To EFY Or Not...That Is The Question?

(no family e-mail this week.  Here is a quick e-mail Jake wrote me....he was trying to decide whether to apply to be an EFY counselor or not)

I decided to apply because it's something I want to do. During Sacrament meeting yesterday a family got up and sang the EFY Medley. It gave me a lot of peace and it got me excited about the future. 

     As a zone leader our responsibilities are pretty much the same as they were before. We get to be around more missionaries and have opportunities to help them as well as our own area. It's quite enjoyable.

     I'm getting way to lazy with my emailing and I'll try to be better.

     This week was kind of frustrating because we had a lot of people commit to come to church then they didn't come. Why don't people just come to church? We're going to be working a lot on that. It was fun this week though and we got to teach a lot of lessons.

    Haha Jace always has something new up his sleeve to do. Hopefully he'll watch out for Ebola. I'm pretty sure that's what girls have... or maybe I was thinking about cooties. Ha probably the same thing. Anyways he wrote me a really nice email this week.

     It seems like a lot of our investigators have a lot of challenges in their lives that distract them from the gospel, but at the same time I think it helps them to be humble enough to listen. We just hope to help them understand that the gospel will help them through their trials. One of our investigators, Aaron, lost one of her children in a custody battle and it's hard for her to really focus on anything else. Everything is going to work out though.

I love you mom!

Ring Around The Rosie, Duck Duck Goose and Bubble Gum Bubble Gum In a Dish

(no family e-mail so I will share my momma email:)

Momma!     Ha I don't know what's going on today, but I just don't feel motivated to email people.     Quick update... Matt is doing pretty solid and wants to get baptized, but Valerie is not quite ready to get married, so that's a struggle. We met with the family that had the great experience with the pamphlet, and we had a good lesson. We were outside teaching and their little girls were being super loud, so I ended up on babysitting duty while my companion and a member taught the restoration. They told me that it was a powerful lesson and the family seemed excited about the message. I got to have a great time playing ring a round the rosie, duck duck goose, hide and seek, bubble gum bubble gum in a dish, and other spectacular games. Haha it was a pretty good time.     I love my new companion. I knew him at the beginning of the mission and have always wanted to serve with him. It is fun to see how much he has grown over the past year. He is a good friend to have and I feel like he always has my back.     Mom I definitely have to say that it is a huge blessing to be a zone leader. At the beginning of my mission I always looked forward to the chance that I would have the glory of being a zone leader because I didn't understand what it meant, but every week there are so many opportunities to help other missionaries achieve their goals to be successful. There are also the frustrations that come when they don't work as hard as they can, or they spend their time in unproductive ways, but it is my favorite thing to be able to counsel with missionaries about how we can be our best. Anyways, I simply like the life I live. My patriarchal blessing says that my mission president will determine my capabilities through the spirit and call me to positions of leadership. Well after 14 months of no leadership I wondered if that promise was true or if I had done something wrong that made me undeserving of the blessing promised to me. It seems like Heavenly Father has taught me a lot of lessons on patience lately which is strange because I can tell you that I'm definitely not praying for it. Ha It is a blessing though.     Elder Holman is from Bountiful,  and he is such a fun elder. I can't wait to share the miracles we'll have this upcoming transfer.     I love you mom! Thanks for all your support. HFF!-Elder Hoddy

I Could Tell The Spirit Was Touching her Heart

Hey I wanted to share a few simple experiences from the week...

     The first is with our investigator Matt. He has been pretty solid since I've been here with reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and other important stuff, but he's only been able to get off work once for work and he's not married which has made it hard to progress. We've had many lessons with him and seen him slowly progress, but we've never seen the huge step of faith trying to find the truth or do what God wants him to. We planned a simple lesson on faith for him and went in to talk to him, but this time was totally different. He told us that he wants to get married this month and he has really been praying to see if God wants him to switch shifts. All of a sudden he is being super proactive and wants to be better at living the gospel. The lesson was a good reminder that we put a lot of effort into helping these people, but we still have to wait for God's timing to help them feel and understand the spirit. It is one of the most amazing things to see people make that change.

     Another great moment was as we talked to a man in front of his apartment for a few minutes. At first he didn't seem to want to talk to us much, but we had a good conversation about his kids and different life experiences which softened him up a lot. We showed him the Restoration pamphlet and started talking about different parts of it. We got distracted and started talking about something else when his wife came out. She grabbed the pamphlet and started looking at it while we were still talking to him. I watched her open the page to the first vision and stop. She read it and then she read it again. I could tell the spirit was touching her heart and right after that she turned to her husband and said, "Honey I really think we need to try this". It was a great reminder of how powerful the message is that we share. It will captivate the hearts of anyone who is open to the spirit.

     I love this gospel. I am constantly reminded how amazing it is to believe in a God that listens to us, that cares about us, and wants to bless us as much as He can. I love being a child of God.

I hope you have an amazing week! HFF!

-Elder Hoddy

And It Came To Pass....

Yay we finally got a family e-mail!

 

It's been a few weeks since I've sent a family email, so I thought I better send one... There have been a lot of amazing experiences these past few weeks, but I just wanted to share a few.

     Probably the most meaningful one was two weeks ago as I gave a blessing to one of our Recent converts Gene. He is an amazing man and recently found out he had cancer, so he was going in for more tests the next day. During the blessing I said many things that let him know God loved him and was going to take care of him... I remember saying that everything was going to be okay. However I had not mentioned cancer or healing or anything that I thought I should have said, so I went home really down on myself that I didn't have enough faith to help this great man. The next night some elders came into town unexpectedly for an oil change, so Elder Manwaring and I went on splits with them. We had just gotten out of the last appointment for the evening, so I called Elder Manwaring to decide where to meet up. He told me that Gene had just passed away. It was a really sad evening losing our friend and watching his wife going through the struggle of losing a spouse. However, the comfort came that he had the opportunity to baptized just a couple months before his death and his wife had the gift of the Holy Ghost and a knowledge of the plan of salvation. I realized that the priesthood blessing I had given was not for the man with cancer, but the child about to return to his Father. I know this is God's work and He gives incredible help to us as His children. I am so grateful to be part of this.

     There's also one scriptural passage that gained a very new meaning to me this week as I realized that time only seems to be going faster. "And it came to pass..."  Life moves on and doesn't seem to slow down. As I watched the elders in the MTC singing at general conference, I realized that those were our replacements. Every calling that we receive will only be for a short time. Our maturity is shown as we understand that time will pass, and we make an effort to make the most of it that we can.   

     After writing down spiritual experiences daily I feel like there is something to share with you from every day that I live. We have a loving Heavenly Father. Like Elder Bednar's story of the child receiving the ointment and bandaids, we must find why the gospel of Jesus Christ is meaningful to us and that will give us reason to share it as much as we can.

     I love you all and I am so grateful for all the support. I hope you have an amazing week. God Bless. HFF!

-Elder HoddyAA

Pictures!

Elder Hoddy had appointments this week and apologized for not having time to write to us but he did send some pictures....next week better be better:)