A Week of Close Ones!!

So a little back story--the Mexican government only imports oil from the US, and they only have one gas company. So this week the US raised the cost of gas-so for every litre of gas its an extra 2 pesos (roughly 10 cents) I think.  So everyone started freaking out and it is just a mess here. 

So the problems started at Plaza Americas on Monday--literally like 2 hours after we had left there. A mass of people stormed the mall and stole literally everything--like literally everything--from every single store. There isn't a single thing (not even a piece of candy) left in the mall.  Tuesday and Wednesday it stayed in that area of Veracruz  (by the port)--I'm like 45 minutes from there.  On Thursday it had finally reached my area (Reservas). So we go out at 2 because that's when we are allowed to go out and we get called back in by 4. In those two hours a lot of stuff happened. First thing that happened was that we saw Aurura get sacked. So what they do is get a large group`of people outside the certain store and they all get rocks and through them through the windows (or tear the metal doors off). Pretty awesome.  So we walked past that and then we get the Pharmicia Guadalupe and there was another one--but this one even worse--like bloodied up people and people on the ground covered in blood (but not dead). and then we are walking down the street and my companion is talking to the President because he is now leader of the district. And a taxi pulls over and asks us if we need a ride.  We say 'No'.  They keep insisting we get in, but we stood our ground and just walked.  Well that seems harmless, right?  Well, President asks what just happened and we explained, and he said, 'You guys need to get home right now--like as fast as possible'.  Turns out that the drug cartel or gang here play a little game. So they pull up in a taxi and ask if you need a ride. If you get in the go (bad things happen). So that was the first close encounter this week. So we jogged home.

Well, the second one was in the back side of Reserva 3.  The people here have been cutting down trees so people (mainly government vehicles) can't pass. And in all the main entrances there is around 20 or men with some knives and weapons. We were passing one of these areas on the back side of Reserva 3 to visit the pantojas when we got stopped. The men started to spit on me and yell some stuff that I didn't understand (cuz its Spanish), but my comp says they were death threats. He had a sharp 'object' against me as well. Well, anyways we get past them and the family is not home.  So we turn around and go back the same way. We stopped and said a little prayer for safety, and when we passed the people it was as if they could even see us. We walked right in the middle of it all and not a single person glanced in our direction or said a word to us. So 'boom'--answer to my prayers. That day we were home by 1. It then happened again right next to my house (well, every day this week we have been home by at the latest 6).

On top of this all I'm getting blamed for this! :)  All of members and non members. We went to the ward missionary leader's house and he said, 'You know who is responsible for all of this, right?  I said, 'No'.  He then pointed at me and said, 'You guys!'   I didn't say anything because I didn't want to start anything. But it has been coming from everywhere and has been happening to all the Gringos here.

There is nothing at any of the stores.  So me and my comp go to our lunch appointment and eat as much as humanly possible, and then go a full day to our next appointment and eat again. haha Pretty fun if you ask me.  However, we haven't been able to work all that much because of the situation and having to be home really early. And we had to close like half of our area because it isn't safe for me.  And when we do get to work it is good, but I get a lot of hate. 

We usually teach 5-7 lessons a day.  I'm hoping to bump that up to 8-10 a day.  We have 11 baptismal dates set.

All in all this week has been good--and really entertaining. I have seen God's hand in keeping me and the other Gringos safe here. None of us have been harmed yet--so that is good. hope all is well with all of you guys and have a great week love you all.

Hello Everyone

Hello everyone,

I am sorry to hear that it is so cold where you are at. However, I would rather have extreme cold than this amount of heat 24/7. To put an idea in your mind about how hot it is here let me tell you one of the new rules of our mission. We are required to carry around a rag at all times to wipe away the river of sweat coming from our foreheads. The heat is absolutely killer, but hey I' come back dark as night I'm hoping.

This week was goo--still difficult with my companion--but hey, God gives us challenges to grow from. New Years Eve and New Years is a pretty big holiday here, so we had to be home no later then 8 o'clock. It was so incredibly loud that night. There was a party right outside our window and music was blasting. On top of that, they were letting off the loudest fireworks imagineable. So when it came time for bed I said a little prayer that Heavenly Father would help me sleep and let it be silent. When I put my head down to fall asleep I didn't hear a single thing--only the thoughts in my head. I fell asleep so quickly. When I woke the next morning my companion asked me if I had just as miserable of a night's sleep as he did. I told him 'No, I slept like no other'. He aksd me how that was possible considering it was so incredibly loud the night before. I said 'lo siento, I didn't hear a single thing.  Last night was as quite as church mice'. So that was awesome just seeing how God answers even the small and simple prayers in life.

