4 Apr 2016

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

28 Mar 2016

This was a pretty good week, but I'm sick of our apartment. I enjoy living with the zone leaders so that's not the problem. I'm fine with sleeping on the couch because that’s what I did back home. The thing that I can’t stand is one of the neighbors is.. well smoking "something". And you can smell it leak in through our bathroom fan. The worst part is we are living in the zone leader’s area, so we can’t even go down there and teach him. I'll have to get the ZL's on top of that. Other than smelling that every morning and night everything’s been pretty good.

Ok so I got like six days behind on my journal because of the stupid puzzles we do every night, so my memory might be a little off on some of these details, that and the smoke is making it hard to remember anything (that’s a joke, no one’s gotten high from it....yet)

Monday- So my companion always has us go out to eat and I just go with it. So while I was shopping today I found out that I have $1.50 to my name at the moment. But that’s not a huge concern I've piled up a lot of food because I plan to eat it every week but then we go out to eat. Plus we have dinners set up almost every night, so food isn't a big struggle. P-day activity was pretty fun, we did get to know you games for the zone, which turned into just telling crazy stories. For instance one elder once was chased down a highway by some lunatic in a truck, a couple of stories of people nearly blowing themselves up, messing with people in a cult until they start chasing you. It was interesting, nothing bad just a lot of interesting stories, after story time we played soccer and stuff and that basically wraps up our prep time. We visited Dave tonight, just to check in on him. We told him we probably wouldn't stay to long, and then we left 2 1/2 hours later. About half way through his girlfriend showed up and the visit turned into a member present, we shared a message and turned in for the night.

Tuesday- So today was different. One of our zone leaders got sick and we didn’t have any appointments, so elder Browning went out with Elder Bushman and did what the zone leaders needed to get done and I sat home with our sick zone leader. We ended up just working on the puzzle and talking. Turns out it was actually really helpful to me to get to know him better and to be able to talk to him. Elder Green and I have had a lot of similar situations so he's been a big help to me. Oh also this morning before the zone leaders had to leave, we went and Elder Browning did some stuff for district meeting and I was just looking through LDS.org. ended up watching a talk by President Uchtdorf, the one about the dandelions, I think its called Lord Is It I. Really good talk, super rebuking and help me realize a few things. I recommend listening to that talk, but don’t take truth to be hard; it is a somewhat rebuking talk. Well I guess it’s only rebuking if you have any of the problems addressed in it.

Wednesday- My study today was looking up everywhere in the B.o.M where people take the truth to be hard, and seeing what comes from that has helped me want to be humble enough to learn. Today was our exchange day with the ZL's and it was really weird in the morning. So exchanges normally start the night before and you switch companions and stuff. But Elder Bushman wouldn’t let me sleep on his bed! So I was still stuck on the couch😞 So anyway we did our P-studies and then comp studies so that was kind of the start of our exchange. But then along with living with us, we are in the same district, so after comp study we went to district meeting. So from last night to about 1:00 the only things that were really an exchange, was daily planning and comp study. District meeting was really good, Spiritual prep was Alma 37 and the focus was small and simple things. Well that's what most of it was on but Alma 37:13 and anywhere else where it talks about prosperity in the land according to obedience, is really applicable to missionaries. Also the reason that verse caught my eye was how it started. "Remember, Remember" Repetition is now one of my favorite things to look for in the scriptures, obviously if several verses talk about the same thing, that thing is important. Now I’ve probably said this next part before, but in Hebrew they don’t use good better best, they repeat, so for instance, verily is good. verily verily is better and verily verily verily is the best. So any time I see a word repeated I pays special attention, and that’s why the remember remember stuck out to me. Anyways Sister Aliasa had training on signs and faith, and I really enjoyed it but there’s one quote she said that I can’t remember for the life of me. After district meeting we had lunch and then finally went on exchanges, it was pretty awesome, the first couple of hours nothing much happened, but then we had a lesson with this Indian guy name Rajiou, and has... I don’t know how to even explain it. So He hates the bible because it’s been translated and written so many times it’s not accurate. He really likes the B.o.M but has not a member. He has this weird problem with Jews, and I don’t know has a quirky guy. But we read 2 Nephi 2 with him and he says yea I never really realized that this book testified of Christ, I didn’t catch that the first time. I don’t think has all there in the head, but he says that he has read the B.o.M before and we couldn’t figure out how you miss things like 2Nephi 25:26, or like all of 3 Nephi. But we just went with it. He's a really nice guy like I said has quirky, but I'm glad I got to meet him. Then we had one of the best lessons I've been a part of, and it was 100% guided by the spirit. We didn’t even know what we were planning to teach her when we went in. So her name is Tatiana and her friend brought her to church and she has no religious background. so she Talked to the Elders for a couple of minutes at church and they set up a lesson time. So we spent about 40 minutes just testifying that Heavenly Father is real and that he loves us. We had to explain who Christ was and that they aren't the same person, and all of that, but I don’t remember who was talking at the time but there was a point where the member and we and she were all holding back tears. She didn’t understand the holy ghost but I know she felt it, and she committed to start praying that night. I wish every lesson could be like that. There’s a lot of it that we can’t explain or really recall what happened because we just spoke by the spirit and I wasn't thinking about what words were coming out, It was literally just opening our mouths and they were filled. To say the least today was Awesome.

