Still in Bangor--Second Companion

Tues May 5, 2009 was transfer day. Here is what his letter said:

"Hello everyone! Well....want the news on transfers??
Wanna take a guess? haha! Elder Bigler is actually being transfered! I'm staying here in Pushaw :) (which is the ward in Bangor) I'm pretty excited about it actually. For one: I don't have to pack, For two: I'm loving this area, the people we're working with, and I love the members here. So it's all going to be good! We don't know where Elder Bigler is going. When President Jensen called us last night, he extended the calling to Elder Bigler as District Leader in his next area, so that's pretty cool! I'm not sure who my next companion is going to be, but I know I'm still going to be a junior companion. We will find out tomorrow all of those details. We have to be in Louiston, ME tomorrow morning at 6 AM. It's a 2 hour drive...EARLY! :( and then I'll be on an exchange with Elder Pitt(one of the Augusta Zone Leaders) and his companion will go with Elder Bigler to transfer meeting. So at transfer meeting, they'll get Elder Pitt's new companion, and my new companion :) and then we'll be back in Bangor in the afternoon :) It should be exciting! I love Bangor! And I love Mainers! haha and they're sweet Maine-iac accent haha!

On May 10, 2009, we celebrated Mother's Day and with that came a phone call from Ronnie.

It was a long day waiting for him to call. We didn't know what time he would be calling so we hurried home from church and waited and waited. He ended up calling while we were at his grandma and grandpa Hurst's house. It was so wonderful talking to him. Each of the kids got to talk to him for a few minutes. We loved just listening to him laugh and talk about things he has been doing. He sounded so happy and is doing so well. It was great talking to him and hard to hang up. The time just went by too fast. Now we wait until Christmas!

The next day was his p-day and this is what he wrote in his email:

"Oh man! It was so good to talk to all of you last night! That was the best day of my mission yet! I loved hearing all of your voices! I'm so glad that you enjoyed it as much as I did :)"

We found out while talking to Ronnie on Mother's day who his new companion was. His name is Elder Scott Nielson from Sandy, UT. They are getting along great and he makes Ronnie laugh. We even talked to Elder Nielson for a minute and that was fun. He wants to come and meet us when he gets home this coming December. We were glad that he got a great companion.

Here is a picture he sent and we got it in the mail a few days after Mother's Day.



Now that Ronnie had a new companion, Sister ______ wanted to make another lobster dinner. She didn't have to ask Ronnie twice! Here are some pictures he sent us.

Pic #1- "Before the bubble bath



Pic #2- "After the Bubble Bath"

He loves Maine lobster!! He is getting spoiled eating the good stuff! When he gets home he may not be able to get that great of sea food here in Utah.


On June 1, 2009 Ronnie wrote this email about his investigator:

"Well, it's been an awesome couple weeks! The work continues to move and to progress :) We've been teaching quite a bit and we're loving it! There's one lady we've been teaching the most. Her name is Brenda ____. She is soooo solid and soooo awesome! She's like a gospel sponge!
Her husband, Craig, is from California and is a member, but he was baptized when he was 10, and went in-active when he was 13. They're both now in their 50's. Recently, his father passed away and they were at his funeral in California. Brenda had recently watched a DVD about the conversion story of Glen Beck. But she was very interested (or in other words: prepared by
the Lord) and had a lot of questions for Craig's VERY active sister in California. Well, this sister of his called our Bishop, and Bishop _____ gave us their address and we went and met them a couple weeks ago :) The rest is history, she really has been soaking it all up and LOVES it!! It's
sooooo awesome!! She loves me and Elder Nielson and wants to be baptized before one of us will probably leave. One of us could leave in 2 weeks But Brenda is ready, she's just working on kicking the habit of smoking. Craig will be recieving the priesthood this Sunday, so he is going
to be able to baptize her :) Cool huh!? We're sooo excited for them!

On June 12, 2009, we got a phone call. The caller i.d said it was from US Cellular so we had no idea who it was. The lady on the other end identified herself as Brenda and said she was from Maine. She wanted to tell us that "Elder Hurst is my missionary". Oh my goodness!!! She went on to tell us how wonderful Ronnie is and how much she appreciates him teaching her the gospel. She said she wanted to adopt him. :) We can share! It was the sweetest phone call (next to talking to Ronnie himself) that we could have ever recieved. We felt pure joy and were so pleased to know the Ronnie has touched the life of someone and was an instrument in the Lord's hand in bringing her into the gospel. There just was no better feeling as parents. Her baptism was set for June 13, 2009.

On June 15, Ronnie sent us an email and here are some things he wrote:

"Brenda had a WONDERFUL baptism!! It was sooooo good :) The ward LOVES her and is supporting her 110%. There were a lot of people there, but it was a very spiritual experience for her and Craig. Her 17 year old son Adam even showed up, and he hasn't even been that interested that Brenda has been learning, but she was glad that he was there. She also had 2 non-member friends from work show up...they think she's joining a crazy cult, but it was awesome that they showed up :) It was a really good week! Helping Brenda get ready for her baptism was a lot of fun for us, and her."

We were glad to hear that all went well with her baptism. He also mentioned how happy she was that we were able to talk to her.

He also wrote this:

"Well, it's been real...I'm out of Bangor bright and early tomorrow morning. I'm kind of bummed about it, but it's what the Lord wants. I really actually thought I was staying at least one more transfer, but I'm not. I have to meet in Manchester tomorrow morning at 9:00. Because I'm meeting there, I'll probably be going across the mission. If I was staying in Maine, they would have me meet somewhere in Maine. So yeah, I'll probably be somewhere in New Hampshire or Vermont. I'm excited but I'm really bummed I'm leaving already. It doesn't feel like I have been here that long. I'm bummed to be leaving Elder Nielson, we've had a lot of fun together and the Transfer was just way to fast, but this is life of a missionary. I've spent the day packing and saying goodbye to a lot of people, it's sad, but I'm glad that they don't give me a whole week to try to say goodbye...instead I just bounce out of here."

So now we wait to hear from him. We are anxious to know where he is and who his companion will be for the next little while. We are excited for him to experience another place, but we know its difficult to leave the area and the people you have grown to love. He has enjoyed serving in Bangor Maine and will have fond memories of that area.