Week 95- ..is a habit forming?

~They have their new ipads…so  they were conducting trainings all day…so we have no letter...We did get a little back and forth banter….

~Matthew said they got 18 inches of snow last week in some areas!

~we went over what classes to sign him up for at BYU for fall semester….sigh I hate pulling him out of the mission like that but it had to happen for a few minutes

~ he thinks his sister looks all grown up in her senior portraits and plans on buying a gun !

~ where is waldo??

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~ two of his mission buddies are getting married in JUNE…he is looking forward to that!

~working with some great families, picking up his bike next week to get it all fixed up ( I take this as a hint that he is leaving the office in march but nothing has been confirmed….but the other is AP is in his group so they won’t want to whitewash the office) 

~ he sounds very happy…..what more can a mother want

WEEK 94- short on time ...but a few photos

I'm SUPER short on time today, President needed a pickup for missionaries  with a flat tire, so I'm going to shoot a couple pictures your way with quick descriptions and we'll see where we're at!

Evidence that Elders are still very much BOYS!

We came home one day to find a giant tent/fortress in our apartment that our roommates built with box springs and tarps.( I guess they had some extra time on their hands hahah)

This is Elder Torres inside said tent. We went camping in our apartment haha.

We have had  lots of snow. Remember all the rain the Lord blessed you with in California? Well, it made it to us now! Dave and I had a good laugh...in beautiful Virginia THIS is the snow photo we get  hahahah  well I guess one positive of this many months in the office is that our California boy has learned how to drive in the snow!!

We made a snow bear! During dinner, we sent out a text to everyone who lived in our complex, and we all built this huge snowbear! I can't take credit for sculpting the face. Sister Hills is the master artist there. Elder Riggs has a picture with everyone who participated that I'll send when I get it from him.( yeah that will happen...NOT)

We were tired after we built the bear.

We got rear ended in the snow! Do you see the damage? NEITHER DO I!!! Our truck is a TANK!!! We spent all day almost shoveling snow, and pulling stuck cars out of ditches. The evening part of the day (the part where we got rear-ended) was when we were coming out of a great lesson with Tim, a guy who I met a year ago in annandale. He's a stud and a great friend, and during our lesson, he said straight up "If you give me a good enough reason right now, I'll get baptized." Then the Spirit started speaking and touched his heart and he is now preparing to be baptized in March :) Then we got rear-ended.....guess it keeps them in  the real world... 

Saturday night, I was asked to return to Manassas to baptize Hector, an old investigator from there. This is Hector he is AWESOME. He's 12 years old and will be receiving the Aaronic Priesthood within a month. This is me, his sister Christina, his mom, Maria, then Sister Stucki and Sister Schramm. It was amazing to see him, to participate in the ordinance and to see so many old faces there! The Elders brought an old investigator I used to teach, too!

This is us getting our Trunkies a few week ago! Mom Trunkies are his papers that say you are going home in 6 months what airport do you want to fly into?...it makes them "trunkie" or thinking about packing up and coming home.....( no he did not try to grow a mustache...he is just mocking  his mother ...but I do love his sweater and tie :)

Last will be appalling, but it was a one time thing, so I'm ok with it. Sometimes when you don't have time to shop on Preparation days, you end up with Sunday night meals that look like this...

There are NO WORDS....

WEEK 93- Oath and a Covenant

Well, this week was another REALLY crazy one! It was transfer week, which is always the craziest week of the transfer. You know what the second craziest week of the transfer is? MLC  ( Mission Leadership Conference) week. And guess what!? Thursday was transfers, and Friday was MLC! We did them both in one week!!! How's that for CRAZY!?  haha

Monday we had some fun playing basketball, then went to the office to get a head start on the week and that was pretty much the whole day! Monday evenings are when we make leadership calls to let people know of new leadership assignments. So, we did that then, too.

Tuesday was packed. We had district meetings in the morning and went straight from there to the "Train the Trainers" meeting at the mission home. After the meeting, we just stayed there all night. We had dinner with the Riggs family and talked a LOT! It was super productive though. We got all our ducks in a row for transfers, MLC and zone conferences, which start tomorrow. We made transfer calls from the mission home, too, then after that, went back to the office for another late night!

Wednesday is always one of my favorite days. AIRPORT DAY!!! I LOVE picking up the new missionaries from the airport. It's one of the best moments EVER! It brings me back to my early days, seeing the anticipation and excitement all at once! This transfer was unique because we had more sisters than elders! 8 sisters and 3 elders! It was crazy! After picking them up, we brought them back to the mission home for their first dinner out here and some orientation stuff. After that, we sat down to double-check if the new missionaries were with the right trainers. After we got that figured out, we had a great opportunity to just talk with President and Sister Riggs. Elder Riggs and I love just picking their brain about things.

Thursday was transfers! It was insane, as usual. We started early, and had a whole bunch of technology to set up because we were watching the Saratov Approach in the cultural hall after as part of our meeting. So, we were scrambling to get bluray players and speakers and lapel mics all set up, and we made it!!! Our office elders are pros, we couldn't have made it without them.

Friday, we sent off a couple more really good friends. They boarded the plane and disappeared into the sunset. We went straight from the airport to MLC, and straight from there to an exchange! Saturday after we got back from the exchange, we went on another, emergency exchange, which we were on until late last night... And that's been our week!

This week, in addition to the many other transfer weeks I've lived through has helped me to see and gain a testimony of the oath and covenant of the priesthood. It says, in the doctrine and covenants that "whoso is faithful unto . . . the magnifying their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies." I've seen in a very literal way, my body be renewed as I give my all to the calling I'm in right now, in particular this assignment. There's no logical way I should still have energy to operate, and yet, I'm invigorated! It's a huge blessing seeing the Lord bless me and my companion and all the others who are serving here according to our diligence and trying to  magnifying of our callings.

Well, I'm excited for another week here, and another transfer of insaneness! We have one (1) day this transfer that doesn't have some sort of meeting.... It'll be fun!

Love you all!!

-Elder Hodgson

WEEK 92- super crazy

Wow. This week was another blur. That's really all I can say about it. I apologize again, i'm short on time, but I wanted to get something small in...

This week was crazy! We were making trips to the airport, driving all around the mission for various errands, and teaching a lot!! It was superbusy and we're both exhausted.

Mom asked about the young man who was baptized a couple weeks ago. his name is Kwabena Tuffour and he is from Ghana. He is off at school now doing great and loving his ward.

Of note this week was a funny conversation we had with president. He was talking about how he sometimes enjoys messing with missionaries for fun. He was telling us how each missionary has something you can harass them about, so, being the curious person I am, I asked President what he harasses me about. He thought for a minute and just said: "you know what? I can't. You're too ok with making jokes about yourself and too ok with who you are for anyone to mess with you." in a very weird way, i think it was a  compliment.

Yesterday, Elder Riggs and i ended up teaching gospel principles again... It's a lot of fun just improvising lessons! haha scary, but fun. As Elder Riggs says it: "There's a promise in the Doctrine and Covenants that as we treasure up continually in our minds the scriptures, the Spirit will give unto us what to say in the very hour we need it. Today, we are going to lay claim to that promise!" haha It's always amazing to just turn it over to the Lord and see what He does with your lesson.

Well, this is transfer week, so it's going to be crazy again! I hope everyone is doing well! Love you all!!

-Elder Hodgson