Stolen Nametags, Easter, and Bed Bugs

I promise that we had several spiritual experiences this week. I

promise that we had many lessons and even found a new family and a

golden investigator. I promise that Easter was amazing and we saw many

miracles because we were able to testify of Christ.

Now that we have that understood, this is how the week went.

During the transfer period I left one of my name tags in my last

apartment. The missionaries there sent it on a letter to my new

apartment. When I got the letter Monday the side was slit open and the

name tag was gone, but the letter the missionaries wrote to me was

still there.

Wednesday we drove out to Lockhart for District Meeting. 10

missionaries gathered in a little town 25 minutes away from anywhere

in a chapel. The chapel is in a rented piece of a strip mall. On the

other side of it is a gas station and liquor store. Quaint.

Friday my companion noticed that I had bites all over me. We were

doing a lot of service outside this week, so we thought it was

mosquitoes, or something. That is when I found the bed bugs. The

apartment complex couldn't get an exterminator in until this Tuesday.

So Saturday was spent bagging all of our clothes and sheets and taking

them to a laundromat in South Austin. We spent hours there until a

member called us and let us know that you only need to to put clothes

in the dryer to get rid of bed bugs. We lost a lot of quarters that

day.

Because the closest set of Elders to us are about 25 miles away, we

are spending the nights in a member home. It turns out their son is a

world famous LEGO master builder, and the guest room is filled with

life-sized creations. I sleep next to Thor, Wonder Woman and her

invisible upper torso, Captain Kirk, and a Minion. There are heads and

arms laying around everywhere.

Sunday I forgot to tell our Easter Dinner appointment I was allergic

to coconut until after I was light-headed and swelling. It was the

first time I ever reacted to coconut oil. I took some Benadryl and was

fine, but tired.

Other than that, this week was fantastic. We were able to teach some

great people. I found out that two of my former investigators are

getting baptized this Saturday. I am definitely going to one of the

services. We had some great lessons with some honest hearts and I have

felt like a very successful missionary. During a sacrament hymn I

realized that Heavenly Father is much more compassionate than I ever

imagined. He recognizes success and effort just as much as he

recognizes failure. This is something I learned long ago, but like all

things, we need to be reminded of.

- Elder Richard Hall

1. A food place outside of the laundromat.

2. A view from my bed.

Novelty, Shadows, and the New Braunfels Unicorns

The Unicorn is the mascot for a high school that I served fairly close

to in my last area. It has has the best name among high schools that

I've served around on my mission, with second being the Hutto Hippos.

Hopefully I can snag a Unicorn T-shirt before I head out of Texas.

This has been a week full of change. Full of it! Things are just not

like they were a week ago, or two weeks ago, or so on. I will be

spending the last few months of my mission in Buda and Kyle, two small

towns that are beginning to explode as commuter towns for Austin,

which is about 15 minutes north of us. This is a fun area, the largest

and most rural of my mission. The congregations are smaller, and the

members are close to missionaries. Things are further apart, there are

some older couples, and life is slower.

These two towns share with Austin a sort of crossroads of culture. You

can run into true cowboys on the same street that you run into

computer junkies. You see men with full beards and Oakley sunglasses

carrying a mac and wearing skinny jeans. There is a giant Cabelas that

looms over the town of Buda that doesn't have plastic bags. It's kind

of fun to see.

I suppose that my new companion, Elder P, and I are the perfect fit

for an area like this. Elder P is a, well, hick. It's hilarious.

All analogies and stories used in lessons are about guns and hunting.

His similes and metaphors all connect with animals. His pronunciations

are textbook. "That's a tough sitchie-ation right there." "I used to

cover Plum Crick." Or this excellent conversation.

"So, that lady's name was Janice (pronounced Jan-is), right?"

"Yep, that's Janice (pronounced Jay-nus)"

"Okay, so it's Jay-nus"

"Yep, Jay-nus"

"I thought she said Janis."

"That's right."

"So, is it Janis or Jay-nus?"

"Jay-nus"

"So not Janis"

"No, it is."

"Janis?"

"Jay-nus."

A few tries later I gave up and decided it was Janis. It's really fun,

because he isn't trying at all, it's simply who he is. I only hope

that when the novelty wears off, he'll still be funny. He really is a

good kid though. He'll talk to the cowboys about horse riding, I'll

talk to the Austinites about ACL. And surprisingly, both groups really

like baseball.

I realized the other day that I spent 74 of the 104 weeks of my

mission in my last two areas. That's a long time, almost 18 months.

And being in this area for just 1 week now, I wish I could spend a

good chunk of time here as well. To me it shows that love doesn't stay

in one place. Memories travel with us. It isn't our surroundings that

determine what we feel and how we act, it is the character that we

have developed within us. What makes someone easy to love? It is not

always them, it is sometimes us.

But yes, sometimes it is them.

- Elder Richard Hall

Buddha and Style

Due to some experimentation from the mission president, Preparation

Day was moved from Monday to Wednesday for transfer week. Today was

spent doing a lot of packing.

Packing? What? No... Elder Hall is getting transferred! It's really

sad. I was hoping to stick out the rest of my mission in this little

slice of heaven. But I'm going from the pleasant suburbs of San

Antonio to the heart of the I-35. Buda and Kyle. This is most likely

going to be my last hoo-rah of the mission, and it will be a lot of

fun. My new companion is Elder P. The last time I saw him, he was

in training and had a thick backwoods accent. That was in July. Who

knows what he's like now.

I am excited to be heading out, but I'm leaving behind a lot of great

memories. My companions, Elder M and Elder H, who

have become some of my closer friends in my life. This zone of

missionaries, who are some of the hardest workers I know. These Wards,

who haves members with excellent testimonies and anxious to serve the

Lord. These investigators, who have grown so much in the gospel. This

assignment, which has brought me joy and happiness to serve alongside

some of the greatest missionaries in the field. But the Lord knows

that the three months ahead of me are going to be some of the best in

my life, and I'm sure that it will be.

Life is good. There is always something good happening. There is

always light to cleave to.

General Conference happened over the weekend. That was fun. If I have

time I'll do my annual review of it next week.

- Elder Richard Hall