Wisconsin is actually warm!?!?!

Okay everybody, to begin this post, I want to apologize for something.  So, the computers at the Waukesha Public Library are super super protected and so you can't access anything from them!  For the first little bit that I was here, I could upload photos to the USB that I got, and then from there take them to email and then send them out, but now, the program that was once on the computers to upload photos to the USB is now no longer there, so as it would appear, for the next little while (at least for the time that I'm in Waukesha) I will not be able to send photos home...  Unless I get lucky one of these days and am able to have a member of the ward do it for me, and I'm tempted to do that because this is getting frustrating for me at my end.. :)  But all in good time, we should be able to do it soon...  ish...  Just don't fret - it'll all work out.

So Monday, after playing Soccer for our weekly sports, Elder Schvaneveldt and I had dinner at the Siegman's home - a great family from the ward.  And even though he is 60 or so, on the drive over to his house, he offered to show us his band (or rather have us listen to it), so he put in a CD of his band!  So we were surprised, first of all, to hear this guy was in a band, but were even more surprised to hear the crazy Rock and Roll that came from the stereo!  It was crazy to discover that this guy in the ward is a complete Rock Star!  He even let me play around on his piano and band stuff in his basement.  Most men have a Man Cave.  He has a Band Cave...  It was quite the setup!  But it was a pretty funny way to end a P-day!

Tuesday morning, we had to leave early for District Meeting because the English Elders are low on miles in their car and couldn't give us a ride, so we took a bus and walked to the church building in Brookfield.  On the bus, the guy sitting next to me had a hook for a hand, and was reading a book in German!  Kind of not what I was expecting to see on the bus that day, but adventurous!  And one crazy thing that we discovered about Tuesday, the 25th of March, 2014, is that today is my 6-MONTH MARK?!?!  It was super crazy, and still is, to think about that!  I cannot believe that I've been away from all of you - my dear family and friends - for over 6 months now!  I mean, sure that number is only going to get bigger, but it does NOT seem like that long as of right now...

Later in the day of Tuesday, though, we got to go early to the Wales Church Building (where our ward meets) and set up tables and things for the Blue and Gold Banquet for the Cub Scouts.  And because we were recruited to help (because there were less-actives and non-members coming) we got to partake of the great food AND pie that was there!  It was a fun program though!  I took one or two photos, but I can't send them to you now...

Wednesday began with a super exciting day doing service at the Food Pantry!  Wahooooo!  It went by pretty long, because almost nobody came in today.  But right as we finished, we had to speed-walk over a mile to get to the Library to have our lesson with Rosa and Bro. Hause for team-ups this week.  We got there, and then Rosa texted us and rescheduled the leson for Friday.  So, we had Brother Hause take us to Brad & Ana's house, where we had a quick thought and scheduled a more formal lesson, and then we did the same thing with Blanca, and were able to schedule a lesson with her as well!  After we got home, we ate some dinner and studied up a bunch to prepare ourselves for our lesson with Christy and John, which we had with the English Elders later that night.  We got over there, and the lesson basically consisted of us going over the things that we had had them read from the BoM, such as Alma 32 and 3 Nephi 11.  We answered all questions, and that took so long that we had to go after that, but I hope they are starting to understand now!

Thursday morning we had a lesson scheduled with Blanca, but right as we got over there she told us that she was about to leave with her son to do something, but that we should go by later.  So, we went and had service at the Hope Center, and then went back to Blanca's house, where we met Ben, the father of her youngest daughter, and taught them about the Authority of God - the Priesthood, and about the Restoration, trying to catch Ben up to speed.  But hey, we got a new investigator with Ben!  After that, we came home and ate a bit, and then got picked up by Bro. Tatioka to go visit some less-actives, which ended in him taking us and Candy Wood to Taco Bell for a Taco run.  It was pretty fun, except I couldn't eat very much because my stomach has shrunk so much out here...  :P

Friday had been planned to be weekly planning all day, but we also had a lesson on the other side of town that we had to try and make it to, so we went over there only to find out that Paulina was not home!  So we went right back home and weekly planned!  But then we set out for the library and then got another text from Rosa rescheduling for tomorrow, so we just went over to the Black Family's House to attend Zane Black's Mission Farewell Party for a little bit.  I really hope he has a great mission!  he left this morning to go to Utah for the MTC, then for the California Arcadia Mission.

