Monday, November 30, 2015

Week 13

One big jump!


So basically this week is going to be a couple of funny stories.
But before that, we didn't have much success with our investigators
this week, bc of thanksgiving, but we have a ton of lessons set this
next week. It's a whole lot easier being in a duo, and my companion
actually wants to work, so we tracted a ton,and I feel like we did
more in a week of a duo than 6 weeks in a trio, and he agrees as well.
Driving is also great, besides the fact that we have a little thing
called tiwi that makes it so if we drive dumb, it tells our president
haha.

Story time
First story. On thanksgiving morning we did service as a zone in a
park, just picking up trash and stuff. In the middle of the park
there's a small river with like two feet of water, but it's about 8
feet deep, and 6 or 7 feet across. Boys being boys, we started messing
around prodding someone to jump it, but jokingly. Then a random new
elder comes up, and says I'll do it. This kid is like 6,8 and a little
chubby, and a little uncoordinated. So he backs up to get a running
start, and we all think he's joking. Then he starts running, and at
the last second slips, and smacks into the other side, and his legs
got soaked in water. Everyone was just in shock, and he got up and
out, then laid down on the grass. They went to the hospital, and he
dislocated his shoulder so they put that back in. That was pretty
dumb, but funny.

Second story, we were searching for wifi, because there's a thing
called xfinity where in certain parts of Cali, you just have wifi. So
we found wifi in front of a random house, and after like 15 seconds, a
lady walked outside and started yelling at us. I said "oh we're just
looking for wifi for the gps" then she responds very angrily "oh
you're trying to steal wifi huh?! Get out of here! " then just kept
yelling that at us, and I started laughing, and drove away, and as we
drove away she was repeating our license number. If a cop ever finds
me for stealing wifi I'll cry laughing.

No other really good stories. Basically it. Works a little slow here
at times, but we tract a ton. Only 5 more weeks. Not much to talk
about though, our investigators are all scheduled this week at least,
so pray for them to accept baptismal dates. This area desperately
needs a baptism, the ward especially.

Love you all! Don't jump rivers!

Zone Conference

Antelope Roseville Citrus Heights Zones in Antelope
 

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Week 12

I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY

I have lots of things to tell you my friends, so bear with me.
First............... I GOT MY VISAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WOOO PARTY thank you
everyone for the prayers and the positive words of inspiration.

So in a week or two president and I are going to go to the consulate to
start the visa stuff, and all that. I basically gave up on the idea of
getting my visa, but pres pulled through for me. He's the man. So in a
few weeks I'll have my visa, but president said he didn't want to have
to keep me in a trio, or send me to Mexico during Christmas, so he's
going to keep me for the rest of this transfer here. Basically super
awesome, and I'm overflowing with joy. So January 6th will probably
end up being my flying out date. Exciting.

Second......... Soto got transferred to Chico, and it's just me and
elder escalante left here, so the big news is I'm the driver now!
Basically all of my dreams came true. I'm not in a trio, I don't have
to be car sick 24/7, and I got my visa. Elder soto is going to be
district leader in Chico, and escalante is district leader right now
so I'm not even listed as being trained right now I don't think. I'm
so happy haha. But yeah I'm the driver, and I'll actually be able to
talk in lessons now, and we're going to be on time for things now.

Third............ My actual birthday was just ok... But the two days
after were amazing ! We had a really long trainer trainee meeting on
my birthday, so we missed our lesson we had planned, that was lame.
But the day after we had 3 lessons, and dinner with one of my favorite
families. Thanks to everyone who sent me stuff, I'll send you
individual emails later.

Fourth........... My Spanish is improving a lot. I got to go to the
temple last week, and while I was there I prayed for help with my
Spanish, and to find better ways to learn. So I started reading a ton
of stuff in Spanish. It works so much better for me to read
everything, than to try and actually study in grammar books. This
morning I actually understood all the scriptures I was reading. Pretty
amazing blessings, and a true fulfillment of the gift of tongues.
Fifth....... I'll get to baptize a girl that the sisters are teaching,
because she's been asking me to baptize her for like 3 weeks! She's
10, but she's smart, and remembers everything the sisters teach her.
And she is going to break this wards curse. There hasn't been a
baptism here in a year.

Some other random thoughts for the week. I was talking to my Mexican
mom in the ward, and she basically said you white people are crazy.
You guys don't care if you sound like idiots when you talk in Spanish,
you just do it anyway. It's true. Latinos are afraid to speak in
English, but us white people ain't care. My other Mexican mom in the
ward, was there when I opened my present from my parents, and it had
tons of stuff in it, so she kept calling me "el divino" which
basically means the favorite child. True things.

Our investigators are still moving along. Our neighbors are taking
their time, but they keep the commitments, besides church yesterday,
because they went to Vegas. Our family that was supposed to get
deported, are super good. They're the highest on my list to get
baptized. They've had a lot of trials, but God has given them a way
through them all. Really excited for them. We have a couple other
families, but nothing crazy with them yet, but this week were gonna
have a baptismal date I'm feeling it.

I'm just super excited, and super grateful this week. Lots of good has
happened, and the heavens have been opened. Keep the faith up that my
visa will go through smoothly. I love you all! The world is a good
place.

Elder Hodson.
I'll send more pictures later when I get them.


Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Week 11

4 Cheese Cake
 
 
So this week was good. We had a few really good lessons. One was with
some new investigators. They're in their young twenties and have a
little 3 year old boy. We taught the first lesson, and they were
really interested. The entire lesson, the kid was being rambunctious
so I was half playing with the kid, and half teaching haha. By the end
of the lesson he was my best friend.

