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...
[Brett flies to Texas on Monday, April 27th! He sent a quick couple of emails.. and a lot more pictures. My sister, Carrie, and I have been sending packages through the two package companies in Mexico. This week we thought they would want to celebrate their last week at the CCM with Krispie Kremes and Sparkling Cider. -Sue] -------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:
Departure stuff
Date:
Sat, 25 Apr 2015 08:08:56 -0500
From:
Brett Hogg <brett.hogg@myldsmail.net>
So we meet at reception at 4:00 am leave and go to the
airport. We fly out at 6:15 am and get to Houston at 8:35 am. Then I
have 2 hour layover in which I might call.
Were not sure if were
supposed to be emailing today (we keep hearing different stuff) so this
is provably all you might get. Ill probably reply later if you do. And I
might reply to a couple emails right now lol.
Love Elder Hogg <3
[I sent a quick email with a lot of short comments/questions - and asked if he was sneaking email. He sent the following email.]
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:
Pics
Date:
Sat, 25 Apr 2015 20:50:59 -0500
From:
Brett Hogg <brett.hogg@myldsmail.net>
I shared another dropbox folder with you. Most are just
random ones from around the classroom.
[The rest of this email was the descriptions of the photos he sent. I put those with the pics below.]
Not sneaking, we can email right now, but the teachers are watching us pretty close to make sure were not sneaking onto other sites. lol
Love Elder Hogg
FROM ANOTHER QUICK PRIOR EMAIL:
"Got all the stuff and asked the comedor (cafeteria) people if they could hold onto
it for us. We did the same thing with the Milk. The oreos were a full
thing and they were delicious! Everybody had some. Everyone is very
excited for the sparkling stuff and everyone loved the doughnuts! They
all think youre the coolest mom and aunt ever!! Tomorrow after dinner
were going to pop open the stuff we decided."
I sent cookies and milk to read with one of his letters last week. Funny kid...
The teacher I have a picture there with is Hermano Ortiz.
Hes the only teacher weve had from the beginning to the end here.
The one of the candy is a thing a teacher brought for us, its like a reeses cup but a little different. I cant put my finger on it.
The back of my usher tag. Anyone that was an usher signs it before they pass it on to the new one. They got new ones but were going to still try and pass them down.
One is of the desk in our room with all the gift bags you guys sent.
Me enjoying the canada dry Aunt Carrie sent me feeling like Mad Men (ive never really seen it but I bet they look like that).
We
had a Play/Demonstration and the numbers they used were 414 numbers!!
At
first I didnt think anything of it, then I remembered I was in Mexico!
[Our phone/area code is 414 in Milwaukee.]
One one sitting alone looking down is Hermana S one of teachers and our first "investigator" (the one that Elder E-B got really mad about being fake).
One if of our night stand. I had the camera out so I thought why not lol.
Celebration Krispie Kremes with his fellow/sister missionaries!
Just a couple donuts left!
Apparently a close-up of a donut! Brett is taking donut selfies while the others appear to be working.. Hmm....
Random pictures
Not sure what Elder E-B is doing with that table? He seems like a character!
[This next week is the last week in the MTC! He flies out for Texas next Monday! He says he might be able to email on Saturday. And then he might be able to call me from Texas really quick during his layover in Houston. After next week - the rest of his mission his p-Day should be on Monday.]
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:
Month 1 / Week 5
Date:
Tue, 21 Apr 2015 09:42:36 -0500
From:
Brett Hogg <brett.hogg@myldsmail.net>
To:
Susan J. Hogg <shogg@wi.rr.com>
Well we hit a month this week!
We also moved rooms, AGAIN. I
think this time because people are leaving and capacity is low they
wanted to condense all the missionaries into as few buildings as
possible (for maintenance and electricity costs I assume). Right now we
have just over 170 missionaries here, but a capacity of 1200. I guess
its expected to go up in the summer/after school. This time we just
moved our stuff because our new classroom already had the good desks
lol. If your keeping score at home, thats 4 Classrooms, 3 Buildings and 2
Districts lol.
Theyre doing construction on the "comedor" (mess
hall/where we eat) to expand it because ive heard it was overflowing
(they set up tents outside because there wasn't enough room inside) when
they had this place filled. The one we eat in now is a temporary one.
