Preparing for Change and a New President ~ June 23, 2016

Hola everyone!

So this week has been pretty crazy busy with transfers again and all the new missionaries coming in and the missionaries finishing the mission as well. And well, now as you have all seen from the title... it's President and Sister Searle's last week here.... :( They leave this next Tuesday back to Burley, Idaho. And the new president, President Gallego will be here Tuesday as well to begin his work. We are all pretty sad here in the office. Today we had our last breakfast with President and Sister Searle and well we won't see them until Monday because they left for Santa Marta this afternoon and won't get back til then. We are all sad, and nervous, and anxious for the new president. But something that we are really trying to focus on is not comparing presidents. We need to welcome him with happy faces and the determination to keep working hard always.

So this week with transfers, my companion, Elder Muir, went to Cartagena to end his mission there in August. So I'm here now with the Housing Secretary, Elder Carreon from Mexico City, Mexico. He has a great sense of humor and is always telling jokes, and yet serious in the serious matters.

This week there have also been two missionaries that have gone home for health reasons... They're the first ones to have gone home in my time here in the office concerning health problems. There have been so many missionaries getting sick lately and well I'll just say they've all kept me very busy. A lot to do to help them get better and also to prepare for the new president and his wife. I'm not sure how it's going to be with the new president's wife because she isn't a pharmacist like Sister Searle. 

But oh well, hay que seguir! Hay que trabajar!

So yeah, I think that is practically all for this week. Until the next time!
¡Paz fuera!



Love,
~Élder Tyler Hales~




ÉLDER HALES

Secretario de Salud

Misión Colombia Barranquilla

Wedding Advice and Skype! ~ June 18, 2016

Hey I´m sooo sorry I was totally going to say Happy Father´s day and Happy birthday to you Mommoo!!! My head was going a thousand miles per hour and I totally forgot! I´m sorry.... But hey I'm so glad for all of you guys and especially for Matt and Karlie. This weekend (and Monday) will be quite special days for the family. I´m so eternally grateful that our family can be a family forever. Not until here in the mission have I really learned to appreciate and value the divinity and joy that comes from our family.


To Matt and Karlie: I know that this special choice you have taken now will not only affect what will happen in this life, but also in the glorious life to come. Our marriages in the church are not only "until death do us part," but "for time and all eternity." Just think. Now as you begin your glorious work on the right side of our Heavenly Father you will be able to do it together, forever, receiving all the marvelous blessings of our Father´s kingdom. Now as parents of your daughter, (and my niece), Eden, you have the divine responsibility to raise her and the rest of your children to grow and become the men and women God wants them to be; just as your parents have raised you. I am so glad for you! I know that this Gospel is true and is the only path to the happiness and peace that we are all searching in this life. Thank you for all that you do and for all your prayers and love. Just remember, I´m with you till the end of the line.


I truly know that this church is the only true church here on the earth. Now is our time to fight against the adversary to bring this glorious light to all of our Father´s children. I know that this work is for that purpose. This church is the only church that makes eternal families possible. I know that as we follow the teachings of the prophets of old and in modern days that we can learn how to reach that happiness and peace in this life.


Take care all! I love you so much! Oh, I forgot to say hi from President and Sister Searle as well in the Skype... So hi!


¡Ciao!


Love,
~Elder Tyler Hales~




ÉLDER HALES

Secretario de Salud

Misión Colombia Barranquilla

Elder Rasband and Elder Uceda! ~ June 11, 2016

Hola a todos!


So wow, I kind of left you guys hanging there a bit this last week huh? So just to let you all know now, we are all fine. Everyone is practically to 100 %.

 
So something interesting, the very night of the incident with the killer bees this last week I found another sting on my back. It didn´t hurt or anything and I didn´t even feel it when the bee stung me. It was a little tiny bit swollen, but I´m ok. Only 2 stings! Woohoo! Out of about a thousand bees that were chasing us! That´s pretty good skills there I think. ;) Matrix moves I´m talking. ;) Another thing, the next morning i woke up and my sting on my elbow was really swollen. All the missionaries here said it looked like I was growing a third arm haha. It was funny. But I´ve always swollen up big when I get stung so I wasn´t too surprised. I am pretty sure though that if I was in the back with the one missionary that got stung over 150 times, I would have died. No joke. Anyways, I´m fine though! :D

So apart from the crazy bee stuff that happened, this week has been pretty legit! So this last Tuesday we had what´s called Consejo de Lideres, Leaders Council. Where all the Zone leaders, secretaries, President and Sister Searle, and the Assistants all have a big meeting to talk about the needs of the mission. The secretaries share their announcements with the zone leaders to transmit them to the missionaries so we can have better communication and stuff in the office. It was an awesome experience! I even saw Elder Brunis there because he is a zone leader in Cartagena! So that was fun. 

