TEMPLE TRIP & Averys birthday & 13 months :)

 August 19th: We were scrabbling around so much today it was insane! We had an epic lesson with the Davey family about how Jesus Christ can carry our burdens and played some lacrosse outside which i found out I'm not particularly skilled in but it was fun! Then Carlo came back to town! Halalooya! We had a lesson with him and Sincere! Sincere was pretty high the entire time and then at the end of the lesson pushed every thing off the table and was like "this is how it’s supposed to be!! Nothing on the table!!" And then he jumped on his mini motorcycle..( like I'm not even joking this motorcycle looks like it was made for a 5 year old at best ) and sped off laughing his head off. It was probably the craziest thing id ever seen and one of my biggest regrets ever is not getting it on camera. Anyways we all laughed about that then we went to dinner with the Gaynes and Scottish dancing with the Elders and Nuci and Carlo! Then for institute we played jepordy!! Yay!

August 20th: We had an epic lesson with Clarence! Hes this old guy that sounds just like Clarence on Its a wonderful life except hes from jersey anyways we had a wonderful conversation with him about the Book of Mormon! Then we met up with Brother Brhel at the library like always and he gave us some tomatoes from his garden!! Hes such a sweet soul! Then we had a quick lesson with Carlo and got his names all figured out! Then we had youth night at the church where we played human battle ship and not to brag but I won twice! Then we had an amazing lesson with John about the plan of Salvation! 

August 21st: Averys birthday and my 13 months as a missionary! We had another lesson with Sincere and hes not super interested anymore but he pulled up in his little yellow motorcycle so that was sick! Then we had a lesson with Clyde and Shadia and a lesson with Sister Van horn and Sister Adkins!!

August 22nd: We weeded Sister Ligoris garden for 2 and a half hours this morning! And then had an amazing lesson with Abrham and his wife Nadgee! And they want to come to church! Then ofc Volleyball night!

August 23rd: seriously the best day of my mission life!! The whole squad going to the temple for the first time ever! Carlo, Chris, Don, Joe, us our other half and the Elders and Nuci! We first went to the Smith farm and had a great time there! Then to the Sacred Grove and me and Carlo had an awesome deep docterine discussion and then we went to eat at a cute lil diner and then the temple and Carlo baptized me for his great grandma for his first time doing baptisms for the dead! Finding Carlo was seriously such a miracle. God is in all the details! Carlo talked about how grateful he was for the gospel and even though Nuci couldn't go into the temple she was crying cause she felt the spirit so strong in the waiting room!and Carlo drove us there and back and seriously it was so much fun being in the car with them!! We all were laughing our heads off!! Best day ever! 

August 24th: SUNDAY! We had six friends at church and we were so happy to see all of them because we were going to stop teaching like half of them and so it was awesome they came to church and then Sam got baptized and 3 men had to baptize him because he can't walk and he was the most hilarious man of all time and then we did some personal study and had Indian food at Chris's and ofc the whole squad was there and we were all just hanging out and laughing and having the best day ever!

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

-♡ Sista Hodges :)

13 months!!! ( on the 21st)

I’ve been a missionary for so long...don't really know what else to say about it! 

August 12th: we went to the Daveys and played some games with them! Then we stopped by a bunch of refurals! One of them sent in a request after we randomly knocked their door a couple weeks previously which is actually so cool so they must have looked up the church website on the card! We had an awesome lesson with John and he keeps telling us how excited he is to get baptized October 5th!! Then we had Scottish dancing and institute!! Yay! Nuci came to both and we all are becoming pretty good Scottish dancers and David's kilt every week freaking kills me lol!

August 13th: we had a lesson with Sincere and he is such a king! We randomly found this guy cause he was playing some hype music so we just followed the sound! Anyways it was raining super hard and we just had a lesson on his front porch and he can talk so much oh my gosh and he told us pretty much his whole life story and how the people who lived in the house before him gave him all this lepercan stuff for saying Patrick's day and he loves it so much he hasn't even used it he just tidies it up here and there. Sooo funny and sweet! Then we had youth night and for that we went to someone's house and helped them clean it! And I got to clean off spider webs oh and this morning there was a massive spider in the shower too!! Lots of spiders today! Then we had an amazing lesson with Nuci and Joe and it was about the restoration and the spirit was so strong and then we asked Joe to say the prayer and at the end he was like "Uh how do you end it again?" And we had to tell him and he was like "oh yeah..in the name of Jesus Christ AMEN!" It was prolly the best prayer ever. Then we had a lesson with Nadiah and Clide about the importance of Church and then a phone call with this old guy named Clarence!

August 14th: we had exchanges in Iticha! While me and Sister bird went to lessons the tire popped in the other car and so the other Sisters had to get a new tire cause there wasn't just a little hole like the tire had a giant slash through it! Oops!! Then we taught the institute lesson and I got to talk to Chad and help him cause he just lost his brother so keep Chad in your prayers!!

