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Let Me Go! MTC Week 6

1/27/2015

Elder Hull ran into Sister Summer Atkinson from our Stake at the MTC!

I am so ready to get out of here. The MTC is absolutely amazing, and I love it, but after six-seven weeks it gets a little repetitive, and I get more anxious to be out in the field. Last night we were playing lightning at gym, and Elder Morrision managed to get one of the balls stuck between the rim and the backboard. While we were standing there trying to figure out a safe, mature way to get it down, Elder Spencer takes the other ball and wings it at the stuck one. I caught it when it rebounded at light-speed... with my face. I took it like a champ. Totally fine, but my glasses were a little tweaked. I went to go get them fixed today, and it turned out to be a little adventure. We got on a shuttle and visited the eye doctor for just a little old tweaked nose pad. It was pretty fun. We found out that yes, there is a world outside the MTC, and no, the apocalypse has not occurred. We all got pretty restless when we were sitting in the car. Yeah. We're ready to go.

Also, I have recently found out how much I love James E. Faust's talks. I read 'The Great Imitator' this week, and fell in love with his style of speaking. That one is a phenomenal talk, and I highly recommend it. I love the way he expounds so simply, yet eloquently, and then ends with you wanting more. Seeing the pictures of apostles back then, when they look so young, was pretty cool. President Monson looks almost exactly the same :)

With the recent snow storm in New York (one of the worst on record), we're worried that our flight may get delayed or cancelled. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

I'm still staying strong, and my testimony has never been stronger! I hope that all of you back home are doing everything in your power to learn the will of the Lord, and to follow it with exactness. I promise that if you do this, He will bless you immensely.

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Week 5, MTC

1/20/2015

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Evidence that Elder Hull is starting to go stir-crazy in the MTC! The pet iron's name is Bartholomew.

This was a rough week for me. I've been really frustrated with my progress in the language. Sometimes it feels like it's not coming together, but when that happens, I always have to take a step back and remember that I'm not here for this to be easy, and to remember whose hands I am in.

I am so ready to hit the field, though. Some of the sisters in our district are leaving next week, and we leave a whole week after them. Part of it is because while the MTC food may be good, it's super fattening. I've avoided gaining much weight by working myself nigh unto exhaustion, even the valley of the shadow of death (okay, that's exaggerating) every night in gym. The other part of it is that I feel like I'm ready. I don't need too much training. I have enough Spanish to teach and befriend investigators, and the Lord will take care of the rest as long as I'm obedient and diligent. However, it is meet for me to stay another two weeks, so I will make the most of it.

During my stay here at the MTC, I've been blessed to learn how to trust in the Lord, and how to be an instrument in His hands. The MTC is a wonderful place to tune yourself to the Spirit, and it is my goal to never lose that tuning to Him.

Last week was our last week of teaching Victor, and he pulled out all the stops. We came to the lesson with only a topic and a couple bullet points we wanted to discuss, having prayed super hard that our mouths would be filled. We walk in, and he tells us that he almost didn't come, because one of his classmates in his religion class had told him about polygamy, and how blacks didn't have the priesthood until the 60s. He really took some issue with it. Only the Lord and the promptings of the Holy Ghost are responsible for what happened next. The words we spoke were not our own, and when we directed his questions back to the veracity of the Book of Mormon, the Spirit was present in great strength. Our Heavenly Father saved our toes from being roasted that lesson, and we were able to take Victor's doubts and turn them into faith-building experiences as he read talks and visited church websites, and read more and more from the Book of Mormon. I can tell that he already feels the Holy Ghost strongly, he just needs to learn how to recognize it. It's a bit of a bummer that we won't be able to see him to baptism, but I know that the next missionaries that teach him will help him along his path towards the truth.

We have been teaching a Jehovah's Witness, too, and it's been rather difficult. In a lesson two weeks ago, he told us that his goal is to return to Guatemala and to help his people, to unify them, and to lift them from poverty. Now, in Guatemala, there are major sicknesses that affect bone health. This last week we taught him the Word of Wisdom. We shared a passage from Isaiah 58 (I think), that talks about receiving health in the bones. After we read it, he paused for a minute, head bowed. When he looked up at us again, there were tears in his eyes. "Thank you, Elders," he said, "I know that this scripture was meant for me." At the end of the lesson, he gave one of the most sincere prayers that I have ever heard. He is so close to baptism, I can feel it, and I am so excited to be involved in such a mighty change of heart.

Well, the church is still true, the Book is blue, and I so happy to be a missionary!

