26 July 2007

Dearest Family and Friends,

Hello from beautiful Olney. I love my area. I love everything about my area. Courtney is doing well and is getting baptized on Sunday! We are so happy for her and she is getting the much needed support from friends in the Olney 1st ward. She had her baptismal interview this last Sunday and it went well...she passed! ; ) Yesterday she had her wisdom teeth pulled, poor thing. I remember how horrible it was and I prayed and prayed that all would go well, and it did! I called her last night and although she was drugged, she was feeling good and moving around. I know that the Lord answers our prayers, even the simple prayers. We have been working hard to get everything ready for the baptism. President Mansell is also planning to attend and we hope to have him speak. As a surprise I will be singing one of her favorite hymns, "I Stand All Amazed". Sister Guimaraes would like to get her a new quad for her scripture study, however with limited funds we will be getting her a journal and a Willow Tree gift. We are exhausted. I don't think I have ever been so tired. A few days ago I couldn't stay awake. I guess that's a sign that we are immersed in the Lord's work. I love it!!

President Mansell's first zone conference was this last week. Most of the zone conference we discussed schedule changes and attitude changes. It was great. I am excited for all of the changes. I have learned that change is good. I would never admit that I liked change before my mission, but I guess I'm changing too. We are working to create well-rounded transfers where we are finding, teaching, and baptizing throughout the entire transfer. Instead of finding in the beginning, teaching in the middle, and baptizing at the end. President calls this curve the selfish curve. I love his boldness! I love President and Sister Mansell. They have so much love for us.

We have a new car...a 2005 silver Toyota Corolla. I love it! At zone conference we had cleanest car awards. They separated it into two categories, elders and sisters. The elders that received the cleanest car award were the elders that switched with us, the ones that got the truck! I couldn't believe it. However, the sisters that got the cleanest car award was me and Sister Guimaraes. We thought it was pretty funny. All we received as our reward was an autographed picture of the office elders in a really nice red car. We have fun!

Sister Guimaraes and I are working hard to find new investigators. Charity is truly golden, but her husband's pride is costing them their salvation. It's sad that we cannot teach her anymore, but she is in our prayers and our thoughts. She knows it's true and will have the opportunity someday to act on what she knows to be true.

The other night we were at a member's home for dinner. One of their sons, Alex, looked so much like Bradford! He is 10 years old and LOVES to talk. We became buddies and I just wanted to hug him! He was a great missionary, giving us three names and phone humbers of friends he wanted us to meet. I love children and I love their honesty and pure love for Jesus Christ.

I am learning that "happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you, but on what happens inside of you. It is measured but the Spirit with which you meet the problems of life." (President Lee) I KNOW that this is true. I am grateful for the inner peace that I can feel everyday. I know that living the gospel gives me this peace.

With Love, Sister Hogge