*This is not an email from Elder Ryan, but I want you all you Elder Ryan supporters to be able to read it. (personal posting choice of the sister...don't be offended THANKS!)
Dear friends and family of Elder Ryan Hughes,
I am a ward mission leader for a ward that is in the area that Elder Hughes currently serves. I am writing this email because of my deep and sincere gratitude for Elder Hughes. He obviously is a man of conviction and Christlike love and although we all can choose to be who we want to be, I know that surrounding a person like Elder Hughes, you normally find family and friends that have been supportive and an asset to him. He has been a real force for good and is helping people within my ward boundary to come unto Christ. He is a man of God. I thank everyone who has had a part in supporting him to become who he is and to be here at this time. I pray that God will bless you all for the good that you have done.
Thank you very much.
Brother Booth
Please pass this on to anyone who knows this great man and amazing scriptorian.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
August!
Good morning everybody!
So things are going great over here. Lots of success and things happening. The Lord has blessed us beyond measure with the people we have been teaching and things that have been going on. The weather has been fairly great. Really humid and hot with almost no rain. I love the dry heat, not necessarily the humidity. Elder Holm has been in his element though and has been vastly enjoying the humidity saying that it is better for you skin. All I know is that I wasn't peeling until it started to get humid this week, and now I am peeling all over my arms and hands. I look kind of like a snake. Anyway, my birthday was great and I still can't believe I am 20 years old. It is kind of ridiculous. There were a lot of very nice people thought that took care of me - got several presents, a turtle sundae at A&W, and the day after got sung too and cupcakes with candles to blow out and homemade birthday cards from one of the girls that we are teaching. It was incredible. I loved it! The cupcakes were delicious and actually getting to blow out candles was a blast! I appreciate the box from home and from Aunt Tiff and Uncle Joe and their family. Had some of everything that I liked or needed at the time. Thanks for the shirts Grandma Hughes! I was needing some more because I have managed to almost ruin some of my other ones in doing service for others and now I have solid ones that should last a long time and look nice. I am amazed at how things keep moving along and how things can change in a manner of minutes because of people's experiences and what is happening in their lives. We were able to start teaching 2 new investigators last week. Both pretty much dropped right into our laps. None of the doors we knock on or people we talk to ever seem to be interested, but because we keep trying to work hard, Heavenly Father keeps having people call us wanting to be taught and baptized. It is incredible and something that I am so thankful for!
Noa Bowen turned 9 years old last week and we started to teach him. He has already read through the Book of Mormon Stories book twice and is now on his third go round. He loves going to church and loves to pray and loves to feel the Spirit. He has had the desire to be baptized for the past year but because of less active parents, it hasn't happened yet. He is now on date for August 14 and we are hoping and praying that everything will work out for that date. He is solid and is praying for his own baptism and has been waiting and waiting for this day. Heavenly Father truly answers the prayers of children according to their huge amounts of faith and miracles really do happen is what I have learned. We are excited to be working with him and towards helping him to reach his goal of baptism so that he can return to his Heavenly Father.
Olivia (don't know the last name) was at church a week ago and got the prompting to talk with the bishop and request to meet with the missionaries. She has attened seminary last year and has been attending church for quite the past while and believes all that she has been taught. She now is ready to move forward and meet with us and get her final questions answered in preparation for baptism. She feels very strongly that the church is true, but is looking forward to reading from the Book of Mormon like we challenged her to feel even more of that same spirit. She is on date for August 14 as well and is excited to be so. Sadly, she left out of town till next Sunday, so we can't teach her or answer any of her questions until that point. But she is confident that she will get back and be ready to move ahead with that Saturday and work towards baptism. Heavenly Father truly blessed us to be able to teach and work with her and so far it has been amazing! Her mom is extrememly less active and has been for years and because of past situations currently no longer has custody of her daughter. She lives with her aunt in Draper currently but has tons and tons of friends in the Riverton 1st ward and so has been actively attending there and is excited to be baptized there.
Prayers were answered again this week as we met with Steve Miler. Everyone has been telling us there supsicions of how he was a smoker or a drinker or whatever. He has a very rough image in that ward and not a lot of people look at him too kindly or hopefully. But we taught him about the Word of Wisdom and he doesn't partake of any of the substances that we are commanded not to. His only question was about if Mt. Dew was included, and so we are go to ahead with his baptism on this Saturday. He and his wife have been actively attending church since we met with them and are excited to move together as a family towards the temple. Both want the blessing of being reunited with their little baby girl who was stillborn and are praying that they can make it back to the Celestial kingdom to live with her and Heavenly Father again. Steve was truly prepared to receive the gospel this time around because of that experience and is looking forward toward it. It is amazing the different reactions to experineces that people have. Plenty of people would have gotten mad at God for taking away their child and everything and distances themselves from Him. Steve was humbled though and brought to a point where he was willing to listen and to change his life after meeting with over 8 or so sets of missionaries before. Heavenly Father does truly work in mysterious ways and will give everyone, every chance to come unto Him.
Lexi and her friends were the ones who made me cupcakes and the birthday cards and she is so excited to be baptized and everything. She is looking forward to the 14th as her day and everything that will happen on it. We only need to cover the commandments with her and set up a program and we can go ahead with it. She is excited for it and it has made the difference in her life. They are all now actively participating in the lessons and are looking forward to the times that we come over.
Deylon is doing great! He has been able to come to church once with his sister and enjoyed it a lot. He is looking forward to coming again next week and towards being baptized sometime after that. Another miracle happened in that Dad plans to come home sometime in the next month and so Deylon can move ahead and be baptized. His mother's main concern was about not baptizing Deylon while the dad was away and now that he is coming back, we can piece everything together so Deylon can be baptized. Deylon is excited for that and we have enjoyed doing a few service projects over there and working with the family on different things. Sister Falkner is warming more and more up to us each and every day and I think we will challenge her again soon to come to church with us and see what she says.
The Nay's had a bit of a setback this week with things popping up again from their past. Everytime people make the decisions to choose the right and to do their best, Satan makes the hardest temptations appear and makes them look so inviting. So I am not sure what is going to happen there anymore. The family still wants us to come over and keep teaching as much as we can and the things that are going on. They still want Kamomi to be baptized in the near future and for Sam to receive the Aaronic priesthood soon. We will see though what happens now that they have met with the bishop and straightened everything out. They have been receiving a lot of blessings lately though and have started to pay their tithing and fast offerings. Lots of debts they had have been erased and they have both been able to secure jobs to help them out and keep them progressing.
