Monday, April 8, 2013

4.8.2012

What a great weekend! It's really cool to get to watch General Conference as a Missionary. I learned SO much! We had to travel to Potsdam for Conference, so we stayed with the Canton Elders (Elder Lamb and Elder Rebmon) on Saturday night.  We were talking, and someone said- "Man, I feel like they're giving us so much good advice I wish I would have had as a 12 year old kid.  Did they give us that good of advice when we were kids?"  Haha we came to the conclusion that we've always been getting information that good... We just didn't really listen when we were younger.  But it was really good!  I feel like I learned a ton about 3 different things-

1. How much of a blessing commandments are. I've come to realize this on my mission, but I didn't understand it before. They help us keep ourselves out of trouble, and are also the means by which God is able to bless us. The World might be going further and further into left field, but we just have to stay right where we are and get stronger and stronger each day.

2. How important the family is. I need to always remember this one when I get home. It's amazing to see how much family relationships been changed in the past few years.  I've been able to see what it's like when people's families fall apart on my mission and I'm so grateful for the counsel we've been given to protect us.

3. Missionary work is something we all need to do better on.. The convert baptisms for 2012 were about 70,000 less than in 2011. It's up to all of us to do our part to share the Gospel. What I really got from this is just not being afraid to invite. We shouldn't go up to all of our friends and say "Hey, you should convert to my religion because it's super awesome", we should just invite them to come to church, come to activities, etc and they'll see how the Restored Gospel can help them in their lives. They might not always accept our invitations the first, second, or third try, but we can make slow simple progress as we just continue to get them chances to make the choice themselves.

Those seemed to be the 3 main themes of Conference to me. It was sweet and I feel like I learned so much! We got a lot of challenges to do better, huh?

There's a member up here that makes cool knitted slippers for all of the missionaries that serve up North.  He got us ours this past Sunday. Really nice of them to do that for all of us. I got mine in Syracuse colors.
 
Besides that, it's just normal work in Massena! We've tracted SO much, but we're starting to find people who are looking for the Gospel. It's amazing to see how people are  prepared for the Gospel and then we're placed in their path. The other day, Elder Bybee and I weren't having too much success. We felt like going and trying a potential that we found on an old record in our Area Book. We caught them home and set up an appointment to see them tonight, and then as we were walking down the street, 2 kids just ran up to us and asked if we were Mormon Missionaries. When we told them we were, they said they wanted to come to church sometime and asked us if we could come over sometime. Then their Mom walked up... and asked us if we could just come in right then. Of course! :) Turns out she was baptized when she was younger and stopped coming to church, but she feels like it's time to come back again. We also have an appointment with them tonight. So after tonight, we'll hopefully have 9 investigators! Not too shabby... I can definitely feel that Massena is prepared for the Church to come back, and I got that feeling like 20 times during conference.  Pretty cool!

It's different training another missionary. I feel kind inadequate at times when I recognize my bad habits I'm passing onto him.. But I know there's a reason I'm the one training him. Hopefully I pass on more good habits than bad, huh? He's doing good though. When we're out working hard, he doesn't have time to think about home much, which is good. Then, whenever we have free time it ends up that we're both so tired we just fall asleep. That's really good as a missionary. :)

Time has been going by really fast lately. I still feel like I've only been out for about 6 months... And it's almost May! That's weird. Hopefully it feels the same for you back at home! It'll be our birthdays/Mothers Day before you know it!

We're just continuing with the work day by day here in Massena. I can feel the Lord guiding us in the work and know that we'll continue to make progress as we just do our best and stay obedient to the commandments. I can't wait until we all get our copy of the Ensign next month to go over all of the talks again!

Thanks for all you do. We're staying safe and doing well here in Massena. I'm grateful for all of the help you give us and the support we've had from you. It's such a huge blessing to have been raised up with the values and morals of the Church in my life. Let me know if there's ever anything I can do to help you out.

Love you all!

-Elder Hussey

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