Happy Early Thanksgiving! (or dia de accion de gracias) | week 60

Hola Familia!!!!

Como estan?! I hope your week was great this week. My thoughts were with you lots this week as I thought about all of you and about Grandpa Cahoons funeral. I hope that you could feel of my prayers for you. I love you all!

We had a good week here in Tucson. I feel like every week time flies by so fast that I can barely get a grasp on it!!! I have the sneaking suspicion that is kind of what the rest of my life will feel like haha. We had a busy week of lots work! Unfortunately we had some downer moments with our investigators this week. M who was doing wonderful and progressing a lot, is now unable to meet with us or come to church. Her husband who she was getting a divorce with came back to live with her and he really doesn't like Mormons at all. It is sad, but he has banned her from meeting with us and from coming to church. That was kind of a bummer, but we have to trust in the Lord and in his timing. Many times we as laborers in the vineyard are preparing the ground for future missionaries to harvest. It saddens us, but we move on. D as well is really struggling this week. We are hoping for a better week with him this coming week. Because of all that we have been focusing a TON this week on finding. We have been praying lots to find people that have been prepared by the Lord to receive the restored gospel. The Lord truly answers prayers. We have been blessed to find some really cool new investigators this week that we are excited to begin working with more. One guy is named J. We found him yesterday. He is going through a tough time in life and we had a really powerful lesson with him. The spirit was so strong and he recognized it. He commited to be baptized on the 21st of December. I have a really good feeling about him and am excited to teach him again tonight! We also are teaching his next door neighbor now as well! I love the opportunities and hope that finding new investigators can bring. Finding truly is all about faith. I have learned that lesson the hard way a lot as a missionary through failure, but truly the Lord leads us to his elect when we have faith.

I have talked with some of the most precious older catholic ladies here. I truly believe God loves these ladies so much, they are so awesome. What an example they are to us.

We have kept working a lot with R. She is an inactive woman that I have come to love so very much. I have always felt a special connection with her. We are working hard to build her faith and help her return to activity. The blessings of the gospel are truly always there waiting for us to come and claim them!

It surprisingly hasn't been to often that we have taught people that are very aggressive in trying to prove us wrong, but we taught one guy like that this week. We were out with some members that came with us to teach, and we decided to stop by this guy's house that we had contacted before. It was a very interesting, and tense lesson as the whole time he was trying to prove all of our doctrines wrong. This time like many others has increased my testimony and love for the Book of Mormon SO much. I have such a love for that book. It has saved me so many times as a missionary. All that we believe and all of the questions that others can bring up to us really all boil down to the question of if the Book of Mormon is the word of God. It truly is! I am so grateful for it.

We had a half mission conference this week that was wonderful!!! Elder Paul V. Johnson of the 70 came and taught us. It was amazing. He is the head of the Church Educational System, and is a powerful man of God. It was an inspiring and uplifting day. It never ceases to amaze me how the spirit is capable of teaching us so personally. I felt at times that he was speaking right to me. I have learned so much this week, and am excited to apply the things I have learned. We talked a lot about following the spirit, and about turning outward with charity towards others. Truly that is how we have true joy in life is when we forget ourselves and focus on how we can help others. I have felt that over and over again on my mission. I am the most happy and the most joyful when I forget about all of my little problems and focus on how I can reach out and help someone else. President and Sister Killpack gave wonderful talks as well. I love them so much, they are both powerful leaders.

IT RAINED IN TUCSON!!! It was a miracle. It was actually pretty weird. I had come to believe that it never rained here haha. It actually rained for two days straight, it was really nice. Everything feels so fresh and beautiful after a good rain. The last couple of days are the first days that have actually felt like fall. It finally came! I keep forgetting this week is Thanksgiving!!! It came so fast! What are your plans for thanksgiving this year?

We had stake conference this weekend in the Tucson Arizona stake. It was wonderful. The spirit was powerful and strong. What a glorious purpose we have as missionaries and members to bring souls unto the savior. This week I feel like I have finally come to understand what my purpose is as a missionary. I love this work. I love the joy it brings to my life and to everyone who will try it. 

