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May 16, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

So hoorah to a new week. This past week was alright with the change of companions. It could've been better though had my bike not broken on me(for those biker nerds[Kent] out there, it was my bottom bracket that snapped... which is not supposed to happen). It broke last Monday and Elder K and I got it into the shop, but they haven't called or anything about its status. I hope to get it back by either today or tomorrow. Being on foot is such a pain and is far less effective than being able to be on the bike. It really limits the area you can cover unless you have people to drive you around to see people. We managed alright I guess.

These past couple of days with Elder Holland have been pretty alright surprisingly. I'd probably associate that with God's help and influence though. I say that because I had served around him when I was in Stourbridge and he was a pain to everyone around- especially his companion. He just made life difficult and not very fun to be around. So in anticipation of this, I had prayed pretty hard about the responsibility of being with him and also being senior. I believe it has worked and God has given me further patience and charity because we actually sort of get along and he doesn't completely drive me crazy by all the remarks he says. So life is alright and we're doing alright and I think we are on the same page for the most part with the work, which is really needed to be able to accomplish more. So yeah.... Hopefully we'll be able to have a good transfer together without me getting really annoyed by him. It's a good thing I got the patience gene from my old parents(speaking of being old, Elder K and I would discuss stuff like that and we figured out that you guys-being Mother and Pops- are older than his grandparents on one side..... how does that make you feel? :P) [the Mom: uhmmm, a little old (sigh)]

So I'm not sure exactly what I learned this week. I'll give you an update on Morgan( our 9 year old investigator) while I think of it. Right now he is still super good. He remembers so much and the only thing that is really stopping him from getting baptized is us getting the ok from his parents for a specific date. We were talking to him, and his grandpa, yesterday
and were thinking that the 4th of June would be good. So we just need to get that approved with his parents who we should hopefully be seeing this week. We are also teaching another 8 year old to prepare him for baptism. They both might get baptised on the same day. We'll see.

This week I learned and thought quite a bit about faith and hope(I don't know if I've spoken about this before since I do send a email every week and I've been out for 10 months now....that's a lot of emails). There is a scripture in Moroni 7(don't have the exact verses. it's in the 40's i think though) and it talks about how you can't have hope without faith. So for us to gain a hope, we first need faith in something that will give us the hope. Like say for basketball, we can only gain hope in winning the game if we have faith in our skill and the unity and teamwork of the team. So then to gain that hope, you'd practice enough so that you have faith enough in your skill and team that you then obtain that hope. So how does that pertain to you. We know that because of Christ's Atonement, we can then have the hope that we can once again live with our Father in Heaven and our families for all eternity. Now the question is, do you want that hope?? Do you want to find that knowledge? If so, you should know what you need to do- which is to do what you need to strengthen your faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. We can do that by simple means- reading (studying), praying, and going to church. When we do that with the desire to strengthen our faith, we will and we will receive that hope of eternal life. It's beautiful how simple the gospel can be.

I don't have much more time left. I love you all and for those slacking with letters....i guess it makes a little sense since it's summer time. And for those awaiting my letters, accept my apology. I'm working on it. I love you all tons and I hope that you guys are still in search for everything that brings happiness into your life.

Love,

Elder Hulet

Fellow Missionaries

These are missionaries who went out the same time Randy did and they were in the Mission Training Center in Preston together. The tall one in a pink shirt is also from Pennsylvania. The Pittsburgh area.

May Day

May 2, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

HAPPY MAY DAY!! Whatever makes it so significant here, I don't know. Anyway it's another bank holiday for us folks over here(well not missionaries, but you get the point right?). The weather has just been beautiful over here for like the past month or so, so I don't know what's up with all of those tornados in the US. I bet that was crazy to see and hear about. Also, I've heard about Osama being killed, which is pretty crazy! But yeah, it's not like I hear too much about the news or anything from over there from members and whatever......

Life is doing pretty good. This week went pretty darn slow though and I have no idea why. The weeks and days had been going so quickly this transfer, except for this week. I don't know what was wrong. We were pretty busy with appointments this week though, which is good in a way(that you have people to see and teach), but it also usually means lots of biking to get from place to place and quickly. It wasn't that bad though since we did have some members to help us get to places. One thing I did get to do this week that brought me back to home was doing some gardening for a member on his allotments. We planted 11 1/2 rows of potatoes for him. It just brought back good memories(and bad ones, like weeding and picking beans.....) from gardening. Don't worry though, I didn't cry. We did have an awesome lesson with Morgan(the 10 year old). He is just so awesome! It's amazing how he just picks up on things and how he can learn so fast. The best part is that he is so well behaved. At church we had a crowd of younger kids near us and a couple of them were very noisy and disrupting, but Morgan was so good and sat there really paying attention to the speakers and the people who were talking. His parents and grandparents have even seen a difference in the way e acts. If he gospel and church can make an impact on a 10 year old, it can make a difference with anyone- so long as they take the action to do so.

This week I learned something about an individual. I was reading this morning in the book of Mormon(so the actual book in the book.... this is just getting confusing). I was in chapter 9. This chapter is written by the last prophet in the Book of Mormon(the whole thing this time). He is writing to the people in the future. First to those that don't believe in Christ and the second is part is about those who don't believe in the miracles of God and he reasons with them why they should believe in both. They are both very good points, but that is not what I want to talk about. When you get to verse 27, it stats there that we are needing to work out our own salvation. You can look at this 2 different ways. The first is that you actually have to act and do things to provide yourself with salvation(more than just taking the Atonement and saying you believe in Jesus, so now you are saved- that doesn't work), the next is that you need to work out your own salvation which to me speaks that each of us need to work on ourselves first and ensure that we know and that we have faith to pull through life and trials before we can drop ourselves and focus on only helping others. We need to do what we need to build ourselves on the firm foundation of Christ and His gospel. I have seen this with a couple of new members. They are struggling, both of them, but they care so much about the other that all of their focus is on the other and not themselves and all this is causing is more trouble with themselves. It's as if they are both drowning in the water, but instead of trying to get to the top, they go to the aid of the other first, which is causing them both to drown. Our salvation is something we need to search out and establish ourselves, then we can go to the aid of others.

