Manoa Falls-from last week's hike.

Well, this last week was a week of firsts for me.  First, (heehee Punny!) I bought a Ukulele! The only way you can learn is if you have one,so I have one!  Plus, I wanted a cool Hawaiian talent to come home with. So, hopefully that will make me more AWESOME!  Also, we have been singing to members at dinner for the spiritual thought, and they all say how good we are. I have never been told before that my voice is really good, and they all told me that. So, that made me and my companion do something CRAZY!  It was President Dalton's last Sunday yesterday, so we wanted to do something for him. As nuts as it is, I agreed to sing in church. And not in choir, in an acappella duet!  So we did that, and if that wasn't enough, I had a SOLO!!!  I was sooo nervous, but apparently I did good because everyone came up to us afterwards and was like, "I didn't know you could sing". It was so amazing!  And my favorite person here, Sister Sattler, came up to us raving about how great it was. So apparently I am a good singer, and now people are going to make us sing for them.

 I also made my first Lei this week for Presidents aloha 'oe (which by the way is the most horrible depressing song in the whole world. I bawl every time without fail) (Aloha 'oe is a Hawaiian farewell song.  It's beautiful, especially sung by Hawaiians) It was fun. I think I made 3; it is really easy! 

One night, which happened to be my companions birthday, there was this Stake America Pops concert and it was AMAZING!! They had a full orchestra and amazing singers and dancers. The musicians were all college level or higher so it was amazing. I loved it a lot, I really learned to love the people here because of it. We went both nights, and the second night they asked me to give the prayer, so I got to pray in front of hundreds of people! I was pretty nervous.

Sister America and her protector on last week's hike,
 hence the smile.

This morning we hiked the mountain of death!!!!!!! I am NEVER EVER doing that again!  I can hardly walk now. It is like the Incline's evil, higher, steeper, dangerous twin! It was the hardest thing I have ever done. My knees were hurting, I couldn't breathe, and my heart was about to collapse. And it didn't help that I had a group of people walking next to me to "encourage" me. I just wanted to go halfway up like some people did, but no, my little group of people wouldn't let me. And you know how some people say that they were happy they went up and did it anyways because they accomplished something and they feel good about themselves?  Well I do not say that. The view was good, but it was hard to appreciate when you just want to be taken away on a stretcher. There was one Elder, the same one from last week, who refused to leave my side, and made sure that I was not going to die. There is one part where you have to cross this bridge that is not really a bridge, it is a few logs, and he walked in front of me so I could grab him if I fell. Apparently I give off the Damsel in Distress vibe, but honestly I don't think I could have made it up without him. And instead of Kitty Girl he calls me Sister America, which is much better. 

The missionary work is going pretty good. It is going great for the mission and our zone! We only need 15 or so more to hit 200 baptisms for the month, which has never been done before in history!  At least in our mission. Our zone is 6 away from 40 baptisms, which has never been done before in the history of the mission. We already hit our High Water mark which means we have beaten the record for the Honolulu Zone. We need 6, and I think we have 8 scheduled, so that is AWESOME! We have maybe about 6 investigators, but I don't know if I would put the word "progressing" in front of them. A lot of them just have one thing that is stopping them. I Hate Satan, he ruins everything. But we have been doing our best, so that is all that matters, I guess. I think we can get at least one baptism before transfers.

 I LOVE my ward, and they love me.  They all seem so happy to see me, and I think they are really starting to trust me. They all love to talk to me. They see me around town and are excited. I love them all so much, I am going to cry a choke-lot when I leave. I wish I could just be with them all day everyday. The deaf group is excited cuz I have picked up a little sign language.  They are so sweet too. I love them. 

We re-activated this lady, We didn't obviously, God did, but I think our talking to her helped a lot because her mom died, and we were already her friends before, so she knew where she could get support. She is really nice, and we are good friends with her (Sister Jones). Also, yesterday we had a miracle. It is amazing when you can obviously see God working in a situation. So we have this REALLY less active guy we have been talking to, and we kinda dropped him because he kept canceling appointments. We were just going to wait til he took some initiative. Well on Sunday morning he texted us saying, "When is church?", which just about made me want to faint of shock because we haven't talked to him in 2 weeks. We only talked to him twice, and he was not ready to come to church, but he came!!  It was perfect timing because President Dalton was speaking. So I walk into church with this huge Samoan guy, and I was sooo happy! He cried a little, and said that he wants to help people like the Daltons do. He went up and talked to President, and President made him promise he was going to keep coming back to church.  He said he would, and he stayed all three hours!! It was a complete miracle! It was all Heavenly Father too! Maybe us talking to him helped a little, but the Spirit got him to church on the exact day he needed to be at church! I was so amazed. God really has it all under control. He really doesn't need missionaries to get his work done, but he lets us help him. I never really thought of it before, but really he doesn't need us, but he loves us and trusts us enough to help him in his work. 

