8/9/10 - How cool is that for the date of today!?!

Good afternoon everybody!
Well, today is the day where all the numbers go in ascending order and I think that is really cool. Doesn't happen very often. Anyway, that was the random fact for today. Other random things. Elder Holm and I are now sprinkler pros, we had to install sprinklers in the front yard because our landlady has been asking us to water the yard (it is now completely dead) and the hose wasn't covering enough. So we bought a cheap one from Walmart that hooks right up to the hose and set the distanct, height, and everything else and managed not to get soaked too badly. Tons of fun! Also, I have succeeded in starting to make a new scripture case and fixing my scriptures. The binding on my scriptures completely came off about a week ago so I Elmer's glued it back together and it has made them brand new! After that I decided I needed a case to protect them and so started looking at cases - too expensive by a ton. Then I decided to make one using a cereal box and it works likea charm. Best part of all, it was free! Well, almost. I just got a bunch of small pictures of Jesus to post all over the box today to cover up the cereal information and to make it look better. Still $8 totally creams the minimum $30 I was going to have to spend. So whenever I get that project finished I will send home a picture to everyone and you can see what you think. I got the idea from another elder in my zone who has done the same thing to protect his scriptures. So that was my exciting day for today so far and guess what? It is 80 degrees and slightly cloudy and feels like perfection! I have decided I love Utah summers, the only thing I miss is not having the pine smell like the cabin does for such cooler summer weather. I do not miss the burning blacktop, the burning seatbelts and steering wheels, the burning sidewalks and all that from Mesa though. Everyone here still complains it is too hot though, so I guess you can't win. It is all in what you are use to. We had 2 new elder move in to our apartment this week because their housing contract expired. They are the Spanish elders for our zone named Elder Rose and Elder Flores. So far, they manage to break about half the rules and Elder Holm is getting pretty frustrated with them because I trained him to keep them all 100%. Can't say I'm not frustrated either, but it is their choice and it doesn't effect what we do, so everything will work out. They are both very nice and fun to be with and doubled the furniture in our apartment with great red recliners. Also, they helped us to get everything cleaned and moved around. It looks like they will probably be living with us for the forseeable next few months while the mission struggles to find more housing. A lot of missionaries are losing their housing right now and apparently not many members are willing to take them in, so a lot of doubling up has been going on and it finally got around to us. Thankfully, the transition has been fairly smooth though and our apartment is big enough to fit all of us in very comfortably and nicely. We also finally got the swamp cooler fixed, or I should say Elder Hom did - he ran a plastic pipe up from the water tap in the house to the unit on the rough and got all the kinks and leaks worked out. So now, since I have been there, we have successfully installed a new disposal, fixed the hot water heater, had a new furnance installed, got the sprinkler system set up, among other things. Whoever gets the apartment after the missionaries move out, will great enjoy it! Well, we now have an hour and a half to email with the new mission president so I have time to change how I usually write my emails so that I feel like I cover more and say what I want to say!

Tuesday - great day! We had district meeting about the new baptismal commitment wording that we are supposed to use ( right from the first presidency). The wording is right out of Preach My Gospel and is said "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God? We will be holding a baptismal service on (date). Will you prepare yourself to be baptized on that date?" Big change from what I had become used to with following the Spirit on giving different commits, but the Spirit has been there powerfully when we have practiced this one and so I know we are supposed to use it. Every time we teach a first lesson, we are supposed to fit that into the lesson and give the challenge when the Spirit directs that the timing is right. Kind of crazy, huh? Tuesday we also taught 5 lessons in one day! AWESOME! Deylon Falkner has been moving along, his mom's heart is finally softening and it is making a huge change! We went over keeping the Sabbath Day holy, tithing, and the word of wisdom last week. She committed to going to church, paying tithing, and came right out and apologized to Deylon that she neglected in her duty as a parent to teach him and felt true remorse for it. It was quite a miracle! She went from saying "I hate church" to that attitude. We are excited for that! Noa Bowen is doing awesome, can't wait to get baptized. If we filled up the font, he would just jump in. We were waiting for his mother to have the twins she was pregnant with and she finally did on Friday and so everything is a go ahead for the next week and a half. The Nay's are trying their best to stay strong and committed to the gospel. They are doing family scripture study, prayer, and are starting family home evening today. They have gone from almost divorce to happy marriage back to almost divorce and now back to happy, stronger marriage. Bishop Croshaw says he has learned from working with that family, never to leave the straight and narrow path because finding your way back through the "mists of darkness" to the iron rod is so hard. And you fall down a lot in order to get there and it destroys a lot of things. Just stay on the path. The Nay's are gradually feeling their way back to the path though and trying their best.