Saturday morning was....  Frustrating.  There were 2 baptisms in the ward of 8 year olds and we were supposed to go because some of the less-actives were going to be there, but nobody in the ward was willing to give us a ride, so we were super irritated by that, but now we're fine so don't worry.  But we did have a great lesson with Rosa later in the day!  Zane came to do his last lesson before he left, and we taught Rosa about the blessings of baptism and answered all of her questions.  But it got to the point where I just said:  "Rosa, are you scared?"  And she just cried out YES!!!  So, now that we have that covered, we can move on from there.  :)

As we left the library though, there were some people handing out flyers for their church, flyers on Eternal Life.  We started talking to them and one lady asked me: "If you were to die right now, where would you go?"  So I proudly announced: "Right to the Spirit World!"  She was confused and kept on trying to get me to take her pamphlet, so I opened up my Book of Mormon (where I usually keep Restoration pamphlets), but this time I found a Plan of Salvation pamphlet, which is just what I needed.  I said "I'll read yours if you read mine!"  So we traded, and I'm not sure if she read it or threw it away, but I hope that she read it!

For the rest of the night though, we contacted members and less actives, which was good.

Sunday, yesterday, we had a great day at church.  Rosa absolutely loved the testimonies that were shared in the meeting, and then after church we helped Hermano Seneli with his home teaching, and offered service by helping another person move.  Then, we had dinner with the Baer family, who are super nice.

Not a super detailed week, I apologize, but things are looking great up here!  Keep on praying that the people of Wisconsin will soften their hearts!  I love you all and pray that this week is a great one for you!

--Elder Nate Hubert

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

Miracles Miracles Miracles everybody! And it's getting warmer!

Well, this week was really amazing, and we saw an amazing miracle yesterday, so if you read on, you will most definitely be able to read about it!  :)

On Monday, we played lots of Sports (basketball and soccer) and had a good time with everybody that showed up to the church!  After playing Sports, I got a package from the Zone Leaders - it was some new name tags!  The name tags that I had been given in Mexico had a different font from everybody else's so they decided to get me some new ones so that I could fit in with everybody else, so that was a pretty exciting thing!  And then on Sunday night, we got to have dinner with the Blacker family, which was great.  We shared a message on hope from D&C 121 (verses 1-3 and 7).  I highly recommend it.  It's really great!

Tuesday, (I'm going to quote my journal for you): "We ventured out to do something crazy fun!  That was...  TRACTING!"  And though the 'super fun' part might be a joke, it ended up being pretty good and we were able to find lots of people, even though most of them were uninterested at the moment.  The great thing to remember is that they are each our brothers and sisters and this message, the gospel that we have, is for everybody, and though they might completely and entirely reject it as of right now, one day they will be given the opportunity, whether in this life or in the Spirit World, to reject or accept the gospel.  So if their time has not yet come to receive it, we need not be discouraged over that.  They have their agency to choose - that is the purpose we are on this earth, to choose!  All we are here to do is give them a better option to choose from.  :)  But throughout the day, we got 4 lessons while tracting, and got a couple other doors shut on us, but that's alright.

Later, we went to go and see of Jose was at the Black's house, and he was!  We were even able to sit down with him and talk a little bit about what he had decided between being baptized Catholic (for a family tradition) or being baptized Mormon (what he wants to do).  He still wanted to do both, but after an analogy shared by my companion, he finally understood.  The analogy was this:  you're standing on a road trying to go right and left at the same time, but all that does for you is absolutely nothing - you must choose one path to make any progress.  So, we're trying to help him make progress!

