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