When the entire valley is filled with smoke, you know the wildfire is pretty close...

Good morning everybody!
Well, as you can tell by my subject, wildfire season has officially hit Utah. Very late in the season, but very prevalent right now. The entire Salt Lake Valley was filled with smoke yesterday thanks to fires surrounding the valley everywhere. It kind of seemed like the giant dust storms down in Mesa but instead of breathing in dust and dirt, you were breathing in smoke and everything smelled somewhat like a campfire. The entire mountain to the southwest of the valley was on fire and at night it lit up like a huge beacon and gave light to our Riverton Stake and could be seen for miles and miles and miles. No worries though I am not in any danger. The missionaries that live about 7 miles west of us had to be evacuated but unless the fire can move 7 miles in the next few days, we are safe. That was pretty exciting last night. I will send a picture of it next week, once I have my camera and can take pictures again. Hopefully, a bunch of good baptism pictures as well. Utah is back up into the 90's this past week and this week and it feels great! Absolutely amazing! It is supposed to cool back off soon though and you know Fall is in the air because all the mountains have started to change from green to orange, yellow, red, and gold. Very pretty, and before you know it, they will be doused in white again. The seasons are gorgeous up here, I will give it that. Lots of things have been going on the past week and lots of things have happened. Still haven't found any new investigators but we have a bunch of potential appointments set up right now and are trying to catch a bunch of people that are excited to take the lessons. The problem is that now that school is back in session, the work has slowed down, quite a ton. With school, football, clubs, music, dance, and who knows what else, no one is at home anymore or has any great amount of free time. We are trying though and are working as hard as we can to stay as busy as we can. The Lord has blessed us to catch people at home and having hearts softened that I never dreamed would happen. Elder Gosch and I are getting along better, which is great and I have learned quite a bit from him and hopefully he is learning something from me. I still find it hard to always be in the driver's seat all the time, since Elder Gosch has little to no intiative but he is trying and improving. That is all I can ask for. I hope to get people to trust him soon though or this area is going to die out...all the people that call on the phone (which he holds because I am driving) only want to speak to me. If he answers and cannot hand the phone to me, they tell him to have me call them back later that night or when I am available. They will not talk to him at all. Makes a lot of work all night long for me. Oh well, I am sure by the time one of us ever has to worry about getting transferred we will get the members to trust him. He is doing a lot better.

Let's see what all happened this week.

Tuesday was a working day. The new mission president philosphy was sent this week in his announcements to our email. Here it is: "The first cause of failure is a subconscious will to fail. The will to fail manifests itself as “action to avoid action”. It is an ever active campaign of the subconscious to bring so many unnecessary activities into each day’s program that there isn’t sufficient time for action which would be most productive." So that means, everything that we used to do during the week meeting wise or otherwise that isn't strict proselyting is usually cancelled. We are having our second district meeting of the transfer tomorrow, and I think that might be the only other one that we get. I like having all the extra time to work, but it is taking some getting used to. A lot more brainstorming of activities to find people to teach during the hours when no one is usually around in the mornings. Tuesday was a true answer to prayer though because the Lord helped us to find new investigators to start teaching this week! We were able to catch Joey and Janene Day at home and they have agreed to meet with us this Wednesday. Joey is a returned missionary, now playing drums for the Baptist church, and Janene attends with him but "isn't Baptist." Both are interested in at least listening to what we have to say if nothing else. We will see how the appointment turns out. Also, I got the prompting to just go talk to less active parents and get their permission to teach their children and that was a true inspiration from God! The Lauritzen's and the Miller's were home and both gave permission for their children to be taught, when the ward has said about 100 times in the past that the parents were too hard-hearted to have anything such thing happen. It was a miracle! Now our only challenge is catching the kids at home to start setting up appointments, Eli Miller and McKenna Lauritzen both are in school, clubs, dance, sports, and never seem to be home! We are praying for the chance though and the 6th ward that they both work in is praying with us and trying their hardest to catch them.

Wednesday was probably our last temple day! It was a great session and it was a great feeling to be in the temple again and to feel the Spirit so strongly there. I am going to miss the temple, not because it used up time that I didn't have to work during, but because I could write down all the names of the people I was teaching on the prayer rolls and I know the Lord truly blessed those people because of that action and of all the faith of those who attend the temple. But the Lord knows my heart and desires and I am sure He will not bless the investigators or less actives less for me working harder and longer.

Thursday we taught Thomas Woodworth, and he is excited to be baptized this upcoming Saturday, the 25th. He is probably the most golden of golden investigators and a true answer to my prayers and petitions to the Lord. He will be getting baptized down in Hurricane where all his family and friends live, so we will not get to witness his baptism but it will be a sweet event and a very spiritual one. He is already excited to receive the priesthood and is counting down the days to when he can get his endowments in the temple. I think the Lord watches me struggle knocking on doors and never saying the right thing or catching people at home or whatever and so keeps dumping these amazing golden investigators on my lap. I appreciate that blessing and thank Him everyday for it.

Friday was another hard working day. Lots of knocking on doors and talking to people, but very little interest of enthusiam from those we met with. It was a still a good day though and Whitney Snell should now be getting baptized about halfway through October. She is so excited for it and her parents have committed to take her to church, not sure if it will actually happen, but they said that they would and looked pretty positive about it. They have testimonies of the gospel and know the church is true, they are just lazy! But hopefully we can overcome their laziness and work with them towards getting worthy to go to the temple again and getting Whitney baptized. Such is my prayer constantly everyday.

Saturday was another working day. We got the car washed (finally) and it now actually looks fairly nice. We correlated with a lot of bishops and ward mission leaders about needs that we had or that we needed to talk about. Also, I managed to get the waffle maker broken at Roxberry Juice. We went there for dinner because our dinner cancelled. They had just barely started to offer waffles and were excited to do so, but the guy who was making my waffle, didn't grease the waffle maker. So they washed it out with that strong sink thing that they use to wash out blenders like at Jamba Juice and it broke. What was supposed to be about a half hour dinner, turned out to be about an hour and a half as we tried to help them clean up the mess and they kept trying to get the waffle maker back working to get my dinner done. It was good though, the cashier there was taking missionary lessons in the stake right next to where we work in Draper, so we got to talk to her and encourage her to keep going for her baptism date of October 9. It was a nice Spirit there as we all bore our testimonies. Saturday night we had the adult session of stake conference in Riverton. It was an amazing meeting. President Higbee talked about something that really touched me. He talked about the recent Ensign article about Lehi's Dream by President Packer and how we were all inside the great and spacious building because of television. But most importantly he went over the work "mock" and how it keeps us glued to the building instead of glued to the rod. He used the story of Lot from the Old Testament and how he was commanded to flee form Sodom and Gomohorra. He went to go tell his sons-in-law to flee with him, but they "mocked" him. Lot left anyway and was protected for it, while his sons-in-law were destoryed. How often do we not cling tightly to the Iron Rod because others are mocking us and we do not flee the great and spacious building because of mocking? His point was to be like Lot and raise the voice of warning and then to flee from the world regardless of the heavy mocking and who it comes from.

