You gotta have hope

Hey hey hey!! Not much happened this week in the mission field. honestly, it's kind of a struggle to get lessons here. It's fine contacting. The hard part is when no one let's you in their house after 2.5 hours of contacting. My ankle is doing good, until after 3 hours of not having sat down, then it starts to bother me a little. But it's okay. I know that the Lord has put me in this city for a reason. And that He has prepared some people for me. The members here are great! they feed us every weekend (it's the only time that we are allowed to eat with them) and there is always someone that we can leave with to go to our citas. Speaking of which ...

There is a recent convert in our ward whose name is Claudio. He's 18 years old and was baptized like 4 or 5 weeks ago. but, he is a great example to me. He has a hard past, but this kid leaves with us every day. It's thanks to him that we have a lot of citas with members present. He's great! Even though sometimes I have a bad day, or sometimes all the appointments fall through, we go and pick him up and he cheers me up a lot. And sorry mom and dad, but I've decided that he's my second brother! (No worries, Am, no one can beat you, you're still my number one!!) But Claudio is looking toward going on a mission in a year and is working towards that. 

I think this area is teaching me to appreciate the small things that we have here in the mission. The fact that we are slowly finding people and have found a couple of families. We haven't been able to teach them too much. Honestly, up until now, I haven't really had too many 2nd appointments in these two weeks ... number wise, it's not good. But the part that counts is that I'm trying, as is my companion.  And I know that we are strengthening ourselves and also those who we find.

Anyway, that's about it for this week. If you guys have any suggestions on how I can do better, let me know! Thank you all for your love and support. Have a great week!

Love, aloha, y amor,

hermana ho

Idk if I sent these yet, but here's some members from my last ward in via francisca.  

with a less active member that we reactivated.

with the little boy is a member with her mom who we were teaching

With a member family

my old bishop and his wife

a member family that was in our ward.

My old ward mission leader and his family 

two women, Leonilda and Mayda, who changed my life forever hahaha they are amazing and they always had references for us and were willing to leave with us. Truly dedicated member missionaries. 

the old man is one of my old investigators, Rafael. Love him!

some of the amazing members that were in my ward!!

me and my new roomates, hermana Jensen (from texas) and Hermana Garcia (from Honduras).

an area here in gascue, my area.

I was trying to be all photographer with my comp hahaha idk if it worked.

yups, just to prove to you guys that I'm still the same and that I'm ok. ... and no, we didn't know that her tongue was blue in this moment lol

Have a delightful day :D

So, this past week ... was crazy. and hard. and tiring. We've been on our feet more than in a seat haha and for the first time in a long time, my legs hurt. It's a contacting area! man, it's super hard, and I met my first atheist. And this is my first area where people didn't just let us into our house. It's super different. And I'm finding that it's a big test of how much I've learned in the mission and that the Lord is seeing how I deal with certain situations. But the ward is wonderful and they actually feed us! We are only allowed to eat with members on fridays, saturdays, and sundays and FHE's, but in this area, every weekend is full of lunch appointments with members! It's great! The ward is great and the members too. I have yet to see if they work with us, but I'm pretty sure they are open to that. 

Just a small thing I learned this week. I studied a talk from Elder Nelson called "The Sabbath a Delight" or something like that. Mom, for your lesson, I was studying about it a little and I forgot my notes at home, so I'll try and tell you what I can from memory. Basically, I realized that first, we need to overcome the natural man, even on sundays. Sometimes we need to sacrfice some things that we like to do, that aren't necessarily against the sabbath day, but aren't exactly the most spiritually edifying. For example, watching nonchurch movies, or listening to nonchurch music. It's not bad, but there's better. Even when it's 7pm and there's nothing to do and you want to watch a movie. (I know mom, I have a lot of repenting to do lol). But elder nelson offered us a solution: spend time with the family. The first two great commandments are to love god above all and love your neighbor. When we follow the teachings of God, when we listen to the voice of the prophets, everything falls into place, even things with the family. Following the voices of the prophets, we hear always that we need to spend time with the family and strengthen the family. And one of the ways we can have a more delightful sunday is to spend time with them, instead of watching that movie at 7pm or listening to music in the afternoon. And so, while following the words of Elder Nelson, we are having a more delightful sunday by spending time with our family, and showing our love not only to them. As we express our love toward our families, we are expressing our love also to our Heavenly Father. And He too will be delighted. (not sure if that made sense, but it's best if you read the talk too lol).

Anyway, thank you all for your love and support! Love you all and take care!!

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

Which Joseph?

Yay!! Glad you got the letters! Whew, wasn't sure if it was going to make it or not.  My ankle is doing ok. It's still bigger than the other one, the doctor said the swelling will go down in 6 months ... whoopie hahaha but it just bothers me if we walk more than normal. 

