This week went by so fast, and we did a
whole lot. I don't think I interviewed 36 people in one day, but we still
did a lot and God was watching all of it. But before I tell you about
about all the crazy things we did...Last week Sister Marin from my MTC
district returned home. Lucky she went when she did because the doctor
told her a few more weeks of what she had and she would have come home from
the mission recuperating in a wheelchair. This next week we are losing
another valente querida [faithful, valiant dear one], the beautiful Sister Leite. That's right, both
the sister I trained, the sister she trained, and the
sister who trained me have all gone home. Sister Leite is going home on
5a feira [Thursday] because of the fibromyalgia pain. She been having a lot less,
but decided that it would be better to stop. I talked to her mom on the
phone today for a brief moment, and then after LOTS of hugs had to let Sister Leite go. She´s changed a lot here on the mission field. We made big plans for
her for when she gets back.
We have my last conferência de zonas where I got to bear my
farewell testimony. What? I still have awhile to go, but this was the
last opportunity. All the missionaries going home in the next 3 months
bore their testimonies. We´re losing quite a big number the transfer I
go home. I talked about Sister Dalton´s talk when the general YW´s
presidency chose gold to represent the value of Virtue. They chose gold
because it is of greatest value when it is pure, just like us. How do you
purify gold? You burn it...well, almost. You put it in fire, melt it
down, and let everything fall out. After being almost destroyed, it is
quite lovely. Just like us. After passing through trials that often
almost destroy us, we come out super pretty, and ready to enter into God´s kingdom (well, that's the goal). There´s also a phrase at the end
of our mission hymn that we shout like crazies... "E Proclamar Bem Alto,
Èis A Restauração" [Shout out loud, "Behold, the Restored Gospel!"] I talked a bit about the phrase and how we can
shout it really loud for the people here where we serve.
This week my trio went on a trip to the city of São José do Rio Preto,
it´s 4 hours by bus from here. We spent 1 day on divisions with our
sisters, one day dividing with Sister Beck and her sisters, and then came
home just in time for interviews with president, and weekly planning,
and conference the next day. We also had Festa Junina with our ward on
Saturday, it was fun, and there was lots of food. Its the annual Brazilian cowboy party. Its great. Mostly its about the food, but there
is dancing too. We watched the members dance a bit and then had to
leave.
After all the adventures we worked about 2 days in out area. One
of those days we spent waiting for our investigator to show up to his
baptismal interview. He called us and said he would be a couple hours
late, so so we got improvise with our plans. Then other a member asked us to visit her brother and his wife. We found them alright....and
his married children and their grand-kids. Its like they had gathered
together and were waiting for us. We were given 8 new investigators in
one week! What?!
Its hard to think about the fact that I'm coming home in a few
weeks. I'm going to miss the people here so much. For as much as I want to
see my family again, its going to be really hard to leave the people
here.
I love you,
I hope you are helping the missionaries,
Sister Hoggan
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