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.............................................................................................................

The Christmas Tree with messages from
family and friends on the ornaments.

WE CAN SKYPE ON CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! President just surprised us at zone conference! YAY!! I have been so excited. The only sucky part is that we can only talk for an hour, but I am so happy! I am not sure how we are going to be able to do it. I think I might have to call you to figure out times and stuff but I actually get to see you! YAY!!! Just tell me what would be best for you and we will work it all out! I would throw every present out the window and never hear another Christmas song if it would mean that I could Skype with you guys on Christmas, but the Lord really loves me and blessed me with that. I prayed that maybe President would do it so we could talk for 2 hours instead, but he made it all good with being able to Skype!

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 :)

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

  

Here there is a letter that I can't find. In it, she says that she feels the need to figure out what she's doing after her mission..  

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

Hawaii Temple

Hello Everyone. I am super tired. We had to wake up at 4:45 this morning so we could leave to the temple. Also, I got an infection this week. My tonsils were huge, and the whole time I didn't feel very sick, mostly tired, but I think it might be catching up to me now. I don't feel so great.

The amazing Pineapple Drink

Today we went to a taco place for lunch and it was delicious. II got a pineapple drink and got to drink straight out of the pineapple. It was THE BEST Pineapple EVER. The Dole Plantation is just down the road, so I think it must have been pretty fresh. I will never like any other pineapple ever again. It was totally worth the 8 bucks, and it was worth it just to see the Elder's faces when I brought it to the table. Hecka funny.

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. 

Disney Resort with friends

Apparently, she and Stitch are pretty
close...

One problem that we ran into this week was that one of our Investigators got offended at church, so she is really turned off. It was really sad, I saw it happen, but I did not act fast enough. I hope they will be OK.  I really love them. That was in that family I was telling you about. We went over to their house to check my tonsils, because one of them is a nurse, and the next day they called and left a message asking me if I was feeling OK and that they loved us. It was so cute. I really love them, and I hope things are OK with them. We have also been having some luck with Less-Active families. A few of them want us to come back and re-teach them the lessons. I am pretty excited about it because these are really good families the ward really needs.

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.

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.

2/4/14

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. 

The hike

If you look closely, you can see the seal.

Today we went on a hike, and it was 2 hours all the way down the coast. It was pretty cool, we saw a seal and got really close to it. One Elder touched it, and it was not too happy. It was pretty fun. It rained, so we were wet and cold, so I guess I was feeling you a little bit.:) But what is really sad is that 60 degrees is getting cold to me. I am going to die in October.

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

Gorgeous sunset captured by Sister Hoskins

Dec. 9, 2013

This week was pretty good, other than empty mailbox syndrome...no letters. Anyway, it wasn't too bad. But on a happy note, on Tuesday I will be on my mission for 8 months! 

This week was different because my companion was sick on Thursday, so we didn't have that great of a week. We have been trying to figure out how to love our area more and find new investigators. We decided that we would walk around our area and talk to anyone we saw outside of their houses. That led to a few cool experiences. We talked to this boy who is friends with one of our ward members and he talked about how he wanted to go to our church, so he might be coming to church next week. After we talked to him for a while, we were walking away and this other boy ran towards us saying, "Are you the Mormons?!" Obviously we said yes and were very excited! He was a Jehovah's Witness and he said he wanted to know what our ministry was like. So we talked to him a little and he talked to us a lot. But he said that he would like to talk to us sometime to see what we believe and he accepted a pamphlet which is a Miracle! The only problem is that he is 13, and his dad is really hardcore Witness, so I don't know if we will be able to talk to him. But I am really feeling stronger in following the Spirit because the day we decided to walk around, I felt like we needed to switch our schedule a little so we did,and we went and tried to find some former investigators. It turns out that both of them moved, but a less active lady just moved in and she didn't move her records and she might have just stayed less active if we didn't knock on her door! So that was awesome, and we told the ward about her and it turns out that they all knew her from like 10 years ago before she got really less active and they are so excited and proud of us for finding her. And if that wasn't awesome we felt like we should go tract across the street and as we were going to the first door, this guy was like, "Hey are you sisters?" and again we said yes! And after talking with him, we learned that after 30 years of being away from Hawaii, he moved back from Idaho 3 weeks ago. He said he has been less active for a very long time, and he just got married to a girl who has been less active forever. He said that he would love to have us over for dinner and that we could come by. It was awesome! God did not want those people hiding anymore! So that was way fun.

