Life on the Other Side

This last week was a pretty good one, but it was different for sure!!!  

Tuesday we had a crazy morning with picking up some elders and taking them to the stake center, where we met the other missionaries, piled into the mission's 12-passenger van, and drove to Kenosha (a city between Milwaukee and Chicago) for a Zone Conference.  Because of weather conditions, we arrived 5 minutes before the conference was supposed to start, and that's when things got weird.  Instead of sitting in the congregation as usual, I had to sit up on the stand and everything.  I mean, it's not super weird, it's just not something I'm used to.  But luckily we only had to do that for like 10 minutes because then President Cutler started giving trainings so we went out to the congregation so we could see him.  :)  The conference was good, and it was awesome because I got to see my old companion Elder David Wise!  I love that kid!!!  Also, we got to give a training to our zone, so that went pretty well!  We talked a bit more about Abinadi and his example for us and everything.

Me and Elder Rytting from PGHS

Me and Elder Lee from GB

Another weird day was Thursday.  Usually it's pretty jammed full because of Weekly Planning anyways, but this week, halfway through weekly planning, we got a call from the Assistants asking us to go run an errand for them, an errand that involved us switching cars with 2 other companionships of elders, spending time in the mission office, and packing up a whole bunch of stuff!  I mean, I was SO glad to help the senior couples in the office and the Assitants too, but we never really got to weekly plan again...  :P  But hey, the Assistants were in the middle of a 6-hour drive when they asked us to do that so I'm glad I got to help!  :)

Me and Sister Weaver

Spanish Zone Leaders

Then the next day was Friday.  We had had the Kenosha zone leaders spend the night with us the night before and then we once again piled into the 12-passenger van and this time drove to Oshkosh for the Mission Leadership Council, a really cool kind of a meeting where all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders meet together to council about various things in the mission.  It was cool because we got to set goals, and I liked it because I actually had something to say, and people actually listened to me!  :)  Hoorah!

Funny assistant training

But on the other front - the investigators' front - thigns are going pretty well!  We are progressing greatly with Leti Velasco, although we had to push back her date because she wasn't keeping the word of wisdom.  However, after the lesson we left with all of their coffee - they gave it to us.  :P  We threw it away after taking photos with it.  The Palacios family is great, but they didn't come to church again so we're pretty upset about that - we're not sure what else we can do.

But hey!  That's the update from life out here!  :D

Love you all so much!  HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

--Elder Nate Hubert

Milwaukee Week 2 - ABINADI ZONE

Hey everybody!  So I think this new outline for weekly emails is going to be what I stick to, as long as I have this limited time that I do here in Milwaukee.  So, I'm just going to run through things that stuck out to me this week, and things that were miracles, and similar things.  :)  I hope you enjoy!

Milwaukee Spanish District

On Tuesday after district meeting, Elder Evans and I called a special Zone Council-type meeting.  We have that special opportunity because all of the members of our zone meet at the same church building every Tuesday for DTM, so we just took like 20 minutes of their day and talked to them for a bit.  We talked about ways that we could be better as missionaries, to have an 'Urgency to Baptize' as our Mission President has been pushing for - because success in the work starts with having urgent missionaries.  We compared ourselves to Abinadi - a fantastic BofM missionary who gave everything he had.  He gave his ALL until the very last moment - until his mission was over.  We have a lot of missionaries in our zone who are finishing their missions soon, and they are 'tuning out' early - they stop working as hard as they can.  However, this new zone goal that we have is to become a Zone of Abinadis!  So, at the end of each txt that we send to the zone, it says #abinadizone (yeah, we're into that whole social network thing too...  :P) and it is working!  The zone is PUMPED and it shows because of the great miralces they're seeing and the numbers they're putting out!  So, I'm pretty pumped about that!  

Later that day, I began exchanges with Elder Phillips, a newish missionary (he came out with Elder Norris) and it was cool to be able to talk to him about life, about his mission experiences so far, and about what he wishes he could change.  We had a good exchange, espeicalyl because their area has been struggling to find new people, and we were able to find 6 new people together and show them how to do it, so now they're going to be able to reap those blessings in their own area!

