Things are Slow

February 28, 2011

Dear Aliens(I decided to not be boring and use something else up here),

Life is going in Stourbridge. It's been an interesting first 5 or so days... There hasn't been too much happening. It's more of me trying to help Elder Stein get used to the area. It's been good though. We still get along really well, which is good. I think that he will help me to become more optimistic about the area than what I became near the end of last transfer. It is a hard place to be, but isn't that where you grow the most? I definitely think I have! My teaching skillz may have degraded a little bit, but I have definitely learned more about myself and about life in general and how to work my life- come life after mission. I'm ready to grow soo much more and to start to change this area around. I'm ready to work my butt off this transfer and let God do the rest- since he's much better at everything than I am.

This week we have really been trying to get our investigators to progress, but we had major trouble contacting 2 of the 3. The one we were able to work a little bit with was Beth, Tasha's friend. We were able to talk to her a little about the Book of Mormon on Elder Stokes second to last day and she accepted our invite to be taught and learn more. On Wednesday, we then went with her and Tasha to institute(religious classes for young adults, aged like 18 to 30). I think she enjoys them, considering she has been asking Tasha if she is going and if she can come with. I'm excited for her and Tasha too, because she could become another friend for Tasha at the ward since there aren't very many young people in the ward.

This past week or so, I've loved reading from my Book of Mormon. It has just provided me with such insight on life and missionary work(not too surprised considering I've been reading chapters about missionaries in it). I happened to stumble along one of my favorite scriptures this week though. It is Alma 26: 27. This scripture is talking about the missionaries who have gone out to preach to the Lamanites and they were really struggling and getting tied up, thrown into prison, and all other sorts of things. Because of this, they were contemplating turning back and heading home, but then the Lord came to them and comforted them and said this to them: "Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." I really like this one because it always comforts me when I run into hardships in life. I come out knowing that if I try my best to "bear with patience" my afflictions, or to just hang in there, that God will bless me with success in whatever I'm doing. I just love that. It really emphasizes to me the Love that God has for me and for all of you. Yes, we will face hardships and trials in life, but we then have the choice for how we face them. Will we give in a say 'Wo is me' or will we fight back and turn to God for help and strength to make it through. This principle isn't just for missionary work like it is for me and the sons of Mosiah in the scriptures, but it is for everyone in every situation.

I love you all soo much. I promise to be getting letters sent out this week! Today will be a nice relaxing P-day of rest and writing letters. So if I haven't responded yet, just know I'm trying my best and hopefully I'll get them out this p-day or next.

Just be happy! and I'll try my best.

Love,

Elder Hulet

Transferred? Nope!

February 23, 2011

Dear Family and friends,

So the transfer news is that I will be staying in Stourbridge for at least the next 5 weeks(it's not a normal 6 week transfer) and I have a new, and yet old, companion- Elder Stein. He is the missionary that originally trained me to be a missionary in Walsall and President put him once again with me. I guess that he needs to finish his training or fix what he did to me whilst in Walsall. Just kidding. I feel that he being here is because of how he and I are both with the members. I hope that this will bring good results or at least will improve the situation come these next 5 weeks. So that's really the biggest news. Elder Stokes and I had a good time together, but I was pretty glad to have him go. He's a good guy, but as much as I tried to be patient with him, he definitely got on my nerves by the end of this transfer. It came just in time!! A new era has begun!

So this past week and a half has been good and frustrating at the same time. This week we were trying to focus on the investigators we have, Tahereh and Liz, as well as getting invites out to less active members to come to a movie night that we organized for the ward, since they aren't very good at having activities. So Elder Stokes and I tried so hard, but to no avail, we couldn't for the life of us get in contact with our investigators and none of the less actives we visited came to the movie night. It was so frustrating and then with transfers coming up, we were just so tired. This last transfer has seemed to be the most tiring for me, both physically and mentally. We did have one really good thing happen to us on Monday. We were visiting with Tasha Horton, young recent convert, and she had her friend come over. We ended up talking to her a little about the Book of Mormon and the church and we ended up giving her one- to which Tasha said she was excited to receive. I hope we can continue to help Tasha with being a good and more courageous missionary as well as her friend, Beth, to find the truth and to feel and recognize the Spirit as she searches for this truth. I'm excited for them both! It's amazing how much individuals can do to make an area so much better. I hope I'm making that sort of impact on the life of people I serve, both members and not.

