Mission Zone

Mission Zone

Monday, August 24, 2015

Week 78

Im 22

Dearest Family and Friends,

Feeling real baggy today cuz its my birthday. But whatever I love birthdays in the mission theyre a blast! This year has been a little lame because no one knows me here in this area, but its better because theres no drama. For my birthday we went out to Trujillo! Trujillo is a famous city in honduras and was the first capital. There, they defended against the spanish ships from some sweet cannons on a hill. Its a nice beach but really not worth 3 hours in a bus but everyone goes at least once in their mission so its all good. Had a great time with my friends as always. Tonight Im gonna treat my comp to a sweet dinner at the nicest restaurant in Olanchito, the plates are worth a gran total of 10$?! ridiculous huh ;) ;) hahah

This week was great. We saw a ton of miracles as always. We have AWESOME people right now and we're doing our best to keep finding more and more! One of my favorite new people is a couple named Heber and Minea. Heber has never learned anything about religion so its so awesome to just teach basically and open minded atheist and watch the light enter into his eyes when we teach him the truth!

The highlight of this week was that Elder Russel M Nelson came to tegucigalpa and we got to watch him via satelite in La Ceiba! When we went to Ceiba I got to visit one convert, Lina! Shes doing AWESOME! shes the ward Young Womens president and is doing AWESOME!!!

Elder Nelson got me so pumped! IM 100% convinced that he is an apostle of the lord Jesus Christ. The spirit testifies of his every word! He shared a spiritual experience that the apostles rarely share. He told us of a vision he recently had! He said that he had done heart surgery on two girls 50 years ago. Those two girls are now dead, and in a dream, they appeared to Elder Nelson. He recognized them immediately by name. They told him they were afflicted because they hadnt been sealed to anyone! So Elder Nelson went in search of their family. He found their father, still alive, 88 years old, who had been a deacon inactive for 76 years. He found him and exhorted him to go to the temple and be sealed to his two daughters. HOW COOL IS THAT?! I loved that story and the importance it is of going to the temple.

Recently in my mission ive been able to more fully understand the need for a family. God needs us to be sealed in the temple and to bring those spirits into this world, and he needs those spirits to be born in the covenant, because it almost secures their salvation! I NOW UNDERSTAND WHY MORMONS HAVE SO MANY KIDS!!!! hahahaha And I understand how important it is to help our heavenly father bring to pass his plan. When we help him with his plan, he helps us with ours!!!

I love you all! I hope all is well. The mission is the greatest, and I will never stop pushing! NEVER!!!!

Always,
Elder Hodson
 



 

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Week 77

I <3 Olanchito

Hey family and friends,

So this week was awesome! We had a baptism! A 16 year old girl named Stephanie. Shes been fighting to get baptised for a few months but her mom never gave her permission. But finally she got it and she got baptised on saturday! the baptism was great. You could feel the spirit very strongly. And she was super happy. The sad part was on sunday morning she was bed ridden sick so she couldnt get confirmed but next sunday we'll get it done. 

We had an excellent week! I knew wed be able to get this area going! This week we had 39 lessons and 17 new investigators! It was great to go out and just work our butts off! It feels great to just work the best you can! I love it. Now if we can just get our zone to do the same! They need to get things in gear! So now thats my goal. Weve got our area put together, now its time to help everyone else out. 

This week I started reading The General Conference talks from this last conference. Its so true, This church is lead by prophets. Without a doubt. its so amazing to learn so much from modern day scriptures. Sometimes we think that the canon are the books we can really learn from, but our modern day scriptures are just as powerful! 

Well. I love you all!

Always,
Elder Hodson
 


 

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Week 76

Dearest Family and Friends,

This week has been pure meetings. For that reason we only taught 14 lessons in the whole week. crap right?

