Mother I Love You!

Elder Hoggan skyped yesterday for Mother's Day after 8 a.m. Grandparents came, cousins stopped by, Aunts and Uncle Brady made it, and Jared Lambert added to a perfect day! Everyone got to visit with him and listen to his musical message for Mother's Day. He and Elder Evans played a guitar and ukelele duet of a favorite primary song, Mother I Love You. They sang it and touched all those in attendance! It was the best Mother's Day ever! Elder Hoggan has taught himself to play the guitar and learned two days before. Such talent!

Time is flying by fast, but he mentioned in his email today that he hopes all of the moms know how amazing he thinks they are. Especially his own! He said it was the perfect ending to another great week doing the best work ever in the best mission ever : )

Last Pday or Monday, brought an opportunity to meet with Alex. He's the member of the church who Elders Hoggan and Evans are trying to help prepare to receive the priesthood. They watched some of a talk given by President Uchtdorf entitled, "Your Potential, Your Privilege". The story is shared of a man on a cruise ship and how he stays in his cabin eating only the food he took on the ship to save money. This gentleman did get to see places he had dreamt about, but on the last day of his vacation a crew member asks him which farewell party he will at attending. It was then he realized that the food, entertainment, and activities were inclusive with his cruise. Unfortunately, he learned that he had been living beneath his privileges.

Do we live below our privileges? It is wise to take things step by step and trust in the Lord. A great discussion was had with Alex and he said that he'd like to receive the priesthood in April. That's the goal for now. Maybe with continual meetings, the date can be moved up.

A ton of service took place last week. Indira needed help painting and repainting things. She's a former investigator from Brazil and is super nice. The missionaries are needed again this week to assist her and they look forward to teaching her while they work.

More service was performed on a LA's farm. His wife is super active and awesome, but for whatever reason he doesn't go to church. This brought back memories of working at Grandma and Grandpa Hoggan's place. The missionaries got to ride a tractor various places and pick up trimmed tree branches. This LA is a great guy and will be needing more help this week. Hopefully, something comes from this work and friendship.

Temple, an investigator, didn't answer when the missionaries stopped by to set up a future appointment. Instead, a member answered the door! His name is Solomon and he was baptized in Switzerland before moving to Germany. Cool! An appointment was made for Friday. 

Temple's friend, Russel, began talking to the Elders about how he had attended church once and expressed a sincere desire to meet with the missionaries. Russel has read in the Book of Mormon, liked what he read, and kept his Friday appointment. All of them met at the same time and it worked out great! 

They viewed the Atonement and it gave Solomon a chance to talk about how he came to know that this is the true church. It was really good to have him testify with Temple and Russel present. These investigators committed to reading the  Book of mormon daily and praying about it. Temple has been doing that and Russel said he really hopes to receive an answer. Temple made it to church yesterday and maybe they can all be there next Sunday.

Tuesday of last week brought a zone training meeting where skills were learned to aid in better teaching, listening, and in asking questions. It was great! Three missionaries from their zone left for home. One is Samuel Orchard and he will be playing basketball at USU. He served in the best mission ever for two years :)