12/16/13
HOLY COW GUYS!!! So
I was so excited when my nice little package came with the tree and
everything and a few gifts I even cried I was so content and happy! And then I
come home yesterday to another huge box!!! You guys are crazy! I am so happy! I
feel really loved! Thank you. I love the ornaments and the tree. I have looked
forward to reading some everyday and I have been surprised with the people
who have written to me. I love all of you. Thanks so much.
Anyways,
I have some awesome news are you ready?......are you sure...............are you
positive....you might want to take a seat.....OK here it
is.............................................................................................................
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| The Christmas Tree with messages from family and friends on the ornaments. |
Also some good news is
that A is getting baptized on Saturday at 11! I am so happy. I was a little
unsure about how sincere he was, and then we had an awesome lesson with him this
week. We usually see him on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Tuesday we get a call
from the elders saying that their member wanted to take us out for dinner with
A. They are good friends with him, so it was us, the elders, this Samoan family, and A. It was so much fun! And Samoans love it when you eat so they
let us order whatever we wanted, and dessert. All the boys had 2 different
entrees. We really had a lot of fun and I made better friends with A, so I
feel like he likes me, and I feel better about being at his baptism. I felt bad
because he really liked the other sister, but we are good friends now, so I am
happy. And on Thursday we had a lesson with him and it was so good! He was so
happy! We asked him if he prayed about the Book of Mormon and he said, "Yes". We asked if he got an answer and he said, "Yes". Then we asked what the answer
was and he looked at us and said, "After I prayed, I felt something really
good. But don't tell anybody!" It was so funny-I told him sorry, but
everyone is going to know that you felt something because you are getting
baptized, and he said, "Dang"! He is so funny. We asked him if he knew
all of this was true and he just smiled and said, "Yes". He told us how it was
changing him, how he wanted to be better now, and it was easier to be better. I
could have cried. Then we showed him the Restoration DVD, and after we
watched it, he said (about Joseph Smith), "I can trust him now." It was
probably one of the best lessons EVER. The whole ward is really excited for his
baptism. He is too. And me :)
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| A's Baptism |
So this week totally
had it's challenges, like my comp being sick again, but I will just tell you all
the good stuff. I have been studying Christ this week and I have really grown
to love him even more. We had a really good lesson on Him yesterday, and I
was just filled with the Spirit. I know He loves me and that He is real. I love
him so much.
Our Ward Christmas Party was on Saturday and that was a lot
of fun. We took a picture with Santa, and we gave him a Book of Mormon. There was also this Hawaiian guy singing at
the party, and he was really good. Yesterday was the stake musical fireside
it was pretty good. My favorite part was the Tongan choir. They sang so great! That less active couple from Idaho came to the ward party, so that was
sweet!
Our only issue is getting people to church, but we get pretty good
lessons, and we are working really hard to get new investigators. It was was
cool because we went on exchanges while my comp was sick. We were in our
area for a while, and we were going to visit this family. While we were walking
to this house there was this girl walking near us, and she ends up stopping
by the stairs we were going up, so I just talked to her and asked if we could
come back and she said, "Yes". I didn't think a lot about it because we went to go
see that other family, but then my companion went back there with the same
sister I went on exchanges with, and the girl was totally golden! They said that
she loved them and wants to learn, and she already calls us her friends. It was
really cool. I was kinda jealous that I wasn't there, but it was so cool and I
cannot wait to teach her.
I love you all so
much!
Have a good week, and
remember to think of Christ more than the other stress Christmas may cause.
Love Sister Hoskins
12/30/13
Hello everyone!
I loved seeing you all
too. I am so mad, because the minute I got off I thought of a thousand more
things I would have liked to talk about. I honestly just think that I was in
shock. There was so much to say, I guess I just couldn't say it all. But I loved
seeing all of your faces. I miss you all so much. I hope you all know how
much I love you.
We got transfer news, and I am staying here in Makakilo with Sister Haws! The
crazy thing, though, is that because the Sisters are leaving, they are white
washing their area with Elders...so we are going to be the only Sisters in the
zone. We are going to live in this huge apartment, just the two of us, and
we are getting a car. I am not sure how I feel about it yet. It is going to be
a lot more lonely, but I get my own bathroom! The best part of this is
going to be our new zone leaders! I am so excited. They are two of my favorite
missionaries EVER! It is going to be Elder Faitau-my district leader in the
MTC, and Elder Fuhrman-he was my zone leader my first transfer in Kailua. They
are both really solid missionaries, and it is going to be so fun since I am
already good friends with them.
