What happens when you drive down a snow mobile road??

The anwser is you get stuck and pray with all your might. Not that I would know.. pfffttt who would do a stupid thing like that 🤥🤥 haha

 

February 18th: So today we finally got to leave the apartment!! Yay!! We were only stuck inside a day and a half but it felt like forever!! We had a phone call lesson with Frank..but we were scraped ice off our car for 30 minutes and forgot to put in a lesson soooo we just taught the Plan of Salavation..coming up with the lesson plan on the spot but it worked and was sorta good!! #wetriedandthelordmagnifyed. Anywwhooo then we went to this bonnie area called Richland and met the Jewells! (This senior couple in our ward) we brought them cookies! There dogs were so skittish but honestly I'd rather that than a dig that tries to rip my face off. We talked about the resurrection with them and it was a pretty good spiritual thought! Then we went knocking out in the cold and kicked around a piece of ice and no one was interested but I did read a scripture to one guy..turns out he was mostly deaf so he had no idea what I was talking about! Then we visited this inactive family and the son was shoveling on the roof and the dad came out and said "Your not done yet??" And the son was like "it's a lot of ice!!" And the dad was like "so??" The son had a hammer and was Chippen away the best he could..we talked to the dad a bit and he was really funny and we read 1nephi 3:7 with him! Then we knocked on this guys house and he was butt naked! Thank goodness the door covered his bottom half. it's so surprising how many NYkers open the door naked. 

February 19th: We had a lesson with Leyna! She is so cute and Sister Rettig joined! We talked about the importance of Preisthood power for baptismes! We visited another inactive family and brought them cookies! We had to trudge through like three feet of snow to get to the front door but toats worth itttt! We talked about trails and how to overcome them with God's help! She said her mom had a saying "this too shall pass, like a kidney stone, but it'll pass"! Then we had a crazy lesson with Art and the gang ( well just Bill and tammy) we didn't even get a prayer in..Bill started it with polygamy and how the "OG" Mormon Bible says you can have 5 wives and how the one we brought is the "NY" bible! We couldn't really teach cause Bill kept interrupting with crazy off topic things ending with how he was raised by wolves ( mogely??) And how the wolves fed him deer meat and killed ten people in his backyard...then the FBI came and shot his "family". Anyways then a bunch of finding after that

February 20th: We had exchanges today!! All of us shoveled the church drive way! We had a bold lesson with Frank about progressing towards baptism and he said don't push me..so we are gonna stop teaching him cause he's been taught for an eternity. Then we went knocking and found a girl who was really interested but her mom said Go AWaY!! And so we ran outta there. Then we met this cool guy named Stan!! And stan is a stud! He was interested in meeting again and talking! We had dinner at the Rettigs and told them to flip to a random page in the BOM and the verse we read was exactly what she needed to hear!! 

February 21st: 7 months!! Woohoo!! We had Zone Conference today and I gave the spiritual thought to half the mission!! It was scary but I think I did a pretty good job!! I got to see my old comps again! We had a lesson with Crystal and she really wants to get baptized but she has a lot going on so ease pray for her! Then we had an awesome lesson with our bud Randy about baptism the preisthood and the Holy ghost!! I'm so happy he is starting to open up to us!

February 22nd: Today was zone council Sister prettyman gave a killer training on how the best members participating in lessons is members in the scriptures! Then we met this lady named faith who kept talking about really uncomfortable things so we left really fast. 

February 23rd: BEST SUNDAY EVAAa me and Sister Prettyman sang in church, had a great lesson in YWs and Crystal and her daughter came to church! After church is when things got baddddd...so we went to Bills place and the gang and they said to come another time so while we were following Google maps it told us to go down this one road and apparently it was a snow mobile road!! We got totally stuck in the snow!! We prayed for help and not even two seconds later some snowmobile people helped us out! And then they said we would probably have to get a tow but we really didn't wanna get a tow cause then mission pres would find out and all these other peeps so we prayed again and the snow mobile people gave it one more try and they got the car unstuck!! Halayloooyahhhhh!! 

Spiritual thought: faith is an action word!! Believe God will answer your prayers! Have faith your obedience will lead to miracles and always have charity with others cause you don't know what they are going through! 1nephi 19:9. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/r6iUtVGvj2wDnh1o7

-♡ Sista Hodges :)

ICE STORM!! ❄️

 Hi everyone!! I hope you had a marvelous week and all your dreams came true...

February 11th: We had a lesson w/Frank and Sister Giovo about Jesus!! BTW I just love Sister Prettyman! We get along soo good :). After that we drove to Rick's & helped him shovel his drive way!! So we helped shovel for a bit and he isnt interested in the gospel at all RIP jk it was worth it to do service..anways we went to go help Frank find a dog..we never found it but we did get to meet Franks dog George and he was super super friendly. Frank said we could drive his snow mobile and ngl it looked pretty fun but we didn't cause mission rule number 57 says you can't drive Franks snowmobile..jk but yeah we just didn't wanna get hurt. Then after weekly planning we went to Kae Kaes basketball game and even though they lost it was still a great game and we were happy we got to support our members.Then we had a lesson with April about the sabbath day and why we keep it holy! 

February 12th: We had District Council today! We talked about how important it is to bring the spirit into lessons and how to do that :) but we had to leave early to help Rick shovel some more. We were shoveling for 2 hours. Many New Yorkers say this is the worst winter they've had in years. So after we shoveled Rick to freedom we had a street we wanted to knock and no one was interested but I believe we planted some sturdy seeds..and we talked to this nice old guy named Scott on the side of the road and he was cool but he wasn't interested at all. Then we had a cute interaction with Al and Buster!! Al had the thickest NY accent ever and I love it! Al said that he really appreciates us and he wants us as friends but he's not interested in learning. We dropped off cookies to April and Amanda and then practiced for our musical number.