So I'm grateful for this transfer to be over. I'm ready to start anew and get to work...... once I get my bike tire fixed. This week I think I want to talk a little more about prayer, but under the aspect of asking God for things. I read an amazing story about my friend, Stevie, on his mission in Italy. It was about a time where he really made the difference for this one less active member. He and his companion were that guys angels. I loved that part and it really gave me the desire to be someone’s angel. It is something that I really want. I want God to use me to touch the lives of people around me. So guess what I did? I went and prayed to him asking him to use me to answer people’s prayers and to be their angels. This is something that I've learned about. I know that he will answer my prayer because of the great desire I have for it and because it is a righteous desire. I sure hope he will use me lots to be an angel for others. I was reading a passage in the scriptures about this idea of asking God for stuff in our prayers. It was in Alma 25: 17. This is at the end of a mission by a bunch of brothers. They had had great success and were praising God for it and for answering their prayers- to be able to help the Lamanites come to the understanding of the Gospel. This showed to me the power of prayer. These men were able to baptize thousands of people who were a part of a blood-thirsty culture!!! That is just so amazing and it was because of their desires and because they prayed. I encourage you to use prayer. It can be so powerful. If you want to know more about these missionaries and what they did, read the previous 10 or so chapters (in Alma). They are all very good ones.

Well I'm out of time. I love you all. Letters will be sent out next week. I had no time this week to do so. Be good and Happy!

Love,

Elder Hulet

Won't You Be My Valentine?

February 14, 2011

Dear peoples in America,

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! It's crazy how fast time flies on a mission. Like seriously, how the heck is it February already??? Well to start off, I want to say I LOVE you all!!!! You're the best ever. I get all this post and emails and my companions are always jealous. I just tell them that no one loves them unlike all of you! So thank you very much. Unfortunately, I had like no time last week to write and I won't really this week(recording last week and a zone p-day this week), but I'll try my best. Just know that you will be written to eventually and you are not forgotten. I would write more if I had more than one day(really like 5 hours) each week to do so. I'll try my best though.

This week was an interesting one. I was gone for a bit of it- went to Harbourne again for an exchange(this is the area that covers downtown Birmingham just so you know). It went alright, but it was nice to be back in Stourbridge and amongst what I'm familiar with. While I was gone though, Elder Stokes and Elder Brooke went to see a referral that we had set up an appointment with and it went really well!! Not only was she interested, but her grand daughter, who is 18, was interested. I was sooo happy to hear that news. So we have 2 new investigators!! Woohoo! They unfortunately weren't able to make it to church, but hopefully we can get them back on track and help them the best we can to come unto Christ and feel of His love and mercy. I that last part really exemplifies missionary work- although many just get caught up into baptizing and stuff. As missionaries, our real goal is to help people come unto Christ and feel His love, accept and apply His wonderous Atonement, and then to just act on that(baptism). It is something that gets overlooked lots, even for members of the chruch. We go to church to apply the Atonement. We go to chruch to worship and because we love God and want to come closer to the Saviour. Our Church is all about Jesus Christ. There is no if ands of buts about it. We may speak of Joseph Smith and other important figures lots, but that is because they point us to Christ and the mercy that he has shown towards us by restoring His Church back on the Earth as well as the Priesthood(the ability to act in Gods name and the authority to guide the church). It is such a blessing to have this great knowledge in my life and to have the knowledge that we are once again guided by a prophet who literally speaks with God and can help us, everyone in the world, to get through and overcome the obstacles and danger in the world. He doesn't protect us from it, but he provides us with the means on how we can protect ourselves and our families. What a blessing to have in a world that is dangerous, confusing, and difficult to stay strong!

