Cerro Acro-Beautiful mountains October 5, 2009 ~Monday

Hi friends and family!

To answer your question about being thin. Yes, my suit pants are very big for me and I am wearing my jeans right now which are much too big. I tightened the notch on my belt 2 notches and they stay up...It´s pretty funny :) I am eating plenty, but we walk tons of miles each day. As you already know, the area I am in is very campo they call it. It´s very big with tons of walking.

General Conference was absolutely amazing and I absolutely loved the messages! I learned so much and had so many answers to my questions. The Spirit really is the teacher. We can sit there and listen to the exact same message, but the Spirit will teach us the things that are personal for us to know and do. It really is incredible. The gringo Elders went and watched conference in English while everyone else went to the big chapel in the stake Center in Maipu to watch it. We had food in there and really we just learned a ton! Conference is so incredible. We were watching the last session of Conference on Sunday and they had just announced that President Monson was about to speak and the signal cut. It eventually came back in a few minutes, but we were scared we weren´t going to be able to listen to the prophet speak.
To get to conference, the ward rented us a Trafic (a bus to go pick up investigators and ward members who would have difficulties getting to conference). We we had quite the full trafic and our investigaters really enjoyed conference a ton. It´s been such a fun opportunity to tell people that we have a living prophet and that he was going to speak in conference in a few weeks. It´s so powerful to be able to say that and some people think we´re absolutely crazy I´m sure. But I know there is a living prophet in Thomas S. Monson and that the things he tells us are directly from God. They are the things that we need to do as a church to become better. People may not accept us, but I know it´s true and I grow to know and feel the truth of it more and more as I learn and grow.

This week in my studies I learned something incredibly awesome that I want to apply the next time I get the opportunity to teach (my companion is still doing a lot of the teaching, I still have a hard time understanding what in the world people are saying sometimes. It it will come, I´ll just keep working hard and trying and I know with time it will come. I´m having a way good time learning to just keep on trying.). I learned that all of the first messages that we teach are centered around the gospel. The first lesson is about the Restoration of the Gospel. Lesson 2 is about the Plan of Salvation, which, central to that is the gospel. Lesson 3 is the Gospel (Not too hard to relate that to the gospel). But I realized that and learned that central to the Gospel is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. You can relate everything to the gospel, and then relate everything about the gospel to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the center of everything, that is what became a lot more clear.

Today for Preparation day, we went as a Zone to Cerro Arco. It´s a hike that looks so much like Utah. When we got to the top of Cerro Arco, there was an incredible view, that was partially obscurred by the large amount of dust in the air. It was really windy yesterday so there was still a ton of dust leftover in the air. But it was way fun. We just got back and now I´m sitting down writing about it. I´ll send some pictures of it.

Right now we´re trying to find some more people to teach and are preparing Daniel and Juana for their baptisms coming up on Saturday. They are way excited and it´s fun to see the changes they´ve made in their life to get themselves ready and how much they feel that the church is true and how much they want to learn more about it. They truly are examples to me, I admire them so much.

Well, I love you all, I´ll try to write better in my next e-mail. I´m pretty tired from our hot hike. But I love you all so so so much. You all have no idea how much I love you all and want to respond to each of you. One day I promise I will. Thinking about all of you makes me want to try harder and work harder. I love you all!!!!!!!!!!!!! Until next week.

Love,
Elder Hoglund

Service, Smiles and Sandwiches! September 28, 2009

This is the school in Mendoza where Ben

and the other missionaries helped to clean up









A picture of the missionaries having a lunch

break at the service activity.









Elder Hoglund and Elder Boudrero with the Famila Nieva, the family they usually have lunch with on Saturday afternoon.



















Elder Hoglund sending us an e-mail! Cute Ben!



















Elder Lucas, Elder Robinson, and Elder Hoglund pulling weeds

at the school.



















Let´s see, this week was really really eventful and I am way excited to tell you all about it. We ended up not having the baptism this past weekend but moved it to the 10th of October. We also have two others that are going to be baptized that Saturday as well. Daniel Chincha is one of them. He´s 20 years old and is one of the most incredible people I have ever met. His dad died when he was 5. He has two older brothers but still, he grew up pretty fast because of what happened. One summer he worked hard enough to earn enough money to build his family´s house that they are living in now. He is incredible. He has been attending a church down here called Jesus te Ama. We walk past it every Sunday Morning on our way to church. The church starts at 6 in the morning and is full of loud music and singing and clapping and guitars and such. I need to record what it sounds like one morning when we walk past. Anyway, he´s been attending that church for about 4 years and has been inviting his friends to that church and everything. He´s been attending our church for just under 2 months now and is so worried about his friends. How they are not going to be members of the church. He wants them to be
members too. He´s incredible if you get the drift.

