FECHAS DE BAUTISMO! y... CONFERENCIA DE ZONA! y... INTERCAMBIOS!

Baptismal dates!  and...  Zone Conference!  and...  Exchanges!

This week has been super amazing.  Through this entire transfer, I have been trying to guide the area to the point that we are able to progress with our investigators all together, instead of just progressing one at a time, which can be difficult to do.  However, this week, things actually started picking up!  Rather than maintaining relationships or simply teaching lessons, we had the investigators actually making choices and sacrifices for the gospel.

The first example is on Tuesday when we taught Jose, Althea, and Maddi (new investigators - except for Jose) the lesson on the Restoration of the Gospel.  Things went really well, and they told us that they were definitely willing to pray about the First Vision and get their own answers as to if Joseph Smith was a prophet.  However, later, we were talking about the things that Joseph Smith helped restore, such as the Priesthood.  As we were discussing that, we talked about Priesthood Ordinances and other things that we are able to do because we have the Priesthood, and as we discussed baptism, we challenged the 3 of them to be baptized on the 28th of June, and they accepted!  And not only did they say that they would, they said that they had already been talking to their parents about being  baptized a member of the church, so that is definitely a miracle!

Wednesday, we were able to have Zone Conference!  So, how that works is we got picked up around8:30 by the English Elders, who drove us down to the Stake Center in a city called Brookfield (the same building we have sports in on P-day).  We got there and helped set up, then we studied from 9:30 to 10, when the conference started.  It is led by the Zone Leaders, but President Cutler was presiding and the Assistants were there, too.  It was a pretty good conference, and the part that I recall the most clearly is when they talked about how we need to change our view and expectation of an area, because likely the area is not going to change.  I kind of applied it to coming to Waukesha, because before I got here lots of missionaries told me that the area was dead, but when I got here, it was not!  It was so lively, to the point that we even got a baptism!  And now, there is nothing but promise as far as the eye can see!  So, the area did not change, but my expectation of the area changed as I saw what it had to offer and took it for what it was.  :)  And directly following the conference, we had Team-ups with Bro. Davies, who took us to go and teach George Campos, a less-active man who he home teaches.  The lesson was so great, and it was amazing to just sit there and watch Bro. Davies testify to him, because as I thought about it, I realized that since this man was already a member, it was Bro. Davies' calling as his home teacher to teach him, and the Spirit was helping him magnify his calling in that lesson, I could feel it.

Thursday we were able to help Brother Hansen with his home teaching as well, because it is a single woman and he doesn't want to be there on his own, and because she speaks only Spanish and we speak Spanish too, so we are able to help!  :)  And then after that, we got to go with Brother Tateoka and teach one of the new-member discussions to Spring and her daughters, and also got to have a lesson with Alicia and her son Devon.  They recently moved into a new house, which is amazing for them!  Devon really wants to make progress in the gospel, even if he is only 10 years old, and we think that his mother finally realized that it is her responsibility to get him to church in order for him to be baptized eventually.  There would be no need in baptizing him now if all he would do is go less active immediately!  So we're working with them there.

Friday, we had some pretty great plans to go and Weekly Plan and visit Althea and Maddie's families, but that did not end up working out because that morning Elder Wise told me that he had been up all night with Stomach problems, so we were going to stay in the apartment all day!  And we did!  So, as Elder Wise was resting and everything, I did studies and Weekly Planned by myself, and then I made some calls to some people, and was actually able to teach 3 over-the-phone lessons and stay pretty effective the whole day!  Though our original plans weren't able to be accomplished, we were still able to be effective and diligent, which is good.

