Merry Christmas #LiightTheWorld ~ December 3, 2016

Merry December and Happy Preparation for Christmas!

December Third: Jesus helped the blind to see, and so can you!
I love this whole initiative that the church has launched this year! So far it has been such a neat experience to be thinking more on how to really serve as Christ served. There are really so many small things that we can do to do just as He did. On Tuesday Elder Bustos and I and President gave the instructions for the iniciative to all the zones here in Barranquilla. That was a cool experience.

On December 1 it was the first day of the initiative and guess what? One of the activities is to help someone move! And we were moving! It was a fun activity for us to do this week, and probably the biggest thing we have had happen this week. But to make it even more awesome is that our new apartment is totally legit! It's on the tenth floor with lots of light from windows and it's not humid like our apartment has been that we have been living in. There are three bathrooms with showers and one half bath and then a service bathroom with a shower as well, a super awesome kitchen with an island and black marble counters! (not sure if it's really marble... it's some kind of rock) But,... the best part is.... something that I have almost forgotten existed..... HOT WATER! Oh yeah! Legit! I about cried my first hot shower on Thursday. ;) The house has been absolutely marvelous! Not to mention it has air conditioning in the main room and then in all the bed rooms as well! This week I think we got a little spoiled, but I am so grateful this apartment showed up. We have been looking for like the past 3 months.

Well, I think that's about it. I will keep you all updated on what's going on this week with the activities of service everyday. Make sure to keep doing them! I love you all and Merry Christmas!
Love,

~Élder Tyler Hales~

ÉLDER HALES

Secretario de Salud

Misión Colombia Barranquilla

Aw yeah haha I felt bad too because I wanted to send it but we have P-day today so I sent it now. I was going to write a poem but didn't have time to think it all up. Maybe for next week ;)

I think 5:00 here time would be perfect! So yeah just so you remember as well that this time we have an hour to talk! :D so from 5 to 6! That will be a perfect time I think. I'm still not sure how our church services are going to be. If they will be all normal or if they will do just the one meeting thing. We'll see.

Thanksgiving and the beginning of Navidad ~ November 26, 2019

Happy THANKSGIVING!!!!!

And the beginning of the new Christmas time!

Thanksgiving was amazing this week! I actually got to celebrate it here in the office! Last year in Sabana Larga we couldn't do anything, but oh well haha. We went to the Mission Home to eat a big Turkey dinner with President and the family and with the north american missionaries and their companions from our zone here in Barranquilla. It was a really special experience and fun to be able to celebrate it even though I believe I ate a lot less this year than I ever have. ;)

So wow this week has been so amazing! I am honestly and truly so excited for this whole season of gratitude and of remembering Christ. I don't know if you all have seen the new video for Christmas this year in lds.org. Oh it is SOOO amazing! The song is very beautiful as well! ;) It would be cool if like Craig Kaelin could transcribe it on sheet music to play or something! ;) It is amazing! Oh but the best part is what we are going to be having the opportunity to do in this month of December! Days of service everyday until Christmas! Here in the mission we are going to be doing it as well and we are so pumped about it here in the office because all the rest of the missionaries don't know yet! hee hee ;) On monday President is going to talk to us and give us instructions, to the secretaries, and then on tuesday each of us are going to be traveling to the other cities/zones in the mission to give the instructions to the missionaries! It will be so legit! Elder Pucha is going to Cartagena with one of the Assistants, Elder De La Cruz. Elder Troche is going to Santa Marta with another Assistant, Elder Piedra. Elder Matos and Elder Hansen and the other Assistant Elder Permenter are going to Valledupar. And then Elder Bustos, President, and I are going to give the instructions here in Barranquilla to the zones here. It will be such a neat experience and really I want to invite each of you that you can do the activities every day in this month of December. I know that if we do the Spirit of Christ will truly and surely dwell within our hearts even more than ever before. He lives and this time especially is for Him and to give back to Him for all that He has given us.

