Week 17 - we are still Alive!

Hello my lovely family!

First I would like to squash any rumors of being chased by a cougar….we were too fast and were down by the cars but a few of the elders had a energizing experience.  Ours was caving with great friends and having a blast! And we are still alive!

 

 

This week I learned, the importance of listening to the spirit and

communicating with your companion. These two things are both soooo

essential in the work of the Lord. One thing that I LOVE about being

companions with sister Crosland is how we established from day one the

expectation of communication. We strive to be 100% open with each

other. And let me tell you it saves lives! Sometimes literally. Haha

Well lately the mission has been really focused on member missionary

work and the importance of members coming to lessons with us.

 It can't be easy to make a life change like this, so good, fellow shipping members are SO IMPORTANT!  We also went on exchanges with the sister Training leaders...they are awesome!

This week we had a little miracle happen! We felt like we should go visit L , who will be baptized in October. She's 19 and super sweet!(her grandmother does not like us as much haha - see  last week’s letter)

We were going to her house, then for some reason, sister Crosland and

I felt like we needed to go to see her at work--Open communication people!! So key.

--Haha well we got there and she had gone home early????

We were kinda bummed and confused why we felt like we needed to

go here...but then the guy standing next to us asks us "hey what

church are you from!?" We introduced ourselves and he's like "I have

been looking for you EVERYWHERE!" Um, what?  Turns out he is a member of our church and has not been to church in 20 years.

 His wife is awesome …we love her!!  We setup a time to meet with them and now she plans to be baptized by her husband in October.

They all came to church on Sunday and so did L.  They said they loved it  It was so good to have them there!  Funny thing about Sunday.  Our Ward mission leader, Brother Hodson( funny she has not mentioned THAT yet???), his wife is the Ward music coordinator and the choir canceled on singing this week so she called us 4 missionaries and asked if we could put together a musical number.

She asked me to play and the other sisters to sing. We agreed. And

they 2 days later bishop called and said that the high council members

who were supposed to speak in our Ward had to canceled. Then he asked if us

missionaries could speak in church too. Haha missionary overload! And

then the bishopric 1st counselor asked if sister Crosland and I could

say the opening and closing prayers. Haha WHAT?! We said we could but

explained the rest of the program and he was like "okay yea, we'll get

someone else..." Haha so poor Overlook Ward is probably sick of the

missionaries now...haha but we're still alive so it's all good.

We had zone conference on Thursday this last week and

the zone leaders called and asked on Monday if I could play piano for

a musical number that elder Hendricks was doing. They were singing

"Come Unto Christ" one of my favorite songs! But I'd never played it

before and WHEN as a missionary do we have time to practice for

musical numbers!? Normally I'd say during lunch but we haven't gotten

more than 20 minutes for lunch all week because of appointments and

how long it takes to bike to each one! Haha so I played through it I

think 2 times.

..and can I just say that the gift of tongues is real? But

with music too? Haha no clue how, but it turned out okay…but we are still alive.

Anyway, last story! So the open communication and listening to the

spirit part? Yea, that's SO real!

We went to a street a couple blocks down from our last appointment

and started tracting. It was a baaaaad night for it. Not only was

everyone VERY not interested, but probably some of the more rude

people we've encountered so far...we had one lady who used some pretty

strong language …. Haha we kinda had an

off feeling ever since we started ...then this lady, after

yelling at us, calmed down  and said "really though. You girls

need to get out of here, you shouldn't be here after dark. Bad things

happen around here."  For some reason it

was really sticking with me but I kept brushing it off ---but sister C and I talked .... the

feeling was super strong and I was like "okay, yea we need to get our

bikes and leave." We ran and got our bikes and headed home. As soon as

we left that street we started feeling better...it was the weirdest

thing. --As we were biking, I remembered that  just a few days earlier

there had been a homicide there. A few minutes later we heard sirens in the

same area. To be honest, who knows what happened or what could have

happened but it was just good to know that, God watches

out for His children. I'm so extremely glad to have a companion who is

open and how we can be honest with each other. And so extremely

grateful to have the Spirit leading and guiding us and protecting us.

