Week 61- Chocolate chip cookies

Aloha!

I don't really remember what we did this week....it seems like every week just smears together and I have all these great things to share but I don't know if I already shared them or not..... But I am journaling every day and in December we can read through a more detailed overview of my mission.

We are working with some part member families. In both cases it is the wife who isnt a member. Both are doing well. one of them has been living the word of wisdom (although her husband, who is a member but not enjoying the blessings of the gospel fully, is not) and she told us that she has been doing really well! She told us that her husband is even supporting her. she said with out thinking, she asked to try his hard lemonade and right before she took a sip, her drunk husband hit the glass out of her hands and shouted "you can't drink that!!!" so he spilled the lemonade all over her!  gotta love the spousal support:)

It sounds like sis Oh will go back to the VC and I'll stay here. I am kinda excited....but kinda ready to have a new area. we have knocked on like every door in this town......I feel like belle in the beauty and the beast singing "there goes the baker with his tray like always- the same old bread and rolls to sell. every morning just the same since the morning that we came to this poor provincial town" etc...

but im singing "there goes the hobo with his dog like always.... and there goes jim our stalker friend..." haha. but I know that if I stay it is for a reason and it is just up to me to find out what that reason is. Heavenly Father puts all of His missionaries where they need to be!

We got to go to the temple this week!! yay temple trip Tuesday!! and something really special was that president and sister warner came to our session! it was so great to see them again! now we are emailing in the library at BYU Hawaii campus, then we will go to the PCC again! woo hoo! oh and for the first time we got to have a tour of the visitors center!! President wants us to know what is going on in there so we can recommend people to come and see from experience! It was so great! I loved the family video! we'll have to watch it when we go to Hawaii together:)

Probably the happiest part of the week was our friend A. He is working to come back to the church. he's been less active for most of his youth/young adulthood. so he is the older end of YSA now so we work with him and the YSA elders work with him. this week he told us that he had been praying morning and night like the elders invited him to do and he had been focusing on being grateful, like we invited him to do (after reading pres. utchdorf's talk). He said that he felt so much happier!!!! and he met with his bishop and is doing all the right things to get back on track!!! we are so happy for him!!!!there is so much joy in helping someone work towards the the temple! that's really all that we do as missionaries. sometimes it seems like we are trying to help people to work towards baptism.....but the reason that we even care about that is because we want  to be baptized to eventually go to the temple! and we need to go to the temple to make those promises to God and to learn and to receive all of the blessings that He has in store for us!!

it is so important!!!

One of our little blessings this week was the chocolate chip cookie miracle:

siter Oh and I had one of those days that just felt kind of unsuccessful  and we were talking about who was having us over for dinner tonight and we said "you know what would be really nice? a salad....and a cheesy pasta.... and bread" just getting fancy with our wishes...then in my head I thought "and chocolate chip cookies!!!"  I just laughed to myself and thought "I know that Heavenly Father loves us .....I don't need to be so selfish and picky in how I want Him to bless us. let's not be childish" so I just offered a silent prayer of gratitude to Heavenly Father for all that He has blessed us with. So then we went to dinner and guess what they were serving? okay don't guess, I'll just tell you- salad and pasta with cheese and bread and.....drum roll please.....chocolate chip cookies!!! And I know that it seems like such a silly little thing, but it was Heavenly Father's way of telling us that He was so aware of us , and even our simple wants and wishes.

We are His precious children! He knows that things we hope for (big and small). and He love us! Tell everyone that!!!! That is what missionary work is- telling people of God's love. He loves all of His children so much and He wants us all to have joy and to one day be able to return and live with Him.

I am so grateful that He always gives us little miracles and reminders of His love. Keep an eye out for the little miracles He will give to you today, and everyday. and let us always remember to thank Him too.

aloha nui loa!

-Sister Hodgson

Week 60- always get a day pass and I need new shoes

Rachel is so “immersed “ in Hawaii and trying hard to keep the “time on the computer” rules….so I have begun to ask a few questions…

                                           

A few mommy questions: ( skip if you want)

 Describe  your  Area-

our area is one 2 parts military, two parts very low income housing, one part nice appartments (thats where we live) and one part local kine Hawaiian roots people. mostly small houses in the low income area....like really small. it's definitely been eye opening. lots of Filipino and chukeese and Pompeian live in the low income housing. there are not too many members in the area so we did a lot of tracting. we've pretty much tracted the whole area that we can tract.  Most people are very nice to us.

