Hola Fam!

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	Hola Fam!
Date:	Mon, 23 Oct 2017 19:06:19 -0500
From:	Brett Hogg

Not a very exciting week. Monday we met a part member family that was super nice that people have been trying to know/come back to church for a while. When we would tell people they could freak out and be like "say x!" "talk about y!" Unfortunately they cancelled our return appointment, and now they're going out of town. But a miracle nonetheless.

Then down the street from her there was another part-member family we finally got to meet. It was an asian lady, and the first time we knocked on the door nothing, then the next time a kid answered the door who had no idea his mom was mormon. Then the next time we came by they peeked out to see who it was, then there was a lot of yelling in asian, then a daughter came out (who had no idea that her mom was mormon) and said her parents were busy right now lol. It was kind of awkward because to whole time we were talking to her there was asian yelling in the background that you could hear through the door. Anyway, the next time we went back the mom finally came to the door, and she was really nice! She is hmong from Wisconsin! She was baptized there by hmong missionaries there (like 13 years ago?). She was remarried and apparently the husband is his own religion (shaman?), which means she pretty much has to be his religion. But she still likes the church and stuff and we have to get her a Hmong Book of Mormon.

This week we also taught one of our investigators we found last week. He's 15 and ordered a Book of Mormon, trying to spiritually find himself. He's super cool and came to a baptism the hermanas had. We had a member here give us and him a ride, and afterwards the member took us all out to get barbeque. Then the next day he came to church! Also Orlando came to church! He was really late but he stayed the second and third hour. Then we met a girl and her husband who just moved here and they she has been trying to get baptized but they kept moving but this time they are here for good, so we probably get to be the missionaries that baptize her! Then after the spanish ward a member came up to us and asked if we could get her grandson baptized this coming Saturday! Technically no, but we asked President and he said yea as long as everyone is on the same page. So this week we have to teach him everything and get him interviewed. But this weekend we should have a baptism!

Also the only person who could play the organ/piano isn't in the Branch anymore (Elder G :/ ), so on sunday the branch sang acapella for two songs, and it sounded pretty rough, so then the next two someone put their phone up to the microphone and played the music from the app lol. 

Other than that, just a teary goodbye to Los G couple.

Sorry this is so incredibly late :(

Love,

Elder Hogg

The G missionary couple

The G missionary couple with Brett & his companion

♥

Otro semana en El Cliff

Subject:	Otro semana en El Cliff
Date:	Mon, 16 Oct 2017 13:21:18 -0500
From:	Brett Hogg

Hola Familia

A good week here. Probably the biggest highlight was Thursday. We had a guy from Salt Lake follow us/drive us around. He's a higher up guy at the MTC (Missionary Training Center/Provo), and goes around visiting missions to see how they're doing and to help give the Mission President feedback. 

He followed a different set of missionaries around every day for 4 days, and we were one of them! He had a rental car, a 2017 Dodge Charger, that he got to drive us in (we only have so many miles we can put on our car, so we take every opportunity we can to get a ride. Also I would like a 2017 Charger when I get home please). His name was Bro Nelson, he's 33 and joined the church when he was a senior in high school, the only member of his family, hes a really cool guy. 

That was also the same day that we had interviews with President Dalton. When we have interviews we also have District Meeting, you just step out when its your turn, so that was good. He's not supposed to really interfere and just kind of observe mostly, but wound up teaching us a lot about how we can better take advantage of the technology we have here in the mission. He told us that every mission in the United States and Canada will be getting smartphones and Facebook here eventually. 

The Texas Dallas Mission, because it's the best, is basically a pilot mission, meaning we got Facebook like a year and a half ago, and Fort Worth is just getting it now. He also alluded to something else happening in January for us and a couple other special missions, not sure what exactly, but it has something to do with advertising? 

Anyway, he also took us to lunch. We went to Lockhearts BBQ. It was super good. When you order (you order by the 1/2 pound) they pull a giant slab of brisket out of their big smoker, and slice it off for you, and wrap it in paper. I also got habanero mac and cheese, which I regretted. 

We did eventually  get him to a lesson. We had a lesson with an awesome family, the mom is already a member, but the dad is not. The dad has been taught in the past, but we've started teaching him again, and the one son just turned eight. So we teach them both, even though the eight year old technically isn't an investigator, its really more for the dad. But the eight year old accepted to be baptized, the dad said he'd like his son to go first and then we'll talk about a date for him. So Thursday was a pretty good day. 