You all have been in my thoughts this week a lot. As we approach the holidays I have been thinking lots of you. I miss you so much. I smile when I think about all the wonderful memories I have of Holidays with you. Thank you for those memories. Much more are ahead. I will miss you all dearly this week, but know that I am happy and well. I am so incredibly grateful for each of you. I am sooooooooooooooooo thankful to be part of such a wonderful family. I love you so much. Eat lots of stuffed mushrooms and pumpkin pie cheesecake for me!!! I will miss you this week like every week, but know that you are in my thoughts and prayers. Hurrah for Israel!

LOVE

Elder Hughes

Happy Fall from Elder Hughes (the Taylor version) | week 59

Hello there familia!

I am really sad to hear about grandpa Cahoon. I am sad that I didn't have the chance to say goodbye to him. I know that he is once again reunited with grandma Cahoon. What a wonderful reunion that will be. I had the feeling that he wouldn't make it before I returned from my mission. I will miss him, and all of our christmas day memories at their house. He always showed me so much love. I always knew that he cared. He was such a happy and calm man. I am sad that I won't be able to be with all of you this week at the funeral. Please give everyone my love. Give grandma and grandpa a big hug just for me. I love them so so so so very much. Give everyone my love. I will write them an email as well. I am so glad that it all happened calmly at home with his family. I have gained and understood better than ever how beautiful the plan of our heavenly father truly is. Death is just one step in that plan. It is one necessary piece of the puzzle. It makes me realize how incredibly grateful I am for the savior. He truly overcame death for us. It is funny because my companion and I were talking this week about death and how there truly are things much worse than death. Death is just a new step, it is a moving on, and one day we will all pass through it. I love grandpa rolly and I know he is in a good place. Reading the scriptures always fills me with hope and with the spirit. It really doesn't matter where we read, it always blesses us the same. Read them when things are hard this week. That's what I do.

Your trip to Oregon looks like it was a blast!!!! It looks really cold and wet there. I haven't felt cold or wet in a long time haha. It is finally actually feeling a little bit like fall this week haha. It makes me laugh that it comes around mid november that it actually cools down a bit. What a good time. I miss our family vacations. I always tell people that we didn't even leave our state for most of our favorite vacations. That is why I love cali.

How awesome the pictures of Spencer coming home!!! Those make me so happy to see! Mark and Jamie and Spencer all look so happy and wonderful. That day will come fast for us, so don't worry about it :) I am SOOOO excited as well to talk to you all soon for Christmas! It should be wonderful.

As for this week. We had a pretty good week. As always we had not enough hours in the day to accomplish all that we needed to do. I am so grateful for the immense opportunities that we have as a missionary to serve. Really we are always missionaries and we should always be serving, but as a full time missionary we have so many opportunities to serve. I am so grateful for your sacrifices to make that possible for me.

We had a full week of lots of teaching. D is progressing well. M is also doing great. We had some really good lessons with her. We found an awesome new investigator named S. It really is a miracle that we found her and started teaching her. We have a bus stop that we seem to always find people at. We call it the magic bus stop. We have found quite a few referrals and investigators there. We were walking past it, and now we ALWAYS talk to everyone there when we go to the bus stop, because it is so magical. We met S there and she kind of laughed as we went up to her and talked to her. It turns out she laughed because she says that mormons seem to find her everywhere. She had a really good mormon friend who influenced her alot, and then in jail she went to the LDS worship services, and then we 'happened' to find her at this bus stop. We have started teaching her and it is going really good. She is really pregnant. The pregnancy has been making her really sick, so our lessons have been getting interrupted alot for her to go throw up in the bathroom. It has been an adventure haha. We laugh about it alot. She is doing really well, and I can really feel like the Lord has led us to her.

