More Spencer Pictures

Spencer feeding a buffalo at the buffalo farm in Riverhead 

Elder Lunt and I at transfer meeting for our last goodbye (with Elder Parker in the back -- he's home now) 

A firefly that I caught last night.  Those little guys have been lighting up the town lately!!

"My name isn't Luis; it's Roberto"

Dearest Family and Friends,

First matter of business. My new companion is........... Elder Verhagen!!!.......... No I am not joking. And yes, he was my MTC companion. The Lord has seen it fit to put us together once again! Crazy stuff huh? Just as a reminder, he is from Fairbanks, Alaska (or more specifically Nenana, Alaska) is the eighth of nine children and the sixth one to be a missionary. He loves snow mobiling (or snow machining as they say in that upper state), doing construction in his family business, and long walks on the beach (just kidding about the last one... actually he might...). He is a stellar worker and loves to be a missionary. This will be a really good transfer.

So thats the companion update. I was just absolutely shocked at transfer meeting. Its unheard of to have MTC companions put together in the fifth transfer, especially in a foreign language. President must trust us or somethin. Speaking of Prez, he leaves on friday!!! That is so weird to me. Its gonna be really sad, but I know our new prez, President Calderwood, will be awesome.

Investigator update: We havent been able to get in to see Susan and Robert for a while. There's been a lot of busy stuff goin on over there. From what I know Robert is ok tho. On saturday Elder Verhagen and I fearlessed this one guy on the street. He's mexican and he told us his name is Luis. We scheduled an appointment to come over that next day (Sunday). So we head over sunday night and he is there! (Most of the time people end up not being there, or as mission lingo goes, juking us) We get into the house and teach a quick mini-lesson on the Book of Mormon. He definitely felt the spirit super strong. And then during the lesson, he looks at us with a sad face and says, "Im sorry my friends, but my name isnt Luis, its Roberto." That gave me a nice little laugh. A lot of Hispanics out here give us fake names. Probably somethin about two gringos that can speak spanish and look like they could be from some federal agency. I dunno haha. But it was cool that he manned up and told us that. We have an appointment with him and his family on thursday night so we are super excited for that.

As far as Sunday schedule goes, every other week we are at the church by 8:30am for Branch Council. Church starts at 10 (usually about ten people there by the opening prayer and 50 by the sacrament) then after that we either go to the english gospel doctrine class or spanish. Then for third hour, I've had the privilege of attending relief society to translate for the spanish sisters. Its been such a journey learning how to make myself a better sister in Zion. ;) After church we usually head back to the pad to get a bite to eat then we work till 9 o'clock. If we are lucky we will have a sunday dinner with a member. This week we ate at Lorraine Anderson's, a recent convert. She made us kabobs. That was awesome.

And for p-day, its been pretty sporadic. Ooh man. This past week we went from almost 100 degrees with humidity at like 95% to yesterday of 65 degrees with heavy downpours. It was amazing how drastic the change was. The weather is so confusing out here. So for p-day we just chilled at the pad then went to the church and played basketball. Elder Verhagen gave me a nice haircut too. (dont worry mom, it looks fine)

So all in all, the mission is swingin right now. We weren't able to get any of our investigators to church this week, but that dont stop us from trying our best. The Lord is putting prepared people in our paths. I'm excited for all the potential we have for this upcoming week. As long as we strive to diligently achieve our best efforts, Heavenly Father will take care of the rest. I love you all!!!

Love, Elder Hogge

P.s. Willie i just hand wrote a letter to ya so I'll get it out this week

Happy Father's Day

Ode to Pops.

He's old and grey and pretty bald,

At General Conference once he fall'd.

He likes to frolf and is kinda funny, (just kidding!! really funny :) )

His made-up lyrics give you a run for your money.

But to me he's such a special guy,

And through this rhyme you'll figure out why.

His dedication to do what's right,

Has shown me what I want in life.

His love and faith and gentle care

With all, give me a reason to share:

That the number one thing that makes me glad,

Is that he's my pal, and he's my dad!!!

Happy Father's Day, Pops!!

Dearest Family and Friends.

I figured since we aren't granted with calls home I might as well do somethin good for dad. Hope he likes it!