We saw another great miracle on Friday as we went to a bunch of appointments that we had planned, and saw the hand of the Lord as we realized that these people have been prepared for us and our message.  Elder Evans and I taught this amazing Puerto Rican family, and it's super strange because one of their sons is white as can be with RED HAIR!  But he's Puerto Rican so that's cool i guess.  :P

We then started exchanges with the other Spanish companionship, and I went with Elder Lee who has been out for 3 months longer than I hvae.  But hey, it was still a good exchange because together we were able to teach 3 power lessons, and 1 with a bunch of members present and were able to demonstrate the Gospel of Jesus Christ to this woman in a very personal way, like it was a gift from the Savior to us.  It was awesome, and I think it really helped us gain the trust of the members that had come with us.  :)

I love being a missionary though!  There are so many miracles that we've been able to see every single day!  Now I don't say this to be cocky or anything, but during the last 2 weeks, Elder Evans and I have been able to find 30 new investigators - all part of families that are now receiving great blessings because of the gospel.  :)  I love it SO much!  

This next week is going to be fun - tomorrow we have Zone Conference where we have to give some trainings, and then on Friday we have Mission Leadership Council where we get to go and do some leadership training, so I guess I'll let you know how that is!  :P  until next week!  Love you tons!

--Elder Nate Hubert

First complete week in Milwaukee - Miracle of finding new investigators!

Hey everybody, so I'm going to do the weekly email a bit differently this week because I'm running super low on time.   I feel like this is going to be a regular occurance while I'm in Milwaukee...  But that's okay!  :P  Just send me letters - I haven't gotten one of those in a while.  That would brighten my day!  *hint hint...*  But yeah, I'm just going to talk about a few experiences that were especially awesome.

First of all, on Tuesday we got to go on exchanges with one of the District Leaders here in the zone.  His name is Elder Thompson and he was in my district when I was in Madison at the beginning of my mission.  He's pretty awesome, but I was scared to go on my first ZL exchange.  So, he and I went into his area and we had a super awesome lesson that night with a man named Sam.  Sam has been reading the book of Mormon for 1-2 hours a day, and even though they haven't taught him the Word of Wisdom or the Law of Chastity, he totally understands all of those priciples just because he learned them from the Spirit during his reading in the Book of Mormon - SO amazing!

Thursday night we had another HUGE miracle.  So, Elder Evans and I had some time to kill, meaning some time to find some new investigators.  We grabbed our survey (which is the main way that we've been using to get into people's homes - it's super effective) and we knocked on some doors!  Of course we were met by some rejection, but there was a moment where we knocked on 3 doors in a row, and behind each of the doors we met a different Hispanic family, where we entered and we taught an hour lesson.  3 hours, 3 doors, 3 new families, and 8 new investigators.  AMAZING!  The Lord really is helping us do His work and I absolutely love it.  One of the families we were pretty sure would have accepted an invite to baptism, but then they got distracted by their parents getting home.  But soon - definitely soon.

Friday night we had another super cool experience, where we were teaching a lesson to Jose and Maria, a super old couple.  The lady was telling some stories that were taking FOREVER, but eventually we got out of there and we found 5 new investigators!  2 new families!  So, I am proud to say (this is not boasting of my own strength - but I will boast of my God) Elder Evans and I are only teaching families.  There is not a single lesson we taught this week with investigators involved that was only a single person - it was always a family..  :D

Saturday we also had some great experiences, where we taught Justin and his fmaily the Plan of Salvation, which was great because we had 2 investigators sitting in on the lesson so it was super powerful.  Pretty soon after that, we had another member present lesson with the Palacios family (the Soriano's came with us) and we taught them the Plan of Salvation too, with a baptismal invite.  They were super skeptical, and actually turned us down because they said that they haven't received a sign yet.  But after the closing prayer, the wife said "That feeling, that peace - that is my sign."  I love the Spirit!  And to close off the night we taught the Velasco's the same thing, and it was super poderoso!  

And I think the best part is that they came to church the next day!  The Velasco's did!

