Baptism

Hey yall!!

First off, thank you pops for that awesome letter you sent me!! I
loved your explanation on being converted. Reading through the book of
mormon this time, I've been paying special attention to the prophets
and how their eternal perspective helps them teach. Its amazing to see
Nephi's faith in action. I know that as we teach our investigators the
principles of the gospel, the Lord will help them with their faith if
they're willing to act on it. Your sky diving analogy was pretty
funny. Luckily basically all the people we teach here accept the
existence of God so that makes it nice haha. I hope for more letters
like that from ya dad. that was super cool.

Just for yall's info, I got 8 letters and 3 packages last week!!! what
a blessing!! Thank you all for being so supportive :) It helps
sooooooo much. Gma Buck, those cookies were delicious! Joe and jules,
I love that efy album. Hil, thanks for gettin that cd in for me. And
mom, I got the strawberry jam safe and sound. I had the best pb&j yet
here on the mission last week :D Ok so some things I would like for
march... I'm almost finished with my first journal so if you could
send of the next that would be fantastic. Also, It would be nice to
have a 4 gig flash drive. Cuz we do alot of stuff in the clerks office
and i'd like to be able to save the data. Thank you so much!!

So. About last week. On Sunday (the 19th) Angel got baptized :) We'd
had a date set for a couple weeks so I'm so glad he was able to make
the step. It was such an awesome experience! And now, his older sister
wants to get baptized too!! But she goes to school in upstate new york
so we will hafta figure that out. They both have such strong
testimonies of God's church on the earth. Last week overall was just
awesome. I've been fearlessing a lot of people. (missionary term for
starting a conversation with a random person). There are so many
people willing to listen to the gospel here in Bushwick. We have quite
a bit of potential. I know the Lord has been blessing this area soooo
much lately. It hasn't seen a lot of luck over the past while so I
really hope all this turns into something great for the branch. We
plan to visit a few new people this week so I'm really excited.

So one quick funny story. We were on the train headed to the other
elder's pad and I decided to fearless this one couple. They were super
nice and we had a good conversation going about the book of mormon.
The woman seemed very interested so I got her information. Her name
was Maria Peralta. After setting a time to go see them, Elder lewis
and I had to get off the train. Then I realized her name sounded
really really familiar. So we look in the area book (The binder that
contains all the information about the area of proselyting) and it
turns out that she had been taught by the missionaries in my area over
a year ago but they lost contact because she went to the Dominican
Republic for six months. So this random lady I decided to talk to had
already had an awesome experience with the gospel and is now very open
to us teaching her. I know that this is no coincidence. I really hope
that she feels the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ as we teach her
this week. I'm really excited.

Well, its about time to go but thank you so much for allllllll that
you all do for me. Thank you for the support and love. Hope to hear
from you all soon!! :)

Love, Elder Hogge

First Transfer: Complete

Hello All!

How are all of you doing? I hope life is going well! As of today, I am
officially on my second transfer as a missionary. I will be staying
with Elder Lewis here in Bushwick because he is training me right now.
But there will be change going on all over the mission. Six weeks from
now I will probably have a new companion. This week went really well.

Mom, I am super super suuuuper jealous that you and pops are in
mendocino right now!! But I guess I'll forgive you guys ;) I hope dad
gets in a lot of good writing for his research. And I'm sure Jack Jack
will very much appreciate the quilt that you are working on for him.
P-day was great!! We didn't end up having time for the watchtower, but
we got to walk out on the Brooklyn Bridge. It was such a cool
experience!! We had an amazing view of Manhattan and I saw the Statue
of Liberty out in the distance. Then we enjoyed some good ol' Brooklyn
Style Pizza. I remember Sarah talking about some pizza place in
Brooklyn I hafta go to. What was it called again?
If you really wanna know what its like to be in my stomping ground,
theres actually a part in the movie "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" that
was filmed in my area. Remember the part when the kid is getting
chased by the wolves? Well he is up on a train platform. You can see
that it says Marcy Avenue in the movie. Well yup, I use that train
station at least three or four times a week. And if you go downt the
stairs from that station its literally a thirty second walk to the
church building that our branch meets in. Cool huh?
I'm glad willie got my letter. I hope to hear from all my siblings asap haha :)
Unfortunately I wasn't able to get to the mission office last week.
From where I'm at, its about a 45 minute travel time with three
different trains. Hopefully I'll find some time to get out there this
week. But I'm very excited to get that package from ya mom:)
I was so excited to get mari's letters!! I'm so glad that she still
remembers and loves me :) And hearing how cute trudy is really makes
me happy. I'm gonna start callin her Smiles from now on haha. Im glad
Alice is always quick to cheer people up haha. And jack jack, I cant
wait to wrestle around with that little guy when I get back. He's
growing up to be such a stud.

