My Week

Elder Hoggan had another interesting week in Germany! It was full of a few super awesome things and some that are starting to become normal, but the work is moving forward and the missionaries are staying positive!

A cool opportunity arose last Tuesday when the Elders ate lunch with a member family. The father is LA, the mother and her sons are active in the church. The mom had the idea that the boys, both teenagers, should get blessings for the upcoming school year. After eating, Elder Hoggan had the chance to give Max a blessing and Elder Jensen gave Tobias one. This was Elder Jensen's first comfort blessing and was a good experience for him :) A better relationship is being built with this family. Tobias plays ping pong and basketball, so Elder Hoggan is going to take him on sometime soon :) Germany vs. USA! Steve will try his best to represent his country.

Wednesday was an adventure indeed. There were two options. First, visit an old referral who most likely has no interest in the missionaries message and then catch a bus in five minutes. Two, stay and not do the other things planned. The Elders went with the first and booked it up to this man's house only to find that he wasn't interested in the gospel. (He better come around someday! ;) ) Elders Hoggan and Jensen raced back to the bus stop with time to spare. All of this was done with a plate of cookies in Steve's backpack :) Those went to the ward mission leader later. Only he can't eat cookies. His family could though, so it's all good! A lesson was not taught to the old referral, but the ward mission leader relationship is building :)

Thursday was the coolest day of the week. Their zone met in Stuttgart at 8 a.m. and were off for Munich at 10:30 a.m. for zone conference. It was great to see everyone. Elder Hoggan got a picture will all of his sons :)  He has trained three missionaries. It was nice to return to the "homeland" where Elder Hoggan served for a year and a half and had zone meetings. The missionaries learned about the Gathering of Israel and Planning and Setting Goals. This mission has a goal to get one baptism in every ward/branch before the end of the year. Fasting took place on Sunday and now the work begins! Elders Hoggan and Jensen will do their best and hopefully be able to reach it. With God, nothing is impossible, right? :)

Cleaning the church took place on Saturday. It is the biggest building that Elder Hoggan has attended in Germany. It took three hours or more, but it is a really great privilege to do things like that.

For Halloween, homemade sugar cookies will be baked with frosting made from scratch. These will be delivered to special families!