Week 3 in Sarasota

We saw some amazing miracles this

week! I took over the area on Friday and had Elder Rees come up here

and had Elder Menlove go with the Spanish missionaries in Beneva.

Elder Rees had severed in Beneva for a year so he knew tons of people

we passed by. Beneva covers the same area as Sarasota. One amazing

miracle this week happened at the YSA Ward sacrament meeting. There

was a young man named Chris who showed up by himself. Turns out he's a

non member who moved several years ago from New Hampshire. His best

friend up there is going to BYUi and is preparing for a mission. He

visited his friend and went to a fast and testimony meeting at BYUI.

He said he had never felt the spirit more strongly. Now he plans on

going there this April and has a desire to start learning more. He's

super, super prepared. We are planning on meeting with him tonight!

He's our age too which is crazy. He's had many things in his life

preparing him for the gospel. I'm sure his friend has been setting an

amazing example for him. I love all the people we meet who have been

so prepared for the gospel!! Lots of things have been happening and

I've been loving all of it!! Love this chance I have to serve!! Hope

the trip today goes well!! We are fishing at our ward mission leaders

today. He has a private beach off of the gulf. It should be good! I

will send pictures if I get a chance today.

There were signs that said don't feed the Alligators.

Love you!!!

Elder Hale

This is our ward mission leaders house

Week 2 in Sarasota

Sarasota Zone after Zone Training 

Justin's baptism

Crane about 4 feet tall outside of church on Sunday

We have had an amazing week!! It flew by! We had our first Zone Training Meeting. It was a little hectic because we arrived at the Stake center and all the carpets were being cleaned so we had to switch our meeting to the Bradenton building. So everything got pushed back a little. But thanks to everyone else in the Zone who had prepared it was a very spirit filled meeting. I'm so grateful I get to serve alongside these amazing missionaries. I love this Zone! Elder Wadsworth and Elder Loy from my MTC district both serve here so I've loved getting to work more closely with them! We had some crazy miracles this week! I've come to recognize that there are always noticeable miracles every single day where the Lord is working through us  to help bring  one of our brothers or sisters to the truth. How great is this work! We had the miracle of seeing Justin baptized this last Saturday. He's such a good man! Super strong testimony! Bishop Dekle was the one who baptized him. One of Elder Menloves companions who helped teach Justin got to come down for the baptism. We also had a ward picnic afterward. It was awesome! We had a man named Tom come. He's hilarious, he talk A TON, and he's just amazing. We hope he can start coming to church consistently. We've had a lot of other miracles too, the Lord is clearly blessing this area due to the hard work of the members here. The YSA Ward is also doing great. All we talked about this last Sunday it seemed like was member missionary work. I can't wait to see that branch turn into a firehouse for missionary work. Loving this area! It's been cold this week but should warm up. And yes a high of 60 and a low of 42 is cold!! We have interviews with President Cooper this week so I'm pumped!! I've loved serving with Elder Menlove. It's been amazing!! Hope things are going well today! 

Love you!!

Elder Hale

Week 1 in Sarasota

 Picture after MLC (Elder Menlove is front row on the right. He should look familiar since he was an Assistant when he first got here. Amazing missionary!)

 Cold stone with Dennis and Sarah before transfers 

Friday Morning

But this area is awesome!!! Elder Menlove is amazing like I already knew he would be. We've been kept very busy. We serve in two areas as well as serving as Zone Leaders in a Zone that covers almost half the mission. Our area is the Sarasota Ward and also the Sarasota YSA Branch. Both are amazing! We have a baptism this Saturday in the Sarasota Ward. His name is Justin. He has a good friend that's been sending him scriptures and getting him active. He has a huge testimony, I'm glad I have a chance to work with him! I got to attend my first MLC on Friday all the district leaders were invited so it was really good! We have been very busy with Zone Leader responsibilities. It's been good though. Times just flying by even faster now. Despite everything though we still get a lot of proselyting time. We got to do service on a local farm (yes there's farms here?!?). It was good, they do a huge berry fest so they had a news station come by as we were doing service. We have had several amazing miracles already. People are just as prepared here as they were in Tampa. Our ward mission leader is Brother Browder. He's awesome! He lives right off the gulf and owns a part of the beach so next Monday we are going fishing with him. Bishop Dekle is also amazing! Super Missionary minded. He works out at the gym we go to so we started working out with him. He's training for a half marathon so he might be doing similar things that dad is doing. But yes many good experiences already. Lots of miracles. Also weird experiences too. And yes I have seen Alligators now. They're everywhere here! We might go some place where they give you some food to feed them. Bishop was telling us about it. Not sure yet though. Anyways I won't be emailing as often as I was just because we will actually be doing things on Mondays now. Also we have the Orioles stadium in our area so we might go on a preparation day. Good opportunity to meet some people and still have some fun on preparation day. Elder Menlove went with his last companion's to a Yankees game. It all came down to a Home Run. So yes lots of things are happening. Sorry it's so long. We have zone Training this week so we have been preparing for that. I'm pumped!! Anyways hope things are going well especially after we lost an hour of sleep! I love this work!! Hope things are going well! Love you!!

Elder Hale

Week 30 in Tampa

 Zone Service Day

 Transfer Day

So President Cooper just called. I'll be going to Sarasota to be with

Elder Menlove and serve as a Zone Leader. Elder Menlove was an

Assistant when the got here so I'm pumped! Sounds like the zone is

fairly young too so it will be interesting for sure. I will give you

more info as time goes on.

We had our Zone service day. We were helping a Foundation that gives free

supplies to Schools since most schools in the school district here are

poor. Also found out it's the 8th biggest school district which is

crazy. We also got to help a man move who knows the Piano Guys. Very

well. The Elders got to meet them because of him. They came several

weeks ago. We've met many very nice people this week. We had stake

conference which was a blast! We still don't have a stake building so

we went to the old one our stake used to use in Odessa. It was

definitely very spiritual. Also a man we had met with for awhile and

referred to the Spanish missionaries was at stake conference. It was

awesome! He's being baptized pretty soon too! I wish, and he wishes I

could speak Spanish haha. But that's what google translate or the

Spanish missionaries are for ;) But yes things have been good! I'm

excited to find out what's happening with transfers. I've loved

feeling the spirit very strong over this Stake Conference weekend.

Hope things are going well!! Love you!!

Elder Hale

Week 29 in Tampa

We have had tons of miracles. We had several people at church which

was a huge miracle. We have stake conference next week so that was the

last sacrament meeting before transfers. Crazy time is going by so

fast!! We had Zone Conference which was so much fun!! We learned a lot

about he Doctrine of Christ. I never realized how simple but also

significant the gospel of Jesus Christ is until I came out here. I've

seen it change so many different lives and I'm very grateful for the

faith shown by those who accept the gospel. Joel has invited several

of his friends to start taking the lessons. Crazy!! Also one of the

friends we met who only speaks Spanish. He is close to our age and

just moved here not too long ago. We referred him to the Spanish

missionaries. He would still communicate with us via google translate

but moved from where he was staying several weeks ago. We just found

out he's being baptized in a couple weeks! Crazy!! So yes, Joel is

doing lots of good work. I love seeing others testimonies enlighten

those around them. I love this gospel so much. I'm so grateful I have

a chance to represent and testify of our savior Jesus Christ. It's

going so fast!! Glad to hear things are going so well!! I have the

ECHO scheduled this week. Hopefully everything goes well. Have a great

day!!! Love you!

Elder Hale