Tuesday, June 10, 2014

6.9.2014

Dear Family,

 Elder Wendt said that he doesn't ever want to leave Utah after his mission, which is too bad! I love seeing new places and learning about different areas. It's always an adventure!

In our mission, we go to the temple the 2nd to last week of the mission.. So on June 17th, at 7:00 we will meet up in Liverpool, and I will go with my group to the temple! It's crazy to think about... Elder Wendt will be staying with the missionaries in Liverpool throughout that day, and we will get back from Palmyra at about 8:15 that night. We're going to do a temple session, then tour the Church History Sights. There's also a few mission traditions, like racing up the Hill Cumorah. I better start conditioning now! :) I'm pretty excited to go to the temple again. Brother Huller, a member that takes good care of us, has done over 800 Endowment Sessions in his life, and his goal is to get to 1000. That is crazy! I've only done 3! He definitely set a good example there.

Elder Wendt and I are doing good! We are seeing small, simple, consistent improvement in our area which is good. This past week we picked up a new investigator- A man named Pat who was a college professor at LeMoyne University, a catholic college nearby. He's a really cool guy and seems really interested in our message. The funny thing is, he told us that he typically isn't interested in religion after bad experiences he had in his life, but he still wants to talk with us! We answered some questions about the Plan of Salvation and gave him a Book of Mormon. He then informed us about the Triple Crown, horse racing, and his favorite horse, Secretariat. Talking with Pat helped me realized that there is a lot in the world that I have NO clue about. I still have a lot to learn...

Training is a lot of fun at the end of the mission.. It's funny to look back at when I was being trained and see what I was like compared to now. I remember feeling ready to take over once the Elder Baird situation was over, but also being really excited and worried about what would happen. It's starting to get to that point for Elder Wendt! I'm having him take the lead in planning and a lot of the work. He is more of a white personality in the color code, so it's quite a bit different than when I was with Elder Bybee (who was more of a red personality) and Elder Sedgwick (who was more of a blue personality). Things are going well though and we will continue to work! Talking with people is the biggest thing we're trying to work on. It's kinda hard to walk up to a random person and try to figure out how to share the Gospel with them.. But it's exciting!

This week should be really good. We are having a District Activity today, then doing an exchange until Wednesday, then we have Zone Training Meeting, as well as 2 Church Tours later that night, and several lessons and service opportunities already set up! It's really nice when we plan things in advance and have a good week already set up in advance. Planning ahead makes life a lot easier!

I want to bear my testimony to all of you about the value of setting productive goals, then working hard to accomplish them! I know that as we all identify specific things we desire to accomplish, then do everything we can to accomplish them, as well as calling upon the powers of Heaven to aid us, we can accomplish miracles. It takes a lot of hard work, as well as focus to do this, but it will make us much more productive in our lives. There is a talk on LDS.org titled "Personal Time Management: One Key to a Leader's Effectivness" that I have learned a lot from. This is one part of the article that I really like:  "There are some basic principles and fundamental concepts of time utilization that are very helpful in learning to manage our time better. The first is the concept that we don’t really manage time but rather we manage ourselves in the amount of time we have. So we are really addressing the subject of self-management. We must learn to operate most effectively in the uniform allotment of time each of us has received.
 
A second fundamental principle that relates to effective time management is the constant focus on results. The leader who focuses on the required results rather than on activities will find the greater results actually occurring. We often race at high speeds all day only to discover that we have been doing things rather than getting things done. We have been involved in many activities but have not accomplished the results."


Now, this being said, I want to let you know that I am far from perfect at this.. I still am a procrastinator, plan to do too much in the time I have, and fall behind schedule from time to time, but I am working on it. I'm grateful for the examples of Mom and Dad trying to get me to "use my time wisely" and see the benefit of using our time wisely. The Savior didn't have much time during his earthly ministry, but he was able to accomplish much more than we can even comprehend. As we follow his example, we will be able to accomplish miracles within our lives and the lives of others.
I love you all! I hope that you are enjoying the every day tender mercies of the Lord! You are all great examples to me and I want you to know how much I care about you.


-Elder Hussey

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