Missionary Work in Woodside

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Its great to hear the big news about Joe!! Its about time he graduated haha. That sure is a big step. Is it just me or does it seem like our family makes more trips back and forth between Utah and California than ever? Our family is so blessed to be able to stay so close though we may be  700 (or 2850) miles apart ;)

This week we have zone activity. All of us are headin over to Juniper Valley Park to play some sports. I have to inform yall that I could not resist and currently have my discs with me haha. There are a few other frolfers in the zone and we plan on making up our own course. Im stoked!!! Tonight we will be visiting the Patriarch of the stake. He is such a wonderful man and is fantastic to us missionaries. After that we will be visiting an investigator we found last week. It will be a great day!!

I'm so glad that my family is awesome with the missionaries. It seems like in every ward theres those few families that all of the missionaries love and It looks like my family is one of them :D Mom, you are a champ for going out with the sister missionaries. You dont know how much that means to me. Having those solid members come out with us to go proclaim the gospel is such a wonderful blessing.

Everything is going super well in the ward. It is a tad reminiscent of Dyker Heights because it is a big ward (for new york standards) and there is plenty of priesthood to work with. Also, just as with Dyker, the relationship with the bishop is on the upward slope of a big mountain to climb. The first couple weeks were a bit tough because we had very little contact with our bishop here. But I have done all I can to be a blessing to him, be it just a friendly hello every time I see him. Luckily all that work is really paying off because yesterday Elder Heaps and I were able to get into Bishop Yanez office and we had a great chat with him for 15 minutes. We were rewarded with 6 families to divvy up with the six missionaries here to go find and bring back to church. I feel like things are going really well right now. We get fed every day by the wonderful members (last night we had some fantastic enchiladas made by our correlator's wife) and we are really going to be pushing for every member being a missionary.

Elder Heaps and I have been determined as ever to find those real growth families. We have a few appointments set up this week and we plan to bring some solid members to accompany us. The work is tough, but completely worth it. My plea to all of you is to be the members you would want me to be working with (Mom is a great example of that!). You all are in my prayers and I wish the best this week with all the traveling.

 

Love, Elder Hogge