As far as food goes, I absolutely LOVE Dominican food. Fried plantains
are for sure my favorite food right now. They're called tostones in
spanish. I will definitely show all of you how to make it when I get
back. Basically all the hispanics here eat are beans, rice, plantains,
and chicken. But thats because its all Dominicans and Puerto Ricans
haha. Absolutely nothing like taco bell haha.

Our investigators are doing ok. Angel is kinda struggling to figure
out his priorities. We hope to go over there today to help him figure
everything out. We made an amazing amout of progress with Zaida this
week. And its all because we brought a member to the lessons. They
built a very strong friendship. And now Fior (the member) is really
helping her figure out her concerns and doubts. We hope to be able to
set a baptismal date with her soon.

This week we got about eight of us missionaries together and did a
street sweep. It went really well. I'm happy to say that I can
somewhat have a conversation with people in spanish now. Though I wish
I could still understand better. An odd thing happened during the
street sweep. A gentleman came up to Elder Lee (from Korea and
learning English) and just started mormon bashing him. Poor Elder Lee
didnt really understand all that was going on so I got in there and
started talkin to the guy. He just went off on how we are condemning
all these souls because we are feeding them the wrong spiritual
medicine. He asked me why I thought my religion could possibly be
true. I responded that I have actively studied it and prayed for an
answer. I told him that by faith I recieved a feeling of confirmation
in my heart that it was true. This gentleman told me that its not
about feeling, and that I was just flat out wrong. It was very odd to
hear someone reject my testimony like that. Poor guy had such a closed
heart that there was no opportunity for the Spirit to manifest the
truth to him. After throwing out all these "evidences" of the
falseness of the Book of Mormon, one of the other elders walked him
away just bearing his testimony. Just goes to show that even though
the Gospel is for everyone, not everyone will recieve it. But thats
just one of the facts of missionary work. People have their agency and
that will never change haha.

This week we really focused on working with members and involving them
in missionary work. Yesterday we ended up teaching the grandma of one
of the members in the branch. She is a very active Jdubb but was
agreeing with everything we talked about. We will be teaching her the
story of the Restoration this week so hopefully that goes well. In
missionary work, its ALL about the members. They make the absolute
best finders. I know that the more we get the members involved here in
bushwick, the more successful we will be.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week. Just as an fyi, the
library will be closed next monday so you'll probably end up getting
the letter later in the week. I hope all is well. I love you all!!

Love, Elder Hogge

February!!

Dearest Family and Friends,

Welcome all to another edition of "The Elder Hogge Chronicles"

Happy Birthday Pops!! Hate to break it to ya, but you're more than half way to 100. Pretty sure that is defined as "old" ;p I'm already starting to feel a little old, even though I'm not even 1/5 of the way to the century mark. But what I've learned is that age really doesn't matter to our Father in Heaven. What does is obedience, diligence, faith and commitment. As long as we are doing all these things for Him, He will be pleased in us. And that's exactly how Dad has been. I know that us kids have been so blessed being strong in the faith because of Maw and Paw :)

Sounds like the quick wedding trip was a success! Congratulations to Michael!!! Such a sweet time of life.

Unfortunately, We weren't able to head to south brooklyn last week for p-day. The other missionaries had other stuff that they had to do. But for sure we are gonna go today. I really hope the J-dubs give a neat tour of the Watchtower, though with my name tag on they'll prolly be a tad biased haha. At least the Brooklyn Bridge wont be biased against us haha. But I'm really excited to be able to visit these places today.

Mom, it's just Elder lewis and me in our pad. Angel is doing well. He came to church yesterday!! So that was really cool to see. If we can meet with him a few more times this week and he's showing that he is commited, we'll most likely set a baptismal date with him. If you could keep him in your prayers that would be fantastic :) We have another investigator that we have been working with for basically the entire transfer. Her name is Zaida. She's in her late fifties and is from Ecuador. She has been showing great progress. Believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet, believes the Book of Mormon to be the word of God, and she knows that she needs to get baptized into the church. But every time we bring up a date with her, she refuses to set one. She tells us that there are some very personal things holding her from getting baptized. It has been like this for a couple weeks now. We fasted with her yesterday, have clearly explained the necesity of baptism with her, everything we can think of. But she just wont tell us whats holding her back. We really want the best for her but we just dont know how to help her. So if you all could keep her in your prayers as well that would be fantastic.

