Brett Hogg was serving a mission for The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Texas Dallas/East Texas area when he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma (Stage IIIB). He was later declared cancer-free and now he has returned to missionary service in Dallas! This chronicles our journey...
Iakwe baamle! (From mom: I think that is Marshallese for "hello family")
Last
week we contacted a lady and she told is we could come back and share
more with her at a place called House Upon the Rock. It's like a
faith-based soup kitchen type place that she volunteers at. Well we went
to go check it out and it was pretty neat. Every Tuesday they feed
homeless people, or really anyone that comes in. We went in and we told
them who we were looking for. They said she wasn't there but that we
could come check out the place and grab something to eat! We said we
were good but that we could help out. They had a bunch of volunteers so
they were set on help but insisted we ate, so we did lol. Everyone there
was essentially baptist, and were excited tell us all about the place.
You could tell though they thought some things about us, because they
kept saying little things like, "we might disagree on some doctrine but
we're just here to help people," or "we're here only for Jesus Christ and
to serve him." You can tell when people have been fed a bunch of weird
information by their [for-profit] pastors, because they act just a
little different around you, especially when you show up with a tie and
badge. We made sure to mention the church's actual name and emphasize
that this is Jesus Christ's Church. At one point we were talking to one
of the main guys and he said something about "Mormons" and we told him
that's just a nickname people give us and that we are actually The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, because that's who it's all
about, and he liked that name a lot better! The prophet's call to
emphasize the correct name of the church is already softening hearts.
Nonetheless it was a cool experience, got to meet some nice people,
and I think we're going back next Tuesday to help out.
The
next day we gave a chapel tour for this really awesome family we are
teaching. A lot of the people we are teaching are really awesome, but
have the hardest time actually making it to church, so we've been trying
to have more chapel tours, or lessons at the church and stuff. It's
awesome, and they feel the spirit for sure. Awesome family, please pray
that the people we are teaching come to church, so they can feel the
spirit and take the sacrament!
Then
the next say we had to go to a meeting over in Dallas again, so another
6 hours is the car. For a lot of the meetings, president likes to have a
special musical number, and he audio records them on his phone, I think
one day he is going to release a TDM mix-tape lol. Anyway, the day
before the meeting the Elders in charge of running the meeting initially
called and, jokingly, asked me to perform a special musical number.
They really were calling to ask me to conduct, but then called back a
couple minutes later and said the other missionary that was actually
going to do the musical number said they couldn't, and asked me to do it.. lol. I said sure (I kind of want to be on the TDM mix-tape), and roped
the rest of the Elders from my zone that were going to that meeting into
helping me. We sang Silent Night, the first verse English, the second
verse Spanish, and the third verse half Spanish, half English. It was
kind of funny because we had the Elder from Hawaii that was a
professional singer with us, but instead of having him just sing the
most of it, we all sang and it wasn't bad, but it wasn't outstanding
either, and we had just practiced it in the car ride over that morning.. lol.
Saturday we went up
to Clebit, OK, the closest I've been to home in 2 years. It's like a
little over an hour North of Idabel. We were also probably the farthest
north any missionaries in the mission have been in a long time. It's
just a tiny little town, that had a baptist church and a gas station. It
was beautiful up there though. Broken Bow Lake is a big tourist-y place
for people to come camp or cabin for long weekends and holidays. We
have a member of the church that lives up there and he wanted us to come
meet his wife who hasn't been baptized yet. We took pictures but they
don't do it justice.
Then
yesterday at church we had to speak! The topics were a little strange
but it worked out. The topic I had was the Miracle of the Loaves and the
Fishes. I don't want to brag I did pretty darn alright. If you read the
institute manual on that miracle (and the feeding of the 5 thousand),
it's kind of awesome and there's a lot to it actually. Besides the
Resurrection it's the only miracle that was recorded in all four gospels,
so I actually had a lot to talk about. Pretty interesting stuff!
That's about it this week!
Love y'all! Miss yall, and I'm already getting trunky for Christmas and stuff back home with yall!
