Week 52- Red Robin

So, this was a CRAZY week! SOOO busy, but soo fun! It all started last Saturday.... We share an apartment with the Spanish missionaries. They just had an elder from the companionship go home, and he was supertrunk, so we were looking for a way to get the area moving again. So, Elder C(the new Elder in the Spanish area) said "what would you do if we taught 20 lessons Elder P said he would poop his pants, and Elder C tried to take him up on the bet... haha we ended up telling them if they did that we'd take them to Red Robin, so they've been working  hard all week, and we've hardly seen them haha.

Last night, they came walking in the door to the apartment singing a song by Linkin Park: "I tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end it doesn't even matter." haha it was funny. They still did crazy good, so we're still going to Red Robin.

There's a lot of change going on in Centreville right now. When I first hit the mission field, C-Ville was known for being the "party zone." But then Elder P got here. He just told President: "I want one good missionary in each area, then I want them to train." So, that's what we got. Every area in the zone is training or just finished training. We're one of the greenest zones in the mission and it's AWESOME!!! We get to raise up a righteous posterity RIGHT HERE IN C-VILLE!!!

Though, the area still has it's challenges. There had been several people learning about the church and many of them got too busy or just did not want to hear anymore…and I  moved in here Right after this mass-dropping.... Kind of depressing, but how exciting to get to start from square 1! The entire zone has done fantastic  and everyone is serving and teaching hard!  last week the zone met 17 new people interested in coming closer to Christ. This week, we found 38 (11 of which were the killer Spanish elders in our apartment!)

We also had 2 exchanges this week. One with a brand new District Leader who Elder P asked me to train. And one with the Assistants to the President. They were both awesome. One I was back on bike, and the other I got to drive the APs big blue truck that everyone covets. And on both I was with great missionaries and had lots of fun as we worked hard!

The new ward is awesome. We meet at the transfer chapel, which is weird.... "wait, things actually happen here other than transfers?" oh well. :D Our organist totally jams out and our gospel principles teacher is a chaplain, so that's what he does for a living and he's AMAZING at it. We can't take him on exchanges with us though because he's a chaplain... haha It's great, too. I'm pretty sure he voiced Bob the Tomato in Veggie Tales :D

We have lots of amazing people we are working with who are showing incredible faith as they overcome challenges to come closer to our Savior. It's amazing to see.

I love being a missionary, I love my new area and companion, and I love life.

And I love you!

-Elder Hodgson