THEN, the best part of that day was that there was a meeting that night with Elder Rasband and all the stakes of Barranquilla!!! So we went to this big stadium place close by here and Elder Rasband and his wife and Elder Uceda spoke to us! I almost even got to shake Elder Rasband´s hand!! I was like two feet away from him but there were two elders in front of me that blocked the way... :( But I did shake his wife´s hand! It was an awesome evening! Elder Rasband talked about how we need to prepare for the temple that will be here in Barranquilla soon. He shared some stories and shared of how we need to always be ready and worthy to enter the temple.

Hmm, what else happened this week... well President and Sister Searle are now leaving in about two weeks so we are all really sad about that. :( They are really so awesome! Also this transfer is already coming to an end... This transfer has flown by as if it has been two weeks I´m not even kidding! Time has been speeding up so rapidly fast! Elder Muir, my companion, goes home after this next transfer and so after this week he will be going to a different area because well he´s already finished training me here in the office. Normally when the secretaries replace the other the older one usually is only there for like two weeks, but since we have had a million doctors appointments Sister Searle told President he needs to stay pretty much to the end of the transfer.

So yeah I think that is about it! Things here are going great! I am loving working here. I have been missing the piano extremely lately... I have all this music to play and songs that I´m forgetting to play because I haven´t played for about 9 10 months... But oh well, I must press on, and so must we all! 

This is the Lord´s work and he needs helpers! Press forward saints!


Bueno, hasta luegito!!


¡Paz fuera!



Love,
~Elder Tyler Hales~

Killer Bees and a Miraculous Escape ~ June 4, 2016

The Master's Hand

Never have I seen a more terrifying yet miraculous excursion in my life.

Today started out with happy faces and happy talk about our Pday today. We had planned an excursion out to a field of a member that is good friends of us in the mission because he carries us in his taxi and stuff like that. The plan was to go to the field, which is an hour and a little bit away from the office and is really secluded up in the mountains here on the coast, and we were to eat a big lunch up there. We were all in our Pday clothes with everything ready to go. It was funny to see President and Sister Searle in casual clothes haha. 

So we left and as we drived it was a beautiful experience. As we went up the mountain we got to see the coast and see over all the city and forest around us. It was super cool. I won´t lie. It was an amazing view. We got there where we were going to eat and we all unloaded the food and things of the taxis and cars and everything was great. We even saw a little chimp monkey thing! That was pretty cool. We were taking photos of the monkey, the wild turkeys, and trees and things around in the "camp" site. (It looked like a camp site). Then the member told us we could go out for a cool scenic hike. To go see where the water comes out of the mountain and to see his family field. The member had a guy there who was going to be our guide and we were all super excited to go. So we all set off on the hike to go see the beautiful nature of the mountains of Colombia! And to be honest, it was very beautiful with all sorts of exotic bugs like spiders, centipedes, oh and also the first time I´ve seen a potatoe bug here in Colombia! We were hiking and we really saw some beautiful spots of trees and rocks where there had been rivers before. Everything was so green! and beautiful! So, later on we got to a spot where it was a little hard to climb up a rock. Below the rock there was a little water hole and to get up you had to go around the side carefully to get up. So the guide recommended that Sister and President Searle didn´t go on ahead anymore on the trail. So they decided to stay back and us missionaries were trying to decide if we were just going to keep going or return back to lunch. We decided to keep going because President Searle said we could keep going and he would wait with Sister Searle until we got back. 

As we kept going we saw a few more beautiful sites. There was a part that was almost like a rock tunnel where a river had past years ago. It reminded me of the Subway slot canyon hike at Zions. We took photos and everything was just happy dandy. I hiked up a little bit more with an Elder after taking a picture of him and we saw this HUGE bee hive on the side of the rock wall. It was pretty cool. We didn´t think anything of it and so we sat there and waited for the rest of the missionaries to get there. Me my companion, the elder, and another elder waited there for the elders. The guide had gone up just a little the trail and was waiting for us when suddenly he yelled "¡CORRA!" For those who don´t know Spanish, that means "run." Right as he yelled that I was taking a picture of a baby tarantula and I turned around and saw a few of the bees start to leave the wall...
Now i know what you´re all thinking... A hive of bees. Never good to be around...