And Sunday evening we had a meeting with the Stake President and the Mission president, so that's cool.  We discussed the major needs of the stake and what we can do to help.  :)

I love you all so much!  And I don't think that the photos are going throguh because Dropbox is having an error or something!  Sorry, maybe next week!  :)

--Elder Nate Hubert

Transfers, Valentine's Day, ...exhausted... :P

Well...  HELLO EVERYBODY!  Greetings from the great city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin!  I'm so glad that I'm finally serving in the city that my mission is named after!  It is, after all, the Wisconsin, Milwaukee mission...  So here I am, in Milwaukee.  This city is actually pretty ghetto.  But that's not a bad thing.  It's just a description.  But I'm gonna cut to the quick.  First of all, I really hope that while I'm here I'm going to be able to respond to all of your emails, because well, I don't have as much time here as I did in Green Bay!  So, if I don't respond to a personal email, I'm sorry.  It's not that I don't love you, it's that my time is limited...  :P  So, I apologize.  Just wanted to clear that up.

Monday though, was P-day.  We emailed.  And emailed.  And emailed.  I could have emailed for days in Green Bay, but we didn't.  While we were emailing, we got to see the Transfer Board and find out where everybody was going, which is always super exciting.  Then, we went to eat.  And then we went and played sports, which was awesome because we had a bunch of people come!  :)  To close off the night though, we had a dinner appointment at the Rios home, followed by a lesson with Yaritza and her family.  I got some photos with all of them, so those should be coming in.  :)  We also taught a brief lesson to Luis Jimenez, so I'm hoping that soon he's going to decide to change his life.  :D

Tuesday was a super great day considering that I was going to be leaving the next day!  I got packed pretty early in the day so that we could go out and visit people to say goodbye before I peaced out.  Throughout the day, we got to visit Franchesca, a lady we met last week.  We didn't get to have a sit-down lesson with her, but that's okay.  I got to say goodbye to Juan, which was good, and then later to the family from India, the Rosario family.  Then, I said to some other families before heading to the apartment.  It was sad on Tuesday night, knowing that it was my last night in Green Bay, but I was excited for the challenge ahead of me.

But Wednesday was the crazy day.  We got picked up by the Zone Leaders at 9 am to take us to the church, and between 9 and 10 there was weeping and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and several sister missionaries that weren't accepting the fact that they were going home the next day, and lots of photo taking, and lots of hugs, and finally, we got in a van and drove away...  We then got to the Mission Transfer Point in Oshkosh and stayed there for like an hour, loading our stuff into different trailers headed to different places, and when it came time for us to go down to Milwaukee, they tried to shove like 24 of us into a 15 passenger van...  It didn't work, so a bunch of us had to wait up in Oshkosh for like 2 hours for another couple of cars to come pick us up.  Turns out the AP's forgot about us...  :P  Oh well, it was fun.  We ate food and played basketball in the meantime.  Finally, at like 5:30 instead of 2:30 we got to Milwaukee, and from that point onward it was GO GO GO for the rest of the night.  It is all a blur.  From what I remember, my companion came out and we got in the car and took one missionary to his apartment, and then to his companion, and then we picked up another missionary and took him to his companion, and then we picked up two other missionaries and took them to eat, and then we took them to correlation meeting, and then we had to go and get a bus pass and then we talked to the AP's for a bit and then we stopped by another companionship's apartment to drop something off and then FINALLY at like 9:30 we got to our apartment and got to unload everything...  So basically this whole Zone Leader thing is going to be like me trying to catch up to Elder Evans for 6 weeks...  It's like putting a fire hose in my mouth and having me try to drink all of the water...  :P  But it's gonna be fine. But this is the reason that the word 'exhausted' is in the title line.

Thursday was pretty good too!  We got to go and visit a recent convert named Justin and then did Weekly Planning where we had to take care of some zone business before even starting to talk about our investigators, so that was kinda different.  After that, we went and ate, and then we went and had lessons with the Perez family, and then the Palacios family too.

Friday we actually got out and got to teach!  :D  THat was awesome!  We taught Pablo, Humberto, Marina, Cindy, and Oscar.  We found an entire new family so I'm stoked for that!  And for tracting for just a little bit, we got 6 new investigators and taught a whole ubnch.  Basically, Milwaukee is the land of milk and honey for SPanish work.  TONS of hispanics.  Hoorah!  We also set a baptismal date that night with a part member lady - so excited!

