Hey all!
Everything is going well here in Bushwick. The weather is very nice,
its going to be a fun fun p-day (brooklyn bridge then a tour through
the watchtower hehe), and the upcoming week is lookin good.
First off, yes mom, I am plenty warm haha. that super thin blanket
that you got for me from mish mall is surprisingly plenty warm. The
reason I prefer willie to snail mail is so that i can read it all and
send a snail mail back to him. I like how dad does the dear elders.
But you can email cuz you're the one I reply to in my emails. but you
can most definitely send snail mails as well if you like :) I got the
package from hil and the letter from mari :) There really isnt
anything much better than recieving stuff from my family. I hope
willie enjoyed my letter and I plan on gettin letters out to hil,
mari, and joey + jules this week. I havent had any really bad
headaches since that last one a while ago. they are definitely more
rare now a days. And that sure stinks for willie, but he wouldn't be a
Hogge boy without the migraines. I think these headaches are just a
side effect of all that brain function goin on ;p I am so so so so
sooooo proud of tim. He is the MAN!!! Im excited to maybe see some
pictures of him with his little 5'6" friends. I miss my nieces and
nephew so much!!! I would very much like pictures in the next package
if you could manage (oh, and quarters too. laundry costs nine quarters
every week) :) It'd be nice to have a little alice to cheer me up
everytime we get juked. (That means when we set up appointments to
meet with people but they end up not being home. its the pits when
that happens.) And tell all our temple friends I say hello!!! I miss
being able to go every week :(
The mission is going along well. I dont know whats been up with Angel.
Everytime we actually meet with him, he says he wants to get baptized.
But he hasnt been coming to church and doesnt really give us time to
meet with him. a bit frustrating. The spanish is going ok, but I see
so much room for improvement. In the area I am serving, it is
dominated by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. Which also happen to be the
two fastest speaking spanish nationalities. So comprehension has been
rough. Its really easy to be hard on my self for not being as good at
spanish as I want to be. But I just gotta put my trust In the Lords
hands and go to work. The finding has been rough as well. So many
hispanics are working seven days a week to support their families that
its sometimes impossible to meet with them if they dont take work off.
But I see some really good potential this week. We've got a few people
to look up and teach, so we'll see how that goes.
Well my time has just about expired. Tell everyone that I love them!!!
Love, Elder Hogge
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
only 18 minutes
Well this is definitely not the mtc anymore haha
Hello family and friends!!
Sheesh I only have 18 minutes to write this email. So many things
change every week. Last week I had an hour and a half to write. this
week not so much. Willie, I got your email and I'll try to shoot out a
letter this week but no promises. Its super crazy here. But thanks for
that awesome email haha
Mom, yes music can be burned. thats totally ok :) and im excited to
hear that hil wants to send me stuff hehe. The branch here is doing
great! there were 53 people at church here this week. (I did the
count) Its definitely been growing over the past little while. There
are some really cool stories but unfortunately I dont have time to
share them :( I dont need an extra pillowcase haha. thank you for
offering tho. and Thank You Thank You THANK YOU for that package
mom!!! That was soooooo good to get from you. I got both the package
and the letter in the middle of last week. All the goodies inside the
package have been awesome. especially the hot chocolate and tim tams
:D I showed elder lewis how to tim tam slam a couple nights ago. it
was so much fun haha. Mom, I usually email from the library every
week. and they put a thirty minute time limit on the computers. then
you hafta go and sign up again and wait until a spot opens up. its not
a very fun process but at least I get to send letters home :) My
companion, elder lewis, is the man!! he is from orem, utah, and has
been out just over a year now. He is super super super obedient and
loves to have fun. I have learned so much from him already and I know
that I am blessed to have him as a companion. His family and friends
are very supportive of him serving a mission.
I am super super super excited for one of our investigators. his name
is Angel. (pronounced anhel cuz its spanish haha) but we have been
working with him and he is super solid. He is only seventeen years
old, but he sees the difference christ has made in his life and he
knows that baptism into His church will dramatically improve his life.
