Week 11 Austin, Minnesota

when we went to the state line (Minnesota and Iowa)
I cannot remember if I sent this one home or not......

all the sisters serving in my zone with sister Clements!

this really funny sign I found! it made me laugh 

 

FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!!

I'm so grateful for pday!! it has been the week that never comes to an end! not going to lie, there were times where I thought I might just die, but Heavenly Father helped me to get through the week, and even sent miracles to help me each and every day!! Austin is great! I pretty much love it here and never want to leave!  the weather is FREAKING cold, but its all good in the hood or at least that’s what I keep telling myself! Sunday was really bad, my ward canceled church! The winds were a killer! Today (monday) school has been canceled and we are under semi-house arrest! we can go to the library to email, the store, and to appointments that have already been scheduled, but other then that we are to stay inside!

This week was Zone Conference and it was great! Our Zone Leaders gave a great training on working with less-active members and how to plan more effectively.  I learned a lot and plan on using some of the insights they gave up in Austin.  Our Sister Training Leader got to do a special "Sisters only" training and it was so good! We talked about individual worth and the spirit was so strong! I felt like it was just for me! I liked that we could talk more open without the Elders there...it was awesome!  President's training was super good to! His was on prayer and how we can have more meaningful prayers.  We studied the talks by Elder Bednar "Pray Always" and "Ask in Faith" it was super spiritual...He did it more of a question and answer style and I really liked it!

Really Random: but we are in emailing from the library and two computers down is this guy and he is making the weirdest commits about whatever it is he is looking at! Its all me and sister amis can to not to laugh! just so you all know...i really wish you could hear this right now!   

but on with Zone Conference..one funny moment happened  during Sister Clements training..she was throwing out oranges to all of us and she kept committing about how she is not very good at throwing oranges so us on the front rows should watch out..she got to my section of chairs and she said something to me while throwing an orange to the people be hide me..however when she looked at me she throw the orange right at my chest! it hurt so bad, but all I could do was laugh! it was so funny! She felt so bad!! I told her that next time I will wear a shirt with a target so she would have something to aim at!! I don't think she thought it was as funny as I did!

Our investigators are Golden! HOLY COW!!!!!!! we are working with people who have truly been prepared by the Lord to hear his gospel! Brother L is our investigator from Vietnam and truly amazing! He always has such great questions and has the strongest desire to learn about Christ!  He says that he wants us to come over every day so that he can learn as much as possible! It is so sweet! He is such a great missionary too! He always talks about teaching his friends and family back at home!

One miracle happened last night! We are getting out of dinner and all I wanted to do was go home..it was freaking cold and because of weather our car was grounded and we had to rely on members to drive us around and I just wanted to go home and call it a night! But I knew deep down that we needed to go work..so on our way over to an apartment building I prayed and asked Heavenly Father for help..i told him that I didn't want to go and knock doors and I had zero desire to be there so if he could just please help me find the strength to make it through the evening that would be great....so when we got to the apartments we knocked on a couple of doors and nothing....i was pretty much thinking in my head: how in the world am I going to get through this evening! then I told sister amis we should go and knock on a potential we found a couple of weeks ago..so we did and they let us in and we were able to teach them about the Restoration and we got a return appointment! BLESSING/TENDER MERCY!!!!  totally an answer to my prayers! then as we were waiting for our ride to get there we met this kid and I started to talk to him..he asked about what we did as missionaries and we told him about us and then we asked him what he was doing and he told us that he was getting ready to go to Chicago to audition for the TV show 'so..you think you can dance' ----ps totally made me think of watching that show with keairra and how she would talk about auditioning for it-------but then I asked him to show us if he really could dance...and just like that he turned on some beets and took of his coat and started to dance! he was pretty good, but the hole time  all I could think of was that we were watching some random kid dance in the walk-way of an apartment building......how freaking random can my life get right now?!?

Well! I hope that you all have a good week! THANKS for all the love and support!  

--

LOVE!

Sister Randi Hulet

xoxo

 

Week 10 Austin, Minnesota

Friends and Family!!!!!

What a great week!!!!! I have no idea where to start! 

