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