Well that is all my friends and family. I love you all so much! happy thanksgiving to all and a Merry Christmas season!

But it's ok about last week! DOn't worry a bit! I'm glad you got to go to that event. I'm sorry you and Bryce have been a little under the weather.... Thanksgiving here was great! We went to the Mission Home for dinner with Turkey and everything with President and the family and with the north american missionaries in our zone here in Barranquilla. It was fun, but I think I ate the least amount I ever have in my life for Thanksgiving.

Um well I think I will write my weekly letter now. I'm gonna send some fun fotos of my new lego set as well. ;) But those fotos probably shouldn't go to the whole world to see hahaha ;)

Love you!

Love,

~Élder Tyler Hales~

ÉLDER HALES

Secretario de Salud

Misión Colombia Barranquilla

Yeah so President asked me at lunch yesterday how much time I had in the office and I said more than 6 months acting like it was a lot of time and President said "Oh! You've still got at least 3 more months!" So who knows... We'll see about that too haha ;)

Changes ~ November 19,2016

Wow! Another week... time.... How...?...flying.... time goes fast. Sorry I just wanted to resume that whole first part that I think I put every time I write haha. ;) I think everyone got the just of it.

So this week has been interesting! Monday I stayed in because I got hit with a second blast by the flu and also Elder Hansen was sick with it too. We stayed in the apartment here below the office in our beds all day. Our companions brought us our food and we slept practically all day. We also watched all the church videos about the 12 steps of recovery. They are pretty intense. And inspiring. Probably not for children. Anyways, so that's what we did Monday.

Next was the crazy thing. All last week President was in Peru in a training for all the mission presidents of the northwest area of S. America. He got back at the first of this week and he shared with us a ton of new "adjustments" that the general authorities have sent for us to fulfill now in the world of missionary work. First thing, the missionaries noow don't do rescuing of less-actives or retaining new converts, that will be completely from the wards and the members. As it says in the missionary purpose, we are to invite people to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel, or in other words, we are to only focus on investigators and those people who DON'T have the gospel. Less-actives and converts already have it, and so the general authorities havea sent us to only find and baptize investigators. They set a goal for every companionship to find 20 new people every day, which is really hard. But what they taught us is that we must be focusing on families, so if we are finding like 4 or 5 families every day, it will be easier to find new investigators. We now have a new plan in setting the baptismal date and everything too and it will be intense to see how everything starts to play out as we begin finding so many people. We had another leadership council to be trained by President and everything and really it was awesome. There is a lot of work to do and our expectations have been and need to be set high. If we have high expectations and lots of love, we will see miracles in our missions and in our lives.

So yeah I think that's about all that has happened this week. All is well. I am feeling a lot better. I still have a tiny bit of a cough and sinus congestion, but I'm a lot better now.

I love you all. Until the next time.

Love,

~Élder Tyler Hales~

ÉLDER HALES

Secretario de Salud

Misión Colombia Barranquilla

Hey Mommoo! I'm doing just dandy! :) I'm feeling a lot better. I never started with the antibiotics.... Right now I just have a little bit of a cough and a little bit of sinus congestion still, but it's almost better. Next time I will definitely be taking the anti-nephi-lehi's. ;)

But hey that is so awesome about that conference thing! You will have to share with me some parts of the talks. Maybe they'll make me cry too haha ;) Actually I haven't cried in quite a while. It has surprised me. I think it is from being here in the office. I really need to learn how to have more spiritual experiences here. I get sad sometimes here in the office because it's not what I was expecting my mission would be like. But it's not my decision. I just need to find how I must be serving with my best here.


I love you so much Mommoo! Take care of the family! Help them keep reading the scriptures together and praying together. Oh just to let you know as well about the skype call for Christmas! At what time do you guys want to do it? Also President has now given us permission to talk for an hour :)!!! So yay!

