Week 47

Dearest family and friends,

This has been an excellent week! And a terrible week!

Lets start with the terrible first.

EVERYONE IN HONDURAS IS SICK! haha when the flu or cold hits, it hits everyone. So on thursday I got hit with a hard fever and so did my comp. I was fine by friday. The Hondurans dont have quite as strong of a defense system so when they get sick theyre sick for like a week at a time. 

Terrible part 2. All of the sisters in my district got sick! Sister Trujillo got hit with a fever so hard her platelets dropped to 5%! yeah she was in grave danger. her parents flew down from utah to see her today. Its been very hard on her. The other two sisters got hit with the flu and the last sister got hit with an asthma attack!!! They were all hospitalized together in the space of 2 days! It was crazy. So weve been helping them out a lot. I truly do care for my sisters as if they were my daughters, so it pains me to see them in the hospital! 

okay. Now lets get to the good parts.

Thursday when I was sick, we had a lesson with a reference scheduled at 4. at 3 I woke up from a nap and felt terrible and no part of me wanted out of that bed. But a drawing force was calling me towards that lesson! Boy I am glad I got out of bed! A GOLDEN FAMILY!!!! Theyre incredibly intelligent, the mom is a teacher, and her daughters ask the smartest questions Ive ever heard! What type of 12 year old confronts a pastor to ask him what he has prophesied that has come true?! The daughters are the ones who tell their mother that all of the evangelic churches are false! Their last name is Pineda. Remember those 101 acts of service we gave? Were still seeing those fruits! She told us that she saw us carrying bags of groceries for a pregnant women, and that she was suprised to see that it was pure good will, not because we were going to teach or enter into their home! She told us she was blown away by our example of service. 

Good part 2. Probably one of the coolest experiences, I got to witness my convert, Elkin, baptize his family on saturday! The baptism went great and the spirit was there present. Before the baptism, his mom Carolina was super nervous, so nervous she wanted to leave the building! But after her baptism, she bore such a sweet and sincere testimony about how proud she feels to have been baptized. She also says that she at that moment had received a true deep testimony that the church was true. What a special baptism this was for me! 

Well. This will be my last week with my comp, Elder Chicaiza! We're gonna work hard to help him finish strong in this area! I love this work!

Always,

Elder Hodson

 

 

Week 46

#3rdworldproblems

Dearest Family and Friends,

What a great week it has been here in Honduras! I hope this letter can help you all to feel more grateful for living in the united states. This week, the water went out. Completely. The water company in san juan is in so much debt to the power company, that the power company cut the power to the water company! How ridiculous is that! haha They owe 20 million lempiras (100 thousand dollars) So very quickly everyone ran out of water. We have had to travel in the mornings to the church or to a members house in the rich area to get ready in the mornings! haha its pretty funny. I always saw things like this on tv as a kid and always thought how impossible it must be to live that way! But now Im in it! And to be honest, you get used to terrible living conditions. It doesnt even bother me! haha 

We had an icredible week, especially because of the 3 baptisms on saturday! The baptism went great! Claudia got mad at me because I told her that the baptism was gonna be tiny with only like 10 people there. Because of her nerves she didnt want many people there. But in reality, this was the largest supported baptism weve had! Like 30 people showed up! it was great. Im super proud as well because Sunday after her confirmation, she already had a trial of her faith! Her and her daughter were sharing the gospel with their friend but her friends neighbor showed up, and started attacking the church! And claudia shut them up!!! Even her daughter alison threw in a few machetes! We were so proud! Fresh members and they can already defend themselves! haha it was pretty funny. 

We witnessed another miracle after the baptism of claudia, we went to go eat dinner afterwards at a members house, and at their house was their friend Jenny. Jenny quickly informed us that she goes to another church, but we found a little doubt and ran with it. She qucikly realized how false her church is. We shared the first vision and invited her to pray and she told us that she could already feel that this is the true church. She expressed how everytime she would come home from church, her husband and her would fight, and she never felt the "peace" promised by her pastor, but while we were talking she could feel the diference. She told us she already knows that God can answer her prayer because he already has to a prior question. We gave her a pamphlet to read and she saw on the back page "prepare for baptism" and asked us what she has to do to be baptised! WHAT?! So naturally we challenged her to baptism and put a baptismal date with her on the spot, and she accepted! haha! It was pretty great.

Elkin's family has turned over a new leaf! They had stopped progressing and going to church, but one day they turned everything around and have become incredible! They are sharing the gospel, reading the scriptures everyday, and they even told us they are ready for baptism! So because elkin is 16, he is going to baptise them on saturday! His mom and his little brother bryan. We are very excited for them! 

One last funny story. Elkin´s mom invited an inactive member to sit in on a lesson with us, and it was pretty much the funniest thing of my life. Shes innactive from like 7 ago, and shes super evangelic. After every sentence she would say "gloria a dios!" and she told us that christ never resurrected in body only in spirit and that to be saved we have to have the number of the spirit marked on our hands! hahahahaha i lost my mind laughing. My comp told her "you have filled your mind full of apostasy sister!" it was pretty funny. I love the crazy people of honduras. 