Last night we had an incredible visit with him and the Familia Chapana...(it´s so important to have members there). We watched the Testaments movie and felt the Spirit so strong. I also studied a little bit about the Sabbath Day as well. Elias is a friend of that family as well and has been investigating the church for a time. HE has a lot of questions about why the Sabbath Day is on Sunday, so I got the chance to study that and give him a list of scriptures about the Sabbath Day being on Sunday. It was fun and I hope it shows him that we really do care and want
to help him with his questions.

On Saturday we had a huge four-stake service activity! It was part of the worldwide day of service the chuch was doing down here. We went to a school is Mendoza Centro and weeded and took care of the grounds there. It was fun to see everyone serving to help this school. There should be picures on President Lindahl´s blog I would think.

The weather down here has been pretty chilly the past few days. Lots of wind and big ominous clouds up against the Andes. But, we´re doing well. We used the space heaters a little more than we have been using them but we´re doing good. :) Let´s see. I´m going to send some picures now. But things are well here. I love you all so much! Until next week.

Love,
Elder Hoglund

Fun with THE PELOTA! September 21, 2009

Hi Family and Friends

I love you all so much
Here`s a short e-mail, but I am so grateful to send pictures to you this week too! Any other specific requests for pictures, I`ll see what I can do. This week was incredible! We had our interviews with President Lindahl and had Zone Conference. I love hearing President and Sister Lindahl speak. They are so inspiring and know exactly what needs to be said. President Lindahl is such an example to me of how to lead with love. I`ve heard about people who are so scared to have interviews with their mission presidents because they are scared. Here, I love speaking with President Lindahl, so uplifting and I want to be so much better after interviews with him. It makes we want to be the most loving person I possibly can be.

Yesterday we did service at the church. In front of the church was looking pretty ugly with weeds and such, so we spent a little bit cleaning it and making it look nice. We got roped into staying afterwards and playing futbol with the members of the ward because someone had left to go get us sandwiches and we were to wait until we could eat. They were done serving and wanted to jugar con la pelota...They are INCREDIBLE with the pelota! I have never seen people play like they do. They make MTC soccer and almost any soccer I`ve seen in the states look like child`s play. They are magicians with the ball! It`s pretty incredible. Anyway it was pretty fun and the church looks really good after the service.

We have a baptism this Saturday, my first one! I`m pretty excited for the lady that is going to be baptized...Juana Zeballos. She is an incredible lady. I`ll send pictures.

Well, that`s about it. Missonary work is incredible! I love doing this work and I love all of you. Take care, keep running, hiking, making huge things of salsa, you`re all incredible. Love you and I`ll pray for each of you!

Love,
Elder Hoglund.

This is Octopus tentacles that Ben ate for dinner!! Yummy!!

Ben's groceries after shopping.

Ben's district when he first arrived in Argentina. Elder Hoglund, Elder Boudrero, Elder Lems,and Elder Mendoza.

Ben says: "Elder Mendoza is one of the funniest people I have ever met! He's only been a member of the church about 2.5 years and he was studying to become a catholic priest before he joined the church. He shared with me his conversion story and it is incredible. I really admire him for making the decision to serve a mission. He has such an indredible, firm testimony of the gospel. I sure do love him and he really inspires me to be a better missionary."

This is Ben's companion at the MTC, Elder Taylor. He is holding up a sign that was in the stairwell. The people who had the swing flu were quarantined to the floor beneath Ben. :(


This is Ben's "Sweet Good Pench"! He loves his home.


This is Ben's district at the MTC in front of the Provo Temple.

This is Ben's first companion in Argentina, Elder Boudrero!

Octopus is delicious! Mon. September 14, 2009

Hola mi Querido Familia!

This week was awesome! We worked way hard and saw lots of miracles happen. We are teaching a way awesome familia...the Famila Padilla. We`ve been trying to find them for a while and finally found them. They want to get baptized and they are married! How awesome is that! They are a young couple are just got here about a year ago I think from Bolivia and they got married at a Registro Civil in Bolivia! They want to get baptized, they have a 10 year old son, they are married, they are awesome people. I am so excited for them! They want to read the Book of Mormon and they obvisously want to know it`s true before they join the church. Please pray for them, they want a big change in their lives.