Saturday we had Correlation, immediately followed by a big service project for Sister Sylvester in the ward.  We Elders spent 5 hours manning a Hydraulic Wood Splitter and splitting wood that she had in this HUGE pile!  So, we were able to help her, which was good!  But she repayed us with lunch (beef tenderloin) so we didn't complain...  ;)  Later that day, we got a text asking us to sing a song at the primary baptism later that night, so we went to find that the font had not been filled up!  So as they filled it up, we got time to practice and it didn't sound too bad, so that's good I guess!  :D

Sunday, we had church, and guess who came to church?  Jesus did!  (one of our investigators - not the 2nd coming...)  He had dropped us hard a few weeks ago after a super powerful lesson, which had been surprising, but it was all good now!  He was all over the Book of Mormon and had questions about baptism, and then he re-scheduled a lesson with us, which I was really excited about because I really respect him.  :)  After church and dinner, we got to have a lesson with Deanna and Caleeah and Cumoni, which went well.  We reviewed 1 Nephi 1 with them, because that had been their reading assignment.  And, guess what?  They actually read!  :)  That is awesome!  :D 

And then yesterday, we had exchanges.  I was with Elder Kimzey, and since it was a holiday, we basically spent the whole day with different members, fellowshipping their friends and getting to know them a bit more.  And we were even able to teach a super spiritual Restoration lesson to a potential investigator that we had, so I was really excited about that!  :)  And now it's Tuesday P-day, and I have never been happier to be a missionary.

Everyone, I know that this work is the work of God, and that He blesses His missionaries, for I have seen so many blessings and miracles in the short 8-months that I have been serving thus far.  I love Him, and He loves us!  :D  I know it!  And I know that the church is true!

Have a fantastic week!

--Elder Nate Hubert

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

New investigators

This week has been a really quick one, which was pretty surprising... I honestly cannot believe that it is P-day already!  :)  I hope that you have all had really great weeks too!!!  :D

Just a quick review of the week:

On Tuesday we tried to do Team-ups with Brother Durst, so we got picked up and helped him pick up stuff for his son's upcoming Eagle Project, and then we tried to pick up a less-active member named Bro. Howard, but he was not home!  We were going to take him to lunch and have a brief message to share with him, but because he wasn't home, we just went to lunch by ourselves.  After that, we got dropped off at District Meeting, which was pretty good.  We talked about the things that we should focus on as a missionary.  :)  For the rest of the day though we tried contacting people that we knew lived in a certain area, but none of them actually came to their doors, which can be pretty frustrating.  

On Wednesday, we had service at the Food Pantry, and on the way up there as we were walking, we went through a cemetary, and found Les Paul's grave!  He is a pretty famous guitarist that is from Waukesha, and is the reason that Waukesha Wisconsin is called "Guitartown USA."  (random fact of the day)  We did not take photos though because it was too rainy and wet and we were rushed...  However, after service, we went over to the Black's house to teach Jose, and met 2 new people too, who became our investigators!  Elthia and Maddi were very into the lesson, which was awesome.  Then, we went to the library to meet with Rosa, and after that we had dinner with the Schuenkes.  Directly after that, we went to visit a Less Active named Bro. Campos, who has been less active for 30+ years.  Lots of people were really skeptical about him, but our lesson with him was really good!  I just really hope he re-kindles the desire to go to church and everything.  :)  We talked mostly about the plan of salvation with him.  Turns out, he's a member of the church that knows nothing about the church!  So we're trying to help him with that.

Thursday, we went on team-ups with Bro. Durst again, and this time it worked!  He picked us up, then we went and picked up Dakota, Joey, Tyler, Shannan, and Shannan's little brother, and went to a fast-food place called Culver's.  We were there for a little over an hour, and Elder Wise and I were able to share a pretty powerful scripture with them, which was 2 Nephi 2:21, which says:  "Arise from the dust, my sons, and BE MEN."  It really hit them, that they need to watch out for each other and such, and it was a great lesson!  One of the best things to do is to be bold and loving!  Later, we got dropped off to go to a meal with George Campos, but instead helped him fix a lady's brakes in his building's parking lot.  After we did all of that, and after we had eaten dinner, we were going to go a lesson with Alicia and Devon, but then last-minute,she cancelled on us because Devon had a school thing.  But, I hope we can get with them soon!

