Blue Island Letter #16

Leshelle tracting in Posen, Illinois

Thank you all for making my Christmas so great! Thanks to your generosity, my neck is warm and stylish, I smell wonderful, my feet don't hurt so much, my wardrobe gained some much needed color, and my photo wall has been updated with very attractive faces...just to name a small part of Christmas.

More than any of that, I felt your love and support. More valuable than anything else, it's feeling your love that gives color and warmth to my heart.

I LOVED talking to my family! I was even able to see them! Thank goodness for modern technology. I may not know how to use a lot of it, but I know I like what it can do!

Note: if anyone sent me mail to the mission address, it was lost! The two Elders who were delivering Christmas mail and packages somehow lost our letters. They had them in hand in front of our door. But, we were at an appointment. They drove the five minutes down the road to meet up with us. Somewhere in that process, the letters were lost. Who knows where they are. So, if you wrote me a letter and sent it there and you don't hear back from me, that's why. I was so sad!

By the way, that's the only time that the office doesn't forward letters, but has Elders deliver them. It is usually really quite safe to send things there.

Eliuth will return on the 4th. We did get in touch with Ivonne. She was really busy with school finals and projects before Christmas. We have an appointment to see her on Thursday.

We are going to the city today to do a scavenger hunt in downtown for Hermana Haws' last p-day. She goes home on the 4th.

Happy New Year! -- make a resolution for me.

Hermana Hoer

Blue Island Letter #15

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

I am thrilled beyond description to speak with my family in FOUR days! I have been looking forward to it for months. I haven't thought much of it because I didn't want to drive myself crazy. (I am naturally crazy enough). However, I have not been very successful at NOT thinking about it this week. Four days...

I feel so blessed. I received four packages and five letters in one day! My little, dinky tree is loaded with gifts. Thank you all for your love. More than anything that the packages or letters contain, I receive your love; that is the most important part to me. Thank you for thinking of me and loving me.

Being away from family and normal life during the holidays gets me thinking a bit differently. It's been a blessing in disguise. Christmas isn't about gifts or even about ginger-doodles. It isn't about the tree (even though I always make a stink about it). It isn't about carolling or stocking cereal. So, why do we do all that? I've put a bit of thought into the question: why do I miss all that? Why does it matter to me? I think I've come up with an answer.

We create traditions because it is a way to share. Through them we share what Christ is all about: love, companionship, peace, support, comfort, security, and joy.

Thank you to each of you who has sent me parts of traditions - pieces of my heart. Especially Mom. When we separate ourselves from the normal environment, we have a new perspective. I'm able to see with new eyes the meaning behind traditions of the holidays. It truly is about sharing. We share Jesus Christ. We share who He is. We share His qualities.

Jesus Christ gave the greatest gift: Himself. In some way, I hope that we can each do the same for this holiday season, and every day of the year. Give ourselves. He is the reason we are able to experience joy, peace, hope, love. He wants us to experience those things. He wants us to share them.

Lots of Love, and big big hugs!

Leshelle

Blue Island Letter #14

 Leshelle with bell windchime from Nora

 Leshelle being silly with a friend...



FUN STATS - its' been a while since we had some good stats coming from Hermana Hoer:

- number of times I wore earrings this week - 2!!!! (My sisters know what an amazing feat that is for me, but the holiday season did me in and my snowmen earrings were just too fun)
- number of blessings I have counted this week - over three hundred (see below)
- number of times that I had the thought "I really want to hear from_____," and then returned home to find a letter in my mail box from them - twice!
- Nora! Okay, so this is not at all a "stat", but a story. Nora is from Venezuela. We knocked on her door, and I was immediately drawn to her bell collection. It was huge! She later told me that she has over five hundred bells! They are from many countries and cities all over the world. It was amazing! I told her that I also collect bells, and she was just so excited. I tried to refuse when she gave me a bell/wind chime type deal (see picture). A combination of two of my favorite things. Just add a kite and a puzzle and I'm set! I love experiences like that. I was completely mesmerized.

I found the neatest thing in the Ensign the other day. I've since done it once by myself in English and twice with families in Spanish. It is a wonderful thing to do so I am going to share it with you! It is a Gratitude Challenge.  Make a list of one hundred things you are grateful for. Seems daunting to list one hundred things. However, the challenge came with a hint/help: categories!

1. 10 physical abilities
2. 10 material posessions
3. 10 living people
4. 10 people who have passed away
5. 10 things about nature
6. 10 things about today
7. 10 places in the world
8. 10 modern inventions
9. 10 foods
10. 10 things about the Gospel

...for which you are grateful. After I did this the first time, I was more aware of the many, many blessings throughout the day. The effect was awesome! I recognized so many more blessings, from little things to large things, that I had not previously given much attention to. Best of all, my heart was more grateful.

The following comment is my spanish translation, so I won't put it in quotes; however, I must preface it by saying that Henry B. Eyring wrote this - not leshelle:

           We all can choose to give thanks in prayer and ask God that He direct us to serve others in His name, especially in this time of year that we celebrate the birth of the Savior. God the Father gave his Son, and Jesus Christ gave us the Atonement, the greatest of all gifts and offerings.  Giving thanks in prayer permits us to see the magnitude of these and more blessings that we receive, and also to obtain the gift of a more grateful heart.

It is so true! I loved thinking of my many blessings. I've tried to think of new items each time that I have done the Gratitude Challenge. My blessings simply cannot be counted; and, I realized that as I attempt to count them. One hundred blessings doesn't even crack the ice.

I would love to hear about some blessings that you all realize as you go through this list. Please share! I currently have a list of three hundred (plus...shhh, I added several). My lists have become something precious to me, and have given me an even greater blessing: more gratitude, which equates to more happiness, more showing of gratidude, and more giving.

