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