I ran.
I ran, and I ran so fast. 

I have never in my entire life had so much adrenaline pumping through my body. All of us ten missionaries began to run and run and run. But just to mention, this trail was not easy. There were big rocks to climb and jump down from, slippery mud in every place... To be honest, I have never felt so scared in my entire life as I ran. There was an enormous black cloud of angry bees chasing after us and attacking us. The elder that was in the back, the one I was with at first, began to scream. Scream SO loud. 

- Now...If you´ve ever seen the Hunger Games movie... think of the experience when the bees attack... that is LITERALLY what it felt like and heard like. I say the absolute truth and I don´t think I will ever be able to get the sound of those screams from my head. It was horrifying!

I ran and ran and ran so fast. I really don´t remember how I got out of there. Honestly it is a miracle that I got out of there without breaking a bone or falling and smacking my head or something on a rock. I was guided. Heavenly protection. Elder Muir, another elder, and I, we ran and kept running until we got to President and Sister Searle. We yelled to them to run. They asked where the elder in the back was, the one that was screaming. We told them the guide was with him and that they needed to run. We kept running ahead to get help from someone. As I ran I had gotten one sting on the back of my left elbow, but luckily it didn´t hurt very bad and it still hasn´t swollen up. I felt the bees swarming around my head. I swatted like crazy. And miraculously not a single one stung my head. I left there with the one sting on my elbow. One of the elders I was with, an assistant, is allergic to bees. So he was super scared and we ran so crazy. We finally got back to the lunch place and yelled to the people that we needed an ambulance. Fast. We called and they said the closest ambulance would take 30 minutes to get here. We were so scared. Finally, the assistant and I ran back to see if the others needed help, and to really, find where they were. The elder that was screaming had been stung at least, I would say 200 times. He was covered in the little bees stingers. They took off his shirt and began to pull out all the stingers and to help him back to the lunch place. President and Sister Searle then took him and another missionary that was stung bad to the hospital as fast as they could.


Now I had to cut that ending part a little short, but during that entire time I was praying so hard to my Father in Heaven. Asking Him to protect and guide us. It truly was the most frightening experience I have ever had. I will never forget it. It really felt like the Hunger Games as we ran for our lives. In the end we found, by dead bees caught in the elder´s shirt, that the bees were African bees. Or in other words, killer bees. 

We are all ok here. We have all had an experience pretty crazy, and well now we are ready to help each other recuperate and get to work in this glorious labor. 

We really saw the Master´s Hand in that experience today as we ran. None of us know how we got out so easily and quickly without falling over the rocks and trees. We came out only with a few scratches and bruises... and bee stings. We are so grateful to our Savior and our Father in Heaven for protecting us, even though some received a lot of stings and cuts. I am grateful to be here and to have seen His miraculous hand working with us. I will never forget that experience.


Until the next time,

¡Paz fuera!

Love,
~Elder Tyler Hales~

Obedience Through Our Faithfulness ~ May 28, 2016

"Strong, proactive obedience is anything but weak or passive. It is the means by which we declare our faith in God and qualify ourselves to receive the powers of heaven."

—L. Tom Perry, "Obedience through Our Faithfulness"

Obedience truly is the declaration of our faith. I truly testify of this. May we all be obedient to the will of the Lord. As it is through our obedience that we receive blessings.Well, so this week has gone by like a bar of soap on a slippin´ slide. ;) Haha. But really this week and well these weeks have been flying by super fast. I´ve already been here in the office for about three weeks! And while it has gone fast, I must say it has been a great learning experience (as I have said in every email since I´ve been here).

Anyways, so this week was quite busy. Lots of missionaries calling with head aches, stomach aches, throat aches, etc. and a few other crazy things. We have also had lots of medical appointments in all sorts of clinics. Must I say that I´m glad we have the kind of medical service we have in Utah... Anyways, we have been going to a dentist with an elder that needs to get some teeth fixed up and we have been having a lot of missionaries going to have blood tests done and all that fun stuff. And well as you all know that I don´t handle blood very well, I´ll just say that I´ve gotten good at distracting myself as the missionaries are having their blood drawn. ;) Oh! We also had a really interesting visit. An elder had an Echo-cardiogram yesterday and well... I got to see his heart! ¡Súper loco! It was like an ultrasound machine thing and you could see his heart pumping and all the valves and stuff opening and closing. It was quite interesting. I´m sure that if I was seeing it from real eyes view I wouldn´t have lasted a microsecond watching it. But yeah, it was interesting. What else happened....? Oh! we had a case of a missionary with a parasite in his foot! That was pretty crazy! So what had happened is that he went running in some sand WITHOUT shoes!! Yeah, Sister Searle was pretty amazed by that haha. I get to have all sorts of fun adventures here as Health Secretary haha. ;)