I’m running out of time so I’m just going to summerize a few of the things that happened from Thursday to Sunday. We helped an investigator drywall his ceiling, We went to an Easter concert with a recent convert family. I did a huge study on "the devils playbook" (2Nephi 28) It’s one of the few places with a wo wo wo. We gave talks on Easter, and ran a little short on our time, but the bishopric covered for us. Then we visited some shut-ins for Easter.

Awesome week, I learned a lot and I love the mission!

Hope you all enjoy your week!!!!

21 Mar 2016

So this has been not that weird of a week but it feels like its been super long. I'm not sure how to explain it. Nothing to out of the usual happened so I guess I'll just get to it.

Monday- Well I guess I lied. Something out of the usual did happen today.  E-mails went normal and we went to Walmart to go shopping. We are just walking down to the breakfast aisle and I hear someone behind me ask, "Elder Hoffman can I talk to you for a second?" I was super confused for a second. I thought maybe I was in trouble.  I don't even know why that crossed my mind, but I'm saying "yes" as I turn around to see that.... ITS ALEXA.  What threw me off  was a couple weeks ago Mikey sent me an e-mail saying that my cousins see me all the time at Wal-mart but would usually avoid me just because they know better. I'm not mad at Alexa though. We talked for maybe 5 minutes and she just had a couple of important things to let me know. One of which is that Gunner is a Ward Mission Leader over in Ammon north. So that's good to know in case President ever thinks to send me over there. The rest of P-day was ok. We just did dodge ball for like the millionth time. Most of the rest of our night we spent at our YSA ward. We have two recent converts that have become less active and we are trying to encourage them to get involved. The theme of there FHE was March Madness. They all made brackets and then we just played some b-ball and ate some pie.

Tuesday- ZONE CONFERENCE!!!! It was totally different then the last one. So normally half of the mission gets together and then President and the AP's rebuke us and we do some activities. Instead this time they did every zone individually, so it was like a zone training but instead of our Zone leaders teaching we had president. It was really nice because it was able to be more personal, instead of trying to teach like 80 missionaries at one time. We did a lot of practices so we have the missionary pamphlets that everyone forgets to use so we put a big focus on making sure we at least hand them out after a lesson. Also, a big focus on teaching by people's needs and stuff like that. During one of the practices, the Elders who were playing the investigators were taking forever to understand what faith is, which was fine some people are like that. Then one of them asked how we gained our faith.  I started to explain my story and I was getting everything built up for sharing the scriptures that basically converted me. The spirit was abiding as I open to the scripture president calls the time and our lesson ends. So we were all kind of bummed that we didn't get to finish. The point is, just because its a practice lesson doesn't mean it can't bring the Spirit. Take role plays seriously! The rest of the day was still really busy. We packed up everything after zone conference and luckily our next lesson was at the V.C. which was about 200 yards from the north stake center. We had 2 lessons there. Both to recent convert families.  We shared the Easter initiative which is just a cool video the church came out with. It was a pretty good day.