I love you so much! Oh and one more thing! Maybe ideas for Christmas or something idk ;) There is a sweet Lego set with Captain America without his helmet, Winter Soldier and Black Panther!!! I saw it today and it looks legit! I wanted to buy it but maybe it would be better not to here. ;) Just an idea.... or the set from the Avengers 2 with Capt!


Love you see you bye!

Parable of the Talents Put to Work ~ November 12, 2016

Hola a todos! Wow what a week! Once again, and again, and again, and again….. So to tell you all what happened this week I will just say this: The one missionary that is supposed to help other missionaries NOT get sick GOT sick!... :P There is a virus bug going around all the mission and I have not enjoyed it. On Monday I woke up with a little tiny bit of body aches, but I didn’t think anything of it, so we all went to play soccer with the zone at a little concrete field nearby the office. We played and went back home and when I went to take a shower….. BAM! Got sick! Yeah! Haha no… it wasn’t fun. I got a fever right before taking a shower and the chills and ohh so much pain in all my body. And you know what? There’s no hot water! Yeah! Oh best shower ever! I felt like – “Let’s do the Polar Bear every day!” (Scouting reference for those who don’t know) So basically all day Monday I slept on the couch in the office. It was Monday anyways, nobody calls sick on Monday. >> P day. So I slept and then after office hours I went down to the house and slept in my bed while my companion Elder Troche sat in the room reading the Friend and such. I felt miserable. So Tuesday came. I wake up and wow! I felt great! Almost perfect! I get ready go up to the office all day and then around 7:00 pm…. BAM again! Round Two! It was like when one recovers from a tackle in pro wrestling and then - rejected! R.K.O.! (Ask Chase, he showed me a youtube video before the mission about RKO haha) Nevertheless, we went out to a visit anyways. We helped a couple of members start indexing! But wow that night and the next morning… I was miserable once again. So then the fever and headache and body aches turned into sinuses out of control and coughing and a super sore throat. Until now I have a sore throat and a little bit of a cough. The nose thing is a little better. Now it’s not más o menos (mostly in my nose – according to Mom haha). ;) So yeah, that has basically been my week. Today for PDay we went first to Buenavista to shop and then we came here to the office and ate dominos pizza.

So apart from all that stuff, as district leader I get to prepare a district meeting every Friday and do a training, and that has been a pretty cool thing. Yesterday I trained about the Doctrine of Christ and Our Missionary Purpose and about the importance of the Baptismal invitation. I will just say that I have never been really that good at speaking, especially in front of a group of people, but I know that the Lord will help me as long as I do my best.

That’s all folks! Keep on pressing forward being what He wants you to be! I love you all and I know that He does as well. Never give in to the one who desires all to be miserable and sad. Choose today to be happy! Because happiness is already available, all the time!

Ciao!

Love,

~Élder Tyler Hales~

ÉLDER HALES

Secretario de Salud

Misión Colombia Barranquilla

Hola Mommoo! How are you?
Wow that's crazy to hear that it's still super warm there. Well relatively. We all would be dying here of cold if it was in the 60's. But oh well haha. ;) I don't ever have to use a jacket here so that's fine with me haha. ;)

Uyyyyyyyyy....... Don't tell me the results. I just know the Second Coming is here. The cook here in the office told us and me and Elder Hansen got all serious and, well I was already serious because I was sick, but I got even more serious. All we can do now is pray that the people will now wake up and see the big mistakes they are making and that they must turn from their pride just like the Nephites of old. But yeah, it's probably better that we don't talk about politics. I try not to take in any of the information I hear because I really don't want to talk about it with people here and other missionaries for that matter.