This last
week was really weird, but we ended up with 29 lessons! Christmas Miracle! I
also feel a lot closer to the Spirit, and we have been able to talk to a lot of
prepared people. So far, we think we are going to have 6 baptisms in January
(one of them is a family of 5) We are teaching this other girl named R and she is 17. She is so cute and we are all BFFs now. She went to church
yesterday, and really liked it. I love her a lot. I hope her parents let her. It
was so fun because last week we had a lesson with her, and we were giving her a
chapel tour. The whole ward was there cleaning (which was highly
distracting), but is was good because A came and joined us for the lesson. He
told her that she needs to pray and read the Book of Mormon if she wants to
know it is true, and that he knows it is true, and that it is worth it. He also
passed the Sacrament on Sunday. I felt like a proud mother seeing my little boy
make good choices. He is such a different person. He is doing great, and he is
very active.
So, my whole mission, so far, I have really liked my mission, but I
have not loved it like some people do. I didn't understand why people would cry
leaving their missions, and not just be super excited to go home. Now I
understand. I am officially in love with my mission. I love the people here so
much. And I am happy that I am here right now. I love God and introducing
people to him. Who knew Amy Hoskins would be going up to random people telling
them about Jesus? If you would have shown me this life I have 5 years ago, I would not
have believed you. It is so weird that I only have 11 days until I am
halfway done with my mission. AMAZING!
To answer your questions: My companion really likes to be obedient, and she
is a lot of fun. She is really into heath and fitness...so we are different
there. She plays the violin so amazingly! She is very talented. I also
learned last night that she can do the worm! She always surprises me. I loved
being in a four person apartment this transfer it was so fun. It went by too fast.
I wasn't homesick much because we were having so much fun. I loved being with
them.
OK I love you and miss
you. Thanks for loving me and being so supportive. I hope I will come back a
better person. I love you and miss you. I love you one more than you will ever
say everyday!
Love, Sister Hoskins
P.S Mom and Aunt j.
should look up PaperCraftDreams.com we went to her house and saw all of her
crafts! They are amazing
1/6/14
Hey everyone.
Everything is going pretty good here in Hawaii-nothing to really complain
about. It is really weird after the sisters left .It is strange to be in this
big apartment by ourselves,and it is weird to not have anyone to talk to. I
think we might get sick of each other after a while. It is fun to be the only
sisters, because they don't like to have fun without us. On New Year's, we got to
stay up until 2 in the morning. It was really fun. We all got together and
played games, and then we got a whole bunch of the sparkling cider and we shook
them up and made them explode at midnight. The best part is that the
church parking lot is on the top of this really big hill where you can see over
a bunch of the island. It was super awesome because you could see every
firework that was going off all over the island. It was amazing. Fireworks are
technically Illegal here, but nobody listened, but it was super cool. it looked
like a lightning storm, there were so many.It was all pretty good. On New
Year's Day we played games at the church and one of the Elders dislocated his
knee, and is was Nasty! I didn't really know I was squeamish until now.
--OK, just now this guy just came up to me and started talking to me about how Mormons are a cult and something about area 51, Amish people, and a bunch of
"top secret stuff". I think maybe I am a spy for the government
or something. Who knew, right?--
Anyway, we got a brand new Chevy Cruz 2 days
ago. It is pretty awesome. We switch off driving. A lot of missionaries in our
zone got a new car. I love our zone leaders. They are both my buddies and we
have fun, but they also work very hard.
The only sad part about this week is
that I got zero letters.
We are just trying to work and find people who
need the gospel. This week, I had a really cool experience where the Spirit was
really working through me. We were walking to an appointment, and we were kind of on this time
crunch, but we passed these people. I thought that maybe I should talk to
them, but we were going somewhere and I wasn't so sure, so I kept walking. The member of the 70(one of the governing bodies of the church) that came told us that you have about 5 seconds to respond to a
prompting, so I thought that I lost my window. But then a voice came into my
head and said, "5 seconds doesn't matter with the salvation of my
children." I have never felt the Spirit like that before, because I
could not move forward at all. It was almost like someone was pushing me to go
back. So I told Sister Haws, and she gave me the extra strength to move forward, and then we talked to them. We told them that something told us to come talk to
them, and she said "Oh it was probably my Guardian Angel." We
prayed with them and learned that they have been to church before, and they said
we could come back. That was a pretty powerful experience for me. We
also figured out later that they were the parents of one of our former
investigators. Pretty cool how the Lord works.
We Also committed our
Investigator R to baptism this month. It isn't all that solid, so I am not
totally sure, but I think that she will be baptized soon. We also were trying to
find A, but we found his niece instead and we taught her a lesson. She
also committed to baptism, So that was awesome. She is not all that solid either, but we have some pretty good options.
Do you know what is crazy? I am going
to be "half dead" this week! YIKES!! Can you believe that I am
half done with my mission?! So CRAZY!
I love you all I hope
you have a great week.