First of all, an Apostle came to speak to us! A modern day Peter, James, or John came and spake to us and the Fort Worth mission combined. We also had Elder Teixeira, of the presidency of the seventy (Luke 10), Elder Robbins, of the Seventy, and all of their wives. First of all, the opening hymn was Called to Serve, and apparently we weren't singing it as fervently as it deserves, because Elder Holland, in the middle of the song, yelled over to the Elder directing the music and told him to pick it up, and then snapped his fingers at us from the stand signifying to pick up the pace a little bit.
Here are the men from the Tabernacle Choir singing the hymn mentioned above.
After that Sister Robbins spoke first, and talked about how important companionship unity is, then Elder Robbins shared a quote that scared me half to death, I don't remember exactly how it went but it basically said the kind of missionary you are, is the kind of person you will for the rest of your life, so if you want to have an awesome bright future, be a great missionary now. I got all reflective and stuff and hoping I had a successful mission lol. He called the mission the University of The Lord, and we are enrolled in some tough courses. He also talked about Chpt.6 of Preach My Gospel (Developing Christlike Attributes) and how it's one of the most important chapters, and how it is THE most important for your post-mission life/wife.
Then the Teixeira's (pronounced Ta-shera) spoke, and they are from Portugal so they had some cool accents. They talked about the work in which we are engaged, the Gathering of scattered Israel. Sis Teixeira spoke about how we must speak to every one, start gathering israel the second we leave the apartment. She said sometimes we spend too much time worrying about logistical stuff and not enough time with our lines in the water. She shared Jeremiah 16:16:
"Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks."
She also admonished us to study fervently, and sanctify ourselves so that we may teach with the Lord by our sides. The Lord is with us when we are living righteously. To constantly be planning and thinking of the people that we are teaching, to conquer fear with faith. She shared this scripture as well, from the Doctrine & Covenants, section 84, verse 88:
"And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."
Then Elder Teixeira talked, and he talked about how finding people to teach and teaching are the same thing, they are related activities. He told us to talk to everyone and ask everyone we talk to if they know anyone that could use a message about Jesus Christ. He told us to actually listen to the people we are teaching and the spirit. He talked about the parable of the talents and about how Heavenly Father has entrusted us with a corner of his kingdom, a portion of his children, and we should take care of them and be able to present them to him again better than we found them.
Then Sis Holland said a few words. She seemed a little weak, so she didn't say much. She told us that our missions are the hardest things we will do, leaving everything behind, our missions themselves being acts of faith. She said don't try to do more than your best, it will wreck you.
Then Elder Holland got up. He spoke softly about how awesome his wife was, and about how she has almost died three times. The Lord knew he couldn't do it without her so he kept bringing her back. He recounted a story about how soon after giving birth to one of their children he was called back to the hospital after he had returned to work with a voice saying "We're doing everything we can for your wife." He didn't expect that and rushed to the hospital worried, apparently there had been some complications from the birth and Sis Holland was dying. He said he told everyone in the room that he didn't know if they were Latter-Day Saints or not but that he was in charge now. One of the images that was burned into his memory was first his wife hooked up to a bunch of tubes but second was a tiny little nurse, "couldn't have been more than 80 pounds sopping wet" that was up on the emergency room gurney on top of Sis Holland pounding on her chest saying, and Elder Holland now breaking his soft spokenness yelling, pounding his fist on the pulpit, BREATH! Everyone jumped lol. Now the Holland fire had come out. BREATH DANG YOU, BREATH!! And this is when he "got in our faces a little, just enough to singe our eyebrows." He said, now all worked up, it's that kind of urgency and importance that he felt was lacking. He told us we are engaged in the most important work in all of the eternities, ACT LIKE IT. The most important thing is Salvation. Getting married and having children, and serving a mission are in the same category, Salvation. Having a child is important because we are given the charge of saving that child. Saving souls is the entire purpose of the eternities. He shared 2 Nephi 26:24:
"He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation."
He said "You are charged with getting the blessings of the atonement into people's lives, and if not, it was like the atonement never happened. The whole earth is wasted." He said he figures we are the most prayed for group on the planet. Every meeting amongst the twelve and nearly every other meeting the missionaries are prayed for. BECAUSE we are at the center of the whole plan of everything! Without bringing salvation to the world, everything would be for naught, because it's the whole plan of everything ever! The whole point of everything is Salvation and exaltation. It's so important, we send you to the temple!
