Monday, August 25, 2014

Zone conference...and other awesome miracles… 8/25/14

Hey fam!
Thanks for the birthday wishes:) I don't know if i'm ready to turn 20, but goodbye to the younger years! 
So this week we had an amazing zone conference! President Bennion talked to us how we are an obedient, diligent mission.. but now its time to take it to the next level of Love and Unity. There was some great trainings on that, and Sister George and I are trying to focus on Love and Unity with our ward. Its reallly just what they need. 
 About a year ago, there was something called the Monroe Massacre.. yeah it wasn't a good thing. So the WML's wife got ahold of some anti stuff and eventually the whole family was antied.. it breaks my heart. But the sad thing is, is the father, the WML didn't want to leave, he kept true to his calling till the day he left. He siad he needed to stay with his wife and she was too hard-headed to come back. But she had sent a mass email to the members of the ward with the anti stuff, telling them to sincerely search, and sadly a couple other families also fell away. The bishop's wife (current) was great friends with the family and had tried to help in any way, but they had gone so far astray. Well, since then, this ward has been broken and fallen apart, and the bishop and us missionaries are trying to mend things back together.  We had dinner with the bishop's family saturday night... which we had huckleberry pancakes with syrup:).. but he talked with us in getting a new Ward Mission Leader. The one we have now is a little old and doesn't know the new way of doing the work. So we talked about who would be good for the calling, and he said he would pray about some the names we gave. THat made us excited. But what made me more excited was an idea the bishop gave. He wants each of the families to have a ward mission plan, written on an index card, and given to us missionaries. THat way when we meet with the families, we know what they're working on, and we can follow up and see what they need help with. I got super excited about that! He has some awesome ideas and we're excited to help change this ward. The way to bring them in unity and love is to get them involved in missionary work. That applies to everything.. visiting/home teaching, reactivation, meetings of all kinds, youth firesides.. you name it. And we're witnessing so many miracles, we know the Lord is helping us here! 
So this yesterday we had 7 investigators at church... 7! 4 of which we met at church and became new investigators. We have been tracting and praying all week for miracles and new investigators. Well on saturday night we sent out the church invites to our investigators through texting, and most of them said they weren't going to make it. Even our one on-date, jamie. We were a little discouraged. But Sunday morning, Niki texted us and said she was coming along with her daughters, and we found out that the Hernandez family who once took discussions from missionaries, but still kept in contact with some of the ward members, were coming. And we also met  a woman named Alicia who is a nonmember, and she came with her mom who is a member. She explained in r.s. that she's trying something new and is looking into the church, yet hasn't met missionaries. Well we jumped on that after r.s. asap! we got her contact information and hopefully we can meet with her this week!  I've found that i really shouldn't stress that much,, because for those who are faithful things always work out. God will make sure that we have investigators at church:)
Okay,... now onto the cool news. So at zone conference, the assistants informed us that theres a movie coming out this october called Meet the Mormons. Its about 6 people all over the world who are mormons and it shows like 10 minutes of their life and how this restored gospel has blessed their lives. So the cool thing is... we have permission to go to the movie theatre and see it with an investigator when it comes out!!!!!!! I'M SO PUMPED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of the members in the movie is a stake president in the Atlanta mission, and another is a woman and a mom who is a boxer and a fighter.  this movie is going to be awesome. i just watched the trailer with my companion. So watch for it on October 10th this fall!! 
here's the link for the trailer   http://meetthemormons.com/#/filter-all/page-1

Well, i hope ya'll have a blessed week and god bless! take care!
Love sister hulme 

The average temperature....aaaaaall weeeeeeeek loooooooooong :(

Monday, August 18, 2014

Hot-Lanta!! 8/18/14

Hey fam:)
It's been another successful week here in georgia. But the heat decided to show up. I thought i knew hot. But I experienced some real heat this week! We have been doing sooo much tracting this week, when we totalled up our hours at the end of the week I was in shock with how much we had tracted! we got alot of sun to show it too. the worst is when you're standing at someone's door, testifying to them of the book of mormon.. and you feel the puddle of sweat drop down in your eyes and can feel it like a waterfall down your back.. And when we get in the car, we don't dare sit back because the sweat will seep through our shirts! oh but its well worth it.. it is well worth it. We all have to go through some kind of gethsemane for this gospel. And then we heard a member in church talking to someone ask.. ey are you ready for the real heat to come this week? summer is officially starting! Me and sister george just looked at each other and about cried. it's ok.. we'll make it through. Sister george prays that it will be a nice day and not as hot.. .and i on the other hand pray that the lord will just give me strength to make it through the day. haha and he sure does!  
So its a small world after all. FInds out that i'm in the same ward as Craig Thomas' son, Bart. I met him at church yesterday. We plan on having dinner with their family next sunday. He said Bailey was just here two weeks ago.. Missed him by that much!! Glad to know though there is someone here who officially knows Montpelier. I usually just tell people im from Bear Lake because they've never heard of Montpelier, Idaho. I just tell them it's god's country.. 

