UNEXPECTED CHANGES

December 13, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,
I don't know what to really talk about today.... I'm kind of lost for what happened this week. It's crazy that it's already the 13th. Wow, time has gone by fast. Last week I did celebrate my 5 month mark! It doesn't even feel like I've been in England that long. Sometimes I even forget that I'm in England.

This past week was probably the weirdest week I've had, and will ever have, on my mission. At least I hope there will be nothing worse. I'm not sure how much I wrote about the whole situation last week, but this week is crazy. I don't think I've had a normal day since arriving in Stourbridge..... Well here goes my explanation of the situation. My companion Elder Whillans had his older brother die (age 32). Because of that he was struggling really badly, so on Sunday night after the stake Christmas Carol Concert(which I sang in with the ward choir), we exchanged with the AP's(Assistant to the President) so that he could go into the mission office and talk with the President about the situation. So I spent last p-day with Elder Hala'ufia (try to find him on the Florida Gators football roster in 2008. He was on the team) and we went to the Bull Ring (huge shopping mall in Birmingham). It was alright, but we didn't buy anything. At least I can say I've been, right? Then we switched back that night. The next morning it was no better, so President told us to come to the mission home. That afternoon we headed out with our ZL's(Zone leaders), Elder Rapana (look him up online too, he's a professional Rugby player in Australia) and Elder Zito, in Chelmsly Wood for the night and then went back to the mission office and slept over there. In the morning I left with the ZL's to go and work with them while Elder Whillans stayed there. That night I stayed with the ZL's and stayed with them the whole day until that night when President came and picked me up and took me back to the mission office since Elder Whillans was on his way home to be with his family for a little while and the funeral and so I was headed back to get my new companion. That night we stayed in the mission office and then headed back to Stourbridge in the morningish. So.... this week, I hadn't slept in the same bed in consecutive nights until saturday and I now have a new companion. His name is Elder Stokes and is from Georgetown, Texas(near Austin). So that was my crazy week.... oh man. It ended alright though since Elder Stokes and I just sat down and planned for how we want to work the area and picked out people to go see and such. We are excited though. It won't be easy, but it should be good and I'm just ready to do some missionary work after that week of craziness.

So we are basically two new missionaries in an area that we really have no idea where we are. It should be good though! We are going forward with a great attitude! I don't know what else to really talk about because that whole crazy thing was my week and it passed by so quickly. I was so happy for today to come though. We just need a day where we can get our bearings (did I get the correct word there) straight, but too bad our Zone leaders are planning a Zone Leadership p-day, so we'll be headed towards Birmingham today to go bowling and stuff with the other district leaders and the zone leaders in our zone since Elder Stokes is a District leader.

One thing that I've truly come to understand this week was the love that God, my Heavenly Father, has for me and everyone of his children(which includes EVERYONE!). The past 1.5 weeks have been so hectic and started to take its toll on me. It really started to become difficult to be happy and got me down a bit, but thank goodness for prayer, God, and the Holy Spirit. Because of the situation, I was praying for some sort of help because I was losing it. While I was praying, there came a point while asking for help that the Holy Spirit came upon me with a warm feeling of comfort and a voice in my head told me to "Just keep going. You'll be alright". Oh boy did that help me and still does now, because every time I got a little down about the situation, I just remembered that. God is good and he sure does love every one of us and wants to help us. There is a scripture in 2 Nephi 2: 25 which says "Adam fell that man might be; and men are, that they might have joy." We aren't here on Earth to be miserable. God put us here to have joy and he helps us out with his! Sometimes we just need to ask.

I love this work, even through this hard situation, and I hope you can see that even though I have expressed the difficulties of it. This is a testimony to me that this gospel of Jesus Christ is something that brings joy and blesses our lives because of the joy I still can feel even when times get hard, because I'm out there teaching everyone about the gospel. There is great power in teaching, learning, and studying the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Now to answer a couple questions:
Mother: I don't know how the whole calling thing will work quite yet. I know what house I'll be at for Christmas. We just need to set up a time or something. Will the call have to come from a landline?? If so, I might need to find someone else or something. I'll discuss it with the McArthurs and find out a little more. Also, what time do you think will be best for you guys? I'm open for practically anytime. We should be at the McArthurs for the majority of the day.

I was not in that Christmas Concert.

There is a ward Christmas party on my b-day, so it should be alright. I did get your package already. It's in the flat right now. Is there a Christmas one coming too? just wanting to have a heads up on that.

That's all for now I guess. I love you all and home the Christmas season has been great so far!! Make it a special/great one for me, alright?

Love
Elder Hulet

THE TRANFER

forgot to post this until now:

December 1, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

It was a sad day on Monday night....... as many of you might know already. My new area is called Stourbridge. It is interesting so far. My companion is Elder Whillins and he is British. He is also a district leader, so it should be interesting. I guess that our main role in this area is to help the ward come back- get the less active members back to church. I am excited! Change isn't my favorite at all, but it's a good thing. I will definitely miss Walsall. That was a nice place to be and the ward was really good. I'll definitely miss the friends I made there. It was pretty hard to leave Ian and Tracey- to the point where I almost cried, no lie. It's just hard to get so close to people and then just up and leave them. It's definitely not a fun thing.

So it is now soo COLD!! Maybe not as cold back at Grandma's, but it is cold. It's snowing and we're still biking and will be for the whole winter. You really never understand how cold it can get until you're always in it. At least it isn't snowing. I definitely prefer snow to rain and when the wind is going....it's absolutely the worst. But that's besides the point. I don't really know what else to say and for some reason I can't remember last week too well. I think that might be because of the stress and change of leaving the area. My mind has just gone. I do have a pretty cool story/experience that happened to Elder Davis and I on Monday.

It was getting dark and we were just going to try by a potential investigator since we had nothing else to do before we needed to go catch a bus. So after trying by a recent convert we started biking over there and as we turned the corner and were headed up the street some little boy said something and motioned towards us. At first I just figured he wasn't talking to us or said anything, but he said something again and I looked at him, so I stopped. The first thing he asked was "Is is true there is a prophet on the Earth?". Oh boy did that catch us off guard since he looked like he was 10 or something. So we told him yes and told him how it came about and then asked where he saw that. Then we asked if his family would be interested and we got a return appointment to come by his house this Friday, so hopefully all goes well for Elder Davis and Elder McGregor. I wish I could be there, but it's alright. I'll live! It's an awesome question he asked us though and the best part is that we have the answer for it!!! The knowledge that we have is so special. We KNOW there is a prophet on the Earth! What an amazing thing to know. That is something that we spread to everyone so that they can find out for themselves. Who doesn't want to know that there is a prophet, someone who receives revelation and direction for the whole world from God, on the Earth. And we share that with them and how they can find out for themselves which is through reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and listening to his words. The latter is how I truly(happy bessie?) know that Thomas Monson is the prophet on the Earth today and everyone can receive the same knowledge by doing one or the other or even both. God will tell us if there is a prophet and he has provided us a way to know because why would he want to hide it from us? The answer is that he won't and hasn't. All I ask is that you give it a try and I promise you that you will find out and God will provide a way for you to know.

Also an update on Tracey. She is so close!! She even talked about getting baptized by Ian and having us there, but for some reason she won't accept a baptismal date. We have yet to get to the bottom of her concern of having it, because why else would she delay it. We know she will get baptized, it's just a matter of when. I'll be elated to get a call some time in the near future telling me when I'll be able to go back to Walsall to see it(and sing for it, of course). I wish I could've been there to continue teaching her, but maybe me leaving is what she needed so that it's a pure conversion for her so that she doesn't just rely on missionaries.