This week the Sisters had an eventful baptism. I interviewed the family that got baptized this week. I love baptismal interviews. They are so awesome to see. It is like seeing a mini conversion story every single time. It was a mom and her 3 awesome kids that got baptized. The kids by far had the best interviews. Truly children are the closest to the savior. They said some of the most hilarius and amazing things. They call their baptism their "second chance." I love that. It truly is a second chance, and we get that second chance every single week as we take the sacrament, and every single day that we repent. I love second chances. This truly is a gospel about second chances and third chances and fourth chances on and on until the day where we wont need any more chances, we will be perfectly clean and happy. Their baptism was crazy. They actually got pulled over on their way there and got their car taken away. So one of the members had to go pick them up on the side of the road so that they could get to their baptism!! Meanwhile Elder P and I entertained the awaiting audience for an hour haha. With lots of singing and messages. The baptism went great in the end, and the spirit was really strong. Yay for second chances.

We had the primary program this weekend. The missionaries were honorary members of the primary this weekend haha. There was only 6 kids in the program so they called us in. It's ok we still feel like we should be in primary anyway. :) I have been thinking alot about small and simple things. In life really the small and simple joys and acts of love matter most. As a missionary I have learned so much about how the gospel really is so simple and beautiful. We sometimes complicate things for ourselves. As things were really hectic and crazy before church, because sometimes our branch is just barely holding it together haha, I was NOT thinking alot about the small and simple things. I am grateful as we sang with the primary that the spirit reminded me about how important the small and simple things are.

I am really excited for a new and exciting week here. We have lots of good things happening in our area. We are having a mission conference this week, a member of the 70 is coming Elder Paul V. Johnson. It should be great. I am really excited.

My thoughts and prayers are with you always but especially with you this week as you have the funeral for great grandpa cahoon. I love you guys so much. I wish I could be there to give you a big hug. Just send a prayer up and I know that the Lord will be able to give you the hug I can't give. I love you all. I am so incredibly grateful for the plan of salvation, and for this gospel of second chances. I love you. Give all of my extended family my love and hugs. I truly love all of them.

LOVE

Elder Hughes

PS read this amazing article. What an honor it is to be a missionary. The Lord always protects us.http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865590735/Surviving-the-typhoon-A-story-of-fear-faith-and-what-it-means-to-be-prepared.html

A mi querido familia y amigos! | week 58

HOLAAAAAAAAAA a TODOS!

Thank you for your emails and all the pictures. WOOOOOOWEEEEEEE madre. Your pictures look great. You are beautiful in every way. Inside and out. I miss you! Your hair has gotten so long. I carry the picture of me you and tanner in my scriptures because people don't believe me sometimes that I am a twin, and everyone always comments on my beautiful sister. I then correct them and say it is my mom! I love you guys. I love all the news from the homefront. HOW EXCITING that Spencer is coming home. Give him a big hug for me and tell him hi! That must be a crazy feeling. Time flies, I am so glad that I still have some time here to accomplish the Lord's work. Have an awesome trip to oregon! That sounds like a blast! I miss our family vacations. We truly have fun no matter where we go or what we do. To answer your question about ipads and facebook. You know about as much as I know haha. We talked with the Killpacks this week and they don't really know anything either. They said we should get facebook "soon" and it sounds like the ipads might not be here until right before I go home.... but they really don't know haha. They said they pretty much just know rumors. Congrats to Z man on his talk! What a stud! Enjoy our big ward. We are fighting the other end of the problem here in Los Reales. We are lucky if we can get 30 people to come to church... It sounds like everyone is doing great. It doesn't really feel like fall here to me, because it is still really warm outside haha. Sometimes I don't believe it is November :)

As for my week here, it was really busy as always. I am coming to you a day late because yesterday all of the libraries were closed for the holiday. I feel like this was one of those weeks where I look back and wonder where all the time went!!! But it was a good week. We had interviews with President Killpack this week. I always love the opportunity to talk with him. He is such a wise and amazing man. Because of the size of our mission, it is rare to have time to talk with him, so it is always great to have a few minutes. We talked alot about our branch and the things we as missionaries need to focus on here. Our branch is really struggling, and so we are going to focus alot on working with, and strengthening the members and reactivating the nonmembers. It is a challenge and alot of fun to be here in this branch. It has brought many opportunities to serve in ways that we don't always get to serve. Elder P and I have been doing family history with many member families. Almost no one here has ever done it, and almost all of them have expired temple recommends. It has been a miracle to watch. As we sit down and help them find their ancestors to take to the temple, without even saying anything they immediately make plans to renew their temple recommends. We both felt like this was something we could do to help the branch in that way, and it is working. Just today we were helping Hno Valensuela to find his ancestors, and as we were leaving he commented that tonight he was having his temple recommend interview, and his temple rec has been expired for many years. It has been awesome to see.