Wednesday- This morning in studies I came across a verse in 1 Cor. that talks about if a trumpet makes an unclear sound how will those that hear it know to prepare for battle. So history lesson. Back in the old days of war they didn't have radio so they would use whistles or trumpets to give orders to their armies. If the trumpet doesn't make a clear sound or command then basically people don't know what to think. So the same applies to us when we share the gospel. If we don't teach clearly and make sure people understand our beliefs, then they won't know how to feel the Spirit, prepare to be baptized or even just understand what it is that we believe. I've seen missionaries and I'm probably guilty of it myself, where we don't want to be harsh or bold with the commandments so we give some vague idea of the law of chastity or word of wisdom.  Then people just get confused. I hope the way I explained that made sense. We had a lesson today at the V.C but they didn't show up so we waited around because they never gave a clear answer if they were or were not coming. I took the time to try and find all the scriptures in the Cristus audio. I got like 4 of them from memory, but knowing where these scriptures are has helped them have better meaning to me. When I read them I can picture the Cristus and kind of visualize Christ speaking them which also has help them be more meaningful to me.

Thursday- 5 a.m. wake up call from Bushman.  One of the zone leaders and I decided we would wake up extra early so we could go to the YMCA and work out. I really enjoyed it like doing an actual work out got me up for the day and I was able to stay completely awake in studies! Elder Bushman is one of the funniest guys I know. He's really quiet but he's just awesome. The first day we moved in, we walked inside and he was roping things in the house to destress. He's a cowboy at heart. But if you see pictures of him before his mission he looks like a surfer bum. Anyway back to the day, actually just about nothing happened today. It was a bummer.

Friday- second day at the gym and on the way back home we decided to grab some donuts. We got a dozen so we had enough to share.  When we got back we found out she put like 15 donuts in there so we were stoked to have extra.  Skipping ahead in the day. We went to help Jason on his house. We were there for a couple hours and we found out there is some new light on his legal situation so he may be able to get baptized this month or early April!!!! As we left his place it turns out his mom works at the donut shop and he had three boxes packed of donuts in his fridge so he gave us a box to take home. We ended up with a total of 37ish donuts today and we have no idea what to do with them all. 

Saturday- We were going to leave early this morning and play some b-ball but no one woke up sooooo that didn't really pan out. For studies today I went and found as many references as I could to the wicked or guilty taking the truth to be hard. It happens a lot in the B.o.M.  As random as that study was, I got some good thoughts out of it. Today was pretty great. We went to see Traysen, a kid that we started teaching recently. We've met him a few times and today we stopped by to try and set up a lesson but his step-dad just said, "Oh come on in. I'll get Traysen so you can share a lesson." So we shared on faith and got a nice other lesson. Later that day we were on our way to stop by Wayne's house and we saw Dave outside sweeping his sidewalk so we stopped by to say hi. Turns out he's been making it to church a lot! We always ask our WMLs if they see any of our investigators at church, and in the 26th ward he kept saying no... So we had no idea that he's been progressing. Anyway the ward's been good to him. His teacher got him a quad. He went to a testimony meeting and this 9 year old girl bore her testimony about eternal families (she had just lost her father). Dave is so ready but we've been having trouble with getting lesson times set up, but he's just super golden. So after our visit we went to see Wayne the squirrel guy. Sadly he's still not doing anything or really even willing to progress. He likes us but feels like he's too old to change.

