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

Exchanges, Zone Conference, SINGING, and LOTS of FUN!!! ;)

This week was a pretty good week for us!  I mean, it was a pretty slow week to begin with because we had meetings and Zone Conference to prepare for, but other than that fact we had a great week!  :D

 

So as I told you last week, it completely dumped on us last week!  On Monday, the snow was coming down SO so so much, which was incredible to see but super crazy to drive in because our driver, Elder Kimzey, is from St. George and has never driven in snow before!  So, a kind of scary experience, but still, we made it to/from Sports alive, which was good.  But because of that storm, tuesday morning there was a huge blanket of snow just everywhere in the city of Waukesha, so what is it that we decided to do..?  That's right - service!  We grabbed our snow shovels from the closet and we marched across the town to Florencio's house - a less-active man - and we shoveled his walk/driveway, but that ended up taking so long because the snow was so deep, that as soon as we had finished that one house, we just went back home to study because we had already taken up all of the time we had set apart!

 

After studies, however, we got picked up by Brother Hansen, the former Bishop of the Waukesha ward, and we went out and did his home-teaching with him (we went because he teaches a Dominican lady, Hermana Seneli) and we helped him with his Spanish lesson.  After that, we got dropped off at Blanca's house -  a lady we found last Friday, and we knocked on the door.  We were worried because we didn't have a man that could come with us, and she was single as far as we knew, but when we went inside, she had invited a male friend to come and listen with her!  We taught Blanca and Pablo the Restoration, and they took it pretty well, even committing to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and about Joseph Smith. 

 

Then that night, we started an exchange.  I got to stay in the Spanish area with Elder Kimzey, our district leader, and my companion went to English with Elder Wiscombe.

 

 

 

Tuesday basically began with Elder Kimzey and I making the super long over-an-hour walk from our apartment to the Food Pantry here in Waukesha, where we offer service.  We did service there for the 2 hours, and during that time, our investigator Rosa came through the line.  I stopped her and talked to her, and she told us that she couldn't get baptized on Saturday because she had had coffee when she was out of town, so we're working with her in that regard.

 

After that we tried to contact a less active that lived near there, but they weren't home.  So, we went over to our lesson with Brad and Ana and their family, but they didn't answer their door either!  (Note that there is probably over an hour of walking distance in between all of this)  So, we started to walk back to our apartment so that we could get picked up for our dinner appointment that night.  We were walking ,and then saw the English Elders' car outside a less-active's house, so we took some of our pass-along cards and stuck them on the windshield, so they would know that we were there...  :) 

 

Later, we got picked up by Brother Whipple and taken to their house for BLT's for dinner, then Elder Kimzey and I got to practice our arrangement of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" that we will be singing in the ward in a few weeks, and that we got to sing for Zone Conference on Friday!

 

That night though, we re-exchanged back and continued on.

 

 

 

On Thursday, we got to do our service at the Hope Center which is always super fun.  Today we didn't get yelled at, so that was a plus.  I just find it amusing that these people will yell at the Mormon Missionaries, but they only do it because they know that we aren't going to yell back!  We aren't going to do a thing about it so they can get away with it!  But after the Hope Center service, we went to the library to read some talks on lds.org because we were going to be teaching High Priest Group on Sunday, and we were also supposed to meet Rosa at the Library but she cancelled on us 5 minutes before we were supposed to meet, so after that we just went home, ate a tiny bit of food, and set out to walk the over-an-hour to our dinner appointment.  Midway through the walk, the weather turned harsh and it started just completely pouring rain all over us!  We had Books of Mormon that we put on the inside of our coats to make sure they didn't get wet, but it just soaked right in through our coats, our hats, and everything so that we were SOAKING wet.  Eventually we just called our dinner appt. for a ride so that we could stop getting wet, and that worked out just fine.

 

 

 

Friday we had Zone Conference!  It was a long day, but also a really good day.  We had a lot of geat trainings on Prayer and how to better utilize the members in our work.  One thing that is funny though is that thought he things that are said are super useful in member-missionary work, a lot of it can't apply to Spanish work.  I mean, we do our very best at that, but it is still very difficult to do things like that in Spanish work, especially in a city where hardly any Spanish people live.  But, my highlight of the day was either being able to meet so many other missionaries, or being able to sing in front of the 3 zones that were there, which ended up being 1/3 of the mission!  The song went super well and the Spirit was so strong during it - I loved being able to participate in that.  Sister Cutler even told me that she wants me to sing with her daughter when she gets off of her mission, so I think that would be a great opportunity!  (This is President Cutler's daughter currently serving a mission...)

 

Saturday we had Correlation Meeting instead of Rosa's baptism - that was kind of a let-down...  But, we were able to do weekly planning today so that ended up being productive anyway.  AND then on Sunday of course, we had studies, church, dinner, phone calls with the District Leader (where he checks up on us), and that was my week!

 

Everybody who reads this, I know that missions are such an important part of life, and it is so incredible to see the changes that it brings to people.  I have seen so many changes wrought in my life already because I am serving a mission - I highly recommend it!  And I recommend preparing for it every day that you live!

 

I love you all so much!  Keep the faith!

 

--Elder Nathan Hubert

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

My InCrEdIbLe WeEk!!!

