remember that part in Princess Bride with the fire swamp?

9/11/17

man i can't believe I've already been out an entire transfer in the field already. couldn't be better!! super grateful Elder Johnson and i get to stay this transfer too. we both are so stoked!!

 such an awesome week. wednesday we had exchanges again and who better to go with than good ol Elder Arnold from the MTC. seriously, we had the best time. i don't think there was a single time we were working that we weren't laughing. i stayed in their area La Prarie and that was insane. their area is like straight up forest and its right on the river. basically imagine Rivendell from Lord of the Rings, thats La Prarie. but yeah we knocked doors like all day and got rejected like none other haha and that was too awesome. we got to try out different techniques on door approaches and that was fun. Elder Arnold likes to fly right into the Gospel and explain who we are and what we're doing and that was so awesome! i learned a whole lot about his enthusiasm and that was great! we finally showed up at this house and this guy Francisco from Venezuela opened the door and we talked in french for a bit and he was struggling and asked if we could speak english and we found out he's trying to learn french annndddd he's also "looking for the truth." haha right when he said that Elder Arnold and i looked at each other so fast and we were too happy. we talked to him right there on the doorstep for forever and he loved our message and he asked for our number before we could even offer and he gave us his and said he wants to learn in french so he can practice and man, literally just the most golden investigator out there. at the end i asked him if he ever prays and he was like yeah i try! and i told him that every day i pray for the Lord to help me with the languages if it be His will and i testified on the power of prayer and how God will always hear our prayers and will always see our efforts and ah his reaction was amazing. he got so happy and thanked us like five thousand times and he said he couldn't wait to talk to us again. Elder Arnold and i walked away from the doorstep both quoting that line from Elf, "Francisco, franciscoooo…" that was super awesome and then i realized he's in La Prarie sooooo i won't ever see him again haha bummer but it was still an amazing experience. 

we ran into this guy Feriz a while back, the smiliest and happiest guy to walk the earth. he reminds me of Mike Crockett a lot, haha he's too awesome. but he works at this food bank and we told him we love to do service and he got so excited and gave us an address and told us to come thursday to help out and man that was the coolest thing. we helped people from all around the world, Haitians Columbians, Africans from all over, Venezuelans, Peruvians, Arabians, seriously everything. those are the ones i remember haha some I've never even heard of before. such nice people though, super expressive of their gratitude and everything it was amazing. this one old Haitian lady in particular was so awesome, i helped her with get all her food and we talked for a while about how Haiti is and what she thinks of canada and she asked about the church and she was at least familiar with the fact that mormons have big families and she thought that was too funny. but she like freaked out when i told her I've only been here for six weeks, she said my french was too good haha that was a nice confidence boost. super sweet people. so we finished up and it closed and as we were heading out Feriz caught us and was like yo you guys grab your food boxes yet? haha he totally gave each of us two giant boxes of so much food. like we don't have to get groceries for weeks. apparently every volunteer there gets food boxes haha so yeah that was super awesome. we've been making giant meals with spices and awesome creations. 

we painted another interior haha totally a trap. we came to help move this family and the guy was like you think you could maybe paint this little spot on the wall?? and we were like yeah of course its just a little spot we've got time. totally the biggest trap. he kept coming back and asking yeeaaahhh maybe over there too?? and maybe just the whole living room? and hallway? and bathroom? and kitchen? and kept going haha but its cool, we had a blast. then we had a dinner appointment that night and they noticed our hands still had paint and they were like wait can you guys paint?! and so they want us to come by sometime and help them paint their entryway. feels a little bit like home i love it!! I've been doing plumbing and painting and a little demolition work and gardening its been too awesome. 

so saturday the La Prarie elders called us and asked if we could come to a big giant community service deal where they "clean up the river" which sounded awesome. but i figured we would just be picking up some garbage on the side of this river so i wore my shorts and running shoes and a tee shirt. we showed up and everyone was wearing like full out navy seal outfits with knee high boots and they're all decked out. apparently in La Prarie they have a problem of people throwing full tires and car parts into this river, so our job was to go in and get them haha. that was insanely fun. this place basically was a swamp, huge river and marshes and all this green everywhere. lots of spiders. i have spider bites all over my face and arms and back and legs. so thats been too awesome haha. but Elder Johnson and i were walking along the river looking for more abandoned shacks, (cause people totally set up forts and live on the side of the river, so spooky) and we saw this huge tire in the middle of the river and it was only like knee deep there so we went and got it and it had the rim in it still and was full of muck so it was a bit heavy, and we were carrying it together to cross the river and we took a step and suddenly we heard all these bubbles go up next to us and we looked at each other and both knew that was probably bad and like out of nowhere we got sucked down into this marsh and our legs were gone in seconds and it kept going and we were holding this heavy wheel so we threw it and the movement of throwing it sunk us deeper haha and bubbles kept coming up and we were totally like dying in these marshes. basically think of that scene from Princess Bride where they sink in the quick sand in the fire swamp. thats what happened. but yeah Elder Johnson was somehow able to crawl out and help me out so that was a cool miracle! but yeah that was an awesome service project! 