We also set my first baptismal date this week! Juana Zeballos, one of our investigators, the mother of a very recently returned missionary said that she wants to get baptized on the 26th of September! I am so excited for her! She had a stroke a few years ago and can`t communicate hardly at all, but she can understand others perfeclty fine. She is so excited about her baptism and we are way excited for her too. We`ll keep on passing by her house.

This week we`ve really been changing the way we go about contacting and teaching. We are teaching towards baptism and really letting people know that we want them to get baptized the first time that we teach them. We teach them about the importance of baptism and then we tell them when we are setting a baptismal date and ask them to prepare for that date. This is awesome because it really helps us to teach with power and get right to the point. We`re not wasting time, they`re not wasting time and it helps them realize the power of the message. We did this towards the end of the week after our Zone Leaders taught us about the importance of putting a date with people. That, coupled with the converting power of the Spirit and the Book of Mormon combined, has really helped us out the last few days. It is really helping us to teach with power and Heavenly Father is putting lots of incredible people in our path that are ready and want to get baptized. This has been a fantastic week and I am really learning the about the power of the message.

I`ve also been studying about Charity, which is the pure love of Christ and I was thinking what about how I feel when I feel the pure love of Christ... Those feelings that I feel when I know that Christ loves me are the exact same feelings I want others to have about me. I love learning about this and putting it into practice.

Last Preparation Day we went to this really fancy restaurant in Mendoza Centro. There I ate some Octopus tentacles, some cow stomach, and some other things that I really don`t know what they were, but I knew that I was only going to have this experience pretty much once in a lifetime so I decided to chow down on what I could. I`m still alive so I think we`re all right. I`m just glad I didn`t think too hard about what I was doing while everything was still going on, otherwise I may have had a hard time...Wow that was good.

Anyway, after that we went to the Plaza de Independencia. I should learn more about it before I write about it, but it was awesome. My companion has pictures on his camera that I will get and send. It was such a fun day! While we were walking in Mendoza Centro a bird decided that it wanted to use the restroom right above Elder Mendoza`s head (the name of one of my Zone Leaders, not to be confused with Mendoza Argentina). It wasn`t too hard to laugh at that.

So here`s some cultural stuff. Everyone loves soccer down here. There are two teams that it seems like everyone follows...River and Boca. I have a feeling that when they play later this month there will be a lot of rejections if we are clapping doors. We`ll see how it goes...I`m still deciding who to cheer for. The members obvisouly have varying opinions of what I should do. But I have the feeling they are a little biased. In one member`s house there is pretty much a shrine dedicated to Boca. There is a giant stuffed Lion (with padding, not a real lion  ) with tons of Boca garb on it. We`ll see how it goes, I`ll make a decision sometime.

I love you all. Keep working hard and e-mail me questions of things you would like answered.

Love,
Elder Hoglund

One Transfer Already Monday, August 31, 2009

Hi Family,

This week are transfers and Elder Boudrero and I figured out that we are getting the chance to stay together in Colonial Bombal for another 6 weeks. I am so excited to have the opportunity to continue to learn from him. We are growing to be really good friends and I sure do love him. As for the Google Earth thing. The Colonial Bombal Chapel is the chapel where we attend church and the Pench in which we live is really close to the Barrio Primavera. I got a letter from Sister Blackham saying that some missionaries had placed some kind of mark on those locations and I thought you would love to know all this as well.

It seems like the letters take anywhere from 2 to 3 weeks to get there. Fun stuff.

The following is a picture of where I live. This wonderful Pench is home to me! This thing on top is a water tower for our pench. (No picture) And we also have bars on our windows. Almost everyone here has bars in front of their windows and fences wth giant gates in front of their doors. This is a very calm area from what I hear, but it´s all about security. The church is the same way. They have bars and locks and stuff. The church actually got robbed a few weeks back, a member told us about it and it sounded really bad, but when we went to check it out, it was bad, but not as bad as the member made it sound. She made it sound like they had taken the ceiling tiles off as well, but it wasn´t that bad. The thought I actaully had about that was that regardless of what they rob or take from the chapel. It does absolutely nothing to slow down the work of the Lord. The thing that matters is the truth of the gospel. No matter how hard anyone works, they can´t take that away. It was a pretty calming and pretty amazing thought that no matter what else is happening in the world. The knowledge of the gospel is the anchor that makes everything matter. Without the gospel, regardless of whither someone is rich or poor life doesn´t have a direction or meaning.