And we're still alive!

Well well well. I love you all! So much! And I love the Lord and I

love doing His work! I am so blessed to be here in Great Falls. I love

you! Until next week!

W/<3

Sister Hodgson

 CAVING!!

 In Mormon 9:22 it says that we have been asked to go "into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature"...

 

 

Also-- P.S. Funny story--kinda. We were coming home from an
appointment and it's like pitch black once you get out toward the
Whitneys. We were riding bikes and we were on the last corner till
home and as we rounded the corner I got hit by the neighbors dog. Haha
We call him Heath Ledger because he looks like the joker. True story.
Totally fell off my bike and scraped up my leg a bit but we're all
still alive!
Okay--love you!!!!

 

WEEK 16- Rapture and Cobbler and everything inbetween

BUSINESS first!

I just got your package from June!  Ahhaha Even in Montana!!

This is Williams baptism!! We're so excited for him. The man who baptized him, brother Conklin is a recent convert himself.  He's an awesome example of sharing the thing that makes us happiest in life.
 

~ how is budgeting going? are you having enough money each month?
Oh yea! I usually have money left over each month....haha we're really blessed to live at the Whitneys...we buy our own food, but toilet paper, soap, etc, the Whitneys provide and said not to buy...were extremely blessed...I don't know what we did to deserve them!! Such a blessing

~ tell us about your companion

She is awesome! She's very organized! We make lists for EVERYTHING!  We really get along great! And even though she's like 4 years older than me, she still so willing to learn together and help each other improve! She is WAY to generous in her compliments to me, but it's so nice to be able to validate each other and still help each other get better! She's so positive and always finds the good in situations. I LOVE HER! And I think I'm learning more from her than she is from me! Haha but its the best:)

 Brother Bailey made some KILLER blackberry cobbler. He's won competitions for it it's awesome!

Oh my goodness crazy week!!! Hahaha holy cow. Where to even begin.

Amazing blessings. As we were leaving church last Sunday, a man from our Ward asked sister Crosland and I if we had any pamphlets....Pshtt. Do we ever!  Brother Milliron met T on the bus and has been giving him pamphlets for a while now!

So we asked if we could schedule a time to meet with the two of them.   We had some scheduling problems but when we finally met him we found he has an amazing understanding and love of the Lord.

 I'm not even joking when I say how much Great Falls is prepared.

Then that night we got a referral from the sisters in Shelby from someone they met at a restaurant...so we got their information and went to go meet L.  We went to meet her and she opened the door and invited us in right away! We got talking with her and got to know her and some expectations she had about meeting with us. Then grandma comes in...oh my.  Then she asked us about how we're feeling about September 28th. We were kinda confused....were feeling..good I guess? I like Fall...haha that's not what she meant.  Haha She started yelling to us about rapture day and how we need to repent!  We don't watch the news so we don't know too much but she told us about a huge machine in Switzerland?  And it's going to open a portal to "the other side" aka the gates of hell.  Demons are going to come through and rip us to shreds.  Unless we repent.  She told us she's been repenting since May....haha  She is quite the character...but we learned REAL fast that when we meet with Leanna, its best if grandma is busy.  And hoy cow she's AMAZING! She has the best questions and really wants to LEARN and know things for herself. Gosh I love her.

Sorry it's so short!  Today for preparation day we went caving.  So cool!

....It's been a crazy busy week and we've been running non stop!  Really though.  We've only had 1 day this week when we had a full hour for lunch. It's insane here.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.  This is truly the Lord's work.  Everything is in His hands.  I feel so beyond blessed to be just a tiny instrument in His hands and I work every day to become the sharpest instrument I can.  I love my Savior and I LOVE being here doing His work in Montana.

Love you all!

W/<3

Sister Hodgson

MOMMY POST NOTE:  One of  the missionaries in her area has a blog and he wrote all about the caving trip AND the cougar chasing them down the hill....sooo...she maybe left that out?? forgot??  

