Maybe she really did "kill" her
companion...

Aloha Everyone!
 My companion is Sister Robertson. She is Samoan and we came out together, so she has been out 6 months. Can you believe that I have been out 6 months? Pretty cool! She just turned 20, and she is from California, by Compto,n so she lives in really big gang areas. It totally sucked to kill my companion,(This just means that she was her last companion before she went home) and I hope that I never have to do it EVER again. It was so sad. I didn't realize how good of a friend she was. I really loved her and will miss her a lot. 

The hardest thing about this week was taking over the area. STRESSFUL!! I am in charge of everything, and have to do everything by myself. I have to plan the day and lessons because she doesn't know anyone. I just feel a lot of pressure, I want to make sure I go to the right places and talk to the right people. Our numbers were really low this week, and it made me nervous because I don't want to be a failure.  I know the Lord will help me, but it still has been really stressful. I was reading about Mormon and how he led his armies at 16, a
nd I imagine I feel a little bit like him...totally over my head! I got a blessing that said I would be able to do it, so I am trying to trust God, but it is a lot harder than it sounds...

But other than that I LOVE my ward so much. I am learning to love all of them. And I feel like they love me too! I have had so much fun at our dinners lately! I want to be here for Christmas so I can be with people that I love.

 We also had a really good lesson with an investigator this week. We taught her the restoration and she understood everything really well. We watched the Restoration DVD and she got a little teary-eyed. She told us that "I liked that movie...actually I liked it a lot! It really touched my heart." It was really cool. She also said that she sees baptism in her future! So hopefully we will get to teach her a lot and get her dunked! And Sunday was good because M got read into the ward. He will probably get the Priesthood in the next few weeks! 

This week should be better. We have our mission tour this week: that is when a member of the 70 General Authorities of the Church comes and helps train us. So that is on Wednesday, and it will be fun. I love when we get training from people higher up than our district leaders. Today for P-day we are going to hang out at a beach park and do nothing, so that will be fun. And there are rumors going around that we are getting I-pads at the beginning of next year. So that will be cool. We are still having to tract and do all the normal stuff, so we will see if it changes.  Anyway, I love you all.  If you leave the church I will kill you. Stay happy and healthy.

Love, Sis. Hoskins

Just a pretty picture of a hike that almost
killed Sister Hoskins, apparently.

Aloha Everyone!

I am staying in Kailua this transfer, but I have no idea who will be my companion, so that makes me a little nervous. I am not training. It is pretty hard with Sister Marshall leaving. I got a little more attached this time around, and she is talking about all the fun things she will do with her family, so that makes me a little homesick. But I am doing ok.

Companion love...

Amy and her companion

 I learned a lot this conference about how important this work is and I feel pretty determined to baptize EVERYONE! I have no idea what my favorite talk was. It was all super amazing. I loved it all so much. I liked Nielson's talk (Gifford Nielson) The only problem is that we did watch it at 6 am, so it was pretty hard to stay awake. I only struggled through the really soft spoken speakers-sorry Elder Scott.

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM!! I LOVE YOU!!! And also happy Birthday to Nathan!!!

That is so funny that you guys noticed my hair-I commented that it's a lot lighter. Everyone comments on it. I did not do anything to it, I have just been out in the sun. One of our Members keeps asking me if she can dye my hair red, but I am loving the blonde.

 Investigators are pretty good. Not a lot of progressing at the moment. We need to go out and find more, I know what me and my new companion are doing! Knocking Doors! I am pretty nervous to take over the area. I just want to do a good job and make the ward proud. Our zone is being almost completely redone. It is really good. We are getting a lot of new Elders and 3 new Sisters. It is hard because some of my good friends are being transferred, so we have to start all over again. That is always hard, but I am hopeful. Hopefully I have some blessings stored up.

Thanks for being so great. I love you all very much. I know this church is true!

Love,

Sister Hoskins

Let's hope not!

Everything was pretty good this week. We have just been trying to visit everyone. Nothing really interesting happened until yesterday. Yesterday we went to a wedding on the beach. That will probably be the only time that I will touch the beach on my mission. So that was good. 

On the beach?  Yes, for a wedding.

We also had a baptism!  It was really good. M looked so happy the whole time, and he was so good. He walks up to us at church, all clean shaven, and gives us an Aloha Kiss* (which he has never done before), and he also bore his testimony at sacrament meeting. We cried. It was awesome!  And then we baptized him. I bore my testimony because there was a lot of non-members there, and I cried...It was really cool and I was really happy for him.

Amy and the new convert

The Baptism

 The next week is going to be pretty hard because we will be preparing for Sister Marshall to leave so we will be saying goodbye to everyone. They did her Aloha 'oe yesterday, and it was depressing. I had to leave the room. I also have no idea what is happening with transfers.

 But I really do not have anything to complain about. We have a few really good investigators, and I am really starting to love the ward. In church yesterday I looked at everyone and truly realized how much I love them. We also had a really cool experience with our less active member. He is going to the Catholic church right now, but we always go and visit his non-member mom, hoping that he will sit in. This time he did. He told us that he has cancer and that he is really scared, and he just kept talking about how great our church is and how terrible his is. We shared a message and prayed, and the spirit was really strong, and we got him to church!!! It was way cool. You could tell that he misses the church. 

Today we went fishing, and I caught  the first fish. It gave me a pretty good fight, so that was a lot of fun. Oh yeah, and on Saturday we did service. We painted for these people, and it was a lot of fun. They think that I am a really good singer, and that is funny. A lot of locals just blast the radio all the time so we hear a lot of normal music...way too distracting...They played it at the service, so that is how we heard my singing. Oh Hawaiians, and them not following rules .Mission rules are that "regular" radio-type music is off limits because it is distracting and may bring thoughts of experiences better left behind.  The members they are with are supposed to make sure they follow this rule by not having it on while they're around. It is so funny how laid-back it is here. Everyone just goes with the flow. 

Well I miss you all. 

Love You all.

Love,

Sister Hoskins

*The honi is a Polynesian greeting in which two people greet each other by pressing noses and inhaling at the same time. This is a very honorific as this represents the exchange of ha--the breath of life, and mana--spiritual power between two people.