Dang. So I just had something pretty amazing written and now it all disappeared. Even after hitting the save button and everything. Now I get to start over, yay! NOT. Oh well. Here goes...
I know I haven't written on this blog for a very long time, too long. I guess in my mind it will always only be the blog that I use when I am a student up at BYU. It is my chance to release each and every week and to keep a good record of everything that has been going on. I definitely fail at keeping a journal so this is the one chance that I got to record things or to help myself remember them. I don't know if anyone will ever look at these again or not, but at least it is worth it for my own personal sanity.
That being said I should start posting something worthwhile. I absolutely loved every minute of my mission. As you can hopefully tell by the other blog that was created by my family while I was out in the field. I would never have given those two years for anything else. Ever. The amazing people that I met and worked with both member and nonmember, active and not so much are now such great friends. The most important friend that I truly made though was my Savior, Jesus Christ. I got home from my mission in October and since then my life has been a whirlwind. Time decided to switch into mega warp speed (not just even warp speed, but mega) and I can't seem to catch up with any of it. I was truly blessed at my homecoming to have such great friends that came down from BYU to see me and hear me give it. Unfortunately, I proved to be the same old me. I tore ligaments in my ankle while playing ultimate frisbee and ended up having to wear a big black boot for about a month and a half. I never would have went in to have it checked out though if my mother had not insisted. I would have kept living life like normal with just more pain and problems. Three days after getting that boot off, I managed to do my knee in while playing Just Dance. How dumb is that? Another very me thing to do each and every time. Anyway, life is good. I had a great Christmas with my family and an amazing job to boot. I hung out with lots of friends and had a lot of fun and got a lot of things done. Then Lora and I drove up here. Oh, I almost forgot. Of course I hit up all the amazing Mesa restaurants that are nowhere else like Tia Rosa's, Crackers and Co., Oregano's, and Floridino's. So good! But not as good as Mom's cooking, I missed that so much for two years and I am already missing it again!!!
So far I have loved being back at BYU. Overwhelming? Yes! Stressed? Yes! Exhausted? Yes! But loving it. I miss my family though, I really love them so much. They are the most important thing to me in this world and I will forever more cherish the time I get to spend with them during breaks or vacations or whatever else happens. I will never take that for granted again. I have been blessed to have some pretty amazing roommates. My room roommate is probably the best ever! He is the son of a mission president who is serving in Texas and just got back from his own mission about three weeks ago from Georgia. He is the most outgoing person I have ever met. He talks to everyone and never stops serving other people. I am going to be learning a lot from him about the kind of person that I want to become and that I really need to be. He is one of the most Christlike people that I have ever met. Collin is another roommate, he is the only one that is still living here from last semester. He is way into music and is very intelligent. He likes snowboarding and graduated early from high school. He seems way chill and he likes to have fun. Clay finishes out the apartment. He is a major Lakers fan (but he can be forgiven for that) and likes to have fun as well. It is turning out to be a much better combination that I was hoping for having completely random roommates. Interesting fact: I am the only non-Californian in the room. They all actually know all the same suburbs and stuff, so that's cool. Collin and I got the projector and speakers set up already so that will be super fun. We will have to find excuses to use them and to invite lots of people over to have fun with them. We also have a very large assortment of board and card games to play. Also, a very huge fake Christmas tree with colored lights and pinecones. The tree belongs to someone who actually moved out of here but doesn't have anywhere to put it yet, but we will definitely keep it for the time being. It adds a certain cool element to our apartment. We finally cleaned out the nasty fridge as well and everything feels so clean and good now. Much better. Lora and her roommates are way fun. So are all the friends that I still have from Mesa that are up here or those from freshman year. We have already had a plethora of game nights (from Quelf to He said, she said), birthday parties, decorating someone's car, a DI trip, studying, classes, grocery trips, a snow fight and so much more. Life is good that way. And fun. Tonight was my first dessert night, it wasn't bad. But I felt out of my element, too many people going too crazy. I can do good with small groups, not humongous ones. Oh well, I will keep working on it and see what happens. I am so tired so I think I will turn in for today and leave this as my first post. Hopefully next week, I can start taking pictures, getting quotes and all those other good stuff!
Sunday, January 8, 2012
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Happy Easter!
Good morning everybody!
Well, things have been going really great here the past few days. The Lord has really been blessing us to find a lot of people to teach and work with and it is great! The Lord gave us 5 or so new investigators this past week that were asking us to be taught. Not having to go out there tracting and searching as hard as possible, but we were blessed to have them contact us. It literally felt like the Lord dropped them into our laps this past week. We are so happy and grateful. The weather has finally stopped being so bipolar - nice sunshiney days or at least just rainy days, no more snow or freezing cold. Only a little bit chilly now and again. What a blessing. That means that I have started to wear sunscreen and started to smell like the beach or lifeguarding again. Oh well, at least it isn't a bad smell. So far I have managed not to get sunburned really at all yet. My goal is to keep it that way as much as possible. The only problem is remembering to take the time to reapply after so many hours. We get so busy working and doing stuff that I don't even notice that my skin is starting to heat up and turn pink at all. I am so used to being burned all the time I guess that I don't even think about it, but I am getting better.
We started to teach the most amazingly prepared people ever! It is a part member family and they are in their early 20's. David (less active) and Danielle Evans (non member). We found them through a member, Sister Davies who lives across the street. David's friend growing up is their son and he is an expert with computers, so David asked him to come and fix their family computer so they could get it up and running again. While he was fixing the computer, he was talking about how his wife had just received a priesthood blessing and the change it had brought to her life and the comfort that it had given. Then he left. Danielle started to ask questions about what priesthood blessings were and how they work. She then went to the Davies' house and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon so they could learn more. David suggested they go to the church the next Sunday and so they went for all three hours and were blown away by it. We finally received the referral from Sister Davies as we were contacting in the neighborhood, she pulled over in her car and suggested that we stop by the Evans' home right away. So we did. David wasn't there so Danielle took down our phone number and promised to have her husband call us back. Then he called us back early the very next morning and wanted to set up an appointment that day. When we got there, we found that she had already read all of first Nephi and that they had purchased more scriptures to study from the distribution center. She already had gained a witness for herself that the Book of Mormon was true. One way was through the story of Nephi and the Broken Bow. She explained that she had studied archery just the year before and how different bows have to have exactly the right arrow to fit them for the tension and physics to be right. Then she talked about how in the Book of Mormon that Nephi made different arrows to fit his new wood bow and she said Joseph Smith could not have known the physics behind it. So it had to be true. Plus she explained the peace and comfort that had come to her the past week reading from its pages. She knew it was true logically as well as spiritually. How cool is that?!? She wholeheartedly acceted a baptismal commitment for May 1 and is so excited for it. We met with them again the next day and we were all almost in tears as we shared the plan of salvation and she totally broke down as she offered the closing prayer. They have been very prepared by the Lord and it is so amazing! David had to go out of town this week, but we are going to keep checking up on Danielle and then teach both of them again this Saturday. It is truly a miracle and we love them so much! We have been thanking the Lord so much too!