More companion info besides awesome and really sweet??/

she came out a year ago, and shes due to go back to the vc in two weeks but who knows. some vc sisters say we're nice, some say scary. depends on your experiences. some full field sisters say the vc sisters dont have to work as hard. but i love both kinds of sisters. language is great! she learns quickly. and she is teaching me some korean:)

what are you studying in your scriptures?

just about to start the doctrine and covenants.....gulp....you know what that means….. but im reading nt and bom right now. love the wars in alma, just started helaman. and im in john in the nt

what do your Pdays look like?

email as fast as i can, shop clean house, write letters. our activity week this transfer is next week!! woo hoo!

when you drive in the car do you sing?

all the time!! mo tab ye elders of isreal:) we changed the second verse from "the harvest is great and the laborers are few" to "the elders are great and the sisters are few" haha

 Aloha!

 tuesday night was exciting! we went to go and get our day pass and get on base, but i missed the turn so we pulled in at the next gate (a gate that cant give day passes) and we asked if we could just make a u turn. the guy was like "wait I know you. you're fine, just go in" .....no day pass....no ids....nothing........and he just let us on base! crazy! so we kind of felt like vips but we kinda felt bad. so afterwards we drove over to the other gate to head so so we could get our passes on the way out and come in and out all day…. so we were about to leave base and there was a huge line of cars to get off base. we were like "what's going on?" then we saw guards checking cars and I was like "oh no!!! we don't have a day pass and they are inspecting everyone's cars!!! they never do this.....but the one day we didn't get a day pass ............" anyway, it turns out they just wanted to check in our trunk. i was like "we have scriptures and water?" he looked in and said "no thats not what we're looking for" we were like "hmmm...what are they looking for?" in the course of getting our day pass we found out that there was a missing child on base. a 6 year old girl. While we waited in line to exit the base again we prayed for her and her family. then a few minutes later, all the cars in the line started going off base with no one checking trunks. we asked the guard "did they find her?" they did!!!!!!!! woohoo so that was an exciting adventure….and we are so glad that the little girl is safe!

this week we had another really local hawaiian dinner- the rice, raw fish etc and I just ate it. I was like "woah! what's happened to me? old me could never do this!" but i guess we just get used to it. I still dont like it, but it's easier to eat now. haha

we had another car fast on friday..........I think we spent like 7 hours just walking. our area is so long!!!!!!!!! we were so sore that night we could barely walk around the apartment....and I broke my shoes....nice feet huh?  so we started crawling....then just dragging ourselves across the floor...like little caterpillars:) then we just felt ridiculous so we laid on the floor and laughed till we had enough strength to walk again. It was a great exercise day though!

also, on sunday a kind of very very strange guy came to the chapel. he was acting kinda crazy and weird. anyway, everyone was trying welcome him and help him but he didnt want it. Sister Oh and I went outside to make a phone call and while I was leaving a message this guy walked outside, right past us and swore........ I was super surprised and thinking "he just swore in my voice mail!" so I stuttered through the rest of the message and hung up.

we had a little miracle this week. we were looking through the ward list to see who we could visit and one lady stood out to us....but we thought "no we've visited her before, she wasn't very receptive" so we picked another lady and planned to visit her. when we got to her house we were like "this is the same house as that other lady who wasn't very receptive!" it was a mother and daughter but they both had different last names! we were like "well I guess we’re supposed to see them today!" as we talked with the two ladies, we found out that they had been baptized only a few months ago. they haven't been coming to church, probably in part because they don't know too much about it. they are so new! and when people get baptized, the missionaries usually come over afterwards and teach them more and help them to feel welcome. but no one knew that they had just been baptized because they were baptized on the mainland and then came back here to Hawaii. But Heavenly Father knew that they had recently been baptized. He knew that they needed to be visited, and He brought us there. It is always amazing to see that He can help us to accomplish so much more good than we ever could on our own. This is His work. These are His children, and we are His servants.

I love this work! I love being a missionary!

love, Sister Hodgson

                                                   

Week 59- independence day and someone proposed to my comp!!

ALOHA!

 At the MLC ( mission leadership council)  meeting last Monday one of the elders said "being on a mission is hard......and that might be an understatement"…. and I was thinking "that is true at times...but right now I am really having fun" then came the most unproductive  week of my whole entire mission. haha. good timing life. So Monday was the meeting, then Tuesday was our preparation day, then Wednesday and Thursday pretty much everyone that we visited wasn't home and it was "just one of those days".....twice in a row. Friday, we had a long district meeting...then we had to stop proselyting at 5 because it was the 4th of july! we worked normally on Saturday and Sunday but boy it just seemed like one of those unsuccessful weeks. but hey, how bad can it be when you're in Hawaii:)

So Wednesday, we went to a YSA game night with some of our less active members and they both came!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was great to see them there…great peeps.   Also, during the socializing, I was talking to one of the members, and this guys started talking to my companion. Afterwards we talked about that guy, and apparently he was an almost 50 year old, father of 5 kids and, get this, he told her that he will propose to her after her mission!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha he asked for her address back home, but she told him that when she returns home, she'll go back to school.............to which he informed her that he can wait four years:) haha gotta love it.