Rachael has gotten difficult to get ahold of, she has not been answering phone calls or calling us back at all. Neither has Jim. We are concerned about how they all are doing and are trying to get in recontact with them as soon as possible to keep working with them. As far as we know, Rachael still has strong desires to be baptized and would like to move forward. We just need to help her get out to church more and to meet with us a few more times to make it happen.
Joe Heath has been making some huge changes and been feeling some pretty big differences in his life. He is willing to accept everything that we have been teaching and working towards joining towards the church at some future date. He has been reading a little bit, the only thing he struggles to do is to pray. We are working with him on that one and he has agreed to be praying about the Book of Mormon before we meet again to see what happens. He was very excited to hear about how the Book of Mormon prophesies about the Revolutionary War and Colombus and things like that and he was excited to read about that part now as he continues his reading. We meet with him again tomorrow to see what happens and what we can do to help things work out.
Everyone else we teach is making strides and have many other miracles occurring as well. Things have been going good. I love you all and have kept praying for you guys and hope everything is going well!
Elder Hughes
So things are going great over here. Lots of success and things happening. The Lord has blessed us beyond measure with the people we have been teaching and things that have been going on. The weather has been fairly great. Really humid and hot with almost no rain. I love the dry heat, not necessarily the humidity. Elder Holm has been in his element though and has been vastly enjoying the humidity saying that it is better for you skin. All I know is that I wasn't peeling until it started to get humid this week, and now I am peeling all over my arms and hands. I look kind of like a snake. Anyway, my birthday was great and I still can't believe I am 20 years old. It is kind of ridiculous. There were a lot of very nice people thought that took care of me - got several presents, a turtle sundae at A&W, and the day after got sung too and cupcakes with candles to blow out and homemade birthday cards from one of the girls that we are teaching. It was incredible. I loved it! The cupcakes were delicious and actually getting to blow out candles was a blast! I appreciate the box from home and from Aunt Tiff and Uncle Joe and their family. Had some of everything that I liked or needed at the time. Thanks for the shirts Grandma Hughes! I was needing some more because I have managed to almost ruin some of my other ones in doing service for others and now I have solid ones that should last a long time and look nice. I am amazed at how things keep moving along and how things can change in a manner of minutes because of people's experiences and what is happening in their lives. We were able to start teaching 2 new investigators last week. Both pretty much dropped right into our laps. None of the doors we knock on or people we talk to ever seem to be interested, but because we keep trying to work hard, Heavenly Father keeps having people call us wanting to be taught and baptized. It is incredible and something that I am so thankful for!
Noa Bowen turned 9 years old last week and we started to teach him. He has already read through the Book of Mormon Stories book twice and is now on his third go round. He loves going to church and loves to pray and loves to feel the Spirit. He has had the desire to be baptized for the past year but because of less active parents, it hasn't happened yet. He is now on date for August 14 and we are hoping and praying that everything will work out for that date. He is solid and is praying for his own baptism and has been waiting and waiting for this day. Heavenly Father truly answers the prayers of children according to their huge amounts of faith and miracles really do happen is what I have learned. We are excited to be working with him and towards helping him to reach his goal of baptism so that he can return to his Heavenly Father.
Olivia (don't know the last name) was at church a week ago and got the prompting to talk with the bishop and request to meet with the missionaries. She has attened seminary last year and has been attending church for quite the past while and believes all that she has been taught. She now is ready to move forward and meet with us and get her final questions answered in preparation for baptism. She feels very strongly that the church is true, but is looking forward to reading from the Book of Mormon like we challenged her to feel even more of that same spirit. She is on date for August 14 as well and is excited to be so. Sadly, she left out of town till next Sunday, so we can't teach her or answer any of her questions until that point. But she is confident that she will get back and be ready to move ahead with that Saturday and work towards baptism. Heavenly Father truly blessed us to be able to teach and work with her and so far it has been amazing! Her mom is extrememly less active and has been for years and because of past situations currently no longer has custody of her daughter. She lives with her aunt in Draper currently but has tons and tons of friends in the Riverton 1st ward and so has been actively attending there and is excited to be baptized there.
Prayers were answered again this week as we met with Steve Miler. Everyone has been telling us there supsicions of how he was a smoker or a drinker or whatever. He has a very rough image in that ward and not a lot of people look at him too kindly or hopefully. But we taught him about the Word of Wisdom and he doesn't partake of any of the substances that we are commanded not to. His only question was about if Mt. Dew was included, and so we are go to ahead with his baptism on this Saturday. He and his wife have been actively attending church since we met with them and are excited to move together as a family towards the temple. Both want the blessing of being reunited with their little baby girl who was stillborn and are praying that they can make it back to the Celestial kingdom to live with her and Heavenly Father again. Steve was truly prepared to receive the gospel this time around because of that experience and is looking forward toward it. It is amazing the different reactions to experineces that people have. Plenty of people would have gotten mad at God for taking away their child and everything and distances themselves from Him. Steve was humbled though and brought to a point where he was willing to listen and to change his life after meeting with over 8 or so sets of missionaries before. Heavenly Father does truly work in mysterious ways and will give everyone, every chance to come unto Him.
Lexi and her friends were the ones who made me cupcakes and the birthday cards and she is so excited to be baptized and everything. She is looking forward to the 14th as her day and everything that will happen on it. We only need to cover the commandments with her and set up a program and we can go ahead with it. She is excited for it and it has made the difference in her life. They are all now actively participating in the lessons and are looking forward to the times that we come over.
Deylon is doing great! He has been able to come to church once with his sister and enjoyed it a lot. He is looking forward to coming again next week and towards being baptized sometime after that. Another miracle happened in that Dad plans to come home sometime in the next month and so Deylon can move ahead and be baptized. His mother's main concern was about not baptizing Deylon while the dad was away and now that he is coming back, we can piece everything together so Deylon can be baptized. Deylon is excited for that and we have enjoyed doing a few service projects over there and working with the family on different things. Sister Falkner is warming more and more up to us each and every day and I think we will challenge her again soon to come to church with us and see what she says.
The Nay's had a bit of a setback this week with things popping up again from their past. Everytime people make the decisions to choose the right and to do their best, Satan makes the hardest temptations appear and makes them look so inviting. So I am not sure what is going to happen there anymore. The family still wants us to come over and keep teaching as much as we can and the things that are going on. They still want Kamomi to be baptized in the near future and for Sam to receive the Aaronic priesthood soon. We will see though what happens now that they have met with the bishop and straightened everything out. They have been receiving a lot of blessings lately though and have started to pay their tithing and fast offerings. Lots of debts they had have been erased and they have both been able to secure jobs to help them out and keep them progressing.
