September 25= year mark

Well, the title basically explains how I'm feeling right now...  I wonder where the time has gone...  And even though I wonder that, I am so excited for the future.  The last year, I have learned and grown so much, and I'm excited for what the future holds.  All I have is one more year to show the Lord my love through my service and the way that I am.  :)  I love this chance that I have!  :D

But basically, this last week was spent making all of the necessary plans to have a baptismal service on the 27th!!!  :D  Luis is super excited, and we even got the baptismal record all filled out.  We're very excited and I'll for sure include photos for next week!!!  One cool thing is that we had Stake Conference and Luis came to the session on Saturday night, AND the one on Sunday!  It was awesome to see him there, and then that gave him the opportunity to meet President Cutler and to meet the Stake President, who is a super great speaker.  :)

On Thursday, we had a funny experience when we went to a member's house who just got his mission call, talked to him only in Spanish, and then recruited his help to come and teach Luis with us!  :D  We also had a Branch Activity that night, which was fun because they celebrated all of the birthdays in August, so that meant mine!  :P

Friday we had exchanges and it was awesome because we taught a lot of lessons, and we were even able to defend the church very well against this lady who really wanted to bash with us.  It turned out being a good situation and we were able to change her hateful attitude to an accepting one, and then she accepted a Book of Mormon!

Just in closing, I just wanted to let you all know that Elder Wise loves you!  and I love you too!  :D  This is a song that I found that is about missions that I really liked - thought I'd share it with you in celebration for my year mark!  :)

--Elder Nate Hubert

MIRACLES in GREEN BAY!

Dear family and friends, we had such a miracle this week!  Basically the thing that I can learn the most from this experience is that the Lord really hears prayers and sincerely answers them, but also that he truly does see the effort of each and every one of his servants and missionaries, and blesses them accordingly.  But for some background information...  For the last couple of months, our mission has had the goal to have one baptism in each area in our mission before the October General Conference.  That is a very lofty goal because baptisms in Wisconsin are more of a rarity, (though not an impossibility), and because some of the areas of our mission have not seen baptisms in over a year!  But as lofty as it was, it was made in faith and the Mission President's excitement was met with the prayers of each of the missionaries in the mission and each of us have been working hard and doing all in our power to make that goal a reality!  Elder Miller and I have been able to push this area in Green Bay to its limit almost, and are finding many new people every week and are able to get into many people's homes as well.  However, we did have the fear that our area would be one of the only ones to not get a baptism...

Part of our weekly goals for this last week included a change of mentality.  Rather than going out to work to reach our daily goals, we then had the mentality to go out and work to help people get baptized.  Rather than teaching lessons to teach lessons, we taught lessons to help people get baptized.  And the crazy thing is, we saw immediate blessings!!!

On Tuesday, we had a lesson with our investigator Luis like we always did.  We went into the lesson going to teach the commandment 'Follow the Prophet,' and he understood everything!  It was awesome!  :D  And as part of the lesson, we were talking about how we need to follow the things that they told us to do, including other commandments like reading the scriptures, praying, going to church, and getting baptized.  When we asked him about baptism, he took in a deep breath and then said "I'm ready!  I want to do it!"  So, then we asked him when he felt would be best for him to get baptized, and he said "Sometime this month."  So, we now have a baptismal date with Luis for September 27, which is the last Saturday before General Conference!  We are so excited for him!  :D

And the best part about the whole thing is that he is now thinking about serving a mission, and he really wants to do it, and now he's going to be an example for the rest of his family as the first member in his family!

And as far as the other week, we were able to teach lots of lessons and get to know lots of other people, but this was by far the biggest thing that happened this week.  :)

I love you all so much!  Have a fantastic week!

--Elder Nate Hubert

Another Green Bay week gone by

Yeah, so this week was a quick one!  And I attribute that mostly to the fact that last week's P-day was on a

Tuesday, so this one came quicker than most.  :P

But what we did on Tuesday was we emailed, we went to the Halloween Store that just opened in the mall, and we tried on some fun masks and everything, and then we played Sports later on, including some Basketball, Soccer, and Volleyball!  It was fun!  :D  After all of those activities, we went over to Ana's house and taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invited her to baptism, but in response to that she told us that she believes in the Virgin de Guadalupe and everything...  So, progress is being made slowly but surely!

