She is home -- and it is the best! How fun to have such a beautiful, all-grown-up woman hanging around with us old folks. . .even if she sides with The Dad most of the time with teasing The Mom. We have her until January, when she will return to BYU.

Love, Sister Hulet

October 19, 2010

hi family!

This week has been great! We've been working on things as we're coming to the end of this transfer to be ready for the next. Temple Square has slowed down a lot so we're all trying to stay busy and not smother the guests with love and greetings when we outnumber them 3:1. Ah well.

We had the chance to take several spanish tours. Most fresh in my mind is a the tour with a creepy man...then a tour with a man from Honolulu, HI. It was a HUGE contrast because the Honolulu man was so distinguished and courteous. He kept doing numbers games with us. In the middle of the tour he talked about nine-times tables (you know....9X1= 9, 9X2= 18) and how it was so perfect; how each time the two digits in the numbers added up to nine. It was fun. He also made a trivia question with a King in Hawaii who was the first monarch to sail around the earth in a year that was the same backwards, forwards, upside-down, and reflected in the mirror. It is now permanently in my brain and he was impressed when I guessed it. Anyway, he was delightful but he didn't believe much in Jesus Christ; he believed in God but he had a hard time accepting the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We told him about the significance of the Book of Mormon in the sense that it adds to the testimony of the Bible that Jesus Christ truly did live again and ministered to the people in Jerusalem and the Americas. He wasn't really interested in learning about it, in the end, but he left with a good impression of the church.

We also had an opportunity to talk to several members on Sunday. It was the first time in a long time that I've had multiple people tell us "I'm a member" and expect us to walk away. However, there was a Brother Palmer that we spoke with who, right after he said that, said "but I guess we all need to be better" and we talked to him for a good while. He has been struggling a lot lately with the death of his son who was in prison. He expressed a lot of regret for the things he never achieved in this life (a family and children that he could raise) and really opened up to us as we were discussing the wonderful knowledge we have of how to find happiness in life. We talked about how people can often take faith and this church for granted and turn against it as other things seem to increase in importance and seem more enticing but take away from the core elements of happiness. It was amazing because we found answers from scriptures that came to mind and were able to help bring peace (or the hope of peace) to him. It just helps me better understand that everyone, whether they know it or not, can use a missionary.

So...not much to say. Life goes on. We're in the referral center a bit more lately to call up the friends of those that came for general conference and to get sisters off of the square so that we don't overpower the guests.

Oh! I remember! We took a man from Italy around the square (he was on a layover on the way to CA) and he was most interested in the beliefs of the church and we showed him all around temple square. We told him pretty boldly and clearly about the beliefs and that he could find it for himself; he kept saying that "that makes sense" or "yes of course. it should be like that" kind of things and he said he was interested in learning more from the missionaries. It was great. he said "well I'm sure you have a contact in Italy that I could talk with, right?" and S. Corrales and I said "Actually, yes we do!" and he filled out the card. So great! It's such a great thing we're able to be a part of and I honestly thank God for the privilege of being a missionary. There's nothing like it, in my mind, and I'm impressed by the great plan that God has for all of us.

Love, Sister hulet

Email Chat with Jules:

MOM:

Did you remember meeting Dad's cousin from Las Vegas -- Mark Slack. Grandma had to call us late on Friday night when she heard word about that. It seems he got a kick out of telling you who your father would be.

SISTER HULET:

oh yeah! I forgot about that! It was crazy! They had a couple non-members that came up with them for the Jazz game and thought we could show them around. We were in the tabernacle and he asked if my parents were originally from PA. I said "no, my mom is from ID and my dad is from Ut" and he said "Southern Utah? Like Parowan?" and I said "Yes! Why? Do you know some Hulets?" and he said "I'm your cousin. Your dad isn't Mike Hulet is he?" and we chatted a bit but since it was a tour we didn't really talk long. It was nice because Mark and then a Matheson who has family in Parowan ended up being the only ones who were listening the whole time. The other people were in and out of it the rest of the time. It was lame but Mark was great. :) He said that "Carma will probably kill me if I don't call her up and let her know that I saw you" and I laughed and said that was true. I knew I saw somebody we knew.

MOM:

So will there be anything special this last week -- some fun zone activity before it all comes to an end?

SISTER HULET:

I go to the temple tomorrow with my "departing class" with President Holmes and Heritage Park Haunted Village tonight. Then a departing dinner on Tuesday next week (so I won't have much of a Pday...just FYI). Service at heritage park on Thursday and that's it! :) gotta go!! love you!!! bye!!!

October 12, 2010

I put a more challenging subject for you all....try to guess that one!

So it's been a good week....weird for me....but good. And actually no big thing comes to mind to write about. Oh! I know! General Conference talk by President Packer. There was a large protest about it. So on Thursday night we closed the square down early and stayed in our apartments the rest of the evening as a preventative measure (President Holmes is a bit of a worry wart :) ). As far as we know it was all pretty peaceful besides some people that were pretty fired up about President Packers remarks. I didn't get to hear his talk so I don't know what the big "dill" was. ("dill" in Utahn is "deal" for all of those who don't know Utah jargon..haha...right, rando? we have to deal with some pretty foreign terms). But it was all well and good. Then...oh! we saw President Monson at the "Music and the Spoken Word" Broadcast there to receive a declaration from Utah Governor Orrin Hatch declaring 10/10/2010 Mormon Tabernacle Choir day, haha. I thought it was funny...but no one seemed to be laughing with me...anyway it was a historic day because it was 100 years from the first ever recording of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (aka MoTab). Glenn Beck was also there and it was all pretty cool to be a part of (although I did wonder how we would celebrate such a day....and whether it would include food; maybe a Utah Thanksgiving and we can be like the Canadians to make it our own day/excuse to eat lots of food).
Anyway, we've been busy in the referral center calling the friends of those that we talked with on Temple Square. It's been...ok. I've had a lot of good conversations. haha, although there was one girl who apparently has been avoiding the calls of the guy who put her name and number down because he is interested and she has a boyfriend and is not. So that was potentially awkward but we had a good conversation in spite of the situation. Fun times.

Oh!! We had the best tour ever with this couple from British Columbia. So fun! They came down to SLC because it was on their list of things to do in life and they wanted to see the Tabernacle. We were taking them around and found out that the guy was a gardener (or was) and he talked a bit about the flowers (the grounds people are pulling up all the flowers to plant the tulips). Just a few days before I had made friends with a grounds crew girl named Lara who, when S. corrales and I walked up to her, offered this huge pink begonia to us and said "Eat it." so we took off a petal and tried it (tasted like sour apples) and she said "No, just stick the whole thing in your mouth and chew." So we hesitated but did it (of course! hulets ALWAYS try something at least once!) and it was awesome! I cried because it was so tart! So as we talked with this guy from Canada, S. Corrales got really excited and told him about the flowers that we can eat and offered to let them try. So we all ate one again, haha. It was awesome, and it was such a good experience because we were able to talk about things comfortably and really show how the gospel of Jesus Christ can help us all, no matter what stage of life we are in. They wanted to learn more and wanted to stay in touch as well. So great! I attribute it to the begonias.