Christ's last words to his apostles were the Great Commision. That was the last thing he said to them before leaving them physically. He was about to leave all of everything he had done, the entire salvation of every person ever in the hands of 11 regular Joes, and that's what he told them to do. We, as missionaries are 'spearhead unit' of the work of saving souls. In the churches humanitarian efforts, the 'spearhead unit' is a truck or group of trucks that has everything you could ever imagine for a disaster and are sent out right as soon as it is possible to get trucks in. That's us! He said we are the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a lot of these people, we are at the front lines of it all, the tip of the spear. "Feel the fire!" He said.
Then he asked some missionaries to Read a couple things, starting in Mosiah 27 about how Alma was "astonished" and shaken when visited by the angel. He mentioned that it correlates with Alma 29, where he wishes he was an angel, that shake the earth with the sound of a trump to cry repentance. He wants that because that was the way he was converted, he thinks that's just the way to do it! Elder Holland goes on to explain that the Latin word from which we get "Astonish" means "thunder", and that we should go out and astonish people! Be astonishing! "You're astonishing to me! ... The fact that 18, 19, 20, 21 year olds leave everything behind for two years is pretty astonishing to me. Go BE astonishing! Go astonish people!" After sharing Helaman 5:17, he said that the person writing this took the time to engrave in metal that they taught with power and authority, three times. "Too often we act like we have neither power nor authority."
"The salvation of the human family depends on you"
He finished up talking about much the mission changed his life and how it is the fountain from which all good things on his life have come. He said "I want you to feel the same".
So it was a good time, definitely feel adequately rebuked and energized about the work, and really giving it my all and sprinting to the finish out here.
My hand after shaking Elder Holland's hand.
That really is the highlight of the week. We were able to find a lot of new people to teach this week, and it's awesome. One is a lady from Guam, who's husband is a member of the church but has fallen off in recent years. They have a relatively new family and want to be closer to God. We also found an awesome Choctaw family. We knocked on the door and the mom answered and the 20-something-year-old son comes out holding a bible and says he was just reading. It's cool to be able to share the Book of Mormon with the Lamanites. Also a new Spanish family! Hopefully we will be able to teach them more. We've pretty much lost contact with our last ones we were teaching.
Also last night kind of on our way home we ran across a Revival! It was in this little amphitheater thing they have here close to the center of town. We walked up and sat in back. Not sure what the difference is between a Revival and a normal church service but they were preachin' a little and then they would call people out from the audience to pray for them and give them advice. There was even a little bit of speakin' in tongues. It was all pretty interesting. We only, made it for last tiny bit, afterwards a couple of the preacher types came up to us and asked us about ourselves and we thought they were going to Bible Bash us, or try to pray that we would be saved and find "The truth" (not sure why but evangelical types typically aren't big fans of us? Well a lot of people for some reason lol). But they just said a prayer over us (at one point, two of them were praying for us at the same time), and they said us coming to Idabel was from God, and we're super nice. Also in the closing prayer they mentioned the 70/Luke 10, and that was pretty interesting as I've never heard another church talk about that before. The difference however I that they seem to think it was Jesus just blessing a random group of seventy, instead of calling and ordaining them to a specific role and office in the church. It was all pretty interesting!
Amphitheater with meager audience for the revival.
That's about all I can think of for this week, love ya!
Elder Hogg
A shack off the side of the road in the which lives someone we contacted a couple days ago.
FORGOT TO MENTION. We got the cops called on us! We were
trying to stop by someone that had been taught a long while back, and
it was 7:30 at night. The map brought us to a house with an open gate
and long driveway. We parked at the gate and walked to the house to
knock the door. We saw someone inside turn the lights off. We tried
saying hey were just missionaries and who we were looking for, in case
they were listening. But they didn't answer so we left. As we were
pulling away a cop car pulls up right in front of us and stops us and
the guy gets out and is freaking out. Apparently that's HIS house and his
wife called him to tell him a couple of guys were sneaking around the
house. He said he was on the phone telling her where a gun was yada
yada. Apparently they were overreacting because we walked straight down
their driveway while the sun was down and knocked on the door lol. They
live surrounded by trees and stuff, Believe me, if somebody wanted sneak
to their house for whatever reason, they wouldn't have strolled
casually down the driveway and knocked on the door lol. Well he was all
in a dander and just ran our IDs and let us go. Turns out it was
actually their neighbor that we were looking for lol.