Rachael has gotten difficult to get ahold of, she has not been answering phone calls or calling us back at all. Neither has Jim. We are concerned about how they all are doing and are trying to get in recontact with them as soon as possible to keep working with them. As far as we know, Rachael still has strong desires to be baptized and would like to move forward. We just need to help her get out to church more and to meet with us a few more times to make it happen.
Joe Heath has been making some huge changes and been feeling some pretty big differences in his life. He is willing to accept everything that we have been teaching and working towards joining towards the church at some future date. He has been reading a little bit, the only thing he struggles to do is to pray. We are working with him on that one and he has agreed to be praying about the Book of Mormon before we meet again to see what happens. He was very excited to hear about how the Book of Mormon prophesies about the Revolutionary War and Colombus and things like that and he was excited to read about that part now as he continues his reading. We meet with him again tomorrow to see what happens and what we can do to help things work out.
Everyone else we teach is making strides and have many other miracles occurring as well. Things have been going good. I love you all and have kept praying for you guys and hope everything is going well!
Elder Hughes
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
So the sun is out and that means I sunburn....life is still great though!
Hey everybody!
So as you can tell by my subject, the sun is out and spring is finally here. And I have to say I love Spring, I have never seen a "spring" before. At least not one like here. There are so many flowers everywhere and all the trees have the most amazing looking blossoms on all the trees. I am going to have to take some pictures and send them to you guys of all the awesomeness because I have seriously never experienced it before. Fall and spring don't really exist in Mesa is what I decided. We have summer and winter. That's it. Anyway, so I got a letter mailed out today to the family and some other people, that should hopefully get there in the next few days. This week was probably one of the best weeks I have had since I have been out on a mission yet. We had 13 lessons this week and a baptism. That is the most lessons we have taught in one week ever, still a far cry from the 21 that the mission "standard of excellence" is at, but Heavenly Father blessed us to teach people who wanted to meet more than once a week and to find more investigators to teach. Investigators who are honestly searching to find the truth and so are excited to be baptized and to learn the truth. They are reading and praying every night and love going to church. I don't know what the deal is but Heavenly Father seems to bless us with all "golden" investigators - that or just everyone is golden in the Lord's eyes and so at the right time and in the right way, He will reach out to His children here on the earth by letting them find the missionaries. It also amazes me how we have found no investigators by tracting yet, not one. We have found all the people we are teaching or have taught in the past by member referrals. That is the way missionary work is supposed to work I think.
So Aliya Reece was baptized and confirmed on Saturday. We taught her all the lessons in one and half weeks. Crazy fast! But when someone is willing and ready to learn, they are able to take it all in. Whereas, if they are being stubborn, it takes a lot longer to teach and to get them to keep commitments. She is 12 years old, but about the size of an 8 year old. Reminds me a lot of Jamie Richardson in that way, but is a very sharp young woman. She marks all the scriptures that she enjoys and she shares them with us when we teach her. Basically, she is awesome! Her family is all less active and so they were not willing to do anything about it. So we taught her at the ward mission leader's house, Bro and Sis Brown have become 2nd grandparents to her since she spent most of the past two weeks almost living at their home. Her family came out to the baptism them - all the less actives and the non members. So now the ward is on top of getting them to start coming back to church and to work towards baptism for a few of those people.
Dakota Bradley is learning crazy fast as well. He loves to compare the gospel to things that he knows and so has taught Elder Craigo and I quite a lot since we started teaching him just over a month ago. We finished the message of the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation last week and he soaked it all in like a sponge and shared it all back with us with insight included. Teaching him is a complete joy. Teaching him at the Maynard's house is a ton of fun too. Teaching at members' houses brings the greatest joy and is the most fun because they have such great testimonies to share and experiences that are awesome - lessons are their houses always go at a slower pace though because of all the discussion that goes on. But that is why they are supposed to be disucssions and not just boring lessons, right? Our investigators sure seem to learn a lot more from a discussion atmosphere surrounded by their friends in the gospel. Dakota is on date to get baptized this weekend, but we will see. He is sincerely praying, attending church, and now reading so he should get the answer that he is searching for, I know it. The family is all praying for him as well, so things should work out.
Kristina Davis is an earnest 11 year old who wants to know the truth. She comes from a part member family who has all now gone less active. Her mom is a fundamentalist so treats us pretty coldly, but at least she let us in the house and she is ok with Kristina getting baptized. Kristina is excited to read, pray, and attend church. She doesn't know if she wants to get baptized yet (based on her getting an answer that the church is true) but she believes in it so she can get there. She should be getting baptized about halfway through May if all goes well. The trick is getting them to start coming back out to church, so far yesterday they are still giving us the run around but they should be able to come next week, they promised.
We are also now teaching Vern Peterson Jr. He is an unbaptized 9 year old who really wants to get baptized. His family has just been having depression issues and things and so stopped attending church a few months before he could get baptized. His father committed to start coming back to church though this Sunday and is excited for it. He knows that his family has drifted apart and struggled a lot harder with life since they went less active and he wants to get all the blessings of the gospel back into his life as soon as he can. His wife is going to be harder to work on, but I know that with the help of our Heavenly Father she can regain that desire to be active again as well.
Teaching Careie LeFevre (isn't that an awesome spelling for that name?!?). She is a bit more of challenge. She knows the church is true and loves everything about it. She even made it to church yesterday and loved the experience again and set up an interview with the bishop. She used to be athiest thanks to the abuse she received from the Fundamentalist church her parents belong to. But events in her life and her praying and reading of the Book of Mormon in the past 2 weeks have given her a strong testimony. She is ready to get baptized basically - she just needs to stop drinking coffee and she has to move out of her mother's house. Since it is owned by a Fundamentalist (polygamous) church, she cannot be baptized until she moves into a place that is not owned by them. Also, she will have to be interviewed by an apostle (most likely Elder Holland and if I don't get transferred I might get to meet him!) She is determined to be baptized though and she really wants to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, a lot! She knows the feeling the Spirit brings and she wants that guidance, peace, and direction with her all the time. She hates that He has to leave when she isn't doing church stuff and wants Him there at all times and through all her righteous activities. So pray hard for her to find a place to move to and to overcome her coffee addiction. Coffee is one of the hardest addictions, that and smoking. But I know people can overcome anything through the help of the Savior and His Atonement and by pleading for help from our Heavenly Father through prayer. Careie knows that as well and is excited to overcome these things and receive all the blessings that her Heavenly Father has for her.
We are also teaching Devlin Flynn right now. He is hot and cold towards the gospel. Loves it and then doesn't see why it matters so much. So pray for him to keep his desire up so he can receive a witness that the gospel is true, because once he does, he will be good to go.
