I prefer my fruit with seasoning‏

Hmna Cuevas, who we eat with on Tuesdays

Hmna Training Leaders

Fransisco and fam

Have you ever tried it? There is a wonderful seasoning called Tajin

from Mexico, that is specifically for fruit. I love it a lot,
especially on watermelon. Also an idea I stole from Hmna Osborne, one
of our Hmna training leaders, is to put cinnamon on my fruit, which is
equally yummy! I might not ever be satisfied with normal fruit again!
I hit my 6 month mark this week! It's a bit strange to think I've been
out for 1/3 of my mission, and I'm already seeing the change in myself
that can only come through working hard and serving God. As the
far-from-perfect missionary that I am, I am coming to value every
moment I have here and how I see it changing me, and those around me.
Every moment is an opportunity to be that much better, that much
closer to who you want to be. 

Something that I love about this mission is that it's obedient. We
follow the rules, and we do everything in our power to push forward
the work of Christ. Being in a disobedient mission would be so
frustrating- I am honestly blessed to be here!

The area has been doing great this week! Andres is progressing
rapidly. Hmna Sorensen is awesome, and we're getting a lot done. We
get along pretty well and are completely exhausted every night,
especially the past couple nights! ¡Qué obra! ¡Qué cansado!
We've been reaching out a lot to members this week, and helping them
get involved in the work, specifically with Andres. We hope to help
Andres meet as many people as he can so he has friends in the ward,
and they can help him stay active and involved in the ward. We taught
him in the Monrreals home with Hmna Rodriguez, and at his home with a
young adult in our ward named Ixya. (She is super cool.)
We've also been connecting with a few less-actives and helping them
back into the fold. I feel like the ward is really starting to unify
and feel motivated to participate and help, especially with
less-actives. 

 I've taken up the unhealthy habit of telling everyone I'm from
Jalisco, Mexico. People say there are a lot of light skin/hair/eyes
Mexicans there, so I would fit right in. Usually people give me a look
that says "wait really? I don't believe you" and then they laugh at me
(which is the point of me saying it). But this week, Someone believed
me! She is an older lady, and a bit hard-of-hearing. After we and her
son all explained to her that I'm not Mexican, we thought she
understood. But a couple minutes later she turned to her son and said
(English translation) "but her parents are from Jalisco, right? She
was just born here in America." I was pretty excited that someone
finally thought I was Mexican. :) 

 Some people from this week: 

 Tomas: someone we contacted on the street, turns out he has been
taught by missionaries before! We found him in our records after we
taught him. The cool thing is, when we contacted him he wanted us to
teach him right then, under this tree on someone's porch (not his
porch) in the apartment complex. We had 30 min before curfew, so we
taught him the restoration! He seemed to like it, and we're teaching
him again tonight! 

 Angela: Angela is a miracle investigator. We decided to do something
called Inspired Tracting where we pray and look at a map, and
personally choose some streets that stick out to us, and compare our
lists. Whichever ones we have that are the same, we visit. We ended up
with Archer st, but when we got there it was all businesses! So we
drove around the corner, and saw a Latino lady. She wasn't interested,
but told us her neighbor spoke Spanish. We knocked, asked if we could
show a video, and 10 min later we were teaching her the whole
restoration! It was a great lesson and she has a lot of potential. 

 Eleasar: so. We are dropping Eleazar. Partly because he is moving back
to Mexico, and partly because it was nearly impossible to teach him.
We love him, and hope he finds the gospel some day. We will miss his
harmonica skills! We got a selfie for memory's sake. 

 Cecilia: we taught her a restoration review, and talked about baptism.
She said she's never considered it before, and so we will be working
with her to help her understand it better. But she is going great!

Alondra and Paloma: they are still doing great! We taught the plan of
salvation and talked about the talk from Brad Wilcox called His Grace
is Sufficient. We are eating with their family this week! 

 Fransisco: we had a much happier lesson with Fransisco this week! We
were on exchanges (I stayed in Aurora with Hmna Osborne). Hmna Osborne
has worked with Fransisco in the past and helped him to understand and
remember his testimony. She bore a powerful testimony and helped him a
lot! We also had a lesson Lupe (from the Rodriguez fam) with us, and
they knew each other from when he joined he church. We will continue
to teach him, and probably start from the beginning. We love him so
much, and are excited to see how he progresses. 

 Marcelino: awesome lesson! We weren't sure if he was really
interested, but by the end of the lesson he was asking questions and
the spirit was strong. It also helped that I had Hmna Osborne with me,
and she is a powerhouse missionary. We have high hopes for Marcelino! 

