Heaven Can Wait

Hello Everybody!

It's been a while since I've sent out a decent weekly email, yet alone
a decent one. I'd like to spend some time reporting on what happened
this past week, because a lot happened.

Last Monday our zone decided to play ultimate frisbee. I love ultimate
frisbee. At college I played a lot of it and got pretty good at it.
This was an exciting moment in the life of Elder Hall to play frisbee
for the first time in 18 months. But after a few minutes my right knee
started to hurt. Finally, after hitting the ground from a deflection,
it sub-flexed twice.
For those of you that don't know what that means, because I didn't,
that is when your knee pops out and back into place in a matter of
seconds. Though it isn't a complete dislocated, it still hurts a lot.
After calling up the first counselor in the bishopric, who happens to
be an ER doctor, we got the diagnosis and headed over to an Urgent
Care. I've been on crutches and pain medication ever since. I have a
meeting with an orthopedist on Wednesday, and we'll get a better
diagnosis of what happened and what is going to happen.
Since then, every person ever has asked what happened, and I have to
tell them about my frisbee frivolities. Then they laugh at me, then
feel bad for me. They better! Do you know how hard it is to go uphill
on crutches?

Thankfully, we have been seeing great thing after great thing happen
this week. Elder M

and I have been working hard and we've
been seeing much good happen out of it. We have been finding more
investigators than I've had since I arrived here. It seems that every
member family that we meet with is open to inviting investigators to
church for us, or letting us teach lessons in their homes, or coming
out to lessons with us. We have been building the faith of the
members, and we've seen the faith of our investigators grow in
response. It's been a great week.

On Wednesday there was a worldwide mission conference to announce that
our schedule has been changed. A missionary's schedule is very
specific. Every day we wake up at 6:30, study from 8-10, get out and
work, have two hours for meals, get out and work from 6-9, and come
home, plan that night for the next day. However, we've been given
tasks that we need to do during a specific time period, and we get to
fill them in whenever. This means I could study on my own at 8 in the
morning, then study with my companion at 8 at night. It is mind
boggling. After being set in a specific system for so long, I have
been given the freedom to choose what is the most efficient format me
and my companion should use on a daily basis.

The next day I went to a council where all the leaders of the mission
come together. Usually at these councils, everyone is cool, calm, and
collected. But at this one our mission president fielded question upon
question about the new schedule. We then read two powerful scriptures,
2 Nephi 2:13-14, and DC 58:26-29. Some things just need to be tried
out to find out. That reminds me of John 7:17.

Life is good. The work is much and the days are too short. If only I
could bottle every day and put it in the pantry. Then each morning I'd
take my pick from the pantry and open up a refined aroma of memory.
Then maybe the days would stick to my bones, and be an ever greater
part of me.

Elder Richard Hall

2. A picture of me hooked up to a machine a member loaned me. It is a
wonderful thing