So I have questions and comments:

First, did Dad cry when he read my letter?...cuz that was my main purpose. Also I have been waiting for the pictures of Alivia in the hula costume and on her birthday, and the picture of the drawing Sam and Katie got at prom. I also thought I would put a plug in for my birthday because it is on my mind. All I want are lots of pictures, a letter from EVERYONE! Maybe you could print them all out and send them on my birthday in a package.And maybe the money you would have spent on gifts put in my bank account so I can go to college when I get back. I have to spend some personal money here so I don't want to kill my college fund. 

I have no idea what is going to happen because of what was said in the meeting yesterday. I am excited to see, but we are getting a new mission President on Saturday, so we will see what happens. 

I love you all sooo much and I just wanted to say that if any of you leave the church I will hunt you down and knock some sense into you because that would be the dumbest, saddest thing you could ever do. So don't! And thank you dad for writing me a letter too! I hope I got all you wanted in this letter. And I would love to see those pictures. I love you so much!

Love,

Sister Hoskins   

P.S. I knew I was going to get a Nephew I am so Excited!!! 

Well HELLo! 

I guess hell is trying to get our family for sure! I wonder what the heck is going on!! My week was the same way!(crazy things, fires, accidents, etc.) I had a bladder infection, and I spent 3 hours in the doctors office, and I just felt terrible all week! Plus, the baptism was canceled because she didn't want to get baptized, and our investigators are not doing anything they should be!! UGH!!! Plus, one of them is just so confused it is sad. She denies that Satan is real and that there isn't one way back to God because he is too loving to let anyone go to Hell.

And then I wake up Saturday morning and Grandma(the lady she lives with) is talking to me, and asked me where I am from.  I said Colorado Springs and she is like, "Oh where they are having those big fires?" I thought she was referring to last summer, and then she said "Yeah, there have already been like 400 houses burned down." Me being me, I wanted to figure out what the HECK was going on, so I called President to see if I could look things up on the internet. He gave me permission to but he said, "You know Sister Hoskins, your family is blessed while you're out, and they are safe!" So I didn't check because I didn't want to be distracted, but that night we had a baptism and someone asked me where I am from. They started talking about the fire, I asked them where it was, and he was like, "Oh, in a place called the Black Forest. Do you know where that is?" Sister Rowley said my faced changed a lot, and I could just feel the sadness coming. I didn't know how fast the fire was moving, I knew it would have to burn through a lot of city to get to you guys, but I was really worried about the Kellers. I am glad their house is ok. Everyone here is like, "You need to get out of there. God is destroying Colorado!" But I will always be loyal to my Colorado! Everyone hasn't really worried about it here, and I am like "Do you understand what is happening to my Beautiful Colorado Springs?!! These are my people! 400 Homes!!!" But I am ok. I know Heavenly Father will help those people. That is so awesome how they did that Clothing Drive. You should take all my stuff over there. I am going to be too fat for them anyways! JK I can't be naked when I get back!

Well I am not going to lie, this week was rough! Not a lot of good things happened missionary work wise. A lot of unopened doors and hard hearts. But you know, I don't feel too dragged down because I got a lot closer to my Heavenly Father. When there are a lot of things that are out of your control, you just have to trust in the one who has control.Sister Rowley and I are getting along and trying to have fun. We had a tender mercy on Saturday. We were soo hot and tired during tracting, and for half of it we heard the stupid ice cream man's music.  We did not like him taunting us! But we got to the end of this street and there goes the ICE CREAM MAN!! We flagged him down and got Ice Cream and it was awesome! 

Also, today was way fun. We did that waterfall hike again, and me and some elders jumped in a mud puddle and totally freaked the people out that were walking up the trail as we were going down. Another Elder and I were talking about what superhero we we could be and I said captain America...Obviously! And he is like "No..Do you know Cat Woman? You would be her except you would be Kitty Girl!" Wow...That was annoying! It was super fun, though. I was so muddy. All of the Polynesian Elders were like, "You are the same color as us now!" It was fun being a Polynesian for a while.

