Saturday, October 26, 2013

October 21, 2013

Dearest family and friends,

This week was awesome! 

Sounds like (and looks like from Mom's pictures) that baby Louisa is doing great!! She looks so little and cute and squishy!! I cant wait to meet her. Mom says she's got a lot of Hogge resemblance, but she just looks like a cute little squishy thing to me haha. I've never been good at distinguishing features. I'm glad Mom enjoys being the go-to helper.

I dont know if all of you know, but I'm (hopefully) going to be going into the Mechanical Engineering program at BYU. My trusted advisers (aka sarah joe and dad) have really helped me get to this decision. It was such a cool revelatory experience. I did a lot of praying asking Heavenly Father to just tell me what I should go into, but then I realized that he gave me agency for a reason!! He wants me to do what I want to do. And I felt the sweet assurance that he would be at my side for all righteous and intelligent desires. Whether he lets me stay this course, or veers me to a different direction once I get into it, i know not. but I know that he truly is guiding me based on what I want to do. Its so cool!!

this week was stake conference!! i got to hear some amazing talks on certain topics that have really been on my mind. For instance, ever since Elder Soares gave his talk at general conference, I've been intrigued with the concept of meekness. I love everything about meekness!! And I came to realize in a talk at stake conference how meek I wasn't. Haha kind of funny but it was a nice awakening. I find that sometimes (especially when driving) I am not as meek as I could be. But I have been doing studies on this principle. Something else I learned at stake conference from the stake president, President Hartman, is what being a peacemaker truly means. I realize now that the phrase "blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" means a lot more that I thought it meant. (Thats the great thing about the mission!! I realize how much I dont know and it makes me desirous to learn more!!) He spoke of punishment and why God punishes us. Its not because God is retaliating. That was never the purpose for punishment. But we punish out of retaliation because we still have some of the natural man inside of us. I learned that godly punishment is His way of teaching us that "wickedness never was happiness". I know that on the mission I am learning principles that will bless me for the rest of forever.

As for investigators, we haven't been able to see fernando and karla for a while :( in fact, most of our investigators have been MIA. Its super weird cuz... where do they all go?? but they just arent around... ever. But life and the mission goes on. One of our solid investigators right now is roberto. We have been able to meet with him for the past three saturdays in a row (which is pretty unusual here). But he is really interested in learning more. He is kind of a passive investigator at this point, but we really hope to open his eyes to a sense of what he can truly accomplish as a son of God. This week we will be visiting a lot of members. Helping strengthen their resolve to share the gospel in any mean possible.  Also on tuesday I'll be going through the temple with all the departing missionaries and president. Sooooo im pretty pumped for that. yay!

Everything is going great. I'm looking forward to everything that this week has to offer.Thank you all for the love and support you send my way. you all are GREAT!!!

Love, Elder Hogge

P.s. The entire mission is getting ipads and iphones November 11th

No comments:

Post a Comment