Saturday we got to have a lunch appointment at noon, after which we drove around (yes, we have a car) and visited some members, and then got to teach a couple of lessons while tracting on a different street!  We met this crazy drunk guy who asked us if we were ready to die...  We thought he was going to kill us...  :P  Then during a lesson with another part member family, we set another baptismal date!  Hoorah for miracles!

Sunday was interesting.  We'll just say that the branch is going to need some help...  They have several things on their own that they need to work out.  But hey, church was still good!  They made me play piano for Sacrament Meeting.. Hahaha funny joke!  But really though...  

the rest of the day consisted of having dinner and then doing zone leader sunday night calls and calculating different numbers for the mission and stuff like that.  Hopefully our zone will start doing better than they are right now though!  :)

But hey! Sorry my emal is short.  I already told you why.  :)  Love you so much though!

Have a great week!

--Elder Nate Hubert 

Transfer Week - going to Milwaukee

Hey guys!  Another week has gone by, so it's time to email again.  I'm sorry if this is awful - I know I'm bad at this.  :P

But yeah.  This last week was actually kinda difficult!  But as I thought about it, I realized that it was the 'trial of my faith' week, and that I need not get down about it.  I mean, sure we can wish that some things hadn't happened, or hope for a better outcome, but not to the point that we get discouraged over it.  So, I'm not discouraged at all!  I just wish that this last week had been a little nicer to us...  ;)  It was cold, it was windy, and NOBODY opened their door...  :P  #thestruggleisreal

And for whatever reason, all of our appointments decided to fall through!  Well...  most of them at least...  :P  But I'm glad that my biggest worry in life is that!  It could be much worse.  I just count my blessings!

But yeah, on Monday night last week, Juan didn't answer is door, and Liliana didn't answer her door, but a miracle still happened!  We were contacting some former investigators in the area and we found Miguel and Antonio Jimenez - 2 brothers.  After a restoration lesson with them, we extended a baptismal invite for a day in April, and they both accepted!  Baptismal dates!  Hoorah!

Green Bay Spanish district

Tuesday we had the last District Meeting of the transfer, so that was fun.  I got to give a training on how to find the most effective people, not necessarily the most amount of people.  We're looking for Kingdom Builders, and we talked about how to find them.  We also talked about using members to set goals in the areas we serve, and to help them find their own friends who are ready.  The best part was that we committed Elder Landaverry to go and teach his family next week, beacuse he goes home on Thursday.  :P  For the rest of that day, we had exchanges!  Elder Landaverry and I got to teach the Grijalva family, the Carlos family, the Ramirez family, and the Solorio family, having great lessons at each of them!

with the Solorio family

Wednesday we tried some people in the afternoon, but had to re-exchange after having only taught 1 lesson together that day.  Right after we re-exchagned we went and taught the Nieves family and alter went to go and teach a new family we found, the Paez family!  Then, we went and had dinner with a family from a different ward that wanted to say goodbye to me, and then we came home.

with the Nieves family

Thursday we had Weekly Planning, so graciously led by Elder Norris because I am getting transferred, and then we found a new lady named Franchesca who is a mexican woman from Texas.  Later, we tried to teach some people but our lessons fell through!  We did, however, have the chance to talk to Yaritza.

B-ball with Christian and Brandon

With the Robertsons

Friday we did service at St. Vinny's and then we went and taught Audencio Dominguez, committing him to a baptismal date in April.  Miracles!  Then, we got to go and say goodbye to Alexis Morales, and then went to the church for a goodbye party they threw for us and for a member of the branch who is moving to Utah.  :D

Luis and family

Saturday morning we got the transfer text with my name on it, ensuring that I was going to be leaving Green Bay.  So, throughout the day, we taught Elizabeth Perez first, then went to a lunch with the Nieves family where we got a photo, and then went to a Hmong lunch, and then went to check on the Solorios but they weren't home, so we were pretty upset because they were supposed to come to Stake Conference!  But then we went to Stake Conference...  :P  After that, we went to the Munoz's place and talked to Luis and said goodbye to him and his family, which was hard!  I even started crying!!  :(

Farewell cake!