So that's what we've been reduced to: they aren't feeding us well enough (in fact, not at all...) and we are eating the flowers to stay warm in the changing weather. Life is good and I have felt very much the love of God as we've continued to press forward with His work. I have felt His strength and truly know that He knows exactly what we are going through and what we need when nobody else knows. I'm grateful for that.

Be good. I love you all and I miss you and am no longer in denial that I'm coming home (as in fully aware of it), but trying not to think about it because it causes more of an emotional roller coaster than I would like. I forgive you if you stop writing letters although for all of you who haven't written me you have two weeks left to repent. :) Thanks for all your kind words and prayers; keep praying for me and be happy.

Love, Sister Hulet

September 28, 2010

Hey family/friends/whoever-actually-reads-these,

So...I'm trying to think of what happened this week. Oh! I know. It's been kind of weird for me. S. Corrales and I have really been working on learning and using the pioneer history in order to teach the gospel. We received what's called the "Simplified Curriculum" for missionaries where it brings it all down to the Doctrine of Christ, love, and how we can teach people to receive personal revelation (ie answers from God) through scripture study, prayer, and attending church. For T2 sisters, it's a bit different because we don't have the opportunity of helping people progress. However, we focus on what we call the "do" doctrine (John 7:17) and how we can teach the two truths on the square: Jesus Christ our Savior, and Restoration of His church through Joseph Smith. A powerful tool we have is the sacrifice and faith of the pioneers. It's been interesting. I think the biggest thing we're focusing on is english basically.

We've seen some random miracles happen: we took a tour with this girl from CA. She had just a short time and we tried to show her what we could. She wasn't really religious but she had some friends that are LDS. We told her about temples and prophets and authority and shared how all of the buildings had come to be (because of the pioneers, right?) and I didn't really expect a lot when we asked if she'd want more information through missionaries and she accepted! And she wrote down her friend's name and number for us to call to see if she'd be interested as well! It was crazy!
Then there was this man from FL who had a lot of questions. Sometimes he'd throw out the question and then, before we had time to answer, he'd already have moved on. He was taking pictures the entire time and listening in between that. We taught him very briefly and had a good conversation with him as well. At the end, we talked about the BoM and how it was the reason why the church members came out here: they had received an answer that it was true and knew that Joseph Smith had been the prophet to restore Christ's church. We told him how that was something we believed today and it was a personal answer/promise that is available to all of us; that we can pray to know the truth. We asked him what his thoughts were on it and how he felt about it and he said "Well, I'd like to learn more about this church." So we told him that he could have the missionaries to come and teach him more and he said "that would be great". It was so amazing!
I think the biggest thing I've learned from this week is, once again, it's nothing that we do as missionaries; all of us are just little pawns in God's grand scheme. I feel very privileged to be a part of it.

Funny thing with S. corrales: she doesn't really know a lot of the words to songs in english and she was trying to sing "Be Still My Soul" all the while singing "Please take my soul" haha. I let it go one day but then told her about it the next day when she kept singing the same thing. hahaha. She said "Oh!! this makes much sense; the elders always laughed when I sang in MTC" haha.

Next thing: Dad and Mom, I met a girl named Natalie Riker who was in the same stake (originally same ward) as Uncle Les and Aunt Ginger. She said she knew them and said to see if they knew the Rikers and remembered Natalie, the youngest.

Rando: who is your ZL? someone wanted me to ask...I don't remember who that is though. oh wait, now I do. Let me know.

Did I tell you that instead of having a "chat" zone they now have two "teaching" zones where the sisters still teach over chat but also teach people they meet here on the square. so cool! Btw, one of the people we taught is getting baptized!

Ok. that's all. sounds like everything is really busy but going well for all of you. Mom, tell S. Wu that the sisters here are no longer able to write sisters that are outbound; president wants them to maintain singleness of heart and mind.

love, sister hulet

September 21, 2010

Hey,

Hmm...I'll finish up what we ended with last transfer and briefly go over this last week. So S. Moseng and I found out that we would both be out of the Chat Zone on Wednesday. So we tried to wrap it up with our investigators and have them contacted by the missionaries in their hometowns. One of our investigators, William, went to the church Sunday (the day before we found out that we would be leaving) and met the Elders there. From that, they said that they would call and set up an appointment with him. He was really sad about not being able to talk to us. We had called him (when we looked back) everyday for about 2 weeks and were able to teach him about the restoration of the authority and Christ's gospel, God's plan of happiness, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was amazing and he was so into the scriptures. He was able to, finally, receive a hard copy of the Book of Mormon from the Elders and started to study it more and more. He said that church was different from what he was used to (he was catholic), a little bit noisier because of the children and a mix of hispanic and caucasian people, but he loved Sunday School. He said he was happy because he was able to answer some of the questions they asked and understood what they were talking about because of what he had been taught. He said that he would go back. After the missionaries have contacted the investigators we have to stop calling them and teaching (we can stay in touch through email) but he seemed to have a hard time letting go and we really committed him to learning what he could from the missionaries and to continue reading and praying. He is so good and so humble as he was learning and as he studies; I was really so impressed the whole time that we taught him. He said that he had been reading the BoM and praying about it for an entire month before he called us. It was a great blessing for us to teach him.

Larry (the ranger from Texas) was having trouble with believing fully in the BoM and what we were teaching and we realized it was that he hadn't really investigated Joseph Smith being a prophet. We realized that we were not able to teach, fully, about the BoM and what its significance was; what it tells us. That as it testifies of Jesus Christ, it also testifies of the reality that Jesus Christ restored His church (authority and all) through Joseph Smith and that the book is evidence of the power and authority that he had received. So we taught him more about it and about really praying and asking God if the Book of Mormon is true. He was really struggling with it and facing a lot of opposition from his family and, possibly because of it, he took offense from the local missionaries who called him up. Anyway, we had to tell him that we wouldn't be able to call him anymore and hoped that he would be able to meet with the local elders (in spite of his being offended....). Oh well. He's still really good and I have high hopes for him and his family.

Morgan (the 22 yr old) was still doing well. We told her that some more sisters would be able to call her (they have) and teach her more. We're still waiting for the missionaries to contact her and are now trying to find a church that she can attend that will fit with her schedule (she has to conduct music at the catholic church every Sunday). She's still going strong, still reading the BoM. Her major is focused on planning events and conferences so she works a lot with that and she has told us that the Book of Mormon is the first thing she uses to de-stress and that she loves to read it when she can. She's so amazing and we hope to continue to hear about her progression.