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Week 4, MTC

1/13/2015

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MTC District

This week is the halfway point in my CCM stay. This week has been so crazy! One of our investigators accepted an invitation to baptism, and Victor is progressing quickly. While I'm not always able to understand everything our investigators say, when I feel the spirit tell me I need to talk, my mouth has been filled, and astonishingly, good Spanish has come out of my mouth. My favorite thing to teach is the nature of God, and how we are all His children, and He wants us to have all that He has. It's absolutely amazing.

Tonight is the devotional where President and Sister Nally will be released from their calling as Mission President and Wife of the MTC. We get to sing in the choir, where over 500 missionaries will be singing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" for "a whole flock of people high up in the church." It's going to be amazing.

Elder Sirrine is an amazing accompanist, so we have been able to sit on the front row and watch him preform many times at devotionals. It's a good way to see the MTC. Also, we recently had a devotional from David Archuletta, which was pretty cool. This last week, we were teaching members in Spanish, and Sister Archuletta was one of the ones we got to teach. Guess who popped in? Yup. David Archuletta is way shorter than me. I find it somewhat divertido.

Overall, while I have my ups and downs, I'm so lucky to be here, serving the Lord and doing His work. I'm really looking forward to hitting the field in New York. It's going to be awesome. We were talking today, and it's been our amazing blessing to be in a tripanionship, because it's so hard to have unity with that many people in a lesson, and when we hit the field, and have a companion, it's going to be so much easier to be unified. I testify that God knows us, and knows who we can become, and how we can be that person. I found an amazing scripture in Proverbs 3. It encourages us to accept the Lord's correction, because He's our Dad, and He only corrects us because He loves us. When I have been most discouraged, I have felt angels encouraging me, and cheering me on, and shall I not go on in so great a cause? I would exhort you at home to pray, and ask Him how much He loves you, and what He would have you do, and I can promise you that you will receive your answer, because He loves you. I say these things in the name of our savior, Jesus Christ amen.

All my love,

Elder Hull

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Week 3, MTC

1/6/2015

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Well, this week was a bit rough. On Sunday I just hit a wall. I was feeling very inadequate with my Spanish, my companions started to really grate on my nerves, and I wasn't getting enough sleep. I kept a personal prayer in my heart for help, and boy did I get it. Every Sunday, the missionaries have the opportunity to see a mission-approved movie. We saw Meet the Mormons this Sunday. Just being able to step out of myself for an hour or two, being able to loose myself in the story for a while, was a huge blessing, and I walked out of there feeling refreshed, recharged, and ready to fly to New York that very night. We had our best lesson thus far yesterday. Victor, whom I have mentioned before, had been reading the Book of Mormon from the start, and has been praying about it. We had prepared our lesson for him, translated into Spanish and everything, but that all was quickly forgotten when he asked us what the vision of the Tree of Life was. This started a really good discussion about his thoughts on the book, and on the church, and how his faith has been growing. I can see a visible change in him since our first lesson. He seems happier, more at peace. Then he asked us if all of us have been members of the church for our whole lives. Elder Sirrine hasn't. He converted about a year ago, and was able to share a short, simplified version of his story with him. We all bore our testimonies, and we can tell that he has begun thinking about the changes he would have to make to join our church. We invited him to set a date to be baptized, as is the way we do things now, and he said that if he felt that God answers his prayers, then yes, he will. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

On another note, we got to go to the temple today. What a wonderful experience! It always amazes me the things I learn as I ponder and pray in the Celestial Room. Today has been a good day. Oh, we also had to move to a different building today. It's a new one, but apparently they want to move sisters into the building we used to be in. Oh well, we get a table and plenty of closet space! It was totally worth packing up and moving everything to get the extra space. We get new Elders next week, too, so that ought to be fun.

Overall, I'm having a great time here, even though it's definitely not always easy. I have grown so much spiritually, and I can testify of the great love the Lord has for us, and how great his power is to bless the righteous. May we all be more diligent in our study of His words, and in our attendance of church and the temple, and I can promise you immense blessings.

Sincerely yours,

Elder Richard Brandt Hull

Yo testifico el Libro de Mormon ed verdad, y Jesuchristo es nuestro sabador, y Su expiacion es la manera a nosotros podemos regressar a Padre Celestial con nuestra familias. Yo testifico Jose Smith es una profeta de Dios, y Thomas S Monson tambien. Yo testifico el amor de Dios is real, y la expiacion es solumente la manera a cambia real. Esta yo testifico, en el nombre de Jesuchristo, amen.

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NY, NYC South Mission
Spanish Speaking

Let Me Go! MTC Week 6

Week 5, MTC

Week 4, MTC

Week 3, MTC

Elder Hull

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Let Me Go! MTC Week 6

Week 5, MTC

Week 4, MTC

Week 3, MTC

Elder Hull

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NY, NYC South Mission
Spanish Speaking

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