So I don't really know what else to say. I'm super excited for Christmas and calling and the packages. The best present for me would be to receive letters/emails pretty frequently so I can see where everyone is and what they're up to. I'll be excited to get whatever is sent though. I got Sister Kennedy's package and it's massive. Everyone was in awe when I had it in my hands and was walking out of the mission home with it. They're even more in awe when I tell them that it's not even from my mother/family(well immediate family). I'm excited for that. On news of letters and stuff, I left all of my post in Walsall unfortunately and I don't know how many other addresses I have written down elsewhere, so if I have received a letter from you and there has been no response from me yet, could you email me your address, please!

Now just for questions/ requests. Mother, you have been playing Volleyball????? If so, AWESOME!!!! I'm so happy for you. And now you can move better, so that's great. I can't wait to play with the fam in 2012. Also, I'm in need of getting some more contacts. I'm down to my last box. I still have glasses of course, but if you could get some to me, that'd be much appreciated. Um.... sister(Julie that is), would you be willing to send me one of your name tags??? With the temple on it, but if not that's alright. It's just so that me and Elder La Vita can both have our sister name badges on at the Christmas Party. It'd be funny. I can't think of anything else at this time, but maybe I can remember more if I keep rambling or something...

Well I don't think you'd appreciate rambling and I can't really think of anything else to say except to you mother to tell you that I played a musical number for church like 2 weeks ago... I think it was hymn 259 or something. Anywho, I had to use the simplified version and still butchered my way through it. Well that's all for now.

I love you all! Be good and stay warm!

Love, Elder Hulet

A Week Since Transfers

I got to kind of chat with Randy this morning -- his last posting was: Almost done. The other elders are waiting for me, so I might go now since I finished my email. Any news from any friends? Poor Elder H. - sounds like he needs some "friend letters"



December 6, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

Well it's been interesting being in a new area. You feel so helpless because you don't know where the heck you're going or who you're going to go visit. Elder Whillans is a good elder though. A very hard worker and really knows how to gain the love of the ward. This transfer has started off a little rough though. Not so much for me, but really for Elder Whillans.

The last time I was emailing he told me about how he just found out about his older brother and that he wasn't going to make it to Christmas. So that was disheartening, but then we learned on Saturday that he died that morning. Not only that, but he has been really really sick since I've been here. So it's been interesting. He was told to stay inside for the whole day on Thursday and Friday because of his sickness, but we had to go out and do some stuff for members which involved us biking really far, so his sickness hasn't really improved.... Needless to say, he is going through a heck of a time and it's really taking it's toll on him- especially his brother passing away. That is the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ though! Because we know that we can see our family members again. Even if they have been taken from us in this life, we can see them again. It's all a part of God's plan, otherwise there would be no purpose for families or life, right? God has given us a way to be with our family in this life. Our goal is to learn how and then to act on it. We, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, know that it is only possible with the priesthood authority, authority to act in God's name, and by the sealing ordinance in the temple where we can be married and sealed for "time and all eternity" and not just til death do you part. What great knowledge we have and that can be found out and experienced by everyone!!!! I don't know about you guys, but I want to be with my family forever because that is really the only way I could be happy in the life to come.

Now let me tell you about my newly improved hatred for bikes/biking. I thought Walsall was pretty hilly.....NOT ANYMORE! Stourbridge is all hills and these are tiny ones. They go on for what seems like forever. I basically died sooo many times. And it didn't help that Elder Whillans is a beast on the bike. Oh man. And he wasn't even full strength and he was still whooping me. I think my legs will be growing this transfer. I'm hoping that I can lose some weight though. We'll see.

I don't really have too much to say really. There hasn't been too much that has happened that warrants any writing about it. It is soooo cold here though. You don't realize how cold is cold until you are out there biking in the snow with the wind blowing. It is sooo bad and soo cold. I don't think I've ever felt so cold in my life.

Hope all is doing well and school is coming to a close alright. I love and miss you all. Enjoy Christmas, ok?

Love,

Elder Hulet

Elder Davis and Elder Hulet

Looks like it could be a Canadian Thanksgiving celebration to me (it is in October)

Harry Potter

Mon, Nov 22, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

First, to answer some questions. Harry Potter came out at the same time- November 19th- but maybe a little earlier since we are like 5 or 6 hours ahead, eh? And I'm not sure if they're super excited like back there because we don't really pay attention to that stuff besides seeing billboards with the date it comes out on and no one has really talked too much about it. Yes, this is my last week before transfers(as in I'll know a week from tonight if i stay or if i go). Yes, I knew that Tim got married again. Ok, um..... I think that's all the questions. I apologize if I missed any.

Well this week was a pretty good week, but Elder Davis and I are glad it's over. It just didn't go as well as we thought it would. We did some solid finding and found some good investigators, or so we thought......... It turned out that almost every single appointment we had with a new investigator flogged(weren't home either on purpose or not or canceled). It became hard and by the end of the week we were just knackered(English term again, don't you just love them all) of finding, and the cold, and the rain, and Elder Davis' cold, and people not keeping their appointments/commitments. No worries people, because we are going to rock this week!!!! We have faith and some good plans to be able to reach our goals!!!

So I have a couple highlights from this week- one good and one not so good. Well the good one was that we had a super awesome Zone Conference where we were taught by President Ogden, his counselor President Goddard, Sister Ogden, and the AP's (assistants to the president). There was a big theme that was basically established throughout it and it can really be seen by the changes made to the numbers we report to our leaders. We are no longer reporting our finding time and we are no longer required to get our 10's(do you remember 10/10/10/20 thing?? that is now gone, well at least not reported). The whole reason behind it is that we are just being given principles to work by. We aren't told everything we need to do, but we are expected to be accountable for what we do to God. Our leaders won't know if we don't do any finding, but God WILL. It is such a good principle and one we should all live our life by. Even if no one else is watching us and our actions, God is always there. Really that is why we should live the life we live, because we love God(our Heavenly Father) and because of our faith in Him and in Jesus. We are all accountable for our own lives. God gives us principles and commandments for us to base our life on and to give us a better life by blessing us in all that we do.

Now the not so good part- and no it's not about all the flogging and stuff even though that was horrible. I totally crashed for my first time.... and it was actually kind of frightening because I thought I was going to get hit by a car after I fell. What happened was that we were riding at night and we were headed towards a recent converts house, but it is usually decently hard to turn/cross onto his street at the intersection. So, I decided to cross the street early to get on the sidewalk(aka pavement here) and there was enough of a distance from the car coming towards me that I'd make it easily. But it didn't quite happen as I planned it to. My back axle was kind of loose, so when I put lots of pressure on the pedal, to get moving quickly, my tire moved and went into my bike frame, so the back tire(spelled tyre here.......weird) stopped completely and cause myself and the bike to fall to the ground in the middle of the street. The first thing I looked at when I hit the ground was the oncoming cars because I wanted to see how close they were. Thank goodness they weren't too close so that I had time to jump up and move my bike out of the way and to safety back to the side of the road I was on. Oh man, that was scary and not too fun. I now have a nice scratch on my knee and some bruises on one of my thighs and my elbow. I'm all good though and I fixed my bike so it should hopefully never do that again. I have determined that I hate bikes. Biking is fine, but I hate bikes.

