Cortez 10-22-08

Dear Fam,

This is Elder John Benson Hullinger and I'm doing fantastic. I hope that all of you are feeling the same way. It is so good to hear that everything is going well. We are truly being blessed by the Lord. I know that I'm being blessed here. Our baptism this last Saturday was great. Ember (the lady we baptized) had a ton of support. It was an awesome experience. She had a lot of opposition leading up to the baptism though. Her former pastor called her and pretty much condemned her. Her mom called her and told her that she was just being impulsive. People just came out of the woodwork to "save her" from the Mormons. It's amazing how hard Satan works on these people who are close to baptism. All it does for me though is strengthen my testimony of the work we are doing. So that baptism went well and that Sunday she was confirmed. So I had a very good weekend. Elder Wright and I are getting along quite well. He's a very good companion.

There is another lady who is really close to baptism that we are teaching. Her name is Puff. She is awesome. Her husband is awesome too. They are in their fifties and Puff knows that the church is true, but Jim is holding her back. Jim is kind of an enigma. He will defend the church and he comes almost every week but then he will make fun of it when it's just him and Puff. We tried to set a baptismal date with Puff, but Jim told her "absolutely not." So we are going to go over there today to figure out what the problem is. It's weird, none of the stress I have is for myself. It's just for the people who I want so badly to join this church. I see the happiness that it could bring them but they just don't see it sometimes. But I'll keep you updated on Puff & Jim. Lately we've been doing a lot of finding. Well actually it's more like looking. We knock on a lot of doors but very rarely will anyone even talk to us. People here are just extremely stubborn.

Well I've heard from Vaughn Christensen since I've been here which was cool. I also email quite a few friends from BYU who are also on their mission. I don't hear from anyone from Weiser except for Hank, but Lizzy gave me Kyle, Zack and Jeff's email so hopefully I can stay in touch with them. I hope that they're doing okay.

It's starting to get pretty chilly here. I imagine that it's pretty cold there too since we are only like 5 hours away! I do miss you guys but in 20 months I'll be home. Time is flying by. Like I said I took some pictures and they're on the card but I don't even have a picture of me and Ryan (the boy we baptized). I'll get one though before I leave. I'll get better about taking pictures too...I promise. Well I'll wrap this up now. I love you all so much. I miss you and I'm sorry if you can't read my hand writing. Keep me updated with everything that is going on in your lives. I love hearing from all of you. The church is true.

Elder Hullinger