Hello everybody!
Well, this past week has been pretty fantastic! We were truly blessed to find so many people who seem at least somewhat sincere in their pursuit of the gospel. It all came about because President Miller called us on Sunday afternoon and asked why our numbers were so low and what he could do to help. I didn't really have a satisfactory answer for him, so he promised to pray for us and to set up exchanges with the zone leaders to come work our area with us. So that is what we did Monday and to tremendous success. We tracted in one apartment complex for about 3 hours and found 3 new investigators, some people who had just prayed to get in contact with the English speaking missionaries! What a miracle! It totally got me pumped up again to do missionary work and to talk to everyone in our path and invite them to learn the restored gospel. I have been thanking God for that experience ever since and tracting has taken on a whole new light to me and I now really enjoy it. We start meeting with our first person tomorrow. Plus we picked up another new investigator yesterday from the unbaptized list (but blessed as children) and are picking up an African American lady tonight over dinner. PRAYER WORKS! I know that to be true, but it is a great blessing to have it verified every once in a while. I know Heavenly Father is there and that He loves each and every one of us and wants to help us to come back to Him. Thank you for all the prayers from home to find people as well, they helped a ton!
In other news, Christmas was a truly special day and was AMAZING in every sense of the word. We opened Christmas presents with the Spanish elders in the early morning (and managed to find presents for Elder Hernadez to open since he did not get any). That was very good because they were not getting along anymore at that point and so us being there helped them to cool down and be hospitable to each other. Elder Hernadez did get transferred and now Elder Jolly is companions with Elder Fordham, which seems to be going along a lot better. Another answer to prayer there. Then we went to Aunt Kara and Uncle Blair's house for an hour. Grandpa and Grandma Walker met us up there and we had a good time visiting for an hour. Reminded me a lot of our Christmases at home with presents strewn in piles everywhere according to what person they were for and just the congenial happiness and family togetherness. It was very nice. Then we went to Bishop and Sister Rassmussen's for brunch down in Draper. It was a lot of fun to get to seem them again and to talk about how the work is now going in their ward and stake. It felt like coming home to visit with them almost. Then we went to the Gonzalez family home. Man, did they put out a spread. It was delicious! Costa Rican food is probably fastly becoming my favorite. Really good chicken in some sort of spice, beef-potatoe-carrots cooked together in some other spice, then pork in gravy with carrots and potatoes and peas. What really touched me though was that we had so many missionaries there - about 11 - and they served us. They wouldn't let us help with anything, nor would they eat with us. They acted like the best waiters or waitresses I have ever seen - they said they wanted to give back to us for the best thing that anyone has ever brought their family, the gospel. It really touched me heart. It was great to catch up with them too and see how they are doing. Then we stopped by some more people that I had taught before and that I had known really well before in my old area. Then we came back up to Taylorsville and visited a few families for Elder Noll. In the evening, we went to the Cremer's home and played Catch Phrase! and Curses! with them. It was a blast! It wasn't as good as really being at home and at Grandma Hughes' house for Christmas, but it was still a day that I really enjoyed very close friends that I hope to cherish forever.
Christmas Eve was a spiritual experience. Instead of watching movies and playing games during traditional "lock down" days of the year, we will now have mission conferences. With speakers from the Seventy or the Quorum of the Twelve. They are going to simply be spiritual feasts. This past one, Elder Jensen came and spoke to us about his memories and thoughts on missionary work and Christmas. Then we were privileged to open gifts so graciously provided by the members in the mission. They had donated so much in answer to the call made by Sister Miller to have presents for every missionary. Everyone there got at least two big presents to unwrap and they were all full to the brim with treats, clothes, gift cards, you name it. Ironically enough, the basket I received had a Utah "Utes" hat in it. Very funny. Everything else I received was amazing though and it was another touching and humbling experience to receive so much from people I don't even know or will probably never meet. Then we had another chance to listen to speakers - they went through the Christmas story and we sang many, many hymns. Then Sister Miller addressed us and then President Miller addressed us on the need for obedience. He was in tears and I think everyone else in the room was as well. The Spirit was there so strong, it was almost tangible. A fog of goodness, hope, and cheer that surrounded and ended the entire evening is the only way I can think to describe it. It was FANTASTIC!
The rest of the week was really good as well with the new people we found to teach and the other people we are teaching making very slow, but steady progress.
It was great to have a spiritul powerhouse kick to the face this week for Christmas to get me really motivated to keep doing my best in missionary work. I am going to work harder, be better, and give it my all. That is what I came out to do and that is what I am going to finish the rest of my mission this year doing. I am working on a system to get letters to where I really want them to go. I found out that none of the letters I mailed out the past transfer got to the people I sent them too and some of those were very important letters. I am sorry for this and will try to do better and get them in a secure location to be mailed. P-days seem to keep getting shorter and shorter though, I don't know how that works. So the time I write letters in keeps seems to get smaller and smaller and harder and harder. But I can and will do better and letters will hopefully make it to their correct destinations.
Elder Noll and I are still together and I am still a district leader. I am liking it though and finding it has really helped me to learn and grow. Especially having the charge of other missionaries and their welfare has really opened my eyes and my heart and I have learned that revelation really does flow right when it is needed if we have lived worthily of it. I really enjoyed this past transfer and look forward to this one being full of more amazing experience and great blessings from Heavenly Father. To keep inviting people to come unto Christ and to be baptized so that they can return to live with our Heavenly Father. This is His work and He is at the head of it. Of that I am sure and know without a shadow of a doubt.
Much love and prayers,
Elder Hughes
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
I have decided that life gets very interesting as a district leader. Elder Jolly, one of the Spanish missionaries in my district, passed out over the weekend and hit his head and starting to have convulsions from hitting his head. Since he was the only one who could drive out of his companionship, they are now only walking for the forseeable future. I had to work as the inbetween man for the missionary and the mission president and his wife and try to sort through all the medical stuff and what was needed and how to work out getting them transportation and stuff like that. CRAZY! The sister companionship in my district had quite a bit of drama as well so between the two, I have had my fair share of being very busy this week and lots of earnest, hard prayer and seeking for heavenly help. It does come and it has made a big difference. Now things are starting to cool back down and it looks like the last week of the transfer will be very good for everyone.
Last Friday, we had a mission wide Christmas conference. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came and spoke to us. Needless to say, it was quite a good talk and there was some pulpit-pounding involved as most the time seems with him. He talked to us about how Preach My Gospel was written to convert the missionary so that missionaries can than help to convert others. The goal behind Preach My Gospel was that no missionary is supposed to go home less active. It was a really good talk. They also had about 50 musical numbers from different missionaries. It was a huge spiritual feast.
I got the package last week and this week - thank you so much! I will call around one in the afternoon, that will work great! I ran out of time to write much this week reporting back to president about the different needs of my district. When I call, could you get me the Lyon's address? I couldn't stay very long (one hour max family visits) but I could be there for an hour on Christmas. They could call me at (801)205-6524 if I can stop by in the morning at 9ish. That or in the evening around 7 or 8. Whatever works best for them, let me know on the phone call or give them the number so they can get in touch with me if the morning visit would work better. I would love to visit them! Especially because they are currently only a few miles away. Life is going great and prayer really works! The church is true and our Heavenly Father really does love us. Jesus Christ suffered, died, and was resurrected. That fact makes the entire plan of salvation possible. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know miracles can and still do happen every single day and many times throughout each day.