The finding here is tough. The only buildings that arent locked are the projects, and the only way we can get into any other building is if someone buzzes us in. Everyone is so busy walkin around Brooklyn that they hardly give any time to us. We are struggling to find people to teach. Any suggestions on what we could do to get more investigators?

Mom, thanks for sharing that outline of your lesson. It's definitely something important to be a man like Lehi tells us to. Thats how you gotta be living here in New York haha. And I'll try to get over to the mission office as soon as friday :) Thank you so much for the packages. They sure do brighten up the weeks here :)

I'm glad Hil was happy to get my letter. That package that she sent me was awesome! I absolutely loved the CD with her songs. And the one song from Lari's funeral is so beautiful. How is the family doing? I hope they're all doing well.

So funny story. Yesterday, Elder Lewis and I were on our way to our dinner appointment. We were taking the J train. I was talking to him and noticed something bright green out of the corner of my eye. I look over, and there is a life sized BRIGHT GREEN ARMY MAN toy frozen on the other side of the train. I could not belive my eyes!! And at the following stop, it just walked off the train. Definitely one of the coolest things I've seen here yet. And I am thoroughly convinced that I will see anything and everything in this mission haha.

Well, its about time for me to head off. Life is going well, I've conquered my fear of beans, and I gotta get goin and change my laundry. Love you all!!

Love, Elder Hogge

Not your typical winter

Hey all!

Everything is going well here in Bushwick. The weather is very nice,
its going to be a fun fun p-day (brooklyn bridge then a tour through
the watchtower hehe), and the upcoming week is lookin good.

First off, yes mom, I am plenty warm haha. that super thin blanket
that you got for me from mish mall is surprisingly plenty warm. The
reason I prefer willie to snail mail is so that i can read it all and
send a snail mail back to him. I like how dad does the dear elders.
But you can email cuz you're the one I reply to in my emails. but you
can most definitely send snail mails as well if you like :) I got the
package from hil and the letter from mari :) There really isnt
anything much better than recieving stuff from my family. I hope
willie enjoyed my letter and I plan on gettin letters out to hil,
mari, and joey + jules this week. I havent had any really bad
headaches since that last one a while ago. they are definitely more
rare now a days. And that sure stinks for willie, but he wouldn't be a
Hogge boy without the migraines. I think these headaches are just a
side effect of all that brain function goin on ;p I am so so so so
sooooo proud of tim. He is the MAN!!! Im excited to maybe see some
pictures of him with his little 5'6" friends. I miss my nieces and
nephew so much!!! I would very much like pictures in the next package
if you could manage (oh, and quarters too. laundry costs nine quarters
every week) :) It'd be nice to have a little alice to cheer me up
everytime we get juked. (That means when we set up appointments to
meet with people but they end up not being home. its the pits when
that happens.) And tell all our temple friends I say hello!!! I miss
being able to go every week :(

The mission is going along well. I dont know whats been up with Angel.
Everytime we actually meet with him, he says he wants to get baptized.
But he hasnt been coming to church and doesnt really give us time to
meet with him. a bit frustrating. The spanish is going ok, but I see
so much room for improvement. In the area I am serving, it is
dominated by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. Which also happen to be the
two fastest speaking spanish nationalities. So comprehension has been
rough. Its really easy to be hard on my self for not being as good at
spanish as I want to be. But I just gotta put my trust In the Lords
hands and go to work. The finding has been rough as well. So many
hispanics are working seven days a week to support their families that
its sometimes impossible to meet with them if they dont take work off.
But I see some really good potential this week. We've got a few people
to look up and teach, so we'll see how that goes.

Well my time has just about expired. Tell everyone that I love them!!!

Love, Elder Hogge

only 18 minutes

Well this is definitely not the mtc anymore haha

Hello family and friends!!

