Weekly Email for January 26 - February 1

Hola people!  Man, this week has been a good one.  Throughout my mission, I have always tried to be hardworking - going out of the apartment when I'm supposed to and working hard, talking to people, sharing the gospel and everything.  But this week we set a goal as a district (2 companionships) to try and get 100 lessons together.  More specifically, my companionship decided to get 60 lessons taught this week.  When I first got to Green Bay, the lessons were at 15 a week, and then Elder Miller and I got them up to 20+ a week, and then Elder Harding and I got them up to 25+ a week, and now Elder Norris and I have them up to 30+ a week, but 60 is unheard of.  This is us putting forth every single ounce of energy that we have - being completely worn out by the time we get into the apartment every night...  But I'm proud to announce that we accomplished our goal!  At least, our companionship did...  I know that a mission is not about numbers, but the greatest part about the goal that we set is that each of the people we talked to, every single 'number' going into that goal is represented by a name - a human soul, a son or daughter of Heavenly Father who was edified by the Gospel of Jesus Christ this last week.  And what a privilege it was to bring it to them.  :)  That is the best part about being a missionary - we are the bringers of this 'good news.'

But going through my week:

On Monday we had a lesson with Juan Soto at his home, talking about the connection with the Book of Mormon and the Bible, drawing out a map for him (a map of the world) to demonstrate that God talked to prophets in the Old World (Israel) and in the New World (America) and demonstrating other points in the process.  He really loved it, and loves knowing about how Christ visitied and administered to people here - including some of his ancestors!  After that lesson, we had to run and catch a bus, and got home just in time to walk over to Diego's house for our other lesson.  He was not home, but on the way home we stopped by Liliana's place and got in contact with her!  :)  So, that was good!  We hadn't seen her in a while!

Tuesday we had District Meeting and it was all about representing the Lord as missionaries, and how we can do better, especially in regards to our dress, hygiene, speech, and other things.  It was a really good meeting, and that is where we discussed the goal to get 100 lessons.  After the meeting, we started working towards our goal, and had a brief visit with Hubert Nieves on our way to another lesson with his grandparents who live across the street.  After that, we stopped by Luis Munoz's house and shared a message with him, and another one with his family, and then they gave us a little to eat.  We then got a ride to the Grijalva's house and walked with them over to our lesson with the Carlos family, which went great.  Then, we got a ride from Carlos Alvarado to our dinner with Hermana Isabel, where we shared another lesson, and then we went over to the Solorio's home and had a lesson with them about the Spirit, with Hermana Rios there as well.  The main thing that I learned today was how powerful those women are in our branch - their testimonies certainly helped us during our lessons!  It was great!

Wednesday was an INSANE day.  We basically got out of the apartment at 1ish, bussed and tracted and contacted formers and potentials all day, had a dinner at 4 with the Arcos family, had a lesson with a new family, the Hernandez-Castro family, who are super awesome.  Then, we went over to the Trailer Parks on Bellevue where we taught some more!  We had an amazing lesson with the Vasquez famile - some people that are usually busy but who were home tonight, and then after that it was 9:26 and we live a while away, and our curfew is 9:30 if we were teaching a lesson, so we start booking it!!!  We ran long and hard in the cold, in our boots and coats and everything, and got home right as it was 9:30 - the Lord helped us be obedient there...  :)  And that day, we taught 18 lessons alone, found 5 new people, and gave out 6 copies of the Book of Mormon.

Thursday we did Weekly Planning as a companionship, meaning that we got out of the apartment at like 2:30 or 3ish.  We did a lot of the same we did yesterday, knocking doors and contacting former investigators, but I think one of the highlights of my day was having a team-teach lesson with the Sister Missionaries up here.  We got to this home that is half Native American and half Mexican, so we taught the husband and they taught the wife, and the Spirit is SO strong in their home - it feels like a member's home.  It was an amazing time.  And then, we played basketball so that was fun!

Friday, we did our service at St. Vinny's and we got to talk to our Puerto Rican friend Richard after that, and we had dinner on the West Side after a really good lesson with a new family we're teaching, the Dominguez family, and then we met some crazies on the bus...  :P  But yeah, we were contacting people and referrals and stuff until the evening so we couldn't go to Volleyball.

Saturday we went to the church in the morning to go to a baptismal service - it was for this guy named Larry who used to be atheist and is now a member of the church!  The service was super powerful - I loved it so much!  After that, we contacted some people in the cold until we got picked up for lunch by Brother Meese.  After that, we contacted people some more!  And it ended up being super fun because we met this crazy kid that was outside in the cold practicing basketball, and so we played with him for like a half hour in the freezing cold, and then got him to sign up for a lesson!  :D  Hoorah!

Sunday was sad because it was my last Sacrament Meeting in the branch (mostlikely) because next week is Stake Conference and the following Wednesday is transfers, so I'm most likely leaving because I've been here for a while.  It's not that I want to leave, I've just accepted my fate...  :P  But yeah, at church we got to take part in Sunday School where I confiscated all of the youth's phones and such, and then after church I got photos with everybody!  ;D  It was sad!  :(  After that, we contacted until we got a ride up to our dinner appointment with a member of the 1st ward!  It was SOOO fun!!!  ;D  And luckily we were able to hit our goal for the week - 60 lessons right on the dot!

Anyways, yeah!  That's my week!  I love you tons!  The church is true!

--Elder Nate Hubert