Well i'll cut to the good stuff and the miracles. We've been frantically searching for new investigators, but we haven't found too many through tracting. But we received a cool miracle on wednesday. When we got the txt with the referral we realized that it was just above us in the same apartments! So we went to tract down the woman and she had just pulled in. She saw our namebadges and asked if we were there to see her, we asked if she was Niki and she answered yes, so we said yes! And it started from there. FInds out she's been going through a really hard divorce and she has 4 kids.. her two daughters live with her, the boys with the dad. She had seen our church a few times and after dropping her daughter off to softball practice.. decided to pull into the parking lot to just pray.. as soon as she pulled in the place felt like home to her. SHe decided to go inside and see if anyone was there that she could talk to. WEll lucky enough, someone was there and they got her contact information and sent it to us. It was all a complete miracle! She is very elect, and we're excited to teach her. We were worried at first that she was just going to depend on us for money and counseling.. but we noticed that she still reads what ever we give her and she's open to listening to us. She's just searching for peace and more unity in her family.. so this is the place to find it! 

We're also teaching another woman named Jamie, she's married to a member and has been taking discussions from missionaries for awhile. I think i told ya'll about her last week. She's been on date twice before, and this is her third time being on date. She's scheduled for September 13th. She's trying to overcome smoking that's her only addiction and hold back. She doesn't even smoke that much. She is actually out of cigarettes, but she'll steal one or two from a friend or family member. But we told her this is her last week. She has to be cleared by the end!!! She has a lot of determination and soooo badly desires to get baptized and go to the temple with her husband. She also has refused to pray at the end of the lessons or even the beginning. I asked her if she prays with her husband and she says he usually says it. She doesn't feel comfortable at all praying out loud. But this time we put our foot down and told her she haddd to pray. She has a daughter who's 12 and refuses to talk.. like seriously.. she does not talk.. not to anyone. only to her mom. So we tried to help Jamie understand that It's like her with her heavenly father. He is so heartbroken that she won't pray to him. She said she does in her heart, but we told her its no different around us. This is her one chance to talk to God and she's rebelling that. She was so stubborn about it. So i finally told her that she needs to be an example to her daughter, and pray. That opened her eyes alittle bit, and she finally said a prayer.. It was short, simple, and quick. But it made our day!! it made heavenly father's day. I know he was so pleased with her. She said it wasn't as hard as she thought but she still didn't like doing it in public. But she'll get used to it. 

Ok, last story.. this morning we were asked to join the youth in seminary at the church.. We had to be there at 5.30 am.. that means i had to wake up at 5 am!!!!!! I usually don't talk in the mornings till 9 am companionship study.. so this was a stretch for me. But we hiked into the woods and they had a little fire. We gathered around and they told the story of Joseph Smith's first vision, then asked us missionaries how we came to know this was true.. I shared how mine was a gradual process and as i look back and think about it.. I know without a shadow of a doubt Joseph smith was as prophet... because of one little blue book:) I LOVE  the book of mormon. It all starts with that. try it,, read it.. pray about it.. But it was way cool to be a part of that. I would love to raise my children here in the south. I want them ot live in the mission field and to have the chance to do missionary work. THe youth here are awesome and strong in their testimonies! 

Well i hope ya'll have a blessed week! love ya'll and take care!
Love SIster Hulme:) xoxox


This is what you look like after a hard day's work in the mission field.  Tracting may have made us a little crazy that day!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

I'm finally in REAL Georgia! 8/11/14

Hey ya'll!
So we had transfers this last week. My new area is the Monroe ward, but we mainly work in Loganville. My new companion is Sister George, from Idaho Falls. She is hilarious and i love her so much! We go to bed laughing every night! And I love my new area! I know I've only been here for a week, so i might say differently in a bit. It's very rural.. out in the boonies of Georgia. But its the real south here! I feel like my first areas were like mini-utahs. I didn't feel like I was in Georgia.. BUt here in Loganville, this is real Georgia! I'm not gonna be able to escape the southern accent. I'm just soaking up the culture here! 

