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