WEEK 70- quick notes from last time

Here's an explanation of all the bullets I sent last week...for mom and anyone else who wants to know

-The Manassas 1st ward now has a companionship of Sisters we're assimilating into the ward.

Sister Bil and Sister Ba  showed up, so we've been busy meeting with the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader to draw lines and make our plan of attack. It also includes them teaching the majority of single women we find and us teaching the majority of single men. We both have cars, so we're both mobile as far as that stuff goes.

-One of the sisters is from Cali!

Sister Barrus is from Menlo Park.

-We had 42 new missionaries at transfers.

Yeah, I wasn't joking

-we opened the overflow at transfers.

That's never been done before! It was crazy!!!

-A sister from Carmichael just arrived! I'm not alone from the Sac-town area!

Yeah, how crazy is that?! I saw her picture in the office a few weeks ago and thought "hey, she looks really familiar..."

-Elder Gustafson and I are working hard and having a blast!

Elder Gustafson was Elder Cannon's MTC companion, and was trained in the same zone I was in at the time. He's from Canada and we both love movies, politics and missionary work! It's perfect! It's kinda fun, I've always kinda had this feeling we'd be comps at some point, and here it happened!!! Pretty schnazzy, huh?  we saw this car and thought we should get us one!!!!

-We've spent nearly all weekend getting people settled in, supplied and organized.

We made some office runs, ran some furniture, I lent my bike, and we redid our template for our weekly reports to send to the stake president. I updated it by using the fancy cell formulas on our tables so that some of the sections quantify themselves. Not to mention distributing apartment keys, creating area books, getting to know everyone new and trying to lead with love!

-We've still found time to do missionary work!

That's been one of the most amazing parts of it all! It seems we have no time for work, so when we do, we just pray that we'll be effective in our time. The Lord has made us sooo much more efficient!

-The Lord is blessing our efforts with some very productive new friends.

You wouldn’t believe some of the amazing new people we've met!

-Our zone had 4 new areas open!

See above on getting people settled and organized.

-Most of our zone is new missionaries (out less than 3 months)

It's been a blast using that greenie fire to our advantage! We love raising them in righteousness!

-We grew! from 28 missionaries to 38!

That means we went from the 2nd smallest zone to tied for the largest...here is the SMALL group..

-We saw at least 3 HUGE miracles this week.

More proof that the Lord blesses us when we do all that we can.  One was a sister that had no voice and with a blessing was able to bless us at the musical fireside. The other two are not ours and personal so we should not share…but trust me God knows his children.

-We gave multiple priesthood blessings.

To both missionaries and people we work with. Trials, challenges and change seem to the the only thing that remain constant. Luckily, we have the atonement to help us best that.

-We had another musical fireside.

Those missionaries who had left the zone were allowed to return to sing with us!

-It was incredible.

It really went very well. The Spirit was so strong and it seemed everyone just sang their soul out!

-We gave the sisters a lot of our investigators

It's a lot easier for sisters to contact and teach single women, so we thought we'd go with that strategy.

-We found some new ones!

Some of which we again gave to the sisters. BUT, we also found some great people that Elder Gustafson and I will be able to teach.

-This is HARD and BUSY

There's no beating around the bush. I'm more exhausted than ever before on my mission.

-I love it

I've always wanted an adventure, right? What kind of adventurer would I be if I suddenly said “too much”? Or if I shied away from it? Nope, not much to do but smile!

-I can do all things with the Lord helping me

I've seen too many proofs to deny it.

-I've seen it this week

Just to add to the count.

-That's the only reason I'm not bedridden

Haha. You're laughing because you think I'm joking. I'm REALLY TIRED! :P haha

-I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is real and true

It's our call to spread it, so spread it is what we'll do! :)

WEEK 69- The Craziest

I have to begin (and I'll likely end) with apologies and groveling. This has been the craziest week of my mission! We had 42 new missionaries come into the mission this past week, which meant a LOT of shuffling. Leadership calls came in Monday and Elder Flaherty has been called to step down from being a zone leader and train a new missionary! He was wanting that so bad, so I'm glad he got it :) That also means I'm staying in Manassas! So, my Elm ct. address will be good for another 6 weeks :)

My new companion is Elder Gustafson. I'm training him as a new zone leader. He was in Ashburn with me for 2 transfers, and was Elder Cannons MTC comp, so we're excited for this transfer! We have a TON of fun stuff planned! He's from Canada, too :)

So, here's the part where my apology comes in. Because of the craziness happening (more details to come), I've had to spend most of my time today completing reports for the mission office :/ So, next week, I'm literally going to just sit down, type a GOOD report for the past two weeks, proofread it and make sure it's GOOD, and send it before I do ANYTHING else on the computer.

By way of preview (and to help me remember), here's a few things that happened this week:

-The Manassas 1st ward now has a companionship of Sisters we're assimilating into the ward.

