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