I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving was really good for us here in Lowville.
Unfortunately, I woke up in the morning with a little bit of a stomach bug... that wasn't very good. But, I decided I would humble myself and let God help me
out, so I confessed that I felt sick to Elder Sedgwick and had him give me a
blessing. I drank a bunch of water, took some vitamin C, then I slept for a
few hours. When I woke up, I felt a lot better and we got out
working.
Holidays are different on the Mission. In the past, I thought
that I didn't want to "bug" or "annoy" people on the Holidays, because they were
spending time with their families. However, I realized that it's a wonderful
time to share a message about Jesus Christ! People are home, relaxing, and
reflecting on what they're grateful for. That's a much better time than when
Dad's at work, Mom's cooking dinner, and the kids have a basketball game they
have to leave for soon. So we got out and did some tracting, and we actually met
some really nice people and pretty much everybody was really nice, even if they
weren't interested. That was pretty neat.
For dinner, we went to
one of our good non-member friends, Jay. He is such a cool guy! I may have
mentioned him before.We met him through a member of the Carthage Ward, then
have done service for him a few times (planting apple trees and yard work
projects). We've gotten pretty close to him and his son and they were able to
learn that we're (referring to Mormons) not that weird. But Jay is a really good
cook and he put on a really good meal for us. I was stuffed! We let the food
settle for a little while, then got out the pie. I felt like I was going to
die! (partially because I ate so much, but also partially because I was still
sick... ) But, I felt better after a little while. Then, the cool part! Jay told
us that he was ready to hear about "The Plan". We had tried to go through the
lessons in the past with him, and it had never worked. But his interest had been
peaked enough that he was finally ready to hear. So we had a great lesson on
Pre-Earth Life, Adam and Eve, and the Purpose of this life. Because we have a
good relationship established with Jay and his son already, it was a great
discussion where we were all able to talk about the Gospel and really see how it
can help us in our lives. It was really cool to see them listening and really
contemplating the things that we taught and we're going again to explain the
rest of "The Plan" later this week.
The rest of our week was good.
We had to go to Watertown to do a baptismal interview on Saturday, which went
well. The investigator was a nice guy that was looking forward to his baptism.
It's exciting to see people accepting the Gospel. After the investigator left, we walked out to get in our
car. Just before we pulled away, the Sister Missionaries came out and had a
funny look on their face. Turns out, they had a flat tire. I realize
that their are certain skills out there I need to learn that I have never
thought about, such as putting spare tires on. Luckily, Elder Sedgwick kinda
knew what to do, and we were able to get the spare on and they made it to a shop
and got everything fixed. You never know when that's going to happen, do
you?
Yesterday in Church we only had one recent convert there and
no investigators, so we went to the Gospel Doctrine class. The lesson was on
Doctrine and Covenants Section 134 and I learned quite a bit! I don't know if I
had ever really read through that section, but I learned a lot about how we
should try to be active participants and know what's going on in our county's
politics. I was kinda glad that I wasn't in charge of teaching that lesson
though, because I'm sure it would be difficult to keep the discussion from going
to specific politics/politicians. But it was really good and opened my eyes on
how we should be as members of the Church.
It is crazy to hear
about all of the missionaries coming home. I cannot believe Julia is coming
home, and I'm not sure if you knew this, but because of the storm in the
Philippines Jared was coming home 2 weeks early. Something like that. So you
might see him sooner than you thought! Isn't it amazing to see how quickly 2
years can fly by? It's a good thing I still have over 6 months left of my
mission. :D "I have work enough to do".
Speaking of that ,I have
really grown to appreciate the hymn book over the past month. I still am not the
biggest fan of singing (probably because I wish I was more musically inclined),
but the words and messages found in the hymns are amazing! I've been trying to
learn some of the hymns that we don't sing as often and have learned a lot from
them. There's also scriptures associated with each hymn and they can be powerful
when memorized and reflected upon. One that I really like is "Know This That
Every Soul is Free". The words are powerful! In the First Presidency Preface, it
states- "We hope leaders, teachers, and members who are called on to speak will
turn often to the hymnbook to find sermons presented powerfully and beautifully
in verse" which I think is a fantastic idea! I want to try and utilize the words
of a hymn next time I speak in church.
Well, the work continues on
in Lowville! We're going to be making a big push this Christmas Season on
sharing the true meaning and joy in the Christmas Season, and I would invite all
of you to do the same. We have to help people remember how important Christ and
our families are. I'm very grateful for you guys. I miss you to, but I'm glad to
be out here. I love serving as a missionary and know that it's important that we
make this sacrifice to be further God's work. Thanks for your examples as
well.
Love you!
-Elder Hussey
P.S. Just in case
you'd like to see how excited I was during the first snowfall... Love you
guys!
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