2.17.2014

Happy (belated) Valentines Day! Love you guys!

Thanks for the package you guys sent! It made it here on Wednesday. A lot of people at church liked the tie and it was kinda nice to have some treats... We've heard a lot about "Trader Joe's". Do they have that store in Utah? We've heard a lot of people raving about it lately and they are building one about 1 block away from our new apartment! Should be sweet!

First things first, TRANSFER CALLS! Elder May and I are staying the same. WOOHOO! We are pumped! Elder Bybee is still up in Malone, which is the area next to Massena. It's crazy, he hasn't left the "North Country" since a meeting we had one month into his mission. It's crazy to think that he's about to hit his year mark! I also found out that Elder Sedgwick got transferred from Lowville to Binghamton, which is right next to Owego. I was a little sad about him leaving Lowville already, but I'm sure it will be good for him.

So this upcoming week is really exciting... Because we are moving next Monday! The apartment complex we are moving in is in a way better location! As of now, we live in East Syracuse, which does not have many bus stops... In order to get anywhere, we have to go to the bus hub in downtown Syracuse (about a 40 minute ride on the bus), wait for the next bus to come in, then ride it back up to DeWitt or Jamesville (normally a 30 minute ride). The new apartment is about .5 miles away from Shoppingtown Mall, which has it's own bus hub. The area we will live in is going to be a lot better for working. East Syracuse has a lot of older families and older folks who are nice, but not super interested. DeWitt (where the new apartment is) has a lot of younger families. We've made it there every once in a while and have had good luck with finding nice, young families who are interested in learning more. DeWitt is also where we have to go to shop, so we'll be really close to all of the stores. All in all, it's going to be a good move. I just don't look forward to moving.... That's never much fun. But the apartment is nicer (it's a two bedroom!), the location is a lot better, and the Landlord LOVES us. We gave him a big copy of the LDS King James Bible last week.. We had offered it to him as a joke because of a Headquarter referral that fell through, saying we didn't want to carry around the big Bible all day, and he said he would love it! It was pretty funny.

We also have been working really hard to get everything figured out for the blitz. It looks like things are going to work out pretty well! We are getting a lot of members that have signed up to help and we are figuring out the missionary situation. It looks like we will have 10 missionaries and 10 members at each 2 hour block, so we will have 20 people total! That's pretty impressive. We'll be able to get out there and hopefully find a lot of people in a relatively short period of time. It should be great!

The past week went well. We had a cool experience last Monday. We went with a member to try a potential named Pat, and we had a good chat with him, but that night didn't work for us to share a lesson. Instead of having the member just drop us off at home, we had him drop us off at a random neighborhood we had a potential in. The potential was nice, but couldn't meet that night, so at about 7:15 we had the opportunity to show our faith and find someone to teach! We said a prayer asking for direction, then went to a road to knock all of the doors that had lights on. The first door we knocked, a really nice guy came out and talked to us for a little bit. He's an active Methodist, but he said he really respects what we do and how much we sacrifice, and that he would let us come over another time to share our message with him. It was a really good experience and we'll see what happens when we share The Restoration with him! Further down the street, we found another guy that said we could come back another time. It was cool! We then ran to the bus stop and caught a ride back home at 8:10.

We also had a "Zone Training Meeting" where all of the missionaries in the Syracuse Stake came together for a training. That went really well. We had great discussions on "Studying, Pondering, Praying, and Preach My Gospel". It went really well and I learned a lot about how we can utilize pondering and prayer in our scripture study. It was fun to get to see a few missionaries I hadn't seen for quite a while too!

The weather hasn't been horrible out here, but we did get quite a bit of snow (for Syracuse area). We probably got in between a foot or two of snow in the past week. It's been manageable, but I'm ready for Spring! It sounds like some of the southern states and the coast has gotten ice and had a lot of problems, but Upstate New York knows how to handle it's snow pretty well.

If I forgot anything exciting from this week, you'll probably be able to read about it on Elder May's blog!   We seem to forget little bits and pieces of our weeks, but when you put it all together, you can see the big picture. :)

I love you guys! Thanks for all that you do. I'm grateful for your support and examples! It means a lot to me.

-Elder Hussey

2.10.2014

Hey Family!

Things are going quite well here in New York! It sounds like all of you are doing well back home. I'm really glad!

So we had 2 fairly unique opportunities this past week... Pretty cool stuff!

#1- We were on TV! Every year, the Fayetteville Ward volunteers at WCNY, one of the TV Stations in Syracuse to answer phones on a Travel Auction TV show, and we got to be a part of it! So we went, got some training on what we were supposed to do, and then the show started! It was pretty fun. People would call in, then we would fill out forms for their bids on whatever trip they were interested in. Occasionally, it would show the calling center and we would see some close ups of some of the members we were with talking on the phone with people. The broadcasting part of me loved it!

Here I am backstage!

They also fed us good food, then sent us home with a big container full of burritos.. YUM!

