Sept. 14, 2009

Elder Ronnie writes:

Maine is absoulutely gorgeous!! I love it! I've come to a conclusion that I don't really want to leave Maine during my mission! Well, I wouldn't mind serving in NH and VT to just say I did, but I love Maine! Oh, and yes some of the leaves are starting to change colors!! It gets me sooo excited!! That's what EVERYONE talked about before I left. So I can't wait to see it!! It shouldn't be a whole lot longer. It's already cooling down quite a bit as well.

One of the comments most people would tell Ronnie when he said where he was called to serve was, "Oh its beautiful there, especially in the Fall!" Ronnie will get to experience his first Fall season in the New England States. I'm sure it is gorgeous and we can't wait to see pictures.

He also writes:

Well, things have been pretty good and I don't know where to start with the update haha! Oh, we got an assignment from President Jensen in the mail on Saturday that I'm kind of excited about. Between now and Christmas day, we are going to read the Book of Mormon from cover-to-cover in a "mission-wide effort to immerse ourselves in it."Cool eh? But here's the specifics: We are going to use an unmarked paperback copy of the Book of Mormon and mark in red, each reference to Jesus Christ (any of His names, name titles, and pronouns referring to Him) and in green, His words (spoken by Him or by prophets when they say "Thus saith the Lord"). SWEET :) I've already started durring personal study. He wants us to keep it after we're done for a future assignment and to use in teaching and when we get home. I'm excited! He attatched a lot of promises and blessings to it too. So I started marking an unmarked copy of the BOM in 1NE ch1! It'll be fun!

We were thrilled to hear about this challenge Pres. Jensen gave to his missionaries. We as a family are taking this challenge also and reading along with Ronnie. I know it will bring us all blessings and we can feel closer to Ronnie and feel like we are part of his life. We are so happy that he will get the chance to read the Book of Mormon from beginning to end in a short time. Its fun to read it that way.

He continues:

Yesterday, we were driving and Elder Pugmire and I both felt like we should stop and tract the few houses on a booney road where we were driving, and the second house we knocked on, they were interested :) It was way cool! They're an older couple, the _______. We'll stop by again sometime this week.

This was one of his shorter letters to us, but all is well in Norway ME. He is doing great and for that we are very grateful. We love and miss him!

Sept. 7, 2009

Labor Day was Sept. 7 and that meant the public libraries were closed. Mondays are Ronnie's p-days and the day he goes to the library to email us, so we didn't get an email. On Thurs. Sept. 10, we received a CD in the mail with lots of pictures. We were thrilled to see them all. Ronnie looks happy and Maine is gorgeous! Here are a few of the pictures we want to share:



These are some interesting things Ronnie has seen while out tracting. A "For Sale" sign in the middle of nowhere (not sure what's for sale, the tree?), an interesting mailbox, a frog, an ant ( a very large ant) and a snapping turtle.

Here are some signs in Norway Maine. One show all the cities in ME that are named after Presidents of the USA and the other is the International Maine Post.

Ronnie bought a lobster from one of the members, cooked it, and ate it all by his "big boy self". He loves Maine Lobster!!

There is Ronnie and his companion, Elder Pugmire, out tracting the beautiful streets of Norway, Maine.

Here are some beautiful scenic pictures of Norway Maine. There is the tree that was hit by lightning when Ronnie and Elder Pugmire were out driving in a huge lightning storm. Also pictures of roads he tracts and Lake Penneeseewassee that is near by. It looks like beautiful country!!

Ronnie, Jared (his friend from the Bangor ME, Pushaw Ward), and Elder Nielson at Zone Conference.

The TREO-- Elder Duval, Elder Pugmire, Elder Ronnie Hurst serving in Norway, Maine

The District--Elders Binford, Janson, Farrell, Duval, Leatham, Ronnie

Ronnie and Elder Duval with Greg and Amy and Noah on Amy's baptism day.

Elder Nielson and Ronnie with Brenda and her husband Craig on her baptism day.

Here is some of the missionaries he is serving with. I'm not sure if this his his district or Zone. From left to right its Ronnie, Elders Charlesworth, Pack, Roher, Nielson, Graham, Potter, Warr, and Sisters Ross and Snow.

Here is Ronnie and his cousin Elder Chris Schow at a Zone Conference.

Before a Zone Conference in Augusta ME, Ronnie and his companion, Elder Nielson, were able to go to the Augusta Archives where one of the original Book of Mormon copies was kept. They were able to hold it, read it, and enjoy it. Ronnie said it was a neat experience.