We started teaching a kid named Chris who is interested in a girl who is LDS. We were able to teach him about the restoration and the BoM and how we need to find it out for ourselves, but we didn't feel he was ready for the local missionaries yet. So we've also had to pass him on to other sisters and hope he will be contacted soon. He was really good and his "friend" has good brothers who have returned from their missions and he lives closest to Kirtland, Ohio. It was fun to talk with him because he had been raised going to a church but stopped going when he was 8 yrs old. He said that everything (going to church, reading the scriptures, praying) was pretty weird for him just because it had been so long since he had done it. But he really wants to see what it is all about and wants to explore the Book of Mormon so we're happy about that.

We also heard about our investigator in Norway (Joao, who is studying to be priest) has been contacted by the missionaries and will be meeting with them on Friday!! He wanted all the materials from the church and to learn all about it so we hope to continue to hear from him and about how things go for him. And then I think that's about it.

So Moseng was transferred to Cover Zone and is with a sister from India. I was transferred to the North Zone again (same as last October's conference) and am....training again. My companion is named S. Corrales and she is from Uruguay. I wasn't necessarily unhappy or happy about training but it has been good. It's been a lot different from the other sisters I was with because she doesn't know english as well as they did. So the approach has been different and I've tried to be a good support. She is really amazing because she has such a desire to really fulfill what our purpose is: to invite others to come to Christ. She loves to serve everyone she sees; she's pretty stubborn about it too :) She's such a great example to me because of the love she has for EVERYONE who comes to temple square and the compassion she shows. She's the first to give a hug to someone she sees is in need and she loves to be the one to comfort them. Our ways of teaching are different but it works really well. So I'm excited to be with her.

Life is good though. My feet hurt and my legs ache again and it's a really good feeling for me. We're all gearing up for conference and look forward to the direction we will receive from the leaders of the church. We saw President Monson (the prophet) at "Music and the Spoken Word" (the Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast) last sunday and that was pretty exciting.

So that's pretty much it. So remember: TUESDAYS. that's your special day.

Love,

sister hulet

September 9, 2010

I have the ocean in my bathroom...so...

First email:

Hello family

I apparently have to evacuate this building...so......later

love, hulet

Second email:

Oh hey....I'm back. So no emergency. We all just exited the building and came back.

So.....this week has continued to be great. We've continued to teach our three pretty solid investigators: Larry, Morgan and William. It's nice because they're all truly sincere and searching for truth. We sent their information to the local missionaries (Larry was sent just last weekend) so hopefully contact will be made so that they can continue learning from missionaries there. Larry has continued to progress but he struggles with the idea of a prophet. We feel like he gets much opposition from his wife's family but he really wants to keep learning and has come to the conclusion that it is either "true or completely made up". We've told him several times that that is exactly why the Book of Mormon is important. Because without the BoM, we have no religion; however, because it is true everything falls into place. So it's a focus on prayer and finding truth from God. So we've encouraged him to continue to read the BoM because some of the points that didn't sit well with him were because he hasn't really read too far into it and the Book of Mormon really speaks for itself (I have to remind myself of that regularly...).

William is doing great!! He's almost 100 % positive that he wants to join the church and he knows that this is the right decision (he started to pray about it long before we started to talk to him). He feels a little nervous because he already told his good friend (who is the preacher at his parrish) that he has decided to join this church and he was unsettled by it, but he knows it is the right decision. He said that he's already given up alcohol, coffee, and tea (he drinks herbal now...) and he just started his stop smoking program today. He had already cut back a lot and he wants to be "clean" of cigarettes when he attends church this sunday. He'll hopefully be able to make contact with the missionaries then and, unfortunately, we'll have to cut out our phone contact/lessons after that. It was funny last time because I asked him, in the context of his decision to quit cigarettes the next day, if there was anything we can do to help (ie phone contact, email, etc....I know there isn't much....) and he went off on a big speech of how appreciative he was for what we had done and how we had helped him, etc., as if we were leaving him then and there. so we had a good laugh and told him that we wouldn't cut out until he'd made contact with the missionaries. Then I asked if there was anything we could do to help with his quitting smoking and he was like "What? What could you both do??" and I timidly offered email/short phone contact again, but he laughed and said it was ok. Ah well. I've had a good amount of stupid moments this week.

Morgan is still good. Really busy though and still hasn't been able to meet with the missionaries. However, we're hoping to help her get some contact with them before transfers (we find out on monday...) so that she (and actually all of our current investigators) can make contact with the missionaries and be good to go. I really really hope it will work out though. She's a lot of fun. She's 22 as well so we are able to have a good laugh and learn more from the scriptures whenever we talk.

All is well. I tried and prayed that I might feel differently about being in the chat zone and I do really like it. I love being able to teach our investigators and even though I get really impatient with people we're talking to, I realize that we're just wading through a lot of nonsense to find people that are sincerely interested. We just picked up a guy that is studying biophysics in school that has been really good about reading the BoM and wanting to find answers. So we'll see how that goes. I do love it though. It was just a bit of a rough patch for me. I know that what we share can change people's lives; that the knowledge of family and strengthening those relationships through living the gospel is something that can help anyone's situation. That Jesus Christ offers the greatest happiness and hope as He extends His truth and His loving hand to all of us. We just have to invite them.

Anyway, I get to watch a movie with the Zone today and then we're going Art Masterpiece mini-golfing (or putt-putt-ing in Moseng Texan terms...haha last night she was trying to get me excited and was like "Hulet!! PUTT-PUTT!" and the first thing I thought of was a little cartoon car swirling around in time....haha not quite the effect she wanted. I might have just stayed silent and wondered if that's what she was intending to talk about)

Love, Sister Hulet

A random man (Randy Peterson) sent this picture to us by email and told us what wonderful missionaries these girls were. What a nice man.

The power of voo doo, who do? you do! do what?
June 15, 2010

Dear fambly,

I'm glad to hear that you're doing well. Life has been same as always: Same square, different people. Everyday. That's the coolest part. S. Gunter has been saying that "small talk" was usually hard for her but that she's getting the hang of it now. We had some really cool things happen this week! haha, I had to go back and check what I wrote last time to see what was this week or last week (it all blends together sometimes).