We have finally started to work with Steve's wife, Tammi, as well. Austin and Hunter, their sons, are set to get baptized in the next two weeks. All that is left is to pick a date and stick to it. Tammi has been having a lot of struggles and trials in her life the past little bit and so requested a priesthood blessing. We went over there with Brother Newman and he gave it to her and then we taught her the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ (otherwise known as the first lesson). She soaked it in like a sponge and showed up to church the next Sunday. We are so excited for that and so is Steve!
Then we started to teaching a nonmarried, part member couple a few doors down from the Evans' house. They are Morgan Struvel and Spencer Truesdall. Morgan has a strong desire for their baby daugther to be blessed in the LDS church and to grow up living its values. Because of that, she accepted the invitation to meet with us and to learn more about the church. Spencer is excited to get back active as well. The main problem so far is that Morgan very strongly believes in reincarnation and isn't really willing to consider anything else. We will be teaching about the resurrection next and see what happens to them as we teach. But both are open to having us meet and Spencer even said the closing prayer last week and they were both very accepting about believing in Joseph Smith and believing in prophets and the restored priesthood. She even accepted the commitment to be baptized when the time comes that she gets an answer to her prayer. We just need to get them married fast.
We are also hoping to start teaching a few other very prepared people soon as well. We are following up with the bishops and members that gave us the referrals and working on helping those people to really start investigating the church and start to work towards baptism. It is awesome! I don't think I have ever been blessed with so many people to teach my whole mission and we have been praying in gratitude for the past week and then I fasted in gratitude this past Sunday.
The zone leaders invited all the district leaders and their companions over for studies yesterday and that was a moving powerful experience. They trained us on how missionaries are very good at talking and explaining but very bad at actually experiencing what it means to teach with the Spirit and power and authority of God. So they demonstrated for us how it is to be done. They used the verses in 3 Nephi 11 where Christ invites all to come unto Him and feel the prints of the nails and the spear print in his side. It was very powerful, then they had us get down and all pray, one-by-one to receive a reconfirmation that the Book of Mormon was true. It was overpowering and I cried. I seem to do that a lot more lately when I feel the Spirit, I cry. I never use to cry, so I don't know what happened but I did. I felt the Spirit so strong. Elder Gomes and I were then blessed to have the same experience as we taught later on that day to Jennifer Golson. The Spirit was so strong and she was crying and I was crying. She really opened up and told us about all that has been happening in her life. She has been truly touched by the Spirit of the Lord, especially after she went in and met with the bishop. All her sins and pain seem to have literally been lifted away. So we went over the Atonement and all that Jesus Christ does for us and it was so AWESOME! Jennifer is finally so excited to come to church this Sunday and to work towards becoming fully active. She is also now down to smoking about 2 cigarettes a day and she was so excited that she can finally start to smell and taste things again. She told us next how missionaries visited at exactly the right moment. She told God that if He wanted her back, He needed to send missionaries to help her make that step. We showed up on her birhday and she was hung over so she didn't come up to talk to us. But she thought about how far off her life was and where she needed to go. When we stopped back by again, she was ready and humble to start learing the gospel. The amazing miracle was that she was the only name on a list of about 300 names of less actives in that ward that we were impressed to stop by. Everyone else didn't feel right, she was the only one that stuck out to us at all and it was the Spirit telling us that. My goal now is to be humble enough and follow the Spirit enough to have that happen in every lesson. Everytime that we open our mouths to share the gospel I want that experience, where the Spirit just speaks through us and Heavenly Father can truly use us as His instruments. That is what I have been praying for.
Anyway, this week has been fantastic! We have really been missionaries and have really been blessed with everything that is going on. I am going to buy a new camera today (so don't send me one when you read this - my other two both died and no matter what I try to do, I can't get them working, nor can anyone else) finally so I can start sending home pictures soon. I plan to take so many pictures! So look forward to that next week. As for a release date, I don't know and at this point I don't want to know at all, just saying. Whenever I am told, I will let you know, but for now, don't worry about it. It won't be in time to attend school at all for fall semester, but should be for next winter semester. And I have got letters from several people who want to room with me and so that should be taken care of. I am so excited for Easter this weekend! The past week my mind has really been reflecting on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and all that He did for us. It is the greatest miracle and the best ever!
I love you all and pray for you all! I hope Easter is good and that the Easter baskets aren't too hard to find on Sunday morning, haha. The clothes are perfect and fit well, so thank you so much!
Love,
Elder Ryan Hughes
Well, things have been going really great here the past few days. The Lord has really been blessing us to find a lot of people to teach and work with and it is great! The Lord gave us 5 or so new investigators this past week that were asking us to be taught. Not having to go out there tracting and searching as hard as possible, but we were blessed to have them contact us. It literally felt like the Lord dropped them into our laps this past week. We are so happy and grateful. The weather has finally stopped being so bipolar - nice sunshiney days or at least just rainy days, no more snow or freezing cold. Only a little bit chilly now and again. What a blessing. That means that I have started to wear sunscreen and started to smell like the beach or lifeguarding again. Oh well, at least it isn't a bad smell. So far I have managed not to get sunburned really at all yet. My goal is to keep it that way as much as possible. The only problem is remembering to take the time to reapply after so many hours. We get so busy working and doing stuff that I don't even notice that my skin is starting to heat up and turn pink at all. I am so used to being burned all the time I guess that I don't even think about it, but I am getting better.
We started to teach the most amazingly prepared people ever! It is a part member family and they are in their early 20's. David (less active) and Danielle Evans (non member). We found them through a member, Sister Davies who lives across the street. David's friend growing up is their son and he is an expert with computers, so David asked him to come and fix their family computer so they could get it up and running again. While he was fixing the computer, he was talking about how his wife had just received a priesthood blessing and the change it had brought to her life and the comfort that it had given. Then he left. Danielle started to ask questions about what priesthood blessings were and how they work. She then went to the Davies' house and asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon so they could learn more. David suggested they go to the church the next Sunday and so they went for all three hours and were blown away by it. We finally received the referral from Sister Davies as we were contacting in the neighborhood, she pulled over in her car and suggested that we stop by the Evans' home right away. So we did. David wasn't there so Danielle took down our phone number and promised to have her husband call us back. Then he called us back early the very next morning and wanted to set up an appointment that day. When we got there, we found that she had already read all of first Nephi and that they had purchased more scriptures to study from the distribution center. She already had gained a witness for herself that the Book of Mormon was true. One way was through the story of Nephi and the Broken Bow. She explained that she had studied archery just the year before and how different bows have to have exactly the right arrow to fit them for the tension and physics to be right. Then she talked about how in the Book of Mormon that Nephi made different arrows to fit his new wood bow and she said Joseph Smith could not have known the physics behind it. So it had to be true. Plus she explained the peace and comfort that had come to her the past week reading from its pages. She knew it was true logically as well as spiritually. How cool is that?!? She wholeheartedly acceted a baptismal commitment for May 1 and is so excited for it. We met with them again the next day and we were all almost in tears as we shared the plan of salvation and she totally broke down as she offered the closing prayer. They have been very prepared by the Lord and it is so amazing! David had to go out of town this week, but we are going to keep checking up on Danielle and then teach both of them again this Saturday. It is truly a miracle and we love them so much! We have been thanking the Lord so much too!
