18th Week in Tampa

 We were invited to a member's

Christmas party before the talent show.

 The bull was on the USF campus.

The picture is from Specialized Missionary Training.

We have Night at Bethlehem this week so I will have to get some picture for you. Sounds

like a blast! I thought you might be out of school when I saw the

weather warning haha. That's crazy! I hope everything works out. I saw

there's a blizzard up in New York. The floor looks great! Too bad

about Gavin's games. I can't believe he stayed up so late! We had

Specialized Missionary Training it was a blast! We saw some huge

miracles on USF campus. We also have seen tons of miracles in our

area. Like random texts from investigators we haven't heard from in

two plus years or the Smith Family getting close to baptism this week.

We also had our ward talent show. We lip synced to the missionary

"hello" parody with the other Elders. Elder and Sister Alexander have

the video so we will get it from them or a member. There are some

crazy talents in our ward though it's hilarious haha. Things are

getting crazy with transfers this week and then Christmas coming up

but it's been good! Also we've been averaging at least 30 miles a day

on our bikes. It might be 40 we aren't sure. Things have been great

though! Elder Christensen and I along with Elder Newbold and Elder

Galliger are all staying in south tampa for another transfer. Elder

Christensen is just killing it out here! I love serving. Miss you all!

I hope to hear from you. Have a great day!

Elder Hale

17th Week in Tampa

 This is what are small district did on the worldwide day of service

I miss going to the nativity festival. We do have something called night

at Bethlehem that our stake sets up. It's huge, they have a large

field on Odessa next to the stake center so we set up different

buildings to make it look like Bethlehem. Then they have actual actors

and animals in the show and it sounds like it's very spiritual.

Thousands of people come from all around to see it. I think there may

be several other church's who help with it. That will be next Thursday

through Saturday. We've had so many miracles this week. 

We have the Smith Family getting

very close to baptism in the next couple weeks. We have had so many

miracles. One example happened on the world wide day of service. We

finished and we got a random call. Turns out the man who called us was

looking for two Books of Mormon and wants to start coming back to

church. Crazy!! We watched the Christmas devotional at the Blue

Star's. He is our ward mission leader. They have two brand new twins

so they have been very busy. I've loved serving out here. The humidity

and rain are back this week but it should be in the 30's this weekend.

Love you all!!!

Elder Hale

16th Week in Tampa

 Elder Christenson and Elder Hale

 the Pease kids

I tried to get a picture of the palm tree with Christmas lights but it was too dark.

We are currently full bike because the elders we were on car share with

had a medical issue so they need to use the car. It's been great

though. We've seen TONS of miracles. Also thanksgiving dinner with the

Pease's was delicious!!! They live on base so Brother Pease came and

picked us up. I did eat 5lbs of food. Possibly more since there was a

gap in between when I weighed myself and ate. Also I may have seen the

civil war as we rode past a store not sure ;) That's awesome

though!!!! We also visited the Wise's on thanksgiving. They've been

amazing fellowshippers for Dennis. We ate steak with Dennis and Sarah

last night. No offense to dad but that was the best stake I've ever

had! We also saw the Smith Family again this week they're doing great!

One crazy miracle of many happened last night. We were biking up a

busy rode and had a drunk man in construction gear flag us down from

the other side of the street. He was explaining how he had just gotten

out of the hospital and was baptized several years ago. He was having

trouble remembering his families information. He knows where they are

and can't remember how he got to Tampa. He was clearly a member and

most of his story added up which was crazy. It was also amazing to see

him chuck his beer when we reminded him of the Word of Wisdom. Not

sure what will become of that encounter. There's crazy miracles that

happen down here I love it! I hope you're having a great day!!

Love Elder Hale

15th Week in Tampa

We have our Zone activity day today so I'm emailing earlier. Also I'm

currently using my iPad to email.  We now have wifi in the apartment

too so I can view any email during the week. I can email all

preparation day too. I don't know if I can respond as much as I was.

