Crazy service week, like I’ve never done this much service
in one week before, or probably in a month but it was a lot of fun!!! It’s a
long e-mail but the weekend was the best, even if the things I typed don’t
make sense. I think they do. I always feel like it doesn’t come out the way I
want it to when I type.
Monday- P-day was pretty cool; I still had no money so I was
living off my stock pile of oatmeal and nature valley bars. I didn’t have any
milk though luckily one of the Elders had an extra gallon so I had some. After the activity we went and saw Dominic, one of our investigators
with a date, and taught him about the commandments. He kept asking if he
was going to be tested on this. We told him he might,so he had a plan to come
up with a plan to make flashcards and stuff He's 12 so it’s funny to see
him get excited about this. We asked if he was saying his prayers and he said
every night he prays that Heavenly Father will come to him so he can call us
over and we can shake his hand. I don’t know how to break it to him that that
most likely won’t happen.
Tuesday- The service begins. So from 10 to noon we helped a
couple in a neighboring stake move things out of their house (they're moving)
but there nephew who is in our YSA area was supposed to show up and he didn’t. But
we meet him later on in the week! They called us over just for the biggest things;
you know washer, the fridge and freezer, giant dressers, those things. I guess
that’s the curse of being young. Luckily enough we got a pizza for helping out,
so the Lord provides for you when you go forth without coin or purse. That’s a
fact! I still suggest not wasting all your money though. After that service
project we went to Jason's and helped him do some dry walling in the house has
renovating. That went from like 1-3. Then we started our normal proselyting and taught a less active who’s basically an active member now. They just like
to see us. One of our normal lessons for today Brother Kisley (a recent
convert) isn’t going on anymore; He got deployed to Turkey, soooooo yea kind of
hard to teach him now.
Wednesday- This morning was District meeting which was
really good. Sadly one of the sisters was sick and so it was just us and the
zone leaders. Afterwards we went and saw a less active lady. She's in a group
home because she is mentally handicapped but she's really nice but it’s hard to
teach her. It feels like everything I say just goes over her head or in one ear
and out the other. It was an ok lesson. Every meeting with her is a little
awkward but we are going to keep doing our best to help her. I’m sure the Spirit will do more work than what I actually say. After we went over to
Dominic's and helped them throw away a ton of stuff that got flooded in their
basement. We left for dinner, changed then came back to pick him up for a church
tour. And that about wrapped up the day. Oh I almost forgot one of the biggest
things, Jason called up President Nelson and they talked, then we talked to P
Nelson and he gave us the go to baptize Jason. All the Legal stuff is cleared
up!
Thursday-More service. We went back to the couple in Eagle Rock to help them install carpet and we got to meet Noah, the nephew. He's a
carpet installer so he knew what he was doing. We were just some extra hands,
heavy lifting and stuff. If you are young and offer to move heavy things don’t
expect people to hold back! Anyway, Noah is a super chill guy. He's got this
monster beard, and looks a bit like a mountain man but he's got a heart of
gold. He's really into fishing and camping; outdoor stuff. Then he's also
really in to League (a video game, that I was really into) so we had a lot in
common. We didn’t get around to talking about the gospel this time it was
mostly just work and get to know you, but we knew we were going to see him a
few more times because there’s a lot of carpet to install. We figured for
the first day it was best just to build a strong friendship. We got pizza for
lunch again! So I’m still not starving! Afterwards we went to see Cole and
Loren, Cole is a prospective Elder and Loren is a non-member. She has taken the
lessons in the past to "understand" Cole better, and she's taking the
lessons again so we are pretty sure this time it’s for her to know if the church
is true or not. We spent a lot of time just talking. Then when we started
the lesson, we only got through the first two principles. It was a really
good lesson. A lot of testifying of God’s love and how families are blessed
through the gospel and how families can bless us. We went and met Jesus
(sounds like Hey-Zeus) at institute and it was an odd lesson. It was about how
God loves all his children, and the curse of blackness doesn't make the Book of
Mormon racist. He talked about how skin of blackness is an idiom. He compared
it to a verse in the O.T where Jeremiah say "I AM BLACK" meaning he
is depressed, not he is literally black. Then he compared several other verses
to it. But it was a good day.
Friday- More service, back over to Eagle Rock to help with
the carpet again. More heavy lifting and moving things out and what not. We did
talk more about the gospel this time. We didn’t teach a lesson per se but we
found out where he is with religion. We also ended up giving him a blessing. He
has this weird forearm thing that carpet installers get. It’s like a big lump
on his arm. It was cool that he was willing to have a blessing. Then we all ate
pizza for lunch. This family is crazy about pizza but I’m hungry so I’m not
complaining. Afterwards we helped Jason again. Turns out he had tons of extra
sheets of drywall so we had to move it out of his basement into his garage. I
would guess we moved over 1300 pounds of drywall. The rest of the day wasn't too
eventful.
Saturday- Conference Started!!!!!! I've been told by several
people that the Conferences on your mission will be the best of your life and
they weren't wrong. I don’t know if this conference was just better than the
past or if it’s just because I didn’t listen before. (probably the second one) I’m not even going to try and write down the things that I learned at
conference. I don’t have time or the desire to write down that much again. So
the whole day was just at church. Priesthood session was really cool. I loved
President Uchtdorf's talk. During it one of the big things that stuck out to me was charity
is the defining characteristic of Christ which I knew. But then has said
therefore pride must be the defining characteristic of the devil. I've always
know pride was not a good thing but it put into perspective on how I can look
at each action I do. Is it prideful and for myself or is it selfless and
charitable, or which of those does the activity lead too.
Sunday- Another great day of Conference, I don’t have my
notebook on me so I have no idea what sessions which talks were given in or
who gave them for most of the talks at least. But one of my favorite things
that I heard, not necessarily the most helpful for me to know and apply in my
mission but it brought a lot of peace. Someone was talking about the
"fairness" of life or more so the "unfairness" and he said
"if life was fair there would be no resurrection" and it’s true if
life was fair Christ wouldn't have performed the atonement, and we would all be
doomed to live in our miserable sinful states and get our just reward. But
because of Christ, life is unfair in the fact that, for all the misdeeds and sins
we commit we can receive remission and have more joy in returning to our Father
in heaven than we rightfully deserve to have. Life isn't fair and I’m glad it’s
not, so the next time you’re weighed down in depression, thinking it’s not fair
that this circumstance has happened to you, I invite you to remember the
eternal perspective, and opportunity we have to receive a joy that isn't fair
for us to even have the opportunity to receive. This life isn't supposed to be
easy, but if we endure it well, all things that seem unfair will be fixed and I
suppose that more than likely we won’t feel worthy to that joy that we will
receive. I hope that, that made sense.
This week has been amazing and I hope you all enjoy the week
to come!
Love you all
Elder Hoffman
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