This next photo is a picture of Ailine, the little girl of a member named Hermana Vale. She talks so much and loves her little rabbit. They live on a farm and just have very little, but she is always so happy and last week we ate lunch with the family before doing some service with them, she asked us if we wanted her to sing for us so we weren´t bored. She then commenced to sing a beautiful version of something about the Argentine flag very loudly. So cute, I love that girl!

This last picture is just about a dollar of bread in Argentina, a little less. When buying bread, here, the peso goes a long way.

That´s about it, I am out of time. This week was fantastic, we did divisions with some of the prospective missionaries in the ward, that was a really big growing experience to be out on my own with someone who has even less experience with missionary work with I do. J. It was awesome.
I love you all. Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, and letters, they all help! J Bye.

Love, Elder Hoglund


Ben's Bed. Oh MY!


A Peso's wrth of Bread!


Ben and his little Argentine friend who likes to sing to him.

Cyber Power Outage! August 24, 2009

Hi friends and family,

So, funny story about the internet today. We were going to the Cyber to use the internet, we got there, sat down, and the power went out. How funny is that. So we took a little walk back to our pench and decided that there must be something about this e-mail thing, I am not quite sure, but it was pretty funny. Thank you so much for the updates, I love you all and again apologize for the lack of a respone you get from me when it comes to your individual e-mails. One of these times when we get the e-mail thing right I will respond to each of you individually. It would make me really happy to do that and let each of you know that I really love you and care about you. Let,s see, here is a little bit about this week.

Yesterday I had an experience in which I learned a lot about the power of the Book of Mormon. We went to a church of another religion on Saturday night, (it was something that Elder Aidukaitas sp?) challenged the mission to do. He said that when he went he ended up baptizing about 50 people in the congregation. It is a huge opportunity to find people who are really good people and love religion, who are looking for the truth. Anyway we went, and I just felt terrible during the church. I was just feeling terrible, really feeling the Spirit churn in me and tell me what was happening was wrong. My companion told me to read in the Book of Mormon and just like that the Spirit came back and the horrible feeling I felt was gone. It really is a night and day difference and I know it is real. When we read the Book of Mormon, when we open it and read a page or two we will feel something different. We will feel the Spirit, something is different about that Book and it has power to convert. This was incredible.

There are so many miracles that happen when we are obedient too. We need to be obedient so the Lord can bless us. I know this is true and have seen it thus far in the experiences of my mission.

Sorry to cut it short. We need to go shop and be back at the bus stop, otherwise...well, we need ot catch the bus. Things are wonderful here. I am learning tons, I love everyone so much. I will send photos one day. Thank you for your patience and your love. Really, this shouldn,t happen. I really hope next week i will send some photos. Take care, I love you! With much love,

Elder Hoglund

Sorry this is so late . . . . Wed. August 19, 2009

I am so sorry that I am writing this so late. I know that you are probably having a heart attack wondering what is going on in Argentina. Know that everything is ok. The bus that we ususally take on Monday either came really early and we missed it, or really late and we got it. Either way, we just had enough time to get our shopping done on Monday and then we stayed the night Monday in the Zone Leader`s Pench (Apartment) so we could be closer to the Zone Conference that we had the following day.

On Monday we stayed at our Pench for the day. We were going to play soccer, which we should have done, but my companion was sick so we stayed at the pench and and got some cleaning done and attempted to go do e-mail. The Argentine police gave us a ride to where the e-mail place was, this was pretty fun. We were waiting for the bus and the Police car comes zipping by us. Stops, turns around, and comes up to us and asks where we were going and if we would like I ride. Of course we said yes. When we got to a Cyber (a place where we can access computers and do the internet thing) it was closed. Just a sidenote, we live about about a 45 minute bus ride from the city, so everything is pretty far.

We went back to the pench, had some lunch and I washed some clothes in a bucket and hung them up on our clothesline to dry. I really liked doing this, it was pretty fun to see the clothes turn out so clean and smell so fresh. Tuesday, we had Zone Conference with Elder Bowen from the 70, and got back to the Pench with not enough time to go the the Cyber and e-mail (Zone Conference took all morning and afternoon and was absolutely incredible.). Then this morning we went to go to e-mail and the power was down. So.......now we`re here and it is good to be able to write you and tell you what`s going on. Thank you so much for the love and patience with me, we are going to get better with getting the right busses and getting to places early so we can have enough time to e-mail on the day we are supposed to.

