Birthday!!

Good morning everyone!! 

First off, i'd like to thank everyone that sent me a letter/card/something for my birthday, Zach & Erika, Grandma & Grandpa Pete, Grandma & Grandpa Bunnell, it was really awesome. I loved hearing from everyone!!

This week wasn't quite as hectic as last week, but we did pick up a few new investigators, so of course there are always stories to be told!!

But I guess first things first, Jeff was confirmed yesterday! I got the opportunity to do the confirmation, it was really incredible. Jeff is making some seriously good progress in the gospel, he should be ready for September's recent convert temple trip on September 1st! He's so excited for the temple, it'll be great!

Here's a funny story for you all, we're teaching two of our new investigators the first lesson, you hear a guy just yell out of his car "You've gotta be kidding me!!!!". So we're like, hmm okay whatevs, let's just keep going. Next thing you know, this guy had driven all the way down the street, parked his car, and is now trying to walk up and ruin the lesson (there are quite a few anti-mormons here...) so his points, were completely ridiculous. He told us we shouldn't call ourselves "Elders" because that is a title of respect and in the book of Titus it specifically states that Elders need to have wives and kids to have that title (obviously it doesn't, the scripture he's referring to is talking about something completely different). And his second point was that the Mormons are an incredibly rich church and that that's just not good. We're like, wait what? If you'd take some time to look at the facts buddy, let's get real here. And the best part was when our investigator looked him right in the eye and said "SIR, JUST GO AWAY." hahaha, so awesome. 

Naomi kinda regressed in her progress this week, she's still moving forward but she just wants physical proof and signs of what the truth is. Which is fine, but as you know you need to have that spiritual confirmation for the physical facts to mean anything. If you don't know it in your heart, it won't be in your head for long! That is why we really put such an emphasis on reading and PRAYING about the Book of Mormon, if you don't read and pray about it, you'll never know for yourself whether it is true or false!! So we've just been trying our hardest to get her to read and pray. That is what she needs. 

So the next investigator we picked up. He is a very hardcore practicing Catholic, he tells us he just wants to learn more about the LDS church to help out a friend that is going through a hard time in her life. His friend is a member, and she lives in Utah. He tells us he will probably just stay a Catholic, but he tells us he will do anything we ask him to do! So we explained the restoration and the significance of the Book of Mormon, how if it's true the Church is true. He seemed genuinely interested, and it'll basically hinge on if he ponders and prays on the message of the Book of Mormon. He'll get an answer. :)

We finally picked up Barbara again this week, she's been a tough person to find. But we did finally make contact again and we went over to visit her. Hopefully we can just set a regular time to go over and meet with her.

Sunday was my birthday, so that was pretty fun! Birthdays on the mission are pretty strange, it's just like any other day. You wake up at 6:30, you go to church, you go visit people, then you come home. It was strange, not really the biggest fan of celebrating by myself!! But my parents sent me an awesome package full of great stuff. Overall it was a fun day! 

I think that's about it, but...

Pase yon bon semen, ke bondye ave w. 

--

Elder AJ Halling

56 Snell Ave #2

Brockton, MA 02302