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