I can't believe that this week has already gone by!  it just completely flew by - too crazy!  :D  And if it means anything to you guys - I wanted to let you know that it is currently snowing WHITE OUT outside!  I can't see anything but white!!!  I am so excited to walk outside...  :P

On Monday, I got to email all of you guys - the people I looove!!!

But, on Tuesday, we had such an incredible District Meeting.  Before it started, Elder Kimzey and I practiced an arrangement of "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief," and then the Zone Leaders joined us for District Meeting and recruited us to sing that song for Zone Conference this coming friday- a combined conference of the 3 Milwaukee Zones!  That is 1/3 of the mission, and a LOT of missionaries that I get to sing in front of - wish me luck!  :)  Later that day though, we ran into a family that wanted us to come back so we could 'compare beliefs,' I'm excited for that!  I just hope it doesn't turn into a bible-bashing session, because if it does we will leave...

Wednesday morning studies were interrupted by a service project that we got to go and do, to help a woman in the ward move a couch from her house into her truck so she could drop it off at the English Elders' apartment - that was fun!  She ended up wanting to get rid of a bunch of stuff and gave us a fan, towels, blankets, cooling racks, cookies, and a chess set...?  :)  Then we offered service at a Food Pantry here in town, where it was super great.  The people there just love the missioanries!  I think it's because the Elders have offered service there for 18 years, but there might be another reason...  ;)  After that, we met with Jose, our investigator who was supposed to be baptized.  Now, this lesson was the 'do or die' lesson, to decide if he really was ready to be baptized, because ever since his father got back from Mexico, he found out that his dad doesn't want him to be mormon, but Catholic!  So, during the lesson, we addressed his concerns, and decided to drop the date until we could talk to him and his dad together and discuss their mutual concerns.  I mean, it stinks to have to have done that, but it is good that we took care of it now instead of later.

Thursday, the usual eventful day that it is, was just about the same as always!  We did our studies, then we did service at the Hope Center, helping needy people get clothes for free, and then we did weekly planning.  :)  However, this night was special because we got to go to a Stake Priesthood Meeting, and it was super super fun and we got to hear a bit of the olympics as was mentioned in some of the talks!

Friday was LOOOOVE day!!!  So thank you family for the LOOOOVE that you sent me via the amazing box that I got today...  :) And hey, the Lord must love us because today we went to an area that has plenty of Latinos, but not many that will listen...  But, we were able to teach 7 other lessons in all of our efforts, which is a bit number for one day, and get 4 return appointments!  One of my favorite experiences was with Blanca, who opened the door and we started talking about the Book of Mormon, using the paintings in the front to teach a lesson about families and testify that the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ and is a record of the Ancient Americas.  She even gave us her address (she was visiting) and told us to come back on Tuesday!  I'm stoked!  :D

Saturday, we had Correlation Meeting in the morning, where Brother Tadioca made us breakfast...  He is too nice to us!!! :)  After that, we did our studies until the afternoon, when we got picked up from the other Elders to go and practice our song that we'll be singing this week.  It sounds pretty good!  We got a sister missionary to play the piano part, which is pretty hard - so I'm pretty pleased by that!  :D  Then after that we had a dinner appointment at 5-ish, which was really fun because it was with a member that I don't really know that well, but they are super fun!  They are the Browns, and it was kind of funny because his name is Nathan and so whenever his wife would say something to him or ask him something, I would almost react...  Kind of embarrassing, but hey, at least I remember that I have a first name!  :)

Sunday was ward conference here, and we got to meet our Stake leaders!  Also, I got Elder Kimzey and I booked to sing our duet in church in a few weeks - i'm going up in the world!  :P  No, but I'm just really glad that we'll be able to share our testimonies through song.  What a blessing it is for us to be able to do that.  :)

Anyway, I hate to be so brief, but the work is calling!  I love you so much, everybody, and I would love to hear from each of you personally!  :D  (No promises when I'll be able to respond, but still...)

Love you!

--Elder Hubert

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

    This is me and my new companion!! 

First full week in Waukesha, Wi

My dear family, friends, loved ones, everybody, this week has been one full of lots of confusion, which I guess you could just call my terrible attempts at trying to get to know this area. 

But, I'm just going to do the usual thing of telling you guys how everything went throughout each day.  :)

On Monday, after I was done emailing, we went to a church building, the Brookfield Building, and had some sports activities, where we played Chair Soccer and Free-for-all Dodgeball, which was super enjoyable. 

Tuesday though, was my first district meeting with these guys out here!  Elder Kimzey (our district leader) had previously asked me to do a training for the district on an attribute of Christ, and in a joking manner both my companion and I thought it would be funny to do a training on what it says in Doctrine and Covenants 4 in regards to Godliness.  But, what started out as a joke, ended up as a pretty good training.  I mean, it wasn't mind blowing, but it made us ponder and think a lot about what it means to be like God.  What it means to be Perfect like unto He.  It was really cool.  :)  But the rest of the meeting was us talking about prayer and how we need to pray more fervently and more sincerely.  He spoke of how Christ cried several times when he would pray, so why do we not do the same thing?  Why do we not pray as fervently as did the Savior?  If anything, we have even more reason to pray as did He, the only perfect being to live on the Earth.  I just thought it was very inspiring.

