Semana Tres (Week Three)

I got the pictures and notes in several emails.  I combined them all here so it makes more sense.  To view bigger versions of the pictures, just click on it and it creates like a slideshow of all the pictures in this post! My comments are always in BLUE. Reminder that he can't find the apostrophe on the Mexican keyboards. haha  -Sue

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

Subject:	Week Tres
Date:	Wed, 8 Apr 2015 14:09:43 -0500
From:	Brett Hogg <brett.hogg@myldsmail.net>
To:	Susan J. Hogg <shogg@wi.rr.com>

Well We just got back from the Temple! Its still closed but they have a really cool Visitor Center we got to walk around and tour. It was also nice to just be able to leave the CCM. By the way the Temple is just like the CCM, a little oaisis in the middle of a dirty, busy city. Pictures to follow!

The Mexico City Temple is the largest temple outside of the US
and only one of 5 that have Moroni holding the plates.

Brett's District/Zone (I'm still learning the difference.)

Elder M and Brett

This is the Visitor's Center.

Thank you so much for the packages!!! They are awesome! I honestly didnt think I was going to get anything! How expensive is that?? Dont send anymore if its expensive! The Snacks and stuff are awesome though. Thanks for the Doritos Mom! I heard they tasted different here and wanted to try them. They do! Theyve got a hint of chili-spicynes to them. 

Mom´s package (with the awesome notes in the eggs) <3

Aunt Carries Package <3
Note: He already apparently tore into the SweeTarts. haha

In other news my teachers were telling me I needed a haircut. The other Elders did it themselves or had another Elder do it, and it always looks good, but the little rules thing for the CCM said you can only get your haircut at the CCM barbershop. I decided to try and be obedient this time and got my haircut there. I thought she was done and didnt think it was too bad. Then she pulled out another tool and kept going. I thought "I can work with this" but then she took out another thing and kept going. Long story short, I am bald now.   

(Anyone that knows Brett... this is a big deal for him.  His hair has been another character in our house for years.  Long and short.. it's always quite a thing! haha)

Before Haircut

 

Look at his face!  ☺

I told him... it looks good!  It'll grow back... He just looks like he's 10 years old again!

Something funny is that all the Latino Elders think my name means "Hug" so they always ask me about it, hug me or call me "Elder Abrazo" lol.

Oh yea, General Conference! It was good, we watched it in english. I liked Sunday's sessions the most probably. I started taking notes but I figured I would just buy the conference edition of the Ensign when it comes out and just focus on listening. 

My view for conference on Sunday
(we got to watch Music In The Spoken Word, but not the inbetween stuff)
(Those look like comfy chairs)

After on sunday we still had devotional. It was Elder Holland and it was a classic Elder Holland talk. He ramped himself up to full on bulldog (we always say he looks like a bulldog when he gets mad) with his passion for missionary work and his love of christ. He talked about how much the old way of missionary work didnt work nd didnt take care of people. He said Hinkley came in and said we gotta change this thing (and his son was on the stand with him, and he is a spitting image of Hinkley, we all thought it was him at first). He ended it by talking about the story of the apostles going back to fish after jesus died and how Jesus asked "Peter do you love me?" "Then Feed. My. Sheep" (periods added by Holland lol).

Sue: Awesome talk.  I just listened to it... SO GOOD!  

Here is the video:

The other cool thing this week was teaching our "investigators." The one is our teacher but his profile is actually him before he joined the church. Hes been a tough egg to crack, always asking hard questions about us v.s. other religions and stuff. This week he asked we he shouldnt just get baptized when hes old, so he can keep doing the things he likes now. Grandpa Westerhoffs conversion popped into my head, gave him a quick rundown of it, felt the spirit and BAM, he said he would be baptized. The Hermanas that also teach him were way surprised (well so were we) because hes been way hard and saying he just wants to learn about religions. So that was cool. Our other investigator on the other hand is a addicted to the "drogas" and alcohol and is most likely pregnant. So thats a doozy. (these are real people by the way, theyre just played by the missionaries who taught or are related to them aka our teachers)

That activity at church looked awesome! Wish I was there! (See the blog post earlier today to see the Good Friday activity we had at church!  It was awesome.)

Bummer about Wisconsin, didnt even know they made the finals!

Santiago Sainz is one of the teachers here. Hes going to BYU-I soon! We were all offering him things so that we didnt have to go to the computer spanish class. (This is about the picture I posted on Facebook that I received from a teacher.  I also included it in a post... check the post April 6th in this blog.)

Miss those cats. Oh and scott too I guess... just kidding! Looks like you guys are doing and getting all the fun stuff with out me, as usual lol.  (I had emailed him a bunch of pictures of Scott and cats - and told him about ordering our new furniture.)

Well thats about everything for this week! Love yall!

OH!!! Our zone is being dissolved (because were the only district in it right now) and were joining another one. Their P-Day is on Tuesday, so thats when ill email next!!

