June 13, 2011
Dearest Family AND Friends,
This week was an up and down week. We could've done so much more, but Elder Holland got sick and we just didn't seem to get to do all the plans that we wanted to. I'm really excited for this week though. It's the last full week of the transfer and WE HAVE A BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!! It's actually going to be a double baptism- Morgan, the grandson of a returning member, and then also the son of one of the members. They are 9 and 8 years old respectively. It is exciting- I know I am excited for both of the families. It will be a great day to look forward to this week.
Life is going good. I feel good, but I feel I could do so much more. This week we were trying to really put the effort into the work, so we biked about 50 minutes to get to an investigators house to teach her since we couldn't get a hold of any male members to drive us. Her name is Nicole and she is 17. I think I spoke a bit about her last week. Anywho, we were able to see her and teach a lesson with a couple of members that met us there(one youth her age and another lady). It went alright enough to get her to go to church still. She didn't attend Blackwood ward because the Merthyr ward building is closer and easier for her to get to with public transport. But at least she went and the missionaries there said she enjoyed herself. So hopefully she'll give us a ring to schedule a return appointment. She is awesome, I just hope so bad that she will call sometime this week.
That was really one of the highlights of this week. There is something really cool that happened to Morgans grandpa, Des. Like I said before, he has just started to return to church with Morgan having started to come to church and be taught by us. Anywho, we have been see what we could do to have Des baptise Morgan when the time comes. He finally had a chat with the Bishop last sunday and he told him to wake up 30 minutes earlier and read from the Book of Mormon. This suggestion came in response to Des saying that he hasn't been able to feel the Spirit(Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit, etc). Anyway, Des followed his counsel and he told us about all of the great experiences he's had. He said he is just happier every day and people notice and comment on it. He talks about how he can't seem to put it down when he picks it up. He is just loving it. The best thing that he's noticed is when he didn't have enough time to read one morning because of being rushed out. He said his day was miserable. He couldn't work and function right. So he stopped working for the day and came home and read and that is when he felt better. Oh man, I love hearing experiences like this, because this is exactly what the Book of Mormon does for me. It doesn't make sense exactly that a book could do that for you, but if you give it a try and you read it with a sincere heart and desire to learn from it, Life Just Gets Better! I love it.
This past week, well actually just last night, E. Holland and I had a good discussion about the gospel, focusing on baptism and repentance. This biggest thing that stood out to me was the idea and the meaning of repentance and how to gain forgiveness. The thing that he mentioned was the fact that repentance isn't the idea of confessing and asking for the forgiveness of the sin, but it is the changing of ones ways in reaction to what you know you've done. It's where we have that change of heart that can be seen in King Benjamen's people that you can read in Mosiah 2-5(some of my favorite chapters just so you know). It's where they had seen where they were and then they made the honest effort to change their ways which they showed when you read that they experienced a change of heart where they had no more disposition to do evil. That is one of the main parts of repentance. The next part is then the action we take, to show God that we truely have changed and will try to hold strong to our change, in being baptised for the remission of our sins by someone holding the proper authority of God(or what we call the Priesthood in our church). The big part that I wanted to focus on is really our need to have this desire to change our ways so that we can then receive a forgiveness of our sins. So that's something I encourage you to work on. Find that true desire to change our behaviors that aren't in line with God, or really anything good.
I love you all so much. I miss you tons. And I hope as always that you are finding sucess in finding and holding onto the happiness in your life. When you find it, don't forget to remember how you got it and to thank God. Keep being awesome and of course, sending me post.....
Love,
Elder Hulet
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