Thanks for the update on home. Seems like the little girls are doing great!! I'm glad your putting them to work at such a young age to wash the corolla haha. Is Bradford using that thing yet? He needs to get his license or something. :p So basically, garlic knots are an east coast creation. I think back in the old days when pizzerias had extra dough, they rolled em up, tied them into knots, spread garlic and butter all over them, and put em in the oven. They are super delicious. But you west coast people wouldn't know ;) The weather here has been a-ma-zing!! Yesterday it was about 65 with a nice breeze. It's supposedly supposed to be super hot here in new york right now but that's not how this year has been. Im sure it'll start heating up in july or august. The winter was super mild so I guess the summer may be mild too. Hey, i aint gonna complain. 

Well this week was really good. There have been highs and lows, but I'm loving the missionary work so much out here in Riverhead. I suppose first order of business is to let you all know that Elder Lunt is getting transferred out tomorrow. That came as quite a surprise to me. I though we would stay together for another! But the Lord knows something else needs to happen instead. I have LOVED these six weeks with Elder Lunt. He has taught me so much about missionary work and about just being a good person in general. We have been doing so well here. Over the past six weeks, we were able to find 35 new investigators. The Lord is putting people in our paths!!! Its super tough to get people to church but I know someone will come eventually. Elder Lunt really helped me see that the Lord has people ready for us. I'm gonna miss him a lot but I know that my next companion will be awesome even though I still have no idea who it will be. Also, this is President Nelson's last transfer meeting... :(   He has been such an amazing mission prez!!! His love just radiates in everything he does. I'm going to miss him so much. He heads back home at the end of June. Its going to be so weird not having him here. Our new prez is President Calderwood (I think thats his name haha). But we hear he is a great guy so I know that its going to be really exciting.

We visited Susan and Robert this week. We taught the first half of the plan of salvation. They liked it, but sometimes its hard for Susan to pay attention because she is just so focused on Robert. The phrase "people dont care how much you know, until they know how much you care" really applies in this situation. We planned on doing some yard work for them on Saturday, but they ended up having to go to the hospital. We'll head over there tonight to see how they're doing. I've thought a lot about Grandpa Joe in this time. And mom I've thought an awful lot of the care and devotion you had for him. I had no idea how much work you really put into taking care of him. And that's charity through and through. I'm so lucky to have grown up in a household built upon a foundation of the love of Christ. The older I get out here in the mission, the better I truly understand the blessings that the Lord has given me. To have such a devoted mother and a dedicated father with the priesthood is something almost no one has in this world.

I know that the Lord loves each and every one of us so much!! He pours out blessings in abundance. The more grateful we are, the bigger our basket is to catch the blessings. The church is so true!! I love you all so much!

Love, Elder Hogge

Spencer's Picture

Riverhead Chapel, built in 2007

Spencer's companion, Elder Lunt

Spencer, "falling asleep at the wheel"

Halloooo Everyone

Halloooo Everyone.

Wow, what a good week. The Lord has truly been helping us out. But I'll get more to that in a little later.

And to be honest, I havent gotten a letter out to Willie yet. I have been an ultimate slacker this transfer for writing letters. I really need to improve. Actually, I could just email Willie but I dont remember his email address. I did get his letter tho. It was awesome to hear from him!! If you guys could shoot me an email with his address before next week thatd be fantastic.

Mom, thanks for that little tidbit on pride. Pride kills the work. If there is anything i've learned on a mission its that comparing myself with other missionaries is poison. I can ask "Why cant I speak spanish as well as others?" or "Why dont I have as many baptisms as so-and-so" or yada yada yada. Asking those type of questions detract from relying on the Lord and remove gratefulness for His blessings. One of the toughest things on the mission is aligning my will with God's will. Thats something I really want to focus on. Completely consecrating my heart to the Lord. And I know that is accomplished through humility.

Mom, I'm super excited for the apron!!! The pie was good, but not amazing haha. There were still little chunks of butter in the batter when I cooked it (I know, rookie mistake) because I was dumb and didnt wait for the butter to soften. So It probably could have been more delicious. My pad mates really liked it tho (mostly because they'd never tried yours haha) But I'm planning on making those peanut butter chocolate bars this week. I could eat those things for forever. My favorite dinner at the pad is either pigs in a blanket (with crescent rolls of course) or pizza from Sergio's. Oh yeah, not sure if I've told you guys yet, but the missionaries get free pizza every week. A member that lives in South Carolina right now owns a pizzeria in our area. All we gotta do is call in, tell them we're the missionaries, and order whatever we want. At this point I could make a lot of prideful comments about how awesome it is to have that kind of power. But we usually get a meat lovers pizza with garlic knots. Soooooo good. Thats one thing I'll definitely miss about Riverhead.

