Knocking On Our Door

This past week was just as crazy as the one before, if not more crazy.

We were able to pick up pick up our area more this week and found some great new investigators!

I exchanged with the Tates Creek Bike Sisters and spent a day on a bike in a part of Lexington. It was so great! I LOVE being on a bike! Even if it was super hot and I was sweating like a mother bear. Sister Kuenzle, the sister I spent the day with, was so fun to be with! She's from Canada so it was fun to hear her say sorry and bag. The most eventful part of the day was in the morning when there was a knock on our door. We were a little confused since usually no one comes to a missionary apartment. We open the door and lo and behold there are two Jehovah Witness missionaries. Whoa. I don't think they realized that we were mormon missionaries even with our name tags on. They probably would have run in the other direction. They shared a nice little message with us and offered us a Watch Tower which we kindly declined. Nice ladies. It was interesting being on the other side of the door.

At the end of the week we blitzed with the Berea Sisters which was great. Both of the Sisters had only been out for one transfer so it was great to get to know them more and answer questions on how to help the area. I spent the day with Sister Minson. I got to meet one of their less-active members who says she can interpret dreams which was interesting.

Yesterday was probably the highlight of my week! We got to spend lunch with the Nicholl's (the members we live with) and they told us about how a snake had gotten into the house the day before and was very big and tried to get into the basement which is where we stay. So now I'm on snake alert and informed my companion that if there's a snake that she better keep up with me cause I'm going to be out of sight and sound very quickly. The best part of the day was definitely the broadcast about missionary work! 70,000 missionaries?! It is insane! And all of the changes coming are hard to wrap my mind around. If you didn't see the broadcast, watch it! I'm SO excited though and so grateful to be apart of the work at this exciting time! The Lord really is hastening His work!

Have a great week ya'll!

Sister Hodges

Hello Kentucky!

Well this last week was one of the, if not the, craziest weeks of my life!

 

Sister West and I finally got to our new area on Wednesday after having transfers on Tuesday and spending some time with the first STL's (Sister Trainer Leaders) in Louisville for half a day and meeting with President Woodbury learning what our new responsabilites were going to be. It was a lot of meetings and a lot of driving. But the driving wasn't too shabby since it was in a brand new 2013 Ford Fusion. And I got to put most of the first few hundred miles on it. KInd of awesome.

 

Our new area is called Jessamine and it covers Jessamine county in Kentucky, except for Nicolasville which is right in the middle. So you can imagine a donut, Nicolasville being the donut hole, and us having the donut as our area. It's like being in a whole new world in Kentucky! It's even more green and has hills and is super gorgeous! I love it! They have the craziest nicest horse farms here too! They treat their horses like royalty out here. The nicest horse barns cost more than regualr house rent and include music and air conditioning in their stalls.

 

As Sister Trainer Leaders we will spend two days out of our week blitzing or exchanging with one of the eleven companionships that are in our area. We blitzed with Richmond bike and I got to spend my first full day on a bike and it was so great! And I got awesome tan lines from which. Hello farmers tan.

 

Well this week was definitely an adventure and it's been crazy and I'm loving it and loving being in the Bluegrass State!

 

Hope ya'll have a fantastic week!

 

Sister Hodges

We went on a ferry across the Kentucky River! It was awesome!

One of the many frogs that live in the pond right outside the window next to my super comfy big bed.

                                        Cool metal art place in Mt Vernon

It's a cat!

Sister Pisciotta and I at Transfer Meeting (Her companion in Mt. Vernon)

                               
                                                   

Sister Heywood and I in Richmond when we blitzed

Tan lines from biking all day.

Sisters West (her new companion) and Reeder

Awesome rainbow which the photo does not do it justice.

 

I'm not a psychic, I've seen a white squirrel, and I'm a Mormon.

Well, this week I feel like I had to re-learn a lesson that you would think would be embedded in my mind by now.

 

Knowing that transfers were coming up I made the mistake of thinking that I could guess exacltly what was going to happen to Sister Pisciotta and I. Before making transfer guesses I was already known as a psychic in my district for various reasons. Rolling with that I was so sure that my predictions would be right....well I was so very wrong.

 

The transfer call finally came this Saturday and President told Sister Pisciotta that she would be staying in Mt. Vernon and training. That proved the first part of my prediction wrong since I thought she would be going back to her first area and training. Then President started talking to me and told me that I would be opening an area in Nicholasville, KY which is over by Lexington. Then he proceeded to tell me that I would be a Sister Trainer Leader with Sister West. So I think it's safe to say that I am definitely not a psychic.

 

You'd think I'd know better than to plan out a small part of my life by now since the announcement of the age change by President Monson in October, hence the fact that I'm even here right now, but hey I guess I just really need to know that Heavenly Father's plan is almost always different and better than my own.