February 13th: So today was one of the BEST DAYS EVA! We had a lesson with Frank on the phone bout the restoration and the preisthood power and Franks really opening up to us!! After the lesson we talked a bit with him as if we were besties and he always gives us a heads up if there is a snow storm. Then we had an awesome lesson with Leyna about Jesus Christ! His earthly ministry, his gospel, his love towards everyone, his forgiveness, his atonement, his resurrection and all the christ like attributes! Then we invited her to study one christ like attribute this week and we said we would send her one faith scripture a day cause she chose faith! And I just came up with this invitation on the spot. Sister Prettyman said that was one of the best invitations ever and Leyna gas had some cool experiences while studying faith! Then we went to go help the food bank in Mexico!! Now me and my dad served in Mexico!! ( yes there is a Rome NY and a Mexico NY) anyways it was really fun helping at the food pantry and Jamie kept whistling "if I only had a brain" by wizard of Oz and it was really funny! Then we Bills lesson! At Bills there were two ten year old girls stacy and Kyline and then Tammy and Shelia and Art! So we taught all these people God is loving and the restoration! It was seriously the most spirit filled lesson ever! I loved everything about it! We helped Stacy pray and it was so cute! Then the whole fam wanted a Book of Mormon! You get a Book of Mormon and you get a Book of Mormon!! God's in all the details!! Then we had a phone call with this lady from New Jersey!

Valentines Day! I fr forgot it was valentines day cause we were just finding almost the entire day..but Sister Rettig saved us and got us some hot coco mugs full of chocolate! It was really sweet and made my day! We knocked a ton of houses today and everyone was like "go inside, your gonna freeze to death and only one lady was slightly interested. And there was this really scary dog. We drove all the way to Randy's and he lives in Perish and in Perish they were currently having a snow storm so we gave him a Book of Mormon and skidatled home..an had a lesson with him on the phone. 

February 15th: Today was really fun, we had all finding today and we bought these dinosaur eggs cause why not. Anyways no one was interested but we did a lot of knocking. Then we seriously took an entire road trip to have a lesson with Sally about the Bible! She is the BEST and she made us cookies. And there was a snow mobile race thing at our finding area so thatt was cool. Then I got a call that night that I have to give the spiritual thought at Zone Conference!! 

February 16th: No church:( all the church's in Syracuse were canceled cause of the ice storm! But we did a bizzilion phone calls and played in the snow and made a snow man ☃️  

Spiritual thought: This week I've been reading about Abinadi He is so cool! He has so much faith in Jesus and Heavenly Father that he knew even when going up in flames that they loved him and that every thing would be okay. I strive to be more like Abinadi

-❤️ sista Hodges :)

Kicked out of TOPS!

I swear people that shop at Tops arent a fan of missionaries...anywho I love you all and I had a pretty splendid week!! My journal entries just keep getting shorter and shorter sooo bare with me!! And this p day is shorter as well..

Feb 4th: We had a mini lesson with our friend Al, he had some question about Joesph Smithbut unfortunately a car was trying to get past us so we couldn't talk that long! Then we had a phone call with Sam ( THE GOAT) fr that's what it says on his contact...he just wanted to talk about plastic forks and how they are bad for us?? Then we had a cool lesson with Frank about WOW and we promised him that we would drink no more soda if he stopped smoking..(imagine in the future when my husband asks why I don't drink soda..) anyways it was kinda bizarre but go big or go home right! We had a lesson about the fall of adam and eve with April! 

Feb 5th: We met this old guy named Dwayne and had a lesson about prophets with him and he seemed nice, his granddaughters...not so much..I mean they were to us but not eachother so we casually tried to talk to him as they yelled in the background. Then a bunch of finding!!

Feb 6th: went to see our bud Al but he wasn't home only his dog buster!! We went to Mexico NY and found this cool guy named Darrien who took Bible classes and wants to know more!! ( triple take!! Incredible catch!!) Then we met this super cool dude named Nelson and on his timeliness in PMG it said he was not interested but he was interested when we taught him, it's funny how the Lords timing works! Then we made cookies and delivered them and got to share a spiritual message with the Givos! 

Feb 7th: We had a lesson with Crystal about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and about Lehis dream and the Iron rod! Then we drove through a crazy white out Strom to get to Thomas's house and he was sleeping...but his cousin woke him up and we had a mediocre lesson about the restoration..jk jk it was good, he was just really tired...

Feb 8th: Wewent finding at Tops and the parking lot was so small we were almost just doing donuts around all the cars!! Yeehaww it was so fun we didn't let anyone go til we talked to them until the manager stomped over and kicked us out and for some reason it was really funny! We had a lesson with this old lady named Sally and she actually remembered us coming!! Like she had mugs out for herbal tea and everything!! It was crazy!! ( fr most people we set up lessons with forget and we just show up ready or not haha) we were supposed to talk about the plano but for some reason I started talking about prophets..inspiration??? Or do I just need to study the order or the principals better or maybe it was a mixture of both idk but it was kinda interesting cause she's a hard core..of a diffrent religion.

Feb 9th: CHUrCh!!! Bro Johnson had a killer talk about the atonement and then president also had a talk on atonement and then we went to YWs and had a great time there! We had back to back lessons today and by the end of the day I was so exhausted I crawled to my bed and was out by 10.

Spiritual thought: A good missionary is a missionary who has faitha and believes there plans are effective. A good missionary doesn't just fill time! 

- love sista Hodges 💕