On Saturday we had a baptism and it was AWESOME! Sister Y was baptized and it was great...when she got out of the water she looked right at Sister Amis and I and had the biggest smile on her face! it ALMOST made me cry..when she shared her testimony and talked about why she made the choice to be baptized......but on Thursday we had a miracle with her! We went over to talk to her and answer any questions she had about her baptism on Saturday..she told us that she called her dad to tell him and he told her that Christ was only baptized once and she has been baptized in Africa and so she didn't need to be baptized.  she then told us that she was not going to be baptized.....all I remember was that we said a prayer and then I have no idea what sister Amis and I said but in the end..sister y was telling us about the first time she came to church and how she felt and then she talked about how she feels when we come over and teach her..she then said that the devil doesn't want her to follow Christ and that this was just the devil getting in her way and so now she knows that she is following Christ and will be baptized!!! can you say a huge MIRACLE!! it was Crazy!!!!!!

Brother L is so awesome, like no joke he is a dream investigator! Last night he called us to get some scriptures in the book of mormon about baptism to share with his friends in Vietnam...he told us that when he goes home to visit them in a couple of weeks that he wants to give them book of mormons! I love it when our investigators do missionary work!! it was the greatest feeling to help him share the gospel with his friends and family in Vietnam! it was so cool!!!! 

Heavenly Father is continuing to bless sister amis and I each and every day! He blesses us with miracle each and every day! the people we meet and teach have truly been prepared to hear the gospel! I feel so grateful to be serving in Austin and to be learning from the great people here!! I hope I NEVER leave!!!

We had our sister lead trainer come and work with us this week and that is always fun! we have so much fun working together and learning from one another...they were in Austin for 2 days and we got a lot of work done! we were able to see more people and teach more lessons! it was awesome! 

A fun moment of the week was that I got stuck again in a snowbank..you see I guess I didn't learn my lesson last week!! hahahaha..on saturday morning our drive way had not been shoveled..but BOTH sister amis and I thought we could get our car through it..well, it was deeper than we thought and our car got stuck! However this time we were able to shovel ourselves out! Hopefully this will not happen again! The snow keeps on falling and it’s so pretty! I love the snow!!! it has not been as cold this week, which is great cause we have been able to enjoy the snow :)  however we were just told that its gunna get COLD tonight and tomorrow.....this makes me NERVOUS!!!  

Thanks for all the love and support!!! 

-- 

LOVE!

Sister Randi Hulet

xoxo

 

Week 9 Austin, Minnesota

FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!!

What a week, it has been!! it feels like it has been ages since I have been able to email! hahahaha! I don't even know where to begin!

So...Saturday January 4 (the day that I was able to email before I was under house arrest!) we went to Rochester with one of our investigators to see a baptism..it was great!  The spirit was so strong and our investigator had a great time.  However, on our way home we got a call saying that church was canceled because of the cold weather! So on Sunday our house arrest began! But we were fortunate to have such AMAZING ward members who came to our rescue and took us to their homes so we wouldn't just have to stare at our 4 walls all the day! Sunday night we went to another members house to watch the district..it’s a movie where you follow a group of missionary around..it was fun..she had a nonmember friend over and we were able to answer a lot of his questions and he wants to meet with us again! It was fun...However, on Monday..we were not allowed to leave our apartment at all...it was  a long day, but it was nice to take a little break and chill...I made cookie dough and fish..it teased pretty good! 

Tuesday! it was so wonderful to get back to work!! And we saw so many miracles! it was crazy! But the highlight of our week was the restoration lesson we taught on Tuesday night.  So we wanted to find a new investigator so we prayed to know which apartments we should go to.  Sister Amis and I both felt we should go to the same place and knock on a couple of potentials we found a couple of weeks before.  So we went there and we were getting some book of Mormons out of our trunk..when I saw a french copy and thought we should see if a guy we met a couple  of weeks ago was home. He was! we were able to go in and teach him and his sister.  However, his English is not very good and he had a really hard time understanding what we were saying..then I had a thought! I asked Sister Amis if she still had the restoration dvd in her bag and she said she did and then I told her that we should watch it cause it has a voice over in FRENCH!!!! It was inspiration-not desperation as some of you would think! The spirit during the movie was strong and he was able to understand everything we just tried to teach in English! The only think that could have made this better is if after the movie we were able to speak in french! But it was great and we are going back to see them this week! ps! he also came to church on Sunday!!