Now to establish ourselves, i feel it really just hinges on a couple things that if we do regularly, we can get strong. We need to pray regularly. This helps us to receive the help of God, our Heavenly Father. The next thing we can do is read and study the scriptures, which is where we can find this strength. The last thing we have to then do is act on the knowledge we've gained and continue to do the first two parts to strengthen ourselves even further. These 3 steps may seem little things, but they are really the best things we can do to establish a firm base in Christ for ourselves. I've seen them bless me, especially since I've been on my mission!

I love you all so much. Mother's day next week. Parents, I should be calling with Skype at around 7pm my time, plus or minus an hour. We'll see. Lets go for 7pm right now. I wish I could talk to everyone, but that isn't too far away before I get to do that. Keep being awesome and keep searching for and establishing happiness in your life. It makes life so much better.

Love,

Elder Hulet

Life is Wonderful

April 26, 2011

Dearest Family and Friends,

Life is wonderful. I just love it! God has just blessed me with the best people to be around. Best friends, family, and just life ever! I couldn't have asked for a better one. I'm loving Wales! The people here are just so nice. I can't get over the fact that they are much nicer than the English. It's probably because I spent enough time amongst them....The work is getting better and progressing, albeit slowly. We have some good people to work with and are hoping to continue to find good ones that are ready for the gospel in their lives. I am really learning lots here and just loving life. The members here are way nice! For Easter the big craze are these huge chocolate easter eggs along with a pack of a certain sweet. I don't know why they love it so much here, but they do. We ended up getting 14 of these eggs from a couple of them. We gave 8 of them to the other missionaries in our district and that left us with 6 still. I'm so tired of sweets(makes me feel fat), but my real problem is that the only solution that comes to my mind is that the more I eat, the faster they leave so I don't have to fret with them anymore. It doesn't always work when you constantly get sweets from the members. I'm really working on fixing that problem. We'll see how I do.

It's crazy to think that I've been here in Blackwood for 4 weeks. Only 2 more left in the transfer. Time is definitely not your friend when you have loads you need to get done. It is just too hard to fit everything you need to in a day. It really comes all down to your ability to manage time wisely and not waste any. Considering the work we are doing is the Lord's, time should be something used to it's fullest. So that's something I'm trying to work on and help my companion with since he seems to get sidetracked pretty easily.

So this week being the week after Easter, I figured it'd be fitting to talk about Christ and His Atonement(aka. the reason we have Easter). Something that has been on my conscience in connection with the Atonement is forgiveness. The Atonement consists of two different parts- the suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and then the Crusifixion/Resurrection. The overall process is probably one of the most important events to have occurred on the Earth in the age of mankind. The whole thing makes it possible for us to overcome 2 things- physical death(explains itself, right?) and then spiritual death(or sin/separation from God). The second is the one I want to focus on. The act of receiving forgiveness of what we've done wrong(sins) come only through the Atonement by Jesus. This is quite a big thing too- being forgiven of sins- but Jesus provided us with a way to do so. He provided all of us this option, no matter who we are, where we're from, or when we were born. It was for everyone. But there is a part that we have to play in the whole forgiveness process- Repentance. As we fulfill that process, we are then able to receive forgiveness. Now if Jesus and God are able to forgive us for anything we do, so long as we repent properly, why can we not forgive others just as easily.

Since being on my mission I've come along too many stories that deal with people getting offended over silly things that people may have said or done to them in past. And for some reason, they have never been able to forgive and forget. Many a time the, so called, "offenders" didn't even know they have done anything. This act of not forgiving just brings hatred and unhappiness into a person’s life. They then stop doing stuff that would associate them in any way with the offender, thinking that they are doing something to punish them or something like that (I don't quite understand all of their reasoning), but the real thing they are doing is hurting themselves. Keeping this hatred inside take over their life and keeping them from the good things of the world and many times even God. Forgiveness is something that is a wonderful gift God and Jesus give us all the time. God went so far as to give His son(John 3:16) to do a huge task so that we could receive this forgiveness and Christ fulfilled His role with complete obedience and love for us. Are we as humans, even brothers and sisters, higher than them that we can't even forgive one another. Yes, people can do and say hurtful things that may put us off, but we have a responsibility to remember our relation and to forgive them with all our heart. Maybe this topic is easy for me to talk about since I don't get offended too easily, but it is also a topic that I have been able to see the effects of and it ruins lives as people detract from the example of Christ and even apply His Atonement in our lives. We need to do our best to become like Christ(3 Nephi 27:27 I think) and be able to do what he did when he was on the cross and said to God in reference to the Roman soldiers: forgive them, for they know not what they do(or something like that. I'm no scriptorian). I'm grateful for Christ and the pain and suffering he went through so that I could receive a forgiveness of all that I do wrong and to continue to grow closer to him and my Heavenly Father. I love Easter and what it represents. I just wish people would better remember it and truly apply it in their life.

I love you all so much. I miss you tons. Keep being awesome and updating me on life. Also keep searching and finding happiness and things to make others happy each day. That's when we will enjoy life the most, I promise. That's all for now though. Until next week.

Elder Hulet