¡Mesquite Turkey!

From Mom: He didn't mention turkey in his email - so I'm not sure why the subject was that. BUT this was his first week in his new area of Mesquite, Texas!!

Subject:	¡Mesquite Turkey!
Date:	Mon, 30 Jul 2018 16:52:54 -0500
From:	Brett Hogg

Well friends I'm back! Back amongst my people, and back in my native tongue. Not really, I've forgotten how to speak Spanish lol. But the gift of tongues is 100% real, sometimes I just say things, and I'm like "I didn't know I knew that!" I love Hispanics, wayyyy nicer than white people. Glad I'm not white 👱🏾‍♂️. Also the food! We've eaten so much!

We share the ward with another set of missionaries, split North and South. Us in the north on bikes and the South in car. The ward goes almost to downtown Dallas, Mesquite and all the way to Kaufman. Pleasant Grove is in our Ward, an area akin to Oak Cliff, in that it like a borough of Dallas, and it's super sketchy, some say even more so! The members are awesome and hispanic!

It's kind of funny, I'm with Elder Wyatt, another tall guy with glasses, and the other companionship is Elder Cano-Flowers and Elder Per, two Chapines (Guatemalans) lol. Elder Cano grew up in LA, but Elder Per is like FROM Guatemala, like hes learning English. What's cool is that he not only speaks Spanish but also a Mayan dialect! It's sounds like Arabic lol. He came from a village of 2500 people, and 1500 of them are Mormon! lol. We asked him about what he thought about America, and he said "there are machines for everything!" Like washing clothes, drying, washing dishes, blending, etc. Hes awesome. Next week I'll send a recording of him reading the Book of Mormon in Mayan.

We have been seeing small miricles, running into lost sheep (members that nobody knew were living here), referals etc. We need them though becuase all the people that were being taught here got baptized! They've had like 10 baptisms since May, and like 15 since the start of the year. And they're all great. All the recent converts here are super cool and have awesome testimonies. 

Not a whole lot of headway other wise, it's just been crazy just trying to figure out who everybody is!

Love you all!

Elder Hogg

This is a picture of Brett with his former companion, Elder Tornow.

A week in Frisco - And transfering to Mesquite, TX!

Subject:	A week!
Date:	Mon, 23 Jul 2018 15:55:54 -0500
From:	Brett Hogg

Hola Familia!

Glad you enjoyed the box! Kind of guessed on the hat size, they assure me you can get it stretched to a bigger size at a hat place, so hopefully it's close enough to do that.

Just a lot of little things this week.

First we were stopping by some people that were formally being taught here in the area. We knocked this one door and some one answered who wasn't the person we were looking for, but we told her what we're all about. She said that was pretty cool because she was just part of a traumatic thing in her life recently and she was praying and stuff, then we knocked on the door! We shared Alma 7:11-13, and she really liked it. We gave her the Book of Mormon and said we could come back! We came back and she wasn't home, but they'll get back in contact with her!

Then we were in Sherman (I really liked it, I was secretly hoping I would be transferred up there lol) on exchanges. We had a really good/intense lesson with someone that was supposed to be baptized this past Saturday. I cant quite tell you why it was intense, but we just had to powerfully testify that God loves him no matter what! And explain the atonement and even some of the plan of salvation.

We also volunteer at an old folks home here in Frisco twice a week. Some people are all there, and some are... not lol. But anyway, we help run Bingo lol. But THIS day they had a Luau! They had some people they came to Hawaii dance and play the ukulele, and while we were helping pour virgin margaritas (just drink mix in plastic cups lol), and one of the first things the Hawaiian dance lady says on the mic is "Shout out to the Elders! My Son [the one on the uke] just got back from Arizona on his mission!" So that was neat, we had to leave a little early to get to a lesson, so we didn't get to talk to them at all, but it was cool!

That lesson we had was with the awesome 17 year old, who wants to be baptized! We taught the Word of Wisdom, and she was like "I've been living that for like 2 months, when I heard about the church I was like 'I have to stop drinking coffee'" so that was awesome. Then we had the chance to meet her dad, who is not at all the biggest fan of her being baptized. He was nice.

Other than that, it's just been hot! We biked 25 miles on Saturday, and the heat index was something like 110°F or something. For me, after 90° it's all just hot lol. We average about 20 miles a day I think?

Anyway that's about it...

OH WAIT

I'M GETTING TRANSFERED. I'm going to the Rio Trinidad ward! It's the Spanish ward in Mesquite/East Dallas. We share the ward with another set of Elders, so I will be in the North area. And I will be back-up training (training him for his second transfer). I'm excited to be back in Spanish! And this is probably my last area, I'm sad to be leaving Frisco.

Anyway,

Love yall!
Elder Hogg

PICTURES:

At the end of this trail we always take (from here we go up the big sloppy part and under the bridge) there was this coloring page from some christian thing, so we fashioned a little sign using a passalong card and a nearby stake lol. It was kind of dumb but hopefully someone will find it and check out the card lol.

Baptisms in the air!

Subject:	Baptisms in the air!
Date:	Mon, 16 Jul 2018 14:22:35 -0500
From:	Brett Hogg

Some awesome miracles this week fam!