Have a Merry Christmas!!!!!
Elder Hughes
I have decided that life gets very interesting as a district leader. Elder Jolly, one of the Spanish missionaries in my district, passed out over the weekend and hit his head and starting to have convulsions from hitting his head. Since he was the only one who could drive out of his companionship, they are now only walking for the forseeable future. I had to work as the inbetween man for the missionary and the mission president and his wife and try to sort through all the medical stuff and what was needed and how to work out getting them transportation and stuff like that. CRAZY! The sister companionship in my district had quite a bit of drama as well so between the two, I have had my fair share of being very busy this week and lots of earnest, hard prayer and seeking for heavenly help. It does come and it has made a big difference. Now things are starting to cool back down and it looks like the last week of the transfer will be very good for everyone.
Last Friday, we had a mission wide Christmas conference. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came and spoke to us. Needless to say, it was quite a good talk and there was some pulpit-pounding involved as most the time seems with him. He talked to us about how Preach My Gospel was written to convert the missionary so that missionaries can than help to convert others. The goal behind Preach My Gospel was that no missionary is supposed to go home less active. It was a really good talk. They also had about 50 musical numbers from different missionaries. It was a huge spiritual feast.
I got the package last week and this week - thank you so much! I will call around one in the afternoon, that will work great! I ran out of time to write much this week reporting back to president about the different needs of my district. When I call, could you get me the Lyon's address? I couldn't stay very long (one hour max family visits) but I could be there for an hour on Christmas. They could call me at (801)205-6524 if I can stop by in the morning at 9ish. That or in the evening around 7 or 8. Whatever works best for them, let me know on the phone call or give them the number so they can get in touch with me if the morning visit would work better. I would love to visit them! Especially because they are currently only a few miles away. Life is going great and prayer really works! The church is true and our Heavenly Father really does love us. Jesus Christ suffered, died, and was resurrected. That fact makes the entire plan of salvation possible. I know the Book of Mormon is true. I know miracles can and still do happen every single day and many times throughout each day.
Have a Merry Christmas!!!!!
Elder Hughes
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...and then the snow came
Hello everybody!
Well it snowed again last night, another good 3 or 4 inches. All the snow was melted and gone and now everything is covered in snow again. I think it looks better that way though. You don't notice how muddy everything is or how dead the trees really are. Anyway, things have been going fairly well! Lots of people we are hoping to start teaching and the appointments should start holding steady, so we are praying for anyway. We should be picking up an African American lady named Kimberly Dance tonight or tomorrow. She has been attending church for the past two weeks and has asked a lot of questions of her member friends about different things the church does. No one in the ward was quite brave enough to ask her to take the missionary discussions or would give her our address though so tracking her down has been quite a chore. We finally managed to find her though and she is excited and very interested to meet with us. The only problem is that she is constantly sick and suffers from severe insomnia. So whenever we have had an appointment set up in the past those two things have gotten in the way. But we are supposed to stop by again tonight and things should get better. We should start teaching a part member family next week, they have been taught before but were ok with trying again. The cool thing was that the husband who is a member just talked about going back to church the day before we knocked on their door. We caught the nonmember wife home and for the first 5 minutes we talked to her on the doorstep, she seriously thought her husband had set her up. Finally she called her husband and after he denied speaking to us about anything and acknowledged maybe there is something greater at work here - God. After that she was willing to set up an appointment for a week from today. Also, we should start teaching a woman named Jen Mace tonight. She just moved here from out of state and was taking the missionary lessons before and is interested in continuing. We are so excited to see things start to pick up! We have been working hard all day, every day (as my companion likes to keep reminding me) with not much success. Finally the blessings are starting to come from the efforts we have put in. We are so grateful. We have a lot more potential that are starting to surface as well and should be good to start teaching hopefully in the next couple weeks. The zone leaders double worked our area with us yesterday to help us find more people because we have been doing really bad at that. They said we were both doing the right thing and to keep going and things would pick up.
Information about Christmas and new rules that have come out. I am not allowed to Skype, not at all. There is no time limit or set time to make the phone call, so let me know what would be the best time to shoot for. Do you want me to call while you are at Grandma's house? Or at a different time? Also, I am now allowed to go out to lunch any day with any family members within my own area - EXCEPT for my parents and girlfriends, but I don't have to worry about that one haha. Interesting rule, huh? Lunch still has to be an hour or less like any normal day. But that is an interesting change up from the absolutely seeing no family members from before. On Christmas Day, I have Christmas dinner currently at 10 AM with the Rassmussen family. Then hopefully we are getting something set up with the Gonzalez family for a later lunch because that is what they wanted to do. Our landlords have invited us to eat Christmas dinner with them so we will probably do that. Also, planning other visits throughout Riverton and Draper while I am down there to people that I taught before and now are struggling with trials. BIG ones. Hopefully I can help them in some way, I have been trying to write them as time permits. I can't believe it is already Christmas again, that is ridiculous. It was just Christmas the other day or so it feels like to me, the more I try to slow time down on my mission the more time seems to speed up and slip through my hands.
It has been that hot down there?!? You should send some of that up here! Haha. I could use it, so could my companion. We are probably a sight to see with our scarves, hats, and gloves, and jackets. We just get cold so easy. My companiond does have stuff to open. My presents really don't fit underneath the tree but that's ok. Looks like Christmas still anyway. I did get the box from Aunt Kara and thank you so much! I think the Chex mix might be gone by tomorrow. Like always, it is addictive so I munch on it and then it has been a hit with some other people I have shared with as well.
The people we are teaching have all seemed to stalemate for the time being. Various concerns and challenges, not to mention Christmas have made things a little bit difficult for most people. But we do have one person who should be getting baptized on New Year's Day! How cool is that? I can't think of a better way to start off the new year, especially for him. His probation just ended so now he can finally get baptized and he is absolutely loving the gospel. It has done more to help with his mental health issues than anything else has. He is a really awesome guy and his family is reactivating around him which is great for support.
Well, that is all I have really time to write right now. I am loving life and my mission, things are awesome! Oh! Tina and Cassidy Reese are finally getting baptized this Saturday! I am so excited! I get to go down to Draper on Saturday night and give the talk on the Holy Ghost! So I get some of my visiting done that night with the people that will be at the baptism. I should have pictures of that next week and I am so excited!
