Is it?

Dear Mom,

 

I have a new baby cousin!  I can't believe it :)  Little Gunnar.  How did they decide on that name?  I will be holding that baby quite soon after I get home, I think so.  There is a Chinese member here named Wu and his wife just had a baby recently, and I want to hold that baby so bad!  Seriously.  My whole mission I've been pretty okay with the no holding children policy, but I really wanted to hold that baby.  So I will be holding baby Gunnar a lot... someday :)  Ugh.  He is going to think I'm so old, seriously.  He'll probably grow up and be like, 'Yeah, my oldest cousin is ancient...'  But that is okay.  I can deal. 

 

We had a relief society lesson yesterday about families and how Satan is attacking families.  It is so true.  There are so many ways that he is attacking the family, and we really need to protect it.  Sometimes I think that I could stay on my mission forever and be completely happy, because the world makes me nervous, and I love being a missionary, but then the Spirit (or Sister Embley) reminds my of what my true role in this life is.  The lessons I'm learning now will help me so much be a good wife and mum, and I think, to be honest, that is one of the main reasons why I'm on a mission.  So I will never forsake.  It is the most important thing we do in this life, to be sealed together as families and protected by the Atonement.  So I know that it is important, but it does sound quite difficult.  I'm not sure why I keep thinking about it, but I'm pretty sure it is not going to be easy to be a young mum with not very much money, and trying to sort through everything I need to.  But then I look at our family, and yours and dad's example and somehow it worked out.   And that somehow was through faith in the Lord.   Anyway, I don't want my future family to be an easy target for Satan.

 

That is so exciting that the twins were on KSL news.  Marvin sent me the video, and I wanted SO BAD to watch it, but I can't because of mission rules and things.  I bet they were so good, that is so exciting :)  That is so great that everyone was able to go to the dedication as well.  I'm sure it was wonderful, I would have loved to see it.  When will you be able to go and do a session at the Brigham City Temple?  I hope quite soon.  I love it.

 

This week has been good... a learning week for sure.  We have to resolve some issues as a flat and it has been super difficult (mostly because of my pride) but we seem to be making some major leaps towards flat unity.  I'm grateful for that, even though it is difficult.  Every time I slay a bit more of the natural man it hurts but then I feel how much I'm growing and changing and becoming better.

 

This is bad.  Wu- the same member that I told you about- feed us pig ears.  I didn't know about it until after I already ate one, but then I ate some more.  It was okay, not too bad... but the after effects were really bad.  We were supposed to be out tracting that night, but luckily a less active lived close by because I had to spend a half an hour in the toilet.  Sister Embley was so confused when she heard me talking in the toilet... she was like, 'Were you praying?'  Yeah, I was praying.  I was praying that I wouldn't die and that I would be able to use the grace of Jesus Christ to get home without having something really bad happen.  Anyway.  Don't eat pig ears.

 

We have an African investigator!  I'm quite excited about it :)  When Elder Fawcett was here he told us we should only teach Chinese people, so we have been passing all the other people we have been contacting to the Elders.  But this one was a miracle.  We contacted her on our consecrated finding day, and then passed her over.  The Elders didn't ring her for some reason, but the appointment was for Monday night.  We had our Chinese appointment and had actually forgotten about this African girl's appointment, because we had already passed it.  She rang us and said that she was running late but would be there soon.  So we ran to the library where we met her and her cousin.  And we taught them.  We taught her again last night, and it was really good.  She is interested in being baptised after she knows the Book of Mormon is true.  The great thing is that we took Steven Dai as a fellowshipper.  He is a Chinese.  We thought, 'Oh, we have a non-Chinese investigator, we'll take someone else,' but no one else could go.  Steven Dai had told us he wanted to make more non-Chinese friends.  So we took him.  I thought it might be kind of weird or something, but they actually got on well- she really trusted his opinion, and will probably go to church with him on Sunday.  It was this amazing mesh of cultures.  I love it.  I feel so blessed, because I love African people so much, and I love Chinese people so much, and it just melded together perfectly.  Like one of those moments that is just supposed to happen.  <3

 

Also.  Yesterday I had a question for the Lord, and I asked him to answer me in Sacrament meeting.  Vincent, my recent convert, gave an amazing talk.  Seriously, he liken the scriptures to his own life, cross analysed two scriptures and bore powerful testimony.  It was amazing.  But during his talk, he answered my question.  It was really a full circle moment for me to be honest.  It was probably something I taught him, or had directed him towards, and now he was answering my question to Heavenly Father.  It was crazy, I was in total shock.  I have been so blessed on my mission to see so much progression in the people I love.  Wow.  Also, during Sunday school he quoted me which was so funny.  We were talking about prayer, scripture study and church (we talk about them obsessively) and one time when we were teaching Vincent I called them 'The Big Three'.  So to answer a question he was like, 'you know, the big three...'  So funny.