So one of our members told us to write something spiritual in our letters home because it really makes a difference for the people who read it so I will. 

My spiritual thought is "Do you know how lucky we are!??" We are so lucky that we have the gospel and that our families are strong members of the church. It amazes me. So many people here, especially less actives, could be so much happier if all of their family was in the church. It is so hard to see people not coming to church because their family members won't go with them. Their testimonies are really weak now and it is so sad. And that is one reason why one of our investigators won't get baptized, because the family won't be okay with it. It is so so sad to think about the blessings they are missing. Sometimes we walk away from the door saying "If only they knew what they were saying no to". I have never been as happy as when I am close to my Savior. He is everything. How can people stand living without him? It just makes me so sad. I am so blessed I cannot imagine my life without the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I love my Heavenly Father! And I love you all very much.

 Have a good week, and I don't want to hear anything about car accidents or brain injuries ok? Geesh! Just be safe! 

Love ya

Sister Hoskins

Well,this week has been hard. It has been good, but really trying. I have a new companion from Highland, Utah. Her name is Sister Rowley. She is a Visitors Center sister so she gets to come out for 2 or 3 transfers. We are getting along pretty well. It is awesome because she loves movies and plays as much as I do! So we have a lot of fun quoting those.

  

We might have a Baptism this Saturday with Rio. So hopefully that one will happen. Since we switched companions, we have gotten 3 new investigators, so that is super awesome.

CHOKE Food (Choke means a lot)

Yes, I am still sick of eating. You know those lasagna pans? Well last night we had a ward fireside, and they filled up an entire one of those with dessert and musubi(Spam sushi)! They were even about to give us a whole pie! It is insane! We have to throw away so much food (or give it to the Elders)! So yeah, I am going to be straight up fat when I get back!

A "death pile of food".

 And it is pretty awesome because last transfer we were the only Sisters in our zone. And now there are 6 of us!! It is pretty cool. And this last district meeting we had a silly string fight, it was awesome! We have not really gone to morning exercise yet because they play rugby and we would rather get 30 more minutes of sleep and exercise at home. She doesn't really care for rugby either! It makes me so happy! 

Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND DAD!!! And HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!! I sent you a package today so I hope you will like everything. I am so excited that Porter is getting married. It is kinda annoying when nobody else here feels my excitement. 

Today we had a lesson with a lady and she brought us breakfast, which is funny.  A lot of people here think that they need to provide us with a huge meal. Sister Clayson and I tracted into her son, and we got in contact with her and she came to the lesson today.  We found out that other missionaries put her husband as a "potential"! So that was crazy we are pretty sure that the Lord has been working on that family. Today I also got "Da Jesus Book" it is the New testament in Pidgin(Hawaiian slang). It is just about the funniest thing EVER! I might also learn how to play the Ukulele so I am excited for that.

I am doing my best to make sure that I trust my Heavenly Father. I know that this was not supposed to be easy, so I will keep moving forward. I really love this church and I understand the amazing power it has to change us.

I love you all very much.

Have a great week

Love Sister Hoskins

YAY!!! I got a lot of letters!!! I am so happy!!! Thanks so much to everyone who wrote me! I just feel so loved today so thank you all! 

First and foremost I want you to be informed that I might die soon from some rare disease because the mosquitoes LOVE me!! You wouldn't even believe what I go through with them. Within two days I got about 30 mosquito bites!!! I was in so much pain I wanted to cry! I had mosquito pox! I tried to take a picture but It didn't turn out. I had one the width of a golf ball! So yeah...that's fun. My companion told me not to think about them and they stopped biting me so much.

 Also, I almost got eaten by a dog! We were knocking this door and I saw this dog and it was walking toward us, and I thought that it was just going to be nice, but it leaped over the gate and almost grabbed my arm. But my wonderful companion saved my life and moved me out of the way. And now I have this stupid fear of dogs and my heart stops when I hear a bark. And I have issues walking up to a house that has the BEWARE OF DOG sign, which is all of them. You should get one of those, because people will really rethink breaking in to your house (not that I am breaking in to peoples houses or anything), but don't worry I will get over it. 

