Week 7 in Sarasota

 Morning work out at the Beach with the Beneva Elders.

The Ringling

art museum

The weather has been heating up recently. It's already going into the

90's. Luckily the humidity isn't as bad as it will be. The mosquitoes

are all back though. Its crazy how much wildlife is here in Florida.

Sadly I still don't have a picture of an Alligator. We were going to

go to Jungle Gardens but saw how expensive it was and it was about to

close. Instead we went to the Ringling Art Museum. It's free on

Mondays so perfect for Missionaries. We were with the Beneva Elders

and the University Park Elders. It was interesting but still fun! We

got to meet several nice people there.

This week was crazy! Time is just flying by! We had a Zone Service

Activity for the local Habitat for Humanity. We layed sod at a home

they were going to be giving to a family. It was great! Immediately

following that we had our last Zone Training. The missionary

department felt there wasn't a need for Zone Training so now we will

just be sticking to Zone Conference and District Meetings. So now

that's one less thing we will need to worry about preparing. It was a

great Zone Training though! The missionaries are awesome!!! I was

going to send a picture of the Zone Service but don't have he

pictures...I'll definitely send them next week!!

We have been finding a lot recently. A lot of our progressing

investigators have stopped keeping their commitments. It's been a

blessing though because with the added time to find we've come in

contact with some amazing people. One such instance we were tracting

and came to an intersection. We felt a prompting to go left and found

a really, really kind woman and a family who is amazing!!! You can't

ever take credit for being at the right place at the right time

because every single time I can point out how the spirit influenced us

to go a certain way to help a brother or sister in need. It's been a

huge testimony builder. The people here in Sarasota are so amazing.

We've been getting more involved with the members and hope to start

working more closely with them to help them with their own missionary

efforts. We have stake conference this week and have a General

Authority coming. Not sure who it is quite yet. We're hoping as we can

get as many people possible to attend.

I've been loving serving. Thank you so much for that package!! Lots of

goodies, very good! Elder Menlove says "thank you!!!". He's such an

amazing missionary. He's just like Elder Barclay. Now that it's coming

toward the end of his mission he's working even harder then he did

before. He's been such a great help and I've learned so much from him.

I'm glad things are going so well!!! I hope y'all have a great week!!!

Love you!!

Elder Hale

Week 6 in Sarasota

MLC 

Moon at night

We have been having some crazy car trouble. We have been without a car most of the week so we had to borrow another set of missionaries car to drive up to Tampa for our MLC. Luckily the missionaries here are super kind and willing so we were able to have transportation to Tampa. We do have the car back. They said they were 100% confident it would be fixed. However when we were driving yesterday to church the engine light came back on. We think it might just be Satan trying to hinder. It's crazy! Easter was great though! We got a text from the Assistants to the President that we could eat with members. We weren't going to ask though because it was so late of a notice but then we had a member come up and ask if we would like to have dinner at their home. It was awesome!!! Amazing food!! They have 5 kids all 12 and younger. I found out Brother McNiven is the exact same age as dad just a day apart. Crazy!!! They're an awesome family! 

We had some crazy miracles as we were biking this week. One instance happened when we went to go see someone. Our original lesson fell through and we weren't sure what to do. We felt we should go down a certain street and we were guided to knock on a house. That first house we knocked on turned out to be a less active member not on record. The rest of her family aren't members and she wants to start coming back. Things have just been crazy since she originally moved here to Sarasota. So glad the spirit guided us to her. We saw her yesterday and things are going great! Crazy how the Lord will guide us to those who are ready for the gospel whether or not that means baptism or coming back to Activity. 

Love, 

Elder Hale

Week 5 in Sarasota

This week we had a chance to do a ton of service. One of those

opportunities is at a local Habitat for Humanity. We go just about

once a week. As we were biking back (The Malibu we've been driving is

having issues), we ran into a woman and her kid. We found out she has

come to church before and has even read the Book of Mormon. The next

day while I was on exchange with Elder Willden from the Palmetto Ward

we met the rest of her family. They're awesome! They are outside our

Sarasota boundary and they would like to attend the family ward rather

then the YSA. So we sent her information to the Elders who serve up

there. It was a crazy miracle. On that exchange we also ran into a man

Elder Willden had been teaching when he was serving here in Sarasota.

He's super prepared and we had a chance to give him a blessing the

next day. He has a family of four kids. They're all super awesome. His

wife is also super prepared. Crazy how the Lord will work!! He's a

huge fishermen and wants to take us Bass fishing today so I'm pumped!!

I'll send pictures! Transfers are this week. Nothing is happening with

us. We will be getting a new set of sisters in Sarasota but besides

that the rest of the district is staying the same. But yes many good

things have happened this week!!! I've loved it! No photos I failed to

take any this week. I hope you have a great week!!! Crazy it's almost

Easter!!! I love you!!

Elder Hale

Week 4 in Sarasota

  Zone Conference!

The storms are back!

We went to several members houses for conference and had a huge miracle with a friend of a priest here that we had met, came to the priesthood session. We are having dinner with the priest's family and his friend. It was awesome because they were running late but walked in right when President Monson got up to speak. And that was crazy about Pocatello! Also very crazy that Utah is getting another temple! I had a chance to go on exchange with Elder Newbold this last week in Bradenton. He was in Tampa most of the time I was there so it was great getting to see him. This is his last transfer which is crazy! I'm grateful I have examples like him on where I want to be as a servant of the Lord. We had a Zone Conference and received some updates on some of our rules. We found out church policy is to not attend public or commercial gyms while we're serving so we are just sticking with the apartment gym now. We also received some clarification on emails, the general authorities only want us to send a single letter that way it's not as if we're on the telephone. It will keep us more focused. So I'll be sending this summary of the week from now on and then if I think of anything else I'll send an email specifically to you. But that would include not answering questions until next week. And in answer to one, I do not need anything right now haha. I'm so grateful this mission is moving forward to become more consecrated. It has been a huge blessing to me to see the change in myself and my fellow missionaries. I loved the talks in General Conference that talked about how we can embrace the Lord through service. I have seen so many examples of that since I've been out. I am loving this Zone and the chance I have to serve with Elder Menlove. I also loved the new videos the church sent out on Mormon.org. If you haven't seen them yet, watch them! They're amazing!! Lots of crazy miracles this week! I love this work! I can still see your responses today and during the week so I hope things are going great! Love you!! Have a great week!! 

Elder Hale