Week 65- time flies!!

So sorry that last week's was so rushed! I didn't even get to talk about amazing book of Mormon reader. Okay so he came to church yesterday! yay! He just told his boss that he needed to have Sunday mornings off so he could go to church. SO we had a lesson with him this week and talked about the plan of salvation. He said that he loves everything that he is learning and it all fits perfectly with the things that he already felt in his heart. Last time that we had a lesson with him he said he was in ALMA 20. and this time he said he was in ALMA 43. and I was thinking "Ok, slowing down, only 23 chapters this week?" then I was like "wait, he still read 23 chapters!!! that's awesome!" then he told us "ya I wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing anything so I started back at the beginning and read to alma 43" WHAT!? so he didn’t just read 23 chapters.....he read the whole book over again up till alma!!!! Amazing! he said he read for 8 hours straight once. He says he's watching the countdown at the bottom of the page till the Savior comes and he's always cheering for captain moroni and he's like "is he going to be okay?!" haha. so good!

This week we had zone conference and Elder Reis from the district videos came and gave us a training on how to plan. It was awesome! He taught us to really focus on the way that the brethren have intended us to plan. One of his assistants talked about not just planning to do "missionary things" but planning to do what the Savior would be doing. It was super good! Sister Warner talked about integrity and President Warner talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We also had a fireside in Laie last night. All of the missionaries on this island got to come and hear Vai Seka hema speak. He was the first tongan drafted into the NFL. He is currently a stake president somewhere on the mainland. But he was so funny and inspirational and just talked about how the things that we learn on our mission will bless us for the rest of our life (and not just the spiritual things, but like speaking and time management and everything!) It was super good! And the view on the drive was breath taking...gotta love the islands!!

We met with a less active mother and her adult daughter who maybe forgot a little bit about living the word of wisdom haha.....so we taught them about the word of wisdom and helped them to set goals for that  I love their faith and willingness to be obedient.

On an much less spiritual and much less mature note : this past week or so there have been HUGE swarms of gnats hanging out in Wahiawa.......in case you have never had the pleasure of walking through huge swarms of gnats, I'll just tell you it is extremely unpleasant. We try to act as normal as possible in public....we just fan our faces, squint our eyes and don't breathe....but when we get back in the car i'm like "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" i have one in my eye!!!! And we pick them out of each other’s hair and stuff..........it''s so gross!!!

Our ward is so awesome and supportive of the work here. Our ward mission leader is so dedicated and the ward missionaries are great! We have made so many friends here in the ward. the families who fed us lunch on Sunday packed us a sack dinner to take when we drove to Laie for the fireside that night! so thoughtful!

By the next time I email, we'll know transfer news!! We always go crazy to know! haha missionary life:)

love you mommy and daddy!

-Sister Hodgson

64- A kinda wanna be hurricane

Hi Mom and Dad!

this week was slow...haha. The anticipation for the hurricane really threw everyone into a panic. everyone got there 72 hour kits together, the bread and granola bars couldn't stay on the shelf, and people were buying bottled water like they had a pet camel at home. It was crazy! Some gas stations even ran out of gas.....everyone was panicking.

(From her hand written letter : “ Walmart is PACKED right now, everyone is buying Rice, Water and SPAM! “  , “ we are the only sisters in the zone and are well taken care of”)

As for the missionaries, we were told to get our 72 hour kits together (along with a change of clothes, our journals and scriptures) and put them in our car. We had to be available by phone at all times in case we were given evacuation orders. We got a call Friday morning and the Zone leaders were like "it's been determined that your pad is not a safe place to be during a hurricane" (because we live down in a valley and they were worried about flooding. there is only one way in and one way out of the valley so they decided that we needed to get out) So they told us to leave our pad as soon as possible and head to the sisters' pad in makakilo (the next zone over).

Before we left  we hurried around and pulled all of our papers and beds and such away from the windows and then hurried to the car. we drove through some crazy rain and wind, but as soon as we got out of mililani it was all sunshine. we were like "what?" . so we stayed at the sisters pad all morning.....we were like "woah....free time......what do we do?" being a missionary, we schedule every 15 minutes of our day so we were just supposed to stay in the pad and do what?!!?? nothing........................ so we were a bit shocked at first but then we had fun. Thanks for the emergency chocolate mom:) 

We were kinda hoping that we would get to see a crazy hurricane blow a palm tree over....but nothing really exciting happened....just a little rain and wind. After a while we got the word that the storm had past and that we could return to work.

also, last night someone in our apartment complex was smoking pakalolo..O MAN it smelled so bad....so we lit matches all around our house to kill the smell.....eww! dont do drugs!!!

this week our super solid book of mormon reader didn't get to come to church because he got called into work:(

but he is still doing really great and we'l meet next week.