Much love and prayers,
Elder Ryan Hughes
Well it snowed again last night, another good 3 or 4 inches. All the snow was melted and gone and now everything is covered in snow again. I think it looks better that way though. You don't notice how muddy everything is or how dead the trees really are. Anyway, things have been going fairly well! Lots of people we are hoping to start teaching and the appointments should start holding steady, so we are praying for anyway. We should be picking up an African American lady named Kimberly Dance tonight or tomorrow. She has been attending church for the past two weeks and has asked a lot of questions of her member friends about different things the church does. No one in the ward was quite brave enough to ask her to take the missionary discussions or would give her our address though so tracking her down has been quite a chore. We finally managed to find her though and she is excited and very interested to meet with us. The only problem is that she is constantly sick and suffers from severe insomnia. So whenever we have had an appointment set up in the past those two things have gotten in the way. But we are supposed to stop by again tonight and things should get better. We should start teaching a part member family next week, they have been taught before but were ok with trying again. The cool thing was that the husband who is a member just talked about going back to church the day before we knocked on their door. We caught the nonmember wife home and for the first 5 minutes we talked to her on the doorstep, she seriously thought her husband had set her up. Finally she called her husband and after he denied speaking to us about anything and acknowledged maybe there is something greater at work here - God. After that she was willing to set up an appointment for a week from today. Also, we should start teaching a woman named Jen Mace tonight. She just moved here from out of state and was taking the missionary lessons before and is interested in continuing. We are so excited to see things start to pick up! We have been working hard all day, every day (as my companion likes to keep reminding me) with not much success. Finally the blessings are starting to come from the efforts we have put in. We are so grateful. We have a lot more potential that are starting to surface as well and should be good to start teaching hopefully in the next couple weeks. The zone leaders double worked our area with us yesterday to help us find more people because we have been doing really bad at that. They said we were both doing the right thing and to keep going and things would pick up.
Information about Christmas and new rules that have come out. I am not allowed to Skype, not at all. There is no time limit or set time to make the phone call, so let me know what would be the best time to shoot for. Do you want me to call while you are at Grandma's house? Or at a different time? Also, I am now allowed to go out to lunch any day with any family members within my own area - EXCEPT for my parents and girlfriends, but I don't have to worry about that one haha. Interesting rule, huh? Lunch still has to be an hour or less like any normal day. But that is an interesting change up from the absolutely seeing no family members from before. On Christmas Day, I have Christmas dinner currently at 10 AM with the Rassmussen family. Then hopefully we are getting something set up with the Gonzalez family for a later lunch because that is what they wanted to do. Our landlords have invited us to eat Christmas dinner with them so we will probably do that. Also, planning other visits throughout Riverton and Draper while I am down there to people that I taught before and now are struggling with trials. BIG ones. Hopefully I can help them in some way, I have been trying to write them as time permits. I can't believe it is already Christmas again, that is ridiculous. It was just Christmas the other day or so it feels like to me, the more I try to slow time down on my mission the more time seems to speed up and slip through my hands.
It has been that hot down there?!? You should send some of that up here! Haha. I could use it, so could my companion. We are probably a sight to see with our scarves, hats, and gloves, and jackets. We just get cold so easy. My companiond does have stuff to open. My presents really don't fit underneath the tree but that's ok. Looks like Christmas still anyway. I did get the box from Aunt Kara and thank you so much! I think the Chex mix might be gone by tomorrow. Like always, it is addictive so I munch on it and then it has been a hit with some other people I have shared with as well.
The people we are teaching have all seemed to stalemate for the time being. Various concerns and challenges, not to mention Christmas have made things a little bit difficult for most people. But we do have one person who should be getting baptized on New Year's Day! How cool is that? I can't think of a better way to start off the new year, especially for him. His probation just ended so now he can finally get baptized and he is absolutely loving the gospel. It has done more to help with his mental health issues than anything else has. He is a really awesome guy and his family is reactivating around him which is great for support.
Well, that is all I have really time to write right now. I am loving life and my mission, things are awesome! Oh! Tina and Cassidy Reese are finally getting baptized this Saturday! I am so excited! I get to go down to Draper on Saturday night and give the talk on the Holy Ghost! So I get some of my visiting done that night with the people that will be at the baptism. I should have pictures of that next week and I am so excited!
Much love and prayers,
Elder Ryan Hughes
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Heat Wave
Merry Christmas!
Well, the way things are turning out, Utah might be having a very green Christmas. The temperatures have been shooting up to the upper 40's and lower 50's and almost all the 2 feet of snow that used to over everything has melted away. Feels like spring again. Only problem is that everything is dead instead of blossoming. Oh well, it is nice to have warmer weather at least for a little while until winter hits again.
Ok, to answer all the questions. No, I didn't find the stamps. But now that I know they are there I will certainly find them. I haven't done anything at all to the box so they should still be right there. The razor is definitely helping a lot, so thanks so much. I got quite a few nice things from the Lyon family today and I want to tell them "THANK YOU" from the bottom of my heart. Also, got the package from you and a present for Christmas. It will go underneath the small tree that Grandma sent me last year that I put up again right next to Grandma's presents. For the protein diet - we have a lot of salad bars, a lot of potato bars, and a lot of vegetables and fruits. We still eat with members every night but he has to tell them ahead of time what he can eat and they are gracious enough to feed us anyway. Lots of sherbert for dessert. Last night, we had a curry and potato soup, it was delicious! I absolutely loved it! I really, really like Indian food. So, we still get plenty to eat but it just happens to be more healthy than before. Plus it helps me to try vegetables I have never tried before like parsnips. They were pretty good. Also, a lot of people make some part of the meal with meat still for their families and allow me to eat some of that. No, there is nothing else that I need. Everything else is good, I have more than enough stuff. Trust me. As for the phone call, I do not know what the rules are yet. No one has said anything. We will have to wait and see. I had Costa Vida a few weeks ago from a very nice ward mission leader's wife! Costa Vida happens to be up here as well, plus I have discovered the tastiness of Cafe Rio. Sweet pork burritos are simply the best. The one thing Utah doesn't do is Tia Rosa's. Nothing even comes close. But that's ok, they have plenty of restaurants up here that Mesa doesn't have and that I have found myself enjoying.
This past week we have been working really hard. At least Elder Noll lets me know that he thinks so. Appartenly, I have way too much energy because I am all go, all the time. I seem to tire everyone else out, all my companions so far at least when they didn't have any other problems with anyone else. I still don't find myself too tired though, so I don't know what to do. The missionary work in general though has been going fairly slow. Everyone is sick or extememly busy. Nice, but too busy. In some ways, Christmas is great and in other ways it kind of hurts the work. We have been able the watch the church movie "Joy to the World" with several of our investigators and several new less actives we have picked up. We started to teach the Golson's on Monday night. Jayden is about 11 and was baptized about a year ago and has not been back to church at all since. His mother stopped going to church about the same time and picked back up her smoking habit. We knocked on their door and they immediately invited us in and wanted a message. They have very fond memories of the missonaries that taught Jayden and so we shared a message about the true meaning of Christmas and the blessings of the Atonement in our lives. Both the kid and the mom were riveted the whole time and bore very sweet testimonies about the gospel. We are excited to teach them and work with them and they are very excited to be reconnected with the Spirit as well. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can them back out to church and then start working on the smoking habit. She really wants to and so does he. It is amazing how much the Lord truly prepares people and how the gospel can arrive at just the perfect moment to help them out.
Logan Margetts got baptized last Sunday. It was an awesome experience. He was truly prepared by the Lord as well and was very ready for baptism. I have never seen someone so excited to pay tithing in my life. That and fast offering. He was jumping at the occasion. Wayyyyy excited. He gets confirmed this Sunday and is looking forward to it.
Now that he is baptized, all of our prospects have been shot. No one else is really progressing towards baptism at the current time and things have really slowed down.
We are praying hard though and trying to do what we can to help things pick back up. The Lord will bless us. We are excited for Christmas and for everything that is coming up, it should be awesome!