Anyways, this week was a long one. It was one of those look for the tiny miracles week. Literally every day all of our appointments fell through and we didn't have much success contacting either. It was rough. But me and my companion are being transferred together to the neighboring city called Gascue. We aren't the most excited to go here because it's a hard area, with hardly any progressing investigators and lots of contacting. But I know that the Lord has prepared people for us, whether they are members, less actives, or investigators, they are waiting. I have faith :D It was hard to say good bye to the members here in Via Francisca. I think that's the hardest part about the mission is saying Bye because you don't know when you'll return see your friends and family again ... but it's okay. I'll never forget them. Okay, maybe their names, but I'll never forget how they affected my life :D

Our mission president gave a talk about Joseph and I've been studying it for a while now. You ask, which one? The coat of many colors Joseph and also Joseph Smith. In a sense, all Joseph's are related to each other. But these 2 stories are almost exactly alike! It begins with Joseph the beloved egyptian and how his story is similar to that of Christ's. I won't say to much because I would like you all to read it and see how it can relate to Christ's life. But i'll give you a start: Jospeh had brothers who didn't listen to him and hated him, so they sold him into Egypt. Christ, as well, was hated by many. Jospeh avoided the temptation of Potipher's wife; Christ, the temptation of glory and honor and riches. Because of his decision, Joseph was thrown into prison; Christ died. But then what happened? And how does all of this relate to Jospeh Smith? I'll leave it at that so that you can all study the story. It's in Genesis 45 and onward I believe. But read about it and think and then write me what you guys found out next week :D 

Anyway, thank you all for your love and support! I love hearing from you all! take care and be safe and have a great week!

Love, aloha, y amor, 

Hermana Ho

Just Spread a Little Bit of Aloha!

HEY!! Thank you so much for the packages!! Dad, you said to tell every one thanks for taking care of me. So I told President Corbitt, my mission president, and he made me promise to tell you this: "You're welcome. It's easy." ... So i think I'm not a burden hahahaha He really is a great man. He has a lot of christlike attributes and I hope that one day you have the opportunity to meet him or at least hear him speak in a devotional or something. Alliyah! Congrats on your soccer games and even though you didn't get to go with them to playoffs, I know that the Lord is happy with the decision that you have made. It was on sunday I'm guessing? I know and can now testify that keeping the Sabbath day holy brings many blessings, some of which you might see in this week, some of which you might see in the future :) I've seen many in my own life and I can testify that a soccer game doesn't compare to these blessings. 

As for the new law, it's interesting. All 50 states has legalized gay marriage. It has definitely provided more opposition for the church. But one thing that President Corbitt has told us (because we are also seeing more problems in the mission) is that when we are going in the right direction, the opposition grows. When we are doing something good, the adversary works hard to work against it. But it goes to show, like mom said, that we are growing stronger. I know that if we keep studying the scriptures, going to church, praying, and magnifying our callings, the Lord's work will protect us from the adversary in our homes. 

Here in the DR, my comp and I have been working hard to find families. It hasn't been easy. We've walked a lot and sometimes we have little success. But something that I've learned in the mission is that after we put in our part and do all we can, the Lord does his part. We were able to find a family who has received the missionaries before and almost got baptized before they stopped coming the church. We don't know what happened, but we just happened to find them after contacting for a while. We'll see how it goes with them.  After walking for 2 hours straight, having all of our appointments fall through, we found a less active family who we believe has just been waiting to be found. We're hoping that we can reactivate them again. It's a mom, dad, and 3 older sons. We're working hard and trying to find families. 

Something that I discovered this past week was the importance of members fulfilling their callings. My comp and I have talked a lot about it and what we want to be in our own wards in the future. Thank you for fulfilling your callings. I know that sometimes it's hard to take out time because we are going to school, we have families, we have jobs. But for those of you who put the Lord and his work first, I know that He will bless you in all you do. Being a member doesn't mean "only on Sundays," but living it every day and helping others to be members 24/7. I know it's hard. But I have seen how the Lord blesses those who fulfill their calling and who do their part in the missionary work and the blessings are not few :)

Thank you all for your love, prayers, emails, and support, not only for me, but also for all the missionaries.  Please help them in the missionary work in every moment that you have! Love you all and take care!

Love, aloha, y amor,

Hermana Ho

thanks for the goodies!!!

Krispy Kremes for my year mark  :D

this is as close to the water as we can get hahaha

me and the office elders 

me and my old district from Hato Mayor with our old district leader. His calling has been changed to Salt Lake City Utah so he's leaving in about a week to finish his mission there.