Every Time We Ask We Are Given Guidance From The Spirit

Family!

Hey this has been a fantastic week! I'll share a couple thoughts with you first.

     D&C 6:14 - for thou hast inquired of me, and behold, as often as thou hast inquired thou hast received instruction of my Spirit. If it has not been so, thou wouldst not have come to the place where thou art at this time.

     Absolutely every time we ask we are given guidance from the Spirit. That's important for us because we are constantly seeking direction on where to go and what to do. What are some of the biggest things you seek direction on and what can you do to receive more instruction from the Spirit?

     We having been praying day and night that we can find investigators who will progress towards the waters of baptism and it is amazing how the Lord provides with people for us to teach...

     One cool opportunity was as we were going to an appointment and there was a guy working on his car outside his house, so we went up and talked to him. He is such a cool kid named Francisco and seemed so excited to talk to us. He loves working on cars and is a senior in high school. We talked to him about the gospel and he explained how much of a testimony it has been in his life. When we walked away I turned around and saw the biggest smile on his face. That pretty much made the whole day worth it. The gospel of Jesus Christ is so special.

     We also had a good time this week as we were headed up to visit some elders and got some interesting directions. We ended up on some different detours through mud covered streets and were doing our best not to slide too much. 

I love being on a mission and I love all of you.

Have a merry Christmas!

-Elder Hoddy

Christmas Conference Time!

Momma!

We had another great week here. Elder Holman and I will be here together until the beginning of January at the earliest!     Christmas conference was really amazing. Our mission president talked a lot about member missionary work and ways to be more effective with it. Then his assistants talked about getting back to the basics and finding people. It was so much fun to be surrounded by all the other missionaries and talk to good friends. Elder Rodriguez wasn't there which was kind a bummer though. I also got to talk to Sister Neilson (Alisha) for a while. It's always fun to talk to her because she has updates on all of our high school friends. She goes home this week though.     Other than that life is going really well. We started teaching a part member family this week. Every time we walk through the door his face lights up like Christmas morning. Her face isn't usually quite as bright, but we'll work with that. He always tries to convince her to move to Utah, but she's not really going for it.

Here's a sweet Christmas story that someone sent me...

A college friend of mine named Paul received an automobile from his brother as an early Christmas present. On Christmas eve when Paul came out of his house, a street urchin was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it. "Is this your car?" he asked. Paul nodded. "My brother gave it to me for Christmas." The boy was astounded.
"You mean your brother gave it to you and it didn't cost you nothing? Boy, I wish..." He hesitated. Of course Paul knew what he was going to wish for. He was going to wish he had a brother like that. But what the lad said jarred Paul all the way down to his heels. "I wish," the boy went on, "that I could be a brother like that." Paul looked at the boy in astonishment, then impulsively he added, "Would you like to take a ride in my automobile?" "Oh yes, I'd love that."
After a short ride, the boy turned and with his eyes aglow, said, "Uncle, would you mind driving in front of my house?" Paul smiled a little. He thought he knew what the lad wanted. He wanted to show his neighbors that he could ride home in a big automobile. But Paul was wrong again. "Will you stop where those two steps are?" the boy asked. He ran up the steps. Then in a little while Paul heard him coming back, but he was not coming fast. He was carrying his little crippled brother. He sat him down on the bottom step, then sort of squeezed up against him and pointed to the car.
"There it is, little brother, just like I told you upstairs. His brother gave it to him for Christmas and it didn't cost him a penny. And some day I'm gonna give you one just like it...then you can see for yourself all the pretty things in the Shop windows that I've been trying to tell you about."
Paul got out and lifted the boy to the front seat of his car. The shining-eyed older brother climbed in beside him and the three of them began a memorable ride.

Hey so I decided that I was going to restart the Doctrine and covenants and finish it before my mission. I was planning on starting next Sunday (December 28), and I'll write you my thoughts each week and send them to you. Would you like to read along with me?     Ha in other news, we had a pretty cool Christmas party this week. Some of our investigators came and they were fellowshipping the members. One of our favorites, Stanley, was having the greatest time in the world meeting everyone, and he's going to help one of our investigators get baptized right after he does. We also got a picture with Santa, so that was pretty exciting :) Life is good.     Quick thought... and when he falls he shall rise again, for his sacrifice shall be more sacred unto me than his increase, saith the Lord (D&C 117:13). Often times we look for results, but the Lord look on the heart (1 Sam 16:7). Every sacrifice we make is sacred and no effort is wasted. We serve a perfect God.I love you Momma! Have a great week :)

Thanksgiving Highlights!

Hey Momma!

Hey did you get Elder Holman's email? He is wondering why you didn't email him back :) Anyways this was a pretty solid week. Church yesterday was an amazing experience. Brother Pieper got released from the bishopric because he is moving to Tulsa. His wife told the story of the Lord bringing them to Oklahoma and now it was time to move to another place. Brother Taylor replaced him in the bishopric and he told how his family was led to come here. It is amazing to see how Heavenly Father directs our lives to bring certain people together for certain reasons. I loved the peace that was felt and our investigators seemed pretty happy to be there.

     So a highlight of the week was definitely playing football on Thursday morning. We played for a full two hours, and at the end the score was tied 98 to 98. It was kind of a bummer, but Elder Holman was on the other team. Well we ended up losing in like the 5th overtime, but it was a total blast. It was nice to run around for a while. Then we went to a few houses and ate Thanksgiving dinner. A lot of the ward here serves in the military, so that made it tough to get members out teaching with us, but we still had some great visits and life was real happy.     It has been amazing to see investigators come and join the community. We truly are a special people and it is so much fun to see people joining us and helping out in the church.     I don't know if you've seen the He is the Gift video, but if you haven't you should look it up on christmas.mormon.org. It is a great reminder about the importance of the season. We taught a combined 3rd hour yesterday about the gift of Christ and our bishop shared the video on facebook along with his testimony at the end of the meeting.

Well I didn't have a ton to report on this week, but life is good. I love you momma! HFF

-Elder Hoddy