 

Dad sent me a great email about how it will feel in the Celestial Kingdom when we see ALL those we love again.  Oh how I look forward to that time, because I know that it is real, and I know that it will happen.  I love this gospel with all my heart. 

 

Loves,

 

Sister Hull

 

PS  I'm so excited about Jordan's baptism!  She is from Spain... I meet people from Spain all the time!  We have a member in the ward who is from Spain!  Everyone here goes on holiday to Spain.  Jordan is such a great missionary.  I wish he was my district leader :)  I would love that.

Go Live the Gospel



August 22, 2012 Specialized Training

 Hi Everyone!

Oh my goodness... that makes me so happy that you finally got to meet Taylor this week.  That is very good.  I was quite excited about it, like really excited.  It was so strange seeing pictures of him will
all of you, but very good.  Oh.  Great.  Smile on my face :)  Good day.

I'm fairly comfortable with contacting people.  Sometimes you can find yourself in an awkward situation, but as I tell Sister Embley, you just have to embrace the awkward sometimes.  It's only as awkward as you make it, I think.  The chips and curry were great, I was surprised I ate them as well- but it was fairly obvious that he had bought them from chippy, they weren't homeade or anything.  He was crazy :)

I had an interesting experience on the bus.  I was contacting a man and we were talking about the purpose of life.  This woman turned around and was like, 'Did you just meet?'  I was bracing myself for something bad, because sometimes other people will yell at us to tell us to leave other people alone.  I was like, 'yeah.'  She was like, 'I was just overhearing your conversation, and I think that it is fate that you met.'  Wow.  It probably was fate that we met.  But as missionaries it is our responsibility to make fate happen.

Sister Embley is doing great, she is a wonderful missionary.  We are able to reach many goals because of her diligence and hard work from the very beginning.  She is a very good missionary, a much better missionary than I was at the start of my mission.  I'm very blessed to be able to train her, we are able to work just as a normal companionship, which I think is the hope of any trainer.  That is so crazy that she know Trisha.  I told her and we were both shocked for a minute.  They were in the same FHE family at BYU-I.  Small world.

I have no idea what brand the tights were.  None at all.  I don't really need much for Christmas, clothes and things I have covered (I took loads of clothes off of Sister Gong when she left).  I'm not sure.  Before Christmas I would like Josh Groban's Christmas Album...because we are allowed to listen to it, but I doubt I can share Sister Maughan's copy of it... because she'll probably be listening to it with her husband!  Did I tell you?  Sister Maughan is married!  I got an announcement off of her, she looks very happy.

I cannot believe Kinzie Randall is a Freshman.  I'm the oldest person alive.

I'm so excited for Jenika.  She is so blessed to have that opportunity.  Patriarch Madsen is a wonderful and humble man.  Everyone is doing such great things.  I love it.

We have so many miracles happen.  One is Lisa.  She's a Chinese that has been taught by the Jehovah's Witnesses (or as we like to say, the J Dubs).  She has a lot of false doctrine, but really wants to know
what is true.  We invited her to baptism, and she recognised it as something she needed to do, and we left the Restoration pamplet and she read the whole thing and marked it and everything.  She was so prepared to receive the gospel.  The only problem is that she left Liverpool last Saturday.  But I know that we were supposed to meet her, and someday her doctrine will be made complete.

Appearently there is some big deal going on with China and Japan.  It's crazy, it totally sounds like a Politix D/A from Policy... if anyone knows that.  But a lot of Chinese people are upset and scared about it.  Plus a lot of our recent converts are nervous to go home anyway because the church in China is unfamiliar to them.  But I know that they will be blessed, and that is the only thing I can rely.  Hope.

