Cowboy hats and missionaries. February 8, 2010

¡Hola mi familia!

Como Andan todos? How is everyone doing? This week has been pretty incredible! We saw tons of miracles this week. On Tuesday, we had lunch with the Bishop and afterwards had an incredible conversation. I felt prompted to ask a question that I thought was a little weird but it ended up turning into an incredible topic of conversation that really hit home. I learned the importance of asking people the right questions at the right time because they can turn into huge teaching experiences. IT was fun to see how it all developed. I started talking with my companion about it afterwards, and it was fun to see what we learned. Elder Ramirez and have such good conversations while we are walking around. It`s fun.

SO way good news! The Hermanas had a baptism this Saturday and Nora and Pablo (her 10year-old son) came to the baptism. They felt incredible and both are going to get baptized this coming Saturday. We think that other members of their family are going to join them, but those two are for sure. They are incredible. Nora is reading the Book of Mormon a ton!

This leads me to my spiritual thought for the week. The talk Jeffry R. Holland gave in this past conference about the Book of Mormon is incredible. I was talking with Hermana White, who goes home next Monday, today during P-Day about the Book of Mormon. If we are sincerely reading and studying the Book of Mormon, there is no way that we can leave this church. There is no way to legitimately prove that it isn`t what it is. We cannot leave the church if we are reading the Book of Mormon. So I challenge all my friends and family back at home to read it and get to know what it is. The Book changes lives.

Ok, anyway, you know how usually when people come to church for the first time there needs to be someone with them to fellowship them and help them feel welcome? Well to illustrate how incredible of a kid Pablo is, we walked past the room where his class was being held and he was busy getting to know the kid next to him. It seems like he`s pretty comfortable. At the baptism on Saturday we were asking him if he wanted ice cream at his baptism, and he said that he just wanted a baptism. He`s so great! We`ll get ice cream anyway.

Antonio, her husband is coming along. He`s a little bit more duro (hard or tough) but I pray that he`ll come around. He prays it`s just a little bit more tough for him. He`s come such a long way and improved so much! He really has experienced a huge change in his life and I pray he keeps on going and gets baptized along with the rest of his family.

Fabian and Noelia are coming along. They really want to change their lives. We had lunch with them Sunday afternoon just before church. It was a big sacrifice for them. They are coming along. We`re really good friends with them and they have a lot of member support.

We had a few surprise assistances this week in church. Some people came that we weren`t expecting, but are incredible and ready to listen. We`ll experiment to see where it goes this week.

We also had a 14 year old kid in church this week named Jorge. He`s a great kid, it`s just a little uncomfortable for him to be talking to the missionaries. He`s a relative of this same family that is helping us out with Fabian and Noelia. The extended relatives in this family are really beginning to know the missionaries. It`s funny. One person says that a relative is listening to the missionaries, then the other relatives start listening, then the other relatives start listening and the work keeps rolling on. It`s pretty awesome. Anyway, Jorge is a good kid and is coming along. He has a lot of friend support from the church. Also the kid that got baptized on Saturday (Nicolas…Sisters, think of the Care Bears) is 15 years old, so I think they should be friends.

Anyway, we`ll see where this all goes. The Lord is blessing us tons and we`re having tons of good experiences.

Here are some funny missionary quotes for the week.
“Podemos vivir con su familia para siempre” –Hermana Whitmore- (Directly translated, that means, “We can live with your family forever!” She`s learning Spanish. I love remembering my Spanish errors when I was first starting.

“We walked to the end of the world today in our cowboy hats.” –Elder Campbell- They bought cowboy hats to wear during proselyting (don`t worry, they`re allowed) and they had walked really far that day…hence the walking to the end of the world in the cowboy hats.

Until next week.
Love,
Elder Hoglund