On Wednesday, we had a super full day.  In the morning, we had our studies and workouts and things, but the first real thing of the day was walking over to the Food Pantry to do our weekly 2-hours of service there.  It was pretty fun that day because I got to joke around and have some fun with some of the other volunteers - we actually made it onto the Food Pantry's 'wall of Elders,' where they take a photo of Elders they really like and put it up on a wall...  :)  We made it!!! :D  Later, we got to help brother Tateoka set up a love-seat in his man-cave.  It would have taken him a long time to do it alone, but with us we did it in 10 minutes!  Then, he gave us a ride over to the library so that we could be on time for our lesson with Rosa.  Zane Black - a preparing missionary from the ward - came in as well.  The lesson was amazing!  At the start, usually one of us asks to start with a prayer, but today, the first thing she said to us was "Can we please start with a prayer?"  So, we did, and then she continued in explaining that she felt really bad, really guilty, ever since she heard the talk that I had given on Sunday about how to draw closer to God and develop Christlike attributes.  So, that kind of made me feel bad, but then I remembered the scripture "Godly Sorrow worketh repentence to salvation..."  So, it was necessary for her to feel that way in order for her to repent!  That was cool to realize.  By the end of it, we had decided with her to fast this Sunday to find out if the baptismal date of April 19th was right for her, and she was super excited for that.  :)

After our amazing lesson, we had dinner with the Durst family, who are really amazing.  One funny thing that happened is their 3 year old daughter, Jewel, started dinner a couple of seats away from me, but after 10 minutes or so, she had very sneakily worked her way until she was sitting right next to me so she could talk to me...  She's funny...  :P  And after our amazing dinner, the English Elders and us went over to Christy and John's place to have our transition-lesson where we would be giving them as investigators to the English Elders.  It was a pretty tense lesson, once again with Christy trying to throw us off and John kind of just sitting there, but after a while, all we could do was bear a firm testimony of what we knew was true, and there was nothing they could say to contest that.  I pray that their hearts get softened though, they really are great people.

Thursday was the first day of Spring!  Finally!  Today, this morning at least, we had to get ready in our finest suits and ties, because today we had interviews with President Cutler!  :)  After the two sisters had gotten interviewed, I got to go in and talk to him.  My first interview with him was 30 minutes long, but this time I was in there for 45 minutes!  We talked a lot about my studies and the insights that I'd been getting, and then a lot about how things were going in the area and with Elder Schvaneveldt, and also he gave me a time to ask some questions that I had, which he provided some input on.  He really is so inspired though.  Mission Presidents receive inspiration on the best ways to preside over a mission, but really it is God that directs each and every mission.  That is comforting to know - we're each in good hands.  :)  Later in the day, we got to do our studies because we hadn't been able to in the morning, and then we had team ups that night with Brother Kabat, where we got to make contact with a less active and commit him to come to church!  :)  It was great!  The funny part was when we went to a gas station to use the restroom adn then Brother Kabat told us to grab a treat, so we did, and as he was checking out, the lady behind the counter just looked at me, pointed and said, very loudly: "I like your smile. It's contagious!"  So, I walked out of that gas station being very embarrassed...  :P

On Friday, we did WEEKLY PLANNING!  So, that took up our day until 5:00...  Though in the middle of the day, we did bus up to an area where we had scheduled a lesson with a new lady, but because there was no man present, we had to do a quick doorstep thing.  But we did say a prayer with her before we left, and as I was praying for her children, she started to cry a lot, so I hope she felt the Spirit.  :)  That night, we had dinner with the Black family, which was nice, and we started our exchange with the English Elders.  I got to go up to the Pewaukee Area with Elder Wiscombe, which was nice because I finally got a car for the day.  :)

On Exchanges, (Saturday)we went on a run in WCTC Campus (Waukesha County Technical College) which is right next to the English Apartment.  We had Correllation in the afternoon, and then for the next couple of hours we contacted less actives, but weren't able to get ahold of any of them.  We also went Tracting for 2 hours, and let me tell you, tracting in an English area is much harder than that in a Spanish area.  Spanish people will at least listen to you, but English people just slam the door on you and get grumpy!  So, that was pretty bad, but we did end up getting a return appointment for the English Elders, which I hope goes somewhere at least.  :)  Then that night, we got to go to Subway with the Bishop family, who are super nice.  :)

Sunday, we fasted with Rosa, and also with our Zone Leaders (who had given us the idea in the first place) to see if April 19th was right for her.  We had church, where we had 2 mission farewells in the ward, it was nice!  And then we had dinner that night, and after dinner, we called Rosa, and her answer to the question that she had was: "Yeah, I feel really good about that."  So, she now has a baptismal date!  I am SOOOOOOOO excited and SUPER happy for her!  :D

Anyways, it has been an incredible week and the numbers of the week (though they don't mean much) have never been better in this entire year than they were this week!  