Love you muchos!!! <3 <3 <3

More pictures from the road trip to the Temple and Visitor's Center:

One email subject was Cucaracha (Cockroach):

Found this lil guy (actually he was huge)

Immediately after stading up from taking that first picture, one of the Mexican worker guys was standing behind me and said "Good?" I said yea, then he immediately smashed it.

Dead cucaracha part 2 (literally lol)
Up to you if you want to put these on the blog lol.

Walk with Christ

This is a letter from me to Brett.  I put it as one of the posts here to share it - and also so you can understand Brett's email response.  (I send him like 3-4 emails a week... but sent this one separate on Friday evening.)  

KUDOS to our Primary Presidency who did a wonderful job planning this event! 

===================================

Hola Bretto!

How are things in Mexico?! 

We were wondering how General Conference was there?  Did you watch in Spanish? English? 

We watched most of it - but missed most of Saturday so we have to watch those sessions.  I was thinking of taking 1-2 conference talks every week and watching them together on Sunday or or something!  Then we'd get them all in and pay attention to that one talk for that week. 

So,... I'll send another email - but this one is about the activity we had at church called "Walk with Christ" put on by the Primary.  It was so awesome.  It was for adults and kids - not just kids.

We had groups go from room to room and a person would read the corresponding scriptures in that room for the major events leading to the resurrection.   Here are the pictures we took:

The Last Supper:

(notice the bigger chair representing Christ.   

The Garden of Gethsemane:

The judgment 

(and included chairs to represent those judging Christ):

A real crown of thorns

(Connie S. made it!)

The cross.. (hammer and nails on table).   

Kathy G. made the cross!!!

The Tomb 

(this was the room I talked in)...

Scott and Bryce moved the "stone" and the group would enter:

When the group stepped out - the boys moved the "stone" back in place.

My scripture was Mathew 27:55-66.

Then they went into the Overflow and watched the

"He Lives" video

 (I'm sure you've seen that!!  SO good!)

See the video here:

(only 2:26 minutes)

It was a good turn-out.  It was held during the early afternoon (kids were off of school for the beginning of Spring Break).  It was actually really simple and really spiritual!!

Then we all met in the gym for desserts and the kids got to go around and do an Easter Egg hunt before going home.

Anyway - it was pretty awesome.  And a few who were inactive came, too!!!

More later...
Mom

Email from MTC Teacher!

I just got this email with the attached picture!


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

Subject:	Good Night
Date:	Sun, 5 Apr 2015 22:40:23 -0500
From:	Santiago Sainz

Hello everybody I am a teacher at the MTC Mexico and I'm teaching your children I would like to send you a picture that I took of them have a great week. Also I would like to tell you that they are really good missionaries thank you for all you did preparing them. 

(Note from Sue:  What a goofy look he has... but that's totally normal for him.  

Also - I think he got a haircut!)

Piiiiiiiiiiiiiiics!! (Click on pics to get the bigger version)

We found a crazy old
(or Mexican new?) elevator that we ride now

Our Classroom sprung a leak during a storm
 (weve since moved to a different classroom
 (that also leaks but not as bad))

Thats the really cool mexican guy who does all the water
(pretty sure hes in charge of other stuff to, but were not sure.

Love You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

¡Semana Dos! (Week Two)

-------- Forwarded Message --------  

Subject:	¡Semana Dos!
Date:	Wed, 1 Apr 2015 11:52:54 -0600
From:	Brett Hogg <brett.hogg@myldsmail.net>
To:	Susan J. Hogg <shogg@wi.rr.com>

[Sue's notes in BLUE. Click on pictures to see them bigger.  REMEMBER Brett can't figure out the Mexican keyboards - so there is a reason there aren't any apostrophes.. haha]

Its crazy because I miss all yall (practicing for Texas) a ton but Im not homesick at all. Already feels like weve been here for months. Were already kind of in a routine, still hard to wake up in the mornings sometimes but we do (the beds are kind of stiff too).

So we started teaching our first investigator, and there was a debate on whether she was real or not, and all the other elders were telling us different things, but by about the 3rd lesson everyone was almost convinced she was real. Well we found out early that she wasnt, and that she would become our teacher by the end of the week she would become our teacher. Well Elder E-B got super mad and stormed out of the class and threw his pen and stuff, didnt bother me much. For the Second week we get 2 investigators, but they have been our teachers, but their "investigator" profiles are always real people they met on their missions or people they know personally. One of ours right now is our teacher before he became a member. Hes got some tough questions but were getting it done.

I think its the rainy season because it storms a lot here, and the lighting always looks super cool. One of the 2 mountains were in between has radio towers on top and it looks super cool because the lightning looks likes its gathering on top of the mountain in between the clouds.

