I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Dear Mom and Dad:

Thank you for the Christmas package! The candy is pretty much gone. After two years I still have no self-control when it comes to candy! :-) I gave some away to some people I am working with. They wanted American candy.

This week was rough but we still saw miracles. We found a new investigator named Rhian that we are teaching today. Elder Auld really doesn't want to work on P-Day so this will be our last lesson on a Monday with her but we set her baptism on Dec. 19 so hopefully we will have a "White Christmas."

We had an amazing lesson with the Galapons! We got there and no one had read from the Book of Mormon. We fished around and found some concerns that others have been telling them that the Book of Mormon is made up and the kids were confused. Our fellowship started to confuse them with Alma 32 and it got nowhere so we said a prayer and I tried to do as Alma did when he gave up being chief judge to go among his people and bear down in pure testimony. As I was sharing my testimony I was crying and the Galapons started crying and the spirit was so strong! During my testimony I felt prompted to share an experience when I was in High School and a Classmate said "Christ never came to America" and I responded that he did and the account was found in the Book of Mormon. He laughed in my face. Later, Elder Auld said he was going to share an experience he had that was just like that. The Galapons did not come to church this week because of an activity they had to go to with their employer and they have the same thing next Sunday so they will not be able to be baptized here, but I'll make sure it goes through in McKay!(where they are moving to)

Elder Auld is a champion. He went home for a few months and came back out. We get along awesome and he is teaching me some of the Maori Haka's. He has been back from home for a few months but I'm his first real working companion since getting back so he is keeping me from being complete trunky sauce! :)

The work is great! The miracles are real!

Love you all

-Elder Hales