It's a BOY!!! Training Elder Norris, chapter 1

Well, this week was actually kinda crazy!  Because on Monday, as I informed you last week, I was told that I'd be training a new missionary.  It was kind of a looming task, but I apprioached it with as much zeal as I could, and things seem to be turning out great, so that's good!  

Elder Hubert and Elder Harding

Elder Hubert, Elder Shipp and Elder Norris

But on Tuesday, we went and visited a bunch of people - members and investigators alike - to say goodbye from Elder Harding.  We had a dinner that evening at the Alvorado's, then we came home and walked to Luis Munoz's house so he could say adios to them, and then we came back home and I got picked up by Elder Dickey, one of the missionareis from the UP (upper peninsula) because he was going to be training a new missionary as well.  So we left our companions in Green Bay and we drove to Milwaukee so that we'd be able to go to our meeting the next morning at 7:45  And guess who we spent the night with?!  None other than my trainer, my companion a year ago, Elder SHIPP!!  It was crazy to be able to see him again and reminisce, to be able to talk about the different experiences that we've had over the next year.  

Elder Hubert and Elder Norris

The next morning, we got up super early to head over to the church and be seated for our meeting by 7:45, and after being trained by the Assistants, President and Sister Cutler, we met our trainees and got photos with them!  Elder Norris is from Panguitch, Utah and he's a great kid.  We got trained together, and then we loaded up our stuff and drove back up to Green Bay.  I loved being able to see so many of my friends in Milwaukee - totally great!  And then when we got back up here, I sat him down and introduced him to the area and the area book, we talked about different things, and then we set out to go and teach people!  Later, we came back so he could have time to unpack and we could eat...

Thursday we got to do our first study sessions together and then we got to do Weekly Planning!  That took a while because I had to teach him how to do it...  :)  But the highlight of the day was when we had a lesson in the evening and Elder Norris followed through with a commitment he got from President Cutler and he invited a hispanic man to be baptized on a specific date, and the man, named Jesus, accepted the invitation!  So now we're going to be working with him to do that.  :D

Friday was a slower day because we went and got signed up to go and do service at a new place - turns out doing service at the YMCA wasn't approved.  Good thing we know that now!  But we got signed up and filled up our time with contacting people we knew in that area, but not a lot of people were home...  :(

Saturday we had studies and then later we went to the Nieves family's house and had a lesson with them about the Plan of Salvation, and then we went to the church to help them set up for the Talent Show that was that day, and then we stayed there for a few hours viewing/participating in the show.  I got to sing a song, and it was way pitchy but I included a video anyways, so don't judge me tons...  :P  But that was fun!!!

However, Saturday and Sunday were hard for Elder Norris because he realized how much Spanish he's going to be speaking so now we're going to eb working super hard with him so that he's ready to do HARD WORK!  :D

Love you all SUPER TONS!  I hope that all is well for you and that you have a great THANKSGIVING WEEK!  Don't get too fat!

--Elder Nate Hubert

HOLA! Mission update=I'm a trainer!!

Hey everybody!  As the subject line said, I have recently been called to be a trainer!  So I guess what that means is that our mission president trusts me to not corrupt a new missionary too badly.  It should be fun though!  I'll let you know who it is and I'll have a few photos for you next week!  :D

But here's our update for the week!

#Mormon

On Monday after our P-day activities and everything, it was really awesome because we were able to find 7 new invesigators in 1 night!  How did we pull that one off?  We found 2 groups of people.  First, we found Cecilia and Liliana and they invited us to come back and teach them!  Then, we found a group of 5 teenage guys that call themselves "The Squad."  They are all hispanic and speak both Spanish/English, and they like us as guys, and they are all kind of religious, so they invited us to come back so we could watch "The Restoration" video with all of them!  That was a pretty cool visit!

Green Bay Spanish District

The next day on Tuesday we had District Meeting, and that was decent.  I've been to better ones, but oh well...  :P  After everything there, we went to our apartment to drop off our jackets and head out to go and work.  We took a white board that we have at the apartment so that we'd be able to use it as we demonstrated The Plan of Salvation to Manuela.  When we got to her house, we were surprised to find Manuela there with 2 of her daughters, Irene and Karen, and after 1 1/2 hours of talking about the Plan, we finished the lesson and committed all 3 of them to be baptized in December!  It was a miracle!