Ha! Wow! There's a new Tarzan?? Ha! Who even knew? ;) I didn't! I'm sure that when I get back I won't be able to see all of the movies that have come out in this past year in a life time because I'm sure there are literally a million that have come out! haha

Thought from Elder David A Bednar, We Believe in Being Chaste: "The Savior is often referred to as the Great Physician, and this title has both symbolic and literal significance....Consider sin as a spiritual wound that causes guilt or, as described by Alma to his son Corianton, "remorse of conscience" (Alma 42:18). Guilt is to our spirit what pain is to the body--a warning of danger and a protection from additional damage. From the Atonement of the Savior flows the soothing salve that can heal our spiritual wounds and remove guilt. However, this salve can only be applied through the principles of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance, and consistent obedience. The results of sincere repentance are peace of conscience, comfort, and spiritual healing and renewal." He then goes on referring that "Bishops are the physician's assistant, who are authorized to help you repent and heal."

Thanks for that thought by Elder Bednar. Actually, something that I have really been missing is the strong impressions of the Spirit here in the mission and even at home. Here in the office I think it's kind of like what it would be in normal life, (I'm stretching it really far I know, but bear with me) because all day instead of talking about and preaching the gospel we are doing office things and taking missionaries to the clinic and such. Sometimes I wonder what it is that Heavenly Father wants me to learn from this experience here in the office. It's a very stressful environment sometimes and especially this week since I have been sick I have been a bit on edge. A bit impatient I'll say, which is something that I haven't felt or seen me do in a long time, and I hope to keep improving that.

Well, thanks Mommoo for everything! Are you guys sending stuff soon that I should be aware of here? Because who knows how much longer I'll be here in the office. I have already been here 6 months now! Two days ago! Crazy!

Love you mommoo! See you, love you, bye!

Oh actually the other day I did exactly that with the Christ picture! I have some transparent drawing paper and I printed off a little copy of the drawing and gave it to a missionary whose grandpa died this week. His grandpa had practically raised him all his life and so it was really hard for him. He felt alone and worried for his family. I was the one who had to help him call his family and see how things were going in the house. I watched him as he spoke to his family. It was a touching experience. After he hung up, he was pretty sad and so I printed a copy of the Jesus Christ drawing I made on some nice special drawing paper. I wrote on it John 14:27, it reads: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." 

It was neat. he thanked me with tears in his eyes and he said he was going to keep it safe and in a place where he would always see it and remember it. Other than that I have had many experiences helping missionaries especially when they have problems a little bigger. I am doing my best in trying to comfort them and everything.

🎃 ¡¡HALLOWEEN!! 🎃 ~ November 5, 2016

Hola everyone! Well yes this week was my birthday and yes it was great! A little different in the mission, but still great. The Gallego family gave me TONS of treats and candies to eat this week and wow have I enjoyed them haha. I think that's the best part about having your birthday on Halloween because you get double! Presents and candy! ;) President's son took a photo of me and some companions here in the office and put it on the facebook page for all you at home to see haha. Every once in a while President's family tells us about what our families or parents are commenting or putting on the facebook page haha. It's fun.

Well this week we had Leadership Council again! And the last one of the year because in December we don't have meetings. Other than when the new missionaries arrive and when we have all the fun Christmas games and such. It was really good. We did lots of practices, one of them about prayer and how to help investigators get in the sacred habit of praying and asking God, and another about teaching an investigador going through a big challenge (like a death or loss of a job) and in teaching them by the Spirit to comfort them. It was really cool. Something that made the practices so cool was that we mixed up the companionships with others of the zone leaders and such and got to teach another missionary. It was cool to see how even in the practices the Spirit was very strong and in having unity with another missionary that isn't your companion. It was cool.

So yeah I think that's about all that has happened this week! It was great. Fast. And well the beginning of a new month, and a very special month at that... the month of the Turkey!.... Oh I mean of Thanksgiving! haha. I love you all! Take care! Don't dream too much about Richard Parker! ;)

¡​Ciao ciao​ !

Love,
~Élder Tyler Hales~

ÉLDER HALES

Secretario de Salud

Misión Colombia Barranquilla

Wow sounds like an awesome day! Tell Brie congratulations on her baptism! That is sooooooo awesome! Such a big step on to a long path of joy and happiness!
My birthday was great! Didn't feel like my birthday... again... but oh well! That's life! It was good. the Gallego family gave me TONS of candy and treats to eat. I still have quite a few. They gave me an oreo pie and sang to me in Spanish and English, with all the missionaries here in the office, and yeah! Haha actually it's President's son, Sebastian, who has been doing that. Maybe his daughter too, but I think it's more his son. He took the foto.
Say hi to everyone there too! I love them all!

