith and diligence. Thank you for the email that you sent back to me last week! I will go and read that scripture and the letter really just helped me out. I know that the Lord does things so that we can grow even if we don’t like them. It reminds me of a video from the LDS website that is called The Will of God. It is really good. I just need to remember that God is helping me grow. I have felt the Spirit really strong at times this past week and I know that I am meant to be out here even if it is hard. I will just press forward and try my hardest!!! That is all I can do right? But man, I love you guys so much. Thank you for always being there for me. I hope that you all have a great week and I will talk to you next week. Let me know if anything exciting happens please! I love you more than I can say! Thank you for loving me and being the best family anyone could ask for! Thank you for the Nut-brown rabbit book too... that book really gets to me. :') love you guys!!!! 

Love always, 

Elder Teg Hall