3.4.2014

Hey family!

Sorry I'm not emailing until today... We had to clean out our old apartment yesterday so that we are all the way moved out. We deep cleaned it and it took quite a bit longer than we thought... They always have us do a deep clean of the apartment before we move out so that the Church isn't charged a "Cleaning Fee" by the apartment complex. We did great though! I've come to learn how important it is to clean you home frequently, because I've seen a bunch of missionaries make messes of the places they live. So yes, Mom, I now understand why it is that you wanted us to vacuum once a week... :)

So, this past week went great! We had a lot of exciting things happen. Most exciting, was the Blitz! It was great. We had a lot of members participate, we had organized it well, and it ran smoothly!

Here's a map of the area that we worked in the Blitz-

Each member was assigned to a missionary, then for their 2 hour block, they went to their "Area" and tracted (going door to door). Elder May and I really took preparation for this seriously. We made color coded packets that each companionship took out with them. Each companionship had about 110 houses within their area that they were trying to get to. Everyone split up, knocked some doors, then returned to a members home 2 hours later. The missionaries then went out and worked for 2 more hours with a member. The exciting part was seeing everyone together before and after their shifts. People were way excited after they went and talked to a few people and got something set up for later. Some companionships even got in and taught a few lessons!

Here are the totals we had from the Blitz-
27 individual Members came and participated.

12 Missionaries

9 Lessons taught
68 Potentials (people who said we could come back at a later time)
22 of which gave us a name and phone number or return appointment.

I got to go out and knock doors with President Wirthlin for 2 hours, Elder Zenger, Henry; a young man in the Ward who is just putting in his mission papers, and Brother Parke, the Stake Executive Secretary. President Wirthlin and I had the most success. The first door that answered us was a nice older gentleman that let us right it! We taught him a lesson about the Restoration and set a return appointment. The other person who let us in was a young college student who was nice enough to give us a break from the cold. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and he said we could come back sometime this week. The hardest part from the Blitz is going to be following up with everyone before they forget they told us that we could come back... But it gives us a great start to living in DeWitt! We're really excited and things are going great.

The rest of our week has been crazy! We've been trying to get our apartment unpacked whenever we have free time and do a lot of little things (like mounting whiteboards on the walls, organizing supplies, etc.) Elder May and I went to a Thrift Store to get some furniture (I needed a new chair) and as we were checking out, a box caught my eye... I went and looked in it and found.... A BUNCH OF SWEET OLD TIES!

Before my mission, I wasn't a fan of "Paisley" ties, but when I was with Elder Bybee, Rich gave me a few. Elder Bybee and I had a thrift store we would go to and buy ties. Since then, I hadn't found any that were really cool... until now! Their is a designer called "Mario Valentino" that made sweet ties.. I've found 4 of his ties so far! (in this picture, the middle tie is a Mario Valentino.) That was a pretty funny side note to our week (and also the reason that there are charges on my card to "Thrifty Shopper").

Besides that, we saw a pretty sweet SUV! Elder May LOVES Subway a lot. In fact, we've probably gone to Subway more since I've come to DeWitt then I have the rest of my life... But it's growing on me! So with that said, here's the SUV

Yum!

So, to answer things from Mom and Dad's email..

We do get to go to Palmyra towards the end of our mission. It seems like the missionaries all have a great time when they do it!

Thanks for updating me on the applications! That's exciting to hear about BYU! I've seen a lot of missionaries decide they wanted to go to BYU, apply, then get denied.  So I'm glad that isn't the case! I'll have to pray a lot about college. Do I need to decide before I get home? It'd be nice if I didn't have to. Haha

Sorry to hear about Mary's brother! Tell them they are in my prayers! I hope that you were able to see them and that she's doing good. I know that she'll get the chance to see her brother again!

I love you guys so much! I'm really glad that I get to be out here on a mission. It is a great experience and I would recommend it to anyone that is on the fence regarding it. It's so good! Thanks for your love and support. I'm really glad that I have been blessed with such an awesome family! Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you.

Love you!
-Elder Hussey

p.s.  As a side note, Elder May and I are going to start using the crockpot a lot more.... So if you have any easy/good recipes we would love them! Also, remember the chicken marinade you have that is teryaki or something that has 7-UP in it? That one is a favorite of mine. I'm going to try to learn how to cook a lot more while I'm here in DeWitt!

Love you Mom!