Tuesday we had to go to la lima, 6 hours away, for our mission leaders meeting with all the ZLs. It was cool. The only crappy part was that the other leaders are so lame!!! theyre not excited at all! Only Measles and I were the only optimistic ones! THEY NEED TO GET IT FIGURED OUT LIKE US!!!! haha 

At our leadership meeting Dunia showed up! She brought me a little treat and her testimony written down. She is INCREDIBLE. Even though she has lost her school and two of her children have cancer, shes still going strong in the church! her testimony is incredible! She quotes Nephi and Moroni and everything. Shes awesome. She cried when she saw me and it was great to see how much influence the gospel can have in the lives of others. 

We saw a great miracle this week for our faith. We were on our way to a lesson, and we hadnt contacted anyone that day, so Guzman said, Hey. I wanna contact that house over there. Then I saw people outside of two different house and I said "Guzman go hit that house, Ill hit this one and vasques you go hit that one!" they were a little reluctant but they gave in and we got 3 contacts in at once, but thats not the miracle. As we moved on from the contacts, a man stopped us on the street! "HEY! MISSIONARIES! when are you gonna come visit me in my house?!" "uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Whenever you want!" it was awesome. The guys name is Martin Martinez. Easy right? And he told us how he has just felt the need for the Lord in his life right now. So we went to go visit him. Super cool. But of course he needs to get divorced from his wife in the states and get married to this lady here.... Freaking Honduras! hahah but it was great to see someone with a real need so great that he was willing to go out of his way to look for us. 

Well. We had interviews with president this week. He expects a lot out of me in this zone and expects me to push my comps. As always. Ill never catch a break! haha 

The worst part of this week is that I sprained my ankle on saturday! Lame huh?! But im already feeling better. SO whatever.

Love you all! The missions awesome! 

Always,
Elder Hodson
 
 

Monday, August 3, 2015

Week 75

I <3 Olanchito

Dearest Family and Friends,

I LOVE OLANCHITO!!! this place is the greatest. Im finally in another good ward where the people love the missionaries!!!! its so awesome! we have great leaders here and I dont feel like this ward depends on the elders! its awesome! But the other great thing is that the stake presidency, even though theyre chalked full with great leaders, still include us in all the details! As the ZLs they invite us to all their meetings and really do appreciate our input! They took us to two excellent dinners this week just because! One was a steak house in olanchito and the other was a seafood restaurant on the beach in trujillo! Saturday was such a blast because it was just one big road trip! We went out to trujillo, the other end of the zone, to do a big ol family history fair. and we just drove with the presidency and joked around and took us to dinner after and we came home late saturday night. I really do admire these men as leaders, because I respect and love them. I want to be around them because they can joke around and get it done all at the same time. Theyre awesome. 

We also had divisions this week! thats the worst part about being ZL is that your area suffers. Because were in a trio we were able to do divisions with our 3 DLs at the same time. I went out to Tocoa with Elder Christopherson from california. That kid is a WORK HORSE! ive never met someone who can walk so fast! He kicked my butt! I learned a lot from him. 

Our zone is a little low at the moment. I got here at a critical time. BUT IM SO PUMPED TO MAKE THIS ZONE THE BEST ZONE IN THE MISSION!!!! i know its possible. With all that I learned in my last area, I know that we can lift this zone up and make it incredible! We have a goal of 26 baptisms this month and a zone and I know we can hit it! 

I talked with elder measles today from santa rita and he informed me that several of my investigators from my last area are progressing amazingly and will soon be getting baptised! That warmed my soul to know that all my work didnt go to waste. 

Well.. Im loving life! And I love you all! Only 6 more fast sundays! Can you believe that?!?! TIME FLIES!

Always,
Elder Hodson
 
ps... and a little update on the Ortez family
 
Dunia, my convert from san juan, gave her testimony at stake conference this sunday in La Lima. She bore such a powerful testimony that our mission President was supposed to speak after her, but President Klein had no words after what she had said. Man am I glad I had the will power to get out of bed on that terribly sick day and teach that family. This work is true.

the guy here is brother cano. Our stake secretary. Hes the coolest. And super jacked haha