I love you all so much, and I want you to know that the church is true, and that if you are thinking of serving a mission, know that it is a great thing to do!  I love you all - keep the faith!  Have a great week!

--Elder Nathan Hubert

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

It's getting warmer!

Dear family and friends, I love you all so much!  Thank you all so much for your letters and emails - I love being able to hear from each of you, hearing how you are doing, and also being able to answer all of your questions.  Thanks!

This week has been a really good one for me.  The numbers were a little less than we were expecting, but our efforts were great and we did our very best, and that is the only thing that we have control over as missionaries, so if other people decide that they don't want the message, then that is up to them, but we will always be there knocking on their door to see if they're ready!  :)

On Tuesday, we did not have a District Meeting because this week was Transfers, but my entire ward/district is staying the same for another 6 weeks, which is a great thing!  We have a great group right now and we are able to work really well in our own companionships and as well as a group, so I'm really happy that we're going another one together.  But today, we did get to have an earlier lesson with our friend Blanca.  The lesson started out as a discussion on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, especially faith and repentance, but for some reason the conversation changed to church attendance, and Blanca started ranting about all of these things that she doesn't like about organized religion, such as the fact that priests get payed and then they get nice cars and stuff off of the church's money, or things of that nature, but it was funny because each problem that she had did not apply to our church.  She was amazed to find out that our leaders and congregation do everything as a service, that they have regular lives as well; and also that women can say prayers in our church!  It was super sweet!  :)

Later in the day, we had a lesson with Rosa, which was good - and we even got Brother Hansen to come with us again!  She had coffee again, but this time instead of telling us that she didn't know how to stop drinking it, she was really optimistic about how she is not perfect, but that she needs to keep on trying her hardest.  :)  She is amazing.

That night, we had team-ups with Brother Loutensock and we went and visited a less active named Florencio, who we talked to about Mexico and about possibly doing Family History for his family, but a road block we have come across is that he doesn't know how to read, so he can't use a computer.  So, we're going to have to find a way to get past that.

Then that night, we had 2 missionaries come by and stay the night because they were on their way to Milwaukee for transfers the next day.  They were supposed to do that, but we had no idea about it because our Zone Leaders forgot to tell us!  But it ended up being good.  :)

On Wednesday, we had a District Meeting because we were all staying the same, and it was really good!  I really enjoy having Elder Kimzey as our District Leader, he's really great.  After that, we got back to our place, and got picked up by Zane Black, the member of the ward who is getting ready to leave on his own mission at the end of the month.  He took us to our lesson with Brad and Ana, and helped us out there.  They fed us while we were there, which was really nice of them, and then we talked about why it is necessary to live the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which was really good.  :)  We have met with them enough to know when Brad's going to start going on a tangent and have been trying to combat that, so we stayed more on track this time.  :)  After that, Zane gave us a ride to Christy and John's house, where we had a nice dinner and a more hostile lesson...

In between lessons, Christy had gotten a D&C and a PoGP and had looked up some out-of-context scriptures to try and throw us off balance, but the answer that we continued to use throughout everything is that if they prayed about everyhting, they would receive an answer that Joseph Smith WAS a prophet and that everything in those scriptures is TRUE!  Christy didn't like that a lot, but John was all over it, so it was great.  :)

On Thursday we got invited by the Food Pantry to go to a special lunch because we are good volunteers, so we went there for our lunch hour, and it was actually super fun!  We even saw some less actives there and got to talk to them about church attendance so things were good there.  

After that, we walked for a while to the other side of town to go and get in contact with a potential investigator that we have, but when we got there, nobody was home! So we tried their hispanic neighbors that we could hear speaking Spanish through the door, but they decided to not answer the door.

