Dear family and friends,
I'm at the VC waiting for Mom, Dad, and Spence to come and meet me for the departing meeting. I have been feeling such mixed emotions these past few days. It's doesn't seem real. Surprisingly I have been feeling so calm and hopeful. I feel that I have worked hard and that the Lord is pleased with my work. I also feel hopeful about my future and the good that I can do. There is so much good that we can do.
This past week has been wonderful. I have worked hard to the end and I've had some time to think about the work I have done and how I have changed. I feel that my heart has changed and I am grateful. I've thought about the people I've met while serving and I know that the Lord has always had a hand in His work. I have changed because of the love that I felt for the people I have served. It is the love that has changed me.
Some of the greatest lessons I have learned while serving the Lord...
Pray like everything depends on the Lord, then work like everything depends on me. We must recognize the divine in each other and I know that as we do this miracles happen within ourselves and within the people we meet. We will have regrets, but I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ will help us become new creatures and will cover those things that we sincerely repent of. The greatest lesson I have learned and am still learning is charity. If we do not have charity we are nothing. Love motivates and changes us and it helps us become the people we so desparately want to be. Our Savior showed us the greatest love through His sacrifice. Truly the greatest love is shown through sacrifice. Of course, there much much more that I have learned and that I will continue to learn throughout my life.
My heart is full. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. I know that the heavens are not closed and that God wants us to come close to Him and be happy. I know that Jesus is the Christ and that He lives! I know that the Atonement is central to the plan of happiness. The Book of Mormon has changed me heart. The simple truths we learn, the stories, and the people have helped me learn to apply what they have learned to my own life. God speaks to us through His prophets. I'm so grateful for the sacrifices of Joseph Smith. The gospel has been restored, there is hope, and we can be happy, in this life and in the next. I feel privileged to be a representative of Jesus Christ. I will miss serving, but I will be able to serve in other capacities now.
Thank you for all of your support and love. It has meant so much to me.
All my love, Sister Hogge
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
13 August 2008
Dear family and friends,
I just finished a session at the temple with all of the other "dying missionaries" and their companions. It was amazing! There were over 40 missionaries there. President and Sister Mansell also came and at the end of the session they greeted us into the Celestial Room. It brought back memories when the entire mission went to the temple just before President and Sister Price left. Before the session today only those of us leaving were able to go to a special meeting with President Banks, one of the temple presidency. After he told us to get married when we return home he shared some beautiful insights about the temple and he allowed us to ask him questions. The phrase that kept going through my mind as he spoke was, "Go to the temple, go to the temple...if you want to stay close to the Lord, if you want to be happy, if you want to receive answers to prayers and direction for your life, go to the temple!" So, basically I have made a new goal to go to the temple every week. As I sat in the Celestial Room thinking about all of the wonderful things I had just learned and thinking about life after the mission I felt so much peace! I was grateful that I felt so calm and happy. I am excited for this new phase of life and I know that the Lord will pour out blessings.
This week has been great! Recently I received a blessing from one of our wonderful elderly senior couples. I have been feeling really weak and fatigued. I feel like the Lord is just squeezing out every drop of energy I have until I leave the field. It's a great and yet exhausting feeling. Danella and David are doing well. David left town for a while, so he won't be prepared to get baptized this Sunday, but as long as he gets baptized that's all that matters. I am grateful that I have had the blessing of being a part of his conversion. Danella is still scheduled to be baptized this Sunday the 17th or next Sunday the 24th. Either or I will be able to be there! The work continues to move forward and I'm so grateful!
A few fun events from this last week...I went to the White House. It was a self-guided tour. The Assistants put it together and I went with another "dying missionary" Sister Hodson. My favorite room was the red room, of course. We had a car wash as a finding activity with our zone this last Saturday! It was awesome! Our job as the sisters was to bring in all the cars with our signs and by screaming, "FREE car wash!" Only sister could bring in 25 to 30 cars! Yeah that's right! Elders knew that we could get 'em comin' and the elders washed the cars and taught the people. We ended up with lots of referrals and it was a perfect, beautiful day for a car wash. Speaking of beautiful days, the weather has been absolutely fantastic lately! Sunny, a little overcast, with a cool breeze. I'm just praying that it stays this way for the next two weeks. Some fun news...it's official! Laura a girl that we baptized in DC 2nd is getting married November 22nd in the Bountiful temple! She came into the VC to invite me to the sealing. I'm soooo happy for her! The joys of this work are so sweet and so precious.