With our investigators it was a tough week. Lots of fallen appointments, but that is kind of our life haha. We are pressing forward. D is doing well. Because of his work schedule we had to push back his baptism a little bit, but he is still doing great. He is a great guy, and it has been amazing to see the changes that are taking place in him. M we had a hard time with this week. She didn't show up to any appts but she came to church which was awesome. We are going to focus alot more on her in the coming week. Other than that we have been spending alot of time trying to find the elect! It is always an adventure. The Lord has blessed us alot here. I feel blessed.

Some funny things about life here. One is that on P day when we go shopping etc I can't tell you how many times people think that we work at the stores we are shopping at. It is really funny. Everyone comes and asks us on what aisle something is on.

This week I spoke in church. It went well. It is a whole diferent ballgame to speak in church in spanish. I spoke about repentance. It was something that I have been thinking alot about. Truly repentance is such a wonderful gift. The parable of the prodigal son is so awesome (Luke 15). We at times are just like him. Far away from home, unhappy, broke, and humbled. No matter where we are at or what we have done our father is waiting for us. He is waiting to forgive us. We just have to repent. We just have to lay down our pride and change, and have faith in the savior. We can change fast. I have seen it in my own life and in the life of others. There is no better feeling than running back into the arms of our waiting father. Like the young man we only want to just be put in as a humble servant, but the Lord rewards us with grace!!! It is truly the most wonderful feeling in the world. The Lord wants to forgive. He is just waiting for us. I have seen the power of every day repentance in my life. It has changed my life, and it can change every person that uses the atonement, no matter who they are or what they have done. It is such a miracle to watch that process in the lives of others.

So we are pressing forward! Many times we just do all that we can, and press forward no matter what. That is when the miracle come. I love this work. Sometimes I just smile and think about how wonderful it is to be alive, and more importantly to be a serving. I love you all so much, I miss you! I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas, it is coming quick!

les amo mucho

Elder Hughes

I completely forgot to tell you in the email! That we worked at a mormon heritage festival here in Tucson this week. It was awesome. We were in charge of the encampment booth which had to do with the mormon battalion. So we got to dress up. It was a blast. 

Happy Fall from Arizona!!! | week 57

Helloooooo there familia!

As always I love to hear from you, it sounds like all is well. I love those words all is well. Because all really is well when we put things in the right perspective. Thank you for your words and updates! It sounds like Katie Hughes Photography is gonna go worldwide soon haha. I love how awesome it is going. I am so proud of my madre!!! Remember to take time for yourself as well. We can't run faster than we have strength. I have learned that alot on my mission. Missionary work is exhausting in every single way, so I have had to take times to slow down and make sure that I am not killing myself haha. Lunchtime naps have literally saved me out here. I know, tell Riley and Zach that they should email me more often!! It only takes 5 minutes :) I love all of you so much. I talk about you every single day. I can't wait to share with you guys the joy of being a missionary. It is not easy, but it is so joyful.

THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE! I loved it. I love the pants and the party in a box. Unfortunately I got it the day after halloween so we had a delayed halloween party with it.

This week was a pretty good one. I feel like a broken record on here sometimes. Alot of things just don't change alot in our work, but we had a great week.

D, our investigator is doing really well. He is going to be baptized on the 16th. One of the fascinating things about being a misisonary is that every single investigator is so different. They all have very different needs and we teach differently to each of them. I love the challenge that each person brings. D has such a pure heart. He really loves to just be with us, and be with the members of the church. The Holy Ghost is really a feeling, it is the best feeling in the world. That is what really brings people into Christ's restored church. I have learned that lesson alot. It really doesn't matter so much about how good we are at teaching the principles of the restored gospel. What matters so much more is if we have the spirit with us. That is what changes people. That is what has changed me and touched my heart forever.