Well enough of the sadness(because I'm not sad and life is good here in England)!! I have another awesome experience to share. This happened last week, but I forgot to write it in the last email. One day we were headed to "call by"(which is just like stop by in American. I still don't understand why they say call by. And when they call someone on the phone, they are either ringing or belling them..) some people with our ward mission leader. The first one wasn't there, so we decided to head to a recent converts and see how they were doing. On the way we stopped this black guy(they are the best to talk to since most will stop and talk about Jesus and their beliefs) and started to talk to him about how there is a prophet on the Earth again. All was going great, he seemed interested and during our conversation he told us something super cool. He told us that as he was walking towards us, the Spirit told him to stop and listen to these to guys and what they had to say. So he did! He was soo cool and so open to what we had to tell him. We shared with him about how he can know that there truly is a prophet on the Earth and then showed and gave to him the evidence of it- The Book of Mormon. It was so awesome to see the hand of God in action and it just reaffirmed my understanding that everyone can be guided by the Spirit because he was and he acted on it, which is even better. To sort of fill you in where we're at with him is that we haven't taught him yet, because he's been really busy, but we are still in contact with him and he told us last night that he was going to read the book tonight. I'm excited for him. I just hope we can finally get to teaching him.

I love doing what I'm doing!! What I'm doing is changing lives, because the Book of Mormon changes lives, the Gospel changes lives, God changes lives and they all change it for the better and it can happen for everyone so long as they turn to God and ask for help.

Thank you for all of your prayers. It's much appreciated and God will bless you for it!

Love,

Elder Hulet

Julie says it isn't Christmas time yet!

Oh, we also put up our Christmas tree in our flat..... I blame Elder Davis. I'll attach a pic.

here are also pics of carved pumpkins by an investigator of ours.

If you are happy, notify your face

I got on the computer first thing this morning (6:10) and caught Elder Hulet just starting his computer time -- so I got to have a little chat back and forth with him for a bit -- it was the best!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Randall Hulet
Date: Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 6:55 AM

Dear Family and friends,

This week was a really weird and somewhat challenging one. It has definitely started to get colder here too which has caused me to break out a scarf which I've never ever worn one, but I've learned quickly that they are the best things ever!!!!!! It felt a little awkward at first, but it so nice to have a neck that doesn't get cold, and it in turn helps the face a little bit. The cold definitely makes it harder to get out of bed in the morning, but it has to be done, right?

The reason this week wasn't the best was because soooo many people we had appointments with flogged(um.... missed or weren't home) us. It definitely gets frustrating, but good thing I don't get frustrated too easily, but I could definitely see it in Elder Davis' eyes and body language. He was definitely ready for p-day to happen. This isn't particularly a bad thing that we are frustrated because it's all because we have such big hopes for these people we have met and we want to help them and teach them so they can find the truth! I'd call it more of being devestated than frustrated, but they kind of go together in this case.

I did have a really good experience with Elder Mechum (he is related to us in a way pops. Like his brother or someone close married a Hulet. He is from Delta) while I was on exchanges in Wolverhampton. We went to teach one of their recent converts. Her name is Gloria and she is soooo awesome!!! It was such a spiritual high! We talked about prayer and the importance and power of it, but the best part was when she bore her testimony about knowing God was there and about Jesus Christ being her Saviour (that's how they spell it here. they like their extra u's in places where it's not needed). It was just so powerful. Her story is pretty cool. The first thing she went to after being contacted by the missionaries was to General Conference Sunday morning session. So she saw the prophet, Thomas S. Monson, talk and after it was over she told the missionaries that she KNEW he was a prophet called of God. What an amazing experience for her when she went. That is one way we can find out for ourselves that there truly is a prophet on the Earth again- by listening to him speak. I know I've done it before, but I encourage all to watch his talk on "Gratitude", even if you've already seen it. I recognized this past week at how powerful and influential his talk was to me. It just continues to reaffirm to me that this church is one that is led by God!!!! And what a great blessing it is that God has provided us with a prophet and apostles to continue to teach and lead us as if Christ was here leading and teaching us himself. God is so loving and merciful and charitable!

So yeah, I don't know what else to say...... there wasn't too much exciting stuff that happened besides people flogging and some really funny people we talk to. We did have a nice lesson with a guy named Kobe. I think I've spoke about him before. It happened last night and it was definitely a good ending to the week. It just seemed that Joseph Smith and the church started to make sense to him, which is awesome to see. He has such great faith in Christ, he should be awesome and be able to receive an answer to his prayers as to whether the Book Of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that Thomas Monson is the living prophet today. It's just amazing what prayer and faith can do. I am just starting to see the greatness of the two when combined, because with them, that is when God can work miracles among us. Without faith and prayer, they can't happen. I'll tell you a great story that happened a couple weeks ago.

There was a sister missionary that was having some major health problems. Like she was in the hospital for a week or so and she wasn't eating anything. it got to the point where she was going to have to have surgery, so President Ogden called for an emergency Mission Prayer. So all of us missionaries in the EBM (England Birmingham Mission) prayed for her at 5pm. The next day she was just fine and out doing missionary work again. Just wow!!!!! That is what faith in the Lord and prayer can do. It is such a powerful gift that God has given to us, so we need to use it! Use it for help, guidance, miracles, gratitude, answers because he is there just waiting to help us. All he asks of us is to have faith and to ask him. Use God! He's the best helper you can have and I've seen it in my life!

I love you all. This week will be good for all! Use God and be happy!

Elder Hulet

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Nov 1, 2010
Dearest Family,

Woot woot, Julie is home! I bet that is just a blast (albeit [did I use that right?] Julie being super bored). You have lots to catch up on little sister - don't you miss that term? I don't know what else to say.... um..... go watch Avatar, ok? I bought it so it should be downstairs. That is exciting though that you're home now. I'm sure the sisters will be loving you coming with them so often. Their numbers for member presents should skyrocket, eh?? I only have 20 more months left.... it's crazy to think that 4 months have already passed. There is so much that happens that just makes it fly by. Does it feel like that at home?? Oh, and are you going to start making Julie sing to you all the time? The answer to that question is YES. Well now to missionary work.

This week was an interesting week- one where we struggled, but we learned lots once we examined it yesterday. President Ogden 2 week ago gave us a goal to reach of every companionship having someone with a baptismal date by the end of the month (yesterday). This was something that Elder Davis and I tried so hard to get to. We were going to invite all of our investigators to be baptized...and so we went out about accomplishing it. Well unfortunately... we didn't do it, but that doesn't frustrate us at all. We may not have gotten a date, but we definitely saw some miracles. By the end of the week we invited 4 people to be baptized, although we had planned on inviting like 6. We didn't have anyone with a date, but we got 1 YES!!!!! And she is truly the miracle. Her name is Tracey Hartley......does the last name sound familiar? Well it should. She is the wife of our most recent convert and it was just so amazing. The amazing/miraculous part is that when we started teaching Ian, she wouldn't even stay in the room when we came. She'd go upstairs. She then slowly started to stay in the room once we got around to Ian's baptismal date. She continued to get more friendly but she wouldn't let us teach her. She came to church twice, she'd feed us, buy us food and socks, but she wouldn't let us teach her...... until this week! We finally started directing questions to her and focusing on her and then by the end of the night she was fine with us teaching her and so we came back a couple days later and taught her about Joseph Smith and watched the Restoration Video and then invited her to be baptized to which she said YES! It was awesome! She didn't want a date yet though because she didn't want to be pressured, so we just invited her to pray about a date and not push our luck.