So our investigators...There is A, and he is this full on Samoan guy. He comes here off and on from Samoa for a few years at a time. He plays rugby and is a super goof ball. He is getting baptized on the 21st and he is really excited. We had a really good lesson with him this week. It is hard though, because he is really attached to the last sister who taught him. I know he likes me but I don't really feel like this is my baptism. I am happy for him and the numbers don't matter, but I just feel like the other sister should be here for his baptism. But I am happy to be here either way. We also have J,and she is awesome.  We don't see her much because she doesn't live in our area, but she wants to be taught by sisters. Her only problem is smoking. She really wants to stop but she is really stressed at work so that doesn't help. She is amazing; she really wants to get baptized. Whenever we say something that really hits home to her, she is always like, "See! I needed you guys!". And she always tells us that me and Sister Haws are a perfect team. She says how good we are and how she loves us. It makes me feel really good. We also teach these twins girls who are 10 and they are totally ready to get baptized, but their mom will not let them because she thinks that they are too young. So we are working on that. This little girl came up to me the other day and whispered in my ear, "You are my favorite missionary...My 10th favorite." I guess I am just the 10th missionary she has liked. That was funny...I don't want to tell you everything so I can tell you some stuff on Christmas, but I hope that was good.

It does not feel like Christmas here at all. But it is OK-it makes the homesickness less. It is just super hot and there are a few decorations up. They do a lot of parades-none that we can go see, but the Christmas devotional really helped and I am focusing my studies on Jesus Christ so I can celebrate Him more this year. He is really becoming something more to me. He is more like my friend. I love him a lot. Everything else is really good. I love my comp and the other sisters. Every night after we all get home we always laugh and have tons of fun. One of the sisters is from Pompeii and she is teaching me how to hula! I am gettting pretty good! I miss you guys all the time and there is a dog abovoe us that has a bark just like Liesl, but I know why I am here and that I have a purpose here. I can wait 10 more months to see you again. 

Have a good week, read your scriptures and remember Jesus loves you

Love,

Sister Amy Hoskins

Dec. 2, 2013

Aloha everyone. I am doing pretty good. This week was pretty crazy! Overall I am feeling pretty good. The holidays make me a little homesick, but it is not snowing, so I cannot really tell the difference anyway. I forget it is Christmas time everyday. 

 Thanksgiving was good. I missed being with everyone. Nothing was too different except that there was rice along with everything else. We ate with a big Samoan family, and it was surprisingly really quiet. But it was fun because they had it at the church, so all of the missionaries ended up being there and we all played basketball with the family. Then later on this DJ guy came and they had lights and music (they apologized to us but didn't really care), so we kept playing basketball and I did the electric slide with them...I couldn't resist...I will repent. 

Anyway it was pretty normal, but this week I have learned that I am completely terrible at every sport known to man! I just could not show up no matter what we played. I did not play in the Turkey Bowl because it was pretty much NFL Status with non-member draft picks. It was crazy. My companion "played" and pretty much just stood there. It was all huge Samoan men with big tempers. They were all wearing cleats, and a University of Hawaii, and BYU tight end were playing also. So that was not a place for Sister Hoskins. Everyone here is good at sports so I kinda sit back and watch. I cannot even beat the 7 year olds.

 Everything else is pretty good. Most of our investigators just have silly things holding them back and we have one with a date for baptism. I already love this ward. They are really good and nice. It always takes a ward a while to get over the sister who just left, so things will be even better after that. And we are getting 20 lessons a week which is really good. President Warner just changed the approach when we talk to people, so we are trying to get used to that. It is pretty much what tracting used to be, but we can be a little more creative and we count the numbers differently.

 So this week we went to Pearl Harbor AGAIN!! I have been there 3 times in one month. To say the least I think that I could give people a tour now. But this time it was cool because there was a marching band there that we got to watch, and we got to go to the U.S.S Utah memorial which was really cool. This Senior Sister came to stay with us so she could go to the baptism for this family she found, and after the baptism she took us to Costco and let us get whatever we wanted. I also sang at the baptism. We had some good lessons that I think will go somewhere, our goal and the ward's goal is to get 4 more lessons by the end of the year, so we are working for that. I like teaching more, it makes missionary work a lot easier.

So today was pretty fun. We woke up and worked out and Al, our trainer, is trying to fix my back. Apparently I am not aligned correctly and it is causing me a lot of different problems, we practiced walking and standing up straight. Who knew I had a problem with that? So that was good, and he said I will be strong by the time I leave which will be cool. Then I got all dressed up and one of our investigators took Christmas pictures of me, so hopefully I will get those to you. After that we went bowling with our zone. I totally lost any skills
I had in that area, but it was fun. We got lunch, and now I am writing you.

