August 8, 2016

Dang sounds like some cool stuff happened this week! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I sent a card so it should get there soon!

Bandon is difficult but we keep trying!  Transfers are next Monday so we'll see how that goes.  

Angela and Tim are doing awesome. We had the huge plan of salvation plan with her since that is the only reason she hasn't gotten baptized. It was such a stressful lesson and we studied so much. She had a lot of hard questions and there seemed to be so many distractions during the lesson! But we got through it. She was concerned if she gets baptized and her kids won't that she will never see them again. We explained everything and then I started talking about uncle Mickey and shed a tear or two and she cried and then we asked her if she would sincerely pray about it and she said she would. The next day she told us that she felt a lot better about everything after she prayed so that was awesome!

The night before that lesson too, we had one specifically on Joseph smith and it was kind of funny because at the end of the lesson Angela was like "wow, I didn't even feel like it was you talking right there like I could tell it was the spirit!" And so that was super awesome to have her notice that.  So things are going good there. Tim got up in sacrament and bore his testimony and it was so freakin sick. He got up there and talked about how much this church has changed his life (he was a drug addict all the way up to last year) and how he knows it's true! It was so awesome! I bore mine too after and it was kind of funny because after I did sister Sturtavent got up and was like, "you know the talk 'good, better, best'? Well I think elder Hoskins version of that is "super, awesome, and super awesome'" hahaha so now everyone makes fun of the way I talk lol. Well that's it for now.  love you guys.  Stay solid!

August 1, 2016

So this week has been pretty interesting. This was probably one of hardest weeks so far but there were also several good things that have happened. So Tuesday we had specialized training and that was in north bend so we got to get out of town and see our zone again. For the actual specialized training, it was 5 hours of the AP's, president, and sister Russell talking to us. The main topics were teaching by the spirit, being a successful missionary and Joseph smith. It was good but it was long. After specialized training we had a zone activity since president actually approved it and we went to the beach and played soccer and volleyball and all that good stuff. We have a pretty cool zone and we have been lucky to see them almost every week this transfer now.

While we were up in north bend we went to the Walmart and that was like the highlight of the week since we don't have any real stores here other than dollar tree. That took up all of Tuesday and it was a pretty fun day.

Wednesday was a long painful day of contacting. We contacted a bunch of people from the area book and the few that answered were mostly not interested. Then we went to have a lesson and they weren't there so it was just a pretty unsuccessful day.

Then Thursday was also a pretty rough day. We weren't able to do much of anything. We had to drive back to north bend to get our car fixed since it was being super lame and that took up a big part of the day. One tender mercy though was that we have a member who signs up every week to have us for dinner and she said she would do our laundry until we can get another washing machine. She is super awesome and has been through so much so that's really something cool.

So anyway, Friday was probably the worst day of the week. There isn't even anything to say about it other than it was unsuccessful. I was feeling super down the whole day too so it was just super tough and I will explain more about why at the end. Then Friday night I decided to pray that hopefully some good stuff could happen or we could have some sort of uplifting experience. So that night I had this crazy dream and it doesn't really matter what the dream was but I woke up Friday and I was just thankful to be here and I was ready to work and have a good day because of how thankful I am to be here.

Then Saturday went pretty awesome. We OYM'd in old town and talked to quite a few people and had some good conversations. After that we went tracting and found a few potentials and a new investigator so that was sweet. And for the best thing, we actually had a real lesson with one of our new investigators we found last week. He was super awesome and he had done what we invited him to do which was to read the intro to the Book of Mormon as well as the restoration pamphlet. He said he read those and he prayed about it already and felt that they were true. That was super awesome because he was already ahead of us and that was like the first awesome lesson we have had this entire transfer. So Saturday was super awesome and it was good to actually see some of our work pay off.

Sunday, was pretty average other than I gave a talk in sacrament so that was whatever.

I guess the struggle I have been facing this past week is just all the things that have been on my mind for some reason. One thing is that I always think of how everyone is doing at home as well as what my old friends are doing and all that and that really isn't stuff that I should focus on so it has been a little tough this week. The other thing is that even though this area is going uphill it is still super tough and we have literally tracted most of the town and gone through most of the area book so I am stressed because I know that there is a high likelihood  that I will be staying here for at least another transfer.  It is a serious struggle to feel productive here in Bandon so I'm a little worried about that. The struggle to stay positive and not depressed is real. I'm just thankful to be here though. anyway I wish I had more cool investigators to tell you guys about but we are struggling lol. So anyway I hope all is well with everyone. 

Senior couple serving in Sawyer's district

Branch President and his wife