Week 8

"Fastest Week of My Life"

I cant believe Im sitting in this beautifully air conditioned building again. ahhhh christmas all over again. haha Linkin Park is playing in the mall. always a little taste of america. haha

Family and friends!!!! Im super happy for all the letters I received today! Thanks for all of that. So pretty much the mission is the happiest Ive ever been. Simply put. yes, its hard hot sweaty itchy and at times disappointing. but everynight I fall asleep happy every night. And I sleep DEEP everynight. My dreams are always hilarious.

So yesterday mightve been one of the best days of my life. We brought 8 investigators to church! It was fun walking with a small army of people into the chapel, stressing to find people to be their friends, but it turned out great. Being able to see people progress in the gospel brings the greatest amount of joy to your soul. 

So basically, we witnessed the funniest thing this week. I met black jesus. He says that when he first came to the earth he was white, but now hes black for the sins of the world. super hilarious. and as we were walking he stood up and shouted three times "vengame caballo blanco de los apocolypsos!!!" which means "come to me white horse of revelations!" He wears an orange jumpsuit and glasses that only have the frames. Probably one of the funniest things of my life. 

This week I learned the importance of agency. Its frustrating at times to see people who know the book of mormon  is true but dont believe that they need to be baptized because their faith is sufficient. But I learned this week that everyone has their agency. Trying to force it only drives them farther away. But we also have our agency. And since we have our agency, we can choose for ourselves how we will react to others decisions. We can always decide that even though someone else isnt choosing the correct path or what we think to be best, we can still keep our happy attitudes. Because we have the fulness of the gospel. Well Im sorry for my short letters. Ill try my best to write more next week.

Oh one more funny story. Today on the way home from soccer, we piled 9 people into a tiny little toyota corolla. Taxistas here are crazy. 

Love you all! I have no pics this week, so just enjoy my beautiful face. haha

Elder Hodson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 7

after not hearing from Riley last week, this letter was much anticipated!! 

Oh I know where to start.

 

SWEAT. Ive never experienced this much sweat in my life. But its all worth it. Its hot here, and Im in the most "cold" area of Honduras... haha I love it here. I really do. Yeah its hot. But thats the only down side.

So this email will be very informational.

My zone is La Ceiba, the farthest north part of the mission except for the island of roatan. Everyone wants to go to roatan. My area is Bella Vista. My area has super rich, 10k square foot air conditioned houses, and super poor people with tin roofs. and All sorts of people in between. I really actually like my area, and theres always someone to teach. Even if they dont want us to return, theyll always listen to us once. 

My companion, Elder Perdomo, hes the man. I love him so much. We work, but were always having fun. Always laughing. He speaks no english, but its okay because I can understand him near perfect. Hes from Panama. But the people here...... I DONT UNDERSTAND ANYTHING!!! Haha sometimes I can fully converse, other times, nothing. But always in lessons I can teach. Its a blessing from the spirit for sure. I had to give a short talk in church last week. That was fun/nerve racking. haha We have a great ward of about 100 people. They best missionaries here though, are our investigators and recent converts. Always sharing.

Theres a dog in my apartment complex that is a mini schnauzer like the whitings used to have. His name is spike. He reminds me of home. I love him haha 

Heres my funny tidbit for today. Basically, whenever you walk into an air conditioned building, its like Christmas. Its amazing. haha 

So today I wanna talk about the power of bearing your testimony. Its incredible to see that we could prove things right or wrong all day long, and we'll never progress. But testifying. That brings the spirit so strong. Its so much different than using the scriptures to try and prove a point. Even in my broken spanish, the spirit still testifies. 

Alls good here. Im super happy. I love it. The missions the best. Dont worry about me and spanish either. Its hard at times, but Im doing fine considering that I only have a few days here. 

I know the church is true and I know that the book of mormon is the word of god. I know we have a prophet on the earth today.

Love,

Elder Hodson

Week 5

Hola familia y amigos, I know before I left that I said I wouldnt say
anything in spanish in my emails but if you dont know those two
words.... Thats a tad bit of a shame. Haha. So I dont have a ton of
time to write today but ill try my best. The pictures are from last
pday when we got to go see the relief map of central america. Pretty
awesome 100 year old structure mapping out the mountains 98%
accurately totally out of concrete. So I had a pretty amazing week
here, and I only have 6 days until I get to enter the field. Super
excited. First, at the end of last pday, I got to watch elder bednars
devotional to the provo mtc this christmas. And I wont lie, When I see
the provo MTC I get a little sad, and it brings back feelings of how
my call was for brazil. But at the end of his talk he said that we are
called as missionary. We are not called to a place. We are assigned.
And so if the assignment changes, the call doesnt. As long as we are
servants of the Lord, we are serving in the correct place. Boom.
Question answered. So general conference was pretty dang amazing. Of
course some of my favorite talks were the prophet and the first
presidency, elder holland and bednar, but the one I want to talk about
is Elder Hallstrom from Priesthood session. He said in essence that
saying "Thats just the way I am" is a terrible phrase to ever say. Its
giving up our agency to change. And thats so true. We can always
change our habits and personality flaws if we really have a desire to
and if we rely on the atonement. So I loved that. Im gonna miss the
CCM which the latinos call Centro de carce de mormones (the jail of
mormons)! Haha I thought that was actually pretty funny. I love
Latinos. They are so kind and fun loving and happy. Always. Especially
at 6 am when they want to wake up early and have a fiesta. Thats when
I become the sherriff of the ccm again. hahahaha Well I love you all
so very much. Im doing great! next email will be filled with
adventures from the field! Im so excited! Sorry if I didnt respond to
any questions. Always, Elder Hodson