Baptisms 4/28/14

Hello fam!

This week has been one of those weeks you wish you could repeat over and over on the mission. Marie and malia were baptized on saturday and confirmed yesterday. I am so pleased and happy with that family! They have improved so much and have come so close together. There was so much support from the ward also and i am so grateful to be serving here! The girls received so many gifts, love and support from them, and it meant so much to their mom Leona. Their dad is not a member but we met him for the first time at the baptism. He's a great guy and i hope this will be the stepping stone for him to take the discussions and be baptized. You could just see the spirit touch his heart during the baptism and him really ponder over everything in his mind. Someday that family will go to the temple.. someday!!! Its all in the making:)

WE have some other big news! Laurann is on date to be baptized may 10th! She's our crackhead and alcoholic:) We met with her on wednesday though and she has been reading the book and praying! I couldn't smell any alcohol on her and she told us she hasn't had a lick or drink for a week! There is such a change of spirit about her and she has such a light! She's really changing, and its all her and the spirit. SHe's a great example showing that it's not us missionaries that do the work, the most important relationship in the change is between the investigator and the spirit of God. We just help guide them along the path of righteousness, we are there for support and love. So after talking about what Laurann had read so far in hte book of mormon.. she stops us and says "sisters.. i've been thinking and talking.. and i think i'm ready for the plunge." Wait.. you mean you want to get dunked?! ok! we extended may 10th as a date and she immediately asked :what do i gotta do before then? so we told her she has to come to church and we need to teach her a few lessons. She's all in and wants to commit! But a lil conflict.. she got a new job and works alot! so meeting with her will be a little difficult. but it will all work out according to God's will. We're having faith!

Everything else is going really great. Sister dunn and i will probably only have a couple weeks left together. I'm guessing ill stay and train here.. president kinda told me so. I love this area and the people we're working with. I don't think i will want to go back to a car area to be honest.. I see so many miracles from working so hard and being on a bike! There are tender mercies everyday! We'll be in the pouring rain and we'll have people left and right offer us a ride or invite us inside. They may not be interested and just want to bible bash. but they can't resist extending some southern hospitality, especially to girls serving the Lord:) I've noticed that the Lord has provided for us in so many ways.. there are tender mercies everyday! Sometimes i'll be wishing for a good drink of water or a restroom and its so funny how the next house God provides for us! Now i just need to have that amount of faith in finding the next soul to baptize:) 

May ya'll have a blessed week and remember God loves you and so does SIster Hulme!!

Love, SIster Hulme 

A little sign meant for the biking sisters.

Happy Easter 4/21/14

Hey Fam!

I hope everyone enjoyed Easter as much as I did! This may be my only Easter on the mission but it was the best Easter ever. I didn't have to worry about the worldly things that cover the true meaning of the holiday. I was able to focus only on the Atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And Easter has now become my favorite holiday! For the month of March and up to Easter I studied the harmony of the gospels in the bible. I gained such a greater knowledge of my Savior's life and I focused on the characteristics he had while he taught and served others. I'm trying to apply them in my life and work. But starting today, I am reading the Book of Mormon all over again ( can't read it enough on my mission :) As I studied from the bible though, I learned even more how important and great the Book of Mormon is! Our knowledge of what our savior really did for us comes from the book of mormon! It testifies of his atoning sacrifice, and the plan of salvation. The most important thing about the gospel is the atonement. The gospel IS  the atonement! Because the bible was translated so many times and without divine authority from God, important details were lost. But because of the book of mormon, we have that fulness today. That knowledge of the atonement, and of our Savior is restored to us today through the book of mormon! And that little book has had the greatest impact on my life and millions of others. Never take the book for granted! Those prophets in the book sacrificed for us to have it today. I noticed in Ether 12, moroni writes that his writing is weak, and not as great as the brother of jared's, and he fears that people will take it for granted and it won't convince them. But God assures him that he gives mean weaknesses that they may be humble, so they can turn to him for strength. I have found that those who truly gain a testimony of the book of mormon are humble. They don't take moroni's weaknesses for granted but focus on the testimony of Christ. They search with real intent, turn to God in prayer for strength, then He gives us the testimony of the Book of mormon. our greatest strength is our testimony! I could go on all day about the book of mormon!! But all in all, I know what my savior has done for me because of that book. I know he loves me, knows me personally, and everything that i've been through, because of that book. He really lives and is beside us every step of the way, because he knows how hard our trials are. AT times we may feel all alone, but when we open our hearts and give everything to the Lord, we find that we were never alone, he is our strength!