Much love and prayers,
Elder Hughes
Well, the way things are turning out, Utah might be having a very green Christmas. The temperatures have been shooting up to the upper 40's and lower 50's and almost all the 2 feet of snow that used to over everything has melted away. Feels like spring again. Only problem is that everything is dead instead of blossoming. Oh well, it is nice to have warmer weather at least for a little while until winter hits again.
Ok, to answer all the questions. No, I didn't find the stamps. But now that I know they are there I will certainly find them. I haven't done anything at all to the box so they should still be right there. The razor is definitely helping a lot, so thanks so much. I got quite a few nice things from the Lyon family today and I want to tell them "THANK YOU" from the bottom of my heart. Also, got the package from you and a present for Christmas. It will go underneath the small tree that Grandma sent me last year that I put up again right next to Grandma's presents. For the protein diet - we have a lot of salad bars, a lot of potato bars, and a lot of vegetables and fruits. We still eat with members every night but he has to tell them ahead of time what he can eat and they are gracious enough to feed us anyway. Lots of sherbert for dessert. Last night, we had a curry and potato soup, it was delicious! I absolutely loved it! I really, really like Indian food. So, we still get plenty to eat but it just happens to be more healthy than before. Plus it helps me to try vegetables I have never tried before like parsnips. They were pretty good. Also, a lot of people make some part of the meal with meat still for their families and allow me to eat some of that. No, there is nothing else that I need. Everything else is good, I have more than enough stuff. Trust me. As for the phone call, I do not know what the rules are yet. No one has said anything. We will have to wait and see. I had Costa Vida a few weeks ago from a very nice ward mission leader's wife! Costa Vida happens to be up here as well, plus I have discovered the tastiness of Cafe Rio. Sweet pork burritos are simply the best. The one thing Utah doesn't do is Tia Rosa's. Nothing even comes close. But that's ok, they have plenty of restaurants up here that Mesa doesn't have and that I have found myself enjoying.
This past week we have been working really hard. At least Elder Noll lets me know that he thinks so. Appartenly, I have way too much energy because I am all go, all the time. I seem to tire everyone else out, all my companions so far at least when they didn't have any other problems with anyone else. I still don't find myself too tired though, so I don't know what to do. The missionary work in general though has been going fairly slow. Everyone is sick or extememly busy. Nice, but too busy. In some ways, Christmas is great and in other ways it kind of hurts the work. We have been able the watch the church movie "Joy to the World" with several of our investigators and several new less actives we have picked up. We started to teach the Golson's on Monday night. Jayden is about 11 and was baptized about a year ago and has not been back to church at all since. His mother stopped going to church about the same time and picked back up her smoking habit. We knocked on their door and they immediately invited us in and wanted a message. They have very fond memories of the missonaries that taught Jayden and so we shared a message about the true meaning of Christmas and the blessings of the Atonement in our lives. Both the kid and the mom were riveted the whole time and bore very sweet testimonies about the gospel. We are excited to teach them and work with them and they are very excited to be reconnected with the Spirit as well. Hopefully in the next few weeks we can them back out to church and then start working on the smoking habit. She really wants to and so does he. It is amazing how much the Lord truly prepares people and how the gospel can arrive at just the perfect moment to help them out.
Logan Margetts got baptized last Sunday. It was an awesome experience. He was truly prepared by the Lord as well and was very ready for baptism. I have never seen someone so excited to pay tithing in my life. That and fast offering. He was jumping at the occasion. Wayyyyy excited. He gets confirmed this Sunday and is looking forward to it.
Now that he is baptized, all of our prospects have been shot. No one else is really progressing towards baptism at the current time and things have really slowed down.
We are praying hard though and trying to do what we can to help things pick back up. The Lord will bless us. We are excited for Christmas and for everything that is coming up, it should be awesome!
Much love and prayers,
Elder Hughes
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
I survived the Salt Lake City "blizzard"
Good morning everybody and Happy Thanksgiving!
Well, as you can tell by the subject. There was a blizzard here last night, supposedly anyway. It pretty much felt like a regular snow storm, but the weather services had been warning people about it for days so every house we went to had people telling us to be careful and to park our car and stay inside. We did end up having to ground the car, but it never snowed hard enough to where it felt like we had to hide inside. It did get pretty cold last night though and for the first time in my life, I had to chip ice off all the windows of our car. And "warm" the car up by leaving it on for about 15 minutes with the defrosters on at full heat blast. Definitely a far cry from the Arizona Thanksgiving, that is for sure. We sang "Prayer of Thanksgiving" last Sunday at the Taylorsville Utah Valley Park Stake and it had already snowed a good foot by that morning so the song seemed to be a little bit behind the times with "All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin." hahaha, I was thinking "too late". Trees and branches have been falling down all over the place because they all still have their leaves. Add all the weight of over a foot and a half of snow and lots of them came crashing down. Did a lot of damage to our landlord's trees, they used to be so beautiful and now all the big branches have been broken off and are scattererd throughout the yard. I have decided being moved to a new area right before Thanksgiving is not the best, I had so many options and offers in Riverton. Out here, my companion is kind of shy so we have only one offer and that is for 1, so the rest of the day we might just be sitting in the apartment. We aren't really supposed to knock on doors and disturb people's family gatherings and celebrations, but maybe we can set up more appointments or find something to do. As long as we can stay indoors most the day, we should be fine. Today and tomorrow there is a huge cold front, which is keeping temperatures down in the 20's and teens. Then back up to 40's again, Utah is so bipolar. Elder Noll and I have started to really exercise this week as we played sports on Monday and then shoveled all our landlord's snow today. There are drawbacks to having a huge driveway and lots of sidewalks is what I discovered.
I have been blessed to be placed in a really good area with lots of very nice people and a huge amount of potential. Elder Noll is willing to work hard and follow my lead, but I wear him out to easy I am afraid. He fell asleep a lot yesterday and has already done so again today. He tries his hardest, but I guess I am blessed with a lot more energy than most people. Working on calming it down a little bit so that he can stay focused and awake during lessons. My district is also amazing. All the missionaries are very obedient and are working hard in the Lord's work. All are excited to do the work and have the faith necessary to perform miracles in their areas. All are also happy and energetic and willing to give it everything they got. Much better than it could have been according to what President emailed me. I have Sister Wasden and Sister Johnson from Hawaii and Canada, respectfully. Elder Hernadez from Las Vegas and Elder Jolley from Seattle. Elder Jolley is a brand new missionary and Sister Wasden has only been out a transfer. Our entire district has only been out a short amount of time collectively on their missions. Elder and Sister Palmer are our senior missionaries and they are awesome and hard working as well. I had to do my first baptismal interview last week for a 10 year old girl. Thankfully, they give us "cheat" sheets for all the questions we have to ask and such things so it went very well. The Lord has truly blessed me with such great missionaries and such amazing opportunities. I don't know why He has given me so much responsibility, but I will do everything I can to live up to what He expects of me and pray as hard as possible for His help and guidance. That is the only way to ever do anything with His work anyway, with all of His help and Spirit.
