Where in the World is Emily Hurley: November 2014

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Oct 27th

Hello all!

We have had a beautiful week. We are getting going a little more in our area and more than anything I have really just enjoyed being a missionary these last couple days. We had several beautiful experiences. On three different occasions, sisters in the ward told us that it was a blessing and an answer to her prayers that we are here. We felt amazing as we are guided by the Lord to be in the right place at the right moment to be able to be a support and help to someone in their time of need. The best part was that often they don't need much, a listening ear, a few words of encouragement and a prayer usually do the trick. Sometimes we help by doing little chores around the house too. People don't need you to give them advice or tell them what to do. My job as an instrument of the Lord is to help them as they seek His guidance through His Spirit. I really want to encourage everyone of you to do your visiting teaching and home teaching. This can change lives. They don't need someone to read them off a message or ask "Is there anything we can do for you." I've asked that probably about 14 thousand times on my mission and never gotten a yes. Pray for inspiration as you ask them questions, show your love and just serve them in anyway that you can think of. Minister as the Savior did. I promise that as you do, you will be able to see miracles as I have, and be able to be an answer to the prayers of those around you. It is no coincidence that you are assigned to those people. Nor is it coincidence that you know the people you know. Your neighbors, coworkers and classmates have been put in your path for a divine purpose. Pray to know what they need. You never know how much good you can do. Watch this beautiful video about this:)

http://bcove.me/1iidi233

Love you all!

Hermana Hurley

Oct. 20th

and the fun continues!

Well hello everybody!

How is it goin?

Well we are doing just great here! Hermana Porter and I are loving our new area. We haven't had tons of success yet but we feel really strongly that the time is now for the people in our area and that we have been sent here for a purpose and we are so excited to find the people that the Lord has prepared here. We are still organizing and getting on our feet but we finally are most put together and ready to work like crazy this week.

We did have some cools lessons this week with some part member families. The Spirit was really strong and we feel so blessed to be a part of teaching these people eternal gospel truths, even if they aren't ready to accept them right now. We know we have been able to be a part of the preparing process. Please pray for them that they will let the Spirit change their hearts and they will join their family in following the path of Jesus Christ.

We had a cool experience this week. It's a little complex but hang with me and the details will all make sense.

Ok so we have an "Area Book" that has records of people that were previously taught but "dropped" because they didn't have time/interest. We often go back and check in on those people and see if they are ready to hear more about the gospel.

So our Area Book has been left to Elders for a long time who, let's just say are not the best at neat and orderly record keeping. So we had a few incomplete addresses in our book. We got a little frustrated so I said "Let's just drive down the streets looking for these apartments." We actually ended up finding different apartments that we had been looking for earlier that day and stopped in to look for a drop name Avelardo, which is a really strange name I had never heard of before.

Then, we were walking around in the Apartment complexes looking for this drop but we couldn't find the right building. It was dark at this point (mom, don't freak out) and there were two guys smoking outside. So we approached them and asked for directions. It was a miracle! Turns out the younger of the two was actually living with members of our ward that had just moved in that we had been unable to find! Also, he'd been doing research about the Church on Mormon.org and wanted to know more! He went on to express his love for the beauty of our temples and that he was sure that they were more than just man made. He said he could see the Spirit when he looked at the temples and would like to take a road trip and visit all of them in the US one day. How amazing!!!!

We sent his information to the English elders and he gave us directions to the apartment we were looking for.

We knocked but no one answered. As we were leaving I saw a Latino man sitting in his car and I went up to talk to him (I don't usually approach men in their cars in the dark but it was the Spirit ok?) and guess what? IT WAS AVELARDO! But that's not the weird part! He said he didn't even live there! We talked for a while but I finally asked him- Did you used to live here? and he said 'oh yeah I did a couple years ago! but now I'm just visiting a friend." crazy! We were so guided by the Spirit that night! We know this is the Lord's work and we are so glad to be here!

Love you all!

Hermana Hurley

Oct. 14th

Hi everyone!

I know you're all riveted to know what's going on with opening a new area/ training again.

So it's going pretty good! We haven't actually been able to work that much in the area yet because we spent tons of time moving our stuff into our new apartment and organizing things and making maps So on Saturday we were excited to have the first normal day of work when we went out to find out are car was not there. It had been towed. It wasn't really our fault but we ended up having to pay anyway and we couldn't pick it up til Sunday (yeah, I am ashamed to admit we broke the sabbath. Otherwise to pick it up on Monday the fee would have doubled to 700 dollars)

So yeah we were/are still really upset. I think it was my fault because I have been praying for more patience. I gotta stop doing that, the Lord always provides opportunities to practice those attributes when we ask for help on them. :)

Then Monday was zone conference and today is pday. So we still haven't spent a full day working in our area but we can already tell it has great potential, we've seen a couple miracles, and added 4 new investigators! So all in all, not bad! :)

The plus side- the ward is great! My companion is good! She's sweet and we have fun. we live with two other hermanas and that's a blast. Our elders in our ward are THE BEST people literally in the world. They spend several hours a day for three days in a row this week helping us move furniture in and put beds together and they even brought us pizza one day. They also helped us make new maps and organize a new area book to help get our area going. so great.