Your food being put to good use!! Thank you so much Mom and Grandma Debbie!
Can't
remember if I sent these lost week or not. But the Oklahoma sign just
over the red river, some more pics of the red river to follow, and just a
cool billboard we pass on our way into Texas
Fist of all, I GOT THE
BOXES!!!!!! And they are AWESOME!!! Thank you guys so much!! I don't
have a picture with all the stuff right now (mostly because a lot of it
got consumed fairly quickly). They came mid week, so we just put them
inside and we had to go. But needless to say Grandma Debbie's cookies,
and the cookies that mom sent didn't last long. We've already made mac
n' cheese and pasta, and had the soup. We bought cheese to go with the
pizza stuff, and we are STOKED for it. So our bellies are happy right
now. Gracias yall! ❤
The
soup came in handy this week, because as you know I was feeling a bit
under the weather a couple weeks back. Well I've been feeling a lot
better but still have a little bit of what is probably a sinus
infection. So the mission nurse told us to go on down to the urgent care
place and get some antibiotics. Well that morning that we did that,
Elder K woke up with a pretty bad cold, and later that night I had a
upset stomach. So we were both sick and the next day it was worse! My
new stomach bug wasn't pretty, and Elder K was dying. We had the soup
for dinner that night. BUT the work of the Lord waits for no man, so we
still got out there and worked.
We
also went on exchanges with some other missionaries too this week. I
was with an Elder from Hawaii, who actually came out with me (when I
came back out). He was a professional singer back home, how cool is
that? He had a contract to sing and play ukulele at fancy hotel in
Japan. As part of his whole deal was he got his own room in the Hotel to
live in and everything. I thought that only happened in Disney Channel
shows lol.
As far as
people we are teaching, nothing monumentally new. We however are
teaching a new marshallese family! The daughter is an active member, but
her parents are not. The husband is actually from Pompeii?? That's what
they said but Google Maps says that's just a city outside of Naples,
Italy, and not a Pacific Island, and he's definitely from one of those.
Either Way, he doesn't really speak marshallese. Well they understand
enough English to get by, but the daughter translates every once and
while. Also we have an app for missionaries that has flashcards for
phrases and words to help missionaries learn languages. Sometimes we
read things in marshallese right off there, and that helps. It was a good
lesson and it seemed like they understood everything. It reminded me of
teaching Hispanics because right after we asked if there was anything
we could do for them, and she was like "We made dinner, so you could
eat" and were surprised! She made us soy sauce chicken with rice, it was
pretty good!
Fifth of
all, I'M NOT GETTING TRANSFERRED. Staying here in Oklahoma with Elder
Korhonen for my last 6 weeks! It doesn't feel real, but also feels
right. I'm pretty at peace with it all. The Lord wants me to go home at
some point, "and I can only do his will" (-JS), that's that I
suppose.
That's about it thank you again SOOOOOOOOO much for the foodstuffs!! 📦📦📦📦📦
NOTE from Mom: Brett's Subject references that we are not using "Mormon" to reference who we are. We aren't the church of Mormon - he was a prophet in the Book of Mormon that compiled the records of those that lived during that time. We have always been nicknamed Mormons - but we really are Latter-day Saints from the Church of Jesus Christ. So the President of our Church has asked us to remember that! We love the prophets of old - but we are Christians, first and foremost! ♥
Subject:
#Im a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Date:
Mon, 8 Oct 2018 13:21:08 -0500
From:
Brett Hogg
Another week out east, another 200 miles!
We had to head out to Sulphur Springs for another meeting, getting to
ride down again with the awesome brother that told us about
HAM radios
last time (did I tell you about him before?). This time we learned hes
also a bee keeper and he told us about catching wild hives, and
different kinds of bees (African vs. European, etc.). It was
informative! That night we spent the night with the Elder in Hugo, OK.
They live in what is known as "The Barn". It's a little one room deal
above a barn! Really it's a machine shop but it's pretty cool.