So... now to what has happened this week:) Marie and Malia are getting baptized this saturday!!!!!!!! Im a little excited:) They are so cute and excited. Yesterday at church they wanted to sit all the way in the very front! ha their mom wasn't too happy about that, but we did! They had them stand when they announced their baptism, and they were shy, but you can see the light about them and how excited they are! Malia, the 9 year old, gives the most sincere prayers i have heard! pretty sure i told you that last week, but they are just improving and getting better every time! they were going to have their uncle fly out from seattle to baptize them, but sadly he can't. So we asked a young priest-age man from the ward to do it. He gladly accepted, and it reminded me that I had chase baptized me when he was that age. It will be a really cool experience for him:) Our other investigator victor, ha he's crazy! He keep jumping to the big do's and donts and goes into such depth, so we keep having to pull him to the surface and focus on the basics. He loves to exercise so we told him you have to start with the little weights before you get to the big weights. He and us both have to have alot of patience, but its coming! He came to church yesterday.. to the last hour.. punk. We had a brightest color contest and he wore the brightest orange pants i have ever seen! I was worried he would show up in a suit like dumb and dumber. But he was so scared and nervous to go into priesthood all by himself, they had just started. so we pretty much shoved him into the class and ran around the hallway out of sight before he could come find us! Ha after church he was talking to everyone, members who came to lessons with us came up and said hi, he was just mr. popular! he didn't even notice us when we said good bye:) Ha oh! i can't forget, we had lunch with him on friday and he told us that he ran across the mexican border at the age of 13!!! This guy is crazy. He's having word of wisdom issues and loves his weed and beer, and tequila.. so i told him i would stop sweets if he stopped smoking, we'll start with that addiction. I dont know how serious he was, but i was serious! 

We met another investigator who is a total thug and lives in the same apartments as us. He's crazy too. He is from Jamaica and believes Christ has come in a different form, like a black person, and visited Jamaica, He's anticipating CHrist's third coming. Ha we invited him to church but he said he's busy on the weekends. He runs his own business. I asked what he does, and he said  "I sell organic products.." Sis. DUnn was quick to reply "I love natural organic stuff, like natural oils and what not.." He just looked at her weird and didnt' say anything. I had to explain to her afterwards what his business was. not what she was thinking!! 

Im running out of time unfortunately! I wish i could tell more. So much has happened this week. Oh, we are at the library and we met this guy  named harry who volunteers here. He has autism or down syndrome i think. just not really there.. and we had to wait for the library to open so we taught him the restoration and gave him a book of mormon. He just came up to me and said, he really liked the book, he just read it. I was like what? no you didn't read all of it did you? he said ya! i did and i liked it! hahaha i just laughed and said, well keep reading it! (little liar:) 

I hope ya'll have a great week! Shout out to scott and hannah for their birthday's this week!!!! love ya'll

Love, Sister Hulme

P.S. CHeck this out! good, video:) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S3TI4bYerU

Wet news… 4/14/14

Hey ya'll!

Sorry for the delayed email. We had interviews with President Wolfert yesterday, so we switched monday and tuesday, making our pday today. Im counting my blessings because it is just down pouring and windy outside today! I'd hate to bike in that mess. Yesterday after district meeting and interviews it decided to down pour and i felt like i had jumped into a lake, soaked to the very core! Didn't stop us from tracting though and going to our appts. Some people offered us umbrellas, but we just laughed and said it wouldn't do us much good since we were already soaked! I thought of Pres, Uchtdorf's talk in conference when he said, "How often we think of the sunshine after the rain and look for the rainbow at the end, instead of learning to enjoy and be grateful for the rain in the moment!" Well, i put a smile on my face, and tried to be very grateful that it wasn't scorching hot and it was raining! 

