The one-man show

Hello again! Well, my one-man zone conference came and went, and despite how I felt about it, other people said it turned out pretty well. I had a workshop about the importance of listening to people on lessons as opposed to just speaking and thinking about what to say next, and I guess it turned out pretty well. I don't know; I don't think I'd like to do it this way again anytime soon. It's kind of fun having the whole thing to yourself, but at the time it's a lot of stress piling up all over the place (especially when you're worrying about people delivering the pizzas for lunch on time, members showing up to help with the workshop, and whether the workshop's even going to work because the members have a tight schedule and we're already 30 minutes late...all while trying to take notes while President Steinagel is speaking to us, and while sitting up in front of everyone else in the room so they're all staring at you). I'm actually kind of glad that I had this experience for my first zone conference as a zone leader; everything after this is going to be cake.

We've started teaching a man named Andriy this week. We were very hesitant to meet with him at first because he approached us on the street, drunk, and originally asked us for money, but he said he really wanted to quit smoking and drinking and to find the true church so we set up a meeting with him. At the meeting, we committed him to go 24 hours without smoking or drinking, thinking that if he did, we'd keep teaching him, but if he didn't, then he probably isn't actually interested and we'd just move on. We came back and not only had he kept his committment, he'd gone out and gotten a job. We had a lesson with him about the steps of the gospel (faith, repentence, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end), and told him that he had faith and was now working on repenting of alcohol and tobacco use. He understood completely, and said that once he's repented of them, he wants to get baptized and keep going through the gospel process. It was a really cool experience, and we're really excited to continue teaching him.

Well, we've got to go, we're going to get together with the other missionaries in our district today and make real American-style hamburgers and milkshakes. Mmmm...

I love you all, and have a great week!

--Elder Hurst