The Lord is in Charge November 9, 2009

Colonia Bombal. Rural area where Ben is working now.

Tired missionary at work!

Ben and Elder Boyd. Pants tucked in those socks and ready

to ride!! So grateful to have bikes.

Practicing for the REAL Salt Lake. He's got skills

Where's the Taxi? Ben's companions so tired after grocery shopping.

Family and friends,

So our bikes are broken, but not to worry, we have some members that know exactly what to do. They took our wheels to get them fixed and we should have them up and going by tomorrow.

As for what happened this week. We had an incredible lesson with Elias yesterday. It was such an incredible experience. I`ll try to set it up a bit. So Elder Boyd and I had one of those days. Nearly everything we had planned fell through and Luis and Estella got cold feet and have started avoiding us. We were laughing our heads off because it was so obvious that Satan was out and working hard to get them to not want to go forward with the lessons. I know it will work out, we`ll just keep working hard having a good attitude and being obedient and things will turn out. The Lord is in charge! Anyway, so we were walking back to our pench when we run into Elias randomly (definitely not random). He tells us that he`s been studying and everything and gave us some hours when he was available. That was such a blessing from the Lord. We had a great lesson with him yesterday. I now have a stronger testimony of the importance of prophets and the Book of Mormon. The Bible alone is so confusing. There are scriptures that contradict each other and I was so lost when Elias was showing us some scriptures in the Bible. Modern day prophets and the Book of Mormon keep things running how they should, it`s pretty incredible! Elias still feels that he needs to get baptized and after Elder Boyd and I sang a hymn and talked a little bit the Spirit was very strong. We were going to put a baptismal date with him but there was someone coming to the house and we got rushed out. It will happen soon, he is so incredible!

Maria came to church this Sunday to sacrament meeting with her 3 kids and Gino, her husband wanted so bad to come, but the patron (their boss) said he had to work in the fields on Sunday Morning. Satan at work. But he wants to come and that is incredible! We want to go work in the fields with him so he can come this Sunday! The way the thing with the fields works is that the family lives on the land and takes care of what is growing on the land. Their payment is roughly a place to live and about 30 percent of the income of the harvest...if that. It makes life pretty difficult because when their patron says work...they kind of have to work if they want somewhere to live. Please pray for them.

The Spanish is coming along, I found out I am leaving Colonia Bombal in about 2 and a half weeks, so there is that much time to make miracles happen here in Colonia Bombal. I love you all!! Until next week.

Love,
Elder Hoglund

HUGE load of letters @ zone conference!! :) November 2, 2009~ Monday

Hi Friends and Family!!

I love the Money 33 license plate Brady! Feliz Cumpleanos y todo!
This week has been incredible. We had Zone Conference this Friday and so that means that we had Interviews with President Lindahl on Thursday. I really want to be like him. He is so loving and so giving. After interviews were over he was walking away from the chapel and turned around and asked us if we had time for ice cream. After doing that he pulled out 100 pesos and told us to go buy some ice cream. He is just so loving and caring and I want to learn a lot more from him so I can learn to be more Christlike.

It being Zone Conference I just got a HUGE load of letters! Tons of Dear Elders from Shalyn`s mom with Andrew Blackham`s weekly missionary letters and other letters. That was pretty fun to get. Please pass along a huge thank you to everyone who sent me letters. They are incredible!

We have been working with Luis and Estela this week. They were able to come and see a confirmation earlier this week and Elder Boyd said that he overheard Luis asking Estela if she wanted to get baptized...it`s definitely on their mind and this week the miracle will happen. A miracle already did happen. We had been fasting that they could be able to come to church and it turned out the Estela got a job this week that will allow both of them to come to church this upcoming week.

The appointment we had with Gino and Maria this week fell through but they are doing well. We are going to do an incredible lesson with them called Sr. Huevo and teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love how Elder Boyd taught me that object lesson. I will definitely show it all to you when I get back.

We had an incredible lesson with an investigator that has just kind of been there for the last little while. We haven`t focused a ton on him because of various reasons, but we had a lesson with him and his member girlfriend last night and he said that he has been feeling lately like he needs to get baptized and he really has questions and wants to know the truth. Elias is his name and he is incredible!

I was a little sick this week, but no biggie. I just needed a little recouperation and we`re good to go again. The Lord really does support us. When we have work to do and we want to do it, we can pray for strength and He will strengthen us so we can do His will. I have a stronger testimony of this because of this week.

I hope you all enjoyed Halloween, not much happened here, I think it`s more of an American holiday. Anyway I love you!! Take care Bye!

Love,
Elder Hoglund