So the big wet news is that Marie and Malia are back in town and are on date to be baptized the 26th this month!!! We were so excited and sooo happy to see them last night. It just did my heart good to see that family. Leona spoiled us and got sister Dunn and I both tshirts, skirt wraps, chocolates, and a cute magnet from Hawaii! Bless their hearts:) Leona was in Hawaii for almost a month because of family emergency. Her sister was pretty much on her death bed. Malia, her daughter, gave the closing prayer after our lesson, and I was so pleased at how sincere and heartfelt her prayer was! She prayed "Bless that we will have special memories and moments heavenly father, and please watch over our auntie in heaven." My heart just melted at those words, and Leona didn't tell us the news of her sister, she never brought it up so we figured that she didn't want to talk about it. I gave her the biggest hug with a big thanks and told her we loved her. She only smiled, I know that her family is happy and pleased that she is making this change in her life, especially that her daughters are getting baptized. During the lessons, she usually goes back into her room and lets us take over, but I caught her looking around the corner smiling as the girls were teaching us the plan of salvation for a review. I just love that family all in all! 

Everything else has been grand. Oh, during interviews yesteday, President asked if i thought i was ready to train. I said, well i may be or i may not be, but they best be ready to bike a lot of hills in the Georgia heat this summer, I better be ready too! I actually am excited if i do train, This ward would be an awesome area to be trained in. The member missionary work is amazing and they take real good care of us! Ha He said he's thinking of putting more sisters on bikes seeing we've been able to do it. Hmm so we were just the guinea pigs testing it out. Well its possible! 

Love ya'll so much! I'm very excited for easter this sunday! Can't believe its here! TIme sure does fly. I kept telling myself to just make it to easter.. now its here! I love easter so much, probably my favorite holiday:) 

Well, take care

Love Sister Hulme xoxo!

A week full of exciting news and events… 4/7/14

Hey fam!

So first of all, as a companionship, sister Dunn and i are dong a month of consecration, in which we are doing everything exactly obedient and even more. We should be exactly obedient anyways, but we are also not writing or emailing friends, only family. Therefore, i just ask ya'll to update my friends during the month of april and let them know i didn't know go m.i.a. We're just trying to see more fruits from our labors and want to exercise more faith in the work. We've already seen miracles and I love consecrating more to the Lord!

So its been like 85 degrees this entire week here in Georgia! We've already predicted who is going to stay in Collins Hill as a biking sister after this transfer, and we're pretty sure i will. SIster dunn has already spent plenty of time on a bike. After experiencing some heat and biking this week, i'm pretty sure i'm going to die this summer! ANd the humidity hasn't even started yet! Some people are really nice and offer us some water though while we tract. One day i was just wishing for some water, and the next house we knocked on, the man gave us some water. He wasn't interested in the gospel, actually tried to bible bash with us, but i just knew Heavenly Father was mindful of us and he'll provide for his missionaries! 

Anyway, i'll cut to the big news! So Wednesday afternoon, (transfer day) we recieved a txt from our zone leaders saying that there is a missing elder from our mission and we need to be on the lookout for him throughout our day. Well its not everyday that we get a txt like that! We actually thought it was a little funny. Until the other Collins Hill sisters called us and said they were on their way to pick us up because the zone leaders asked us to go on a search for the elder. We were going on a missionary Hunt!!!! i was pretty stoked:) We were to meet at the last place he was seen which was a gas station in our area. So this just got intense!! When we got there they informed us that he was just in a mental hospital this last week because he was schizophrenic, and attempted to run away before. They found him at the STone mountain park, which was quite a ways from the hospital! This time he was last seen at the gas station we were at and he was in his full proselyting clothes carrying his bags with him, just walking everywhere he went! My heart just broke for this elder! THey also said, if you find him don't approach him, just call president immediately. So we started out looking for him. driving everywhere around the gas station.. THe whole time we just thought, this doesn't feel right. Its hot outside and he wouldn't be around here.We txted the ward members and told them to be on the look out also. Not long after we recieved a call from one of the members saying they are watching him eat his sandwich at panera bread!!! THat was right by our apartment which was a few miles south of where we were. we just started freaking out and were so excited, so we called the mission president asap. He seemed so calm and said sisters you sound out of breath! well ya president we've been on a missionary hunt, there's been a lost soul out there!! so we booked it to the restuarant and staked him out til presdent sent someone. \

But we thought of how this really applies to missionary work. So there are millions of us missionaries out there searching for that one soul. Many prayers are said, and we are constantly running to and fro to find them. But it always helps to listen to the still small voice and the promptngs of the lord, and we can't do this work alone without the members. With their help, we can find that lost soul! so that was my little analogy and life lesson learned as a missionary on a the hunt. 

