Striving for perfection

Dear Mom and Dad,

Wow- another week has blown by and a lot of interesting things happened! Last P-day we had a missionary in our district pack up his bags while his companion was in the shower and take off. He is in the Mudgerabba Ward which borders our ward. So the news is that I cover that area now. Elder Richins is in my intake and I love the kid. He was training a missionary from Melbourne who was also in the running for the best dancer in Australia, specializing in ballet. So the last few days, Elder Tauiliili and I have had Elder Richins with us. He is such a good missionary and I have learned heaps from him already. But sadly this week he will be transferred up to Brisbane, Kangaroo Point Ward for 4 weeks until the end of transfers so that he can have a companion.

The work is going great. We have about 10 investigators in our teaching pool which has been a lot of work but so much fun. I have been getting used to teaching a lot again and it feels GOOD! I have really felt the spirit guide my efforts this week. I had a feeling to tract a street for a week now but didn't get around to it until Saturday. I was on trade-offs with our Zone Leader and we tracted into our progressing investigator, Shanti. We have taught her every Thursday night since we were in the area and she is ready to be baptized- just needs to get married or move out of the house of her partner. Her partner, Josh, is on a surf trip in Bali. He is a pure champion. Lessons with Shanti are a little different because she has been to church a lot and knows a lot of the lessons already. She expressed how she wants to know more about Joseph Smith and the Plan of Salvation so we watched the Restoration DVD and talked about what was restored. We briefly taught the Plan of Salvation and transferred perfectly into Eternal Marriage. It was very much guided by the spirit and it went very well. Our Ward Mission Leader is the fellowship and he is excellent. His name is Brother Hall. For work he owns a lot of tourist shops.

Brother Hall needed us to teach Gospel Principles yesterday and I am so glad we did. Teaching lessons in the chapel is so great. We taught a lesson from the manuel on Prophets. We talked about all the challenges the prophets have given about reading the Book of Mormon. OBVIOUSLY it is important. It fills us with faith which will cast out all fear. I was excited to share that whenever we are taking a step in life- going on a mission- new calling in ward- getting baptized- we will often think we are not ready= fear. We know who gives us fear and we know what will cast out all fear. I shared in the lesson how I was really nervous whether I knew enough to be a good missionary- if i was good enough. I shared what was said when Dad set me apart- he said that "although you don't feel perfect, none of us are." My testimony grew this week that none of us are perfect, but eventually we will be. We should not let imperfection give us fear.
This is the Lord's Kingdom. The Book of Mormon is not a lie. It fills us with faith. We have it because God Loves Us.

I love you mom and dad.
God Speed
-Elder Hales

Baptism

Dawn's Baptism. The sisters that taught her and Dawn's kids.

Happy Valentine's Day

Dear Mom and Dad,

Another week has blown by so fast. I hate having to say "over a year" when people ask how long I have been out. But we have been working hard here in the Tweed Head.
Whitewashing an area is always hard but I love it and with this great ward it's not too bad. We already have meal appointments every day for the rest of the month.

Last week we had Zone Conference which was so great. We received training on helping people make and keep commitments. The work progresses so much more when you're bold but not overbearing. The Assistants gave a training on teaching from the Book of Mormon and instead of using our own analogies, using stories from the Book of Mormon. So this week we did that with our only progressing investigator at this point. Her name is Shanti. She is almost engaged to a member of our ward. We teach her at our Ward Mission Leaders home and they are such good fellowship there is no doubt in my mind that Shanti will be baptized. We had a lesson with them on Thursday night and taught out of Mosiah where Abinidi preaches to King Noah and the evil Priests. We then talked about Alma and related it to her. We committed her to baptism and went through the Baptism Questions with her and she is set to go... just needs to get married or move out of Josh's (partner) place. It was a great lesson. Our leaders were really inspired on what to train on.

Elder Tauiliili's parents don't use email so I try to keep it short so that he doesn't have to wait too long.

I love you and hope things are continuing to go well.
God Speed the Right
-Elder Hales

New Area - Tweed Heads

This picture was taken before the transfer.


All,

Well, I have so much to tell and this keyboard is horrible but my new area is called TWEED HEADS. Our flat overlooks the ocean and we have a broken in half surfboard in our flat. Wow. It is the best area in the mission.

To start the story off, Dawn's Baptism was so great. The font leaked during the beginning so when it came time to baptize her we had to fill it up for 5 min. She was nervous but did awesome and the spirit was very strong. It was such a great experience.

Elder Christofferson came to the mission but I was unable to go because my companion was sick. So I stayed in the flat and a day later got sick as well. :-) I got over it quickly though. It sounded really really good and I was sad that I was unable to go but 'sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.'