President Cooper doesn't want it to be like texting. I don't currently

have wifi so I can't view the pictures. I will in a bit though. Things

sound great! We will be having thanksgiving dinner at the Pease and

possibly the Wises too. Things are moving forward it's been good. We

are currently on car share with the other elders so we have been

biking a lot the past week. Things are going great!
One miracle from this week was a lesson with Sarah and Dennis. They've been doing great and are loving the gospel. They made it to church again. I can't wait for Dennis to get baptized! Also we have the Smith families baptism coming up in December. They have been doing great and are very excited for next month. Also we have the new church initiative video coming out this week so I'm pumped!!

Love

Elder Hale

14th Week in Tampa

This week has been amazing! Elder Christensen and I have been having a blast! He's from Twin Falls and is the oldest of four. He was already ready for his mission when he came out so it's been amazing! We've seen so many crazy miracles! For instance when we were shopping at Walmart today the cashier stopped us and asked for us to send him copies about our religion and to come by his house once the holiday season ends so we can answer his questions. The weather has been much nicer here too. It's been cloudy and the upper 70's during the day so I'm loving it. It is sad though because I feel like I need a sweater in this weather. Thing have been great though. I hope you all have a great week! 

Love Elder Hale

We did service up at our old stake center. The Tampa stake (Odessa and Tampa now)

Put together a thing called Night at Bethlehem. It sounds amazing. We put up shops and everything and I guess there is actors and live animals and everything.

The church owns a huge field so theres actual buildings and sheds we set up for it. 

Oh something cool I forgot to mention is Elder Christensen is partially deaf so he can do sign language. There's a less active that is deaf and we visited her because the ward hasn't been able to communicate with her for awhile. It's a long story why she stopped coming but the lesson went really well. I just kind of sat with her dog while Elder Christensen signed for her. It awesome!!

13 Weeks in Tampa

 Elder Hale's new companion, Elder Christensen. Elder Christensen is fresh from the MTC and will be trained by Elder Hale for the next 12 weeks. 

 Training and Transfers

 Some pictures from my last day with Elder Ellsworth. 

 He's in Seminole 1 transfer training right now it's crazy!

A busy day with training and transfers.

So this week has been jam packed with miracles. I met Elder Christensen this past Wednesday. He was already ready for his mission so he's been doing amazing! We noticed this week that we've been able to work with a lot of families which is amazing. Yesterday everyone we found was with their families and they were all interested it was crazy! I've loved getting to work here in South Tampa. Something amazing that happened was we had a Mission wide Zone Conference this last Saturday. We were all taught by Elder Klebingat. He was able to help us realize how we can better fulfill our purpose as servants of the Lord. He also helped us realize the extent of our divine potential. It was amazing! I hope you all have an amazing week! Love you all!

Love Elder Hale

12 Weeks in Tampa

 I went on exchange up to Springhill with Elder Harper. It was a blast! We got to see so many miracles up there.

We got to go to Josh's baseball game. He's playing little league and played as pitcher and 2nd base. It was a blast! He's a member of the Wallace family whom we've been teaching.

We have a zone conference this week where the entire mission is gathering. The training is taking most of the day and is being done by Elder Jorg Klebingats. He has a talk in the October 2014 General Conference. It's amazing!

So this week was a blast! I got to go on exchange up to Springhill with Elder Harper. Springhill was basically a city of  houses and restaurants. It was a lot different then South Tampa. There were some amazing miracles we got to see though. This week we said goodbye to Elder Gardner one of the Zone leaders. He's headed home tomorrow. It's amazing to see the growth that can happen in just two years. We've been able to see a lot of miracles down here in South Tampa this week too. One huge one was the Smith family making it to church this last sunday. It was 7 of them in total and they loved the service. They stayed for all three hours too! The kids are getting very excited for baptism, it's great to see the Lord working in others lives. Some other miracles happened when I was on exchange with Elder Beazer from Tampa 1C. I decided to take him biking since he hasn't gotten to do so on his mission quite yet. We ended up running into several of our formers we hadn't been able to contact and set a baptismal date with one of our new investigators. It's crazy how many miracles are waiting for us. I've loved how the guidance of the spirit leads us to those miracles that are waiting for us. It's crazy I won't get to be serving with Elder Ellsworth this next transfer! He's headed down to Seminole 1 with a trainee and I'll be training a new missionary here in South Tampa. I hope you all have a great week!

