Elder Riley Hodson

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Week 34

Hola!

How is everyone this fine day?! Im great, because its actually cold here in Honduras today! Not cold enough to wear a jacket of course, but Im not sweating! what a miracle! haha I hope alls well in the states. i hope you all enjoy your warm water... I was crying for it this morning. Coldest shower of the mission for sure haha

So this week was incredibly fast! And really great. The time is absolutely flying here. I cant believe I already have a month in this area! Its nuts for sure.

So I went on divisions this week for my first time as a district leader! it was awesome. I went with a new gringo named Elder Brower from Idaho, Poor kid. Hes such a gringo!!! haha But he loves this mission and isnt baggy even though his spanish is terrible. Divisions are fun because it throws in an interesting twist with their investigators, but it actually helps them to have another elder there that theyre not confident with! We had a lesson with a guy named Olbin, who is absolutely awesome, but has always struggled praying in front of the elders! But with me there, and a little coaxing, he prayed! It was great. I also love being DL because I get to do baptismal interviews! I love that part. The testimonies of other people who only have a few weeks of visiting the church is mind blowing! It strenghtens my testimony every time!

Quick funny story. Last night while eating dinner, the chair I was sitting in snapped and I went tumbling to the floor! It was hilarious! it looks like im getting fat! haha

We had an awesome activity this week. I love this ward because they actually help us! We had a movie night in the chapel! I made a ton of popcorn (my Popcorn girl skills are kicking in!!) and we watched the testaments! it was awesome and a ton of people showed up! Then we had a speed dating type activity after so that the investigators could get to know the members better! it was awesome.

We are putting on another sale tonight to help a family we are teaching get married and baptised! Hes a member but the wife isnt, but theyve wanted to get baptised for a year now, and no one has had the idea to do anything about it until I got there! But yeah with the help of the ward it should go great!

The mission is awesome. I love it here. I miss you all of course, But theres no place Id rather be!

Always,
Elder Hodson

Week 33

Dear Family and Friends!

I HAVE SO MUCH TO WRITE AND SO LITTLE TIME!!!!!!

Story number one. Today was the best zone pday ever! We played coca cola drinking games!!! We had a tournament and me and my little nicaraguan partner sister olivas won! You should all be proud. Growing up in vegas payed off! haha Then we had some awesome pizza for lunch. It was so fun. I have a ton of pics that Ill send next week. I forgot my cord to my camera.

Number 2.

Elkin is doing great, and now we are teaching his whole family. They love us more than anything. His mom started crying in a lesson! She had been passing through a ton of trials and to have our love and support and the love and the support of the ward has helped her so much! She really feels Gods love. They are our greatest hope of a baptism here. I know they will be baptised. Funny thing, her little 5 year old Kevin, is always winking at me. He learned it from the tv. Its hilarious. I just hope he doesnt wink at the elders when hes grown up!!! hahahah!!!

Number 3

In a different area, santiago, the near by rivers had flooded, so the missionaries had to be emergency rushed out, so right now we have 2 other elder living with us in our tiny house! haha we sleep all 4 in our tiny rooms with their mattresses on the floor! Its actually really fun. I love the other two as well. With their helo, we acheived 43 lessons this week. Which was awesome. The most Ive ever taught. And the future here in san juan is looking very bright! Im pumped to serve here now. I wanna spend christmas here!

Number 4

We threw a suprise birthday party for our cooks daughter, they didnt have enough money, and there was no way we were gonna allow for her to go without, so we threw her one! She was so happy! And then Elder Chicaiza threw an egg on her head, I have it on video. Its great. Their family loves us. They were inactive for the past 8 months, but they are now re activating! Its one of our greatest succeses! When they didnt see me this week because I was with the other elder from santiago eating at another members house, they told chicaiza to tell me they missed me! Haha theyre great.

Number 5

Yesterday was one of the best sunday of my mission. The whole ward council came to our area, which is far away from the rest of the ward, to visit our investigators and all the less active members in our area! The spirit in san juan was so different yesterday. You could tell the Holy Ghost was their with us and it made such a huge difference in the Life of so many less actives to see the wards support! I loved every minute of yesterday. We have an incredible ward. even though they cant always come out so far to us, it goes to show how amazing and willing they are.

Well family and friends. this week has been a huge testimony builder for me. I love the mission so much. I know this work is true! I love you all!

Elder Hodson

Monday, October 13, 2014

Week 32

BIG NEWS

Dearest Family and Friends,

I cant contain my excitement! I have to tell all of you about the biggest change in my life that happened this week! On saturday night......

WE GOT AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!! I have never slept so soundly in all my life. I will never take A/C for granted ever again! I love it so much. ha! Our landlord is the husband of a recent convert, and he is a man of his word. Hes awesome. He told us tuesday we were getting a/c and by saturday, all done! The first night in 6 months when I didnt have to have my fan blowing in my face all night long!

