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!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
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
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Good morning everybody!
Well, life has been going fairly good up here in Utah. I did manage to catch a pretty bad cold this past week but my landlords, the Smith's have actually been able to help out a lot. They showed me how to take grounded cayene pepper shots. They are really hot and spicy but they clean you out fast and make you feel a ton better in not very much time at all. They even gave me so more today so I can take some to stay strong and relatively healthy. You mix about a tablespoon of cayene pepper with just enough water to have to dissolve - about 2 or 3 gulps worth. Then you just chug and follow it down with milk or bread to keep your mouth from burning too bad. Works like a charm. A lot of other people are getting sick too though, just that time of year I guess. Elder Fordham in my district has been out about the past week with the flu - body aches, headache, chills, fever, vomiting, etc, you name it - he had all the symptoms. So far no one else has got it yet, thank goodness. Ironically, all the rules just changed again. No more going out to meals with family or friends, so there goes that plan with Grandma and Lora and Ashley. I guess I will just have to wait until this fall in order to see anyone when I come home. Also, no more early morning temple trips! AHHHHH! I don't know how I am going to survive without those, but we will find a way somehow I guess. We can still go later in the day on p-day, but my companion is extremely opposed to even the thought of that idea. We will see what happens. Transfers are next Wednesday and you just never know what might change. I'm still shooting for only two areas my whole mission, haha. That means another 4 transfers in this area to go if the Lord allows me to pull that off.
Speaking 3 times this past Sunday was so much fun! I forgot how much fun it is to get up there and share stories and experiences and such. Also, I managed to make all 3 of my talks different (that took some careful planning). The hardest one was speaking about 12 minutes on the great apostasy and not being able to speak about Christ's church in former times or the restoration at all. That took lots of good scritpures and ideas. The other two were just on member missionary work and both were fairly easy thanks to much prayer and pondering. We will see if anything actually happens now that we did speak. The members here in this area just can't be fired up to do missionary work and speaking was about the last option we had left. If that doesn't work, I don't have any more ideas left. Back to tracting all the time I guess. Which I don't mind, but doesn't get very much actual work done at all. We do have a stake youth fireside tonight and another one next week. We are hoping to get a lot of referrals from that and to be able to keep busy the next few weeks checking up on those. Also, President Miller should be training both our stakes on the ward mission process and the ward mission plan in the next month to every single auxiliary,quorum, and ward mission leadership. As well as all the bishopbrics and the stake leadership. We are banking on that helping out as well. We keep praying hard seeking for more guidance, but right now that is all we have received, so we will move forward in faith.
The adversary strikes again. Steve, who was just baptized, had his power turned off on him last week. He had overdue power bills that his wife had been collecting and hiding from him. When Steve finally found out, it was two days before the power kill date. He got nervous about talking to the bishop because he didn't want to put his church membership in jeopardy or his priesthood. That took quite a bit of explaining. It was awe-inspiring though to hear him speak. He was set on living off of canned foods the next 2 weeks with using flashlights to study the scriptures and taking much time to ponder and reflect. He said nothing was worth hurting his standing in the church or with God. Thankfully, he accepted what we taught about the church welfare system and called the bishop who immediately got the power turned back on. It was a miracle. It was so touching though to hear him bear his testimony! I don't know if I would have the faith to sacrifice like he has for the gospel. But he cannot wait to be able to get his endowments from the temple now, his goal is to become the most active Mormon anyone has ever met, haha. So he has now watched the past 3 years worth of every session of general conference or so and took notebooks worth of questions and notes that he enjoyed. Then he has hit the Book of Mormon hard and is determined to read it all very soon from start to finish. That and the Bible, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Plus the Gospel Principles manual. He is dedicated and an inspiration to me. He really has the fire of the Spirit and is sharing the gospel with all that he knows. Many of our new investigators that we find will probably come from him. He had found the truth and is trying to share it with any and all that will listen.
Thomas is doing well. He is excited to be baptized on March 26 and is looking forward to it. Everything is going forward there. The ward is getting excited about another baptism and about another strong convert to the church. It is great to teach and work with people who are honestly searching for the truth. Makes the work so much easier and the Spirit so much stronger.
