Elder Bednar pic

This is my whole zone (there are 5 zones in my mission I think) with Pres. & Sis. Gee and Elder Bednar

Elder Bednar Mission Conference

Hey Everyone,

Yesterday was probably the best day of my mission! It was amazing! I wish I could write you every detail, but we had mission conference with Elder David A. Bednar (one of the members of the quorum of the 12 apostles). He didn't have a talk prepared for us. He just had us read two talks before he came, and then yesterday we had a discussion about those talks - what we learned. Then he turned it into question and answer session. It was SO amazing! Since I'm in the south of the city, I also got the opportunity to see him on Sunday night as the Oklahoma City South Stake. We had 2 investigators there: Luz and the wife of a member (Hna. Coronado). It was great too!

One thing that really hit me, and that I want to share with you is what he said about agency. He said in the church culture (not the doctrines or principles, but theories we've concluded) that agency is choosing between right and wrong. But he said really agency is the power and capacity of independent action. We only have agency to choose God. Another thing he said regarding agency that I really liked a lot was that once we are baptized we no longer have the option of going to church or obeying the Word of Wisdom, etc. After you have entered into a covenant with God, specifically baptism, you have covenanted that you're going to choose Him. Therefore when you disobey the commandments, not going to church, not living the Word of Wisdom, etc, you are breaking your covenant. So breaking the commandments is not an option once we are baptized. He related it to students going to BYU-I breaking the honor code. Because you sign your application after reading the honor code, knowing that you are promising to live the honor code. So, once you sign the application, you no longer have the choice to obey the honor code. He also applied it to us as missionaries when we accept our call. Once we accept our call, sleeping in, going to bed late, anything that isn't following the missionary handbook, is breaking our promise, and it's not an option to do anything but obey.

I really liked that a lot. I hope you do too. I wish I could explain it better, but that's pretty much what he said. I did ask him a question myself. It was pretty neat to have an apostle, teaching me one on one. Sure, he was talking to everyone else, but he was looking at me and specifically teaching me.

So we sat and listened to Elder Bednar answer questions and teach us by the spirit for 3 hours. It felt so short! When it was 1pm, it didn't feel like it had been 3 hours. It felt like we had just gotten there. Also, after the closing prayer, we all got to shake his hand. Then each zone took a picture with Elder Bednar, President Gee, and Sister Gee. That was pretty sweet!

Also, yesterday was so great because the ENTIRE mission was together. The closest I've been to seeing everyone was Temple Mission Conference in December, when I got to see half of the mission. I got to see missionaries that got transferred out of my area after my first transfer like Elder Lewis & Sister Lamb, and missionaries who got transferred after last transfer like Elder Origer. And I also got to see a bunch of other missionaries that I more or less know because of transfers, those I flew in with, or whatever. Like Hermana Alas and Hermana Tucker! It was so fun to see all these people that I've said bye to. I still didn't felt complete though because Elder Torres, Elder Scott, Sister Whiting, Sister Thaxton, & Elder Sivertsen, I'm probably forgetting someone, but missionaries have finished their missions since I've been here. But after yesterday I was just thinking how great mission reunions will be! (I know that's a long time from now, and I'm not getting "trunky." I was just thinking about it.) Anyway, it was SO wonderful to be together as a mission!

Honestly, last week really wasn't that great. I think that our numbers were lower last week than they've been in a while. And I know, it's not about the numbers, but they really are a good indicator of how the work is going. Last week just wasn't that great. We've dropped a few people, 90% of our appts fell through, and we haven't had a lot of success finding new people to teach. But I did realize last week that we need to build up the area again. Hermana Whiting and Hermana Alas worked really hard to get the area where it was. I mean, last transfer we had 11 investigators at church two weeks in a row. That doesn't just come out of nowhere. So, anyway, that means we need to tract a lot and get referrals and follow-up on potentials. Hopefully, we can build the area back up in the next three weeks or so.

I really can't remember much of anything besides Elder Bednar being here. Sorry I don't have news about anything. Luz.... we haven't been able to catch her home. Alma... we didn't visit her at all last week and we found out from Hna. Alas that she actually doesn't believe in the BOM. We've called her every day, but she hasn't answered the phone or called us back. Guillermo... we can't ever find him home.

I can't believe this transfer is halfway over! It really has gone by fast! Sister Whiting was right, time does start to go by faster and faster. I can't believe I'll hit 6 months soon!