 Love you all! God is good!

Hermana Hokanson

Eleazar selfie, with Hmna Sorensen

Fransisco and fam (selfie) with Hmna Osborne

Hmna Osborne and I!

Tamales, tostadas, tacos- loving the Spanish program!‏

Cleaning Selfie!

Paulina and I

Hola hola! Feliz Dia de Labor!.... Or something like that. :) hope
you're all having a great Holliday!

 We just got back from cleaning the church with the ward, with a picnic
and volleyball afterwards! So fun! *see selfie* what a fun week! We've
done a lot with members this week, and Hmna Sorensen and I are seeing
miracles!

 Andres: Andres has a baptismal date for September 24! We prayed, we
talked with him, we prayed some more, and we asked him to pray. We
called him the next day, and he decided the 24th! We have been so
excited as we've seen the light grow in his eyes as he understands
more and more. The only concern we have is making sure he has a real,
solid testimony in his heart, not just his head. We had a Noche de
hogar about Joseph Smith, and watched the Restoration video. We
thought him about the 10 commandments and keeping the sabbath day
holy. We taught him a lesson with our ward mission leader, Hmno Rios,
who said that he thinks Andres is ready! He loves church, and comes
every week now. Funny side note: the person that drives him to church
is a less active member named Hmno Zelaya. This is a great set up- get
the investigator AND the less active member to church, and help them
become friends- except for one detail. Hmno Zelaya has told us that he
no longer wants to come to church. So he picks Andres up, drives him
to church, drives home, and comes back for Andres! He has done this
two weeks in a row! We're hoping next week he'll go inside the
building. :P
Andres' nephew Isaac calls me Miss Hokanson. It makes me happy. :) 

 Cecilia: she is doing great! We had an awesome lesson with her about
the plan of salvation, which she really liked. We helped her out again
with a yard sale, and she somehow manages to give us tamales every
time we come, even if we try to sneak away before they're done!
Hispanics have a way of never letting you leave without food or a
bottle of water. I love it, as much as my waistline doesn't. :) 

 Eleazar: we had a real lesson with him! ... Kind of. He doesn't let us
talk much, so we may have to stop teaching him soon. 

 Ester: we were looking in our records and found Ester, who had been
taught a few years ago. We knocked on her door, she said we could come
back the next day. That morning before we visited her, we were looking
in our records again and found out she is the niece of one of the
members of our ward! The lesson went really well (we taught the
Restoration) and we would have a return appointment, but she was
getting surgery two days later and would be on bed rest. So pray for
Ester, that she will recover soon and we can visit her again! She has
a lot of potential! 

 Aline: remember Aline from about 1 month ago? We got in with her
again! She is doing great, and wants us to come by regularly. We are
super excited! 

 Fransisco: an inactive older man in our ward that we have been
visiting the entire time I've been here. We had a sad lesson with him
this week. After the first prayer, he informed us that he can no
longer be part of our church because he wants to return to the Jehovah
Witnesses. We weren't surprised- we have been helping him answer many
questions that are directly connected to the beliefs of the JWs. We
know he is very sincere, and we usually get along great with the JWs.
The sad part is how confused and conflicted he is! We hope he can find
peace, and we will of course respect his decision. 

 Rodriguez fam: the noche de hogar was great! We played games, shared a
lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and ate tostadas. I love this
family! They are so sweet, and a bit crazy. :) they kept asking when
we can come by again, and when they can feed us. Both Berta and Lupe
came to church Sunday!!!! They both loved it as well. Step by step,
this family is coming back to activity! What a huge blessing. 

 Paulina: one of the ladies in our ward (who is leaving on her mission
in Dec. to the Dominican Republic!) is exactly 1 day older than me!
*see picture* don't we look like twins?? 

 Some fun things this week: drinking my new favorite drink: Agua de Sandia!
Effectively using our exercise time by running in the rain!  English
class: we had 4 students at our class this week! It was super busy and
super fun! We had a Zone training , which was amazing of course! Our
main topic was the Book of Mormon. We also went to the library to use
the wifi for Area Book, and saw an Art Gallery! The security guard Joe
(our friend) invited us to see it, but we were "on the clock" (meaning
not on a break or during a meal) so we went through super quickly to
not be rude. But I could have stayed for hours!! It felt great to be
surrounded by art again. 

 Trust God, work hard, and never say no to tamales! 

Have a wonderful week!!

Hermana Hokanson  

 1319 Butterfield rd ste 522
Downers Grove IL 60515-5515