Las marmotas son inteligentes

Dear friends and family,

Oh my. This has been a crazy week. Sister Dodson went home on Wednesday (may she rest in peace) but transfers weren't until Friday, so I got to go on a split with the English sisters in the zone until then. I had a real American dinner! Yay! And the crazy thing about English splits is that you have to teach the whole lesson all by yourself in Spanish... Let's just say I was exhausted by the end of that day, but it was fun :) Then on Friday I got my new companion Sister Ponce from Logan, Utah. She's legit and all 3 of her previous companions have served with me so she says that she already feels like she knows me from all of the stories they've told her. Uhh... good thing or bad thing?

The rest of the week has gone by pretty smoothly. We continue to find more and more people and we just can't fit them all into our schedule! Every time one of the elders says "Hey we found a woman who is interested! She wants you to go visit her!" We say "Hooray!" but then we look at our schedule and think "uhh... Hermione, can we borrow your time turner?" It's crazy but it's awesome being so busy all of thetime.

I love you all. Keep up the good work and share the gospel with someone this week!
Hermana Hall

P.S. Here's a selfie of us from when we waited for 20 minutes in the living room while our investigator talked on the phone in the back room. #developingpatience.

P.P.S. The marmota was right and we are still freezing cold here. Rub it in Utah..

Sweet!!

Dear family and friends,

What an awesome week! (Do I say that every week?)

Yesterday we were teaching our investigator about the Book of Mormon. As we explained where it came from, she stopped us and said, "I'm really sorry to interrupt, but I have to tell you this". She then told us about how her whole life she had wondered why Jesus hadn't visited any one else besides the Jews. When she had asked people if he had visited the people in the Americas their answer was "No. The Americas hadn't been discovered yet" But she had never been satisfied with that answer and she knew in her heart that Jesus had to have visited other people. She was SO excited to find out that Jesus visited the Americas, and when we showed her the picture in the front of the Book of Mormon of Jesus teaching the Nephites, she was so excited to read the story. I'be never seen someone connect to the Book of Mormon in that way. It was so cool!

Funny moment of the week: I've been really healthy lately (outside of the piles of rice and platanos from members) but doughnuts are my weakness. So the elders gave us 2 doughnuts the other day and Sister Dodson said she didn't want hers, so clearly it was mine. Then halfway through I wondered if she had changed her mind and actually wanted the last half, so I asked her and she said yes. I should've seen this coming... But she grabbed it and ran as fast as she could to the bathroom (the nearest trash can) to throw it away to save me from those empty calories. I don't believe in wasting deliciousness, so I sprinted after her and grabbed her backpack, threw her to the ground, snatched the doughnut out of her hand and ate it as fast as I could while she laid helpless on the floor. It was like a primeval human survival instinct. We sat on the ground laughing so hard we were crying/coughing because I was simultaneously shoving doughnut into my mouth. Once again I tackle my companion to the ground for a noble cause and rise victoriously.

Speaking of sweets... Sister Dodson and I have been trying to get more motivated to talk to people on trains and buses (it's really scary). So we decided that every time we talk to someone we get to eat half of a cookie, which is normally strictly banned according to the two months to twig-skinny rules. Now when we get on buses I imagine people's heads turning into big giant cookies and so I automatically have to go talk to them. Haha not really but it's been a really fun way to keep track of how many people we talk to and to be rewarded by something fun at the end of the day.

Also, our investigator Milagros is going to try to quit smoking! This is the first time I've taught someone who's trying to quit something, so I'm really excited about that.

I love you all! Keep up the good work back home!

Hermana Hall

P.s. We're going to the Museum of Modern Art today :) #shoutouttodan

I'm King of the Rock!!

Dear family and friends,

This week has been really fun. We went to Top of the Rock on Wednesday. It's not a mountain or a geographical feature, it's just the top of the Rockefeller Center where you can see the whole island of Manhattan! Pictures attached. Be jealous. We played around downtown and even made a snowman in Central Park and ate lamb gyros. Be more jealous. Oh and we played chopsticks on the big piano in FAO Schwartz. Any Big fans? Be even more jealous. Did I mention that today we went to the Met? Ya tu sabe.


But anyways, those are just the fun stuff we do in the city on Wednesdays. On Friday we had mission leadership council with President Morgan and he gave us some awesome training. We all had to split up in groups and make a device made of plastic straws and duct tape to safely catch an egg dropped from 10 feet. We only had fifteen minutes. Our group totally won! But then President Morgan made the analogy "How many of you were thinking about home or your girlfriend while we were doing this activity?" No one. When we were completely focused on our end goal of catching the egg safely, we had one purpose and we worked effectively together to accomplish it without distraction. The whole purpose of missionary work is to catch eggs safely, to bring people unto Christ! We can catch eggs, we just have to be focused and give our all. So awesome.

So remember that it's not just the missionaries who have the purpose of bringing others to come unto Christ. If we all work together, members and missionaries, we can save even more eggs! Pray for missionary experiences and seek God's guidance to help you know how :)

Hermana Hall

Hermana Dodson and Hall at the Top of the Rock

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Shelby on The Big Piano at FAO Schwartz