2/24/14

Hey People!

It`s so crazy to think that I`ve been here for 8 months already. This time last year I had my mission call and I was counting down the days to leave in June. It FLEW by and I know time is just going to go by faster and faster the closer we get to December. I`m trying really hard to not waste a single day of the time I`ve been given to serve the Lord. 

So, I want to tell you all a little about my companion. Hna. Valdivia is from Mexico, and she`s super awesome. We are super similar and have a lot of interests in common. We`ve gotten a lot of work done and I`m just super grateful that she`s my companion. 

We were in a lesson the other week with a ¨Rescued¨ member (someone who was inactive, not attending church, but we`ve helped them to reactivate themselves . . . I have no idea if those are the words you use in english, but that`s as good as I`ve got, haha) and she told us about how when she told her bishop she wanted to serve a mission, the bishop told her parents that he didn`t think that she could handle the mission. She didn`t have any support from her parents or the ward members because no one believed that she would be able to do it. She`s really timid and shy, and last week I encouraged her to bare her testimony in sacrament meeting, and she told me that that was the first time she had ever done it. It`s incredible how far she has come, and that she`s here. Sometimes I think about if she hadn`t served a mission, and I`m so grateful that she followed the Lord`s counsel to serve a mission, and didn`t let her parents and everyone discourage her. I wish they could all see her now! Contacting buses, teaching classes, leading discussions! It`s so awesome. It just really makes me appreciate the overwhelming support that I`ve received from all of my family and friends and ward members to serve a mission. I`m just so grateful to be here serving the Lord. I can`t imagine any other way to spend a year and a half of my life. 

I love you all so much and I hope that you can see the hand of God in your lives, because I know He`s working in the life of every single one of you, we just have to soften our hearts and open our minds to see it. 

Have a great week! I love you all!

Hna. Hulse

2/17/14

Hey everyone!

So, I`ve had an AMAZING week this week. Here`s what happened, first, I discovered that my faith was almost non existant, and after a zone conference we had with President Erickson, it`s strong and vibrant! We talked a lot about how we need to have firm, unshakable faith, and that we only recieve blessings and see miracles because of faith, and that means that if we don`t have faith, it`s possible that the Lord has to withold blessings from us, and if we want the blessings, we need to have faith. It`s just like when Peter was walking on water. He was literally walking on water, but as soon as the smallest hint of doubt entered his mind, he fell. So I`m trying really hard to not let the smallest of doubts enter my mind, and I`m working hard to keep my faith strong and steady. 

My companion and I have been working with this 22 year old kid named Edson, who`s inactive in the church. We`ve been teaching him for a while to help him go back to church, but he really hadn`t totally been progressing. So we were in companionship study, and we were making a lesson plan for him that day, and instead of going with the next lesson in line on the list, we both felt impressed we needed to talk about missionary work. From deciding on the lesson, to finding the scriptures we wanted to use, every single thing was completely led by the Spirit. We turned to the same scriptures and came to the same conclusion that we needed to challenge him to prepare to serve a mission. 

So when we got to the teaching appointment with a returned missionary who was with us and a girl who`s getting ready to leave on a mission, he first told us about how he prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true, but didn`t really feel like he got a complete answer. So we talked about it some more, and he remembered a dream that he had had, that he had served a mission (the people here receive a lot of their revelations through dreams, it`s really cool) and so we excitedly told him about the theme for the lesson that day, and we talked about mission work, the two church members bore testimony, we shared the scriptures with him, and it was just beautiful and amazing. He said that he had been wondering if the Lord had forgiven him, if the Lord knew who He was and if He could ever really feel the love of Christ. He said, ¨Now I know what the Love of Christ really feels like. Now I know that God knows who I am and that I`m His son.¨ In other lessons he told us that he always felt peace when we came to visit him, but when we left the peace left with us. He told us, ¨I know that this time, the peace is going to stay here¨ We challenged him to prepare to serve a mission, and he gladly and excitedly accepted. He came to church this sunday for the second time in over a year, and met with the bishop . . . he`s a completely different person now. He has a billiant light in his eyes. 

I just love being here and serving the Lord. He really does have a plan for every single one of His children, but He knows that we can`t fulfil our potential on our own. I`m so glad to be here, helping God`s children fulfil their potential. No one would have ever thought that this kid would be preparing to serve a mission, but ¨God seeth not as man seeth . . . God looketh on the heart.¨ I know that God knows each and every single one of us individually, and only He knows what we are truly capable of. WE don`t even know what we`re capable of, but if we strive to follow Him and help those around us and truly follow Christ`s example, one day we`ll look up, and find ourselves standing on the right hand of God. This is the potential that God sees in us, and I know that He is inviting ALL people to strive to partake in that happiness that He offers us. 