Sunday for Stake Conference we had 3 investigators show up!  Lisa and Orelia and Aranza (luis's little sister).  It was great!  The talks were great too!  After that, we had dinner with the Robertsons where I found out that Brother Robertson served his mission in Chile and was companions with my dad's cousin!  Crazy!  Then, we had a dinner with the Reyes family which was crazy hard to say goodbye to them - we were all crying...  :(  Then I got photos with Angelina and had calls with the ZL's to close off the night.

Sorry if I totally skipped details..  We can talk about them later...  :P  Adios!  Love you TONS!

--Elder Nate Hubert

P.S. (from Elder Hubert's Dad)  Elder Hubert was asked to be Zone Leader in Milwaukee.  He is nervous but excited.

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

January 19 - January 25

I had a great week this week, but I'll just get right into it:

Monday the 19th, we had P-day.  It was a regular old Preparation Day, but the end of the day was the best part, by far!  We met President Krehbiel (member of mission presidency) and his wife at a restaurant and they took us out to eat, and then after that we went to the church and I got a blessing by him and Elder Norris because my back had been killing me!  But now I'm good - that's the power of the Priesthood for you.  It was a great blessing, I'm glad I had that experience.  Then, they went with us to a lesson with the Nieves family where we were able to talk about Conversion and the process of coming to know the truth of things, and to develop testimony about things.  They seemed to understand very well!  The lesson went a little over time, but then we got to go near our house and have another super short lesson about the Book of Mormon with a new investigator we have named Diego!

Elder Hubert and Elder Norris

Tuesday we had District Meeting and it was all about planning, so I used an example from the Book of Mormon, when the Nephite commander Teancum goes into the Lamanite Camp and kills the king.  The first time he does it, he plans for it and is fine!  But the second time, he doesn't plan, goes alone, and doesn't do as well, and ends up getting killed.  But the principle of the meeting was that when we plan, we're able to 'pierce the hearts' of our investigators, similar to how Teancum pierced the hearts of the kings with a Javelin.  :)  I thought it was a good example.  After that, we started exchanges, and I went with Elder Museus on the West Side.  On the bus ride to their place, a bunch of girls on the bus started flirting with me and commenting on my eyes, how blue they are all like "Are those your real eyes?  Your eyes are so pretty!  They real cute!  You're cute!"  And I started blushing...  Yeeeeeeeah...  :P  But later, we got to teach the Law of Chastity to some female investigators - kinda awkward...  But hey, we got through it.

Wednesday we finished exchanges by visiting a Less Active man and teaching him about having family and personal prayer so that he can develop the testimony that he once had.  We exchanged back and then we went and taught Maria Sanchez about the scriptures, and had a lesson with Yaritza about the restoration!

Thanks for the package from sweet friends!

Thursday we did Weekly Planning, and then we went to go and teach a lesson, but totally got stood up for lessons that we had planned.  2 of them!!!  But hey, we did get to visit the Grijalva family, and they fed us which was nice.  They had this super hot salsa that I was eating, and then they had me eat a taco with only salsa in it.  I died.  Almost.  Later, we went and found a bunch of new people over on a street that we've not been to before, so that was good!  And we were going to have a lesson with a lady we know named Angelina, but it cancelled like an hour before so we had to cancel with our member present which is always too bad...  :(  But later, we got to visit with Luis and then got to play Basketball!  :)

Friday, we had to go to the library in the morning because there was something online that our mission president wanted me to look at to prepare for District Meeting.  So, we did that, and then as soon as we were done we went over to St. Vinny's thrift store to do our 2 hours of service, and then we did contacting nearby that street!  We found this guy who was totally white, looked totally American, but turns out he's from Puerto Rican.  Now when I say white, I mean he had curly brown hair and was more pale than me!  :P  But hey, whatever!  We also taught a bunch of other families, all new people, and even invited baptism to one man and he said that if he knew it was true, he would get baptized.  That's always a good sign!  We were also taken to dinner that night to a hispanic restaurant and it was pretty dang good over there!  Then, we went and taught the Nieves family and went to Volleyball at the church for like 40 minutes before going home.

Saturday morning we got a ride to a place that's an hour away from Green Bay and we went to lunch with our Branch President who lives out in the boonies - in farm land, super far away from the city.  I included a few photos of the family, the farm, and of his son who crashed his car a while back.  We were up there for like an hour or so and then came back to Green Bay and we taught some lessons to some people, and sorry this is super lame as an explanation, and then we had dinner with GB1 Elders in our apartment!