Some stuff to mention specifically in prayers, pray for us that we can find some people who are interested, it`s been a while since we`ve had a new investigator truly interested in the gospel. We need to get out there and find someone. I love the updates about the Family and the happenings of the ward and just what is going on.

Here are some things I learned at Zone Conference that I really wanted to share with you. The Zone Conference was so incredible. Elder Bowen taught us for over two hours and it was the most spiritual outpouring of knowledge that I have ever experienced. He taught us so much and he said that next time we go to the Temple to focus on how the word, Lord, is used, and see who it refers to. He told us incredible things, but the Spirit was the real teacher and I felt so edified and ready to do what the Lord wants me to do. I don`t have my notes with me right now, but the Spirit really taught me that what I need to do is not to have Excuses, Doubt, or Fear, but instead to make Experiences, be Obedient, and have Faith. It was so incredible, he truly is a man of God. He was definitely acting under the authority of the Twelve Apostles. He also said another thing, that Preach My Gospel will prepare us for our own Personal Ministry more so than any other book, or something like that. I think it would be safe to say that Preach my Gospel will really help prepare us for our personal ministry in life. It was really good. (More on the Zone Conference below. :) )

Let`s see, this week was pretty incredible. We were teaching the Barbera Family one night and they had some friends over to gamble and such. They started asking us questions about what we were doing here and it led to an incredible first discussion with the Spirit really strong. Oscar Barbera`s boss was there and one of the reasons Oscar has not come to church is because he works on Sunday. Hugo (Oscar`s boss) really felt the Spirit and said that he was going to read what we gave him. This is going to turn out well .We also taught two other people, Nancy and Jose. Jose is 16 and is going to serve a mission someday. He really understood what we were talking about and loved it. When we were teaching him how to pray at the end of the lesson, he said, so if I was to pray I would do this, he then gave us a quick example of what he was going to pray for, and it was just perfect. Usually people are really hesitant about praying and he just really wanted to do it. We haven`t spoke with him yet, but I really think that he prayed. I really want to talk to him soon. Nancy pretty much was the same. It was pretty incredible. We were talking about the Book of Mormon and we were talking about how Moroni hid the plates and then about Joseph Smith. We said something about Joseph Smith and she said, “and he was guided to the place where the plates were!” or something like that. It was incredible to see how much she loved it and how much the Spirit was teaching her. The Barbera family is having a tough time progressing. They are really poor and Oscar is really limited in his movement because of his leg injury just over a year ago. They love it when we come, but they really aren`t showing much progress. We need to make some big steps forward in the next few days or move on.
When we teach by the Spirit, we are able to teach as Jesus, “as one having power and authority”. When we teach by the Spirit, people feel that power and authority, but have no idea where it comes from. We are just two kids coming to their house to teach them about Jesus, but there is something different about it. It`s definitely not us one bit, but the power of the message and the Spirit testifying to their hearts of the truthfulness of the message. The Spirit is so powerful and I am realizing more and more every day how essential it is in the work.

Back to our Zone Conference. :) Elder Bowen taught us so many things about the church and what we need to do here in Mendoza, Argentina for the work to bloom. The Spirit taught me individually what I need to improve so I can more be the missionary the Lord wants me to be. It really won`t go well into words what I felt and learned. It was one of the most enlightening experiences of my life to hear everything the Spirit had to tell me.

The language is still difficult, it is really terrifying at times to speak with people because I don`t know if when they speak back I will be able to understand or not. Some people I can understand very well and others I can barley understand if at all. I know the Lord will help me as I keep praying for His help and keep working hard. My trainer is so wonderful to teach me what I need to know. He`s so great.

Weather is good, we finally had the Zonda and boy it was incredible. There was tons of wind and dust everywhere. The morning before it happened, our Zone Leaders called us and said they were in it and that we should look for refuge. We could hear the winds blowing from pretty far away. It ended up being tons of dust in the air and the wind blowing really hard. It was pretty fun.

Well, this was a bit disorganized and a little long, but I think that might have been because I have a keyboard that works well this week. It has been a struggle to find one that types really well without the keys getting stuck. I love you all. Keep doing good things! You are all so incredible and the best family in the world. Take care this week, I love you.

Love, Elder Hoglund.

P.S. I think next week for reals there will be pictures.