Independence day was AWESOME! We got together as a zone  and the elders prepared a giant barbecue! We had pizza hot dogs and played ukelele and some of the elders had wrestling matches. Then we played a bunch of games and just had a blast. We saw a few fireworks from where we were and we would all cheer and shout. then the elders started bobbing for soda cans in a large pot of ice water......boys...........then they dumped the ice water on an elder. the best part was that he asked for them to do it but it was funny.....silly boys!

Sister Oh and I have been discussing what we can do better in our missionary work, and one thing that we decided was that we need to have more faith! look at the 2,000 stripling warriors! "Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them." "And now, their preservation was astonishing to our whole army, yea, that they should be spared while there was a thousand of our brethren who were slain. And we do justly ascribe it to the miraculous power of God, because of their exceeding faith in that which they had been taught to believe—that there was a just God, and whosoever did not doubt, that they should be preserved by his marvelous power. Now this was the faith of these of whom I have spoken; they are young, and their minds are firm, and they do put their trust in God continually." (alma 57)

They saw MIRACLES because of their faith. I know that all of us can and will see miracle in our lives as we have more faith in Christ.

love, Sister Hodgson

Week 58- service and the secret pizza meeting

Well, last week we helped a sweet lady move all of her sister's stuff into a storage unit. that was really fun. 6 elders came to help too and they were awesome! We loaded all of the stuff into the moving van then drove to the storage facility then unloaded all the stuff onto carts then rolled it to her storage place then we made a line to pass the boxes from the cart, into her storage room, then up to an elder on a ladder who stacked the boxes super high! It must have been at least 11 ft high!

We were teaching a young man this week who wants to strengthen his relationship with God, and wants to do good things but just said that he has a hard time getting the motivation to do it. We had planned to talk about the scriptures but while we were meeting with him, we had this feeling, "talk about the temple". I was like "but we're talking about the scriptures and that doesn't even make sense!" Then again "ask him if he's been to the temple". So we asked and began a discussion about the temple and the blessings of the temple. He shared that he really wants to go to the temple but it seems like such a big goal. So we helped him set a "baby step" goal, that would get him back on track to prepare to go there. He seemed really happy about that and it was neat to see and feel again that we don't know what these people need, but the Lord does!

On Saturday, we had interviews with President Warner which is always fantastic! The Sister training leaders check everyone's area book and planner for organization and to see how well they are planning, etc. so that took a long time. Then we had interviews with president. IN my interview he asked me "Sister Hodgson, how long have you been out?" "13 months" "what have you learned on your mission?" I told him that I was learning so much, but one thing in particular was that "the best I can do is the best I can do" The Lord doesn't expect more than that- but He does expect the best that we can do. I am so grateful that, weaknesses and all, Heavenly Father allows me to participate in this work. I am so grateful that He isn't looking for perfect missionaries! And I am also grateful that Christ can take imperfect people like us and help us to accomplish great things as we rely on Him.

On Monday we got to go to MLC (Missionary Leadership Council).....which sister Oh and I had always referred to as the "Secret pizza meeting" haha...just because they always have pizza for lunch and not everyone gets to go. so it was "secret" and it's a meeting and there is pizza..... ya you get it. So this was our first time to actually get to go to MLC. We woke up at 4:45, got ready, then drove to honolulu to pick some other sisters up from the airport. Then we drove to the meeting. It was so neat! Because we got to represent our zone of missionaries as we discussed changes to be made in the mission, and things that we needed to learn to be better missionaries.( it was also really cool to see old buddies that I miss) 

It was really amazing to see as we discussed changes we didn't come to an agreement on specifics for a very long time, but finally someone made a suggestion and it was right! We all felt that it was right! This is not our missionary work, but it is the Lord's missionary work, and we can feel when something is pleasing to Him. So the changes were made! the meeting was super long though! and we got stuck in traffic on the way home. so we didn't make it back till almost 7:00pm! And Yes, the pizza was delicious!

Well, it's great to be here. I love it! but I miss you all too!

love, Sister Hodgson