On Wednesday, we were taken out to lunch by a member of the ward, to this really amazing Ribs place here in the city.  It was so nice!  One funny thing is that when we were visiting people after that, an older man shoveling his snow got after us for sluffing school, telling us to get back to class...  I think he thought we were younger than we are...  :)  Eventually though, we ended up at the Black's house to teach Jose.  We taught him the baptismal questions to prepare him for his upcoming interview.  I hope all goes well for him!

Thursday was a very cold day, but that was slightly bearable because we had weekly planning and service to do.  We has service at the Hope Center where we helped people get the clothes that they needed, and then weekly planned.  I also made Elder Schvaneveldt a year-mark cake to celebrate his hump day, and it was a tye-dye cake! I was pretty proud of my creation...  :D  Then in the evening, we began our exchange which was crazy because I was staying in the Spanish area, even though I don't know how to get anywhere...  Nuts!  But Elder Wiscome and I talked for a while, and then went to sleep. 

Friday, exchange day, went much better than I thought it would!  Luckily I found a map that I could take around with us so we wouldn't get too lost.  We began our day of work by going and contacting some former investigators. Among that time, we found a man named Victor who lived at the old house of a former, and we taught him the entire first lesson and committed him to pray before getting a return appointment!  I was super happy about the whole thing - you always feel good after you've found someone new.  Then later throughout the day, nobody else even answered their door.  But that night, we had an appointment with Ana, and met her husband Brad, who is an American.  They invited us to have dinner, an offer we took graciously.  We taught him the first lesson, clearing up the confusions that had been placed in his mind about the church and our beliefs.  He even said that he would like to learn more, which I was happy about.  Then, that night, we had a ward activity - a night of music - that was super impressive.  There were 2 girls that did a super funny song spoofing other things, and then a lady in our ward who blew me away by singing something from Wicked.  It was great!

The work we did on Saturday was that we went out with a member from our ward, Bro. Seneli, and helped him do his home teaching.  It is this thing that the ward has been trying to do since the new year, called Ward Team Ups.  It has been pretty successful up to this point so I hope we continue to be able to work with them.  :)

And then Sunday, we had church and phone calls!  :D

All in all, a regular week.  I just hope that Jose's baptism goes through this Saturday and that it starts warming up a little more!  Those are things that would make me happy...  ;)  Love you all!

--Elder Hubert

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

Transferred..... :)

So, as you guys all know, I have been transferred to Waukesha, Wisconsin!  That has been the highlight of my week, and beceause of transfers the week has been kind of a bit on the more uneventful side, but things still happened I promise.  :)  They just happened in a slower way because Monday was spent playing sports (Whiff Waf) with the other Elders at the Madison UW Instutute Building, and then Tuesday was spent packing all day, but I'll include what I've been experiencing.  :)

So on Monday, as I mentioned above, Elder Shipp and I went to the library and we emailed, and then after that, we all went to the Institute Building and played a game that we have created out here, kind of a version of Ping Pong, Volleyball, and Doubles Tennis all mixed up together..  It is really fun!! :)  After Wiff Waff, Elder Shipp and I had a dinner that we had to run to, because we had to say goodbye to some members who were saddened to see me leave.  And then after that, we just went home and I started packing. 

Wiff Waff!

Tuesday was full of, you guessed it, me packing all day!!!  :)  Well, at least for most of the day. At 4:00 we had a dinner with the Chaparro family who were pretty sad to see us go and I was super sad to leave them because I love them so much!  :)  We also stopped by Casildo's house to see if I could get a photo with him, but he wasn't home.  But I did get a photo with Oscar a few days previous, so that was okay with me.  Immediately following dinner, we had to hurry and bus up to UW housing called Eagle heights to visit Renato, our portugese investigator.  We talked with him about his reading and then went into the Restoration, which was such a powerful lesson!  Before, when I was in the MTC learning how to be a missionary, they always said to not be afraid of silence, and I had no idea what they were talking about until now!  We shared the 1st vision and asked Renato how he felt, and after 5 minutes of crying/pondering, he finally said that he liked the way that he felt and that he wanted to be a part of it.  We invited him to baptism and he acctepted it, though we don't have a date for him yet.  We left him with an invitation to come to church, and he said that he would come.  This man is golden!  I love him so much - that was easily the most powerful lesson on my mission so far, and such an incredible way to end my time in Madison!

The Madison District

The Senior Family

The Chaparro Family

Wednesday, we got picked up at 8 by the Mt. Horeb Elders (Elder Steiner and Elder Kresge) and were taken to a church, where I was put in a truck and we drove for 2 hours to Oshkosh, the transfer hub of the mission.  When we were there, all of us going to Milwaukee Stake Center got on a bus and left, and then after an hour or so, we were there!  I'm sorry that was so short, but I honestly have no memories of what happened in the car, except for the kids sitting next to me were done with their missions and were talking about how excited they were to go home to California...  Jealous!  Not really though - I'm just jealous about the warmth...  Then, at the Stake Center, I met my new companion Elder Shvaneveldt and we drove to Waukesha, and then we put my bags in our super tiny apartment and then headed out to contact people!  That night I was able to unpack though, don't worry...  ;)

New home!