As Thanksgiving approaches, a lot of talks and thoughts have been centered on gratitude and I always love that. I especially have enjoyed reading and re-reading President Monson's talk from last general conference. If we live grateful lives and have an "attitude of gratitude" then we will truly be as happy as we can ever be and become the type of people we truly want to be. I have been working on being much more grateful in my prayers and in expressing more gratitude for the infinite blessings the Lord has granted me. Also, worked on expressing it more to all those that we teach, work, and come in contact with. The difference it makes is astounding and has helped me to keep happy and going strong. Right now, I am working on sending out thank you cards to a bunch of people in my past area who truly watched after me and helped me in the Lord's work. There are so many people to thank though is what I am realizing and so much to be thankful for from every house and family. The list has gotten fairly long and comprehensive. But I really enjoying writing them and including my testimony and letting people know how much I truly appreciate them and their service towards me.
The people here in Taylorsville are a much more humble people, but not nearly as outgoing or loving as Riverton and Draper, at least not right away in the first week. No one seems to trust me or want to talk about the gospel or anything for that matter - all want to stay working hard and don't seem to find joy in the work that they do. All seem to be just "existing" rather than "living" if that makes any sense. It makes a huge difference in the missionary work and the missionary spirit in the two stakes that we cover. We are trying to work on gaining more trust from members and uplifting their moods. Helping them to understand that the gospel and life are not something only to be endured, but to be ENJOYED! We pray for people's hearts to change and for them to be happy. I know the Lord will help us know what to do and what we can say. We will work as hard as we can and do everything possible to help people to feel the Spirit and to change. But I can understand why there has not been much missionary work. Church this Sunday was much harder because instead of being happy, enjoyable, and fun - the mood was somber, downtrodden, depressed, and dull. If one didn't have a strong testimony of the church, it would be very hard to want to go to an environment like that every week.
That being said, we have 5 people on date for baptism currently. All have been touched by the Spirit and have that strong testimony and are excited for their baptisms. All have been filled with the light the gospel brings. We should be having 3 baptisms in the next week from people who know that the church is true. We also managed to pick up a new investigator this week. His name is George Alan and he comes from a very rough life. He has tatoos all over his body and has been involved in numerous motorcycle gangs and always hung out with such crowds as those people attract. Then his wife died (who was VERY less active) and evil spirit started to haunt his house and his life (why I have people with crazy situations like this every time, I don't know. Every other missionary I talk to never has people have evil spirit, visions, dreams, or the like. Just normal people, whereas the ones the Lord has me teach all have very special and individual experiences.) The stake president, who lives down the street, had the prompting to go visit with George and as soon as he walked in the house, he casted out evil spirits and offered a blessing on the home. The difference was immediate and George was truly touched and humbled. So then the stake president had us visit him and he cried the entire time that we shared the message of the Restoration with him. He didn't yet want to commit to baptism or anything (says he needs to take things slower from changing from heavy biker to church goer) but the Spirit was so strong! He was very honest and open and wanted to learn. He had been truly prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel at this time. The only other person I have seen that was more prepared was Jose Flores, so we are very excited to be teaching George and have given a lot of thanks to the Lord for him. Also, he offers the most sincere and heartfelt prayers, people invesigating the church have a knack for doing that. Always makes me feel like I can't pray at all because of the strong Spirit that is always present in their prayers and their great faith in God's answers to their prayers. Much stronger faith than I see in normal church members. I feel the same way Ammon and his brothers did when they were teaching the Lamanites - they didn't have to fight the people to accept the word, but they accepted every word and doctrine that Ammon taught and believed. Same with the people we are teaching here. It is an awesome experience.
Thank you so much for forwarding me Jake's email. It was great to read about his experiences and to see the differences and the similarities of the Lord's work in different parts of the earth. Also, gave me a lot of new ideas that I think we will try out this week in the work that we do and the contacts that we make. Thanks also for all the letters and emails from various people, I appreciate it so much! It is the best to hear how everyone is doing and to be updated on how things are going. I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving this week and to take the time this week in prayer to thank the Lord for our innumerable blessings. Also, as President Monson put it to thank all those that deserve our gratitude the most but that we take the most for granted. Ponder who those people are and let them know that you care and the difference that you have made. I am thankful that God has given me such wonderful family and friends who have helped me to live the gospel and to stay on the path. I am thankful for caring people in my life that have led and guided me and provided for me. I am thankful for how you have all influenced my life and helped me to change for the better. I am thankful for our saviour Jesus Christ and for a Heavenly Father that loves us and gives us everything that we need to return to Him again.
Much love and prayers,
Elder Ryan Leroy Hughes
Well, as you can tell by the subject. There was a blizzard here last night, supposedly anyway. It pretty much felt like a regular snow storm, but the weather services had been warning people about it for days so every house we went to had people telling us to be careful and to park our car and stay inside. We did end up having to ground the car, but it never snowed hard enough to where it felt like we had to hide inside. It did get pretty cold last night though and for the first time in my life, I had to chip ice off all the windows of our car. And "warm" the car up by leaving it on for about 15 minutes with the defrosters on at full heat blast. Definitely a far cry from the Arizona Thanksgiving, that is for sure. We sang "Prayer of Thanksgiving" last Sunday at the Taylorsville Utah Valley Park Stake and it had already snowed a good foot by that morning so the song seemed to be a little bit behind the times with "All is safely gathered in, ere the winter storms begin." hahaha, I was thinking "too late". Trees and branches have been falling down all over the place because they all still have their leaves. Add all the weight of over a foot and a half of snow and lots of them came crashing down. Did a lot of damage to our landlord's trees, they used to be so beautiful and now all the big branches have been broken off and are scattererd throughout the yard. I have decided being moved to a new area right before Thanksgiving is not the best, I had so many options and offers in Riverton. Out here, my companion is kind of shy so we have only one offer and that is for 1, so the rest of the day we might just be sitting in the apartment. We aren't really supposed to knock on doors and disturb people's family gatherings and celebrations, but maybe we can set up more appointments or find something to do. As long as we can stay indoors most the day, we should be fine. Today and tomorrow there is a huge cold front, which is keeping temperatures down in the 20's and teens. Then back up to 40's again, Utah is so bipolar. Elder Noll and I have started to really exercise this week as we played sports on Monday and then shoveled all our landlord's snow today. There are drawbacks to having a huge driveway and lots of sidewalks is what I discovered.
I have been blessed to be placed in a really good area with lots of very nice people and a huge amount of potential. Elder Noll is willing to work hard and follow my lead, but I wear him out to easy I am afraid. He fell asleep a lot yesterday and has already done so again today. He tries his hardest, but I guess I am blessed with a lot more energy than most people. Working on calming it down a little bit so that he can stay focused and awake during lessons. My district is also amazing. All the missionaries are very obedient and are working hard in the Lord's work. All are excited to do the work and have the faith necessary to perform miracles in their areas. All are also happy and energetic and willing to give it everything they got. Much better than it could have been according to what President emailed me. I have Sister Wasden and Sister Johnson from Hawaii and Canada, respectfully. Elder Hernadez from Las Vegas and Elder Jolley from Seattle. Elder Jolley is a brand new missionary and Sister Wasden has only been out a transfer. Our entire district has only been out a short amount of time collectively on their missions. Elder and Sister Palmer are our senior missionaries and they are awesome and hard working as well. I had to do my first baptismal interview last week for a 10 year old girl. Thankfully, they give us "cheat" sheets for all the questions we have to ask and such things so it went very well. The Lord has truly blessed me with such great missionaries and such amazing opportunities. I don't know why He has given me so much responsibility, but I will do everything I can to live up to what He expects of me and pray as hard as possible for His help and guidance. That is the only way to ever do anything with His work anyway, with all of His help and Spirit.
