Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Sister Goobs 12/30/13

This is Sister Goobs, or Narysa roberts. She's the best! we love her! she has such a strong testimony.




Happy New Year 12/30/13

Hello Family and Friends!
Christmas in Georgia was wonderful! Thank you to everyone for the wonderful presents and goodies! I loved hearing from y'all and getting your fun cards. We had such a great christmas! We pulled out our beds into the living room and slept by our little 2 foot tree with  millions of presents underneath it. On tuesday night we watched the Nativity, and Mr. Kruger's Christmas.. because they were the only ones approved, and we had such a fun night. On Christmas morning we woke up super excited and wide awake, it was very easy to wake up at 6:30 then! we started by reading in luke 2, matthew 1, and 3nephi1. Then we said a prayer and then busted open our presents! I loved them all. We have so much sugar and treats though, we are so sick of them and we giving them out like crazy. But i did enjoy some of them:) We visited three families that day, we had a breakfast lunch and dinner appts. When we got home we realized what a mess we had left in our apartments. It took a couple of days to clean up. 
It was sooo good to talk to everyone too! Next time we have to plan Skype or the calls better because apparently i took too much time and my companions were a little annoyed by it. I felt bad, but i have a big family:) We were really worried that we would have a hard time jumping back into the work but the next day we were excited, and it just felt natural, familiar to be a real missionary again. We noticed that because of christmas we had slacked off a little bit on the work and the rules, but we also noticed that it just felt so good to be a normal real missionary again. We sort of missed it.
We had a baptism on Friday for Karina.  She is such a doll and i love her so much! We met her by a family named the Wagner's. she is dating their son and came to dinner that night we had dinner with them also. WHat a coincidence! She became interested in taking lessons and lo and behold she is now baptized! She has come so far and we have just been here to witness the spirit do it's work with her. She was absolutely glowing on Sunday after being confirmed. We're pretty positive that she and the Wagner's son will get married but not for another year. That means they can go to the temple! They are working on that and i'm so happy for them. Karina actually pulled us aside on Sunday after church and thanked us for all that we did for her, this gospel and church means everything to her now, and she is so happy and grateful to be a part of it. She had known about it for a while from her boyfriend, the wagner son, but she didn't know what she was missing out on. This work really does bring so much joy and i'm grateful to be so involved in it all. (D&C 18:15-18) 
On Sunday we had one of our investigators come to church, her name is Dorian. SHe is 18 years old and lives in the same apartments as us. We met her last pday when we came up to email. SHe wants to find a church, (church shopping) and she was interested in ours. We had a lesson with her on friday, and we had our friend Narysa (sister goobs) with us, she is a member of our ward. (i'm telling ya, us members have a huge role and are vital to this work!) We found out that she lives with her sister who is 25 and their mom committed suicide two years ago. SHe wants to find peace and happiness, and she knows that her mom is telling her to find a church or something to help. When she came to church, she grabbed all sorts of pamphlets, cards, and in sunday school she was writing down notes on her program with a bunch of scriptures on them. She then asked to look at my PREACH MY GOSPEL book and asked if she could get one. I told her she could but she would have a cheat sheet for all the lessons we would teach her. nah, its probably better for her to just have the book instead of listening to us! She is such an angel. We wish transfers weren't' next week so we could all be here for her baptism. i know she will be baptized, cause she is amazing! 
We had to teach the lesson though in Relief Society, on Hastening the Work. We talked about the roles as missionaries and as members. Member really have the biggest responsibility. If you think of it as pyramid.. Members are the foundation, next is home/visiting teaching, then comes us missionaries, and last is the investigator, less active, recent convert. The most influential and biggest priority is the members on the bottom. They have the biggest responsibility in inviting, befriending, serving, and sharing the gospel with others. Each step of the pyramid leads up to the top, (the investigator, less active, recent convert). The missionaries are there to assist the members in the work. I felt like we pretty much gave a throw down to the relief society and guilt tripped them. But they were so involved and really enjoyed it. At the end we gave everyone a mormon.org card and committed them to give it to some one within the next week, and we would followup with them next sunday. AFter church we got home and already had one sister call us saying she gave it out! We were very proud of her. We also encouraged that they have people or a friend come over when they have us over for dinner. We thought of making it so we couldn't come over at all unless someone was there, but we might lose some of our dinners and those are too important to us:) 
I have such a testimony though of missionary work. Not because i'm a missionary but because as a member this is our calling and we must share the gospel with God's children. We have been so blessed to have our testimonies and have the gospel. But we must not take this blessing for granted. It is a commandment for us to share it. The only way to keep it and strengthen this blessing is to share it. I want to continue sharing it after my mission. After giving that lesson I plan on being a better member and representative of Christ by doing what the Lord has commanded us after my mission. There are so many blessings and it brings so much joy! Alma 26 will tell ya a lot of those blessings. 
I hope everyone has as happy new year! And as a missionary i challenge y'all to bring one soul unto christ by next christmas! it starts in our homes but get out of your comfort zone and find someone! Love y'all! Happy new year of 2014!
Christmas Eve.  