Wednesday we talked to Lisa and her husband for a while and then later had a dinner with the Arcos family.  After that, we had a lesson with the Carlos family where we talked a lot about the Restoration and after that lesson, we both felt that they weren't really into the message, so our next visit with them on Wednesday is going to be a nice 'do or die' lesson...  Wish us luck!  We also had a visit with the Solorios and they are doing well!

Thursday we helped Dale work out and then for the rest of the day we weekly planned, then had both of our lessons fall through before we went to the church to help some of the members practice for the upcoming talent show, and ended the day with Basketball!

Elders and Dale

Friday, we did some work over on Spinnaker and found a man named Jacento who we taught a full Restoration lesson with.  After that, we went to go and teach the Squad, but they cancelled with us.  So rather, we bus contacted to make up time, and then we met some guys on the bus that were jailbirds, and talked to them about life for a bit.  We also got taken out to Texas Roadhouse that night!

Saturday we got the transfer text that told us that Elder Harding was going to be leaving, and then throughout the day we went and said goodbye to people for Elder Harding and he started packing all of his stuff. We did, however, have a lesson about church attendance with Manuela and saw Lisa and her kids and taught them the Restoration.

Sunday we spent saying goodbye to people!  Now I have like 9 missionaries waiting for me to leave!

Love you tons - ADIOS!

--Elder Nate Hubert

Miracles on my Mission!

So, as usual, I'm running out of time...  So, I'm going to make this quick!  I apologize for that!  :)  I wish I could just include every single detail about every single thing that's going on, as well as every single thing that I'm learning, but unfortunately it doesn't work that way.  However, we're all going to be able to talk about all of these stories when I'm home from my mission someday...  :P  So, yeah.  Bring it up with me then.  :)

On Monday of this last week, we hung out at the mall with some other missionaries.  It was actually a very dull P-day, so that's too bad.  However, to end off the day, Elder Harding and I were able to meet a new family, the Cortez family!  They are formers from some Sister missionaries, so we're going to start teaching them because they speak Spanish.

First Snow!

Tuesday, we had District Meeting all about how to use members in our missionary work.  The main point that we were trying to make was that we must teach in UNITY when members are there!  It is not just that the member answers questions, or prays, but that they help teach the doctrine as well!  The purpose of a missionary as listed in Preach my Gospel is not just for the full time missionaries, but for the "every member a missionary" too, so I think we should all study that and do a little better at it.  Later on that day, we talked to Manuela again, and this time we met her husband, who was very cold towards us at the beginning.  However, after he heard a bit of what we had to say, and how we conducted ourselves, he came out of the other room and was so nice to us!  It was awesome to see that transformation take place as the Spirit was present. 

Consecration board

Wednesday, we attempted to contact people around a street called Edgewood, being able to contact 5 referrals today.  We met this guy who told us his name was Dirty Jesus (spelled JEZIS to make it not sacreligious), and we had an interesting conversation with him before we were kicked out of the house by a very rude lade.  Later, we had a dinner with the Arcos family with was interesting.  It's always interesting.  :P  Later, we visited Luis Ponce with Brother Arcos and that was interesting too.  However, I was really happy with how things went today because to close off the night, we had a great lesson with Maria Mendoza about the Book of Mormon and things around that.  We also got to see Ana again, for the first time in a long time!

Thursday, we helped Dale work out and then weekly planned before getting taken to the restaurant Buffalo Wild Wings by some members to celebrate his birthday, and then we went to the church to have a church tour with the Solorio family, but they showed up to tell us that their kids were sick so they couldn't do it today.  But hopefully soon!

Elder Hubert

Friday we had exchanges with the other Spansh elders, and I got to go onto the West side with Elder Landaverry!  We did a lot of service at this food pantry kind of place, and we also got to go and attempt to find people in their new area, but turns out that not very many hispanics live over there...  That's too bad. 