Mom, I just realized that I started the last two paragraphs with your name, so here's to a third. Anyways, this week elder lunt and I found some really awesome people. But I want to focus on two people specifically. They're names are Susan and Robert. They've been married for 29 years, and Robert is terminally ill with Leukemia. He is bed ridden and Susan takes care of him 24/7. We were knocking doors and a neighbor told us to stop by their place. So we did and Susan let us in. They are such nice people. And Susan does absolutely everything for her husband. She asked if we could pray for robert so we gave him a blessing. She was just so amazed that we used oil. They really like us. Robert is such a kind man but he can barely move right now. He's six foot seven and probably about 130 pounds. It's so sad to see him in that state, but this condition has made both of them really open to our message. The thing is, Susan talks a ton haha. So we just gotta learn how to control the conversation. I really hope they accept what we teach them so that they can be more happy and live together forever. We're heading back on thursday so I hope it all goes well.

It's been such a blessing in my life being able to meet them. I know that God places people in our path based upon our diligence and obedience. I'm so excited for all the amazing opportunities I'm going to see out here in New York. I love you all!!

Love, Elder Hogge

Riverhead

To whom it may concern.


Hey all!!! How are ya folks doin? Life is just swell here in Riverhead. Not too much to report this week, but we had a lot of fun and I have been learning an awful lot.


Mom, sounds like you had a marvelous time in Idaho. It must have been such a joy to be able to spend time in Rexburg with Hil. I bet those concerts were sure awesome. And its such a blessing to be able to go to the temple with her! Just think of how cool it will be when we can all go as a family. I've been thinking a lot about home. Not the "I'm homesick and dont wanna do this anymore" thinkin about home, but the "wow in a world like this home was sure helpful" thinkin about home. If the home I grew up in were in Riverhead, there could be about four families in that house. Seems like just about every Hispanic household in this area is occupied by at least a few different families. I never realized how privileged we were to have a house that big to ourselves. I remember complaining about how the three boys had to share the smallest room in the house. Well here, its normal for a family of five to use a size like that as their living quarters. Being on the mission has sure given me a new perspective. I've also been thinking of how extremely blessed I am to be grown in a family that is centered on the Gospel. Growing up, it was just a normal thing to me to have two very loving parents that are stalwart members of Christ's church and to have siblings that were always a good example to me. That truly is one of the greatest blessings that God has given to me. Because being on a mission, I rarely see that. I just dont know how God thought it deserving that I received all these blessings. Its just another testament to me of the unfailing love of our Heavenly Father.


This week was good. We had a stellar Restoration lesson with one of our investigators. Her name is Aura. She is from Guatemala and is about 27 years old. Every time we go over, she has food for us. Gotta love that haha. Most other times we had gone over before, we didn't have much time to sit down with her and talk because there are always a ton of people running through that household (typical for Hispanics. There's a joke in the mission that if you just sit and wait in a Hispanic home, you'll encounter at least fifty different people within the hour haha). But this week we were able to actually sit down and teach her about how the Book of Mormon came to be. The spirit was really strong. I know he testified to Aura that all we were saying is truth. We committed her to read and pray. Elder Lunt called her a couple days ago to see how it all went and she said she felt really good as she read and prayed. We are pretty excited for her. The only thing is that she lives 45 minutes up the North Fork (Nofo) in Greenport. Sooooooo it takes quite a bit of time to get out there. But we have an other appointment with her tomorrow so we are really looking forward to it. I think she can really progress.


I'm really excited for this upcoming week. I know that the Lord has prepared so many awesome opportunities for us. We just gotta get out there, work hard, and take advantage of whats there. It can be so tough sometimes but I know that the more work we put into this area, the more blessings we can access for other people. Please please please pray that the people here in Riverhead will be ready and willing to accept the message of the Restoration. This Gospel brings more happiness than any other thing in existence. Once someone realizes that, all desire turns toward what they can do to draw closer to Christ and His Atonement. Thank you so much for all your love that I feel. It is such a strength to me here. Without the support from back home, the mission would be so tough. This Gospel is REAL!!


Love, Elder Hogge