WEEK 32- Baptism and a wedding

Aloha!!!!! this was the chillest Christmas of my life!!!! I was like where is the schedule? I was saying how I missed all the aunts hustling and bustling us around from activity to activity and I missed Stephanie's home-made caramel........Then I got a package in the mail from them with the caramels!!!!!!!!!!! what?! it was so awesome! thanks steph!. I kinda  miss real Christmas! But it has some cool things as a missionary too.

we got transfer news! Sister P and I are staying here together another transfer! that is so against all odds! but we know that we are both staying for a reason. We know that there is a lot of work to be done here.

“I” got baptized this week! He was so ready. His little daughter was with him, and while he was getting dressed we walked her over to see the font. We explained how her dad would go down in the water and get baptized. she was like "Daddy's going to be a mermaid?".......  . After He was baptized, he got dressed and then he came up to share his testimony. About a month ago he was totally lost. He had no purpose in his life. He has come so far from that day. It has been amazing to see the change. Now he has a family in the ward, now he knows what he wants to do with his life. He feels more at peace, and more in control of his anger. He is really a miracle!

We also got to see a wedding this week. Two of the ward members tied the knot at our ward mission leaders home! It was so beautiful. They are planning on the temple next year! They had both been married before and together they have a total of 9 kids. They are so meant to be together! All of the bridesmaids (their daughters) and the groomsmen (sons) were dressed in blue aloha print and the whole thing was just lovely! We love their family.

We went on exchanges again this week. Sister T joined me up here. She is serving in Kona. We had a blast! We always learn a lot on exchanges.

MOMMY QUESTIONS:

My most difficult moment on my mission:

I'd probablly have to say, there wasn't just one moment, but some reoccurring themes.

-Inadequacy- feeling like I can't do this work well enough. Feeling like I should be perfect but not being able to achieve that

-Disagreements- It is hard when you and the person that you need to be with 24/7 disagree on something. whether it is obedience level, what to do when an unexpected event comes up, etc. Communication is so key!!! and Charity. If you are both praying for charity, then the Lord will help you to find compromises. If you really are trying to develop a love for that person, the Lord will help.

And during all of my toughest times, when I can't stand it anymore, I just kneel. PRAYER WORKS!!!! in fact, I'm fairly convinced that it's the only thing that does:) Heavenly Father LOVES YOU!!!! He loves all of us. If we just turn to Him, we can find all of the peace that we need.

My thoughts on Christmas:

I am so grateful that Jesus Christ gave himself as the best gift of all. He was born, so that He could give His life for all of us. That was His purpose. To give, serve, love and set the perfect example for all of us. That's why Christmas is about giving, serving, and loving. And when we don't have the best day ever, when we don't get everything right, when we need a friend He is right there for us- to love us. That is the best Christmas gift of all.

 Much love and aloha!

-Sister Hodgson

WEEK 31- HO HO HO Merry Christmas!

Our district of missionaries has sis p and myself, and two elders. Elder Hill, and Elder Merril came up with our district name. It's Hill, Hill, Hodge, Merri Pantsmas! like ho, ho, ho, merry Christmas....but with our names in it....yup they're pretty clever! we love it!

Well, skyping was pretty much the greatest thing ever ever ever ever! I so loved that!! I could have stayed on all day!.....but you probablly would have gotten hungry and I'd have to pee............... true story. But I loved every second that we did have! That's what Christmas is about: Family. and Christ, evidently.... because it's named after Him:)

Well this week was wonderful! We baked choke cookies yesterday with the zone, and our dinners for the past two nights have been Christmas parties. We watched a three year old do a hula- that was SO cute!

I ate raw fish this week!! Me no likey..... but fortunately, my companion does! so she took my plate to get me more rice, and she took it for me! hallelujah! I so love her!

We get to watch a movie this week for Christmas! We get to watch Ephriam's rescue! we're excited!

