July 27, 2009 Brawley; Spanish Speaking Wow!

Yea so the mission president is a really cool guy. He is really funny and knows tons. He speaks 4 different languages. He will be my mission president for all but about 5 days.

My companion from the MTC Elder Lawter is from Kansas, but he has been and will when we get back go to UVU.

Zone leader in the MTC was kinda pointless, I didn't really do anything. except I gave the new missionaries a tour of the MTC when they got there. My last day there, there was a kid who was having a really hard time, so i had to meet with him and kinda know what was going on. We actually had to call president Hacking in to meet with him because he wouldn't talk to anyone. I never found out what was going on with him.

Wednesday morning I met with President Donaldson. After we prayed, he said the Lord wants you to be a Spanish speaking missionary. So I speak Spanish now. lol Well at least I am learning how to. I should be getting new name tags in Spanish and stuff so that was pretty nerve wracking. Elder Lawter got switched too. But yea, president Donaldson gave me the gift of tongues and that was amazing. I think that is why I am picking it up so fast. I can understand a little but by the end of this transfer I should be able to hold my own. Elder Overman, a missionary who lives the floor above me who rides a bike, hasn't told his parents that he got switched to Spanish. He is going to sup prise them when he gets home. I couldn't do that lol. I was too excited to tell you.

I am serving in a place called Brawley. You know how there is the desert in my mission, that is where I am. I am in a car though: I am driving a Toyota corolla 2010. Its an amazing car. The reason why we are in a car, is because our area is probably from our house to plain city and to Hooper. It is a big place and it is only one ward. There is another set of elders that are on bikes and they cover the close places.

You said it was hot in Utah the other day? Well just to let you know how the weather is here, yesterday I was in church with a suit jacket on and it was only 125. That is the high for July but August gets hotter they say, so that will be fun. I only have to have my jacket on for church, though so that isn't too bad.

The apartment I live in is actually really good. It wasn't, but the month before I got here they started replacing the carpet and the fridge and we should be getting a new oven soon. The only problem we have is bugs. They aren't like tons but in the bathroom there are just some little black bugs that are annoying, not nasty.

The address for mail is just 7404 Armstrong Place San Diego CA 92111. I don't know the address for my apartment. But if you send anything by mail I might not get it for awhile: Because, I live 3 hours away from the mission office and someone will have to drive out to us and that only happens like 2 or 3 times a transfer. So yea, that kinda sucks especially for talking to Michelle and people that I am not supposed to email.

I don't think I will ever see people from home as long as I am out this far away from San Diego. Its not a very tourist spot. I did see the Mexican border though lol. We went to Calexico for a Mexican party and you could see Mexacali on the other side lol. It was still really far away. There is no way I am getting any closer.

My companion is Elder Kingsford. He is from Texas. He is kinda weird, lol; like he is into role playing games and stuff, and a harry potter freak lol. He is really nice and has been teaching me Spanish and he is a good missionary. He makes me laugh sometimes cause some of the stuff he talks about I would usually make fun of, but i don't.

For fun every morning, me and elder Overman and elder Naylor go and play racquetball in the morning. A member in the ward has his own court that he said we can use whenever we want. So from 6 to 7 every morning we play a game. And today we played some basketball for our preparation time. My team won both times. Not because of me, but, it was fun to do something not church oriented.

Each day, we wake up and exercise; then we shower or whatever and eat. Then, we go proselyte till 1 o'clock. Then study from 1 to dinner. then proselyte after. We do this because nobody is outside or around during the day because it is so hot. Its a little messed up schedule because of the heat. Everywhere else not in the desert has the normal schedule where they study in the morning. Lucky us gets the middle of the day. I think I like it better because your not so tired during the study time.

You will have to tell Kevin he looks good with his hair cut.

I only get a couple pictures on the emails. They only show up every once in awhile.

Tell everyone I love them.

First Letter San Diego

I made it to San Diego safe and sound. I love it so far! President Donaldson is a good guy! I found out my prep day is Monday, not Wednesday. We are just going over some orientation stuff right now. It is pretty hot today; hopefully it will cool down a little. San Diego is an amazing place. Tomorrow I will be able to meet my trainer and get to work.


I love you so much! Thank you for all of the support. I will still only have 30 minutes to email on Mondays. All of the mail should be sent to the mission address :

Elder Clint Joseph Hall
California San Diego Mission
7404 Armstrong Place
San Diego, CA 92111-4912

I will have the mail brought to me on Monday.

Swimming sounds really good right now. But I guess I will have to settle for studying the scriptures.

Make sure to tell everyone that I love them, and that I am still happy and ready to get out and teach.