Saying goodbye to creepy sea monkeys

We also let our sea monkeys go this week. We got some and we were all excited and then they got bigger and started to really freak us out so we put them in the ocean and we even had two that were stuck together.  It was really weird! 

So this week has been crazy. People freak out about transfers! There are tons of rumors that go around. We thought that we were going to stay together, but we walked into our house one day and there was a training packet for Sister Clayson, which means she is going to be training someone else. I won't be, which is wonderful. But she will be going to the Big Island and I will be staying in Kahala. I am excited because now I am in charge, but that makes me really nervous too because I really need to be close to the spirit so I know what to do. We might have a few new investigators from when the Elders came and tracted our area. We will see how that goes.

The homesickness is getting much better! I am starting to understand my purpose here and what the Lord needs from me. I love my Heavenly Father and this Church! It is so hard to be away, but I am actually helping people and becoming someone. I feel like I am growing everyday, and when I look in the mirror I am starting to like what I see! I have especially learned how to be positive and see the good in myself. The fact that Heavenly Father sent me to this really hard area shows that I must be something good if he can trust me like this. I am grateful that the Lord loves me and I know that as hard as this is, he will help me. And it looks like we might have a baptism in June! He just needs to have the faith to stop smoking! 

I love you all, I hope everything is going well.  Thanks for being so supportive! 

Playing Rugby

Love,

 

Sister Hoskins

P.S They have been testing the Tsunami Alarms today it is really SCARY!!

Hello Everyone! I did nothing special today (Memorial Day) There is this lantern thing that they do tonight where they put lanterns on the ocean to honor the dead, and I wanted to do that, but apparently there are going to be like 30,000 people there, so i'm not so sure. It would be a good place to talk to people but way too crowded. Plus we have dinner soo...

 I did go to a picnic with the deaf group in our ward it was quiet, but good. I hung out with the hearing teenagers at the end and we had a lot of fun playing games. And I ate something weird. Their hot dogs are bright RED! It was really weird in appearance and taste. And their beef hamburgers were not beef!  But other than that it was pretty good. I didn't have my companion with me because she had a meeting, so one of the members was my companion, but I liked it because I was the missionary and I got to get to know people better. Transfers are next Wednesday, and I don't know what will happen, but we are pretty sure we are going to stay together  We want to stay together so I can still get help from Sister Clayson. 

Honestly, I am tired of eating! I wish I did not have to do it anymore. Plus in Kahala there are only a handful of restaurants and we have gone out to each of them a few times. Members here really like to take us out or just give us money to buy stuff.

Amy's picture from the hike to Manoa Falls

 I have not played rugby yet  We are running out of miles, so we are not able to drive to the field in the morning. We have not hiked Koko Head yet and I am not crying about it. I am not totally excited to get up at 3 in the morning to go hike the mountain of death.

 This week for service we went to this less active members house and cleaned up all her stuff in the backyard. I made a lot of new cockroach friends. It is so funny-whenever there is one in our apartment Sister Clayson runs after it with Raid screaming, "Die You Freakin' Idiot!" It is really funny! 

Well the investigators are doing pretty good. One needs to stop smoking by June 8th...so I am hoping for that one. Rio, our Japanese one, is still praying about it. And our last appointment with Bill Crawley was really good. This was the first time he just sat and listened. And he was really into the restoration video. I love him, though he is just really lonely and needs friends. He almost cried when we talked about how much we loved him and wanted to continue meeting with him. He is such a sweet man, but apparently his wife is not at all interested and that was really surprising. So that was sad. We are trying to be optimistic but tracting is not doing much good. We may have one return appointment that will work out but we don't know. People are not as receptive here.

 As hard as it is sometimes, though, I am grateful to be here. The refiners fire is a lot more fun when you get out, not while you are in it. I do know this church is true and I have been letting Satan do his same junk by telling me I am not good enough, but I am starting to see how much my Heavenly Father loves me and what my purpose is here. I am trying to stay positive and always be grateful. I want to make sure that I am following Christ, I know that there is no other way to be happier! We talked to a non-member man a few days ago who just lost his wife and he said that he had a dream of her standing in front of a beautiful building and she couldn't wait to to tell him something. So, um...yeah she was in front of the temple trying to tell him about the gospel. So we have been praying for her help to tell him to listen to us. I love you all so much and I hope all is going well. 

There are supposed to be fishermen in this picture, but it's very small.

 Love you, 

Sister Hoskins