Sunday was a great day and it went by superfast because we had appoinments and meetings all day! It started off with a general priesthood meeting in the Draper Mountain Point Stake. It focused on the talk "Good, Better, Best" given a few years ago at General Conference by Elder Oaks. The question to ask ourselves for every activity we are doing is if that activity will help us return to our Heavenly Father and brings others with us? Or does it keep us stagnant on the path back to him? Or does it turn us away form Him and push us back on the path? Such simple questions but if we apply them to every activity and amusement that we pursue, I think we would change a lot of what we do. I know I need to when I get back home. After that, we had a PEC in the Mt. Point 6th ward. Went over all those people we hope to start teaching, good meeting. The bishop and priesthood leadership have really caught the fire of missionary work because of all the excitement. After that, hustle back to Riverton for the general session of stake conference. It was a great session, but I was so tired and worn out, my notes were terrible, so I don't have much to report. However, after that we hustled over to Mt. Point 6th ward sacrament meeting and that was good. Then back to Riverton to see Noa's baptism!!! One of the highlights of the whole day. It was a great spiritual experience and his mom and father and stepfather were all there and dressed properly. Even though they are all kind of anti. All there felt the Spirit and it was a very sweet and touching experience. After that, back to Draper to see Sam Nay get the Aaronic priesthood so he can baptize Kamomi on this Thursday. The blessing that followed the ordination was simply beautiful and had just what he and Miki need to stay fully active and to lead their children in righteousness. We are so excited for him and for their family! They are AMAZINGLY WONDERFUL!
After that, back to Riverton for dinner and a FHE with the Peart family. Then we had a simply fantastic lesson with Tina and Bailee Reese. Tina has decided to get baptized and is excited to do so!!! We had a lesson truly taught by the Spirit answering questions and helping her out. I came to really love and appreciate Bishop Heaps because he is the ward mission leader and was sitting in there helping us to teach. He and I taught together the whole lesson and Elder Gosch chimed in helpful testimony and stories that were not distracting or way off topic. It was great! I am so excited for them and to be reteaching fully by the Spirit again! It makes the biggest difference!

Well, I am out of time again. But I love and pray for you all!
Elder Hughes

"Sorrow is looking back, worry is looking around, faith is looking up!" :)

Good morning everybody!
So I found that quote that is the subject of this email on the floor of the cultural hall today as we were working out on a nice, small piece of posterboard. It made me happy because that is so true and I am now making it one of my many life mottos. Whenever we are unwilling to change and not happy with where we are at, we are truly looking back, that accomplishes nothing. Whenever we are looking around and feeling embarrassed or discouraged by what we see around us or people who are better, we are worrying and therefore still not accomplishing anything whatsoever. But if we look up and trust in Heavenly Father, then we have the faith to keep going on the path that we are on even if it ends up getting hard or difficult. It all depends on our perspective. Anyway, a little bit of inspiration that hit me this morning as I was working out from some flier that someone had left on the floor. Alright, to answer all of your questions. Yes! I could really use a camera! I was going to buy one today, but if there are still extra at home I will take whatever one you could send to me! My camera is dead, I have tried to fix it and get others to look at it and fix it and none of us can figure it out. I don't know what happened at all, but all the SD cards are fine and work great and aren't full yet, so I am good on that account. But if you would send a camera up, I would really appreciate it! Go ahead and forward me other missonaries' emails, I enjoy reading them and it helps me to see what I can do better as I read their ideas and experiences. Plus I get to really feel the Spirit strong by reading other people's stories! I only don't have any time to respond to the message because the time is so short. I am used to having a lot more time to write everything that I want to, but oh well. 14 pounds of chocolate pudding, huh?!? CRAZY!!! That is one big answer to clean up and work with. So that means Nathan and I both went to our first homecoming with the Richardson family, kind of weird how that all works out. But cool. I still can't believe Jamie is married. And Lucy, And Aubrey is well on her way. Everyone that I ever went to a dance with is now married or engaged, well almost everyone. Haha, I love the Mickey Mouse socks! They are awesome, thanks for getting them for me. I haven't yet found a chance to wear them with moving people in and out of our apartment, but we finally got everything organized again and now I will! My coat is plenty warm enough, it helped me to survive one winter just great, I have the faith it has the ability to help me survive another. Plus the sweaters and the wool socks help a ton too. Of course, I remembered it was 9/11. I can't believe it has already been 9 years though and that it seems like so many people have forgot. It is interesting to look back and see how far our country has come from that point and how that one event has changed the entire way we do our daily interactions in the United States and changed the complete course of our nation, communities, and lives. I am good on slacks, I have plenty of other pairs that will work just fine with no problems. That is the only pair that has any holes or anything, the rest all still look very nice and almost brand new. Thanks to semi-frequent drycleanings. The only thing I am truly struggling with is not having a camera, so if you could send one of the other ones up that would be awesome! That is all really need. Sister Johnson sent you that picture on Saturday night, I have come to really love that family and all the people in it. She was really glad I wasn't transferred because she wanted to send home a picture for the past 6 months or so and keeps forgetting everytime we visit them. Well, the mission is out to change a lot now. Elder C. Scott Grow from the the first quourum of the Seventy visited our mission on Friday and he turned everything upside down and shook it and President Miller is all over it. No more weekly temple attendance, takes too much time away from proselyting (which I can agree with). No more calling in at night, we are old enough to take care of ourselves and to get in on time because it is the rule without having to be accountable to anyone. No more exchanges, too much of a waste of time. No more district meetings every week, but less frequently. A lot more time needs to be spent doing actual missionary work and talking with people and so those were the solutions that were proposed and selected. I have a feeling there might be many more to come as well. Let's see, what else? Oh, we are getting a list of every less active member in every ward to go out and contact. We are asking each bishop for a list and for information to be provided on what their next best step needs to be to progress. Whether that is receiving the priesthood, becoming endowed, getting sealed, renewing a temple recommened, whatever. We are to go out and invite each person on that list to make that change and step in their life. That will keep us busy for the next 4 months at least! Considering we cover 17 wards and about half of each ward is less active so that is at least 1700 people and more like 2500. Lots of visits to be made and invitations to be given out. The whole theory behind it is that many less actives have many non member friends that the active members would never dare to think to spend time with. As well, people watch the bishops and relief society presidents and active members of the ward, and they are never home. They are always too busy serving, who want to join a church with that impression? But the less actives have more than enough time to spend at home and don't even attend church, so people watch them and think that our church isn't too bad. The idea is to get the less actives out and their non member friends will follow suit and then the baptisms and everything else will go up. That is just a lot of people to visit, but we are excited to go out and do it! All of our bishops and stake presidents are really enthusiastic about it as well!

Well anyway, on to a little bit of what happened every day.