Anyway where the Coppers come in this week. At one of our dinners, I can't remember which one, we were talking and look out the window and see the cops. We walk out to go meet them and they were picking up a gun from the neighbor's yard. The neighbors are out of town, but brother Butler said he saw someone pull out of the driveway so we are wondering if a robbery happened and some one tried to ditch the gun. Like I said its been a weird week.

Hope you all are doing good and I'll talk to ya next week!

14 Mar 2016

So the smaller area has been in effect for a few days now and I like it, We have a lot more opportunity to focus in the wards we are assigned. Plus it makes it even easier to get around on foot/bikes. I feel like we got everything transferred to the Sisters pretty well, I have faith that they'll take good care of the area. Probably better that what we did. After all we all know a sister is 10x more effective than 3 Elders, quote Jeffery R Holland (he was joking, well a little)

Monday- not much to really say. Typical p-day stuff. One thing that was out of the ordinary was for morning exercise Browning and I played Frisbee and it got stuck on our roof. Go figure. So I threw a ball up there to try and get it down and that got stuck on the first throw.... so I climbed a tree and jumped up on the roof. The tree was in a weird spot where I couldn't really go back down so I ended up just jumping off the roof. I went to a lower part. It was only like 8 feet high. P-day activity was pretty lame. No one really showed up and nothing really happened, plus it was the last time I got to see Ieti (sounds like yeti). He's a Samoan guy and I have no clue why he decided I was his best friend. We didn't even talk that much but we were best friends and he's transferred to Driggs. The rest of p-day was cleaning the apartment out so the Sisters could move in.

Tuesday- Moving day so this was probably the easiest move I've had. All I had to do was pack my stuff up. Then we just went back to the Benton apt. and unpacked. When we got all settled in we had a recent convert pick us up to take us to a lesson at his place. We shared a message on the atonement. Mostly on the fact that the atonement is very personal even though it was done for everyone. When the lesson was over we were talking to Brother Kisely and it sounds like we might get to help him basically rebuild a car. So I hope he picks us up on that offer. It'll be fun and a good way to just be of service. Later we went to the YSA Face to Face to support a recent convert. The face to face was pretty cool. That's where I got the Jeffery R Holland quote on sister missionaries. Being a YSA, face to face, go figure that most of it was on marriage. But it was really good. He touched on sisters that do and don't serve missions; trying to help comfort those who haven't served, but still encouraging young women to give honest thought into serving a mission. Then my second favorite part was when he addressed homosexual attraction. He totally just changed the question while still answering it. The bigger picture is that its not about homosexual attraction. Its about chastity and controlling your urges. The best part was his testimony, part of which he left a blessing upon all those who were listening. A blessing from an apostle is a pretty big deal and super spiritual. After we got a small group together to play soccer at the YSA building and brought the recent convert with. We played around for a while. I got kicked in the face and got a bloody nose. Sadly it didn't break it back into place. Then we helped the Stafford's with moving something.  They have a truck bed that was converted into a trailer, but he just wanted the frame so he could build a tear drop trailer on in for camping. All the bolts for the truck bed part got cut and we started moving it. It was a little sketchy trying to move it with just three of us, so we called up some other elders and a YSA RM. That made it a whole lot easier to move. I got to say some good byes. I'll probably still see the Staffords but I'm no longer over their ward and that's a bummer. They were my favorite RM couple, (mostly because they served in Wisconsin and I could talk to them about the area and even about Heidi and Hank) Plus they are just awesome people.

Wednesday- so I'm back to sleeping on the couch and honestly I don't mind it. Its basically what I did back at home. So Elder Green got a 1000 piece Marvel puzzle and that was a huge distraction during breakfast and before bed. It got me three days behind on my journal and I'm still working on catching up. So interesting morning we got a phone call and a less active we were helping out is in jail.... sooo that's one of the biggest bummers this week. The rest of today was mostly just talking with our ward leaders and getting things figured out for how to make our wards more productive since we can focus on them more.

