CHRISTMAS DAY SKYPE!!

Hi all - there is no letter this time... but we were able to Skype with Elder Hogg for about an hour and a half!  He then sent us pictures (see below).

For those unfamiliar with our church missionary program - we only get to talk to our missionary on Christmas Day and Mother's Day (some exceptions if Father's Day is more appropriate for some missionaries).  We email once a week.  No contact in between (no texting or calling, etc.).  If we have any issues or instances that our son should be aware of (if we are hospitalized and it's serious, etc), we contact the mission office and go from there depending on the situation.  So this was a BIG DAY!!!  We hadn't talked to him since Mother's Day (225 days!!!)

 Some highlights:
*Lufkin is about 3 hours southeast of Dallas - and the area they cover is about the same as the whole Dallas area! (He included a map below!)
*The Spanish branch only has about 20 people! He can't imagine how the members will feed them dinners every night - so they might cross over to be fed by the English ward, as well?  (I'm going to send some food and walmart gift cards just in case!)
*It's VERY RURAL!  They are the only missionaries in the Texas Dallas mission with a 4-wheel drive truck.  They've already helped with baling hay and also with a bull that got out! haha!!
*He's still COLD (which made me laugh).. The highs this week are "only" in the 40s and 50s. (He's going to be freezing when he gets home next fall!)
*He is SUPER SUPER SUPER GRATEFUL for the letters, emails and packages.
*Elder Hogg had very limited time in his last area to reply to emails.. so he hopes that he will have more time now to respond individually, rather than just the "big blog" email! 
*He misses snow!  

But most of all..
*Brett bore his testimony of the home teaching program. Missionaries are often asked to do what Home Teachers should do.... (All families should be assigned a home teacher.) 
*Missionary work is inspired... miracles happen... and lives are changed... it's something hard to describe!  
*We need more understanding between people (all over - in and out of church).. more compassion!! 
*He loves what he's doing... he loves the people... and enjoys even the tough moments, actually!
*He shared some perspective on the Church itself.. the organization and wisdom of how things are set up and what he's witnessed, etc.

He was able to say HI to all of his Wisconsin cousins and his Uncle Nathan - some he hasn't seen in a few years!  We kept him busy and we also got a little time to speak just with us. 

Cousins Meagan, Bethany, Jenni - Brother Scott
And Bethany's older daughter, Evelyn
pictured with Scott!

Brett is feeling good (except for being cold -haha) and doing really well!  He has great energy and hasn't been sick. He already feels like he's "running out of time".. and doesn't want it to end yet.  (He doesn't come home until September/October 2018..lol.)  

He misses all of us, but wants to be where he is... and doing what he's doing!  He loves meeting people all over.. helping people... talking to people.. and just getting to know everyone!!!

If anyone would like Elder Hogg's mailing address in Lufkin, or his email address - just comment to this post or call/email me!

-Brett's Mom, Sue Hogg

Baptism in Oak Cliff!!

Zoom in.. it's a picture of Brett's long-time apartment in Oak Cliff. His desk is below the Texas flag.

Goodbye to Elder Rodriguez. :'(

In Lufkin - time to stack the hay!! 

Opening packages after transfer!

A gnome from Aunt Lisa!

A Bob Ross doll from Aunt Lisa!! Too funny! 

TIES from Aunt Lisa! ♥ (Unknown Sister missionary photo bomb)

GRANDMA DEBBIE'S CHRISTMAS COOKIES! YUMMY!
♥♥♥
(Unknown sister.. haha.. I think she wanted some!)

Klement's Summer Sausage from Mom (or Grandma Debbie - I can't remember)! 

Spicy Wheat Thins from Grandma Debbie! ♥

Wisconsin Hat from Grandma Debbie!

Homemade Christmas Card from Mom!! ♥

Lufkin ward boundaries (see the related size of the city of Dallas! Wow!! They are covering a lot!)