We have finally started to work with Steve's wife, Tammi, as well. Austin and Hunter, their sons, are set to get baptized in the next two weeks. All that is left is to pick a date and stick to it. Tammi has been having a lot of struggles and trials in her life the past little bit and so requested a priesthood blessing. We went over there with Brother Newman and he gave it to her and then we taught her the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ (otherwise known as the first lesson). She soaked it in like a sponge and showed up to church the next Sunday. We are so excited for that and so is Steve!
Then we started to teaching a nonmarried, part member couple a few doors down from the Evans' house. They are Morgan Struvel and Spencer Truesdall. Morgan has a strong desire for their baby daugther to be blessed in the LDS church and to grow up living its values. Because of that, she accepted the invitation to meet with us and to learn more about the church. Spencer is excited to get back active as well. The main problem so far is that Morgan very strongly believes in reincarnation and isn't really willing to consider anything else. We will be teaching about the resurrection next and see what happens to them as we teach. But both are open to having us meet and Spencer even said the closing prayer last week and they were both very accepting about believing in Joseph Smith and believing in prophets and the restored priesthood. She even accepted the commitment to be baptized when the time comes that she gets an answer to her prayer. We just need to get them married fast.
We are also hoping to start teaching a few other very prepared people soon as well. We are following up with the bishops and members that gave us the referrals and working on helping those people to really start investigating the church and start to work towards baptism. It is awesome! I don't think I have ever been blessed with so many people to teach my whole mission and we have been praying in gratitude for the past week and then I fasted in gratitude this past Sunday.
The zone leaders invited all the district leaders and their companions over for studies yesterday and that was a moving powerful experience. They trained us on how missionaries are very good at talking and explaining but very bad at actually experiencing what it means to teach with the Spirit and power and authority of God. So they demonstrated for us how it is to be done. They used the verses in 3 Nephi 11 where Christ invites all to come unto Him and feel the prints of the nails and the spear print in his side. It was very powerful, then they had us get down and all pray, one-by-one to receive a reconfirmation that the Book of Mormon was true. It was overpowering and I cried. I seem to do that a lot more lately when I feel the Spirit, I cry. I never use to cry, so I don't know what happened but I did. I felt the Spirit so strong. Elder Gomes and I were then blessed to have the same experience as we taught later on that day to Jennifer Golson. The Spirit was so strong and she was crying and I was crying. She really opened up and told us about all that has been happening in her life. She has been truly touched by the Spirit of the Lord, especially after she went in and met with the bishop. All her sins and pain seem to have literally been lifted away. So we went over the Atonement and all that Jesus Christ does for us and it was so AWESOME! Jennifer is finally so excited to come to church this Sunday and to work towards becoming fully active. She is also now down to smoking about 2 cigarettes a day and she was so excited that she can finally start to smell and taste things again. She told us next how missionaries visited at exactly the right moment. She told God that if He wanted her back, He needed to send missionaries to help her make that step. We showed up on her birhday and she was hung over so she didn't come up to talk to us. But she thought about how far off her life was and where she needed to go. When we stopped back by again, she was ready and humble to start learing the gospel. The amazing miracle was that she was the only name on a list of about 300 names of less actives in that ward that we were impressed to stop by. Everyone else didn't feel right, she was the only one that stuck out to us at all and it was the Spirit telling us that. My goal now is to be humble enough and follow the Spirit enough to have that happen in every lesson. Everytime that we open our mouths to share the gospel I want that experience, where the Spirit just speaks through us and Heavenly Father can truly use us as His instruments. That is what I have been praying for.
Anyway, this week has been fantastic! We have really been missionaries and have really been blessed with everything that is going on. I am going to buy a new camera today (so don't send me one when you read this - my other two both died and no matter what I try to do, I can't get them working, nor can anyone else) finally so I can start sending home pictures soon. I plan to take so many pictures! So look forward to that next week. As for a release date, I don't know and at this point I don't want to know at all, just saying. Whenever I am told, I will let you know, but for now, don't worry about it. It won't be in time to attend school at all for fall semester, but should be for next winter semester. And I have got letters from several people who want to room with me and so that should be taken care of. I am so excited for Easter this weekend! The past week my mind has really been reflecting on the Atonement of Jesus Christ and all that He did for us. It is the greatest miracle and the best ever!
I love you all and pray for you all! I hope Easter is good and that the Easter baskets aren't too hard to find on Sunday morning, haha. The clothes are perfect and fit well, so thank you so much!
Love,
Elder Ryan Hughes
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Good afternoon everybody!
Thanks for the Easter package, the white shirts are going to come in really handy! Also, I love the shirt because here it is still cold and Arizona is now warm, haha. Thanks too to Grandma for her Easter card, it was great! With the advent of Spring, we have started to do what every missionary does all summer long....weeding. Every service project that people solicit our help for has to do with weeding or gardening. It is nice and all, but the war against weeds always seems like a losing battle. They are just everyhwere! And the roots go so deep, you have to dig them out with shovels. Fun times. Elder Gomes and I attacked the weeds in the Smith's front yard yesterday. We had to almost replant the entire front flower bed to get all the grass out that was growing there. Grass can be so hard to get out. Then we took out an entire strawberry patch at someone else's home so they could plant something else, that took a while too. But we had fun and it was nice to be outside in some sunshine for once. Plus I can't complain too much, the usually let us eat some of their fruits and vegetables when they came in so that will be delicious. I think Mom will be proud of me too, I now eat everything. I can do fish, all kinds of vegetables or nuts, all kinds of foreign foods, spicy foods, you name I love it. So for all those times I gave Mom a hard time about eating seafood, I will take you out now Mom when I get back home to the seafood restaurant of your choice and eat some with you. Also, I'll split any of the brownies or the fudge that you put nuts in, haha.