Well you might be wondering about the other people we invited to be baptized..... well they all said no. One, well two, of them are eternal investigators. They are so nice, they know the Book of Mormon is true and they know the Church is true, but they won't come to church or be baptized. They brought up that they had already been baptized when they were young, so we helped resolve that concern, but then we asked them if they'd prayed about it. And Jill said she had and she had been told no. So what do you do there??? We had no idea either. Why would God say no to something that is good and is needed? I don't know. Somehow we left on a good note and we'll see where we go from there. At least we now know what has happened and know the concern. Sometimes inviting them to be baptized is the best way to find their concern and it has and now we'll see what we can do to resolve their concern. The same has happened for the other one we invited.

The other guy we invited is named Kobe. He is originally from Ghana but had been living in Italy for the past 18 years. He knows the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a Prophet, so we invited him and he told us no. I don't know how to describe his complete answer, but it was something along the lines of he being associated with this church in Africa that has a guy that claims to have received the priesthood authority from God somehow. We didn't go into too much further detail because the whole lesson was so confusing. Next time we shall learn more. Because if this other guy received the priesthood authority, then there was no need for Joseph Smith. And I know without a doubt in my mind that Joseph Smith was a Prophet called of God to restore his Church and restore his authority or Priesthood to the Earth since it was lost when all of Jesus' disciples died. And that this priesthood has been passed on through him and can be found in and only in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! I love knowing that and sharing that, because that is really the message we have to share with the world. His authority has been restored and we now have a prophet, someone called of God, not man, to guide and direct us according to God's will because he speaks to him and is his mouth piece to tell us what we need to know so that we can live our lives in a way so we can return to an eternal state of happiness with God and our family(Mosiah 2:41)!! What a great blessing it is to know what is needed to do that, because I know life without my family wouldn't, and could never, be a happy life for me.

I love you all so much!!! To my friends - you are like family to me, which is why I share what I know with you guys because life without you guys being able to partake of the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not a happy life for me! I invite and encourage you to find this out for yourselves and don't be afraid to ask for guidance and help, from missionaries and or my family to find this truth!

I love you SOOOOO much and miss you all soo much, but England is the place for me for the next 20 months, but I can't wait to see everyone of you after that and experience great joy in seeing all that you've done in your life.

Love,

Elder Hulet

Go Back to Canada

October 25, 2010

Dear Family and friends,

This week seemed to take a while and I have no idea why, but that's alright because it's over now! It's not to say that it was a bad week, but it definitely wasn't the one we wanted. We were finally able to teach some new people- which is super good. I was hoping I'd remember how the lesson rolls because it has been a while for the beginning ones. I did just fine though. I love those lessons because you seem to learn more and more for yourself as you teach them since people bring up new questions and new concerns so it makes you look at it from a different perspective. Out of the 4 lessons, I think 3 will be good so long as they act on the desire they have to learn by reading and praying about what we teach. I think that's the greatest part of the gospel and the work we do, because we don't force people or anything. If they don't want to act on their desires, it's really their loss. They aren't hurting us at all, but they sure are hurting themselves. I just wish people could see that.

The people we taught have been quite different. First we taught this older English man named Robert who had questions about prophets and why they were needed. We presented a really good lesson where we resolved his concerns to the best of our ability and the spirit was there, but in the end he told us "I enjoy your company............but leave me alone". That was defiinitely not the response Elder Davis and I expected from the lesson we taught. But we weren't frustrated because we did our best to help him and it was his choice to reject it, so nbd( haha I just got your nbb Face). Next we taught a guy named Mark. He likewise is English. We were able to teach him a good quick lesson and invited him to church. He said he would, but he was going to Poland this week..... just our luck. The next guy we taught is named Amjad. Can you guess where he's from???????? How about I just tell you, ok? Iraq. He is really good though. He told us about the joy he receives when talking about Jesus and he just wants to learn more about him. We taught a good and spirit filled lesson about the beginning of the Plan of Salvation(God's plan for us to be able to return back to him) up until Christ and his role in our life and then we bore our testimony and it was sooo good. I'm excited for him to learn more, I just hope he is too. Funny story about that is that halfway through(well right before we started the lesson), a Jehovah's Witness came to the door. So we sat quietly and listened to what he had to say. He actually helped us out though because it helped us know what he wanted to learn. He should be great! The problem with teaching Muslims is that we can't invite them to be baptized. We can teach them about it, but we can't invite. They have to ask to be because of the family problems that can arise. Last one was Kobe. He is originally from Ghana, but he had lived in Italy for the past 18 years until now. He is awesome and he already knows that Joseph Smith is a Prophet and that the Book of Mormon is true. We are excited, but we also think he might be a member already...... guess we'll have to wait and see. Anywho, those were the people we taught.

There were some really funny times though, like when this English guy just started yelling at us, complaining about these Pakistani's and Polish and then he told us to "go back to f'in Canada". Needless to say, it was funny. We had a good laugh about that and will for a long while.

This week we also taught a less active the stop smoking program(which is so effective. In fact, it's 100% if it's followed 100%). Anyway, to cut to the chase, the Zone Leaders convinced her that if I truly cared about her I would dance.........I tried my hardest to not do it, but you do what you gotta do for the people..... So Elder Davis in his cheeky-monkey ways(one of my favorite English phrases/words) made a video of it with his camera. Sue should be sending it to you sometime Mother.

Also this week I gave a talk in church about Jesus and His role as our Redeemer(well I made that my topic based off of Luke 1:68). It was good and I was so relaxed. It's amazing what a mission can do for your public speaking skillz. Oh and just so you know Mother, I played the piano in sacrament meeting becuase the priesthood was performing a number. I'm definitely getting better at piano, but I'm still not that good.

Um..... thank you so much for the cd's Mother, Prince of Egypt is always playing now.... almost constantly. Also thanks for the photos. I just love pictures. I need to go buy an photo album thing so they will be safe.

This week was definitely one where I have been pondering on the principle of Faith. What an important principle in the church and just in life in general. Why would we do anything if we didn't have faith in whatever it is? Well since I'm on a mission, it really has been Faith in Jesus Christ that I have been thinking about and wanting to focus on. It's essential for everything, both spiritually and physically. The scriptures constantly talk about it both in people exercising it and gaining it. As you can see whenever Jesus would perform miracles, He'd talk about their faith in the role of their healing. That's not the only thing that faith is needed. We need faith for everything, especially in accessing Christ's Atonement. In order to be cleansed of our sins, we need to repent. But what truly leads us to repent? It's our faith in Christ. He is the one that makes it possible to be cleansed, so as we have faith that we can be, we then repent. And as we truly do that, we can be cleansed through the love-filled sacrifice of our brother, Jesus Christ. We need to focus on our faith. It is at the beginning of everything. Once we have the faith, we act. It goes along with President Uchtdorf's talk about slowing down and focusing on the basics. Now tell me, what greater basic is there than faith? There is no such thing as too much faith, and that's what I'm working on!

I love you all soo much! Keep the updates coming and I'll do my best with letters to you.

Stay strong, live long, and have faith in Christ!

Love,

Elder Hulet

* * * * * * * *

Extra from the Mom:

I did catch Elder Hulet on the computer this morning and we chatted (well, kind of) for a couple of minutes. This was one of his comments:

Well I need to go. Usually we get here at like 10:30-10:45 my time. I would like more Anthony and friend updates. I'll be sending a response to mark since he mailed me a letter.