Other than that, not much else is new. Still trying to work as hard as my companion will allow me by knocking on doors, talking to people in the streets, speaking to all the members,etc. He just has lost all energy though and President and I don't know what to do for him anymore. He can finally agree that he has a testimony and that he agrees and believes in the gospel and in the church. But he has no desire to share it with others or to work. So much more thought and prayer. There has to be some way to get him more excited and engaged.
The weather has been beautiful. Some rain and cloudy days, but no snow or freezing weather. Life is good, but moving much too fast for my liking or enjoyment, lol. But I don't think it ever really slows down. I am still good on contacts, I have plenty left. Also, I was sent to a dermatologist a few weeks ago (thanks to President) and so have new acne medicine that I am trying so I won't be needing any more of that for awhile.
Love and prayers for you all!
Elder Hughes
Well, life has been going fairly good up here in Utah. I did manage to catch a pretty bad cold this past week but my landlords, the Smith's have actually been able to help out a lot. They showed me how to take grounded cayene pepper shots. They are really hot and spicy but they clean you out fast and make you feel a ton better in not very much time at all. They even gave me so more today so I can take some to stay strong and relatively healthy. You mix about a tablespoon of cayene pepper with just enough water to have to dissolve - about 2 or 3 gulps worth. Then you just chug and follow it down with milk or bread to keep your mouth from burning too bad. Works like a charm. A lot of other people are getting sick too though, just that time of year I guess. Elder Fordham in my district has been out about the past week with the flu - body aches, headache, chills, fever, vomiting, etc, you name it - he had all the symptoms. So far no one else has got it yet, thank goodness. Ironically, all the rules just changed again. No more going out to meals with family or friends, so there goes that plan with Grandma and Lora and Ashley. I guess I will just have to wait until this fall in order to see anyone when I come home. Also, no more early morning temple trips! AHHHHH! I don't know how I am going to survive without those, but we will find a way somehow I guess. We can still go later in the day on p-day, but my companion is extremely opposed to even the thought of that idea. We will see what happens. Transfers are next Wednesday and you just never know what might change. I'm still shooting for only two areas my whole mission, haha. That means another 4 transfers in this area to go if the Lord allows me to pull that off.
Speaking 3 times this past Sunday was so much fun! I forgot how much fun it is to get up there and share stories and experiences and such. Also, I managed to make all 3 of my talks different (that took some careful planning). The hardest one was speaking about 12 minutes on the great apostasy and not being able to speak about Christ's church in former times or the restoration at all. That took lots of good scritpures and ideas. The other two were just on member missionary work and both were fairly easy thanks to much prayer and pondering. We will see if anything actually happens now that we did speak. The members here in this area just can't be fired up to do missionary work and speaking was about the last option we had left. If that doesn't work, I don't have any more ideas left. Back to tracting all the time I guess. Which I don't mind, but doesn't get very much actual work done at all. We do have a stake youth fireside tonight and another one next week. We are hoping to get a lot of referrals from that and to be able to keep busy the next few weeks checking up on those. Also, President Miller should be training both our stakes on the ward mission process and the ward mission plan in the next month to every single auxiliary,quorum, and ward mission leadership. As well as all the bishopbrics and the stake leadership. We are banking on that helping out as well. We keep praying hard seeking for more guidance, but right now that is all we have received, so we will move forward in faith.
The adversary strikes again. Steve, who was just baptized, had his power turned off on him last week. He had overdue power bills that his wife had been collecting and hiding from him. When Steve finally found out, it was two days before the power kill date. He got nervous about talking to the bishop because he didn't want to put his church membership in jeopardy or his priesthood. That took quite a bit of explaining. It was awe-inspiring though to hear him speak. He was set on living off of canned foods the next 2 weeks with using flashlights to study the scriptures and taking much time to ponder and reflect. He said nothing was worth hurting his standing in the church or with God. Thankfully, he accepted what we taught about the church welfare system and called the bishop who immediately got the power turned back on. It was a miracle. It was so touching though to hear him bear his testimony! I don't know if I would have the faith to sacrifice like he has for the gospel. But he cannot wait to be able to get his endowments from the temple now, his goal is to become the most active Mormon anyone has ever met, haha. So he has now watched the past 3 years worth of every session of general conference or so and took notebooks worth of questions and notes that he enjoyed. Then he has hit the Book of Mormon hard and is determined to read it all very soon from start to finish. That and the Bible, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. Plus the Gospel Principles manual. He is dedicated and an inspiration to me. He really has the fire of the Spirit and is sharing the gospel with all that he knows. Many of our new investigators that we find will probably come from him. He had found the truth and is trying to share it with any and all that will listen.