Thursday we went out and contacted people, and we did service at this thrift-store type place, and then we did weekly planning, which was basically just Elder Schvanny just telling me what we were going to do because I didn't know anybody or anything around us...  Then we went out with our incredible Ward Mission leader, brother Tatioca, who then took us to our dinner appointment with the Whipple family.  It was super sweet, though I still had no idea what was going on.

Friday, we walked around a lot!  We walked around so much that the sole of my boot on my left foot just completely came off!  There are photos of my desecrated footwear that I'll send to you...  But we were able to meet a few of the investigators, such as Rosa and Jose, who are both super close to baptism.  We taught Jose the Law of Chastity and Word of Wisdom, which he committed to live.  But that wasn't a problem because he's only 13.  Then, we had dinner with the Tovias family, which was delicious mexican food!  Then we had a correllation meeting that went by super quick.  All of the other missioanries thought it was super funny that my shoe died...  But they only laugh because they all have cars and don't have to deal with the same problems!  ;)

Ice lashes!!! 

Wore the soles off my boots!

Saturday we did some contacting on the far north side (I think it was the north side) of the city.  We were up there basically the entire day, and then we just went to dinner at Taco Bell...  :P  But luckily, we were able to find some people that were Hispanic!  The lord blesses us with success when we go out of our way to work!  :)  I definitely have a testimony of that.  :D

Sunday, we did all of our studies in the morning, and then got picked up at 11:30 for church at 1.  I did my best in trying to get to know the people of the ward, bu that was difficult.  But Jose and Rosa both came to church, which was the first time I'd had an investigator at church - so amazing!  :D

But sunday night all we had was dinner with the Gardeners, where I got signed up to sing in church again...  :)  Wahoo!

I love you guys - and I'm sorry if the days are vague, I've gotten a bit short on time right now!  Love you!

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

TRANSFERS!!!

Well first things first everybody, I have an announcement to make for you guys!!!  I am getting transferred!  I started out here in Madison where I have been trained by Elder Shipp, but now my time has come to go out to a different place.  I'm going to be moving to Waukesha, a smaller city outside Milwaukee, to continue the Spanish work there.  But that has gotten me thinking, some of you guys have written me letters and have sent them to my Fitchburg, WI address, so it would go directly to my apartment.  But now that I'm moving and don't know the address for Waukesha, I think that it would be best for anybody sending anything here to Wisconsin to send it to the address of the mission office so that the office couples can forward it to me wherever I am in the mission.  So, that address is this:

Elder Nathan Hubert

Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission

7111 West Edgerton Ave. Suite 100

Greenfield, WI 53220

United States

But furthermore, about my week....  :)

On Tuesday we saw a miracle!  We were in the Allied area of Madison and we were stopping by the people that we had previously taught, one of which was Casildo.  He had been dropped because we hadn't been able to make contact with him for quite some time, but we decided to go and try his door anyway.  And as usual, no answer came!  We were pretty disappointed and stood there for 5 minutes before we started to walk away, but then we both turned around and all of the sudden, there was Casildo, holding his son, walking up to the house.  We helped him get inside because his hands were full of his son, and then after he put his son to bed, he came in the other room and we were able to teach him!  We re taught him the last lesson that we had given him, and he actually opened up to us today.  He could tell that we were something special and that there was something missing in his life when we stopped teaching him.  So, it was great to finally get some input from him.  Then, we extended a baptismal commitment for March 15, which he accepted so that he could be a man of God and be an example for his family.  It was amazing!

Something else that happened today was when we stopped by a referral from the Sisters, whose name is Renato.  He is from Brazil and speaks Portugese, but I guess that we are the closest thing to that.  We read from the book of Mormon with him, and he read in his native language as we followed along in English.  It was kind of strange, but it was a good lesson - we have a great feeling for him!  :)

Wednesday was interviews with President Cutler.  He drove up from Milwaukee to come to our District Meeting and to interview us!  So, we got to church (late because of the buses), but it ended up being okay!  Interviews were super great.  President just asked how things were and we talked for 30 minutes!  It was really great!  :D  We both received some great revelation on how to help our investigators and what we need to do to better penetrate them.  I'm sure that things will be looking up!  

Then that night, we had dinner with the incredible Griffiths family and I got to play soccer for my very last time in this ward.  It was pretty fun because they brought a semi-pro mexican player with them and we got creamed!

Thursday, Elder Shipp and I got trained on how to use the Family History Center at the church so that we could be able to work some shifts as a service...  Which leads me to wonder why our family history doesn't go past Grandma Beckie on the Egbert side?  I couldn't see past that!  I'm just wondering why that is...  :)  And we also had weekly planning which of course is a party!

Friday we had exchanges with the English Elders, and I got to be in the Spanish Area with Elder Campbell!  It was super great, I loved it, and we saw tons of miracles.  We got to spend time in the the Allied area and we got to see Casildo by miracle again, and were able to reinforce what we said a few days ago.  We also promised him that we'd find a way for him to get to church, which he was excited about.  We also got to go to Irma Alcantara's place and teach her grandson Roger, who is preparing to be baptized within the year.  :)  It was great!  Then we had a dinner with the Spanish Elders and the Sanchez family, which of course was great.  

