(no pictures again this week, he promised me he would send some next week :) )
Hello there family!
It is great to hear from you guys as always. I love to read everything that you guys write me. It really helps me so much. It sounds like all is well with you guys. It feels like it was just yesterday that we were all getting prepared to leave on this mission, and it was a year ago! What a ride it has been. I love you guys and miss you guys. I love to hear that Riley is doing so well. That makes me so happy! Did him and Zach get my letters? I LOVE bro Sterri. I loved his class. Honestly his class prepared me so much for this mission and especially for the temple. That is why I invited him to come to the temple with us when we went through was because he played a key role in my life in preparing me for that. Speaking of the temple we are going to the temple on Wed. this week. I am so excited. I love the temple. It is a refuge from the storm. I always leave feeling strengthened and ready to face the challenges that life brings (and especially that this mission brings) Ahhhh fall. I really don't think that Arizona knows what fall is haha. It is still hot and deserty as always :) Getting back into a routine is always nice. We definately have a routine here. It is definitely a marathon. I have compared it to being handcuffed to a treadmill. You don't get off, even when you are really really tired, BUT it makes us so much stronger. It forces us to rely on the Lord and turn to him for the peace and comfort that we need. That is fun that dad gets to travel to Utah!
It has been a crazy week here. We have been focusing a ton on finding new investigators, because most of ours have fallen through and we really only have 2 right now. So we have spent many many many hours this week knocking doors and asking for refferals and planning open houses and lots of different things. It has been good. We have found quite a few people. The only problem is that they don't speak spanish. When we find people who don't speak spanish we have to hand them off to the english elders, so we have been finding alot for them haha.
One awesome miracle we had this week. We hadn't biked in a while since Elder B doesn't have a bike since he is waiting for his visa. But one day this week we decided to bike, so we borrowed the bike of one of the missionaries, and set off on our six mile trek in 100 degree heat haha. Little did we know that the Lord needed us to bike on this day. We were going along, and a guy asked Elder Alston where our church is at. He slammed the brakes and talked with him. We all ended up having a thirty minute lesson on the street corner. This guy has been so prepared. His name is C, and he just moved here to live in a halfway house. He is recovering from drug and alcohol addictions, and is looking to change his life. One of his good friends is serving a mission right now, so he know a bit about the church, and had tons of questions. It was an awesome lesson. He is so prepared. He even asked us how he can become a member of the church, great question haha. It was amazing. I marvel at how the Lord uses us to accomplish his purpose's. Sometimes I feel like I work so hard and nothing is accomplished. I doubt. I am ashamed that I do that, but the Lord always sends me little miracles like this one that show me once again that he is using us. As long as we are giving our very best he can and will use us to accomplish his work.
Our trio is doing really well. We have alot of fun together. We laugh alot, which we need out here. It helps us deal with some of the things we face.
I went on splits this week with Elder J. He is from Guatemala actually! It was really fun. We had a blast. He demolished me on the bike, I am so out of shape right now haha. We were able to visit lots of inactive members. I love doing that. I love serving and helping those that have strayed away.
You would have been proud of out creativity this week. We had an open house for the church building, and we had a video all ready to show, but they didn't have the right cords and everything was all messed up. We put together the most insane set up of cords and tv's so that we could get the video on the screen with sound. It was really funny.
Last night we had a fireside for all of the spanish branches here in Tucson and President Killpack spoke. I had never heard him speak in spanish before, because he is just starting to learn it. It was really funny to hear him talk in Spanish. Strangely he has a German accent when he speaks in Spanish haha. It was an amazing fireside. I felt the spirit so strong. I need those moments sometimes to remind me that no matter what. No matter if no one listens, or if we don't seem to be making progress, it is by small and simple things that great things are brought to pass. We just have to do our best. So we keep pressing forward! I am excited for a new week. Raquel our investigator has been struggling, we are continuing to be patient and work with her. Oh how the Lord teaches us patience out here. I read a talk this week by Elder Uchdorf about Patience. It was awesome. It made me see that patience is much much much more than just waiting. It is about perservering. It is about doing everything we can, and expecting the best from ourselves and then being patient in waiting for the blessings to come. I have learned about this alot here. I love being a missionary. I love what we get to go out and do every day.
Thank you for your prayers and love. I miss you and think about you every day. I feel of your prayers, and I hope you can feel of mine. Pray every day to be placed in an opportunity to help someone else. I know that the Lord answers those prayers. He does for me. I know that the Savior lives. I have always known it, but it has become my sure foundation. I have no doubt that he is with each of us.
I love you all!
Until next week!
Elder Hughes
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