Transferred to Lufkin!

http://www.visitlufkin.com/index.php

Another voice e-mail from Brett this week!! He is being transferred to East Texas, the small city of Lufkin.  He sounds bummed because he loves Oak Cliff so much - and had to say good-bye to great people!  But I think he'll love his new adventure!  The weather is MILD - highs in 60s and 70s this week!   Next week we get to Skype for Christmas and we'll hear more about Lufkin!  ~Mom 

Subject:	Voice
Date:	Mon, 18 Dec 2017 19:06:03 -0600
From:	Brett Hogg

Audio Email! (Everything is Super Cool)

This week is a treat - because we received a VOICE email from Brett!  SO good to hear his voice... and only 2 weeks till we get to Skype on Christmas Day!  

Enjoy...
Mom

Subject:	Audio Email!
Date:	Mon, 11 Dec 2017 18:11:42 -0600
From:	Brett Hogg

Wow, what a week.

Date:	Mon, 4 Dec 2017 17:40:49 -0600
From:	Brett Hogg

Wow, what a week.

First we had a 70 come visit us, Elder Pearson! He thoroughly rebuked us, it was awesome. He was very bold and talked about a lot of different things. He talked about D&C 50:14-21, faith and what happens when we we have/don't have it, and how to get it, planning, finding, helping people, discover their divine identity and how it relates to prayer (Bible Dictionary: Prayer), and even how to give talks! There was so much that he threw at us. It's a lot, and kind of deep to be able to write it out, you really had to be there. A couple things I wrote down:

"Everyone you meet knows the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you can't have a physical body, and not know the gospel is true"

"There's no one leaving the church that is reading the Book of Mormon everyday"

"Faith is a spiritual gift from God" (like the gift of tongues)

And some other stuff, there was so much. It was super good. 

We also had two baptisms! The one kid who ordered a Book of Mormon and the other girl who recently moved into the Ward. It was awesome. Elder Rodriguez baptized the kid, and I baptized the girl. It was super cool and spiritual. I got to do hers in Spanish! She's learning Spanish, and her husband is from Mexico City originally, and even served a mission in Mexico. He's been inactive for a long while, and she grew up in an inactive family and never got baptized. It really worked out because the kids mom only speaks Spanish, and the Hermanas from the other Spanish branch invited their investigators. It was a really cool experience.

Anyway, awesome week,

Love,

Elder Hogg

Happy Thanksgiving!

From: "Brett Hogg"
Date: Nov 27, 2017

Hola Fam

Happy Thanksgiving! We started thanksgiving by playing the Turkey Bowl with some other Elders and member that met up to play. It was fun, even if our team lost haha. From there we went thanksgiving linner at a Spanish members house, it was delicious. From there an English member had a big dinner for their family and a couple extra people, including us! Also delicious. Then in the evening we headed over to our Branch Mission leaders house for even more thanksgiving dinner. We also got to see part of the Cowboys game, wasn't great. But the again, when is it ever? All around, a great Thanksgiving. Not as great as being yall though of course! 😉

Also this week we got to give blessings to 3 week old, premature babies! It was crazy. Aparently one of the parents' parents are Mormon, and they asked if we could go, and the parents wanted to come. So we went and we had to scrub our arms up to our elbows and then we had to wear a gown thing, and we weren't allowed to bring our phone or anything so we don't have pictures unfortunately. But it was crazy and the spirit there in the NICU was super thick. We got to reach into their little boxes and lay our hands on them. They were born at les than 2 pounds each, they were twins. Anyway, super spiritual experience.

Our gas station investigator is super cool still, highlighted things in the Book of Mormon this time. Shes awesome, but didnt make it out to church this week. Hopefully next week with the Christmas devotional that'll be cool. Haven't been able to get ahold of Orlando unfortunately, we think hes still been in the hospital, but the hospital hes at now is outside of the zone so we haven't been able to make it over there. This coming saturday we have two baptisms, one with a girl that was taught elsewhere but moved here, so we get to baptize her, then we got the 15 y/o who ordered a Book of Mormon that I told you about. So be expecting pictures of that!

Sorry this is so late, but I love yall!

Elder Hogg

Yet another week in Oak Cliff!

From: "Brett Hogg"Date: Nov 20, 2017 4:33 PM
Subject: Yet another week in Oak Cliff

Sup fambam!