This week has gone by and we are grateful for this new week. Elder Stokes and I are most likely down to our last week or so since transfers are coming up and we have been together for the past 2 transfers. Our goal for this week is to accomplish the vision that our wonderful Mission President has set for every area- 3 and 1. It means 3 investigators and less-actives at church and 1 baptismal date each week. This is no easy task and it doesn't make it any easier being in Stourbridge, but if God wills it, it can be done! I'm sorry this is a short email, I had too many emails to read from people.

I love you all soo much and don't think that I just say that for fun. I have truly been blessed with the people in my life that have helped me along the way to get to where I am. Without you, I'd be nothing and a very unhappy person. Keep being happy, and if you find that hard right now, search for it. Turn to God for help and search for the happiness you can obtain in this life. I know that if you turn to Christ and His gospel that you will find this happiness. I PROMISE!

Love,

Elder Hulet

Won't You Be My Valentine?

February 14, 2011

Dear peoples in America,

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! It's crazy how fast time flies on a mission. Like seriously, how the heck is it February already??? Well to start off, I want to say I LOVE you all!!!! You're the best ever. I get all this post and emails and my companions are always jealous. I just tell them that no one loves them unlike all of you! So thank you very much. Unfortunately, I had like no time last week to write and I won't really this week(recording last week and a zone p-day this week), but I'll try my best. Just know that you will be written to eventually and you are not forgotten. I would write more if I had more than one day(really like 5 hours) each week to do so. I'll try my best though.

This week was an interesting one. I was gone for a bit of it- went to Harbourne again for an exchange(this is the area that covers downtown Birmingham just so you know). It went alright, but it was nice to be back in Stourbridge and amongst what I'm familiar with. While I was gone though, Elder Stokes and Elder Brooke went to see a referral that we had set up an appointment with and it went really well!! Not only was she interested, but her grand daughter, who is 18, was interested. I was sooo happy to hear that news. So we have 2 new investigators!! Woohoo! They unfortunately weren't able to make it to church, but hopefully we can get them back on track and help them the best we can to come unto Christ and feel of His love and mercy. I that last part really exemplifies missionary work- although many just get caught up into baptizing and stuff. As missionaries, our real goal is to help people come unto Christ and feel His love, accept and apply His wonderous Atonement, and then to just act on that(baptism). It is something that gets overlooked lots, even for members of the chruch. We go to church to apply the Atonement. We go to chruch to worship and because we love God and want to come closer to the Saviour. Our Church is all about Jesus Christ. There is no if ands of buts about it. We may speak of Joseph Smith and other important figures lots, but that is because they point us to Christ and the mercy that he has shown towards us by restoring His Church back on the Earth as well as the Priesthood(the ability to act in Gods name and the authority to guide the church). It is such a blessing to have this great knowledge in my life and to have the knowledge that we are once again guided by a prophet who literally speaks with God and can help us, everyone in the world, to get through and overcome the obstacles and danger in the world. He doesn't protect us from it, but he provides us with the means on how we can protect ourselves and our families. What a blessing to have in a world that is dangerous, confusing, and difficult to stay strong!

This week has gone by and we are grateful for this new week. Elder Stokes and I are most likely down to our last week or so since transfers are coming up and we have been together for the past 2 transfers. Our goal for this week is to accomplish the vision that our wonderful Mission President has set for every area- 3 and 1. It means 3 investigators and less-actives at church and 1 baptismal date each week. This is no easy task and it doesn't make it any easier being in Stourbridge, but if God wills it, it can be done! I'm sorry this is a short email, I had too many emails to read from people.

I love you all soo much and don't think that I just say that for fun. I have truly been blessed with the people in my life that have helped me along the way to get to where I am. Without you, I'd be nothing and a very unhappy person. Keep being happy, and if you find that hard right now, search for it. Turn to God for help and search for the happiness you can obtain in this life. I know that if you turn to Christ and His gospel that you will find this happiness. I PROMISE!