If you write him, he will write back. If you want me to forward him a message/update in an email or on facebook, I can do that. I know he misses you guys. Momma H.
p.s. - did you note that he LOVES pictures

Dear Poppits - No Transfer

October 18, 2010

Dear Poppits(yes they sometimes use it like in Pirate of the Carribean),

This week was a really good one in the sense that we talked to sooo many people and that we had lots of new investigators that seemed like they were so good, but it was disappointing because all of these new investigators have all been flogging(not being home for the appointment) us. So we aren't really teaching anyone right now..... but we're trying so hard. If only they'd just keep their appointments. There is no room for sadness or mourning because there are always more people who need to hear this great message we have to share so you just have to keep going and going. This week was also a nerve racking one up until saturday night because it was when we learned whether we were being transferred to somewhere else or staying. Elder Davis and I were so not wanting to go anywhere and.............WE'RE NOT!!!! WHOOOHOO!! I love this area and this ward and Elder Davis and I love being companions.(mother, I hear you have contacted his mother already too. Needless to say, I'm not surprised....) I just hope that I'll be here for Christmas now. 6 Months in Walsall sounds good to me. Now to the week.

This week was good with Ian. He got the priesthood on Sunday and i am soo excited for him. I think the Lord has some great things in store for him in terms of the Church. Now we are trying to get his wife and son(s). His wife and his one son are starting to come around. She loves having us over and his son, Kieran(a pretty common name here. I had never heard it until I got here), came to a ward games night and enjoyed it. I am soo pumped for his family! Ian is awesome and I can't express my happiness when I think about possibly getting his family to want to learn about the church and find out for themselves the truthfulness of it!

One other thing we learned this week in District Meeting, in regards to missionary work, was how we could be more effective finders. How we could find the people that are really searching for truth and also teaching people and planting seeds of the truths of the gospel so that when they are ready, they'll remember what we said. The main thing we focused on was getting our unique message out to everyone we talk to, one of which is that God has once again called prophets on the Earth to help guide his people. He's given us someone who can give us direction on how to protect us from the evils in this world and what we need to do to be able to return to God and be able to live with our families forever!!!! That thought is so great and so true! I'm grateful for the knowledge that I have that I CAN be with my family forever, because true happiness, for me, in the life after this couldn't exist without my family being there beside me. All of us can come to know for ourselves, which is probably the best part of it all!! I think it's one of the smartest things God wants us to do- not just to take the word of someone as truth without asking God ourselves if it's true so that we can know ourselves and not just having someone tell us it. I'm so grateful for that because yes, I grew up learning about God and the church, but I didn't know for myself of the truthfulness of it. But now I DO!! I KNOW that this Church is truly Jesus Christ's Church and that he loves everyone of us because we are his children. I KNOW that God has called prophets again on the Earth and that the living prophet today is Thomas S. Monson! And I KNOW that through ordinances, done by the proper authority, and as long as I live my life in the example of Christ to the best of my ability, I can be with my family forever! And what a great blessing it has been to know this. This is why I'm on my mission. This is why I talk to strangers about the Church everyday. This is why I love what I'm doing and I know I'm in the right place. The one thing I can only invite you to do is to ask God yourself. So that you can find out for yourself. Don't take my word for it- Take Gods!

It's amazing how much you can see the happiness and joy you can see in the eyes of people that have found out for themselves the truthfulness of the gospel. Just the other day, we went to visit someone who has been less active in the church and as walked up the stairs to her flat, she was over-joyed to see us!!!! It just made my day. She was just soo happy because she hadn't had much contact with the church for a year or so because she didn't know much English and we came and visited. She should be coming back come next week and it will be soo good. Not only she was happy, but so was her daughter and her husband. It's just fills your soul and heart with love when you see how happy people are. We as humans(or maybe it's just English people) don't usually seem happy or don't show it. Any why aren't we? Just look at the beauty of the world around us and the families we have. Be grateful for everything and look for the good in everything because God doesn't give us anything that won't help us in the long run. He helps us because that's what a loving Father does!

I love you all and miss you all. Sorry this email wasn't too informative about what's been happening- it's because there hasn't been too much. Letters to many should be sent out in the next couple weeks.

Love Elder Hulet

A Baptism!

October 11, 2010

Dearest family and everyone else,

This week has been a great week!!!! because of the baptism!!!!!! It was sooo good. I was chosen to baptize him because his first choice was doing poorly(sick for those who don't know England jargon) so he couldn't be there. So since I'm his favorite missionary(just speculating, but I'm 99% sure it's true), he chose me over Elder Davis! It was such a good experience and the spirit was soo strong! Baptisms really can be some of the most spiritual events to attend, so go if you have the chance to. To answer your question mother, I did sing. I sang "I Need Thee Every Hour". Our normal piano players were gone so we went with someone else who i thought knew how to play, but she couldn't really. At first she was late so I thought I was going to have to play(I was busy already with baptizing, singing, and saying the closing prayer), but then she came. Not to sound mean, but she wasn't great and I almost wished I had played and just sung my song a capella, but it went all right. The spirit was still strong and the service was still awesome! I'll provide some pics.

Other than that this week was pretty lackluster and pretty frustrating because all of the investigators we have(besides Ian who was baptized) stopped progressing because we couldn't get a hold of them or something. Anyway, we just need to find some more people to teach that are truly prepared to receive the gospel. We have some people we've spoken to that seem pretty good, so we should be alright. It'll be a good time with lots of finding!

We did receive some help with our Slovakian couple. We went and taught them on Friday night with the returned missionary from Lichfield. It was sooo good that we had him with us because now we kind of understand where they really are and what they believe. That night they also had some other Slovakians that they found that were homeless, so Alex was able to talk to them too. Anyway, we learned that they really don't know much about their own religion(Catholic I think). They say they are Catholic/Christian, but they seem to be worshipping Mary. They were wondering where Mary is and why everything we had tried to teach them was focused on Jesus Christ. Needless to say, it's a good thing Alex was there and has shed some light to us on what they believe. He was able to share his testimony about the Book of Mormon and how they can know for themselves of the truthfulness of it by praying to God and asking him sincerely. Well at the end of it, the other Slovakians requested a Book of Mormon and we now have no idea what to do with Jarro and Katrina..... I think we'll keep trying to teach her English and then maybe see if they'll progress at all in learning about Jesus. We are so lost at what we are to do with them, but that is why we are supposed to rely on God because he knows each individual sooo much better and knows what they need to learn. Maybe we're here just to introduce them to the gospel and maybe later they will come to an understanding or maybe they'll really start to understand and learn. I don't know. We'll see how it goes.

Well from what I hear/see, everything is going well outside of this little Island. Chase is looking cute and there is no doubt in my mind that I'll be the favorite by the time I come back as long as my pics stay on that mobile(did I spell that right for the little things on babies cribs and stuff?). Thanks for the email mother, was Dad racing so hard that he forgot to send me the email??? Sad day- I only hear from my mother and 2 sisters and I don't have an update on PSU football- jk.

There wasn't too much more that has happened here. We sure have run into some funny people though- like usual considering it's England. I tried talking to this one girl yesterday and she was going on about the illuminati and how they were going to take over the world in 2012 and how Satan is more powerful than God(super duper false) and she basically has no hope and faith in God which is sad. I just had to laugh. I think she has been watching "Angels and Demons" a little too much and has freaked herself out or something. Trust in God and all will go well- if only she'd listen. We also have this other guy that is crazy. When describing prayer, he was talking about aligning your body so that you get a better signal to talk to God and how the lower minded "infidels" around him are overlapping his soul and his ability to communicate with God. Oh man- well at least it gives place for a good laugh.