So conference was awesome and amazing! I hope ya'll enjoyed it as much as I did! I've find that it really helps to go in with questions and with a prayer in the heart. And our heavenly Father always answers our prayers, and He sure answered mine! I felt that everything was really focused on how us members need to have more faith, and courage to guard our faith, to stand for what we believe in. I loved how Elder Holland said that if we feel like we haven't been called upon to defend our faith, we will in the near future! Everyday i have to defend my faith and testimony, people here are constantly attacking it, but it is only making me stronger. I also loved how Uchtdorf expressed that we need to be grateful in whatever situation we are in. Mom i often think of how you told me to think of ten things im grateful for everyday. So i'm trying to be more grateful to my Heavenly Father, no matter what situation I am in. Because even in the darkest moments, gratitude brings light into our lives. One of my favorite talks though was Elder Bednar's. Our burdens give us motivation to move forward, without them we wouldn't learn, or grow, we wouldn't progress on this path. THe atonement helps lighten the burden, but we will always have a burden. Without the burden, we wouldn't rely on the atonement and our priorities wouldn't be straight! Therefore, we are given trials to help us focus on our savior and what he has done for us. 

So much more has happened this week, but unfortunately, i'm running out of time! I promise to update next week on the work and the people. BUt i hope everyone enjoyed conference as much as i did! Remember we are so grateful to have a modern day prophet and apostles on the earth today. It testifies to me that this is Christ's true church with the same organiztion, and that God is the same yesterday today, and forever. How comforting to me that is:) I love ya'l so much and i pray that we'll stand steadfast in our faith, remember to trust God and know that he is mindful of us! 

Love ya'll

Sister Hulme

Spring is here! 3/31/14

Hey ya'll!

It's been another looongg good week! We finally have some good weather here, supposed to get up in the 80's this week, we're gonna soak it all up! Since we're biking sisters and we have no other choice. But it sure does make life easier! It is absolutely beautiful here in Georiga. I've heard from others that its voted the prettiest place in the spring, and i now see why. Although it is super bi-polar, probably more than bear lake, which is saying something. 

So there's a lot of news about our investigators and i don't really know where to start! So, we'l start with Laurann, our crazy crack-head and alcoholic. We probably saw her every other day this week. We stopped by Wednesday, and i took her a surprise. I had a pair of boots that i never wore and i knew we were the same size so i gave them to her. She was overly thrilled! (don't worry mom, it wasn't the ones you got me) Haha, she put them on and walked the walk, then turned to me with her foot in my face and said, "do the mommy test! see they fit don't they!" Glad we could make her day. We've been having a hard time trying to teach her the restoration, yes the first lesson, cause she talks so much, or she ditches out on our lessons. We've been debating wether to drop her or not, but she has been reading the book of mormon and that's big compared to others we are teaching. We assign her something to read and she'll read it! She's been sick this weekend and wants so badly to drink her pain away, but has texted us every day and said she hasn't drank a lick! So proud of that girl! So keep her in your prayers that we can finally sit her down and teach her!