Elder Landaverry

Saturday, we played Soccer with members and investigators in the morning, followed by us attending a baptism that the 2nd Ward sisters had!  Manuela was supposed to come, but she kind of flaked out on us for whatever reason.  Later, as we were up on Edgewood for some return appointments, and met this family - the Nieves family.  We had met the husband before, but turns out he has a wife and 3 kids that are all above the age of 8!  So we taught them the Restoration after getting into their house, and then we invited them to church, and they accepted!  Except for the husband, who is always working.  But hey, we were very excited by that!!!

The next day, we could barely believe our eyes when they were there!!!  It was awesome!  Lisa, Hubert (the 10-yr-old son) and Orelia (9) and Pedro (8), and they loved it!  They liked it so much, even though Lisa had tons of questions.  We answered them during the 2nd hour of church, and we were able to talk about TONS of different doctrinal points, especially about how the GOspel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of healing.  At the end of the lesson, they all 4 had accepted a baptismal date for December 13- pray that they make it!!!

Hey, that's my week!  I hope you had a good week too!  Right now in the mission we're allreading the Book of Mormon together and I am learning so much new stuff!!!  I'd love to tell you about it but I have to go.  :)  Adios everybody!  Till next week!

--Elder Nate Hubert

Zone Conference, Halloween, and idk...

I gotta do a brief run-down of the week because I have missionaries waiting for me and I gotta catch a bus pretty soon.  :)

Holding an original 1830 Book of Mormon

Copies of Joseph and Hyrax's death masks

With the AP

Last Tuesday morning we got picked up by the GB1 Elders and driven down to a city called Shawano, about an hour away, to go to Zone Conference!  While we were there we learned so much, and there was this speaker there named Brother Pountaine, and he shared his amazing conversion story, and he brought an original copy of the BofM that he had, along with copies of the death masks of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.  It was so awesome to get photos with them!  :)  I also got photos with a whole bunch of missionaries there, which was cool.  Later on in the day, we had a lesson with the Solorio family which was amazing, where we committed them to read from the Book of Mormon, and they agreed to do taht, so of course we were happy!

On the way to Shawano

Tuesday we went and we contacted on Walnut Street and nearby streets for a while, which was pretty successful because we found this lady named Manuela who really liked talking to us and wants us to come back and meet the rest of her family, too!  We also found this lady named Lluvia Luz, which basically means rain light.  We also contacted some referrals and had a dinner with the Gonzalez family!

Thursday we helped Dale work out at the YMCA and then after that, we had another follow-up lesson with the Solorio family where we read more of the BofM and talked a lot about it with them.  They believe taht it is true!  They really enjoyed the stories and they promised that they would come to church!  :D  Later, we got picked up and taken to the church to help set up and participate in the Branch Halloween Party, which was pretty fun.  I especially liked the part when Luis Munoz's family showed up - that was cool to see.

Autographed Clay Mathews jersey

Friday we went near the Vanderbraak st. area and we contacted a whole bunch of people that we know over there, and we were able to talk to 2 member families and share some messages that really helped them, and we ended up the night of Halloween over at Luis's house because his mom had invited us over for dinner.  We had dinner, played some games with the kids while the adults ate, and before we left we shared an awesome message about the Book of Mormon with the fmaily before we left, and the family and their friedns all wanted a copy.  ALl in all, we gave out 7 copies of the BofM that day!

Saturday we taught 7 lessons as we went from area to area, and hopefully they will all turn into something eventually but for now they were all first lessons.  :)

Sorry this is so short, but on Sunday after church we planned out a lesson with the Sister Missionaries to teach later that night with our investigator (they were coming too) and then we had calls with the other elders and the zone leaders, and then a dinner appointment on the west side, followed by going to our lesson who stood us up.  ;P

But hey, that was our week in a very quick summary.  I love you all!  Have a great week!

--Elder Nate Hubert

Happy Elders in the Green Bay south zone

Green Bay south zone

ZL Exchanges, Evangelist church, service, trunk or treat, and teachingseminary!

Hey everybody!

