Hello everybody!
Well it snowed again last night, another good 3 or 4 inches. All the snow was melted and gone and now everything is covered in snow again. I think it looks better that way though. You don't notice how muddy everything is or how dead the trees really are. Anyway, things have been going fairly well! Lots of people we are hoping to start teaching and the appointments should start holding steady, so we are praying for anyway. We should be picking up an African American lady named Kimberly Dance tonight or tomorrow. She has been attending church for the past two weeks and has asked a lot of questions of her member friends about different things the church does. No one in the ward was quite brave enough to ask her to take the missionary discussions or would give her our address though so tracking her down has been quite a chore. We finally managed to find her though and she is excited and very interested to meet with us. The only problem is that she is constantly sick and suffers from severe insomnia. So whenever we have had an appointment set up in the past those two things have gotten in the way. But we are supposed to stop by again tonight and things should get better. We should start teaching a part member family next week, they have been taught before but were ok with trying again. The cool thing was that the husband who is a member just talked about going back to church the day before we knocked on their door. We caught the nonmember wife home and for the first 5 minutes we talked to her on the doorstep, she seriously thought her husband had set her up. Finally she called her husband and after he denied speaking to us about anything and acknowledged maybe there is something greater at work here - God. After that she was willing to set up an appointment for a week from today. Also, we should start teaching a woman named Jen Mace tonight. She just moved here from out of state and was taking the missionary lessons before and is interested in continuing. We are so excited to see things start to pick up! We have been working hard all day, every day (as my companion likes to keep reminding me) with not much success. Finally the blessings are starting to come from the efforts we have put in. We are so grateful. We have a lot more potential that are starting to surface as well and should be good to start teaching hopefully in the next couple weeks. The zone leaders double worked our area with us yesterday to help us find more people because we have been doing really bad at that. They said we were both doing the right thing and to keep going and things would pick up.
Information about Christmas and new rules that have come out. I am not allowed to Skype, not at all. There is no time limit or set time to make the phone call, so let me know what would be the best time to shoot for. Do you want me to call while you are at Grandma's house? Or at a different time? Also, I am now allowed to go out to lunch any day with any family members within my own area - EXCEPT for my parents and girlfriends, but I don't have to worry about that one haha. Interesting rule, huh? Lunch still has to be an hour or less like any normal day. But that is an interesting change up from the absolutely seeing no family members from before. On Christmas Day, I have Christmas dinner currently at 10 AM with the Rassmussen family. Then hopefully we are getting something set up with the Gonzalez family for a later lunch because that is what they wanted to do. Our landlords have invited us to eat Christmas dinner with them so we will probably do that. Also, planning other visits throughout Riverton and Draper while I am down there to people that I taught before and now are struggling with trials. BIG ones. Hopefully I can help them in some way, I have been trying to write them as time permits. I can't believe it is already Christmas again, that is ridiculous. It was just Christmas the other day or so it feels like to me, the more I try to slow time down on my mission the more time seems to speed up and slip through my hands.
It has been that hot down there?!? You should send some of that up here! Haha. I could use it, so could my companion. We are probably a sight to see with our scarves, hats, and gloves, and jackets. We just get cold so easy. My companiond does have stuff to open. My presents really don't fit underneath the tree but that's ok. Looks like Christmas still anyway. I did get the box from Aunt Kara and thank you so much! I think the Chex mix might be gone by tomorrow. Like always, it is addictive so I munch on it and then it has been a hit with some other people I have shared with as well.
The people we are teaching have all seemed to stalemate for the time being. Various concerns and challenges, not to mention Christmas have made things a little bit difficult for most people. But we do have one person who should be getting baptized on New Year's Day! How cool is that? I can't think of a better way to start off the new year, especially for him. His probation just ended so now he can finally get baptized and he is absolutely loving the gospel. It has done more to help with his mental health issues than anything else has. He is a really awesome guy and his family is reactivating around him which is great for support.
Well, that is all I have really time to write right now. I am loving life and my mission, things are awesome! Oh! Tina and Cassidy Reese are finally getting baptized this Saturday! I am so excited! I get to go down to Draper on Saturday night and give the talk on the Holy Ghost! So I get some of my visiting done that night with the people that will be at the baptism. I should have pictures of that next week and I am so excited!
Much love and prayers,
Elder Ryan Hughes
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