Hola Familia!!!!
It sounds like you guys are all doing great!!!! I love hearing from you guys. What an exciting time it is for everyone there. Your pictures look awesome mom. I KNOW that I need to be way better at taking pictures haha. Thank you for your heads up on that. I will improve mucho on that. I am doing great here in Duncan. The weather is heating up! We are going into the 80s this week, and it scares me because once it is hot here it never stops from what I hear.
This week has been a good one, not nearly as crazy and exciting as Tanner's sounds haha. Duncan is a very small town with very down to earth country people, so life truly does move a little slower here. Sometimes I really like that, sometimes it is tough, just because change can be a slow process here. We went and taught a guy we found tracting a lesson, his name is D. He was cool, he only really wanted to talk to us though to find out facts about our church. That can sometimes be a challenge to help people feel how important our message is and to help people know what our purpose is as missionaries. On Tuesday some members gave us some money to go out to eat. We couldn't decide between the 3 places to eat here haha so we flipped a coin. Turns out as we walked up to the lucky winner Hilda's Cafe, T and S, our investigators walked up to eat at exactly the same time! It was a crazy 'coincidence' and I have learned on my mission that there truly are no coincidences in the work of the Lord. It was great to be with them. They are such wonderful people. We had more lessons with S this week, and they all went good, we are still trying to help her really progress. BUT hopefully this week we can have a breakthrough. One of our lessons right at the end, it was pretty cool, I just had this random prompting to ask her husband T if he had received a patriarchal blessing. We talked about it for a while, and are working to help him to get his. He is an Elder and grew up in the church, but never got one. It is amazing to how the spirit whispers to me every day. That is the best feeling in the world to get a prompting and to follow it.
We had a great Zone meeting this week. I need those 'pep talks' that Dad wrote me about once. Sometimes as a missionary I need a pick me up and that is how our meeting was. They challenged us to start and awesome program. It is called a 40 day purification. We each fasted for 24 hrs and made a list of all the things that we need to do in order to have the spirit with us more as missionaries. Then for 40 days we pray morning and night and go over our lists and how we did each day. It is definitely not an easy thing, but it has already started to help me out alot. It helps me focus on all the MANY ways I need to improve as a missionary, and then really apply it. I am excited to see how it goes.
I also went on exchanges this week with my District Leader Elder E. He and I have been in the same district for 3 transfers and we have become really good friends. It was alot of fun.
I FINALLY got to have another lesson with A. It was SO great. I love that man and his family so much. Every time I am with him it reminds me why I am out here serving. He is a wonderful guy. I feel so blessed that I got to be even a small part of his conversion.
We worked with alot of inactives this week, which is really important. It is great to be able to help the lost sheep come back into the fold.
I finished the Book of Mormon this week. I love that book so much. IT IS TRUE. It has changed my life. I am always amazed at the lessons I learn from it.
Funny story from church, A's little daughter is adorable. I accidentally left my scriptures at their house at the lesson. (typical Taylor) I went back and got them the next day. Well A's daughter I guess kept saying 'oracion left his scriptures'. Which oracion is the spanish word for prayer. So we were all cracking up because I guess she attributes us as missionaries to the word prayer. Pretty awesome.
We went on some amazing hikes today in Clifton. and YES I took pictures haha.
I have grown alot this week. I have learned so much about patience out here as a missionary. Sometimes it is hard when people aren't progressing or no matter how hard you try you can't find anyone to teach. Many times we want to see success NOW we want blessings NOW. I have learned so much about how the Lord needs us to be doing all we can do, and that we then have to wait patiently for his timing. That affects all parts of our lives, but I have seen it even more as a missionary. I am so grateful for all that I have been blessed with. I love you guys so much. Thank you for your sacrifices in helping me serve. Every day I strive to do all that I can do to honor your sacrifices for me. There is no way I could do this without you guys. I love you all so much!!!!
LOVE,
Elder Hughes
No comments:
Post a Comment