First we received a referral from Plano, an old Bible referral that they had lost contact with, but were able to contact now several months later and it turned out he had moved to our area. Hes from Milwaukee! He went to high school and drove School buses there, Well he's been wanting to be rebaptized for some time now as he grew up Lutheran and was baptized as a child, and doesn't like the fact that he doesn't remember it and has no idea who baptized him. This week we were able to meet with him twice and set a baptismal date! He does have some big life changes to make, so it's a softer date, conditional on his motivation from the spiritual witness he will receive. Hes awesome.

We also have another awesome girl! She is a friend of several members, and who is disillusioned with the church that her family currently attends. Someone put her info into mormon.org and they called her and had a couple quick lessons over the phone. She is 17 and has a friend that is leaving on a mission next week from here in one of our wards. While all this is all happening he shared with her a Book of Mormon and read some of it with her. She just showed up at church last week, and we set up an appointment. In the lesson she said she had grown closer to God during this time talking to her friend, the missionaries over the phone, and of course reading the Book of Mormon, than she had the last 17 years at her current church. She said she believes that we teach is true, and so we set a baptismal date! Her mother is very supportive even buying her a copy of 'Mormonism for Dummies', her father on the other hand is does not like the idea one bit. But she loves church and really wants to be a part of it. We invited her to invite her parents to church and her mother came! She is also going to be sitting in on the next lesson we have. It has been awesome to be part of this amazing miricle, and watching someone else really feeling and coming unto Jesus Christ!

I've been telling Elder Tornow that the air outside reminds me of the air in the chapel before a baptism, with the font filling and there's a beautiful humid atmosphere that makes you anxious to taste a little bit of heaven. 

Also! I talked to a member of the former stake presidency in our Ward who said if we could gather a list of active, native spanish speaking members we have in the stake that are currently attending other units, we could take it to the current stake President and pitch a Spanish branch (or group)! The list would be pretty hard to obtain however, mostly now that Carrolton is out of the mission, since their Spanish ward technically (it's just the closest) covers half of Frisco (another reason for Frisco to have their own Spanish branch).

That's pretty much it,

Love you all!

Elder Hogg

A big ol' storm rolling through, we found refuge at a playground pavilion.

For whatever reason it'll be totally sunny and totally stormy at the same time. And sometimes it lightning and thunders but never even rains lol

The salt deposits on my backpack lol. This week they have been especially bad, with little piles building up. 

From Mom: Eww!  But WOW - I hope he's getting enough to drink!!  That's a lot of sweat!

ExCons and Weeds

Subject:	ExCons and Weeds
Date:	Mon, 9 Jul 2018 16:01:05 -0500
From:	Brett Hogg

Familia!

Not much to report on this week!

On Friday we were biking along and we stopped and offered a card to a gentleman who was sitting outside this apartment complex with two youngsters, and their Pitpull. We offered him a card and chatted for a sec, and he asked if we could pray with him. Turns out he was recently freed from 14 years of incarceration in a federal penitentiary, and I offered to share a verse from the Book of Mormon. Well I completely forgot the reference (2 Nephi 26:33), so paraphrased it and shared a bit about the Book of Mormon and explained what we do and he loves it. He starts going off, basically sharing his testimony and he was super excited and even asked us if he could take a picture with us! The sad part is that hes just intown visiting family, and hes actually from St. Louis. Well we said a good prayer with him and he told us to add him on Facebook so we could keep in contact. We gave him the Book of Mormon and he was excited to read it, and a card with the number to call for missionaries to come by when he gets back over there. Also he shared that his Bible just got ruined in the rain, so we told him they'd bring him a new one of those too. It was probably the coolest street contact I've had on my mission haha. We're Facebook friends now.

From the Book of Mormon - 2 Nephi 26:33

Then this other family we stop by a lot. The wife is the only one that's really at all interested, but they all love Mormons and love when we stop by. The husband is a funny guy from southern California and  talks like a surfer dude and everything, but he's super conservative and loves talking about politics with us and stuff (we just listen, as missionaries we're politically neutral). He doesn't consider himself a Christian, but he does consider himself a warrior for Christ, because then he doesn't have to abide by the "thou shalt not kill" rule that way he can protect Christians when they can't defend themselves. Their garage is his kind of his man cave with various words or phrases spray painted all over the walls and fridge, where he and sometimes friends or family can be found kicking back a couple of ice cold Coors Lites. One night we stopped by and while we were leaving we asked if there was anything we could do for them and he said we could come by the next day and pull some weeds. He's offered to let us before but was always joking. But this time, he let us! Afterward we realised he was probably a couple drinks deep. But we showed up the next day and his wife tells us that he told her to tell us when we came that he didn't actually want us to do it, but we were there anyway so we went to work. It's wasn't that bad just a raised garden thing with like wild grass growing in it. Anyway as we're working he come out (he was taking a nap), and was like "oooh man, you guys actually came." He felt bad but it was a cool experience, and we were able to share Mosiah 2:17. It was funny, not sure I was able to really share the experience that this family is, but they're awesome.

From the Book of Mormon

Anyway that's about it!

Love y'all!
Elder Hogg

Just a little voice recording for my fans

And here are some pictures!!

Opening the Box from home!

SO appreciated!!

Y'all need JESUS shirt from Mom

Card from Miss Diane (our neighbor!)

From mom: We didn't get it either... but he is finding a
unique collection of "No Soliciting" Signs!!