22 February 2007

Hey family!

I have been so excited to email you! I am doing well here in DC. The weather has been beautiful! Get ready, because this email is going to be totally random...

My P-day is Thursday. You will get a weekly email from me on Thursdays. You can email me back through this email. I only have 30 minutes to read and email. So I may write letters if I don't get a chance to email some of you personally. Sometimes we will switch p-days when we switch transfers. My address is the mission office address. They will forward me my mail from there. If you want to send packages, send them through United States Postal Service. It always gets to me faster that way.

After we arrived in DC our President Price took us on a tour of Capitol Mall and downtown DC. It looks so different in the winter time. We then all went to the mission home, which is absolutely gorgeous!! It's a big victorian home with lots of space and a gorgeous view. The bigger and richer houses don't have fences, but they all have shutters on the windows. I love it!After lunch they let us rest for a while. After our rest we began training with the AP's. Our AP's are awesome!! They really got all of us excited to begin working hard. One of the AP's is from Spain and he looks like Superman. haha. All the missionaries I've met so far have a great love for the work.

We had a delicious sit down dinner, more training, and ended the night with a testimony meeting. We were all anxious to get to bed. I had been awake for almost 40 hours by the time I got to bed Tuesday night.

The next day we headed out to the Temple. We had a tour of the V.C. and we all met in the big theater room to be paired up with our trainers. My trainer is Sister Everts. She is from Phoenix, AZ and she is great! She is a perfect match for me because she never stresses out. She just works hard, and enjoys the ride. I know we will get along well and I'm sure you'll hear more about her in the next email.

After our orientation we went to the temple for a session. It was amazing. I was still so tired, but it was nice to be together with all of the other missionaries. The celestial room is the most beautiful celestial room I've seen (besides the Sac. celestial room). It was nice to sit and soak everything in. I have to admit that it is a bit overwhelming, but Sister Everts has a calming effect on me.

After the temple we went to Baja Fresh for lunch and got settled into my new apartment. My area that I will be living in for the next 6 weeks is called White Oak East. It's a nice area with lots of town houses and a few bigger homes. My apartment is nothing like I've ever lived in, but I hear it's one of the nicer places to live, so I am grateful. Sister Everts and I are the only two living in our apartment, which is nice.

After dinner we began tracting. Ah! My first door appraoch I was totally rejected, but it didn't affect me much. I knew that I would become familiar with lots of rejection. We also visited a recent convert named Beatrice Adel. She is from Tanzenia and was recently baptized the end of last year. She has a two year old and a husband who is faithful in his Mennanite (sp?) beliefs. They are warm and friendly and I am excited to get to work on her husband. I shared a message about prayer and especially praying as a family. He seemed somewhat touched by the message. I may just be a new, optimistic missionary, but I am excited to work with him.

Tonight after P-day we have two investigatos we will be meeting with. I am excited! There is so much culture here! Well, my time is about through. I am happy to finally be in the field. I am excited to get to work! The Lord needs optimistic, happy, and bold missionaries. It will take time to get adjusted to the study schedule and getting to know the area, but I am patient. I love you and hope to hear from you soon!

Love, Sister Hogge

mailing address:

Sister Melinda Hogge
Washington D.C. North Mission
11700 Falls Rd
Potomac, MD 20854-2823