This last Tuesday, I was able to give a district meeting all about the Law of Chastity, which was the assigned theme from our mission president.  It actually went very well!  We talked some about how we can teach it better, and then some more about how we as missionaries can increase in virtue.  :)  After that, Elder Harding and I got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and Elder Burgoyne got to come with me.  :)  We were able to teach several lessons, which was fun because I got to do all of it because Elder Burgoyne doesn't speak Spanish very much (he's a Hmong missionary), although we did have an awesome lesson with the Solorio family where we invited them to baptism and Elder Burgoyne was able to testify of what the message was about!  They have not accepted a date yet, but hopefully this next week!  Later, we had a great lesson about the Sacrament with Veronica, so hopefully she'll come to church soon to partake of it.

Wednesday, we closed the exchange after having a lunch appointment with the Arcos family, and then later we went over to our friend Marvin's house for a 'meeting' of sorts.  What he failed to tell us was that it was going to be an evangelical church meeting hosted in his home!  Everybody there was way nice to us, until the Pastor got there.  He looked at us and the first thing he said was "What are you doing here?"  We told him that Marvin had invited us, and then he chewed out Marvin for inviting us!  Then he turned around and said, "You're welcome, I mean we're not going to let you say anything, but you're welcome."  Yeah, right... Now I feel welcome, thanks a lot Mr. Pastor.  :P  But, it was a very interesting experience.  One lady got out an electric guitar and she and the congregation all sang this song.  For 38 minutes, no joke...  It was crazy!  (Note:  This is all in Spanish)  Then, the pastor gets up there and starts teaching false doctrine!  He starts preachign out of the Old Testament, and I opened up my bible to a chapter that completely disproved everything that he was talking about!  Fortunately, I kept my mouth shut...  But it was hard...  :P

Thursday, we helped Dale, had a lunch appointment with the Ayon family where we helped them prepare to go to teh temple and get sealed, a huge help being the Church's new Garment video (if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it) and then later we weekly planned and had a lesson with Luis Munoz where we talked about Joseph Smith!

Friday we finished weekly planning and then we went and contacted in an area for a few hours before getting picked up for our dinner appointment, which is where we were for the rest of the night.  Boring I know...  :P

Saturday, we went to a baptism by the Sister Missionaries in the morning, and then for the next 4 hours us and the GB1 Elders did service by raking leaves and splitting wood!  :)  Later, we taught some lessons in by the church and stopped in at the 1st ward activity at the trunk or treat.

Sunday we had church, and unfortunately we had no investigators there...  Even though we were expecting 4 of them.  Not sure why they couldn't come, but they couldn't...  Later, we had a lunch with the Ramirez family, and then a dinner with the Reyes family (investigators of Spanish B).  Hoorah!

And then this morning at 6, we taught Early Morning Seminary about missionary work!  Yay!

I love you all so much!  I hope you know that!

Have an amazing week!

--Elder Nate Hubert

The things that happened this week

Helllllooooooo everybody! 

So, I'm just going to go over the occurances of this week!  On Monday, we had preparation day and we went and did the tour of Lambeau Field again because we have new missionaries here who haven't seen it yet!  It was pretty cool!

On Tuesday it was my first district meeting that I had to be in charge of, so I guess it was okay.  Basically I was super scared...  :P  But I'm really excited for the one I get to give tomorrow because it's on the Law of Chastity - that should be fun!  Later on, Elder Harding and I got to go and teach the Carlos family, and also find some new people, including some people of Mayan descent!  We ended the day with an unexpected dinner at the Grijalva's place (some members) and we shared a message with them.  :D

Wednesday we got to spend a lot of time in some various areas contacting our friends that we already knew.  We also spent some time on the buses talking to people and teaching them, which of course is an awesome thing for us to do especially because Elder Harding can't walk that much.  We had a dinner with the Ayon family and it was great!  They are such an amazing family, and they're going to be going to the temple soon to get sealed!  We also helped the other Spanish elders move apartments today.  They moved from their place in our area to an apartment in their area on the west side of green bay!

Thursday we got to help Dale work out which of course is always awesome, especially because I got to go running on the track there!  Later on, we weekly planned for a bit and then went to dinner with the Ramirez family at this place called Hu Hot - it's very good.  Later, we watched a little bit of the Joseph Smith movie with Luis Munoz to teach him a bit more about the life of the prophet, and then we had basketball.

