I love Mail..

Hello, In case you haven't heard there was recently a plane crash in Jamaica, and I would like to tell you a little bit about it. The plane apparently overshot the runway, due to the terrible rain storm that occurred that night. The plane broke into 3 pieces, and lost an engine. Most of the passengers were covered in jet fuel, but luckily nothing exploded. On top of that the plane stopped only a few feet from a cliff that dropped into the ocean. This past week we had a number of missionaries fly home so they could spend Christmas with their families and be home on time to get to school this spring. One of those missionaries was on that flight, and it is currently believed that she is the reason that the passengers on that plane aren't all charred remains at the bottom of the ocean. So if any of you ever worry about me, you shouldn't because this just goes to show you that the Lord watches out for his missionaries.In happier news, Chrsitmas was this week, and I would like to thank those of you that sent me cards, and presents, and what not. It really helped me to feel the love and support of all of guys. Christmas eve we spent the night with a family that loves missionaries, and it was a lot of fun. Christmas day we spent the day at members' houses and got to call home which was really fun. Thank you again for all your love and support.So one of the Elders that went homes' companion is now with me and Elder Thacker, so we're covering 2 wards which is making things really interesting. On the bright side we have met some new people in the other ward. But it makes things really tight with miles. We finally got back in with out investigator that dropped off the face of the earth, and we found out what his problem is. Apparently he believes that Adams' fall couldn't possibly be part of Gods' plan, and that we should all have been born into the Garden of Eden. His problem is that he thinks the Book of Mormon is trying to contradict the Bible in this situation. Our problem is that the Bible doesn't even support his beliefs, and we know that his belief comes from the Jehovah's witnesses. So it's really tense right now, but we're going to try and fix it Wednesday night. So if you could pray for us that'd be great. We currently have some new people that we're trying to get in with, but we're not having much luck. On the bright side though we're making a lot of headway with the less actives we're working with and the part member families we're working on. We had like 6 less actives come to church yesterday which was great. So for the next 2 weeks while we have the extra missionary with us, we get to go to 2 churches which was really crazy yesterday. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo long, but I can't say I didn't like it because it was cool to get to see all the different stuff that happens in different wards.Today we're taking some pictures so I should be sending some home very soon.Love you all, Ttys
Elder Hughes

Christmas in Georgia

Some of the members in Craig's new ward invited the missionaries over for breakfast on Christmas morning. They were nice enough to send me this picture. It looks like they had a great time.

Christmas email

Hey guys,
I hope this holiday season is going well, and you're all enjoying the special spirit that is felt during this time of year. As we continue to learn about the Savior and the things he's done for us, the Spirit will continue to testify of his love for us. I continue to urge all of you that can to take this wonderful opportunity to get to the temple as often as possible. Things are going well here, it was a bit of a rough week this work, but the work here continues to move forward at an ever increasing rate. We did have a baptism Saturday, which was my first official investigator to be baptized :) it was awesome. The best part though was that I got to confirm her yesterday, and I've been told I did good, so I'm super excited about that. We have another investigator Paul that is so golden it's ridiculous, he'll probably be baptized around the end of January or the beginning of February. The members here are taking really good care of us so don't worry about me, i've got plenty of sweets, and a stack of presents surprisingly. Surprisingly I haven't gained any weight yet, so i'm pretty happy about that especially since i'm in a car. One of the Elders in the Lawrenceville 1st ward is going home tomorrow so we get to have his companion until transfers, so we have to cover two wards which is going to be interesting with our severely limited miles. A missionary got home two days ago here, and it was really cool to get to see what it's like (even though I doubt it'll be anything like it was here in Utah). Christmas will be awesome. The ward is really staring to like me and Elder Thacker so it's cool to see them getting really involved with the work. Thank you to everyone that is supporting me, you guys don't know how much it means that you're behind me. I love you all, and hope you have a wonderful Christmas.
Elder Hughes