Love
Sister Hoskins
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| Gorgeous Hawaiian Beach photographed by our own Sister Hoskins |
1/20/14
Hello, I am doing much
better this week for sure. I just got excited about maybe figuring out what I
could do with myself in the future. I actually already received my answer that
that is not what I am supposed to be
doing, and that I need to be going to college at first. If that is an
option afterwards, then I will take it. My answer came from a scripture that
said something about how if your work is for money and does not help build up
Zion, then it is in vain. So I figured that me just fulfilling all of my
worldly wants won't exactly build up Zion. I feel like my future lies in
Rexburg, Idaho and I am totally OK with that. I know that as we are righteous, God will fulfill the righteous desires of our hearts. So, maybe there will be a
way that me and my mom can travel the world together someday.
Anyway, this has been one of the CRAZIEST weeks on my mission. There were very
high highs, and very low lows. We have a new really good investigator, her name
is J. I really like her and her approach to learning. She is afraid of
change, and is a little unsure, but she is open minded. We had a great lesson
with her yesterday. She understood everything and didn't have any questions, but
she says that she feels like she is understanding more. She prayed and said
how she feels closer to God because of what she is learning.
The hardest part
of the week was one word....Satan....He is working our investigators like you
would not believe. That family we have been teaching has been going through so
many hard things and they just keep coming. The house that they were so blessed
to rent might be going into foreclosure, and they have only been there a month. They
have not been handling the stress very well. It is no coincidence that this all
started happening when they were really starting to feel happy and good. They were freaking out and I said "Do you believe that God can do
all things? And they said, "Yes". And I told them that my mom told me that you can
always pray for a miracle if you need one. I said that I know that if we
want something to happen, God can make it happen if we ask and have faith. I
have never had that much faith in my life. I honestly didn't doubt anything
that I said to them. It was really cool. I honestly felt the Lord speaking
through me and I knew that I could promise them things only God could.
Ok here is another Library
experience for me. This guy next to me searched our church and the first two
things on google was our website, and a website that that said that we are false
and not christian, and he totally believed the Anti stuff. I am trying to explain
to him that we have to ask God if it is true, not the internet. I kinda want to
cry. Very hard-hearted. I am trying to think what I can say to him to help him
see, but he is not really having it. Ugh, people and their agency.
We also had a
really cool experience with the guy who works us out in the morning. We sat him
down and just really taught him. It was so cool! He said that he knows
everything that we teach him is true, and he even committed to baptism. His only
problem is going to be his wife, he doesn't want to cause friction.
We have had a few people tell us
this week that our eyes tell them that we believe in God, and know that what we
are teaching is important. We had a
lot of really cool experiences, I couldn't list them all but we really had a
good week. I know that my Heavenly Father is really looking out for me and
his children that have wandered.
I have heard so much about the Broncos, I
asked random people who won! YAY! That is so cool people love the Broncos here.
I guess I just needed to leave the state so they could win. Also if they win, I
would like you to send me a t-shirt so I could brag. I also only got 1 letter this week in
the mail.
Also, I got to go to the Disney resort yesterday and it was AWESOME!!
I Love you all stay strong. Sorry I couldn't tell you everything
Sister Hoskins
.
1/28/14
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| Hawaii Temple |
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| The amazing Pineapple Drink |
It was definitely an interesting week. There are so many ups and downs on a mission. We are
teaching a former investigator named J, and he is super awesome! I guess
the missionaries didn't come by after some transfer, so he wasn't progressing, but
he is totally ready. He has been on a search for the true church for a really
long time, He was about to join another church and had a dream that he
shouldn't, so he didn't. We told him that there was a prophet on the earth today, and he was so happy. He called us the other day just to say hi, but in that
conversation he also said that he believes all that we teach, he just wants to
convince his family. We set a date for him for February! He is way awesome, we
have only really had 2 lessons with him but he just wants to follow God and do
whatever he needs to do to do that.
But yeah, I didn't have time to write you
about everything last week. On P-Day we went to Ko'olina and it was awesome. We
just laid on the grass by the beach, and then walked to the Disney Resort. It was really nice. We saw one of the Pro-Bowl players there, and we almost got
a picture with him. I really wanted to see Mickey Mouse or Stitch for Alivia,
but they were not there. It was sad.
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| Disney Resort with friends |
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| Apparently, she and Stitch are pretty close... |
Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you what happened to that guy
sitting next to me at the library last week. He ended up telling me that the
true church is gone and that he is bringing it back
.
He wanted to study with us, but I knew he was just going to bible bash, so I
told him that I know God's Church has been restored and that if he would like
to learn more he could call us. I hope he finds the truth.
.