Aug. 31, 2009

Here is what Ronnie wrote this week:

I had a pretty good week. Nothing to complain about at all! We had Zone conference this last week which was really good. President Jensen did a lot of the teaching and we really enjoyed it. I swear he's going to be an Apostle someday! He's so spiritual and used to be a lawyer for the church, so he just has this business like presence, but still fun way of teaching. I love hearing from him and meeting with him twice every transfer! He's awesome. It was good. Elder Parkinson wasn't there, and neither was Elder Schow, but my friend Jared (from the Pushaw area, Bangor area) brought the Pushaw missionaries down. He sat by me and I got to eat lunch with him. It was really good to see him! He just started his papers on Wednesday so that's way exciting! I also got to see Elder Nielson. I can't wait to hang out with him when I get home. He is way fun.
This week was pretty good. We did some tracting this week, but not as much as we usually do, because we had a few more people to teach! Which is a good thing!! And yes Mom, the "lessons" are going great. (All of the missionaries previous to "Preach my Gospel" still call them 'discussions') Ha ha!

I had asked him in the email I sent to him how the discussions were going. I guess that "dates" me because we called them discussions when I was a missionary.

I think Fall is coming early this year! It pretty much drizzled and rained all day Saturday and it was kinda cold! We had to wear our jackets and use umbrellas!! Which by the way...you might kill me for this, but I think it's getting close to new tracting shoes time. I've kept one pair of shoes nice for meetings and times where I have to wear my suit, but the other pair is already pretty worn down, and they have a whole on each shoe. Saturday was the first time in my whole mission where my feet were wet, and cold. It wasn't fun at all.

He's only been out 7 months and already worn out shoes. I guess I should be glad that his tracting shoes are worn out. It means he is working hard! I guess I'll be going shoe shopping here soon.

I gave a talk yesterday on Elder Ballards talk from last year called "The Truth Shall go Forth" or something like that. I had a lot of compliments and I really enjoy speaking. Just not preparing the talk! Anyway, it went really well.

I'm sure he did a great job. He does do a very good job at speaking. He has asked Ron to help him with some Public Speaking tips and I'm sure he is putting them to good use.

Well anyway, I've gotta get runnin, it's time for me to go get a haircut! I'm lovin' it here in Oxford and the Members we live with are just awesome! Bro. and Sis. _______ fed us last night which was fun to be with them. Bro. _______ is just a punk and he likes to tease me and pick on me cuz he knows I can handle it. So I tease him and pick on him back. It's fun! Things are going swell!! I love you all and I can't wait for your letters this week!

I'm glad to know Ronnie can still be a big tease with people. He loves to tease others but has always been respectful of others too. Thats what makes him such a "people person". He's great at interacting with others and I'm glad he can be his fun loving self while being a great missionary.

Aug. 24, 2009

This weeks letter he wrote about an experience he had when they went to see the lady and her husband from the gas station, (previous week's email). He was on splits with Elder Leatham and when they got to the people's home, they found them not of sound mind (thats a better way of putting it). I won't write what went on, but lets just say Ronnie and Elder Leatham didn't stay long and they had to reschedule a visit when both the wife and husband were coherent. Ronnie had to call them before the visit to make sure they were going to be able to know and remember whats going on. As a missionary, you can run into all kinds of situations!

Here is more that he wrote:

On Friday, I was in the BIGGEST lighning storm I think I have EVER been in. We were at a members house talking to them, and the clouds just went pitch black haha! It was awesome! So we decided we better get going before we get stuck at there house. Well, we got out to the car dry, and then we started driving. All of a sudden Lighning was just hitting all around us outside, it was so intense and sooo awesome! At one point, we were passing this barn, and I learned the definition of a "crack" of lighning! This barn just got drilled! "CRACK-CRACK-CRACK...BOOOOOOM!!!!" I thought I was going to wet my pants haha! But we kept driving while it was literally POURING buckets of rain. We even had to pull over because the wipers weren't clearing it. It was awesome! It wasn't long til we realized that we were going the wrong way and had to turn around...well, when we got of to where the barn had been hit, there was a HUGE tree just laying across the road so traffic was stopped. We had to turn around and go back towards where we wanted to be, in a super long way around. It was such a waste of miles, but it was the coolest storm I've been in! Turns out that we were in a Tornado watch most of that afternoon, and a couple really tiny ones just touched down in Norway, close to where we live...SO COOL! I guess the storms this weekend, and right now, are from the Hurricane up this way?? I just wish we were in the Hurricane!

I know Ronnie wouldn't want harm to come to anyone, so when he says he would like to be in a hurricane I know its just for the thrill of it, but not to damage anything or hurt anyone. I'm glad they were okay. It can be scary out in those lightning storms!

He goes on to write about tracting and how they hopefully found some solid investigators. I hope so too! He said it was a great week.