Elder Taylor Hughes: Hello!

Hello there family!!!

I am coming you from the EAC campus today! It has been an exciting week, we have been very very busy, with lots to get done. Transfer weeks are always a bit crazy, so we are glad to be finally settling into our normal routine. It has been really fun getting to know the members here. It is strange to be back in a college environment again. It is so much fun. It is a bit slow on the missionary work side of things here, because almost all the students are gone for the summer. In a little over a month or so they will all be back, and the work should heat up quick. There are quite a few people students that almost got baptized at the end of the last semester who will be back to finish the deal when they get here. We have the most amazing bishop of the YSA ward here. He is so darn awesome. One of the best bishop's I have ever seen. He is a very inspired man of God and he is very focused on missionary work. Historically his ward has baptized the most in the stake by a long shot.

Elder H my companion is awesome. We get along great! That is so funny that grandpa and his dad know each other. They will have to take a pic and send it our way haha. We have been working hard to find new investigators this week. Thatcher is VERY mormon. Probably 70+ percent, so we have to get very creative, and it takes time, but we are excited.

There is an a great family we are teaching here. It is actually a grandma who is raising all her grandkids. We found them by just talking to them when we walked by. They have been through quite a bit of tough things in their lives, and the grandma (sis M) is a very inactive member. We have had some very powerful lessons with them. We had one this week on prayer, and it went really well. What was even sweeter was when we returned the next day, they had all prayed together as a family and had some very powerful spiritual experiences. That is music to our ears. It is amazing what happens when we have the faith to ACT. That is truly the key. We have seen small changes in them, and we are excited to keep working with them. The gospel truly blesses families. That is the 2nd principle we teach in the missionary lessons, because that is how important it is.

We are also working on reactivating a kid named A. He is going to be a Senior in high school, and he wants to change his life. He has struggled alot in high school, and he has some pretty bad family situations, but he is doing well. He is just soaking up all that we teach him. We had some powerful experiences with him this week.

Since our YSA area covers all the other missionaries' areas we end up finding lots of people for them to teach. We have found some really prepared people, which was pretty exciting.

We had the chance this week to participate in a youth conference from the Sahuarita stake, that came up here and stayed at the college. It was a blast. We taught some classes on missionary work to all the youth. It was great fun. They even had the chance to teach some 'investigators' like we do in the MTC. It was so fun. A bunch of the kids there were from Nogales! So it was a big family reunion! It was so fun to be with all of them. Some of the young men that we worked with there have received their mission calls. R's son M was there as well.

This week we had the chance to go to MLC again. It was the first one with President Passey, and it was wonderful. A spiritual feast. He and his wife are amazing people, with wonderful new ideas and insights for the work here. I learned much there. He is coming up here for interviews this week, and we found out that he is actually spending the night in our apt with us haha. A sleep over with the mission president :) Kind of funny, we are excited to get to know him better.

One thing that we talked alot about this week in our meetings was about Charity. Oh how important that gift is. Truly "Charity never faileth." In the words of Elder Holland "Christlike love is the greatest need we have on this planet in part because righteousness was always supposed to accompany it. So if love is to be our watchword, as it must be,then by the word of Him who is love personified, we must forsake transgression and any hint of advocacy for it in others. Jesus clearly understood what many in our modernculture seem to forget: that there is a crucial difference between the commandment to forgive sin (which He had an infinite capacity to do) and the warning against condoning it(which He never ever did even once). Friends, especially my young friends, take heart. Pure Christlike love flowing from true righteousness can change the world." Charity and obedience are connected attributes. We show our love for god by keeping his commandments. The world and our neighbors and family and friends all need charity. We need to be worthy of receiving the gift of Charity from God. We must pray for it. Thank you for the Charity and love that you have always showed me. I will be forever grateful for that example. It is through being "true followers of Jesus Christ" that we can become like him.

I truly do love each of you

Elder Hughes

PS On a scary/exciting/sad/happy note. My plane ticket was purchased today to arrive in Sacramento on Oct 16