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

He's on the back of the Program!

This is something Riley has been looking forward to!!  One of the Canyon Gate Ward Missionaries!

Week 4

So time is moving abnormally fast. I feel as though I wrote home yesterday. So just a heads up. If you want to wrrite me. Write on sundays. That way regardless of my pday I can write back to something haha I think I got 2 emails this week haha but its not a big deal. Honestly I dont know what to write about!!! Life is great. I cant believe these latinos are already leaving. I feel like I hardly knew them compared to our first group. I cant wait to get out into the field!!! I love it here. But I think Im gonna be a million times happier in the field. Its really weird. All of our investigators in the ccm are just for practice, but I still feel so happy when they finally receive an answer! And I know its all just practice! So I cant wait to see what its like to actually teach real people who are ready to receive the true restored gospel!!! So last week we heard from the oldest member of the quorum of the 70. Elder Amado. Hes being released at general conference. Hes been a member of the 70 since 34 years old. Hes been a 70 longer than hes been alive!!!!!! Crazy! But he was awesome. He looks like hes in his 50s. Acts like hes still in his 40s. He told me I have a nice suit haha I really enjoyed his talk. It was just about getting us excited to be out in the field.

 

So Im really sad! Were losing one of our teachers this week because shes going back to vegas to see her old converts and then going up to general conference. We all love our teachers. Theyre all amazing. One of our night time teachers is only a year older than me but just got home from his mission in salt lake. Hes hilarious. Every piece of advice he gives us, he always starts by saying "If you learn this, it will change your life. And you will baptize thousands." All while holding up his pointer finger like an apostle. I think he'll end up being a general authority down here.

 

So last night, I really decided. I want to go to bed every night in the mission, 100% exhausted from working my butt off. Every morning Im gonna pop out of bed and Im going to commit to be the most dilligent missionary I can be. Im going to baptize every week on my mission.

 

So tomorrow we get to leave the CCM and go on a tour of guatemala city! Im super excited. I should be able to take pictures, so Ill send some home next week. Hopefully haha. Dont worry. I look the same. Im not losing or gaining any weight.

 

Love you all. Youre in my prayers. Share the gospel with everyone you meet. They might not accept. But who cares?

 

Elder Hodson

Week 3

Dang. Its so bittersweet. When youre working hard and are happy, things go fast. But when youre happy, you dont want them to go fast!!! Thats why Im excited about living in the eternities with our father in heaven. We'll be so happy, and we never have to worry about how much time we have left.

 

So week 3. Its been a good week. First of all hangers are the best invention. I never have to iron my shirts!!!!!!! Its awesome. We got new latino roommates this week and I miss our old ones so much. The old ones were always in bed on time, very funny, and never woke up before 615. These new ones are all good guys, but they want to wake up at 6 for no reason!!!!  haha But its all good. Theyre fun still.

 

Being Zone Leader is fun. But it feels like im babysitting most of the time. But hey. Whatre you gonna do?

 

So our teachers are turning up the heat on us as our investigators. They are really making us work and prepare and then will throw a giant curve ball into our lessons. Its good to stretch and improve and know how to handle those stressful situations before we enter the mission field. I think the hardest for me since ive been here hasnt been the language, or nervousness to talk to people (we all know I love to talk). For me, its been so difficult to learn how to ask inspired questions. Im terrible at listening to the spirit! Its definitely been humbling to figure out that I need to shut up and let the spirit talk. But finally, last night, I was able to ask an inspired question. It felt great to be able finally hear him speak to me. Im grateful to be able to have this weakness, so that later it can become a strength. Now I just wonder what my next struggle will be.

 

Elder Miklia and I are finally really close. Were constantly teasing each other. We struggle a little in lessons because Im a nervous talker and when he gets nervous he gets quiet. But we laugh all day long at the stupidest things. He got made DL when I got made ZL so we both are always super busy.

 

This week, I finally understood Christs teaching "behold the lillies". God grows the lillies, he feeds the birds, he clothes the grass, and are we not far greater than all of those things? If we put God first, and then after serving him, we work hard, he will take care of our physical needs.

 

Well. I love you all.

Elder Hodson

 

PS. I taught the elders here how to play 4square for real. And Im still the king. Ill never be stopped. hahaha

Week 2

So all the days mesh together and I feel like I just wrote you last week. I dont know what Im gonna say so this letter might be short.So the reason Im writing today is because I get to go to Walmart tomorrow and we wont have time to write. Pretty pumped about getting out of el ccm for a few hours! haha  As of tomorrow my district will be the oldest district in el CCM. All the other gringos will be leaving! I get made zone leader tomorrow, which means absolutely nothing. haha I love being a missionary! Theres nothing better! Spanish is coming along great. So today were on an english fast. Its gonna be awesome to go a whole day in espanol. I love how much we are forced to speak spanish here because all of the latinos only speak spanish so it helps a ton.

We now are teaching two investigators. the hardest thing for me as a missionary is finding peoples needs. Finding how the gospel will bless their lives. But Im getting better and better everyday. My companion is much better than I am at that. Even though we know our investigators are fake, the spirit that we feel in the lesson is entirely real and it feels so amazing to be able to testify of the truthfulness of the gospel!

So my district is amazing. Weve all grown together and laugh constantly with eachother. Which is weird because we wouldnt hang out outside of the mission. Maybe I could see 2 here or 2 there hanging out, but being a district of 7 always together, you quickly become best friends.

My companion and I got to teach our sunday school class with all the english speakers yesterday, and we didnt prepare till like 10 minutes before because we totally forgot we might be called on. But we still did really good! The spirit definitely helped us. Goes to show how much easier teaching in english is right now!!! haha but we'll get it.

 

One funny story before I go. Last week after we wrote emails we went out to the sports courts and all the Latinos were playing volleyball and basketball. So as we walked in I announced at the top of my lungs "LOS GRINGOOOOOOSSSSS" and they all cheered and welcomed us in. The latinos love joking with the gringos. haha

 

Well. Lifes good. I love it here. The spirit of the Lord is ever present. Im striving to always be willingly obedient and dilligent. I love you all.

 

Elder Hodson.