The work continues. I'll be writing one more email before I return home. I love you all and I love serving my Heavenly Father as a representative of His Son, Jesus Christ. I have never felt such pure joy and love. I feel humbled and privileged to have had the opportunity to serve. I know that what we teach is true! The heavens are not closed, God still speaks to us, and I know that He wants all of us to return to Him. May the Lord bless each of you and you strive to continually serve Him.
All my love, Sister Hogge
I just finished a session at the temple with all of the other "dying missionaries" and their companions. It was amazing! There were over 40 missionaries there. President and Sister Mansell also came and at the end of the session they greeted us into the Celestial Room. It brought back memories when the entire mission went to the temple just before President and Sister Price left. Before the session today only those of us leaving were able to go to a special meeting with President Banks, one of the temple presidency. After he told us to get married when we return home he shared some beautiful insights about the temple and he allowed us to ask him questions. The phrase that kept going through my mind as he spoke was, "Go to the temple, go to the temple...if you want to stay close to the Lord, if you want to be happy, if you want to receive answers to prayers and direction for your life, go to the temple!" So, basically I have made a new goal to go to the temple every week. As I sat in the Celestial Room thinking about all of the wonderful things I had just learned and thinking about life after the mission I felt so much peace! I was grateful that I felt so calm and happy. I am excited for this new phase of life and I know that the Lord will pour out blessings.
This week has been great! Recently I received a blessing from one of our wonderful elderly senior couples. I have been feeling really weak and fatigued. I feel like the Lord is just squeezing out every drop of energy I have until I leave the field. It's a great and yet exhausting feeling. Danella and David are doing well. David left town for a while, so he won't be prepared to get baptized this Sunday, but as long as he gets baptized that's all that matters. I am grateful that I have had the blessing of being a part of his conversion. Danella is still scheduled to be baptized this Sunday the 17th or next Sunday the 24th. Either or I will be able to be there! The work continues to move forward and I'm so grateful!
A few fun events from this last week...I went to the White House. It was a self-guided tour. The Assistants put it together and I went with another "dying missionary" Sister Hodson. My favorite room was the red room, of course. We had a car wash as a finding activity with our zone this last Saturday! It was awesome! Our job as the sisters was to bring in all the cars with our signs and by screaming, "FREE car wash!" Only sister could bring in 25 to 30 cars! Yeah that's right! Elders knew that we could get 'em comin' and the elders washed the cars and taught the people. We ended up with lots of referrals and it was a perfect, beautiful day for a car wash. Speaking of beautiful days, the weather has been absolutely fantastic lately! Sunny, a little overcast, with a cool breeze. I'm just praying that it stays this way for the next two weeks. Some fun news...it's official! Laura a girl that we baptized in DC 2nd is getting married November 22nd in the Bountiful temple! She came into the VC to invite me to the sealing. I'm soooo happy for her! The joys of this work are so sweet and so precious.
The work continues. I'll be writing one more email before I return home. I love you all and I love serving my Heavenly Father as a representative of His Son, Jesus Christ. I have never felt such pure joy and love. I feel humbled and privileged to have had the opportunity to serve. I know that what we teach is true! The heavens are not closed, God still speaks to us, and I know that He wants all of us to return to Him. May the Lord bless each of you and you strive to continually serve Him.
All my love, Sister Hogge
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
August 6, 2008
Note from Jeff: Mindy will be released from the mission on August 20, but she will stay in the DC area for a few days with Kim, Spencer, and me. If everything goes as planned, she will arrive at the Sacramento airport on Delta flight number 1535 at 8:41pm on Monday, August 25.
Dear family and friends,
I thought I'd begin with a few updates...We finally met Danella on Sunday. She is so cute and an amazing person. She is confident, poised, and loves the Lord. She is also excited for her baptism and will be baptized August 17th. We love her and it is especially fun for Sister Garre to have a Brazilian to talk with.