Still working on quite a few potential investigators. The Gonzales family is so close, but the mom is hot and cold to the extreme. Pray for her to be softened and for us to be able to start teaching this week. I know that as people do, miracles will happen and that household will open up. Also, might start teaching the Sheppard children this week. They are ready to go, just waiting for the go ahead from their Catholic grandmother who has had really negative experience with missionaries before. (She thinks we are all such terrible people, we have tried to show her otherwise, but hasn't worked yet.) The bishop of that ward is working hard on that family though and they have made huge strides in the past few weeks. Bishop Rassmussen is his name and he took a picture of Elder Craigo and I last night before transfers came up because he and his wife treat us basically like thier own children. It is very awesome!
Well, time is really limited today. So that is all I got to write about. Hopefully that is enough to let you all know what is going on. I love you all!
Elder Hughes
So as you can tell by my subject, the sun is out and spring is finally here. And I have to say I love Spring, I have never seen a "spring" before. At least not one like here. There are so many flowers everywhere and all the trees have the most amazing looking blossoms on all the trees. I am going to have to take some pictures and send them to you guys of all the awesomeness because I have seriously never experienced it before. Fall and spring don't really exist in Mesa is what I decided. We have summer and winter. That's it. Anyway, so I got a letter mailed out today to the family and some other people, that should hopefully get there in the next few days. This week was probably one of the best weeks I have had since I have been out on a mission yet. We had 13 lessons this week and a baptism. That is the most lessons we have taught in one week ever, still a far cry from the 21 that the mission "standard of excellence" is at, but Heavenly Father blessed us to teach people who wanted to meet more than once a week and to find more investigators to teach. Investigators who are honestly searching to find the truth and so are excited to be baptized and to learn the truth. They are reading and praying every night and love going to church. I don't know what the deal is but Heavenly Father seems to bless us with all "golden" investigators - that or just everyone is golden in the Lord's eyes and so at the right time and in the right way, He will reach out to His children here on the earth by letting them find the missionaries. It also amazes me how we have found no investigators by tracting yet, not one. We have found all the people we are teaching or have taught in the past by member referrals. That is the way missionary work is supposed to work I think.
So Aliya Reece was baptized and confirmed on Saturday. We taught her all the lessons in one and half weeks. Crazy fast! But when someone is willing and ready to learn, they are able to take it all in. Whereas, if they are being stubborn, it takes a lot longer to teach and to get them to keep commitments. She is 12 years old, but about the size of an 8 year old. Reminds me a lot of Jamie Richardson in that way, but is a very sharp young woman. She marks all the scriptures that she enjoys and she shares them with us when we teach her. Basically, she is awesome! Her family is all less active and so they were not willing to do anything about it. So we taught her at the ward mission leader's house, Bro and Sis Brown have become 2nd grandparents to her since she spent most of the past two weeks almost living at their home. Her family came out to the baptism them - all the less actives and the non members. So now the ward is on top of getting them to start coming back to church and to work towards baptism for a few of those people.
Dakota Bradley is learning crazy fast as well. He loves to compare the gospel to things that he knows and so has taught Elder Craigo and I quite a lot since we started teaching him just over a month ago. We finished the message of the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation last week and he soaked it all in like a sponge and shared it all back with us with insight included. Teaching him is a complete joy. Teaching him at the Maynard's house is a ton of fun too. Teaching at members' houses brings the greatest joy and is the most fun because they have such great testimonies to share and experiences that are awesome - lessons are their houses always go at a slower pace though because of all the discussion that goes on. But that is why they are supposed to be disucssions and not just boring lessons, right? Our investigators sure seem to learn a lot more from a discussion atmosphere surrounded by their friends in the gospel. Dakota is on date to get baptized this weekend, but we will see. He is sincerely praying, attending church, and now reading so he should get the answer that he is searching for, I know it. The family is all praying for him as well, so things should work out.
Kristina Davis is an earnest 11 year old who wants to know the truth. She comes from a part member family who has all now gone less active. Her mom is a fundamentalist so treats us pretty coldly, but at least she let us in the house and she is ok with Kristina getting baptized. Kristina is excited to read, pray, and attend church. She doesn't know if she wants to get baptized yet (based on her getting an answer that the church is true) but she believes in it so she can get there. She should be getting baptized about halfway through May if all goes well. The trick is getting them to start coming back out to church, so far yesterday they are still giving us the run around but they should be able to come next week, they promised.
We are also now teaching Vern Peterson Jr. He is an unbaptized 9 year old who really wants to get baptized. His family has just been having depression issues and things and so stopped attending church a few months before he could get baptized. His father committed to start coming back to church though this Sunday and is excited for it. He knows that his family has drifted apart and struggled a lot harder with life since they went less active and he wants to get all the blessings of the gospel back into his life as soon as he can. His wife is going to be harder to work on, but I know that with the help of our Heavenly Father she can regain that desire to be active again as well.
Teaching Careie LeFevre (isn't that an awesome spelling for that name?!?). She is a bit more of challenge. She knows the church is true and loves everything about it. She even made it to church yesterday and loved the experience again and set up an interview with the bishop. She used to be athiest thanks to the abuse she received from the Fundamentalist church her parents belong to. But events in her life and her praying and reading of the Book of Mormon in the past 2 weeks have given her a strong testimony. She is ready to get baptized basically - she just needs to stop drinking coffee and she has to move out of her mother's house. Since it is owned by a Fundamentalist (polygamous) church, she cannot be baptized until she moves into a place that is not owned by them. Also, she will have to be interviewed by an apostle (most likely Elder Holland and if I don't get transferred I might get to meet him!) She is determined to be baptized though and she really wants to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, a lot! She knows the feeling the Spirit brings and she wants that guidance, peace, and direction with her all the time. She hates that He has to leave when she isn't doing church stuff and wants Him there at all times and through all her righteous activities. So pray hard for her to find a place to move to and to overcome her coffee addiction. Coffee is one of the hardest addictions, that and smoking. But I know people can overcome anything through the help of the Savior and His Atonement and by pleading for help from our Heavenly Father through prayer. Careie knows that as well and is excited to overcome these things and receive all the blessings that her Heavenly Father has for her.
We are also teaching Devlin Flynn right now. He is hot and cold towards the gospel. Loves it and then doesn't see why it matters so much. So pray for him to keep his desire up so he can receive a witness that the gospel is true, because once he does, he will be good to go.