So the first thing that comes to mind were these two guys from Hungary. They both walked into the Tabernacle and looked pretty amused when we talked with them (so in my mind I was thinking "what is your deal?") but we offered to show them around. It ended up being that, while we changed venues and continued to walk, we continued to talk about different points of doctrine as opposed to history/pioneer stuff. That was crazy. I kept thinking that we needed to talk about the pioneers but we found that the two could really care less. So at the beginning they were getting a little contentious as we talked about the Bible and whether or not they believed it was true. They started to get pretty heated about creation and science, etc. So we took it over to the SVC and we talked about the Plan of Salvation (really briefly) and they were asking about what we believed concerning God, etc. because we talked about how we believed that families were meant to last forever and they wanted to know how Adam and Eve were created and why we...well..blah blah blah. We shared a bit from the Family: A Proclamation to the World how we believe we came from Heavenly parents. That's not usually something we share, but it answered their questions (they also asked about women and their role---they felt it was a subversive role with regards to prophets, etc.) and made sense to at least one of them. They seemed to like to play off of each other during the tour to ask questions that they felt would throw us off. But it was all ok and we ended by sharing about the BoM and kind of split them up and talked to them individually. You could tell that they were curious and also that things were starting to make sense. It was really good to talk to them each separately, because we were really able to help them understand that there is a God there that is aware of us and we can really know it as we read and pray. They both had talked about the church that Christ had set up not being a church but a group of followers, but we were able to help them see that it's not about having a building, etc., but the authority and the leadership coming through God by people holding that authority. That it's about the unity that comes from truth. It was amazing and I'm pretty sure I didn't explain it well enough to see how amazing it was, but it was more about the change that the two went through beginning with joking around and asking stupid questions to really seeing the value of what it means to have God speak to prophets today and how that helps in life. It was just something you could see in their manner and their faces. So cool!

Then the next thing that comes to mind was a German motorcoach. S. Gunter has still been a little hesitant to take one by herself (she's done one with another sister only once before) so we were helping out with one that another German sister gave. So we usually have 4 positions: lead (gives the tour), support (companion of the lead), backer (herds everyone and tails the tour), runner (runs ahead to make sure everything is clear). So I was the runner and I discovered that two people on the tour were not really paying attention. come to find out they didn't speak german! They're from Belgium and they speak french! So I was explaining things in English and we told them that there were missionaries that spoke french on the square and we ran into the only Belgian sister as we were leaving the Tabernacle. Come to find out, the sister (Sister Leroy) lives only about 15 minutes from the couple. So I continued to explain things for the couple but did a bad job because I had to run between them and opening doors and doing the "runner" thing. But at the very end, I sat with them in the back at the Assembly Hall (a former church building) and explained a bit about the building itself and then explained why the pioneers came. I could tell they didn't understand everything so, where I could, I threw in the french words that I knew for the different things. I explained Joseph Smith's experience in REALLY REALLY broken French and left it at that. They said thank you and were off to walk around and take pictures. I gathered up the stuff I needed to and helped the german group wrap up. Then, as we were walking outside, I looked around for Sister Leroy or SOMEONE who spoke French and spotted the sister from France. I sprinted over and told her that she had to talk to the couple. Then S. Gunter and I went off to the next place we planned to be. We saw the French sister later and she said that they requested to have missionaries to come and share more with them!!! It was sooo cool!

And that's pretty much the two miracles we saw. Oh! one more. heh heh. So we were looking for someone to take to the God's Plan movie but the family we talked to was leaving and there were a lot of people coming and going in the Christus. So we went around the corner and there was a couple standing there, looking at the Old Testament Paintings and our goal as a companionship was to talk to everyone so we walked up and asked what they came to do at Temple Square. We chatted a bit and S. Gunter asked if they'd like to see God's Plan. So, we assumed that they were dating or something and felt it was a nice movie, etc. At the end of the first segment (a family looking at old photos and reminiscing) the guy said "That was so great!" and walked into the "baby's room" and said "Awww! How cute!!" and S. Gunter and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh. Then he continued to saw "awww" during the baby segment and sister gunter, looked at me and couldn't hold it in any longer and out popped a "Ha!" It was hilarious. But we tried to keep quiet the rest of the time. At the end, we invited them to have us call a friend who would appreciate the message that families can really be together forever and he said he had a lot (which was surprising b/c most LDS people that come don't have anyone they can think of). Come to find out, he's the ward mission leader and was going to have his missionary prep class fill out the cards. Then we find out that he and the girl he was with were on their FIRST date. They had met at Gateway two days prior to that and he said "I'm still in missionary mode....I go after things I like". yep. weird. But it was a miracle because we haven't felt like we've done a good job with the members that come because we don't really uplift them much, it's more just chatting about different things and then we feel bad about inviting them for friends b/c they would have no reason to have us call. if that makes any sense. Anyway, it was cool.

Last of all, I saw Becky French. Tell Shawn that I love her and am praying for her! What happened, btw? Yep. that's it.

Love, sister Drools

May 4, 2010

Dear fam, please forgive me for not writing yesterday. We changed our Pday to today because we went to the Temple in Spokane! It was awesome. We had a girl named Sarah Fisher drive us up (she's heading off for her mission on May 26 to Chile) and we had a GREAT time. All I have to say is that she loves the movie A Goofy Movie. Instant best friends! :) haha. It was awesome.

The temple was amazing. I was afraid I would forget everything (it's been three months since I have been) but never fear! It was beautiful though! And it was wonderful to be able to have time to sit and think a little bit and try to find some answers. We've not seen much progression lately from our investigators so I needed direction. Yesterday, though, we did find some people who said we could come back and talk with them! I'm pretty hopeful about it! It was weird because one of the kids we met didn't recognize the full church name and so I said "Mormons?" And there was no reaction! I was so surprised! People usually run and hide, kick our feet out of the way of the door to slam it or something :) So that was cool. Someone who had no prejudices! Awesome!

So some interesting things last week: we went up to Northport (the smallish village north of Colville) and went boony tracting in the area where we knew Jane Russell supposedly lived. So we saw a mailbox that looked like it said Jane and knocked on it while it was pouring rain outside. An older man answered the door and invited us in. Then offered us 7up and cake to drink/eat and we chatted a bit. Come to find out, it's Jane Russell's brother who had moved up to Northport area following his brother who had been led up there by God. Their mother was a pentecostal preacher and so was the rest of the family. To cut it short: the man's wife (oh, their names were Jamie and Pamela) had the gift of prophecy and so makes prophecies every wednesday. They gave us a copy and then said that Colville was to be the Sanctuary when Seattle and Los Angeles fall off into the ocean from earthquakes, etc. So we need to hoard food in empty warehouses here to save all the refugees.

Anyway, my comp is waiting for me to finish. Sorry I couldn't make this longer than last week. We did have fun last pday playing vball and whatnot. I've been good though. Still challenged here in the work but I like it that way and life goes on.

Have a good one!

love, sister hulet

Hey fam. Soo...Sorry I'm so late with this. We went to Douglas Falls with the district. Yes I almost slipped and fell to my death (ah ha. jk. I almost fell into the water though because I thought I could scramble across the wet, angled-into-the-water, rocks and across the touch the waterfall. I'm going to get the DL to give me the pics though so I can send them.). IT was awesome. And then we went and played Poohead, Apples-to-apples and catchphrase.