We aren't super set on a date yet, but I know that he will be baptized
soon. This kid is sooooo awesome. he had been drinking coffee all his
life cuz thats what his family did, but once we taught him the word of
wisdom, he stopped and never looked back. he says he doesnt even think
about it anymore. I KNOW the gospel changes lives. Throught the
atonement of our Savior, we can improve our lives and draw closer to
Him. Just being out here a few weeks my testimony of that has
strengthened dramatically. Time is just about up on the computer, but
I love you all so very much and you are in my prayers every night.
hope to hear from you soon!!
Love, Elder Hogge
Hello family and friends!!
Sheesh I only have 18 minutes to write this email. So many things
change every week. Last week I had an hour and a half to write. this
week not so much. Willie, I got your email and I'll try to shoot out a
letter this week but no promises. Its super crazy here. But thanks for
that awesome email haha
Mom, yes music can be burned. thats totally ok :) and im excited to
hear that hil wants to send me stuff hehe. The branch here is doing
great! there were 53 people at church here this week. (I did the
count) Its definitely been growing over the past little while. There
are some really cool stories but unfortunately I dont have time to
share them :( I dont need an extra pillowcase haha. thank you for
offering tho. and Thank You Thank You THANK YOU for that package
mom!!! That was soooooo good to get from you. I got both the package
and the letter in the middle of last week. All the goodies inside the
package have been awesome. especially the hot chocolate and tim tams
:D I showed elder lewis how to tim tam slam a couple nights ago. it
was so much fun haha. Mom, I usually email from the library every
week. and they put a thirty minute time limit on the computers. then
you hafta go and sign up again and wait until a spot opens up. its not
a very fun process but at least I get to send letters home :) My
companion, elder lewis, is the man!! he is from orem, utah, and has
been out just over a year now. He is super super super obedient and
loves to have fun. I have learned so much from him already and I know
that I am blessed to have him as a companion. His family and friends
are very supportive of him serving a mission.
I am super super super excited for one of our investigators. his name
is Angel. (pronounced anhel cuz its spanish haha) but we have been
working with him and he is super solid. He is only seventeen years
old, but he sees the difference christ has made in his life and he
knows that baptism into His church will dramatically improve his life.
We aren't super set on a date yet, but I know that he will be baptized
soon. This kid is sooooo awesome. he had been drinking coffee all his
life cuz thats what his family did, but once we taught him the word of
wisdom, he stopped and never looked back. he says he doesnt even think
about it anymore. I KNOW the gospel changes lives. Throught the
atonement of our Savior, we can improve our lives and draw closer to
Him. Just being out here a few weeks my testimony of that has
strengthened dramatically. Time is just about up on the computer, but
I love you all so very much and you are in my prayers every night.
hope to hear from you soon!!
Love, Elder Hogge
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Happy MLK Jr. Day!
Hey all!
You were right mom, all the libraries were closed yesterday so I had no where to email! Luckily, I get the opportunity today. I'm guessing that since I didnt get a long email from you, i will be receiving a letter or somethin. I probably wont be getting any mail in time to reply the following pday because the mission office sometimes takes a while to forward any emails. So I'm perfectly fine with you just emailing everything as well :) Ok so something big I've discovered in the field. The rules about music were the OLD rules that were changed like a month before I entered the MTC. So now, the rule is any good, uplifting music that invites the spirit. This includes classical, guitar, efy, josh groban, all that stuff. I would absolutely LOVE it if you could send quite a bit of music. Especially some really good instrumental guitar. And efy. Haha anyways, wow this week has been crazy. The past tuesday was not a fun day at all. I had a migraine from lunch till I went to sleep at night, all our appointments cancelled, and it felt like it was only ten degrees outside. It was a tough, tough day. But then the next day, we had an exchange. I went over to the Bushwick South pool (area of work) and worked with Elder Henstrom. That was a great day. It seemed like the Lord was rewarding me for toughing out the previous day. On the exchange with Elder Henstrom, we taught this fellow named Norlan. Doesnt speak any English at all. (Here in New York, there are a ton of Hispanics that speak english, but prefer to go to the spanish branch. So we have taught