Well, this week is gunna be short, because I blabbed on about all the good stuff for like an hour already, but I'll just end with my testimony:

I know that Jesus Christ was sent to this earth to set a perfect example for all of us, and to perform the atonement. I know that because He atoned for all of us, He has provided a way for us to repent and become better. I know that He also knows exactly how we feel, and can succor us perfectly. He will be our best friend if we will let Him in. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father loved us so much, that He provided a way for us to get back to live with Him again. I know, without a doubt, that He hears and answers our prayers. He loves us, and He wants us to be happy. So if we feel disheartened, if things don't turn out the way we want them to, if we feel lonely, or depressed, we can just ask Him to help us to feel the joy of His love. He will bless us with the love and peace that we seek.

Mele Kalikimaka!

love, Sister Hodgson

WEEK 30 -Christmas parties

      Well, this week was significantly less eventful than last week.

On tuesday, we had our district meeting/service out at the lindsey's ranch. we practiced teaching the plan of salvation and then we went out and pulled a BUNCH of fire weed. Then we went on exchanges. The sister trainer came up here to waimea and spent tuesday night and all day wednesday with me. It was really neat! she taught me a lot.

        We also went to the hospital and helped them take the end of the year supply inventory. that was super fun! we counted like a bajillion tongue depressors and bandages!

        Then sister P got sick, so we had to spend about a day and a half in the pad. We did a lot of planning, paper work and missionary work over the phone. she is feeling much better now though!

        Okay and  funny story, one of the elders called and was like "hey sisters what are we doing on pday?" and I was like "hiking!" and he was like "oh cool! which hike?" I laughed and said "we're not hiking!" "but I thought you just said we were hiking..." "I was lying. This zone is never hiking ever again!" he was like "aw man!....why not?" elders are so thick sometimes!!! ummm does he not remember what happened the last two times we went hiking!? needless to say, we're picking a different activity for the next few weeks.

      We had our ward Christmas party......santa was hawaiian:) super cute. all the little kids loved it when he came! then the next night we went to the waikoloa ward Christmas party and their santa was so legit! so we took a picture with him.

oh and p.s. we found out that we can skype our families for Christmas!!!

sorry this is so short....that's all i got for this week.

I love you a bunch and I can't wait to skype you family!!!!!!!!!!!!!

love, Sister Hodgson

WEEK 29 - two great baptisms and "get off my porch!"

Well this week was all kinds of stressful and exciting! for starters, last Monday, we went on a hike! Right from the start, we could see that a particular elder was lagging behind the group. He seemed to be having a difficult time navigating the rugged terrain. As we hiked on, he started to seem a bit tired and out of breath as well. Some of the group kept marching on at the normal pace but some of us slowed down to walk with him. so the group kind of split into two parties. Eventually, everyone had gone on ahead except for one other sister and me. We were walking with this sweet elder, and he was exhausted! As our party of three kept pressing forward, the trail became steeper. Finally, regretful complaints began to slip out of this elder's mouth. He vowed in complete exhaustion "I will never go hiking again! I hate hiking!". He was on the verge of tears. His steps became shaky, and as he stepped across some old stumps his body finally gave in. His legs buckled and he collapsed, slipping partially off the edge of the stump. He began to cry. I rushed up in front of him, and The other sister came up behind him. We helped him to sit back up on the stump, and unwedge his leg from the ditch. It came up scratched and dirty. We did our best to comfort him and distract him from the pain. Pretty soon after, some other hikers came up the trail. we asked them if they would be willing to let the people at the top know that we had an injury. they said they would, and a few minutes later the elders came running down the hill. they gave him a blessing- we didn't have oil but they just proceeded without it. he was fine and was able to finish to the end of the hike, and make the hike back. What a blessing.

okay so we also had out zone conference this week! President and sister warner and the assistant to the president flew in Friday morning. it was so good to see them all again! that's one thing I miss about living in oahu. We learned so much in the conference and it went really well.

 Then we had to quickly set up for Lahi's baptism right afterwards. She was so ready to be baptized. it was wonderful to see her receive that ordinance. After she came out of the water she was crying and we went back behind the font and she gave me a big wet hug. I was so happy for her. Then, the next morning we came back and refilled the font for Christian's baptism! He was so happy and a lot of his friends gave the talks and prayers.