Saturday is when I got news that I was going to be getting transferred!  So the rest of the day was spent in excitement for wondering where it was that I was going to go!  :)  But we were able to call a whole bunch of potentials because it was too cold to go outside.  But luckily we were able to set up a whole bunch of appointments that way!  I also got to practice singing a song with a lady from the ward who was going to be accompanying me on Sunday, so that was really great too.  :)  We also contacted referrals that we had been given, but none of those went far because the people weren't interested at all...

Sunday we got to go to church!!!  And I got to sing, which was super fun as well!  I sang an arrangement of "Lord, I would Follow Thee" and it went really well.  I hope that people could feel the Spirit while I sang though.  After church, we just went back to our apartment because we have another cold warning out here...  Then, Elder Shipp made phone calls and then we got a call from President, telling me that I was going to go to Waukesha!  I'm pretty excited about that though, I'll let you know how it is!!!  

I love you all and I apologize for being vague this week, don't be upset with me...  ;)  But I love you all so much!!!  Things are amazing here in Wisconsin, as cold as it is...  ;)

Adios!

--Elder Hubert

Weekly Update!

Yes, yes, I know that I am sending this on a Saturday, but don't worry I'm not being disobedient - it's just that every single library in the city of Madison is going to be shut down on Monday because of Martin Luther King Jr. day, so we were advised to email for a tiny amount of time today, on Saturday!

So I just wanted to begin by telling all of you guys sorry that I'm not going to personally email you this week!  I only have a tiny bit of time to send home my generic email and also to write President Cutler, so I'm going to be on and off in a jiffy...  ;)

But, this week has been super fun and pretty busy!  We have had great opportunities to teach and to share our testimonies, which I was very thankful for. 

On Monday though, the only super exciting thing was when we were at the Institute building with other missionaries from around this area.  One of them was on a Varsity Ping-pong team in High School (didn't know that those existed), but basically only wants to play Ping-pong every week!  But this week, we changed it up a bit.  We made a new kind of ping-pong game, called Wiff-waff.  It includes teams of 2 on each side, as well as a certain amount of bounces, diving, jumping, passing, and using the ground/ceiling.  It is super intense and looks super strange while you're watching others play the game, but once you start playing it yourself then you understand how great it is!  :D

Tuesday was district meeting, led by Elder Shipp.  He was super creative coming into the meeting though, because he created a 'Create Your Own Ending' District Meeting, based on what happened at the end of the meeting, so potentially, we had 4 different ending lessons that we could experience.  But first, we had a role-play of a church tour, which the Sisters gave.  It was my first experience with a church tour, so I was thankful that I wasn't told to do it, because I wouldn't have known what I was doing!  But they did a good job.  Then, for our create your own ending, of course we had to end up with the Chastity one!  It was super funny though...  Then, we had brownies!  And guess who made them...?  ME!  It was my first attempt at cooking anything like that out here on my mission, and they were a huge hit!  What I did was put a layer of brownie, then some chocolate bar, then the rest of the brownie mix, so it was super delicious when you put it in your mouth because the brownie was gooey and the chocolate was melted...  Man, it was sweet...  :P  (literally)

Wednesday, we had a bunch of people that we contacted in our area right around our house, but the only people that we were able to talk to were Arezmo and Guillermo, but we got their address and phone number so we're hoping that we can get in with them sometime!  And then in the evening, instead of doing English Class like we usually do, what we did was we took the Chaparro family to the stake work specialist and translated for them as we helped them construct some Resumes so that they can get better jobs than what they are working for now.  So, I really hope that things turn out for them!

On Thursday, we had weekly planning!  Elder Shipp had me lead out the planning session, and it went very well for us!  I'll spare you the details though, it is 3 hours of talking about what we're going to do next week...  :P  But after that, we went up to our weekly lesson with Veronica, but she was not home, which was very disappointing for us.  We even got Brother Allen, a member from the ward, to drive down and meet us there to help us teach, but she was not home!  So, we can only hope and pray for her, because I know that the gospel can bless her life a lot.  And then thursday night, we started our companionship exchange with the Zone Leaders, which I was excited for!  I was able to stay in our area again, and got Elder Carter as my companion for the day.

So Friday was our exchange...  And after all of our studies and making lesson plans for the appointments we had in the evening, we set out to the Raymond area, an area that is pretty far away from where our apartment is.  But we made it out there in good time, which I was thankful for because I'd only ever been to that part of town once before...  And we had made plans to teach 5 lessons while we were down there, but through all of our work and all of our attempts to find people, nobody ended up answering their doors at all...  All of the hispanic people had gone to work or something, but we didn't teach anybody!  So Elder Carter and I were pretty disappointed in the time that we had 'wasted' in the Raymond area, but we went forward in faith to the South Transfer Point area to go to our lessons that had been scheduled.  We made our way up to our first lesson with maria, who was leaving right as we got there at the time that she had told us to stop by, which was frustrating.  However, we were able to teach a bit about the gospel by sharing a small message about blessings, and then we had a prayer before she left.  After that, we re-contacted Omar, a man that we had found last week, and taught a brief leson and set up a return appointment with him.  Then, we went and found another woman named Maria and taught her a bit and then we went to our other lesson and caught them right before they were going out the door as well!  They had forgotten that we were coming, but still welcomed a lesson of the blessings that they can receive as a family when they pray/read together, and we said a prayer with them before we left, so though we didn't accomplish our goal of that certain amount of lessons when we thought that we would, we were still able to accomplish that goal in the way that God saw fit, which is a huge blessing and a testimony to me that He is truly in charge.  And after that, we had a dinner appointment with the Senior family, the family that had saved us from the fire and provided us with sleeping bags.  But Elder Carter and I went by ourselves, which was fun, and then Sister Senior pulled out some music and told me that she'd like me to sing in church next week, so we went through some songs and I'm going to be singing an arrangement of "Lord I would Follow Thee" next week.  :)