Friday morning, we started out with Correlation meeting, where we spent an hour discussion missionary work, and while Bro. Tateoka had to leave to go help his wife with something, we 4 elders removed 4 stumps from his flower beds at his request.  It was a great service opportunity, especially because he has a really bad back, so we helped him there.  After that, we went to a member's house and picked up our bicycles that we had left with him to fix, and we rode them around, contacting less-actives and referrals.  But on the way there, we figured out that one of the pedals on the bike is stripped so we just ended up walking the bikes eventually.  We met this one less-active man who told us that "he is trying to distance himself from the church," which I thought was very sad, because this church is something that can bless everyone!  And he has seen the blessings, but does not want any more of it...  :(  That night,we had dinner with the Blacks, and Maddi was there with them!  After dinner and the lesson we shared, she committed to coming to church, which was sweet!  

Saturday morning, we went to a Farmer's Market to contact people and got 3 lessons using some surveys that we found in our area book.  After that, we went to go and paint a fence for an eagle project just down the road, and that was pretty successful!  It only took us 2 hours and there were about 30 people there, so it went pretty well.  After that, we started to weekly plan and then got picked up to go to a wedding reception for a lady in the ward, who had invited us to go there for our lunch hour for the food, so we did!  After that, we got invited by a member to go to a business thing in Milwaukee for a dinner, and after getting it approved by the Zone Leader's, we went to the Cheesecake Factory with the Bishops and the English Elders, which was good.  :)

Then, on Sunday, we had church!  And, amazingly, Maddi had come to church!  But the best part of that is that she told us that she wants to be baptized, which we are stoked about!  :D  So, we're going to be working with her to do that...  ;)  After church, we had a dinner with the Hansen's, which was great!  Then after that, we had scheduled a lesson with Dakota, Deanna, Shiyah, and Caleeah, which was great.  In waiting for all of them, we were able to shoot some hoops with those that were there, which is great and helped us build that relationship with them.  Then, we had a lesson about Charity, which went pretty well.  

It really was such a great week!  And for the week, we were able to meet and surpass a lot of our goals that we had set, which was amazing to do!  :D  I love being a missionary!  :)

--Elder Nate Hubert

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

Hailstorm, Mother's Day, a great week!

This week has been really great!  I have zero complaints about how things are going right now.  This is a 100% improvement than how things were when I first got out into the field.  Now, instead of letting the stresses and rejections get me down and affect me, I'm able to work hard despite what happens, which is awesome!  :D

On Monday, I got to have P-day!  It was also the Cinco de Mayo, so for lunch, the Blacks took us and the Sisters out to this Mexican place called El Palmar, which is super authentic and super awesome.  And for dinner, Bro. Seneli from the ward (a dominican man) made us Dominican Tacos!  :)  It was great!

On Tuesday, we had a really great District Meeting where we learned about Family History.  We got to go into the Family History Library and have the ladies there help us and learn how to do it.  One person in our district, Elder Kimzey, has a line that goes through Judah, then Jacob, then Issac, then Abraham, and onward...  No big deal or anything...  Also, I'm not sure how accurate that is, but it was pretty cool!!!  :)  Directly following that, we had a lesson with Jose at the Black's house, where we invited him to a party that Bro. Tateoka was hosting on Friday.  Later, we had a 10-minute lesson with Angel and Eric, which was awesome because their mom sat in too, and she is not a member.  And then after that, we contacted a potential named Victor and had a lesson with him, and even set a new appointment with him, so we're going to be teaching him now!

With Sisters Weavers and Silcox

Wednesday was a SUPER weird day, because it was a year ago TODAY that I got my mission call to go to the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission...  Crazy, huh??  :P  That totally changed my life forever.  :)  We also got to do service at the Food Pantry, and then went over to the Black's house and actually taught Jose a brief lesson instead of just inviting him to the party.  He took it well.  He knows the Book of Mormon is of God, but his dad doesn't want him to be baptized Mormon.  Pray that his heart will be softened!  After that, we took a bus to Pewaukee and then walked over to our dinner appointment 3 miles away.  The perks of not having a car, huh?  We get fed!!!  :D  But don't worry, we got a ride home.  ;)

What the HAIL?