Emails are GREAT too

The pictures were cute, thank you. That's crazy that it's been snowing there, it's been raining like non-stop here (it doesn't usually snow) but overall it hasn't been too bad. So the mail thing is pretty much retarded, the mission home has my mail address correct, the mail man just wouldn't put my mail in the box. So I got my christmas card and a letter from Jaimie which i think was written before I left the MTC so yeah i'm kinda mad about that. If you could tell her that i'll write as soon as I can that'd be great. But yeah Georgia is pretty awesome, and we are meeting a lot of people, which is good for me because it helps me get over being shy. Thanks for the christmas presents, I haven't opened them yet but i'm sure they're awesome. So we had interviews this week, and it was pretty cool to get to meet with President King and have all of ours leaders teach us. This morning me and my companion had our first doctrinal disagreement, which was totally not related to anything we teach, but it was just funny because he grew up in the church and I proved him wrong. So we were talking about the plan of Salvation, then we started talking about sons of perdition and the war in heaven, and he thought that when Satan and all his spirits were cast out they just went to earth, but i showed him that that happened before the earth was created, then we started talking about the Millenium and he thought that Satan being sealed up just meant that people would be so righteous that Satan wouldn't be able to tempt them, but I proved that Christ would actually seal up Satan and his spirits in a prison just like it says in chapter 20 of Revelation so yeah it was sweet. We have a baptism coming up this saturday which i'm excited about, but pretty much after that we don't really have anyone that's too close, but we do have a lot of new people to teach so that's good. The bishop here is pretty cool, and he's really missionary minded which really helps. The ward loves me and Elder Thacker so yeah things are going great and we have lots of good stuff going on. How's it going with getting to the Temple? I wish we could go, but the temple wont be open until like next november. Well I hope everything is going good, and I'm sorry you miss me but there's not much I can do about that. Ttyl
Elder Hughes

Weekly Note...

Hey guys, as you know it's december, and that means we need to work out a time for me to call on Christmas, I think it'll be sometime in the afternoon so fyi. I'm still not sure how it all works. This week was awesome, we had my first zone conference, which was awesome, because President King is an amazing leader. We committed 2 of our investigators to be baptised on the 19th, which was awesome, but we're still not sure about one so we'll see how it goes. Did you see the Christmas devotional? it was awesome, because of course it was about the Savior and his love for us. I encourage you to be going to the temple, because the spirit there allows us to feel Christs' love for us even stronger. Georgia has like the weirdest weather ever, when they say it's going to snow it's sunny, and when it's supposed to be sunny it downpours. We had the cooloest rainstorm ever, you could literally see the different sheets of rain coming and going. It makes it so much easier to see why it's flooded here, because it doesn't just rain it like drowns you. I'm going on my first exchange this week, so that'll be interesting, but i'm sure it'll be great. I found my first new investigator this week which was totaly awesome, and I got to go to a baptism (not for an investigator or anything it was an 8 year old) and they let me and Elder Thacker be the witnesses which was awesome. We're supposed to start teaching a less active familys' son so that he can be baptised soon, so we'll hopefully get them re-activated and get him baptised. Another family we're teaching wants us to baptise their daughter, but they don't want to come to church so we just teach them, but we don't really plan on baptising her because it would just be pointless. I also got to give 3 blessings this week which was cool, I did the annointing on 2 of them and sealed the other which was totally awesome. We're doing this scripture study as a mission that President King challenged us to, because Elder Hafen of the seventy is coming in a few months to do a mission tour, and we finish right before he gets here. I'm trying to learn to play the piano (which i'm terrible at by the way) and it's going ok, I can play half of the right hand stuff but i'm not coordinated to do both hands. This week we also started tracting, which is super scary, but super fun at the same time. We haven't gotten any new investigators out of it yet, but we've talked to a lot of people. Last night we tracted into a guy that looked like he could rip me in half, it was like "yikes." But I'm loving it here, it's really fun. I hope everything is going well back home, sounds like it is but ya never know. Ttyl Elder Hughes

My note for today...