Tuesday we were out contacting all day long looking for more people to teach. Not much luck, lots of nice people to talk with but no one sincerely interested. We were able to teach the Nay's on that day at the Mendenhall's house. The whole family is excited for Kamomi to get baptized and I have never seen anyone more excited to receive the priesthood. The whole family is actively attending church and keeping commandments like crazy. They read and pray faithfully everyday, and have started to have FHE. I can't believe the complete turn around that has happened. It has been nothing short of a miracle comparable to Moses parting to the Red Sea or anything else in the scriptures. Once people are willing to take the gospel into thier live sand start to live the principles that are taught in it, the blessings are immediate and astounding.

Wednesday we started to teach Thomas Woodworth, and talk about golden contact and investigator. He was willing to get baptized on that day but we are waiting for his families and friends to be here for the special event so it is going to happen on September 25. When we showed up to the stake center to start teaching him, he came with a Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel in hand. At first I thought, it was some kid who had pulled our leg wanting to be taught and instead was trying to get ahold of the missionaries to prepare for his mission. But we started talking with him and he has not been baptized yet, but wanted to study out of the book that missionaries had and so obtained a Preach My Gospel. He believes everything that we go over wholeheartedly and has one of the strongest testimonies of anyone I have ever met. He has already prayed about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith and received an amazing answer to both. Heavenly Father does truly answer prayers and the most sincere desires of our hearts, Thomas was the investigator that I have been praying so hard for and it is a miracle! He has a great desire to get married to his girlfriend in the temple too, I love him!

Thursday was another big, long contacting day. We had Elder Hoehn with us. He is being trained by the zone leaders but they had to go to a leadership meeting so he came with us and we got work done. I love Elder Gosch, but he isn't totally socially there and is easily distracted. Elder Hoehn was a firecracker and we worked so hard and met so many people and made so many contacts.

Friday was the day we listened to Elder Grow all day. It was a good meeting and I learned a ton and felt the Spirit more. I already told you what all he is changing and the things that happened. It was good.

Saturday was another conacting day. I think the members in my area know me well enough now to understand my facial expressions. They could tell before I started talking that the work has been slow and that we are struggling to find more people to teach. All of them got recommitted towards spreading the gospel with their friends and families and we got quite a few referrals as a result. A lot of the members now too are asking their neighbors and friends to meet with us instead of us having to cold contact. They see the difference it truly makes if the invite comes from them and not us.

Sunday was very awesome! Church all day is always a highlight for me (something my companions always think I am crazy for and weird). A truly exceptional miracle happened yesterday. I was fasting all day for the son of that bishop's family that sent you my picture. They have one son on a mission in Argentina, and his twin is still here and has gone less active and kind of dark. I fasted for him all day to have a renewal of his testimony and for the desire to be born within him to go on a mission. We went to a stake fireside that night for the youth put on by a motivational speaker where she talked about a lot of great things. But guess who we sat with? Josh Johnson was there, he had only come to drop off his little brother and then we going to go hang out with friends or something, but he felt like he should stay, so he did. He followed my lead and sung all the hymns with us and listened attentively all night long and guess what she covered? The blessing and the returns that come from taking the time to serve a mission. Heavenly Father answered my fast that day and there was a spark of something in Josh that wasn't there before that night! It was an amazing and inspiring miracle to me!

Well, I am out of time so I need to go. But Tony Knudson now has a testimony as well, means he can soon recieve the Mechezedik priesthood and then get sealed to his wife. They are so excited!!!

Love and prayers,
Elder Hughes

Happy Labor Day!!!

Good morning everybody!
This week has been going pretty good. The only problem I have is that I feel like I am babysitting instead of having a companion. Elder Gosch is always positive and optimistic and has great faith and testimony, but has no sense of responsibility or tact when talking to people. We have been working on helping him to develop those, but it seems really slow going. That is ok though, at least he follows my example in being obedient (most of the time), although he still does not get up on time or study on time. I don't want to nag him and bully him into doing stuff, but that is the only way he really seems to respond. I am praying for more understanding though and to see what I can do to help us become more unified and work together and be exactly obedient. I am sure everything will work out. This week the fall weather has started to roll out, although always with Utah's famour bipolarity. It will be 95 degrees one day and then 70 degrees the next day. Then back up to 85, then down to 68, you get it. At least it hasn't gotten too cold yet, still manageable for short-sleeve wearing weather. Plus I am not getting sunburned nearly as much or having as nearly many problems that way. I do enjoy wearing a light jacket in the morning when I start working out, it is kind of fun. The bummer is that you can already see some snow in the mountains, it just barely melted like a month ago and now it is back. Crazy! Everyone we teach is really enjoying that scripture case, they have noticed a big difference from a cereal box covered in duct tape to the one that I have now. Good change. Although, several people told me they were planning to get me a scripture case in the near future and now are bummed that they cannot. That is ok though, I really don't like people buying stuff for me anyway.
This week was filled with amazing miracles and the Lord has truly answered our prayers in so many ways! Being on a mission has strengthened my tesimony of what "mighty" prayer actually means and how we pray with might prayer everything will work out and true miracles happen. You are so filled with the Spirit that it makes all the difference. Another thing that has been happening a lot lately to me is people pointint out how much I must have sacrificed to come on a mission. But I don't feel that way at all, I don't feel like I have sacrificed anything. They aren't very happy with this answer though, especially the youth. Oh well, it is the truth.

Tuesday was a good, solid day. Not a ton of stuff happened, but we got to teach some people and have some good experiences. We got to see the Miler's again that night and they are doing great! He is set up to get interviewed for the priesthood soon and they both are trying to get their patriarichal blessings done and in order. They both have the Spirit about them and are both solidly excited to work towards the temple. The whole ward is loving them into the gospel and giving them the added strength and support they need. The only problem is at church, that isn't happening too much. No one actively tries to sit next to them, which can make the biggest difference. We are working on getting ward members more aware though and the difference that they can make, hopefully things will work out soon. We got a call on Tuesday with someone who desperately wants to be taught the gospel, a true answer to my prayers. Bummer was that he is out of town until this upcoming Wednesday-ish and so we have to wait to meet with him until then, but we sure are excited. His name is Thomas Woodworth so pray for him!

Wednesday was another amazing day! It always is because we get to attend the temple!!! We got to see the Falkner family again on that day, and Dad is only about a month away from coming home. How exciting, that means that Deylon can finally be baptized!!! The whole family is excited for it and have moved from extremely less active status to semi active status. They make it to church about half the time, we are working on getting them to be full time. We saw Olivia too on that day, she is excited and ready and willing to pay tithing and do everything else. But her family is still pushing her very hard to not be baptized and since she is only 16, we kind of have to agree to their wishes. I think Olivia would be baptized tonight if she had the chance, but it just hasn't happened yet. Tom Hansen is doing very well too. He proposed about a week ago to his girlfriend and both are excited to getting married in the temple. He is set up to be ordained a priest soon and then wait a few months to receive the Melchizedek priesthood, then go through the temple! I love less active people who turn their lives around and come back to church and then become hyperactive, doing everything and then way, way beyond.