We have also had some good laughs this week! So, we were going to a member’s house for dinner and I told the wrong road and had to flip a u-turn...but in the process totally got the car stuck in a snow-bank! Too bad I didn’t have anything red to put on the car-antenna!! hahah name that movie??? But we tried to push the car out, but were not super successful!  But right when we though all hope was lost some nice people with a big tuck and a rope came to our aid and were able to pull our car out! No worries the car was fine! oh ya! we made it our alive!  but note to self: if this happens again, DONT punch the gas while your comp tries to push the car cause that only makes the car sink deeper! The other funny moment happened on Saturday..we were leaving our apartment for the day..but our door wouldn't open! we tried everything! no joke! for like 20 minutes we tried to open the door and yes! it was unlocked!!! But in the end we had to call our landlord to come and help us get out!!! So he came and still we couldn't get out! But finally after trying and trying we were able to pry the door open with a butter-knife! it was really funny! Sister Amis and I both thought that for some reason Satan didn't want us on the lose!!  We were able to end the day at a baptism in Rochester and it was AWESOME!!

Thanks for all your love and support!! 
--

LOVE!

Sister Randi Hulet

xoxo

 

Week 8 Austin, Minnesota

Happy New Year!!

Friends and Family!!!

Holy cow!!! I cannot believe that it is the year 2014!!!!!!!!! It’s so crazy to me to think that we are already in a new year!! Time has gone by so fast! It’s also weird to me to think about what was happening a year ago around this same time! I never would have thought I would be in Minnesota on a mission!! I can't wrap my mind around this!

Today we got a text from the mission home that said that because of weather, we are NOT allowed to leave our apartment on Monday, so we are emailing and shopping today.  For those of you who don't check the Minnesota weather on a day to day basis may not know that it’s going to be around -60* with the wind chill!!!!!!! Needless to say that President Clements is putting us all under house arrest! I really want to know if this will include a ankle-bracelet!

This week has gone by so fast, I don't know where is should begin!

One miracle we had this week was on Monday afternoon, while we were stopping by some potentials.  None of them were home so we knocked the apartment building we were in.  No one answered the door and I was really to move on, but Sister Amis said that we will not leave until we have taught someone the Restoration.  We found ourselves on the bottom floor and had yet to have someone open the door.  Like on the floors before we starting knocking doors and finally a lady answered.  She was Catholic and didn't really want to talk to us about our faith, but we had a great conversation about God and how much he has blessed our lives.  We knocked on the last door and were turning to leave when a guy walked down the hall and stopped to talk to us.  We were able to share with him the Restoration and he said we could come back and talk again!! It was CRAZY!!! I totally believe that timing is everything! If we would have not talked to that catholic lady or knocking two floors of empty doors, we would have missed that guy and he never would have learned more about Jesus Christ and His restored gospel! Totally awesome! 

We celebrated the New Year in some serious style, let me tell you!  It all started with a morning at the Austin Laundry Mat were we did our laundry...our washing machine wouldn't start..it kinda made me mad, but what can you do?!?
We were there for what seemed like HOURS doing laundry that has not been done in Weeks! No joke it was like 10 bucks of Laundry!! Then we went home and had an afternoon of baking and writing letters!! I made oreos..let’s just say that my skills in the kitchen give Harry Potter a run for his money!  I have found that the delicious jams and jellies I crank out of our little Kitchen is great way to get people to listen to us!  Then we went and meet up with Bro. R in our ward to talk about the lesson he was going to be teaching with us! He is AWESOME!! I love it when he comes teaching with us because he loves to talk and pretty much brings the spirit! It was a great lesson! 

On Thursday we had a really fun night! Sister M, who is pretty much the greatest person in the world, set up volleyball at the church..we were able to go and even got some of our investigators there!! it was tons of fun! Bro. R asked me the night before to bring my game..I replied with that I would have to go find it first! Let’s just say that my talents are not it hitting a ball over a net and should stick to running...after Thursday night..everyone agrees!! But I felt like it was an awesome way to have fun with both ward members and investigators! So I hope we can do it again!!

I really don't know what more needs to be said.............so I hope that everyone has a good week!! Thanks for all the LOVE, PRAYERS, SUPPORT!!!!

--

LOVE!

Sister Randi Hulet

xoxo