August 15th: we had a lesson with the Adams and a lesson with John! John is such a stud muffin and he texts us every single morning "good morning sisters 💕. Cant wait 4 Oct. 5th" its seriously the cutest. Hes just this old man who's about 5ft and always makes the world a better place! Oh and ofc volleyball night! 

August 16th: ZAYNES baptism!! Yay!! Zayne is one of the Elders friends and so we helped at the baptism and then played football after and had hot dogs with Brother changthongthip and his family and then had service and then went finding the rest of the day and found 4 friends!

August 17th: CHURCH!! JOHN AND SINCERE CAME! It was the best ever and Carlo went to church in Staten Island and took a picture of him at church in NYC and there are a lot more members here! he has so much fomo lol upstate NY for the win! Anyways Sincere and John loved church  and sincere talked about how grateful he was for all of us and John leaned over and whispered in my ear.."guess what happens October 5th??? And I just smiled and said "the best day ever! you are getting baptized!" He also had a miracle that day! John had some cigarettes in his white button up shirt and he was gonna go smoke them but then he decided that he actually didn't want to smoke and said he liked just being in church and honestly it was the coolest thing ever! Everyone always asks us why we got cigarettes in our car..John gives us 3 cigs a day :) hes doing awesome!

Love sista hodges :)

Party week! ( not literally but it was just a good week!)

  

August 4th: Had a very awesome lesson with Kimmy about sharing the gospel in normal and natural ways and she's nine so she's very excited to be a missionary at school! And then we met Abraham! Hes super sweet but doesn't know a ton of English, thankfully my comp Sister Hottinger speaks French! 

August 5th: We went to Brother Rudolphs with the Elders because he needed a blessing! We also got to know him a little better and he is super good at the guitar but plays left handed which was cool to watch! And then Elder Johnson needed his back to be popped in that very instant so he layed out on the floor and Elder Widdison walked onto of him to pop it. Lol they crack me up! I felt the spirit during his blessing and he was very grateful to get one! Then we had the most insane lesson with Melisa and she is absolutely nuts! Like insane! But we got some funny videos! Then we had an amazing lesson with John and Carlo joined! We talked about repentance and we made a WOW plan with him and so he puts 3 cigarettes in his mailbox everyday and we come and collect them and so this way he is only smoking 17 a day instead of 20 and so we are so proud of him! Then we had institute and Nuci and Emmanuel came to that! 

August 6th: We took John's cigarettes in the morning and had a cute little spiritual thought with him! A ton of finding, some lessons and then had an epic lesson with Carlo about the kingdoms of glory and it was a deep conversation but so cool, I went to a lesson with the other Sisters friend Alex! And then we set up Carlo, Chris and Joes family history! And then ofc we goofed around and played down by the banks and the floor is lava..lol best night ever! Freaking love the recent converts! 

August 7th: Zone Conference!! It lasted all day cause we live 3 hours from Palmyra but it was so fun and seeing Sister Johnson and Sister Cluff was seriously so amazing! I miss them so much!

August 8th: we were knocking and heard this banger music and so we followed the sound of the music and found this super cool guy named Sincere! He was chill and we set a time to come backThen we threw a surprise birthday party for Elder Johnson!! And played his favorite song on the movie Rio! Lol it was the best! We had a spiritual thought at Sister Joys! And then we had an amazing lesson with Nuci and Chris! It was super deep but exactly what she needed and we just love her so much!! Then Volleyball! And the Rick's came and there Daughter Daphne loves me! And Daphne reminds me of my sister soooo much so she said she wishes I was her older sister! I seriously love her! 

August 9th: Today was so fun! We went blueberry picking with Rachel (recent convert) and her and her husband are so cute! We got sooo many blueberries and so our friends are going to get quite a lot of blueberry treats this week! Then we went to lunch with the district to this super fancy Thai place but I have no money left so I bought the cheapest thing on the menu haha. Then we had a couple lessons fall through and so we made cookies for Clide (recent convert ) and his daughters cause there aunt died :(. Then we went finding downtown and found Kiana and she was super cool and then we had dinner at our mission dad's house! Chris! Us and the Elders and it was seriously so fun! Chris was baptized like 4 weeks ago now and is seriously like my dad on the mission! Hes a science teacher in high school and super goofy! Elder Johnson made homemade pasta with meatballs and my nickname is meatball and so everyone kept laughing about that lol! And then we had 3 lessons back to back! Harryse! We talked about how much Jesus Christ loves us all equally and individually! Then a lesson with Clarence and he just told us all about his life...i think he thinks we are therapist and not missionaries but oh well and then a super long lesson with Sister Adkins an inactive member! But had some cool crazy life experiences!

August 10th: Sunday! Yay! We went to the Greene Branch and gave talks..my talk was supposed to be 20 minutes but it was 12ish so oops sorry sister Hotinger.. but she did great! I was able to watch Elizabeth get baptized on the zoom in pulaksi! That made my heart so happy! We had a lesson with a Spanish family in Greene! Then we drove all the way to a refural who doesn't exist!

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

-♡ Sista Hodges :)