Thomas is doing well. He is excited to be baptized on March 26 and is looking forward to it. Everything is going forward there. The ward is getting excited about another baptism and about another strong convert to the church. It is great to teach and work with people who are honestly searching for the truth. Makes the work so much easier and the Spirit so much stronger.
Other than that, not much else is new. Still trying to work as hard as my companion will allow me by knocking on doors, talking to people in the streets, speaking to all the members,etc. He just has lost all energy though and President and I don't know what to do for him anymore. He can finally agree that he has a testimony and that he agrees and believes in the gospel and in the church. But he has no desire to share it with others or to work. So much more thought and prayer. There has to be some way to get him more excited and engaged.
The weather has been beautiful. Some rain and cloudy days, but no snow or freezing weather. Life is good, but moving much too fast for my liking or enjoyment, lol. But I don't think it ever really slows down. I am still good on contacts, I have plenty left. Also, I was sent to a dermatologist a few weeks ago (thanks to President) and so have new acne medicine that I am trying so I won't be needing any more of that for awhile.
Love and prayers for you all!
Elder Hughes
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Good afternoon everybody!
Well, things have been going fairly good and at least we are getting our faces and our names out there as much as possible. The members are finally starting to trust us and to come around, it just took a long time of being obedient and tracting and bringing our own investigators to church and showing them we really do try in order to get there. But we got there. We finally are speaking in church! You don't know how excited I am for that, it means bishops are trusting us enough now. We are giving three talks each this Sunday - one at 9, one at 11, and one at 1. The latter two are both about missionary work (easy enough) but the first one I have to talk about the Great Apostasy and Elder Noll is speaking before me about Christ's original church. Then someone else will follow after us about the restoration of the gospel. Kind of a cool set up, huh? I'll let you know how those go next week when I write, but I am so excited! I love to speak in sacrament meetings now, it's a passion. Plus now I have all the stories and experiences to share from my mission so far and there are so many so talking is easy. Also, we are doing two youth firesides in the next two weeks. Both to about 100 kids each from both stakes' entire young men and young women groups. Then President Miller is going to come train our two stakes soon on doing missionary work, Elder Packer's missionary process, and ward mission plans. So the area is being innudated by missionary fire right now and it is really starting to catch on. We have a few families who are so excited about doing the 21 day challenge and who are loving it! I have never seen someone so excited to share the gospel with others and to invite people to meet with the missionaries as these few families that have really caught the spirit of it. The work has stopped being work now and has started to be a lot of fun! These are the best times and reminds me of my old area and how the work was going there. Elder Noll is somewhat less than excited about all our various speaking opportunities these next few weeks but he has agreed to give it a try and see what happens. Gotta love him for that. He has been doing a lot better recently and I have found him to be quite a bold missionary - no qualms about extending people a baptismal date and helping them to accept and work for that date. He just goes out and does it. Now if I could only help him to enjoy tracting as much as he does putting people on date, we would be set and nothing could stop us. But that hasn't happened quite yet so we will keep working hard and see what happens.
Last Friday, we received an all day training from Br. Allen who is the managing director of missionary work for the entire church. I love being in Utah because we get to have all these amazing speakers and the people who wrote Preach My Gospel come train us and teach us and help us to improve. Nothing better than that. Needless to say, as there always is, we were called to repentance on quite a few things - some I have never even thought about. But I am trying to be much better and to become the missionary God wants me to be and the First Presidency expects me to be. Lots of good stuff. I think the I thing that I liked the most that he said was about that people who "mostly" keep the commandments, who "mostly" do the right thing, who "mostly" do what they can aren't going to cut it. We call that the Terrestrial kingdom people. We cannot afford to be a "mostly" person. We need to be and "all the way" person, for that is who God expects us to be and that is who we must be to enter into the Celestial kingdom. That is what we promised at baptism and each week as we take the sacrament and we need to live up to these commitments. There can be no exceptions. I wasn't doing things terribly wrong by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasn't giving it all my "heart, might, mind, and strength" as the scriptures say. So I am going to stop being a "mostly" person now and just be an "all the way" person. I can do that or at least give it my best shot.