Still working on quite a few potential investigators. The Gonzales family is so close, but the mom is hot and cold to the extreme. Pray for her to be softened and for us to be able to start teaching this week. I know that as people do, miracles will happen and that household will open up. Also, might start teaching the Sheppard children this week. They are ready to go, just waiting for the go ahead from their Catholic grandmother who has had really negative experience with missionaries before. (She thinks we are all such terrible people, we have tried to show her otherwise, but hasn't worked yet.) The bishop of that ward is working hard on that family though and they have made huge strides in the past few weeks. Bishop Rassmussen is his name and he took a picture of Elder Craigo and I last night before transfers came up because he and his wife treat us basically like thier own children. It is very awesome!
Well, time is really limited today. So that is all I got to write about. Hopefully that is enough to let you all know what is going on. I love you all!
Elder Hughes
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Easter week
I am so sorry I got out of the habit of posting won't let it happen again
Hey everybody!
So guess what happened?!?!?!? I am now a Utah Salt Lake City South missionary! Well, I guess I have always been one, but now it is official. President Laney pulled me in his office this week and we had an interview and he told me that I had been permanently reassigned here. I don't live in Utah so I am the lucky one out of everyone that gets to stay here. Everyone is now asking me how I feel about that expecting that I am going to be all disappointed but I am not, not one bit. I love being here and serving the people here in the Salt Lake Valley and all my ward mission leaders have been so excited that I have been reassigned here - too excited. I think they have been praying that this will be the case as well as the missionaries of the zone that I am in. But oh well, things have worked out the way they are supposed to and Heavenly Father has some great plan to get it all to work out, still not sure what I learned a little bit of the Mongolian language for but it had to be for some reason. Anyway, so that was my exciting news for the week and the only thing I am really going to have to work on doing now is not gaining weight. Members here can be faaaaaar too generous with food - they pile dinner on us and then keep on piling food throughout the night. Dessert especially. I appreciate it alot, but I have gained a good 8 pounds already being here in this mission. So my goal is not to come home fat. Not a bit, so a lot more working out and eating healthy when I have the chance to (meals we get on our own).
Thanks so much for the tie Lora and Jerah! I appreciate it a lot (not sure what I am going to wear it with yet.....but we will see hahaha). Also, can someone please update my blog? I am getting letters from my friends wanting all the info on what is going on in my mission because the blog hasn't been updated and I don't quite have enough time to write them all back with all the info they want. So if someone can post my emails to the blog, it would be much appreciated! :)
Alright, yes I loved Easter this week and I loved General Conference this week. There was a ton of messages that were just meant for me, especially out of the Priesthood session. It answered a lot of the questions I have been having and praying about, so that was awesome. Also, I think a lot of talks were directed just to our family as well, it certainly felt like that and made me think about it. I noticed the major theme was about families, which doesn't have too much to do with me right now. But it has a lot to do with our investigators and there was a lot of things in there directed towards the people we are teaching and I hope they were able to get the things from it that they needed. We watched both sessions on Sunday at Br. Beyers' house in the Mountain Point 10th ward. He reminds me a ton of Bro. Whipple and has a lot of the same humor. He and his wife are the nicest people ever and took great care of us for Easter Sunday. We had the biggest waffle brunch between sessions that I have ever had in my life. I think they got us to eat more food than I ever have in my life as well. Also, they got us chocolate bunnies :) so the Easter bunny even visits while I am on a mission just like Santa did from the very nice Howell family down in Bluffdale. I am definitely planning on coming back to visit with them when I start going back to BYU, going to their ward and being at their house feels like home away from home. That is how nice they are to us. There are quite a few people in their ward that we are getting closer to teaching as well so we might get to see more of them. Jose was also there on Sunday and at the Priesthood session and it was awesome to get to see him again. He still has the "new convert" glow about him and it hasn't lessened a bit in the past month. He is still trying his hardest to get the family he lives with to accept the gospel. Eric is ready to go and wants to meet with us and loves feeling the Spirit and loves family prayer and wants to go to church, but he is too softspoken. His wife runs the family, and she does NOT want to get entangled in the Mormon church. However, she does want to start having FHE, so day by day she is softening and I know that the Lord will continue to work with her so that the rest of her family who so much wants to join the church will get the chance to. Their 10 year old daughter Francella would pretty much hop in the water, and their 13 year old daughter Claudia has started to attend Young Women's and loved it. So every day, step by step as the ward and Jose fellowship them like crazy, they are getting closer to entering into the Lord's kingdom. Maybe it will be while I am still in this area, maybe not. But I am confident they will, Jose has been praying and fasting for them wayyyy too hard to not have some result.
Well, this week was very, very slow. Not too much is going on. We might teach as many lessons today as we did in the past week just to give you an idea of what all is going on. Sharon is getting baptized tomorrow and is excited for it. We are excited for her too! The semi-active Nielson couple that we have been teaching and working with is making huge progress. They are getting interviewed by the bishop this week to start the process for getting temple recommends. And he is getting the Melchezidek priesthood soon and a patriarchal blessing. They are both excited to start doing baptisms for the dead as soon as possible. So we are very excited for them. They are 23 years old and are excited to get their lives back on the right eternal track. Also, the Brandreth couple in that same ward is making huge progress as well. They have gone from fighting nonstop and him running away on our first lesson to now they are setting temple plans as well and are reading the scriptures and praying as a couple. As well as attending all three hours of church for the first time in years. It is amazing to watch people's faces change as we work with them and as Heavenly Father blesses them for their efforts. Br. Brandreth wouldn't even look us in the face the first time, now he is beaming from eye to eye and is asking us tons of questions to make sure he is doing everything he needs to do. His wife as well. They are an awesome couple and we love to visit them and work with them. The Page's moved on Saturday and Elder Craigo helped a lot there and so missed the Saturday morning session of General Conference. She still wants us to teach her kids though so we will be meeting her at our stake center tomorrow even though she no longer even lives in that stake anymore. So we get to keep seeing them. Other moves: Josh Bennett is moving back to Oregon to run a Jerky Hut. He is all set now to get the Melchizedek priesthood and get his endowment in just a few months. We are going to miss him terribly. But he promised that he would keep in contact with us and I think he will. I guess we are still doing some work - just all with less active people and families which is good, but not the entire purpose we are supposed to cover. Mission leaders aren't very happy with us, but I hope Heavenly Father understands. It feels like He does, helping them brings the same joy that brings working with investigators. So it works, I think. We are still looking for more investigators - we met a kid named Dakota last week who has been attending church for the past few months and wants to get the priesthood, so the bishop had an interview with him and said he would have to get baptized first. So we are hoping and praying to start meeting with him this week. Also, to start meeting with Aleah Gerleah and the Sheppard family. All have been attending church for several months and are ready to go, the trick is just convincing and pinning down their parents to starting to teach them.