A few more cool things this week. I made us contact every single time we were walking from one appointment to another. And there was one house which I knew we needed to contact, so we went up and started talking to them. It turns out that the daughter had recently been baptized but no one else in her family was. We started talking more and more and the whole family of 4 decided to take the missionary lessons--so whoop whoop! 

The second thing that happened this week was that I had another feeling to go and talk to this mother and her hija. Well it turns out they are members and had recently moved in, but knew nothing about the ward or where or when church was. We told them all of that information and then said we gotta go cuz we gotta be home by 8, but we will be back tomorrow. We went back and the girl had 20 referrals of all her friends for us--so whoop whoop!

Third experience this week. We had a feeling to go talk to one of the old investigators. When we got to his house he wasn't there, but his sister was. We talked to her and taught her a lesson. At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized and she excepted the invitation and is super excited.

This month we will be helping to baptize 9 people, if not more.  So that's really awesome. We already have 3 for February--so whoop whoop! 

During one of the lessons this week on splits the casa next to us got into a fight. Well we heard gun shots and one of the guys had killed the other one. Then yesterday we were going to an appointment and when we were walking we saw another guy shoot a guy across the street.  So life is interesting down her. 

That's all for this week. 

Love you all. 

Adios

Tanner Hall

First Day In The Mission

Hey everyone sorry I could not email yesterday I was way busy since I got on the plane. We left at 1:30AM for the airport so I just didn't sleep. The flight left at 6:30AM--so I felt like Mom. We had to leave super early because it was the Day of the Virgin Mary, which is the biggest holiday here.  Look it up--it is really fun what they do.

I haven't received the package you sent me Mom and Dad, so I hope I get it soon. I also tried to call yesterday but the airport phones didn't except our American bank cards for some reason.

On top of that, I met my companion.  His name is Elder Angeles.  He knows less English then I know Spanish. So this is gonna force me to learn Spanish as fast as humanly possible in order to survive here. Last night we went to a member's house for 'dinnerish'--it was tomales and tacos made by the grandmother. Then chili in a cup, then horchata in a cup. I ate a lot but, I sweat it all out within the hour. It is way more humid down here then in Hawaii, and its also cold (still like 80).  Last night I went to bed in straight humidity, and when I woke up halfway through the night it was freezing cold.  My companion had turned the huge AC onto my bed--it felt great but extremely cold.  Another fun fact is that I have two baptism already on Saturday!  So that's cool.

I have my second tonsil infection already being out here.  

More fun news is that driving home yesterday (completely packing a taxi), me and my companion started to talk to the driver (mainly him).  Anyways, we are now meeting with him today at 7 and he will hopefully become our newest investigator!.

(This email really wont be much longer cuz I have no clue at all when I am suppose to be off)

So anyways I should be going to the store today and getting some food.  I am been extremely hungry.

Here are some of our mission rules that I honestly do not get at all.

        1. No drinking coca cola at all.
        2. No eating street food. (Like c'mon)
        3. Only drink out of your filtered bottles.
        4. No playing any sports for 2 years--the only exercise you can do it run walk and occasionally               lift. That is the worst one but hey, there are probably reasons for that.

No warm showers at al--but to be honest I don't mind that at all because it feels great with this humidity. And the shower feels like (a dribbling faucet), that's roughly the pressure of the water.

Anyways, I hope all is well and you guys are all good. Keep going and pushing through no matter what--you guys got this.  

I cant wait to email you guys next week and see what you guys are up to.

He's Arrived!!

Hello Everybody....(December 8, 2016)

Hello everybody,

I am finally getting the hang of this Spanish keyboard so that is good. This week has been pretty good, not too eventful though. Let's start off with how the food is going. The food is still not to good!  But I am excited because I only have until Sunday night until I am free. I leave Monday morning at 2 AM for the airport. The plane doesn't leave until like 6 I think. We have to leave super early because its like the Virgin Mary Celebration tomorrow, so a bunch of people walk on their knees to a big cathedral or something in the heart of Mexico City so we aren't allowed to drive on those streets. Another fun thing that I learned this week about Mexico is that we are not allowed to go knocking on doors and are not suppose to street contact that much, so all of our investigators will be referrals from people--so that's fun. I also learned that lunch is at 2 and that's the only time members feed us. We then have dinner once we get back to our apartment, so I'll be making a lot of Kraft Mac n Cheese, and also a lot of peanut butter and jelly--so I am good with that! Every missionary staying in Mexico was given a filtered water bottle because the water is so bad down here. So hey--I got a free water bottle.  However, the water tastes terrible coming out of it. I am most excited to get myself a street taco when I get down there because they look really good (and really unsanitary)--so that's good. I am also hoping for a good trainer that either knows no English or knows it but only talks Spanish unless to answer one of my grammatical or definition of a word questions. 