Thursday was a true miracle day! We taught Raymond and Candee Martinez and it was amazing!! The lesson was on tithing, which is probably the hardest commitment for them to make, they love to have extra money to spend on extra things, and taking away 10% is a huge sacrifice for them. Raymond is fully converted and was all set to go on paying tithing and doing that. Candee is much harder to convince and it was her I have been praying for this past week. She is still coming around from being offended and leaving the church and is now excited to be active again, except for the money thing. By the end of the lesson though, that was truly conducted by the Holy Ghost, she was in tears and I had almost joined her. She bore her testimony at the end about how she could feel the Holy Ghost telling her she needed to pay tithing and although it would be very hard, she was going to do it!!! We saw them again on Sunday at a family barbecue and they let us know then that Raymond has picked a date to be baptized and even shared it with his family! He is excited and ready to be baptized on October 23 and has everything moving for that direction. Including getting Sundays off work more and more regularly, getting to know his fellow ward members, etc. It is the best news that I got all week and I have never been so happy as when he told me the date he wants to be baptized on!

Friday was another awesome day! We got to see the Gonzalez family again and they are all doing amazing! They have been able to keep the house so far from being taken away and they attribute everything as a blessing from the Lord for paying tithing and other things. They are just awesome! They all love to do baptisms for the dead and help out at church in any way that they can. All are excited and praying to get sealed in the temple next June and have everything prepared for them that needs to happen. Sister Gonzalez still receives verbal answers to her prayers and amazing visions and stuff like that. Erick is still feeling the Spirit strong and their kids are all doing amazing as well.

Saturday was kind of a long day. Not many people home or willing to talk to us. It seems to be the standard on holiday weekends. It still was great to do missionary work though and to have that spirit and great feeling that goes with it. All the dinners this week were awesome!!! All the member families have been doing missionary work and have people for us to start teaching in the next few weeks!!! You have no idea how excited I was to get that same report night after night and to see the joy on the member's faces from having done missionary work.

Sunday we got to hear about how Raymond Martinez has picked a date, and so it was the best day all week and the most amazing happy, joyful day ever! Noa Bowen is also on date for Septmeber 18 and is excited for that. Whitney Snell is on date for September 25 and is excited for that. Another miracle happened in the fact that her mom and dad finally took her to church!!! It was great to see them there and even better to see that they felt the Spirit and enjoyed it. Kamomi Nay is still on date for September 25 as well and the whole family is excited for that!!! It has been an amazing miraculous week for everyone that we are teaching and for all the experiences that happened!

Well, time is running short, so I got to go!
Love and pray for you all!!!
Elder Hughes

LIfe is great! Except it is 50 degrees in August....I veto.

Good morning everybody!
Life is going fantastic. The only exception is that I am wearing wool pants and a jacket right now. I am fine with that when it was thundering and lightning earlier this morning, but now that it is sunny, I wish it would warm up. Seeing Mom and Dad was great, kind of awkward, but great. It was nice to see that you guys were smiling too and seemed to enjoy bringing Lora up to college and everything. The scripture case will work great and the new scriptures are awesome, I have to break them in though and mark them up still. That is one thing that I do miss because my old scriptures had notes and highlights and everything on every page and helped me to understand the scriptures better. But I will break in these new ones and that will make all the difference, working on getting good colors to mark up the scriptures with, especially to mark all the Preach My Gospel scriptures. The bike is amazing and riding it feels even better! However, Elder Gosch bike had a bunch of issues on Saturday and so we spent most of the day fixing up his bike so that it would work and was rideable. First, everything had been put on backwards or wrong. So I called up one of our ward mission leaders, Br. Steck, and asked him to help. He is an avid biker and loves to ride all over the place. He got all the bike taken apart and then put back together. Then warned us to watch out for the three-pronged spike weeds that Utah is so infamous for. Because they can puncture tires. So not 2 or 3 hours later, we were riding our bikes around to contact people, and Elder Gosch blew both of his tires. Luckily, a very kind member family lived nearby and he was able to get both flats fixed and get a new innertube for Elder Gosch's rear tire. Now, today we are going to go buy some inner plastic lining to go in his tires so that they will not puncture so easy. My bike worked like a charm though - all the gears are great, the tires had no issues, the steering was perfect, and it felt so good to be out biking instead of sitting in a car all day. After today, we will be doing a lot more biking as often as we can, because we run into more people to talk to that way and also are able to balance out appointments and miles for the month a whole ton better. Anyway, everything has been going really good. Elder Gosch is going to take a little getting used to, isn't quite all there socially. But he has a strong testimony and good work ethic, so everything will work out. He also gives amazing speeches and talks, his only issue is dealing with people in small groups. Yesterday, we had to talk in sacrament meeting - we were both supposed to take between 10 and 15 minutes. He ended up taking somewhere between 35 and 40 minutes. Leaving me with about 5. So I ditched the talk that I had planned and just followed the Spirit and bore my testimony for 5 minutes instead. Someday, Elder Gosch will make a great highcouncil man because he can just keep going and going and keeps it entertaining with his goofy personality. The ward mission leader in that ward was very amused and wished me luck on this transfer. But I don't think it will be too bad. I think a lot of people are so used to me being there now, it would blow them away to see anyone else get transferred in. I will have served in only one area for the whole first year of my mission and I must say I enjoy it immensely. I actually have really gotten to know and love the people here and wouldn't mind visiting here quite often for vacations or while at BYU or whatever. Especially if the familiies I have been teaching make it to the temple, it is not too far away to come back and see them get sealed! Oh yeah, and I am driving now! Life couldn't get much better than this! Minus the fact that my camera is now broken, but I will be buying a new one/getting this one fixed today. I don't know what happened, but it is just dead. Doesn't matter how often I change the batteries or try to make it work, it stays lifeless and useless. But I will get that worked out today. On to the happenings of another week in the life of Elder Hughes. First things first, this week was kind of slower, but still great.

Last Tuesday, we had our last district meeting together before transfers and it was a great event. Went over Jesus Christ's gospel again and baptismal commitments again. The new mission president has been hitting that very hard for some reason. Not quite sure why yet. We also got a chance to teach Raymond and Candy Martinez that day! They are both doing fantastic. Candy was able to attend church last week all by herself and felt completely comfortable and included there. A huge step for her since she used to be anti not all of 3 or 4 months ago. Raymond is doing a lot better as well, he is excited for baptism and moved up his potential date from next April to this October. Much better. He is trying his hardest to get his work preferences switched so that he can finally get Sundays off to go to church, but is in danger of losing his job, so taking things tenderly to avoid being fired. He is confident that he will start getting Sundays off in about 2 weeks though and is so excited to start attending church. Both have really gotten testimonies over the last several weeks and have had an outpouring of the Spirit in their lives. Both are excited about Raymond being baptized and then being sealed in the temple a year after that. I love them so much and it has been one of the greatest experiences of my mission watching them completely change and come around to the Lord. It has made the biggest difference in their lives and in their family relationships. It is so awesome! Heavely Father has had so many miracles take place there!