quite a few lessons in english). The lesson with Norlan went really well and Elder Henstrom committed him to be baptized and set a date. Such a cool experience to see. So wednesday was great. Another really cool thing that we did this past week was a street sweep. That was a really fun experience. All 8 of us english and spanish elders for Bushwick area met up at the corner of Moore st. and Graham ave. and set up a table and displayed all these different church materials. We had different DVDs, the pamphlets, copies of the book of mormon, and pass along cards out. In the middle of the table we also had a sign up sheet. So what we did is just wait on that corner and talk to everyone that passed by. The thing about New York is that everyone is in a rush to get somewhere so alot of people just flat out ignore us. But we would just talk to everyone and tell them that we have all this free stuff about Jesus. That got the attention about a lot of them. So we would talk to them for a bit and bring em over to the table and have them sign up to have some missionaries come over and give them the materials. I was pretty afraid to just go out there and start talkin to people, but its like jumping into a cold pool. You just gotta do it and go from there. So I just started talking to people. Like I said before, a lot of them just ignored me but there were some cool people that wanted to learn more. I was able to talk to some people that only spoke spanish. I actually kind of had conversations!!! So that was pretty sweet. That experience helped me be a little more fearless in talking to people. I love going to church every week. Its like a safe house from the outside world for three hours of the week. Such a relief. Even though its all in spanish, I'm picking up a lot of whats goin on and I can really feel the spirit. The members really like us members. Been eatin pretty well here. Rice and beans aint so bad. Last night we went to the house of a recent convert family and had tacos. Real hispanic tacos are awesome. So dont worry about how im eating. All is well haha. I think this week we have 5 dinner appointments so im pretty excited about that. Yesterday was the birthday of my companion, Elder Lewis. And it was pday so that was awesome. It was soooooo much fun. After doin all the morning stuff, we went over to the pad of some other missionaries in the zone and I made a cake. It was actually super delicious and everyone else was impressed with my awesome baking skills. Then all of the missionaries there played risk, uno, and phase ten. After working hard the entire week, its nice to have those pdays. I would absolutely LOVE to hear from all of you sometime. Dont hesitate to shoot off an email to me. We have quite a bit of time to write each week (usually) so I can usually reply. I wanna know how all of you are doin! Hilary I'm callin you out right now cuz you promised a letter a while ago!! ;p But seriously, letters and emails are the absolute BEST on a mission. Its about time for me to get going now. Thank you all for your support and love! Hope to hear from you soon!!
Love, Elder Hogge
p.s. sorry about my horrible sentence structure. i've reached a point of apathy about certain grammar and punctuation. I'm sure sarah would have a blast editing my letters :D
You were right mom, all the libraries were closed yesterday so I had no where to email! Luckily, I get the opportunity today. I'm guessing that since I didnt get a long email from you, i will be receiving a letter or somethin. I probably wont be getting any mail in time to reply the following pday because the mission office sometimes takes a while to forward any emails. So I'm perfectly fine with you just emailing everything as well :) Ok so something big I've discovered in the field. The rules about music were the OLD rules that were changed like a month before I entered the MTC. So now, the rule is any good, uplifting music that invites the spirit. This includes classical, guitar, efy, josh groban, all that stuff. I would absolutely LOVE it if you could send quite a bit of music. Especially some really good instrumental guitar. And efy. Haha anyways, wow this week has been crazy. The past tuesday was not a fun day at all. I had a migraine from lunch till I went to sleep at night, all our appointments cancelled, and it felt like it was only ten degrees outside. It was a tough, tough day. But then the next day, we had an exchange. I went over to the Bushwick South pool (area of work) and worked with Elder Henstrom. That was a great day. It seemed like the Lord was rewarding me for toughing out the previous day. On the exchange with Elder Henstrom, we taught this fellow named Norlan. Doesnt speak any English at all. (Here in New York, there are a ton of Hispanics that speak english, but prefer to go to the spanish branch. So we have taught quite a few lessons in english). The lesson with Norlan went really well and Elder Henstrom committed him