Then, we had the opportunity to go on Team-ups with Bro. Koch from the ward, but when we got to the appointment that we had scheduled to go to, they had forgotten that we had scheduled it and decided to go swimming instead!  So, as a backup, we went to a less active's house, and just in time, too.  Right as we got there, she got a phone call telling her some family news that wasn't great.  She started bawling while we were there and opened up to us to tell us what had happened, and we were even able to give her a Priesthood Blessing of comfort right there to help her feel better.  That was a miracle to me.  Even though Mormons are super late a lot of the time, we arrive just when we're needed.  That was great.  :)

Friday, you guessed it, was WEEKLY PLANNING!  But after all of those many hours of receiving some great inspiration of things to do this next week and people to visit and what to teach them, we got to go and visit a man that lives super far away, but he, too, was not home, so we just walked back to the apartment just in time to get picked up to go to an appointment with the Cutler family (the Mission President's son and his family live in our ward).  They invited some of their non-member friends to come to dinner and to hear our message, and they participated a ton, too!  They were super super funny and we were able to share a message about Jesus Christ and it went super well.  They did not commit to take the missionary lessons, but we were able to feel the Spirit with them and that is all that matters.  I mean, after a couple times of feeling that then people are more likely to decide to listen.  :)

On Saturday, we had correlation in the morning and got to discuss ways to improve the missionary work in the ward and in the area, which was great.  But after that, Brother Tatioka took us to the South Stake Center in Milwaukee to go to the Churchball Games to support the Less-active boys in our ward that are playing for the team.  So, that was super sweet, and we got either 2nd or 3rd place, I don't remember - we couldn't stay for super long.  But man, those inner-city Milwaukee ward members know how to play SUPER well - I've never seen basketball played like that - it was super amazing!  :D

Throughout the day, we made up our studies that we had missed out on that morning from Correlation, and we went to a lesson that we had scheduled, but the person was not home.  

Then that night, we had a dinner appointment with the Brown family, which was sweet.  They are a great family and have such strong testimonies, and we were able to share a message about reading the Book of Mormon and why it is important to read from it daily - a message that they apparently needed to hear.  :)

Sunday was a good day too!  We got picked up to go to church SUPER early, and while we were there we got to talk to tons of members from the other ward, but eventually it came time to start church.  And, surprise, I got to speak in church!  I had actually gotten a call on Wednesday night and had prepared my talk during my studies on Thursday, so I was ready, but it is the first time that I got to speak in church on my mission!  It was a talk on Christlike Attributes, including the importance to have them and the blessings we can receive from that.  It went pretty well!  There was even a lady who took notes from my talk - IN HER SCRIPTURES!  She wrote all over the scriptures, even the verse-pages, the notes from my talk..  I was kind of embarrassed when she showed that to me...  :P  (Oh, and Rosa came to church again!)

Then at night, we had dinner with the Hansens, and they had Corned Beef and Cabbage - a perfect St. Patricks Day meal.  It was a great end to a great week!  :)

I love you all so much!  Keep the faith!

 

Sorry there are no pictures again, I'll get some to you guys soon.. 
-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

Transfer Week, Jail, Singing, another great week in Wisconsin!

So, this week was a really great one, so, stay tuned as to the reasons why!  On Tuesday the 4th, we had a Zone Training Meeting in Milwaukee at the City Branch Building, which is a super sweet looking building because it was built in the depression, but unfortunately I did not take any photos of it so I can't show you what it looks like.  :)  But we learned a lot of great stuff during that training, and focused mainly on the daily routines of Studies and Planning and how we can get more out of it, so it was great!  Then the YSA Sisters of Milwaukee spoke about getting rid of Mission Culture, such as labeling certain areas as 'bad areas,' which is funny because that is exactly what people said about Waukesha before I got here, but things here are amazing so I'm not sure why anybody would have said that!

Then Tuesday evening we had dinner with the Phillips family, and they are so funny!  I loved it, and the food was amazingly delicious as well (if that is a term to use).  Turns out Brother Phillips is a pilot for private jets, and he speaks Spanish from his mission, which is useful for us to utilize - we'll be using him more often!

Wednesday though is the day that things got interesting.  So, Rosa did not make it to church last week and we didn't know why - she was apparently out of town but hadn't told us that she was going out of town, so we were confused.  We had a lesson with her on Wednesday Morning at 11, so we went over there with Zane Black, who is planning on going on his mission this month.  At the beginning of the lesson, she told us that she wasn't at church because she was.... IN JAIL?!?!  Last week we had given her the blessing, right?  Turns out that later that day, she was at the hospital with her niece who had gotten punched in the face and had broken her nose, so Rosa called the cops to come over.  While the cops were there, they had to check Rosa's ID to make sure that they were related, and before the cops left, one of them pulled her aside and told her that there was a warrant out for her arrest!  She was surprised, but of course just went with the cops to make a presence at Court.  But instead of just going to Court, she had to sit in jail for 4 days and ponder things, but as she had suspected, the thing she was there for was something that she had payed for a long time ago and they just hadn't logged it, so she got out of jail on Monday.  But the entire time she was in jail, she was not allowed to have Coffee, which is great because now she's been over a week without Coffee because she doesn't want it anymore!  All she wants now is to be baptized, which is amazing progress.  We are currently having her pray about the baptismal date that we had gotten, so we might be having a baptism in the upcoming weeks!  :)

