A First Time for Everything

Dear Mom and Dad,

    How does e-mail time go so fast?! I just finished writing president and look over and have not a whole lot of minutes left. Its probably because I kept looking at the photo of how good looking you all are. Ben, sweet beans brother. It must be one of the most special experiences to bless your own child. You have a first born son, what! He needs Auntie Bekah to pinch those cute little cheeks. 

    This week we went on divisions with the sisters in Batatais....its a cute little town about 40 minutes outside the city limits. It is adorable, yet is pretty dangerous. The sisters come home when the sun goes down, or shortly there after. I had a blast with them. We bought a birthday cake for Sister Freitas. When we got home and finished planning, we lit candles, turned off the lights, and surprised her. 

     As we were leaving the next day I wasn't feeling so great. I think I ate something bad. I got diarrhea. We ran to catch our Onibus [city bus], which ended up being late. Running when you are sick isn't fun. This cute little lady walking in our direction was reaching out for other people and large objects as walking supports. She said she was going to the pharmacy. When she got to me she grabbed my arm to help stabilize her. I tried to help her grab the wall so I could grab my bus. But, she started bending her knees, and before you know it she collapsed in my arms. I don't think she ever lost consciousness, but her body went limp in my arms. People started to notice and we set her on the ground. Two men nearby lifted her into their car and took her to I assume the hospital. I got up, grabbed my Onibus, and started for home. However it was hot and stuffy in the bus; I don't know why nobody opened the window. For about 3 seconds the bus was miraculously quiet. I yelled at the driver to open the door, pushed past all the people, and barfed for the first time in Brazil. Yep, it was not fun. I'm glad we stopped before he left city limits. I felt weak for the rest of the day but we were able to work still. 

    Actually, that same day we had a triple baptism! Yep, we baptized a set of 3 sisters (siblings). It was awesome! I love when people get baptized. I wrote about their mom and few months ago who wants the gospel for her children. Our ward mission leader got to participate in the confirmation Sunday. It was his first. We were all super proud of him. I love our ward, it really is the best. Anyway, I think there is a lot more sad new than good news is my letter, but honestly this week was fantastic, the craziest part just happened to be sad. I love you all a ton and hope you have a great week. You are the greatest family ever.

Love you!

Sister Hoggan

Parabems!

Dear Mom and Dad...and Alena, Ben, Nic, Monica, Katie, Audrey, and Brody,

      Was it really just last week that I talked to you? I don't think so,but I don't know, time flies at such a strange speed I don't even understand. I opened my email today with awesome graduation noticias of Alena and a super cute picture of her.

      So today the maintenance guys are cleaning the apartment complex water system, which means no water all day. No showers, no toilets, no...yep, you name it, attached to water and it doesn't work. We set aside a fair amount of water in buckets to use during the day so we were fairly prepared. Hopefully it will comes back soon though. It sure makes you think twice about food storage.

     So I went to the doctor this week for I think the 2nd time on my mission. They don't have family doctors here like they do in the states. You can't just call and make an appointment to talk to a doctor, you wait in the non-emergent emergency room to have a chance to talk to him. We waited about 3 hours so he could write me a prescription for my sore throat. I still have a sore throat though. I'm a tad better than I was before, but I'm going to see what else I can do to make it better. 

    We had ward conference on Sunday....with a record number of people in attendance! Yay! We also had a ward talent show this week that was highly entertaining. However, there was this really cute 10 year old girl sitting next to me who apparently could dance really well, but she wouldn't go up and perform...I was a bit bummed. I found out though that after all the missionaries left she got up and sang REALLY well. 

    The work is wonderful and so is my companion. I love it here. 

Com amor, 

Sister Hoggan

What a wonderful mother´s day!

May 12, 2014

Dear Mom and Dad,

   It was great to see your smiling faces yesterday. It was the perfect end to a crazy week. We hardly worked in our area at all this week. Eeek! We went on divisions one day and then we had another day of weekly planning and mission leadership council which took most of the day....and the next day the 70 who directed leadership council gave us more training in a multi-zone conference. The rest of the mission had their turn the next day. Our visitor was Elder Moroni Torgan. I hadn't heard of him until I got here, but he had great words for us. He helped us see how we could MAJORLY improve. We´ll see how the next transfer goes with the many changes we get to make. 

    Our ward now houses 4 companionships of missionaries. I think our zone leaders who are now joining our ward are actually splitting their work between 2 different areas....does that mean we have 3.5 companionships? Our bishop is really excited. My entire district now serves in the same ward. This transfer is going to be crazy.