On Sunday Lahi and Christian were confirmed. then bishop had them stand and everyone welcomed the two of them into the ward. then he asked just Christian to stand. Bishop said that he had interviewed him and found him worthy to recieve the Aaronic priesthood!!!! and the whole ward sustained him in that. It was so amazing to see him be ordained to the office of priest, and he was so smiley afterwards! he is such a great kid and we are so proud of him.

 

 

So last night we had quite the surprise. I woke up to hear my companion talking in the other room......and then I heard a man's voice! I looked at the clock and saw that it was 1:40 am! I was thinking "what is going on?". SO I went out to the front room and she introduced me to a very drunk man. He asked me (just like he had asked her) to bear my testimony. so there I am in my pajamas- half asleep- bearing my testimony to some drunk guy. and he insulted like everything that I said! then he told us all about how our church focuses on money and not Jesus......ummm that's strange...then why is it called the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints?.... Then he opened up his beer and flicked beer on my companion. He proceeded to ask us what our favorite hymns were and graced us with an awful rendition of "I stand all amazed", commanding us to join in with him. So, it's like 1:50 in the morning and a drunk man on our porch is commanding us to sing for him......and i was just thinking "get off our porch!". I was also kind of afraid of him because he was NOT mentally stable.   Then he saw a car and started freaking out on us asking if we had called the police. He also asked for keys to the church. Sis p lied and was like "we don't have any"......totally the kind of lie that is acceptable!!!! He shared his "testimony" with us and then we thanked him and said "see you later!" and he was like "I'm not done yet!" and i was just thinking "Dude! get off our porch!!!!" SO, he went on to insult the way we and our house smelled. and he looked at me and was like "I'm sorry you're so short!" and I was like "I'm not"............subtext: get off our porch........... then he GRABBED my companion by the wrist and yanked her hand towards him and was like "oh....I thought you had blue nail polish." by this time I was just shaking. I prayed in my head "please get this man off our porch!" and finally, after a few more minutes, we were able to wind it up and he left! sister p and I went back to our room. Apparently I was more scared than I even thought because by now I was violently shaking. I was just so shocked by the whole thing and it was so early! It didn't even seem real. We stayed awake for another half hour or so to let the adrenalin work through our bodies. We decided that if he came back, we wouldn't answer the door- we would just call the elders. Then sister p got her knife and I got my pepper spray and we went to bed. He never came back but it was still just so weird. I later found out that the reason sister p had opened the door in the first place, was she heard the knocking and she heard the guy shout "hey" and he sounded like one of the elders........yikes.

Okay, one more story. Today we went on a hike to waipio valley. We hiked for an hour and a half in. It was a very intense hike! We had to climb across a lot of jagged boulders and across a lot of streams. We had called and gotten the hike approved by president. They told him the water would be chest high, and he just said to be careful. well, my question is "chest high on who!!!" because there was totally a part where I couldn't touch the bottom at all!!!! but i've heard from some that I am a little shorter than the average person, so that might explain things a bit. Well, when we got to the end we enjoyed looking up at the beautiful walls of the valley and all the waterfalls pouring down from outrageous heights! Then not even 5 minutes into our trek back, a loud scream broke out from behind me! I turned around to find the same elder who had struggled on last week's hike. He had fallen again but this time was much worse! One of the elders unwedged his leg from the rock it was stuck behind only to find that he had dislocated his knee. his knee cap was on the side of his leg and he was just screaming! I was trying my best to keep him calm and reassure him that everything would be okay. The elders annointed his head with oil and gave him a blessing. then Sister P came and said that we had to pop his knee back in. So the elders gave him a stick to bite on and sister p popped his knee back in place. It helped to relieve the pain, but he still wasn't able to walk very well. We started off our long journey back with him piggy backing on another elder. that didn't last too long. Then they switched to having him walk, propped up by two elders. so he limped along hour after hour, crawling down steep hills, over sharp rocks and across slippery river beds. It was a team effort! everyone helped him! we developed a lot of zone unity! it was quite the struggle, but the strong elders surrounded him and lifted him up and supported him every step of the way. A miraculous 4 hours later, we reached the truck and drove him up and out of the valley. If he couldn't have walked, we would have had to call a helicopter to get him out. We are so grateful for prayers and the power of the priesthood.

The elder can't move much now, so he'll probably be staying the night here at the church on the couch. hopefully he gets to feeling better soon.

love you all!

