Week 11 in Brooksville and Christmas!

House we found as we were finding at night. Tons of people were there,

music was blaring. It was crazy!

Merry Christmas!!! I loved talking to all of you. I need to plan out

my questions before hand. I'm always scatter brained haha. Also please

let Harrison know how much I loved his letter. I didn't get to say so

over skype. I also love Hazels drawings! Lots of good things are

happening!!! We will keep you updated. Also, what's going on with

going to the Bay Area?

Very busy day! Lots of lessons. Lots of good things going on! Miracles

with the Johnson family!

Anyways, wish you a very merry christmas!!! Love you so much!!!!!!

Week 10 in Brooksville

 Our complex had a Christmas party (we ended up teaching a neighbor as

a result of it, awesome miracle!)

Hello!!! Great to hear the week went so great! I did! They were

visiting from St. George. Very nice couple. It was great seeing the

Tschudy's! She remembers ritterspöt haha. We got to see a lot of

members from the Tampa 1st Ward which was awesome! Night at Bethlehem

has been a blast! There has been TONS of miracles. We have had three

part member families come through and we were able to set up return

appointments with all of them. The johnsons are one of them. They are

an AWESOME family. We will be having dinner with them this Thursday.

The Brown family also came last second which was awesome. They're

doing very well. We hope to solidify their date this week. They have

been getting sick like everyone else which is no good. Nick and Elesha

also came to it which was awesome. We will be seeing them hopefully

this week. We also received a ton of referrals and got to meet a lot

of people from our area and other areas who are interested in meeting

with missionaries. One of them actually lives on the same street as

us! Elder Cox had a chance to share a talk in sacrament meeting which

was great! We feel the trust in the Ward had grown a lot. There's a

good change coming. We were able to teach the young men in Priesthood

and helped them learn the first lesson in preach my gospel. Then they

shared a brief principle from the chapter in Preach My Gospel. It was

awesome! The young men are on fire! This Ward had changed a lot since

I first arrived. I have loved seeing members take the lead in

missionary work. We received a referral for a girlfriend of a member

in our ward who has been going to church for a almost a year now. She

was at church this Sunday so we got to meet her. She is very prepared

for the gospel. We hope we can meet with them so she can progress. Her

family isn't very open to the gospel which is hard. She's also just

about to graduate from high school so she has a lot on her plate. We

are praying for her. She actually came to Night at Bethlehem with her

mom so we are hoping that means their hearts are being softened.

Tonight is the last night of a Night in Bethlehem. We are very excited

for it! We have several people who said they would come so we are

praying they can make it! Lots of good things are happening if that

wasn't clear haha. Transfers are this week. I'm assuming nothing is

happening haha. We were thinking of calling at 3pm our time. Does that

work?

Also I love the package! Thank you so much!! Love you! I will email on

Christmas before we call just to solidify what's going on. Hope you

have another great week!

Elder Hale

Week 9 in Brooksville

Hello! Agreed! I can't believe it... that's great to hear! Hopefully

there's som fruit that comes from the event. Light the World has been

awesome!!! We have been sharing it with almost everyone we see and

they love it. It's weird following up and seeing their phone or device

pulled up to Mormon.org. That sounds great! Make sure to include some

things for Elder Cox if you can. Thank you so much!! We had a ward

Christmas party this week which was amazing!! Nick and Elesha whom I

haven't seen for a really long time showed up. They lost contact

because they JUST had a baby. They're ready to start taking the

lessons again so we are excited for that miracle. The Brown family is

still doing well. The Ward is staying in contact. They still have the

desire but they seem to be lacking the fire lately. We are hoping for

some change. We have met a lot of awesome people this week. One

example is we met two different Jewish people who lived in Utah. One

graduated from Utah State with her husband in the 80s. She was the

librarian for a long time. Small world! The other lived in St. George

where Elder Cox is from. We will be meeting with her and her husband

later. Crazy! We also got to have a first lesson with an awesome

couple. They're super prepared for the gospel. She will be out of town

but he husband is coming with us to Night at Bethlehem this week. We

are super excited for it! There is a lot of people planning on going.

I'm glad to hear everyone is doing so well. I'm sure things will start

winding down with Christmas break coming soon. Transfers are next week

which is crazy! It was a shorter transfer because of Christmas the

following week. Please remind me to tell you what time we will be

calling when I email next week. Things are going really well though. I

am loving the work!!! The area is starting to blow up. The members

have been giving a lot of referrals. That hasn't ever happened in any

other area I've been in. It's been awesome! I hope you have an amazing

week!!!! Love you!

Elder Hale

Week 8 in Brooksville

Elder Cox and his birthday cookies

That sounds like a fantastic week!! There's a lot of houses that go

crazy with their Christmas lights here in Spring Hill. Glad to hear

the tree is up! That's awesome about the session! Ours was also packed

with tons of missionaries haha. That'd be awesome if you can go every

month! Also good to hear about Jordan. Since he's been home I've been

getting Mathew Davis' updates.

This week was fantastic! We did a lot of traveling at times too. There

was a baptismal interview all the way in Tampa so that took up all of

our morning and part of our afternoon on Saturday. It's an

investigator of Elder Gallaghers though so it was great seeing him! He

was my district leader and we have been following each other since

then haha. We went on exchange with Elder Hanni and Elder Keppner.

Elder Keppner came out the same time I did and actually started his

mission in Brooksville. So we got to talk about a lot of formers he's

worked with and reach out to a lot of them. There were some awesome

miracles! They both came to our area. I was with Elder Keppner.

We have been meeting a lot of good people. We are still working with

the Brown family to solidify that Saturday in December. They're so

close! We have been praying and fasting for them knowing that it's

beyond us right now. The members are still keeping in contact with

them when we can't which is a huge blessing.

The temple trip this week was amazing. I've felt the spirit much

stronger and had my three specific questions all answered in the

temple. Revelation is real. I feel much more confident now and ready

to go out and teach the gospel to everyone we see!

Elder Cox turned 20 yesterday. We are doing more of the celebrations

today. We did make cookies and sing happy birthday to him. He

appreciates dads message! He can't comment of course. We watched the

Christmas Devotional at the Cossons home, she's a recent convert and

their kids are still unbaptized. They're the best though! That's where

we sang Elder Cox happy birthday.

Anyways, it was a really good week. There's a lot of good people we

are working with. We are just praying and hoping they'll all continue

to progress to baptism so they can find that joy they're seeking. I

love you and hope you have a great week!!!!

Elder Hale