What else has happened? Let's see...another major snowstorm came through. Made walking and biking SO much fun again, haha. But the weather calls for sunshine and 50 degrees for the next little while and we are so excited for the heat wave. Never thought I would think of 50 degrees as a heat wave, but there you have it. Steve was confirmed this past week in sacrament meeting and it is amazing to see that expereince and its effect. Not only on Steve individually, but on the whole ward. Now the whole ward wants to do missionary work, they want to be involved more, they want to go out with us and partcipate in misisonary work, it's great! The miracle of a convert baptism has really changed the entire ward and their perspective and the work is really sailing in that ward now. We have 3 different investigators there now and all are progressing nicely towards baptism within the next month. Things are just going so awesome! I am loving it!
Also, I got the news that Grandma is going to come help pick up Lora and I started thinking about it. If they (Grandma and Lora) were at all interested, they could come up and meet me for lunch. Dad couldn't and I don't know what he would do, but they could. Just a thought, let me know if they are interested at all or if that is even a possibility.
I will also have you know I am finally living up to the cleaning expectations you raised me with Mom. My apartment is now vacummed, swept, washed, clutter free every week and many times throughout the week. I think you would be proud and it has made life so much better not to be messy even a little bit. So all those hours you spent making me mop and sweep that kitchen or my dish day or vacuuming the family room for the 10th time that day are worth it and I thank you. Cherish that thought because I probably will not have the same sentiment again, hahahaha.
That is about I think everything that has been going on this week. I love you all and pray for you!
Elder Hughes
Well, things have been going fairly good and at least we are getting our faces and our names out there as much as possible. The members are finally starting to trust us and to come around, it just took a long time of being obedient and tracting and bringing our own investigators to church and showing them we really do try in order to get there. But we got there. We finally are speaking in church! You don't know how excited I am for that, it means bishops are trusting us enough now. We are giving three talks each this Sunday - one at 9, one at 11, and one at 1. The latter two are both about missionary work (easy enough) but the first one I have to talk about the Great Apostasy and Elder Noll is speaking before me about Christ's original church. Then someone else will follow after us about the restoration of the gospel. Kind of a cool set up, huh? I'll let you know how those go next week when I write, but I am so excited! I love to speak in sacrament meetings now, it's a passion. Plus now I have all the stories and experiences to share from my mission so far and there are so many so talking is easy. Also, we are doing two youth firesides in the next two weeks. Both to about 100 kids each from both stakes' entire young men and young women groups. Then President Miller is going to come train our two stakes soon on doing missionary work, Elder Packer's missionary process, and ward mission plans. So the area is being innudated by missionary fire right now and it is really starting to catch on. We have a few families who are so excited about doing the 21 day challenge and who are loving it! I have never seen someone so excited to share the gospel with others and to invite people to meet with the missionaries as these few families that have really caught the spirit of it. The work has stopped being work now and has started to be a lot of fun! These are the best times and reminds me of my old area and how the work was going there. Elder Noll is somewhat less than excited about all our various speaking opportunities these next few weeks but he has agreed to give it a try and see what happens. Gotta love him for that. He has been doing a lot better recently and I have found him to be quite a bold missionary - no qualms about extending people a baptismal date and helping them to accept and work for that date. He just goes out and does it. Now if I could only help him to enjoy tracting as much as he does putting people on date, we would be set and nothing could stop us. But that hasn't happened quite yet so we will keep working hard and see what happens.
Last Friday, we received an all day training from Br. Allen who is the managing director of missionary work for the entire church. I love being in Utah because we get to have all these amazing speakers and the people who wrote Preach My Gospel come train us and teach us and help us to improve. Nothing better than that. Needless to say, as there always is, we were called to repentance on quite a few things - some I have never even thought about. But I am trying to be much better and to become the missionary God wants me to be and the First Presidency expects me to be. Lots of good stuff. I think the I thing that I liked the most that he said was about that people who "mostly" keep the commandments, who "mostly" do the right thing, who "mostly" do what they can aren't going to cut it. We call that the Terrestrial kingdom people. We cannot afford to be a "mostly" person. We need to be and "all the way" person, for that is who God expects us to be and that is who we must be to enter into the Celestial kingdom. That is what we promised at baptism and each week as we take the sacrament and we need to live up to these commitments. There can be no exceptions. I wasn't doing things terribly wrong by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasn't giving it all my "heart, might, mind, and strength" as the scriptures say. So I am going to stop being a "mostly" person now and just be an "all the way" person. I can do that or at least give it my best shot.