The cool thing about our area is it used to be the farthest corner of the other elder's area, so they had some investigators/drops/potentials plus some great active member families and tons of part member families, but they didn't make it out there very much so the members are super excited to see us! Plus they think it's so great that we are sisters haha :)

We dropped by on an investigator of their's that they hadn't gone to see in a long time because they couldn't catch him at home and he lives far away from the rest of their area. His name is Daniel. He's great!!! It was so funny though, when we arrived his dad was so drunk. He kept saying, have a Tequila! Have a little tequila! And we kept saying (mostly with a straight face because I was cracking up) No, we are here to talk about God! He finally explained very patiently "We are accustomed to drinking tequila so that we can KNOW God!" hahahahaha we died laughing. Then Daniel came out (he's 17), apologized for the awkwardness and we had a short lesson with him. He said he had read in the Book of Mormon and prayed to know it was true, but then he never saw the Elders again! Miracle! He is so prepared and we are really excited to keep teaching him.

well that's all the time for today folks!

Love,

Hermana Hurley

My new comp Hermana Porter and I! Yeah. Like I said. We have fun.

I made up a rap about her favorite dessert, Cake in a Lake, to the tune of Pants on the Ground. Unfortunately we are unable to send the video. Tragic. But here's a pic to capture the moment of inspiration.

Elder Ward (left) and Elder Harris and I have the special nametags cuz we were all in the MTC together.

Elder Rindlisbacher (left) is our Fearless District leader and his companion Elder Poulton

Oct 7th

Hello everyone! I hope you are having a wonderful week after General Conference. For those of you who don't know what General Conference is, it's a televised conference we have every 6 months where the Prophet and Apostles of our worldwide Church speak. It was amazing and you can watch/read it on lds.org. Or ask your local Mormon for details :)

I must also request that everyone find out if Meet the Mormons is playing in theaters near you and attend!! It is a beautiful documentary and it's really important we support it so that others can know about our lives as Mormons. The coolest part is I'm not even saying that so the Church can make money! All net proceeds go to American Red Cross!

Ok so now for my life.

Just as we all suspected would happen one day, after a year of being in the same ward- I'm finally getting transferred!!

It's bittersweet and I'm grateful for the change but sad to say goodbye.

The craziest part of this news is that, as you may remember as of today I finished training a brand new missionary. That means I was her very first companion and basically taught her how to Missionary Work. It's fun but it can be a lot of work!

Well I just found out that I'm training again!

And just to ramp up the excitement/stress, my brand new missionary and I will be opening a new area. I am picking up my new companion tomorrow, but unlike last time I will not fill her in on the ward members, the investigators, the appointments we have nor will I drive her around in confidence of a familiar area. I'm gonna tell her: Well. I have no idea what to do. Let's buy a map and knock some doors? Haha I guess we will both be learning together!

The most exciting part is I will be in the same ward as Hermana Skidmore, who've I've served with before and love.

AND WITH ELDER WARD! He was in my district in the MTC and we are pretty much best friends and I've been praying my whole mission to serve with him!

So all in all, it's probably gonna be hard but I'm really looking forward to new challenges! I have a real testimony that transfers are directed by the Lord and He knows me best! I trust His plan!

Love you all!

Hermana Hurley

Sep 29th

Ok so last week I went to Coloma

Coloma pics!

Me panning for gold!

Hermana Moffett, me and AP (Assistant to the president) Elder Gray!

Feel free to be jealous of my sweet gangster hat.

Elder Montgomery(left) was my District Leader last transfer and Elder Padilla is my current DL. They're both pretty hilarious.

Hermana Moffett and I were in the MTC together and now one year later we are celebrating our mission "birthday!"

Me and the hermanas at our one year celebration!

Sep. 15th

Hello all! We have had another good week!

Lately whats been on my mind the most is that i turn a year next week and that transfers are comin up! It's been sooo crazy coming up on my year mark. On the one hand I can't believe it! It's gone so fast and has been so wondeful! It's had some really hard parts but has been rewarding like nothing else I've ever done.

I'm also actually getting a little anxious about what transfers will have in store in a couple of weeks. You would think I would leave this area because I've been here my whole mission- but you never know! You can never predict it- although we surely try. haha.

We've been doing good! We have been getting lots of referrals this week from memebrs in the English wards. We just always ask: do any of your neighbors speak Spanish? So that is wonderful because we dropped the last of our progressing investigators this week as well. So we are in a pretty desperate finding situation like I never been on my whole mission! So keep praying for us please, we know there has to be people here who are prepared accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Love

Hermana Hurley

Sep. 8th

Hello all! The highlight of this week was Sunday. 2 of my recent converts and one less active young man were able to receive the Priesthood. That means they will be able to begin passing the Sacrament, blessing the Sacrament and even receive callings to serve in the Church, and go to the temple! It was a wonderful day. Another amazing event was that a wonderful family we have been working with that we love very much began working towards going to the temple to be sealed as a family! It is so amazing to be able to see the work you've been doing lead toward a family being able to be sealed together forever.

I love you all!

Hermana Hurley