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
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