The work here is going well in the office, as well in the area. I am enjoying it. It is a lot different than being out in the field, but I still have been able to find the joy from it all. This is my first time proselyting in a big city and to be honest it has been quite difficult. It´s not the same as what I´ve been used to all my mission until now; little pueblos with super receptive people that almost always let you talk with them. Here it´s a bit different. It´s hard too because the people often live in big buildings and apartments, so you have to know exactly the number of the apartment, why you´re there, and who you are visiting, to be able to even enter the building. It´s a little crazy. But we do have some people here that are pretty receptive and willing to listen to us. Most of them are people like from part member families or references from the members. So that´s practically how it´s been going with the work here.

Today for Pday we cleaned the house up good, then I went to the Assistant´s house to clean with the AP Elder Muñoz. Then we sat here in the office for a while. And then we watched Zootopia for an activity today in the office! At the first of the movie I was like "what is this?" But it was actually pretty hilarious. It even has Shakira in it! haha. Anyways, that´s not important. We just like to brag a bit that Shakira is from here in Barranquilla. ;)

Well, I think that is about all that has happened so far here. I´m loving the opportunities I am having to learn in this last transfer of President Searle. I will miss him and Sister Searle so much after this transfer. But it will be great with President Gallego as well.

May we remember to always be obedient with exactitud (exactness). Being here in the mission truly has opened my eyes to the importance of that.

Take care everyone! Until the next time!

¡Paz fuera!



Love,
~Elder Tyler Hales~

P.S. Hi mommoo!
I´m doing just dandy! It has been a pretty good experience here in the office. There are I think 10 missionaries here in the office. There are 3 assistants right now. We have a Secretary for Health (me), Historian, Housing, Finances, and executive (for like air flights, migration and stuff). President works here in the office, but a lot of times he is in his office or interviewing missionaries in his office. So I see him every once in a while. I do get to work with Sister Searle quite a bit, because she is over the health of the missionaries. So every time a missionary calls I have to talk to her to see what the missionary should do to get better. But I think that being able to have the experience with Bryce before the mission has really prepared me for this. I have been able to recognize some medical tests and medicines that the missionaries need to take and such things like that. Sometimes I lose a bit of patience with the missionaries when they call with problems that are practically nothing. But i am improving and really trying to be more nice and loving with the missionaries even when it feels like they just call to bother.... But I have been called for a reason and I must work my hardest. Well I love you so much! Take care and say hi to the rest of the family!
¡Ciao!



ÉLDER HALES

Secretario de Salud

Misión Colombia Barranquilla

Sabana Larga Family- Baptized! ~ May 21,2016

Hello my beloved friends and family! ¿Cómo están?

Well, being here in the office has really been such an awesome experience. I have really enjoyed being able to work with President and his wife and with the assistants, secretaries, and all the missionaries in medical need. This calling really has been an eye opener to me here in the office. I have been able to see so much as to how the mission works and the importance of unity in all parts of the mission and in the leaders. 

So to start off I just want to share a thought that President Searle shared in Stake Conference this last week. President Searle was talking about the importance of Temple preparation and how we need to prepare the youth and the young ones to enter in the temple worthy and ready in a future day. The part that was so awesome was this, he said that such as Earthly Parents worry about their children when they do not arrive home on time at night and don´t know where they are, our Heavenly Father worries when we don´t arrive in His house, the Temple. It was such a powerful message that he shared. It is so true. Heavenly Father worries when we don´t fulfill with what he has lovingly asked us to do. As it says in Preach My Gospel, He cries when we don´t complete His commandments. I really loved President´s thought.

Well, so you are all now probably wondering why the title of this email has "Shakira" in it right? Well, I´ll tell you all what happened. So, as many know, Shakira is actually from here, Barranquilla, and her house isn´t too far from the office here. Crazy right? So anyways, the other day Elder John (a brother that helps with the mission, he has like 20 something years old, he´s not a missionary but we call him Elder John)... anyways he said that Shakira would be passing through Barranquilla soon. But we didn´t really believe him and didn´t take a thought about it.... But then guess what happened?? Yup, she passed right through here in Barranquilla for sure! In fact she decided to take a stop here by the office! Well, not IN the office, but in front of! They were like filming some music video or something. She was in a jeep there in front of the office and crowds of people surrounded the jeep like moths to one of those electrifying zapper thingies. Taking fotos and everything. Súper loco. And yeah of course all of the missionaries here in the office freaked out and ran to the windows and the front door to see. Sister Searle as well haha! Actually Sister Searle went down and out into the street! We all thought she went to give Shakira a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because she had one in her hand wrapped in a napkin haha. But yeah it was super crazy! I´ll send a foto. So yeah... I saw Shakira!