     Elder Torgan had a lot of advice for us, but one piece I found was particularly interesting about faith. He shared examples of Book of Mormon prophets/missionaries and talked about the faith they must have had to have seen the miracles they did. He asked then, what the difference was between our faith and the faith of those who lived in the time of Christ and in the Book of Mormon. Why is it they saw so many miracles? Because they had more faith. He told us that if we all had faith like missionaries in the Book of Mormon, then we would see miracles like those in the Book of Mormon. That´s a fair amount of pressure. Eeek!

    I get to serve as sister training leader again this transfer. I am stoked. It´s incredible to see the other sisters working. As you already know, I get to be companions with Sister Marchant again too, uau! We put on our white board this transfer as well as the last a goal to not be transferred. Apparently it works. Who knows, maybe I´ll stay with her until the end of my mission?

    Just as a quick ode to you Dad, I remember, by heart, how to make apple pie. Thank you for being such a great teacher. This afternoon I´ll be making apple pie at the home of one of the irmãs. It is something Brazilians only know from American films. She said I needed to make one just for her and then another to share at FHE that night which is at her house. 

    We lost two of our wonderful missionaries today. An elder and sister who both went home for health problems. One was our mission choir director who was helping us prepare for a multi-stake musical fireside. The other was a sister I was blessed to serve with for about a week or so and is Sister Leite´s companion. She was one of the first to meet the virtue scarf. Its hard to watch people go home sick. 

     Just so you know, you all looked beautiful yesterday. Sister Marchant says you all look like me....I think that it usually goes the other way around, that I look like you, but that's ok. Eu amo vocês muito. Até a semana que vem.

Sister Hoggan

P.S. Alena, I believe it is Hoggan family tradition to graduate barefoot. At least that's what you all told me when I finished high school. Just saying. You can do whatever you so please with this information.

What, Its Mother`s day!?

Dear Family!  

    Nobody has any idea what day Mother´s Day is here. It dawned on us all this week....we get to talk to our families on Sunday! Boy am I sure excited. I'm excited for you all to meet Sister Marchant too. Her birthday was yesterday and a couple of the members planned her a surprise party.

   I don't think I'm getting in a whole lot of words this week because I'm trying to send lots of pictures, but its ok because I love you all and will talk to you face to face in less than a week. Eeek!  Thanks for being so wonderful.

Sister Hoggan

Goals: Don't get stressed, Don't get transferred.

Note the monkeys in the tree.

Bananas!

Add caption

Ninja missionaries

New shoes and old shoes

Eeek, the chicken´s on the floor!

Hi Wonderful Family of mine!

     I hope you are having a great week. I am glad to hear that Tutu is doing so much better. One of the ways I know my grandmother is the best, is that she trains for the Tinman triathlon less than a week after having cancer! But hey, its Tutu, what do you expect..? There is no stopping that woman.

    Alena, I sure hope that whoever buys your senior project puts it on display somewhere because I would really like to see it up close. It was cool on the wall in the picture, but I think it would be even greater in person. 

    This week was nuts, as most of them are. We went on....divisions! I thought I knew all the sisters in our mission but apparently there are a couple I have yet to meet. I worked with one of them this week, Sister Sidan. She´s from Argentina. We had a great time, but I think I should start taking an umbrella on divisions with me because we arrived at their house and it starting pouring rain. Luckily it stopped once we started working. We had lunch with one of the sisters in their ward. She gave us pão de mel...which means honey bread, but I didn´t see honey anywhere. It looked more like a giant hostess cupcake (ding dongs?), but she filled some with coconut, others with doce de leite, brigadeiro...it was goooooood.

    We also had another day where we went to the chapel and had mission choir practice. Our choir is about 25 missionaries; we are preparing for a musical fireside in July that we are going to give. President however hosted a fireside this week and wanted us to sing. We started at 9 am and went until the fireside at 7 pm with a couple hours for lunch and dinner. That´s a lot of singing. Just saying. But I liked it a lot, so it´s okay.

     So this fireside was 25 American missionaries who served in Brazil between the years 1948 and 1970. They are all adorable old men and their wives. A few shared their testimonies and president spoke at the end. One of the younger missionaries that was visiting (he was about 50) translated everything into English for the non-Portuguese speaking wives. He was having a bit of a hard time, he understood about 80 percent. It was really funny because all of the speakers spoke English perfectly they were just speaking in Portuguese for the members. Whenever the translator messed up or didn't understand the speaker quite right, the speaker himself would mutter the right word to the translator and the translator, who was also American, would repeat. Group Portuguese....it was quite the laugh. One of the Brazilian sisters who is learning English decided to help the American translator too. Group English from the Americans and Brazilians. It was also pretty funny. Also, the fireside was meant to start at 7:30, but the visiting Americans got lost on the way to the chapel. It doesn't help that our neighborhood is mostly one-way streets. Anyway, they arrived at 9:30 and the fireside ended at 10:30. We got to stay for all of it. President announced though that every missionary had to be given a ride home. Sweet. We didn't sing nearly as well as we had hoped, but the fireside was a tender experience. 