So my first week has been pretty awesome, the mission president and his wife are really cool and apparently are doing a lot of crazy things with the missionaries down here. My companions' name is Elder Thacker, he's a district leader. Right now we're serving in the Lawrenceville 2nd ward which is a pretty small area. I got to start out in a car, but el presidente says he's probably going to split my area and put my companion and I on bike. I'm not gonna lie I like it here, the humidity isn't too bad yet, and it's not too cold. On the other hand the roads here and completely insane, and everyone drives like a maniac (including my companion) so i'm kinda scared to drive. There are like thousands of trees everywhere, like seriously every where you look you can pretty much only see trees with the occasional house. The people here are super nice, and friendly. I had to give a talk the first week I was here, so everyone could get to know me -I talked about gratitude- so everybody kind of knows me now. We've already found someone that might need me to change a toilet out, but it's not for sure yet so i'll have to let you know how that goes. Talking to people here about religion is awesome, you just start talking about it and they're super open and willing to talk with you, it's really cool. A lot of people here do smoke though so it smells kind of bad sometimes. Apparently they had a baptism the saturday before I got here, so I was kind of bummed that I missed it, but we should have another coming up soon. My companion is a total talker, he loves talking, and as a result we're late to everything, which as you know drives me crazy, so I haven't had a whole lot of time for much of anything yet. My P-Days are now on monday so that's why i'm emailing you today. So yeah pretty much it's awesome here, and I'm having lots of fun, hope you guys are ok, I haven't heard from anyone in a while so i'm kinda worried but i guess i'll get over it. Anyways ttyl.
Elder Hughes

Nov. 27th

Today we flew into Georgia, the flight wasn't too long but it was long enough. Our mission president met us at the baggage claim, he's a really awesome guy. So the first thing we did was of course go proselyting. We were on a train which was interesting but at the same time very cool. I tried talking to a few people but no one was interested. It was a good introduction to the work I'll be doing. I'm excited to meet my new companion and start working. I still don't know all the details, but everything is going great so far. Sorry I didn't have longer to talk this morning but I'll get to talk to you soon. Hope your having fun, be safe, I love you,
Elder Hughes

He is in Georgia

These are all of the new arrivals who flew with Craig yesterday, along with the mission president and his wife. I got an email from the mission president this morning with this picture, and a note about how well the first day went.

He is flying out

He called me for just a sec from the airport this morning at 6:30a.m. He said his flight was boarding so he only called to say hello. It was a quick chat.... but so nice to hear his voice.

Wow... it's a regular thing

Dad, Mom, Matthew & Tyler,
This week has been really eventful. In class we've been focusing on what it's going to be like out in the field. I can't believe I fly out Monday. I hope everything's going ok down there, and that you get an elk. I've set a goal to read the Book of Mormon 24 times on my mission, which breaks down to 8 chapters per day. I'm going to send one of my study journals home so that Brent can check it out and see what he's going to be learning. I didn't go to the temple today bacause I'm not feeling too good, and one of the other Elders in my district wasn't either so I stayed behind with him. I've actually gained weight while I've been here in the MTC, but I know it's not fat because my pants aren't fitting right anymore. The MTC asked my district to help with a service project today which is really inconvienient because it's during our laundry time, but the Lord will get us through it. If you haven't watched the Joseph Smith movie yet, you need to. I saw it and it really struck me to see our prophet suffering for us. So my companion and I got over our arguement just to get into another one. We were cleaning up from dinner, he was with our roommates and I was in a different line, and he left me in the cafeteria. I thought I had just gotten out before so I looked around and waited 15 minutes. At that point I decided to go back to my room, and there he is all dressed for gym and getting mad at me for being lost. Yeah, needless to say I wasn't very happy. On top of that, I keep telling him we need to be on time, but he still makes us late for everything except lunch. I'm kind of excited to meet my new companion and get to work. Well that's pretty much what's going on. Love ya,
Elder Hughes

Yahoo Mail...