Love Elder Hale

11 Weeks in Tampa

That's one of our investigators motorcycles 

 Zone Training meeting

 a picture of the trunk or treat

 Another picture from the trunk or treat.

We got to help in primary so we played out Alma and Amulek when they're teaching the Zoramites.

This was an amazing week! We had a low of 65 when I got up for working out. That felt amazing! We've been able to get several members involved with our investigators. It's been great seeing the fellowshipping that's been going on. This weekend we actually had our ward Trunk or Treat. We had a crockpot cook off which was delicious! Dennis and Sarah made it to the Trunk or Treat and had a blast with it! Dennis is getting really close to baptism. He's been making all the necessary steps to be ready for it too. There are several others including the Smith Family who are doing really well. The biggest miracle this week was at the trunk or treat actually. We were trying to plan an FHE with a family in the ward and Dennis and Sarah so we were going to introduce them at the party. Turns out the family was already introducing themselves before we even had a chance to do so ourselves. The family was super excited when they found out we were planning an FHE with them. The FHE will be tonight and should be a blast! I get to go on exchange up to Brooksville tomorrow. I can't wait to go up there! I'll let you know what miracles I get to see next week! I hope things are still going great! Hopefully this isn't my last week in South Tampa before transfers but if it is I've loved it! Have a great week!!

Love Elder Hale

10 Weeks in Tampa

I took over the area and Elder Laub came down to Tampa with me. It was a blast! 

 Macdill Air Force Base plane

 Pictures of the Bay

Random apartment complexes along the bay shore

This week was great! This last Sunday I got to participate in the formation of a new stake. They split Tampa in half and took one ward from St. Petersburg and one from Brandon. We had two General Authorities come, Elder Pearson and Elder Alba. It was an amazing experience! We're still in the Tampa stake the new stake up north is called the Odessa stake. I'm not sure where our stake center will be and now we have a new stake presidency, the old one is up in Odessa so it's been crazy. The spirit was super strong at that stake conference I loved it. This week I got to go on base to meet one of those less actives we found. That was an amazing experience. She has always had a lot of doubts so with the help of the High Priest group leader, Brother Schroder, we were able to answer those questions. We are still teaching the Smith family. They're awesome! Right now we are just trying to get them to read the book of Mormon. We got to see Dennis several times this week too. He's been doing great. We have several others who are getting ready for baptism it's a blessing to be able to work with them. I love serving. This week we had several random service activities but we got to dress in service clothes for one of them which was nice in the hot Florida sun. It's been great! Things can get crazy sometimes but the people I get to meet make it worth it. I hope you all have a great week.

-Love Elder Hale

9th Week in Tampa

 We got the some of the winds but none of the rain so we decided to get a kite from the dollar tree and flew it during our lunch hour.

 

That was our last district meeting with Elder Durrant as our district leader. Him and his trainee Elder Stevenson who came out with me were moved to Clearwater. Elder Ellsworth was called as our new district leader last night which is very exciting. Not sure how long it will last since we will be in a new stake next week.

 We got it Friday like I said. Thank you guys so much!!!!!!

A package from home.

 German chocolate!

