Spencer's First Email

Dear Familia,

I guess you guys wanna know a lot about how my past few days have been. Mind you that I only have 30 minutes a week to email haha. Dad its perfectly fine if you forward this to everyone. Well, the MTC has been fabulous. I've heard horror stories about how awfully hard the first week is but I have experienced none of that. I absolutely LOVE it here. I do miss home a bunch, but I know that this is where I am supposed to be.

Ok now for the specifics. I am serving in District 17C with three other elderes and four hermanas. My companion's name is Elder Verhagen (Vur-Hay-Gen). I know that we were meant to be MTC companions. Though we are still very new to this experience, I feel that we have gained a ton from what we have been introduced to. We still dont know how to study together very effectively, but that will come. Mom he has plenty of support from home (Fairbanks, Alaska) and all his family are members of the church. He is a very hard worker and is obedient as I am. We will make this MTC experience very worth while.

Elder Verhagen and I live in a room with another companionship (in Building 13M in case anyone was interested). The other companionship is going to Dallas, Texas spanish speaking. Their names are Elder Chapell (Shuh-Pel) (also the district leader) and Elder Moore (Moore). The four of us are having a fantastic time together! We hardly ever split up. The four of us have been going and doing everything together. I can already feel a strong sense of unity. About the four sister. Mom, Hermana Cahill is in my district! She and Hermana Madsen are also serving in New York South. The other sisters are Hermana Walden and Hermana Nielson. They are serving in Guatemala. All eight of us are having a very fun time learning the Gospel and the language.

Elder Verhagen and I taught our first investigator yesterday! Yes the lesson was completely in spanish. And no, we did not understand very much. But we taught him that familias son eternas. We will be teaching him today about prophets and the Book of Mormon. I absolutely LOVE learning spanish. Though I currently have only a simple understanding of the language, I believe that with the spirit I can have el don de lenguas (gift of tongues.) But yes, MTC life is fantastic and very fulfilling. A companionship in my zone will be serving in Sacramento!!! Their names are Elder Bawden and Elder Fullwood. I really enjoy speaking with Elder Bawden. Besides my district, he is probably one of my closest friends. Our zone leaders are completely awesome!! Elders Cummins y Hallenburg are extremely helpful and fun to be with. They only have ten days left till they leave for Mexico but I know I will learn a lot from them.

Jon Niu. I met brother Caywood(?) last night. He said he was from Springville so I asked if he knew the Nius. I do believe that you are good friends with his son. Small world eh?

Well, I love you all. Yo se que Jesucristo es nuestro Salvador y Redemptor. Yo testifiico que el Libro de Mormon es el verdadero y de Dios. Yo se que nuestro familia es eterna.
May God be with all of you and I will email next friday (my preparation day).

Love,
Elder Hogge

Elder Spencer Jeffery Hogge
MTC Mailbox #237
NY-NYCS 0102
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT84604-1793

P.S. Thank you Joey and Julie for that package!!! I love it! And thank you mom for the dear elder. I will try to get some snail mail done today but because its the first week its a very weird and short P-day. We will have pdays every friday after today.