This week has been good!! We found 5 new investigators. Yes three of them speak Russian and little English, hence it is WAAAY difficult to teach them but they like to feed us and are pretty excited about the Book of Mormon in English. (which, bytheway mom, I'm so proud of you!!). The other one could possibly believe mostly in martial arts-ish stuff and chi but it curious about it and he could also possibly smoke pot for medical purposes. ummm...yeah. Something something about his weight and he's up to 120 lbs from 100. Sweet. so, that should be an interesting challenge. But he doesn't seem to hate seeing us so that's a good sign.

Please ask me later to update you on the awful teaching situation we had. I fear that that story is best told in person. :) But that night to me was....like the big hot smelly place......Texas......:)
(and yes, I believe hell could be smelly) (and yes I can say that word because mom sent me a story about J. Golden Kimball and he said it in a different sense).

We did damage control with that investigator and THEN on Sunday we went over (on a whim which is funny that it always happens like that b/c we never think it is the right time for us to go which is exactly why we follow that prompting and go for it!) and it was awesome because we met with the woman and her husband and it went super well!! They both totally opened up to us and we were able to open the door to maybe teaching the husband so they can both support each other and get on this path together. It was way awesome. Bytheway, they are planning on moving to Puerto Rico and yes, I will go visit. I have an "anytime" "stay-with-us-for-free" invitation. I'm thinking....Christmas single-person and parents trip, eh mom and dad?? Dec 2012.

The rest of the week was really good. We had the first ever Taco Movie night where we had tacos and tempura-ed shrimp ("Tempura! Battered veg....") and guess who made the shrimp? Me. Then we watched Johnny Lingo. We're hoping it will be a good opportunity for the ward to relax and hang out together and an activity that they can bring their friends to. Every friday night at 6:00 pm. You're invited.

I think that's about it. I didn't get a chance to read the emails (no time....) but thanks for writing all of you! Good luck dad! ("Great job, I mean.......Great job,I mean.....")

One week til my bday!!!

love, sis hulet

April 5, 2010

We'll start with a visit we made to a member in the nursing home. We have an investigator in the nursing home (sounds sketchy, and like she's vulnerable BUT it was her HUSBAND who doesn't live there that started out investigating) and we went to go see how she was doing. She wanted to sleep so we went to go visit Lois (whom we have seen before). We kind of did a wild goose chase because no one seemed to know where she was and we weren't sure if that red-sweatered lady in the front dining room was her. It was. So we woke her up from "resting her eyes" and she said "oh! are you my missionaries?" We said yes and sat down to chat with her. We've talked with her before and she usually gets really confused about her life. She served 3 full-time missions but from the past visits we've made, we're not sure where she served. Possibly North Carolina, Canada and either Portland, ME or Portland, OR. hmm. This last time she was convinced that she went on a mission to PA and that it was there that she tracted for 5 years. Hmm. false. She's really cute though. She had told us previously that she met her husband on her mission (an Elder Christensen) but we know from her grandson that she met his TWIN brother on her mission. This last time she said that she met her husband Bob ON her mission and married him "on the mission". She told us (and emphasized) the "on the mission" part about 4 times. Wow. Then she intermittently asked us "are you married" "are you engaged" "do you have a boy at home" and "do you have friends that are boys at home". Awesome. Then she said that it was on her mission that the Holy Spirit told her to get married so she did "on the mission" and told us to listen to the holy spirit. I made some comments about trying to look out for that moment (S. Brown didn't like that very much) and to finish off the visit we were dying to laugh when Lois said "And kissing is important!" (following how doing the dishes is important) "..Because it's after a few years that kissing slips!" so she advised us to practice now. :) I was dying and Sister Brown told her we'd have to do that "after our missions" and Lois said "Well I don't see why not before!" and I told her we'd have to round some of the elders up (hehe, Sister Brown tried to shush me on that one :) ) and take care of that.Lois felt like that was a good idea though. That was when she asked us about our boy friends at home and I told her we'd have to write them and prepare them for when we come home haha. It was hilarious! Sister Brown didn't like me egging her on much, but it was pretty amusing for me. Poor thing. Lois also offered to feed us. She said it was "good for the pocket book and good for the missionaries!" but we don't think she was quite aware of her lack of resources. Funny though.

Ok that was long enough. The rest of the week kind of pales in comparison. It was pretty good though. We had a lesson planned each night with one of our members to be there teaching with us but none of them worked out! It was really sad! We did get to teach a lot though and it was amazing how we were able to see the spirit work to direct us to different places. There were several situations in which Sister Brown or I would suggest going to see people that we never would have planned for but it worked out! And it was just where we needed to be! So great! We also really enjoyed General Conference and had some of our investigators that were able to watch it as well. Progress is slow but I really discovered this week how important it is to have patience and how I did have a great lack of it. So I'm working on being better at that and, in the meantime we were able to have a good talk with our ward mission leader about how we can help the ward and strengthen them to see better progress with the missionary work overall. It was great and our goal is to have each ward member to set one goal that will help them contribute to the growth of the ward. It will be something personal and only between them and the Lord and something they can strive for all year and really actively seek to do/accomplish/be. We know that the Lord will bless us as we can get all the members involved. So I'm pretty excited about that. We were also able to take care of other concerns and really be open and honest about the way things are working here. His family also fed us for easter that day so it was a nice time.

Yes the members are taking care of us here mom :) Although, we don't have any dinner appts here, we've been told to ask whenever we need something--Sister Brown and I won't do it though; we'd feel too bad.

Happy Easter to all! I hope everything is good! And it's always good to hear from you all.

Bytheway, Sister Brown and I will both be staying here in Colville this transfer. Time is quickly passing though!! We're hoping to really be more aggressive and see things happen here!

Love, Sister Hulet

So this week was great! I think it's what happens in missionary work when it all just goes up and down and up and down to different extremes. This past week we had interviews with the mission president/district meeting. I always like being able to talk to the mission president because I just unload EVERYTHING that i've been thinking about, struggling with, and doing in my area. It was really helpful. It's funny because it's stuff that I know but need to be told before I'll kick myself in the butt to get moving and working. So it was really helpful. He said that with the work here in Colville, it's about rebuilding the area and the cool part is that S. Brown and I saw it start to pick up. We had reached a point in our work where it seemed like everything had died (aka last week when I was frustrated...) and I talked to her about it a lot and shared a lot of what I was frustrated with. Much of what I said was "I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!!!" haha. So we figured stuff out that we could be doing better, we talked with the ward mission leader, we talked with the activities chairman and I talked to the mission president. With all of that, we have plans in the making to find more people who want to be taught and we've reached good progress with the people we are teaching.