(Elder Ellsworth says thank you too)

Well this week was just as good as all the others. It was definitely exciting with the incoming Hurricane. We didn't get hit very badly. One of our zones had to evacuate but sounds like they were okay it was just a safety procation. Thursday when it was coming in from the Bahamas we came in early since it was raining pretty hard. That was all the rain we got though. We had an amazing church tour with the Smith family. They're all getting very excited for baptism. They'll most likely be ready next month since they didn't make it to church yesterday. They wanted to come when there would be more people there since the stake was going to send out quite a few men to the east coast to help out with the relief effort. They didn't end up going though. It sounds like they weren't ready for us to send help over just yet. We were able to visit Dennis and Sarah again this week. Sarah is the less active and Dennis is the one who is very interested in the gospel. He's still serving and doing all he can to serve. This week we were able to find several new investigators. There's people everywhere here in Tampa. Something interesting that happened this week was we found out one of our progressing investigators was actually a member. She didn't want to tell us before but opened up when we started talking about baptism. Our new goal for her is getting her ready for the temple. She's very excited about that.

We also ran into another less active at a Walmart parking lot. She ended up coming to church this last sunday which was amazing. She also lives on base so we'll get to go on base later this week. I'm excited for that. Things are moving along in Tampa 1. I love the work here. Elder Ellsworth just got called as District Leader so this week will be busier then the past. We're planning an exchange tomorrow so I'll get to take over the area again. 

We've been staying safe though and I love serving. Thanks so much for the package and all you guys do. I love you all, have a great week!

-Love Elder Hale

8th Week in Tampa

 This was Zone Development day. It was a blast!! The power almost went out several times.

The storms have been crazy lately.

 Conference was amazing! We got to eat at members houses and also watch conferences there.

It feels a lot different being in members homes for that long.

Let's see this week has been good. We didn't get to teach as much with conference and how stormy it's been. Zone development day was a blast. That was all of monday. We had district meeting after it and then came home. We got to do spotlight, signs and a character role play game with President and Sister cooper. It was a blast!!!

The weeks here are going super fast. I have heard from Allen, Daniel and Parker. They're doing great from what I heard last. We have several families we're teaching right now who are working toward baptism this month. Hopefully they all can make it. This ward is great. We have been blessed to see so many miracles.

I promise to stay safe if Hurricane Mathew hits Florida. If it stays as bad as it is I wouldn't be surprised if we have to evacuate. It should die down before it comes anywhere close to us though. Keep the look out for me though. I think this is the Lords way of blessing me for wanting to survive a Hurricane ;) 

I hope you all have a great week!! 

Love Elder Hale 

7th Week in Tampa

 The one with the rain is when we got stuck because of a thunderstorm that hit while we were biking. We had to wait the storm out on a porch. It actually ended up being Dennis and Sarah (the less active's) porch. Which was pretty crazy. So yeah we got pretty wet that day. It rains hard here but only lasts about 10min. That one lasted 40min with lighting and lots of wind. Still staying safe though.

I'm emailing earlier because we have a Zone Activity Day all day. We're heading up to the stake center in Odessa. Also we have three sets of Elders in our ward now. That's been an interesting change. OUR bishop has been doing amazing with the change though. He's been making sure there's families to fellowship with the investigators we have. We've scheduled with several members to watch conference at their house. That will be really good. This week I was able to take the lead more so then before. I've loved everything I've gotten to learn so far. There was one particular day that was really rough. All our lessons fell through so we weren't sure what we were going to do but then we ended up going to look for several formers. One of those formers wasn't living where we thought and instead it ended up being a less active woman and her boyfriend. She was super excited to see us and invited us in. She's in her early 30's and hasn't been to church since she was 16. Her boyfriend Dennis hasn't ever been really religious but kept on saying he knows going to church is what they both need in their lives. He made sure they made it to church the next day. He's been super open to the gospel and even volunteered to help someone move during Elder's quorum. Which is crazy since we had only met with him that one time the day before. It was just crazy to see how ready they both are for the gospel to be in their lives. We also have several others who are progressing just as well as them. One in particular her name is Rose. We've been working with her since I first came out. She keeps on saying "if" she gets baptized. She doesn't want to commit just yet. However she went to Womens Conference on Saturday and absolutely loved it. And then afterwards that sunday when we were leaving her house she said "So if (when) I get baptized who can baptize me?". So she's already planning it out even though she hasn't committed just yet. It's amazing. The people here are great. I'll send some pictures in a bit. 

Florida State played USF so we saw a ton of fans on Saturday. 