Friday, we had exchanges.  I was with Elder Bernet, a new missionary in our district who is from Texas.  He's been out for 20-ish months so it's looming to try to train him in any capacity, but I was able to learn some things from him so that was good.  We were able to go tracting and contacting and had a very successful exchange.

Saturday morning, Elder Harding and I went to go find a Less Active man, but he doesn't live in the address we have.  Later, we had a lesson with a guy named Antonio - hopefully we'll get in with his whole family soon.  Also, we went to a baptismal service for a member's daughter.  She had a birthday party afterwords and it lasted a while, but we were able to give a church tour to our 4 investigators who came to the service, so that was good!  Later on, we attempted to contact other people too.

Sunday, we had church in the morning, and then later we had a great lunch appointment at the Rios family's place.  Later on, I got a visit from one of my mom's friends who came up to Green Bay for the game and dropped of a little package from home!  Thanks for the cookies!  :D  Then, I got to do phone calls with the district and with the Zone Leaders and we called it a night!  :D

--Elder Nate Hubert

Transfer Week, Sprained Ankle (not mine), and Meet the Mormons!

At Buffalo Wild Wings

Monday and Tuesday of this week consisted of Elder Miller and I going to everybody that he knew to say goodbye because he is getting transferred!  He went to the Madison 1st Ward, which is the same ward that I started my mission in.  He should love it there!!!  But basically this week has been a very long week and it seems like a month ago that I was last with Elder Miller, even though it was just a few days.

Elder Hubert and Elder Harding

Flash forward to Wednesday, where we got picked up by the Escanaba Elders in the morning and then taken over to the church building.  We loaded all of everybody's stuff into the trailer, and then I got to take a few photos with those people who are getting trasferred.  Eventually, they had to board the bus and leave.  After that happened, Elder Harding and I turned to each other and our glorious companionship began!  We loaded all of his stuff into the Zone Leaders' van and took it to the new apartment and we let him unload everything, including us going to his old apartment on the other side of Green Bay to grab the last of his stuff.  Later that day, we went to an area and contacted people we knew, but also got to contact lots of new people!  We then walked over to where Alexis lived and had a really good lesson discussing the SPirit and how it changes lives.

Elder Hubert and Sister Eaton

Elder Hubert and Sister Shelton

The next day, we went to the YMCA to help Dale work out, but had to leave early because he didn't show up and we could have been doing better things with our time.  So, what did we do?  We weekly planned!  It was great!  Later, we were going to go and have 2 lessons, but they cancelled on us which is zero fun, but that is not the first time that happened to me.  Later in the night, we were playing Basketball and Elder Harding sprained his ankle pretty bad, which ended our fun abruptly. 

Friday was spent by getting ready for the day, and then getting picked up by the Zone Leaders for a zone event, but right before that started I got to go with one of them, Elder Eyring, to teach a lesson that we had, and it was so powerful!  The woman that we were teaching started crying super hard during the lesson and the Spirit was so strong!  Later, during our zone meeting, we got to see the new movie Meet the Mormons, and I really loved it.  I recommend it highly to anybody that is considering watching it!  :D  Our day ended with Volleyball at the church.

Saturday morning we had a little Correlation meeting with the other elders which went well, and then we went and contacted in an area the pepole that we had previously planned to meet up with.  However, after a few hours of that, it became our new mission to locate some crutches or something for Elder Harding because he was in tons of pain.  So, we found some after a few hours of looking at a 24-hour Walgreens, and then we went home and prepared for a cultural night that was coming up!  The cultural night was just a night to come and listen to talent and music of different styles and see different kinds of things, and I was asked to sing for the event, so I did that.  It went really well!!!  :D

Sunday we were able to teach a few lessons after church with Monkey (his real name is Gustavo, but he goes by Monkey for whatever reason), and I especially loved Sunday because Luis got interviewed to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and he passed the interview!  He'll be getting that next week!  :)

I love you all TONS!  Keep on keeping on, keep the faith, keep the commandments, and STAND UP for being who you are!  :D

"Fear not, I am with thee, o be not dismayed, 

For I am thy God and will still give thee aid!"

Love you!  Adios!

