cant stop singing Changes by David Bowie

Aight so yeah this week sure has been fantastic. sorry i thought i would be emailing yesterday buuuut yeah everything changed... 

had a super awesome week! Ronel called us to meet up to tell us he wanted to be baptized! so stoked for him!! also another investigator of the sisters wants to get baptized and the sisters called to tell us that Eric wanted me to baptize him haha. we only talked for like five minutes he and i just about guitars and old music. the sisters asked him who he would like to baptize him and his response apparently was, "can the blonde missionary that plays guitar do it?" haha i was honored. 

ah man we met the awesomest guy. his name was Andrew, and just picture if Santa Clause was a pirate. thats him. super sweet kind loving guy. and he loves God so much. but also loves the aspect of love. we were talking to him and he was like, "you know whats an amazing thing? 1 John 4 verse 8." and i was like oh yeah God is love. and he got super excited (people actually like freak out when they find out we read the bible here) but yeah he was like yes, God is love. so what he did after reading that apparently is he read through the entire bible and replaced God's name with Love every single time it is mentioned. super interesting, and it was an incredible way to look at God's personality with that perspective. but yeah, learned a lot from him. 

ah man Saturday man. literally everything took the craziest turn. we left the apartment and found this super awesome guy Jean Christoff and he was awesome and loved the message and the Book of Mormon and wants like seven more copies in Swahili and Lingala for his friends and family and asked us to please come more often. then when driving back President Philips called and i answered super stoked about the new investigator and everything about to happen, Ronel's and Bernard's family's and Eric's baptisms coming up and this house full of Haitians that wanted to come to church with us and everything.. and he gave me an assignment change haha.. opening up a new area in Riverside with a new companion Elder Carter. haha AH i broke hahaha. first i thought he was joking so i wasnt really paying attention to anything he was saying after he said "yes an assignment change just for you Elder Halliday" so i kinda just laughed when he finished explaining and waited to hear why he really called. but yeah haha nope. so he hung up and we changed our schedule to just visit all the people i wanted to say bye to cause he told us ill be heading out monday morning and man that was rough. like super rough haha why didnt anyone tell me this part is actually the worst?! i had no idea how attached i was to these people. even Jose haha i had only talked to him a few times and he was like no Elder you stay. but we explained to him it wasnt a choice so he told us to come over to make a cake haha. that was fun. then the Sevillanos ah that killed. haha their anniversary was last week so Elder Johnson and i made aprons for them cause they want to start a little restaurant deal and we came over and they were totally wearing them just hanging out hahaha. but when we told them i was leaving that was rough and sister sevillano was like dont eat anything, we are going to make a feast. and they totally made a huge feast and we talked and ate and laughed and cried and it was awesome. but yeah that was saturday mostly just saying bye to everyone. the family Nadji Adjim, the Mouhes ah that was painful haha, Emmanuel, everyone. then we visited Mario sunday night and man we were dying. Mario is a pretty emotional guy and he and i got super close and it was so hard telling him. at first he was like ah now thats a bummer dang it come on. and then he started talking about how great my area will be and we just continued talking. he was playing a Billy Joel record in the background and it was getting to the end of The Stranger album and i dont know if it had something to do with that but man it got sad haha. he started talking about all the fun we had together, jamming on the guitar, all our discussions on the scriptures and everything, and he started getting a little broken and was like, "yeah... we had lots.. lots of good vibrations..."and he broke down and just sobbed. ah man what do you even do. i was heartbroken haha come on. and right then the song Everybody Has a Dream was playing and it was the chorus and man what a sight. you all should look up that song and tell me that didnt play for a reason. i left and told him what a blessing hes been for the ward and his friends and me and gave him a fat hug and left. so that was hard, then Angele called cause we told her kids i was heading out when she wasnt home and she said a lot of super sweet things and broke down over the phone and man, what the heck guys. i thought the sad goodbyes were only at the beginning. its been a good time though, truly lots of good vibrations will those people. 

but hey the new area is awesome! so im opening a new one with Elder Carter, hes super cool. we came in, no phone or car or apartment so we decided to just go tract the whole day away haha super fun. got a bunch of potentials already its been great! its a new area so we're starting from scratch. no area book or anything. im so stoked!! haha we dont get a car apparently so its all by foot and buses and man the bus system is crazy!! its been so hard to get used to. our area is huge too so we've had a ton of fun adventures getting lost haha. we got our keys to the apartment late last night and man i thought it was a joke. we are on the seventeenth floor of this massive complex and its like brand new and a super nice apartment. we finally got some food and things into it this morning. but yeah its crazy different here. everyone is SO nice!! like what the heck. first few doors i was like wow they were so nice, then it was every single door and every person we talked to! we didnt get cursed at or spat at or anything a single time!! haha i was amazed. apparently we are in the spot where the stereotypical super nice canadians are. its been super interesting. kinda miss the hardcore rejections haha they were funny sometimes. we'll find them. but yeah, its been crazy. everything is going crazy, not having a car or anything has been interesting but fun! we get the chance to talk to people every second we are outside of the apartment! so much contacting. but yeah, sorry, long email. i love the new area and the new people and everything!! couldnt be more stoked for this assignment! big mountain to take but itll be super fun. love you all so much!!!

-Elder Halliday

last meal with Sevillanos. (wearing their aprons heck yes) 

saying bye to the Mouhe's and they wanted a picture. Africans dont really smile in pictures for some reason...

saying bye to our homie Emmanuel 

the aprons we made for the Sevillanos. Marco was a helicopter engineer and his wife is a woman so flowers okay.

proof that we made them

also i cant remember if i sent the picture of us with Joseph Smith but its gold so here ya go, love you guys