Dad, Mom, Matthew & Tyler,
Thanks for the letters, I really appreciate them. I'm glad things are going well. I'm sorry my first letter took so long, I accidentally mailed it to myself. Shows you how good I am at this. But don't worry I've got it figured out now. I probably won't sent any pictures home until next week, but don't worry I promise I'll send lots. I got to go to the temple this morning, it was really amazing and the spirit was so powerful. I've been reading a lot lately in the new testiment about Christ and it's awsome to find the corrrelations between Matthew, Mark, Luke , John and 3rd Nephi. My teachers really are amazing, I love being in class with them. I also love the referral center, it's where people call to get all the free DVD's and bibles and stuff. People also come on and chat to learn more about the church. I love being able to help people while I'm still here in the MTC. I leave for Georgia a week from Tuesday, and I'm really excited, but at the same time I'm trying to enjoy the time I have here. The food here is really good, so I am surviving just fine. I'm finally starting to get better at talking to random people walking by, which is a good thing. Some of the missionaries here are kinda crazy and really loud but we deal with it. One of the teachers just had a baby this week so he missed a couple of days, and while he was gone one of the other teachers in our distric taught our class about Christ and everything he did for us, and it was awesome. I've gotten so used to wearing a suit now that it feels weird to be in normal clothes. We got our flight plans yesterday and I think it's a 7 hour flight, but I'm not sure. If you can I'd like you to mail me my patriartical blessing. It was in the center shelf of the computer desk. If you would that'd be awesome. My companion nd I are kind of in an arguement right now, and it's not because we don't agree with each other. He just thinks that when we teach we should only use the Book of Mormon, and I keep telling him we need to be using the bible as well. When I asked our teacher about it, he said we should be using both, but the balance between the two depends on the investigator. I think we're both right, but he seems to think I'm wrong so I don't know what to do. He's also getting on my nerves, because all he talks about is what he's going to do when he gets home and we're still in the MTC. The worse part about this whole arguement thing is that I said something about it to one of the other Elders in our district, and the Elder agreed with me. So he told our roommates something and had them chew me out so I'm on a non-speaking basis with them for now. Not because I'm mad just because I don't want to agrue about a question with no right or wrong answer. Anyways you guys be safe and have fun. I love you all,
Elder Hughes
P.S. this now qualifies as the longest letter I've ever written.

I got mail..

Mom, Dad, Matthew and Tyler,
So far the MTC has been good, I'm getting used to the schedule. My companions name is Elder Johnson, he's from Wyoming and he's alot like me so we get along pretty well. I'm learning a lot of stuff, and I've found out that I kind of have a knack for teaching with the spirit, but I still have a long way to go. The food here is pretty good except for the beverages that give evryone gas. Being here has also helped my testimony grow a lot already, and I'm making tons of friends. Tell dad he was wrong about alot of stuff. I get to play basketball for an hour 5 times a week, and they served us cheesecake yesterday. My teachers are amazing, they both really know what we need and I'm learning a ton from them. Being here is a lot like college, you just don't have "free" time. We get to walk around the temple on Sundays, and Tuesday nights a general authority comes to speak to us. Ice cream nights are on Wednesday and Saturday. They keep us well fed but we don't get a lot of sleep. There are 12 missionaries in my district- the largest district in the MTC currently- and they're all cool guys. 3 are from Canada, and as you can imagine we joke about that a lot. 5 Elders are going to the Vegas mission, 2 to Houston, and the other 4 are going to Georgia with me. Tell Bree her letter was cute and thank you for the picture. I hope everythings ok and that you don't miss me too much. 2 years will fly by like nothing and before you know it I'll be back. I love you guys and I'll write to you again on Friday since that'll be my p-day until I get to Georgia. Hope to hear from you soon,
Elder Hughes
(yes it actually is Elder Hughes now)
p.s. Please send me 5 pairs of white socks and my grey shoes I left in the truck- I know I'm an airhead- Thanks

...and He's OFF!!

They were serious when they said curb side drop off. As he got out the missionaries waiting asked him his name, where he was going, and then said "Say goodbye, let's go." One of the missionaries waiting was from Atlanta, Georgia. (maybe he will get some helpfull advice) We will post all of his letters for everyone else to share with us.