Sunday was fun, basically what we did was church!  That's when we heard the sad news that the Nieves kids aren't gonna get baptized because their dad is banning them from getting baptized...  That's way too bad...  But hey, we'll work through it.  Also during the day, we helped some members break into their car because they locked the keys in their car, and then we taught a lesson to some members, and it's a super good thing we stopped by because they were going through a really bad and hard time, and then we taught Yaritza about the Book of Mormon and the Bible, and then we had dinner!

That's my week, but to copy a phrase that I used last week, we Hubert kids are known for being short, and this email is just proof that I'm staying true to form.  Love you all!

--Elder Nate Hubert

Two Week Update

So I have no idea what happened to the weekly email last week - I can't find it in drafts, sent mail, or anything...  So, I'm just going to go over a few points that happened last week so you know what was going on!  (Note:  This is the week of January 5th to the 11th).

On Tuesday the 6th, we had a Zone Training Meeting that was super awesome!  We have a new Zone Leader who is a very strange guy, but he's still pretty cool and I enjoyed being able to talk about the Book of Mormon and everything.  And the weirdest part is that the day before, I was asked to sing a musical number and be accompanied by one of the Sisters - it was an arrangement of the song "I Know that My Redeemer Lives."  It was great!

On the River

Thursday, we had District Meeting because we also had Interviews with President Cutler.  Interviews were great though, I really love every time they happen.  Basically, during District Meeting we talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and what it means during our work, and then during Interviews I talked with President about stuff that's been going on here in Green Bay with other missionaries, so unfortunately I had to bring stuff up.  But President Cutler is such an inspired man and I love talking to him about our investigators, their situations, and other things, basically being able to seek his advice and ways that he thinks I could improve - I really am trying to be the best missionary I can be.  :)

Friday the 9th we had a huge party at the church.  When a hispanic girl turns 15, they throw this gigantic party for her!  But rather than turning 15, this party was for a lady turning 70 who never had a party when she was younger, and it was a surprise so when she came into the gym and saw all of us, she burst into tears.  It was so awesome to be a part of it!!  But we had to leave early to go and have a lesson with the Nieves family which is always good!  Hubert committed to be baptized on the 31st of this month, to kind of be the example for his whole family.  We're stoked for that!!

Saturday the 10th we had a great day, teaching 11 lessons as we went throughout the day and being able to find a whole bunch of new people, especially families, so we were very thankful for that!  :D  Families are the best!

But now, onto this week...  :)

Monday we were supposed to have 2 lessons with members present in the evening.  The member came to the first lesson, but the investigator wasn't home.  Then, we went to our second lesson and waited for our member, who never showed up, but we still taught a lesson!  Whatever...  :P  Everybody:  HELP THE MISSIONARIES!  IT IS A BIG DEAL!  WE NEEEEEED YOU!

Hungry Elder!

Tuesday we had District Meeting again - this time the Zone Leaders came to the meeting.  It was all about How to Set Goals, and for the beginning of it we talked about goals that we set during the mission, especially goals for our key indicators and numbers.  But then, I decided to take the training and apply it to life in general.  Goal setting is an eternal principle, and I was so thankful for the elders that we have in our district.  I asked Elder Norris - the newbie - to tell us goals that he set to prepare to serve a mission.  Then, I asked some other elders some examples of goals we set during our missions to help us grow.  And then, we have Elder Landaverry, who goes home in 3 weeks, and he told us some goals that he's setting for going home that will help him continue to progress.  It was a great training, and I know that setting goals is so important!  Because it is when we set goals in our lives, for example, to hold a Temple Recommend or to attain the Celestial Kingdom, that we pattern our lives to be worthy of those goals.  Isn't that great?  Okay, but after DTM, we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders!  I went with Elder Lee in the the GB Hmong area (interesting - I'll tell you later) and Elder Cutshaw went with Elder Norris into the Spanish area.  But yeah, we contacted a few people on Tuesday in between our meeting and dinner that night, and then after dinner we had a lesson with this man at a restaurant, and this guy was SO knowledgeable.  He knew so much about so many random things about religion, and it was interesting to call back all of my knowledge of the Old Testament and things I learned in Seminary and Sunday School - and we were eventually able to share the First Vision with him without having it turn into a bash.  I was happy with the way it turned out!