Our beds in the living room.  We were so excited!

Christmas morning.  What a mess!

Waiting for the font to fill for Karina's baptism.

Beautiful Karina.  I love her so much.

My umbrella broke and wouldn't go down so i had to sit in the front seat the whole ride home with a big umbrella in front of me. The sisters couldn't stop laughing. I was ticked. It seems like i have to buy everything twice at walmart cause i either lose it or it breaks.

Merry Christmas!! 12/23/13

I am just loving this time of year! And I first want to say thanks to everyone for the letters and presents. I'm excited to see what's inside. We have so many presents under our little christmas tree it looks awesome. I also got some christmas cards from families, y'all look so good! We've really been enjoying this christmas so far. We've been doing so much caroling! it's so fun. SIster anderson has a beautiful voice and so does sister Debry. We do a fun trio and everyone loves it. We love it too. We actually sang Silent Night as a trio yesterday in sacrament, and we joined in the choir program. It was so fun and the spirit was so strong. It reminded me of the fun program they do at my home ward, of course it didn't compare to wonderful talents we have at home. It was so fun to be involved with the ward though. We had at least 5 of our investigators come to church yesterday and they really enjoyed it. We have been teaching a family, a mom named Lisa and her two daughters who we tracted into. They have been really looking for a church to go to because the daughters have never been to church. They call it church shopping here ha. But we gave them a church tour and they seemed to really like it and be positive about it all. That was 3 weeks ago and they haven't come to church yet. The mom has been out of town for business for a couple weeks and on Friday she had told us that she was sick. We called them and invited them to church for this sunday, telling them that it was our christmas program and they would really enjoy it. But we were so bummed that they didn't show up. The mom did tell us that she's nervous because she still doesn't know what to expect and she doesn't like being the center of attention. We told her that the ward members were very nice and welcoming and they would help her. She obviously is very nervous and scared to show up. We are going to work very hard with them though. They are so sweet and this is just what they need,  This is what everyone needs but they are ready. Yesterday we went to visit Maxine and dexter. Ha they are two oooolllllddd people who live together. She's a member but he isn't. Maxine sounds like the old lady car with the gruffy voice off of the movie cars, who sells the bumber stickers. Dexter is hilarious!!! He wouldn't stop talking about how he loves to see us young beautiful girls and the special feeling we bring into their home. i'm pretty sure he's cross-eyed and has bad vision though. I had a hard time understanding what he's talking about and following him, he would say " and that there right there yep and this that yep and god is here and that's what i feel and that's what im going to say and that's what i'm doing. yep!" haha he's such a crazy gomer. WE sang them a couple christmas songs, and after wards we looked at them, and he would just opening and closing his mouth and nothing would come out, like he was speechless, shaking his head like a dummy. Ha my favorite was at the end we shared a christmas poem with them and we asked him what he liked about the poem considering he acted so amazed by it. He could only say "well, honestly i dont really remember what it's about but i bet it was just great! you girls are so great! i just love having ya here and that there!...." ya you get the idea. haha. I hope to see them many times again. Maxine did say though that she wants to come back to church but she doesn't own a single dress or skirt. We told her it didn't matter. Then she said Dexter won't stop yapping his mouth away. But we said that doens't matter either, as long as you come. 
I'm so excited for this week and what it has instore. I love this time of year here and i'm so grateful that we get to celebrate not only our savior's birth but what he did for us, His entire life. May y'all have a very merry christmas and remember the gift that our  father and Savior so graciously gave us. Also remember the challenge from conference.. bring one soul unto christ this christmas.. yep we are! this friday we have a baptism with Karina. She is so excited and we are too. Have a great week! 
And im super stoked to talk to the fam!!!!! love y'all!
Love, Sister hulme