Elder Davis and I are doing great. We get along "rill" well. We are constantly making up songs and we usually have a mini football game in our flat with one goal being the doorway and the other the window area between the curtains to the balcony. It's lots of fun. Just wait for our release of the remake- "If you want to be my convert" It's almost done and the lyrics are award winning thanks to myself. I'l give you a sneak peak:

If you want to be my convert

You gotta get with my friends

Their two names are elder

Teaching them begins

It's going to be awesome. Transfers are coming up- we'll learn about it on saturday and transfers will be on Monday, so I don't know if I'll be emailing on Monday or not, we'll see. Maybe I'll have Sue give you a heads up.

Anyway, I love you all sooo much!! God loves you more!! and I'm so greatful for prayer and the ability to be able to communicate with my Heavenly Father and that he is always there listening and wanting to answer my questions and be able to help me. He is such a merciful and loving Father!!! If we are wanting to be receiving answers though, we need to make sure we are listening because what's the point of answering your prayer if you're not listening or planning on acting on the answer. I know that God will answer your prayers if you pray sincerely because of his great love for us. Try it sometime. Pray to Him with all your might and make sure to listen because who likes one-sided conversations?

I can't express how much I love and miss you guys. Keep doing what your doing! and stay good!

Love,

Elder Hulet

Almost Three Months

October 4, 2010

Dear Fambily and all the other lovely people that are lucky enough to receive this email,

This past week was wonderful!!!!!! Oh, um..... Happy Birthday Little Brother(:P)!! Hope it was a good one at home and for conference. What a present you received- hearing the prophet speak! Oh man did I love general conference! For those who don't know what it is, it is where the prophet and apostles and other leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak to everyone in the world. It is amazing because they are giving us help and guidance that they have been received from God. It isn't just for the members of the LDS Church and if you'd like to watch some and see the living prophet speak, you can go to lds.org(i think, or maybe mormon.org) and watch them. It I got that wrong, ask my mother and she can direct you to it.

To answer your question Dad, I was able to see all of the sessions except for the sunday afternoon one. We went to the stake center and saw the saturday morning session live. Sunday is basically an all day thing for conference here in England and others in the world. We went to the stake center at 10am to watch a recording of the priesthood session. The recording of the saturday afternoon session then followed at 1 and then we watched the sunday morning session live at 5. We were at the stake center on sunday from like 930am to about 745pm. It was a long time being there, but it was awesome. I got the most out of this conference than any other one I've ever seen. It's probably because I never really paid too much attention to what they all had to say. I just love conference now!!! It teaches you so much and it reaffirmed my testimony of President Thomas S. Monson as God's prophet and mouthpiece on the Earth! His talk at the end of the sunday morning session was sooo powerful. I wish we would've had some investigators there with us. The missionaries from Wolverhampton has one there that they had just met and hadn't really taught anything, but she went away saying that she know's that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God!!!! So awesome!!!!!!! I invite everyone to watch that talk by him and listen to your heart and mind and feelings. I promise you that if you do, that you WILL know that he truly is a prophet and the leader of God's church on the Earth!

This was a good week(made awesome by conference, but a good week in general). We didn't have as much time this week to find people because of General Conference and also a large training meeting we had on Thursday. I've learned sooo much from this week on how to be a better teacher, person, member, just a better everything basically. I've learned the importance of the Spirit in missionary work(and life too, but I'm not to focused on that right now). He is the one that does the converting and guides us to what we need to teach and say to meet the needs of each person we teach because each person is unique and there are different things in the gospel that will help them at that time. The gospel is soo great because it is there to help everyone in ways that they probably don't know. Yes, we talk about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon a lot and the reason is because if they start to learning the gospel and reading the Book of Mormon, it will bless and improve the quality of there lives. We are here to not just spread the gospel, but help improve others lives by learning about the gospel and abiding by it's principles. I love it! My mind has just been opened to how this gospel helps everyone and the importance of it since I've been out here. I encourage all of you to just look into it if you haven't yet and just be open-minded and I know you'll want to learn more.

Sorry about all of that, I was just on a roll writing. This week is the week of Ian's baptism!!!! WOOHOO!!! I'm so excited for him. He is so ready. We are going by tomorrow to hopefully watch the Testiments(movie about Christ and his coming to visit the ancient America's after His resurrection) with him and his wife. He is doing so well and has stopped smoking both cigars and cigarettes. I'm so excited for him!! You can see the difference it's made in his life and hopefully that will them move to his wife wanting to know more and same with his 2 boys. I sure hope they want to join him in this journey and I know that he wants them to since family is soo important in our church and I want him to be able to experience the joy of this gospel with him family!

We have tried teaching English to Jarro and Katrina once now. I think I've learned more Slovakian than she has english :) Hey Elizabeth, Boh je vas Otec v nebesian. Pozna vas osobne... there is more but I can't remember the order of the words. To everyone: Boh miluje vas!!(God loves you in Slovak unless I have it wrong gramatically which i'm pretty sure it is). It is a struggle right now- considering that I've never had to teach English before- but we learned that there is a return missionary in Lichfield(stake center) that just came back from Slovakia on his mission, so we've spoken with him and he's agreed to help us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That will help so much! We had been looking for a Slovak Book of Mormon for them for the longest time, but we learned they don't make them yet, so we got them a Czech one since the languages are close. We learned from the RM(returned missionary) that they've finished the translation, but now it is going back through to make sure it is correct.

Also we just got a new investigator that should be super good. His name is Roy and he's either from Jamaica or South Africa. I don't know which one. All I know is that he's black and super awesome. He allowed us to come by to answer a question he had about Adam and Eve and how could we have come about if they only had 2 sons, Cain and Abel.(the answer is found in Genesis 5 btw) So we read that to him and he then flat our said "Now that I know that, I will come to church." We then taught him about the Restoration and it went sooo well. We applied the training we received and the spirit was so strong!!! It was sooo good and he is so awesome. I'm excited to teach him again.

So yeah, life is going awesome and I'm loving it. It's crazy to think that my 3 month mark is this week. Has it really been that long?? Wow is all I can say. I love all this post i get and emails from everyone- I feel so loved!! And best of all, Elder Davis is starting to get jealous which is super gut(german for good btw. and yes i know my comp isn't german anymore)! Elder Davis and I have been so blessed in finding people that are welcome to receive our message and see how it can help them. We are still working hard to find more, because there is no such thing as too many people to help!

I love you all, sorry if I'm no good at answering questions that you present to me. Um..... if you've sent post, this is the first p-day in the past 3 that I've actually had a chance to write, so that's what I'll be doing today. Keep me updated on your lives, I love to read about them! Sorry Mom and Dad that I didn't wish a happy anniversary or say Happy Birthday to Kaycee and Grandma. I did remember and love you, it's just kind of hard to do anything while so far away.

So I just wrote a whole bunch, but then it got deleted-so annoying. It was to grandma and you dad if you know a George and Isabell Cannon who at one point were the mission president of my mission from like 66' to 69' or something like that. They had 5 sons and 2 daughters. Also do you know someone that had a son that served in the central England mission or something like that from 68' to 70' that lived or lives in Parowan. I bring this us because there is an man in our ward named Stan Woods. He is probably one of the oldest members here in Walsall and has been in the church the longest out of everyone in our ward. He told me about those guys when he said that he was able to go to general conference when he was a stake president here and he said he stayed in Parowan at one point and even spoke at the church in like 70'. I don't know if Grandma remembers him or knows who the other people are. Stan couldn't remember the name of the one that had a son serve here, which is why I don't have the name.

I love you all and I'm so grateful for all, family and friends, that you've done for me to get me to where I am now because I know I wouldn't without you! I am especially grateful for you Mom and Dad for all that you've sacrificed to give me the life I've been able to have. I couldn't have asked for a better one so far!!! I love you soo much!