Wednesday was tranfer day. About the whole mission ended up being switched around. President Miller has not been happy with the obedience level with this mission and so was shaking things around to help us become truly "converted" to the Lord. I didn't know there was that much of an obedience problem, but I guess I have been blessed with obedient and willing companions so far and I chose to be obedient so it makes all the difference. Everything really did get moved around though and changed. It is a massively different mission now. I really do believe I got called to the Riverton/Draper Mountain Point mission because everytime any mission president prays about where I should go, the answer is that I should stay put. So it is all good and I am happy about it. Elder Holm ended up in Herriman and Elder Gosch ended up here - they actually switched places oddly enough. The Lord works in mysterious ways. We got to see the Nay's on Wednesday and they are doing great! Sam is on the path to receiving the Aaronic priesthood to baptize Kamomi. Both have been completely faithful on paying tithing and avoiding coffee. Despite numerous trials and tests that have come up. Both have completely changed their lives and are in a so much better place now. It blows me away the blessing Heavenly Father pours out on people as soon as they turn unto HIm and follow His commandments and His will. Miki's last remaining struggles is giving up black tea. She is so close though and has committed to being completely clean when Kamomi gets baptized. I think they might be part of the reason that I stayed in this area because they did NOT want me to leave, not one bit. I know they prayed for it to.

Thursday was see Mom and Dad day. It was a great day anyway and it was awesome to see Mom and Dad again. And to get a hug from Mom. Lora looks completely grown up now and ready to take on the world. I don't know if BYU is ready for that, she might be too good for it. Everyone that has seen her picture or sees her in person thinks see looks gorgeous by the way. She had better watch out for those RM's at BYU, they will be all over her.

Friday was a service day. Lots of pulling weeds and everything else. Lots of good, nice people though. We got to teach the Moran family that day and they are doing great. Ashton is excited and willing to be baptized. Now we just have to see if his mother will give him permission. Maybe....they got us some awesome Papa Murphy's pizza though. I still think it is weird that people buy it and then have to take it home and bake it, but it tastes really good. So what can you do.

Saturday was fix Elder Gosch's bike day. Enough said.

Sunday was miracle baptism day!!! Christina Davis and her little sister Alexis were baptized by their father, Brian Davis at 7:30 PM. About half the ward showed up to support them and it was an amazing event. Christina didn't ask for permission from her parents to be baptized until the Thursday before because she had forgot and was afraid. Turns out, this and next weekend (perfect for the confirmation) were the only two weekends her dad was going to get off work for the next year or so. Did anyone know that? NO! But when we challenged her to be baptized that is the date the Lord inspired me with to get her to agree to. Amazing miracle!!! After she got permission, we had to throw everything together as fast as possible. Trying to squeeze in planning out the program, getting the interveiw done, etc. Usually we have at least a week to prep, but this was about 2 days. Everything was supposed to happen though and many miracles happened to bring everything together and to help everything to work out. Now the family is excited to start attending church again and everything is going fantastic.

Well, I am almost out of time so I love you all and will talk to you later!!!
Elder Hughes

6 transfers down...

Good morning everybody!
This past week was really great! The weather has started to go bipolar and there have been really nice days followed by colder days followed by back up into the 90's days. It is raining today and was raining yesterday and so has been down in the 60's both days. I had to throw on a sweatshirt this morning while we were cleaning our apartment because I was chilly. It has been nice though, I don't think I miss the 110's that much to be honest. But I have decided I don't really like the snow being here for six months either. So I will stick with Mesa being my favorite place to live and say the heat isn't too bad as long as as you can get used to it. With the mornings being so chilly, I keep catching myself looking for the smell of the pine trees or the dampness of the soil around the cabin. Having a mountain view landscape doesn't help either...you think I would be used to it by now, but my mind keeps playing tricks and me and thinking it is at the cabin up in Pinetop and if I walk outside, a bunch of beautiful pine trees will be there to greet me. Not so. Oh well, maybe after my mission is over I will finally get used to it. Life has still been flying by and I can't believe this is the end of another transfer. Transfer calls are tomorrow and I have no idea where I might end up or if I will be moving at all. Most people seem to think so, I have been in one area almost the whole first half of my mission after all. So I have been busy trying to get all my stuff organized and packed back up in suitcases and boxes so that I can move around with them if need be. Also, working on finding some sheets and blankets today so that I can have some - my landlady supplied the ones at my current apartment, but that doesn't normally happen. Also working on starting to go bike shopping in case I end up in a biking area and need to have one. What else....well, I have grown to really love the people here and kind of consider it like home. I really don't want to move around and be transferred, but that choice is not up to me to make. It is up to the Lord and I will leave the choice and what happens in His capable and loving hands. I have been really bad lately at getting letters sent back, sorry! I have been so busy on P-days that there isn't time for much of anything, especially heartfelt letter writing. But I am making plans to get around to it, one of these weeks. Please be patient. Other than that, life has been great! Got drycleaning done, cleaning done, shopping done, getting a haircut today. Hopefully, picking a good place to go out to eat in case I get transferred this week. Like Kneaders, love that food. Anyway, on to all the amazing and wonderful things that have happened this week. Not to mention, spiritual!

Last Tuesday, was a great day! We taught lessons all day long and barely had time to do much else! We saw Noa Bowen on that day. He is set and excited and ready to be baptized. The only question is when because of them losing their home and trying to find another one, also trying to find babysitters to watch the newborn baby twins so that the less active parents can attend, feel the Spirit, and hopefully make a comeback. Noa is ready and committed though. He prays every night that his baptism will come soon and is excited to make that step. He wants it so bad. He has read through the Book of Mormon picture book 3 or 4 times now and has all the stories almost memorized. Not only that, but he applies them to the lessons that we are teaching. Smart 9 year old. We also taught Deylon Falkner on that day. He is doing great and progressing and excited for baptism. His 17 year old sister has really felt the Spirit and wants to be active with all her heart. Deylon wants to be baptized with all his heart. Sister Falkner has been changing a lot too, she was at church yesterday. She seemed to be enjoying herself and enjoyed attending all of church, she didn't even run away after sacrament meeting. I think she felt bad for having to get missionaries to teach her kids what she was supposed to teach them and so now is trying to get Kelly ready to be baptized when she turns 8 next March or April. The whole family is participating in the lessons though and coming to church and making great steps back to activity. The only questions is whether, Dad will be doing the same when he eventually gets back from Alaska or not. Bishop Smart is working on emailing with him and communicating with him to try to help him become active as well. We also taught Wendi that day. She is about half way active now, but has a testimony. We saw the Miler's that day as well.

Wednesday we had zone conference! It was an all day affair, a lot different from when President Laney did them. Had to sit in hard chairs all day at tables instead of move around all day to different stations and rooms. But it was still an amazing spiritual feast and well worth it. Most of zone conference was about the changes they are rolling out to Preach My Gospel. They say that everything is in there, but missionaries were not understanding how to teach. So all the changes are about how missionaries teach and how we can improve our teaching. It was a great experience. Lots of emphasis on changing up role plays to see and fill the needs of our investigators. Also, the need to be more open to and following the Spirit. Lots of stuff about needing to teach by the Spirit. No need to have memorized presentations or to follow a set pattern everytime we teach but to change it up and make it different to fit the needs and concerns of the people we are teaching. It was a good review of not falling into a set pattern, but allowing ourselves to follow the Spirit in everything that we do and say. We started to teach Tom Hansen as well on Wednesday night. His bishop asked him to take the missionary lessons as part of his reactivation process and the repentance process. But he has been an on again, off again member since he was born. Now he is about 18 years old and considering going on a mission and all that other good stuff. He already knows most the stuff we went over, but it was helpful to him to review.