We started teaching a lady named M this week! It was awesome. A member reffered her to us, which makes all the difference. She was recently divorced and she is facing alot of trials in life. The gospel and the missionaries seem to find those that are burdened down and heavy laden. We came in and got to know her and her daughters and then we started to teach. The spirit was so strong. It was amazing. There is such a difference when we are teaching someone whose heart is open and humble. We had a powerful lesson, and she came to church on Sunday. We are so excited to continue teaching her and her daughters. Teaching families is the best!

We are still visiting and teaching R alot. Her faith is so strong, but she continues to face intense trials in life. We had some more powerful lessons with her. One of them this week, was so good. She was struggling so much. There is really no one in her life who tells her that she is valued and loved. People must hear those things. It is so important. After the lesson we had to give her a hug (it is technically against the rules), but there was no way I wasn't going to hug her. She needed it.

We are have been continuing to find and teach some new people. I love this work. I have learned so much here.

Elder P and I have had some of the most amazing conversations about the gospel this week. He is an awesome companion I have learned so much from him. Yesterday we had one of the most emotional and powerful conversations that I have had on my mission. We discussed alot about missions and the hard things about serving a mission. Sometimes we don't have as much success as our high hopes would tell us. That can be so hard sometimes, but I have really come to learn that when we do our very best and we use the atonement every single day. All is well. The Lord is fitting us to be missionaries not just for 2 years but for our whole lives. In all of our lives we just continue to be transferred. Transferred home and one day transferred to the spirit world. I have a testimony of this great work. It is real, and we are all part of it. We have so much potential and power to touch others lives for good.

I love you all! Not a day goes by that I don't think of each of you. I miss you and love you.

LOVE

Elder Hughes

Happy Halloween!! I am thinking about dressing up like a missionary | week 56

Hey there family!

It sounds like all is well in the Hughes household! I love hearing all the news. It sounds like everyone is growing up! What the heck happened? Since when did everyone get so old. Zach man can never grow up!!!!!! Thank you for all the updates. I love getting your letters. That is good BYU news. GO COUGARS! President Killpack is a die hard ute fan, so us cougar missionaries tease him a lot and vice versa haha.

Transfers came in and I am staying here for another transfer, which I am so happy about. I love it here. I have felt everytime I have been transferred that I had completed what I needed to in the areas I was in. I haven't felt that here yet, so I am really excited for a new transfer. I love this work. I love my district. I have had an amazing district this transfer. All of us have become wonderful friends. On P day we would just go out to eat and have a blast talking for hours. Truly we all need good friends. Sis U who is in my district is from granite bay, and she is awesome. She goes home in December from the mission, and she said she wants to take you out to lunch mom! You will love her.

Elder B who I trained last transfer got his visa to go to argentina!!! He left yesterday! I am so happy for him! We became good friends.

One sad note this week. I regret to inform you that my precious backpack was stolen :( I am really sad. Mostly because it had all of my scriptures in it, the ones that I have had since I was 8. It was in the bed of the truck when we got out to get sonoran dogs, and the other elders were still sitting in the truck, so I didn't move it inside the truck, and it got stolen. :( It was a mega bummer. Some thief is going to get really disappointed that all he got was scriptures haha. SO I don't have any scriptures anymore, so I was wondering if we could figure out some early birthday present situation so that I can get some scriptures again. It taught me some lessons, one of which is how much I love the scriptures. They are so important. I love them, and I love reading them. My life has literally changed as I have feasted on the words of Christ.

As for this week. It was a good one! Really busy as always. We are doing everything we can to get our investigators to progress. Sometimes that seems like such an obstacle. In out Spanish zone, getting people to church is the hardest part. D came to church this week, which was awesome. He is doing great. We have had some good lessons with him. He has true desires to be a good man. He faces some pretty crazy family issues, him and his younger brother are basically raising him.

