Week 16

This week went fast. It helps that it was missing a day, but still fast. With is being Christmas and New years, our schedule got shuffled a bit but now we are back to the normal schedule.

New Years day was another Zone Activity, mostly just fun. We played mafia and ate pancakes, felt like a normal activity with my friends at home.

Still house shopping, we need to find one this week so that we can have everything prepped before the new elders get here. Finding one near the city center is nearly impossible for our price range so we have to start wandering the more remote areas of our area to find one.

This week we had something called a Rosca de Reyes. It is a Catholic tradition and is really just a giant pastry doughnut thing but it tastes pretty good. There are also little plastic babies baked into it that we called monos, or monkeys (they are supposed to represent the Christ child I believe). the people that ended up with them in their piece had to wash the dishes.

And today we got another companion so I get to be in a trio. He should be open up the new area in about 2 weeks so we get to show him around.

Not much has happened with our nivestigators this week but we are close with a few.

Love you guys,

Elder Hokanson

Making Goodie Bags, and Christmas Dinner for The Elders

Week 15

Wow it has been a long week. Pretty much every day has had something happen that threw off our normal rutine, But It has made this week interesting.

Christmas we had a zone activity where we made a bunch of goodi bags for members of the ward ad investigators. then we went outside and played basketball and soccer. Funny part is that in my almost 5 months here, this is the first time that I have actualy played soccer. That night we ate at Hna Patti's house, she is a less active that we where able to bring back (i will talk more about her in a bit).

The next day was not fun. We got to lay in bed all day because both my companion and i where sick. We think is was form eating at Hna Patties since we both had similar simptoms at the same time. The worst part is that it burned an entire day and we couldnt help any one. I am fine now but that was not very fun at all. 

Then I got to hang out with the Zone leaders. I made it through but only bairly since I hadn't fully recovered yet.     Other than that, work went on as usual.

We are working mostly with 2 families right now, Hna Patti and Hna Violeta.  Ironicaly they are both single mothers with a son and a daughter. Hna Patti's son Juan was baptized about 6 years ago but when he was asking about reciving the priesthood, he is 14, there where no records. We have his membership number which means that he was baptized but there are no records of the actual baptism. He and his sister, who is 8, have an interveiw with bishop tomarrow, so we will find out when the will be baptized then.

Hna Violeta is ready for her baptism in the 12 and hopefully i don't get transfered again befor her baptism.

Love you guys,

Elder Hokanson

Santa arrived in Mexico!

Week 14

Honestly I didn't think I would get to write a letter this week but I have the opportunity so I will.

The Christmas devotional with President Flores was a lot of fun. We watched Despicable Me 2 in Spanish, not quite the same but still really funny. Then we had a gift exchange and President Flores gave us all an interesting gift.... parasite pills. Not exactly what I was hoping to get this Christmas but good to have anyway.  Getting home was interesting trying to balance all of my packages, yes I got all of them, and my bag but I had a lot of fun opening them that night. 

We have one investigator who is just amazing. Her name is Violeta and she was a street contact from the week before I got here but I have been part of most of the lessons.  We texted her to make sure that she would be able to make it to Church this Sunday and in her response, was something along the lines of ''Yes and can I be baptised already?!''. It broke our hearts to tell her she needs to wait another couple of weeks since she has gained her testimony and is ready. But rules are rules.

Also found out this week that we are dividing our area and next cambio (companion exchange) there will be Compastre 2. We are uber excited to get to be able to focus on a smaller area and to have more help here. We still have a bunch of prep work to do before they get here.

 

Love you guys, y Feliz Navidad

Elder Hokanson

Elders Downtown

Week 13

I have learned a lot about my new area and it is huge, probably twice the size of my first one.  The bottom of my area actually is in Torreon but the other side of the city from Colon.

Otherwise, this week was full of random moments

-The lady cutting my hair was shocked that my hair was naturally brown. It was an odd conversation.

-One of the Elders in my zone, Adam Barnes, was good friends with Makenzie, my aunt, in high school.  The world is small, even here in Mexico.

-Last night a couple in our ward brought us a Christmas dinner since they bring one to the missionaries every year but they will be out of town this year.  It was a good old Thanks giving feast. 

no really, I felt like I was at grandma's it was that good. Turkey , stuffing , mashed potatoes. and even a Jello salad. (Elder Villega is from Costa Rica and has never had it before) It was a very pleasant surprise.

 

Feliz Navidad

Elder Hokanson

Torreon

Week 12

Well I have survived my training and my fisrt transfer. It has been an interesting day to say the least.  I am now in Gomez which is the city right next to Torreon, but it feels like a a hundred miles away from my home in Torreon. I know that will change once I am able to get to work.

But notes from my other area.

