"And bring them from bondage"

Living legends with Andres!

"The harvest is great, and the lab’rers are few; 
But if we’re united, we all things can do.
We’ll gather the wheat from the midst of the tares
And bring them from bondage, from sorrows and snares."
Hymn #319

I think as missionaries we have one of the coolest assignments ever; to save people from spiritual bondage and show them a better way. Of course, to be able to do that we need to be living that better way. So in the end, who is really being saved? the investigator or the missionary? I'd say both.

It's been a wonderful week, llena de Milagros! We did a lot of work with members this week, particularly the relief society president. We also had lots of really good meetings and planned some great things for our areas and our zone. We went on exchanges with the Elgin 1 sisters and it was a blast! They are wonderful missionaries and we're such good sports about going to Spanish lessons with us and sitting there confused the whole time. :) they got some authentic Mexican food though!

Exchanges- sisters Andersen and Wilson

We brought Maria with us to teach Ricardo the word of wisdom. It was awesome! She has such a strong testimony, with only a couple weeks as a member! She is my role model. She was very bold with him and told
him with all confidence that the word of wisdom changes lives. If that doesn't convince him I don't know what will! He is still being a bit stubborn though, so prayers for Ricardo would be great. Also he came to church!

Andres is doing well, though he didn't make it to church. We will be teaching him tonight with some awesome members, so hopefully we will see better success next week. He came with us to a BYU Living legends (multicultural dance group) concert and really enjoyed it. We were lucky we got to go- the stake bought tickets for us if we brought investigators. Also I saw an old friend from Mountain View high school
in the cast- that was weird.

That's about it! Thank you for your love and support and prayers!

Con amor,
Hermana Hokanson

¡Feliz cinco de mayo!

We had transfers, and I will be staying here and hmna Wixom will be my new companion! She is the one in all the pictures with dark hair. She is awesome. Life is good! Irving and Maria are baptized and everything that Satan has thrown at us has been overcome through Christ and His love.

Did you know that Wheaton college (which is about 5 min from our apartment) is one of the leading publishers of anti-Mormon material in the whole country? We've got lots of work to do here, good thing this mission is also full of the most awesome obedient missionaries ever! I love being here.

This has been a great week, lots of new member lessons with Irving and Maria. They are both set on getting Andres (Irvings cousin that lives with him) baptized. I'm not sure how interested he actually is, but he's sat in on a few lessons so we'll see how that goes. Also the other Andres (the one with a baptismal date of June3) came to church this week! He is still doing great. Sorry I teach a lot of Andreses. We confuse them all too. :)

We went to a stake Cinco de Mayo party and it was actually super cool. And two of our investigators, Azael and Rafael came! So that was awesome. And it was great to see Aurora people again.

We had a super intense lesson with Ricardo this week. We taught him at a McDonalds and he was completely under the influence. It pretty much turned into us giving him a spiritual reality check and committing him
to change his life. He has so much good desire, and so much potential. These are moments in my mission where I realize how much these people really mean to me. If I didn't care about this person, my companion
and I wouldn't have spent a 30 min car ride ranting about how frustrating he is and how much good he could do. We wouldn't have met with him in McDonalds and spent an hour just to get him to commit to one day alcohol free. We wouldn't see him as the missionary, young men's leader, or bishopric member he could be. Being a representative of Jesus Christ gives us the opportunity to feel a little bit of that Christlike love for other people. It's worth every difficult, frustrating, exhausting minute.

Well, the church is true and missionary work is the best! Talk to y'all next week!

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Hokanson

P.s. We didn't have any pictures for this week so we took some selfies for you.

"Get the gospel from your head to your heart"

SPRINGTIME!

We saw some old friends at stake conference!

I heard this quote in stake conference yesterday and thought it was super profound. You know about the gospel, you do what you're supposed to do. But do you love it? Is it part of who you are? Do you really believe all these things are true? If you do, live like it! I love being a missionary because not only do I get to help others come unto Christ, I get to test my own testimony and see how much I really believe. I want to return home completely converted to Christ and His true church. I don't want the gospel just in my head, but in my heart!

Wedding!

Wedding again!

  THIS WEEK WAS SO GOOD. I didn't breath for a minute and probably had 3 heart attacks, but here we are at another Monday with so much good news! Maria got married on Wednesday to her husband Marino, which was pretty fun to attend. It was just us and a couple members, and bishop was wearing jeans because we told him it was a casual thing.... until 20 family members of Maria showed up ready for a wedding! So we set up some chairs really fast and ended up having barely enough refreshments, but it all worked out! She's married and so excited for her baptism! And to top it off, Irving and Maria both had their baptismal interviews this weekend, and they both passed! Next time I email there should be at least two new members of the church here in Illinois.

Us waiting for Maria to finish her baptismal interview. Featuring
Leti from Aurora.

