5 Months In!

At The Zoo

Hello!

Just so you know, I have the best mission presidents ever in the
history of mission presidents. I love Sister and President Griffin so
much!! Sister Griffin came out with us for a few hours on Saturday,
and it was a blast! We knocked a lot of doors and talked to some
pretty crazy people. Which was super fun, because Sister Griffin is
the nicest most innocent person ever, and would be testifying of
Christ while people are yelling at us that they are atheist and "ya
can't change what I believe!" I hope all of you get to meet pres and
sis Griffin one day.
 

Some investigator updates:

Andres: he came to church!!!! We were so happy! He said he enjoyed it,
and we barely saw him the whole time which means he was hanging out
with the members and other missionaries. We are teaching him the word
of wisdom tonight. I'm not super nervous about it because I think his
only problem is tea. We are super excited! We want to put him on date
soon as well, the teaching environment just hasn't been the best this
past week. Hopefully tonight or later this week. We had a pretty
touching moment during weekly planning. We didn't know what date he
would be ready for baptism, so we decided to pray. I did it in English
and the spirit was super strong. I realized how much I love Andres and
wish so much that he knew the truth for himself. I cannot stress how
important every single soul is to God! I've had the opportunity to
feel that love of God for other people (In a Small degree) from time
to time, and Andres is definitely one of them. He is so special you
guys. Pray for him please. 

Aline: we have not had any contact with her, but we saw her mom at the
food pantry! Step by step. 

Gabriella: we taught the restoration at the home of the Ortiz sisters,
two single sisters in our Ward. Gabriella is their friend from work.
It was a powerful lesson, there were tears shed and scriptures read.
We had a follow up lesson with her Sunday but she canceled. Prayers
for Gabriella!! 

 Wil Paul: a man we met while contacting. He is college age and speaks
English, so our next lesson is a pass-off lesson to the English
elders. He is amazing though! He had so many genuine questions, was
very respectful, and we could tell he really was searching for the
truth. He read the whole pamphlet before our lesson, which only
sometimes happens. We are excited to see how he progresses with the
elders. 

 Cecilia: we love Cecilia! She is the sweetest! We stopped by to visit
her and ended up talking to her for nearly 30 min about some struggles
she is overcoming, and what to do. We set up a time to come back
because we had another appointment. That day she called us a few hours
before to see if we were still coming! That may not seem like a big
deal but that never happens with investigators. When we arrived she
gathered her whole family in the living room and asked us to pray with
them. We said a prayer, and talked to them for a bit, expecting the
older kids to leave (they didn't want to be there originally). But no
one left, and we ended up teaching the whole family the restoration!
It was awesome! We talked to Cecilia for a bit alone after the lesson,
and we asked if there was anything we could do to help her. She said
she was having a huge 3-4 day yard sale and had a lot of stuff to move
to the front yard. The next 3 mornings (not 4 because we can't do
things like this on Sunday) we went to her house and
moved/organized/cleaned stuff for her yard sale. It was so so fun!
Plus we bought some random shirts for local and not-so-local sports
teams from her sale. You can never have too many workout shirts! :) 

We were leaving an appointment on Friday when a huge white van pulls
over to the side of the road right by us. We were a bit surprised, and
a little worried until we saw a beautiful smiling face of a Latino
lady in her late 30s. She started excitedly talking Spanish to us, and
it turns out she is a member from California! Her name is Hermana
Janet and husband (in the drivers seat) Felix is not a member. They
are in the area for a few days for work, and wanted to visit the
Chicago temple. We sadly didn't have the address they needed, but we
gave them the address to the church for if they were still in town by
Sunday. And they came! It was so awesome to sit by them and talk to
them about their son who is serving a mission right now, and about our
investigators. I miss them already! What a great blessing to have met
them. 

We just had a great zone activity where we did the usual: soccer,
volleyball, Frisbie, Football. It was at a forest reserve park, super
pretty. 

Hmna Walton had a dream that we were in Mexico and Dwayne The Rock
Johnson bought us tacos. A prophesy? I think so. 

Have a buenísimo semana! 

 Hermana Hokanson 

 1319 Butterfield rd ste 522
Downers Grove IL 60515-5515