Happy Halloween and a happy new week too to everyone there haha.

Today we found some Tide detergent for our washer in Price Smart, the store like Costco! I'm excited because it will be really good to get a really good wash with my clothes. The detergent we have always been using has been like the cheap kind that doesn't do a super clean.... Oh and just so you know I was able to get some new garments here in the office. They only had size M of the round neck shirts so they are a little big, but oh well! haha.

Zone Conference Continued...And another Week! ~ October 29, 2016

Wow.... are you going to guess what I'm going to say?... I'm sure you are! Wow! It's already been another week!? Haha. Yup it sure has.

Well, I wanted to continue about the Zone Conference we had last week and then talk a little about the experiences we had this week. So in the Zone Conference President and the Assistants trained a lot about how we as missionaries need to always be "walking with the Lord". All the things we do, when we are out teaching, alone with our companion, talking with other missionaries, etc. we must always keep ourselves in a righteous stance. Since President Gallego has gotten here he has really been focusing on encouraging the mission to be able to baptize every week. Because it is possible! We just need to have the faith sufficient to be able to reach it. President explained to us that if the missionaries aren't baptizing, then there must be something wrong between that relationship with us and the Lord and that we must refocus or consecrate ourselves. It was a pretty powerful training. We then talked about what we must do to find the investigators that have been prepared by the Lord, because the "field is white already to harvest." The "field" is already prepared, there are already the people that have been chosen and prepared to receive this Gospel. What we must do is find them. We then ended with a message about the Atonement and Missionary Work and I love the phrase that comes from one of President Eyring's talks about "Remember Him!" and that when we ever feel tired or that we can't go on, we must give ourselves that rallying cry "Remember Him!" It was powerful. We must leave behind our nets (things of the world) and follow Him.

Now this week was a little crazy again. Por qué? Porque it was transfers! AGAIN! Crazy I know. I feel like every other week I say it's "transfers again." So the new missionaries arrived and we got to eat in Rodizios again! Woohoo! Every transfer! ;) The cooked pineapple is the best. Anyways, so that happened with the new missionaries. We had some training with them on Wednesday and oh yeah I saw Elder Argyle! That was cool. He saw me when he arrived at President's house on Tuesday morning from the Bogotá MTC and he looked at me and asked: "You're Elder Hales? Does your mom work at the elementary school by Weber?" Haha. So he's here. He's actually in Galapa, so where my first zone was. Pretty cool. His trainer should be great. Let's see, apart from all that..... oh yeah! So Elder Carreon and Elder Salinas have now left the office, the new Housing Secretary is Elder Matos from Puerto Rico officially and the new History Secretary is Elder Troche from Bolivia! From my group in the MTC. Well the group that came to the mission with me! And now he's my companion! They changed a bit the companionships here in the office now. I'm with Elder Troche and Elder Pucha is now with Elder Matos. Elder Hansen is now training a new missionary to be the Executive Secretary, Elder Bustos from Colombia. He's pretty awesome. And what else.... oh yeah, so now that Elder Carreon has left the office, he was our district leader, President has called me as the new district leader of the office and the sisters in our ward. It has been and will be a great learning experience. A lot more responsibilities. I pray that I may learn the most from it.

Well that basically sums everything up this week! I love you all! Have a Happy HALLOWEEN!!! :D :D :D (The second best holiday, not because it's halloween but rather because it's my birthday. haha ;) and it's the second because Christmas is the best.)

See you, love you, bye!

