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