7 Dec 2015

So this week has been really up and down but every thing is still going good! We lost contact with an investigator on date to be baptized next week, for about 6 days. The first couple of days we werent that worried but soon we got really nervous, because we still have a number of lessons to teach. So we started praying a lot, we focused studies, and did what we could for the Lords help. Miracles happened I prayed about four different times that morning alone, and two other times in comp prayers. We decided to dedicate an hour to trying to get in contact with them, we went to her house her boyfriends, we called her phone texted. About 20 minutes in we got a phone call from a restricted number. She thought she saw us walking on the street and waved to us. The people she waved  to didn't do anything in response so she called to see what was up. Well it wasn't us or anywhere we had gone past. But those guys got us back in touch with them and they are back on the way to being baptized.

Monday- A little saddening, the Spanish elders that moved in with us left for they're new house, but probably for the best, having multiple sets of missionaries in the same house hold, that get along with each other, seems to interrupt study time. During shopping and all that we ran into one of the members we talk a lot, He gave us this awesome idea for p-day activities that's pretty much blowdart wars, Hoping we get to try that out. Every one was super pumped for our zone activity the leaders kept saying they had this awesome thing planned out that everyone would love. 2 1/2 hours into the zone activity they finally show up and just go yea its not going to work, so we lost most of our p-day just waiting for them. After all the fun and games we went out to find lessons for the week we found like 6 people that were willing to meet so we got really excited for the coming week of teaching.

Tuesday- We lost study time but for a good cause, to help people move. This family had just lost their grandfather so they were putting alot of his things into storage to help the grandmother cope. But the reason we needed to be there was that they were all older women and needed people to move some heavy things around. Well we ran into a problem we cant go in the house if there's no male. luckily as we were explaining the problem one of their sons showed up, He didnt even know what was going on he was just in town. As we finished up they wanted their son to take a grill from the back. We passed it over the fence and as i hopped it to help carry it to the car, all i heard was cracking, we freaked out but didnt see any damage so we are assuming that its fine. As we went out to teach most of our lessons ended up falling through and this continued for most of the week, but we met a very interesting less active. He just moved into Idaho, and he hasn't attended church for 40 or so years. Out of the blue he just decided he wanted to get back into it. This guys story doesn't seem real but he seems completely honest at the same time. Hes an heir to at substantial amount of money but he's dirt poor. He tells us these crazy stories of all the things hes done, sky diving, bungee jumping, he had all these nice cars and houses, but through some bad choices in marrage, when he was 17 and then again when he was 30 or something. But now he lives in an unfurnished apartment, and hes getting his life back together.

Wednesday- So more appointments fell through, so we didnt teach much for lessons, but we got in touch with more less actives. The coolest were the Littles, this family is just awesome, They make Halloween costumes as part of their living, all the kids are like talented artists and craftsmen and they are just super cool. The dad is very less active i think, but loves the church and missionaries, the mom wants to be active but the hard part is their youngest son. He has an auto Immune disorder so his white blood cells pretty much just don't work. He's not a complete bubble child, but its dangerous to take him to places like church or school. Hes one of the sweetest kids I've ever met and they want him to be baptized but getting him lessons or to church is just difficult because if any one has like a common cold it can be a serious thing for him, or if we have the mildest of illnesses we cant go to their house because its a danger to him.

Thursday- My first zone conference, Its pretty much just a big training and activity day for all the missionaries. Our mission president is pretty new so hes still organizing the mission the way he wants it to run and he made alot of changes, im not going to go into detail about them because im sure they wont mean much to you guys, but for all the missionaries that have been out here for a while their mind just got like blown away. I took a bunch of notes on the lessons and talks but pretty much he just said we need to step up our game, and at the same time made a lot of the rules more lenient. The rest of the meeting was just kind of a relief and destress time we did some games and had a talent show. once again all of our investigator lessons fell through so we only had one lesson that night, we took them to the Visitor Center and wanted to talk about eternal families because they are getting ready to be sealed but we didnt know that they were doing Christmas concerts the whole month at seven oclock, so instead of sharing our message we just ended up listening to music.

Friday- Today was the day the miracle happened! Thats all written up top so i wont re-write it. But that took up a huge chunk of our day we met with sever less actives and recent converts (larcs) today. The first was a L.A. and this lady was crazy but in a kind of good way and a kind of not good way. Shes really high energy and intense but hilarious. Christine the best way i can put this is she was just like Ms. Okusko. We talked at the door for a while and they told us to come in, and the first thing Elder Gillespie say when we walk in is "IS THAT A STRIPPER POLE" They had this big exercise pole mounted in their living room it was weird but all their kids were playing on it. Just a really crazy lady, loves Jesus and the LDS religion but has no interest in coming to church, i think she also has a lot of false doctrine floating in her head that justifies a lot of her reasoning. The next family was a recent convert, part member family. and it was the complete opposite. These guys are really chill and relaxed and just the opposite of what we were just in. We tried to start the lesson several times but their little 3 year old kept getting everyone distracted. She's adorable and crazy smart for her age but never sits still. she kept bringing imaginary tea and showing us her "very special christmas tree". we ended up doing a 10 minute lesson on the restoration. Also invest in cloth diapers apparently they can save you crazy amounts of money when you have babies. Sister Vineyard is like a super alternative mom, so she looks into a lot of baby stuff

Saturday- Well studies got really difficult Im in the Isaiah chapters of the book of mormon and i dont understand 90% of it. I KNOW ITS TRUE its just difficult to read. We went to a ward christmas party and i know how awkward it must be for some investigators. I didnt know almost anyone in there, we cover 7 wards and i haven't done much work in this one yet. The food was great and the people were super nice but being busy missionaries we didnt have time to stay for the whole thing. We had another lesson with Patricia and Olivia and i found out that im going to be doing my first Confirmation this coming sunday! We went back to the Littles house because we didn't meet the mother last time, she was sick and didnt want to be near her son. We got to know her and shared a quick lesson on prayer then we were off to meet someone that i havent met yet. His name is Darren and this guy is... i dont even know how to describe him. He's really into Obsidian weaponry. He makes most of it himself, knives, spears, etc. We never did get around to sharing a lesson with him because well hes interesting. He talked to us about how he's doing some possibly not lawful bunny breeding. He uses the bunnies he breeds as a food source, he follows potato trucks and picks up the potatoes that fall off, he does a lot of random things to get cheap food and other living essentials. He's willfully unemployed because he has money saved up and he wants free time to do his hobbies like weapon constructing, and yea just a really different guy.

Sunday- one of the first times in a long time that i had a dedicated fast, and I got a lot of answers. some of them are more personal so im not going into detail, but fasting yields results i can testify of that. Church was great a lot of awesome testimonies but none that i really recall, that much. Im not sure if it was the fast or not but this was the best dinner i think ive had in my life, They had these chicken cloud things they cooked i dont even know what was all in them but they were delicious i ate about half a dozen of them and five roles and then there were sides and dessert, it was just the best meal ever. We lost the Spanish elders but we picked up the zone leaders, they moved in with us and now its crazy in the apartment again. I feel it will be better if i just dont go into detail here.

I still love the mission and i miss all of you guys, but not that much, dont take that the wrong way the mission is just amazing and so far its hard to be that homesick.

Have an awesome week everyone,

Elder Hoffman

p.s. sorry I type so much