I noticed that Jordan (Elder Hull) encouraged everyone to study Chapter 6 of PMG, which is the Christlike Attributes section.  It is potentially one of the most important chapters of PMG, and if I could help you hone in on your study, I would suggest you start by studying the Christlike Attribute of Hope.  Hope is essential, and something we don't talk about a whole lot.  Then I would suggest you go to Diligence, and  onwards.  PMG is an amazing book.  I will be teaching my children the gospel out of PMG- it is the inspired words of living prophets.  BTW, Elder Hull is one of the best missionaries in the world.  Everyone should listen to him.

I love you all so much.  You are a blessing in my life, and I know that the gospel is true and the Plan of Happiness is real.

Loves,

Sister Hull

PS  You are all great.  Go live the gospel :)

Also.  I love that Jenny's trainer is named Hermana Adorable.  Wow.

Crazy Miracle Things

Dear Mom,

Thank you for sending that off to Elder Fawcett, he was a very good missionary.  Those were very kind things for him to say about me.  Everyone here (meaning, like every Chinese person in Liverpool) jokes about whether or not Elder Fawcett is married yet.  All of us Chinese people are hoping so :)

I'm glad to hear that you were all able to go and do those baptisms together in the Temple.  The Temple is  o beautiful, and I have had many great and spiritual experiences in the Baptistry of the Logan Temple.  That is great that Marvin has been able to find so many names to do Temple work for.  The Spirit of Elijah is so real, and we are such an important part of it.  Sounds like it was an amazing experience.  I have a really strong testimony of the Temple now as well, I know that it is so important and the only way for families to
be together after this life.  The covenants of the Temple are vital.

It has been a good week, but a bit of a hard week.  The work hasn't been particularly hard, but it has been quite difficult because so many of our recent converts and investigators have been going home to China.  I spent Tuesday morning bawling into my bowl of cereal.  Seriously, I was so sad.  There are people that I've met here that I just love so much and are some of my best friends in the world... and then I leave them or they leave me.  President once said about missionaries that we sign up to come, but we also sign up to go home.  And going home is the hardest part.  So I guess when these students signed up to come they also signed up to go home as well.  So that is difficult.

Saturday was quite and exciting day.  Seriously, it was crazy.  We had three new investigators, which was really great, but everything else that happened was just crazy miracle things.

In the morning we cleaned the church, and then in the afternoon we went to District Leader Council (we aren't district leaders, but they are having sisters become more involved with the mission leadership- I quite like it.)  Afterward we went and had a load of lessons scheduled.  But in between lessons we were contacting and we had some crazy experiences.

I met a boy named Luke.  He was like 25 or so.  I asked him what made him happy and he said getting drunk.  I was like, 'Are you drunk right now?'  'No... but I'm extremely hungover.'  'How do you feel?'
'Really bad...'  I told him that there was repentance and that he didn't have to feel the way he was feeling right them.  I was like extremely bold with him. I exhorted him to look at mormon.org. But he didn't really listen or set an appointment.  Later that night we heard someone heaving.  I looked over and was like, 'Is that Luke?'  It was.  He had gone drinking again, and now was outside barfing.  You could hear him barfing clear across campus.  I called over to him, 'Hi, Luke... it's still an option!'

We set an appointment with this man named Andy who wasn't interested.  But we both felt the Spirit and somehow knew that he was going to accept.  And he did, it was really amazing.

Then we went and got on the bus, and I went to the back of the bus to contact this old man.  He was eating some chips and curry and he asked me to try some.  I was like, 'okay.'  And so we were sitting there eating chips and curry together- and they were really good.  I was always afraid to buy chips and curry because of the curry being potentially spicy, but it was quite nice. He told me his name was Dr. Don, but I'm not quite sure that he was a doctor.  He was a bit crazy.  When he got off the bus he gave me his full thing of chips, and wanted me to keep them and eat them.  I tried not to take them, but he insisted.  They were pretty good so I took them.  When he got off the bus he turned around and whispered to me, 'I love you,' blew me a huge kiss and called goodbye to me.  Then Sister Embley and I went home and ate chips and curry.

I feel like my mission is becoming much more Spirit led and I love it.  I am able to much easier and better recognize the Spirit, and that is such a blessing.  Being led by the Spirit is so important, and I love it so much.  Chapter 4 of PMG is excellant.  If you want to study a chapter from PMG, I would highly suggest that one.  Seriously, everyone should want to study PMG.  It is going to be my FHE resource for like the rest of my life.  My children will learn the doctrine of the gospel from the scriptures and PMG. I love it.

