Being a missionary is cool.

All of my areas! It's like I never moved!

This has been a good but kind of sad week. I guess I'll tell you the sad part first to get it over with. 

We started teaching Catalina a couple weeks ago, and this past week started teaching her 3 grandkids, Michelle, Ariana, and Elvis. They are little rays of sunshine! We love them so much. We gave Michelle a child's Book of Mormon and within 3 days she had read over 80 pages!! Our goal this whole time has been to teach the whole family. In fact, when we first visited their home we were looking for Catalina's daughter Cira. So, we talked to the kids and found out that their parents are home Sunday mornings. We went yesterday morning, and within 3 minutes we were back in our car driving away. Cira (the kid's mom) doesn't want us to come back or teach the kids at all. We were completely heartbroken, but we know that the Lord has His perfect timing and sometimes that just isn't right now. 

Hermano Sierra's birthday 

But besides that, it's been a good busy week! We did lots of service and taught lots of people. We had one day where we had 5 lessons in a row and got 3 new investigators! That was a crazy day. We've started teaching Angelica's two daughters, who are the cutest girls. We had exchanges with the Oswego sisters, which was awesome. Sis Vescovi and I got to celebrate the birthday of an adorable man named Hmno Sierra, who is disabled physically and mentally but his heart is as big as ever.

We got to help move in a part-member family that the English elders are teaching- the husband is a member and the wife isn't. They are so so cool! Amy (the wife) is so smart and talented, and very honest about her journey and studies with the elders. She would fit right in with this awesome ward. 

Us helping the part member family move in!

That's it for this week! Here is a spiritual thought:

"Although one can meet the demands of justice by suffering for his own sins, such suffering will not change him. Just as a criminal can pay his debt to justice by doing time in prison and walk out unreformed, suffering alone does not guarantee change....Lasting change, here and hereafter, comes only through Christ."

Brad Wilcox

Hermana Hokanson 

Commitment

We went on a nature walk (it wasn't a hike because there aren't any mountains here...)

This is what happened this week:

- We went to a dog funeral. 

- We were almost interpreters at a wedding.

-Maricela and her daughter Jocelyn came to church! Maricela is super excited to get baptized! July 22 (fingers crossed)

- Andres is no longer on date because he hasn't come to church sufficient times. Super sad. He needs prayers. 

- Elder Gavarret from the quorum of the 70 came to visit us! He is so cool! I had the special opportunity to have an interview with him, and I can testify he is called of God. We also got to teach Ricardo with his wife sis Gavarret, who is equally amazing! Sister Griffin and Elena came too (there were 6 women and Ricardo, haha). Right before we ended, Elder Gavarret and Pres. Griffin walked in and Elder Gavarret gave the closing prayer for us. It was such a cool day! 

- Ricardo is no longer on date. He started pushing back a bit and seems scared to take that jump, even though he comes to church almost every week and every event we invite him to. Speaking of, we had a really cool miracle on Saturday! We invited him to a baptism in Geneva (Aurora Ward) and the church building there has a weird address that doesn't show up in the gps. So he was running late, and then got lost, and we were freaking out a bit. We said a prayer and asked specifically that the spirit would inspire him to know where to go, and he would get here in time for the baptismal ordinance. We were waiting by the door and heard from the room that they were starting the baptismal ordinance, and in that exact second Ricardo pulled up! We ran out to get him, ran to the room, and got there just as the elder started saying the baptismal prayer! It was a Christmas miracle. We then stayed for the food and of course, the Aurora Ward is full of people I love. So that was a tender mercy. 

This chip looks like Illinois!

This week I've learned a lot about the importance of commitment, and keeping that commitment well. I love this quote:

"Immersion in the scriptures is essential for spiritual nourishment. The word of God inspires commitment and acts as a healing balm for hurt feelings, anger, or disillusionment. When our commitment is diminished for any reason, part of the solution is repentance. Commitment and repentance are closely intertwined."

-Quentin L Cook (Can ye feel so now? Oct 2012)

If that commitment is honesty in business, your marriage commitment to love and support your companion, your commitment to serve a worthy full-time mission, or to come to church this week- when we keep our commitments, we are blessed. When we don't, repentance needs to be involved. We need to keep our commitments, and not only keep them, but keep them well. 

Have a wonderful week!

The shirt burning! (And liter fluid)

Hermana Hokanson

We had a BBQ with Ricardo to burn an inappropriate shirt he had. :)

The luckiest hermana ever

Half off pizza on Mondays! Woo!

I am The luckiest hermana ever because I get to stay here in Wheaton, with my wonderful and amazing companion Hmna Wixom!!! It really is so crazy that we got to stay together since we practically go home at the same time. But God has work for us to do here! 