And then today, we had correlation meeting again to talk about our investigators, and that meeting went pretty long.  But then we made our rounds to Casildo's house, once again with no response...  I keep on praying that he will let us in again, but I think that in good time things will work out.  And we have some lessons tonight that I'm excited for!  :D

But before I go, I just wanted to share a message with you guys.  ;)  I was reading the Book of Mormon, in Alma 26, verses 10-12, which reads: '

 10 And it came to pass that when Ammon had said these words, his brother Aaron rebuked him, saying: Ammon, I fear that thy joy doth carry thee away unto boasting.

 11 But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.

 12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

and then in verse 35:   Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name.

And this is my testimony to you guys, like unto Ammon's.  I know that unto my own strength I am weak, but I know that we have great reason to rejoice, even so much that there never were other people that had so great a reason to rejoice.  We can rejoice in our God, for He has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding.  He is every mindful and ever watchful of us, and He loves us SO much.  It is because of that love that He has given us this gospel that we love and enjoy and cherish every day.  So let us rejoice, let us give God the glory, and let us see His hand in all things that occur, for it is always there.  Let us never boast of anything for ourselves, but let us be caught rejoicing in our God!  We have the restored Gospel, we have the Power of Christ, and we have His truths, so we have such a great reason to rejoice.  :)  

I love you guys!  Choose the right!  The Church is True!  See miracles!

(and sorry, no photos this week)

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

WEEKLY UPDATE! AKA this week was not nearly as exciting as last week but was still pretty exciting...

So on Monday (P-day), we had a Ping-pong tournament later that day after emailing, but Elder Shipp and I had to leave early to go to teach a lesson that we had scheduled earlier that week.  It was with a former investigator named Jose Cruz, so we just went by to talk to him about the things that he had been taught previously, a conversation went pretty well!  He didn't remember much, though he did remember Joseph Smith as well as the feelings that he had had while he took the lessons, which was good.  But he also saw that we were cold, so he went into the other room to make us some Coffee, despite us telling him that we were fine.  Eventually we left, and hadn't touched our coffee, so we had him pour it in water bottles for us so we could 'save it for later...'  it was super awkward, but thankfully we got out of it.

 

On Tuesday, it was the last day of the 'cold advisory' days, but what we had was the Zone Training Meeting, which is a meeting that we have when the entire zone gets together and does some trainings!  So we got picked up that morning because we had to let the Zone Leaders into the church building, and then we stayed there at the church for a few hours as we were taught how to extend an invitation to meet again, which was good.  After the training we all went out to eat at Qdoba, which is basically Wisconsin's take on Cafe Rio, but it was still pretty good.  After that, we cleaned up our apartment a lot because we weren't able to go outside at all, and then by the time the night came, we went over to the English Elders' apartment to grab the stuff that the Seniors let us use when we caught fire, so we took that back to the Seniors home when we went over for dinner that night.

 

Wednesday was a very interesting day...  We started super far West in the Raymond area, and went and visited the Hernandez family for a brief amount of time, until Bro. Hernandez had to go to work.  Then, we went over to Martin's house to teach him a lesson if he was home, which he was!  So we sat down in his living room and started talking to him, and he basically is the most blasphemous person that I've ever met - it was completely ridiculous!  What ended up happening is that he looked at Elder Shipp and told him to be quiet because he had bad Spanish and that he wasn't prepared, and then for the next 40 minutes or so, Martin and I basically had a throw-down of the gospel, in a more peaceful way of course.  One thing that I remember is that he told me that when it says in the scriptures that if you have faith you can move mountains, he kept on saying that it was talking about a mental mountain.  He then asked me if I thought it was true, that if we had faith that we could move mountains, and I bore firm testimony that I believed that with God and with faith, anything was possible.  It was a crazy day and many more things were said, all in a loving way I promise, but we basically decided after that not to go back.  It was nuts!

 

After that craziness, we were walking away from his house talking about what had happened, and we saw this man trying to move a couch into his house by himself, so we offered our assistance, and it ended up being such a blessing to this man, because he was blind and was trying to move in alone!  So we helped him out for like 40 minutes and that ended up being super great.  :)

 

 

Thursday was weekly planning which took up quite a bit of time, and then after that we stopped by Veronica's house to teach her the weekly lesson, but she wasn't home!!!  So after waiting for a while, we went and tracted for a bit in a trailer park on our way to the Moorland area to contact a referral, and then we went home!