I love you.  I'm grateful for your example to me.  And I'm grateful for my time to serve.

Loves,

Sister Hull

Welcome to Liverpool, Sister Hull



Van's baptism day!!




Jojo, Leah, Sister Hull, Evangeline and Van

 Dear Mom,

First off, I can't believe that Grandpa is clean shaven.  That is so crazy.  I would definitely like to see a picture of that, very much :) He is so great.  I'm so excited that both sides of our family get to be so involved in the Temple Open House.  That is such a blessing for us to have two Temples so close to us.  I'm trying to decide what Temple I'm going to go to first when I get home.  I think probably the Logan Temple, and then the Brigham City one.  But I might go to the Brigham one first.  We'll see.

That is exciting that you were able to find those pictures on Sam's facebook.  She is very good.  She had just got home that morning and was very tired but still came to Van's baptism, and then fed us and the Tue Brook Elders the next day after church.  She is amazing.

Katie sent me her address in a letter.  I wrote to the Mission Office in Texas... I wasn't sure if it would get the MTC in time.  So hopefully she gets it soon enough.  My letter writing has severely plummeted in the recent transfers.  Zach is still alive and working at ShopKo?  That's good.

I have loads of traveling I need to do after I finish my service.  I think I'm going to start in China.  I actually had a huge tender mercy yesterday after church.  I was feeling quite sad after church because so many of my friends are going to leave this week, and that hurts.  Then Van was like, 'have you spoken to Sister Gong?'  I was like, 'No...'  I thought it was weird, because she knows that I can't communicate with her.  Then she is like, 'She's on the phone right now!!!'  She had her on her mobile telling her about her baptism and confirmation.  And so I got to speak to her!  I started crying to be honest.  She was like, 'Sister Hull, I remember how to speak English!'  It was so funny.  I got to talk to her for like 15 or 20 minutes and update her about everything and it was great.  She has been called to be Stake YW President in her stake.  Sister Embley says that is probably for like half of China.  That's crazy.  Anyway, I had to ring President and tell him that I spoke to her because I didn't actually know if it was allowed.  He said if it was someone else it wouldn't be allowed, but since it was Sister Gong and they actually haven't heard from her since she got home and they were worried it was actually a tender mercy for him and Sister Preston as well.  It was great.

Anyway, Van's baptism went great.  She is so good, she is one of my best friends to be honest.  I tell her that, and she is just like, 'I know.'  She told me that I'm like her sister, but reminded me that I am younger.  It was quite funny, we weren't able to get the font completely filled, and I thought it would be fine because she was so short, but she actually had to get baptised kneeling down.  She was scared, so we ran around into the dressing room and she just did it.  She believes in God now, which is amazing, because 3 months ago when I came to the area I don't really think that she did.  She is a miracle.

I have had so many miracles since coming to Liverpool.  I can't believe how blessed I have been.  I was looking around at my recent converts yesterday at church and they are all do amazing things.  Van received the Holy Ghost.  Vincent was sustained for the Priesthood.  Leah went the the Temple last week to do baptisms.  Wini is showing her charity and service.  It is really amazing.  I'm not sure why the Lord chose me to serve these people, but I am so grateful.  I know that it isn't really anything I did, because there are loads of missionaries that are just as good as me or better, but I know the Lord blessed me with this opportunity so I could learn.  I'm so grateful.  I just wish all my friends weren't moving back to China.

Here is a funny story.  The other day Sister Embley and I were walking down the street at the university. I was like, 'Look, Sister Embley, it's Voldemort!!!'  This man seriously looked exactly like Voldemort. Then he came up to me and was asking me where some street was.  I didn't know where it was, so I was asking what they were looking for (in this area I know landmarks better) his girlfriend was like, 'We are looking for herione, do you know where the herione house is?!'  'Uh...no.'  Then they got upset and walked away.  Serious?  Voldemort came up to me and asked for herione?  As a good friend of mine would say, 'Welcome to Liverpool, Sister Hull...' (Mom and grandma... don't worry.  I'm safe here in Liverpool.  I
mostly spend time in Chinese students apartments and they are very good people.  Seriously, don't worry.)

Missions are so great.  They are seriously so great.

I love you all so much.  You are great. Bless.

Loves,

Sister Hull