Monday, December 16, 2013

Hello Ya'll!! 12/16/13

Dear Family and Friends,
    Everything is just going great in Sandy Plains, Georgia! The weather has been good, kinda cold, but not nearly as cold as home by the way it sounds. Sorry you have to live through that. At least you have snow, we miss that a lot here. The mornings have been extremely cold, we sometimes go running in the morning up to the apartment gym. But i remind myself that it's not in the negatives and i'm not running through a snow storm. We have been getting crazy rainstorms though. Obviously, because last week we lost our phone in one. It's bad though because in the mornings it freezes and its really scary to drive. And people in georgia don't know how to drive anyways. They claim that this is the coldest winter they've had in awhile, maybe because us from out west  brought it with us. 
    We have this family we are teaching, the parents are Fred and Pam and they are not married. They have three kids who are so cute, Asian, Lil' Fred, and Honesty. (Apparently all black males are named fred). We have been teaching and visiting them for a month now and things have been good but hard. THis tuesday we visited them and planned to teach them the plan of salvation, which i was in charge of. But we showed up at the wrong time.. Little did we know that we are also family counselors. THings sort of blew up between the parents and oldest child and we sat there not knowing what to do! The oldest child, Asian, has been a trouble maker and causing them so much grief. Quite a few words were said and some i wish to never hear again. I was ready to just stand up and tell my companions that we needed to leave because it wasn't good for us to be around contention.. yet i couldn't get myself to stand in the first place. Something told me to just stay. The dad, Fed, ended up marching off to his room like a little kid, which i was disappointed in him because he said the choicest of words. My companion eventually piped up and asked if we could say a prayer for the family and for some peace in the home. Pam was all for it, Asian on the other hand was sulking like a little punk but agreed. It was amazing by the time we had to leave though! The spirit changed dramatically and asian agreed to come to mutual next week with us. Who knows, if we hadn't stayed they could be fighting! Pam told her once that she had the choice of either walking to her grandma's or packing her stuff and finding somewhere else to go. I wanted to pipe up and tell her don't say that cause she will find somewhere else to go and it'll be the last place you'll want her to be! The next time we visited them was last night and they seemed to be enjoying their night. Pam was struggling with her reading which I wasn't happy with. But she committed to reading a quick couple of scriptures every morning for five minutes, or whenever she had the time. We're meeting with them tomorrow and we'll see how its been going for her so far. They are just a fun family. Last night Fred cooked us up some quick pancakes and breakfast stuff, even though we had no idea and we were not hungry in the least bit. They have so little yet they are always willing to give so much. I want to come back and visit them for sure after the mission. 
     On Friday we had exchanges, Sister anderson and I went to Woodstock with Sister Dunn, She's from Logan. We met one of their recent converts named Brother Henderson. He's in his seventy's but is the sweetest old man! He loves hunting and told us he bought some amazing night vision binoculars off of a black market. Haha He's a die hard. His backyard is chuck full of targets and looks like a shooting range. He told us his conversion story though. His wife died last June and she made him promise that he would get baptized, she didn't say which church but that he would just get baptized. Well the woodstock sisters tracted into him and soon afterwards he was baptized! He said that the book of mormon, the history, everything about our church makes sense. But moreover he has the strongest testimony i've heard about Joseph Smith. I'm so happy for him, and i can see how blessed he is for this gospel and the knowledge he's gained. The next morning we had a ward breakfast with santa that we went to and Brother Henderson came. Everyone was in their pj's except Him, He showed up in Slacks and a nice sweater.. I hardly recognized him from the day before when i met him! That time he was in the dirtiest of jeans and an old hunting sweatshirt, with a camo fishing hat. He was so cute though. The children just love him! Before we left the party i said to him, "It was such a pleasure to meet you Brother Henderson, I hope we see each other again!" ANd He just smiled his toothless grin and said "It's always such a treat to see you beautiful sisters and may God bless ya till we meet again." I wanted to cry cause it was so tender and sweet the way he said it!!! I miss that man already. I mentioned that i wish there were more people like him in Sandy plains, and he said there is.. we just have to find them. Ha He is right though, and find them we will! 
      We also have been teaching a girl named Karina who is a friend to a family in our ward named the Wagner's. She is getting baptized the 28 this month. WE are soooo excited and happy for her, she's our golden investigator. Everything has been so smooth and great with her. She's dating the family's son Grant and the mom told us that he's planning on proposing to her sometime soon. He is the one who is going to baptize and confirm her. Best love story ever! She's told us that she has been taking the discussions though and wants to be baptized for her, not him or the family, but because she truly wants to know. She sees how happy they are and wants to have a family like them. She's from ecuador and doesn't have much family here. She has found so much peace and belonging when she comes closer to Christ through the restored gospel. I love it, every bit! And i'm so grateful to have been a part of this and see the spirit convert her! 
    


The Georgia Sunsets are Gorgeous!