to be baptized and set a date. Such a cool experience to see. So wednesday was great. Another really cool thing that we did this past week was a street sweep. That was a really fun experience. All 8 of us english and spanish elders for Bushwick area met up at the corner of Moore st. and Graham ave. and set up a table and displayed all these different church materials. We had different DVDs, the pamphlets, copies of the book of mormon, and pass along cards out. In the middle of the table we also had a sign up sheet. So what we did is just wait on that corner and talk to everyone that passed by. The thing about New York is that everyone is in a rush to get somewhere so alot of people just flat out ignore us. But we would just talk to everyone and tell them that we have all this free stuff about Jesus. That got the attention about a lot of them. So we would talk to them for a bit and bring em over to the table and have them sign up to have some missionaries come over and give them the materials. I was pretty afraid to just go out there and start talkin to people, but its like jumping into a cold pool. You just gotta do it and go from there. So I just started talking to people. Like I said before, a lot of them just ignored me but there were some cool people that wanted to learn more. I was able to talk to some people that only spoke spanish. I actually kind of had conversations!!! So that was pretty sweet. That experience helped me be a little more fearless in talking to people. I love going to church every week. Its like a safe house from the outside world for three hours of the week. Such a relief. Even though its all in spanish, I'm picking up a lot of whats goin on and I can really feel the spirit. The members really like us members. Been eatin pretty well here. Rice and beans aint so bad. Last night we went to the house of a recent convert family and had tacos. Real hispanic tacos are awesome. So dont worry about how im eating. All is well haha. I think this week we have 5 dinner appointments so im pretty excited about that. Yesterday was the birthday of my companion, Elder Lewis. And it was pday so that was awesome. It was soooooo much fun. After doin all the morning stuff, we went over to the pad of some other missionaries in the zone and I made a cake. It was actually super delicious and everyone else was impressed with my awesome baking skills. Then all of the missionaries there played risk, uno, and phase ten. After working hard the entire week, its nice to have those pdays. I would absolutely LOVE to hear from all of you sometime. Dont hesitate to shoot off an email to me. We have quite a bit of time to write each week (usually) so I can usually reply. I wanna know how all of you are doin! Hilary I'm callin you out right now cuz you promised a letter a while ago!! ;p But seriously, letters and emails are the absolute BEST on a mission. Its about time for me to get going now. Thank you all for your support and love! Hope to hear from you soon!!
Love, Elder Hogge
p.s. sorry about my horrible sentence structure. i've reached a point of apathy about certain grammar and punctuation. I'm sure sarah would have a blast editing my letters :D
Monday, January 9, 2012
Hello New York!!!
Hey family and Friends!!!
Well, I'm safe and sound here in Brooklyn. I always knew I'd serve in this part first haha. And I absolutely LOVE it here. Its so awesome. Been a crazy week of firsts. Mom, I really dont need an electric blanket so far. Maybe later, but for now Im nice and cozy just with the super thin but warm blanket you sent. Sister Shepherd is super nice haha. But yeah, the area is great! I'm serving in the Bushwick 2nd branch. Its in Brooklyn and covers the suburbs of Greenpoint, Williamsburg (live in this part), and part of Bushwick. Just send everything to the mission office. theyll forward it to me in my area. (dad if you havent already it would be nice if you put the mission office address on my blog. Hil, if you could post the mission office address on facebook that would be fantastic!) Sooooooo diverse here its crazy. The northern part of my area is mostly white people so we dont go there very often haha. I call it hipsterville because theres hipsters EVERYWHERE in this part. We live in the south end of this area. Everyone here is so Indy. (Have one of the kids explain what that means haha). So thats pretty funny. As far as fast food goes, theres subways here we can eat at. Most of the food places here are local eateries. Its pretty awesome. Theres some legit Chinese food here haha. so sending some money just for eating at places like that would sure be a real treat :) The southern part of the area has all the african americans and hispanics. Most of the hispanics live on the south streets so we spend a lot of time there. Also, tons live in the projects. Not sure if you all know what the projects are, but its the epitome of the ghetto area. Its just a few blocks of MASSIVE run down