Sheesh I only have 18 minutes to write this email. So many things
change every week. Last week I had an hour and a half to write. this
week not so much. Willie, I got your email and I'll try to shoot out a
letter this week but no promises. Its super crazy here. But thanks for
that awesome email haha

Mom, yes music can be burned. thats totally ok :) and im excited to
hear that hil wants to send me stuff hehe. The branch here is doing
great! there were 53 people at church here this week. (I did the
count) Its definitely been growing over the past little while. There
are some really cool stories but unfortunately I dont have time to
share them :( I dont need an extra pillowcase haha. thank you for
offering tho. and Thank You Thank You THANK YOU for that package
mom!!! That was soooooo good to get from you. I got both the package
and the letter in the middle of last week. All the goodies inside the
package have been awesome. especially the hot chocolate and tim tams
:D I showed elder lewis how to tim tam slam a couple nights ago. it
was so much fun haha. Mom, I usually email from the library every
week. and they put a thirty minute time limit on the computers. then
you hafta go and sign up again and wait until a spot opens up. its not
a very fun process but at least I get to send letters home :) My
companion, elder lewis, is the man!! he is from orem, utah, and has
been out just over a year now. He is super super super obedient and
loves to have fun. I have learned so much from him already and I know
that I am blessed to have him as a companion. His family and friends
are very supportive of him serving a mission.

I am super super super excited for one of our investigators. his name
is Angel. (pronounced anhel cuz its spanish haha) but we have been
working with him and he is super solid. He is only seventeen years
old, but he sees the difference christ has made in his life and he
knows that baptism into His church will dramatically improve his life.
We aren't super set on a date yet, but I know that he will be baptized
soon. This kid is sooooo awesome. he had been drinking coffee all his
life cuz thats what his family did, but once we taught him the word of
wisdom, he stopped and never looked back. he says he doesnt even think
about it anymore. I KNOW the gospel changes lives. Throught the
atonement of our Savior, we can improve our lives and draw closer to
Him. Just being out here a few weeks my testimony of that has
strengthened dramatically. Time is just about up on the computer, but
I love you all so very much and you are in my prayers every night.
hope to hear from you soon!!

Love, Elder Hogge

Happy MLK Jr. Day!

Hey all!

You were right mom, all the libraries were closed yesterday so I had no where to email! Luckily, I get the opportunity today. I'm guessing that since I didnt get a long email from you, i will be receiving a letter or somethin. I probably wont be getting any mail in time to reply the following pday because the mission office sometimes takes a while to forward any emails. So I'm perfectly fine with you just emailing everything as well :) Ok so something big I've discovered in the field. The rules about music were the OLD rules that were changed like a month before I entered the MTC. So now, the rule is any good, uplifting music that invites the spirit. This includes classical, guitar, efy, josh groban, all that stuff. I would absolutely LOVE it if you could send quite a bit of music. Especially some really good instrumental guitar. And efy. Haha anyways, wow this week has been crazy. The past tuesday was not a fun day at all. I had a migraine from lunch till I went to sleep at night, all our appointments cancelled, and it felt like it was only ten degrees outside. It was a tough, tough day. But then the next day, we had an exchange. I went over to the Bushwick South pool (area of work) and worked with Elder Henstrom. That was a great day. It seemed like the Lord was rewarding me for toughing out the previous day. On the exchange with Elder Henstrom, we taught this fellow named Norlan. Doesnt speak any English at all. (Here in New York, there are a ton of Hispanics that speak english, but prefer to go to the spanish branch. So we have taught quite a few lessons in english). The lesson with Norlan went really well and Elder Henstrom committed him to be baptized and set a date. Such a cool experience to see. So wednesday was great. Another really cool thing that we did this past week was a street sweep. That was a really fun experience. All 8 of us english and spanish elders for Bushwick area met up at the corner of Moore st. and Graham ave. and set up a table and displayed all these different church materials. We had different DVDs, the pamphlets, copies of the book of mormon, and pass along cards out. In the middle of the table we also had a sign up sheet. So what we did is just wait on that corner and talk to everyone that passed by. The thing about New York is that everyone is in a rush to get somewhere so alot of people just flat out ignore us. But we would just talk to everyone and tell them that we have all this free stuff about Jesus. That got the attention about a lot of them. So we would talk to them for a bit and bring em over to the table and have them sign up to have some missionaries come over and give them the materials. I was pretty afraid to just go out there and start talkin to people, but its like jumping into a cold pool. You just gotta do it and go from there. So I just started talking to people. Like I said before, a lot of them just ignored me but there were some cool people that wanted to learn more. I was able to talk to some people that only spoke spanish. I actually kind of had conversations!!! So that was pretty sweet. That experience helped me be a little more fearless in talking to people. I love going to church every week. Its like a safe house from the outside world for three hours of the week. Such a relief. Even though its all in spanish, I'm picking up a lot of whats goin on and I can really feel the spirit. The members really like us members. Been eatin pretty well here. Rice and beans aint so bad. Last night we went to the house of a recent convert family and had tacos. Real hispanic tacos are awesome. So dont worry about how im eating. All is well haha. I think this week we have 5 dinner appointments so im pretty excited about that. Yesterday was the birthday of my companion, Elder Lewis. And it was pday so that was awesome. It was soooooo much fun. After doin all the morning stuff, we went over to the pad of some other missionaries in the zone and I made a cake. It was actually super delicious and everyone else was impressed with my awesome baking skills. Then all of the missionaries there played risk, uno, and phase ten. After working hard the entire week, its nice to have those pdays. I would absolutely LOVE to hear from all of you sometime. Dont hesitate to shoot off an email to me. We have quite a bit of time to write each week (usually) so I can usually reply. I wanna know how all of you are doin! Hilary I'm callin you out right now cuz you promised a letter a while ago!! ;p But seriously, letters and emails are the absolute BEST on a mission. Its about time for me to get going now. Thank you all for your support and love! Hope to hear from you soon!!