I love you all SO much and hope that you have a wonderful week.

Take care!!

Hna. Hulse

2/10/14

Hey e´rybody!

So this week has been pretty normal . . . not much happenin . . . just workin` and servin` and sweatin´. I still can`t believe it`s february already. Time is going by so fast. I think that`s one thing I`m really learning in the mission, is how valuable time is and how we need to use every minute of it to the fullest. Time really is a gift. 

This last week I got my first email from someone that I taught the gospel! It was super exciting! It really helped me remember why I`m here and what my purpose really is, to invite all people to come unto Christ. 

Well, I´m sorry this email is kind of uneventful . . .this week has been kind of uneventful. We`ve been doing a lot of searching for investigators, and we`ve been led to a few, but we still need a lot more. We just got a keep up our spirits and keep working hard and the Lord will bless us. Love you all so much and I hope you have a great week! Thank you for your emails and for your support. Love you all!

Hna. Husle

Hooooolaaaaaaa! 2/3/14

Hey everyone!

So, this is going to be really short and sweet, and I`m so sorry! haha, in my new zone that I`m in, we pretty much only have 45 minutes to email, so it`s a little frustrating because in the past two weeks I`ve gotten a lot of emails from people and it`s been so exciting, but I just don`t have time to write everyone back. So I`m sorry, but please know that I love you all! and I`m so grateful for your emails and support!

This week has been pretty crazy. We had interviews with the president and room checks, and my companion had to go to immigrations for her visa, so we lost a lot of time that day, but it`s all good, we`re getting back in the groove of things. It`s been HOT outside, and this month of february starts the ¨Carnivals¨ which does not mean like, carnival rides. It means that you can be walking in the street minding your business and all of a sudden have a bucket of water dumped on your head or eggs thrown at you or (in worse cases) paint. So yeah . . . we`re trying to be a little extra cautious this month. I`m glad there are only 28 days in february. We`re in day 3 of los carnivales, and so far, so good, although, there are times when I wouldn`t mind a bucket of water being dumped on my head or a water balloon to the face . . . maybe not in the face, but you get the idea. 

Anyway, I hope you`re all having a great week. Time is going by super super fast! I can`t believe it`s already february! Take advantage of the time you`ve been given, it truly is a gift. 

Love you all! (and in the words of my dear mum) con queso. 

Hna. Hulse

1/27/14

!Hola Familia y Amigos!

I hope you everyone is having a WONDERFUL summer . . . oh yeah, I forgot, it`s super cold where you`re all at. Hehehehe . . . but seriously, I think I would prefer the cold weather right now. If you look up the weather in Lima Peru, it`ll tell you about 75 degrees, well the area that I`m at is about 85 degrees with 60% humidity . . . so  . . . it`s still pretty nice, lol. I`m sweatin, but I`d rather be sweating than freezing. 

So, the most awesome thing that happened this week . . . well, there were a LOT of awesome things that happened this week, but anyway, our mission president gave us a new standard that we have to teach a minimum of 32 lessons in a week. Some companionships have been doing awesomely with this, teaching about 40 lessons every week . . . I don`t know why but I have struggled so much to even reach the miminum. All week long we were working straight from lunch at 1 until we got home at 9 or 9:30 at night. Hungry, tired and with our feet about to fall off, and almost nothing it seemed at times, to really show for it. Only having taught 3 or 4 lessons (which, in our mission, isn`t a lot). Well, this week, on saturday, we were at 22 lessons, so during our daily planning on saturday night, we made the goal to teach 10 lessons in one day. The most I`d ever taught in one day was 6. Well, we worked super hard, we went on splits, we prayed really hard. We searched for people to teach, and with a lot of FAITH and a lot of PRAYER we were able to teach 10 lessons. Something that I realized I really need to work on is just having faith and relying on the Lord to lead us where to go and who to talk to and what to say. When an appointment fell through, minutes later, the Lord placed someone else in our path who was willing to listen. It was a great day yesterday and I`m super excited to report to the mission president that we taught 35 lessons or even more. It`s gonna be awesome.

I hope everyone is having a great month of january . . . I usually am not a fan of this month . . . february . . . tan poco . . . neither . . . My english is horrible. My spanish isn`t that fantastic either, but hey, it`s all good. Anyway, I love you all so much! Remember who you are and what you stand for! lol :)

Hna. Hulse