Elder Nathan Hales: Nathan's Letter Dated 10-22-12

Hey so it sounds like you guys had a sweet week! Well mine certainly was crazzy, so I will just jump in to what happened, and I will try to send all the pictures I can as well.

So on Monday the four of us missionaries left with a sweet family to go look at some of the sights here in Valparaíso. We went to playa ancha, where there are lots of cool monuments and overlooks of the ocean. We even went up an acensor, which is kinda like a mini rollarcoaster, but it just goes up to the top of the hill, there is no huge drop. We also went to a really famous ice cream place here that was even better than coldstone, and wayyy cheaper! I took lots and lots of pictures of Valparaiso, so those should make their way on the blog.

Then, we had transfers early this time, and everybody left on last Thursday instead of today. Well, I am staying here in Valparaiso! I am really excited because this means I will be here at least until January of next year because my companion, Elder Stone, is going home in December, and I will be getting a new companion then. I am really, really excited to stay here and I know we are going to be having lots and lots of success here. We got some really good missionaries in our zone now, and so we are really just getting excited for the success that is on its way.

Saturday we had a special conference with Elder Oaks, of the Quorom of the Twelve, who came to talk to the entire mission. Well, we held the conference here in our building, which meant I was up and getting ready before 6 in the morning. We got everything ready to go and he came and talked to us, along with our mission president and the area president, Elder Arnold. I will talk a little later about what they all said to us. Well, the choir that I had put together sang "I Believe in Christ" and it went really well. I was very proud of them, and we even added a cool ending on to the hymn to make it sound even better. We also took a huge picture of all of the missionaries of the mission (190), it was sweet!

Like I said last week, the stake choir was suddenly left without a pianist for their song on Sunday with Elder Oaks. So, they asked me to play for them because they had nobody else. I said yes, hoping that it would be an easy enough song, but they gave me a really complicated Sally DeFord piece called “Abide With Me.” It really wouldn`t have been that bad if I wasn`t a missionary and if I had time to practice. Despite the circumstances, I dedicated time every morning to practice. Saturday night I had my first rehearsal with the choir, and I just couldn`t get the last page down. I just knew I was going to mess up in front of 800 people and an apostle. Haha, well I prayed quite a bit and a brother from the choir went with me to practice for a little. Three hours later I felt ready to go. I went to bed and woke up the next morning all stuffed up and feeling terrible. But, when the time came to play the song I got up and said a quick prayer and played the piece perfectly. It was a combination of lots of prayers, faith, and a good old miracle from God. I know God sent someone to guide my hands. So, that was a really cool miracle that happened to me this week.

Elder Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Sister Oaks

The talks on Saturday and Sunday were all just excellent. However, I just want to comment on what Elder Oaks did with the mission because he did something similar on Sunday as well. He asked the question, what is the difference between our church and the rest of the churches in the world? He said that we are followers of Jesus Christ. There are many people and churches who believe on Jesus Christ and His teachings, but we are the only church that actually acts on those teachings. We believe in literally following the example of Jesus Christ. We do not go to church on Christmas and mother’s day, we go every Sunday. We do not just talk about giving to the poor and being charitable, we do these things.

Elder Oaks gave the example of the words of King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon, "and now, if you do believe all these things see that ye do them". I thought about this and wondered if I was doing everything I should to be a follower of Jesus Christ. It is worth thinking about.

Well, that was just a little of my week, it has been a crazy one! I hope you guys have an excellent week!

Keep the Faith!
Elder Hales