I don't have much to say for this week, since I did just send an email on Wednesday. But we had sisters conference which was AMAZING. We gave a training on how to work with members in their homes and feel more comfortable. We learned a lot of different things, but probably the topic that helped me the most was perfectionism. The spirit chastised me a bit, and told me that the Lord only needs me to be the best I can be, and leave the rest to Him. There is no need to worry about my weaknesses or what others think, only my relationship with the Lord and how well I am following Him. This is the Lord's work, not mine. 

We still have 3 investigators with baptismal dates, but none of them were at church Sunday. :( so we may be moving some dates soon. But we haven't lost faith and we're excited to see what this next week will bring. 

Seeing old friends in Aurora

We did find some cool new investigators though! One is named Catalina, her daughter was a referral from the English elders. She is super cool and we found out afterwards she had taken the lessons before! We also met this cool family, Eva and José. We were talking to Eva by her house and offered to teach her family how to do family home evenings. The conversation ended in her making us tacos de carne asada (the ultimate sign of summertime here) and us having a little BBQ with her family! We are headed back next week to have a family home evening with them and their three kids! 

Irving and Maria are doing great. Irving got on the stage again this week during sacrament meeting, we almost had a heart attack! But he didn't do anything, and when we asked him afterwards why he went up there he said "to comfort that guy, he needed to be comforted" referring to the man who had given the last talk, and had cried a bit while telling a touching story. :) he is a big teddy bear! 

Here is a cool quote that president Griffin sent us this morning:

"All things shall work together for your good. Do you believe it? Have you really thought about his wonderful promise, given through the prophet Isaiah, that he will give you “beauty for ashes”? (See Isaiah 61:3) Ponder that one for a minute. Think about ashes, about what is left over after the most horrific destruction has occurred. Then picture the Lord taking that devastation and turning it into something beautiful. That is the sure promise of the Atonement: that all our losses will be made up to us. When a foundation such as that is in place, nothing that can happen in mortality could ever shake us. "

-Emily Watts

Have an amazing week! Read your scriptures! 

Con amor,

Hermana Hokanson

All the sisters of the Illinois Chicago west mission! Plus pres Griffin

 I got to see sis Campbell, who I came into the mission with! 

Sis Petty and Hmna Allison and I accidentally
 looked like a sunset so we decided to take a picture.

 Feat. Sis Ivie photobombing 

Preparation day? Kind of.

Dear awesome people,

Once upon a time, there were two hermana training leaders that had way too much they wanted to do and not enough time to do it. They also lived right by the mission office, and were really bad at saying no to people. So after a wonderful trip to the temple, they ran right over to the mission office and helped prepare for a Sisters Conference for all the sister missionaries in the mission, and now they are emailing home on a Wednesday because of it. They hope that their families don't think they have died or become spontaneously disobedient, though after not having a real preparation day they may just die of exhaustion. And they both lived happily ever after.

So, it's been a crazy busy awesome week! Here are the highlights:

- Ricardo is ON DATE FOR JULY 1!!!!!! It was a bit of a battle, he had a hard week and was really struggling. But he is overcoming his fears and is getting baptized! We had a great law of chastity lesson with him, which ended in him pulling out his phone and deleting anything that could be considered inappropriate. He really is so awesome. The biggest roadblock now will be alcohol. Prayers please!

- Maricela is still on date for July 22, and Andres is still on date for June 24. Lots of prayers please.

-We went on exchanges with sis Wilson and Andersen in their area. It was super great! Contacting English speaking people is still super new to me so it was a fun experience! Then we went on exchanges with Aurora in their area! That's a bit more of my style. Lots of fun tracting and knocking doors and laughing because Hmna Krebs is the best! We went to the library there and I ran into 3 different people I knew from my time in Aurora. Things never change, except for missionaries. :)

- Henrietta: she is our miracle of the week! Her son texted us from Utah and asked if we would help her move some things in her house. The son is a member, Henrietta is not. She was a bit cold towards the church (and her son) at the beginning, but after we got to know her and talked about family history, she opened right up to us. She then started asking super direct plan-of-salvation questions, it was crazy! I've never seen anyone have questions that are so perfectly answered by the plan of salvation. So, our "cleaning the house" ended with all of us cross-legged on the floor drawing out the plan of salvation and teaching her the whole thing! It was awesome.

- We are now teaching Maria's grandson Angel! He is the cutest. When we went to help him get to primary on Sunday, he just said "I know where it is!" And literally skipped the whole way there! That is a stark contrast from the previous weeks, where he hid behind us and won't go in the the primary room. :)

- We had Spanish conference and it was a blast! We learned a lot about using the gifts the Lord has blessed us with, and being more effective with our studies. We gave a training and played a jeopardy game, and as you'll see in the pictures we had some pretty cool judges. And I got to see some old companions!