Wednesday - migraine day! That is all I have to say about that. I was knocked out in pain and nausea all day long and was not the most cheery person ever. I got Elder Holm set up exchanges to go cover our appointments and then wrapped a blanket around my head to block out light and sound and laid down. Miraculously, it only lasted one day and was gone.

Thursday was another awesome day! Because there was no more migraine, haha. We were disappointed that day because Lexi Crispin - who was so solid-is now off date thanks to her father. Dad told her that she has to prove that the church is true to him before she can get baptized/ watch a lot of scientology movies and information and investigate other religions before she can get baptized. Why do parents always do this? They got the chance to be baptized once and now they don't believe it and so they refuse to accept that their children could start believing or be able to understand that their children got a spiritual confirmation. Lexi is determined to convince her father though and so we are praying for her. Joe Heath is doing great. Loves meeting with us, like reading, has started to come around to praying. Working on commitment level.

Friday we got a baptism firmly set up and anticipated for! Steve Miler will be getting baptized on this Saturday at 3 PM and is excited for it! He has kind of the same experience as Aunt Tiff with tons of different missionaries and never moving forward. Then he and his wife had a miscarriage and were brought to the point of figuring out what exactly they believed in and so now he is ready to be baptized and has felt the Spirit. He and his wife both prayed for the opening and closing prayers at our appointment which is a huge change! The whole ward is excited about them and working with them. They are both excited to work towards the temple as well and get everything done that they need to!

Saturday we ran into a lot of people and got a lot of "errand" missionary work done with reporting to this or that bishop or whatever. We met up with a new investigator family - the Reese. Tina is about 37, Bailee is 14, Dylan is 11, with Cassidy (boy) is 9. They moved into the town homes and everyone was assuming they were members and were helping out and visiting like they were members. Then their records never came through and so the ward asked them what happened to the records or how they could be requested/found. Tina replied that they have never been baptized and weren't members. The ward got us over there fast and we started to teach and work with them. The whole family is really hyper active and has some Word of Wisdom issues, but all are excited to be baptized and become a member of the church. We are so happy to be working with them and the blessing it is from Heavenly Father that they moved into our area just when they did.

Sunday was another great day! The Spirit is alwasy so strong on Sunday because of all the church we got to. At least I think so. We had a lesson with Olivia Morley that day and she is excited and ready to be baptized! Bummer is that her grandma wants her to wait a month before she can make that decision, so we will working with her to keep her steady and solid for the next month to get that done. Olivia reads the scriptures unlike any other though. She took over 7 notecards full of notes on 5 chapters from the Book of Mormon, all with what applied to her in her life at this particular time. If we would all read scriptures that way, imagine the power it would bring into our lives! It has brought a huge amount of power into hers and gave her the answer she needed to move forward with it. Another miracle.

Missions are just full of miracles and everything going great and amazing. They are a lot of hard work, don't get me wrong. But I have never seen so many amazing miracles effect so many amazing people. Heavenly Father truly does love His children and watch out for them!

I love you all and thanks for all the birthday wishes and presents! Still can't believe that I am 20 now and that time is still flying by like none other!
Please keep me and my investigators in your prayers as I do for all of you! THANKS! It makes the biggest difference, it really does!
Elder Hughes