So things here in Nuevo San Juan are going great! Fun fact: I got oveer 30 bug bites this week! haha so I finally started using bug spray. Im just too lazy to put it on twice a day! But yeah, this week was incredibly fast. I really like the area, even though we dont have many investigators. We give a ton of service here! Always cutting the weeds with machetes, helping people clean their houses, or whatever service possible! Thats the best part of my new comp. He loves serving others.

Weve been working here with the many innactive members of the ward in our area, and we've seen some success! Yesterday 8 less active people showed up. It was awesome. We want our own branch of the church here in nuevo san juan. Its hard for people to travel 15 minutes by bus to the chapel. Its really not that hard, just the hondurans are a lazy people haha But our ward is AWESOME!!! We actually have priesthood leaders! The ward is huge, we had 190 at church yesterday. And the bishop is awesome. We had a meeting with him yesterday, and hes definitely a man of action. Im pumped to work with him.

We have some great investigators, some that even pay tithing! But they are, what you wouldd call, "eternal investigators" But they all are very special. One investigator we have, is a 15 year old named Elkin. Hes awesome. The missionaries found him only 2 weeks before I came. The poor guy has a terrible in grown toenail! Its kinda gross. super infected. But the kid still comes to church in his flip flops! Hes awesome. So the ward secretary is a nurse, so this morning and 5 we dropped him off at the hospital, and hes gonna get him all fixed up. Elkin is our best bet for the next baptism we will have. Hes a simple teenager, but with a heart of gold. He already has a testimony, and he knows this church is true!

Well, a quick funny story to close. We took the last bus home the other night, so there was a ton of people waiting. Luckily we made it in first, because we ended up squeezing 30 people into it! To put that into context, these arent busses, these are 10 passenger vans! haha It was so full that people were outside of the bus hanging on to the railing on top! It just so happened to be raining! And these bus drivers are nuts! They floor it all the time! haha it was quite entertaining!

Well, the mission is great. Always loving it! I love this work and Im greatful for the chance to have a new trial ahead of me!

Always,

Elder Hodson

Monday, October 6, 2014

Week 31

Welp,

how gigantic of a change this has been for me! New area. New assignment. New comp. New house. Its all new! But unlike the first time, Im super pumped. This area is gonna be hard but Im ready for a challenge.

So first. My area and ward. Nuevo san juan is a little colony 10 minutes by bus away from the chapel. Its a branch extension of the ward La Paz. The chapel is super high tec and awesome where we have our change meetings every six weeks. The ward members are great and all have money.... But we are in a super poor area. Because we are an extension, we have no member support from the ward leaders. They stay in their nice areas and dont venture into our neck of the woods... so we are alone out here haha this area is pure houses. Houses as far as you can see. So theres definitely some work to be done.

My comp, Elder Chicaiza. Hes the man. We get along really well. Hes super prideful and loves to talk about himself, so I just tune him out and let him go. But hes super funny and we have a good time together. Were good friends. He has the same time as me so neither one of us feels above the other. Hes 25 and from ecuador. He loves to travel. And loves to study. He stays up reading by headlamp till 3 am every night. Its crazy. Im out at 1030 haha

How was GC for everyone?! I loved it. It was so awesome. My favorite talk was saturday afternoon by Elder Jorg Schwarzennegar!!!! hahah jk Jorg Klebingat. It was pure machete! sometimes youve gotta cut peoples branches. If the branches are bigger than the roots, the tree with fall! I loved all 6 of his suggestions to have confidence before the Lord. Especially when he said "Choosing bad instead of worse is still choosing bad" hahahah!!! HOW BOLD! I LOVE IT! Im gonna teach my district his talk next week. Im pumped.

Being District Leader is fun. I love calling at night time and helping the other elders and sisters out. I just love being their friend! And showing my love for them. I have a district of 12, which is huge for a district. Its more like a mini zone. So im always up late calling around for everyone. But its quite fun. I have 6 sister missionaries.... Im definitely praying for help from God for this one!!! HAH!!! jk my sisters are beasts and work hard.

One frustrating/spiritual experience. We have a ton of less actives in this ward that were working with. One of them, Francis, came to the conference, She doesnt have a ton of money, so she came in the best clothes she had, and another sister there, offended her and told her she couldnt be there in those clothes! HOW RIDICULOUS IS THAT!!! To make it worse, she brought a non member friend! I was blown away at the audacity of that lady. We sat down with her at night time to help her out. I felt the impression to share 1 Ne 8, Lehis dream. Lehi tells us of their "fine clothing" and how the pointed and made fun of those partaking of the fruit. He then gives counsel, tellling us not to give heed to their words, and all those who heeded their words were lost. We shared this with her and she became reanimated. It was a great experience for me of how I wasnt thinking about anything, just listening, and the spirit told me what to say.

Well. The mission is great. Love you all.

