Pioneer Day

Family and Friends,

 

This has proven to be quite the week for me in missionary work. We were only able to teach a few lessons but It was awesome.

 

MOM!!! Happppy birthday this week! Turns out the whole ward is getting together to celebrate your birthday on the 24th! They said something about pioneers as well or something like that... But I'm glad you can finally be hitting the big 29. You must be excited haha :) Sounds like you had a really good time last week.

 

Today for p-day, we are going to Outback Steakhouse. Nope, I'm not joking haha. My dear friend Elder Ibarra, now Marc Ibarra, has come back after his mission to visit NYC and couldn't help but to treat my companion and me to a nice lunch :D So I'm really excited to be able to spend some time with my former companion.

 

So on tuesday, we had a good lesson with a family. Their names are marcia and jorge. They have two adorable children named melanie, 6, and samuel, 2. We had taught them a couple months ago but they kind of dropped off the face of the earth for a while because jorge had a lot of work. Long story short we got back in contact with them and were able to watch the restoration with them. We talked a lot about the book of mormon and how knowing that joseph smith is a prophet would truly bless their lives. So we left them with those commitments, as well as to come to church, and said fairwell. Well, Sunday rolls around and after highly anticipating their arrival, they show up!! (just about forty minutes late, but still!!) Yesterday was the first time in my whole mission that a full investigator family came to church. They couldn't stay for very long, but promised to come back for the full three hours next week. Elder Heagren and I were absolutely loving it!!! I had never had the experience previously of having an entire family come to church so I felt truly grateful to the Lord for providing us with the opportunity to be a part of it. Tonight we have a lesson with them, and a super solid couple in the ward will be coming with us. I know that they can receive an answer and truly be blessed by the gospel.

 

Later on Sunday we had a bit of spare time so we decided to go try to knock on Edgar and Jelena's door. They had stopped answering our calls and were never home when we had went by so we kind of gave up on them. So I ring their bell, and Jelena answers the door. As soon as she sees us, her face brightens up and gets super excited. She goes on to expain to us that she had lost her phone with all her contacts and had no way to get in touch with us. She and Edgar even tried looking for the church on their own to try to find us!! (Now that shows desire.) She talked about how comfortable she had felt when we were stopping by and invited us to come back the next day (today) to visit them. So now we have an appointment with them as well, right after Marcia and Jorge.

 

These past couple weeks in the mission had been really tough. Elder Heagren and I had been doing all we could to bring people to the knowledge of the truth, but it seemed to no avail. But as we endured well, the Lord blessed us with two solid families to work with. We will be working harder than ever to bring these children back to Heavenly Father. I really am experiencing the joy described in D&C 18 of bringing souls unto Christ. Thats the true secret I have learned on the mission. If you want to be happy, you must be in the service of others in bringing them into the fold. It is my hope that all of you are doing the same.

 

I love you all so dearly. Thank you for all the tender love that you have for me.

 

Love,

Elder Hogge