Transfers came and we were so busy that I was unable to email last Tuesday because our area is so far south and we couldn’t find computers. Michael asked me if I got to choose my area. President Richards never asked me where I wanted to go, but in the office I would always put my board card under Tweed Heads so I guess President got the hint! :-) I think he asked the AP's where and they said Tweed. Half of our area is in New South Wales so it’s really complicated scheduling appointments because New South Wales does Daylight Savings and Queensland doesn’t and we live in Queensland. I get so confused sometimes! So my new area is very big and one of the best areas in the Gold Coast. It is complete surf country! I love the ward members- all of them are just happy people and most of them surf. Out our window we can see the waves. We live on the Gold Coast Highway in Palm Beach so you can see it on a map.

My companion is the best news. His name is Elder Tauiliili and he is from Samoa. He was called to Australia Brisbane Chinese speaking but really he was learning English and Chinese. He has been out in the field 6 months. He is really smart and just has a heart of Gold. He has already come out of his shell and we have become really good friends. His English isn’t amazing so he always says "Its gunna be crazy!" to everything. He doesn’t have much teaching experience at all so it’s like he is new. Tweed Heads area was closed for the last 6 weeks so we just got shot into this area and the members are so happy to have us here.

The work here is going great!! We have baptisms already coming up. I am excited to tell you all about them- but my time is up so I’ll have to talk to you next week.

Love you mom and dad
God Speed,
Elder Hales

Youtube link

See this video of Elder Hales in the mission office.

Fun times

Woo hoo!

New transfer coming up

Dear Mom and Dad,

I don't cut my hair like that anymore. For some reason in this mission- it is a short hair mission. Our AP's cut their hair shorter than me! But I don't let my hair get distracting from my purpose. (*He sent a bunch of pictures home on a thumb drive. In a lot of them, his hair was buzzed and I asked him why it was so short. All right, all right -- what I said was: Dude! What's up with the hair?! Or lack thereof.)

Dad- glad you like the kangaroo pouch. :)

Well, in a few days I'll be emailing you about my new area. I know where I will be serving and who my companion is but I really can't say anything. I am really excited but nervous too. I still feel like a greenie!

Really quick about the baptism of Dawn Talbot- It WAS AMAZING!!! It was so great to baptize her. The whole program was so great and spiritual and I know that her kids will be baptized soon. I'll talk about it on Tuesday.
Love you mom and dad and I'll talk to ya in a few days. (*he means "email")
Love,
Elder Hales

A baptism

Dear mom and dad,
I leave the office soon. It's pretty weird knowing that I will be transferred and soon I might even find out where.

There is so much exciting news to tell. Right now I am doing e-mails in a city called Ipswich. Its pretty cool. We came out here to a guy that sells the kangaroo scripture cases and things. But anyway, we are about to go to a baptism. Dawn Talbot that I taught in Waterford is getting baptized today in the Park Ridge Ward. She moved to that area and now will be baptized!!!! I was able to get permission from President Richards to go. There are sister missionaries in this area that I am sure really helped Dawn progress. We are about to drive to the chapel over there where I was given the honor to baptize her! I am so excited. The spirit was so strong every time Elder Prina and I would teach her. I'll send a picture of the baptism as soon as possible. It will be the first time I get in the water!

We also had several great lessons this week.

Things have been great. I have been so blessed. Thank you for your prayers.
If we look, we can see miracles and tender mercies of the Lord in our lives. The angel told Nephi to Look so many times.
Love you all
-Elder Adam Hales

Another Apostle visit

Dear Mum and Pa,

Things have been going great. I can't remember if I told you, but we actually are a very lucky mission. Probably the best in the world! We have Elder Christofferson coming the 26th of this month to address us! This will be my 3rd Apostle and 4th General Authority. I can't even explain how awesome it is to be in the Australia Brisbane Mission with President Richards!

This week has been so busy as always, but there was one experience I wanted to share this week. We have found a new investigator and her name is Sarah. She is a media referral and has some friends that are members. We were able to teach her the first lesson this week. She seems very keen but somehow we have not been able to teach her for 2 weeks until last Sunday, we drop by and catch her right before she is leaving with the members. We plan a time to meet on Tuesday. On Tuesday we could not get in touch with her and the last few days we could not get fellowship but we decide to stop by anyway. While we were driving up, a thought came to me and I asked my companions if we should teach no matter what -- even if it's in the front yard. I love thoughts that come. :) We walked away from teaching her in her garage with the huge door open sitting on little plastic boxes, but I knew she felt the spirit and that put a smile on all our faces.

I love this work. I love being a missionary. I know the gospel is true.
I am sending your packages THIS WEEK for sure. I commit myself to it. Sorry- we are so busy and can't mail anything on our P-day (Saturday) because the Post is closed.
God Speed the Right!
-Elder Hales