This week we taught a new girl. We stopped in a gas station last week, and one of the girls working there asked Elder Rodriguez if he was running away from home because he was wearing his back pack lol. He explained that we were missionaries and we exchanged information and stuff. We met up in the park earlier in the week we talked about religion and stuff and shared the Book of Mormon, and usually we leave the Introduction to read because it explains it better than we can. Well we met up a couple days later and asked how her reading went, and she read! but she kept going too, like she read all the testimonies and other stuff after! Then she had really good questions too, like, why did Joseph have to wait to receive the plates? Why are there 3 witnesses, and 8 witnesses? And we were kind of stunned, because usually people don't read, and if they do, they don't really have any deeper questions or anything. We taught her The Restoration even set a baptismal date with her! Unfortunately she works on Sundays, so that might delay her, but she's super awesome!


On Tuesday we had district meeting in a mini bamboo forest at a local park here. Usually we just have district meeting at the church building, but we want to start doing destination district meetings. We always try to bring snacks to district meeting, thus the food in the photos haha

Then on Saturday we had a crazy day. We decided to bike. Originally it was a horrible idea, then we put some air in our tires and it was a lot better lol. It actually felt really good to bike. We did have to bike to the hospital to give a blessing to a man that is doing really not well, from this really cool family in the Spanish branch. His daughter and her family are in our branch, but came from the Grand Prairie ward, and the remembered me! Anyway cool family.

Then the branch had Thanksgiving dinner. It was pretty good!

Towards the end they had the primary kids dressed as Indians sing a little song and people got up and said what they were thankful for/bore their testimonies, and of course, like any other fiesta, ended with karaoke ranchos (Mexican country music (in general, Mexican music is either country or polka in nature)). Towards the end Elder Rodriguez and I got up with a member and sang a song about a horse lol (it was hard to find a song not about romance and stuff haha). It was "El Caballo Cantador" by Antonio Aguilar if you want to look it up.

Then on Sunday Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard had a YSA Face-to-Face, and they asked missionaries to watch it as well. So we got to watch that which was cool.

Anyway, thats about it, otherwise, same 'ol same 'ol, and I love it!
Love yall,
Elder Hogg

Not Transferring - Staying in Oak Cliff! Wow!

From: Brett Hogg
Date: Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 5:25 PM

Not much to report on this week. I thought I was getting transferred, so that was supposed to be the meat of my email, but I guess the meat is now that I'm staying in Oak Cliff for 9 months!! Barely anyone got transferred. Our zone is the biggest in the mission, and we only had 2 people get transferred out. As of right now the work isn't split. So thats a bummer. I don't think President Dalton wanted to break anything up, so as not to shake up December too much. Its kind of funny because I went around and took pictures with a bunch of members lol. Anyway, I'm excited to see the baptisms we are going to have here.

Other than that I got to meet my cousin, Sheila, and her family! They're super cool, and as I'm typing this, I'm realizing I get a picture with them. We chatted and she took us to chick-fil-a. I honestly didn't realize she was actually coming until I got a call from Elder Pattee at the church building, saying I'm here with your cousin! So I zoomed right over and that was pretty cool.

Anyway, cant wait to update you with more Oak Cliff adventures in the future!

Con Amor,
Elder Hogg

Note from Mom: We were so excited that our niece Sheila went to see Brett! She lives in Texas, I guess just West of his area. So SWEET! I received the following picture from her!

(This is last week's email that never sent apparently, ps. No word on transfers yet)

From: Brett Hogg 
Date: Mon, Nov 13, 2017 at 12:09 PM
Subject: (This is last week's email that never sent apparently, ps. No word on transfers yet)

Hola Familia 

Not a whole lot new this week. On Halloween we had to be in our apartment by 6:00pm. BUT that morning we had Zone Conference, which was good. We got a ride there (because its all the way in FRISCO) from a really awesome member, but didn't have a ride home. The missionaries from one of the other wards here in the stake was able to get one of their members to come pick us up, but he hadn't called him until the conference was over, so we where stuck there waiting. They had a truck, and there where actually four of us that had to make it back, so the four us squeezed into the back of the truck. By the time we got back to our area is was at least 7:00pm, BUT, while at Zone Conference, we got permission to go to the branch Halloween party that was that night. So we went right over to that, and that was fun. On my mission I've grown to really love church activities. They're just so wholesome and pure. So that was fun, then we headed home for the night.