Later that day, we did service at the Food Pantry and helped people get food, then helped Brother Hansen with his home teaching, and then we had a dinner appointment with some investigators - John and Kristy - who are active members in their church, and so we were basically talking about different points of doctrine and telling them our beliefs on it.  :)  It went so well that we are going back again this week for the same kind of a thing!   :)

On Thursday, the first thing that happened was when we did service at the Hope Center, which was actually pleasant today because none of the people came in were grumpy and nobody got mad at us today!  So, that was a plus.  :)  After that, we walked over to the library so that we could watch something our District Leader told us to check out - the January CES Devotional by Tad R. Callister, called the "Blueprint of Christ's Church."  IT.  WAS.  INCREDIBLE.  I hightly recommend that you watch this if you haven't already - it is so great!  It just, well, I can't adequately describe it to you...  So I'm just going to commit you guys to watch it.  Okay?  Okay...  :)  Deal.

After that we went contacting with different people, and we stopped in with Blanca and Pablo, who we weren't able to meet with last week, and got a return appointment.  The same happened with Brad and Ana, who have difficult schedules, and even got to talk to a less active and share a brief message!  A super great day for us!  :)

That night we had dinner with a ward missionary from Mexico who made us Lengua - COW TONGUE.  I had never had it before, but it was super great and I loved it!  I also highly reccommend that, but I'm not going to commit you guys to eat that if you don't want to.

Friday was....  (fanfare please)  WEEKLY PLANNING!  You guessed it!  It was pretty good, and we were actually able to talk about a ton of people and make a bunch of good plans to do, so wish us luck!  :) 

After Weekly Planning we went out to the Metro Transit Unit and got on a bus and rode it a little bit to go to a new Hispanic Tracting area that we found.  On the way there, we stopped by Jose's house, but nobody was home -  we still need to get ahold of him.  Then, we tracted out this place - and for the first time in a long time, I got frustrated at the people we met.  Here is why:  while we were out, we would knock on a door that we knew was Spanish, and they would answer, and we'd start talking to them by introducing ourselves as missionaries and representatives of Jesus Christ, and ask them if they'd talked to missionaries before.  They would always say:  "No, I'm catholic."  (All of this is in Spanish)  Then, we would ask them if they believed in the Bible, and they always said Yes.  Then we would ask if they'd read it, and they would always say No.  Then, in an attempt to introduce the Book of Mormon through Jesus Christ and his ministry, I would ask them what they knew about Christ's ministry, and they would always tell me that they didn't know anything about it! 

That is why I was a little frustrated...  Just because these people claimed a religion that is centered on Jesus Christ - the redeemer of the world - and these people don't even know who He is or what He did for us, and are unwilling to listen to more because they 'already have a religion...'  I mean, I wasn't like angry at all or frustrated to their face, it was just in thinking about it later that I realized that I was kind of frustrated about it...  But don't worry, I'm good now.  :)

On Saturday morning, we weren't going to have correlation so I was just in the shower getting ready for the day, when Elder Schvaneveldt pounds on the door and tells me that we need to go give a blessing NOW.  So, I hurried up, we got dressed, and we got picked up by the ward mission leader Brother Tatioka and were taken back to his house.  As it turns out, Sister Weaver - one of the missionaries - passed out yesterday due to unknown reasons, and was still feeling unwell, so she had requested a blessing.  So they got there, we talked for a bit, then I got to anoint and Bro. Tatioka got to voice the blessing, and that was an amazing opportunity for us to be able to be there!  I loved it!  :)

Later, we got the transfer text!  (A text from the Zone Leaders telling us who in the Zone is getting transferred), and as it turns out, nobody from our district is leaving - we are together for another 6 weeks!  :D

Then when we got out, we went and tracted out a different street and found not as many hispanics as we were suspecting, but still got return appointments with a few of them, and one for 3 weeks in advance.  That just made me laugh because most people forget about appointments a few days to a week in advance, but 3 weeks?  We'll see!

