11/26/2012

I did have a good Thanksgiving. It definitely was different than most, but we still had a good time and ate a TON!

I did miss spending the holidays with you guys, but it's teaching me I need to appreciate the time I get to spend with the family more back home. As we get older and older, it's important to spend as much time together as we can when we have the chance, huh?

This previous week was a little slow. Because of the Holidays, it was a little difficult to set appointments up with people, so we ended up doing a lot of tracting. Unfortunately, not many people were home this week, and the ones that were all had other things they wanted to do, so there wasn't really much success in that regard. However, we did find a family that had just barely moved in that day, so hopefully when we try back in a few days we will have some success. I want to teach a family SO bad! As of now, almost everyone we teach are individuals. I hope that we can have some success with them!

Besides tracting and the few lessons we had this week, we also ate WAY too much. On Thanksgiving, we ate with a member of the Owego ward named Sister LaCava and her family/friends. In total, there were around 14 people there, and it was pretty fun! Bishop Knudsen and his wife were there, so we got to get to know them a little better than we have previously. We were able to visit with a few Recent Converts and a Less Active family through the day, so luckily we didn't have to tract on Thanksgiving itself. Sister LaCava sent us home with a lot of leftovers, so we had Thanksgiving- Round 2 the next day for lunch! Then, we were eating at the Bush family's home on Friday, and we had Thanksgiving Round 3! Then, the next day (Sat), we still had leftovers, so we had Round 4.. And wouldn't you know, the family feeding us on Saturday also did a Thanksgiving meal! So Elder Gasetoto and I have had Turkey, Potatoes, Rolls, Green Beans, etc for 5 meals in a row! Crazy! We're pretty much turkey'd out, but it was all super good food.

Our Investigators are doing pretty good. We got one investigator a bunch of Cinnamon supplies (mouthwash, gum, suckers, etc) as he stopped smoking yesterday in the hopes that he can be baptized on December 29th.. I really hope that works out! He's been meeting with Missionaries since March of last year, and he's good to go once he stops smoking. We also have 2 other investigators that are getting pretty close, but I'm still not sure if I'll be here to see it. I hope I will! But the work is progressing. The hardest part is just finding new people to teach.  The people looking for more in their lives (or will admit they are) are few and far between. But seeing them once they have been found makes it all worth it!

I'm really excited to be in Owego for the Christmas season! We realized that this is a pretty cool transfer!

Elder Gasetoto and I get to celebrate-

1. Thanksgiving

2. Elder Gasetoto's one year mark (Nov 29th)

3. Christmas

4. My six month mark

5. New Years!

That's a lot of holidays! We're pretty excited. Should be fun! I'm already wondering if I'll be leaving Owego next transfer or not, and the upcoming transfer is just started! Sheesh.. I just need to stop worrying about stuff, huh? ;)

I'm also going to do the 4 Standard Works in a Year Challenge this upcoming year! I found a paper in my stuff you must have put in with a schedule and I'm going for it! Should be a good challenge!

I hope things at home are going good! That's exciting to hear about so many new missionaries! I got a letter this week and learned that about 4 of the girls I was friends with at college have mission calls.Crazy! I hope things go well for all of them.

 

Thanks for all you do for me! I realize more and more how great of parents I have and how good of examples you are to me. I really do appreciate all you have done for me (although in the past I probably haven't seemed like I have) and hope that I can follow your examples in my life later on.

One scripture I found that had a good message for the Thanksgiving season- Doctrine and Covenants 78:19-

"19 And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more."

We're promised great blessings if we have an "Attitude of Gratitude!" (Not sure where I heard that from.. But I'm pretty sure it was a conference talk.. :D )

I hope you all are doing good! I'm glad to hear from you and excited to talk to you on Christmas! I'll have to see if "Skyping" is allowed in our mission.. If so, that could be a cool way to talk.

Love you all!

-Elder Hussey