Pauline finished off her week of the stop smoking workshop; she didn't follow every step and slipped up a few times but was happy that she had cut back on the amount of cigarettes that she used to smoke each day. She's been super busy working on her mom's home (doing renovating, etc) so she's super hard to get a hold of and usually home and dead tired when we drop in. But she's still willing to meet with us so we continue going. Her adopted daughter/cousin has also been listening in and reading with us and we're trying to help her even to believe in God. It's pretty slow but I figure that's the way it is with most everyone. It's hard to change.

Andrea has been having trouble believing in just one God; she believes in the egyptian gods and feels like God should have a complimentary goddess in order for there to be balance. She also brought up the point that if we're all created in God's image, why do we not all look like men? We've shared what we could about the family and about God and what he wants for us and how that relates, but for the most part she just needs to find a firm faith in God and especially in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Redeemer. So we're taking it slower with her as she reads the Bible and the BoM. It'll be good though.

I feel like I'm doing a report. I'll do a more brief overview. So it was kind of slow up until Friday (btw mom, I got the package and letter on Thursday night. Does that help? I'll pay better attention to the dates and let you know...) and I was concerned because we had a "traveling sister" coming up from Cheney (don't read that wrong: it's pronounced "Cheeny" haha) for exchanges. BUT....Friday EVERYTHING seemed to work out! We had lesson after lesson after lesson! It was so great! And all of them went so well! It was amazing! We tracted and met with the pastor of the Lutheran church and he was super nice; we shared our different beliefs and he told us we could come back anytime we needed to see a friendly face, haha. We also had a guy tell us right away "Never come back here!! Leave and never come back! Write it down in your book! NEVER COME BACK!" but all the while I thought he had a hint of a smile and was on the brink of laughter so I was waiting for the time we could all laugh and....it never came. We felt like he was TRYING to be serious, it just didn't work the way he wanted it to. Haha. So WE laughed as we walked to the next house and continued with work. It was the weirdest thing. The sister that exchanged with us was then able to give us feedback and help us see what we needed to work on and then Saturday went well and then Sunday was good and we just have a lot of hope for everything coming up this week. Both of our goals for this area are to be able to help people progress in faith to where they are ready for baptism OR to get things in this area progressing and moving.

Anyway, we're going to explore the town today to see downtown and get more of a feel for Colville. We haven't been able to the past 5 weeks because of moving and "bonding time" with the elders from our district (aka playing games for 3 hours last week). We played a game called "poo head" and the object of the game was to NOT be the poohead. It was sweet. I'll teach it to whomever wants to learn. I never was the poohead because I'm just that good. :)

So I hope all of you had a good week! Spring is here!!


love, sister Hulet

So I don't really have much to say (plus my comp is already done with her email....something tells me I ramble or something....).

This week was good and mmmm...interesting? We gave the stop smoking workshop to Pauline to start and we've been calling each day to check up on her, but we haven't been able to talk with her herself. She has a cousin/adopted-daughter who we have taught a little bit too but her concern is more: is God really there? So we've tried to get in touch with her but no luck. Andrea and John we were able to see but briefly and they were friendly again (last time they were just grossly indifferent to what we had to say, etc) and we'll meet with them this week. Al (the 90 yr old) dropped us. He left a note that said "Please Do not disturb. These are the doctor's orders, not mine. --AJD" so it was a bit of a let-down. I dunno. Someday he'll learn it. We think he wants to but his family would be the ones to hold him back. Anyway, continuing on, we met with the 7th Day Adventists again, haha. We had told Kaylie about the priesthood and how Joseph smith became a prophet and why that mattered and she expressed concerns that the BoM was from the devil, sent to confuse us. But she also said she hadn't read enough to really know, so we told her to continue to read and pray about it. We then went again and met with her group and showed "The Restoration" DVD and we all discussed the nature of God and Jesus Christ. It was good and it always ends well whenever we have to rush out (cause we're late to another appointment) so I have hope. Kaylie's husband seemed more open now than she had been at first. It's interesting. Missionary work is very much a roller coaster.

RS lesson was crazy. It's funny how it's about gospel principles and yet somehow we get on the topic of did the dinosaurs really exists. It was a bit of a blessing that no investigators were at church....

anyway, it should be a good and busy week. So I'm excited. I hope all continues to be well look forward to hearing from you all again.

[Julie was sent outbound from Temple Square and will be serving in the Washington Spokane Mission until May 12 - when she will return to the Square]
* * * * * * * * * *
February 22, 2010

I'm writing from the not-so-big-town of Colville, WA. Contrary to what I would have guessed, the town name is pronounced "Call-ville". But that's not as bad as Chewelah. Not Chew-illa, but Choo-Wheel-ah. oh score.
Anyway, I knew i would like Washington before I got here, so that's nothing new. It's beautiful with the mountains and the green. The weather is coldish but there's no snow so it's been lovely. Colville, though, is the smallest town I've ever lived in. There is a walmart, but not much else. For dad, it doesn't seem like they have even a flashing yellow light, let alone any normal traffic lights (no...yellow is not normal...).

My first day here, Sis Brown (from West Jordan, UT) and I got right to tracting. It was interesting but not much different from calling on the phone. You get the same responses: "I'm _______ (pick your religious denomination)." "Not interested." (hang up phone or close the door). It's the same approach though: you have to be able to develop that trust with people and tell them exactly what our purpose is and why they need to talk with us. I like it. But I have discovered that you can get "tracted out". Only so much rejection, thank you! On the first night of tracting, never fear! I ran into crazies! They seem to be everywhere. The one girl was named Satin and I forget her friend's name. We knocked on their door and they asked us to sit down right away and said "oh! you're not our normal Nancy." (Me) "What do you mean?" (Satin) "Nancy the Jehovah's Witness that comes by." Anyway, the friend was a guy that has died ( I ALWAYS meet people that have died AT LEAST once. lucky me...) and said he was kind of brain damaged but discovered (himself) that he was saved to be here and think for everyone. So his religion was that someone writing the bible had made a typo and said God instead of Good like it should have been and that what we all need to get at as being to the point where we feel all good, all the time, rather than conflicted or confused because our spirits when we die will just go to a feeling. He said that when he died, he felt like it happiness akin to the combined effects of every single drug he ever took. Wow. uh...so it was interesting. We seemed to come farther with him, the original thinker, than with his friend Satin who took his idea and put passion into it without really thinking all that much about it. They said we could come back and talk more with them but they seemed more interested in spreading their own thought than listening. It was all ok though.

The next day we had a lesson with some of the investigators here so it was nice to sit down and teach. The couple, Andrea and John, is really nice and we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and asked them if they would be baptized. They both said they would like to but have some issues they need to pray about before they make the commitment. It ended really well and we are meeting with them again this week.

