19 Dec 2016

This week was bananas.......

Monday- Everything was pretty normal. We played some board games for p-day and chilled with the other missionaries; our lesson fell through because kids caught the flu. Usual stuff.

Tuesday- we went and saw a referral in the nursing home. One of the more awkward encounters I’ve had. She was almost completely deaf. Like I could yell and she still wouldn’t understand what we were saying. She was very nice though. We had a lesson with Shaylee, a less active who wants to be more involved with the church. She said she didn’t understand much about the gospel it turns out she only knows who Christ is and that he died for us she doesn’t even understand why.  So we are starting very basic. But she’s been coming to church and making a lot of progress!

Wednesday- There was a snow storm so we went around and shoveled a lot of sidewalks and that was most of our afternoon. Then we had to head down to Poce to get ready for zone conference on Thursday and this is where it gets crazy. There was a second snow storm. It was a lot worse than the first. So I drove up because the other elders are from Arizona, Arizona and Florida, so we felt it was best that I drove. We made it safe and sound then spent the night at the assistant’s house with the rest of the Soda Springs zone. Luckily everyone was safe on the way up.

Thursday- We had our Christmas Zone Conference. It was a lot of fun, except I would have preferred that we didn’t have an hour long explanation of why we have Tiwi (our car governors). The vehicle department came up from Salt Lake and inspected all the vehicles; this will tie into some weirdness later. So we went about Zone Conference had trainings by president and the assistants and Sister Hancock. Met with all the missionaries and talked about how old areas are going and such. It was an awesome time. Afterwards we went around Poce to pick up something we couldn’t get in Montpelier. Then, and going around town we never got over 35. When we started leaving town we noticed if we hit 35 that the truck started to shake. It started doing that yesterday but we thought it was just the storm. Then when we hit highway speeds the whole truck started to violently shake. So we turned around told the office we were staying a night to have the truck checked out and went in trios around where the assistants are. It was Elder Welling’s last day so we picked up his companion Elder Horn who will be with us for the next three weeks. But anyways that makes up most of today.

Friday- we took the car into the dealership and sat around for a few hours. They came back with some results and it turns out that bolts were missing from the truck.... I don’t know how we had a mission wide vehicle inspection (they even drove them around) and they approved our truck. But I’m also thankful that we were safe. Nothing was holding in the transmission and the truck could have fallen apart, but the Lord kept us safe. So we picked up a new Toyota Tacoma and I mean new it had 18 miles on it. I will never get to drive a vehicle this new ever again. So we get that until our truck is fixed. We made it back to Cokeville safe and sound. Another prayer answered. There was supposed to be a snow storm worse than the night before, and it was there for a while but it cleared up and we headed off and we had no snow on us the whole way down.  We could see it snowing all around. We got back into Cokeville in time for a baptismal interview that Elder Welling and Horn set up. So that was perfect.

Saturday- we spent most of the morning preparing Howy's baptism and then had the service. He's an awesome kid in kind of a rough situation with his family, but he is a really good kid. We met with a couple of families in Cokeville that night; one of the families seems really promising. They got really excited at the mention of eternal families and they want the gospel but a couple of things are just keeping them back right now.

Sunday- we had Howy's confirmation and that was really good! Then we headed back up to Montpelier for the rest of the day. Saw the Ruuds shortly. Had dinner out in Dingle and got to meet Justin and Trinity (a referral) and they were very nice and there is some potential there but we will have to be a gentle nudge. Then we saw Barbara and Blaine and they are doing really well! We shared the Christmas initiative the church put out and it was a really good day.

This week has been a little insane and it’s also pretty crazy having two companions but I love it and things are going really well right now! I hope things are going good for you guys back home or wherever you are!

Love all of you guys.

12 Dec 2016

This felt like a really fast week but it’s been pretty good.