This week was crazy busy, not with normal missionary work, but with being a district. Everyone in my district all happened to have (what seemed to them anyway) major life-or-death issues that had to be resolved over the weekend. And who did they turn to? Me. So who did I turn to? The Lord. It worked great, just meant little sleep, lots of prayer, and lots of running back and forth to deal with different issues. I can only imagine how hard it must be to be a bishop if it requires this much effort to keep 6 missionaries going strong. One companionship was having major unity issues and another one had a house that was possessed with a dark spirit. So lots of counseling and interviews about unity, and some blessings and house dedicatings later and the weekend was over. I just hope the things that I felt impressed to say work, but the Lord knows all things and has all power so I believe He can make it happen somehow. I will keep doing whatever He asks me to do.
Austin and Hunter are no longer on date. That is the depressing thing. Austin just won't make up his mind about sticking to a date. He knows he wants to get baptized and he knows it is the right thing to do. He knows the church is true....now he just won't act. He is 12 years old and won't act. It is one of the most bizarre experiences of my mission. Steve is working hard on his sons though and if anyone can help them to more forward, it will be him. He is so excited to be the one baptizing them. He loves everything about the church and comes to every imaginable church activity that he is allowed to come to. From pasta welfare assignments to video games parties and stake talent shows to conferences. He loves the gospel and is probably the best member missionary that I have ever seen. Tammi is getting closer to. She wants to meet with us and she wants to come to church, she just gets scared of the commitment and backs off. But Steve taught her about baptisms for the dead from Doctrine and Covenants 138, which is what we taught him from the night before ( don't ask me why because that is the longest way to teach it, but it must have been inspiration). She was so touched by it, she wanted to know why none of her member friends had ever explained that concept to her before. She instantly gave Steve 5 or 6 names from her family that she wants him to do the temple work for and get baptized for very soon. For not wanting to change, she has a testimony of the gospel already and was so excited to give those names to Steve. Steve said she actually teared up and was crying as they read the chapter together and that she is softening quite a bit. We are praying to start teaching her soon and then help the whole family to become active baptized members of the church, headed towards the temple.
We hit Jennifer Golson and Bobbie Noorda really hard this week with the need to stop smoking. We helped both to make plans to start to carry them out. Both also met with the bishop this past week and began to sort through the repentance process and to work towards gaining a temple recommend. It kind of frustrates me that we never report our less active work, but I have really come to love the less active people that we work with. It brings so much joy to see them come back to the gospel and to start changing their lives back to what they know is right. I know the Lord loves them so much and we have a great sense of love for them too. They also love us a lot and keep wanting to feed us or take pictures with us so they can remember us if we ever get transferred.
Sherrie Thomas is still in limbo stage. She got sick this week when she was supposed to be hitting up the employment agencies to start finding a new job and turning in her 2 week notice. Now, we will have to see what she does. She wants to get baptized and has a strong testimony that the church is true, but doesn't quite have the faith necessary to drop everything for God. She wants to come to church on Sunday, but just doesn't do it because of work. We keep praying for her though and she keeps praying too and a lot of the ward is praying for her as well, so we will see what happens. Our goal is still April 30, but right now that is really shaky. We need a miracle and quite a large one if that is going to happen. We have the faith though and are leaving it all up to the Lord if we do everything possible that we can.
Life continues to go on. The acne medicine is working from the doctor, I am about 50% clearer than I used to be and I met with him again today and said I should be acne free in about 6 more weeks. We shall see. No sunburn or anything yet. But I do have sunscreen and when we walk outside this next week, I will be putting it on. Trust me. I am good on tennis shoes, the ones I have should last me the last 6 months or so I hope. We will see. I am good on socks too. Release date? I have no idea yet. When I know, I will let you know. Um...I know my headache is not a sinus infection. But it is from something else. It is gone now though or not nearly as bad, but it did last 2 or 3 weeks. I haven't had one like that in a long time, not since BYU I think. No worries, though I am doing better and getting along just fine. The only thing is that I am exhausted, haha. The thing I might do for about the first two weeks when I get home is SLEEP! I think I have slept more on the mission than I have in years (because I can't stay up all night doing stuff) but I am just as tired. I don't understand that one. Oh well.
I love you all and continue to pray for you all! I am glad you got to go to the Easter Pagent, I miss seeing that. It is amazing! I keep telling people up here they need to go down and see it and they just say it is already too hot. I think I might have convinced a few people though, hopefully. Also, having been to Nauvoo a few times in my life has been quite a benefit. I get questions probably once or twice a week about what all there is to do there and if people can keep themselves busy there. I still remember quite a bit. I hope you are all having a great spring and that the weather here can start copying the weather down there, haha.
Love,
Elder Hughes
Thanks for the Easter package, the white shirts are going to come in really handy! Also, I love the shirt because here it is still cold and Arizona is now warm, haha. Thanks too to Grandma for her Easter card, it was great! With the advent of Spring, we have started to do what every missionary does all summer long....weeding. Every service project that people solicit our help for has to do with weeding or gardening. It is nice and all, but the war against weeds always seems like a losing battle. They are just everyhwere! And the roots go so deep, you have to dig them out with shovels. Fun times. Elder Gomes and I attacked the weeds in the Smith's front yard yesterday. We had to almost replant the entire front flower bed to get all the grass out that was growing there. Grass can be so hard to get out. Then we took out an entire strawberry patch at someone else's home so they could plant something else, that took a while too. But we had fun and it was nice to be outside in some sunshine for once. Plus I can't complain too much, the usually let us eat some of their fruits and vegetables when they came in so that will be delicious. I think Mom will be proud of me too, I now eat everything. I can do fish, all kinds of vegetables or nuts, all kinds of foreign foods, spicy foods, you name I love it. So for all those times I gave Mom a hard time about eating seafood, I will take you out now Mom when I get back home to the seafood restaurant of your choice and eat some with you. Also, I'll split any of the brownies or the fudge that you put nuts in, haha.
This week was crazy busy, not with normal missionary work, but with being a district. Everyone in my district all happened to have (what seemed to them anyway) major life-or-death issues that had to be resolved over the weekend. And who did they turn to? Me. So who did I turn to? The Lord. It worked great, just meant little sleep, lots of prayer, and lots of running back and forth to deal with different issues. I can only imagine how hard it must be to be a bishop if it requires this much effort to keep 6 missionaries going strong. One companionship was having major unity issues and another one had a house that was possessed with a dark spirit. So lots of counseling and interviews about unity, and some blessings and house dedicatings later and the weekend was over. I just hope the things that I felt impressed to say work, but the Lord knows all things and has all power so I believe He can make it happen somehow. I will keep doing whatever He asks me to do.