Thursday we met with Kristina Davis finally again. She is set on date to be baptized this Sunday, provided her dad doesn't have to be out of town this week for work. He didn't know yet and won't know until Sunday comes a lot closer. She is excited and ready to be baptized though and looking forward to making those changes in her life. She absolutely adored girls' camp and bore her testimony there. She is also starting to attend church more regularly and we are praying this will become a habit that her parents will allow to continue. Hopefully, it does. We also met with Olivia Morley again. She is so excited to be baptized and wants to move forward with it as soon as possible. But because she is only turning 17 this year, we have to get her mother to sign the baptismal slip. And her mother is throwing up all sorts of obstacles after she said that she wouldn't. Sometimes less active parents really bother me - they had a testimony at one point but now that they have lost it, they don't think the church is true or anyone else can come to that knowledge either. We fasted with her yesterday though to receive revelation about the next step Olivia should take and what she should fight for or allow to happen. She is golden and ready to move forward, we are only waiting for a miracle to happen and doing all we can to make it happen.

Friday was a long day. We did get the chance to eat at Cafe Rio, which was delicious! I miss Mexican food so much, but Elder Holm hates it, so we don't get to visit those places very often. Bummer. Other than that, a lot of contacting and moving around. We did get to teach the Snell's on a regular basis all week long and that was good. Br. Snell just lost his mother and is starting to regain his testimony back I think. Whitney has an undying desire to be baptized and is praying with all her heart to get it to happen. With how often we are able to get in there, I don't think it will be too long before some of the family starts to attend church soon. As least we are praying for that.

Saturday was service day! We did a big breakfast with the Mountain Point 5th ward youth and then a short devotional about the restoration of the gospel. It made all the difference for some of them and was a lot of fun. We also helped the McGee family pull a bunch of weeds in their backyard so that their landlord wouldn't fine them. Also, we helped the Klinger's to tile their basement after it flooded after a heavy rainstorm on Thursday. It was really fun to tile. I learned how to do the whole process with the dry set, the tile, the spacers, the grout, etc. Their basement looks a whole lot better now and it was a lot of fun to do that. The Klinger's are such nice people, they are like my grandparents. Amazing in every way. They made us a big chocolate bunt cake because of our service and it was delicious!!!

Sunday is church day and Spirit day!!! We were able to get 10 or so of our investigators to church, it was sweet! They all had such a great experience and felt the Spirit and had some of their questions answered. It was amazing. I love Sundays! Being able to attend church all day is such a blessing. I learn so much and feel so much. Also, Steve Miler got baptized last night. It was such a spiritual experience! He has been prepared and ready to move forward. He and Nadine are now on their way to making it back to the temple. All the talks were tailored right to them and it was amazing! When I first met Steve, I must admit I judged him the wrong way. With tatoos up and down both arms, earrings, really crooked, yellow teeth. I didn't think we were going to get anywhere. Boy, did Heavenly Father humble and teach me. All of the people on this earth are His children and all have the divine potential to become like He is. He so wants that for all of us, whether we live in a mansion or in a trailer park. He loves us all and prepares each of us in His own time and way to accept His gospel and come unto Him. Steve has done that and did it a lot faster than I was planning on. I need to have greater faith and stop judging people based upon what they look like, because that doesn't matter at all. What does matter is that each and every person is a child of God and has the right to learn how to return to Him if they are willing to learn.

Well, that is about all that went on this week. I have attached a picture of Steve, Nadine, Jordann, Stephen, and us at Steve's baptism. I am so excited to see them head to the temple in about a year. They are excited to do so as well. Life is great! I will let you know next week if I got transferred or what all changed!!!

Love,
Elder Hughes

Yay for Summer!

Good morning everyone!
Everything has been going really great lately. The weather has been perfect, the sunshine amazing, everything has been fantastic! We have been getting a lot of Italian and Mexican food lately, which is amazing and my favorite. Elder Holm even got his Chinese food the other day, so he was happy. Me, it was ok (still not a super huge fan at all). Yesterday we ate with an old mission president and his family - they had served in Mexico before and they had a Mexican casserole that was very similar to Mexican chicken, it was my favorite meal I have had in a long, long time. Not quite as good as our family recipe, but not too bad. We had tres leche cake as dessert, and that has fastly risen to one of my favorite desserts. After all the brownies and cookies and sweets we get, anything that is slightly out of the ordinary is amazing and makes my taste buds happy. Fact for Lora - they make tie-dye duct tape, thought you would like to know. So carrying around a cereal box for a scripture case has gotten me a lot of attention and I have had a lot of people offer to buy me a new one, I say thanks but no thanks, but I don't know if they will actually listen or not. I am decorating the box this week so that it will be more inducive to the Spirit, but we will see what happens. Now that we got the sprinklers fixed, the water pressure in the shower has gotten really bad. So we are working on getting that fixed up and redirected. Something on the apartment is always breaking down and being responsible to fix it all is not always the most fun I have ever had. But so far, nothing has been too terribly difficult and the members are always willing to help out and make things better and give what assistance they can. I think that is all the random news for this week or updates on how things have been going in my life. I have decided I miss making ice cream and smoothies though, that is something I am excited for when I get back from my mission because they taste so good. Anyway, here is the weekly day by day update.

Monday - President okayed board games for the mission on P-days, which means I was incredibly happy and excited. We went to a toy outlet shop that day and got the game of Curses! and played it for P-day - brilliant!!! Totally relaxing fun that I haven't had in a long time. I know that isn't really spiritual, but it made a big difference for me!

