Nov. 11, 2013

This is Josephine whom Amy loves.

Hi Everyone! As of yesterday I have been on my mission for 7 months-11 to go! This week was not a lot easier, but it was better. Some cool little things happened. I wasn't sure if we should go see this lady because she is out of our way a lot and she isn't home when we go by, but we did it anyways and she was HOME!! It was pretty good because she let us in and we got to talk to her. She just needs a little more heart-softening and she will be ready. Also, I was just trying to decide where to tract and I decided on this street, and the first house we prayed with this lady.  After we were done praying, we looked up and she was crying.  It was cool because I really felt like I followed the Spirit on that one.  I got to look her in the face and tell her how much her Heavenly Father loves her. She has a busy schedule so I hope we will get to talk with her. We also got to go see that family I told you about and it was NOT good. They were not interested, and they cornered me with some really deep doctrine questions and they got me very confused so I fumbled all over myself.  They thought I was stupid. So it was really hard but I am getting over it. I hate when your testimony starts shaking and you cannot do a lot about it. I know Heavenly Father loves me even though I might mess up at teaching.

 We also went to Pearl Harbor again (they double booked us) So that was fun. I got to see more of the ship this time. I even kind of know my way around it. 

Not Pearl Harbor, but some other beautiful place.

There is no longer a baptism for the 17th.  She is just not ready. I really don't know what she needs, but I'll keep praying to see what we can teach her. I don't think that we will see a baptism this transfer, but it is OK. I also had a very humbling experience this week,but I realized that the Spirit was speaking to me and I wasn't listening. It could have just helped a lot of things if I listened.

Anyway, I feel like I will be leaving. A few things have happened that make me think that I might be leaving. I want to and don't want to. I always feel like saying goodbye to people, though, which hasn't happened before.  Last night we ate with a family and I said I might be leaving, and she was like "No Sister Hoskins, you are not leaving!" It made me feel really good. We tried to get this guy to church-I was naughty and made him swear on the Book of Mormon-because he always promises to come to church but never follows through, and he didn't come! So now I am going to get struck by lightning! Awesome! 

Anyway, we also had President interviews and that was awesome and tons of fun, I hung out and talked with Sister Warner-it was the best. The BEST part of the week is that we learned that we are getting I-Pads!!!!!!! It is going to be so awesome. They are taking $100 out of our 400 a month and getting us all I pads, hopefully by January! But we don't know for sure. And the awesome thing is that we will get to keep them once we go home! We get to be on chat on mormon.org for 2 hours a day. I might not need my camera after all because we can take pictures with the i-pads. That also means that we get to use facebook, I don't know how that will work yet, but I do know it is on our own account. It is going to be amazing for missionary work.  It is going to work so much better.  So yeah, we are super excited! 

How is everything at home? Anything interesting happen? Hows the weather? It is raining non-stop here. We get a flash flood warning everyday...nothing yet. I think everything is going to be OK with me,  Thanks for your prayers.  I love you all.

Love, Me

Amy

Oct. 27, 2013

Thank you for all of your letters. I am so grateful for all of you.  You're amazing!

So this week was very different from the last one. We did A LOT of work. We got 6 new investigators this week! It was pretty AWESOME! We went on exchanges and that is where me and the other sister got most of them. We have at least 2 that seem solid enough to teach them consistently. So that is great. I have been pretty stressed, but it is OK because things have gone pretty good. We lost S, our marine, as an investigator because the Elders took him. But I will still count him, and as long as he gets baptized, I guess I cannot get mad about it. But AH set a date: NOV 17!! So that is awesome, and her husband quit smoking Cold Turkey yesterday. I talked to him, and he is doing good. He says baptizing his wife is enough motivation to quit smoking, so WAHOO!! I am so excited for them. They are the best!  We taught a lot of lessons this week so that was great. We are teaching a new family. When we first met them they let us into their house, and the kids showed us their rooms and pets, and they totally loved us, so I am excited to start teaching them. We are also a teaching a 16 year old girl and she is really cool too, and her parents let us teach her, which is a total miracle!