WEEK 15- what the Hail??!!

OOHHH my goodness, craziest week ever! Haha soooo...

The week started off with last day as a companionship for Sister Adair and I.  We have grown so much and become good friends…it will be nice to still have her near by.

 

We said bye to Sister Moyer and Elder  Wessendorf who are Leaving….sad to say bye but we had fun!  After our morning district work out we all made breakfast together and it was awesome!  Super fun.

Loved this district!!

 

 Then Wednesday we went to the church and Sister Adair got her new companion Sister Siufanua (pronounced sea-a-fin-new-uh) (she goes home in 3 months) and I went with Sister Anderson for the rest of Wednesday and Thursday!  We had all canceled all of our appointments for transfers because we were supposed to be going out to Helena to get our new comps, but they changed it last minute so we had NO appointments...haha  We literally spent the WHOLE rest of Wednesday tracting and finding! Haha  It was really fun, I LOVE

tracting, so we got to meet a ton of people!    

Then the next morning we went to go find S that we tracted into last week.  She's always doing yard work so we figured we could go help out!  When we showed up and asked if we could help.  She FREAKED out and was so grateful!  Her husband threw his back out and she needs shoulder surgery so they were struggling and trying to chop up a bunch of trees

into firewood.  They are the sweetest!!  We ran and changed into service clothes and came back-they handed me a saw and Sister Anderson clippers that were half the size of us and we went to work!!  We spend 2 hours in their backyard chopping up these trees...it was so great!  Then they were super sweet and fed us lunch.  She shared with us how worried she was about her uncle who was dying so we took the opportunity  to share a bit about the plan of salvation.  We're meeting with them again this week!  Gosh they're sweet!  We love them.

The transfer vans had car issues on the way up so they were late but FINALLY I met my new companion Sister Crosland.  She is the best thing that's ever happened!! Ohh my gosh!! She's from Moroni Utah.  Shes 23 and she graduated from Snow College and Utah State then came out here!  She's the youngest of 8 siblings and she is just the best!  We're already super close and it's only been 4 days.  Gosh it's going to be a good transfer!

So when the areas were split, us 2 sets of sisters share overlook, then Sis. Adair and Siufanua have belt and Sis Crosland and I have Fort Benton.  Most of the people we know are with the other sisters so we are almost starting fresh.  Its great to be meeting new people and going new places.  Along with sharing the Ward, were also sharing a car and bikes...haha  So Sister Crosland and I were on bikes for this week...oh gosh we live out at the Whitney's still, (so same address) but we have to bike...this hill....haha dying!! And my bikes back brake is broken...so that's always exciting...haha  It's a road like out to the Florence's with no shoulder so it was pretty dang scary at 9:30 at night in the pitch black! Haha  But it kept things exciting:) (MOM FEARS!!)

We were actually really excited to be on bikes!!  Then Saturday night we were riding to our dinner appointment and it was SOOO cold!  Then it started pouring rain....then it started hailing...harder and harder...we were soaked!! Haha but such a blast.  We were FREEZING!

Like freezing.  But it's supposed to get back up to the 80s again this week so yay.  There's Montana for you....but it's been CHILLY!!

Also, cool miracle for the week!!  Sister Crosland and I were biking around trying to find a woman we had met the day before...we got lost for 45 minutes on bikes in the freezing cold! The whole time we were thinking "what is the point of this?!" We prayed to find the woman we were trying to find, or at least to be guided to where we need to be!  Finally we left and went to our next appointment real confused as to why we wasted that time...then last night we met this woman who saw us when we were lost on our bikes and recognized us!  Long story short, we have an appointment with their family today!  God is good!  Not always (aka very rarely) in the way we expect.  But we definitely WERE guided to where we needed to be at the time.  Wow!  Love you all!!  Sorry crazy preparation day cause we have to share the

car so were hardly near wifi.  I love you!!  Miss you!!
 

W/<3

Sister Hodgson