We have had a lot of great experiences this week. I feel like there are so many, I have a hard time expressing them haha. That it always the problem, there is really no way to convey to you all of the things I have experienced.

The spirit has blessed me this week a lot. I have felt his guiding influence. I have felt of your prayers. There is truly no better feeling in the world than to be the answer to someone else' prayers. I love this gospel.

We were able to help out a man this week, we has been homeless for 6 months. He had just given up alcohol after drinking for the last 40 years. We have been teaching him, and we took him to the er to get the help he needs. His family is actually investigators with the sister missionaries. It has been awesome to be able to help him. I have learned so much on my mission about hope and about how there truly is hope for every single person. No matter what. I am so grateful for that. That is made possible because of Christ.

Another quick experience. We were visiting a less active family this week. The less active lady's friend was there with her. The friend was asking us tons of questions and we taught her about the gospel. As we got up to leave, I had the thought to sing them a hymn. Elder P and I sing to people all the time, so it wasn't that out of the ordinary. We decided to sing I know that my Redeemer lives. I love that song, because it is a testimony. As we started the spirit was so strong, it was so powerful. We all felt it, and we all were blessed. I am grateful for the spirit that helps me do the things that the Lord needs.

We are pressing forward! I love you guys. I love this work. It is interesting that Tanner talked about prayer this week. I had some powerful experiences with prayer the last couple days. Truly the Lord answers prayers. He truly does. I have seen it, felt it, and experienced it over and over again. He answers when we truly have faith and we truly pour out our souls to him. I issue the same challenge that Tanner gave. To make all of our prayers meaningful. We can call down the powers of heaven every day. It doesn't matter what kind of problems or joys we are facing.

I love each of you, and I pray for you every day!

LOVE

Elder Hughes

Taylor shared this link. A great story! The Elder they are talking about is Taylor's companion. Take a minute to read it, it's worth it!

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865583277/LDS-convert-experiences-miracle-while-shopping-for-missionary-clothing.html?pg=all

Mi Familia Marvillosa!!!! (y amigos tambien) | week 55

Decidi que ustedes no han visto que puedo hablar en espanol. ENTONCES, voy a escribir un poquito en espanol. He aprendido mucho desde el tiempo que llege a nogales y tambien aqui en Tucson. Necesito mejorarlo mucho mas para que pueda hablar muy bien con Tanner cuando regresamos.

Anyway. I loved your letter and pictures as always. The Hughes family is as busy as ever. The new York trip looked AMAZING. I love that place. That is so awesome for Megan Hodgson that she is going to New York on her mission. Tell her congrats from me!!!! How awesome. I love this gospel so much. It is such a wonderful time to be a missionary. Rilo speaking for the Stake! How awesome. What a stud. I wish I could have been there to witness it. I loved being on Stake youth committee. I didn't know he was doing that. I loved it. It is such a great opportunity to serve and lead. You will use those skills every day out here as a missionary. Your photography stuff looks awesome mom. How amazing how far it has come. I brag about you all the time to people here. Oh since when did you get a MacBook pro?! That's way awesome! Grandma and grandpa looked wonderful in new York. I laughed really hard at the Obama picture. SO funny. I love you all and miss you so much. The primary program sounds wonderful. We have such a wonderful ward in Rocklin. I hope you guys remember how blessed you are. It is a whole different story here in the Los Reales branch. I think a lot about Elder Uchdorf's talk where he talked about how some church units are like fighter jets, they are efficient, stocked with faithful and converted members. There are also Piper cubs, that just barely make it along. BUT the joy of serving is still the same in each of them, just in a different way. Your primary program made me think about our primary program that they are preparing for. There are only about 5 kids in primary. My companion is the primary pianist. It is a whole different experience, but the joy is truly the same. I have seen that a lot here in Los Reales. We get many many opportunities to serve. We bless, prepare, and pass the sacrament. Lead and play the music, and talk in church every couple weeks. I know the Lord has big things in store for our branch. It has been wonderful to be able to help them a lot. The 6 missionaries who serve here have the ability to help the branch a lot, and I am grateful for that.