Austin and Hunter are no longer on date. That is the depressing thing. Austin just won't make up his mind about sticking to a date. He knows he wants to get baptized and he knows it is the right thing to do. He knows the church is true....now he just won't act. He is 12 years old and won't act. It is one of the most bizarre experiences of my mission. Steve is working hard on his sons though and if anyone can help them to more forward, it will be him. He is so excited to be the one baptizing them. He loves everything about the church and comes to every imaginable church activity that he is allowed to come to. From pasta welfare assignments to video games parties and stake talent shows to conferences. He loves the gospel and is probably the best member missionary that I have ever seen. Tammi is getting closer to. She wants to meet with us and she wants to come to church, she just gets scared of the commitment and backs off. But Steve taught her about baptisms for the dead from Doctrine and Covenants 138, which is what we taught him from the night before ( don't ask me why because that is the longest way to teach it, but it must have been inspiration). She was so touched by it, she wanted to know why none of her member friends had ever explained that concept to her before. She instantly gave Steve 5 or 6 names from her family that she wants him to do the temple work for and get baptized for very soon. For not wanting to change, she has a testimony of the gospel already and was so excited to give those names to Steve. Steve said she actually teared up and was crying as they read the chapter together and that she is softening quite a bit. We are praying to start teaching her soon and then help the whole family to become active baptized members of the church, headed towards the temple.
We hit Jennifer Golson and Bobbie Noorda really hard this week with the need to stop smoking. We helped both to make plans to start to carry them out. Both also met with the bishop this past week and began to sort through the repentance process and to work towards gaining a temple recommend. It kind of frustrates me that we never report our less active work, but I have really come to love the less active people that we work with. It brings so much joy to see them come back to the gospel and to start changing their lives back to what they know is right. I know the Lord loves them so much and we have a great sense of love for them too. They also love us a lot and keep wanting to feed us or take pictures with us so they can remember us if we ever get transferred.
Sherrie Thomas is still in limbo stage. She got sick this week when she was supposed to be hitting up the employment agencies to start finding a new job and turning in her 2 week notice. Now, we will have to see what she does. She wants to get baptized and has a strong testimony that the church is true, but doesn't quite have the faith necessary to drop everything for God. She wants to come to church on Sunday, but just doesn't do it because of work. We keep praying for her though and she keeps praying too and a lot of the ward is praying for her as well, so we will see what happens. Our goal is still April 30, but right now that is really shaky. We need a miracle and quite a large one if that is going to happen. We have the faith though and are leaving it all up to the Lord if we do everything possible that we can.
Life continues to go on. The acne medicine is working from the doctor, I am about 50% clearer than I used to be and I met with him again today and said I should be acne free in about 6 more weeks. We shall see. No sunburn or anything yet. But I do have sunscreen and when we walk outside this next week, I will be putting it on. Trust me. I am good on tennis shoes, the ones I have should last me the last 6 months or so I hope. We will see. I am good on socks too. Release date? I have no idea yet. When I know, I will let you know. Um...I know my headache is not a sinus infection. But it is from something else. It is gone now though or not nearly as bad, but it did last 2 or 3 weeks. I haven't had one like that in a long time, not since BYU I think. No worries, though I am doing better and getting along just fine. The only thing is that I am exhausted, haha. The thing I might do for about the first two weeks when I get home is SLEEP! I think I have slept more on the mission than I have in years (because I can't stay up all night doing stuff) but I am just as tired. I don't understand that one. Oh well.
I love you all and continue to pray for you all! I am glad you got to go to the Easter Pagent, I miss seeing that. It is amazing! I keep telling people up here they need to go down and see it and they just say it is already too hot. I think I might have convinced a few people though, hopefully. Also, having been to Nauvoo a few times in my life has been quite a benefit. I get questions probably once or twice a week about what all there is to do there and if people can keep themselves busy there. I still remember quite a bit. I hope you are all having a great spring and that the weather here can start copying the weather down there, haha.
Love,
Elder Hughes
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Good afternoon everybody!
Things have been going really great! The weather has been Utah-finnicky as always but it isn't too bad. We have finally been able to take the suit coats off and to wear just white shirts and I have been really enjoying it. I have decided that I need to get more short-sleeved white shirts though next week. I don't really have enough to last all of summer, the ones I have are kind of ratty, so I will get more next week. Everyone up here is kind of sad though because it snowed again and probably killed all the apricot/peach/apple blossoms. Bummer, fresh fruit is so good is something I have learned.
General conference was amazing! I did get to go to a session, I was at the Saturday afternoon session. It was sweet! We got to sit all the way up in the right front corner, about 3 rows back from the pulpit. We were there about 2 hours early so we got to shake some amazing people's hands! We got to meet Sister Wixom from the primary general presidency and about 10 members of the 70 and their wives. As they were walking to go up to the front, they passed by us and shook our hands and talked to us for about 2 or 3 minutes or so. You could see everyone's faces from where we were sitting which was a new experience - usually I have sat too far back to really see anything too clearly, but where we were was perfect. All the talks were great. I loved Elder Oaks' about desire, and the talk about "to be" and "to do". Those really hit me and really got me thinking about what I could do to really become the person God wants me to be not just to do good things. Too truly become a Christlike person and not to just do Christlike things. I also thought priesthood session was overwhelming! The Spirit was so strong and powerful that it literally felt like I was being blown backward against my seat and held there for 2 hours. It was a great experience.
Austin and Hunter are really excited to be baptized but we had to push it back a week to next Saturday. But they already have the program planned out and everything looks good to go. Steve is so excited to be able to baptize his kids, he is telling absolutely everyone about it. Doesn't matter if they are in his ward or not, or members or not, he just invites them to come. When people are truly converted, they go out of their way to invite others to come unto Christ as well like they have had the chance to. It is an amazing miracle to watch. I have really come to love that family and they love us a lot too. They got really mad when Elder Noll got transferred and told me I had never get transferred or they will not be too happy with me. Not much I can do there though, haha.
We had to drop Thomas and Eva John, the people from Africa. They just don't want to get married. They want to get baptized, they want to be a part of the church and they understand the need to get married. But they just won't do it until they can save up the money to go back to Africa. Which won't happen for quite a few years. So we gave them over to the ward to visit and work with and told them to keep coming and that we would drop by periodically, but they don't want to change at this point. That was kind of disappointing.
We have been having great success though in working with members starting this week. We started to visit one member family every night and share the message of the Restoration with them and then commit them to do the 21 day challenge. So far everyone has accepted and is really excited about it. They start to think about all kinds of people that they can share the gospel with and that it isn't really too hard to invite people to meet with the missionaries. It was way awesome.
I went on exchanges yesterday and today with Elder Fordham. It has been fun, but I have really run out of time to email. I love you all and pray for you all!
Have a great week!
Elder Hughes
Things have been going really great! The weather has been Utah-finnicky as always but it isn't too bad. We have finally been able to take the suit coats off and to wear just white shirts and I have been really enjoying it. I have decided that I need to get more short-sleeved white shirts though next week. I don't really have enough to last all of summer, the ones I have are kind of ratty, so I will get more next week. Everyone up here is kind of sad though because it snowed again and probably killed all the apricot/peach/apple blossoms. Bummer, fresh fruit is so good is something I have learned.