Thursday- So its the first day that we met the sisters in our area. We had district meeting this morning. The biggest thing I recall from it was following the spirit/teaching by the spirit. But it gave us time to meet the Sisters and get information transferred over to them. After lunch and stuff we went to see Korrin &Ryan just to stop by and visit, We hadn't heard from them in a while and we found out why. First they were just sick and they didn't want to get us sick. But then we learned that her 6 y.o. daughter, London, got in an accident with her biological father. Their car was hit by a semi. Amazingly they are both alive and recovering in the hospital. I think that's a fair reason for not being home and forgetting to talk to the missionaries. Despite the crazy accident, they seem to be okay. I would ask that you keep London in your prayers. That's a scary thing for an adult let alone a six year old. Later we went to the V.C with the Staley's and showed them an Easter video on the atonement. We talked about it and did some testifying. It was a super good lesson. The atonement is one of my favorite things to teach. After, we went over to help a recent convert at institute. The class was on politics and religious freedom. The teacher was almost a lawyer twice. He works in political science so he was super excited to be teaching. The main focus was on Mosiah and how right after he finished translating the Jaredite plates he realized having a king is going to end poorly especially because of his sons situations. So he changed the entire government. During this lesson it actually went along with my studies. I'm in Helaman and its talking about the voice of the people becoming more wicked than righteous. So a couple of things have been made clear to me. The main goal of missionary work is to help people eternally but there are temporal benefits. Through these studies and lessons I've come to realize that missionary work and helping people have a faith in Christ, will benefit this country. Our voice of the people today is becoming corrupt in wickedness. Comparing that to the scriptures, we can know that if things don't change then we can expect hardship and trials for our country. As much as people say religion and politics shouldn't mix, when we have a government that is run with laws that are similar to the commandments of God this country will be blessed. Sadly the voice of the people is becoming corrupt so the laws and leader are likewise becoming more corrupt. Missionary work has a temporal benefit for this nation and that's something that just helped me realize the importance of my calling even moreso. The other thing that came to my understanding is that the voice of the people is becoming corrupt. That doesn't necessarily mean that there are more wicked hearted people than righteous, but that the righteous are not voicing their opinions or they sympathize with the wicked to avoid ridicule. We need to be firm and spoken in our beliefs. Just a warning, don't teach overbearingly but be bold and steadfast in your faith.

I'm running out of time. The mission is hard but worth it!!!! I'm loving my time out here and I hope you all have a good week!!!!

7 Mar 2016

So transfers aren't that exciting for me. I'm staying with the same companion in the same area, well kind of the same area. So they are giving two of our wards to new V.C sisters. They are starting to stockpile sisters in the area for the temple open house. That's still a few months away but they are expecting 500,000 people to go through the temple before its re-dedicated. So they are making  sure that they are prepared to say the least.

 

The other big news this transfer is that my father has died. Just so there is no confusion that doesn't mean that Patrick J. Hoffman has passed away. He's still alive. Evan James Gillespie, the missionary who trained me, is returning home from his mission in about 70 mins. So on the mission we have lineages. Your trainer is considered your "father." Then you have cousins and grandparents, stuff like that, and when you leave the mission field you "die."

 

Monday- P-day activity was kinda lame. It started off pretty fun. We were doing dodge ball, then the Spanish zone showed up and there were just too many people to do anything. The only thing that really happened today was visiting the Crider's; that was awesome! The mom has been having phone troubles so we stopped by to try and set up a time. Luckily enough their son was taking trumpet lessons so they had a guy over. We walked in and talked for about an hour and then it was getting close to 9:00. We started wrapping things up and tried to leave with a message but we just kept getting off track. When we finally shared the message it went really well. There were a few things we didn't realize though. About  20 mins. into our visit the guy left so technically we weren't suppose to be inside and we didn't leave the house until about 10:15. Nonetheless, the spirit was still there, and nothing bad happened so all is well.