Its a gym with a stage and everything lol. You cant really tell though
with all the tables and everything set up in it. Well, while walking
back to the dorms last night the other elders thought it would be cool
to look around inside the comedor that theyre remolding. Its was kind of
cool and I got some cool pictures. Then they decided to clime on the
roof because there was like this ladder step thing. I stayed down. And
good thing because some security guys came and told them they couldnt do
that and wrote down our names and took pictures of them climbing down.
We dont think were in that big a trouble but well see.
By the
way I just got Scotts letter and your card you guys sent. The one was
post marked like March 20 something, so about a month to get here. I
wont send anything physical till I get to Dallas, because I have not
heard the best things about the Mexican Postal Service, especially
between here and the U.S.
We got a new afternoon teacher, Hermano
Medina. Hes super cool.
[Members receive a "Patriarchal Blessing" and the following, Brett refers to a "declaration of lineage" within that blessing. Here is a link which gives a good explanation of this.] One thing we like to do is ask all our teachers
which tribe of Israel theyre from and whether they consider themselves
decedents of the Lamanites. All but once weve gotten Ephraim. One said
Judah, what the heck?? To the other question we usually get "I dont
know, maybe" or "no" (because a lot of them can trace their last
names/families to Spain I guess). But Hermano Medina said in his
blessing it said he has pure Lamanite blood, how cool is that??? Also
his investigator profile asks the perfect questions and everything. We
also got this teacher lady who comes in the morning sometimes and shes
pretty feisty when we get something wrong or are not doing what were
supposed to lol. And she has the highest voice and dosent slow it down
at all so she can be pretty hard to understand.
Heres a picture Hermana M drew of our teachers.
Ill get pictures with them this week.
Shes drawn all of us already haha. Ill take a pic
Our district
also decided we really lucked out. Were all super cool, and joke around
all the time, and have a ton of inside jokes. The other district in our
new zone (14A) really has some problems from what weve been able to
gather. Half of them are really nice and cool and the other half are
pretty arrogant, and sometimes they clash. We do this thing were they
teach us and we teach them. Afterwords we give feedback sometimes and
whatever. But a couple of them are kind of mean about it and act theyve
got years more experience than us (theyve got here the same day we did).
We even heard one day they were going to come in and "Help" us during
study time. So we closed all the curtains, turned off the lights and
Elder E-B sat in front of the door lol. Well they never showed up,
and the next time theyre feed back was way nicer. I think they got
talked to or something lol. [Note from Sue... I think these guys need more to do! I'm glad they get into Texas next week!]
[I wrote to him and told him that we finally got rid of our green van... like a member of the family that's been with us forever! It was scrapped this last week.] Im super sad about the Green
Machine. That was my favorite car to drive. Really liked the handling
and the short dash. And we drove out west once in that bad boy!
[The side door fell off once... and the driver door could only be shut from the outside.
The engine was still in great shape - but the master cylinder went out
and it needed a muffler among many other things... 20 years old so it was time.]
The last email made me miss home. I miss your chili and not knowing where to go out to eat and stuff... But HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
Oh
yea, Elder M was so giddy when he found out he got packages (you
and Aunt Carrie both). He was really surprised to learn they where from
MY family lol but he loved them, and you guys. He decided you guys love
him more than his family haha. Elder E-B and Hermana M keep
telling me to bring them up to you guys lol.
You probably also got this picture from a teacher:
Well Elder E-B and I in the back are imitating our favorite painting:
Im our favorite guy covered in soot in the corner saying "You hearing this guy??"
Well
thats about it for now. I think we get to email again on Saturday. Dont
know how much time well have, so you might not get a good email again
till im in the field!
Love ya!!
Elder Hogg
Here is were we have sacrament meeting. The Thomas S. Monson Building
has a couple rooms like this and then a bunch of rooms with couches (like
a living room) to practice teaching investigators.
Patio seating at the comedor
The current/temporary comedor + Elder M
Wow - they have their own Taxi?! Brett didn't say anything about these pics... so I'm not sure about all of them.
Front of the campus
Also all the buses here in Mexico are Mercedes-Benz
So the past week was pretty blah. More same same same.
We
started a new schedule this week and were still trying to get used to
it. Our district even had to move to a new classroom in a new building.
We didnt want to move all of our stuff and the new classroom had worse
desks in it. So at 9:00pm we rolled our desks (loudly) across to the new
building, with all of our stuff still on them, and set the room up like
we had it in the old building, and carried the desks that were there to
our old classroom. The next day our teacher told us we have to put them
back or get permission from the buildings people. We'll get around to
that. [I emailed back and told him he shouldn't listen to me... I say sometimes it's easier to get forgiveness than permission. I told him that may not be appropriate on a mission! haha]
The old Classroom (the one we moved out of). Its kind of a mess in this picture lol
Ill get picks of the new classroom soon.