General conference was amazing! I did get to go to a session, I was at the Saturday afternoon session. It was sweet! We got to sit all the way up in the right front corner, about 3 rows back from the pulpit. We were there about 2 hours early so we got to shake some amazing people's hands! We got to meet Sister Wixom from the primary general presidency and about 10 members of the 70 and their wives. As they were walking to go up to the front, they passed by us and shook our hands and talked to us for about 2 or 3 minutes or so. You could see everyone's faces from where we were sitting which was a new experience - usually I have sat too far back to really see anything too clearly, but where we were was perfect. All the talks were great. I loved Elder Oaks' about desire, and the talk about "to be" and "to do". Those really hit me and really got me thinking about what I could do to really become the person God wants me to be not just to do good things. Too truly become a Christlike person and not to just do Christlike things. I also thought priesthood session was overwhelming! The Spirit was so strong and powerful that it literally felt like I was being blown backward against my seat and held there for 2 hours. It was a great experience.
Austin and Hunter are really excited to be baptized but we had to push it back a week to next Saturday. But they already have the program planned out and everything looks good to go. Steve is so excited to be able to baptize his kids, he is telling absolutely everyone about it. Doesn't matter if they are in his ward or not, or members or not, he just invites them to come. When people are truly converted, they go out of their way to invite others to come unto Christ as well like they have had the chance to. It is an amazing miracle to watch. I have really come to love that family and they love us a lot too. They got really mad when Elder Noll got transferred and told me I had never get transferred or they will not be too happy with me. Not much I can do there though, haha.
We had to drop Thomas and Eva John, the people from Africa. They just don't want to get married. They want to get baptized, they want to be a part of the church and they understand the need to get married. But they just won't do it until they can save up the money to go back to Africa. Which won't happen for quite a few years. So we gave them over to the ward to visit and work with and told them to keep coming and that we would drop by periodically, but they don't want to change at this point. That was kind of disappointing.
We have been having great success though in working with members starting this week. We started to visit one member family every night and share the message of the Restoration with them and then commit them to do the 21 day challenge. So far everyone has accepted and is really excited about it. They start to think about all kinds of people that they can share the gospel with and that it isn't really too hard to invite people to meet with the missionaries. It was way awesome.
I went on exchanges yesterday and today with Elder Fordham. It has been fun, but I have really run out of time to email. I love you all and pray for you all!
Have a great week!
Elder Hughes
Good afternoon everybody!
Things have been going really great! The weather has been Utah-finnicky as always but it isn't too bad. We have finally been able to take the suit coats off and to wear just white shirts and I have been really enjoying it. I have decided that I need to get more short-sleeved white shirts though next week. I don't really have enough to last all of summer, the ones I have are kind of ratty, so I will get more next week. Everyone up here is kind of sad though because it snowed again and probably killed all the apricot/peach/apple blossoms. Bummer, fresh fruit is so good is something I have learned.
General conference was amazing! I did get to go to a session, I was at the Saturday afternoon session. It was sweet! We got to sit all the way up in the right front corner, about 3 rows back from the pulpit. We were there about 2 hours early so we got to shake some amazing people's hands! We got to meet Sister Wixom from the primary general presidency and about 10 members of the 70 and their wives. As they were walking to go up to the front, they passed by us and shook our hands and talked to us for about 2 or 3 minutes or so. You could see everyone's faces from where we were sitting which was a new experience - usually I have sat too far back to really see anything too clearly, but where we were was perfect. All the talks were great. I loved Elder Oaks' about desire, and the talk about "to be" and "to do". Those really hit me and really got me thinking about what I could do to really become the person God wants me to be not just to do good things. Too truly become a Christlike person and not to just do Christlike things. I also thought priesthood session was overwhelming! The Spirit was so strong and powerful that it literally felt like I was being blown backward against my seat and held there for 2 hours. It was a great experience.
Austin and Hunter are really excited to be baptized but we had to push it back a week to next Saturday. But they already have the program planned out and everything looks good to go. Steve is so excited to be able to baptize his kids, he is telling absolutely everyone about it. Doesn't matter if they are in his ward or not, or members or not, he just invites them to come. When people are truly converted, they go out of their way to invite others to come unto Christ as well like they have had the chance to. It is an amazing miracle to watch. I have really come to love that family and they love us a lot too. They got really mad when Elder Noll got transferred and told me I had never get transferred or they will not be too happy with me. Not much I can do there though, haha.
We had to drop Thomas and Eva John, the people from Africa. They just don't want to get married. They want to get baptized, they want to be a part of the church and they understand the need to get married. But they just won't do it until they can save up the money to go back to Africa. Which won't happen for quite a few years. So we gave them over to the ward to visit and work with and told them to keep coming and that we would drop by periodically, but they don't want to change at this point. That was kind of disappointing.
We have been having great success though in working with members starting this week. We started to visit one member family every night and share the message of the Restoration with them and then commit them to do the 21 day challenge. So far everyone has accepted and is really excited about it. They start to think about all kinds of people that they can share the gospel with and that it isn't really too hard to invite people to meet with the missionaries. It was way awesome.
I went on exchanges yesterday and today with Elder Fordham. It has been fun, but I have really run out of time to email. I love you all and pray for you all!
Have a great week!
Elder Hughes
Things have been going really great! The weather has been Utah-finnicky as always but it isn't too bad. We have finally been able to take the suit coats off and to wear just white shirts and I have been really enjoying it. I have decided that I need to get more short-sleeved white shirts though next week. I don't really have enough to last all of summer, the ones I have are kind of ratty, so I will get more next week. Everyone up here is kind of sad though because it snowed again and probably killed all the apricot/peach/apple blossoms. Bummer, fresh fruit is so good is something I have learned.
General conference was amazing! I did get to go to a session, I was at the Saturday afternoon session. It was sweet! We got to sit all the way up in the right front corner, about 3 rows back from the pulpit. We were there about 2 hours early so we got to shake some amazing people's hands! We got to meet Sister Wixom from the primary general presidency and about 10 members of the 70 and their wives. As they were walking to go up to the front, they passed by us and shook our hands and talked to us for about 2 or 3 minutes or so. You could see everyone's faces from where we were sitting which was a new experience - usually I have sat too far back to really see anything too clearly, but where we were was perfect. All the talks were great. I loved Elder Oaks' about desire, and the talk about "to be" and "to do". Those really hit me and really got me thinking about what I could do to really become the person God wants me to be not just to do good things. Too truly become a Christlike person and not to just do Christlike things. I also thought priesthood session was overwhelming! The Spirit was so strong and powerful that it literally felt like I was being blown backward against my seat and held there for 2 hours. It was a great experience.