As Thanksgiving approaches, a lot of talks and thoughts have been centered on gratitude and I always love that. I especially have enjoyed reading and re-reading President Monson's talk from last general conference. If we live grateful lives and have an "attitude of gratitude" then we will truly be as happy as we can ever be and become the type of people we truly want to be. I have been working on being much more grateful in my prayers and in expressing more gratitude for the infinite blessings the Lord has granted me. Also, worked on expressing it more to all those that we teach, work, and come in contact with. The difference it makes is astounding and has helped me to keep happy and going strong. Right now, I am working on sending out thank you cards to a bunch of people in my past area who truly watched after me and helped me in the Lord's work. There are so many people to thank though is what I am realizing and so much to be thankful for from every house and family. The list has gotten fairly long and comprehensive. But I really enjoying writing them and including my testimony and letting people know how much I truly appreciate them and their service towards me.
The people here in Taylorsville are a much more humble people, but not nearly as outgoing or loving as Riverton and Draper, at least not right away in the first week. No one seems to trust me or want to talk about the gospel or anything for that matter - all want to stay working hard and don't seem to find joy in the work that they do. All seem to be just "existing" rather than "living" if that makes any sense. It makes a huge difference in the missionary work and the missionary spirit in the two stakes that we cover. We are trying to work on gaining more trust from members and uplifting their moods. Helping them to understand that the gospel and life are not something only to be endured, but to be ENJOYED! We pray for people's hearts to change and for them to be happy. I know the Lord will help us know what to do and what we can say. We will work as hard as we can and do everything possible to help people to feel the Spirit and to change. But I can understand why there has not been much missionary work. Church this Sunday was much harder because instead of being happy, enjoyable, and fun - the mood was somber, downtrodden, depressed, and dull. If one didn't have a strong testimony of the church, it would be very hard to want to go to an environment like that every week.
That being said, we have 5 people on date for baptism currently. All have been touched by the Spirit and have that strong testimony and are excited for their baptisms. All have been filled with the light the gospel brings. We should be having 3 baptisms in the next week from people who know that the church is true. We also managed to pick up a new investigator this week. His name is George Alan and he comes from a very rough life. He has tatoos all over his body and has been involved in numerous motorcycle gangs and always hung out with such crowds as those people attract. Then his wife died (who was VERY less active) and evil spirit started to haunt his house and his life (why I have people with crazy situations like this every time, I don't know. Every other missionary I talk to never has people have evil spirit, visions, dreams, or the like. Just normal people, whereas the ones the Lord has me teach all have very special and individual experiences.) The stake president, who lives down the street, had the prompting to go visit with George and as soon as he walked in the house, he casted out evil spirits and offered a blessing on the home. The difference was immediate and George was truly touched and humbled. So then the stake president had us visit him and he cried the entire time that we shared the message of the Restoration with him. He didn't yet want to commit to baptism or anything (says he needs to take things slower from changing from heavy biker to church goer) but the Spirit was so strong! He was very honest and open and wanted to learn. He had been truly prepared by the Lord to receive the gospel at this time. The only other person I have seen that was more prepared was Jose Flores, so we are very excited to be teaching George and have given a lot of thanks to the Lord for him. Also, he offers the most sincere and heartfelt prayers, people invesigating the church have a knack for doing that. Always makes me feel like I can't pray at all because of the strong Spirit that is always present in their prayers and their great faith in God's answers to their prayers. Much stronger faith than I see in normal church members. I feel the same way Ammon and his brothers did when they were teaching the Lamanites - they didn't have to fight the people to accept the word, but they accepted every word and doctrine that Ammon taught and believed. Same with the people we are teaching here. It is an awesome experience.
Thank you so much for forwarding me Jake's email. It was great to read about his experiences and to see the differences and the similarities of the Lord's work in different parts of the earth. Also, gave me a lot of new ideas that I think we will try out this week in the work that we do and the contacts that we make. Thanks also for all the letters and emails from various people, I appreciate it so much! It is the best to hear how everyone is doing and to be updated on how things are going. I wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving this week and to take the time this week in prayer to thank the Lord for our innumerable blessings. Also, as President Monson put it to thank all those that deserve our gratitude the most but that we take the most for granted. Ponder who those people are and let them know that you care and the difference that you have made. I am thankful that God has given me such wonderful family and friends who have helped me to live the gospel and to stay on the path. I am thankful for caring people in my life that have led and guided me and provided for me. I am thankful for how you have all influenced my life and helped me to change for the better. I am thankful for our saviour Jesus Christ and for a Heavenly Father that loves us and gives us everything that we need to return to Him again.
Much love and prayers,
Elder Ryan Leroy Hughes
Thursday, November 18, 2010
So, things will start happening!
Dear friends of Ryan,
I must sincerely apologize that I have not had access to his blog for some time! :( Now that I have all the information I need, it will be updated. Thanks for your patience! Sorry for the LONG delay!
Quite Sincerely,
Ryan's Inept Lil Sister
I must sincerely apologize that I have not had access to his blog for some time! :( Now that I have all the information I need, it will be updated. Thanks for your patience! Sorry for the LONG delay!
Quite Sincerely,
Ryan's Inept Lil Sister
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Ryan's new email
Good morning everybody!
Well, as my subject says I have been transferred! And wow is it crazy. I am currently writing you from the Utah Valley Park Stake Center or the Utah Taylorsville North Central Stake Center - I am not quite sure which one. Either way, I am now in Taylorsville, Utah and will likely be for at least a few transfers (thank goodness, the packing to move was horrendous). I moved from the farthest south you could get in the mission up to the farthest north. It is like two different worlds - up here there are all apartments or old, tiny houses. Old meaning at least 50 years if not much, much more. Absolutely no farms or livestock or anything like that was in Riverton. The people so far seem very different as well....not nearly as friendly or happy. Oh well, guess I will have to work on changing that. The area I am in is not doing too well - only 5 or 6 baptisms for the past 7 months (in the other one we had around 20ish). We only get to use the car half the time, we share it with the Spanish elders and we have half of the miles that I used to have on top of that. The apartment is very different as well - no more duplex with a whole half to ourselves and lot of extra space and tons of nice furniture. Plus two bathrooms and a big kitchen and family room. We are in a member's basement with quite limited space and one small bathroom, a tiny kitchen, and a small bedroom. It is a very nice place to be, but it is also a very big change to make. However, the bed I have now is much nicer. I might actually be able to get some sleep now, who knows? Luckily, we still managed to have a family history center at one of our stake centers so we can email from there and not have to wait in the long lines in the library or pay money for using those computers. Oh, I am also now a district leader. Don't know how that happened. Most of the areas in my district I have just found out were whitewashed this transfer and moved around a lot. (Whitewash is two brand new missionaries entering an area and all the old ones moving out). So appartenly this district needs quite a bit of work - my companion is the only one left over from the last district at all. I have to give an hour and a half training tomorrow and I have no idea how that is going to work out - they haven't even given me the paperwork I am supposed to train from yet, supposedly getting it later today (at least I hope). Also, I have to work out exchanges, interviews, and all that jazz. I am feeling kind of overwhelmed, but excited. I'll tell you though, I am homesick for my old area. We went around yesterday after I got the transfer calls and said goodbye to about 50 or so people. It almost broke my heart. All are excited to see me go and experience change, but all also gave me big hugs and said they were going to miss me. Boy, I am going to miss them. Thankfully, Christmas Day we can go visit anywhere we want and I already have a lot of offers to go for meals, visits, treats, games, and etc from down in Draper and Riverton. Also, got the brilliant idea from Elder Simpson to start a missonary journal of everybody. Kind of like a missionary yearbook. I took it to everyone's house and asked them to take a few minutes to write some memories in it and also to put a picture. It turned out looking really great and it is the best thing I have gotten physically from a mission so far, one that I will cherish forever. Everyone also wants me to come up and visit when I am at BYU, which I really want to do. The problem is not ditching my BYU ward to much for wards up here on Sundays, hahaha. I didn't know how much you could come to love people that weren't family until I came on a mission and I will love those people forever. If you come pick me up at the end of my mission (not saying I am trunky or anything) Mom and Dad, there are really a lot of people that want to meet you and I would like you to meet them. Quite a few of the journal entries from people also wanted to thank you for raising me right and being such a big influence on my life so that I could touch theirs. Thought you would like to know that and I truly am grateful to have two such wonderful examples as parents that have such strong and solid testimonies of the gospel. That helped me to gain my own and helped me to obey all the family rules, even when I really, truly didn't want to. So thanks.