Love,

Elder Hulet

A BETTER WEEK

February 7, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was much much better than it has been in a while. It has been different because we actually have people to work with now. The best part about it is that they haven't come from us finding, but from referrals from the members! The people we are working with include Tahereh- who we were teaching before and we got her back again-, Beth (a friend of out recent convert Tasha Horton), and a lady named Liz who is a friend of our ward mission leader. I'm excited for this. It's much better to be excited and have people to teach or help than it is to be excited and have nothing. It makes life better and easier to handle. With Tahereh, we had a lesson with her on Friday and we had the Bishop and his wife accompany us. It ended up being the best idea we had and the whole thing ended up perfect or even better than perfect(if that is allowed). We barely had to teach anything. We started the lesson, but then Sister Watton just took over. It was soo good and Tahereh was much more willing to open up to Sister Watton and then Sister Watton just taught her and resolved all of the concerns that Tahereh had. It was soo good. There is definitely power in teaching with the missionaries as a couple. I encourage you my siblings(except you Julie) and my parents to see if you can do that. You don't have to teach the whole thing like Sister Watton did, but I know you guys know the gospel and can really help out in the lesson.

Now to something super duper exciting that myself and Elder Stokes will embark on today. First some background information. The AP's(assistant to the presidents) last transfer were trying to make up a song to go along with a chorus they came up with. So they assigned the task to Elder Stokes to create so it could be done at the Mission Christmas Party. It didn't get finished/done in time though, but Elder Stokes still went on to create the song and the lyrics for the versus. Then me being his companion and a singer, I added the harmonies to the chorus. Then just last week we learned from the Elders, in nearby Kidderminster, that they were going to go to a members house there that used to be a member of Led Zeplin(he dropped out before they went big) and who had a recording studio in his home. So guess what popped into our minds then? We had the idea of going there on p-day so we could go and record the song. So that's what we are going to do later today. Elder Stokes will play guitar and sing lead, I will be the back up singer and maybe pianist, and then one Elder from Kidderminster will be playing bass(he's sooo freaking good at the bass- as in the orchestra one, but I'm sure he'll be just as good on an electric). This will be so good and so epic and it'll be such a good song. Elder Stokes is a pretty darn good song writer. When we get it done, i'll send it home and stuff. We hope to get it recorded today, but you never know how long it'll take to do it. It shouldn't take too long though. At least I hope not.

That's the main exciting thing that has happened this week, now to your favorite part(or maybe it's just mine)- What did Elder Hulet learn this week??? I love this part because it makes me reflect on this past week of studying and learning from experiences and how I can connect what I have learned. This week I think the two principles that I will connect are prayer and patience. I didn't exactly study these two very fully, but they were ones that have sort of swarmed my thoughts recently. I know that I've spoken about prayer before, but I'm not sure I defined it very well. Prayer is a 2-way communication given to us by our Heavenly Father(God) to talk to Him. The key part there is "2-way", which means it's not just us spouting everything we have and not giving time to listen or anything. It truly is our way that we can communicate with our Creator and it is where we can express gratitude, receive guidance, and just have a chance to talk with God about our life. It's always amazes me when thinking about the enormity of it. To some, prayer looks really weird and whatnot, but the truth is that it can be the coolest thing ever! You just need to figure out how to do it properly and really put your heart into it. This is one thing that I am trying to get better at, because I'm here looking to receive guidance to be able to help the people I'm working with, so my prayers are ones that aren't exactly affecting me, but others that I care about. Now patience rolls into the situation when talking about receiving the answers to our prayers. When we pray and ask for anything, God will answer us, but it'll be in His own time since He does know best, right? This is where I struggle a bit. I'm really good at being patient with people, but I seem to really struggle with God. What I need to be better at is having faith that He will answer me and that it will be in the time that it needs to be. Prayer is just so powerful and I haven't even begun to understand it's power since I've been out here amongst the English. I encourage you to really think about prayer and make a sincere attempt to bring it into your life. It can only help!

I love you all sooo much, it's quite ridiculous. Thanks for all the letters I've received this week and last, I'll do my best to respond asap. Stay good!

Love,

Elder Hulet