Wednesday we had District Meeting!  I really liked this week's meeting though.  I got to give a training on a Christlike Attribute, and the one I chose for that was the attribute of Graciousness, and it went pretty well.  :)  Later, we had a pretty awesome District Meeting led by our new District Leader named Elder Landaverry.  He's a pretty awesome guy!  :)  And while we were there, I got an awesome new quote!  It says:  "All I can do is all I can do, and all I can do is enough if I know it's all I can do."  I like that.  Right after DTM I got to go over to the Ramirez's to call the Utah DMV and get some paperwork sent out to me out here so I can apply for a new copy of my driver's license!  So, hopefully in a few months, I'll get a new license!  Later, we spent some time teaching lessons including the Vargas family and finding some new people.  We also taught the word of wisdom to a drunk guy!  :)

Thursday, we went to the YMCA to help Dale work out.  That was fun, but on our way out, it was raining SO much, just a complete downpour!  (Photos included)  Then, we went and had a lunch appointment with some guys that we know, and the lesson that we had decided previously to teach them was based on the Law of Chastity, but as we were teaching it, it turns out that they were gay!  That was awkward, but all we did was commit them to pray about it and turn to the Lord to help them live it.  :P  When we got home, we were weekly planning for a while, but eventually got picked up by the Ramirez boys to go to our dinner appointment with them and it was at this place called Buffalo Wild Wings, and it was so fun!  And that is how we closed our day.  It was kind of like a 'year mark' party type thing..  :P

Friday we had a great day and taught a lot of lessons.  We spent time in 3 different areas and were able to help each of them progress.  We also stopped by the Carlos family's place to check up on them, and we found that Veronica was sick, so we offered her a blessing, and she accepted!  So we gave her a blessing and had a lesson on the Priesthood and the Spirit, and the Holy Ghost was so strong there.  I absolutely loved that feeling!  We just really hope that they have the desire to follow that feeling that they had!  :D

Saturday morning we went and tried to contact some people that we had scheduled lessons with, but each of them fell through.  However, for lunch, we were able to go over to this place called Bay Beach and have a picnic/birthday party with some Hmong people we know.  Later, we went and had some lessons including one with Luis and this new lady named Dilcia, where we had a super powerful Restoration lesson with her..  :)

And then Sunday we had church, and Luis came with us!  It was awesome!  After church we had lunch with the Rios family, and then got picked up by a member in his awesome oldies car and got some sweet photos with it!

But basically that sums up our week!  I'm loving it up here in Green Bay and I absolutely love my mission!  :D

--Elder Nate Hubert

Transfer Week, Indian Dinner, God is like an Egg, Nobody at Church, andLabor Day Miracles

So, from the subject line you could probably tell that we had quite the week here in Wisconsin!  I'll just kinda give you the details and you can infer how we felt about it...  ;)

Last Tuesday was a pretty good day!  :)  Minus the adventure in the morning.  Basically I woke up at 5 AM to the sound of beeping!  So I got up and tried to find out what it was, and when I couldn't, I went back to bed.  Then I heard it again, and tried to find it, and ended up waking Elder Miller up because it was either the fire alarm or the carbon monoxide detector, and then we found out that it was the carbon monoxide detector!  So, we went out to our balcony and called our district leader at 5:15 AM who then told us to go and get on our bikes and go over to the Hmong's apartment, so we did!  We got there at like 5:50 and slept there until later, and then we got breakfast there too, and then went back.  At the apartment the beeping had stopped so I closed the outside screen door that had been left open to let it air out, and right as I did that it started beeping again, so we called the Zone Leaders and left to go to Hmong's again, this time taking our stuff with us so we could get ready for the day.  Later, our landlady went in and replaced our detector because it was apparently a faulty detector, so we're okay now!  :D  We also got to teach Alexis, say goodbye to Elder Dobyns, and have an incredible dinner with an Indian family in a tripanionship of me, Elder Miller, and Elder Harding because Elder Evans had to go down to Milwaukee on Tuesday night.

Saying goodbye to Elder Dobyns

Wednesday was transfer day, and we had Elder Harding in our companionship as we went around to a nearby area to contact some of our friends, and then we went to the church to drop him off so he could wait for his new companion, who is actually his trainer from almost a year ago!  They get to serve together again!  Later, we went and taught 6 lessons near the Spanish Elders' apartment and near the Bus Station as we were waiting to go home - it was a pretty good day!

