Monday, November 4, 2013

I Love This Mission! 11/4/13


So a lot has happened this past week and so far they are my favorite stories! We've been doing so much tracting, our mission president asks us to tract for 2 hours everyday. So we have a TON of potential investigators. But I've really found out who's really interested cause we have only a few progressing investigators. Some just don't understand that they have to follow through with their commitments. oh well. we'll get'em. WE actually had to stay in thrusday night starting at 6 pm cause they didn't want missionaries out just for safety. So we painted pumpkins and had chili and pumpkin pie:) oh and cornbread of course.
So! on thursdays we do a book of mormon reading with Sister williams. ( the black lady who was a drug dealer and is now preparing to go to the temple). She is a roommate with another lady named 'miss gloria' from columbia. Miss gloria lets just say.. she stays in her room all day and pretty much lives in their. Sister WIlliams rules the rest of the house. WEll when we showed up Sister williams was not in good spirits and was really stressed. Apparently miss gloria also stores her food , all of it!, in her closet. And over time some of the food got spoiled, but no it would be terrible for her to waste it! Sister williams had been complaining about flies always in her house and she never knew how they got in. Well she walks into miss glories room and low and behold their are flies everywhere! so she goes in the closet and ...... hold onto your seats. ... there were maggots all over the walls and her clothes. some hatched, some not hatched.. bugs everywhere. ya. GROSSSSSSS!!!  and we happened to walk in when she was in the middle of cleaning it up! good thing we had our service clothes with us. not. So we spent the next two hours cleaning out her closet and getting rid of maggots and nasty moth flies. ugh. I took the longest shower and scrubbed myself top to bottom thoroughly when i got home . It just amazed me at how many there were and the state of it all. it had to have been happening for about three weeks for it to get that bad. and the nastiest part of it all was she was eating her food and wearing her clothes from her closet. we had to go through and sort the clothes into deep cleaning piles and the dry cleaners. She didn't understand that everything needed to be washed. SHe would say " oh i just wore that yesterday though!" I don't care lady! you've been wearing maggots on your clothes for threee weeks! i'd buy a whole new wardrobe if i were you! ya.. i'll never forget that story. and i did not sleep that well that night. 
Here is the coolest story though. So on sunday at church the bishop pulls us sisters out of class and says he has an investigator in his office that wants to be baptized asap! Her name is Jane Smith* and she is from Iran. She has a brother who is in the Army and he met a mormon in the army about 9 years ago. He became very interested and was baptized. Ever since her brother has been telling Leila that this gospel is wonderful and the savior, Jesus Christ, is amazing. Leila though is in a country where the gov't is crazy and muslim is huge! She has been reading the bible, secretly the past ten years and learning about the gospel from her bother. So she has come to the united states to finally get baptized and see her brother. She had to sneak her bible in her airport or they probably would have killed her, so she said. I'm curious on how she got the bible in the first place, in her language, in her country! Well we ordered her a persian book of mormon and we only have about 2 weeks to teach her cause she is leaving to see her brother in utah and has to be home in Iran soon. Her faith in Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father is astounding and so inspiring! She has come all the way here to get baptized!!! She claims herself to be christian the past ten years and has wanted to come closer to Christ, and she not only wants to be baptized a christian, but she wants to be a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day SaintS!!! She came to our church because her mom lives in Marietta and our specific church is the one where her brother was baptized. The language barrier is hard so we are fasting today that it will be softened and broken when we teach. WE meet with her every night at 7 at the church cause her mom's house is outside of our mission area. We had to get special permission from the president to teach her cause she's in a different mission. but i'm so happy that we have been chosen to teach her! and the amazing part is that even though she speaks very little english, she understands what we say and teach because the spirit is so strong and testifies to her!!! so we are hoping that we can baptize her and get her confirmed before she goes. She is determined though to be baptized before she has to go home. I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!!!  She has come all this way to do this and she knows that she can't go to church or be active in meetings in her country. all she can do is read and pray to Heavenly Father and grow on her personal relationship with Him. So inspiring!!! I thought.. what am i willing to sacrifice or do to grow in my relationship with Heavenly Father and my savior? How strong is my faith in Him? and i just got so tickled because i want to tell her about temples and the awesomeness of it all, that she can do work for her family and loved ones, but she has to be Iran and I hope she comes back so she can do all that. I plan on getting her address so i can write her and keep in contact. She is absolutely amazing! I love that she came to our church, the one i was at, and we get to teach her! we get the privilege of helping her. After our first lessons, she looked at me and said, "Thank you, thank you!! you are all my friends,, my sisters!" I may or may not of teared up and attacked her with the biggest hug. I've wondered why i was called to Sandy plains at this time, my first area. and this is why. and may there be more opportunities like this!!! btw, i recommend reading the story called muslim to mormon, it was in the ldsliving magazine and that guys story is amazing! also we ran into another muslim/christian lady while tracting and we had the longest discussion with her, offered her a book of mormon and i hope that turns out well. What's with all this muslim stuff?! ha i find it kind of funny! It tells me that people are seeking peace, they are seeking CHrist! Reminds me of "The vision of the South" a quote by Spencer W. Kimball. If you haven't heard it, look that up also. I hope i'm a part of it and i see it on my mission. 
THis has been a good, crazy week and I love it! Thank you every one for the emails and letters. I appreciate the awesome pics too:) I'll send some to ya'll too!
Love Sister Hulme


* name has been changed to prevent the new convert from losing her life and Lexie and Natalie from having to enter the witness protection program...


Sister Debry, Sister Andersen, and Sister Hulme

The view from Lexie's apartment.  Atlanta in the distance…

Lexie's backyard...

Celebrating Halloween...

A cute walking trail by her apartment...

The church parking lot…

Sister Williams and Sister Hulme cleaning up the maggots…There must be awesome blessings for cleaning up maggots…

Lexie claims she found the Tree of Life…  In Georgia...









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