September 27, 2010 Street Shooting?

Elder Hoglund loves those Argentine Treats! :)

Elder Quebbeman: Celebrating the 4th of July!

Hello Everyone!

It is so good to be able to sit down and write about this week. Let`s see what happened. This week we had a pretty fun week. We`ve been working all week on getting our ward mission plan ready to present this Sunday. We weren`t planning on presenting it this Sunday, but the bishop wanted us to present it so we got it ready and presented it. I have attached the plan so you can see what we`re doing here in the ward. I`n really excited about it and I feel like it will help the ward to participate more in the obra misional. We`ll see how it turns out here in the following weeks.

Antonio is still progressing but really having a hard time finding work. He`s supposed to find out today if he got a job in a local peluquerìa (Hair cutting shop). He loves the Book of Mormon every night and absolutely loves it. He`s in Alma and finds a lot of comfort in reading the Book of Mormon. He didn`t look like he was feeling too good in church today. I pray for him and please pray for me to be able to know what to do to help him.

Hugo is not coming along.

Sebastian is coming along really well! He has a baptismal date for the 16th of October and attended church for the first time yesterday. The talks in church were completely directed towards him. Earlier this week we went with Hermano Agrain, the first counselor in our ward, over to Sebastian`s house to have a charla with him and Hermano Agrain really bore a powerful testimony about the power of the Book of Mormon and his conversion story. The next Sunday in church, Hermano Agrain gave a talk and it really helped Sebastian a lot.

This week I had an experience I want to tell you about. Me and Elder Quebbeman were walking in the street when all of the sudden someone jumped out in the street with a gun and started shooting us. We were able to get away and as soon as we looked back we saw the guy who was shooting us get stabbed by his friend. It was all in plastic though so we`re ok. :) There were some kids playing in the street and I thought it would be funny to include this in my e-mail.

Last P-day we played a really fun game called Teg, it`s like an Argentine version of risk with the names of the different countries all in Spanish. I thought of you mom and your maps in the basement that you have of all the continents so you could learn the different country names. Imagine doing that in Spanish! It was fun!

This week I have learned a lot about having patience with others. Elder Hoglund`s desires are not always the desires of the Lord even if Elder Hoglund wants the person that he is teaching to be perfect NOW, Heavenly Father doesn`t want that. Heavenly Father wants us to progress on the path to perfection gradually, understanding that we have faults and that if we stay on the path that leads to Eternal Life, we will get there. The changes can`t happen now and we have to be patient with others as they work to overcome their weaknesses and change. It`s the same thing we`re doing and Heavenly Father has enough patience to wait for us as we progress gradually on the path to perfection. Imagine if Heavenly Father wasn`t patience with us. We`d be pretty mad and frustrated and so would He. But he`s not like that and understands us perfectly. I know He loves us and wants what is best for us and that is paso por paso.

(Little by little)

Love, Elder Hoglund

Monday, September 20, 2010 Where's my glasses?

Hi Family!

It`s so good to know that you had such a good time at Lake Powell! I love Lake Powell!! Here in Argentina it`s starting to heat up.

Let`s see, what happened this week. This week was a pretty eventful week in the mission. Elder Quebbeman and I moved from the office pench to a different pench and waited outside the pench with all our luggage while we waited for the other Elders, Elder White and Elder Cardus, to come let us in and give us the keys. They are awesome! I am going to send photos next week of what we`ve been doing, what the pench is like and what the other Elders are like. Elder Cardus was an assistant and is in his last transfer of the mission and Elder White has 5 transfers in the mission. Elder White is from St. George Utah and Elder Cardus is from Buenos Aires and was living in Spain just before he came on the mission. Elder Quebbeman, my companion, I don`t remember if I`ve ever told you about him. He`s from Oregon and grew up on a farm. He has spend lots of time out in the fields and knows how to work hard.

This week we`ve been working a little bit with Hugo. It`s a little disappointing. He`s not very committed to changing. We keep going by and he keeps saying that we should come Wednesday and that he likes to talk. We`ll keep coming by Wednesday and I pray that he can find the desire to change.

We did find an incredible family that accepted a baptismal date for October 2. It was incredible. We said in the lesson, if you knew this was the true church, would you get baptized. Claudia, the wife and the husband, Marcos, said yeah for sure. They didn`t make it to church on Sunday so we`ll have to move their baptismal date back but I am excited to work with them. Caludia told us the wonderful story about how in the past she and her husband didn`t want anything to do with religion and things were going really bad for her and her husband. It came to the point where she did not have a place to live and slept in the plaza for a night. She was in desperation and at the very end of her rope. She just laid down and prayed to God that help would come. Just when she did at that moment her husband came up to her in the park and said, "honey, I found us a place to live." It was incredible, they started going to back to the catholic and started to change their life. She says that she feels that God has something big planned for her. I told her that yes God did have something big prepared for her. Their two kids Niko and Emmanual are awesome. We had a good time playing with them and their dogs while we waitied for their parents to get home one day. One of their dogs just had puppies that are about 3 days old and haven`t even opened up their eyes yet. It was so cute!