Wednesday, we finished exchanges by visiting 2 families that were less active Hmong people, and during one of them I turned on my camera so you guys could all hear what the Hmong language sounds like - it is pretty cool!  I have no idea what they are saying though!  But eventually we exchanged back and we had a dinner appointment at the Ayon's house, right after which we weren't able to do that much work because I was feeling not very good - light headed and sick to my stomach, so we came home and stayed there the rest of the night as I was sick.

Thursday, we weekly planned right after studies, and then went out to go work.  We tried to contact a new investigator named Brenda that we found on exchanges, but she wasn't home.  Instead, we found a lady named Aleida and taught her on the doorstep, and then another woman named Joleen.  She's an American, but she was very interested in what we had to say so that was good!  She wants us to come back and meet her husband.  :)  Later, we also met a Less Active member of the branch, named Brother Campos.  We're not sure much about him, but we're gonna ask the Branch President.  Eventually, we went to the church to have a lesson with the Nieves family, but they cancelled because Lisa wasn't feeling well, so we just played basketball instead.

Friday morning we had a breakfast appointment with the Ponce family from the branch, after which we did studies.  Later, we did our weekly service at St. Vincent's thrift store, which is always fun!  After that, we contacted near the store for a few minutes before catching a bus to go do some contacting on Abrams street, so that was good.  We taught 4 lessons, gaining 1 new investigator, and we were also able to teach Yaritza - a girl that we knew.  We taught her about the Restoration of the Gospel, and watched the movie with them.  They thought it was cool, but don't know if it's true yet.  But then after that, we got dinner!  We were gonna have some other lessons, but they all cancelled, so instead we went to Volleyball at the church.

Saturday we did MUCHO contacting!  We went over to a bunch of streets by the bus station and contacted a lot on them, receiving 6 referrals and teaching 4 lessons!  We did all that by about 3:00 because then we had to get a ride from where we were to the church to get some lunch at Fernando Ramirez's birthday party - so we did!  We stayed there for a little bit, talking and eating, and then we went on our way to go and do some more contacting and teaching.  We arrived at the Nieves family's place to check up on them right as Lisa was on the way to the hospital with a possible miscarriage - but luckily everything was fine.  But she thoguht it was crazy that we showed up right when she needed us again.  That always seems to happen.  But then, throughout the night, we stopped by a few people's houses, and were actually able to enter and teach Angelina and Michelle and Miguel - and we taught them using 2 Nefi 32:3 and 9.  It was a pretty good lesson and it was especially good for Elder Norris to be able to practice.  :D

Sunday we had church, and unfortunately none of our investigators were able to come.  :(  But we're going to keep on trying!!!  After church, we got to eat, do District Phone Calls with the other elders, and then go and teach some people.  We got 5 lessons, actually being able to teach the Ramirez family and just stopping by a couple other places, before we had to head home and do calls with the Zone Leaders.  :)  BUt yeah, that was our week!

It is just amazing to be able to branch out and significantly increase the amount of lessons that we're able to teach just by talking to everybody, by being out of the apartment and putting ourselves in places where we can talk to others.  I absolutely love being a missionary, being able to invite others to come unto Christ and to make the necessary changes to their lives to have Him be a part of their lives, and especially to help them understand exactly what He did for them.  Most people understand that He is important, they just have no idea why because they can't understand the complexity of the scriptures.  But with outside help, they can come to know their Savior.  :D  That's why we do what we do!  Well, one of the many reasons. :)

Thanks for everything everybody!  Love you all!!!

--Elder Nate Hubert

New Year's, Drunk Rampage, Police Car, Baptism, one crazy week!

So basically the entire beginning of my week doesn't matter...  It cannot compare to the pure funny/awesome/crazy stories of later in the week.  Basically what happened is that on Monday we found out where everybody was going because we got the transfer boards!  No worries - I'm still in Green Bay.

Tuesday, we had an amazing lesson with the Solorio family about the 10 Commandments.  What made it so great was because Sister Rios came over with us and helped us out - it was awesome!