Thursday, we had helping Dale as our service project again, but the bad part was that he came in super late to the YMCA so we only got to help him for like 20 minutes before we had to leave!  But when we got home, we got to do some weekly planning before heading over near the church to teach Ulises, one of our new investigators, and Luis at the church later before playing Basketball with some other investigators that came!

Friday, we got to go have a lunch appointment with a less active guy named Cesar, who actually wants to serve a mission so we're going to be trying to help him finish his papers coming up.  Later, we basically had every single lesson that we had had planned fall through, but we still found pepole to teach, including our land lady Nicole who came to the apartment to check something out, and then started asking some questions about who we are, what we believe, and what makes us different from everybody else.  And we placed a Book of Mormon with her!  It was sweet!  :D

Hmong food

Saturday we got to accompany the Hmong Elders to a gigantic Hmong Sports Tournament in Green Bay, and we went because there were tons of people there from all cultures so we wanted to see if we could meet any Spanish people!  :)  While we were there, we met this old Hmong lady who was baptist, and she was trying to convince us about the 3-in-1, the Holy Trinity, and explained it like God was an Egg, like they all have different parts but they are still an egg.  But as soon as the 4 of us missionaries started asking about the doctrine of the Bible regarding that, they basically just contradicted themselves and it was kind of funny...  :P  But we kept the situation cool without having to bash at all.  :)

And on Sunday, we unfortunately did not have any investigators at church, but that is okay, because there was really NOBODY at church!  Since it was Labor Day, most of the people in the branch decided to go and do stuff so there were only like 20 of us that attended church on Sunday - too bad..  :P  And then Sunday night there was a baptism help where I was invited to sing at it, so I sang an arrangement of 'Joseph Smith's 1st Prayer' to the tune of 'Come Thou Fount.'  It went well!

Then yesterday, Labor Day, we had a miracle when we were looking for this less active man named Edgar who apparently had the same address as a completely active family, but we had never met him before!  So because the buses didn't work, we walked to their house to ask about him, and he ends up answering the door and inviting us in, introducing himself to us, and it was such a miracle!  And then they fed us!  Turns out he has lived there for 5 years and just works all of the time and doesn't come to church anymore!  Who knew?!?! 

Anyways, i love you so much!  :D  I hope each of you has an incredible week and that you remember that Heavenly Father loves you!  :D

--Elder Nate Hubert

Another week passes in Wisconsin, The Packer's had a public practice,and I lost my wallet!

Hey everybody!  I had a great week here, and Elder Miller and I were able to be very successful in teaching our investigators and helping them come closer to Christ.  Our main goal right now is that we are trying to help them change their desires, that they might be as it says in Mosiah 18, and have their own desire to enter the waters of Baptism and to be called His people, and to go further in this gospel.  So, this is how my week went!

Monday evening, after P-day activities and everything, we went down to the trailer park on the edge of Bellevue street and we met up with Teresa, a lady that we had met earlier, and we got to teach a lesson!  However, more interested than she was, was her husband Angel, who told us that he really wants to learn more and that he wants to come to church and everything, so we're going to start working with him!  :D

Tuesday, we had our final District Meeting of this transfer.  It was actually a very powerful meeting, closing with testimonies, and I absolutely loved that!  Just being able to hear the genuine Spirit come off of the tongues of these other Elders was such a blessing to be present for - I loved it.  I also felt the Spirit as I testified, which is always an amazing feeling.  Right after DTM, we had exchanges!  I went with Elder Harding to the Spanish B area, which is not my own.  We worked throughout the day, finally being able to teach 3 lessons to some people, even though none of them were sit-down lessons.  Every person's conversion has to start somewhere!