What else has happened? Let's see...another major snowstorm came through. Made walking and biking SO much fun again, haha. But the weather calls for sunshine and 50 degrees for the next little while and we are so excited for the heat wave. Never thought I would think of 50 degrees as a heat wave, but there you have it. Steve was confirmed this past week in sacrament meeting and it is amazing to see that expereince and its effect. Not only on Steve individually, but on the whole ward. Now the whole ward wants to do missionary work, they want to be involved more, they want to go out with us and partcipate in misisonary work, it's great! The miracle of a convert baptism has really changed the entire ward and their perspective and the work is really sailing in that ward now. We have 3 different investigators there now and all are progressing nicely towards baptism within the next month. Things are just going so awesome! I am loving it!
Also, I got the news that Grandma is going to come help pick up Lora and I started thinking about it. If they (Grandma and Lora) were at all interested, they could come up and meet me for lunch. Dad couldn't and I don't know what he would do, but they could. Just a thought, let me know if they are interested at all or if that is even a possibility.
I will also have you know I am finally living up to the cleaning expectations you raised me with Mom. My apartment is now vacummed, swept, washed, clutter free every week and many times throughout the week. I think you would be proud and it has made life so much better not to be messy even a little bit. So all those hours you spent making me mop and sweep that kitchen or my dish day or vacuuming the family room for the 10th time that day are worth it and I thank you. Cherish that thought because I probably will not have the same sentiment again, hahahaha.
That is about I think everything that has been going on this week. I love you all and pray for you!
Elder Hughes
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Hello everybody!
Well, this week has been a lot of fun! We just got back from going to the Sandy Fun Center and that was a blast. There are great perks to serving in Utah sometimes because we can get in free to certain places on P-day. So today we played laser tag and I won as the Dark Knight. That was tons of fun. Plus we got to use the skating rink (I just chose to use a scooter to go around on because it is VERY hard to biff hard on that compared to roller blades or skates). And all the inflatable toys - giant slides and obstacle courses. It was quite a work out and the time went by fast, much too fast. I also found out I am now a champion at the whac-a-mole style games. You know the ones where the things pop up and you hit them with a little foam hammer. I set the record and so got to get a disco ball necklace with my tickets that came out from the game. Don't know when I will really get to wear it, but it was awesome. Oh, I also managed to roll my ankle earlier in the week, so I had to wrap it up all week long but it is now almost all the way healed so no worries about that. It did get fairly big for a while, about 2 to 3 times as big as normal. Had a hard time fitting on a dress shoe, that is for sure. But life goes on. Not nearly as bad as having to ride a horse out of Havasupai
because my ankle was mega-huge at the time. Another crazy things happened too! I got another wedding announcement, good to know people are keeping those temple sealers busy, haha. Melissa Crandall is happily engaged and set to get married this month. That blows my mind! I will have to find a completely new group of friends when I get home because there will be no one left, but I don't mind it. I find it amusing to see all these things start to happen. I still haven't really gotten over the fact that Drew and Samuel are back home now too. How did that happen. I swear that they just barely left the other day, turns out two years went by. Go figure.
Steve Wright got baptized this week and that was an AMAZING experience. I don't think he has stopped smiling since that time or that he plans on doing that anytime soon. Also, he has sets on his sights on getting everyone else in the whole world baptized now, particularly his family. He hopes to baptize his son in about 2 to 3 weeks and already has a countdown going in his head for it. When his son voiced the concern that he wanted to learn a lot more first, Steve just told him that all he needs to know is that the church is true, he can learn everything the church teaches for years after he is baptized, haha. We didn't even have to do everything, Steve pretty much taught him the doctrine perfectly and then bore his powerful testimony. He is already such a good missionary, the members in his ward could learn a thing or two from him, lol. Thomas John attended the baptism for Steve. He is another investigator that we tracted into in that ward. He is from Sudan and is pretty excited to get baptized now himself. He loved all the people that he met and was excited to come back to church again this next Sunday. We plan on giving him a date on Friday when we go teach him again. Also, we plan on giving our Native American investigator Walter a date. He finally is back in town and we were finally able to get an appointment. Missionary work, I feel, is about 90% chasing these people down, 9% teaching, and then 1% baptizing. But it makes it all the hard work and frustration worth it when someone does get baptized. Everything just feels so much better and goes so much better after that.