We went back to tracting again and found some people to go back to visit. So far the highlights have been a woman from Mexico named Claudia (she has 4 kids). She's awesome! We'll see how it goes if she can read the BoM or not. Then there is Al Dunkle. A 90-yr-old man who has two cars restored from the 40s and lost his wife. He responded well to the Plan of Salvation and we gave him a BoM. Then there is Danny that we left some materials about families and hope to hear back from him. Anyway, I have to go. Love you all!!!

Sister Hulet

By the way - Boris has nothing to do with these cute Sisters


February 8, 2010

Dear Family,
It has been a busy week! We've been going on a lot of exchanges with the sisters in our Zone so that we can pass sisters off in their English tours (in order to take tours in their native language) and then exchanges with the DLs. It's been fun. I got the opportunity to be with some new ESL sisters that do such an amazing job of bringing the spirit to people as they bear their testimony. One of the sisters that I exchanged with was a sister from India and she was so good. She, in addition to sharing the historical information, shared so much personal insight and I could tell she had learned very well how to explain WHY everything was here on Temple Square in addition to WHAT it was. It was great. We showed a woman around that was training to be an interfaith minister or leader ( I don't know what you would call it) and we all discussed truth and how to find it and how really anything good is of God. It was awesome. She was interested in learning about all different religions (keeping her horizons broad) so she wanted the Book of Mormon and wanted to have the missionaries to explain more about our beliefs to her group. It was all really good and we talked about prayer and how we get answers to prayers and how that is a way we can recognize truth.
Then I had an exchange with a sister from Canada (her comp was passing off with S. Pua). We were walking around trying to find people with whom we could speak and we started to walk towards this man who (this is for you dad) looked almost exactly like Mr. Bean! But as we started toward him he quickly swerved out of the way with a quick "rrreeeee!!" noise and continued walking out the gates. It was something straight out of the Mr. Bean show, seriously. Anyway, it's never AS funny to people reading it as actually seeing it, but I wanted to share.
S. Pua got stuck talking to a man/woman named Nimm on the phone in the RC. haha, it was hilarious because everyone could hear her end of the conversation with spurts of things like "he has what like a radar screen? oh eyes....." haha. S. Pua said that she called it a "ma'am" and it said "You know, some people say think I am a woman" and "sometimes I can be a lady...." Anyway, Nimm told Pua that she could call anytime "24/7". haha. good times.
I had a guy that I called who said that "I am the church..." and I asked him if he was Jesus. Yes. He is. Then I asked if he was perfect and we finally got it out that he's violent and arrogant (aka not perfect). But it was pretty hilarious when he called himself the church. I can't remember the other crazy things he said.
Oh!! And the homeless man. He was sitting in one of the smaller rooms in the Visitor's Center (VC) with his hands clasped and his head down, mumbling something. I was waiting for Pua to get out of the bathroom so I stood outside the door and kept an eye on him. Some sisters came up to me and started to chat and then the guy popped his head up and was like "I just came in here to think!" and I said "what?"
HomelessGuy: I just came in here to think
SisHulet:oh. that's fine. it's a great place to think. very peaceful.
HG: what?
SH: It's very peaceful here, isn't it?
HG: oh...yeah. it is.
something something about his church where he goes to mass
SH: oh, so you're catholic?
HG: I was raised catholic. one of the ladies did some research and found out my parents were mormon. My real dad is Dan Rathers and I was kidnapped and then raised catholic.
SH: Oh...uh...wow.
HG: People don't believe me but it was true. I know you don't believe me.
SH: Well it's quite a history.
HG: It's true though!
SH: do you have brothers and sisters?
HG: yeah..they're here now. You probably can't see them...but I hear them. [Pulls one of the chairs near him closer to him and pats it] You can come in if you'd like to.
SH: OH...uh...yeah..I have an assignment right now...but thanks! It was so good to meet you!

Fun times, friends. :) Sorry that was long.

Anyway, I think that's probably enough for now. It's been a pretty funny week. I feel like I've laughed a lot more than usual. The Braza Grill activity was awesome and it seemed like the sisters had a lot of fun. That is what the picture is from. The front two sisters are S. Agenor, S. Sorensen, me, S.Pua, uhh...S. other-sisters-from-our-zone...

Sister Hulet and Sister Pua -- they look a little casual because this was a Zone activity -- A Utah Jazz Game

The latest one:

January 18, 2010

Ta dunn!

Dear my hello family,

So second week of the transfer...so crazy. Sis Pua's awesome so I'm learning a lot about everything. She was my ZL in my first transfer so it was weird at first. We get along really well though and just joke back and forth all the time about being offended and offending each other. It's classic hulet banter. :) So it's great fun. She's from Maui in Hawaii so I get to hear a lot about Polynesians and whatnot. Good times though. She really knows why she came and her purpose in whatever she's doing as a missionary and she communicates that to everyone she speaks with.

So it's been crazy this week with sisters getting sick, comps not getting along, people being disobedient. It's weird that being in this position I see everything that happens or doesn't happen. I often wish I could just be back to doing normal missionary work. A lot of what we do is support for the district leaders and the sisters. Whew. We had training meetings every morning last week and we're finally finished with that. Zone conference is coming up and we'll all be going to the Church History Library so that will be great.

It's been neat having a lot of new sisters in our Zone. 9 trainer/trainees and they're all working so hard. I think it helps with the trainers constantly trying to be a good example and the trainees' desires to work hard. It's amazing to see it. We also have the comp issues that we dealth with so I'm learning more in that respect because I've often been a live and let live type of person only worrying about myself and I've come to realize that that doesn't help anyone but myself. So it's interesting being the support and push for them to be better. I feel more like mom who was never afraid to tell someone that they needed to shape up (even those who weren't her children) but to do it in a loving way. I'm grateful for that example mom :)

To answer some questrions: Transfers are on Feb 17th. Just count six weeks from Jan 5th and you'll be good. They are always on Wednesdays.

Sis Pua and I have been blessed to be able to speak with really good and prepared people on the square but none who have taken that final step to receiving missionaries. One guy came and wanted to know why he couldn't enter the temple and what the book of mormon was about but he just promised us he would get a book and read it. He was agnostic and seemed more on the logical side but not so logical that he didn't accept the existence of ghosts and spirits (to which, he said, Salt Lake City seemed a mecca...he'd had some "encounters"...). So we figured he'd be ok with the idea of angels. Ah well. We tried to give him more of a sense of purpose; that life isn't just about having fun. It's about strengthening your family and your community (yeeeeah jen and mike :) ).