As for the week. We had a really good week here. Unfortunately none of our investigators came to church, which is the story of our life here in the South Zone. For some reason it is really hard for our Mexican friends to come to church. We are going to really focus on that with all of our investigators this week.

We found some amazing new people to teach. I love when we find people that are truly prepared, and who truly want to learn. We found this lady named M this week. She is an awesome mom of three kids. She truly just wants the best for her family, and she has big desires to teach them more about God. THE PERFECT STORM. I love it. I love teaching families. I haven't gotten to teach as many families as I would have liked on my mission so far, I love how much the gospel blesses families. It is one of my favorite principles that we teach. We are going by and teaching her every day. I am excited for the future for her and her family.

We also found some other really cool investigators that we are going to start working with a lot this week. 2 guys were working on their car, and we ended up teaching them a lesson about the book of Mormon. It turns out one of them had read the whole book of Mormon when he was in jail, so that is a good start. I have learned so much about talking with everyone as a missionary. Elder P is a master at it. He has absolutely 0 fear talking to people. It is so awesome. I have learned a lot from him.

E, R's daughter is doing great she is set to get baptized on the 9th of November. We have had some wonderful lessons with her. Raquel is doing wonderful. I love her and her family so much. I have seen a literal change in her. It is the most amazing miracle to see.

We have been teaching a lot of inactive members in our area as well. I love being able to go to the rescue, just like president monsoon taught us. It is such a fulfilling work, because it is truly the work of the Lord. It is what he would be doing if he were here. We are teaching this lady named R who is super cool. She was baptized a couple years ago, and fell away. We have been teaching her a lot and she is doing so well.

We did a lot of service this week as well, which I love. We volunteered at a food bank. It was quite an experience. It is kind of a sketchy operation of a food bank haha. it was really fun though. The people that worked there were hilarious. I think they should make some kind of reality tv show out of it, because there are some of the most insane personalities there. From the insanely bossy, do not cross her, boss lady. To the hilarious Mexican lady. The whole lineup. It was pretty awesome. Somehow the Mormon missionaries fit in there too haha. Also us and about 40 other missionaries in Tucson set up a big clothing section for a big welfare event in Tucson. That was pretty cool. And every week we clean up parks on sat. morning. If you go to Midvale Neighborhood park association or something like that on facebook. The guy puts up lots of pictures of us.

I have a new food addiction. SONORAN HOT DOGS. Look them up. I am obsessed.

A really exciting thing last night was a girl in the branch opened her mission call. We are all really good friends with her. She got called to...........ROSEVILLE CA mission!!!!! IT WAS AWESOME. Sister U. and I made complete fools of ourselves. We got really excited and jumped up and down and it was pretty funny. I will try and get my hands on the video because it was pretty funny. We have some norcal pride.

Also Do you remember Iv from Nogales? He is investigating the church again!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't stop smiling for about 6 hours when I found out. It makes me so happy.

I love you guys. I can't say that enough. I am doing so well. My message this week comes from the wise words of President Killpack. He is a powerful man of god. I love him so much. "One evening, an elderly Cherokee Chief told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, "My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all. One is EVIL. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.The other is GOOD. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generousity, truth compassion, and faith." The grandson thought for a minute and then asked his Grandfather: "Which wolf wins?" The old Cherokee chief simply responded, "The one that you feed."

Lets feed the good wolf this week and every day :) It starts every morning with prayers and scriptures.

LOVE

Elder Hughes

I have no creative titles for emails so I have written this boring email title | week 54

HOLA FAMILIA! (That is my favorite thing to say)

The Hughes clan is on quite a slew of adventures! How fun! I am sure grandma and grandpa and Riley are having a great time. It is always a blast to go on vacation with them. I remember well eating more than I ever had before haha. We got ice cream every single night! Good times. It sounds like everyone has been super busy, which is good. This week has flown by like all the rest of them. For her baptism I sang This is the Christ. Which in Spanish is "El Cristo Es"

That is crazy Spencer comes home so soon!!!! That is awesome. Time flies. It really does. No surprises about Mathew, he is such an amazing guy. It doesn't surprise me at all. I am honored to be his friend.