Ok, so I didn't get to write very much because not very much happened. But I know this church is true and that I am where I am supposed to be right now. I know that Heavenly Father loves each one of us individually. Even those this week has been slow, He knows that we have been working hard and will help us through our struggles. I love you all and pray for you all!
Elder Hughes
Hey everybody!
So guess what happened?!?!?!? I am now a Utah Salt Lake City South missionary! Well, I guess I have always been one, but now it is official. President Laney pulled me in his office this week and we had an interview and he told me that I had been permanently reassigned here. I don't live in Utah so I am the lucky one out of everyone that gets to stay here. Everyone is now asking me how I feel about that expecting that I am going to be all disappointed but I am not, not one bit. I love being here and serving the people here in the Salt Lake Valley and all my ward mission leaders have been so excited that I have been reassigned here - too excited. I think they have been praying that this will be the case as well as the missionaries of the zone that I am in. But oh well, things have worked out the way they are supposed to and Heavenly Father has some great plan to get it all to work out, still not sure what I learned a little bit of the Mongolian language for but it had to be for some reason. Anyway, so that was my exciting news for the week and the only thing I am really going to have to work on doing now is not gaining weight. Members here can be faaaaaar too generous with food - they pile dinner on us and then keep on piling food throughout the night. Dessert especially. I appreciate it alot, but I have gained a good 8 pounds already being here in this mission. So my goal is not to come home fat. Not a bit, so a lot more working out and eating healthy when I have the chance to (meals we get on our own).
Thanks so much for the tie Lora and Jerah! I appreciate it a lot (not sure what I am going to wear it with yet.....but we will see hahaha). Also, can someone please update my blog? I am getting letters from my friends wanting all the info on what is going on in my mission because the blog hasn't been updated and I don't quite have enough time to write them all back with all the info they want. So if someone can post my emails to the blog, it would be much appreciated! :)
Alright, yes I loved Easter this week and I loved General Conference this week. There was a ton of messages that were just meant for me, especially out of the Priesthood session. It answered a lot of the questions I have been having and praying about, so that was awesome. Also, I think a lot of talks were directed just to our family as well, it certainly felt like that and made me think about it. I noticed the major theme was about families, which doesn't have too much to do with me right now. But it has a lot to do with our investigators and there was a lot of things in there directed towards the people we are teaching and I hope they were able to get the things from it that they needed. We watched both sessions on Sunday at Br. Beyers' house in the Mountain Point 10th ward. He reminds me a ton of Bro. Whipple and has a lot of the same humor. He and his wife are the nicest people ever and took great care of us for Easter Sunday. We had the biggest waffle brunch between sessions that I have ever had in my life. I think they got us to eat more food than I ever have in my life as well. Also, they got us chocolate bunnies :) so the Easter bunny even visits while I am on a mission just like Santa did from the very nice Howell family down in Bluffdale. I am definitely planning on coming back to visit with them when I start going back to BYU, going to their ward and being at their house feels like home away from home. That is how nice they are to us. There are quite a few people in their ward that we are getting closer to teaching as well so we might get to see more of them. Jose was also there on Sunday and at the Priesthood session and it was awesome to get to see him again. He still has the "new convert" glow about him and it hasn't lessened a bit in the past month. He is still trying his hardest to get the family he lives with to accept the gospel. Eric is ready to go and wants to meet with us and loves feeling the Spirit and loves family prayer and wants to go to church, but he is too softspoken. His wife runs the family, and she does NOT want to get entangled in the Mormon church. However, she does want to start having FHE, so day by day she is softening and I know that the Lord will continue to work with her so that the rest of her family who so much wants to join the church will get the chance to. Their 10 year old daughter Francella would pretty much hop in the water, and their 13 year old daughter Claudia has started to attend Young Women's and loved it. So every day, step by step as the ward and Jose fellowship them like crazy, they are getting closer to entering into the Lord's kingdom. Maybe it will be while I am still in this area, maybe not. But I am confident they will, Jose has been praying and fasting for them wayyyy too hard to not have some result.
Well, this week was very, very slow. Not too much is going on. We might teach as many lessons today as we did in the past week just to give you an idea of what all is going on. Sharon is getting baptized tomorrow and is excited for it. We are excited for her too! The semi-active Nielson couple that we have been teaching and working with is making huge progress. They are getting interviewed by the bishop this week to start the process for getting temple recommends. And he is getting the Melchezidek priesthood soon and a patriarchal blessing. They are both excited to start doing baptisms for the dead as soon as possible. So we are very excited for them. They are 23 years old and are excited to get their lives back on the right eternal track. Also, the Brandreth couple in that same ward is making huge progress as well. They have gone from fighting nonstop and him running away on our first lesson to now they are setting temple plans as well and are reading the scriptures and praying as a couple. As well as attending all three hours of church for the first time in years. It is amazing to watch people's faces change as we work with them and as Heavenly Father blesses them for their efforts. Br. Brandreth wouldn't even look us in the face the first time, now he is beaming from eye to eye and is asking us tons of questions to make sure he is doing everything he needs to do. His wife as well. They are an awesome couple and we love to visit them and work with them. The Page's moved on Saturday and Elder Craigo helped a lot there and so missed the Saturday morning session of General Conference. She still wants us to teach her kids though so we will be meeting her at our stake center tomorrow even though she no longer even lives in that stake anymore. So we get to keep seeing them. Other moves: Josh Bennett is moving back to Oregon to run a Jerky Hut. He is all set now to get the Melchizedek priesthood and get his endowment in just a few months. We are going to miss him terribly. But he promised that he would keep in contact with us and I think he will. I guess we are still doing some work - just all with less active people and families which is good, but not the entire purpose we are supposed to cover. Mission leaders aren't very happy with us, but I hope Heavenly Father understands. It feels like He does, helping them brings the same joy that brings working with investigators. So it works, I think. We are still looking for more investigators - we met a kid named Dakota last week who has been attending church for the past few months and wants to get the priesthood, so the bishop had an interview with him and said he would have to get baptized first. So we are hoping and praying to start meeting with him this week. Also, to start meeting with Aleah Gerleah and the Sheppard family. All have been attending church for several months and are ready to go, the trick is just convincing and pinning down their parents to starting to teach them.
Ok, so I didn't get to write very much because not very much happened. But I know this church is true and that I am where I am supposed to be right now. I know that Heavenly Father loves each one of us individually. Even those this week has been slow, He knows that we have been working hard and will help us through our struggles. I love you all and pray for you all!
Elder Hughes
Monday, December 21, 2009
New Address!