Tuesday - great day! We taught the Nay family on that day at the Medenhall's about the Atonement using one of my new all time favorite stories. Here it is:

" The Room.."
In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the room. There were no distinguishing features except for the one wall covered with small index card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order. But these files, which stretched from floor to ceiling and seemingly endless in either direction, had very different headings.
As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my attention was one that read "Girls I have liked." I opened it and began flipping through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names written on each one. And then without being told, I knew exactly where I was. This lifeless room with its small files was a crude catalog system for my life. Here were written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in a detail my memory couldn't match. A sense of wonder and curiosity, coupled with horror, stirred within me as I began randomly opening files and exploring their content. Some brought joy and sweet memories; others a sense of shame and regret so intense that I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching.
A file named "Friends" was next to one marked "Friends I ha ve betrayed." The titles ranged from the mundane to the outright weird. "Books I Have Read," "Lies I Have Told," "Comfort I have Given," "Jokes I Have Laughed at."
Some were almost hilarious in their exactness: "Things I've yelled at my brothers." Others I couldn't laugh at: "Things I Have Done in My Anger", "Things I Have Muttered Under My Breath at My Parents." I never ceased to be surprised by the contents Often there were many more cards than expected. Sometimes fewer than I hoped. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the life I had lived.
Could it be possible that I had the time in my years to fill each of these thousands or even millions of cards? But each card confirmed this truth. Each was written in my own handwriting. Each signed with my signature.
When I pulled out the file marked "TV Shows I have watched," I realized the files grew to contain their contents. The cards were packed tightly, and yet after two or three yards, I hadn't found th e end of the file. I shut it, shamed, not so much by the quality of shows but more by the vast time I knew that file represented.
When I came to a file marked "Lustful Thoughts," I felt a chill run through my body. I pulled the file out only an inch, not willing to test its size, and drew out a card. I shuddered at its detailed content. I felt sick to think that such a moment had been recorded. An almost animal rage broke on me.
One thought dominated my mind: No one must ever see these cards! No one must ever see this room! I have to destroy them!" In insane frenzy I yanked the file out. Its size didn't matter now. I had to empty it and burn the cards...
But as I took it at one end and began pounding it on the floor, I could not dislodge a single card. I became desperate and pulled out a card, only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to tear it. Defeated and utterly helpless, I returned the file to its slot. Leaning my forehead against the wall, I let out a long, self-pitying sigh.
And then I saw it. The title bore "People I Have Shared the Gospel With." The handle was brighter than those around it, newer, almost unused. I pulled on its handle and a small box not more than three inches long fell into my hands. I could count the cards it contained on one hand.
And then the tears came. I began to weep. Sobs so deep that they hurt. They started in my stomach and shook through me. I fell on my knees and cried. I cried out of shame, from the overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of file shelves swirled in my tear-filled eyes.. No one must ever, ever know of this room. I must lock it up and hide the key. But then as I pushed away the tears, I saw Him.
No, please not Him. Not here. Oh, anyone but Jesus. I watched helplessly as He began to open the files and read the cards. I couldn't bear to watch His response. And in the moments I could bring myself to look at His face, I saw a sorrow deeper than my own. He seemed to intuitively go to the worst boxes.
Why did He have to read every one? Finally He turned and looked at me from across the room. He looked at me with pity in His eyes. But this was a pity that didn't anger me. I dropped my head, covered my face with my hands and began to cry again. He walked over and put His arm around me. He could have said so many things. But He didn't say a word. He just cried with me.
Then He got up and walked back to the wall of files. Starting at one end of the room, He took out a file and, one by one, began to sign His name over mine on each card. "No!" I shouted rushing to Him. All I could find to say was "No, no," as I pulled the card from Him.. His name shouldn't be on these cards. But there it was, written in red so rich, so dark, and so alive.
The name of Jesus covered mine. It was written with His blood. He gently took the card back He smiled a sad smile and began to sign the cards. I don't think I'll ever understand how He did it so quickly, but the next instant it seemed I heard Him close the last file and walk back to my side. He placed His hand on my shoulder and said, "It is finished."
I stood up, and He led me out of the room. There was no lock on its door. There were still cards to be written.
"For God so loved the world that He gave Hi s only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

They Nay's loved it! We talked about how Christ can sign off His name on the bad index cards that we make and take them away from them if they will only do what He asks and follow His gospel. It made total sense to them and it clicked! They were excited to continue the repentance process to allow the Savior to take away their sins and are excited to receive the Aaronic priesthood soon for Sam so they he can baptize their daughter Kamomi in September. Elder Holm and I usually visit them a few times a week with a scripture or to check up on how everything is going and we absolutely love them! They are an amazing family and it is incredible to see how much the gospel has helped them and changed them and saved their marriage!

Wedensday - Temple Day! Love it! I love the Oquirrh Mountain temple so much now. I still think the Mesa temple is the prettiest, followed by San Diego, but the Oquirrh Mountain now takes a close third. Going there every week for the past 8 months has been one of the greatest experiences of my life! We taught Olivia on Wednesday and she is amazing. I have never seen anyone so prepared to accept the gospel. She loves to read the scriptures and to dig through them for greater knowledge and understanding. It blows me away - she makes marks and annotates about every other verse with how it applies to her and the difference it can make in her life. She is excited to be baptized at the beginning of September. We went over the plan of salvation with her and about 10 of her friends that came along and lots of parents of those friends that were there too. It was amazing! The Spirit was there so strongly and Elder Holm and I learned afterward that one of the girls that was there was having major family issues and after discussing the plan with them, she went home to her family and it was exactly what they needed to stick together and start working back towards the temple again. Heavenly Father truly performs countless miracles each and every day. We taught the Miler's also on that day and that was sweet! Br. Miler is so excited to be baptized and his wife Nandine is so grateful to be active again. They are a sweet family and we are excited for this Sunday evening when he will be baptized. Everything is set to go and we are super happy!

Thursday - We taught Deylon on that day and he is doing great. He and his whole family have been taking the steps to become active again and it has made a total difference in the feeling of their home and in the Spirit that they feel. We also taught the Reese's on that day and they are a great family! All of them are excited to learn about the church and all want to be baptized. We need to work on their smoking problem though - both the mother and the 14 year old daughter smoke. But both feel that the church is true and want to change so we are helping them out the best that we can. They were homeless a month ago and now are renting a very small townhome and it has made a difference in their lives. The ward members have been so nice to them and it has made all the difference and made them interested in the gospel and how it can bless people's lives.

Friday was a great day as well. Lots of contacting and lots of refusal. But lots of nice people as well. We watched Legacy with the Nay's on that day. Also, we stopped by the West's to encourage them on their missionary work, because their friend Patricia has no more interest to meet with us. Sister West shared one of the most spiritual experiences and stories that I have ever heard. It was just what I needed that day with things I had been struggling with and praying about and it put me right back on track. Heavenly Father sends many angels in our lives to help us out and to answer our prayers and that night, she was an angel who helped me out more than she will ever know.

Saturday was another long contacting day. Not much people home, everyone is out on vacation and other things.

Sunday is always one of my favorite days because we get to go to so many church meetings and learn so many new things!!!

Anyways I need to go now! Love you all and hope everyone is doing great!

Elder Hughes

8/9/10 - How cool is that for the date of today!?!