--Elder Nate Hubert

Transfer Week, Exchanges, and General Conference! :D

Hey everybody!  So, this coming Wednesday is transfer day, and Elder Miller is going to be leaving me!  However, I am going to be getting Elder Harding as my new companion.  He's not going to be new to Green Bay, but he's just changing companionships in this city, and I'm pretty excited to serve with him!  He and I came out together and so it's gonna be cool!  I'll let you know how things go.

This week also I was able to go on a pretty awesome exchange with Elder Landaverry.  We talked a lot about how everything was and got to know each other a little more, and then the next day we got to business.  We were able to work and work hard.  We went to an area that we hadn't tried before and we were able to find, teach, talk to, and set return appointments with several new people down there, increasing the potential work in this area!  We tracted down there for a while and it was super awesome to do that.  Later, we went to a bank so that I could get some paperwork notarized so I can apply for a new copy of my driver's license, and then we helped set up for this activity that was going to be going on at the church.  After a while, we got picked up by our ride and we went to go to dinner with him. The only issue is that this man was 85 years old, so he just took us to his Old Folk's home and we had old people food there...  It was, interesting to say the least.  :P

And finally as a highlight of my week, we were able to watch General Conference, which I was super excited about!  :D  The sessions were amazing, and I have to admit that my favorite talk was the one by President Uchtdorf in the Priesthood Session - I encourage all to watch or read that talk. 

I'm sorry for the shorter email today, but those were the main occurances of my week.  I really hope that you all have incredible weeks and I hope to hear from you soon!  :D

With love,

--Elder Nate Hubert

P.S. (from Nathan's letter to his dad) I just received news that Elder Miller will be leaving (going to the Madison 1st Ward - where I started my mission) and that I am going to be made the new District Leader here in Green Bay.  That news took me by a major surprise and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.  But that's the latest news for me!  :D

Luis got baptized! :D

This week we had a really really great one and I'm super excited to tell you all about it!  :D  Last Monday we spent at the Wildlife Sanctuary here in Green Bay.  It's basically kind of a Zoo that is free and we get to check out and see the animals.  It was fun!  Later that night, we got to go and meet this super nice lady named Nancy, who is a referral from the GB2 sisters.  Yeah, I'm basically sure that she's going to get baptized soon!

Tuesday, we had District Meeting!  After that, we went around the church and contacted a whole bunch of people, and then we got to go back to the church to meet Luis there, because he had to get his baptismal interview from Elder Landaverry.  The interview went well - he passed it with flying colors!  Basically everything that everybody says about him is the same - that he is super impressive especially for a 16-year-old.  That was good though!

Wednesday we had a crazy good day and got to teach a lot of new people and got to try out some new areas that Elder Miller, who has been here for 7 months, had never been to before.  That's the goal that we have though, is to continue to branch out and try new areas so that we can further the work of salvation in this city.

Thursday, we helped out Dale at the YMCA and worked out ourselves, and then we got to go and join Elder Harding and Landaverry to celebrate mine and Elder Harding's year mark by going to A&W for lunch!  After that, we went to the church and taught Luis how to tie a tie, and also talked to him about his earrings and about going to Early Morning Seminary, which he really wants to do.  After that, we had Basketball!

Friday was us basically finalizing all of the plans for the baptism the next day - we wanted to make sure that everything happened well and everyhting!  :D  But, we also had a chance to teach some people, especially when Carlos (a member) decided that he wanted to come and drive us around for like an hour, where we were able to pump out 3 lessons with him there!  That night, we helped the branch set up for a baby shower, and then played Volleyball as usual.

Saturday morning started with Correlation and filling up the font.  At around 10, Luis got there, and we folded the programs and set everything up, and then we talked to him briefly while giving him a small copy of a painting of Christ to hold on to.  It was a great meeting, and then after we had gotten some photos with him and his family, the baptism started!  It went very well and it was awesome to be able to get him under and then out of the water again with zero issue - I loved that part.  Later in the day, we had the opportunity to help a member move, and also got to teach some lessons.  One of my favorite memories was when we got to give Luis's family a tour of the church - they definitely felt the Spirit!  I know it!

And Sunday, Luis got confirmed!  What a great thing to see!  :D

I love you all so much!  Thanks for the great support and for every prayer you offer in our behalf!  Adios!

--Elder Nate Hubert