We are working with Sebastian and Rodrigo(his younger cousin) as well. I have a funny story about this. When we were teaching Sebastian and Rodrigo. I had the hardest time remembering his name. I kept calling him Roberto or Alberto. So I told him to keep my glasses and then at church on Sunday I had to tell him his name correctly before I could have my glasses back. I spent the rest of the day working without my glasses, which was pretty funny. But Sebastian and Rodrigo are awesome, Sebastian has a lot of true questions and is really pondering about the Book of Mormon.

We`re also working with the Paez family, that family of 9 I mentioned last week. The mom is an incredible mother and has done an incredible job with raising her family. It`s going to be difficult to get them to church but we`ll do what we can to help them to get there.

I learned this week about patience, about how we need to be patient with ourselves and others in our mutual weaknesses. Perfection does not come all at once. But when the desires of our hearts are denied or delayed, we have ot have faith and trust in the Lord that things will happen in the proper and right time as we strive for the goal of Eternal Life.

I love all of you! Have an awesome week!

Love,
Elder Hoglund

Monday, September 13, 2010

Ben was busy moving and making lots of changes this week. Next week we should get all of the details.

Monday September 6, 2010 Another change? FINALLY PICTURES!

Elder Hoglund & Elder Quebbeman with Antonio! Both with new haircuts! Cute Antonio cutting Elder Hoglund's hair! Elder Hoglund in The Offices with his family!
Elder Figuera getting his shoes shined. Cost? 4 Pesos.

Dear Family:

I want to start out by saying that I feel that there are more miracles that happen on the mission than I have room to tell in this or in any letter. I know that the lord is blessing me every day with experiences that are helping me gain experience and know how to handle life and bring others to Christ. This week we had a really special experience with Hugo and his family. Hugo is a man that really wants to change his life. He let my companion and another member in for the first time about 2 weeks ago and we have steadily been working on him and finally got a lesson with him and his whole family. He really wants to quit smoking, drinking, and doing drugs and his family wants to read the Book of Mormon and change their lives. The rest of the family is motivated to read and Augustin, their 10 year old…(I think) is really excited to read the Book of Mormon and has a goal to read the first 10 pages by Wednesday. The mom is reading and I love the family, we have such a fun time with them.

We have little commitment cards that we are giving out to people that I absolutely love and I feel that with these commitment cards people feel much more self-committed and driven to complete with their goals. I know that goals are so important and I feel like I say that every week, but I am realizing the importance of knowing what you want and understanding how to get it.

Antonio is progressing along really well, he came to church again this week and also came to our family night we had about temple work and doing family history. He has such a family history and shared so many little stories about how he found important dates of his ancestors. He feels like he´s part of the family.

We met a man on the street the other day named Sebastian. We were walking to another appointment and passed by a house where we have been working for the past 2 or 3 weeks. I felt like we should pass by and say hi and see if the people we had been teaching were there or not. The man that attended us said the lady we were looking for was there but asked if we could wait a minute for her. We agreed and began talking to him. He was very open and we had a wonderful chat with him. He at the end invited himself to church this next week and we have a return appointment with him Tuesday night. I know that the Lord has a plan for us that many times we cannot see but that we should seek to do His will and the way will open.

I feel like the mission has thrown me yet another curve ball, something I didn´t see coming. I was informed by President today that I will be out of the offices in a week working full-time in the area of Trapiche, which is very close to the offices. The former pensionista that designed the program I am using now is coming in to combine three office jobs into one computer and me and Elder Quebbeman are going to be on standby and have phones so they can call us to the office if they need us. I feel like this is going to give me a great opportunity to practice being on call and being willing to roll with things as they come. I feel it´s going to be a great opportunity and I´m feeling good about what´s coming around the corner.

To answer some questions about the Nopes, they´re incredible! they invited us over for lunch today and really helped us to feel at home. they really take good care of us. In the offices there are 4 elders there permanently. President wants there to always be two Elders in the offices. Things are changing a lot here and I love how every day teaches you to roll with what comes. I feel like it´s preparing me for life after the mission.

I feel that this week is going to be spent a lot on training and organizing things for when I leave next week. It should be pretty fun!

I love you everyone!

Love, Elder Hoglund