Oh, we went bowling this morning. Our district with the APs. It was fun! I learned I can't bowl and when others try to teach me how I'm stubborn and prideful and don't want help or correction. Haha! We're going to go play volleyball now.

Well, I love you all! I hope all is well! Thanks for your prayers, support, and everything!

Love,

Hermana Christina Hogewoning

PS I didn't hear from Corey this week. It just hit me that maybe he got transferred, but I'm not sure.

PSS Also, if you send an e-mail back to my gmail account (those of you who are getting the fwd of this, could you please include your mailing address so when Shelly forwards me the e-mail I can write you back snail mail. Thanks!)

Happy Valentine's Day, after the fact...

Hey Everyone,

Yeah, like my brother, I'm not big on Valentine's Day. It came and went. I did get a package from my grandma, which was very unexpected and I was happy to get it, and Hna. Martinez's family, doorbell-ditched us Saturday night and left Valentine's day goodies. But yeah, not a fan of that holiday, glad we can move on.

So, it snowed two or three days last week, and we tracted in it. It didn't stick, but still. It snowed on Sunday, and it was sticking to everything but the roads, but by the time we were out of church it was all melted and the sun had come out, but it was still cold.

Man, I have SO much I want to tell y'all (yes, that's an Okie thing), but I really gotta run.

Side note - Tasha, Ellis, and those who have sent replies back to my gmail account, Shelly forwarded those onto me, and I would love to write you, but I don't have your address. (Ellis, I have yours.) So send it to my gmail account and Shelly can forward me your physical address for me to write you a letter.

Corey's mission is closing in July. :( Sad day! I cried when I read his e-mail. It's pretty sad, but he's a trooper.

I was asked to play the piano in sac mt this past Sunday, and that was interesting. I can't play perfectly, but I guess I can play well enough that they will ask me when they are desperate. Anyway, yeah I guess I'm developing that talent while being here in the mission... kind of anyway.

Maybe y'all have heard, but Elder Bednar is coming to OKC, our stake! He's coming next weekend and speaking to the stake Sunday evening, then we're having a mission conference with him on Monday, all the missionaries. I'm pretty excited! President Gee used to be at BYU-I when Elder Bednar was president, so they're pretty close. Anyway, that will be cool.

As for the work... I felt like last week was terrible, but then we did numbers and we met almost all of our goals for the week, which NEVER happens. We didn't have ANY investigators at church though, which was depressing. Well, Haiden and Byron showed up at the beginning of Sunday School, so that was AWESOME. Unfortunately, for numbers we can only count it if they're there for the sacrament.

Luz told us some news that at first was kind of devastating. She wasn't at church. (This is two Sunday's in a row now.) We asked why, and she just broke into tears. (She's gotten emotional on more than one occasion when we've visited her, but usually for happy reasons.) Anyway, this was not good. She told us she has to move out and leave as soon as possible. To me, I thought, this means I have to say bye right now, and I'll never see her again, etc. But then as we kept talking, she is not moving this week, but as soon as she can. And when she moves shes plans on staying close, so she can have Pedro's kids over often. Anyway, the more I thought about it, the happier I became because I realized that this was an answer to her/our prayers/fast. We taught the law of chastity to her, and she wanted to live it right then, but she felt she couldn't abandon the kids. And Pedro is still going through divorce, so they can't just get married. But now, she has for sure decided to move out. This means she can get baptized sooner probably because she will be living the law of chastity and it will be easier for her to stop smoking, because right now she lives with Pedro who always smokes. Anyway, pray for her. She hopefully is coming on Sunday night to hear Elder Bednar, which will be awesome!

Alma... well, we told her if she didn't keep her commitments we were going to have to quit coming over, which honestly I don't want to do. But I don't know what else we can do. Sister Gee came with us last Tuesday, and we had an awesome lesson. Then we taught Alma two other times, but I've realized that she doesn't really understand a lot of the things we teach. Like she is wondering why she needs to be baptized again. (We explained because only our church has the authority.) Anyway... it's really sad with her. I love her and her family so much, and I wish I could help her. But all I can do is teach her, be an example, and pray for her. She hasn't been coming to church. I know that she wants it, but I just don't know how badly.

