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!