We're giving a training on "Virtue" for Zone Conference and we were discussing it this morning. Something that we talked about was a diagram that Pres. Holmes used to describe the leadership in the church. The world views leadership in the form of a triangle: once you reach the top, you look down on all the people you had to step on to get there. In the church, it's inverted with christ at the tip, or the bottom, lifting us all up and as you are called into leadership, you go lower and lower on the triangle towards the Savior. Sis Pua and I expanded that to be anyone that is able to grow closer to the Savior: the closer you become to the Savior, the more people you are able to lift up; and just as you cannot convert people more than you yourself are converted, you cannot lift people up more so than the Savior or those below you are lifting you up. I liked it. :) Anyway, that was my little shpeal...

Funny story: we had to take Sis Yang to the ER to make sure everything was A-ok. When we got there, they wanted to do some blood tests so we had to wait for a while. Poor Sis Yang, the entire time they spoke to her, tried to describe her condition with the little vocabulary she knows and tried to understand what they were telling her. The nurse, however, seemed unable to simplify her descriptions so you can imagine my face when she told Sis Yang "When you have a bowel movement, we need to take your stool samples. That goes for when you urinate as well; we need to take a urine sample." Sis yang didn't understand but said ok. I told her that when she pooped we needed the poop and when she peed we needed to get a sample of the pee. It made it all the more awkward when it came time to doing it and the instructions said: wipe the space between the labia (skin folds). Use three wipes and wipe from front to back between the labia.
Sis Yang read it ALL out loud and I had to explain it to her one step at a time. Sis Pua just stood back and watched (turning away at times to laugh) as I explained what the "leed" (lid) was, etc., etc., etc.

So that's one to add to my more awkward moments. :) I'm glad to hear that Disney came out with another good cartoon. I look forward to seeing it when I get home. I also enjoyed Buddy's good doctor story. Sis Pua made fun of me when I told sister yang that the IV that they hooked into her was a "saline drip". she scoffed and told sister yang "they just call it an IV. I don't know what it stands for but it's an IV."

So it's just the beginning. We'll see what else happens. For the most part it's just really great to still be on a mission and I'll be honest, I kind of dread ever going back to normal life. I've still got 9 1/2 months, though, so no worries.

Oh my. I forgot. Two more things: so Sis Hollesen and Sis Taumalolo (roommates and APs) live with us and Sis Hollesen always has this weird thing where right before she goes to bed, she begins to smell something that's not right and look for what it is. Last time, they were onions left by the last sister that lived there and we threw them away. This time we found that a whole thing of potatoes had become rotten. She ran away and was like "Sis Hulet........bleh...can you take care of that??" Yep. I did it. I clean the shelf off of the nasty rotten potato slime. ew. I gagged of course.

Anyway, it's been an exciting week. Stressful, but exciting.
Love you all!!!

Sister Hulet

Got to get Sister Hulet up to date. Here are her latest emails.

January 11, 2010

“Tonight I will guide your camel”

so this quote is from a book and I thought of it as I was reading the part of 1Nephi with Ishmael and his daughters (if that gives anyone a clue for what it is from). Haha, becky and I used to laugh at it all the time. I chuckled to myself when I thought of it last night. tee hee.

So this first week has been crazy. The first day of transfers was completely out of control: We had prayer meeting with our Zone to pass out planners, calendars, newsletters, etc. Then we all split to go contact on the square. Sis Pua and I, however, met briefly with the South DLs and then the assistants to discuss some business and then we went out to contact. We had to go take care of some things from Sis Pua's assignment last transfer (she was director over the Referral Center) and then we had to go pick up pizza for the new trainees and their trainers. However, we stopped at one Little Caesars and found that the pizzas were actually at a different location across town. Then we brought the pizzas back (an hour later) to the building where lunch was SUPPOSED to be and discovered it was to be held at a different location. So as we were packing the pizzas across, I was trucking it up the stairs and tripped UP the stairs. Pizzas: completely fine; My shin Bone: bruised and bleeding. Yay me. I've successfully managed to be not-so-klutzy my entire mission until it snowed pretty heavily one day and the first day of this transfer. And actually, since that moment I've continued to bruise myself and cut myself everywhere I go. Opposition? maybe....
Then the rest of the day on Wednesday we had to take a sister to the airport, then pick three sisters up from the airport and return home only to grab dinner for a quick half an hour and then head over to Wal Mart with the trainees for their first shopping trip here. WE finally got dinner late that night around 9:00. So crazy!

Thursday was a bit better although we discovered more and more of what our responsibilities were. It's been really good and we have the support of absolutely amazing DLs this transfer and good, hard-working sisters in our Zone.

We've had really good contacts in the past week. WE took a tour of three with a couple from Germany and a man from France. They were all really receptive, they asked good questions and were delightful. The German couple, in the end, referred to have missionaries bring them the BoM and the French man acknowledged that he felt a peaceful, pure, feeling that we were able to identify as the Spirit. He preferred to look up more information on the internet though so he did not want missionaries.
We also had this great Asian couple, Francis Poon and wife, who were in a hurry but wanted to see a couple things on the square. Francis, apparently, had been to Temple square before and knew a lot about it:

Sis Pua: "Wow, you both really know a lot about this already!"
Poon: "No. I do."

We took him quickly inside the SVC and showed him the pictures of the temples in Hong Kong (where he is from); Tai Pei, Taiwan (where his wife is from); and San Diego (where they are living). We explained more about it and told him that missionaries could come and explain more about the temples to him and his wife. He was soo excited for it (he told it to some other sisters he spoke with). He then wanted to find a Japanese sister he could talk with (because he had been studying japanese for 2 yrs) and was so excited when we found one. I spoke the little Mandarin I know to his wife who said (this is true!) that my pronunciation was excellent. ah ha. I should be asian.

We then (last one) had a really good contact with a guy that was passing through on his way to CA. We got to tell him more about the Priesthood restoration (he was looking at the statues of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery receiving the priesthoods) and he asked us questions about the plan of salvation. We told him, since he didn't have much time, that reps could visit him to share more about that and could bring him a BoM. He agreed and was on his way. So cool though! the people that have been coming have been SO prepared!!

I've learned a lot from Sis Pua. She has a great talent for explaining things clearly and also making the gospel real for people: showing how it can be APPLIED in their lives through her own personal experiences and also the experiences of the pioneers. It's amazing! I'm excited to be able to work with her. We also get to just joke back and forth and keep everything really light. It's so good. But when it comes down to it, we work hard and remember what we're here for.

We've been in training for DLs and ZLs almost every morning at 8 to know how to deal with different things and it's been really helpful to get everyone on the same page. We're just beginning to see what problems will need to be dealt with already, but it'll be good. The biggest thing will be helping to support the DLs and helping the 9 new sisters from the MTC to adjust.

Hope you all received my Christmas cards! Love,

sister Hulet