-One of the sisters is from Cali!

-We had 42 new missionaries at transfers.

-we opened the overflow at transfers.

-A sister from Carmichael just arrived! I'm not alone from the Sac-town area!

-Elder Gustafson and I are working hard and having a blast!

-We've spent nearly all weekend getting people settled in, supplied and organized.

-We've still found time to do missionary work!

-The Lord is blessing our efforts with some very productive new friends.

-Our zone had 4 new areas open!

-Most of our zone is new missionaries (out less than 3 months)

-We grew! from 28 missionaries to 38!

-We saw at least 3 HUGE miracles this week.

-We gave multiple priesthood blessings.

-We had another musical fireside.

-It was incredible.

-We gave the sisters a lot of our investigators

-We found some new ones!

-This is HARD and BUSY

-I love it

-I can do all things with the Lord helping me

-I've seen it this week

-That's the only reason I'm not bedridden

-I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is real and true

Again, I'm sorry for the brevity. The office is overflowing, and well, I always offer to help out... which sometimes ends up with me being really swamped.

But hey, I love it that way.

The work is great. The people here are amazing and i'm loving every day!

Love you all!

Until my REALLY GOOD letter next week!  J

I'm sorry again.

-Elder Hodgson

pics: look what we found!!!

Me and the Olsons, a senior couple serving in Ashburn... until today :(

Week 68- exchanges and office runs

Well, this was a busy week! One of those ones where we end it and crash every day. With transfers coming up this week, Elder F and I want to have it be a strong one since it will likely be our last together. We still don't know what's going to happen to us. I've been here longer, but Elder Flaherty might go train a new missionary, so it's all up in the air right now!

This week, we had two more exchanges! They were back to back days, and I stayed in Manassas for both of them! Poor Elder Flaherty was all over the place! We had a great time though! The first exchange, I was with Elder A, who is from Samoa and awesome. The second one, I had Elder F who is new and excited about it all! haha We had a great time and got some great stuff done. My favorite part of exchanges is the training. At the beginning and end of exchanges, we set aside some time to just training the missionaries we're working with. I love it because it's just some time set aside that we can talk and learn together. They often ask questions or share concerns that don't otherwise come out, so it's great to have that opportunity.

Twice this week we went to the mission office. With the new mail policy and the office not being able to forward mail, the place is overflowing with mail! So, we've gone a couple of times and grabbed people's mail so they can have it more than once a month haha. We're everybody's favorite people all of a sudden! haha Speaking of mail. We don't know what's going on with transfers this week, so please don't send anything until next week when I either announce that I'm still here or give my new address.

Other than knocking on a lot of doors, most of our week has been preparing things for transfers. We're to the point where the office has signed leases on all the new apartments we're having missionaries move into, so we have to get them all prepared. We've been running around picking up keys, checking places, making sure they're clean, working with the wards to furnish apartments, etc. It's been a blast, but very busy!

As I mentioned last week, we went to the Manassas battlefield. It was amazing!!! I'm so glad I went! I would have killed myself if I was here for 4 months and never saw it! haha I was amazing seeing all the places the battles happened and seeing the stories retold and relived. I included a few pictures of the Stone Bridge (the sight of the decoy approach of union armies during 1st manassas and the place of retreat of union armies during 2nd manassas), Sudley ford (the actual approach of union armies during 1st manassas), and a statue of Stonewall Jackson (1st manassas is where he got the nickname).

The 40-day-fast is going really well. There were some questions asked about it, so I'll clarify that for you all. Pretty much, the fast has 10 steps to it:

1) fast on fast Sunday. This is the only day of the 40-day-fast we actually fast, so I really don't know why we call it a 40-day-fast. haha It's like a 40-day-spirituality-improvement-plan-that-starts-with-a-fast in all actuality.

2) While in the attitude of fasting and prayer, make a list of all your behaviors that poke at your spirit. All the "buttons" Satan has that are separating you from the next level of spirituality.

3) During your evening prayers, covenant that you will be diligent in your commitment to this list.

Every morning, repeat steps 4-6:

4) During your morning prayers, go over your list with our Father in Heaven

5) Visualise the temptations that will beset you during the course of hte day

6) Tell the Lord which of the behaviors you will focus on that day

Each evening, repeat steps 7-9:

7) During your evening prayers, review the list and how you did on each

8) Show gratitude for successes you had that day

9) Seek forgiveness and recommit to failures you had that day

Then:

10) repeat daily for 40 days.

It's been a fun challenge, and frustrating sometimes to see how easy somethings are to change once we make up our minds, and how difficult other habits can be! We're all very excited to see the result of the fast. We've noticed many changes already.

This week, we're excited for all that's going on! New areas, transfers, lots of changes happening, it'll surely be an adventure!

But that's how I like life anyway.

Love you all!

-Elder Hodgson