I want to talk about Christmas though. I love the initiative that the church put out called light the world. It’s about doing service each day leading up to Christmas. I would encourage everyone to check it out on mormon.org. But thinking about the video and the purpose behind the initiative and the scriptures it references, I think it’s amazing to think that we as church members have the opportunity through the gospel of Jesus Christ to be the light of the world! In Doctrine and Covenants Section 50 we learn in in v24 that, that which is of God is Light, so as we follow the gospel and live according to the teachings and principles of Christ we become light. In v25 it says that we are given the power to chase of darkness. On my mission I’ve seen families and individuals that struggle and need that light. As David A. Bednar explains to the very basic Characteristic of Christ is to turn outwards. No matter what His circumstance was what he did was always for the benefit of others. Follow the example of Christ this Christmas season I encourage all of you and find someone who you can uplift, then strive to make this a pattern of living though out the rest of this year. This Gospel is the guide to living a happy and fulfilling life, and if we live it that joy will by nature of the gospel extend to others.

I love all of you and I hope you enjoy this Christmas season!

Elder Hoffman

Also to the family, I'm sure all of you have pictures with little Maverick and I did want to feel left out... so I did the best I could with what I got!

5 Dec 2016

So this has felt like a really long week and im not sure why, but it’s also been a good week.

Monday- not much happened

Tuesday- we went to Poky, Elder Graham needed a military dependent I.D. We went over with our ward mission leader and we tried to tell him we needed to go to the National guard, but he kept saying don’t worry I know where the VA is.... So he took us to the VA and they couldn’t help at all and then we went on this goose chase to figure out where National Guard place is. Anyways got that all taken care off. I guess I gave some people a scare though. So we had a suit case that Elder Curtis left in Montpelier long story, but he is back in the mission so we dropped it off at the mission office. Well there was a district leader meeting, and a bunch of people saw me out side with this suit case so they started freaking out thinking that I was going home. But I’m not. The rest of the day was pretty slow we saw Barbara in the evening she’s been having a rough time so we wanted to check in and make sure she was doing ok. I think it was a good thing we stopped and gave her a checkup and it sounds like there are some ward members that did the same so it’s good to know she is being supported.

Wednesday- District meeting it was Elder Welling’s last district meeting; it was mostly focused around planning. In honor of his last district meeting we gave him a funeral, I don’t have the pictures but there was a lot of mourning to say the least. Then we got back to Montpelier and turns out we forgot some stuff the Cokeville Elders needed so we went to Border and stuff and then we got back in town and it was like dinner time already so we lost like half our day. But yea not a whole lot happened after that.

Thursday- Super busy day.  We saw Craig an older gentleman that we are teaching; he is trying to give up smoking so that he can make it to the temple. He's got quite a few health problems but is still fairly mobile. We read Alma 7 with him and talked about how the Lord knows our trials and about how we can turn to him in prayer and scripture study. Then we saw Barbara in the evening and had a lesson about following Gods will and trusting in him. We shared the will of God Mormon Message it’s about a farmer who prunes back this bush drastically so it can bring forth fruit and they us that as like a parable. Im not going to explain the whole thing, but it really helped Barbara with the trials that she’s been facing and just to face them with confidence and trust in God. Then we met the Reamers, they are a kind of less active family kind of not, and we got to know them and encouraged them to make sure they attend church. Our message was about maintaining our faith. You don’t fix a roof when it’s raining kind of deal.

Friday- We helped one of the young men with his Eagle Scout project which was setting up hobo fires for this street kind of Christmas block party deal that the town was putting on.  After we helped we went and visited a few folks and then tried to do some street contacting at the festivities. Im so glad im in a mission where we work with referrals, street contacting is so tough, that and 80% of the people there where members.

Saturday- Awesome miracle happened today most of the day was fairly slow but night came around and we were saying a prayer after dinner and we got a message from Ryley a kid we are teaching. We haven't been able to get a hold of him for like 2 weeks and he asked if we wanted to Ball it up. So we went to the gym and played some ball with him and his friend. We left with a message about why Christ came to earth and focused on the example he showed. We talked about baptism and he said that he was talking to his mom and they think February he will be able to, we feel he could a bit sooner but we will talk to mom and figure more out before we say that for sure. But it was a good day

Sunday- Always good we enjoyed fast and testimony meeting and got to teach one of the youth classes. We talked about service and serving others. Then we had studies to catch up on until dinner. Between church and meetings we have to reschedule study time on Sundays, but then we had dinner with the Biesingers one of our ward mission leaders, and watched the Christmas Devotional with them.

All and all it was a good week, and I’d like to invite everyone to look at mormon.org and check out the 25 days of service activity.