Week 46

Solid

Another week down, but not quite as good of a result as last week.  Sadly our mega family didnt go to church this week. Apparently one of their nephews got kidnapped, so they couldnt go because of that.  Also our branch president ended up trying to help with the family, but he might of ruined our chance with them, but were gonna see what happens.

On good news we are going to baptize on saturday!  Our investigator had his interview yesterday and all went well!  Hes almost 16 years old, but hes been living with a member family for a little while, and hes super excited, it was honestly super easy teaching him, and its been fun.  

 

Not much else news wise.  A decent amount of pictures though.  We went and saw the beach this morning at like 5 am, but of course there were clouds, its definitely not a california beach haha, but it was still awesome!

 

Love you all!

 

 

Week 45

Puente Don Diego

I think after the success we have had in a little pueblo called puente don diego im renaming our area from santiago de la peña to don diego.

This sunday was a huge miracle.  On friday we met a new family of about 15 people in don diego.  I was in divisions with another gringo, and we just for some reason decided to walk to the farthest house to start contacting, and we talked to a kid in the street and said there was nothing but one more house, so we turned around to walk away, but we heard someone call out to us, so we turned around and went to their house, and weve just had miracle after miracle with them.  Our little branch has been an amazing support with them so far, and they absolutely loved church.  We  have a huge opportunity with them, and we have tons of work to do in don diego, so im very excited for this change.  

 

Its amazing being able to teach in a little pueblo where no one has any bad thoughts about the church, and they can just listen with an open mind and be able to accept the gospel.  

 

Dont have much of an explanation for my pictures, just enjoy them.

 

 

Week 44

AMERICUUUUUUUUH

 

Well it is the birthday of my country, and with that i am very happy.  Sadly im here in mexico, and i have no other gringos in my district, and there is only 3 of us here in the zone, so ill just casually sing im proud to be an american in my head.  For all of you at home, enjoy fireworks, and the right to own a gun.

 

This week was good!  We had 5 investigadors yesterday at church, and im pretty sure thats a record for santiago, so if all goes well we should have a decent amount of baptisms this change, so thats exciting.  My companion is Elder Chavez, slightly odd, but hes a good kid.  Hes from DF mexico, and he is a chilango.  Hes a good kid, and we work well together, so hopefully all goes well.

This week we worked in a little pueblo called don diego, and we found lots of people that love to listen to us, so we should have some success in there, but they are very humble people, and once again, husbands almost dont exist there.  But were going to keep our eyes out and contact every man that we see haha, this branch desperately needs priesthood, and a new branch president, so were gonna work on that.

 

Thats about all there is for this week, it was a fairly normal week, but im loving the mission and its always the best here!

 

Love 

Elder Hodson

 

 

 

 

 

Week 43

Changes

 

Well another six weeks down and another change in the book.  And with changes brings change.  Who wouldve guessed.  

Haha but not much is changing with me.  Im staying here in santiago de la peña for another change as district leader.  My companion is going to tenechako (its a neighboring ward) hes moving basically from canyon gate ward to monte cristo ward haha.  Same stake and hes still in my district, so we can do divisions when we miss each other.  

my new companion is Elder Chavez, no idea who he is, but i think he is newish, so Thats actually gonna be nice, its nice to have newer companions because they like to work, and that helps me a lot.

This week feels like it didnt actually happen, not quite sure why, but it flew by.  We have a new family in our small little branch, so now we will be a solid 24 members that are active, so thats exciting.  Hopefully they make the new dad the new branch president, it would help the branch a lot, ill see if i cant pull any strings.

 

We taught primary yesterday and we asked the question to a little kid "if one of your friends tells you a lie about your mom what would you do?" then the kid said "i would ask my mom if it were true or not" needless to say we laughed a lot, i would also like ot teach primary one day.

  On good news, my converts from Poza Rica (the older couple) Are now senior couple missionaries, so thats cool.

 

I was listening to the priesthood session of conference this morning, and it hit me how much worthy men and fathers are being talked about.  Its something that i see a large lack of here in these areas that ive been in here.  We as men have a huge responsibility with the priesthood, and its something that should be used and not just kept away for an emergency.  Its like a muscle that we need to work on, and not just leave to die.

 

Love you all, 

Elder Hodson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 42

FELIZ DIA DEl PADRE

 

Well Fathers day was yesterday, so happy fathers day to the best dad, and probably the craziest dad in the world too haha!  Never have i met a man so wise, but at the same time do some of the silliest things, maybe thats a trick to life. But in reality I have the best dad in the world, and Theres no other man i would rather have for my dad.  Hes the man, and derrick will always be the man.

Also happy fathers day to all you other dads out there, and to my bro in law aaron for being a good husband to my awesome sis chels, my only sibling that writes me, and a good dad to milo and reese, my twins.

This week was good.  Not much to talk about, just keeping on working.  Its raining like crazy here.  We did divisions on friday, and it was good to be in another area, its a good change every once in a while.  Weve decided to start working in the ranchos here.  Theres some beautiful areas, theyre just like 45 minutes from the church building, but the people are humble so it should have some fruit out there.

 

On the note of humility i had a nice little humbling experience yesterday.  I was taking down sacrament with a recent convert, and he poured out the sacrament cups we didnt use, and started to dry them off, to be able to reuse them.  I said to him just throw them away, but he kept going, so i put my pride away, and i helped clean off those tiny little sacrament cups.  That little act was a sign of how sacred this kinds of things are for the people that sacrifice so much to be in this church.  

Love you all! be happy.

Elder Hodson

 

 

 

 

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)