 love you all and aloha

WEEK 63- trips to Honolulu and Storm watch

ALOHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

this week we drove to honolulu a bajillion times! I did see a license plate from Cali

On Wednesday morning we drove to Honolulu. we had to wake up super early to get to the airport then transfer meeting. They had kept the news for this transfer a big secret so we found out who our companions were right there during the meeting. My new companion is sister   Tuimoala!!!! we served together in Kona, so I already know her and love her to pieces!( far right with the tag :)

So the next day (Thursday) we had a pretty normal day which was great! Because we haven't had a normal day since :)

Yes mom there is a little weather supposedly heading our way… a hurricane and a tropical storm..... Hurricane is el and tropical storm Julio.

 we are all good and prepared for it and we went over our emergency procedures with the zone this morning. I am in the very middle of the island so we'll be okay :) keep us all in your prayers ....especially pray that the elders don't eat all my spam if we have to hunker down together at the stake center haha

Friday morning we drove to Honolulu in the to practice for a missionary choir number that we would be singing at a funeral the next day. We also met with one great guy we are working with. He has been doing so well with his book of Mormon reading. he's in alma chapter 20!!!! ya!! awesome, right? he said that he believes that it is truly a book of scripture. He told us "it's no coincidence". He said that he is getting answers to his question. we love to see that! It is so great to hear him say how much happier that he is! he is so excited to learn more!

Saturday morning we drove to Honolulu to sing for the funeral. It was a really amazing experience to sing with so many talented missionaries. And we were led by Sister Warner, who used to be in the Mormon tabernacle choir......so that was a very cool experience.

Sunday. Church. But guess who beat us there? the alma chapter 20 guy. he is so awesome! He was like "i want to come see what church is like" and we said "okay" then he got to church before we did! that's what we love to see!

Monday morning we drove to Honolulu for the Missionary Leadership Council (MLC). It was wonderful, as always, to see President and Sister Warner. We received some great training on charity, and correcting with Love.

Then today we didn't drive to Honolulu....so that's a relief:) haha. but we had to re-give the trainings from MLC to our Zone, so we had a meeting here in Mililani that took most of the morning anyway.

So it has been kind of a busy week.....and the schedule doesn't seem to be clearing up the for next few weeks as well. But Hey, we are loving it and having so much fun! I love being a missionary!

Oh and a great lady that we have been working with got baptized this past week! She was baptized on vacation to Idaho so her family could all be there to see (I know, leave Hawaii to go to Idaho.....I think she has the "vacation" idea backwards...haha) but we are SO HAPPY for her. It has been amazing to see her make these changes in her life and find so much more joy. she and her husband will now be working towards going to the temple. It is such a great journey that they will get to be on together :) (p.s. this is the girl that was living the word of wisdom and her husband hit the alcoholic lemonade out of her hands {i mentioned that a few weeks ago}.....awesome!!! great team work)

well, we have to head out! love you family!

-Sister Hodgson

WEEK 62-haole elders can get you to church!

Aloha  mom and dad!!

We found out transfer news and Sister Oh will be returning to the visitor’s center.  I am going to miss her SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!  But it will be really good.  They really want her back at the VC because she is so amazing!  I am sad to lose her but I know she'll do great there!

The PCC was super fun last Monday.  We saw some shows and hula dancing and everything.

So we got a referral from the visitors center too. The guy who went to the VC said that he wanted to know if the book of Mormon was really scripture from Heavenly Father. So we came to his house and gave him the restoration video to watch. The next time we came by he said that he had watched the video and read a lot of the book of Mormon. He wrote us a two page essay on why he wants to investigate the church!!!! haha ( that's pretty awesome right?)

Also we are working with two ladies who were baptized in December but who haven't been coming to church. One of the ladies is really old and has some memory issues so she tells us the same stories over and over. She loves to tell us about the haole elders who used to walk with her to church when she was a little girl. So we were thinking about how we could help them to come to church and that was our inspiration! We sent our district leader and his companion (two haole elders ) over to her house Sunday morning, and they walked with them to church! It was so great to see them there! we are so glad that they could come!!! gotta love our haole elders! It is always good to see people come back and enjoy the spirit at church again)

We have a super great district and zone, but it's all subject to change now! we'll know a lot more next week! Wednesday I'll find out my new companion. I am super excited to know.

sometimes, especially as a missionary, I feel so much pressure to be the  PERFECT missionary! which is a totally unrealistic expectation. but Sometimes the thought stresses me out. Someone shared this scripture this week which I love! and it totally makes everything make sense: Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is His grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.  Moroni 10:32

Only through Christ can we reach that perfection. SO we need to rely on Him in all things.  Lets all set a goal to not try to be perfect on our own!!!  It's depressingly unsuccessful!  But we can turn to the Lord for strength- that's where we find joy and are able to reach our full potential.

love you ohana!

-Sister Hodgson