We had another couple of lessons with our neighbors as well! We ended
up having family home evening with them in the bishops house, and
apparently they knew each other from a party a few years back haha,
but it went really well.

The dad of the family that was supposed to get deported, ended up only
getting 70 days of community service, and the family is super close
and grateful for that right now. The son who used to not believe in
God, now believes in God, so that was a huge miracle. Now it's just
getting them to want to be married.

I'll explain the 4 cheese cake now. There's a cake called tres leches,
and it's a cake that Latinos always buy, and it's usually not too bad.
We were doing service for a lady, and she is really nice, and after
she offered us this kind of cake. So my companion loves tres leches
and said oh yeah this is my favorite, so she gives us all a piece. We
all took a bite, then immediately looked each other. The cake was
expired and tasted like expired sour milk. So first soto said oh I
think I forgot something outside, took his cake with him, and threw it
on the grass hahaha. Then I took mine with me to look for the same
thing, and threw it in their trash outside. Then escalante, who can be
a little dumb, took the cake, and another plate, and shoved it in the
front of his pants, walked outside to grab his change of clothes, and
put it in the car. And all this time, the sister of the persons house
we were at, was just casually eating the cake like nothing. It was a
quality time.

We also had zone conference, and of course I got called on to give the
first talk haha. It went well though. I just spoke on patience, which
is the ultimate character I need to have right now waiting for Mexico.
We also got to go to the Sacramento temple this week as well. It was
super nice there, lots of floral in that temple.
My sleep talking is happening more often too haha. Apparently I asked
soto at like 3 am if he was from Guatemala, then told him I'll explain
everything in the morning. Sleeping is always fun when you have me to
sleep talk.

Besides that all is well with me. Just here in limbo waiting for a
visa. I met an elder the other day, who has been here for 23 months
waiting for a visa to Brazil. Needless to say he's an English
missionary now. Fun week though.

Love you all!
 
 
 

The Character of Christ

So for Everyone that's been to the Mtc, you've probably already seen
the video, but somehow our president got the pdf, so if you want to
reread it, here it is!
For you that haven't, this is a super good talk by Bednar at the Mtc,
and it shows the characteristics of Christs love, and it's really
inspirational. It's like the Mtc famous video.
Enjoy!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Week 10

Bueno
 
 
So this week was good. We had exchanges this week, and escalante went
to another area, and we got elder baba with us for the day. He is from
Japan, and he was pretty cool. It's cool to have other people in our
area for the day.

We had a couple of miracles this week. The first is we had a super
good lesson with one of our families, and by the end of it they were
crying, because we were talking about families, and the dad has some
legal problems and might get sent back to El Salvador. They are a
super unified family, and it was a really good lesson. We invited to
be baptized, and they all said yes once they learn more.

Another is Saturday night, we just decided to knock on our neighbors
door to say what's up, and he let us in. He made us some chili beans,
and we talked about his family, because they have some problems, and
basically referred his sister in law to us! Then after all that
awesome, we watched the entire 1 hour restoration video with him, he
really enjoys talking about the church. Then yesterday he invited us
for dinner, so we had dinner with his family, and after they asked us
a bunch of questions about the church, and some of the questions of
the soul. We answered them with the Book of Mormon, to show him the
Book of Mormon has answers. Then a member of our ward came and talked
to him for a while, so we got some fellow shipping too. Our neighbors
are awesome haha.

Besides that our ward is getting better, and there's a little candle
under them now, but we're trying to throw some gas on there.
Definitely improving though.

Still no news on the visa sadly. Still hoping though haha. One day
it's going to happen, keep praying for me haha. Oh and we went to a
quinceaƱera on Saturday too haha. I'll put some pictures in.

Love you all!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Wednesday, November 4, 2015

A few more pics...





Week 9

Proverbs 24:10


So the longer I stay here in California, the more anxious i get for
Mexico. Just sitting here casually praying I get my visa before this
transfer is over. If I don't, then I guess I'll just keep on trucking
on.

So this week we ended up finally getting a new progressing
investigator... And he's our neighbor haha. So he can't run away from
us. On the second visit with him, he had read the first three chapters
of the Book of Mormon! It was awesome. It's nice to have someone
follow up on commitments. I feel like that's gonna be a huge problem,
finding people that can keep commitments. Oh well, all in time.

We have to drop our one person on baptism. Because he isn't keeping
commitments, and would rather play soccer on Sunday's. We will keep
visiting him every once in a while, but he's not progressing anymore.
We haven't had much else this week. Lots of bailing on lessons. We're
trying to be more on time, because twice this week we missed
appointments because we were late. People call us Mexicans. It's hard
to be on time always, but we're working on it. I hate being late, I
think that's something my dad taught me.

We had a miracle on Tuesday, we went to an expensive Peruvian
restaurant, and we just wanted to check the prices, and as we were
walking out, someone asked us if we had eaten, and we said no, so they
invited us to eat with them. They were super nice, and super cool. I
think I said thank you like 30 times I felt bad they paid for us haha.
Not much else has happened. Still just trying to find ways to pick up
new investigators, and keep my companions motivated. Let me know your
ideas!

And one of the days we had service at a catholic food bank, and they
gave us a ton of bread and some flowers, I'll put our gains in the
pictures.

Love you all, have a good week!