sunday we had one of our investigators Joseph Avakar show up and he loved church! so that was awesome! and the family Nadji Adjim is still doing awesome!! the Songo is actually coming haha the mom came up and said something like "tongayei" and i responded "baleengeei" and to all of our surprise that somehow made perfect sense and the family got so excited haha, their reactions are amazing with everything. such an incredible family. 

but yeah, i couldn't ask for a better experience this first transfer!! I've already learned so much here and i still have so much to learn. the work is hard, haha man its hard and its not always super fun. but its easy to learn from anything and we always have a choice to be happy! we get rejected all day everyday by so many people, cursed at, ignored, people talk garbage about us right in front of us haha but seriously it'd be such a waste to let things like that get in the way of appreciating how amazing this opportunity i have to get to be a representative of Jesus Christ and do His work. everything that happens here, good or bad, is coming from God and He knows better than anyone what i need so i keep it in mind 24/7 what can i learn from this experience. i love this work so much guys, i cant exaggerate that enough! I'm so grateful to be here and that gratitude never diminishes. the Lord has helped me so much and I've seen countless miracles here. your prayers do us so many of those miracles and i can't thank you enough!! they're helping us out of quicksand and swamp marshes and they're helping us go through with the Lord's work. thank you all so much!! i love you all!! 

-Elder Halliday 

is this not the most beautiful place ever

so much food

we basically just take piles of food and put it into a grilled cheese and put the grilled cheese on a salad to make ourselves feel better about ourselves after finishing the super huge sandwich. 

my hands have been okay! ill totally get some of that though when it gets bad! haha Joseph is having some trouble with le dîme so we're working on that. but everyone is doing so great!! ah mom i would give ANYTHING for you to meet these african families. ah you would LOVE these little kids. the kids of the famille Nadji Adjim ah they're perfect. like so polite and adorable and they laugh at everything and they always bring out a little table with fancy glasses for Elder Johnson and i with juice and i talk Songo with them a little bit and i mess up and they all die laughing haha. i love them so much. and oh my the famille Mouhe ahhhh mom you would die. the youngest is this baby Bienvenue which means welcome which is already too awesome and he's like one and walks around just laughing constantly. constantly laughing haha i love it. then they have a five year old Louise who everyone thinks is a boy haha cause her hair is short and her name is spelled like the guy version but man she's too funny. so spunky you'd love her. she reminds me a whole lot of reese haha she's too fun. and they've got these two boys Naga and Mouay and they're so fun. and then theres Marie and she's super funny, she reminds me a lot of Emily Walker. haha the other day we were explaining seminary to Kudji the oldest and Marie and then Mouhe out of nowhere blurts out in french that Marie found a lover and she DIED hahahaha it was too awesome. we were all laughing so hard and she like shrunk so fast hahaha but she was laughing. such amazing families here mom. i feel like I'm related to all of them. the members are all family to me. the Regimbauld couple, old grandparents, they always invite us over to feed us and Frére Regimbauld and i are super tight haha we always sit together and talk in priesthood meeting. thats how it is with all the people here i love it! it'll be hard to leave them. especially the famille Mouhe and Nadji Adjim. but yeah. 

im so happy to hear every things going good!! 106!?!?!? hahaha whaaat the heck its like legit cold here, like 60's i think… I'm used to celsius haha. but I'm excited for kennadie! she did so well i already know. I'm sorry to hear Reese's deal isn't going great. she's in my prayers. hahahaha of course the sink went so south, it wouldn't be fair for it not to. i love that about that work hahaha. I'm so glad it worked out though!! he's too awesome. I've heard bits and pieces about the hurricanes, cause we'll be getting that weather pretty soon apparently? not sure. our water in all of Rivé-Sud went bad though! like everyone had to boil their water before drinking it cause you'd get super sick if you didn't. but its all better now! we had a britta filter anyways so we were safe. another miracle. but yeah justin is in my prayers, thats amazing work he's doing. 

thank you so much for filling me in!! i love you so much!! Love, Elder Halliday