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

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Elder Nathan Hubert