David is doing so well. He also came to church on Sunday with a white shirt and tie on. He looked better than most of the guys at church. He is taking this very seriously and it shows in his attitude and his reverence. After sacrament meeting a member of the bishopric usually invites all those who are visiting or new to introduce themselves. David introduced himself and told his story and how grateful he was that we talked with him and invited him to learn more about the Book of Mormon. He then bore his testimony about how everything that we are teaching him is true and how it just keeps getting better and better. Everyone was amazed. I sat grinning from ear to ear, I was so happy. He fit into the ward perfectly and the members loved him! We had another lesson with him last night. He is progressing so quickly and he has already told his family about his baptism. He said the most sincere prayer last night. His prayers are a conversation with his Heavenly Father. He has always had a good relationship with Heavenly Father. We continue to prepare him for his baptism on August 17th.
We taught Laura this past week. She is the friend of a member and has been attending church in another ward for some time. She has read through the Book of Mormon once already and is now reading it again. We went to her home for lunch and she made us Maryland crab cakes, delicious! After discussing the Restoration she told us that she is excited to learn more and knows that she will receive an answer from Heavenly Father. She is reading the Book of Mormon every night and we invited her to ask Heavenly Father what He would have her learn as she needs. She has already seen miracles as she has done so. We love her and we are excited for her progression.
Veronica is not ready for baptism and is too connected to her own church back in Africa. We talked with her about it this week and we knew that it just wasn't time now. We told her that she is always welcome and we expressed our love and said our goodbyes for now. I feel good about the whole situation. If they're choosing not to progress, then we must move on. Through everything we continue to see miracles every day and I love it.
Sister Garre is practicing her driving and it has been an interesting experience. I feel that it is a tender mercy of the Lord to help me be light-hearted. Luckily I also know that I am protected ; ) Besides the times when we've almost died, it's been a fun and actually pretty funny!
My prayers are with you all. I love serving the Lord and I pray to have the energy to sacrifice and do all I can these last two weeks.
With Love, Sister Hogge
Dear family and friends,
I thought I'd begin with a few updates...We finally met Danella on Sunday. She is so cute and an amazing person. She is confident, poised, and loves the Lord. She is also excited for her baptism and will be baptized August 17th. We love her and it is especially fun for Sister Garre to have a Brazilian to talk with.
David is doing so well. He also came to church on Sunday with a white shirt and tie on. He looked better than most of the guys at church. He is taking this very seriously and it shows in his attitude and his reverence. After sacrament meeting a member of the bishopric usually invites all those who are visiting or new to introduce themselves. David introduced himself and told his story and how grateful he was that we talked with him and invited him to learn more about the Book of Mormon. He then bore his testimony about how everything that we are teaching him is true and how it just keeps getting better and better. Everyone was amazed. I sat grinning from ear to ear, I was so happy. He fit into the ward perfectly and the members loved him! We had another lesson with him last night. He is progressing so quickly and he has already told his family about his baptism. He said the most sincere prayer last night. His prayers are a conversation with his Heavenly Father. He has always had a good relationship with Heavenly Father. We continue to prepare him for his baptism on August 17th.
We taught Laura this past week. She is the friend of a member and has been attending church in another ward for some time. She has read through the Book of Mormon once already and is now reading it again. We went to her home for lunch and she made us Maryland crab cakes, delicious! After discussing the Restoration she told us that she is excited to learn more and knows that she will receive an answer from Heavenly Father. She is reading the Book of Mormon every night and we invited her to ask Heavenly Father what He would have her learn as she needs. She has already seen miracles as she has done so. We love her and we are excited for her progression.
Veronica is not ready for baptism and is too connected to her own church back in Africa. We talked with her about it this week and we knew that it just wasn't time now. We told her that she is always welcome and we expressed our love and said our goodbyes for now. I feel good about the whole situation. If they're choosing not to progress, then we must move on. Through everything we continue to see miracles every day and I love it.
Sister Garre is practicing her driving and it has been an interesting experience. I feel that it is a tender mercy of the Lord to help me be light-hearted. Luckily I also know that I am protected ; ) Besides the times when we've almost died, it's been a fun and actually pretty funny!
My prayers are with you all. I love serving the Lord and I pray to have the energy to sacrifice and do all I can these last two weeks.
With Love, Sister Hogge
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