This week we also started teaching a marshallese man who right now has a
baptismal date! We was taught a lot in the past, but has some obstacles
and the missionaries kind of lost contact with him. This time we stopped
by and when we came back he had read 13 chapters of the Bok In Mormon
(marshallese)! Hes awesome, and is apparently some kind of something back on
the islands, with some level of notoriety. He's awesome. Love the
marshallese people!
The other day we stopped by another marshallese
family, the family of the boy that was baptized a couple weeks back.
Most of his family are members, some are just not active. He wrote us
this note and it was awesome (we were on exchanges and had a senior
missionary with us so that's why there's 3 names on there) (see below).
Another of the kids was just attached to us as well and had his arms
around us the whole time like old pal lol.
Then of course there's General Conference! I am a bit sad about losing an
hour of church, but also excited for the new study deal they're putting
out. Conference over all is awesome. Of course I'm a big fan of the
prophet, and the apostles. The common themes I was noticing were
families, actually ministering, and answering the "why me?" moments in
our lives. Just a big ol' spiritual feast. Also watching it at the
church is the best, I get way more out of it.
Here is the link to the main website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: https://www.lds.org/?lang=eng
BUT probably the highlight was that there was baptism in between! The
DeQueen Elders have been teaching her, and she got baptised in between
sessions of general conference. It was great, baptisms always are.
That's about it for this week, love yall!
Elder Hogg
P.S. I got grandma Debbie's box and the shirt from you for Elder K! Elder K loves it! We'll get a picture for you. It came
by itself in its own bag. We are looking forward to trying out those
awesome recipes. Let everyone know how appreciative we are!! Don't send another box quite yet, there this is the last week of the transfer.
We're doing ok for now. THANK YOU!
(Transfer week is next week - Brett will find out if he's staying in Oklahoma or transferring to a different area for his last transfer!)
Actually nothing super spectacular, but we were blessed with 9 new people to teach! Including 2 families/couples.
One
is a young guatemalan family! They are awesome, and only speak Spanish!
We had a good lesson with them about the Restoration, and he had a ton
of questions afterwards, love them!
The
other was this cool family, that we've taught the Restoration to, and
the Plan of Salvation. Every time we go over there we have been able to
have short powerful lessons with them. The wife speaks 8 languages!!
She's Filipino so she speaks Tagalog, and then also a bunch of other
languages from the areas around that, including marshallese! Anyway
they're a cool family, I love all the people we've been able to meet!
On
Sunday we had someone bear their testimony in Marshallese, and then
someone else in Spanish, then of course English, so we had 3 languages
in spoken in sacrament meeting! Then at the end of Sunday school, where
we talked about developing our talents, a recent convert here was so full
of the spirit after reading the parable of the talents in Mathew, he
couldn't hardly settle down. You see, however many years ago, before
joining the church, he was called to the ministry, by God, to be a
street preacher. Since joining the church hes been able to bring that
fire with him. During the third hour he was in the hallway giving us
our personal sermon. He wanted to go to the next set of Sunday school
but he couldn't hardly contain himself, so we stepped outside with him
and he said a kneeling prayer, asking God to help him settle down, and
save it for when he went out with the missionaries. It was awesome, we
got a picture with him too, see below.
We
were also able to go to Arkansas again! So the boundaries of the branch
stretch clear out there, but the chapel is actually in Idabel itself.
For people there to come to church, its at least a 45 min drive. They
used to have their own branch, but too many people moved away and things
that it got too small. They have their own set of Elders over there.
Someone the Elders over there are teaching is getting baptized! So we
had to go over there and interview her. We are so happy for her! Anyway,
we got some other good pics with the Arkansas and Oklahoma signs.
We
also had to drive down to Frisco for another mission meeting, which was
awesome (the meeting, not the drive), and have another meeting down in
Sulphur Springs this Wednesday. For that one though, we will be meeting
up with someone in Hugo, OK and driving down with them.
Anyway that's about it for this week,
Love y'all!
Elder Hogg
Driving in East Texas
He was caught away in the spirit on Sunday!
Also these
are the boundaries for the Gilmer stake. Idabel being the location of
the chapel for our branch waaay at the top.
Then the Dallas/FW mission
boundaries, just for fun/comparison.
McKinney high school's supposedly $$$70 MILLION dollar football stadium. Allan close behind with a $60something million dollar stadium.