Wednesday, we finished exchanges in the morning, where Elder Harding and I had an amazing breakfast with the Ponce family, and got to teach their brother and sister-in-law, who showed great interest in the gospel, and who we will hopefully be able to begin teaching.  :D  Later, we were back in the trailers on Bellevue, and contacted a referral that we had been given!  The name of this man was Darryl, and he and his mother and son are from the great country of India!  But since they were referred to us, we didn't have to give them to anybody else.  They are pretty hard core Catholic, but our next appointment with them is going to be a really authentic Indian cuisine, so we are very excited for that.  :)

Thursday began with us busing over to the YMCA to help Dale with his workout, which is where my adventure begins.  As we were about to catch the bus to go back home, I realized that my wallet was NOT in my bag that I had brought with me!  So, we went back and checked the YMCA, and they didn't have it, and after a while of looking, we called a member to see if he could give us a ride.  So he came and rescued us stranded missionaries, and we called the bus station and they didn't have it either!  So, unfortunately, my wallet got stolen, including my Driver's License, mission debit card, temple recommend, medical cards from the mission, and some other stuff too, and ALL of it has to be replaced soon!  That is going to be the real adventure - trying to get everything replaced!  The rest of the day was us weekly planning, and then we had basketball in the evening where some new friends named Ulisses and Edgar came, and they really enjoyed it!  :D

Friday, because I had no bus pass (also lost with my wallet), we had to use the bikes that we borrowed some from members.  Unfortunately, it was also a very humid day so we were very sweaty (I know it's gross, but it's also natural...  :P)  So, we contacted a whole bunch of former investigators in a particular area, and got to teach a bunch of people, and even got to get a new investigator!!! 

Saturday, we got the transfer text in the morning that let us know that Elder Miller and I are going to be serving together for another transfer, so I'm super stoked for that!  We also got to do some contacting around our area before heading to the church for a baptism that the GB2 sisters were having, and it was awesome because Miles, the guy getting baptized, wanted us to be in a photo with him, so we got it!  (I'll have to get that from the sister who's camera we used). 

Then on Sunday, we had a very productive day.  We had church, and unfortunately none of our investigators were able to come this week (but they promised to come next week!), and right after that we had a lunch appointment with the Rios family, and they are super great!  While there, we each ate a super spicy pepper and when I ate mine, they didn't think I had actually eaten it because I wasn't freaking out like everybody else!  :P  And later, we had a huge miracle.  We were able to teach 10 lessons on a Sunday in an area that we had never been to before, so I was very happy about that.  We only used people from the area book that were counted as Potentials or Referrals, and were able to make contact with a lot of them over again.  I love missionary work so much!

And then today, we got to go back over to Lambeau Field area and watch a practice by the Green Bay Packers team!  It was sweet, and I took some photos (some good, some not), so you can go through those and choose which ones to share.  And now I'm here!  :)

Anyways, I love you all SO very much and I want you to know that!  :)  This church is so very true, and I come to realize that more and more.  I hope all of you are well, and I want you to know that each of you mean so much to me.  Love you!

--Elder Nate Hubert

Mission Tour, 19th Birthday, and Lambeau Field!

Sooo this week I want to thank everybody who took time and means to send me some things in the mail or emails for my birthday which was on the 17th - they were all greatly appreciated!  Thank you all so very much! 

But I really had such an exciting week this last week. 

It went as follows:

Monday - I mean, even though it was P-day, we didn't necessarily do much.  We played a bit of Volleyball, that's it.  The real excitement of today came when Elder Miller and I placed the 40th copy of the Book of Mormon this transfer.  THAT was exciting!!!  We had a goal to place 40 copies in 6 weeks, but ended up doing it in more like 3.5 weeks, so that was really exciting to be able to accomplish.

Tuesday - we of course had great opportunities to teach, especially our investigator Luis, who we taught the first half of the Plan of Salvation, and Ana who we taught the whole Plan of Salvation.  And then later we had dinner with the Ramirez family!  :D  Later that night, the Elders serving in Iron Mountain came down to spend the night with us before going over to Mission Tour the next day, and we played a nice prank on them where I was tied up with a pillowcase over my head and duct taped to a chair, and then they came in and had to rescue me from my crazy companion...  :P  It was pretty fun.  :)

Wednesday - we got to drive down to Neenah for Mission Tour!  Right as we got to the church building, we got there the same time as President Cutler and Elder Martino - the visiting member of the 70.  After that, I had to go and conduct a practice of the musical number because I got put in charge of directing the choir of people from our zone!  It was actually pretty fun though, and sounded pretty good!  :D  And we were able to learn lots from Elder Martino, especially about how we need to include the members in our areas more.  :)

Thursday - was kind of an unaffective day...  Unfortunately.  In the morning we went to the YMCA to help out Dale for our weekly service.  Then when we got home, we did our weekly planning session for the week which took a few hours, and then  we headed over to the church to teach our investigator Luis, but he never showed up, so we just stayed and played Basketball until the end of the night.