 

With that I had a great last week here in Posey-county. I spent one day on exchange in Oleny, Illinois with Sister Roberts. I exchanged with her last transfer so I had the opportunity to go back to the home of the white squirrel again and I SAW ONE! It was SO cool! Highlight of my day! And it was fun of course to see the signs and statues of white squirrels everywhere. These people take serious pride in these white squirrels.

 

It's weird to think that I'm leaving Posey-County since it has become my home in lots of ways. I'm really going to miss the people and all the other great things about Mt. Vernon that I've grown to love. And let's be honest here, packing is no fun. But I know that where ever I go and do, it's where the Lord needs me. And it's for sure going to be an adventure! Everyday is out here!

 

Hope ya'll have a great week!

 

Sister Hodges

 

(P.S. My title comes from the infamous mormon.org site :) )

 

You can go to this site to see what Sister Trainer Leader is:

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-adjusts-mission-organization-implement-mission-leadership-council

Good ole backroad tracting!

Our last district meeting together

White Squirrels!

"I'm sanctified and satisfied"

6/2/13

Hey ya'll!

Well, it was a great week here in Mt. Vernon. We had our first ever Sister Conference in our zone. Cause I'm pretty sure the sisters are taking over the mission work...just kidding...kind of. It was a great conference with President and Sister Woodbury. They always say just the right thing that helps with whatever we've been going through at that point on our mission. I'm so blessed to have such great mission leaders.

The day after our conference Sister Mickelsen came back to Mt. Vernon with Sister Loveless from Evansville and blitzed for a day so I spent the day with Sister Loveless and of course it was an adventure! Sister Loveless has been under some stress latley since she had found out that day that her senior companion, amazing Sister Earl, has to go home early due to illness. Since this is Sister Loveless's first transfer that is a lot to suddenly take on! We were able to talk about how the Lord doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. We have such a great opportunity as young missionaries to be given greater responsibilites without as much experience to learn more fully how to rely on the Lord for our strength and guidance. Heavenly Father loves each of us enough to allow challenges to come into our life so that we can learn and progress from those things and look back and see how those experiences shaped us into the people we are today.

At the end of our day tracting Sister Loveless and I knocked on a door and after we tried to talk to him he said, "I've already been to church today and I'm sanctified, satisfied, and I need to go back to the bathroom. So goodbye." He won the quote of the day.

As we've taught new invesitgators this week I've noticed how many of them had very rough patches in their lives. They have gotten to points where they've hit rock bottom and at that point they chose to turn to God. As we've taught them the Gospel I can see how those challenges they've had in their past, whether they be self infllicted or not, humbled them and allowed them to turn to God. As they've done that it's been great helping them build on that faith in teaching them about the restored gospel.

Looking back on the week Ether 12:27 sticks out in my mind. "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." I know what this verse says is true. I've seen it in my life, especially serving our here and in the lives of those I teach. As we turn to our Heavenly Father with faith in Him, our weaknesses can become strengths. He can enable us to do things we never imagined we could.

Well, I hope ya'll have a great week!

Sister Hodges

Oh no, knats, woof.

5/28/13

It was a good week here in Posey County!

We taught Trish and Ronnie this past week and went over concerns they've had. We elaborated more on faith and read from Mark when Christ calms the storm while they're at sea. The apostles still feared since they didn't understand that they had no need to with the Savior being with them. They're coming along and reading the Book of Mormon lots so now we're working on getting them to come to church.

After the lesson Ronnie was like "So are you ready to hold a snake now?" and I was like weellll alright! Let's try it! So we go down the stairs into their terrifying snake room and Sister Pisciotta was like your face is super red and I was shaking pretty bad, but I made it all the way down the stairs! And Ronnie pulls out his little ball python and Sister Pisciotta held part of it while Ronnie held the head. Then it came time for me to try and touch it and it took me a REALLY long time to think about it while I was looking at it. My finger hoverd over it for a while, it was like the feeling you get before cliffjumping, and I finally touched it! Annd I reacted like it shocked me lol, I jumped pretty bad, it was pretty hilarious haha. But hey, I touched a snake! Next step is actually holding it!

I guess I was talking in my sleep this past week according to Sister P and I said "Oh no, knats, woof." (woof is my replacement word I've come up with for my mormon "cuss" words) But Sister P and I gave in and went to the co-op here in town and got this amazing bug spray that keeps those terrible buffalo knats away! And it smells like mint lavendar and roses! So it's a win win!

We had zone conference this past week and it was SO great! President and Sister Woodbury talked to our zone and it was just what I needed to learn about! That's how it always seems to work here!

I hope ya'll had a great week and Memorial Day!

Sister Hodges