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]
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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...