Week 60

9 Day Week

Dearest Family and Friends,

Its been a long 9 day week and pday is finally here! But its been a great 9 days. as always. 

We had a reunion in La Ceiba with all the mission leaders. It was AWESOME!!! I feel super excited to work even harder. President talked about how he really isnt just focused on baptisms. He wants us to be able to do EVERYTHING well. Not just two or 3 things super well and everything else is crap. So it helped me a ton.

This week with my district we put a new goal. To find 60 new investigators this week. And so everyday at 430-530 we all go contacting. Its the best hour to find anyone. And to make it more interesting we have key words we have to say. Yesterday was "pidgeon" or in spanish "pájaro" today is the word "chuleta" tomorrow. Who knows what itll be! Its a blast really.

Andy is doing better! He told us that he wasnt going to church because he felt terrible for some sins he had commited after his baptism. We helped him to speak with the bishop this sunday and now he feels much better! Repentance it what helps us to love the lord, and then its much easier to be obedient! That is why it is so important that everyone repents of their sins and gets rid of their guilt, because then they will really grow their love for the lord and they will want to be obedient! 

WE HEALED A BABY THIS WEEK! Well I know it wasnt me who healed him it was God through his priesthood but still it felt so awesome to work a miracle and be an instrument in gods hands! Rafaels 3 year old took a hard fall and split his head open. He was running a terrible fever when we passed by his house and Marin had the prompting (of hunger) to ask for an empanada. We entered and blessed the baby. I could actually feel what the Lord wanted me to say and we finished the blessing and walked out back to help rafael build his house (yes ive done everything in my mission from wash dogs to build houses) and the doctor was already on her way to see the baby. When she got there, there was no need to give any medicine to the baby, because his fever had already gone down and he was sleeping peacefully. The priesthood is real. Never forget it.

So funny stuff. I was getting fat so last week we started going to the gym. For 5 dollars a month I have full gym access and a personal trainer hahah how cheap huh? Well Im getting in good shape again and with being in good shape comes immense hunger. I cannot stop eating. I am ALWAYS hungry. My parents sent me 4 bags of beef jerky and two bags of peanut butter m&ms. Gone in 4 days. hahahaha Ive gotta figure out a way to control myself haha 

Well. Im loving life still! pumped to leave this area next week but i will always love this place. Nuevo San Juan will always be my pride and glory,

I love you all!

Elder Hodson

fotos:friends and president klein at our meeting. I put my comps new shoes tied to my face, its my drug. And a sweet moon pic.

 

Week 59

Week 49

Dearest Family and Friends,

How is everyone on this fine monday? This weeks letter will be a little short, in reality I dont have much to say! Its been an incredibly fast week, I dont know where the time went! We worked hard this week, more families to teach, and always some funny experiences.

ive been really focusing on two things in this last transfer. Strengthening my converts before I leave, and finding plenty of new investigators for the next missionary. Were doing pretty well on both aspects. Its a little difficult, the mission. Its hard to figure out how to manage your time in finding new investigators, teaching those who are progressing, strengthening your converts, all the while trying to strengthen the love between the ward members! It throws my head for a spin sometimes. The question ive learned to ask is "what is the most important thing I can do right now?" But 2 elders is not enough for this area. thats for sure. 

Some of my converts are doing great, others, not so great! haha Dunia and her family have been hit hard since their baptism, yet their faith never fails! They keep going to church no matter what! Ana Paola is losing her ability to walk because of a bacteria in her bones, and the doctors are gonna be able to fix it but shes in plenty of pain. But yet they still all make it to church! Regardless of pain! I love it. Theyre reading their scriptures like crazy and Dunia is about finished with the Book of Mormon already. She reads like 10 pages every day. On the other hand, I feel like Andy got baptized just because it was something new in his life. He has a testimony, but he gets distracted very easily from whats important in this world. But we cant abandon him! And I wont! Just like Elder Nielsson said in general conference, we never give up. we never stop loving. one day theyll figure it out! 

Well, thats all for this week, ill try and write more next week! love you all! 

Elder Hodson

Week 58

Conference

Dear Family and Friends,

How is everyone? I hope spiritually uplifted from conference! I know I am! I learned so much from conference. I could share all of my personal revelation with you but Im sure thatd bore all of you. Its personal revelation so itll only be revelant to me. All I know is this we all needed to learn. Marriage is incredibly important and our spouses our even more important than our own children, and Im super pumped to get married hahaha! Baggy. And that our lives our too incredible and short too spend them glued to a four inch screen! If we cant sit through church without our phones, then we are literally breaking one of the 10 commandments by worshipping another god! I NEVER want to fall into that habit again.

