WEEK 52- Shenanigans with new comp!!

Holy cow. Crazy week!!

Soooo transfers! First off can I just say how wonderful it is to be

comps with Sister Fletcher?! Gosh I love this woman. Literally, we

were emailing the week before and she was serving in Billings and I

was like "don't forget to tell president that we need to be

companions!!" And she's like "maybe I'll come to Missoula and we can

finally serve together!" And then guess what happened. We became

companions! Haha I don't think President knows what he just got

himself into;) but it's gona be a blast. We honestly laugh so much.

Haha when our members met sister Fletcher they were like "the first

night you were here, we expected it to be awkward, tiptoeing around

trying to get to know your new companions...then all we heard was

laughing!" Haha and it's true. We have wayyyyy too much fun;) but

we've been working our little patooties off! It's been a week full of

exhaustion and miracles and breaking things and shenanigizing.

The first day after we got back from transfers was spent helping a set

of sisters clean out their apartment. They moved to the elders old

apartment and it…need some loving….BOYS!

So things kept getting broken this week. People keep breaking things

(like the commandments) and it's causing us stress!! Haha seriously

though. Can't say too much but whatever you do...don't dang break the

commandments

We had some interesting and hilarious lessons this week...

 our ward mission leader told us we

can start teaching  J again and preparing him for

baptism! But the fun part is, we had to tell him he's excommunicated.

Bishop said  J doesn't remember it at all.....so...we

went in for the lesson and let me tell you, J can talk…so we were just all chatting away!

Love that man to death!

it was getting close to curfew and we

still had to tell him he had to get rebaptized and things. Sister

Fletcher and I kept quietly tapping each other under the table like

"you do it! You tell him..." Haha it was going nowhere. We kept trying

to think of nice ways to tell him and not offend him or make it sound

bad but nothing was coming or working...So finally at the end, we were

about to close and I just blurted out "so Jonathan, you're

excommunicated." *cricket noise* Not gona lie, one of the most awkward

moments of my mission. Haha not the way we wanted to tell him at all

and probably not the most tactful. But it ended up working out

okay...He actually really understood and wasn't offended and we were

able to talk about why he can get rebaptized and things like that. I

guess he just needed it bold and straight forward, not all fluffy like

we were trying to make it. Such a testament that the Lord knows what

His children need and how they need it...so we just have to do it His

way!

 

Anyway, every week, is an adventure! Always lots of stories but never know what to share

. So now the miracles. Holy cow. So we've

been cranking through our lists from the Ward and the area book and

meeting some amazing people! It's been awesome. But one of the coolest

parts of this week was when we met J and B! So on the way to

church, I guess we just got ready extra fast and when we left, we were

right on schedule to get to church right on time (aka 15 minutes

early) but we literally hit every green light and there was ZERO

traffic or anything it was SOOO weird for Missoula. So we ended up

getting there almost 30 minutes early! We were like "well obviously we

were supposed to get here early for some..." Haha we walked in and

were by the door saying hi as people walked in and right then, J

and B walked in. We didn't recognize them so we went over and

started talking to them. J is an inactive member and B is

his soon-to-be-wife. They walked in and  They're super sweet and just

moved here. J said he wants to get  back to church and

B said she's hoping to get baptized.

I love how evident the Lord's hand is, even in

the little things. We just HAPPENED to get ready super fast and

HAPPENED to hit every green light (which is impossible in Missoula)

and make it to the church just in time to meet Jeff and Brittany.

A wonderful part of the week was ARP lessons.  I  Obviously can’t go into

Any detail about the Adiction Recovery Program….but leave it to say amazing strong

People dong Great things and it makes my heart very happy!!

Gosh. Holy cow I just love being a missionary. Sometimes were super

awkward, sometimes we just happen to be where we need to be, but no

matter what, this is the Lords work. We feel His love for others and

witness miracles. And I couldn't be more grateful. Love you. Have an

awesome week!

W/<3

Sister Hodgson

 

Week 51- Transfers and Coffe...a picture is worth a lot of words

          












Soo....we had an AWESOME lesson with R this week! He struggles wwith the habit of drinking coffee every morning....so on exchanges,sister Felemi and I went to see them. It was SUCH an awesome lesson. The spirit was super strong and we talked all about serving God. It was so cool how the conversation turned to the word of wisdom and we
had an awesome talk about it.  His wife gave some suggestions of others things to replace the coffee addiction...  He said  "no, I want to come closer to Christ and
have an eternal family and make my body healthy...I don't want to give
up one addiction for another" . He has so much faith! He poured out his coffee and told us to take the maker
away! And he is kicking that addiction! Gosh he's amazing!!

 

SOOO....after our awesome lesson with R, we talked and I had
mentioned working at Jamba Juice and how good smoothies are and he's
like "I know! That's it! I'll make smoothies in the morning instead of
coffee!!" So he went out bought a blender that night! Then we came
back the next morning and made smoothies with him and Jessica!!

Also-he said the one thing he wanted was a smoothie cup with superman
on it. So we went to the store and bought a blue cup(his fave color)
and put superman stickers on it. Just for fun! Hahaha gosh I love this
family.

THIS IS OUR ZONE

 This is REALLY our Zone :)















Sister Freeman got released as a sister training leader and is going
to a little town called Shelby (up on the High line in the Great Falls
zone!!!!) and she'll be training a new missionary! She's excited and
she's gona kill it!!! It's the perfect place and she LOVES the small
towns so she's excited:)
And I'm staying here and training a new sister training leader. Guess
who it is....SISTER FLETCHER FROM THE MTC!!! Haha it's gona be a fun
transfer!
Sorry Crazy busy getting things for Transfers but I love you very much, Sister Hodgie

WEEK 50- justs a few pictures...Love you !

This week was a bit crazy...but full of wonderful!

These are pictures from our zone car wash this week! We had
missionaries out holding signs and getting the crowd in, we had book
of Mormons and pass along cards and things and it was a HUGE
success!!!  It was awesome. We were super busy! And got to talk to
tons of people!!
   

  we came home from church and found this on our door! It
was the sweetest!

 It was so great to see you too! Gosh I loved seeing your faces and
hearing your personalities! Not that you forget those things...but
they become distant! It's weird...but it was so good to see and hear
you too! And I hope you had an amazing Mothers day! You deserve the
very best.

 So this is the enormous bug I told you about! It was huge.
We've killed 7 in the past 3 days. Crazy!! Haha they're huge and you
can hear them wherever you go. It's terrifying. Then it flew into my
face! Almost in my mouth. Nasty. Then I killed it and was super
excited. Haha

Happy Mother's Day Mommy!!!! We love you!!!!! ❤️❤️

P.S. Sorry about the squinty eye. I got pegged during pod ball and
it's kinda swollen.

WEEK 49- Moroni is watching you

Holy cow, another week flown by!! How the heck does that keep

happening?

Last week for P-day it was Windy so we flew kites!

This week we went on a hike and we found a TURTLE!

  

 To be honest, I don't even know what we did this week. It

went by way too fast. But as this is the Lord's work, we had some

amazing miracles and adventures!!

 

So we had exchanges this week with the Sisters serving in Frenchtown

so that was way fun. They came here and it was great to swap things up

and work with them! I was with Sister Decker and she's awesome!

 On the way driving back to our area she was

telling me about some of the goals they have set as a district and one

of them was to have 3 awkward conversations a day (aka 3

out-of-your-comfort-zone conversation starters that we might normally

walk away from) so we decided to reach that goal.

Missionary work thrives in awkwardness, I

can testify of that.

We also had an awesome experience tracting this week. We haven't been

straight tracting in a while because of the nature of our mission now,

we often don't just set hours aside to go tracting but we just find

and talk to people and tract by inspiration as we go

This week we were on a street in our ward and we  really felt like

we needed to tract the whole street.

We found a great family…the dad was a recent convert.

 They moved here about 2 months ago.

 It was amazing because our ward had no info on this family because his records didn't get sent

over when they moved here.

Another great time we had this week was in a lesson with R. We

were watching a Mormon message and in it, it had a quick snap of the

Salt Lake City temple. He was like "Woah, what's THAT?" And his wife

was like "that's one of the temples where we're going to get sealed

one day!" It was so sweet and the Spirit was so strong. We spent a

little bit of time looking at pictures of the different temples and

each sharing experiences of the love and peace that we have felt while

in the temple or on the grounds. It was a tender lesson and it just

strengthened my testimony so much of the temple. I miss it so much! I

haven't been in 11 months and being able to bear testimony and hear

other's testimonies of the peace and love that comes from the temple

helped me to remember the joy and the beauty of being near the house

of the Lord. 

We were able to serve in the special Olympics ( very cool).

And we helped a lady whose rental got thrashed so we all worked to help mend it!

 

We also had dinner in the family S’s home this week and afterwards, got

to have a lesson. We were nervous for this one because R has had

some issues with the Word of Wisdom. To be honest, it was kinda a

tough lesson. Every distraction that could have happened, did happen.

Holy cow… throughout the course of the night, we had fighting kids, chipped

teeth and a vegetarian trying to eat a hamburger and almost throwing

up and so much more. It was a little crazy and we really felt like

Satan did not was us to teach this lesson tonight. But I can

definitely testify of the Spirit working wonders. It was a little bit

of a weird mix, but we felt like we needed to teach the plan of

salvation again alongside with the Word of Wisdom. Through doing that,

we were able to tie everything back to the atonement, and eternal

families with God. It turns out it was also the year anniversary of

R's Mom passing away. Somehow, the Spirit came in and taught and

the things that were needed to be understood were understood. Things

that needed to be testified of were testified of, and things that

needed to be committed to, were committed to. Randy committed to do

his best to live the word of wisdom and it was amazing because he said

"It's gonna be tough. But I just have to remember this is all for an

eternal family

Also, funny side note, R pronounces Moroni like Muh-or-nee because

he thinks it sounds like a noodle. He did it on accident at first but

now he just thinks it's hilarious. When we were looking at pictures of

the temple, he asked what the "gold guy" was on top. We explained that

it was the angle Moroni and he was like "Muronee!? What are ya doin up

there??" So now his new thing to help him  is to think of

the temple  "Moroni is watchin you". Haha it's a lot more funny in

person. But now whenever we're tempted, we can remind all remind each

other that Moroni is watching us! Aka Stay temple worthy.

So these are just a few of  the adventures of the week. To be

honest, I learned SOO much this week but most of it was pretty

internal and tough to put in an email. But I got a lot of  questions

answered this week. I was able to look at myself and the missionary

work that I was doing an evaluate who I am, who I am becoming, who I

really want to become and who the Lord needs me to become. It was a

little rough at first but I can just testify of the power of prayer

and the power of faith. I know without a doubt that the Lord is here

for each of us. He wants each of us to grow and become the person He

needs us to be.

 I'm grateful that there is no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth

zone. I know that life isn't always meant to be comfortable and how

amazing is that? We get the chance every second of every day to grow

and become. How amazing is this life?! I love you so much and hope you

have an amazing week. Can't wait to see your faces on skype next week!

And happy Mother's Day (a little early) Mommy❤️❤️

W/<3

Sister Hodgson