Elder P and I had a really good week. We have been really blessed here. We are still on the search for some new investigators. That is the huge challenge here. Sometimes we can find a lot of people, but almost all of them we have to pass off to the English missionaries, because we are looking for Spanish people!!! But it has been really good. We found this awesome guy from Africa named P. He was just outside weedwacking and we went up and talked to him. He was blown away by the fact that we would come out and leave our families to spread the gospel. We had one of the coolest lessons with him. I have 'holy envy' for the lucky missionaries that get to teach him. It was so cool to find him.

R is doing really well. She got confirmed this Sunday, and everything went great. I am so grateful for her. We are now starting to work even more with her daughter E. I have no doubt she will get baptized as well, she is just really shy so it will take a little more time. Not only that, but R is SUCH a good missionary. She invited almost all of her neighbors to her baptism, and she brought one of her friends to church on Sunday. It is so awesome. We all have a lot to learn about missionary work from the recent converts. They are the best missionaries.

We are teaching a guy named D and his little brother J and their mom L. We are super excited about them. D has been taught a lot in the past, but his big hold up was drinking. We could not get him to stop drinking. He really wanted to be baptized, and he loves the church, but that was the last hurdle. We stopped teaching him for a while, and one day he called us again after a couple of weeks and wanted us to come back and start teaching him again. Timing is so important. Now this time around, it has been so great teaching him. He is doing really well and he has a baptismal date for the 9th of November. Him and his brother are so fun to teach, because they are kind of like teaching kids. We teach really simply. I have come to see and learn that simplicity is so important. The gospel of Jesus Christ is really not that complicated, it just requires application. It has to be part of us. We cannot just talk about it, we must live it.

This week we made a lot of hospital visits which was kind of cool. The VA hospital is in our area so we get called in to go visit people there every so often. An inactive guy named C was there preparing for surgery. We had the opportunity to visit him a couple times. It was awesome. He is a changed man because of the trials he is facing at this time in his life. It was so cool to go and teach him and give him a blessing. He is truly changing his life, his perspective has changed. That is the key to life. Sometimes it takes big trials for that to happen, but we can learn to have that perspective change on our own. ALSO we got a call to go see Bro R who just had open heart surgery to remove a tumor from his heart. The R's are some of my favorite people of all time. They live in Duncan and I love them so much. It was awesome to go and visit him and his family. It was a surprise for them. Sister D was the one who called the mission office and sent us to go see them. It was so cool. It is a true miracle that Bro R is alive. Their family is so full of faith and love.

We have a lot of fun out here as well. In missionary work it is so important to learn how to laugh. Sometimes the situations we are in are pretty ridiculous especially when you knock on doors. We laugh a lot. One time this week, we knocked a door and all of a sudden I heard Elder P gasp and I look right to my left and there was a fake snake that looked SO real. I almost had a heart attack, because it was right next to me. We laughed for a long time about that one.

The work moves forward! We have been working so hard to find those that the Lord is preparing. I know that they are just waiting. I know that as we keep pressing forward we will find them.

The Gospel Principles class we have at the branch is the BEST sunday school class I have ever been in. I have been touched by the spirit so many times in that class. This week we talked about sacrifice. It has caused me to reflect a lot on why we make sacrifices and how grateful I am for the sacrifices that others have and are making for me. Ultimately, it has lead me to think about the sacrifice of the savior. He truly sacrificed for us. The greatest sacrifice of all time. We naturally come to love those who have sacrificed for us and those who we sacrifice for. That is why the Savior loves us so much, and that is why those who have used his atonement love Him so much. I thought of each of you on Sunday as we talked about this. Thank you for the sacrifices you make to make this possible for me. Thank you. I can never say that enough. Sacrifice is how we receive power. My life has been blessed by the sacrifices of others. When I am tired, when I want to take a break, I think of those who are and have sacrificed for me. Then I have the strength to keep sacrificing for the Lord. THANK YOU for your love and sacrifices for me. That has made all of this possible.

I love you all so much!

Adelante y Arriba (onward and upward)

LOVE

Elder Hughes