This week in the CCM started off with our sister district 15D leaving--so that blows.  So we don't have anybody to play volleyball or talk with. However, the Hermanas are going to the same mission as Corey Ballard--so that's awesome!   Tell Jim to tell Corey to look out for 'em--they is pretty cool. On the topic of volleyball--I finally perfected my spike (with the timing and aim) so that feels good. My jump serve is pretty legendary so watch out U.S.A Men's beach volleyball team. No serious injuries this week though so that's no fun. Yesterday we had a pretty competitive 3 v 3 beach volley tournament with a bunch of the 'week sixers'--my team did pretty well so that's good. They also opened up the plaza in the middle of the CCM after it had been closed since June. As a result, I am just soaking up the sun.  Grant also left to Utah this week.  He was way excited. He is excited because the food blows and everyone is just craving some nice American fast food right now. 

Also I figured out that Elder Browning's sister actually served with Albert.

Spanish has been coming along.  We are learning subjectives for the rest of the time.  Its confusing and so weird. It does not make any sense, but hey Spanish is one of the 'languages of love'--so watch out. I learned that people from Veracruz speak muy rapido and they do not finish any of their words at all.   Yeah, I do not know or understand Spanish already when people are talking really slow and I'm going to a place where people have a young Tanner Hall Speech Disorder so this shall be fun. 

The Christmas devotional was amazing this week and you guys should all go watch it if you haven't. I will not tell you about it because I do not want to spoil the fun. It was really good though and you will all feel the Spirit when you watch it. Also, if you haven't seen the new Mormon Message that was from Uchdorfs, or however you spell it, you should watch that as well--it is pretty darn good. You will learn a lot from it. 

I have been reading the New Testament and finished Matthew and Mark in one day. I have learned a lot from it such as--did you know Mary  (not his mom) had 7 evil spirits cast out of her by Jesus?   So that's cool. I also learned my new favorite New Testament Story. So a guy had a bunch of evil spirits in Him and he came to Jesus to rid him of them. So He did (according to the guy's faith), and to prevent them from ever going into the man again he cast them into some pigs and then had the pigs pretty much jump off a cliff and die.

This week the CCM has come down so incredibly hard on people. It all started out with a district, (not gonna say what district--it just wasn't mine)--so that's good, had a toga party. And they were playing music that was not church (or really appropriate at all) and they also weren't wearing their garments. On top of all of that, they had a bunch of other districts over as well. So that district all left for the field so they didn't get in any trouble. But the new rule is here that if you are caught even knocking on someone else's door (or at their door), you will be immediately sent home from your mission. 

That's really all I can think of that happened this week. I will email next week.  I am not sure what day I will be emailing them on though so just be prepared. 

Love Elder Tanner Rockwell Hall.

TODAY MARKS MY ONE MONTH DAY (I THINK)!

Today marks my one month anniversary. A lot has happened in this month. I have learned some spanish, not as much as I expected to learn though. I've been working my tail bone off. No joke--my tail bone was bruised for two weeks because we sit for so long. I have prayed more then I ever have in my life and have read more scriptures then I ever have in my life. 

This week has been pretty good. Yhe days fly by in the CCM and I cant even believe that I am almost done with it.  Me and Grant met another kid that had lived in Tualatin for a year--his name's Elder Pizzi.  He was in the Hedges Creek Ward.  