 

Tuesday- We had breakfast at the Reed's! They are a missionary couple in the V.C and I love those two. I consider them grandparents. (Grandma if you read this I'm not replacing you. They are just like an extra set). They have loads of stories about visits they've had with general authorities and crazy amounts of family history work that they showed us. Their basement is like a library. On top of all that they are just crazy enough to be hilarious but they aren't senile. We taught a couple of LARCs today. Both were families. Both are working towards being sealed in the temple and are just awesome. Dinner was pretty crazy. We ate with a young couple and their 95 year old grandma. She was basically deaf so we had to yell everything we said. Just to show how deaf she was she asked where I was from. I said, "WISCONSIN." She looks at me and goes "Texas?" Not even close. Most of the meal she ranted about sports teams and shared a story about prayer that I'm not sure was 100% true. Not to call her a liar, she's just almost a century old.

 

I have a firm belief that all of the best inspiration comes to you while your are in the bathroom. One of our zone leaders recently gave a training based on inspiration he had in the shower the morning of zone training. Tonight I was writing in my journal and I took a break.  While I was in the bathroom doing nothing specific, I had a personal revelation on the workings of the atonement and parts that never really had made sense to me before became clear to my understanding. We have a guy that's less active because he doesn't understand how Heavenly Father could put Christ through that suffering. I haven't put thought into it for a few weeks now, but randomly it came to me why Christ had to suffer. So in 2 Nephi it talks about how if there is no law there is no joy or suffering etc and if those things don't exist then God would cease to exist. So when Christ took upon him our sins, if he didn't suffer for each sin individually, then there would be no law and God would cease to be God! Its kind of deep doctrine but it was a crazy revelation to have on the toilet. It made the atonement a lot more meaningful to me when I came to know this.

 

Wednesday- I studied Alma 60-62 this morning and the thing that stood out most to me was when Moroni was rebuking Pahoran and said something along the lines of, "if you think that you can sit upon your throne while the people and armies suffer and hope God will still save you through his exceedingly great mercy, you are hoping in vain." This kind of slapped me in the face as a missionary. I can't just sit around and do a little and call it good. I have to make the effort to reach out to those who I am able and I have to be active in this work.

 

We got a call from a guy we don't know and he said he wanted to meet with the missionaries so we set up a V.C appointment with him. Sadly he didn't show. He called and said that he got tied up in work and being optimistic I'm going to believe that and hope we can meet with him later. We had already made it to the V.C. Just before we left, President Hancock pulled up with the departing missionaries so I had the chance to see my "father" one last time before he "died". President had us watch a missionary while he waited for his ride so everyone leaving went on the departing temple trip so they were away from their companions. Luckily we had another appointment coming in at 3:00 so waiting there wasn't too big of a deal. The lesson we had was with a larc who wants to get ready for the temple and our lesson spun into family history work and that got her like really excited. So she wanted to be inspired this lesson and not intending to share that we ended up inspiring her, well not so much us but the Spirit did. We had a lesson with an OAY and she is awesome. Every time we have a lesson I feel like I complain about this a bit but she's like the most prepared 10 year old I've ever met and she doesn't have parent permission to be baptized. So its a huge bummer but she goes to church almost every week. She has a firm belief in Christ. She's a member just not baptized.

 

Thursday- Zone Training!!!! Good as always. The main focus was accountability. It was kind of funny. My companion, after the training said, "Man that training made me feel like im doing enough. Do you know anything that can make me feel better about myself?" (He was looking for like a scripture or video or song). I just looked him in the eye and said, "Well, work harder." As a companionship we haven't been terrible but we have been slacking a bit and when he asked me that,  the answer is obvious. Its just not what you want to hear. There wasn't a whole lot we did today. We made a few visits but that was about it.

 

Friday- We set a date!!! We stopped by to see a kid we've been teaching and he invited us in. He was playing a game and we decided if he wins Elder B would teach if he lost I would teach. Anyway, it turned into a pretty lengthy lesson and a baptismal invitation was given and accepted. That pretty much takes the cake for the whole day.