So, funny story, we keep having interesting run-ins with the Jehovah's Witnesses. We were doing one of our normal visits to this old lady with Dementia, and while we were with her there was a knock on the door and is was the Jehovah's Witnesses, and the lady said that she wanted them to meet us, and let me tell you... AWKWARD!  It was really funny because once they noticed it was us, they got really uncomfortable, but they were nice for the most part.  We also were walking down the street and a car of them pulled over, and they were like "Oh, we thought you were Witnesses! You are Mormons?" We got to talk to them for a while.  They were really nice. And here is another funny story. After we got done teaching a lesson, our ward mission leader was like "There is a video you have to see! It is about missionaries." So we were watching it, and it was in New York where missionaries started singing on a subway. Well as we watched, here comes Elder Rogers on the screen! That threw me for a loop! It was really fun to see someone I knew like that...super random but awesome!

Anyway, I am IN LOVE with my ward right now. They are the best. I have been talking to them a lot about our less-actives and how we need to work with them more, and everyone is totally on board!  Everyone has been visiting and helping us a lot with our investigators...I love them. And this Sunday President and Sister Warner spoke in our ward, so that will help the missionary work pick up a little. We also just had our Trunk or Treat, it was really fun! I loved seeing everyone. We also got to go Trunk or Treating which was awesome. I am eating candy like a fat kid just because this is my first candy stash is a couple of years. 

Today we went mini Golfing for P-day and it was fun. I did not win, but I did not lose either. For Halloween, we are probably going to go to a haunted house (which is surprisingly not against the rules) and we are going to play games, cook chili and roast marshmallows! So I am looking forward to that. They told us to do couples costumes, so me and my companion are going to be our mission president and his wife. It is going to be hilarious.

I love you all and miss you so much you are the greatest! Sorry I ran out of time I would tell you more!

Love, Sister Hoskins (did you know that nobody in Hawaii can say Hoskins? Weird.)

P.S Will you hate me if I come home fat?

P.P.S Pray that I don't die of heat.

P.P.P.S I love the gospel!  

Oct. 20, 2013

Hi everyone.  Everything is going pretty good. It has been a pretty hard week, but really good at the same time. It is hard to take over the area because our success relies on my revelation. So I do feel a lot of pressure, and we are not exactly having a lot of lessons right now. But I am trying, and I know the Lord will keep helping me. 

But a few really good things have happened this week.  We had the mission tour which was really good. Most of the mission was there, so it was fun to see everyone and we heard from the member of the 70, and that was really cool. That was one of those days where you are just so full of the Spirit that you do not want to leave and go back to normal. It was Elder Schwitzer. He is really cool. But it was terrible because I was sitting there, just minding my own business, and they announce the closing prayer, and they are like "Sister Hoskins!".  Yikes! Nobody asked me to say the prayer!  Do you know how nerve racking it is to pray in front of your whole mission, your mission President and a general authority?  Yeah it was pretty scary, but it was cool because I shook his hand. So I have shaken the hand of 3 general authorities so far...I am pretty much famous now. :) 

We also had a really good lesson with AH this week. She is doing really well, we are finally talking about baptism with her and she is willing to stop drinking coffee. Her husband who is less-active is quitting smoking, which is really surprising and happy! I think they are finally starting to realize that they want this in their lives and I am so happy for them. They are even reading the Book of Mormon with their kids! So yeah, that is awesome. And then yesterday we were preparing to teach our 19 year old marine, and we both felt that we needed to change the lesson to the Atonement and just focus on that. It was such a cool spiritual experience because we were both filled with peace and we knew what we had planned was right, even though it was not going in order of the lessons or anything. We sat there and taught completely from the Spirit and he committed to be baptized!!!! It was super great. I really felt like a missionary yesterday. He set a date for November 21st. That is the day after transfers, so we are going to try to move it up in case I leave the area. But it is super great and our whole zone is doing well, and we are getting really close to meeting our goals. So we might have two baptisms this transfer...we will see. We have not found anyone tracting yet, so it is hard because our teaching pool is low, but I am hoping for the best.

Me and my companion are doing pretty good.  We have had a lot of fun so far, so it will be good. 

The weather is good. It is starting to cool down a little bit more into the 70s :P I am getting pretty acclimated to the weather because if it gets much under 75 I get chilly. It is going to be so much fun to go back to Rexburg. It is pretty weird to see Halloween decorations, but I like it because it reminds me of what season it is. It would be impossible to tell otherwise. We do have to stay in after 5, I think, on Halloween, so our zone is going to hang out at the church and play games. Halloween is such a big thing here. People have tons of decorations.

I am surviving, and more than one night this week I counted my blessings and was filled with a lot of love and gratitude.  It was wonderful.

Love, Me

P.S Did I tell you we had bed bugs a few weeks ago? Yeah. They exist and I have never been so itchy in my life! Don't get them!