Elder Hodson

Nuevo San Juan

Dearest family and friends.

Heres a little update on my life. Said goodbye to all my converts last night, which was fun. But sad. Im gonna miss them! But I have to come back! I cannot allow myself to not see them as a normal person! This morning, woke up at 4 and headed out for the transfer meeting. Im now in an area close to san pedro called "nuevo san juan"! Im excited for this area. We dont have a ton of investigators, but so Im pumped to hit the road and work my butt off. I got made district leader today. Im super nervous but Im gonna do whatever it takes to be the missionary the Lord needs me to be! And Im super pumped for general conference, I know that is gonna help me a ton!!!!! I dont feel ready at all to be a DL but president klein talked about how he didnt feel ready either because he had never been a stake president, but that in reality, it doesnt matter. The Lord qualifies who he calls. Im gonna try my best! I know the Lord doesnt plan on me failing, or he wouldnt have given me this calling.

But yeah: Im a DL of about 10 elders. Mom's friend's son, Elder Streeter, was the DL before I came here. My companions name is Elder Chicaiza. hes from ecuador. hes 25 and has lived alone since he was 16. Hes awesome. We have the same amount of time on the mission and the same amount of baptisms and everything. Im excited to learn from and love him.

I love you all! I hope I have some interesting things for you this upcoming week.

Heres a photo of the entrance to my new area

Elder Hodson

Entrada Nuevo San juan segunda Etapa La Lima Honduras

Monday, September 29, 2014

Week 30

Dearest Family and Friends,

Whats new everybody?! Hope alls well in the states. This week was definitely interesting. A little boring because tuesday I got sick with a cold then yesterday it hit Ruelas really hard. But we still had a very interesting week. The Lords hand is definitely in the work.

So this week, we had a baptism of 3 teenagers who Ive been working with forever. I love them more than anything! And finally, after quite a journey, much pray and fasting, they received permission to get baptised. We went to their housefriday afternoon for their baptismal interview and their Mom came out and told us that the whole extended family is against their baptism and that they cant be baptized. Their mother loves the church as well, but cant be baptized because she has an 80 year old canadian crazy husband but theyre not legally married sooo... yeah. But back to the story. We discussed the need to trust in God before trusting in man. We then turned to the teenagers for their testimonies. Jean, the least intelligent of the 3 said something I will never forget. Jean struggles to read and understand the book of mormon, but has a heart of gold. What he said touched my heart "Mom, I need to be baptized. I need to because I feel something here, that I have never felt before." His simple testimony was beyond a shadow of a doubt the most powerful Ive ever felt. After his testimony, we prayed, and the mother, Suyapa, felt peaceful about the situation. She told us how she had been trying to call us to tell us not to come for the interviews, but that not one of the phones in the house wanted to work! We testified that God knew we needed to have that interview, that he wasnt going to allow us to just throw in the towel that easy! He definitely makes baren his arm in the work!

Later that night, there was a huge stake party, so we passed to bring jean Gil and tahisa over there with us. As we started walking, we started looking for a taxi to take us. One after another, the taxis passed by and we said "no, that ones really ghetto" or "no, that one probably doesnt have air conditioning" little did we know that god was using our "stuck-up-ness" The next taxi that passed by looked acceptable and we put our hands out. He came to a screeching stop and put his head out the window and shouted "ELDERES!!!" It was our investigator Elbin, who we hadnt been able to find because of work! He had finally found a job as a taxi driver! His and our prayers were answered. He informed us that hes been ready dilligently still, and that he knows Heavenly Father has blessed him. It was a huge miracle, because now we have constant contact again. And hes our personal taxi! haha

At the party, another investigator, Mari (nicolles older sister) showed up. She quickly found and old friend of hers, an RM! He talked with her all night, and she now is much more excited about baptism, and is preparing much more dilligently. Just another miracle in the Lords vineyard!

But, as much as the Lord helps us in his work, he still cannot take away the agency of other people. Saturday afternoon, suyapas 6 year old daughter, who meant no harm, came running to her dad with excitement to tell him the news about Jeans baptism. That was the beginning of the war. He and Suyapa had a large fight, and the kids werent able to be baptized. Its a hard thing to deal with the agency of other people. But afterwards, we sat and prayed amd felt peaceful. All of us had done everything possible. Even God worked a few miracles. But He still cannot take away agency. I know that they were ready for baptism, and that they have their salvation at the moment. The sin will fall on the head of he who is responsable. I am so proud of those kids. Theyre going to make excellent missionaries one day. Ill always consider them as my converts!!!

Well, the mission is incredible. Ive learned so much! Even in trials like these, theres always peace and happiness knowing that youre serving the Lord, and that in trials and disappointment, youre walking with the Savior. The mission isnt easy. because salvation isnt a cheap experience! Im so pumped for GC this next week! To hear the words of a living prophet is an invaluable experience.

I love you all!

Elder Hodson