Also, I have decided for Christmas, above everything else I could use some stamps. I am out of them and now that I am writing a lot more letters every week, I have discovered how truly expensive stamps can be to buy in bulk and then use them all and have to buy more. Especially now that I have to write a few more people that I have taught and worked with from down in my last area to keep in touch. That is my Christmas wish list, truly.
I think I am still mostly in shock from actually being transferred. A part - and quite a large part - of me for quite a few of the past weeks was really hoping to serve my entire mission in that one area. It felt like home to me and the people have become family. I could now actually see myself living in Utah to be around such people later on in life - the cold and snow would still get me though. I completely trust in the inspiration that President Miller received though and am confident that God has me here for a reason and He will help me to adapt. Even the district leader part of it, even though I think I have no leadership skills whatsoever, especially to train and teach other, better missionaries for that long every week. I don't know how I am going to do it. But I have been fervently praying for help and I have already been greatly comforted through the Spirit.
Whitney Snell and Ben Boss did get baptized this past week and it was a simply wonderful occasion for both. The kids, yes, but especially the less active parents and siblings were touched by the Spirit and have made solid commitments now to follow their kids to attend church each and every week. The Spirit that is at a baptism is so powerful and overwhelming. But it was nothing compared to the Spirit that was felt at the sealing of Tom Hansen and McKaylee Farhner this past week at the Jordan River Temple. That was overpowering, almost to the point of being overcome by the Spirit like the multiple people in the Book of Mormon. Both of their faces were shining so brilliantly with the Spirit, there wasn't a single dry eye in the whole sealing room and not a single person that was not beaming with true and everlasting joy. It was amazing to watch both of them gain a testimony and get worthy to enter the temple for their marriage and not have to get married and wait another year, but be able to just get married in the temple right off the bat. I have never felt so happy before in my entire life watching them kneel at the altar and look into those mirrors and think of their eternal destinies and that they were able to make it. It made me think of all the other people I constantly pray for everyday to make it to the same place and how totally worth it is to do missionary work to help people to get there. There is no better calling in all the church, or none more fulfilling, especially at the moment. Next summer, I am looking forward to attending a good 5 or 6 more at least and it will be just as great and amazing experience as this one.
My new companion is Elder Noll and I have already come to like him a good deal. He and I immediately seemed to "click" which is very nice considering I have yet to do that with any of my other companions. That only happened after two or three transfers. But Elder Noll seems a lot more like me and we have a lot of things in common and I am excited to get to working with him and becoming really great friends with him. He does have an interesting condition that will help me to lose weight and get me to look like I was lifeguarding or swimming again. He cannot digest protein. So therefore no meat at dinners anymore - chicken, steak, fish, you name it, can't do it without seriously making himself ill or even possibly killing himself. Only some basic grains and mostly fruits or vegetables. That should slim me up a good 10 to 15 pounds in the next few months. I am really excited for that, I was starting to get a belly and was not overly happy about it. This will be much better. Plus I will actually get to eat healthy foods! I haven't had fresh fruits and vegetables for so long, it will be delicious! :) Elder Noll is also excited about my blender, so I am not the only one who has an addiction to smoothies. I think this is going to be a really great transfer. We don't have very many investigators or a very big area or very many nonmembers to actually teach at all, but having a companion who is excited to do the work and wants to work hard everyday. Loves talking to people and getting to know them. Has all the right social skills. Is always usually happy. Knows how to correlate with ward and stake leaders. It is going to make a huge difference!
One more request, please update the blog if at all possible! People have been telling me in my old area how they googled my name and found the blog. Only to notice there was no update since April. There are quite a few people that would love to read it if you have the time to update it. If not, that is ok too. I will just write more letters and buy more stamps. The Lord will provide somehow.
I know this church and gospel is true! Living the gospel has brought me the greatest happiness in my life and makes all the difference. I know that President Monson is a living prophet and that the church was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Like Bishop Bickmore said in stake conference "I do not worship him, but I revere him." I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He did it all out of love so that he can help us. The Atonement works and I know it is true. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us. He is our Father, we are His children. Prayer is how we talk to Him and is one of the greatest gifts that we have. The scriptures are true and if we honestly study them and ponder them and pray about them, we can find answers and guidance in them everyday and multiple times throughout each day. Thank you for all your love and prayers and support, they truly make a difference! I went through a rough patch there for a month or two, but it is nice to be back to being regular me with all the same quirks, smiles, and positive-ness. Much better, I know all your prayers helped me to get back to that and where I should be.
I love you all and pray for you all by name. I am so excited about the block party you are throwing with the missionaries, let me know how that goes!
Sincerely,
Elder Ryan Leroy Hughes
PS. If someone wants to get on my Facebook and add some of the people who are trying to add me as friends, that would be great.