On Fridays we go do service at the Food Bank here usually, so we did that with the other Elders here close. Afterwards we were hungry so we called and asked how much unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks were, at the Olive Garden here close. The answer was 7.49, so we went. 

Then for a dinner an older lady here in the ward took us out to a diner place, but we were still full from lunch, but we ate anyway, and it was really good (I had chicken fried steak). So by this time we are so full we want to die, let alone do missionary work. But we pressed forward, nothing wavering, in the service of our God.  

(Haha - a quote from a scripture in the Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 31:20)

We had some names from the bishop we had to stop by, so we started going by them and not much was happening, until we stopped by this one member, who we hadn't really met before. I had shaken his hand at church once but that was about it. Well we knocked on his house and his wife answered! We assumed he was a single guy because he always came by himself. And she answered in spanish! We assumed she would be english because he comes to the english ward. 

But anyway, they invited us in and we started talking to them and they were super friendly. The wife didn't really know anything about the church, they had married when  he was inactive, and they had gone a couple times in the last 15 years but that's about it. She was super cool and wasn't really into Catholicism (which is a huge barrier for hispanics usually), started going baptist, but really just wants her family to all be on the same page spiritually. Elder Rodriguez was able to share his conversion story (he grew up going Catholic, but after his parents divorced he started going baptist with his mom), and they connected on that. Anyway, they said they would come to church and that we could come back and teach her more. They didn't make it out to church, but we're super stoked about them.

Then on Saturday we helped out at Ceder Hill Country Day on the Hill. A little festival the city of Ceder Hill does every year. The stake had got a booth to show off family history/familysearch.org, and they asked all the missionaries to help. That was fun, there was a parade, and just cool fair things. 

Then Sunday/Yesterday. After church we stopped by a couple Book of Mormon referrals (which are more rare). They were both really cool. They both said they work looking for something that's missing, filling a void. One guy hesitantly told us he was dealing with anxiety and depression stuff and so that was cool to see him seek God, to help him out. Bright futures here in The Cliff.

Con Amor,

Elder Hogg

Orlando & Plan of Salvation

Date:	Mon, 9 Oct 2017 12:44:10 -0500
From:	Brett Hogg

Hola dudes!

No mucho new this week. Probably the highlight was meeting a man named Orlando. From what I understand he's on basically home-hospice care. Hes kind of in and out of the hospital because he needs a ventilator sometimes I guess. 

We found him looking for someone else, and he invited us in. We talked to him about the Book of Mormon, and said we could come back. When we came back he had read some and we invited him to church and he said he would come. Well Sunday comes around and no Orlando (we're used to it by now), but then we get a text from him telling us hes in the ICU and that he wants us to come visit him. 

Then we get a call from someone in the hospital calling on his behalf, telling us Orlando wants us to come visit him. Well after church and our dinner appointment we head right over there. Eventually we find his room and he's excited to see us! He had a ventilator and whatever other tubes in his mouth so he couldn't talk, but had a pencil and paper. His sister, who was there, said he had stopped breathing there for a tiny bit so they brought him. He immediately shows us his Book of Mormon which he had with him there in the bed! We had left him with 3 Nephi 11 to read, and from what we gathered he had read all the way to chapter 15! 

He wrote out "I didn't make it to church" lol. We told him he had a pretty good excuse and we started to talk a little bit about the priesthood so we could give him a blessing. Last time we saw him we told him we would talk about what happens after we die, because he was a little interested in that lol. So while we are explaining the priesthood a little bit, he writes out "We were supposed to talk about death". So that's what we did, layed out a short Plan of Salvation. 

He was kind of falling in and out of sleep, so we were pretty much talking to his sister and wound up teacher about the restoration as well, and she thought it was pretty interesting and was marking things in the Book of Mormon we gave her, and taking notes.

We were getting ready to leave and Orlando wrote "I wish I could have made it to church." We told him he's got to make it out next week for sure, and that if he can't his sister has to come. We said a prayer with them and headed out. I want to get picture with him and his writing here eventually. Hopefully he can be out of there long enough to get baptized!

Another day we were eating lunch at the park, and cleaning out the car real quick when this guy was driving by. He randomly stops and looks out and back at us and says "Hey, are you guys Mormons?" We say yea, and gives up a thumbs up and says "Cool" and drives off. We were caught a little off guard lol. 

