Week 41- THE ZOO is a zoo!!!

Well congratulations. This might have been one of the most insane weeks of my mission!! Haha literally. 6/7 days of this week were spent on exchanges…and so much happened…I will try to get a few on paper.

It is So beautiful here and we have had good weather!!

 

                                                                                                                    

 We went to the park and I was SOOO happy to see SAND ( ok it was not a beach but it was SAND!!!)

 

I got your package full of goodies mom!  We had sisters here so we shared the sour ring pops!!

 

We had 2 exchanges this week! Wooho! The first one I went to Darby with Sister Sanjaa. She is awesome! She's from Mongolia and the only member in her family. She got baptized a few years ago when she was 17 and came out! She had 2 weeks in the MTC to learn English and then was thrown out here to Montana! Haha she's is one of the most hardworking missionaries I've ever met. It was an awesome exchange!!

One of the best thing that happened is THE Z’S GOT

PERMISSION TO GET BAPTIZED! R and T want to get baptized.  Mom and dad are divorced and so they're been trying to get permission from dad for AGES.....and after much prayer

and fasting WOOHO!! Gosh I love this family. These boys are SO stinkin

smart and have the sweetest testimonies you'll ever hear. Sister

Z is awesome!   We were teaching tithing and Tyler had  the sweetest

experience with paying tithing.  He paid tithing before he bought a toy from the toy

store.  Then it was on clearance so he could by 2 toys! Haha it was

the cutest thing and he bore a little young  testimony on getting

blessings when we pay our tithing. Gosh these boys are cute! It was

the sweetest. They're so excited to get baptized!

 

We had stake conference this week! Wooho! So we had St. Ignatious

sisters come down for the weekend for our exchange so they were able

to save like 500 miles going back and forth each day.   I was with Sister Crosland! (my greenie, love that girl!)

So amidst this exchange, we had interviews with president  and his wife. Can I just say I love them?? So much.!!

I've really gotten close to them over these past months .. They're both hilarious and funny but so guided by the Spirit.

....and we also got told by the zone leaders that us and them had to present a training for the Ward mission leaders during the priesthood session of stake conference.  So a little busy and weird exchange but we all were working hard and loving it!

-So there's this new workout app that missionaries can
download with workout videos that we can use to exercise in the
mornings! It's awesome. So after interviews with president, we were all practicing our squats 

Left-Sister Crosland, me, president,
Right-Sister Holm, Freeman, elder Delimata, Cobabe
 

-also sister Hodgson is a terrible parallel parker....haha so

we had to take a picture;) in my defense...there were cars on both

sides before! This was after the lesson and they had both moved:)

  

No but it really is. It's crazy sometimes...really crazy. Haha and

sometimes we have weeks where we are running full speed ahead and feel

like we get nothing done! Haha I often don't know what I'm doing....but thank goodness for the Atonement! I am so grateful for an

older brother, Jesus Christ who knows exactly what I'm going through.

And what every other missionary is going through and why we act the

way we do. I love being a missionary with all my heart! It's the

best:) I love you all and I hope this week is amazing!

W/<3

Sister Hodgson

PS  

-This is the Fadleys. Brother Fadleys is an award winning fiddler! He serenaded us it was so precious....

 

                                           PARK FUN!!  everyone needs a lunch break

 

WE ARE ANXIOUSLY ENGAGED......IN A GOOD CAUSE :)

WEEK 40- Hump-Day

 

They call Missoula the ZOO......it's beautiful and we are settling in

Back Row - Elders Walrgren, Munroe, Cobabe(ZL and he was my DL in Helena), Hatton, Hansen, Delimata (ZL), and McMiller

Middle - Sister Adair (My trainer), Harris, Freeman, Johnson, Decker, Shoemaker, Holm, Nielson, Cox (MTC companion)

Then sister Crosland ( my greenie) and I.

Then in the chair is Sister Dayes and Adamson....

 

 

9 month mark!! So weird...it goes by way fast. First

my emotions are sad and stressed cause it goes so fast.....but also so

happy because it's been so amazing so far....and I can't wait to see

what else these next 9 months hold:)

 Also we got ice cream to celebrate 9 months....a true Hodgson can't celebrate anything      without ice cream.

 This sweet young man loves the sisters so they came to celebrate his birthday!!

 

MLC February 

 MLC January

WEEK 39- Go BIG at the ZOO...( Missoula)

 

Well transfers or something happened this week....transfer day is always insane here in MBM. Haha everyone mets at either the mission home or Helena church and we all swap around. This was President Wadsworth's biggest transfer yet so that was insane! Wednesday all of the missionaries swapped around places. I got to drive a large pick up with about a billion and one suitcases in the back and a few bikes on

the bike rack. So that's exciting on the highway in Montana wind! Haha we made it safe and sound though and everyone still has their stuff so that's an accomplishment;) Then Thursday we got to drive back to Helena again and pick up the new missionaries and their stuff! It's been pretty nice weather, but then all of a sudden Mother Nature thought it had been too easy...so right as we start unloading the trailer, HUGE wind and rain storms started...it felt like bullets it was pretty great. Haha within moments we were all SOAKED.  But it made us try to load up real fast which was good! Haha then off to Missoula we went to drop the new missionaries off to their new companions! It's

been a few exciting days of driving and things....but then by Friday we were all settled and taken care of in our areas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sooo....Missoula.  It truly is "the zoo".  The driving is INSANE.  Haha  There are a  lot of hippies and marijuana use… . Our area is right by U of M so there are lots of college kids. The YSA sisters teach them, so we pass off several contacts So it's kinda cool we got to start from scratch. There's some good less active work! But zero investigators.  It's a definitely balancing act to keep working with and finding new less actives! But also get the work going and helping those who have never heard the gospel…Its all the work of salvation.

 

My new Companion is  Sister Haley Freeman from Lehi Utah!  She is so fun and energetic and I look forward to getting to know her better.

 

WELL….I've been gaining a huge testimony of prayer and works!! The work is just ready to happen here!

D is planning for his baptism now. He goes to church every week with a family from the ward and has been reading his Book of Mormon! So we're excited for him. We also found a woman, J who has taken the lessons before and was going to get baptized but ended up not

doing it last minute. She just said she wasn't ready. But she was so excited that we knocked on her door!

 Gosh missionary work is the best! I'm so grateful for the missionaries forever before us who planted seeds for J.  This work is amazing and I feel so blessed to be  able to wear this tag over my heart each day. I might start sleeping with it on soon.

 

I am not always comfortable in the leadership roll…but I have had to step up a few times lately.   It's been a little eye opening to work with some sisters who are struggling and

hearing their feelings on their mission...and I've been thinking about mine and the tough times and the joyful times!

 

WELL,They say "there's no growth in the comfort zone and no comfort in the growth zone" ...in other words "GO BIG".  I can't tell you how many times I've been out of my comfort zone on my mission but I can honestly say I love every second. Or I learn to love it;) haha

It really is our choice the effect our missions have on us.

 

Anyway. I love you lots and lots!!!!

 

W/<3

Sister Hodgson

 

I left a piece of my heart in Helena.  Saying good bye to these amazing people was harder than I can explain.

 

 

Do you remember our dear friend Kirby??!  He is the BEST!  He received  the priesthood and  performed a baptism in his ward.  A few pieces of my heart are in Great Falls still too!