Love Elder Hale

6th Week in Tampa

 And then that's my district from the last two weeks. South Tampa was sent into the North district so I didn't know them too long. Transfers weren't too crazy so it shouldn't be too much different.

 This was Metro. It was Wednesday. It's basically for new missionaries. We get to go out on USF campus and find people. Elder Ellsworth went with Elder Menlove one of the Assistants. We then came back and did several role plays, some more training and other things that help us grow as missionaries. It was all day and ended with a church tour and testimony meeting with President Cooper. It was an amazing experience and hope it can happen again.

 That's Angel before the baptism. He was really, really excited and just had surgery that week so not sure how he was so ready and able to do it.

 I tried to get a picture of the amazing storm clouds we see here.

Angel earlier before he got baptized. And then our other investigator named Angel next to him.

So this week was amazing. Like I said we had our final meeting as a district. We all thought the transfer would be much bigger since there's 18 missionaries coming in and zero leaving. I'm glad we get to stay here in Tampa though. This week was metro like I mentioned earlier. Metro is such an amazing experience and I'm so glad we have it. Something I gained from metro was that we don't need to ask if they want to hear about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We just need to start teaching them. They accepted it before we came here on this earth. So might as well start helping them remember why they're here in the first place. We had our miles cut so all the Zone leaders Sister Training Leaders can have more. So we'll be biking more often. Which is fine I've loved biking. We got to help one of our neighbors move a couch down a flight of stairs. There's a lot that's been going on. I've also gotten to participate and see many miracles through the Priesthood. How grateful I am for the faith of those who asked for those blessings. Another miracle this week was when we taught Deloris last night. She has five kids I believe. They're all very religious. The husband hasn't joined a lesson yet but last night all her kids joined except for the youngest. They were all really excited about learning more. They kept on asking the right questions too like "So if I read this book (The Book of Mormon) I can know Joseph Smith was a prophet?" " So I need to get baptized by someone who has the authority like Christ had?" It was amazing. And this was the kids asking the questions. They're all about Gavins age and younger. The youngest isn't baptismal age but the rest are and they all committed to baptism at the end of the month. It's such a blessing that we were able to meet them.

Let's see, we have another stake conference coming up. It's multi-stake and I guess it may have to be at a different venue then a church building because three stakes will be attending. And there's at least two general authorities coming. There's a lot of rumors about what might be happening. They're most likely making another stake which is really exciting. I'll keep you updated as time gets closer. We also have the primary program this Sunday. That's gonna be amazing. Our ward has 40 primary age kids I believe. There's so much going on I wish I could tell you more. I look forward to that package ;) I love all you guys and hope you're having an amazing time at school while I'm having to deal with the cold 80 to 90 degree weather ;)

You guys have a great week! 

Love Elder Hale

5th Week in Tampa

This week has been great!! Tell Linn and Capri thanks for the letter they sent. We got it right before lockdown two weeks ago so we were able to use the cash for pizza. This week there wasn't a Hurricane. We did have a Zone Training Meeting so now we are going by the Missionary Handbook when it comes to most rules. For now it's Service, Music, Study and Exercise that are going back to Missionary Handbook rules. President Cooper felt the change was necessary so we can have more agency and accountability. So he's more about the spirit of the law. He still expects exact obedience. It's been a good change and will lead to more growth. We have quite a few solid date sets we've been working with this past week. There is a baptism coming up this Saturday. The man getting baptized is named Angel or Angelino. He's most likely the most converted investigator I'll have the opportunity of meeting. He was prepared a long time ago for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He was in Utah for 30 days and has been looking for the missionaries ever since then. And that was years ago. We found him several weeks ago when he yelled he was ready to get baptized. I'm so grateful for his faith and testimony. He's been waiting a long time to get baptized and he's ready for it. (And no he isn't a member, we checked ;) ). That's something I think I've come to realize the most this first transfer. The Lord really has prepared people for the gospel. It's just a matter of being in tune with the spirit so we can be guided to them. Angel like I said is getting baptized this weekend. I'm so excited for him!!! It's hard working 24/7 but I've loved it.