    I love you all pass-along-cards and sunscreen. Hunches and bunches.

Sister Hoggan

Patterns of Light

Dear Mom and Dad,

    Way to many things to share and waaay too little time. HAPPY BELATED EASTER!!! I hope it was a good one. Considering Tutu left the hospital, I think we can safely say it was a good one. I have the strongest Grandma in the world. Boy am I happy she's getting better. Thanks for keeping me updated. Did somebody give her a big hug from me? Thanks.

     The last week of Christ´s life is a huge holiday here. People stopped working on about Wednesday and everyone is on holiday until today.  Which means nobody went to church this week. I think all of our investigators traveled...sad. But hey, they are all with their families so I can't complain too much. Families are the greatest. There is a series of 3 videos on the Church website called `patterns of light` that I hear are pretty great if you want to take a look. We watched the first one on Sunday during lunch. 

     While walking to our last appointment yesterday we stopped to talk to a group of men at the park. One of them apparently paints pictures on tile with one finger. He showed us his painting which he did with just one finger. Thats right, one finger. He asked if he could paint us one...sure, why not. So this 60 year old man ran one, grabbed his paints, and painted each of us the sunrise with just one finger. Its drying in my apartment. 

    I went on divisions this week with sisters in another area. I was companions with....Sister Leite for a day. Its really interesting to see how the other sisters progress. It was a great day, and we had a really tender experience teaching the Restoration at the end of it.

    Ben..... MAN, CONGRATULATIONS. When are you moving? I saw when classes start, but when are you moving? A masters, in 11 months, is that normal? But seriously, congrats. I always knew you were a genius.              

     Dad, go ahead and grab my mountain bike from Aunt Susie´s house. Mom using it would be far better than it rotting, that's true. There should be a helmet with it too. If she decides she doesn't like the bike, you can sell it too if you would like.

Anyway, that was my one hour. Boy does it pass fast.

Te amo muito!

Sister Hoggan

Sister, you are going to have a hard time adjusting to English when you go home.

Sister Wonderful Family of Mine,

     So apparently I won't get to write anybody separately this week. We lead divisions this week for the first time. We started with the sisters that live in our house. This week we will be branching out to one of the other areas here. We will get to have lots of sleepovers this transfer because of divisions. It was great. I got to be companions with my companion from the MTC. My companion, who is 19 years old, went on divisions with another sister who is 27...what do I teach her she asked? Don't think about teaching her, just go love her and whatever you need will come. Teach each other. It was fun. And funny. It think 2 Americans surprises people. They are used to always seeing a Brazilian and American together.

     THANK YOU for sending me new shoes. I suggested Merrills or whatever they are called because another sister has a pair and says they are great. Hopefully you found out my size from what was in my closet. You really are the best family ever. Thanks. 

     Thanks for filling me in about Tutu too. I know sometimes people don't like to share news from home with missionaries because they think missionaries will get distracted or what not. I like to know. I hope things go well in the hospital, that the doctors are really nice to her, and the hospital bed is comfy (sometimes they aren't...). I love you Tutu!

     I got to watch the General Women`s broadcast this week. It was all in Portuguese. We had 3 American Sisters watching, but all in Portuguese. Its weird hearing them translate conferences out of your native language and into something that is slightly harder to understand. The talks were great, and I loved when they had all the little girls stand up and sing to their mommies. 

    Our friend and recent convert Debora was called as Young Women´s president this week. She's been a member about 3 weeks. She's a bit nervous, but we all know she will do a good job. And, more importantly, Heavenly Father knows she is going to do a good job. It is fun explaining everything about the YW's program to her...Personal Progress and all. There´s alot to understand about the YW's program. The recent convert of the elders, Tiago, was called as our ward mission leader. Hurrah! We didn't really have one before. Tiago is also excited about his calling, but a bit nervous as well. He really wants to serve a full time mission but is 26 and has to wait a year before he can serve and I think the cut off is 27.  Being sad that he can't serve like us like he so much wants to, he is stoked be responsible to work with us all the time. He too will do a great job. Just weeks as new members and God has huge work for them to do already. 

     The Gospel really is Great. I was reading in the Book of Mormon this week and came across the story of Sherem in Jacob chapter 7. I never noticed before how great Jacob is. It says that Sherem specifically sought out Jacob because he knew of the greatness of Jacob´s testimony. He must have had an incredible testimony for an Anti-Christ specifically decide to come after him. Great story, and pretty short too. 

     Just so you know, I love you all ALOT. Can someone give Tutu a big hug for me please, and Grandma Shari. Best grandmas ever, just saying.

 

tem um otima semana!

Te amo, 

Sister Hoggan