So we actually just had a baptism this last weekend! Yeah, i was stoked when i found out that i was walking into a baptism:) And its the cutest convert ever! Her name is April Pratt, and she has a pretty cool story. A couple weeks ago, the sister tracted into her, and she said she wasn't interested but was nice about it. Well.. a few days later, she ran into a deer and had a scary accident. Well that awakened her and she went to someone for help. This someone was was Adam Musgrove, who is a member of the church. They actually began dating and he told her he was part of the church and she acted so surprised! She was a hardcore southern baptist and thought Mormons were weird. But they just began talking about beliefs and principles in the gospel, and April decided she needed to get back with the missionaries! So she called them up and asked "Hey what's the first step in conversion?" The sisters were shocked and started teaching her! The Musgrove family has been her fellowship and has helped her every step of the way. We had a lesson with her Thursday evening, and i was so amazed! I swear she was a member her whole life, she was teaching us! She just expressed that she just desires sooo much to go to the temple to be sealed to Adam, and she is super stoked to do missionary work with us after she's baptized. She invited at least 15 of her friends to the baptism and it was awesome! The spirit was amazingly strong. Adam was able to baptize her.. gosh they make the cutest couple! haha, I was so grateful to be a part of it. 
We are also teaching woman in the Musgrove family.. SHe's married to one of the sons and has been taking the discussions for several months now. Well, she attended the baptism and we had a lesson with her last night. She told us that she desperately wants to go to the temple with her husband, and hopefully kids (they have a different dad). ANd she's been on date to be baptized twice before. But last night, she decided this is all or nothing.. the third times the charm! Her only hold back is smoking. She's trying to quit so bad. She's on date for the 13th of september. SHe said its meant to happen then because its their wedding anniversary and her husband's birthday. I'm in love with the musgrove family and it's such a privilege to be working with them. Sister George has done miracles with that family!
haha little note... we're at the library emailing.. and i'm listening to this old man talking to the librarian and he's making her laugh soo hard. He has this deep rough voice from smoking, and i turn to look at him and he's in a wheel chair, cowboy hat, plaid button down shirt, khaki shorts, and cowboy boots:) I've missed that sight haha! oh the south is like home i'm teling ya! 

So we had a meeting with the stake presidency this last weekend, also Mission Leadership Council. And we were really learning how to help the members be better involved in member missionary work. The only problem is.. this ward never has correlation, and we never attend ward council, and the members never come out on teamups. We have alot of building up and work to do here. We are desperately praying for miracles and plan to really kick up the work here. We were in meetings alll last week, so we didn't even really get to work in our area. But we had President Joyner, second counselor in the mission presidency, meet with us and he discussed with us what we can do to help the ward. We're now challenging the members to look for missionary opportunities or to notice missionary moments they experience this next week, and we plan to follow up with them next week. Hopefully this will make them aware that they need to either do more, or to notice what they are doing. So please really pray for this ward. Our ward mission leader is kind of a joke, but we're learning to love him! 
BTW, please send all letters and packages to my apartment address
304 Meadows Dr. 
Loganville georgia
30052
Thanks for all you do folks! I love you and god bless:)
Love Sister Hulme