Other then that, we went on exchanges with the Elgin sisters and got a lot done in their area. We trained at new missionary training about using Preach my Gospel and all of the other awesome tools we have to share the gospel. I am so blessed to be serving in the states and have such easy access to everything I need. My mission has not been easy just because of the conveniences of serving here, but it has helped us further the work in a way that is unique to this area and these people.

We taught a lot this week, including Ricardo. We were planning on dropping him but then we had a really good Plan of Salvation lesson with him where we smacked down the truth and from what we saw, he genuinely understands what he needs to do. We'll see if he does it! He has so much potential and knows the truth, but has some fears and addictions holding him back. But when we taught that lesson I could see him as a missionary (he is still young enough to serve if he wants to!) or even a young men's leader. He just needs a little push!

Cool story of the week:
Maria said she had been praying all week to know how she would be able to pay her tithing. Being the only source of money in her home, she didn't know how she would cover all the bills and still pay tithing. But let me tell you, she is one of the most faithful people I have ever met. She prayed (without us knowing) and we found out a week or so later she received a new job offer! Not only would it give her enough money to pay tithing, but it's also her dream job working at a bridal shop! Someday I hope to have as much faith as Maria. She has the gospel 100% in her heart. ❤️

Ok that's all, have a good week!

Hermana Hokanson

Elgin Sisters

Look at this cool apple.

Moisés la Novela, y la Pascua!

Our farewell picture with our minivan Nancy. She is being retired. 

Someone gave us a boiled egg in a sugar cookie? Why? 

Feliz dia de Pascua! Happy Easter! 
This week we have had multiple investigators tell us that instead of studying their scriptures, they were watching Moisés, which is a Novela (like a soap opra, or TV series) about the prophet Moses. And they feel completely justified in it, because it's about Moses.  Just so you know, Moisés is not scripture study. People are so funny. :)

Lunch with Rebecca!

It has been such a good week! We are teaching so many people right now (which I am sure is because of all of your prayers, thank you so much!). It has come to the point that one day this week we will need to do splits with the ward missionaries so we can make it to all of our appointments. Our days consist of squeezing our studies in in the morning, teaching, driving, teaching, driving, teaching, driving, and crashing at our apartment sometime between 9-9:30 pm every night! Our area is also huge, so it takes at least 20 min to get anywhere. But that's not stopping us! Hmna Craner is a hoot, I love her so much! She can make anything fun and is a great teacher. I'm sad I'll be losing her in 2 weeks when she finishes her mission. 

Well, Irving and Maria are still doing amazing, right on track for baptism! Irving still hasn't smoked (I think that makes 13 days smoke free?) and Maria bought her marriage licence, and will be getting married this week! She has been the driving force for all of this- she wants to be baptized the 29th and is doing everything necessary to get there! I really love these two. They will be wonderful members.

Schaumburg YSA

We are still teaching Andres, he is awesome. We taught a new investigator named Anayeli and she has a lot of potential. We also taught Rocio, Maricela, Jocelyn, Carolina, Azael, and visited a few less active members. For Easter we ate dinner with a recent convert named Brenda and her family. They have been main fellowshippers for Irving and Maria and have helped us a ton. We also went on exchanges with the Schaumburg YSA sisters and it was great! I've never tried to find single young adults that speak English before, so that was a weird change. :)

Jesus is the Christ, I love the Book of Mormon, and nothing can replace hard work and genuine love. have a good week!

Hermana Hokanson

 Easter dinner! Sorry it's fuzzy.

Can't think of a title

Our zone

Hello- This has been quite the week! some highlights: 

- We are teaching Ricardo and his sister Maria, they are awesome. Ricardo is definitely more invested than Maria, and actually came to church and stayed all 3 hours! It was a Christmas miracle!

- Irving and Maria are on date for APRIL 29!! Irving has completely stopped smoking cigars cold turkey, and still hasn't drank coffee in weeks! We had a really powerful lesson with them and they decided that baptism is what they really want. They are even more excited than we are! Maria keeps saying "Irving, you can't start smoking again, or else I'm getting baptized without you." The spirit has been working on them hard core. They accept every commandment we teach them wholeheartedly, and came to church Sunday and loved it! Irving even tried to bare his testimony in Sacrament meeting English... he doesn't speak English. But he tried. :)

- We taught Azael, who we haven't been able to get in with for a few weeks. He is doing well but has a lot of fear about being baptized. poco a poco.

- Andres is doing well- he still couldn't come to church but he's been doing his reading assignments every week.

Sister Willes

-Rosio (mom) and Angeles (daughter) are investigators I taught once while I was covering Aurora and Naperville. They stopped teaching them because they weren't coming to church. We decided to stop by and they want us to teach them again! It was great to see them again, and they seemed to miss the spirit in their home.

Elgin sisters

=- We had exchanges with the Aurora Hermanas on Tuesday, and the Elgin Sisters on Friday. I love exchanges, and I love these missionaries. 

- Also, not quite as important as missionary work but still kind of important: I chopped my hair off! I was ready for the change, and It feels good to not have so much weight to carry around. 

The Cut!