Sister Debry and I were twins today.  :)

Monday, December 9, 2013

Three days without a cell phone! 12/9/13

This week has been really good! We had a ward christmas party and us missionaries had to do a skit for part of the show. Ya that was fun.. we did that thing where one sticks their arms through and acts like the other persons arms.. i was the arms for sister Debry. They cracked up pretty hard. Poor sister, i had to put makeup on her and she looked like a hot mess. The christmas party was so fun though. We had a family come to the party and they enjoyed it so much. it was their first time meeting the ward and coming to the church. We were slightly nervous how they would feel. But of course the spirit was awesome and so is the ward, and they said it was amazing. The mom mentioned that she felt so loved and welcomed so that made me super happy. We also gave a church tour to a family that we tracted into on Tuesday night and they sounded so promising! The mom has a catholic background and her daughters have never  been to church and they have been interested in finding one they like. AFter having the first discussion with them the mom was so eager to set up a church tour. Well we finally had one and the father came too. He mentioned that he was there for moral support, but by the end he said he'd take baby steps. We commited them to come to church but they didn't show up. We were very  bummed after that but we are planning on visiting them soon. I don't want to see them turn away that fast, so im praying hard that they will accept this gospel. 
Last night we had a family take us to this event called "Walk through Bethelehem" and that was so fun! They have a whole village set up just like Bethlehem and people are dressed up and reinact as people back when Christ was born. Besides it being super cold and raining, we loved it! 
Haha so we had a very funny moment on Friday night. WE had made our last visit and were on our way out to the car. Sister anderson was still standing outside in the pouring rain though while we were climbing in, and we look back at her and she is just standing there with a worried look on her face and in shock. All she could say was "uh.... uh..." so we jump out and she is holding our cell phone up and there is no battery in it! Remember that it is pouring cats and dogs outside! She explained that she dropped the phone in the gutter, which was a raging river becuase it was flowing down hill, and she went to pick it up but the battery just kept going along in the river! We started chasing after it in the pouring rain and looked everywhere for that battery!!! Sadly we didn't find it but we did have a grand ol' time in the rain! we spent a good 15 minutes trying to search for it and meanwhile cars were driving by and wondering what the heck we were doing. So for the past three days we have been without a phone and no one can get ahold of us. We are doing this old school now. hopefully we get one this week becuase we've found it very hard to manage without one. Haha we thanked Sister Anderson though for a good laugh. 
It's been actually really cold here in Georgia. It gets down to about 28 degrees and i know it doesn't compare to that -21 there... but man it's cold! it is constantly raining and its so bone chilling with the wind. Luckily i have some warm gear like coats and scarves and hats cause my companions have nothing. We went and bought some warm stuff today though so we should be good. 
I'm sorry that this email came late today and i didnt' have much time to email some individuals. But i sent everyone something in the mail. I hope y'all get it:) Love ya and take care!
Sister Hulme
Three wet Sisters...

Monday, December 2, 2013

Notes from the Primary 12/2/13

Mary Crane sent me a package of letters from the primary children.  I love the one from Joey McDowell.  "I don't know what it's like to be on a mission, but I hope you have a great time."  It made my day!!


"It's Christmastime!" 12/2/13

Well i survived thanksgiving! We visited four families and I had a hard time not going for seconds at each house, but by the time we got to the third home i could barely eat half of my plate! it was just amazing though. The families here are so great. They take such good care of us. WE had a "thankedimony" at one home and it was just sooo great. I bore mine on how i'm so grateful for the pure love of Christ and to see how the gospel blesses families as we go from home to home. I have learned so much from being in people's homes and i just wish my future family can be like them all! 
On Friday we had the best opportunity ever though! Our mission has a little incentive that if we get forty baptisms a month, those who participated get to go to the temple. Because we had a baptism with leila, we got to go!!!!! oh it was just amazing, beautiful, and i loved it so much! It was just what we needed since last week was hard. AFter the temple our mission president said to us, "We must remember that we are here to save the people on this side of the veil, not the other, but the temple has many blessings and helps us in so many ways. But I want ya'll to think of your investigators wearing white, because we are going to have a white christmas! We bring them closer to CHrist and have them baptized so they can baptized their families and ancestors." How true this is. We need to do this work here so they can do the work for their families. I just love the temple so much and am so grateful for it.
On wednesday though we woke up to snow! WE only had it for a half hour and then it started to warm up. When it snows though the people here act like it's the end of the world and they stay inside. make me kind of laugh. It doesn't even stick to the ground. But the snow is like ice and it makes the roads a little scary. Actually the people in Georgia make the roads scary because they don't know how to drive in it. Oh well. i was just super happy to see it when i woke up. But man it was cold! The wind makes it super chilly,  I'm getting so used to the climate here that i get so cold when i hear 30 degrees. I'm going to die when i get home .
THanks everyone for your emails. I pray for ya'lll and i hope everything is going well. Merry Christmas! Enjoy the snow. I obviously miss it. 

The morning after it snowed...


Lexie and her companions showing off their "food babies."  Lexie totally wins.  Those other gals aren't even trying!!