Sister Hulme, April Pratt, and Sister George


Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Transfers 8/4/14

Hey Yall!
This week is transfers! Can you believe it? I've been in Collins Hill for 6 months! And i can't believe it's been 3 months for sister motuliki and i. I feel like I've known her my entire life though. I know I've known her since the pre-existence. I'm so grateful that I was prepared throughout my life and that I listened to the promptings of the spirit so that I am serving a mission with her. I wouldn't trade this experience or this time for anything in the world. It's definitely worth the sacrifice. I will cherish these days and moments forever:) 
Yesterday, SIster Bedke and I bore our testimonies in sacrament meeting. This has been pretty hard on the ward too, two of their sister missionaries leaving at the same time. We've been here for a long time, and they're family to us. This ward has been the highlight of my mission.. so far:) I was fighting back the tears the whole time, I don't like crying. Until i bore my testimony, I was a water works! It just hit me when i was able to look out and see all the members and their smiling faces. Every missionary that serves here is a lucky missionary. I consider this place Zion. But like President Utchdorf said, wherever we are, we must lift where we stand. I want and hope to make every ward i serve in Zion. 
I'm not looking forward to the split between Sister motuliki and I either. Some days i worry if she will be strong enough to take over this area. I know the members will help her, and her companion will. We had exchanges this last weekend, and it was perfect timing, so we could see if sister motuliki is ready. SHe did wonderful! They some wonderful lessons with investigators, and i was one proud trainer to see she worked hard. Poor girl broke down last wednesday night during planning and was doubting herself, telling me i can't go and she can't do this. She wanted me to write President and tell him that i can't go, but i told her that this is the Lord's decision and He knows what's best. Whatever happens, the Lord is on our side. I told her that I may not be her companion, but the Lord is her constant companion her entire mission. But that night was very hard for both of us. Like i said, I don't like to cry, but we were both sobbing, she was uncontrollably though. I don't think I've seen her so scared before and so nervous. I tried to give her the best words of comfort that i could, and we just talked it out that night. Haha I even used some words from a very wise man, John wayne.. "Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anways":) She only smiled at that, (she loves anything to do with horses).  But since then, we've come to face reality and know that the Lord has different plans for us. And since then, she has stepped up quite a bit and is doing marvelous! I mentioned a priesthood blessing to her, so we might ask one of the members to give her one before transfers. She's a strong sister though, and i love her so much! 
I also had to say good bye to Taz early this week, she told me she was leaving the next day for a week. I wasn't prepared for that. It was very hard for me.. but she taught me one thing.. never say goodbye.. its see ya later:) And i'll be sure to follow through with that.

Ok.. now for the big news! ... So It was 10pm on saturday night and we had just gotten done with planning and the phone was ringing. Sister motuliki's eyes went big and she said "SIsta, it's president Bennion!" so i answered the phone in a nervous,, and tired voice.. but he sounded exhausted poor guy. But he called me to be a Sister Training leader In the Cornelia Zone!! My companion will be SIster George.. and SIster motuliki's companion will be Sister Arbon. I'm just switching her places! So for those of you that don't know what sister training leader is.. Its the 'sister zone leader'. we go on exchanges with the sisters in our zone.. go to leadership meeting with president... and just have fun! Sister bedke is also going STL in Athens... with SIster Debry!! She was companions with her after i was trained for 6 weeks! that lucky sister, she gets her twice! But my zone is over by athens.. it's in the athens stake.. and goes all the way up to norh-eastern georgia by the south carolina border. And it's the deeep deep south out there. My area will be in loganville, which i believe is in the Monroe ward. I'm super stoked and excited!!! It's going to take alot though.. I've been really fasting and praying that I can do my best with this calling. 

So i read this marvelous, amazing , and inspiring talk yesterday by Elder holland. It's called Teach the atonement. It hits missionary work and the mission right on the spot! It brought me to tears and helped me understand sooo much. The center of our message is Jesus christ.. and he is the center of the atonement. The gospel=the atonement.. the atonement=the gospel. Salvation is not easy.. missionary work is not easy. If it wasn't easy for christ it shouldn't be easy for us saints. The most important lesson we teach is the third discussion which is the gospel.. The number one thing we want our investigators to do.. is have faith in Jesus Christ. That is the first and most basic principle. Then comes repentance and then comes baptism. My favorite part of it all was when he said  " we are not the kind of church that calls everyone up to the front of a football stadium and just lets them enter into the waters of baptism, let alone by no authority from god, and cries "I'm saved!" ..Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font? (haha;) )
You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience.Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.
Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, (and all of us members) to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price."
I was going to paraphrase it, but i just couldn't. It wouldn't do it justice. I can only testify of His words. This is absolutley true, and I know without a doubt that this is the true church of christ, the one and only. And i hope each of us are willing to stand as a witness of that and live up to those standards. 
Also.. cool news. Dritan is back. He came to church.. some missionaries that served in albania got in contact with him and are giving him the discussions over texting. Oh the sacrifice from so many people to help this one soul!! I lvoe this work.
Ok... this is a novel. I love yall so much! God bless:) and happy august!
Love sister Hulme

Our district in Collins Hill

The missionaries, some of the ward missionaries, and the ward mission leaders.

Fatimah Nicole Holiday