I love the work! Even when theres no water, theres no place id rather be!

love,

elder Hodson

 

 

Week 45

Happy Life in San Juan

Dearest Family and Friends,

Life is great here in San Juan. You know why? because I finaly put up my hammock! Its the greatest! Ill send a photo. 

The work here has exploded so fast. Its great really. From all the service weve been looking for people here have really noticed and now say Hi and the whole atmosphere here in san juan has changed. We had a great week full of service and lessons and activities. this was one of those weeks when you feel like a super missionary who can do it all. It was awesome. 

So we witnessed a few miracles this week. 

Number 1- We received a reference from the stake president to a man named Wilfredo. Hes awesome. He works for the government, and has a great family. His wife is super evangelic so thatll be a little problem but They really are awesome. The miracle was that his daughter of 22 years found the book of mormon the stake president gave him. She decided to open it up to moroni 10 and read 3-5! Which for those who dont know is the promise moroni makes us that we can pray and know if the book of mormon is true! No one here takes that initiative to open a book no one knows about and read it! So that was pretty awesome for us. 

2- On our way to church yesterday with all our investigators, a man named Sam pulled out of his driveway in his minibus. We helped sam wash his bus a few weeks ago. A little info about sam, hes a pastor of another church, but even he likes us here! He pulled over and shouted Hodson! Where are you going! Ill take you there!!! How awesome is that? a pastor gave us a ride to church! haha! 

3- At church, Claudia almost made chicaiza cry! Hes a "tough guy" So its a huge miracle that he felt something! She bore her testimony in the second hour of how if Chicaiza and I had decided to not serve missions, we wouldnt have passed by her house on that perfectly hot day when she was painting and had a heavy heart that was ready to receive the gospel. If we hadnt served, she wouldnt be getting baptised on saturday! It was awesome to hear her bear that testimony. And when we went to visit her at night, we were talking with her daugther alison, whos 16. Shes a little shy so she didnt know if she was quite ready to be baptised this saturday. I made her close her eyes and imagine her mom and brother and the elders in white clothing. Then I asked her to imagine herself. I asked her "in your mind, how are you dressed, in normal clothes or in white baptismal clothes?" and she said white! And then she decided that this saturday is the day! So we are pretty excited. Its gonna be a great week.

I love this work. I miss and love you all!

always,

Elder Hodson

 

 

Week 44

TEN MONTHS

Dearest Family and Friends,

Im getting old. 10 months. 

Hows everyones new year?! Mine was crazy. People here throw fire crackers all night long. its so annoying I hate it. haha The work here has sped up like crazy right now! We have a ton of new investigators. I thought this time of the year would be the hardest but I love it. 

Ive had a great week. weve pushed on with our goal of 101 acts of service and right now we have 97. We have until tomorrow to get the next 4!!!! Im praying we accomplish it! 

We had a fun pday play sports in a stadium and had a barbecue. Ill send a hilarious pic. two of the cameras fell off the stand while their timers were going, and the faces of some in the pic are PRICELESS haha

We had two families at church yesterday! It was awesome! Our cook gave us a reference to an awesome family that with a little work will be a great addition to the church! His name is Jairo and her name is Cinthia. They were talking with the elders 3 or 4 years ago and always said they would go to church but never went, and in the first week we met them, they went! 

Claudia and her family are progressing great! Theyre excited for their baptism on the 17th! They love the gospel and are always excited to see us. They have a ton of friends already in the ward and are really doing awesome. Im super pumped for their baptism. Claudia loves buying and selling used clothes, so if any of you have any clothes you dont wear anymore, send them to me! 

The work here is wonderful. Im loving it. I love and miss you all! 

Elder Hodson

 

 

Week 43

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Dearest Family and Friends,

Well, I dont have much to write this week, but what a wonderful week it was!!! Theres nothing better than talking to the family! Without a doubt.

Well. This week was full of tamales and chicken sandwiches and firecrackers. Oh how annoying are those fire crackers. I cant take it sometimes. These ltitle kids are incredibly obnoxious with their fire crackers at 1 am. 

But we had a great week of work still! We committed as a district to give 101 acts of service in these two weeks and its totally true that you can see amazing miracles from giving service before trying to teach! Its so much easier and the people quickly recognize you as more than just some preacher. Weve found some great new families and Im pumped to see how it goes with a bunch of new investigators. 

We had our stake musical fireside last night and Mom would have been so proud of me! I conducted our group and we did a rendition of Joy to the World. I decided to be a little funny and conduct very theatrical with my pen and all. But the rendition actually turned out great and everyone came up after and told me that we did the best of all the wards! and the people that new me there got a good laugh out of my conducting. haha 

well thats all for this week! I love you all! Ill talk to you next week! 

Happy new year!

Elder Hodson

foto: I get really sweaty when I go caroling haha