Thursday, we started it out by going to the Hope Center to give service...  Directly after that, though, we got to meet up with Rosa.  She had a pretty bad experience with her family in Michigan over the weekend, and she wasn't ready to talk about it yet, but she was supposed to be out of townuntil Sunday but came home early on Tuesday because something had happened.  I hope that it was nothing too big!  After the lesson, we did some additional studies on the computers before heading back home to go through pages and pages of potential investigators, and organizing them into an order that we can actually contact them in!  Then we joined the rest of the district at a little restaurant to try what they called Ponzas - they are basically a heart attack with a crust, but it tasted good!  Then we had team ups with Brother Fletcher, and got to contact 2 less actives and teach another lesson too!

Friday, we got a text in the middle of our studies to go and help Brother Tateoka find and purchase the food he needed for the party tonight, so in order to provide that service, we got picked up by him and helped him out for about an hour.  Then, we took all of our weekly planning stuff across the street next to the river and weekly planned in nature!  It was great!  We made some amazing goals that can really pick up the area, so let's hope that everything goes as well as we are planning on!  :D  Then at night, we had our Barbecue, which was an enormous success!  Jose, Angel, and Eric weren't able to make it, but tons of less actives and other investigators were there, and we were occupied the entire time!!!  :D 

Saturday we had exchanges, where we scoped out the Farmer's Market to use as a finding method - and it works!  Then, we borrowed some bikes that the Sisters had in their garage and biked around, contacting referrals and potentials, but then my pedal fell off!  So we called the Sisters who had us go to a less-actives house to fix it, and by the time we left, her boyfriend was a new investigator!

Exchange with Elder Larsen

And then on Sunday, I got to call home.  :D  I took some sweet photos, too, so hopefully they will end up on the blog for this week!

I really love you all SO much!  Have a great week!

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

MILAGROS mis AMIGOS - TODOS los DIAS vemos MILAGROS

So, like the Subject Line says in Spanish, Miracles my friends!  Every day we see Miracles!  And that is so true.  :)  Not only in the life of a missionary, but every single day in each of our lives, we are the witnesses of the miracles the Lord does among the children of men.  He does not walk among us now, He is not healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear.  BUT miracles still happen, and though they might not be as obvious as what He did when He did walk on the Earth, they still occur!  It is our test to look for them, find them, and as President Uchtdorf told us in the last conference, to be gracious for everything.

On Monday, it was P-day, which is amazing every time!  :)  But one thing that I especially loved about Monday was in the evening when we had dinner with the Sefcik family - the Bishop of the Waukesha ward.  He was not there because of business, but I was able to talk to his son Parker who is preparing to go on his mission.  He is going to be reporting the the Mexico City CCM in August, so I was able to tell him all about it, show him photos, and kind of prepare him for that.  I was appreciative for the opportunity, so I hope that something that I said to him is going to help him in the future!

Tuesday was amazing, and we got to start it all out with a fantastic District Meeting!  I really loved it.  Each of us in the district got to do a little training on parts of the Plan/Study/Teach cycle, and mine was about the importance of the Holy Ghost in our Companionship Study.  But another hidden blessing was when I got to play the piano for District Meeting.  Now that Sister Anderson has left the district, I am the only one left in the area who knows how to play piano, so here I go!  Playing piano for at least the next 6 weeks!  :P

After DTM, Elder Wise and I had a lesson with Rosa at the library where we got to talk a lot about temples and excite her about that, which was awesome to see.  Then that evening, we got to help out a member, Frankie Perez, move a swingset into his backyard.  But while we were doing that, it started raining so all of us got pretty dirty, and then I got some cuts on my hands, which definitely was not the highlight of my day, but I'm fine, don't worry.  :)

Amazing Sub!