Before

After

Don't worry, it was donated to charity!

So that's my week! Love you all! Keep praying for our investigators, especially as Irving and Maria as they approach their baptismal date. Thank you for everything! 

Quote of the week:

 "Let go of what you cannot control. The past, the agency of others, the rules, the weather, government bureaucracies, the culture, your limitations, or the personality of other [people] are outside of your control. Focus on things you can do something about, such as your behavior, your part in a relationship, your current choices, and your attitude."

- Adjusting to missionary life

con mucho amor,

Hermana Hokanson

Conference and miracles

Motab on record?...

US

Sorry, so little time this week to write! But a couple miracles:

Awkward picture with Maria and Irving... I promise he doesn't have
his arm around me.

Irving and Maria are progressing so well! Firstly, we had a serious talk with them about the word of wisdom and law of chastity. Irving is still going strong with no coffee, but hasn't been able to give up cigars. We shared his recovery plan with Maria and she's 100% on board. We brought him knitting supplies to help him start a hobby to replace his smoking, he's working on a scarf! :) the night we taught them, we went to the car after the lesson to get his knitting stuff. When we came back, Irving was outside smoking a cigar. We stomped right up to him and with all the authority that two 20 yr old sister missionaries have, we told him firmly "Irving! Put that down! Do not touch it!" He set it on the windowsill, and then after looking at us for a second, picked it back up and threw it over a fence! It was a pretty triumphant moment in my life. :D but yeah, they are doing great! And Maria is preparing all the legal things necessary so she can get married to her boyfriend within the year! They also came to conference and watched the other sessions at home!

Arana girls from Aurora! I missed these little crazies! ❤

Crazy children

We also went on exchanges with the Schaumburg YSA sisters. It was a blast! English sisters in Spanish lessons involves a lot of translating and a lot of me talking. But they turned out alright. :) we got to see some members from Aurora at conference too!

We have a new investigator named Andres and he is really cool and let us right in when we knocked on the door. He was planning to come to conference but couldn't get work off. But, we taught him the restoration and he loved it! He told us "I will believe in the Book of Mormon". So that's a good sign. :)

Please pray for my companion Hmna Craner, she hurt her back pretty bad and it's been a rough week for her. She's a trooper!

I'm just really happy. I love being here. I love these missionaries and members and investigators and being a missionary. Thank you for the prayers!

Love you all,
Hermana Hokanson

Conference was amazing! If you didn't watch it, go watch it! WORTH
EVERY MINUTE.

Ok that's all.
Hermana Hokanson

Sophia!

Hmna Craner's click Day!

Spanish? Kind of.

Hmna Diaz-Bonilla: the final farewell :(

So this has been a good week! I'm still getting my feet under me and getting to know the area. It's about 3x the size of my previous area, with probably less hispanics. We have a little Spanish group that attends a big English Ward, and most of the Spanish members don't even need English translations. This week we lucked out and didn't need to translate, but we'll see how next week goes. My new companion Hmna
Craner is super great!

I ran into Hmna Yep from Aurora at
the women's conference! Happy surprise!

I really like the people here. To be completely honest I was super scared to go to an English ward, after being in 100% Spanish for over a year. But to my surprise, English people are nice and I can talk to them and it's ok! And I know all the words to the hymns without reading the hymn book! :) One fun change is that as HTLs we'll be covering both English and Spanish missionaries. So on our exchanges we'll be bringing some English sisters to come teach our Spanish lessons! I'm actually super excited, it will be a great opportunity to get to know some of the sisters in the mission, not just hermanas.

The main people of the week:

Irving and Maria: awesome investigators! Maria is a powerhouse- she read 5 chapters of the Book of Mormon in 2-3 days, and loves coming to church! She just has some marriage papers to figure out, and she can be on track for baptism! Her son Irving is one of the sweetest souls I have ever met and one of the reasons I think I was sent here. He is in his mid 30s and has schizophrenia. He is half polish half Hispanic. This past week he completely gave up coffee (he is 5 days clean!) and is working on giving up smoking!

Edgar: less active that actually lives in the other Chicago mission, but works in our mission (we are right on the border of our mission) so we teach him at work during his break. He is awesome. And Guatemalan.

Not-the-best Selfie

Delgado fam: less actives. We had a really cool lesson with them reading from the Book of Mormon . It was the chapter about the 3 nephites and how they became immortal.. it was really cool. We are making them a Book of Mormon reading calendar so they remember to read, and giving them a treat if they read every day this next month. I love missionary work. :)

Carolina: sweet investigator from Mexico. she is super in tune with the spirit. We watched the 20 min restoration video and she said she felt something very good in her, and she knew it was true.

Fatima: she is from Argentina, and is on date for baptism! We just need to get her to church.

Adan and Azael: roommates, both from Mexico. Adan is a Messianic Jew. So they has been interesting to teach him. They both have a lot of potential and desire. And they come to church! That helps a lot.

That's about it! Love you all!
Hermana Hokanson