Hola Familia!

Mom I got your letter this week! Thank you so much. It was a really fun surprise! It´s the first one I´ve gotten here from back home so like I was expecting the mail is pretty slow. It´s so crazy to think that after today I only have one more P-day before I´m in the field!

I was very excited to hear that in the world of athletics the Hales family was killing it this week. Joseph way to go on scoring a goal! Mom told me that you just dribbled through all the defenders and shot! I scored my first goal here as well this week, haha ;) I´ve actually been pretty impressed with how my soccer has been improving. Isaac congratulations on your bike race! That´s so cool that you were able to do that, especially since you were competing in the intermediate division! I´m so proud of you! And way to go Jacob on getting on the podium at your race. And just think this is only the beginning of the season, there´s only room to grow, and I´m sure all your coaches were really impressed. 

It poured this week here, so much that they canceled gym time one day because there were just too many people in the gym because no one could go outside. Naturally my comp wanted to go outside and play on the playground by our house left over from the days when the CCM was still a school. (Don´t worry I got a good picture ;) ) The wet season is apparently just starting, so I´ll arrive in Ecuador just in time to use my rain boots haha.

This week was pretty good for Spanish. I was able to memorize five scriptures, and I can pretty much understand everything our teachers are saying in class now, so that´s good. And I think my biggest accomplishment was that I finally learned how to roll my erres (the spanish double r rolls) after like two weeks of practice! Everyone in my district was also pretty pleased, because now I´ve stopped trying to say words like, arripentamiento, ferril carril, and barrio over and over again haha. 

That´s so cool, Mom, that you were able to go to the Salt Lake Temple this week. Every Sunday we watch a video here and three weeks ago we watched one about the construction of the Salt Lake Temple. It´s really crazy how much work went into the temple. I can´t imagine the faith it would take to start over again after 9 years of work, and uproot the entire foundation.

Elder Bagley and I had our first baptism commitment yesterday, and if it felt that exciting with a fake investigator I can´t imagine what it would be like with a real one! It´s crazy thinking that in fourteen days I´ll be flying out of here. I don´t have an official day yet, but it should be either the 22nd or the 23rd. 

I love you guys so much! Good luck in school, and at work, and at home, (and in your piano practicing ;) )

Elder Hales

P.S Dad is really doing well with the scriptures I´ve sent him, how about this one,

´´Porque no me avergüenvo del evangelio de Cristo, Porque es poder de Dios para salvacion a todo aquel que cree. Al Judio primeramente, y tambien al griego.´´ 

PPS I was really excited to hear about BYU Football! That´s such an incredible victory! Too bad we aren´t playing Utah this year.