And Thank you to Aunt Carrie for another package!!!!!!!!!!! The caramel corn was delicious!
We
had this thing called TRC, which we think stands for Tactical Retreat
Creep. Not really but we have no idea what it means. But what it IS, is
we get to teach real members who come in and volunteer. Its a lot harder
because they already know pretty much everything because theyre
members. But we got to talk to a lady that we learned was going through a
divorce and trying to raise her kids. We talked to her and shared a
scripture and such and I really felt the spirit.
Elder Martin with his Usher tag. Also I figured out how
to do this cool effect on my camera.
We also became
the new ushers! Every time we have a devotional or something, its in the
Gordon B Hinckley auditorium. Oh yea, all the buildings here are named
after prophets, its pretty cool. We had class in the Lorenzo Snow
building, but got moved to the Joseph Fielding Smith building. Anyways,
they always have elders there to shake peoples hands and make sure
everyone sits close to the front. Well the elders that have been doing
it left and they chose our district and another district to be the new
ushers. Not big news but not much new happens around here lol.
We
watched another great devotional by Elder Bednar. I guess the MTC
devotionals aren't supposed to be used outside of the MTC so I cant get a
copy, and Im surprised you found the Holland one! He talked about being
a Preach My Gospel missionary. Hes a good speaker.
We also got
to watch the movie "The Testaments." You may have already seen it. Its
about a kid in Central America during the time Jesus was in Jerusalem.
He loses faith, Zarahemla is destroyed. You know, the usual. Its pretty
good.
Watch the movie here. It's on YouTube.
(I haven't seen it yet.)
Eveything sounds good over there, wish I was with you guys! The fireside sounds like a cool idea. [We had a member missionary fireside at church on Sunday evening and it was really good. I told Brett about it and told him some highlights in case it's something he wants to use in the future.]
[Warning: Politics ahead. It's Brett's passion. Not just the people or parties; but the process. He said it's one of the toughest things is that he will be missing a presidential race.] Oh
man im so sad im missing SNL this year. And I dont know how I feel
about Walker gaining so much ground this early. I feel like early
favorites peter out. BUT hes a strong enough candidate that I think he
could pull it through. My second pick would be Rand Paul, mostly because
hes like a less radical version of his dad (who I like). Then Rubio.
Not a fan of Huckabee or Santorum. I like Carson but I dont know how far
hell go without any real executive or congressional experience. Also I
think bush would be Alright. Of the Dems, Warren and Biden are the only
ones, besides Hilary, that Ive heard of and theyre not running, So I
dont really see anyone beating Clinton in the primaries. Dont think
shell win though. Thanks for the update, theres no politics here!! Even
outside the walls, we been told stories about how crazy corrupt the
government is here. Maybe next time ill type up the stuff our teachers
tell us.
[I sent him the facebook post about Lisa C getting engaged.] And wow! Congrats Sis. Capps!! Everytime you email me someone else is engaged!!
I think his [Grandpa Westerhoff's] (and yours maybe?) story will be really cool tool to use out in the field.
Im getting really excited to get to Dallas. Once im
there I dont know if Ill be as excited, but the idea of it is getting me
pumped. OH!! We have a 2 hour layover in Houston, and I think we can
make calls home! I dont know how payphones or calling cards and all that
works (I was but a wee lad when they went out of style) so let me know
the best way to call you from there would be!!
Oh btw, the whole organization thing here (districts, zones, etc) goes
companionship (2 or 3 Elders or Hermans) => district (usually 4
companionships) => Zone (usually 3 or 4 districts). In the mission I
think it might be a little different. So we were District 16B (zone 16,
District B), now were 14B, so we really changed zones. Ive heard when
this place first opened up they had every bed filled. The highest
district mailbox is like 25E, so I assume thats how many Zones/districts
they had. I dont know what it is now, but I here were pretty below
capacity.
I pet a cat/animal for the first time in 4 weeks lol. Theres a cat that
comes out at night around here, were fairly certain its owned by one of
the people who live here (the MTC President, his councilors, the MTC
Director, someone like that). This is one of our teachers petting it.
And no more pictures really :/ not much picture worthy. Ill definitely take more this week. More of the grounds and such.
Hola dad! Its really weird not being there with you guys. It doesnt really feel like its going to be for 2 years!