Sunday was a day that I loved though, but that was for just 2 reasons.  Those are that 1: Rosa came to church today, and 2: Elder Kimzey and I got to sing in church today!  We sang the  arrangement of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" that we had sung at Zone Conference just a little bit ago, and I love being able to share my testimony in that way...  Anyway, I've continued for much too long this week.

I love you all so much!  Thank you all for the prayers that are coming our way - we feel the blessings every single day.  I just want you all to know that I know the church is true - this truly is Christ's church once again restored on the Earth.  I love you all!

--Elder Nathan Hubert

Pinewood Derby, Hope Center, and a Blessing!

Hello to my friends and family!  I love each and every one of you SO much and if you haven't emailed me recently, just know that I would love to know what is going on in your life and would love to send you an email back!  I mean, I know that at times things are super busy in the mission field, and I mean like every single day in the mission field, but I promise you that I would do my best, or if you want to send me a letter (which is good too!) then the address of my mission office is on my blog and they will forward it to me when they get it!  :)

But this week was super great, I loved every moment of it.  So many blessings!  But some funny things too...  :)  The first funny experience was last P-day, so on Monday night we got to go to dinner at the Sefcik's home (the bishop of the Waukesha Ward), and they really are such an amazing family.  But, as we were discussing missions with them, and talking about their son that is on a mission and their next son who is preparing for his, we found out that their son who is a Senior in high school is 5 days older than I am!  It was super strange to figure that out, because I've been graduated from High School for a bit and am now on my mission, but he's still in school...  So, a little bit strange, but overall a pretty funny experience.

Elder Hubert and Elder Kimzey during a split.

Tuesday, believe it or not, was my 5-month mark on my mission!  I left on September 25, and it was February 25, and let me tell you, it does NOT seem like I've been out for that long at all!  In fact, it seems as if I've been out for just a month, maybe, or like I just got out of the CCM.  Time is flying by, and that is unbelievable for me.  But I have been doing well at cherishing every single moment I have serving my mission - there are so many miracles that we see every single day and so many blessings that we receive.  A blessing that we got on Tuesday was when, during District Meeting, we were graced by the presence of the Milwaukee Institute Director Brother Wheeler, who gave us some amazing insight on Prayer and how we receive answers to our prayers - I'd love to share it with you all but perhaps when I'm home from my mission...  ;)  And like I mentioned in the subject line, Elder Schvaneveldt and I got the opportunity to participate in the Pinewood Derby of the ward, which was okay because we had a less-active and her non-member son there so we were able to talk to them about church attendance and set up a time that we could teach them at their house.  :)  But the pinewood derby was super fun, and we even got to participate, using some old cars that some people brought, and I actually got 7th place overall (out of 29 participants) with the car that I borrowed!  It was such a fun experience, and a great time to get to know the ward even better.  (Even if they did misspelled my name in the tournament - now some people call me Elder Herbert...)  :P

Elder Hubert's District

On Wednesday we had to leave early to walk to our service at the Food Pantry because we had 2 referrals to contact on the way up there, and we actually got to teach a short lesson to one of them, but found out that they were moving to a city outside of our area in the upcoming weeks, so we won't be able to teach them.  Service was fun, and we were able to help out one of the members of the ward by loading the things up into her car!  It's great to be able to give little bits of service when we're able to.  After that, we got to go to Brad and Ana's house to teach them the Plan of Salvation, a lesson that went really well, but Brad gets very side-tracked as we're teaching him, so we actually got to teach the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the Word of Wisdom in the hour that we had with them!  It was super interesting, but if he got something out of it then we're good.