Well other news.... haber.... Oh yeah!! Guess what!? The family Jimenez in Sabana Larga! The three sons got baptized recently!!! The Galapa Zone had interviews so I got to talk to the Zone leaders and the missionaries there in Sabana Larga and they said that the family is doing awesome! The only problem now is that the mom doesn´t have as much interest. But the dad wants to join and everything but can´t because he first needs to get married, but the wife is a little... stubborn. But oh well, Prayer and the Spirit will help them!

Well i think that is all for now! I love you all so much and wish you all much success!
¡Cuidense! 

 
(P.S. Shakira is in the passenger seat)  She sings "This Time for Africa" and "Try Everything"
¡Paz fuera!



Love,
~Elder Tyler Hales~

Barranquilla with the President ~ May 14, 2016

Elder Muir and Elder Tyler Hales~ Health Secretaries

¡Hola!
¿Qué tal? ¿Cómo va todo?

Well as you all should now know is that this Monday I was called to be the Health Secretary of the mission. So now I´m here working in the offices with all the other missionary secretaries, the Assistants, and President and Sister Searle! It really has been and is such a priviledge to be able to serve here, and for that I am grateful for my Father in Heaven who has given me this opportunity to work with these great leaders here.

So first off, my companion is Elder Muir (from Idaho, but born in Orem, Utah) who is practically like my twin here in the mission haha. A lot of people really get us confused. Anyways, he is super awesome and he is training me to be the new Health Secretary for the mission. So this week has been super crazy! Firstly, I came here to Barranquilla really early in the morning on Tuesday and when I got here they had the presentation for all of the new missionaries, and when they presented all of the secretaries they had me go up with Elder Muir to present myself and also to describe some of the things we do as the Health Secretary (even though I didn´t even know very much and it was my first day haha). Anyways, so one of the responsibilities of the Health Secretary is to receive all of the calls from the missionaries who are sick or have health problems, and so this week i have been doing that and it has been super crazy sometimes because sometimes I receive like three calls from missionaries all at once! I also have to go with the missionaries to their medical visits and this week we already had like 5 medical visits! and more scheduled for the first of this week! So that has been fun. We also have to help make sure all of the missionaries are able to communicate with their families on Pdays and to call their families if they´re not writing to their missionaries. So this week being the week after Mother´s Day we have had to make a few calls to missionaries and families to make sure they can get their call in for Mother´s Day. Hmm... what else... We have to keep records of all types of medical stuff here and everything we tell the missionaries to take to get feeling better and yeah... I think that is about it! It has been a great experience though because I am able to work with President and Sister Searle and talk to them about the needs of the missionaries and be able to know how to help them. And well even though, as you all know, that I am not very good with medical and blood and stuff, so far I´ve been ok haha. The hard part is just trying to understand the names of the medicines in Spanish and knowing how to write them because imagine... they´re already tough enough to write in English! ;)

Concerning working and preaching in the area, well this week being the first week of the transfer we haven´t been able to get out to work much, but Elder Muir has said the area is super good and the people have been progressing well.

Oh! I almost forgot! So yesterday we had a ward talent show activity and well we were part of it and it was awesome! Our part we did was a little dance things where two missionaries put their heads through a blanket sheet and put their hands through as well but with shoes over their hands and then two other elders with their hands through the sheet as well to be the arms of what would be a "little person" type thingie. I hope that made sense haha. Anyways, we did that and the two elders with the other two behind, danced and sang to Glorious while I and another elder held the sheet up. It was pretty funny.... but not as funny as we were hoping haha. ;)

And well I think that is about it for this week. I will write you more next Saturday about what more I learn! Oh yeah, Saturdays are Pdays for the offices. :)
I love you all!
¡Ciao!


¡Paz fuera!



Love,
~Elder Tyler Hales~


P.S. Yep I´m here! so yeah Saturdays are the new pdays and I think I will be writing at like 4:00 until i´m done with my training as health secretary and then it will be at 5 again but saturdays. yeah so if you send the package now I will be able to receive it super fast!!! :D Well I love you so much! Say hi to all the family!