Wednesday we were able to do service at the Food Pantry and then after that, go to the Black's home to try and catch Jose there, but he was not there!  But in an attempt at being persistent, we had the kids walk us over to Jose's house, where we were able to catch up with him out front and also got to talk to him about the Book of Mormon and place the Illustrated Book of Mormon that we had for him, which he was SUPER excited about because he really loves comic books and graphic novels, so I think it really connected with him!  :)  

Then, after that, we walked back home and changed into some soccer clothes because for team-ups tonight, we helped Bro. Foster (a less-active) coach his soccer team!  They were just 10-year-old boys, but it was still super awesome!  It reminded me of when I coached Emily's soccer team, so I thought that was a personal miracle.  ;)

Thursday we did some service at the Hope Center, where we met a man, Rafael, who showed some interest in the Book of Mormon!  It was pretty funny because that morning, we had to text President Cutler and ask him a question about Rosa, and after he gave us an answer, we asked him if there was anything that we could do for him, and he said "Yes, Elders I want you to find someone new today who will fall in love with the Book of Mormon."  So, we did!  :D  Rafael gave us his number and took our book, and promised us that he would read it!  :)  So, we're hoping that we can reconnect with him and begin to teach him!

Weekly Planning took up the rest of our day, mostly, and then we had dinner and then another lesson with Rosa!  What we did was go to the library and watch a movie about the Temple with her, and we did it today because she is going out of town all of this next week.  But she loved the video, and she even started crying because she thought it was so beautiful.

Friday, we first went out to try and contact some potentials and a referral, but none of them were home.  But right as we were getting ready to get on a bus, what should pull up to the Wal Mart right next to us, then the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile!  We had time to snag a few photos, and then get on the bus to go up to Pewaukee, where our lesson was not home...  :(  But we contacted lots of potentials for the rest of the day!

The WeinerMobile

Saturday, we began by going to Correlation and then providing a less-active with some service as a District, and then we got a ride from Efrain Perez to go down to Milwaukee (don't worry, it was approved) to go to a birthday party for a Spanish member.  We used that as a finding method, and were able to come into contact with 2 new people, and contact a whole bunch of less-actives that are all part of the Perez family, so it was a huge miracle for us!  :)  We got to play soccer with Angel and Eric and got to do tons of stuff!  And then after that, we had dinner with the Tovias family!

Sunday, we had a lesson with Blanca before church, where we talked about how she's been and also about the other times that we'd be able to meet, and then we got a ride to church.  Church was good, but unfortunately we did not have any investigators there...  :(  However, after dinner we had dinner with the Gardener family, and after that we had a lesson with Less Active Dakota and his aunt/cousins, which was fun.  I'm not sure what happened during it, but in the words of Elder Wise, I "Threw down in the most bold, loving way that he's ever seen..."  It was pretty cool I guess.  :)  I can tell you more on Sunday about it  :)

And now I'm here!  I can't wait to talk to you on Mother's Day!!

Love you!

--Elder Nate Hubert

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

WEEK of TRANSFERS, MIRACLES, BLESSINGS, and CONFIRMATIONS!

Well everybody, I had a fantastic week this week and I really hope that you did too!  I'm going to try to sum this up simply beacuse I'm running out of time on the computer, slowly and surely...  :P  I'll expound on the cool experiences as much as I can though!  :D

TUESDAY,

We spent mostly inside the apartment helping Elder Schvaneveldt pack all of his stuff and cleaning the apartment for Elder Wise to get here.  There was so much random stuff that I found!  One blessing is that I found a BRAND NEW side bag in the back of our closet - with the tag still on it - that I'm using now, which is a huge blessing because my old side bag was getting very worn out little by little.  :)  But I was able to organize tons of stuff and change things in the apartment, which was good to finally be able to do.  We also had a goodbye lesson for Rosa and Elder S, because he is getting transferred to Port Washington.  It was awesome, and she is super excited to receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday.  That night, we had Dominican Plantains for dinner at the Seneli's home, which was awesome.  :)