Well, I'm running out of time. My ride is going to be here soon. Love you all and hope you have an awesome week!!!!

29 Feb 2016

This week a little slow but good in its own ways. Elder Browning was sick from last week to about Tuesday. I'm not really sure what he had but I could tell he needed rest. I dont know if I mentioned this but I had a lot of free time while Elder Browning was sick, so I numbered all the pages of my journal and I have now written 146 pages, completely full. If this keeps up I estimate I'll go through four to five journals on my mission.

 

Monday was P-Day as usual, nothing much really happened just shopping and all that. For P-day activity we did Murder in the Dark, and dodge ball. No appointments panned out in the evening so nothing really happened today.

 

Tuesday- Study this morning was some war chapters and I randomly read Jacob 4:6, and realized that studies are an important part in building our ability to act in the priesthood. In the evening we tried tracting the apartments we live in. When we got to Ralph, he's a less active guy that we see out side smoking daily, Browning said I should take the lead on this and I was ready to get inside and visit and get to know him. After he answered, Browning asked him for referrals almost immediately. I was a little confused on why he did that and I still am confused about it, but we will have more opportunities to talk with Ralph so its not too big of a deal.

 

Wednesday-  This morning study was....... more war chapters, I actually really enjoy the war chapters and they teach a lot. Its just not always as easy to see. One of my favorite stories in the war chapters is Lehonti. There are parallels in that to how the adversary works and tries to lead us away. This morning was also District Meeting, the theme was charity in mission work. We mostly just watched videos on charity. One that stood out was just about a Priest who was suppose to invite someone to church and he kept reliving the day until he did it with charity. (It took several days to actually invite him with success, not just stopping by and say, "hey come to church.") We spent most of our day at the V.C. We showed the restoration twice in a row. The first time with a returning member who is overcoming smoking. The second was with a recent convert/part member family. The daughter was crying at the end. She was like, "my favorite part was when Joseph's dad was baptized, because my dad was just baptized and now we can be an eternal family." It was awesome. The name of the Video is, Joseph Smith the Prophet of the Restoration. I highly recommend it. It teaches a lot of awesome subjects and you get to learn about the history of the restored church.

 

Thursday- A sad day, the Spanish elders moved out of our apartment. Its not actually that sad. Its a little more boring but we've been a lot more productive. We had a restricted phone call this morning and a guy with a southern accent had just moved into our area, his name was Boe  (thats all we know). He asked us about the church; wouldn't get us an address and then hung up unexpectedly. We know hes on 17th street so its just a matter of tracting right? Later in the day we got a referral from the V.C sisters about a guy who cussed out the missionaries a while back and now feels bad about it. His name is Jayden and he's less active. He has aspergers and anger management issues but he wants to quit his bad habits and get back in the church. He said his apartment building is haunted by demons and this is the second time on my mission someone has said that but we were still able to share a message and bring in the Holy Spirit. Its funny as I've served my mission the reality of evil has become more clear to me, but so has the reality of Christ and I know I'm on the more powerful side. Anyway, we went to get Elder Browning's pants tailored by a member. While we were there we just kind of entertained the kids. I've never seen people so excited to play state bingo. They got like uber intense about it. (Uber is a word right? I think it means like super).Then I made the mistake of showing them how to do backflips by walking up my legs.... it was a fun night.

 

Friday- So a while back Patricia moved out of our area into our neighboring stake and we were at the edge of our area so we thought why don't we stop by Mikes house? So we go and knock. Nothing, so we write up a note to let him know we stopped by and we start to ride our bikes off into the sunset when I realize we got a bunch of girl scout cookies. So we turned around and decided to leave them as a present. Just as we were dropping them off.... Patricia pulls up. Tiny miracles, no reason we should have even had those cookies. But we took some time to catch up and see how they were doing then the next miracle happened. So the sisters that cover Mike's house have tried to meet him and he's never been home. Well as we were talking they came out of a lesson on the other side of the street. So they finally got the chance to meet Mike.