What else? Oh, we went to the temple this morning, Hna. Martinez and I. It was nice. I kind of felt like I was going for the first time since I haven't been since the beginning of December. But I love the temple! I wish everyone understood how important it is to go and went regularly.

We taught Javier on Friday and extended the commitment to be baptized. He said YES! But we didn't set a date, though we tried. Also, he didn't come to church, and he's only available for us to teach him on Friday nights. Hopefully, more time opens up so we can teach him more than once a week. He told us when we got there that he had a question, but he wanted to wait to ask. When we asked if he wanted to be baptized, he said that was his question. Man, he's GOLDEN! He just needs to come to church!

Oh, one last thing... supposedly there is supposed to be a big snow/ice storm next weekend, the weekend Elder Bednar is here. It's supposed to be worse than this past Christmas and worse than the way bad ice storm they had in Dec 07. Anyway, I'm hoping it's not true, but we'll see.

Really, we gotta run! But I love you all! Thanks for everything... letters, prayers, support, etc!

Love,

Hermana Christina Hogewoning

pics from last district mtg last transfer/3rd transfer mtg

Last district meeting of the transfer - Elder Reed, Elder Romero, Elder Origer, Hermana Whiting, Me, Elder Mortensen, Elder Searle (one of the APs, he's spanish)

Lopez Family: Back row-Destiny, Alex, Gloria, Baby Eric, Martha, Angel

Next Row-Ismael with Baby Alma, Alma, Sister Whiting, Me

Front-Tokyo, Maia (Martha's), Giselle (Gloria's) , with Ayana (Martha's) behind Maia

Sister Glenn, Me, Sister Thaxton, Sister Whiting at transfers!
Sister Whiting passing the "torch" or the keys with Elder Jackson in the background at transfers
Sister Glenn, Sister Houston, Me, Hna. Martinez at transfers

5 months today!

Hey Everyone,

Wow! This is so unreal! Today is exactly 5 months from when I began my mission. Weird! I can't believe how fast/slow time goes. Some days it flies by and others it drags on forever. I have to say I've been missing things more this last week because I had to say bye to my two best friends, Sister Camille Whiting and Sister Lindsey Thaxton. It's been hard to adjust and have a new companion. I really miss Sister Whiting and Sister Thaxton.

At transfers, I kept trying to say bye to Sister Whiting and Sister Thaxton, but I couldn't leave. Finally, I left. We were the first ones to leave followed by the english sisters, Sister Glenn and Sister Houston. It was really weird to be driving a car again after not having done so for 5 months. I love/hate driving! And it's weird to be senior comp. So many things are up to me now whereas before Sister Whiting pretty much took care of everything. I didn't realize how much she did until now, when I have to do it myself.

It snowed/rained pretty much all day yesterday. It was cold, and we went and tracted in the snow. I didn't want to. I tried to avoid it all day, but we finally ran out of people to visit. We had 7 appointments, and they all fell through but one. :/ Yeah, it was a bummer. But we actually ended up having a good day. We found a new investigator, and we finally found Guillermo home. We haven't found him home since he came to church. We taught him and his friend, Jerry, who is our new investigator.

We had 6 investigators at church on Sunday. Gloria and Alex were there with all their kids (Junior, Sammie, Giselle, and Baby Eric), and Junior's friend Eric and his brother Marcos. Javier came to church to and he brought his friend, Noe, and they were like 5-10 minutes early. We didn't have sacrament until 35 minutes into the meeting, and all that extra time made it possible for Gloria to make it, and her baby, Eric was able to finally be blessed too. Also, Hna. Ordonez (one of the members) was there too with her brand new Baby Giselle, who was blessed as well.

Luz wasn't at church, which was weird. We were supposed to visit her yesterday, but Ismael called and cancelled. But we're going to visit tomorrow.

We spent Sunday afternoon trying to find less actives. I had a list of about 11 or so people/families who I've never met or taught, and we tried to find them. Most of them were not home. I also made a list of potentials (people who we've contacted who have said we could come back) to visit when appts fall through or we run out of people to visit. We were able to set some return appts. That was good!

I honestly feel like my spanish has exponentially improved in this last week. Hna. Martinez knows spanish and english and portugese, but I try to make the phone calls and take care of things. I feel like I can do and say things that I didn't think I could do or say. And as I sat in fast and testimony meeting this past Sunday, there was a girl named Kassandra who bore her testimony. She talks really fast, and as I listened to her I just thought how is it that I'm able to understand 100% of what she's saying? I know it's because Heavenly Father has and continues to bless me with the gift of tongues.