Love,
~Élder Tyler Hales~

ÉLDER HALES

Secretario de Salud

Misión Colombia Barranquilla

It's going good. The battle is going well. Who's gonna be who? Did Bryce get his hair long enough to be Bucky Barnes?? ;) And is Matt gonna be Heman? hahaha ;) That would be funny. Yes they celebrate here. We actually went to the store today and they have all the decorations and such. And they have already all the decorations for Christmas too! Crazy! Yes we go out on Halloween to work. last year the day after Halloween in Sabana Llarga, all the kids went out in costumes and asked candy, but it's more crazy and disorganized here than it is there haha. Here in Barranquilla I'm not sure what it's like. Oh and here in the office we actually have a couple of decorations up. :)

Thank you so much momooo for the Birthday wish and really for all the love you have shown me. I just can't help it with these eyes of mine.... they are just too blue and big. hahahaha ;)

But wow that is so awesome about the violin for Emma that will be sweet! I'm glad she has been keeping up on it.

Also thanks mom for that spiritual thought you shared. It is something so important that we learn in this life to be able to understand that in whatever circumstance, the Lord and His Atonement helps. All we must do is apply it in our life and we will see the blessings and joy that comes from it.

That's great Elder Jorgensen could go yesterday as well. He is really an awesome guy. He was a great friend and help in Arjona. Elder Baque finally left Arjona with these transfers. He had like 8 months there! That's a long time. He is now here in Barranquilla in the area called Malambo. Elder Brunis ended his mission this week as well. That was sad. I gave him one of my new ties I bought. The blue striped shiny one.... I think that will be the only tie I will give away haha. you know me ;)

Well I love you so much Momoo! Thank you for everything. You are the absolute bestest mom in the whole wide world! Take care of the family!

See you love you bye!

Emotional and Spiritual Explosions ~ October 22, 2016

Hola a todos!


Wow this week once again..... ZIP!! Se fue! And this next week... ZIP se irá as well!
This week, as the title says, was full of emotional and spiritual explosions, as Matt would say. First thing, this week in the mission there were three missionaries that had appendicitis and well all were operated on. It surprised all of us. On Tuesday I had quite the adventure with Sebastian, President's son. After lunch Sebastian had a dentist appointment to fill a filling that had fallen out or something like that so Sister Gallego asked me to take him to his appointment. All turned out well. After that there was a sister missionary that had an appointment in the clinic Porto Azul, like the main clinic/hospital where we go for everything. So Sebastian and I went to the clinic to pay the doctor appointment for the sister and her companion. After that we all went to the room where one of the missionaries, as well a sister, that had the appendix operation and we had to talk to the nurses and doctors and stuff to kind of get some information about the operation they did. We waited there for a couple of hours until they gave the sister leave from the hospital. While all of that was going on, another missionary had called with extreme stomach pain and had come to the clinic to urgencies. The zone leaders that had come to accompany him called me and said the doctors were saying it looked like appendicitis. In that moment I was just like noooooooooooo. Like Luke when he finds out Darth.... yeah I'm sure you all know the story. So after the sister left we went down to urgencies and found the elder and the specialist there examining him. Sure enough... another appendicitis. (Just so you know the first appendicitis had already happened the Friday before, so this was the third) Anyways, so we were with him and then I had to leave with the companion of the elder with appendicitis to go and sign some papers because he was going to be the accompanier for the patient. 

During that, Sebastian had to go with the elder with appendicitis up to the floor of the operations and while they were going up Sebastian saw some terrifying stuff. Just so you know Sebastian is like me in terms of getting light headed and stuff when seeing blood or being in a clinic. Luckily he didn't pass out nor I. Anyways we were there in the clinic until about 10:15 and finally we got to go home because the zone leaders came to stay with the elders. It was quite an adventure. So yeah emotional explosion. 

The spiritual explosion was the Zone Conference we had about finding the chosen ones. It was super good. But for the time I can't tell it in detail. I love you all and wish the best for everyone!!!!! Ciao!
¡Paz fuera!

Love,
~Élder Tyler Hales~

ÉLDER HALES

Secretario de Salud

Misión Colombia Barranquilla