-Cristian and Hna Concha will be baptized this next saterday (Sad that I will miss it but I am thrilled that it is going to happen)

-There have been these parades that happen every morning and night right infront of my apartment. They are realy laoud but interesting because they are all dressed up in myan and aztec stuff and dancing to the drums. It is selebrating the Virgin of Guadalupe or something like that (Don't know, didn't really ask).

Week 11

This week has been packed with meetings with members. And looking at our schedule this next week, we have seen the results. I am excited since we received about 30 new references to try and contact this week.

Thanksgiving was just another day of work for us. But that is pretty normal.

Really the highlight of the week was when my companion stood up to bare his testimony. That ment i has to go up to. I was suprised at what I said and how i said it. It was actualy pretty fun.

Next week I will have more storeis sice we will talk to a lot more new people.

Love you guys,

Elder Hokanson

New Companions

Week 10

This week has been a good one. To start it all off, I went a bought a new camera. It is a good one and I am excited to get you guys some more pics.

We were doing a lot of contacting this week and finally got an appointment with a family that is actually pretty close to baptism, or at least so they have said.  They lived here about 3 years ago and where taking the lessons but moved before they where baptized. Now that they are back we where able to get a lesson with them. In the first lesson on Thursday it was me and a elder form another district, while Elder Alvarez was doing some baptismal interviews, and i got the impression to ask her to be baptized. This was not part of the plan originally and as I was half way through the question she interrupted me and said yes and then explained the background  of them moving and all that. Only problem is that she didn't come to church this week (none of our investigators made it so we have to push baptisms back another week) and wasn't there for the next lesson. We will try again this week. The joys of missionary work.

Saturday was very interesting. I got invited to a big meeting for the leaders of the wards, well OK, my companion got invited since he is district leader and i just got to go too. It was with Elder Lopez, our area seventy, and he and President Flores are changing some things for how we do a lot of our missionary work (so heads up other Torreón elders).  We are gong to be focusing a lot on using the future investigators form and actually sitting down with every member and filling it out. In this form they right down everyone they know that could benefit form the gospel, nonmembers and less actives. then we go though each person and figure out what we can do to help them.  This has the potential of skyrocketing our baptism and retention rates, so I am excited to get started. And this is how it is suposed to be, my job is to teach, and the members to find.

Love you guys,

Elder Hokanson

Week 9

I think I might do a little shopping today. The last few days have been Buen Fin, the equivalent of a Mexican Black Friday. So most things are 30% off or more and since this winter is going to be colder than normal, I am going to stock up a bit.

I found out this week that my math skill are really only useful in English. I was trying to help Christian with a math problem and had no idea what is was talking about, even after i translated it. Needless to say, it was not a big confidence booster to how my abilities will be when i get home.

I finally got a letter this week that my mom sent me on my birthday. I laughed that it took so long since i got a email copy the day it was sent.

We have been struggling to find new people that will listen to us. We had a contact yesterday that that loved calling me ''gringo''. She liked a lot what we where teaching her and when we handed her a book of Mormon, she was afraid we would come back to get it from her.  Problem is she is almost never home but we wil see what we can do.    Christian's baptism got pushed to the 7th of december, just 2 days before exchanges so it is close.

Love you guys,

Elder Hokanson

Week 8

I think the main thing that I will remember about this week was the fact that it was COLD. I should have been expecting this since this is a desert and the temp. fluctuates a lot but I unpacked my coat form my suitcase and everything.

Everything is really beginning to just blur together and if i didn't have my journal, I would be lost. so here is my little push for keeping your personal record. Journal writing is our account of how we used the time we have been given. “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.”

–President Thomas S. Monson

We had a surprise in the last little while, we went to check the records of Christian's family and the record for his mom does not exist anywhere. salt lake or Mexico.  this means that according to the church, she was never baptized (even though we have a pic of her at the baptism, it is not enough evidence) and we will get 2 baptisms on the 30th. Excited doesn't seem to sum it up. 

Love you guys,

Elder Hokanson

Week 7

I think that my family is going to have to make a trip to Mexico in about 21 months so that they can drag me back home.  Yep I think that sums up how i feel about Torreón right now. I understand a lot more this week why the mission is considered the best 2 years in that, this is the accelerated course for learning about the Gospel and just life in general.

I got put in a trio for a couple of days while we waited for the new missionaries to arrive. I will admit that i felt off with having 2 native speakers and me but it kinda forced me to interact better. 

Christian is doing awesome and he was actually the only one of our investigators to make it to church yesterday. we have also been talking to another member of his family and she seems to be accepting the lessons so far. The fun part with her is that we are going to have to have a wedding before her baptism. It is interesting and here is sorta common.

We have been teaching the ward counsle, as an assingment from Pres Flores and hte stake president. It is awesome to teach them and here their stories. they alsways like to talk about their conversion.

Love you guys,

Elder Hokanson