Why am I on a Mission?

Well I hope everyone had a great week! Elder Anderson and I sure had an amazing one! So we have been teaching an investigator named Bella in the Georgetown ward for a while now and she has been wanting to be baptized. We have held off a little bit because her mom is her only support right now to help her get to church. Her mom has been in rehab the last few weeks trying to get herself clean so we were waiting until she got out so she could be at the baptism as well. So we thought she would be in rehab for a few more months but she surprised us by coming to our last lesson with Bella. She is now out and can be that support for Bella. So we set a baptismal date for May 13th! We are super excited! it is going to be awesome!! She is so ready. She has been waiting for a while now. This was such a miracle to have her mom back.

Another cool thing that happened this week was a big community day of service. The whole town of placerville all gathered together and did a huge service project to help clean up the town and the parks here. It was awesome. Elder Anderson and I went with a few other missionaries to Coloma to help do some landscaping there. It is such a beautiful area. It is where Gold was discovered by James Marshall in 1848. There is some amazing hikes and things do do around that river and in that valley so we are going to start checking it out more. 

On Sunday during the combined 3rd hour of church our bishop in Placerville asked us to share why we are on a mission. It was a great opportunity to think back about my conversion and the experiences I had along the way. It brought back so many amazing memories and I am so grateful that I made this decision to come out here. It is the greatest decision I will have ever made in my life. It changed everything. I know I still have a lot of life ahead of me to live, but without serving my mission I would not have the eternal perspective the gospel brings and I would not be 1/100 of the person I am. I love the Lord and I am grateful for the many things he has blessed me with in my life. I know he lives. 

Love,

Elder Hallmark

Here is a pic of the James Marshall monument in Coloma.

Here is a pic of some other the people that I was working with in Coloma.