Sincere apologies for the delay! Things have been kind of crazy around here. Due to visa delay, Ryan has been temporarily reassigned to the Salt Lake City South Mission. He arrived last Wednesday 12/16/09 and is excited to be in the mission field. Now, for the heart of this post, please send mail to:
Elder Ryan Hughes
UTAH SALT LAKE CITY SOUTH MISSION
8060 S 615 E
SANDY UT 84070
Elder Ryan Hughes
UTAH SALT LAKE CITY SOUTH MISSION
8060 S 615 E
SANDY UT 84070
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Hey everybody!So so much happened this week and there is only a half hour to write it, so I am not sure how that is going to work out but I will just get started doing it and see what happens.Alright, so last Friday we taught the Word of Wisdom in Monoglian as part of a review of the second lesson type of set up. And we actually taught with the utmost help of the Holy Ghost well enough that the investigators there could feel the Spirit and were moved by it! It felt great! It was amazing! I hope to be able to replicate that feeling everytime I teach in Mongolian from now on - it just takes a whole lot of focus and trying my very best and being as sincere as I can be with all the confidence I can muster and then God comes in and takes care of the rest (and that is alot) and makes it so that my lesson can be understood and so that the Spirit can be there to teach and edify both sides. So that is my goal from now on here at the MTC and when I eventually get to Mongolia, whenever that may be. No idea about that as of yet. Saturday was a day spend trying to start learning all the Law of Chastity vocabularly and how to teach it. Time is so busy now that we teach absolutely no lessons in English anymore. It is fun, but it takes a lot of work and giving everything I can to be able to get anywhere. We teach Law of Chastity tomorrow to whoever shows up or maybe to our teachers if no one volunteers because of the holiday weekend. We will just see what has to happen. Hopefully, there will be a good number of people there and we can be able to teach them again and to answer all of their questions, that is one of the hardest things. Trying to understand what they are asking and then formulating an answer. But I just give it my best and keep praying always for help and the answer is given to me what to say for that situation or instance and I am so grateful for that! Everytime! Sunday was our first official day as zone leaders and wow, responsibilities increase a hundred fold. We have to plan out Sacrament meetings and get prayers and conducting and sacrament and playing piano all assigned. We have to teach an ordination out of the white handbook durning priesthood to all the elders in our zone. Then we have meetings all day long it feels like. They are good meetings and I learn a lot - they just take up all day! It feels like I am back to being priest quorum frist assistant and being at meetings all day then, except there are even more here now. But it is all good and the Spirit is always there so strong that all of them are just amazing. I pray to be able to be the best zone leader that I can be, that I may be able to accomplish all my assignments and duties and be able to delegate those that I am supposed to. I have to start interviews tonight of district leaders and I have never conducted interviews before. So I have been praying hard about that and I hope all goes the way it is supposed to there. Monday was the start of Thanksgiving weekend or so it felt like to me. I started to really think of how blessed I truly am and to see all the great things that God has done for me. And trust me, they are too much to even mention, as soon as you start counting and start thinking a whole giant list just flows into your head and you can keep going and going and going. Then when you offer up a prayer of gratitude later that night it just goes on and on and on, hopefully Heavenly Father never gets tired of hearing the things I am thankful for because it lasts a very, very long time and the list goes on for a crazy long amount. So just a challenge to everyone this week: think of all the things you are grateful for and list them off, write them down and you will be truly suprised at all the Lord has bless ed you with. You will have things come to your mind that you didn't even think of and you will have an enormous feeling of gratitude and peace and joy at all the things that Heavenly Father has blessed you with. Tuesday was devotional day and Elder Dallin H. Oaks and his wife came to talk to us! Way cool! They had tons of awesome quotes and wisdom to offer. He had lists and lists of different things that just made sense and were great to listen to. For example, there was a list of the things we must work towards our whole lives - three things. First, we must recognize, then we must achieve, and then we must become. He put this in terms of missionary service - first we must realize that we have been called as missionaries and come to understand what that really means and what we are supposed to do. Then, we go out and achieve what missionaries are supposed to do by teaching lessons, giving talks, contacting people, etc. Finally, we strive our whole missions to become the missionaries that our Heavenly Father wants us to be. The perfect missionaries that He could use for whatever He wants. Since none of us can become perfect, we strive everyday to be better and better and works towards becoming that missionary for the Lord. Although Elder Oaks said this about missionary work, I think it could apply to just about any chuch calling or to us being the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father. We aren't quite the perfect sons and daughters we need to become yet, but everyday we strive to become better and better so that we can reach that full potential that He has for us and be able to become like Him and live with Him and our families forever and ever in peace and joy. That is something that I have really come to make my ultimate eternal goal here at the MTC. I mean I have always thought before about it, but here it has sunk really deep into my heart exactly what that would mean and the joy and blessings that would come from living a celestial life and be able to live with our Heavenly Father again and our families forever. And I want that more than I have ever wanted anything before in my whole life. I want it for myself, and all my family, and my friends, and for those people of Mongolia (or those in the U.S. I get temporarily reassigned to). I want it so bad for them and me! Anyway, time is fastly running out so Wednesday. Elder Sessions and I taught our first lesson to a "progressing invesigator". We are teaching Bro. Cannon who is acting as a Mongolain investigator that he had on his mission with the same thoughts, concerns, motivations, etc. It is 100% completely in Mongolian with no English help whatsoever but I have never taught a lesson with the Spirit's help, guidance, and it actually being the teacher that good before. We were able to get to know him, to ask him questions, and to teach him the first lesson of the restoration of the gospel here on the earth. Then we were able to commit him to attend church on Sunday and to meet with him again on Friday. We also gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon in Mongolian and challenged him to read the introduction with his family and the first few chapters of Nephi and to pray about it to see if they were true. He was really excited about going to church. The reading and praying not so much. So we will just have to check up with him again tomorrow when we go back to teach him again. I know that he is just a "fake" investigator but if this is how teaching people the gospel really feels and the joy it brings and the understanding both the investigator and the teacher gain from it - then it is the best thing I have ever done so far in the world! Missionary work is the best and I am so excited to go back and teach again tomorrow! Maybe, exhilirated is a better word. I am just pumped!Ok, five minutes left. So onto today. It is Thanksgiving and as such we have no P-day. But tons of awesome meetings and service stuff (and good food - pie and turkey and stuffing :) and just some limited MDT (missionary direct time) to be able to emial home. Elder Jefferey R. Holland come to the devotional this morning with his wife. His wife bore the strongest testimony I have ever heard about exactly who we are and how much we truly mean to our Heavenly Father. How His hands have guided and shaped and molded our lives and how if we follow Him, He will continue to do so until we can become like He is. Way awesome testimony. Elder Holland just did a question and answer session with some really tough gospel questions and the church's true stance on them and what he knows how to say using the scriptures and his testimony as an apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. There were a lot of good questions and he had an amazing scripture story or example to answer them.Well, I am almost out of time so I must go or this email will never get sent and I can only imagine how Mom would feel then!So I love you all tons and remember to be grateful in all things!