 

 

Friday was exchanges, which was a great day!  Coming into Exchanges, I had the goal to see if I would be ready to take over my own area, because I was able to be senior companion for the day.  So, I was kind of nervous going into it, but it all ended up being great!  We went aroudn the area near our home and taught a few lessons, which was funny because Elder Wise didn't speak Spanish so he basically just stood there...  Then, we went up to the STP area and saw Veronica and scheduled a return appointment, and then we went over to Middleton and taught Ezekiel.  This was another interesting lesson, about how he needed to open up his heart and be open to the answers to his prayers that God had for him, which he took pretty well.  The things that he loved the most was when he found out that the people in the Book of Mormon were his ancestors!  He loved that!  :D

 

 

On Saturday, we ended up dropping Casildo because he stopped coming to the door, and then we had English class at the church, followed by dinner at the Durtchi's, which was fun...  (Sorry, not a very productive day - a lot of cleaning the church)

 

Sunday we had Ward Conference and then a Linger Longer after church, which was fun.  Then, we had District phone calls at the apartment while I took a nap because I wasn't feeling so well, and then we had a Bishop's Youth Discussion at the Bishop's house which was fun.  :) 

 

Love you guys!  I'm sorry if the email seemed rushed - the other elders are waiting for me to go...  :)

 

-- 

Elder Nathan Hubert

New Year's, Baptism, Cold, and FUEGO!!!

My dear family and friends,

this week has been such an exciting week!!!

 

As of right now, for the next 3 days, President Cutler has issued a warning to all missionaires serving in the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission to not go outdoors for anything except for going to appointments that have already been scheduled because in this temperature, one can catch Frostbite in 5 minutes to any piece of skin that is exposed!  Super exciting, right?  I can't remember a time that it has been unsafe to be outside, as in, life threatening. But don't worry, I am currently wearing 2 pairs of socks, my boots, 3 layers on my legs, 4 layers on my top, AND a coat!  So, I'll be doing great!  :D  And I have my heavy hat and my scarf to protect my head/face.  :)  So in this time of bitter, and I mean BITTER cold, things are still pretty great.  At this time, I love applying what it says in Joseph Smith's "The Standard of Truth," when it says that nothing "can stop the work from progressing."  Even this bitter cold, where it is currently close to -20 degrees, the work will go on "boldly, nobly, and independent." 

 

But this week really has been super great and very very exciting, especially these last couple of days.  :)

 

On Monday, P-day, all we did was spend some time at the Institute building playing Pool, Ping-pong, Marbles, and talking a lot.  And after we were done with our various activities, we went to a dinner appointment with the Senior family, who I now know as the most saint-like people in the entire world.  (You will find out why I think that later in the email).  And on the way back from their house, me, Elder Shipp, E. Wise, and E. Campbell got a super cool Nametag Photo with the 4 of us.  :)

 

 

 

Tuesday was a good day, though we did not have the opportunity to be outside and be working a lot.  But, it was also the last day of the year 2013!!!  That was crazy for me to realize - time really has flown by so much, especially my time here in the field!  I cannot believe that I've been out here since the beginning of November, and now all of the sudden it is the beginning of January, and a brand new year.  Things are going to be great this next year!  :D  We had our District Meeting this day and we learned all about planning and how important is.  I love it when it says that we need to plan for Success, but how a number is only a number unless we have made plans on how we are going to achieve it.  I really love that - it gives me so much motivation to do better at planning and to achieve more greatness.  After District Meeting, we went to a dinner appointment that was the most North point in Madison that I have been so far, with the Thomas family.  It really was super great.  They are a Part-member family, but the father really accepts his family's beliefs even if he won't join the church.  And then on the drive home, their newly-returned-missionary son almost killed us in the car because he forgot how to drive in America - he is too used to European driving...  ;)

 

WEDNESDAY!  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  :D  So I've been getting questions in emails about what we've been doing for New Year's Day, but honestly it was just another day.  New Year's is a less family-holiday and more-parties, so we were allowed to go around and work because people wouldn't get mad at us for 'interrupting their family time' like they would have on Christmas.  After our studies we went over to the Lassen Family's house for their annual Chili-feed.  It was so good!  I was so happy they decided to have the missionaries over!  And on the way back, we found a "Turtle Crossing" sign - there are pictures included.  Also, we went out onto the lake that is near there (there are a few lakes in Madison) that was completely frozen, and we went out into the middle of it and got some photos and I got another Nametag Photo!  :D  Later, we went to go contact a referral that was completely out of the way, on the West side of Madison, but they weren't home.  And because it was so out of the way, we only got to board another bus, and go over to our scheduled dinner appointment with the Salinas family, which was great (as usual!)  But one thing that we've been finding is that it is getting drastically colder each and every day, so by this point it was starting to get unsafe to be outside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Thursday, we had some weekly planning!  And though it has to be done and takes a long time, we weren't very worried about it because we didn't have any appointments scheduled for that time and it was super cold outside, so we were pretty thankful for the opportunity to stay inside.  However, about halfway through the studies, Elder Shipp started feeling super super poorly, so he went and took a nap while I tidied up the apartment and took down Christmas decorations and studied some more.  But pretty soon, he was feeling better and we had finished studying just in time to be over for our lesson with Veronica, which we were actually able to teach because Bro. Allen from the ward came and was our 'male present' for her.  We taught her the Plan of Salvation, which she took really well.  Once again, it was a lot of information to take in at once, but she committed to pray about it and find out if it is true.  I really hope she recognizes the answer she will receive!