[I asked what Sundays are like.]  So Sundays here arent 3 hour blocks, we wake up have breakfast, the District leaders have a meeting, the rest have study time, then priesthood/relief society, then district meeting, then sacrament meeting. For sacrament we dont know whos talking so we have to prepare a talk every week, in Spanish, on the subject just in case you you hear your name during the opening. Then this past week, we had the health class of the CCM. We watched a video of Elder Holland telling us to follow the law of chastity, word of wisdom, etc, then we had personal interviews with our branch president to make sure we were all in line on that stuff. I passed. Then we have a devotional (usually a recording of an apostle who spoke at the Provo MTC) in the auditorium. Then Dinner, then a video, like last week we watched Meet the Mormons. This week we watched the story of John Tanner and a video on Christ. Then some more study time (we ALWAYS have study time, which is supposed to be to prepare lessons for our investigators), then back to the dorm. Ill send you my schedule when I dont need it anymore so you guys can see.

This past Sunday however was a little different. Because General conference is next weekend, they bumped fast sunday up to this weekend. The way they fast here is kind of different. We eat Saturday Lunch, then dont Eat again until Sunday lunch (no Dinner, overnight, no breakfast), its horrible. Im not sure I can handle it because I got pretty sick. I woke up, took a shower, then laid back down (because no breakfast) and when I woke up again I had a headache and by the time we got to priesthood meeting my stomach was hurting pretty bad. Before and durring sacrament I felt Like I was going to throw up. In the middle of the First Councilor of the CCMs testimony, I had to run out and puked in the hallway. I felt way better after that. We went back to the dorm to change my pants and tie, and on the way to wherever we were headed I puked again in the grass. We went home and I fell asleep, and the Doctor guy came by and game me Gatorade powder, saltines, some little pill things, and some info on puking and stuff from the Church Missionary Department. I felt well enough to try dinner (cheese and chicken on flatbread, I know, bad Idea), and my stomach still didnt feel right, but I kept it down. I think it might have been a sinus thing, because my nose has been running or clogged for a least a week. Im all good now though.

Oh yea! The Doctor (Elder G) is from West Allis (or something)! He said when he was a kid he laid a couple bricks or something on the Stake Center there in Hales Corners!  [NOTE: Many times older couples will serve missions after they retire; the doctors that are at the CCM are likely also missionaries that are retired physicians.]

On Mondays is usually when people ship out and this last week like 6 districts left (and they average 6 to 8 missionaries a district), and I guess the CCM was already pretty below capacity, so its been a little empty around here.

By the way! This is second largest MTC as far as capacity and the largest as far as actual size (90 acres!), and Its smack-dab in the middle of the city. At night you can always hear dogs and sirens and fiestas on the weekends. Also the Catholics have a cannon they set off at least twice a day and, what seems like, every five minutes on Fridays and Sundays (I guess its a celebration thing?), and it echos through the whole valley. Elder E-B said its the perfect example of "Living in the World, But not of the World."

We also have devotionals every Tuesday. We this past one was by Elder Bednar [He's one of the general authorities of the Church], and is my new favorite talk. It was about the characteristics of Christ. Im going to get a copy of the video and ill send it to ya or something. There was one part where he was talking about complaining missionaries ("I dont think were having the success we should be having" etc) and said "Get over yourself!, Its not about you!" He related it to the cookie monster (and even did an impression from the pulpit lol), saying: "I want cookie now!/I want baptism now!" All about how the Atonement would not have been possible without the character of Christ. talked about how he would ALWAYS turn out, when we would turn in, during trials or accomplishment. A "natural man is an enemy to God kind of thing." It was good.

On Tuesdays we also get Pizza for dinner! We also have to do service. Last week it was cleaning the other dormitory building, and this week was loading the back of a moving-type truck with those big blue 5 gallon things of water and delivering them all over the CCM. Today we saw the guy in charge of it again and we helped him do it again today, on our day off, not exactly my idea but it was fun. 

Brett's Caption:  Pizza Day! (pretty sure its just Costco Pizza)

Elder E-B and Elder B

[I told Brett we had a cold snap.. Hayward was down to 9º one morning; we had a day where it was barely in the 20s]  WOW! Thats cold! Its been pretty consistently in the high 70s. Snake Oil sound fun too. We dont have any boardgames :(

[These are answers to things I wrote about:  I told him we were having our Sister missionaries over for dinner this week.  He loves how the one from Italy talks - she has the best accent. Told him Scott made 1st Class in Scouts and will be Star in July.] Give me a rundown on everything the Italian Sister says!! it would be cool if Scott got Eagle as soon as I got home! Thats cool about Matt and the [W Family] they are awesome people. [Told him Matt's experience at the DMV that Margaret shared at church!]

Well today is officially 2 weeks in (but I think were on week 3 in the schedule) So not too long till im out! See you on Mothers Day!!

P.S. I was going to just send an email saying I was coming home, but I love you too much. Happy April Fools!!!

P.S.S. Ill be sending more photos and I might be back to Email more  later today!

Love Yall!!!!!!!!! 

 

About near this tree is where I puked the second time. [Too Much Info?]
Also these purple trees are all over, Mom would love them. 

The green circles are where we go when the siren goes off
(for earthquakes, havent had one yet though, just drills)