WEEK 77- exchanges

Wow! Another fun week! Amidst everything going on, we managed to go on two exchanges with some of our wonderful zone leaders! I always love exchanges because we get to just dedicate that time to training, learning, and working! It's a nice break from the office to have a full day in the field.

Wednesday, I was in Ashburn zone, back in my old tromping grounds! We did a lot of finding, and got to talk to many people about the blessings that can come through the gospel! Wednesday, I was in our area with an Elder from the Fair Oaks area, and we had a blast! We did some work on the GMU campus, which was kinda weird, not gonna lie! College campuses, gotta love 'em. I hadn't been on one since my last week at BYU. I was here for a very different reason though ;) We found an awesome young man who has faith in Christ, but doesn't know how to act upon it. Christ's teachings can definitely help there!

On that second exchange, we also got to leave the mission!!! haha Our singles ward boundaries include the Woodbridge stake, which is no longer in our mission, so we go down there periodically to visit and teach people.

This was a busy week in the office, too! We have a new senior couple, because one left for home on Wednesday. They've been picking it all up so fast, I'm amazed!!

Most of our work in the office is on the computers. All the paperwork and busywork that President would normally have to do, he delegates to us. That allows him to work more directly with the missionaries he loves. This past week, for example, I updated our reporting document on Excel to include a new indicator we're recording (which also included tying and linking info from cells all over the 18 tables in that document. I'd never done anything that intense on Excel) while Elder Cluff read through and organized a number of reports from Zone Leaders. Then later in the week, we met, and pondered and prayed over what to train the Zone Leaders on while on exchanges. We looked over graphs and info that Salt Lake sent to us, came up with a game plan, and presented it to President Wednesday morning at 4:30am when we dropped a sister off at the airport so she could return to her mission in temple square. We also created another excel spreadsheet for mile allotments (how far people can drive), and created almost 100 car magnets with VIN numbers on them so we can track vehicles on our transfer board. Plus lots of other little things... it's a total blast, but we're definitely grateful when we get out in the field! :)

We have 3 senior couples here in the office, all are fantastic. Plus, two office Elders, whom we live with, Elder Busch and Elder Shields. We have a total blast together.

So, the shields and swords from last week... Elder Gustafson and I throughout last transfer had an "Armor of God" theme. Each week, we would spend part of pday making a piece of armor out of cardboard and duct tape. Then we'd talk about it in our zone portion of district meeting! It was a lot of fun and was effective to motivate the zone! It was a blast for us, too :)

I'm out of time,  We are off to go “BOLFING”

Love you guys! Until next week!

Elder Hodgson