Week 8 Provo - Paris - Ukraine here we come

Well everybody my time at the MTC is pretty much over! We have less days left than we have had weeks here and it's getting super real! The excitement in the zone about getting to our fields of labor is through the roof! We're going to be sad to say goodbye to everyone but it is crazy that this moment is here and this time next week I'll be doing the real thing somewhere out in Ukraine! 

Now to this week! We've been having a great week we are putting in lots of hard work trying to make this last week the best we can and it has been super amazing so far! We've had a strong spirit with us and our Russian has been coming along really well also!!

On friday we got our flight plans and I will be leaving the MTC on monday to go to PARIS and then from Paris we fly to Ukraine! We lucked out with our flight plans others in our zone have to leave pretty early but we'll each lunch here at the MTC or (the last supper) and then from there we'll all head out to the airport! On top of getting our flight plans we got our Russian tags!! They're so so cool I'll attach a picture I still can't get over it! In Russian Halls starts with an X and that is just pretty awesome I think. 

Quick shout out to Elder Jared Bennett I was able to stop by his dorm Sunday night before he left for the Philippines and it was so good to see and talk to him! I'm so grateful for all my good buddies who decided to serve missions and that we're all doing this together and it has been really cool to be in the MTC with Elder Bennett! 

I struggle with things to write about because the MTC is pretty similar each day! I do love it though! I have had an amazing experience here at the MTC and I feel like it has really prepared me in so many ways to feel confident as a missionary I've learned a lot about the language and how I just need to use what I do know and do so with confidence and that is the best thing I can do for myself as I continue to use and learn the language! The spirit is so strong here and I know that the Lord has his hands in his work and he is here with us helping us to learn what we need to learn and have good experiences that will bless us down the road! 

I had a really cool experience in skype TRC yesterday that I wanted to share!! We do these skype TRCs once a week with members who are native Russians and it is a really cool experience! Normally most of the people know some English and have done these a lot before and know how much the missionaries kind of know at the MTC so they use words and grammar that we understand well to help us. However, yesterday this was not the case. We got this legit Babushka from the heart of Russia and she was cruising through here sentences using words we had no clue what they were. Regardless of that fact for the first 10 minutes or so things were going well and we could pick up what she was saying and it was going good! Then kinda at the 15 minute mark she stops and in Russian says, "I have a big question to ask..." "..." "...work...think...how can I..." The pauses (...) and few words are there because that is what we could understand from what she asked. We had no idea what we should say but I remembered a talk by Elder Niel L. Anderson where he said when you don't know what to say or what to talk about testify of the Savior and so that is what I did that brought the spirit so strongly and as she asked a follow up question I was able to answer a question that I couldn't really understand what we was asking but I felt lead by the spirit in what I could say to her and it really helped her and I could tell it wasn't just something I had said but the spirit speaking through me! I know that was the gift of tongues and that it is real!!

Yesterday night we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Suarez and his wife and they shared a really powerful message with us! I'm glad we got to have our last tuesday night devotional be an Apostle of the Lord as we prepare to leave on monday! I want to bear my testimony that I know our church leaders are called of God and that the Lord leads and guides his church! The church is restored and the fulness of the gospel is on the Earth once more!!! 

Love you all,
Elder Halls
Where we are headed on our missions

Elder Tyler Rowe on his way to Louisiana 

Elder Jared Bennett on his last day at the MTC



Elder Halls in Russian


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 20 Winter Wonderland

Image
Hello family and friends! I hope you all had a great week this past week wherever in the world you are right now! This week was really great for me! I'm learning so much and growing more and more into the work!  IT IS GETTING COLD!! Saturday I remember walking outside and I think I shed a little tear of sadness because I had thought we were on our way back to warmer weather but that is just not the case. I think it won't be warming up even just a little bit any time soon haha. This week it snowed sooo much. Pretty much everyday! It's hard to tell how much because when you are living in a city of 1 million people and everyone walks everywhere it just gets all compressed down on the sidewalk, then after that turns into ice. People fall all the time its funny but also sometimes really sad! Lets just say we've had a lot of opportunities recently to serve Dnepr's older folks :)  Another cool things with all the snow is that usually all the moms in the city take ...
Read more

Week 23: I promise we aren't thieves

Image
Привет всем!!! Это я Старейшина Халлс все хорошо у меня! Another week is here in the books in Dnepr, Ukraine, we are all doing good the ice is melting off of the ground and it's getting warmer which I am very excited about! However I still think that it is just the weather deceiving us and it's about to get even colder than I thought was possible... But there is always hope maybe winter is on the outs early this year in Ukriane! посмотрим!  This week has been pretty good for me!! I felt like I've had so many great experiences and learned a lot as well!! I think I'll just go right in! Tuesday we have this weekly things where we go over to this members house and help here grandson out with some English help and then we also do a lesson! Her grandson and her son are not members but they come to church sometimes! this week was our third week there but it was the first time that Zhenya stayed and listened to our lesson which was really exciting! We are super grat...
Read more

Week 97: Igor's ready!

Image
Hello everyone!! This has been a really eventful and productive week! The biggest part of it I would say has been our teaching of Igor. I've grown to love this brother deeply! We quickly went through all the lessons. Most things he already remembered but there were a lot of other things that we were able to remind him and help him with and that was really good. Things like the Priesthood and the Sacrament. I felt that the spirit was a big help when we prayed to know what we should focus on as we worked with him. There were small and simple promptings that came that we then followed and felt good about. It's amazing to me to see the peace that he feels as he prepares for his baptism. He's very grateful for the work and things we have been doing to help him prepare for his baptism and also get his baptismal service ready and planned. He will be baptized this Saturday. We have been able to talk about everything with the branch leaders and we should have a great baptismal ...
Read more