 

Alright well I'm going to wrap this up. The last thing I want to say is the neighbor's dog fell in love with us. It sneaks into our backyard all the time so we went and played with it for a bit. When we left it was standing by our back door. Two hours later when we got home, he was sitting on our back steps waiting for us. It was adorable. I also never got the pictures of Elder O'Barr and Browning's tie burnings. I have a lot of pictures to get caught up on so there's one of Elder Gillespie and I at transfers. Also one of Elder Ieti (sounds like yeti). He's apparently my best friend. He tells me that everytime he sees me. Awesome guy. Glad to have him as a best friend.

22 Feb 2016

Ok i might have to make this one short which stinks because its been a long week. Elder Browning got sick this week which gave me a lot of time to study. I went through Alma 36ish to 50 in three days. A lot of personal revelation. Mostly that I need to work harder and be more obedient, along with some other stuff.

Monday- Nothing special during our shopping or anything, but we did play ultimate dodge ball and it was one match that was super intense and went on for about an hour and a half until we were all tired and annoyed that no one had one yet. 

We met with Dave this evening and it went pretty well. We talked to him about his life and it sounds like he might move to the other side of town which isn't our area. He  put tons of work into his house. Every room has had at least a little renovation to make it just the way he likes it so he's torn if he wants to leave. The thing is he's getting another car and he needs a bigger garage. They are his "toys" so he doesn't want to leave them out. That was most of what happened today.

Tuesday- Morning study was Alma 36. Great section. I highly suggest it. Our first lesson of the day was with the Kiselysand we didn't plan on this but we taught charity. It went really well.  We shared Moroni 7:43-48 (those versus might be a little off) I love teaching Charity.  It was one of the main reasons i wanted to serve a mission, plus It is just the best Christlike attribute because its pretty much a combination of every other attribute. Afterwards we went to a lesson at the V.C and did the rotations with the Staley family. Oddly enough the focus of the rotation was families so that worked out perfectly. Then Browning came down with his sickness. So we got housebound for a bit until the Zone leaders decided to stop by. Luckily they had some free time so we split with them and we were able to make a lesson we had set up to talk to Jason about his baptism. So because of his past, which I'm not going to go into, he isn't going to be able to get baptized as soon as we hoped. We had Saturday planned but that didnt happen. He's been understanding and the bishopric is mad because they feel that he should be able to be baptized. We have to heed to our mission presidency in this matter so its just a matter of patience.

Wednesday-This was a long day. Elder Browning is still sick so I spent from 10-11ish making phone calls trying to get things to work out today. But most things became a no go. So I switch back and forth between studies and learning my Ukulele (I can now play Hi to Kolob, and Lead Kindly Light) in the afternoon. I was able to get something set up so I could go to one lesson and this was the most important lesson of the day. Its a part member family named the Hebdons and we have tried for a month and a half to set up an appointment with them. We got close a ton of times but 

something always came up. This time they were solid and we weren't sure that we 

would make it. It was about an hour and a half of making phone calls and praying. After about 10-12 phone calls I was finally able to get things worked out. I'm not sure how intense it actually sounds but it was a battle, especially just because the last two weeks have been rough on me. I try to make them sound nice but its been difficult. The lesson went really well. The wife who is the non-member was really open and talkative which is a good change of pace as far as lessons go. She had actually talked more than I had. Then luckily during our dinner hour I was able to organize another split for our lesson at 6. I taught her on charity and it was crazy, like she's only 11 and she was understanding every thing and the spirit hit that room at one point, i dont remember who was talking, but i saw her eyes getting teary (in the good way). Her name is cassie and we cant baptize her because of parent permission. Which stinks shes like one of two children that i would say was ready to be baptized. She trys to make it to church every week and she doesn't even get support from her mother. The rest of the night was studies. If i had to guess there was around 5-6 hours of studying today.

I dont have time to type the rest of the week but not a whole lot happened so thats ok. I hope you all have an awesome week!

Love elder hoffman