I sent out letters yesterday that I wrote a week ago. I forgot I still had them, sorry. But hopefully you will all get one in the next few days. I am trying to write better now, at least a little bit. Writing is so much harder now though than it used to be, I don't know why. My thoughts don't flow as easy and it doesn't sound nearly as good as it used to. Probably because I have only been reading the scriptures the past year and a half and haven't read my good ol' classics books so my vocabularly and grammar usuage have gone down. But oh well, I am sure they will come back after the mission.
We had an amazing stake conference this past week. The theme was on Proverbs 3:5-6 : "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct they paths." The adult session was the most powerful church meeting I have ever attended in my life. They had people speak who have had truly difficult lives and how those trials have helped them to get to know the Lord better and to put all their trust in Him. There was a lady in her 20's who was a cancer survivor, then a lady in her 40's who has 10 kids and had to go through a rough divorce and then suffered a stroke and a heart condition right after that, then a quadraplegic elder's quorum president, and the list could go on. I was so touched by these people who had every reason to hate life, be miserable, give up, etc. But they pressed on and they came out of their trials happier, stronger, and more successful people than before. Each and everyone of them testified to that. The Lord truly knew them and knew exactly what they needed and made sure it happened and then when they put their trust in Him, the blessings just flowed. It was incredible! I don't think I can ever complain about anything in my life now, nothing has ever been that bad or ever been that hard. Some of my favorite quotes: "If we trust in the Lord, we can know that our INDIVIDUAL sorrows can be for our INDIVIDUAL good." "Without meekness and childlike faith we risk being broken by our trials, rather than strengthened." ""How can we trust someone that we don't know? We can't. If we are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts, we must love the Lord with all our hearts." "As a potter knows what technique to use in pottery, the Lord knows what technique to use on us." "No matter what our situations are in life, Heavenly Father will give us ALL the blessings of eternity if we follow Him and keep His commandments." It was spiritually overwhelming to listen to these people's testimonies and stories and to also look back at my own life and how the Lord has guided my footsteps as I put my trust in Him. Man, it was just so powerful. I don't even know how to describe it.
Well, I think that pretty much sums up this week. The weather has been great, spring is on the way! Some of the buds have started to shoot forth little greens leaves and the blossoms of the flowers cannot be too far behind! Soon, all the pretty tulips will be up and all the trees will be covered in the most gorgeous blossoms and I won't mind being in Utah again. Not one bit. Can't wait for that. I have been using the bike quite a bit recently, but it is still so cold. It will be nice to bike without gloves and scarf and hat sometimes. And to be wearing no suit coat but a short sleeve shirt.
Much love and prayers!
Elder Hughes
PS Thanks for the box! and thanks for the letter Grandma Hughes, I enjoyed it! And you too Great Grandma Anna! If you get the chance to go to Melissa's reception anyone, tell her congratulations from me!
Well, this week has been a lot of fun! We just got back from going to the Sandy Fun Center and that was a blast. There are great perks to serving in Utah sometimes because we can get in free to certain places on P-day. So today we played laser tag and I won as the Dark Knight. That was tons of fun. Plus we got to use the skating rink (I just chose to use a scooter to go around on because it is VERY hard to biff hard on that compared to roller blades or skates). And all the inflatable toys - giant slides and obstacle courses. It was quite a work out and the time went by fast, much too fast. I also found out I am now a champion at the whac-a-mole style games. You know the ones where the things pop up and you hit them with a little foam hammer. I set the record and so got to get a disco ball necklace with my tickets that came out from the game. Don't know when I will really get to wear it, but it was awesome. Oh, I also managed to roll my ankle earlier in the week, so I had to wrap it up all week long but it is now almost all the way healed so no worries about that. It did get fairly big for a while, about 2 to 3 times as big as normal. Had a hard time fitting on a dress shoe, that is for sure. But life goes on. Not nearly as bad as having to ride a horse out of Havasupai
because my ankle was mega-huge at the time. Another crazy things happened too! I got another wedding announcement, good to know people are keeping those temple sealers busy, haha. Melissa Crandall is happily engaged and set to get married this month. That blows my mind! I will have to find a completely new group of friends when I get home because there will be no one left, but I don't mind it. I find it amusing to see all these things start to happen. I still haven't really gotten over the fact that Drew and Samuel are back home now too. How did that happen. I swear that they just barely left the other day, turns out two years went by. Go figure.