   Alice has really been testing our patience lately. She read the whole book of mormon (on tape) in 10 days! WE asked her if she prayed about it and she said, no not exactly. So one day when we were doing service at her house we dropped everything and asked her right there to pray about it. SHe thought we were crazy, but just bursted into prayer. Then she just sat there, like now what. So we told her to wait patiently and just listen, listen to her thoughts and the feelings of her heart. Next day we showed up and asked if she;s felt like she's got an answer yet, and she said no. So.. we asked her to pray again. I wanted to bust up laughing during her prayer, that woman's got sass! She starts off all sweet like "Dear Heavenly father..." then says all sassy "They want me to ask if the book of mormon is true.. and i also want to know.. so is the book true?" Haha afterwards, she looked at us again like now what?! ANd we said, just wait patiently and know that God is listening, ponder in your heart the words you read and focus on how you feel. Does it feel right, good? THen it is of God and it is true.... She did tell us that her biggest fear is know that it is true and joining our church. Her family is a big baptist family and there are alot of preachers. So she doesn't want them to think poorly of her. so that's hard to deal with. We did have her and her son Allen come to church with us on sunday though! Huge miracle!!! Allen is 23 and is a very nice guy. AS soon as we walked into the church, he said he had a dream of the place and it really touched his heart. He commented on the good job done by the priesthood about the sacrament. THe last hour class was combined and they discussed the importance of the book of mormon and why it is true. It was a really great lesson and also a tender mercy from God because allen and alice were there. Allen told us what really struck him was they mentioned 2Nephi 2:25 which says "Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy" He has been really searching for true joy and thats what he wants! We were blown away! so we are thinking this is the answer to our prayer and fast, we can help alice by working through allen. I also noticed that he took notes on his ipad during all of church and had really pondered on the words. I love how the spirit works! I fasted so hard for alice all of sunday and after church i knew that God had been mindful of us and them and answered our prayer. Fasting and prayer works people!!!

THe womens conference was amazing! I'm so excited for what more is instore for conference! Ladies.. sisters.. if you havent' watched or heard the womens conference yet.. do so now please! My favorite was president Eyring's talk.. Our covenants are so important. Each covenant we make throughout our life prepares us for the temple. And the sacrament helps us renew those covenants, and also our feelings when we make those covenants each week. I am so grateful for this! After hearing his talk, i studied Mosiah 5 and it talks about how we become Christ's spirtual sons and daughters when we make those sacred covenants. I am grateful to be a beloved covenant daughter of God and to know who i am. I am also grateful to help others prepare to make these sacred covenants everyday of my mission! 

I hope ya'll enjoy conference so much! Listen closely.. we are blessed to have a prophet in these latter days along with 12 apostles. 

Love ya'll! 

SIster Hulme

Aren't I the cutest biking sister ever?  :)

Miss Prim and Proper....wait, what? :) 3/24/14

Hey ya'll!

So Georgia Spring is finally here and it is beautiful! We've had some very nice weather lately and this week is supposed to be a little chilly, but i predict it to be the last of the cold weather and it will start to warm up from here! Everything is coming into bloom and its very pretty! Soon all the pollen will come we'll see all the yellow chalk stuff, everyone says its a pain but it is pretty to see. I'm hoping and praying that i won't get allergies, I've never dealt with them before but this will definitely but it to the test!

So our president keeps telling us that we are killing everyone else in the mission on team-ups and our lessons. This ward has been really great with helping us out and fellow-shipping those we teach. Each week i'm growing to love this ward more and more! We have some very fun families here. 

Alice wasn't able to make it to church this Sunday.. instead she went to church with her son and nieces. But she was able to come to a baptism with us. The other sister's investigator got baptized and we can go if we bring one of our investigators also. Alice has committed to baptism but not a date. She said she's waiting for God to tell her when it is the right time and will give her a date. So this is kind of testing our patience and we hope the baptism encouraged her. During the baptism, they had a confusion with the hand placements and everything, and i had to explain to Alice the importance of it, trying to follow Christ's example of baptism exactly! She just nodded and said, "well i'll need like 3 other guys in that font to help me get back up out of the water!" (she's in a wheel chair) Ha i said, whatever makes it possible, it can be done! 

Laurann also wasn't able to make it to church this week. That woman is truly crazy, but we love her!! There is never a dull moment with her. We had a member come with us to teach her a lesson on Friday and she was really drunk:P Of course:) But bless the member's heart, she bought laurann some glasses and they worked perfectly so she can now read the B of M! she was soo thrilled to get them and to start reading. Haha i forgot to mention, we stopped by on Wednesday and she was telling us what she liked about us. She told me that i'm miss prim and proper and then she imitated how i walked! haha funniest sight for sore eyes! but first time someone has called me prim and proper. i'm taking it as a compliment. That woman is so funny and there is never a dull moment with her.