We had a great pday. One of the funnest. We went to the beach in tela! We played beach volleyball all morning. It was great. 

I had an incredible week as always, The mission is awesome. I love it always. We found 14 new people to teach this week! Of those 14 we have a new complete family! And the father of this family, Rafael, is incredible! finally weve found a good man in san juan! haha Theyre awesome. Rafael is like alma the younger and paul of tarsus. He used to be a drug addict and a thief, now he has his family and works his butt off! Hes awesome. 

My highlight of this week was definitely our ward activity night in san juan. This week we did the dynamic of the atonement of christ where everyone gets a donut (instead of donuts we bought empanadas de leche from rafael) and I had to do 10 push ups for every empanada. Even if they rejected it, I still had to do the 10 push ups. In a short 5 or 10 minutes I did 240 push ups. I was dying. The members were trying to stop me telling me they understood the meaning and that it was enough, that I could stop suffering, but we werent about to stop. I suffered not even the smallest fraction of what christ suffered, but it definitely helped open my eyes to see the atonement from a better perspective. As I would get exhausted and want to quit, christ would come to my mind and remind me, "what wouldve happen if christ quit?" and I would keep going. It made me so sad when they would reject the empanada, because I was still going to suffer! I at least wanted them all to enjoy the sweetness! My comp told me that he noticed that I was sweating from every single pore on my body, and I could only imagine if those drops were blood. I can only imagine how discouraged Christ mustve felt as he saw us in his mind as he suffered, and he saw that the majority would reject that atonement for which he was suffering! How could he have kept going?! Only 3 or 4 said no to the empanadas, how could he have kept going when 99.99% said no to his atonement?! It made me so grateful to know that he suffered for all so that the few could be saved. I love him. And I know his atonement is real. I know he lives.

Always,

Elder Riley Hodson 

fotos. Elder Marin and my best bud in the mish elder criddle.

 

 

Week 56

Good ol' San Juan

Dearest family and friends,

I dont have much too say this week! It was a great week and we got much done, but it was kind of a regular week! 

The highlight of this week was definitely our giant family home evening we had with all of the members of the ward. We watched the restauration movie in the ortez´s house and it went great. We are seeing a huge difference here in san juan as we can feel the love in between members growing. 

We had a super funny story this week. A crazy guy who looked totally normal stopped us and started to preach to us about how because Im from the united states that I have the blood of the jews in my veins and because of that Im automatically saved. But when he would talk to marin hed get real close to his face. It was hilarious.

Elder Godoy is leaving us tomorrow :(:(:( He got the call today. Ive loved my second son! Hes awesome and is gonna be a leader in costa rica! Its been super fun to be in a trio. There hasnt been one dull moment in these past two weeks for sure. 

Well, Sorry I dont have too much to write! But I have a ton of pics. Heres the pics of my shirt burning and pics of us today in this cool historical train. I love my pics with my two little comps. I love them haha 

Always,

Elder Hodson

 

 

Week 55

Visión Nuevo San Juan

Dearest Family and Friends,

Hows everyone doing today?

So Elder Godoy is still with me. He should be out of here in a few days, but right now were in a trio! Elder Marin is my new comp, from Peru. Hes AWESOME. Super smart and super funny. 20 months in the mission, finally have a comp with more experience than I do. We get along great. 

 I have had a weird week. Ups and downs really. Im happy, but we have had some hardships this last week. Alvin, one of our investigators and Andy's bestfriend, died this week. He played soccer one night and got hit with an asthma attack and passed away. Its been extremely hard for his family. And Its hard to teach someone and have them progressing towards baptism, and then they pass away. Obviously the thought races if they will have a chance in the next life to accept the gospel, but alvin was a great kid. Andy was getting him pumped for baptism and was going to baptize him. I know he'll have the chance still. 

Its been interesting to see Andy go through this trial. We went to go visit him the day after the funeral to see how he was holding up and the first thing he asks us when we got there was "so can I be baptized for Alvin?!" Hes very excited to go to the temple in a year and be baptized for alvin. Its awesome to see how much the gospel has helped Andy make it through this challenge. 

We witnessed a miracle here in San Juan! Dunia Ortez's ex husband took her to court for custody of their children because he said that those two men in ties, or in other words us missionaries, were going to rape his children. In reality it was just a tactic to get at Dunia. She was terribly shooken up on sunday when we went to see her and we assured her the Lord would put forth his arm. She prayed that night for guidance and then opened up her brand new triple. She opened to mormon 8 which says.