San Diego Arrival

Clint has arrived in San Diego. Here is some pictures that his mission president sent.

Sister and President Donaldson and Elder Hall

Elder Hall

Arrival Group July 21, 2009

Letter and Pictures July 20, 2009

E Hall, Burbank, and Lawter

The MTC is cool, getting really excited to get out of here.

Today I played basketball. Elder Palmese, Lawter and I played against a guy who started for Dixie State last year. We won 2 of 3 games. It was really fun. I didn't run around much, not wanting to hurt my knee.

Me holding E Lawter

I weighed myself and I have lost about 8 pounds. I thought that was pretty good. It's probably from drinking water instead of Mountain Dew.

Preaching

Just Lifting Some Weight

Well, I have my last teaching appointment in 15 minutes, so this is kind of short. Just a couple of days till San Diego. :)

July 1, 2009 Letter

I have now see Aaron Olsen, Austin Allred, Benson Beus, Richard Hansen, Ryan Holley and a bunch of other people from school. It's kinda fun to see them, but too busy to really talk too much to them.

I started calling people and started talking to a lady and have actually been calling her every day to teach her the lessons. I hope she will accept having the missionaries over to her house. It's been fun talking to her.

One of my favorite things to do is play sand volleyball during gym time. That's one of the things I look forward to.

I actually called that lady back today and we got into this big discussion about baptisms for the dead. It was a hard thing to talk about and to top it off she wanted me to prove everything through the bible. I didn't even try. Then I asked, if she wanted the missionaries, but she said she couldn't? So I won't be calling her back.

Last night I had a really bad headache! I had to take the strong medicine. I was kind of scared because I though I was going to vomit, but I ended up falling asleep around 2 in the morning and I am fine today :). I don't like being sick, but I am fine now.

I am the zone leader for my zone. Me and Elder Burbank and Elder Lawter is the new District Leader

The days go by super fast now, so that is really good. Elder Burbank is from Idaho and Elder Lawter is from Kansas City.

That is a good thing that I didn't see the mouse. I might have to learn to not be afraid of them, but right now I am good not seeing any.

If you want more noise at your house, you could always let Kevin come over or just have family over.

You will have to keep me updated on Janel and her lover and Brian and Donna and their house hunting.

Journals are awesome and always bring back good memories.

The cookies got here in amazing condition and al ot are in my tummy.

I am so glad I don't have to go on that Young Men's trip (backpacking). Bill Urry has been on too many trips as it is. I am surprised you aren't going.

I gave my first two blessings and the first one was to a sister who was having some back problems. It was really cool, I didn't even know what to say, but when I started talking the words came to me and was totally not anything I had wanted to say. The spirit is a cool thing to have all of the time. I also gave a blessing to Elder Dalmese; he got strep throat. It is cool he knows a lot about the gospel and has helped me out a lot.

Thanks so much for the cookies. I love our cookies.

July 15 email

The mtc is going great! I am ready to get out of here and go to San Diego though, it is starting to look like a prison, just a little more friendly and has the gospel. My day is pretty boring, but goes by really fast, we have breakfast and then we have class with a teacher, then we have lunch, then we have study time till dinner then we have a teacher from dinner to time to plan. So it kinda seems like we eat more than anything else. I don't think i have gained much weight but i am planning on checking during gym tomorrow. The Provo temple is just like the Ogden one, almost exactly, it is kinda cool.

Sure Melanie waits to play pinochle after i leave. She is just scared i was going to win so she didn't want to play me.

In my district there is 9 people all guys, or elders. But in my zone there are like 30 people and 7 of them are girls. We go through a lot of preach my gospel, but a lot of just talking to people; learning how to ask open ended questions to involve the investigator. We do a lot of roll playing; volunteers come in and act like investigators, and sometimes I don't know for sure if they were acting or not, so you always have to do the best you can, our goal is just to invite the spirit and let the holy ghost do its thing, we just help. We haven't done any door aproaches yet. I don't think that is a major thing to try to do here? at least for the 3 week missionaries.

I like being the zone leader, i get to talk to a lot of people, but i still don't know what i am doing, i just kinda do whatever the mission president says. And go to meetings. Today i get to give a tour to the new missionaries. so that will be fun.

There is only 2 of us that are going to San Diego but there is 10 people flying with us, so they are here someplace. I just dont know where. We fly out on the 21st but everyone else in my district leaves the 20th so i will have a day kinda just me and elder Lawter so its cool.

Well i gotta go i love you so much!!!

MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER PHOTOS!

(Just waiting to go to bed)
July 9, 2009

Today I received my flight plans. I will be leaving on the 21st at 8:33 am.