The two little girls we are teaching, Marie and Malia, had to push their baptismal date back a couple weeks. They had a family emergency and their mom had to go to Hawaii with her family for two weeks and the girls are staying with their aunt in South Carolina. So we are excited to see them again, we miss them. But keep them in your prayers! 

Oh and one last thing. Tuesday i had to give a training at our district meeting on strengthening less actives and recent converts.. and in the middle of my training i see someone in a suit walk in and sit down.. assuming its another elder like our zone leader or something.. But nope! it was President Wolfert! Talk about some serious nerves and an unexpected surprise! Haha everyone was in shock and we were all like "HI president! funny seeing you here!" ha he just said, "oh keep going sister hulme don't mind me" I was a little speechless and had a hard time focusing on what I was trying to say, but somehow i pulled it together and finished! Next time he needs to give me good warning when he wants to come:)

I hope everyone has a great week and I love hearing from y'all! please keep up the prayers and remember who loves ya most! Yep sister Hulme!

xoxox SIster Hulme

Hard work pays off… 3/17/14

My awesome Sister Missionary tan lines. 

A cute little turtle we found on a driveway.

Hi friends and family!

Well to start off, hard work always pays off. This week was long, and hard.. and really tested our faith! But we saw some amazing outcomes by sunday because of our hard work. Saturday was the longest day of my life and we tracted alllllllllll day. We did stop by our one investigators house for a quick ten minutes to make sure she was coming to church.. but other than that we did a lot of biking and tracting. My poor companion almost broke down, but i had to tell her she coudln't because then i would. But Sunday was a miracle day. We had four investigators come to church.. four!! Two of them are Marie and Malia, they are 10 nd 9 years old. They are on date to be baptized April 19th! Their mom is a less active in our ward and we found them through tracting.. I'll just start at the beginning. We had just biked to a nearby neighborhood and were locking our bikes up to a tree (yes i know we're nerds) and we heard this "Sisters! are you in this area?" and we went over to talk to the woman. Finds out her name is Leona Simon and she has been less active for quite sometime! She was raised in Somoa, but went to school in Hawaii, her records are still in hawaii. She served a mission in Australia too! Her husband and daughters arent' baptized so we are now teaching her daughters. We invited them to church, but sunday morning we got a text from Leona saying they had guests at their house and weren't going to be able to make it. We were really disappointed and said just try to make it to at least sacrament. Well we didnt' see them for the first little bit, but when we turned around during the opening hymn we saw them sitting in the back and the girls were waving and smiling like mad to us! we were so happy to see them:) 

The next investigator at church is Alice. We tracted into Alice and her son about two weeks ago. Alice is a black women who is 64, legally blind and is in a wheel chair. She looked so pretty when we went to pick her up! We asked her to have some questions in her head when she came to church and promised her that they would be answered if she listened and searched for the answers. She was pretty quiet during most of church, and during the sacrament i tried to explain it to her and she looked at me and said "There you go again trying to tell me about baptism. nah, don't you look at me in that tone of voice!" and just smiled big and cackled. She kinds scares me to be honest but i just smile back and try to laugh! I'm pretty sure she's teasing me. so this whole time i'm worried about what she is thinking about church. At the end we asked her what she thought, and she said she would love to come back and everyone was so nice and she even had her questions answered! Phew! i was so relieved to hear that! SHe said she would talk to us at our next appt more about what she thought and learned. So i'm excited to find out.

ANd our last investigator is Laurann... She's our crackhead and drug dealer .. we're pretty sure. SHe lives in this old shack that we also tracted into. Side note.. we're pretty sure we saw a drug deal happen the other day when we were outside talking to her.. but anyway. She showed up at church and really surprised us! She's our thug we're gonna baptize;) Haha in R.S. she leaned over to us and said "Dis is the first time i've been in a room full women and they aren't tryin to cut each other or rip each other's throats out! Ya'll are nice, I'm comin back fo real!" haha she cracks us up every line she says. Love it. 

So those are our top investigators. Miracles do happen! it just takes alot of hard work. 

We also had zone conference this week. Elder Kopishke came and spoke to us. It felt like a long efy conference. So spiritually fed and exhausted, but really good! I took alot of good notes from that and could go on all day on that, but i'm running out of time. 

Love ya'll and miss ya! 

Love, SIster Hulme