 17  Y si hay errores, son errores del hombre. Mas he aquí, no sabemos que haya errores; no obstante, Dios sabe todas las cosas; por tanto, cuídese aquel que condene, no sea que corra peligro del fuego del infierno.

 18  Y el que diga: Mostradme o seréis heridos, cuídese, no sea que mande lo que el Señor ha prohibido.

 19  Porque he aquí, el que precipitadamente juzgue, precipitadamente será también juzgado; pues según sus obras, será su paga; por tanto, aquel que hiera será, a su vez, herido del Señor.

In her court case, the first thing she did was defend her religion. She brought her triple and read that verse to the judge and in her ex's face. In the end, the judge ended up reaming the ex husband and giving more rights to dunia. How awesome is that story?! I was shocked.

We had a meeting with all of the members this week to present them our new plan for san juan. We have about 25-30 active members in san juan and theres like 200 less actives. So we sat them down and presented them a plan and gave them visiting asignments. The meeting was great, the members were pumped and we are going to see miracles here in San Juan! 

To close, I had a cool experience yesterday. The young mens stake president had a fireside last night with all the parents and youth of those who wanted to serve missions. He asked me to speak and share a little bit of what I did to prepare myself for my mission. I expected to speak for 10 minutes, and it felt like 10 minutes, but without noticing I had talked with them for 35 minutes. I felt a little dumb after, but I am super happy for all the work I put in BEFORE my mission, because its made my work here in the mission easier. 

Well. I love you all! 

Week 54

Andy & Elder Anderson

Dearest Family and Friends,

What a fast week it has been. Holy cow. We have put into place the new plan Elder Duncan had told us about and wow does it work. We have a ton of new investigators and I really do feel like we are gonna make a huge difference here with this new plan. 

So Elder Andersen from the quorum of the 12 came to visit us this week! It was great to be in the presence of an apostle of the Lord! We had the opportunity to sing for him! it went great. all the elders put on the blue ties dad sent me. It went super well. I conducted to choir. Afterwards Elder Andersen shook my hand and congratulated us. He came also with Bishop Davies and Elder Maines of the 70. They both gave incredible talks. Then he started to speak. It was interesting because he spoke purely about the atonement of jesus christ. But it makes sense. He is a special witness that jesus christ lives, and he came to the mission only to testify to us that Christ lives! 

It was great to hear an apostle speak, but even more special was Andys baptism. Before hand he was feeling a little down because of one of his peers and couldnt focus on his baptism. We shared a few scrips before hand, got him pumped and we started the service. Let me tell ya, he was the easiest person Ive baptized on my whole mission! haha he bent his knees like a champ! But afterwards, as he and I were changing, he couldnt stop telling me how incredibly he felt. and how happy he was. That to me is what makes the mission worth while. Seeing how much Andy has changed and seeing how happy he now is. Im really proud of Andy. I feel as though he will be one of if not the most important convert I have. 

Well, Elder Godoy got his visa, so my beloved son is now leaving me :( ill get a new comp this week probably. Ive loved Elder Godoy. Probably my favorite comp. Hes gonna do great in Costa Rica. Now the crappy part is, Im staying here in San Juan for another month and a half! Its not too bad actually. I love this area so much and all the people here so, Im not upset really. 7 months isnt too bad ahah I might just buy a house here with how much time I have living here haha 

I burnt my shirt this week. I have photos but on Godoys camera and hes in tegucigalpa today so Ill send pics next week. 

Well. Life is great! I love you all. 

Always,

Elder Hodson

 

 

Week 53

Carwashes brings miracles!

Dearest family and friends,

this week was different, but awesome none the less! On wednesday the area president, elder Duncan, came and spoke to the mission. And he got us all pumped up to go out and work harder! This saturday we have a fireside with Elder Anderson of the 12. And the elders in my zone are singing! Im a little nervous! 

My highlight of this week was this saturday. We decided to experiment and try a new tactic of finding, so we did a free carwash in the church! A bunch of people came and we got some awesome references. And 2 of them even came to church the next day! The activity was a blast. Afterwards, the elders quorum put on a huge activity with a bunch of traditional games and soccer. It was a blast. Andy came and even brought 3 friends! Hes doing great. 

I feel like I have nothing to write this week! This week went super fast, but I have nothing new to write! Well. Im sure Ill have much to write next week. I hope all is well with everyone at home! I love you all! 

Elder Hodson