Hey Family et al!

First of all, to those who wrote me, yes, I love you the best. :) To those of you who didn't, I don't have your address and therefore cannot write you even if I did have any desire to. Just a little reminder.

This week was another great one! I'm fully recovered and have successfully passed on my cold to the elders in my district; they were very grateful for that. Last week we had a lot of opportunities to practice teaching and it was extremely helpful. I'm getting better at working with my companion (who is leaving in a week for Everett, WA) and I think we're both improving in our abilities to identify the needs of the people whom we are teaching.
We had a speaker on sunday that was awesome!! He talked to us about being obedient to the rules on our missions and told us of some unfortunate situations involving the elders (one of them concerned bombs....) that could have easily been avoided if they had followed the rules. So I'm trying to be better about being obedient in general (not that I was that bad to begin with).
I was happy to hear that you are all doing so well. Sounds like life just chugs on even without me. It's funny being in provo and seeing all the cars of people that are "normal", if you will. The MTC is just so wholly cut off from the outside.
We get the opportunity to work in the Referral Center (where people call in for free DVDs about Christ and free Bibles or Book of Mormons--no, not Books of mormon--and we call back to confirm that they received them) and this last time kind of shot my confidence. I got to call a bunch of southern people (GA, MI) who had requested free bibles. I tried talking to them and one of the conversations was as follows:
SisterHulet: Hi this is Julie (we use our first names). I was just calling to confirm that you received the Book of Mormon.
Woman: Oh...yes..see the thing is, ah didn't know that y'all were mormon. And ah'm baptist. so... I just am not into all of that.
SH: If you don't mind my asking, what is all of that? I mean. we both believe in Christ, right?
W: Yeah, but there's a lot that y'all believe that I just don't want to get into. so I think we should just end it here.

Yep. We ended it there. I called a man after that and he told me that he was also baptist and that "Don't call back!" Sweet. Anyway, I blame myself. I don't think I approached it in the right way. Oh well. Another day, another time. I have had some good experiences there. I called a number and the person we were trying to contact had moved, but the woman who answered was interested in receiving the DVD Finding Faith in Christ and going back to church. She had grown up in our church but had been inactive for about two years. So I gave her the address and sent off the DVD. It was pretty cool. God works in mysterious ways.
I have fifteen minutes left. I'm trying to think what else to tell you. Hmm....Oh! I know! We had a health and safety meeting last night with Dr. Rigby. It was awesome! I knew I was going to love Dr. Rigby after he drew a bunch of drawings on the chalk board of unsafe situations one of which was a rather tall dog behind a fence with a beware sign. He then got up and said he used to be a practicing Urologist and told them that he was to circumcise a five-year old who, after having it explained to him, was really nervous. He talked with a 6 year-old who said that his circumcision was bad. The 5 year-old asked what it was like and the 6 yr-old responded "I don't really remember. I had it when I was a baby. But what I do know is that after I had it done, I couldn't walk for a year." Haha. And his delivery was all with a straight face. I was dying :)
Anyway, I've been enjoying the time I have to study. Each time we teach I realize how much I don't know. But we're also told that it's ok. There is something to be said for preparation but oftentimes, the message still gets through to the people we are teaching. I feel like love is really important. As long as people know that you love them, they don't feel as threatened. I think one of my misgivings about going on a mission was that I didn't want people to feel I was forcing them to receive the gospel. But it's all in our purpose (as outlined in Preach My Gospel): "INVITE others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel...."
Anyway, I'm learning a ton and I love my district. We're like a little family. It's awesome here and I wish the best to you all! Write me!!

Also, rando! what are you doing?? I want to hear from my little bro, yo! :) I'll try and get a letter off to you today cause my email time is out! LOVE YOU!! I wish we could sing together!

Hey family and others! how is everyone doing? how's your summer? work? school? mooching and lazying around?

Sorry first to mom: I couldn't remember your gmail name so I defaulted to dad's work address knowing that he would be able to forward anything I send to you. If you give me your address, I can send it to both of you :)
So I hope you guys got my first letter. haha, I have to admit, I'm still on an MTC high! It's AWESOME here!! the teachers are great, my companion...well, I'll tell you about her soon enough...and the other elders and sisters in my district are great. The first couple of days were extremely long, but sunday was amazing and it's pretty much been smooth sailing ever since we started getting a gym period.

My companion is named Sister Cicon. She's from Columbia, Missouri; she's the oldest of four kids, she's going to Everett, WA on her mission, and she's very quirky. Quirky in the sense that she LOVES birds (heh heh...she watches them while we're studying and tells me what she sees, I try to smile as sincerely as possible and move on with my study cause I don't actually care that the birds over there are having a scream-out and need to beat their wings against their lungs to make a sound that big....haha). She's WAAAY into Sci Fi and fantasy and we get along well but, yeah; we get along well. :) She also fancies herself an amateur photographer, likes to sing, likes to draw and do artsy things (becky, chelsea, ryan H. and jill: she's good friends with amanda). But I'll stop there. She's a delightful girl and very serious about learning the gospel and getting better.

So I got back from class last Thursday and just seriously wondered what on earth I was doing with my life before I came to the MTC. haha, like just opening my mouth and sharing something from the gospel. People are interested and if prepared, will want to know more. I think I was just thinking that it would have to be in order to get someone to convert to the gospel, but all we need to do is "invite others to come unto Christ".

Other girls in my district: Sister Thornton and Sister Maka. They're both from CA and Thornton is our cheerleader-esque sister although a bit more down-to-earth than some I've seen. maka is our token black girl, although she is Tongan/Samoan. They're both awesome though. The elders, haha, are...let's just say, special in the very best possible sense.

I died laughing on Sunday (I needed a good laugh, these people are great...just not very funny, you know?) because one of the sisters in my branch let me listen to a call she received in the Referral Center from this woman/man named Charmaine. He/she had this really gravelly smoker voice and at one point grunted with displeasure on the phone. It was hilarious! Then at the fireside that night, the speaker was talking about focusing our studies and starting fires in people and casually threw out that Abinadi is the greatest example of focus although his fire didn't start quite where he wanted it. hahaha, I swear that the only people who laughed at that in the room I was in was me and the sister next to me. We asked the other sisters and elders if they got it, and they did; they just didn't think it was funny. Nice.

I think I'm getting better about being more of who I am. I got into full missionary mode and felt too serious all the time and I didn't like it. But all is well. I'm getting better. I feel very driven here and I think school helped me prepare a little bit for this kind of schedule because I can go pretty strong throughout the day but I feel like I'm pushing my companion too hard. So, I have to find a healthy balance; haha. that's a funny joke. seems like that's what I'm always trying to do. oh well.

Mom, don't be mad...my bronchitis flared up again. yay me. So I've been blowing my nose every 30-45 minutes. I finally went to the doctor today and hopefully this will be gone by the end of the week. I'm slightly bitter because he took away my gym time. something something "let your body heal" something something...anyway. I'm not happy about it. but I suppose it's my own fault.

We got to teach our first lesson yesterday to a fake investigator volunteer. She was great. It was really cool because I saw how my strengths and weaknesses balanced well with Cicon's strengths and weaknesses. It was really really good. Sad to say, I brought my pen in with me and clicked it the entire time. oh well. We live and learn. Anyway, I better go. Time is running out. I think the best way to contact me here at the MTC is DearElder.com because that way, you send an email and it's printed off here as a letter and I can read it any day whereas email I can only check once a week. Much love to all!

Sister Hulet

P.S. I will reply with letters those of you who love me most and already sent me mail!! :)

(and Randy)