Friday - we spent basically the entire day down in the Bellevue trainer park, and even though none of our initial contacts were there or to be found, we were able to teach a whole bunch of people and get some new investigators as well!  :D  All in all, a very effective day!  However it was kind of upsetting when we went to our lesson with the Carlos family and our member never shwoed up so we couldn't teach them because there was no male present...  :P

Saturday - we began with Correlation Meeting!!  :D  Later in the day, we were able to contact the Bautista family, an awesome couple, the Juarez family, the Lopez family, and the Carlos family, even though we weren't really able to teach the Carlos's a lesson.  The best part about today was when I called Luis to invite him to church, and he told me that his mom had told him that even though she had had a bad experience with the church in the past, it was time for him to have his own experience.  So awesome!

Sunday - this morning I opened presents and things that I had gotten from people for my birtdhay!  I also had a great pancake-cake thing in the morning.  Then, at church, Luis came!!!  It was awesome, especially when he stayed for all 3 hours!  And then right after church, we had a lunch appointment with the Arandas, and they had this delicious Mexican meal and some Tres Leches cake that I loved!  :D  Later in the day we got to teach some more, but it was such an amazing birthday!  :D  The Hmong Elders even joined us in the apartment for some dinner!

Monday - today - we got to take an amazing tour of Lambeau Field, the stadium of the NFL team the Green Bay Packers!  There are lots of photos I took, so include some!  :P  It was really pretty awesome, I had no idea that there was so much history involved!  We even got to see some of the players from a distacnce,that was pretty cool!  And now I'm here!

 

 

Anyways, I love you all so much!  I hope your weeks were as good as mine was, and I hoep that they continue to be great!  I love you ALLLL!  :D

Hakuna Matata, and keep the faith!

--Elder Nate Hubert

Quick report from Green Bay

This email is gonna be real short.  Like seriously.  I apologize...

But basically this week, I had district meeting and exchanges on Tuesday.  I was able to learn a lot from and about our district leader Elder Evans, who is a really great missionary up here in Green Bay.  I'm lucky to be serving around him and learning these super key lessons.  :)

Wednesday, we had a very powerful lesson with Alexis basically all about the principles of the Gospel - all of those primary answers that we quote over the years, which are going to church, reading the scriptures, praying, and we followed up with all of the previous commitments we had given him.

Thursday we had a lesson with Hermana Sanchez with Hermano Ramirez present, during which we invited her to baptism and she said that if she received an answer that these things were true, she would do that!  We were pretty happy to hear that.  Then later, we got to learn a cool new idea for working with members which is basically having a member-run party where people invite their friends.  Missionaries are not in charge, but they attend to answer questions and all.  I'll keep you posted!

Friday, we spent some time in a trailer park but met tons of new people, which was awesome.  We also got to set a baptismal date with the Carlos family (2 people in it), which was awesome!  The Spirit is working in their lives!!!

Saturday we met some new people, and got to have dinner with a Hmong lady.  We also had a choir practice to prepare for mission tour coming up, and guess who gets to lead the choir!  Yours truly!  It is pretty fun!  :D

Sunday we got to have church, and then borrow some bikes to contact some more distant people because the buses don't work on Sundays.  It was pretty effective and very fun!

I love you all!  Have a great week!!!

--Elder Nate Hubert

Another great week in Green Bay, Wisconsin :D

Hey everybody!  How are you all doing?  Everything is super great here in the land of milk and honey!  Or rather the land of cows and cheese and beer!  :)  Wisconsin is great though, and we have been able to have another really great, successful week.

On Monday, even though our scheduled lessons fell through, we were able to go and teach 4 people just out and about, which was really awesome!  None of them wanted to learn more about the gospel, but at least we were able to expose them to a bit about the church and everything, right?  :)

On Tuesday, we recruited the help of 2 of the young men in the Branch - Monkey and Cesar - and they came with us to teach 2 people.  We taught Luis - a 16-yr-old boy who is really searching, and were able to teach him the Restoration lesson, and he really enjoyed it!  We compared him to Joseph Smith because he has had a lot of questions all his life, and he said that he really wants to learn more, so hopefully in time he will have the desire to be baptized!  :D  We were also able to teach the Plan of Salvation to a lady named Maria, and that went pretty well.  It's pretty hard to get into her house because she is never home, but I'm really glad that it worked out this week!