WEDNESDAY,

We got picked up at 6:30 from the English Elders to go to the South Stake Center for transfers.  We got down there and Elder Kizmey had to go to a training because he is training a new misionary.  Elder Schvaneveldt and his new comp, Elder Osborne, hooked up pretty soon, as did I with Elder Wise.  We spent most of the day at the stake center doing a training with the Zone Leaders, and also talking to and taking photos with other missionaries!  I got to see Elder Shipp, my trainer, for the first time in a while, and that was awesome!  He is doing super well.  Later today, we got back to the apartment and then set out to introduce him to Rosa and try and make some other contacts.  Eventually, we made it back to the apartment and we unpacked his stuff and that was that!

THURSDAY,

The first thing that happened was the Hope Center!  We got some pretty sweet glasses there and got to help some people out, which was good.  We also tried to visit some people because we're trying to deal with the awkward transition of having a main investigator, to baptizing them, to then having to try and get a new main investigator.  It's quite the ride, but we have some good names in mind so we should be set in the next little while!  We then had Weekly Planning, where we talked about some awesome plans to pick up the area a little more, so that we can branch out even more than we have been, in finding new investigators and contacting old ones.  Super excited for that!  :)  Then that night, we had a lesson with Alisia, where we taught about prayer.  It was sweet to have her bear testimony to her son!  Then, we gave a blessing to her 3 year old in preparation for a procedure he has to do, then I offered her a blessing as well because I could tell she was going through a lot, and just to top it off we gave on to her son Devon who didn't want to be left out.  It was awesome.  I got to give all 3 blessings because they all knew me and didn't know Elder Wise, but it was great.  :)

FRIDAY,

Was a pretty full day!  We went up to Pewaukee to have lessons with the peopel that we scheduled them with, but we only met one of them, Jose, and we woke him up from his nap, so we scheduled another lesson and left.  We did, however, make contact with 2 less actives up there!  After we came back, we tried to meet with Jose, our former investigator, but he was not available.  So, we tracted out a nearby apartment complex, and then we went to go get some food form the store for Elder Wise.  After that and dinner, we had an awesome lesson with Angel and Eric, 2 sons of a less-active member.  It was so sweet, and they both show lots of promise.  After that, we visited another potential investigator, but met his son instead and taught him for an hour!  It was amazing - miracles DO happen!

SATURDAY,

We began with Correlation, which was good.  Then, after that, we did our studies in the middle of the day, and then contacted some other potential investigators that we had the information for.  After that, we got picked up by Brother Tateoka to go up to the church building and help him set up for a Primary Baptism.  Josh Tovias had asked me to say the opening prayer at the baptism, and then his father, Jesus Tovias, asked me to be a witness for the baptism (because he was doing the ordinance in Spanish) and also to stand in on the circle of Confirmation.  It was a great opportunity to be able to aid him in that.  That night, we had dinner with the Bishop family, which was a blast!  :)

SUNDAY,

Was the perfect day to top things off this week.  Church was amazing, especially because we were able to confirm Rosa a member of the church, sustain her and welcome her into the Ward, and that she was able to take the Sacrament and have it mean something to her.  During Gospel Principles, she was asked to stand up and tell how she felt now, and then after church, we aided Bro. Seneli in doing some Home Teaching.  We also had dinner with the Black's that night, which was fun.  Brother Black then took us over to contact some potentials we had, where we taught a doorstep lesson AND gained a referral, which is what we needed to complete our goals for the day!  :)

I KNOW that this gospel is true everybody, and that this work is the work of the Lord.  I love Him, and He loves all of us.  :)  Have great weeks - every single one of you!

--Elder Nate Hubert

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert