WEEK 74-" I feel it , I have felt it..now I need to do it!"

Holy cow. What a week. I am really having trouble

grasping how so much
can happen in one week. 7 short days and everything happens. It's
kinda insane how time works. Haha but this week my heart is sooooo
full of gratitude for our Savior, my Heavenly Father and the miracles
that happen in this work. It truly is all in the Lord's hands. And my
goodness He loves His children!!!

 

First off - we bought our Companionship PJs!!

and we did some service at a really cool place- I am sending you some fun stuff mom!

 

 AND we got our mandatory flu shots :(

So to start off the week, Monday the Burlington Sisters came up here
for exchanges. Lots of things fell thru the day before but then on Tuesday exchanges we had a FULL day of appointments .I was
with Sister Taylor who has just been out about a month and it was such
an awesome time! Everyone was home,
so many people were receptive, people kept their commitments and some baptismal dates were set.

It was amazing to see the Lord provide. We have been praying and praying to

be able to find people and help them progress and the Lord definitely showed us that there are prepared people all over this town. Heanswers prayers!

So things just kept going from there. The sisters left Wednesday morning, and then we had our Fall Branch party out in Ranchester on Thursday night. Remember the D family?? Sister D texted us and said that T(their son)wanted to come and asked if we could take him. We can't take other people in our mission cars, but luckily we were driving to Lovell that
night for exchanges so we had our bikes on the truck. We grabbed our bikes and rode over to the D's where we joined up with T then all biked to the branch party. As soon as he got there, he saw
some of his friends from school. 

It was so sweet to see all the boys his age welcome him in,
introduce themselves and just become fast friends. Gosh I love kids.
They truly are elect. Then we pull up to church on Sunday and we see T's
bike parked on the side of the building a branch member gave him a ride home so we figured he left it there from Thursday and we're
trying to think about how to get it back to him. Then we walk in and see T sitting there in church!! He biked there all by himself and
was sitting with a family in the branch just beaming. We ran over and
said hi to him and he told us "yea, the rest of my family went hunting
today...but I'm the lucky one because I get to come to church!" It was
one of the most precious things ever. “ I am always gonna come”…My friend said it can get boring but even on the boring parts, its where I need to be!!”

Gosh I wish I always had that faith and that
attitude! How many times do we think "ehh, church is kinda boring, I
can probably just come late and miss part of the talks, that should be
fine...." Or "I can play on my phone and still listen, it's not that big of a deal" etc. What a lesson we can learn from this faithful little T. I pray and hope I
can always remember to have the attitude of T-"I know it's good to be here so I'm ALWAYS gona come!"

Another miracle of the week is he payed attention the whole time, even with the crazy speakers! so those crazy speakers were Sister Wong

and I. Haha Saturday afternoon, we got a text from one of the counselors in the branch asking if we could speak on Sunday. AKA in
like 17 hours. We didn't have any time the rest of that day, so we had about an hour on Sunday morning to write our talks before meetings
started. Haha but thank goodness it was a good topic! It was "Christ
visits the Nephites" 3 nephi is the best!!! Everyone should go read it and study it. There is SOOO much in those chapters!!!

Anyway, Thursday night after the branch party we drove to Lovell for
exchanges. It wasn't snowy again is time. It was a nice safe drive. The sisters were having a baptism the next day! It was an older woman they had taught forever and her family was all in town so
they decided to do it right then. The interesting thing is she had had a stroke, so the left side of her body was paralyzed. We went
to the high school pool and they used the lift to get her into the water. It was a baptism like I've never seen before! But it was beautiful and while different with the lift, it process was still the same. 

Exactly the way Christ did it. Just another testimony to me that this is Christ's church on this earth. It's God's priesthood authority and it's beautiful.

Okay okay. Sorry this is so long..but now for the best part. So the Star Valley temple dedication is this Sunday, and we have just wanted L to be able to come so badly and we knew she would make it!

Her baptismal date was set for
October 8th so we knew she would be baptized and be able to go, but it was heartbreaking when she said she wasn't quite ready to be baptized then.
She is so active and loves church and is just working on a few things…but we are ALL working on a few things. We have been discussing with her about faith. How pretty much all of the time, it doesn't logically make sense to pay tithing or to
take any of those steps in the dark...but that's why it requires faith! So she's been praying and reading conference talks and she's been just saying "ah I know I need to do it! I have faith! We have all been praying for her peace . But it definitely has to be HER choice, between her and the
Lord. So she's been pretty sick all week but came to church anyway The first speaker in church, his topic was conversion to the church vs. conversion to the gospel. It really rang true with her. Then the second speaker was Bishop. He stood up and pulled out
his iPad for his talk...then he stood there for a minute, then put it away. He said that the Spirit prompted him to take things in a
different direction. He bore beautiful testimony of his gospel, and He talked about what Elder Bednar talked about in conference; how we can't just believe IN Christ, but we have to believe Christ . She was
quite emotional. Afterward, we went to talk with her. She was sobbing and just saying how much she
knows this church is true. She bore her testimony to us about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. We sat there for about 20-30 minutes and
just listened to her talk. She talk about her fears, her joys, her testimony, what's holding her back, everything. It was amazing to see
the Spirit work on her. She was pretty much having a conversation with herself and with the Lord. She worked through frustrations of her family, of her situation, of her desires. And we listened. But what
was incredible was to see her change. Through this 30 minutes or so, she went from frustration and hurt, to calm and strength. Then she told us she needs to take her next step. And her next step is baptism.
Then she goes "okay. Okay I'm ready. I need to show The Lord I am converted to Him and His gospel. I feel it, I have felt it! Now I need
to do it. I need to be baptized as soon as possible" Then Leslie goes "okay let's go talk to bishop!" She
closes her car door and grabs us by the hand and starts marching back
into the church.

It was one of the most incredible experiences of my mission. All the
time, the Lord blessed us to see people become converted and changed and have their desire and conviction grow...but this was amazing to see
so much happen in a short span of time,Everything changed for Leslie.

We went and met with bishop right then and set a date for this Thursday. And then Bishop
Anderson goes "you know Leslie, it's funny that you're here having this experience today. Because just yesterday, I was in the temple and
was praying for you. I felt very prompted to put

Your name on the prayer roll in the Temple so I did." He then proceeded to explain to Leslie what the prayer roll was and Sister Wong and I
proceeded to start crying. I know without a doubt that that is the power of God.

I know that this work is true. The Spirit testified to me once again this week .This gospel is true. Heavenly Father loves each of us and
knows what we need, when we need it and when we will be ready for it.
I am so grateful to be serving here in Sheridan. I can't explain how grateful I am to be serving the Lord at this time in this place. I
know that each of us has things we can work on, things we can strengthen. That is the beauty of this life is there is ALWAYS progress. I know I have so much to work on. Sometimes it's scary. But
I also know without a doubt that Jesus Christ lives and loves us all. And He is waiting for each of us to take that next step out in the dark, whatever it is. Because it's then that He can lift us and light
the way for us.

I love you!! Have an amazing week.


W/<3
Sister Hodgson

WEEK 73- its the Mormons! let them in!

Hey hey!! Sorry crazy week this week! It was amazing and we saw lots
of miracles!! But like zero time to write. So here are just a few pictures and thoughts from the week

~  Last week we went Caving with the zone !

-It snowed! And of course that was the night that we were driving over
the pass to the other side of the mountain in Cody. It took like 4 1/2
hours instead of the 3 it was supposed to. We only slid a couple times
but we're alive! Haha

-B and L! We saw this lady outside her house and went to talk
with her. She saw us and turned and walked back inside her house and
closed the door. So we decided to go and knock it. Then her daughter
answered with a less than friendly look on her face. Then the mom
comes around the corner and says "oh! It's not the Jehovah's
witnesses, it's the Mormons!! Let them in!
. It was so awesome to sit down and share with
them the truths of the restoration and we're going back to teach them
again tonight. They're so awesome!

-exchanges with sisters in Cody! Love them so much! 

 

-so sorry this is so short!! Love you lots!!!!
This work is amazing. I'm so sorry this is lame. But miracles are
happening here in Sheridan! And I am so grateful for the chance to
serve the Lord here.IT SO BEAUTIFUL HERE!!!

 Love you!!
W/<3
Sister Hodgson

WEEK 72- The gospel keeps on going like a river

So how the heck is it Monday again? Haha time is so weird. This week

feels like forever long but it also was over as soon as I blinked. So

confused. Haha but we had a packed full week! Tuesday morning we

packed up and attempted to drive over the mountain to Worland for zone

conference! We were supposed to leave at 6am and meet our zone at the

church then caravan over the mountain. But at about 5:30am President

called to inform us that the pass was too snowy to drive through so we

had to re-route. We made the long drive AROUND the mountain instead of

up and over...it was still snowy but not as bad as through the pass.

Needless to say we were over an hour and a half late to zone

conference. Haha but it was such a good conference! The theme of it

for me was really progression. For our investigators but also for us

each individually. It was so incredible and really answered lots of

questions for me.

The right after zone conference we went with some Sisters in Lovell

for an exchange. It was a good exchange! The Sisters in Lovell are so

sweet. We saw lots of miracles and biked wayyyy so much. It was the

best thing ever!!! From there we went home sweet home back to our

area. We finally got to beautiful Sheridan Thursday afternoon. So our

focus this week was building our teaching pool. We had prayerfully set

some high goals for this week which we were super pumped about! We

really felt the confirmation that the goals we set with the Lord were

right. But to be honest they seemed a lot higher being out of town and

with only having 3 1/2 solid days to work in our own area. Haha But

let me tell you, the Lord provides!! Even though we were gone until

Thursday, through lots of prayer, biking, more prayer, talking with

everyone, hard work and a little bit more prayer, the Lord led us to

people who were open and receptive .

Such miracles in this work I love it!

As far as personally, I have been focusing a lot this week (well I

guess the last few weeks) on progression. One of my biggest fears is

going home from my mission having not become the person God needs me

to become, and not having helped those the Lord needs me to help.

Normally it is just kinda something in my head that keeps me moving

forward and working! But for some reason the last week or so it's

really been getting at me. I've been feeling a bit like I'm failing to

become and not doing enough. I don't know if it's because I feel like

there's not enough time to do everything, or what but it's been

consuming my thoughts a lot more lately. But I felt like every message

at zone conference was directed right at me. We talked about keeping

positive thoughts of "I think I can"-the little engine that could!,

repenting to come closer to Christ, progressing always, learning and

growing and pondering why I am serving and what more I can do. I felt

like I received a lot of answers during zone conference. Sister Wong

and I have both been working on this principle a lot so it has be way

cool to work together and share together insights and thoughts from

studies and other learning opportunities. We both got priesthood

blessings after which was a huge source of guidance and comfort and

answered even more questions. I am so grateful for the power of the

priesthood and how much God loves and knows each of us.

Through continued study through the scriptures and conference talks

and things, I have just felt so much peace and comfort. One of the

things that I feel I've been recognizing is how much missions prepare

us for life. I know that I want to become everything the Lord needs me

to right now on my mission. But I also know that I'm not going to be

perfect on my mission, or after it haha.

The principles we learn on missions are a lot about HOW to become

Christlike and keep progressing and how to help others do the same.

Isn't that one of the best things ever? Continual progression. There's

just not one thing in life that makes us perfect really. No year and a

half or 2 years on a mission, no calling we hold, no job or position 

we have, no experience or trial we learn from, etc. none of it makes

us perfect in and of itself. But  its through these all that we learn

principles of progression. And it's those principles that help us turn

to Christ and His atonement every day. I hope and pray every day that

I change and progress and become! But that doesn't mean I'm going to

do ALL of my changing and becoming for my whole life, here in is year

and a half. But by golly I'm going to do my best to learn how to

change!

 

Some things just don't go as planned!

Haha I know my emails probably sounds so silly. Everything is all

principles and things that I know I've heard and learned a thousand

times! But for some reason, sometimes it just take it a while in my

head to stick. Haha but I really understood it more this time and

understood how it applies in my life right now. Anyway, sorry for the

rant again. I promise, next weeks letter will be shorter and more work

and stuff...haha

Also? The title. Haha the cutest little 5 year old boy in our

Ranchester branch, James Schwieder, got up to bear his testimony

yesterday. He was talking about how the gospel is always there for us

and he said "the gospel keeps on going. like a river in your heart!"

Haha it was the cutest thing. But so true! This gospel keeps going as

long as we keep applying it. Out of the mouths of babes right?!

Haha anyway. I love you all so much! Have an amazing week!! Love you.

W/<3                                                                              

Sister Hodgson

Picture 2-us and all the sisters!
Sister jones, Wadsworth, Brooks, Lisberg, Clegg, Taylor, brown,
Felemi, Robertson, Seamons
Front-Sister Davis, me and sister Wong.