A Fresh New Transfer | week 98

Hey there family!

Thank you mom for your wonderful message. I hope you got some more sleep :) I loved reading all the small and simple joys that come into your life. I have found that you can really tell alot about people by what small and simple joy's they see in life. I loved all the pictures. Rafting looks like it was a blast. And so was the first day of school. Riley and Zach man look SOOOOOOO old. What happened?!?!?!? How tall is Zach? We had our own 'first day of school' here at EAC yesteday. It was the first day of classes here. Boy, has it been quite a week for us here at EAC. Lots of exciting things are happening. It can be kind of overwhelming at times. A feeling I know each of you are acquainted with.

I am short on time today, so I will have to be brief. We had transfer calls this weekend. Unfortunately Elder H got transferred. I will miss him, he has been one of my favorite companions. Elder G is here with me now. He is really awesome as well. He is from upstate new york, and goes to BYU as well. He is a great guy. It is going to be a good one. They combined two zones so we are now over 30 missionaries. We have been running around like crazy today trying to get everyone situated. Between last transfer and this transfer there are 8 new missionaries in our zone, so we have been very busy.

School started this week! It was very exciting!! THERE ARE PEOPLE HERE NOW!!! YAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (That is how I feel about it) We cover 4 wards, of a total of 400+ YSA's here at the college. Sunday, all the ward were combined into a mega meeting to re-figure out the boundaries. It was quite a sight. We are excited to get to work! We have already received some referrals.

Last week we started teaching an amazing investigator named A. He is from Mexico, and he only speaks Spanish and French. He is 25, and is a dentist in Mexico. Through a series of miraculous events with members of the church, he immigrated here to the US to come here to study English. He has been very prepared by the Lord. He is hilarius as well. I have never laughed so hard in lessons. He is also very spiritually attune, and we have already had some wonderful experiences with him. He is one of those people who is not afraid to act in faith. He will do anythings we ask him to do. That is really what it is all about! Those are the kind of people we are looking for. Those who will act in faith. We asked him to pray about the Book of Mormon, and he got right down on his knees and prayed about it. We have been marveling. The spanish sisters in the branch here have been helping me teach him, so I don't have to do it by myself. He has a baptismal date for the 13th of September, which is very exciting. I am so excited for him.

This week I also had the chance to attend Hope's funeral in Duncan. Elder M, who is here in the Gila Valley (who served in Duncan as well) and I got permission to go to her services. It was very sad, because she died so young, but there was also so much joy in knowing the plan of salvation. We laughed alot during her funeral as people told stories from her life. She was a very entertaining and wild lady, so she had some pretty great stories. It was wonderful to remember her in that way. Everyone was smiling and crying at the same time. Funerals have a way of putting everything into perspective. One person who spoke said something that really touched me. They talked about how we forgot to tell the people we love how much we love them. We forget to put things into the right perspective. That it is sad, that sometimes it is only at times of someone's sudden death that we realize what is really important in life. It really shouldn't be that way. They spoke about the importance of telling the ones we love, how we really feel about them, while we still have the chance.

Those thoughts led me to each of you. I cannot every say enough how much I love you. I am so grateful for your sacrifice, love, help, guidance, and support that you have given to me throughout my life. I stand all amazed at how blessed I have been.

We have a very busy, and very exciting week ahead. A general authority is coming for an all day conference on monday, so P day will be on tue again next week. We have a new zone to get organized, practically a new area to begin, and lots of the Lord's work to do. I am so very excited. I love with all my heart the opportunity I have had to be a missionary.

Hurrah for Israel!!

love

Elder Hughes