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
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
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
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