Week 25 in Tampa

 Transfers

Worldwide Missionary Broadcast and Zone Conference.

The "invasion"

We have a set of sisters in our ward now and they

are staying in our old apartment. We are sharing an apartment with

elder Gallagher and with his trainee elder Parks who is from Logan

Utah. So he is also going to Utah State!! Things have been great

though. We had Gasperella which is basically Tampa's Mardi Gras but

instead everyone dresses up like pirates and invades the city. We were

inside most of the day. We've gotten to work very closely with the

Ward members this week I've loved it! There's been a cold front this

past week so we've been having highs in the lower 60's which feels

very cold...sad right? I hope things are going well. I love this work!! Love you!! 

Week 24 in Tampa

We've had a very good week. We had a huge miracle of many

people we weren't planning on coming to sacrament meeting who made it.

One was a man who we've been working with for awhile. He is very

committed to his church and can only make it to our services once a

month. Everything lined up and he made it!! We found out he is best

friends with a recent convert of ours. Crazy miracle! The Smith Family

is still coming to church. The 12 year old is getting ready to receive

the priesthood. Dennis and Sarah are still coming. The Ward has been

so good. They're so Missionary minded. So many miracles because of it.

Still no news about transfers. Everyone says I'm leaving so we will

just have to wait and see. Last night our mission held the first "why

I believe" fireside. The spirit was so strong there and there was a

good attendance. The testimonies shared by the recent converts of the

Sarasota stake were so strong. I look forward to the next one!! While

we were driving there we had a huge storm hit this area. There were

several tornado warnings. One happened during the fireside. I sadly

didn't see one. The bay did come up onto bayshore boulevard and flood

it last night. We were out of power all of last night and this

morning. Now it's sunny and a high of 70 which will be a nice change

from the 80 degree weather. Glad things are going so well. I will send

some pictures later and let you know about transfers when I find out.

Love you!!!

Elder Hale

Elder Christensen and I get to stay!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!!

23rd Week in Tampa

I got a better picture of the blimp. It went right over us when we

walked after our last lesson Monday night.

We had a huge miracle with a neighbor of Delores and her family. It's another

family that is very prepared. It's the first lesson where we had the

head of the household be willing to give a kneeling prayer in the

first lesson. The spirit was super strong during that lesson. We've

been working with a man named Joel this past month who is also very

prepared. He came to our Book of Mormon class and has been sharing the

gospel with his friends and got one of them to also attend the class.

I love meeting people who are that prepared. Transfers are next week

so we will see what happens then. Things got a little crazy with the

championship on Monday. We saw the fireworks from the stadium when we

walked out of a lesson. The roads were fine once the game started so

we were safe on our bikes.  I understand about it being too cold for biking. It's been a chilly 80

degrees outside all week ;) I do have an important question for you.

When do I need to go see the doctor for my check up? Have a great day!

Elder Hale

22nd Week in Tampa

We had a really cold day yesterday (for us at

least). It was a high of 56 and a low of 35. It's cold with the

humidity. But it's back in the 80s on Wednesday so it doesn't last

long here. We have a new Bishop, Bishop Tschudy. He is the Father of

the family we visited on Christmas day. It was a very good experience

to be a part of! Elder Christensen's family also had church canceled.

It had been a long time since that had last happened in Twin Falls.

We've had lots of crazy miracles. I've loved this chance to serve.

Time is definitely flying by. We're almost to the end of the transfer!

Crazy! I hope things are going well! Have a good week! I was going to

send pictures but I made mistake of uploading my photos to the thumb

drive and then somehow deleted them all so I have to dig through all

the emails I've sent to find them again. I love the letters from Hazel! And the pistachios were

very, very, very good. I hope things are good this week! :) Have a good week!!!

Elder Hale

21st Week in Tampa

Christmas lights on palm trees. 

Elder Hale, Sister Smith and Elder Christensen

We had lots of miracles this week. Tampa is crazy when it

comes to New Years. There were fireworks everywhere! And lots of drunk

drivers. We had several cars stop by warning us to go home before it

gets really crazy so after our last lesson we went back to our

apartment a bit early. There were so many fireworks that had been

going off that my clothes smelled like smoke. We had Dennis at church

again this last Sunday and Christmas Sunday too. He's doing great! We

also have been getting to meet with a man who is super prepared for

the gospel. I've loved seeing the atonement working in his life to

help him get over his addictions. There have been so many miracles

these last several weeks. One example of that was this morning during

our morning work out. A man yelled "Elder!" when I walked by his

treadmill. We talked to him for a bit to find out he had played

football at BYU back in the 70's and has read the Book of Mormon and

gone to church before. He's not a member but has met with the

missionaries several times before. Crazy how prepared he is already.

He's planning on being there every morning so it was nice getting to

meet him. He reminded me a lot of Matt Petty. (I think I spelled their

last name right ;) 

Love you!

Elder Hale

20th Week in Tampa

Elder Galliger made a video for his brother for Christmas. "How to decorate

a missionaries Christmas tree". Since elder Christensen was the

tallest it just made sense that he would be the Christmas tree.

Christmas Day Elder Hale was able to Skye with us here in Oregon. It was pretty special!

Zone Development

 I loved getting to talk with all of you! Hazel and Graham seriously look so much different. How was the rest of your Christmas? The other elders were still skyping for about another hour so we just hung out at the church until they were done. Sorry I sounded so sick yesterday. Much better today though. Still seeing tons of crazy miracles. We have zone development day today

19th Week in Tampa

The Smith Family

That is Brother Chausse of the bishopric who baptized them.

It's been a steady 80 degrees here with 90-100% humidity. We've had a pretty crazy week. We had the miracle of the Smith families baptism. Elder Ellsworth got to come up to South Tampa for that. Another miracle this week was when we were bike contacting. We were talking to a man off of the Dale Mabry high way. While we were speaking with him we had a city bus pull up. It wasn't a bus stop so we weren't sure what was happening. Turns out the driver, who had an empty bus, just had some questions about the gospel he wanted answered. It was crazy. So Elder Christensen walked over to the bus as I continued speaking with the man. Also Saturday night we got to attend Night at Bethlehem. It was so good!!! It's basically a live nativity but they reenact it with live actors and they have an actual town and manger set up. We had lots of people come this year. Our stake and another stake puts it together and there's people from all over who come to see it. I met several people from Georgia and South Carolina who came down for it. Another crazy miracle I have to mention is we got a call and text from a woman Saturday night. She said she is looking for a church. I talked with her on Sunday to find out she's from Eugene and has attended several wards but is not yet a member. She actually attended the Corvallis 2nd Ward several times last October. I have yet to meet her so I will let you know if I recognize her. We can tell all these miracles (and these are small in comparison to what we see each day) are a result of the mission turning toward being consecrated. Also the members getting really involved is what's allowing all these miracles. Crazy how strong the spirit has been the past several weeks! Hope everything's going well. 

Elder Hale