 

Friday was a long, hard, worthwhile day.  And while I don't remember many names or conversations that we happened to have, in a period of 3-4 hours today, we (Elder Shipp and I) taught 10 lessons to people.  That truly was a miracle this week, to be able to teach that many lessons.  That is a really good number for a week, but for a day it was super amazing for us!  During last week's weekly planning, we decided to set the number of 18 for other lessons taught, and by that moment we were only at 2, so we decided to put forth all of our efforts into getting to that number.  We contacted former investigators and got a return appointment with 1 of them, Jose Cruz.  We contact potentials and taught 3 lessons to them, though their names escape me.  Among them was an older woman who told us that the only reason she didn't read the pamphlet was because she didn't know how to read, though she did look at all of the pictures in it and liked those a lot.  So, we discussed the Restoration with her, and about how God loves her.  At the end, we had a great prayer with her blessing her family to find the path to God.  And though by the end of the day we were cold and worn out, it was an amazing feeling.

 

Saturday was an amazing day!  :D  We began with Correlation and talked a lot about Veronica in that meeting.  Then, we got a ride over to Casildo's house, but he either wasn't home or didn't come to the door...  I hope we'll be able to teach him again!  Then, we went over to another lesson we had scheduled, but that one fell through as well...  But, time had gotten late enough and we had traveled far enoguh across the city that we needed to go back to the church for a baptism that the Sisters were having.  But, because the man that was being baptized was so large, and the man who was baptizing him was so old, the Bishop assigned us (me and Elder Shipp) to be in the font with them to help pick the man back up out of the water.  So, we dressed in white along with the others.  It really was an amazing experience.  I had only met the man a few times, but he was super thankful to have us there and to have us helping him out.  I'm so glad that he decided to get baptized!

 

After the baptism, we had a lesson with a woman and her family that we had found last week tracting.  Her name is Maria, and her mother is a Jehovah's Witness and the conversation turned a bit...  interesting a few times, but overall it was really good.  We taught the first part of the first lesson, about how God loves us and how the gospel can bless our families, and left them with a Restoration video so that we could talk about it the next time we came around.  Then, we went over to Oscar's house!  It was super great though, because he is the one who called us to schedule an appointment.  But, we commenced a 2-hour discussion on the second half of Alma 32, which talks about Faith.  But by the end of it, he did not understand the message we were trying to send, that he needed to go to church and show is faith and help his 'seed of faith' grow.  But we'll keep on working with him.  :)

 

AND then on Saturday night, we got a text from the Assistants to the President as a Cold Weather Advisory.  It told us to not go outside the next 3 days (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) because it was going to get too cold!  It said that we could go out for scheduled appointments, but to be advised that Frostbite could set in on exposed skin in less than 5 minutes.  So, that is the weather we are currently dealing with.

 

Sunday was a great day.  It wasn't super cold in the morning on the way to church, and I'm not sure how it was during church but the messages were super great!  We talked about being financially responsible and things of that nature, dealing with money.  But then the cold started setting in!  We went to our scheduled appointment, but the family wasn't home, so we just booked it home as fast as we could walk because the cold was setting in super fast...  But then we got home and Elder Shipp started Phone Calls!  And now is when things get interesting.....

 

We had planned at Church to have a combined dinner with the English Elders, so I started to prepare for that while Elder Shipp was doing District Phone Calls and other District Leader Responsibilities.  I was reading the scriptures while the water was boiling for potatoes or while brownies were cooking, and everything was dandy!  Then, everything finished and I turned off the oven and I was washing dishes so that we could eat on them, right?  Then I look outside our huge window and I saw that there were 3-4 police cars pulling into our Apartment Building's parking lot.  Then, some officers started coming into our building!  I walked into the bedroom to point it out to Elder Shipp that our building was getting raided, because that was cool!  Then, I start hearing doork knocking on our floor, so I thought the cops were here to pick someone up next door to us, but then our door got knocked on, too!  Since Elder Shipp was busy, I go over to the door and answer it, and it's a police officer.  The hallway behind him is full of smoke and he tells me that the Laundry Room in the basement caught on fire, and that it wasn't safe to be here.  So, Elder Shipp ended his call, we grabbed our shoes and coats, and we evacuated the building.  It was so cool to watch from outside though!  There were 9+ official vehicles that were all flashing and there were tons of firemen and I've never actually seen a fire hose full of water!  But eventaully the English Elders got home and we ate dinner at their house and then we got called and told to spend the night there...  But we didn't have anything to sleep with!  So we called the Senior family (the Saints!!!) and told them our situation, and then they came over and gave us sleeping bags, pillows, blankets to use, and then brought us toiletries and tons of food!  They are soooo nice, and that is all super exciting!  (Photos and a video are on DropBox)

 

 

 

Then this morning, we went back into our apartment and everything reeked of smoke and we were told to get our clothes dry-cleaned, and now I'm here...  What an exciting week!  :D

 

But still, I love you all!  Don't worry about me up here - all is well!

 

Elder Nathan Hubert