apartments. Im talkin like twenty stories tall. but there are so many good people living there. Definitely a new experience going there. oh yeah, for all the younger generation reading this, Im serving in the area where Jay-Z (the rapper) grew up. He got his name from the JZ train that we actually ride on every day. So thats pretty cool haha. yesterday was my first sunday in the field. it was all in spanish!!! Testimonies, classes, everything. i could understand a lot of it but once people started talking about anything besides the gospel i got really lost haha. Still gotta get all the un-gospel related vocab down haha. The members are great tho. Its a really small branch, about 40 people at sacrament meeting, and there arent many priesthood holders. So thats a real struggle. I have an absolutely fantastic trainer. His name is Elder Jeffery Lewis haha. I've heard that name before. He doesnt treat me like a greenie but he has helped me get accustomed to mission life so much. He is such a great missionary and I am priviledged to be serving with him. In the past, this area has really struggled with missionary work. But I really feel like we can pick it back up again. We've got three solid progressing investigators right now. I know that with hope and faith the Lord will really help us strengthen this branch as we bring others unto Him. So Im having a blast here! All is well and I know the Lord will bless the people here through missionary efforts. I hope to hear from you all soon! either snail mail or email mattereth not. Just as long as I get to communicate with you:)
Love, Elder Hogge
Well, I'm safe and sound here in Brooklyn. I always knew I'd serve in this part first haha. And I absolutely LOVE it here. Its so awesome. Been a crazy week of firsts. Mom, I really dont need an electric blanket so far. Maybe later, but for now Im nice and cozy just with the super thin but warm blanket you sent. Sister Shepherd is super nice haha. But yeah, the area is great! I'm serving in the Bushwick 2nd branch. Its in Brooklyn and covers the suburbs of Greenpoint, Williamsburg (live in this part), and part of Bushwick. Just send everything to the mission office. theyll forward it to me in my area. (dad if you havent already it would be nice if you put the mission office address on my blog. Hil, if you could post the mission office address on facebook that would be fantastic!) Sooooooo diverse here its crazy. The northern part of my area is mostly white people so we dont go there very often haha. I call it hipsterville because theres hipsters EVERYWHERE in this part. We live in the south end of this area. Everyone here is so Indy. (Have one of the kids explain what that means haha). So thats pretty funny. As far as fast food goes, theres subways here we can eat at. Most of the food places here are local eateries. Its pretty awesome. Theres some legit Chinese food here haha. so sending some money just for eating at places like that would sure be a real treat :) The southern part of the area has all the african americans and hispanics. Most of the hispanics live on the south streets so we spend a lot of time there. Also, tons live in the projects. Not sure if you all know what the projects are, but its the epitome of the ghetto area. Its just a few blocks of MASSIVE run down apartments. Im talkin like twenty stories tall. but there are so many good people living there. Definitely a new experience going there. oh yeah, for all the younger generation reading this, Im serving in the area where Jay-Z (the rapper) grew up. He got his name from the JZ train that we actually ride on every day. So thats pretty cool haha. yesterday was my first sunday in the field. it was all in spanish!!! Testimonies, classes, everything. i could understand a lot of it but once people started talking about anything besides the gospel i got really lost haha. Still gotta get all the un-gospel related vocab down haha. The members are great tho. Its a really small branch, about 40 people at sacrament meeting, and there arent many priesthood holders. So thats a real struggle. I have an absolutely fantastic trainer. His name is Elder Jeffery Lewis haha. I've heard that name before. He doesnt treat me like a greenie but he has helped me get accustomed to mission life so much. He is such a great missionary and I am priviledged to be serving with him. In the past, this area has really struggled with missionary work. But I really feel like we can pick it back up again. We've got three solid progressing investigators right now. I know that with hope and faith the Lord will really help us strengthen this branch as we bring others unto Him. So Im having a blast here! All is well and I know the Lord will bless the people here through missionary efforts. I hope to hear from you all soon! either snail mail or email mattereth not. Just as long as I get to communicate with you:)
Love, Elder Hogge
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