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