Long time no see

 Hey everyone, 

It's been a while, hope you didn't miss these emails too much. The truth is, I've just been grinding so hard out here that I've hardly had time to write one. But some awesome things have happened in the past few weeks. 

I've been doing this whole AP thing for a while now and at first I thought it would be a crazy different experience but honestly my companion and I decided to just be normal missionaries instead of sit around the office all day. So we do have meetings with President throughout the week to talk about the mission and we pick up and train the new missionaries and do a bunch of other stuff that needs to get done, but our main focus is just in our area. We are still in the YSA ward which has been a blast. So no, there has been no hot-tubbing with the mission president or special AP Ferrari. 

It has been fun to travel to all the zones and meet every single missionary in the mission, and work in so many different areas and have new experiences. I try to spread light and uplift where I stand.

Our mission is pretty much back open, we still have to wear masks and we can't go tracting, but we are out there every day talking to people on the street. It's been great to get out of the mindset that we are 'waiting for Covid to pass' and just get out there and get it done. It feels so good to be outside representing Jesus Christ and seeing miracles and helping others.

We live with some members now, we moved in a couple weeks ago. They are kind enough to let us stay in the front part of their house which has a bedroom and a bathroom. It's an older couple but they are still out and about quite a bit. The only awkward part has been the shared kitchen. Elder Burton (my new companion who is an awesome guy from Oregon) and I try to be as respectful as possible. Yes Mom I have been washing every single dish and always closing the cupboards. But sometimes we don't want to go in there and disturb them if they have other people over and stuff. So basically we are Harry Potter living in the cupboard under the stairs, listening at the door to see if they've left yet so we can have some freedom to cook something. Sometimes it has resulted in us eating bread on the floor in the bathroom for lunch because the members had a bridal shower for their niece, but it's fine. We're basically never at the house anyway since we are out working all day. Overall it's been fun living with them, they have a dog which we take out contacting sometimes, and we always have Sunday dinner together. It's such a blessing to be in a real house. 

Since Elder Burton served in Mexico before he came here, he has been teaching me Spanish. Recently I've been talking to tons of people in Spanish that we meet on the street, it's a lot of fun. Even taught some Spanish lessons. It's a blast going out since between Chinese English and Spanish, we can basically talk to anyone we meet.

There have been so many funny or weird things that happened, especially since we're serving in a YSA ward with YSA people. Here are a couple highlights:

-When I was talking to this less active member at a ward BBQ and basically trying to get her to come back to church, this recent convert named Arekel (250 pound black dude that shoots his shot with every girl that moves) came up and joined the conversation. Actually it wasn't so much that he joined the conversation as it was that he was giving his own personal commentary on what he thought about the girl. She would say something and he's standing right there next to her but says out loud 'she cute.. she got something going on' but acting like she can't hear him. Then Arekel finally made his move. Me and my companion and this girl were completely ignoring Arekel's comments because it was making stuff super awkward, and then we asked if she wanted to do a lesson with us sometime and talk more about her own faith and then Arekel pops in 'yes I am VERY familiar with the gospel' and then a smug smile like it was the most attractive/impressive thing a young woman could hear. I think he was waiting for a response or maybe a marriage proposal but he got distracted when he saw some other girl and ran off to hit on her instead.

-we were out at a park and saw this younger guy saluting the big American flag in the middle of the park. We walked up and just said the whole pledge of allegiance with him. Then we asked him what he was up to he said he comes there every single day to pledge his allegiance. After that he just started running around the park and we didn't see him again.

-we invited a member to join on a phone lesson with us. So we were on a 3 way call with our investigator Sam and our member Tyler. After a couple minutes Sam said 'hey sorry guys I just wanted to let you know that my phone is dying so I might not be able to talk for that long' and Tyler butts in super morose 'your friend is dying? That's horrible I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah we can talk another time'. Before we had time to clear up the confusion his phone actually did die and that was that.

-we taught a dude for a whole 30 minute lesson and he was just not understanding ANYTHING, like he would nod and say yes but when we asked him to explain it back to us he just couldn't. And he kept looking over his shoulder all the time and just seemed so out of it. We finally asked if he spoke any other language besides English and realized he was a native Spanish speaker. Once we switched to Spanish he was like a whole different man. It was definitely a face palm moment for us.

We are also teaching some amazing people right now. A miracle one is our friend Paige who just turned 18 and she's really seeking truth. We had been praying for her so much, and after she watched General Conference she texted us and said 'I know the Book of Mormon is true and I know the church is true. I want to get baptized' and Elder Burton and I just jumped up in a hype session with each other. Sadly her family is super against her being baptized but she is currently getting the courage to do what God wants her to do. She has a lot of support from the bishop and the ward members which has been awesome.

Another guy who's getting baptized is Fher from Peru. Not gonna lie, the first time I met him I did not think he had any potential. He's a big jolly guy and we met him at In N Out. But over our meetings with him and as he's read the Book of Mormon, we've seen him change and just become so much more at peace. It's always so special to me to see the blessings of the gospel in the lives of others. 

Overall, I feel like I finally know what I'm doing on a mission, I know how to do the work and I'm spending a lot of time teaching others what I've learned. I'm feeling so motivated to give my all and wake up each day with the desire to spread the gospel. I can see the change in myself as I've submitted my will to God's and allowed Jesus Christ to refine me to be a little better each day. There are definitely hard times but they just seem insignificant compared to the love and blessings that I know my Heavenly Father has for me. I hope everyone has a chance to feel the same things I have as I've tried to become closer to God.

Elder Halverson