Two Months!!

June 25, 2008

Hello my wonderful family,

Well, I'm just sending this email to you guys because I figure not everyone wants to hear from every week, so maybe I'll just starting writing a letter to everyone every other week. Unless there are people that are absolutely dying to hear how I'm doing then this is just for the family.
My goodness so many questions for me mom! I probably won't get to all of them. First off, let me reassure you I'm doing a whole lot better than last week. My and Sister McCoy are becoming good friends and I have really been feeling quite positive and upbeat, which is what I'm always trying to do : ) I've really felt all your prayers for me and I really appreciate that. Prayer is definitely more powerful than we realize! So... last Thursday me and Sister McCoy had an appointment with a potential investigator in the town centre, but she canceled on us, so we set a goal that we would not let anyone slip by us on the street. Unless we were both busy talking to someone : ) We were pumped and determined and guess what? We did it! As usual we both got a ton of rejections, but we were able to set up 3 appointments with people. Unfortunately only 1 is continuing with the lessons, but we planted seeds! I've found that there are times I might be a little pushy. They say they aren't interested, but I can't leave it at that. I try and find out if they have some belief in God and Jesus Christ and unfortunately most don't. I'm becoming quite a determined missionary though, which has really helped me out a lot.

We had a great experience on Saturday. A few weeks ago I met this lady on the street and set up a time to see her, but she wasn't home when we came and we set up a couple more, but she was never in, so we kindof gave up on her. Well, Saturday we had an appointment with a potential down the road from this lady (her name is T by the way), but she rescheduled with us. So we finished knocking doors on the street and decided we might as well just pop in and see if T was there. Well, she answered the door and we couldn't have come at a better time. She was really struggling. She's lived an incredibly rough life and still is and was just having a bad day. We taught her a bit of the Plan of Salvation and she was really touched when we talked about the Atonement because she had never really heard any of that before. The Spirit was so strong and we're going to see her again on Friday.

I've been reading in Alma for awhile and I'm on 43 right now. But I've really come to like Alma, especially as a missionary. My favorite chapter as of now is Alma 26. It's about Ammon praising God for all the success they had with the Lamanites and how they were able to bring thousands of souls unto God. I love vs 11-12. I'd love for you to read that chapter for family scripture study one night. Where are you guys at right now anyways? Are you starting the Book of Mormon over again or reading the Doctrine and Covenants? I've never loved reading the Book of Mormon as much as I do now. I just can't get enough of it.

Tell Micah I said congratulations and that I'm really proud of him. Brazil?! That is so awesome! Still don't have dinners with members, hence the reason for us having to spend more money at the grocery store. : ( The weather has been on and off all week. Saturday is was ridiculously windy and rainy! I finally got a real taste of England weather and no lie, it stinks! The raincoat is really nice though, I just need boots, but they don't sell them right now because its supposedly summer! Then Sunday was just really windy. It was so windy, Sister McCoy and I could hardly walk forward, no lie! It was absolutely insane. Then Monday and Tuesday was just nice weather, not too cold, not too hot. Now it's kindof windy and it looks like it might start raining.

No, I have not gotten your package yet, but I'm sure it will be coming soon. Thank you very much by the way!! Let's see... we have district meeting every Tuesday. It's just me, Sister McCoy, Elder Webb, Elder Newson (they both serve in the ward with us; they are up in the north part of Blackpool) and Sister Coffin and Sister Coleman who are in Lancaster. But they are no longer in our district anymore, so it's just us four for district meetings, which actually stinks because now we have to get a fellowshipper to come with us to the meetings. We can't even get them to come to our investigator lessons let alone our meetings. Our zone leader is Elder Turner and we just got a new one. Elder Turner is actually from Folsom! Pretty crazy, but he goes home in August. He's really a nice guy. We have a zone conference once a transfer. Other than than I really do see the other missionaries very often. We've only had one all mission conference and there will probably only be one more before I leave. By the way, Elder Webb is my district leader and he's a really great guy. He's from Utah and might be emailing you sometime because he asked for your email address. I'm not entirely sure why though. Elder Newson is from Las Vegas.

That's great that you are studying charity. I've been really trying to work on patience and faith! I definitely feel like I'm improving. Dad thanks for the sweet note. I don't want you to worry about me because I've really taken it to the Lord and I know that everything is going to be okay as long as I continue going to Him. This is why I love Alma 26.

One last thing... Sister Holtz absolutely loves you guys! Continute writing her! I write her as much as I can because we are planning on getting together after our missions. I would absolutely love to get Mel's emails. I haven't heard from her since she sent me a letter at the MTC. I want to hear how she is doing. Tell everyone in the ward that I said hi and I love and appreciate every single one of them!!!!

I love you guys so much and you are always in my prayers! I thank God for you guys every minute of the day and wonder how you guys are doing. I'm glad to hear things are going well... excect for the fires : ( I'm glad you are safe though. Keep on pushing ahead and remember to read Alma 26. You can in turn give me a chapter to read : )

Cheerio!
Love always,
Sister Kelsey Hogge