Keep on working hard and I love all these emails and post. I love hearing about your lives!!! so keep it up!

love, Elder Nanders

Mission Football

September 28, 2010

Dear Peoples,

Don't you all just sound so busy and it is exactly the same with me, well for the most part. I guess it really depends what you consider busy for me. I like to consider lots of appointments busy, but you could say doing finding(tracting and street contacting) could be considered being busy. Whichever the case- I'm busy. What would you expect though? There is a lot of work needed everywhere in regards to missionary work. So many people haven't heard of the gospel. Many may not exactly be searching, but what about those that are searching but don't know where to find it. Basically, that means that we(as missionaries) need to stop EVERYONE that comes in our way, so we did that(since it was something that our Zone Leaders challenged us to do and because we wanted to).

With this talking to everyone mentality you'd think that we'd find lots of new people that would be interested.........but that is so not the case. On last tuesday we had lots of open time in the morning so we decided to just talk to everyone on our way to an investigator. This investigator lives like 5 minutes away by bike, but it took us a good hour and a half to get there because there are so many people everywhere(well around town centre which is where we live and because there are 250,000 + people that live around the town). Unfortunately we got rejected by EVERY SINGLE PERSON! It was so weird and odd. It was like the people that usually inhabit the place had been switched with really rude people, well whatever. I kept my positive attitude and kept doing it. Elder Davis was getting a little frustrated, but then I helped remind him of the good investigators we have been blessed with. Now on to those!!

Ian is just about done with the stop smoking program(second time. first time was for cigarettes which was so easy for him. this time it's for cigars) and he's doing great. He is so awesome!!! I love teaching him so much because he asks questions and everything. It's fun. His date has been moved back to the 9th so that his wife can come to the baptism!!!

I don't know if I've told you about the Slovakian couple that we are teaching. They are doing pretty good, but teaching them is very hard since he understands some English and his wife doesn't understand any at all. So he translates and we have no idea what he is saying of if he understands what we are teaching them. They came to church on Sunday though!!! It was a rough sunday because of that though because she didn't understand what was going on and he barely did and I also was having to entertain their 2 year old son. So hard and stressful!! but they came and that is all that matters because church is such a good place to feel of the Spirit and join together with others to learn and grow closer to God. I really took for granted my time at church when I was younger and now I'm also fearing going to church with kids of my own after dealing with there son and remembering the twins running all over the place.

This monday was MISSION FOOTBALL(Soccer for all you dang Americans :P ) and it was soooo fun and tiring. There were 5 teams- Coventry, Birmingham, Nottingham, Lester, and ME(Lichfield). You all know my football skills so it should be no surprise for you to find out that we WON!!!!!!!!!! Heck yes! It was because we really had a bunch of good no Americans and decent Americans(like myself). I headed the defense and only hurt my left ankle a little bit(I'm pretty good at that aren't I???) but I still played on it- Yay me! I'm so tired from it and I'm going to be sooo sore, but it is totally worth it since we won!

I love you all so much. I wish I had more time to write more, but we need to head off to an appointment.

Every day I keep increasing my love for the Book of Mormon. It is such a good book. Joseph Smith wasn't lying when he said that you'll get closer to God by reading it that any other book. It is the keystone of our Religion. When we come to know that it is true, we can find our testimony of Joseph Smith is greater and that our faith is so much stronger. I love being out here, even though I do miss life back at home, but I'm where I need to be.

Love,

Elder Nanders

grandfather(middle left), uncle(left), father(middle right), and me.

September 20, 2010

Dear Family and friends,

This past week seemed to take forever and I don't know why because we were busy. It's even hard to remember what we did each day...so yeah we'll see how well I can do at telling you stuff.

Um....this week was alright. We had our ups and downs like usual. Our focus this week was to try to find some more people to teach since we lost a couple investigators because of personal reasons. We had this one girl that seemed good, so we went to teach her and she seemed so nervous or on the edge for some reason. It turned out that she was worried about her mother coming home from work because she is really against religion and stuff, so because we don't want her to get in trouble with her mother we made our way out and told her to read the Book of Mormon that we had given her and to ask her mother if it'd be alright for her to be taught. It's so difficult with teens like that because you have to have the parents permission to be able to teach them and it just makes it more difficult. It sad that a parent can restrict their kids from following their desires. Hopefully her mother will come around on the idea so we can go back and teach.

Oh oh oh oh oh, we had super great news this week!!!! We now have another person with a baptismal date!!!!! He is so awesome and amazing. The members at church have thought that he was a member ever since he's been coming to church. He(Ian) is scheduled to be baptized on the 8th of October and then confirmed on the 10th. The 10th is significant because it is 10/10/2010 which is basically 10/10/10/20 which is the process that we go about doing our work-talk to someone in the first 10 minutes, stop at least 10 people, give out 10 Books of Mormon, and have 20 sit down lessons. Elder Stein and I had the goal of having someone baptized on that date and it's happening with Elder Davis and I! I'm so excited for Ian though. He is so awesome and now his wife is starting to want to learn and so is his sister and mother. Oh man- so many people could have the gospel in their life so soon!! The missionary work is doing well here in Walsall!!! and it should hopefully just get better!

Another person we have been teaching is a single mother named Kira. She has 2 little boys and lives on her own. We had been coming by her house quite a few times, but she was usually busy and only available to talk for about 10 minutes or so. We were finally able to go in and teach her, but her 2 year old was so loud and it was hard to teach anything, so we decided to use the cups visual we have to teach the restoration so that we could possibly entertain her little son. I finally got him interested by the cups and stacking them up, so it was quiet and Elder Davis was then able to teach her. I taught a little bit, but I was mainly just trying to keep her son Cody quiet and entertained. It ended up being good- at least better than we were thinking. She was supposed to be at church, but her younger son Owen was sick. She should be good though and the gospel will definitely help her out in her life!

I don't remember if I had ever told you about the Slovakian couple we were trying to teach. Well we went over for our second time and we really learned about their situation and life and it is so sad. I literally almost cried while there. They aren't making much money, the landlord is raising the rent on their flat(which consists of only 1 small room), their child on the way isn't growing correctly, son is sick, etc..... It's sad and we're seeing what we can do for them- asking members about flats that don't cost very much that they can move to. It's so hard because you want to help so much, but you can't really do much. Plus they might be in the country illegally so we don't really want to get involved with that.

Everything sounds like it's going good at home except Sister being lost.....maybe she's been naughty and is being sent home :) jk. I'm sure she'll write soon. It's great to here about all that you guys are doing and keep it up.

Elder Davis and I are having so much fun. We get along really well. I'm actually older than he is, but he's been out for 7+ months. Last P-day when we were on our way to come emailing, there was some guy in town centre(that's how the english spell it) with a microphone and speakers and was saying stuff like "beware of the mormons". It was funny. I really wanted to just go shake his hand and tell him to have a good day, but Elder Davis stopped me.

This week in my reading I have really come to a greater understanding of the laws of justice and mercy. Alma 42 really helps to illustrate it and makes it so logical. We will be judged based off of mercy ONLY if we repent. If we do that, we can then return to God when we are judged. Along with that God is always there to forgive us no matter what- all we have to do is sincerely repent. I also was learning about the plan of restoration in Alma 41. It just makes so much sense. It's amazing how much sense the Book of Mormon makes when you truly want to learn and you are reading with the Spirit. Because of this understanding I've come to recognize it just continues to testify to me of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and that it can answer any question we have or can help us with any problem. I really have come to love reading it and it makes me want to give them out to everyone so that it can bless their lives. Elder Davis and I have given out 15 in the past 2 weeks. Hopefully we can keep that up and even exceed that number!