Love, Elder Hogge

p.s. sorry about my horrible sentence structure. i've reached a point of apathy about certain grammar and punctuation. I'm sure sarah would have a blast editing my letters :D

Hello New York!!!

Hey family and Friends!!!

Well, I'm safe and sound here in Brooklyn. I always knew I'd serve in this part first haha. And I absolutely LOVE it here. Its so awesome. Been a crazy week of firsts. Mom, I really dont need an electric blanket so far. Maybe later, but for now Im nice and cozy just with the super thin but warm blanket you sent. Sister Shepherd is super nice haha. But yeah, the area is great! I'm serving in the Bushwick 2nd branch. Its in Brooklyn and covers the suburbs of Greenpoint, Williamsburg (live in this part), and part of Bushwick. Just send everything to the mission office. theyll forward it to me in my area. (dad if you havent already it would be nice if you put the mission office address on my blog. Hil, if you could post the mission office address on facebook that would be fantastic!) Sooooooo diverse here its crazy. The northern part of my area is mostly white people so we dont go there very often haha. I call it hipsterville because theres hipsters EVERYWHERE in this part. We live in the south end of this area. Everyone here is so Indy. (Have one of the kids explain what that means haha). So thats pretty funny. As far as fast food goes, theres subways here we can eat at. Most of the food places here are local eateries. Its pretty awesome. Theres some legit Chinese food here haha. so sending some money just for eating at places like that would sure be a real treat :) The southern part of the area has all the african americans and hispanics. Most of the hispanics live on the south streets so we spend a lot of time there. Also, tons live in the projects. Not sure if you all know what the projects are, but its the epitome of the ghetto area. Its just a few blocks of MASSIVE run down apartments. Im talkin like twenty stories tall. but there are so many good people living there. Definitely a new experience going there. oh yeah, for all the younger generation reading this, Im serving in the area where Jay-Z (the rapper) grew up. He got his name from the JZ train that we actually ride on every day. So thats pretty cool haha. yesterday was my first sunday in the field. it was all in spanish!!! Testimonies, classes, everything. i could understand a lot of it but once people started talking about anything besides the gospel i got really lost haha. Still gotta get all the un-gospel related vocab down haha. The members are great tho. Its a really small branch, about 40 people at sacrament meeting, and there arent many priesthood holders. So thats a real struggle. I have an absolutely fantastic trainer. His name is Elder Jeffery Lewis haha. I've heard that name before. He doesnt treat me like a greenie but he has helped me get accustomed to mission life so much. He is such a great missionary and I am priviledged to be serving with him. In the past, this area has really struggled with missionary work. But I really feel like we can pick it back up again. We've got three solid progressing investigators right now. I know that with hope and faith the Lord will really help us strengthen this branch as we bring others unto Him. So Im having a blast here! All is well and I know the Lord will bless the people here through missionary efforts. I hope to hear from you all soon! either snail mail or email mattereth not. Just as long as I get to communicate with you:)

Love, Elder Hogge