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