I love this church and the gospel!!!!!! It's so true!!!! How could something that makes so much sense not be true? If you want to come to know for yourself all you have to do is do a simple experiment: 1. read from the Book of Mormon and then 2. sincerely ask God to know if it's true. If you sincerely ask, God will not let you down in answering your question because he loves everyone so much and wants them to come to know the truth.

I love and miss you all!!! but I'm where I need to be at this point in my life!

Love Elder Hulet

Mother: I got all of the packages. Um.... could I maybe get a MoTab Cd for an investigator that loves music? and also maybe a CD of the Prince of Egypt soundtrack?

Sister Kennedy: Wow, is all i have to say. I hope it works out because that'd be awesome.

Friends and Fam- Thanks for the letters and packages- it makes Elder Davis jealous!! and that's all that matters.

Off to zone p-day- playing some FOOTBALL(soccer)!!!

Mission Football on the 27th!!!

OH and the picture is of my grandfather(middle left), uncle(left), father(middle right), and me.

FAMBILY and FRIENDS

September 13, 2010

Dear Fambily and Friends,

It hasn't been too long since I last wrote. Needless to say, it has been an interesting 5 days or so with Elder Davis. It's weird going to a different companion because everyone does things in a different way, so it takes a bit to adjust to that. It's not too hard for me since I'm good at adjusting to others, but it was just a little shock at first to realize that Elder Davis isn't Elder Stein. It's been good though.

So........ it was a good week because we had a baptism on Friday!! It was awesome. We had 2 investigators there and lots of her family came(2 even came to the confirmation of Sunday!). It was a very nice service and I sang for it since I was asked. It has been a while since I've attended one- how come we didn't go to many at home mother and father? We talked to one of the investigators(Ian) about it and also about his sister in laws baptism in a nearby area and he said he felt the spirit at both. We are working with him towards a baptism on the 8th of October. Oh, oh oh, Ian also told us about the experience his wife(non member) had at the baptism of her sister and how she felt the spirit so strongly, but that she was kind of scared by it. So she is starting to come around and hopefully we can start teaching her too!!!!! So exciting!

We didn't really have much else happen this week, although Elder Davis and I were on a roll in giving out the Book of Mormon- 14 in 5 days!!!! Hopefully the people that we gave them out to will read them and feel of the warmth and joy you receive from reading it. It is such a great and powerful book. I love reading it every morning because I learn so much and it helps to show me what I need to do to be a better person and prepare myself to fulfill our goal in life- return back to God in a state of never ending happiness with our family. I just wish I had more time to read it and it makes me wonder why I never really read it too often in high school and in my first semester. I really wish I had now.

Oh, we had some interesting experiences. One happened yesterday where we went to go teach a family from Slovokia that Elder Stein and I ran into, and it was soooo hard because he spoke some English and his wife didn't speak any. We tried to teach the Restoration but it was hard to get them to understand, but it was a good thing we had the Restoration leaflet in Slovakian so they could read something they could understand. We then fiddled around with their DVD player so we could watch the Restoration DVD since it could be watched in Russian- which they could understand. All in all, we tried our best and we have a return appointment so hopefully that goes well.

We are also trying to teach a Polish guy that has been through a rough time. When we met him he was sitting on a bench. He was beaten up by some English boys the day before for no reason. We went back to his house a couple days later to give him a Polish Book of Mormon and we found him even worse. It turns out he was again beaten up the night we talked to him, but like 15 minutes later. I feel so bad for him and hope we can help him. If only Ethan could be here to help teach since he doesn't speak much English.

We have lots of others we are trying to teach, so hopefully it will work out with them.

I love you all and hopefully everything is going well. The garden sounds like it is just booming. Yay for not having to pick it all, but boo for not being able to eat all of those raspberries. I thank God every night for all of the great people in my life and pray for Him to continue to help and bless you and I know he will if we ask Him for help. We just need faith in Him and Christ and we can do anything in accordance with God's will. Read Alma 32: 28 to the end and apply it to your life and see how you can either plant the seed or be able to nourish it better. I've found that I need to do better at nourishing my faith and knowledge of the gospel because you can never stop learning- and it's wonderful!

Love,

Elder Hulet

TRANSFER TRADITION

There is a lady in the ward who refers to herself as a "missionary mum" - and she kind of takes care of or watches over the Elders. It is a tradition with her family that when an Elder is transferred they have a foam fight. She sent pictures -- which was very nice of her. She's not sure which Elder did in her teddy bear.

Transfer time - But He Stays

September 8, 2010

Dear Family and friends,

I know you were all anticipating my weekly monday email, but this week I fooled you- HA!! We are emailing today because we had transfers today. My pops(trainer), Elder Stein, has been made a District Leader and moved to Derby(Darby), so I now have a new companion. His name is Elder Davis and he is from Canada(Calgary,Alberta. Somewhere in those mormon colonies Buddy, I don't know which one though). He's nice.....and I can't really say much more since I've only been with him for like 2 or 3 hours so far, but that number will soon grow greater.

Um....there is so much on my mind right now and there was so much that happened this past week+. This week we started to teach a guy named Ali. He is from Iraq but says he's Christian. We taught him about the Restoration and it was way good, but he will soon be leaving on holiday(vacation) for 4 weeks to Iraq. We have to be careful with teaching him, well we can teach him everything, but we can't invite him to be baptized because of the consequenses of a muslim being baptized(he could be shunned, killed, and so could those that converted him.....yeah), so we have to make sure he's willing to make that commitment if we even get to that point with him. He's so awesome though.

We are still teaching Ian. We taught him the stop smoking program and it went so well. He is awesome and really has the desire to learn and stop smoking, so this week has seemed to be pretty easy for him to quit. I'll be checking in today to see how he's doing. We should be getting him a baptismal date soon!!!!!!

We also have a baptism happening this friday- and nothing is going to happen like the last one, at least I hope not. Her name is Meghann and she is the girl friend of a member. She is so awesome though and she really wants to learn and be baptized. Yeah....there isn't much more to say about her. She'll be my first though!!!!

We also got a surprise baptismal commitment from an eternal investigator!!! He is one that said he'd never get caught by any church, but something has changed him mind about that. He usually switched between attending the Church of England church by his house and our church, but not anymore he says. Recently he got sick and stuff and Elder Stein and I helped him lots, like getting his groceries and stuff or anything really because he is awesome. I think that's what completely changed his mind because the other church never came to ask if he needed help and neither did many of his friends. It must've turned a light switch on in his brain or something. Anyway, we still have lots to teach and get him to stop smoking and he says he won't get baptized unless it's Elder Stein, so i guess he'll be coming back for that.

This week was good and it has been great to hear from everyone...well at least lots of sibs and some friends. More is always welcome, especially snail mail! One thing that has really hit me this week has been the importance of repenting and also the sacrament. Christ is so merciful and so willing to forgive us of our sins, there are also great blessings that we can receive from repenting like having his spirit to be with us more often to help guide us and so much more. I love the sacrament now because of that. The sacrament is like being baptized again. As long as we have truely repented from our sins throughout the week, we can receive a remission of our sins and once again receive those promises from baptism(always have his spirit to be with us, remision of our sins, born again). It's so awesome.

I love you all

Elder Hulet

P.S I got a memory card for my camera- more pics now.

P.S.S I'll buy some clippers I guess

P.S.S.S um......can I get a pic of the whole family mother?? and if any friends want to send some-thatt'd be awesome