Blacks and the Bible

 

 

It was a great week here in Jessamine county! Sister West and I were able to start teaching a great family that's met with a lot of missionaries in the past. The mom, Dee, is a big black lady who's engaged to a little French man, Pierre. Dee has five kids, her youngest with Pierre. All of her kids have crazy African names and it's taken me forever to memorize them, but I have them down now! We've talked a lot to her older daughter Kye (the only easy name). She's never really had a relationship with God so we've been sharing a lot about prayer and who God is. It's been fun teaching her since she's the same age as me and we connect really well.

 

The other day when Sister West and I were first getting to know Dee and her family we thought it would be a great idea to invite their family to a fireside in Louisville that was going to be about "Blacks and the Bible"--great title, right? Dee had mentioned right before how one thing that bothered her about our church was that our pictures never represented black people. Taking the cue Sister West says, "We're actually having a talk being given about blacks and the Bible in Louisville this Sunday if you'd like to come." Then Dee was like "blaaackks??" All dramatic and like Sister West had said something horrible! And I'm in horror sitting between them really awkwardly not knowing what to say or do till Dee breaks the awkwardness and says that she wasn't offended, she just was clarifying sooo that relieved the awkward elephant in the room. In the end they didn't end up going but Sister West and I still got to go with our other investigator, Judy. It was a very interesting fireside about how blacks really are in the Bible. One of Noah's son's, Ham, was black and Brother Darius Gray walked us all the way through geneology in the Bible that leads to Christ having black roots way back. Best line was "It's important to know who we are as well as who's we are."

Just Pictures This Week

This is what the vicious japanese chickens look like.

The japanese dogs, Momo and Noboo, that look like the guy from Star Wars that says "it's a trap!" annnd Hazel the barking chiwuaia

When Animals Attack

Well this week was a jump srtart ot a new transfer!

 

It was all going pretty well till the animals of Kentucky decided to hate me again. It all started when we were giving service to some of our members. They asked us to gather their little herd of chickens and put them in their chicken coop. These chickens that they own aren't just your run of the mill terror-raptors. These are the fluffiest, harmless looking, japanese chickens.Gathering fluffy cute chickens, piece of cake right? Wrong. Sister West was successful with the first couple of hens who honestly, aren't the smartest chickens in the coop. After a little bit of scrambling we get three hens in and we're left with a rooster and the last hen. The whole time Sister West is catching chickens the rooster is getting more and more upset. He's cawing, scratching the ground and flapping his wings in frustration since his precious hens are being captured. Then he just gets vicious and starts charging me! Sister West is off in the distance trying to outsmart a chicken while I'm running away from a rooster who's trying to attack me! Finally after the rooster decides to run to his precious hens clucking in their coop. As he goes to their rescue we slam the coop door and trap him inside! Now he's really upset! Sister West and I finally remember that their is some chicken scratch and lure the last hen towards the coop while the rooster is just going crazy as we trick the bird into finally being captured! Now when we go back to see the chickens they get really upset, so we just stay away from them as much as possible now.

 

Hope ya'll have a great week!

 

Sister Hodges

6 Months. With Sister Vikari!

Head to Heart

September 1, 2013

I've seen a reoccuring theme on my mission. There have been several moments where something that I'd grown up learning in the church went from my head to my heart. Like, I knew that we had a prophet on the earth today that leads and guides our church, but I didn't realize that we need a prophet with the authority from God to establish the Plan of Salvation and help of understand our relationship with our Heavenly Father.

 

Today, I had one of those head to heart experiences. Throughout my whole mission I've used the scripture Moroni 10:3-5 TONS of times. I love laying out really clearly what you need to do to find out if the Book of Mormon is true. I was studying prayer today and pondering how I could improve my communication with my Heavenly Father. Preach My Gospel referred me to that same scripture. I almost didn't turn to it since I pretty much know it by heart now, but I had this desire to read it again. As I read, the light-bulb came on! Not only were these few verses a guideline for how to know if the Book of Mormon is true, it was a guideline for personal revelation!: Remember, Ponder, Pray-with sincerity, real intent, & faith in Christ, and seek for the Holy Ghost to let you know all truth.