Happy Hholidays from Blue Island!

- Hermana Hoer

Blue Island Letter #13

Yeah, snow. It's getting cold! I had to buy some thermal legging things today. It's crazy cold. 33 degrees and sunny. Yuck. Remind me never to live here (other than my mission). It snowed again yesterday on and off. It was light and fluffy and pretty. So pretty. I love it - if I'm inside with a book and hot chocolate. Not very fun to tract in, which is what we really need to do lately...

Eliuth's baptism date is the 7th of January! And Ivonne also! However, Eliuth has to get baptized in Elgin where she lives. It's out of our area, so we cannot go - and we have a baptism here anyways. However, Eliuth's son will baptize her, and I am so overjoyed about that. SO SWEET!

Eliuth LOVES the gospel. She loves the commandments. She is humbly identifying things that she needs to change in order to be more like Christ. She is excited to pay tithing. We invited her to pay tithing once she's baptized. She immediately said she was going to start now - and she's not waiting to be baptized. The word of wisdom, fasting, fast offerings, scripture reading, praying...etc. She sees the value of it all. She has such a strong testimony and desire to follow Christ, and she KNOWS that the Chruch of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is His Church, and therefore His way to live. I feel very, very blessed - more than I can express - to have seen this amazing woman in the course of her conversion. She inspires me with her faith and willing heart.

Follow-ups from tracting in Harvey: The golden one, Juana (the one who stole my line) told us she didn't have time when we went back for our return appointment. Araceli and Marcos have a Book of Mormon and we have a date to go back next Sunday. We also found a previous investigator family we're working with. Neat people. We'll go back to see them tonight.

I feel I am so blessed with work. Heavenly Father keeps giving us opportunities to teach. He keeps leading us to nice people to talk to. He keeps helping us find investigators.

Love, Leshelle

Blue Island Letter #12

Hermana Hoer

Family and Friends: Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Following in line with the family tradition, I'm going to share what I'm grateful for!

- the HOER FAMILY!!!!!! I love my family more and more everyday
- scriptures. My scriptures are my best friends
- knowing that Jesus Christ is my Savior
- letters!
- sleeping
- Parking Ticket: $50.00 (I'm grateful I only had to pay half)
- Christmas on Thanksgiving
- playing sports on Thanksgiving (I was voted best cannon in my district...not to brag or anything...okay, that is bragging). I love sports
- horchata. I love horchata
- running in the morning! I love that part of my day
- scarves. It is so stinkin cold over in these parts
- same note: being in a car! (no offense, SuperBike)
- PRAYER
- warm boots
- water. My companion calls me a fish
- pictures of my niephews!!!!

That's not a complete list. But, I don't have any more time. !!I am grateful!! Thank you for your prayers and love. Thank you for your letters. Thank you for you!

It snowed the other morning. So exciting. For me, anyways...! Since then, it's just been plain cold, without the snow. Super cold. It makes tracting for hours pretty difficult to gear up for - physically and emotionally! But, we've been working hard anyways. We've seen some neat things too!

For example, Eliuth -- we invited her to be baptized. She accepted! She doesn't have a date, because she's going to speak with her son (he was just baptized in Utah, in the end of October) to arrange a time when he can be here to baptize her. We're going to set a date on Saturday at our next appointment.

I LOVE this woman. We've taught her for a long time. She LOVES the Book of Mormon, and she LOVES the Church. She has a beautiful testimony of Jesus Christ, and she knows that baptism is a serious commitment - a covenant with God. She is excited about it and excited to prepare herself to be baptized. It feels SO good to be with her. It is wonderful to see someone know they are investigating the church, know she's preparing to be baptized, and know it's the right thing to do. She is an inspiration and a motivation. She didn't want to talk about baptism until she read the entire Book of Mormon. She did, and she understands it. She didn't merely read, she studied. She always has questions for us. She answers our questions with scriptures and Book of Mormon examples. It's BEAUTIFUL!

We also had an investigator fall into our laps one Sunday - at Church of all places. In the second lesson, we invited her to be baptized. She accepted! She'll be baptized the Saturday after her 18th birthday. Her birthday is the first of January, and she'll be baptized the 7th. She is so sweet. She explained her desire to be with God and her family someday, and the blessing of being able to repent. She expressed a desire to feel spiritual conviction more than to know knowledge. We're working on helping her to recognize her testimony, and share it with us in our lessons. She went to church as a child, and knows a great deal about the Church. It's a unique situation teaching. So, we've reorganized a bit so that she's doing more of the teaching - in other words, she can strengthen and recognize her testimony in our lessons. Her desire to feel the Spirit and to be a strength to her family is beautiful.

We went tracting the other night. It was cold, and I got a weird thought in my head. Previous missionaries have said that neighborhood of Harvey is dangerous. I questioned whether or not we should get out of the car. Neither  Hermana Santos or I felt unsafe; so, we got out to knock some doors. Well, we were not able to knock many doors...because we kept teaching! We went three for five! One of the lessons really sticks out to me. Juana let us in. We invited her husband to join us, but he said no. Maybe next time. We began to talk, and she shared a really neat experience about answered prayers. We began teaching the Restoration. We asked for her feelings about a prophet. As much as she believed they were important in the  Bible, she didn't believe there is a prophet now. We kept teaching. When we began to teach about the Book of Mormon, she really lit up when we talked of Christ. She knows He will come, and that we should be preparing ourselves for that time. We shared some scriptures and talked about the Testament of Jesus Christ. Before we could even invite her to read it, she invited herself to read it! She stole our line! I was happy to be robbed.  We have an appointment with her this evening, where we plan to invite her to be baptized. 

The work is moving! I'm seeing it. It is such a blessing. My  heart and mind are completely involved in the work. It's exciting.

Happy Holidays!

~Hermana Hoer