Well, I gotta go. I have to say I feel like things have been harder because I feel like I have to do so much more being senior comp, but it's good that I'm learning and doing things that I didn't know I could do.

I love you all! Thank you for your prayers, love, and support!

Also, no e-mail from Corey this week. Just so you know.

Love,

Hermana Christina Hogewoning

Third Transfer!

Hey,

Wow! Sorry everyone! I really don't have time to write today! I spent a lot of time backing up pics since Sis. Whiting and Sis. Thaxton are leaving. Anyway...

Last week was really crazy! We didn't have a car at the beginning of the weak because our heater wasn't working and our radiator was leaking. Good thing we took it in because it ended up being a problem with our engine. Anyway, we got our car back around 4:30pm Wednesday, and we didn't even drive it 24 hours before we couldn't use it again. :( Thursday afternoon we were walking out of Luz's and it was hailing. It had been raining and hailing earlier, but it was starting to freeze on the ground. So we had to go home, and we couldn't use our car until today. Although, we did have permission to use our car to drive to district meeting Friday and church on Sunday, and then last night. Oh, church was cancelled, but our branch president decided to still have it, so we had the english missionaries at the branch on Sunday. Also, we didn't have a pianist or chorister when we started sac mt. So they asked Hna. Whiting to conduct and me to play the piano. Ah! I can't really play the piano! I can only play the top hand well enough for it to be reverent, and I was kind of sight-reading the song. Anyway, good thing the pianist showed up after that! Also, church was moved from 9 to 11am since there were no other wards meeting in our building. So Saturday we had to call ALL of our investigators! It was crazy! I volunteered to make all the calls, and I made about 20 of them, 15 in spanish. This is kind of a big deal because I hate calling in spanish. I don't feel like I can. I don't mind talking on the phone, in fact any time it's english, I'll do it. But if someone calls in spanish I pass the phone off to Sister Whiting. But I made all those calls in spanish by myself, and I felt successful. I understood the people I talked to and they understood me. Anyway...

School was out last Thursday through yesterday because of this crazy snow and ice storm we had! We got hail and rain, which froze Thursday night, so there was ice on the roads. And then it snowed on Friday. I heard we got 8 inches. This is crazy! Anyway, we went tracting on Friday and Saturday. We walked with the english sisters. It was fun! But really cold!

Okay, so enough of that. Tomorrow are transfers, and I am SO sad that I have to say bye to Sister Whiting and Sister Thaxton! Man, I don't want them to leave! I found out last week that Astrid is going to be my companion. Last night were transfer calls, but Astrid had told us last week when she found out from Pres. Gee that she was going to be my comp. It's going to be hard calling her Hna. Martinez because I've been calling her Astrid since I got here. I'm excited though. She's awesome! And I love her. It will just be weird to be comps. Also, I am senior companion. It's kind of weird because it's only my 3rd transfer, but I guess I'm ready. Haha! No, I know I am, but it's just weird. I'm still learning every day, and some days I still feel brand new, and others I feel like I've been here forever. I will also be driving this transfer, which is kind of exciting! I haven't driven for almost 5 months, so I'm looking forward to it. Although, it's been nice to not have to drive.

What else? I don't know. The mission is good. Oklahoma is good. I love it! Sorry I didn't write much about the work. I wish I had more time so I could write details. Oh, we did have 8 investigators who made it in time for the sacrament on Sunday, and we had a total of 11 investigators at church. Alma, and two of her sisters (Martha and Gloria) were all there with their families, except one of Gloria's kids. That was pretty cool! I couldn't stop smiling at Sister Whiting as she was conducting the music and I was sitting in the congregation as our investigators kept walking in.

Also, we are only getting one new elder in our district and we will be brand new. Elder Mortensen is switching comps though from Elder Reed to Elder Romero. Elder Reed will be training. Elder Dominguez will be the new AP. And Sister Houston will be Sister Glenn's new comp. She reported to the MTC on 9-9-09 like me, so we've been out for the same time, except she's been here in OK longer because she's english.

Corey is good! Man, it's so weird that he's almost halfway done with the mission! Crazy!

Well, I love you all! Thank you for your prayers, support, and letters!

Love,

Hermana Christina Hogewoning