Some other random things was my back tire got a flat so I had to get my tire patched up since it had a hole and then I had to get a new tube. It all worked out though. And then my back light fell off so I'll be getting a new light later today. We've been playing tennis for workouts this past week. There's a tennis court next to the park and YMCA next to our apartment complex. Also the minor league fields are right next to our apartment complex. So Gavin would love it. The fields are much nicer then the ones at home. They're sponsored by the Rays which is most likely the reason why.

I hope all of you are having a great week. I love and miss you all. Have an amazing week!!

Love Elder Hale

4th Week in Tampa

This week was crazy. We didn't get to proselyte as much because of Hurricane Hermine. We were on tornado and flood watch/warning for a couple days so I was loving it. We had to stay in several evenings and mornings and only got to proselyte a couple hours each of those days. The rest of the week was great though and it's heating up now that the storm is gone. And the Hurricane didn't hit until 2:00 Friday morning. When it did it was crazy. The wind was super strong. The thunder shook the apartment. And then our power went out but came back on that morning. We luckily missed most of it so it wasn't bad at all. We had 4 of our solid investigators make it to church this last sunday too. That was such a surprise with all the craziness that had been going on. One of these investigators that made it was one of those miracles. She just moved to Tampa and was praying for felllowship. She ended her prayer and we knocked on the door. Now she's going to church and wanting to learn more. There's so many stories like this I can tell. It just shows how much we are being watched over and guided by the spirit. I love every day I get to serve here. It's hard work but the miracles and people make it worth it. This last week we had our Ward Mission lead Brother Bluestar get back. He works on base so he's a busy guy. He is really, really good at getting the members involved so things are already picking up. And our bishop is just as devoted to missionary work. He makes sure to put our investigators first and makes sure he gets to meet each one individually. It's been a blessing how hard the ward is starting to work. Make sure the beavers win that next game. I saw Florida playing when we were riding by on Saturday. Crazy it's that time of year. Have a great week. I love you guys.

Love Elder Hale

3rd Week in Tampa

. This was a slower week because we had zone conference and Stake conference. We had Elder Costa and Elder Foster do the training. It took up most of the day. It was an amazing experience and we were shown how to get a level 3 mission. That's having members do most of the missionary work resulting in 300 baptisms a month as a Mission. This is President Cooper's vision. He is an amazing president and I can tell he's gonna do great things for the people of this area. The people in this area are still amazing. My companion and I got sick this past week so we haven't been doing as much contacting. Instead we've been working more with our date-sets. We have several who will be ready pretty soon. I love the work here.

One man, his name is Angel, he was converted after being in Utah for 30 days. We aren't sure if he's a member. All we know is the missionaries before us met him when he yelled from his house he want's to be baptized. He's just ready and already has a testimony in the restored gospel, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He teaches us more then we teach him. For instance we gave him a Book of Mormon and came by the next day to find out he was already in Alma. AND that was without his reading glasses which he lost earlier that week. So we gave him a bigger copy. He's probably done by now. It's amazing how many people are ready for the gospel here. Also the Mission hasn't said this but everyone has been talking about it.

It sounds like there's a pretty big Hurricane headed this way. So I'm of course very excited. I took a screenshot of it from my weather app. If it is coming they'd evacuate the mission. So I'll keep you updated. I promise we're keeping safe. There's been a couple times the spirit has told us to leave places and we did. I don't know why in one specific case but without speaking Elder Ellsworth and I just walked into the car and drove away. That's when you know it's the spirit guiding you where you need to go. I hope all of you are having a great week. Stay safe. I love all of you.

I got a sweet picture of the thunder clouds here. But yeah watch the news for me. Hopefully the Hurricane comes. I love all of you so much. Thanks mom and dad for the example you've been and for supporting me. I hope you have a great day and week in the chilly 70 degree weather.

Love Elder Hale

These are pictures from last weeks car inspections.