Wednesday we got to teach our friend Alexis, who had been having a super tough week.  Turns out that on Saturday especially he had been in deep depression, which is something that he doesn't really ever experience...  :(  He was wondering what his purpose was, so we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he really liked that.  Later, we had the help of Andres from the branch to go and teach Hermana Hollan, but she was busy, so instead we went and taught Hermana Varela, and got to read 2 Nefi 31 with her, talking about all of the things that we need to do in our lives to grow closer to God.  We talked about coming to church and getting baptized, and she knows she needs to do them, but I just think she's scared to do anything about it.  Later, we got to eat dinner with the other missionaries and got to teach a man named Hugo, who let us teach the Restoration, which went very well!  He really liked it and even wants us to come back, which is always a really good feeling.

Lambeau field!

Thursday, we did WEEKLY PLANNING in the morning!  And part of that was cleaning up the apartment to make it spic and span because the Office couple came to the apartment just after that to inspect it!  :)  But they found nothing wrong with it, other than the fact that our toilet doesn't work, and everyhting was okay.  :)  Later, we went and we taught the Carlos family and some other people in their area before going to the church and waiting for Luis to show up so we could give him a church tour!  :)  He loved it a lot, and when we went into the chapel he felt the Spirit so strong.  He told us that he would like to continue to learn more and that he would love to come to the meetings on Sundays, so of course we talk about the Spirit and invite baptism, and he accepted a baptismal date!  We were so excited!  After that, we played basketball with some of the branch members, their friends, and other missionaries, too. 

Friday rolled around, and it was a pretty hard day.  I mean, we went to an area to contact a referral and went tracting around it too, but we only taught one lesson throughout the entire day!  But during that, we went to a park to meet up with a Less Active member and got to talk to him about keeping firm in the faith and after that, this complete stranger comes up to us.  He tells us that he's from Tennessee and that he is a member of the church, and that ever since he got to Green Bay 3 months ago, he hasn't seen missionaries or any trace o the church!  So we gave him the address of the church and gave him a BofM and talked to him for a while, and then we gave him a priesthood blessing right there in the middle of the park, at his request.  It was pretty cool - a great experience.  I was so glad to be led by the Spirit to be in the right place at the right time.

Saturday we had correlation in the morning, but didn't end up playing soccer so we made up our studies instead.  We later went around near our area and met some pepole and taught some lessons, and then headed over to an investigator's house to teach them, but when they weren't ready for us, we just went to the church building to help set up for a baptism that was happening, which we stayed for.  Unfortunately none of our investigators were able to come to that, but perhaps another time I guess.  Later, we got to go around a different area and then eat dinner and call people to remind them about church.

Sunday was kind of unfortunate.  Luis wasn't able to come to church, and when we were on the phone just before the 3rd hour of church, he told me taht it was because his mother and father did not approve of him coming with us to church because he never wanted to go with them to church before.  So, we had to drop his baptismal date and are going to try to convince his parents that this is a good thing and that they should go in on it with him.  :)  Later in the day though, we got to teach 6 lessons as we were walking around, some of them were doors that we knocked on, but most of them were just us talking to people that were already outside.  :)  Then we ate dinner with the Hmong elders!  :)

I love life right now though!  Everything is just so amazing - my mission has never been better.  One cool goal that Elder Miller and I set was this:  before, the area was getting 15 lessons a week, so we planned on getting no less than 20 lessons a week.  This week, we were able to get over 30 lessons, which was quite the accomplishment for us!  Also, we have made a goal to hand out a whole box of Books of Mormon before the end of this transfer (August 27), and currently we have handed out 28 of them!  It is great!  I love it!  The Lord is blessing us so much - and he is so mindful of us!

It is so crazy to think about how I just hit my 10-month-mark, and how on the 17th of this month I'm gonna turn 19, and then a month after that I'm gonna hit my year mark.  Time just flies way too fast!  It is so crazy!!!  :D  Anyways...  I love you all so much!  Have an amazing week!

--Elder Nate Hubert