The next day, (Sunday) after church, we went to the Liverpool Stake Center for a Interfaith Celebration! It was crazy! There were about 500 people at the church, 50 of which were LDS. There were Catholics, Methodists, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jews, and even Wiccans. We helped usher people into the Gym and gave out programs. During the program, which was lead by one of the Stake Presidency, everyone went up and did a quick presentation on how their faith respects the beliefs of others, followed by a musical selection. Some of them were very unique and some were really cool! A lot of the middle-eastern religions had some crazy instruments!

Also, after the presentations, we all ate food. Needless to say, it was good.  Speaking of food, here's a good demonstration of why I need to eat healthier food-a little girl in our Ward mentioned how all of the Elders have double chins.... So I'm going to try to get rid of that.

 But, as you can see here, it started snowing again! This storm only brought a foot or so to us, so it wasn't anything too crazy. But it did help me realize that I am SUPER ready for Spring. I can't wait! :)

So that was pretty much our week. We continue to work hard and haven't found anyone yet.... The area we live in is really out of the way and hard to work, but we have found a new apartment complex and should be moving in about 2 weeks.. As long as our application goes through. If not, we might be living in the car that we don't have! ;)

It's also good to get a little update on Owego! I talked to a missionary that had served there yesterday, and he told me that Elaine spoke in Stake Conference! That is SO COOL! Then, he told me that she got up to the podium, then said the Spirit helped her understand that her prepared talk wasn't what she needed to say, so she gave the whole talk by the Spirit! I was so excited! Kiry is also doing way good! One of his brothers got baptized a few weeks ago, he baptized a friend about 2 months ago, and one of his sisters is getting baptized soon. And, he's going to the temple in about 2 weeks... Elder Simmonds is coming out to Syracuse and is going through the temple with him. I'm pretty jealous!

Anyway, I love you guys! I hope you all continue to stay safe... One of these days, I'll (maybe) have enough time to get some handwritten letters out.... Maybe. Love you all!

-Elder Hussey

2.4.2014

Hey Family!

First things first, sorry about being late to email.. The Elders we were getting the car from ended up getting delayed, so we were only able to do our shopping before we had appointments to get to... Kinda a hassle, but it all works out in the end. So here we are, emailing on Tuesday.

This past week went by really well. I can't think of anything super exciting that happened, but things are progressing fairly well. Last Monday, after a dinner appointment with a family, we asked the Dad if he would be willing to go to a potential's home with us after Family Home Evening. He went with us, and the couple let us right in! We taught them the Restoration and had a great discussion with them. I don't know if they're going to continue in the lessons at this point, but it was a great experience and the Spirit was definitely there. It must have made an impact on the member too, because he got up in Testimony Meeting and bore his testimony about that experience. It was really cool!

Remember how that the guy at Red Lobster sent me into the MTC with a bag full of their cheese biscuits? Well, look what Elder May and I found at Walmart!

They were pretty good! And the best part... They were easy to make! YUM.

Elder May and I also made a poster for an upcoming church activity. Here's a picture of it when we put it up at Church.

It is fun to be involved in Church activities.It makes it exciting to be involved in what's happening. When the members get excited and everyone works together, the Church can do some pretty sweet things. It's only difficult when it's only one or two people trying to head a complicated project.

The Ward Blitz was announced at church. People seemed receptive and I think we'll have pretty good Ward support. Here's the concept for the Blitz- We have selected an area near the new apartment we may be moving into. On Feb 27th and 28th, we will have ~10 Missionaries meet up at a central location, where we will also have 10 members meet us. We will then each go with a member, then work a small specific area (mainly tracting) for a 2 hour block. After the 2 hours, we will meet up at the central location, where the member will be free to leave, and the missionary will get another member and go back out working. This provides and opportunity to work an area fairly quickly during the "prime time" hours of the day, namely 4PM-8PM. The Syracuse Ward saw some great success come from it when they did it a few months ago, and we feel that this is inspired to give a boost to the work, especially with us moving to that specific area.

This past Preparation Day I was able to finally get caught up in my journal... I wish I could go back to the start of my mission and develop better journal keeping habits.. But I have set some good goals and am determined to stay caught up through the rest of my mission! I'm making sure I record a lot more of what I learn and spiritual experiences that happen, as well as all of the funny stuff that happens. It should be good and will help me out a lot when I'm emailing home.. So my emails should start to improve in the next few weeks as well. Just letting you guys know!

 I'm looking forward to Spring already... :) Things here are going well. The work has been a little different lately, but it's still been good. We're seeing miracles happen and I know that the Lord is guiding us. We'll just keep on doing our best and it will all work out!

I love you guys. Thanks for being such an awesome family.

-Elder Hussey

P.S. Syracuse University Basketball is on a roll! I think their W/L is 19/0 right now.. The town was going crazy last time they played! Also, we heard about how sad the Superbowl was this year... I can't believe Denver got beat so bad! It's funny to hear about all of that stuff when I'm out here.. It all seems so silly, but fun at the same time.