Things are really starting to get real- I've only got 29 days left!!! And in that space of time, we'll (hopefully, if everything goes right) get four baptisms and a marriage. It's like this transfer is just lining things up for us to hit the ball outta the park, give me a home run to send me off. We're teaching a kid named Ivan Munoz- whose mom lives and attends church in New Jersey, so he'll be baptized there, but he's with his dad during the week, so we teach him, like three times a week. Then there's Rafaelina and Orfelina. They're progressing pretty well, and it's been awesome to see the revelation come for how and what to teach them. We were sitting there one night, trying to plan for them, and we just couldn't figure out what we wanted to do for them. I took a second, said a quick prayer, and cleared my mind. What came to my mind over and over was that we needed to use more scriptures to help them understand baptism better. The next day we taught them, and they just took a huge liking to Mosiah 18, where it says "what then have ye against being baptized?" (Que les impide de ser bautizados?) We also made some huge headway in figuring out what it was that was stopping them from being baptized. I've honestly never seen anyone so prepared as these two. They literally spouted off the entire plan of salvation to us! Then we also went and taught someone I met my first stay here in Bushwick- Rigoberto. Elder Pavon and I gave a blessing to his little daughter when she was a newborn. Now she's one, and she's running around, learning to talk, and is generally adorable. In any case, we weren't sure what to teach them. We started going with endure to the end, but we could see from Rigoberto's face that there was something else on his mind. We inquired about it, and he said that he wants to be married, and be baptized. We were/are so excited!!!
Last week was full of meetings, too, and this one will be as well. We had our stake conference, which was the most spiritual one I've ever been to. We went to Zone Training Meeting first, then the Priesthood Leadership session, and finally the General Adult session. There were a lot of feelings, promptings, and revelations, as well as spiritual confirmations during that day. The spirit confirmed to me that as I am worthy. I am beginning to train for the rest of my life now. As I study, I will be taught what I need to know about the Priesthood, gospel, salvation, etc. before I am called to serve in other responsibilities. I know the Lord's got plans for me.
We were taught by Elder Alain Allard of the 70. He's pretty cool- a French-Canadian ex-hockey player who talks slowly and with an accent. We were taught about the gospel in the priesthood leadership session- a lot of it was blowing the horn President Reynolds has been tootin' for the last year and a half- and how the work of salvation is the work of branch councils. We then learned about how to lead in family, leadership, and workplace relationships from D&C 107:30-31. It changed the way I look at things, even though it's pretty similar to D&C:4. The Temple President of the NY Manhattan Temple gave an amazing, powerful talk, and I remembered how much I love the temple- specifically the Boise Temple. It's my first temple, and I love it a lot. We've got interviews with President on Wednesday and Zone Conference on Friday this week, as well as the branch Thanksgiving party on Friday night, so we've got a busy schedule trying to fit lessons and contacting referrals. They want us to clean out all our referrals before they start the new Christmas initiative, and we've got 20 people to contact. With a possible visit to Manhattan to buy me more garments, too, this week is going to be just jam-packed.
I'm excited that things are starting to fall into place for my coming home. I'm so excited to get home and just spend time with the people I love the most. I want to spend a pajama day with y'all and just play board games and super smash and watch movies all day. I want to spend a day making cookies. There is a thing called 'My Plan' we have to do our last transfer of the mission, to make sure that we don't wander off the straight and narrow and devolve into slobs again. A lot of it is goal-setting. One of the goals I feel really good about is that I want to call each set of grandparents once a month and talk to them. I guess it's kinda set in that they're not gonna be around for forever, and I've realized that I don't know them as well as I want to. So, I'd like to keep in touch with them and call them at least once a month, probably on a Sunday night, and just talk. At some point I'll talk with them about family history, because I love my family history, and I know Grandma Hicken knows at least a little bit about that. I've also decided to join a programming club at USU to give me some guidance and mentorship as I learn to code. I'd really like to shoot for being able to get a part-time programming job either next semester or next year. It just seems to me like the best medium between time spent working and pay received.
I would like to go into college undeclared, but leaning towards a CS degree. I'm going to set up an appointment with my advisor to get his take on it before I go into registration, and I'll ask him about the whole math situation.
My comp is from Filmore, he says.
Well... thats pretty much it for this week. I'll keep an eye out for something dad might like.
Love,
Elder R Brandt Hull
Last week was full of meetings, too, and this one will be as well. We had our stake conference, which was the most spiritual one I've ever been to. We went to Zone Training Meeting first, then the Priesthood Leadership session, and finally the General Adult session. There were a lot of feelings, promptings, and revelations, as well as spiritual confirmations during that day. The spirit confirmed to me that as I am worthy. I am beginning to train for the rest of my life now. As I study, I will be taught what I need to know about the Priesthood, gospel, salvation, etc. before I am called to serve in other responsibilities. I know the Lord's got plans for me.
We were taught by Elder Alain Allard of the 70. He's pretty cool- a French-Canadian ex-hockey player who talks slowly and with an accent. We were taught about the gospel in the priesthood leadership session- a lot of it was blowing the horn President Reynolds has been tootin' for the last year and a half- and how the work of salvation is the work of branch councils. We then learned about how to lead in family, leadership, and workplace relationships from D&C 107:30-31. It changed the way I look at things, even though it's pretty similar to D&C:4. The Temple President of the NY Manhattan Temple gave an amazing, powerful talk, and I remembered how much I love the temple- specifically the Boise Temple. It's my first temple, and I love it a lot. We've got interviews with President on Wednesday and Zone Conference on Friday this week, as well as the branch Thanksgiving party on Friday night, so we've got a busy schedule trying to fit lessons and contacting referrals. They want us to clean out all our referrals before they start the new Christmas initiative, and we've got 20 people to contact. With a possible visit to Manhattan to buy me more garments, too, this week is going to be just jam-packed.
I'm excited that things are starting to fall into place for my coming home. I'm so excited to get home and just spend time with the people I love the most. I want to spend a pajama day with y'all and just play board games and super smash and watch movies all day. I want to spend a day making cookies. There is a thing called 'My Plan' we have to do our last transfer of the mission, to make sure that we don't wander off the straight and narrow and devolve into slobs again. A lot of it is goal-setting. One of the goals I feel really good about is that I want to call each set of grandparents once a month and talk to them. I guess it's kinda set in that they're not gonna be around for forever, and I've realized that I don't know them as well as I want to. So, I'd like to keep in touch with them and call them at least once a month, probably on a Sunday night, and just talk. At some point I'll talk with them about family history, because I love my family history, and I know Grandma Hicken knows at least a little bit about that. I've also decided to join a programming club at USU to give me some guidance and mentorship as I learn to code. I'd really like to shoot for being able to get a part-time programming job either next semester or next year. It just seems to me like the best medium between time spent working and pay received.
I would like to go into college undeclared, but leaning towards a CS degree. I'm going to set up an appointment with my advisor to get his take on it before I go into registration, and I'll ask him about the whole math situation.
My comp is from Filmore, he says.
Well... thats pretty much it for this week. I'll keep an eye out for something dad might like.
Love,
Elder R Brandt Hull