3.9.2014

Hey Family!

So we finally got everything done on P-Day! Now that we are in DeWitt, we'll be able to email on Monday. We'll make it a priority! I'm glad that things work out better with us being here.. I felt bad when I remembered how much Mom looks forward to getting an email on Monday, then realized that we hadn't emailed on Monday for the past few weeks. But that shouldn't be the case from now on.

 Something exciting happened today....... I GOT TO SEE MATT SIMMONDS! :D I was really excited about that. We went and got lunch in Downtown Syracuse. It was great! Matt will be in Syracuse for a few days this week. We also went with Tyler Allred, another great missionary that served in Syracuse, Tyler's Dad, and Brother Voyles from Syracuse. Here's a picture!

As you might be able to tell from the picture, Matt has a mustache! Holy smokes! (Don't worry Mom... I don't want to grow out my facial hair when i get home... Yet. :) Haha) But it was really good getting to catch up with him and see how he has been doing. It sounds like life gets pretty crazy when you get back from the mission! Scary. However, Matt is still the same awesome guy I remembered!

We had a picture here almost exactly a year ago! Time flies way too quick... Scary!

Besides seeing The former Elder Simmonds, our week was great! We finally have started to make some progress in our area. We were able to meet with 2 people that were found during the Blitz. One of them, a young mother named Sarah was WAY nice. She has a really cute family and is really interested in meeting with us and learning. We got there for our appointment and she apologized and said- "Sorry... I only read 25 pages of the Book of Mormon so far." Needless to say, Elder May and I were both really excited! We had a great lesson and invited her to "investigate" the Church, and she accepted! We met with another guy named Curtis that was pretty nice and told us we can come back in 2 weeks.

Last night, Elder May and I were trying a few people from the Blitz and couldn't get anyone to answer. It was getting a little bit discouraging and it was getting dark/cold, so we were about to finish up for the night, but we felt prompted to go and try one more person. We didn't have a name, so we ended up just knocking on their door around 8:15. They came to the door and quickly told us that it was too late, but that we could come back Monday morning. Now, we decided that sacrificing a little bit of our P-Day time would be worth it, so at 10 AM today we went back. They let us right in! They have a son that is a less-active member (of the Syracuse Ward that I know) and they really appreciate what the Church did in his life when he was going. We explained what the Book of Mormon is and invited them to read the Book of Mormon and investigate the Church, and they accepted. We have an appointment with them next week also! So, things are starting to happen. Just don't lose faith and keep working!

So a funny story regarding college.... After last week when I found out that I was accepted into BYU, I told Elder May that it was going to be really tough to decide where I was going. That night, I was reading in my Journal what I wrote a year ago. In it, I referenced a missionary (Elder Erdmann) that was going home and going to BYU. At the end of what I wrote, I wrote "who knows... Maybe I'll see him there! Haha". Then, that next night, we went to dinner at a members. Guess what their daughter was wearing?

Yep. So of course I told them I had just gotten accepted and they were way excited and said I should go there. Guess what happened the next dinner appointment? We show up and Brother Ward (a BYU alumni) was wearing a BYU shirt. He had no idea I had just been accepted... So Elder May told me on Sunday that if BYU was brought up again that I need to go there. It was brought up by 3 individual people at church. None of them knew anything about it!

I've thought about it and prayed a bit, and all jokes aside about signs, I feel pretty good about it. I'll have to continue to pray and see what I feel, but I honestly feel like that might be what I end up doing.. Just an update there!

The weather here is slightly warmer! It was about 38 degrees the other day and it felt great! In fact, all of the missionaries were only wearing their suit-coats because it felt so warm. However, it sounds like this Wednesday the weather is going to get bad again.. Oh well. Spring will be here soon enough.

Thanks for sending me emails and mail! I really appreciate hearing about what is going on back home. I hope everyone gets over the colds that they've had and that the cut on Dad's face heals well! I'm glad that it ended up not being anything too severe and that they caught it so early. Our family is really blessed! I'm amazed when I look at how much good the Lord has given to our family. I hope you are all continuing to be strong and healthy! I love you all and am so grateful to be a part of the family. The mission is going GREAT! I love being out here. The Church is true!

Love you all.

-Elder Hussey