Austin and Hunter are really excited to be baptized but we had to push it back a week to next Saturday. But they already have the program planned out and everything looks good to go. Steve is so excited to be able to baptize his kids, he is telling absolutely everyone about it. Doesn't matter if they are in his ward or not, or members or not, he just invites them to come. When people are truly converted, they go out of their way to invite others to come unto Christ as well like they have had the chance to. It is an amazing miracle to watch. I have really come to love that family and they love us a lot too. They got really mad when Elder Noll got transferred and told me I had never get transferred or they will not be too happy with me. Not much I can do there though, haha.
We had to drop Thomas and Eva John, the people from Africa. They just don't want to get married. They want to get baptized, they want to be a part of the church and they understand the need to get married. But they just won't do it until they can save up the money to go back to Africa. Which won't happen for quite a few years. So we gave them over to the ward to visit and work with and told them to keep coming and that we would drop by periodically, but they don't want to change at this point. That was kind of disappointing.
We have been having great success though in working with members starting this week. We started to visit one member family every night and share the message of the Restoration with them and then commit them to do the 21 day challenge. So far everyone has accepted and is really excited about it. They start to think about all kinds of people that they can share the gospel with and that it isn't really too hard to invite people to meet with the missionaries. It was way awesome.
I went on exchanges yesterday and today with Elder Fordham. It has been fun, but I have really run out of time to email. I love you all and pray for you all!
Have a great week!
Elder Hughes
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Happy spring everyone!
This week has been really great, with the exception that my headaches
are back again. I don't know why, I haven't really been doing
anything different but I have that constant headache that I would get
sometimes back home that just goes for weeks and weeks and weeks and
drains me of energy. I will be ok though, I always am. The work in
our area has really picked back up though and that makes Elder Gomes
and I VERY excited and happy. We were able to pick up 4 new
investigators in the past two days from 3 different families and
found many more potentials by tracting out a part of an apartment
complex in our area that we have not hit up yet. I went on exchanges
with Elder Brand this past week and really enjoyed it (to my
surprise). He was the assistant to the president for the past 10 1/2
months before becoming my zone leader this transfer and he set up
exchanges with me on the very first day he was here for the very first
week. It was a blast to work with someone who wants to work hard, has
the Spirit with him all the time, loves the Lord, and knows how to do
missionary work. I learned a lot from him and had a great time. He
reminds me a lot of Samuel Hord because his brain was always going
about 9,000,000 miles an hour and would go from subject to subject
every other second and expect me to keep up somehow. Also, he could
talk all day long about everything. Haha, fun times. Elder Gomes and
I have been getting along really well too and are working really hard
to do everything we can in this area. The Lord has truly blessed us
in one week to see things completely turn around.
We have started to teach Thomas' wife, Eva. Both are from Sudan if
you remember and both are very excited about the gospel. However, the
marriage thing keeps causing problems. Both of them dream of gettting
married in Sudan in about a year and want to wait to get baptized for
that long until after they are married. They understand why they
should get married and when they bear their testimonies, you can feel
the Spirit and the power of what they are saying but they have no
desire to act for a YEAR. AHHHH! We will continue working with them
though and see what happens. They are the nicest people and are
amazing, so something will work out.
Steve's sons - Austin and Hunter - are on date solidly for April 9 and
are so excited for it. So is Steve. All of them are loving the
gospel and the church and everything. It is amazing to see what truly
converted people can do and how they feel and how they think now.
Steve's wife Tammie has also agreed to meet with us and now we just
have to nail down a time when we can start teaching and working with
her to help her get baptized. Our goal is to get the whole family to
the temple and that is the whole goal of the ward as well.
We started to teach a man named Frank Califetti and he is really open
to learning about the gospel. He has taken the lessons before but
they weren't really done right. He never read or prayed about the
Book of Mormon. I have been finding that so much in this area - the
missionaries just hang out with people and don't ever teach them. Or
they teach them but not according to their needs or understanding.
What good does it do to keep giving people more information, if they
aren't even understanding or living what you have taught before. You
have to go back and reteach and recommit until they can get there.
Sorry, I will get off my soapbox. But dumb missionaries drive me
crazy. I can understand the ones that at least taught lessons, but I
cannot understand the ones that just hung out with nonmembers and
called it missionary work. They ruin everything for the rest of us
when they do that.
Two less active ladies named Bobbie Noorda and Jennifer Golson are
really progressing. Both are so excited to attend church and both are
understanding the things that they read from the Book of Mormon. Both
have had their faces truly light up by the Spirit and it is amazing to
see the change. Both are so much happier and so much more peaceful.
I love the gospel. It is amazing to watch how much easier the Spirit
makes things as well. I have now observed that when people do not
have the Spirit, they do not have any understanding of what they try
to read from the Book of Mormon. As soon as they have the Spirit
though, they understand the things that they read and start to truly
find the gospel to be "delicious" to them. I guess it all happens
when they plant that seed that Alma 32 talks about and just barely see
the growth start to happen, that is what I have been seeing and it is
the greatest miracle.
Well, I don't have anything more really to write. I guess life just
seems so much the same that I don't have anything new to share and
don't want to bore you all. But the people are always different and
each and everyone of them is a miracle and a wonder. Each is a
precious child of our Heavenly Father and I have come to love them so
much.
Love and Prayers,
Elder Hughes
P.S. I have now officially been out 18 months. That is scary and not
wanted, the mission could slow down quite a bit this last 6 months and
that would be just fine with me. There is so much work to do and so
not enough time to do it in!
This week has been really great, with the exception that my headaches
are back again. I don't know why, I haven't really been doing
anything different but I have that constant headache that I would get
sometimes back home that just goes for weeks and weeks and weeks and
drains me of energy. I will be ok though, I always am. The work in
our area has really picked back up though and that makes Elder Gomes
and I VERY excited and happy. We were able to pick up 4 new
investigators in the past two days from 3 different families and
found many more potentials by tracting out a part of an apartment
complex in our area that we have not hit up yet. I went on exchanges
with Elder Brand this past week and really enjoyed it (to my
surprise). He was the assistant to the president for the past 10 1/2
months before becoming my zone leader this transfer and he set up
exchanges with me on the very first day he was here for the very first
week. It was a blast to work with someone who wants to work hard, has
the Spirit with him all the time, loves the Lord, and knows how to do
missionary work. I learned a lot from him and had a great time. He
reminds me a lot of Samuel Hord because his brain was always going
about 9,000,000 miles an hour and would go from subject to subject
every other second and expect me to keep up somehow. Also, he could
talk all day long about everything. Haha, fun times. Elder Gomes and
I have been getting along really well too and are working really hard
to do everything we can in this area. The Lord has truly blessed us
in one week to see things completely turn around.
We have started to teach Thomas' wife, Eva. Both are from Sudan if
you remember and both are very excited about the gospel. However, the
marriage thing keeps causing problems. Both of them dream of gettting
married in Sudan in about a year and want to wait to get baptized for
that long until after they are married. They understand why they
should get married and when they bear their testimonies, you can feel
the Spirit and the power of what they are saying but they have no
desire to act for a YEAR. AHHHH! We will continue working with them
though and see what happens. They are the nicest people and are
amazing, so something will work out.
