Easter week

I am so sorry I got out of the habit of posting won't let it happen again
Hey everybody!
So guess what happened?!?!?!? I am now a Utah Salt Lake City South missionary! Well, I guess I have always been one, but now it is official. President Laney pulled me in his office this week and we had an interview and he told me that I had been permanently reassigned here. I don't live in Utah so I am the lucky one out of everyone that gets to stay here. Everyone is now asking me how I feel about that expecting that I am going to be all disappointed but I am not, not one bit. I love being here and serving the people here in the Salt Lake Valley and all my ward mission leaders have been so excited that I have been reassigned here - too excited. I think they have been praying that this will be the case as well as the missionaries of the zone that I am in. But oh well, things have worked out the way they are supposed to and Heavenly Father has some great plan to get it all to work out, still not sure what I learned a little bit of the Mongolian language for but it had to be for some reason. Anyway, so that was my exciting news for the week and the only thing I am really going to have to work on doing now is not gaining weight. Members here can be faaaaaar too generous with food - they pile dinner on us and then keep on piling food throughout the night. Dessert especially. I appreciate it alot, but I have gained a good 8 pounds already being here in this mission. So my goal is not to come home fat. Not a bit, so a lot more working out and eating healthy when I have the chance to (meals we get on our own).

Thanks so much for the tie Lora and Jerah! I appreciate it a lot (not sure what I am going to wear it with yet.....but we will see hahaha). Also, can someone please update my blog? I am getting letters from my friends wanting all the info on what is going on in my mission because the blog hasn't been updated and I don't quite have enough time to write them all back with all the info they want. So if someone can post my emails to the blog, it would be much appreciated! :)

Alright, yes I loved Easter this week and I loved General Conference this week. There was a ton of messages that were just meant for me, especially out of the Priesthood session. It answered a lot of the questions I have been having and praying about, so that was awesome. Also, I think a lot of talks were directed just to our family as well, it certainly felt like that and made me think about it. I noticed the major theme was about families, which doesn't have too much to do with me right now. But it has a lot to do with our investigators and there was a lot of things in there directed towards the people we are teaching and I hope they were able to get the things from it that they needed. We watched both sessions on Sunday at Br. Beyers' house in the Mountain Point 10th ward. He reminds me a ton of Bro. Whipple and has a lot of the same humor. He and his wife are the nicest people ever and took great care of us for Easter Sunday. We had the biggest waffle brunch between sessions that I have ever had in my life. I think they got us to eat more food than I ever have in my life as well. Also, they got us chocolate bunnies :) so the Easter bunny even visits while I am on a mission just like Santa did from the very nice Howell family down in Bluffdale. I am definitely planning on coming back to visit with them when I start going back to BYU, going to their ward and being at their house feels like home away from home. That is how nice they are to us. There are quite a few people in their ward that we are getting closer to teaching as well so we might get to see more of them. Jose was also there on Sunday and at the Priesthood session and it was awesome to get to see him again. He still has the "new convert" glow about him and it hasn't lessened a bit in the past month. He is still trying his hardest to get the family he lives with to accept the gospel. Eric is ready to go and wants to meet with us and loves feeling the Spirit and loves family prayer and wants to go to church, but he is too softspoken. His wife runs the family, and she does NOT want to get entangled in the Mormon church. However, she does want to start having FHE, so day by day she is softening and I know that the Lord will continue to work with her so that the rest of her family who so much wants to join the church will get the chance to. Their 10 year old daughter Francella would pretty much hop in the water, and their 13 year old daughter Claudia has started to attend Young Women's and loved it. So every day, step by step as the ward and Jose fellowship them like crazy, they are getting closer to entering into the Lord's kingdom. Maybe it will be while I am still in this area, maybe not. But I am confident they will, Jose has been praying and fasting for them wayyyy too hard to not have some result.

Well, this week was very, very slow. Not too much is going on. We might teach as many lessons today as we did in the past week just to give you an idea of what all is going on. Sharon is getting baptized tomorrow and is excited for it. We are excited for her too! The semi-active Nielson couple that we have been teaching and working with is making huge progress. They are getting interviewed by the bishop this week to start the process for getting temple recommends. And he is getting the Melchezidek priesthood soon and a patriarchal blessing. They are both excited to start doing baptisms for the dead as soon as possible. So we are very excited for them. They are 23 years old and are excited to get their lives back on the right eternal track. Also, the Brandreth couple in that same ward is making huge progress as well. They have gone from fighting nonstop and him running away on our first lesson to now they are setting temple plans as well and are reading the scriptures and praying as a couple. As well as attending all three hours of church for the first time in years. It is amazing to watch people's faces change as we work with them and as Heavenly Father blesses them for their efforts. Br. Brandreth wouldn't even look us in the face the first time, now he is beaming from eye to eye and is asking us tons of questions to make sure he is doing everything he needs to do. His wife as well. They are an awesome couple and we love to visit them and work with them. The Page's moved on Saturday and Elder Craigo helped a lot there and so missed the Saturday morning session of General Conference. She still wants us to teach her kids though so we will be meeting her at our stake center tomorrow even though she no longer even lives in that stake anymore. So we get to keep seeing them. Other moves: Josh Bennett is moving back to Oregon to run a Jerky Hut. He is all set now to get the Melchizedek priesthood and get his endowment in just a few months. We are going to miss him terribly. But he promised that he would keep in contact with us and I think he will. I guess we are still doing some work - just all with less active people and families which is good, but not the entire purpose we are supposed to cover. Mission leaders aren't very happy with us, but I hope Heavenly Father understands. It feels like He does, helping them brings the same joy that brings working with investigators. So it works, I think. We are still looking for more investigators - we met a kid named Dakota last week who has been attending church for the past few months and wants to get the priesthood, so the bishop had an interview with him and said he would have to get baptized first. So we are hoping and praying to start meeting with him this week. Also, to start meeting with Aleah Gerleah and the Sheppard family. All have been attending church for several months and are ready to go, the trick is just convincing and pinning down their parents to starting to teach them.

Ok, so I didn't get to write very much because not very much happened. But I know this church is true and that I am where I am supposed to be right now. I know that Heavenly Father loves each one of us individually. Even those this week has been slow, He knows that we have been working hard and will help us through our struggles. I love you all and pray for you all!

Elder Hughes