Well, as my subject says I have been transferred! And wow is it crazy. I am currently writing you from the Utah Valley Park Stake Center or the Utah Taylorsville North Central Stake Center - I am not quite sure which one. Either way, I am now in Taylorsville, Utah and will likely be for at least a few transfers (thank goodness, the packing to move was horrendous). I moved from the farthest south you could get in the mission up to the farthest north. It is like two different worlds - up here there are all apartments or old, tiny houses. Old meaning at least 50 years if not much, much more. Absolutely no farms or livestock or anything like that was in Riverton. The people so far seem very different as well....not nearly as friendly or happy. Oh well, guess I will have to work on changing that. The area I am in is not doing too well - only 5 or 6 baptisms for the past 7 months (in the other one we had around 20ish). We only get to use the car half the time, we share it with the Spanish elders and we have half of the miles that I used to have on top of that. The apartment is very different as well - no more duplex with a whole half to ourselves and lot of extra space and tons of nice furniture. Plus two bathrooms and a big kitchen and family room. We are in a member's basement with quite limited space and one small bathroom, a tiny kitchen, and a small bedroom. It is a very nice place to be, but it is also a very big change to make. However, the bed I have now is much nicer. I might actually be able to get some sleep now, who knows? Luckily, we still managed to have a family history center at one of our stake centers so we can email from there and not have to wait in the long lines in the library or pay money for using those computers. Oh, I am also now a district leader. Don't know how that happened. Most of the areas in my district I have just found out were whitewashed this transfer and moved around a lot. (Whitewash is two brand new missionaries entering an area and all the old ones moving out). So appartenly this district needs quite a bit of work - my companion is the only one left over from the last district at all. I have to give an hour and a half training tomorrow and I have no idea how that is going to work out - they haven't even given me the paperwork I am supposed to train from yet, supposedly getting it later today (at least I hope). Also, I have to work out exchanges, interviews, and all that jazz. I am feeling kind of overwhelmed, but excited. I'll tell you though, I am homesick for my old area. We went around yesterday after I got the transfer calls and said goodbye to about 50 or so people. It almost broke my heart. All are excited to see me go and experience change, but all also gave me big hugs and said they were going to miss me. Boy, I am going to miss them. Thankfully, Christmas Day we can go visit anywhere we want and I already have a lot of offers to go for meals, visits, treats, games, and etc from down in Draper and Riverton. Also, got the brilliant idea from Elder Simpson to start a missonary journal of everybody. Kind of like a missionary yearbook. I took it to everyone's house and asked them to take a few minutes to write some memories in it and also to put a picture. It turned out looking really great and it is the best thing I have gotten physically from a mission so far, one that I will cherish forever. Everyone also wants me to come up and visit when I am at BYU, which I really want to do. The problem is not ditching my BYU ward to much for wards up here on Sundays, hahaha. I didn't know how much you could come to love people that weren't family until I came on a mission and I will love those people forever. If you come pick me up at the end of my mission (not saying I am trunky or anything) Mom and Dad, there are really a lot of people that want to meet you and I would like you to meet them. Quite a few of the journal entries from people also wanted to thank you for raising me right and being such a big influence on my life so that I could touch theirs. Thought you would like to know that and I truly am grateful to have two such wonderful examples as parents that have such strong and solid testimonies of the gospel. That helped me to gain my own and helped me to obey all the family rules, even when I really, truly didn't want to. So thanks.
Also, I have decided for Christmas, above everything else I could use some stamps. I am out of them and now that I am writing a lot more letters every week, I have discovered how truly expensive stamps can be to buy in bulk and then use them all and have to buy more. Especially now that I have to write a few more people that I have taught and worked with from down in my last area to keep in touch. That is my Christmas wish list, truly.
I think I am still mostly in shock from actually being transferred. A part - and quite a large part - of me for quite a few of the past weeks was really hoping to serve my entire mission in that one area. It felt like home to me and the people have become family. I could now actually see myself living in Utah to be around such people later on in life - the cold and snow would still get me though. I completely trust in the inspiration that President Miller received though and am confident that God has me here for a reason and He will help me to adapt. Even the district leader part of it, even though I think I have no leadership skills whatsoever, especially to train and teach other, better missionaries for that long every week. I don't know how I am going to do it. But I have been fervently praying for help and I have already been greatly comforted through the Spirit.
Whitney Snell and Ben Boss did get baptized this past week and it was a simply wonderful occasion for both. The kids, yes, but especially the less active parents and siblings were touched by the Spirit and have made solid commitments now to follow their kids to attend church each and every week. The Spirit that is at a baptism is so powerful and overwhelming. But it was nothing compared to the Spirit that was felt at the sealing of Tom Hansen and McKaylee Farhner this past week at the Jordan River Temple. That was overpowering, almost to the point of being overcome by the Spirit like the multiple people in the Book of Mormon. Both of their faces were shining so brilliantly with the Spirit, there wasn't a single dry eye in the whole sealing room and not a single person that was not beaming with true and everlasting joy. It was amazing to watch both of them gain a testimony and get worthy to enter the temple for their marriage and not have to get married and wait another year, but be able to just get married in the temple right off the bat. I have never felt so happy before in my entire life watching them kneel at the altar and look into those mirrors and think of their eternal destinies and that they were able to make it. It made me think of all the other people I constantly pray for everyday to make it to the same place and how totally worth it is to do missionary work to help people to get there. There is no better calling in all the church, or none more fulfilling, especially at the moment. Next summer, I am looking forward to attending a good 5 or 6 more at least and it will be just as great and amazing experience as this one.
My new companion is Elder Noll and I have already come to like him a good deal. He and I immediately seemed to "click" which is very nice considering I have yet to do that with any of my other companions. That only happened after two or three transfers. But Elder Noll seems a lot more like me and we have a lot of things in common and I am excited to get to working with him and becoming really great friends with him. He does have an interesting condition that will help me to lose weight and get me to look like I was lifeguarding or swimming again. He cannot digest protein. So therefore no meat at dinners anymore - chicken, steak, fish, you name it, can't do it without seriously making himself ill or even possibly killing himself. Only some basic grains and mostly fruits or vegetables. That should slim me up a good 10 to 15 pounds in the next few months. I am really excited for that, I was starting to get a belly and was not overly happy about it. This will be much better. Plus I will actually get to eat healthy foods! I haven't had fresh fruits and vegetables for so long, it will be delicious! :) Elder Noll is also excited about my blender, so I am not the only one who has an addiction to smoothies. I think this is going to be a really great transfer. We don't have very many investigators or a very big area or very many nonmembers to actually teach at all, but having a companion who is excited to do the work and wants to work hard everyday. Loves talking to people and getting to know them. Has all the right social skills. Is always usually happy. Knows how to correlate with ward and stake leaders. It is going to make a huge difference!
One more request, please update the blog if at all possible! People have been telling me in my old area how they googled my name and found the blog. Only to notice there was no update since April. There are quite a few people that would love to read it if you have the time to update it. If not, that is ok too. I will just write more letters and buy more stamps. The Lord will provide somehow.
I know this church and gospel is true! Living the gospel has brought me the greatest happiness in my life and makes all the difference. I know that President Monson is a living prophet and that the church was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Like Bishop Bickmore said in stake conference "I do not worship him, but I revere him." I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He did it all out of love so that he can help us. The Atonement works and I know it is true. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us. He is our Father, we are His children. Prayer is how we talk to Him and is one of the greatest gifts that we have. The scriptures are true and if we honestly study them and ponder them and pray about them, we can find answers and guidance in them everyday and multiple times throughout each day. Thank you for all your love and prayers and support, they truly make a difference! I went through a rough patch there for a month or two, but it is nice to be back to being regular me with all the same quirks, smiles, and positive-ness. Much better, I know all your prayers helped me to get back to that and where I should be.
I love you all and pray for you all by name. I am so excited about the block party you are throwing with the missionaries, let me know how that goes!
Sincerely,
Elder Ryan Leroy Hughes
PS. If someone wants to get on my Facebook and add some of the people who are trying to add me as friends, that would be great.
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