Thursday at the Hope Center service we do (giving clothes to the less-fortunate) we had a good day because none of the people who came in got upset at us Volunteers as they tend to do - so that was fine!  Actually, one of the ladies that came through started talking about us Mormons and how we are such nice people and how she wishes that everybody could be like that.  I asked her about her religion and she said she was a Lutheran, and we got talking about religion.  She wasn't interested in learning, but it was just being able to talk about God that was the amazing part of the conversation, because no matter what religion someone belongs to, it is just good that they all have that something that they believe in.  :)  And then at the Hope Center, one of the guys in charge gave me some new slippers, which are pretty nice, but it looks like I'm wearing a Wookie on my feet...  ;)  After the Hope Center, we got to have our lesson with Rosa.  We discussed her concerns about coffee, about baptism, and why it is that she relapsed.  She told us all of her concerns, and after that discussion we opened a discussion about Priesthood Blessings, and then we gave her a blessing.  It was so amazing, and I found it incredible that the Spirit was able to just fill up the room to such a capacity.  But after the blessing, we committed Rosa to praying to find out if quitting Coffee was something that she needed to do, and before we left she told us that she already knew what her answer was.  :)  It's beautiful the way that the Spirit works at some people's hearts.  :)  Simply amazing...  ;)  After that, we were able to meet with the Part Member less active family that we talked to at the Pinewood Derby, and were able to teach them all about the Plan of Salvation.  The child is 10 years old, so we had to dull it down a little bit, but after we taught him the plan, we had him tell it back to us,and he remembered quite a bit of it, which is good!  But our plan with them is to get her back to church before we baptize the son, because otherwise he would go instant less-active as his mom is.  :)  Wish us luck!  (Pray for Alisia and Devon)

Friday we did our weekly planning because Thursday ended up being so full of other stuff.  After weekly planning though, we decided to go over to the Waukesha Metro Transit offices to purchase bus passes and give them a try, because ever since the Spanish Elders' car was taken away, they have never tried the buses, so we're going to be the ones to either rule the buses out or be the ones to decide to use them.  :D  Then, we went to a couple people's houses, and found a new area where there are tons of hispanics!  Looks like we're going to be tracting out there in the next couple of days!  :D  Then we had dinner with the Black family, who are getting ready to send out Zane, a missionary of their own, who leaves this month!!!  :)  I'm so excited for him!  But, during our conversation at dinner, one of their boys told us that the answer to life, the universe and everything was 42, and then we came to the conclusion that that statement was true, but that the Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy (where that quote comes from) was actually talking about Alma chapter 42, which outlines the Plan of Salvation, which is actually the answer to all of that.  ;)  Kind of a backwards way of relating to the gospel, but it worked!

Saturday morning, we had our normal correlation meeting, where we were able to discuss our investigators and if anything needed to be brought to the attention of the Ward Council.  But after Correlation, we all drove up together to go to a Ward Baptism of little Max Osmond, a kid who invited us to his baptism at the Pinewood Derby, and since we had invited an investigator to come and since he was counting on us to be there, we went, even though Alisia and Devon couldn't make it.  It was a sweet baptism, because it was his birthday, and because he had his 10-year-old brother give one of the talks.  :)  I thought it was cute!  And then after that, we went back home and decided to try out the buses, so we rode up to Sunset Drive, which takes us about an hour to get to on foot, but the bus got us there in 15 minutes!  SUCH an improvement!!!  Eventually though, after riding the buses for a bit, we ended up near an area with hispanics, so we went tracting and got to teach 2 families and get a return appointment!!!  :)  And since it was snowing, we decided to stop at the nearby member's home and shovel their walk, and because we did that, they decided to feed us!  So that was a clever way of getting a dinner appointment, if you ask me...  ;)  Service, gets 'em every time...  I'm kidding of course though.  After that, the English Elders had something to give to us so they came and helped us out by helping us shovel Rosa's driveway, and then we got some more food!  Then, we went home.

Sunday was basically a normal Sunday.  We got to church a bit early, and then we got to practice with the choir!  (By the way, Elder Kimzey and I are singing our song next week in church!  Wish us luck!)  Church was normal, and unfortunately Rosa, Alisia and Devon, and Jose weren't able to make it - we're going to keep on trying though!  After church, we had a dinner appointment with the Gardner Family, which was good.  Brother Gardner told us all about his mission in Bristol, England and in Wales, which sounded amazing!  Then, we went home then, too...  ;)

NOW, I'm here!  I just want to let you know, once again, that I appreciate all of your time reading this, writing to me, and all of the blessings and prayers that you send my way.  I love you all so much!  The Church is True!!!

Army of Helaman!

--Elder Nathan Hubert