He wanted to study with us, but I knew he was just going to bible bash, so I
told him that I know God's Church has been restored and that if he would like
to learn more he could call us. I hope he finds the truth.
Another sad thing
happened this week. We had to say goodbye to A. He left to Samoa and we will
probably never see him again. All I want is to look at Facebook in a couple of
years and see his wedding picture at the temple. But we also had a good lesson
with the lady who is trying to stop smoking. She is soooo close. God has really
been opening up doors for her. She told us that the store she gets her
cigarettes at stopped carrying her brand, and she cannot find anything that she
likes. So she says now she thinks twice before she smokes because it doesn't
taste good anymore. She is so grateful for that, though, because she really wants
to stop, but she didn't know where to start. So she is pretty on track.
I
must say that the best thing that happened this week was that, at the Doctors
office the nurse guy who is a local thought that I was a local! It made me so
happy! He said my accent was really good, and he was surprised I was from the
mainland! So I guess I am officially Hawaiian! Wahoo!!
It was also awesome
because yesterday we went to have a lesson with our personal trainer, and he is
really catching on. He seems to be understanding better. It was fun because his
nephew came in the middle, and we were able to teach him too. It will still take
work with coach, but it is looking up. He also figured out how NOT flexible I am, so we are working on that now, so that will be nice. Maybe Ill be better at
sports soon.
Next transfer is the 12th, and Sister Haws is most likely leaving, but we have no idea.
I hope that everything
is good with you guys. I miss you a lot. Sometimes I just feel straight up
crazy with all of the emotions I feel in a week, but I know God is looking out
for me. Don't forget to be happy and rely on God. And remember to always ask
the missionaries about their investigators. Also, If people could send me a
note with their favorite conference talk (not from this last one) and
their testimony, that would be awesome, I just feel like I could use some extra
strength right now. I love you all SOOOOOO much.
Love, Sister Amy
Hoskins
P.S I have been
craving fruit by the foot if you would like to send some of those.
Aloha, Family, We almost had a terrible thing happen. I almost couldn't email. I
almost died of sadness, but I am good now, but it might be a shorter email
because of it.
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| The hike |
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| If you look closely, you can see the seal. |
This
week pretty much stunk. I was sick for like 1 and a half days. I don't know
what was up with the tonsils, but I was pretty sick. And let me tell you, on a
mission it is sooo much worse to be sick. At least at home you can watch TV or
something, but there are not a lot of ways to keep you from cabin fever, so that
was not fun. I apparently didn't take care of myself enough because i got sick
again a day after I got better. It was not fun.
We have been meeting with
J, He is good. He wants to be baptized, but he cannot because he works on
Sunday, so we will work on that and pray for that. We are seeing him in about
an hour, actually.
Football is HUGE here. Pro bowl and Super bowl caused us problems. It
was so funny, every time something good or bad happened we just heard
yelling through the entire neighborhood. I kept up with the terrible game
pretty well. It was pretty obvious, and everyone let us know. I asked everyone
how the game was going-it was a good conversation starter and it kept me
updated. I was so sad they lost because I was giving the young men a hard time
because they were going for Seattle, and I told them I would bring them tissues later.
I was so sad I couldn't rub it in their faces.
Sadly, I have seen a little
of Frozen because a lot of people have the pirated version and their kids watch
it ALL the time. We do our best not to watch it, but I am for sure excited to
see that one. I don't want to see right now anyways it will be way more fun
with my family and when I am allowed to.
To answer more
questions, the guy at the doctor said it was my accent and I was totally not
trying. So yeah, I feel pretty awesome that I seem local, best thing ever.
A woman in our ward, Sandy Skousen, has family in Hawaii who live in Amy's ward. She had dinner with them, and they sent us a picture of her. That
is so funny that Sister Skousen Emailed you. We took that last night. I told
him that day I knew her. I totally love her Brother's family. I love being with
them.
I really understood
the Work part of missionary Work more this week. We have good investigators, but
getting them to progress is HARD WORK. A, our trainer, is doing really good. We
had an awesome lesson with him this week. He loves it all. He is loving the
scriptures too, we just need to get him to church. So we are working on that.
Our other family has been sick and stuff, so we have not seen them much, but we
will keep trying, I really love them. I just want to see them be happy. I hope
they will get back on. People just have these really small issues, but they seem
so hard to overcome. That is the hardest part, the waiting and the praying and
the anxiety over your investigators and how they are doing. We are also
teaching a 15 year old girl and I am hoping that would be good. Our other
investigator, J, is doing well too. She just has one issue we have to work
through. Seriously, for everyone it is just one little problem.
I am so happy that
Heavenly Father is blessing our family! I love mission blessings!
Love you guys and miss
you so much.
Love Sister Hoskins
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| Gorgeous sunset captured by Sister Hoskins |