Honestly, the only thing I want for Christmas is my phone call (o man that sounds like I am in prison Hehe) Anyway, I am happy and my testimony is growing everyday. I hope I can make you all proud. It is hard, but I am trying.

I love you all very very much and I don't know what I would do without you. You are my everything.

Love,

Sister Amy Sharleen Hoskins

Aloha Everyone!

 I have been transferred to....drum roll....Palehua Makakilo! It is on the opposite side of the island from Kaneohe, and I pretty much love it!  It looks nothing like Hawaii except that you can see the water a little ways off. It totally looks like the mainland! I thought I was home again. There are a lot more stores and industrial buildings. And it is really dry and HOT. The palm trees give it away a little. Another cool thing about it is that it is a walking area again! I love it. It is cool because we live with 2 other sisters- one of those being my Trainer, Sister Clayson :)- We share a car with them, so if we need a ride we have one. We also live really close to the church, so that is sweet! And the apartment is not a closet!!! It is so exciting! It looks almost exactly like Millie and Nathan's apartment. I am so happy to have a stove and a refrigerator that are bigger than a shoe box. We even have a couch! That is my first couch on my mission! And we have a deck, so I am a pretty happy camper.

 But here is the craziest thing of all, which I know you are all going to laugh at, but in this area we have a personal trainer!  He is not a member, but he trains all 4 of us at 6 in the morning everyday. He is a boxer, I think, and he has trained his sons. We run up and down the street and then we work out in his garage. Here is the really weird part...I kind of like it!! I know! I know! Sorry Dad for almost giving you a heart attack...I should care more about your aging heart :). But yeah, I have only been once because we don't work out on the weekends, but it was fun. He is really good at not making me feel weak and lame. I have never been so sore, but it was way cool, and everyone says after 6 weeks I'll be in shape, so sweet! He also noticed that I walk on my left foot weird and that I over correct on that side too much. He said it could be a cause of a lot of back pain and stuff, so he said he will help me fix it! It will be nice not to have a sore back.

 My companion is Sister Haws. She came out a transfer after me. She is from Kaysville, Utah and she is a few months younger than me. We have had a lot of fun so far. And she is an AMAZING violinist! You can give her any song and as long as she knows the tune she can play it, and she makes it a different arrangement. I played name that tune with her and she made up new arangements for everything and it was AMAZING! So yeah, that is way fun. I wish I had a cool talent like that.

I really like the people so far. There are a lot more locals. There are a lot of apartment buildings in our area and that is usually where you will find locals. It is cool because we walk around and little kids come running up to us, and it is way fun. Our ward is very missionary minded. The Ward Council always asks us specifically how they can help! I love it! I did cry on my own when I left Kailua. Everyone was really sad and they gave me big hugs. I will always love those people, but I am not really homesick for the area so I am OK here. I can see a lot of things I can help with here, so that will be nice. I also like it because I am actually teaching here. I actually feel like a missionary! I get to tell people about the Book of Mormon before they shut the door in my face-it is marvelous! I really like teaching people. We had a great lesson this week with a lady who is super excited to get baptized, she just needs to work on the Word of Wisdom...and she is totally willing to stop. She even told us that it would be good to stop smoking so she can pay her tithing better! She is so good! I also loved that lesson because I really felt the Spirit.  Stories quotes and scriptures kept popping into my head that made her light up. Almost everything I said she was like, "Wow I never thought of it that way. That makes sense. I needed that!" So that made me feel really good. And we have these two 10 year old girls who want to get baptized, we just need to get mom's approval which is the problem right now. I just love how much I am feeling the Spirit here. 

For Thanksgiving we are going to play in the Turkey Bowl and eat at the church with a few of the families in the ward! I am excited for that. It was cool because yesterday Steven, my marine investigator from Kailua, got baptized! I am so happy for him. I am totally half-way counting him. I was sad I couldn't be there. He is such a good person.

So yeah, that is mostly what happened this week, and I am loving it! I am having so much fun. And what is crazy is that I am going to be 8 months in in a few weeks! Crazy! I tell people that I have been out for almost 8 months and they are like "Wow You are not new at all!" That makes me feel good.

There was something else, I will tell you next week I don't remember

Love you one more than you will ever say

Sister Amy Hoskins

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!