Ok that's all, have a good week!
Hermana Hokanson

Qué pasó?

That's all we've said as this week has flown by! I don't understand how the weeks feel so short while the days feel so long, but here we are at another Monday. 

When we ask Ricardo how his studying of the scriptures is going, and he says "well, good!" And we know that means he was watching "Moises" instead of reading. 

Miracles:

- Maricela is on date for July 22! She has so much desire to be baptized, but (like most of our investigators) needs to get divorced and then remarried first. We felt good about July 22 but we will be running full force to have everything ready in time. God is good, and I'm scared to death, and equally super excited to see how this all works out. 

- Andres is re-on date, this time for June 24! We all fasted this weekend to help him get work off on Sundays, he said he would ask his boss this week. Fingers crossed! 

- Ricardo is still doing very well, and we had a really good lesson with him yesterday with some members here from Utah for summer sales. They were great with him and for the first time, Ricardo said the closing prayer in front of everyone without a seconds hesitation! And it was a great prayer! He basically told us he is planning on getting baptized, but seems to be scared of putting a date on it. He hasn't drank since we committed him not to, and he came to church in a white shirt and tie! 

- Irving and Maria are doing well, and are so happy in the church. Irving gave me a lightbulb that when you screw it in, it's a Bluetooth speaker that can change colors. It also talks in a really thick Asian accent every time I turn it on. We listen to general conference talks on it every morning. :)  

I really love all these people. Even the English members do everything they can to help and support us, and they can't even communicate with he people we teach! I feel so blessed to be here in this giant, weirdly organized and insanely busy area. 

"Commit yourself to put the Lord first in your life, keep His commandments, and do what the Lord’s servants ask you to do. Then your feet are on the pathway to eternal life. Then it does not matter whether you are called to be a bishop or a Relief Society president, whether you are married or single, or whether you die tomorrow. You do not know what will happen. Do your best on what is fundamental and personal and then trust in the Lord and His timing."

-Elder Dallin H. Oaks 

Con amor,

Hermana Hokanson

Our District

Our Zone

Sprinting

We had a service project where we cleaned the DuPage river of
garbage! Ricardo came. Also Irving

Also us

Awesome members

More awesome mebers

Ricardo.

 As of last Thursday, I have exactly 12 weeks left to serve as a missionary here in Illinois. My plan is to sprint to the end and not waste a single second. Because of this, I want to ask you all a favor-please don't tell me about what's going to happen after I get home. Events, family reunions, vacations, people having babies, etc. the closer that end date gets, the harder it is to mentally be in the field. And I don't want to only be here physically these last 12 weeks- the Lord has asked for all my might, mind and strength. Thank you for all your prayers, emails, letters, packages, thoughts, and video chats over the past months. Every little bit has helped and strengthened me as I've tried to help the people here. I love you all
so much and I'm ready to sprint to the end so I have no regrets.

Giant pizza from members?!

What!

We made Hmna Krebs a cake for her birthday, which she spent on
exchanges with us.

Some miracles from this week:

- We taught Maricela with our recent convert Elena, and it went super well! Then Maricela came to church with her 3 daughters!
- We taught Ricardo (also with Elena, she is awesome) and had a super powerful lesson in the chapel. We had him pray right then to know if and when he should get baptized. He didn't seem to receive (or accept) an exact answer, but ever since that day he has completely changed! He listened to the Book of Mormon on his phone, he drove Irving to a service project and stayed to help, he came to a ward party and brought water bottles and lemonade, and then came to church and stayed all three hours! Well.... He left after sacrament meeting but then we called him and he came back. :) so, we are a little scared, a little excited, and are waiting to see how this all turns out. Thanks for the prayers!
-Maria and Irving brought Maria's grandson to church and he really wants to come back! He even asked us for a child's Book of Mormon. From what Maria has said, Angel's dad is becoming a lot more open to the church and would probably let us teach his son, and maybe even come himself!

I HIGHLY suggest you all read this talk: "discipleship" by  L. Tom Perry (oct 2000) I was reading it this morning and I loved it! It talks about what it takes to be a true disciple of Christ, and how to do it.

Anyways, I love you all. Every moment of life is worth living, and every day is the first day of the rest of your life. So live it!

All my love,

Hermana Hokanson

She didn't give me any notice when she took this picture so I'm

sorry I'm so awkward. (My companion is that little blur of color by my
shoulder. ) :)

we had an awesome Exchange with the Elgin sisters! This is sister
Jagielski, she's an awesome missionary! We had so much fun!

All of us

If we look completely exhausted and worn out in this picture, it's
because we are. :)