Wednesday was the last day of the year, and it was transfer day.  So, I had to say goodbye to a whole bunch of my friends!  Elder Peterson, Elder Pike, Elder Eyring, and Elder Drishinski all left me and went to other places in Wisconsin - so sad...  The weirdest part is that I came to GB with all of them, and then they all just left me!  So I'm still here, and I've been here longer than everybody else...  :P

But Thursday, let me tell you about Thursday...  Thursday began like every other day, you know with the usual studies and then we did Weekly Planning, and it was actually a super good wp session!  And then we set out to go and do some work at about 4.  I know, super long, but that's not the best part.  So, we live on a street called Abrams, and we were walking down the street and contacting people!  We actually found this one LA lady that is no longer associated with the church, and while we were talking to her, some lady in her driveway backed up, and then pulled right into a pole!  We didn't think anything of it, and then we continued onward...  We just kinda though "oh, well somebody is a bad driver."  Then, we went and met this guy named Amado and taught him a lesson, and then we decided to start walking home because we were running late in regards to our daily plan.  But as we were doing that, we saw the same car as before, back out of the driveway all the way into the curb on the other side of the street, and then we saw it pull forward to try and go onto the street, but instead of hitting the pole, it hit a car that was coming from oncoming traffic!  It was a head-on collision, and we were both like "are you serious?!  Is this happening??"  Both cars kinda sat there at a standstill, the one that got hit was honking a lot, and then they both backed up, and the one that hit the other decided to try and run away, so she drove around the guy and fled the scene!  Then, the guy that got hit made a super quick U-turn and sped after her, following her down the street.  They pulled down a perpendicular street and pulled over to the side of the road, and then the guy that got hit got out and opened up the other car door and started screaming at her.  I've never heard so many swear words in the same sentence!  But then, she got out and pushed him around (she was pretty large) and when he tried to get her license plate number, she got back in the car and tried to hit him!  He's all freaking out, and we went over and said, "Don't worry - we saw the whole thing!"  So, we all went back over to her house and she pulled onto a bunch of people's front lawn in an attempt to get back into her driveway, and then she got out of the car and fell over, and then got back up and fell over again!  And after fighting with the guy again, she ran into the house.  So, by this time there's a crowd gathered because she appartently hit a whole bunch of other cars between the two times she hit things that we saw.  SO, she's in the house, and some people outside start calling the cops and then the cops show up!  We're just standing there, waiting to see what we need to do because we're witnesses, and tehn the cops go into the house and after like a 7 minute struggle, they all come outside with her in handcuffs.  They shove her in the car, and she is visibly wasted - completely drunk.  So, then the cops divvy out the various people that need to be talked to - the people whose cars got hit and then us, the witnesses.  So, basically, we spent an hour of our night on Thursday in the back of a Police car (I took photos) giving some testimony to help lock up this lady.  So, turns out, she's got at least 2 years in jail...  She is called a 'frequent flyer.'  She's had some run ins before.  It was a crazy story!

Friday was okay, too, but wait until I tell you about Saturday!

Saturday morning we went to the library and had to make a program for a baptism that was going on.  then as soon as that was over, we went to the church and began to fill up the font.  We set up for the baptism of an 8 year old boy in the branch, who turned 8 in June but waited until now to be baptized.  I've been working with him since I got here in July, and now he finally decided to get baptized, and he asked me to do it for him!  So, the baptism was awesome, and I got to baptize him and I got to sing a song with a sister missionary - sister Kealer - for a musical number for the baptism.  But then the story gets better - the police story.  So, the Sisters left the baptism early because they had an appointment, but they came back to the church a few minutes later.  We were still there because there was a luncheon, and the Sisters were all like "So our appointment got cancelled because it turns out that our investigator was drunk on Thursday night and hit a whole bunch of cars, and now she's in jail because the testimony of two missionaries put her there!"  So, the lady we put in jail, was the sister missionaries investigator!  But we didn't feel bad, because it was our civil duty.  They weren't mad either, they just wanted to give us a hard time...  :)

But yeah, that's why our week was super exciting!  Love you all TONS!

ADIOS!

--Elder Nate Hubert