Steve's sons - Austin and Hunter - are on date solidly for April 9 and
are so excited for it. So is Steve. All of them are loving the
gospel and the church and everything. It is amazing to see what truly
converted people can do and how they feel and how they think now.
Steve's wife Tammie has also agreed to meet with us and now we just
have to nail down a time when we can start teaching and working with
her to help her get baptized. Our goal is to get the whole family to
the temple and that is the whole goal of the ward as well.
We started to teach a man named Frank Califetti and he is really open
to learning about the gospel. He has taken the lessons before but
they weren't really done right. He never read or prayed about the
Book of Mormon. I have been finding that so much in this area - the
missionaries just hang out with people and don't ever teach them. Or
they teach them but not according to their needs or understanding.
What good does it do to keep giving people more information, if they
aren't even understanding or living what you have taught before. You
have to go back and reteach and recommit until they can get there.
Sorry, I will get off my soapbox. But dumb missionaries drive me
crazy. I can understand the ones that at least taught lessons, but I
cannot understand the ones that just hung out with nonmembers and
called it missionary work. They ruin everything for the rest of us
when they do that.
Two less active ladies named Bobbie Noorda and Jennifer Golson are
really progressing. Both are so excited to attend church and both are
understanding the things that they read from the Book of Mormon. Both
have had their faces truly light up by the Spirit and it is amazing to
see the change. Both are so much happier and so much more peaceful.
I love the gospel. It is amazing to watch how much easier the Spirit
makes things as well. I have now observed that when people do not
have the Spirit, they do not have any understanding of what they try
to read from the Book of Mormon. As soon as they have the Spirit
though, they understand the things that they read and start to truly
find the gospel to be "delicious" to them. I guess it all happens
when they plant that seed that Alma 32 talks about and just barely see
the growth start to happen, that is what I have been seeing and it is
the greatest miracle.
Well, I don't have anything more really to write. I guess life just
seems so much the same that I don't have anything new to share and
don't want to bore you all. But the people are always different and
each and everyone of them is a miracle and a wonder. Each is a
precious child of our Heavenly Father and I have come to love them so
much.
Love and Prayers,
Elder Hughes
P.S. I have now officially been out 18 months. That is scary and not
wanted, the mission could slow down quite a bit this last 6 months and
that would be just fine with me. There is so much work to do and so
not enough time to do it in!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Hello everybody!
Well life has been going fairly well. Elder Noll has been transferred and it was pretty weird to get a new companion. You just get so used to being with someone after a few months that change is weird. I don't know how else to describe it. My new companion is Elder Gomes and he is from Cape Verde off of West Africa. His native language is Portuguese and he is excited to not be covering the Portuguese assignment at this point. He has been out about a year and seems like a good guy. This will be my first companion from a different country so I am kind of excited for it. Plus now dinners can start making protien. I will actually get meat! haha, I didn't know how much I have missed a good pot roast or barbecue chicken or stuff like that until I started thinking about the things that would change after Elder Noll got transferred. Also, it will be an interesting experience to go introduce Elder Gomes to all of the people we are teaching and all the members because I think he is the first non-Caucasion missionary this area has ever seen. That will be very good. Not a whole lot new is really going on. We are playing the finding game and are so far losing terribly at it. So we need to pray harder and exercise more faith. Thomas, who was on date for baptism, has now fallen off. We finally were able to get out of him that he is not "legally" married, just "traditionally" married (whatever that really means to people from Sudan). It was hard to get him to understand the difference and why he still has the need to be legally married in order to live God's commandments. His wife has thrown up a fence because she only wants to be married in Sudan where her family is and so wants to wait a year until they can save up the money to fly home and get that done. Thomas isn't going to move out (they have kids) and he doesn't have the money too anyway. So there was one brickwall. I don't know how we are going to break through it yet, but we will keep teaching the gospel in their home and see if the Spirit can help them to change and become converted so they will get married. At least he is keeping the rest of the commandments including no drinking or coffee and paying tithing. But the marriage thing is the hold up. Life can't ever be too easy. Our apartment is sparkling clean! Elder Noll and I thoroughly deep cleaned all of it. All the floors, all the clutter, all the you-name-it and it looks awesome. There also happens to be a lot more room now that we got rid of all the junk that previous missionaries had left behind. There is something amazing about living in a clean home. Our landlords were very impressed as well (I don't think anyone had ever really cleaned that basement apartment before - not their kids or other missionares) and my goal is to keep it looking as good as possible. Well, that is my report this week. I love you all and pray for you all!
Elder Hughes
Well life has been going fairly well. Elder Noll has been transferred and it was pretty weird to get a new companion. You just get so used to being with someone after a few months that change is weird. I don't know how else to describe it. My new companion is Elder Gomes and he is from Cape Verde off of West Africa. His native language is Portuguese and he is excited to not be covering the Portuguese assignment at this point. He has been out about a year and seems like a good guy. This will be my first companion from a different country so I am kind of excited for it. Plus now dinners can start making protien. I will actually get meat! haha, I didn't know how much I have missed a good pot roast or barbecue chicken or stuff like that until I started thinking about the things that would change after Elder Noll got transferred. Also, it will be an interesting experience to go introduce Elder Gomes to all of the people we are teaching and all the members because I think he is the first non-Caucasion missionary this area has ever seen. That will be very good. Not a whole lot new is really going on. We are playing the finding game and are so far losing terribly at it. So we need to pray harder and exercise more faith. Thomas, who was on date for baptism, has now fallen off. We finally were able to get out of him that he is not "legally" married, just "traditionally" married (whatever that really means to people from Sudan). It was hard to get him to understand the difference and why he still has the need to be legally married in order to live God's commandments. His wife has thrown up a fence because she only wants to be married in Sudan where her family is and so wants to wait a year until they can save up the money to fly home and get that done. Thomas isn't going to move out (they have kids) and he doesn't have the money too anyway. So there was one brickwall. I don't know how we are going to break through it yet, but we will keep teaching the gospel in their home and see if the Spirit can help them to change and become converted so they will get married. At least he is keeping the rest of the commandments including no drinking or coffee and paying tithing. But the marriage thing is the hold up. Life can't ever be too easy. Our apartment is sparkling clean! Elder Noll and I thoroughly deep cleaned all of it. All the floors, all the clutter, all the you-name-it and it looks awesome. There also happens to be a lot more room now that we got rid of all the junk that previous missionaries had left behind. There is something amazing about living in a clean home. Our landlords were very impressed as well (I don't think anyone had ever really cleaned that basement apartment before - not their kids or other missionares) and my goal is to keep it looking as good as possible. Well, that is my report this week. I love you all and pray for you all!
Elder Hughes
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