The night before the Waxahachie Elders spent the night with us so they could come up with us the next day. One of the Elders is from Honduras. He came out from Austin, but had only been living there/ in the United States for several months. His companion doesn't know a lick of Spanish and hes still learning English himself, so that's kind of funny. Hes a ball of energy that guy though. If you watch the video on the Facebook page of us singing, he's the one kneeling in front. He loves the gospel and that night, after we were all in bed, he spent about an hour probably, going off about the plan of salvation how awesome it is, and some other deep stuff he'd learned, and at one point was standing up and preaching whole we were all laying in bed lol

Then yesterday we had a Regional Conference. It was kind of interesting, because we started off with our own hymns prayers and a talk from someone from the stake presidency, then it was a broadcast from Salt Lake with Elder D. Todd Christofferson, and a couple other general authorities.then we concluded with our own prayer again, in the chapel. We watched in in Spanish, because our Branch Mission Leader asked us to be at the building where it was going to be broadcast in Spanish, to help set things up and stuff. Also we were hoping an investigator would show up, but they didn't.

Not anything new investigator-wise unfortunately. I am getting nervous that I'll be transfered. If I could have the desire of my heart it would be that they split the work, I stay spanish here and Elder Rodriguez goes English and we'd get new companions, bit still serve with each other too. The Spanish Branch especially needs a little TLC.

We will see what happens though!

Love yall

Elder Hogg

The other Elders here got permission to make these costumes, so Elder Rodriguez and I tried them on haha.

Singing Missionaries!

Check out my son running in and then standing in back.. He's late for everything! ~Mom

Enjoy!

Chili, Ms Diane's package...

NOTE: I didn't get an email on 10/30 because of an email problem - so this is dated 11/6. I was so happy to get this email!! ~Mom
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Brett Hogg <brett.hogg@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Nov 6, 2017 at 12:13 PM
Subject: [Last week]

Crazy week fam,

So Saturday we had a baptism. It was a nine year old who's family is active but they were waiting for other reasons, but because hes just barely 9 he falls under our jurisdiction lol. Anyway, the night before, as we were about to go to bed we learn that there's nothing prepared for this baptism at all. So the next morning we pretty much coordinate the whole thing. For whatever reason it was at the same time as the English ward's chili cook off/trunk or treat, so it was kind of hectic, and I didn't get much chili haha.

We had another baptism for this weekend but he felt it was too soon, so we pushed it back. Hes super cool, we're excited for him when hes ready. We also got a new investigator, the very next lesson she asked to borrow money to send to her mother in Mexico.

Also there's this super cool family that I told you about before, and we keep having awesome lessons with them, but they keep not coming to church. I still love them though, she gets choked up anytime we testify of eternal families, shes awesome.

MS DIANE'S PACKAGE:
So the day we told Bro Valdez to tell you that we never got it, we stopped back at home for something real quick, and our neighbor was getting home from work at the same time, and he told us we have a package that's been sitting outside our back door for, like, 2 weeks. He had been trying to get hold of us to tell us but we were never home at the same time. Anyway, we went to the back door (which we never use), and there it was! We brought it in and it's awesome. It's great, because we had just run out of money, and now we don't have to worry about food!

(Ms Diane is our awesome neighbor here in Milwaukee.. she's the best and has watched my boys grow up. She's incredibly thoughtful and like family ☺)
It's also been freezing here lately! I think Texas has made me soft haha. Could you please send my winter coat? Also my Christmas sweater? And if possible, my Nike windbreaker?? Thanks <3

Anyways that's about it here,


Love yall!
Elder Hogg

Photos:

After the 9 y/o baptism, the family made Discada, which is probably spanish for "just throw it in there". It's every kind of meat you can think of pretty much, just thrown in a big mexican wok. It's probably my new favorite mexican food. 

Me opening Ms. Diane's package, thank you so much Ms. Diane!!

ME getting a surprise haircut at a relief society activity, where they were learning how to cut hair lol

Brett was in a group picture on the missionary facebook page for a leadership council. He was pretty tiny - so I asked if that was him. (I mean, really, there isn't anyone quite like him - lol!)

Btw! Yep that was me, I've been district leader since I was with Elder Flores. District leaders don't always go to Missionary Leadership Council, but this one they did. They introduced smartphones! So now we have smartphones, but our doesn't work right now, so we have to wait for Tuesday to get the right SIM card.