-Sister Hodgson

WEEK 28- Thanksgiving and Football

haha so the story lives on...I was talking with a new sister in the zone and the hon-west hanging story came up and she was like "no way! that was you?" and I was like "you had heard about that before?" and she was like "ya,...but like everyone knows....news spreads fast in a small mission"   

We taught the law of Chastity to C last week. He's 18 years old and we really wanted to help him to understand why this teaching  is important to us. We had one of C's best friends there (who is a  member of our ward ) and we ask him to share his testimony on the law of chastity. He was like "dude, it's so good, because when you look at a girl, you don't want to look at her like a piece of meat. You want to look at her like a woman, like a daughter of God. so.... ya." Great testimony!!!!! We can say whatever we want but it is so much better to just have his friend share how it has blessed him!

So, Thanksgiving was this week! We were told to not proselyte all day....so people could just have their family time. We were invited over to Hawea's house (W in Hawaiian is pronounced like a V, so it sounds like Haveya) Hawea is our ward mission leader's daughter. She has three kids, ages 12, 10 and 6 I think. Hawea invited us over to bake pies all morning so that was fun!

Then we went and had a missionary turkey bowl! and played some Frisbee and rugby. My companion taught all of the sisters to do a "line out". it's that thing in rugby where they lift up someone and that person up in the air catches the ball.. I was the one they lifted. it was super funny. it took us forever to get it right but we did do it and catch the ball successfully once:) then we were all ready for thanksgiving dinner!! We went to our ward mission leader's house and helped them to take family photos. Our ward mission leader and his wife have like 7 kids and they are all grown, most of them married with a few kids, so it was crazy!!!! They have a huge house though. It was really fun to be a part of their family for thanksgiving. The food was delicious and we just felt so at home watching all of the little cousins chasing each other around and everyone passing around plates of pie and laughing and chatting. It was nice. After dinner, we went back to the church and played a bit of volley ball then played murder in the dark again.  we have a great zone!

On Saturday, we had a tri-ward turkey bowl. It was so much fun!!!!!!!!! the team I was on was led by JR(not junior, but jay-are). so we called ourselves the jaredites:) there was another team captian named nephi....needless to say they were the nephites:) Our team actually did really well!! We won five out of the seven games that we played! it was soooooooo much fun!!! I love football! during one of the games, a tall guy from the other team, named matt, rushed at our QB so I ran at him to block him but he jumped up and hit the ball down, and when he came down he landed with his elbow right on my forhead and then fell into me and we both got knocked over. So there I was lying on the ground in the grass, looking up at the bright sun holding my forhead....once again! haha just my luck!! kept asking me if I was okay. I told him I was fine, and the best part was that apparently he had hit the ball right back into the QBs arms and then the QB threw it right to JR and he ran and got super far! awesome!! but I missed the whole thing! haha I love football

We were super sore the next day haha!

uh oh.............the tsunami siren is going off.........................well....this is awkward....................ummmmm..................okay it just stopped......... oh, so they usually test it on the first of the month but they tested it today, presumably because yesterday was a Sunday.

okay, so question time:

what does a NORMAL Pday look like now a days?? Wake up.....clean the house, car, etc. do some laundry, maybe some exercise, and then we email and hang out with the zone!! Usually rugby and some letter writing. Then we shower get ready and head out to work at 6:00. It’s just cruise day!!!!!!!!!!

How do you see/use play theory in your mission?

haha when you go into a lesson, but you and your companion didn't discuss what you will be teaching you just try and "yes and" what ever they say...... Also, we have to "let go and play" when plans change or when you say something dumb...you can't dwell on it, but you just have to "let go and PRAY" so that you are more focused on what the Lord wants you to say instead of focusing on yourself....so that's looking outward too... it's all about helping the person you are teaching. They say all the time that we "teach people, not lessons" it's not about getting through the material; it's about inviting and helping others to come unto Christ. We have to be "100% present" when we are teaching and not focus on "I wonder what we are going to have for lunch?" we have to have our thoughts be centered on helping the person we are teaching.


well, I guess that's it for this week:)

love you all a bunch!

love, Sister Hodgson!