Good afternoon everybody!
Well, today is the day where all the numbers go in ascending order and I think that is really cool. Doesn't happen very often. Anyway, that was the random fact for today. Other random things. Elder Holm and I are now sprinkler pros, we had to install sprinklers in the front yard because our landlady has been asking us to water the yard (it is now completely dead) and the hose wasn't covering enough. So we bought a cheap one from Walmart that hooks right up to the hose and set the distanct, height, and everything else and managed not to get soaked too badly. Tons of fun! Also, I have succeeded in starting to make a new scripture case and fixing my scriptures. The binding on my scriptures completely came off about a week ago so I Elmer's glued it back together and it has made them brand new! After that I decided I needed a case to protect them and so started looking at cases - too expensive by a ton. Then I decided to make one using a cereal box and it works likea charm. Best part of all, it was free! Well, almost. I just got a bunch of small pictures of Jesus to post all over the box today to cover up the cereal information and to make it look better. Still $8 totally creams the minimum $30 I was going to have to spend. So whenever I get that project finished I will send home a picture to everyone and you can see what you think. I got the idea from another elder in my zone who has done the same thing to protect his scriptures. So that was my exciting day for today so far and guess what? It is 80 degrees and slightly cloudy and feels like perfection! I have decided I love Utah summers, the only thing I miss is not having the pine smell like the cabin does for such cooler summer weather. I do not miss the burning blacktop, the burning seatbelts and steering wheels, the burning sidewalks and all that from Mesa though. Everyone here still complains it is too hot though, so I guess you can't win. It is all in what you are use to. We had 2 new elder move in to our apartment this week because their housing contract expired. They are the Spanish elders for our zone named Elder Rose and Elder Flores. So far, they manage to break about half the rules and Elder Holm is getting pretty frustrated with them because I trained him to keep them all 100%. Can't say I'm not frustrated either, but it is their choice and it doesn't effect what we do, so everything will work out. They are both very nice and fun to be with and doubled the furniture in our apartment with great red recliners. Also, they helped us to get everything cleaned and moved around. It looks like they will probably be living with us for the forseeable next few months while the mission struggles to find more housing. A lot of missionaries are losing their housing right now and apparently not many members are willing to take them in, so a lot of doubling up has been going on and it finally got around to us. Thankfully, the transition has been fairly smooth though and our apartment is big enough to fit all of us in very comfortably and nicely. We also finally got the swamp cooler fixed, or I should say Elder Hom did - he ran a plastic pipe up from the water tap in the house to the unit on the rough and got all the kinks and leaks worked out. So now, since I have been there, we have successfully installed a new disposal, fixed the hot water heater, had a new furnance installed, got the sprinkler system set up, among other things. Whoever gets the apartment after the missionaries move out, will great enjoy it! Well, we now have an hour and a half to email with the new mission president so I have time to change how I usually write my emails so that I feel like I cover more and say what I want to say!

Tuesday - great day! We had district meeting about the new baptismal commitment wording that we are supposed to use ( right from the first presidency). The wording is right out of Preach My Gospel and is said "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God? We will be holding a baptismal service on (date). Will you prepare yourself to be baptized on that date?" Big change from what I had become used to with following the Spirit on giving different commits, but the Spirit has been there powerfully when we have practiced this one and so I know we are supposed to use it. Every time we teach a first lesson, we are supposed to fit that into the lesson and give the challenge when the Spirit directs that the timing is right. Kind of crazy, huh? Tuesday we also taught 5 lessons in one day! AWESOME! Deylon Falkner has been moving along, his mom's heart is finally softening and it is making a huge change! We went over keeping the Sabbath Day holy, tithing, and the word of wisdom last week. She committed to going to church, paying tithing, and came right out and apologized to Deylon that she neglected in her duty as a parent to teach him and felt true remorse for it. It was quite a miracle! She went from saying "I hate church" to that attitude. We are excited for that! Noa Bowen is doing awesome, can't wait to get baptized. If we filled up the font, he would just jump in. We were waiting for his mother to have the twins she was pregnant with and she finally did on Friday and so everything is a go ahead for the next week and a half. The Nay's are trying their best to stay strong and committed to the gospel. They are doing family scripture study, prayer, and are starting family home evening today. They have gone from almost divorce to happy marriage back to almost divorce and now back to happy, stronger marriage. Bishop Croshaw says he has learned from working with that family, never to leave the straight and narrow path because finding your way back through the "mists of darkness" to the iron rod is so hard. And you fall down a lot in order to get there and it destroys a lot of things. Just stay on the path. The Nay's are gradually feeling their way back to the path though and trying their best.

Wednesday - migraine day! That is all I have to say about that. I was knocked out in pain and nausea all day long and was not the most cheery person ever. I got Elder Holm set up exchanges to go cover our appointments and then wrapped a blanket around my head to block out light and sound and laid down. Miraculously, it only lasted one day and was gone.

Thursday was another awesome day! Because there was no more migraine, haha. We were disappointed that day because Lexi Crispin - who was so solid-is now off date thanks to her father. Dad told her that she has to prove that the church is true to him before she can get baptized/ watch a lot of scientology movies and information and investigate other religions before she can get baptized. Why do parents always do this? They got the chance to be baptized once and now they don't believe it and so they refuse to accept that their children could start believing or be able to understand that their children got a spiritual confirmation. Lexi is determined to convince her father though and so we are praying for her. Joe Heath is doing great. Loves meeting with us, like reading, has started to come around to praying. Working on commitment level.

Friday we got a baptism firmly set up and anticipated for! Steve Miler will be getting baptized on this Saturday at 3 PM and is excited for it! He has kind of the same experience as Aunt Tiff with tons of different missionaries and never moving forward. Then he and his wife had a miscarriage and were brought to the point of figuring out what exactly they believed in and so now he is ready to be baptized and has felt the Spirit. He and his wife both prayed for the opening and closing prayers at our appointment which is a huge change! The whole ward is excited about them and working with them. They are both excited to work towards the temple as well and get everything done that they need to!

Saturday we ran into a lot of people and got a lot of "errand" missionary work done with reporting to this or that bishop or whatever. We met up with a new investigator family - the Reese. Tina is about 37, Bailee is 14, Dylan is 11, with Cassidy (boy) is 9. They moved into the town homes and everyone was assuming they were members and were helping out and visiting like they were members. Then their records never came through and so the ward asked them what happened to the records or how they could be requested/found. Tina replied that they have never been baptized and weren't members. The ward got us over there fast and we started to teach and work with them. The whole family is really hyper active and has some Word of Wisdom issues, but all are excited to be baptized and become a member of the church. We are so happy to be working with them and the blessing it is from Heavenly Father that they moved into our area just when they did.

Sunday was another great day! The Spirit is alwasy so strong on Sunday because of all the church we got to. At least I think so. We had a lesson with Olivia Morley that day and she is excited and ready to be baptized! Bummer is that her grandma wants her to wait a month before she can make that decision, so we will working with her to keep her steady and solid for the next month to get that done. Olivia reads the scriptures unlike any other though. She took over 7 notecards full of notes on 5 chapters from the Book of Mormon, all with what applied to her in her life at this particular time. If we would all read scriptures that way, imagine the power it would bring into our lives! It has brought a huge amount of power into hers and gave her the answer she needed to move forward with it. Another miracle.

Missions are just full of miracles and everything going great and amazing. They are a lot of hard work, don't get me wrong. But I have never seen so many amazing miracles effect so many amazing people. Heavenly Father truly does love His children and watch out for them!

I love you all and thanks for all the birthday wishes and presents! Still can't believe that I am 20 now and that time is still flying by like none other!
Please keep me and my investigators in your prayers as I do for all of you! THANKS! It makes the biggest difference, it really does!
Elder Hughes