1st Baptismal Date!!!

Hey Everyone,

I have some exciting news! Johanna, Luz's granddaughter (adopted daughter since she was 6 months old), is getting baptized on April 3! We're SO excited! This kind of came out of nowhere. We hadn't been teaching her, and then I was thinking about how she's been to church like 4 times and hasn't been taught a single lesson. Anyway, we've taught her lessons 1-3 and parts of lesson 4. We only have to teach a few more things, and then she'll be ready. I'm so excited!

Mission conference was AWESOME! Elder Costa is amazing and funny and everything you would expect a general authority to be! Again, I got the opportunity to listen to him twice while he was here. Once with all the missionaries and once with the stake. (That's a perk of being here in the south.) Anyway, he said SO many things that I loved! I didn't take as many notes because I just wanted to listen and not worry about writing it all down like I usually do. One thing he said that I really liked was, "To love others is exactly dependent on how much you understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ." That's so true. No wonder sometimes I struggle, because I don't understand the Atonement like I should. He also talked about Christ suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane for us. He said that when Christ said, let this bitter cup pass from me (see Matthew 26:39), He wasn't saying, I give up, I can't do it, but rather, Be with me, asking the Father to not leave Him while He took upon Himself all the sins, pains, and afflictions of the world. But Christ had to be alone without the Father's presence to know how to succor us (Alma 7:11-12) and how we feel when we go through times of spiritual weakness with the Holy Ghost. (Elder Holland gave a great talk in general conference almost exactly one year ago about this. "None Were With Him" is the title I believe from the April 09 gen conf.) Anyway, Elder Costa was great. Oh, and he also spoke specifically to me saying that we need to move on and not keep teaching the families who won't get baptized. At the conclusion of the meeting, Pres. & Sis. Gee were asked to bear their testimonies. In Pres. Gee's remarks, he said my name and then that when Elder Costa said that it was a confirmation to me that I'm doing what I should be. I've had a hard time with knowing when to stop teaching people, and I was grateful for Elder Costa's confirmation to me and then President Gee's confirmation to me, personally, by name.

I don't know what else to say. Man, I hate it when that happens. All the days just blend together and I forget what I've told y'all, and I don't know what you want to know. It's weird to be in a district where I'm now one of two, Elder Mortensen, who are now the ones who have been in this area the longest. It's also weird being around so many missionaries who are as old as me in the mission or younger. Elder Buys, our district leader, is awesome! And Elder Soto, one of the brand new missionaries, is pretty great too. Elder Soto is from Mexico, so he's learned english just from being in the MTC 9 weeks. He said he took a year of english in school, but I know that that really isn't where he's learned to speak english so well. I think Elder Soto's english is better than my spanish was coming out of the MTC. Elder Riggs said that's because english is easier, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Haha! Elder Buys is from Eagle Mountain, Utah, and he will go home at the end of this transfer.

Sister Tucker is good. I was her companion the first 5 days I was in the MTC. But just in case, y'all have forgotten and don't want to look for my first e-mail, she's from Ogden, Utah. It's fun finally getting to serve with her. It's weird though because we're the same age in the mission, so we both know just about the same. And this will be our first baptism, which we haven't had one yet, so we're learning how to prepare someone for baptism and everything we need to do, together. I love her! She is great! It's a little rough because we're both still learning spanish. And also, she doesn't know the area, so I have to figure a lot of things out without her help, but eventually she'll be able to help me more.

How could I forget!?!?! It SNOWED! SURPISE! Yeah, so it was 71 degrees on Friday, and everyone was saying it was going to snow on Saturday, and I didn't believe it. Because there have been SO many times when they say it's going to snow and then it never does. But sure enough on Saturday it snowed and it stuck! Saturday morning the roads had snow, so the four of us sisters (Sister Houston, Sister Glenn, Sister Tucker, and I) decided to walk to our appt because it was fairly close. (The same distance as the apts we walked to to tract during the last snow storm.) So, we finally are ready to go, and we start walking only to see that we could be driving because the roads are clear. But we just decided to walk. Then Pres. Gee drives by with Elder Riggs and Elder Buys, and he pulled off to the side of the road. I felt SO stupid because we could have been driving and we weren't. President Gee asked where we going. I told him we weren't going to far. Then they drove off. Saturday night I talked to Pres. Gee after the fireside with Elder Costa, and he said the elders felt so badly because they were in a car and we were walking. I just told him that I felt silly walking when we could have driven. The APs told us not to drive if there was snow on the roads, but there wasn't. It was pretty much just water.

But then it started snowing again Sat night. By the time we left the fireside, the snow was sticking to the roads, and I got to drive 20 minutes in it. Luckily, I lived in Idaho and had driven in the snow, and it wasn't too bad. Then the snow froze Sat night, and so Sunday morning there was ice. The english ward was cancelled, even though they didn't have church til 1pm. But the branch still had church. So we called and got a ride from Astrid since we can't drive when there's ice. Just walking to the car was a little scary because it was solid ice on the ground. Luckily, Hna. Tucker and I didn't fall. But one of the members did, Hna. Dominguez. That's one reason they cancel church when the weather is like this, to prevent injuries and accidents. Anyway...by the time church was over it had all melted. Pretty crazy, right?!? From 71 degrees to 29 degrees in less than 12 hours. Oklahoma has crazy weather!

Well, I gotta run! But I love you all! Thanks for everything!

Love,

Hermana Christina Hogewoning