They have started to put up Christmas lights, so thats cool.  They have replaced all the flowers with those super cool red ones, not sure what they are called (They're Poinsettas Tanner!).  My casa has two districts in it and we have decided that we will be doing a Live Nativity Scene.  The cast goes:

Elder Mays (250lbs minimum): the baby

Elder Smith (otherwise known as Dad): Joseph

Elder Hall (Yours Truly): Mary

Elder Clark: The angel

Elder Cunningham: donkey

Elder Bailey: the camel

Elder Dickson: Wise man

Elder Mcneely: Wise Man

Elder Salazar: Wise Man

Elder Higgins: Sheppherd

Elder Browning: Narrating the journey

The rest of the cast hasnt been posted but the first night is tonight

This week we fasted for our teacher Hermano Rincon. He and his wife went to the doctors (on Monday) to see if they would be able to have kids. So we all decided to fast for him on Sunday and Monday as well. After class yesterday he was talking to me, Browning, Leavitt and Olson and he said that for some reason while he was going through this trial he could feel the support and love from our whole district. He told us that the doctor said that they have one chance to have a kid--in three months.  And they are going to try to make it twins (not just one).  The weird thing is that yesterday was his last night before going to work for a bioengineer company, so we decided to all write him a letter (this was before he told all of us this).  So I was writing my letter and I had the impression to write, 'I know that you will be an amazing father to at least a couple of kids, and those kids will be some of the strongest members of the Church'.   I thought to myself, 'Nope! Not writing that cuz he can't even have kids so that'd be weird and touching on a sensitive subject', so I just kept writing. Then I had the feeling again and ignored it cuz that's weird to write. The third time the words came to my head and just said, 'DO IT'.  So I did it and wrote it.  Then I to find out that he actually will probably have two kids of his own in the near future. So that was cool.

Another thing that happened this week was me and my companion gave Hermano Rincon a blessing after one of our progessive investigator lessons. We gave him one because he was had a pretty nasty sickness. His eyes were bloodshot, he couldnt stop coughing, his nose was runny, and he just couldn't concentrate on anything. So after the lesson I had the impression to ask if he wanted a blessing from us.  My companion then shot me a dirty look.  But hey--when you get a prompting you act on it.  So anyways he says that he would love a blessing. So we gave him a blessing and after the blessing Hermano Rincon is just sitting there and he tells us if we can see. And he keeps asking it, and I'm like, 'Oh man, this guy's seeing stuff that's kinda weird'.  But then he says,  'Look--my nose its not even red anymore'.  And then we looked again and his eyes were completely white, he no longer had a sore throat, and he said his head was as clear as can be. He then said that in the middle of the blessing a thought came into his head and said, 'Do you have faith to be healed?'  And he said, 'Yes'.  And in that moment everything went away. So that was really cool.

Something really fun this week was last night. So we were all down cuz our teacher told us he was leaving out of the blue and cuz the other district was just having a rough day.  So I told everyone that at 10pm bring a picture of your family or your mom and a blanket cuz we are gonna have a Sobfest Party.  So anyways we had at least 15 guys in there and I started out the meeting by reading the book I Will Love You Forever.  We all cried the whole book (especially me) so that was fun.  Then I asked two questions: 1. What is your favorite character of your mom, and 2. What is your favorite memory of your mom.  So everyone went around the room and answered those two questions. Everyone was crying and it was just really good. We started that at 10 and time flew by. When I looked at the time it was 1130.  So we finished with me giving a spiritual thought and then closed it. It was pretty dang fun--all of our faces were splochy from crying so much, and our eyes were as bloodshot as can be.  We all woke up this morning with raging headaches--probably from the lack of sleep and the water loss of last night.

That is all for this week love you all 

Tanner Rockwell Hall

11/24/2016 Post

Dear everyone,

This week was good. I've decided to just learn some verbs conjugations instead of words cuz those things are pretty important. This week I learned that one of my night teachers actually was Britta's teacher, as well as Collin's teacher.  Its Hermano Cruz. He was the teacher that gave Britta her scripture case for the her Spanish ones.

The Spanish is coming along fine. Its starting to pick up ever since I started doing that verb stuff.  This week has gone by extremely fast for some reason so that's good. Every week gets quicker and quicker. I had some spiritual experiences which are always great.  Theres a few videos we watched--one is a Mormon Message titled 'I'm a Mormon, Ballerina, and...(I forgot the rest of the title)...but its really good. 

A funny thing that happened this week was that Elder Brownning dislocated his middle finger.  Man it was so incredibly funny. We were playing beach volleyball and Elder McNeely was going for a spike and Browning was trying to block and Elder McNeely hits Brownings finger. His finger was bent back and out at a 45 degree angle. hahaha   He started to scream and sprinted to the Infermeria while he was running he was yelling Infermeria Infermeria Infermeria--it was so incredibly funny. It was the highlight of yesterday.

That's all I can think of right now so I'll email more later--like more of a long email later. 

Love Everyone

Tanner Rockwell Hall III