Other than Orlando, we've found some cool people/families, we'll see if they pan out though. 

And next week thursday! We will followed around by a guy from Salt Lake! Apparently he's a former mission President in Russia, I guess there's a couple guys coming to follow missionaries around and see how we do missionary work here in the TDM.


Con Amor,
Elder Hogg

Last week of the transfer!

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	Last week of the transfer!
Date:	Mon, 2 Oct 2017 07:33:55 -0500
From:	Brett Hogg

Sup fam!

So we had a pretty good, extremely fast week. A couple cool lessons. First, we set a baptismal date with our investigator Arturo. He has (or had?, a little loss in translation) a brain tumor that he got a bunch of radiation for, and it all kind of ruined his eye sight. He cant drive but he reads the Book of Mormon zoomed really far in on his phone. One of our other investigators is the girlfriend of an inactive member of the spanish branch. Shes very pregnant. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and read the Proclamation to the World together, its pretty neat to see a brand new family and help bring them the Gospel.

I forgot to mention last week! I left my tablet on the roof of the car, at the stake center, then drove away. I didn't realize it was missing until we were about to go to bed and I was going to charge it. The Sisters live close to the stake center so I called them first thing the next day to see if they could run over there and look for it. They found it! But the screen was completely shattered, like flakes of glass. They figure someone ran over it because of where it was. BUT! When I got it I peeled off the glass screen protector, and viola! Not a scratch on the screen. The body of the tablet itself and the case are pretty well scratched up around the edges. And it works fine still! Positive reviews to the maker of that screen protector. (P.s. could you send me another screen protector 🙂).

Note from Mom: WOW - that was worth it!! The maker of the screen protector is OMOTON.  Here's the link on Amazon.

Also,  I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but a week or 2 ago a couple of companionships here close,  met up at the park to hand out free water/contact people. We wound up playing soccer with a Mexican family there, and got our behinds handed to us. And we were kind of sweaty for the rest of the day lol. I just now got the pictures so here they are for you! 

We also got a new member of the district! She's a missionary from Puerto Rico. After Hurricane Irma came through and destroyed the whole island, they evacuated all the missionaries. She was saying that they were told to buy 72 kits, and a change of clothes, to last them 3 days in the mission home while they waited out the storm. Well the hurricane was so bad, they were there for 5 days, and the First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12 decided to evacuate everyone. So Elder Oaks got to prayin', the church got on the phone with Delta, and everyone was reassigned to other missions, and ours got a few! The mission President I guess got off the phone with the head honchos, and got up in front of everybody and read off the list of where everyone was going! They came here with literally only the change of clothes they had. They weren't able to go back to their areas and scavenge for their things or anything, they flew right out from the mission home. Elder Pattee got a refugee too, so I'm excited to meet them all. The one we got here in our district is pretty cool.

Then there's conference! We were the first ones at the church building, so we had to figure out how to set everything up. Way more spanish people come to conference so we set it up in the chapel and made all the gringos watch it in the Relief Society room. 

Conference was really good. I really liked Saturday morning. We watched priesthood session in spanish because we had a few people that we're reactivating that came. To be honest, didn't get as much out of it in spanish. Its way easier to zone out when you're trying to keep up with fast talking old spanish man voice. From what I understood, it was really good too. I'm going to go back and rewatch it for sure in english. 

Note from Mom: 2 weekends a year, we hear televised messages from the leaders of the Church. To see all of them, you can click here for a list of all the talks and watch!  It's call "General Conference" and there are 6 sessions: 4 general sessions and one for women and one for men.  All are available on www.lds.org to see!

Also this week, we were driving, minding our own business when all of the sudden, 2 chickens literally crossed the road in front of us, right here in south Dallas. We didn't see why though (🥁). Wish I got a picture.

Oh yea! And our Italian mob-boss branch mission leader made us chicken parmesan, it was delicious.

Anyway, that's about it for this week, I'll try to let you m know about transfers when we hear!
Love yall,
Elder Hogg

Our family tree (Elder Pattee is brothers with the Elder he's standing next to [my uncle], who is training the Elder standing next to my son [my cousin]. The Elder above him, and next to me, is Elder Pattee's current trainee [my brother]).

Our district (with our new sister)