Steve Wright got baptized this week and that was an AMAZING experience. I don't think he has stopped smiling since that time or that he plans on doing that anytime soon. Also, he has sets on his sights on getting everyone else in the whole world baptized now, particularly his family. He hopes to baptize his son in about 2 to 3 weeks and already has a countdown going in his head for it. When his son voiced the concern that he wanted to learn a lot more first, Steve just told him that all he needs to know is that the church is true, he can learn everything the church teaches for years after he is baptized, haha. We didn't even have to do everything, Steve pretty much taught him the doctrine perfectly and then bore his powerful testimony. He is already such a good missionary, the members in his ward could learn a thing or two from him, lol. Thomas John attended the baptism for Steve. He is another investigator that we tracted into in that ward. He is from Sudan and is pretty excited to get baptized now himself. He loved all the people that he met and was excited to come back to church again this next Sunday. We plan on giving him a date on Friday when we go teach him again. Also, we plan on giving our Native American investigator Walter a date. He finally is back in town and we were finally able to get an appointment. Missionary work, I feel, is about 90% chasing these people down, 9% teaching, and then 1% baptizing. But it makes it all the hard work and frustration worth it when someone does get baptized. Everything just feels so much better and goes so much better after that.
I sent out letters yesterday that I wrote a week ago. I forgot I still had them, sorry. But hopefully you will all get one in the next few days. I am trying to write better now, at least a little bit. Writing is so much harder now though than it used to be, I don't know why. My thoughts don't flow as easy and it doesn't sound nearly as good as it used to. Probably because I have only been reading the scriptures the past year and a half and haven't read my good ol' classics books so my vocabularly and grammar usuage have gone down. But oh well, I am sure they will come back after the mission.
We had an amazing stake conference this past week. The theme was on Proverbs 3:5-6 : "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct they paths." The adult session was the most powerful church meeting I have ever attended in my life. They had people speak who have had truly difficult lives and how those trials have helped them to get to know the Lord better and to put all their trust in Him. There was a lady in her 20's who was a cancer survivor, then a lady in her 40's who has 10 kids and had to go through a rough divorce and then suffered a stroke and a heart condition right after that, then a quadraplegic elder's quorum president, and the list could go on. I was so touched by these people who had every reason to hate life, be miserable, give up, etc. But they pressed on and they came out of their trials happier, stronger, and more successful people than before. Each and everyone of them testified to that. The Lord truly knew them and knew exactly what they needed and made sure it happened and then when they put their trust in Him, the blessings just flowed. It was incredible! I don't think I can ever complain about anything in my life now, nothing has ever been that bad or ever been that hard. Some of my favorite quotes: "If we trust in the Lord, we can know that our INDIVIDUAL sorrows can be for our INDIVIDUAL good." "Without meekness and childlike faith we risk being broken by our trials, rather than strengthened." ""How can we trust someone that we don't know? We can't. If we are to trust in the Lord with all our hearts, we must love the Lord with all our hearts." "As a potter knows what technique to use in pottery, the Lord knows what technique to use on us." "No matter what our situations are in life, Heavenly Father will give us ALL the blessings of eternity if we follow Him and keep His commandments." It was spiritually overwhelming to listen to these people's testimonies and stories and to also look back at my own life and how the Lord has guided my footsteps as I put my trust in Him. Man, it was just so powerful. I don't even know how to describe it.
Well, I think that pretty much sums up this week. The weather has been great, spring is on the way! Some of the buds have started to shoot forth little greens leaves and the blossoms of the flowers cannot be too far behind! Soon, all the pretty tulips will be up and all the trees will be covered in the most gorgeous blossoms and I won't mind being in Utah again. Not one bit. Can't wait for that. I have been using the bike quite a bit recently, but it is still so cold. It will be nice to bike without gloves and scarf and hat sometimes. And to be wearing no suit coat but a short sleeve shirt.
Much love and prayers!
Elder Hughes
PS Thanks for the box! and thanks for the letter Grandma Hughes, I enjoyed it! And you too Great Grandma Anna! If you get the chance to go to Melissa's reception anyone, tell her congratulations from me!
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