Week 41

Mi Cae Bien

This week fell me well.

No but seriously this week was good, we worked well, and we found some new people to teach, but they didnt go to church yesterday, so into the areabook they go.

 

Yesterday we woke up up at 530 am to go wake up a family, and when we got there they decided they didnt want to go and wanted to sleep.  It was really sad.  Its so sad to see people just denying the greatest blessings in the world and choose the "easy" way out and sleep.  That must be only a tiny bit of how God feels when we as his children decided not to follow him and do what we think is right, instead of following him.  I think God gives us trials like these as missionaries not only to humble us, but to teach us  for how the rest of life and the eternity will be.  Hopefully i get lucky like my parents and get super obedient children like myself and my brothers (hahahaha)

 

But besides that all that is interesting in santiago right now is theres a giant fair going on, and basically the entire city is there playing around, so it might be a slower week for street contacting.

Love you all!

Elder Hodson

 

 

Week 40

Miracles

 

Well this week was a week of miracles.  We have been working very well, and finding lots of new people to teach, but none of them wanted to progress, so we found them, but they refused to progress, so they died, and this has been an on going thing for us, but it finally changed.

 

This thursday we went and visited a Hermana thats been inactive for a long time, but we heard that she had family that wasnt member, so we went in with confidence, and well theyre not quite golden, but they are a great family, and theyre going to be golden.  The husband has a quite large problem with drinking, but the kids are very open and accepting, so if all works out we will be able to baptize the hermana´s kids, and were going to work a lot with the husband to try and work him off the achohol.  Luckily hes not a rude drunk, hes just funny.  But three weeks of finding and contacting finally paid off.

 

We also had miracles in my district.  Our district has had a reputation for not working well, but our numbers and people that came to church shot up this week, the sister missionaries are working better, the elders are still decent, but even they are getting a lot better.  They just needed a little push.  Its a good feeling to watch them progress.

 

I studied a lot about being a better leader, and what i learned was it comes down to loving like a mother loves her children.  I read the talk by Elder Holland about Mothers, and it hits me like a truck every time that i have the best momma out there, and her example is helping me progress here even though im not with her!(This wasnt just for brownie points i swear) haha.

Love you all, stay diligent, and give references to your missionaries, and feed them good food! Missionary work is fun

 

Elder Hodson

we bought matching socks, and turned suits inside out.  Eres mi vencio (youre my addiction)

 

 

Week 39

Humblings

This week was fairly slow.

But besides that it was a goodish week, it wont go down as my favorite, but we worked a bunch.  We did a ton of contacting in the streets, and out of those contacts we didnt manage to find people, but hopefully there were some seeds set for future reaping.

 

On tuesday we met a family from honduras, and i asked her how she liked mexico and all those types of questions. She taught me a nice little mini lesson there.  She talked about how she honestly never wants to go back to honduras because its miserable there, and just bagging on her own country, and us as missionaries sometimes think the place that we live in is a dump, but for other people its the best place for them.  Weve seen that a couple times, theres an older lady in the branch, that has a daughter that lives in utah, and wants the mom to go over there to utah, and live the "good life", but the older lady is comfortable in her house with no fans in the heat, and she is happy.  So theres my humbling lesson on things arent everything for the week.

 

We also did divisions this week, i went with elder Martin from  utah, hes a good kid, and hes been out for about 20 months now, and he lacks a little bit of energy, but we worked hard, and he had a happy day, so i think they were succesful divisions.

 

Thats about it, not much happened, just lots of contacting strangers.

 

Love you all!

 

waking up extra early for church is tiring.

 

 

 

Week 38

MacGyver

Wellll friends and family this was a good week, but dang was it long.  Just a little rundown on how our area and house and stuff was.  The last set of missionaries didnt work im pretty sure, and they left the house in a wreck.  So i got here on tuesday, and we have deep cleaned the house.  Scrubbed the toilets, shower, sinks, and everything you can think of.  Ive killed probably 80 spiders, and well just cleaned a lot.  The house didnt have a toilet seat, shower curtain, basically it wasnt a wreck.  So like 60$ later and a whole lot of being macgyver we now have a really sweet house.  We also got an air conditioner.  Basically were just gonna turn the whole house upside down.  On terms of area, its still slow, we found a bunch of new investigators, but on sunday no one showed up sadly.  But this week is going to be different.  Its a good area, its just hard with the 8 am church time.

We have a solid 20 or less active members, but theyre all super nice.  Our branch president wants to work hard as well, he is just very military and rubs some people wrong, but he let us borrow an airconditioner so i like him.

My companion and i get along super well, hes from chihuahua mexico.  Hes a good worker, and hes been out 10 months.  

My district is a little rough.  I have sister missionaries and a set of elders, but my district is known for not working, were the sack of potatoes, but im gonna flip that around this change.  

Im gaining a huge testimony of street contacts here, we find lots of people from just pure street contacts, so opening your mouth just works well here.  Its forcing me to not be quiet with strangers.

Getting whitewashed in an area like this is super fun hahahaha.  I love it here though, the river is beautiful, the area is more fun than my last, i love my comp, the food is better, its harder here, but whats a mission without a little bit of a challenge right?

 

 

Zone Conference Photo

Week 37

SANTIAGO DE LA PEÑA

 

Well friends and family the time has finally come for me to get out of vegas.  I didn´t think id ever make it out haha.

Im going to Santiago de la Peña in tuxpan as district leader.  I´m super excited, but a little bit nervous.  Its nice to have a responsibility now so thats pretty fun.  

My companion will be Elder Aguirr​e.  I think hes from the north of mexico, i met him one time, while he was secretary.  I think hes younger than me, but he got made secretary like 3 months out.  

My area from what Ive heard is fairly small, Ill be in a branch and the branch President has made a decent amount of his members go inactive, so hopefully we can help change the branch president.  Its exciting though.  My area is the river too, so i have to cross the river in a little boat every day.  Its like ghetto italy hahaha S/O to Mitchell.

 

But yeah thats my big change, im really excited, all you missionaries send me district class ideas, i dont know how to be district leader yet.

 

Besides that this week was good.  I got to see my momma and my pops, and that was awesome.  Its awesome to have good parents, and even better to see them after so long.

Im a little bit sad to say goodbye to my converts, but I´m glad to go to another area.  I've learned a lot from my converts and from the people here, but im ready for the next step.

 

Love you all!

Elder Hodson

1. My family. 2. Someone bought us hats. 3. I got krispy kremes smuggled in. 

 

Week 36

I LOVE MY MOMMA

I still have yet to talk to my mother (tomorrowww) but i definitely have the absolute best mom in the entire world, i dont think a mom could get better in the world.  Shout out to jan hodson for being the best mom a son could ever ask for.  I cant wait to talk to her tomorrow and see my family!  Basically that is all, pictures later.  If anyone wants to have a best mom contest write me a letter, ill win!