Hey, everybody!I hope everyone is doing great and is having a fabulous December thus far. I can't believe how fast time continues to go and how Christmas is just a few short weeks away already! They already have Christmas lights up here and we sing Christmas songs in class and for the devotionals and firesides and stuff and you can hear a bunch of people practicing Christmas music to try out for devotionals or firesides or the Christmas talent show they are planning here. Sadly, all the copies of "O Holy Night" are checked out and I just wanted to copy down the words because it is not in the hymnbook but is one of my all time favorites. But oh well, I will probably here it from a bunch of special muscial numbers and it will sound amazing! So last week was Thanksgiving as you all very well know and Thanksgiving here at the MTC was great! We had a devotional where Elder Holland came and talked to us and answered questions people had sent in about various topics. Such as broken sealings, why life has to be so hard, and the foreknowledge of God not being us bound to fate. There was a lot of good stuff I learned and the Spirit was there so strong. His wife had the strongest, coolest testimony about the divine worth of each and every one of us. And how Heavenly Father truly has a plan set up for each of us to be able to become the happiest and greatest that we can be - we just have to rely on Him and submit to His will and all will work out. Later on that day we got Thanksgiving dinner (for lunch so that was like normal being back home) - they gave us some turkey, mashed potatoes, and stuffing with gravy and then pumpkin pie for dessert. I love pumpkin pie, it was way good. I did miss the green bean casserole though and the sweet potatoes with marshmallows on top and some of the other things my family does for the holiday. But it was one of the best meals they have served here so far so it was nice. After that we got to watch a huminatarian video about all that the church does for huminatarian work around the world with clean water, measle shots, food, wheel chairs, and neonatal resusication - it was awesome and very touching. We are truly blessed to be here in America where we have access to clean water, food, medical care, and lots and lots of opportunities to have the best standard of living possible on this earth. It made me look back on my life and be grateful for how much I have. After that we got to go color in game packets that the church passes out to children after natural disasters in their area. They said ours would probably end up going to the Pacific for children who dealt with the tsunami a few months ago and do not have any toys or games left because they were all washed away. It was some of the best service ever - coloring! I haven't colored since I was like in 6th grade so it was way sweet! After that we had another fireside where President Smith had set up a bunch of muscial numbers to play and then for people to share what they are thankful for in between. It was very touching and the Spirit was there so strong as people described what they are thankful for and how it has blessed their lives. People have the coolest stories! Also, he went over a brief history of Thanksgiving and it was nice to have that review and for what Thanksgiving truly commemorates with the Pilgrims those hundreds of years ago. Last Friday was good. We taught the Law of Chastity to each other and our teachers because no visitors where allowed with it being a holiday weekend. It was really nice to be able to be taught in Mongolian and be able to understand a lot of it and to feel the Spirit bearing witness of the truth of it. Other than that, not much went on. Just a whole lot of study time and translating time and trying to keep working on Mongolian to get it the best we can get it here at the MTC. Saturday was more Mongolian practice all over again. One of our teachers was out of town and the other one was having knee problems and couldn't stay long so we got in as much review with them as we could and as much translating of the law of tithing as we could before they had to leave and we were on our own again. For service that day, we laid out bacon again. It is crazy how much bacon is consumed here at the MTC - I swear everytime we do it we lay out thousands and thousands of bacon strips and then they are all used in one day for breakfast and then for sandwiches and then for whatever else. The MTC just goes through bacon like crazy.Sunday was the first day Elder Sessions and I had to get a sacrament meeting program ready and find people to lead the music, play piano, and give prayers. It was fun though and everyone agreed to do the assignment they had been given. The Spirit was there really strong as always for all the meetings and the topic was on the "promptings of the Spirit". So people had really great stories about how the Spirit has guided their lives and how it has helped them and blessed them. Way powerful testimonies. Monday was great - lots of Mongolian. Tuesday is one of the best days here - balance of class time and the RC and a devotional. The RC wasn't too great this week - no one really wanted to talk on the phone, they were all too busy. But I tried my best and taught what I could and bore testimony where they would let me. The devotional was really good though with the primary general president being the speaker and her husband being the first speaker (opposite of normal haha). He spoke about the importance of reverence and how it was an attribute of Christ that we all must stive for. "Without reverence, you are nothing" was one of my favorite quotes from him. He spoke about how reverence is more then just being quiet but thinking about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and all he has done for us and keep our thoughts and actions and words elevated to a plane on that level. Very good. Sister Lant then spoke about the need to have faith, not fear and to be obedience with exactness and to be just like the 2000 stripling warriors. That was most of her talk was comparing missionaries to the 2000 stripling warriors and how we must have the same attributes and faith and courage that they did in the war they we wage against Satan for people's souls. It is a wonderful analogy and I loved it - it is one of my favorite scripture stories and one of the best examples in the scriptures that I try to follow. From them we know that if we put our trust in God and obey everything that He tells us with exactness that He will not let us fall. He will help us to overcome all our trials and hard times and to rise above them better than ever before. What a cool blessing that is. It made me think of that "Footprints" poem about us walking side-by-side with the Savior for our lives and then we look back at all the hard times and we see only one set of footprints instead of two. The person in the poem then asks where the Savior went during those hard times and the Savior answers that those are the time that He has carries us and lifted us up to overcome those hard times. He and our Heavenly Father will never leave us and will always be there for us. They truly do lift us up and carry us during our hardest and saddest times and do not let us back down until life gets better again. I know that they are there and they comfort us and stand ready to help us. We just need to pray for that help and to feel that love and comfort and it will be there faster than we can comprehend. Dang time goes fast! Well, Wednesday was the first day we had to go get our new missionaries as zone leaders and give them the first half of instructions for being at the MTC. The new district all seem really cool - they are ten elders all going to Washington D.C. South English Speaking. They seem to have strong testimonies and their faces were already glowing with the gospel and the Spririt just from having been here a few hours. It never ceases to amaze me how much the Spirit can light up a person's face when they are doing their best to heed to the counsel given to them and to follow His promptings. Their whole face just radiates with it.Well, time is basically out with only a minute left to go. So Sherrie if you read this - I only have your Texas address so hopefully my letter gets to you somehow. Thanks for all your letters and thoughts and prayers, they mean so much to me! I hope everyone is enjoying the joy and miracle that is the Christmas season!Lot of love,Elder Ryan Leroy Hughes
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