It sounds lie your 4th of July was good, and I am sorry I wasn't there to stare at the jacket...you should have taken a picture!

Thank you for the candy! My zone leaders share like all of their candy. They have a whole desk dedicated to candy, but they don't have th gummy stuff.

(Me and Elder Lawter)

I don't really have much time to write, Just wanted to get the pictures off and tell you about my flight plans. Thanks for everything. Love Clint

(left: Palmese, Thorup, Halpin, Borup , Russell, Me, Burbank

Lawter is behind Coburn)

(District: Same guys as above)

Clint sounds in good spirits. He appreciates all the support. This is his e-mail address sandiegocups@myldsmail.net We will get his mailing address to you as soon as he is settled in San Diego.

First Email July 8, 2009

Hey family this is your favorite son, elder hall :)
So to answer some of the questions that you have asked me or might have wondered I am going to have some answers right now :)

The food here is awesome. I don't think I have ever ate so much before. I am not used to having 3 big meals every day. I don't think I have gained much weight if any so far so that is good :) I know you guys were worried about me not having my mountain dew for this long of a time, but I haven't really needed it or anything, like people were telling me I would have withdrawals. I have just been drinking water and milk, the good stuff. There are wraps here that we can eat and it is kind of like having a subway wrap, you tell them what you want in it, but they are as big as Cafe Rio, so i only get it every once in awhile.

On the 4th of July we had a huge meeting with everyone, and it was really lame, like I think I have said in one of my letters but it wasn't a good meeting to be at, so after that we could have watched the stadium of fire, fireworks, but me and my companions decided that we needed sleep more than we needed fireworks. At night it is very interesting every time, because my comp, Elder Burbank, sleep talks and sleep walks, so he wakes me up all of the time. I am getting used to it, but sometimes he scares me cause he yells sometimes lol, but its not that big of a deal, it doesn't take me long to fall back asleep.

On Sunday, we had a lot of meetings but we only had sacrament. We usually will have priesthood, but that will be not that big of a deal, it sounds like we just go over priesthood blessings and stuff like that. there isn't a thing called Sunday school, but we just have classes with the branch president. The showers here aren't as bad as Brian made them out to be. The don't have the tree kind anymore, it has all separate showers so that isn't really a big deal, i just wake up early take the shower before everyone wakes up and then i go back to sleep so I don't have to stand in line.

Today I went and turned in some pictures to get developed and when I get them back I will send them your way and then you can post them online. There isn't too many, just a couple of my room mates and on our way to the temple. I will write the name of people on the back of the picture.

I only get 30 min to be able to email you guys, but it is only on Wednesdays, so I will be able to check it once a week. If you didn't catch my email address it is sandiegocups@myldsmail.net

I love you all very much, tell everyone I love them. Talk to you later.

Love,
Elder Hall

July 5, 2009

I am loving the spirit that is here! I am way tired at night and I am learning to love sleep, because waking up comes quick. I think I am passed the hardest days now. The first day was long and full of rules, like the first day of school.

The 4th of July was one of the hardest days for me so far. I don't know why, I just wasn't as motivated as I have been, even though I still worked way hard. The next day was so much better. I fasted, and had to teach a lesson for district meeting on the atonement. The spirit was so strong.

Elder Lawter and I are amazed at how much we like each other already and are hoping we can be companions again in the mission field.

Everyone says the days will go by faster now that I have already experienced all the new stuff. Can't wait for San Diego!

First Day at the MTC

I just got done unpacking and it's pretty cool here. I have already seen some of my friends from high school. My companions are pretty cool. One of them is going to new Mexico and the other one is going to San Diego too. It's nice to have just 3 of us in a room.

I ate dinner here, the food was really good and there is ice cream too. The kid Elder Burbank can eat! He must have had 3 plates full as fast as I ate half my plate. Wednesdays are P day, at least at the MTC.

There is no shaking hands here. We are not supposed to touch because of the swine flu.

I can't wait to start my classes tomorrow. We have had a few meetings already and more tonight. The first meeting we heard from the Branch Presidency. They are way nice and funny.

I love my mission already. I love being able to feel the spirit all of the time.

PS. I am the district leader at least for the 9 of us.

MTC Mailing Address

Clint was very excited to be headed off on his mission. After having breakfast as a family, he was ready to go; he didn't each much though. Here is his address while he is at the MTC. I know he would appreciate hearing from any of you. Thanks for the great support and friendship you have shown.

Elder Clint Joseph Hall

MTC Mailbox # 252 0721

California, San Diego Mission

2005 North 900 East

Provo, UT 84604-1793