 

"If you want to talk to Heavenly Father, Pray. If you want to hear Him talk back, read the scriptures."

 

Sister Hodges

It's not Hodgenville, its HodgeSville! (That's where Sister Priebe was serving:))

Stormy! Our members cat

Tobacco scary house!

 

 This is me in a "cacoon" that sister west put me in since we stayed the night in a fridge. 

Just kidding a sisters apartment that was freezing.

A Day In The Life of Sister Hodges

SUNDAY AUG 25 2013

6:30 AM Wake up, shower, get all nice for church!

8:00 AM Ward Council.

9:30 AM Greet people at door/praying investigators will show up.

10:00 AM Sacrament Meeting- Sister West gives a bomb talk on the importance of the Sacrament.

11:00 AM Gospel Principles with Recent Converts.

12:00 PM Relief Society.

1:00 PM Run around after church trying to talk to various people.

1:30 PM Knock on doors of various people whom we'd gotten referred to the day before by other random people we talked to on the street while riding bikes. 

2:30 PM Lesson with Terry. When we walked up to his trailer he was de-fleeing his dog. At first glance it looked like he was plucking a dead chicken. We taught him a lot of random things starting with the Plan of Salvation and ending with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He's struggled with choices he's made trying to make a living and we tried emphasizing how through Christ the burden of those choices can be lifted and we can find peace. 

3:15 PM Contacted another referral in the same trailer park. Nice guy who is recently starting to struggle with his belief in God. He said he used to read the Bible a lot and seemed interested in family history. We'll be back. 

4:00 PM Dinner with the Wach's. LOVE them and their family! Had a great message with them about the Restoration. Loved feeling the spirit in their home.

5:30 PM Tracted their street. Knocked lots of doors. Met some of their neighbors who love the Wach's and seemed very interested in the BoM! We told them we'd be back next Sunday to share more.

6:30 PM Tried contacting a less-active near the Wach's. Met a funny older man of seemed annoyed but humored by us. He told us they moved to Salt Lake on a street called Martin Luther....not sure if that would be a legit address in Salt Lake...

7:00 PM Tried another less-active and met him! His name is Thomas. Was nice, but doesn't like going to church. He told us that his neighbor was Ryan Hannigan, who's the number one catcher for the Cinncinati Reds. 

7:30 PM Tried Mr. Thomas' neighbor. Nice guy who said his name was Steven answered the door. Said we could try back again earlier another time. 

7:35 PM Tracted more of the street and talked to a man who had read anti-material for a while. Nice guy. Wasn't interested. 

8:45 PM Headed home.

9:00 PM Planned for the next day.

9:30 Filled out area book

10:30 Comfy clothes and bed! 

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

August 19, 2013 

You'll never guess who I met yesterday. Santa Claus. Who would've thought that he'd be bumming around just south of Lexington right? And get this. He's already Mormon! Problem is, he doesn't attend church currently...but we'll see about that in a week or so. He likes to wear a WWJD bracelet and pairs it off with a Jessamine Christian Church bracelet. He was also very excited to tell us about an LDS Bible he found at Goodwill for a dollar and 25 cents. We look forward to visiting with him again sometime this week. Maybe he'll clue us in on how he gets to all of those houses in one night.

Anyways, besides having the privilege to meet Santa Claus, I've been able to learn LOTS these past couple of weeks. I was able to attend a couple of different meetings with a few different speakers from the 70. The first 70 I was able to hear from was Elder Kopischke. He was really great with a cool accent and all. He taught us about how to be leaders and how my companion and I could better help our sisters and our mission. This past Monday we had a mission tour with Elder Nash. He is an amazing teacher! He and his wife taught us a lot about following the spirit. One thing that Sister Nash said that really stood out to me was "contention, whether you're justified or right, is always wrong and chases away the spirit." She continued to talk about how important it is to distinguish what takes away from us feeling the spirit along with what invites it.

It's been a great past couple of weeks and I hope ya'll have a good one!

Sister Hodges

Yup, there was a tree blocking our driveway sooo we hiking about a half mile to our house. In the dark. With wild creatures around us.