Stuck in the Mud

Subject:	Stuck in the mud
Date:	Mon, 26 Feb 2018 14:14:03 -0600
From:	Brett Hogg

Hola Fam!

It's been a good week!

Monday night we got a couple new investigators. A couple days before we contacted a couple old Salvadorian lady's, and they said we could come back, so we did and wound up not only teaching one of them, but also her husband and her grandson and her daughter! 

When we got there they were eating dinner, and they invited us to eat, so we sat with them and they had pork and espagetti, and talked it was a good time. Then we sat and shared the Book of Mormon with them, and they had good questions and stuff, it was awesome.

Wednesday was eventful! It started with going to Sam's Club for lunch after a meeting (the English Elders had a hankerin' for churros). Well as we are eating there, a guy comes up and starts talking to us about religions and stuff and starts to kind of bible bash a little (bible bashing is not effective by the way, because even if you win (which missionaries are good at) you still lose)? 

Well he had some neighbors that were Mormon and stuff and it was all nice and stuff, a little "anti" but still friendly, and he tells us he moved here partially because of a cult. So there's a church close here in Wells, TX, called the Church of Wells. And missionaries always talk about how it's a cult and stuff and there's legends about it, how they ran missionaries out of town in the middle of night, forever ago, etc. The English Elders lived with the bishop for a week when they were moving, and the bishop lives in Wells, and they said they would always get really weird stares from people at gas stations and stuff. 

Anyway, he tells us that he helps people get out of this Cult and stuff, and I was a little floored because he was really serious about it and looking over his shoulder and stuff. I always thought that was just missionaries being dramatic, but it kind of sounds like a legit cult. Apparently that story all over the news a couple years back about the baby who died because they wanted to pray it back alive instead of taking it to the hospital, was them! He said on the weekends you can hear them howling and carrying on, and when you walk by they mutter curses under their breath. You should google it, it sounds crazy.

From Mom: I Googled it.. and while I don't condone speaking against other churches.. I have a problem when they cut themselves off from family members. Family is central to our church (members or not) and I can't imagine Christ would want it any other way.  I don't know of the other precepts of their beliefs, but I remember the baby from the news and I thought, "God helps those who help themselves" holds true over faith-based-only healing.

Then later that day we had an adventure. The ground is like mostly clay apparently, so when it gets rainy here, pretty much every inch of ground turns into a squishy, muddy mess. Well, we went to go by a young guy that lives pretty much in the center of Lufkin, so like city basically. Across from his house was an empty lot that his dad owns, that the neighborhood uses to park in. 

Well we park there, and after our lesson, we go to leave. Well if you didn't know, it's a rule that when missionaries are driving and have to back out, another missionary has to be standing outside the car guiding them back, for a y-turn, backing out of a parking spot, out a drive way, you name it. SO, because of this missionaries will go out of their way to find pull-through parking. 

Well on this lot we have in the past, we've just done a U-turn, and drove off the lot. So this day, when go to leave, we pull a really big u-turn (to avoid some flooded grass in the center of the lot (and I have it in 4-wheel drive just in case), and the truck just sinks right into the ground. 

Well I pop it into 4LO, and rock it a bunch. This isn't the first time we've gotten stuck in the mud here in Lufkin, so usually just putting it in 4 wheel drive and rocking it once or twice gets us out. Well this time it only seemed to make it worse. We start grabbing branches and random wood that's lying around and putting it under our tires and such, keep rocking it and nothing. By this point all the tires are sunk in the mud and the front right tire is almost to the top in mud. 

A good Samaritan, (a young hispanic guy of course) pulls over and asks if we need help, and we say yes! So he backs his F350, doully (not sure how to spell it, but it had double tires in the back), up and takes out a couple sketchy, short old towing straps and links em together aaand, it wasn't long enough. So he says he'll go get his dad, that has a tire shop down the road. They leave and come back with a different F350 doully, and more short and sketchy tow straps to tie together. 

Well we get it all rigged up and pull... and the straps snap apart. Some of the straps had a weird flat metal hook that wasn't very conducive to connecting to other straps, and we tried it a couple times and they kept snapping back and it was actually pretty dangerous, because the metal part kept slingshotting back, and one may have snapped back and dented our truck a little 🤔. Well we call someone else from the english ward that owns some kind of mechanic shop deal, and he says he can come. 

So the first guys leave and our member comes and he's got a Silverado, with only one set of wheels and was definitely a smaller truck (still like a truck though, not a small truck by any means, just not a 350). So we're a little nervous because we're not sure this is going to help anymore than the last guy. 

Oh yea, and at some point during the first people it started downpouring, so we were already all muddy but now we're all wet too! He gets out his really nice, long, tow strap, and pins it into our hitch thing. Well he gives it a go, and nothing. But we try again, giving both trucks everything they got and it starts to move, then a third go and it pops and swerves right out!! It was actually really cool to watch. A couple neighbors are even outside watching at this point, it was kind of a sight to behold. 

(More Pictures below)

Not sure if this fuels any Ford vs. Chevy debate, or is a testament to how important it is to have a good tow strap. There's probably a good metaphor to the Gospel in there somewhere. Anyway, afterwards we went home showered and changed and got on with the night. The Relief Society President  made us Posole that night! Perfect for a cold rainy day, It definitely hit the spot.

Posole is a traditional Mexican stew/soup. I guess I need to learn how to make that!

One of the coolest parts of the whole thing was that the First guy's dad that came and helped us was actually a guy we've been talking to about the Gospel! We haven't been formally teaching him but we've stopped into his tire shop a couple times and we go back and forth and what we each believe. 

He's a real nice guy, Pentecostal, and his Spanish is a little different, not sure how, can't quite put my figure on it, but he's a little harder to understand sometimes. It's good practice for Elder Nelson and I though.

We also volunteered at an animal shelter. We were looking for more service stuff to do and we signed up over there and it turns out you just go play with the dogs and cats and stuff. You don't even need to clean up after them or anything. So that was cool.

(More Pictures below)

We found some good people that we started teaching this week, nine new investigators. They're all awesome and want to come closer to Christ, or at least hear us out haha. I'll let you know how they're doing after we teach them little bit more.

Anyway, love the work here, love the people. All is well here on the front lines!

Love,
Elder Hogg

P.S. I got the (birthday) card (from Miss Diane - our Neighbor)! I was so surprised!! $50 in the mission is like $1000 in normal life. And I got the package!! It was awesome! Elder Nelson was really surprised about the stuff for him. And between us and the English elders the candy didn't last long. It's pretty much all gone now haha. 

You guys are the best❤❤❤

(Sorry if my email has a ton typos and is hard to follow sometimes, I usually write it in parts)

The Hand (Plus Zone Conference & The Umbrella)

Subject:	The Hand
Date:	Mon, 19 Feb 2018 14:05:35 -0600
From:	Brett Hogg

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!

How's it going guys! Not really a whole lot this week. The work has been slow lately, not a whole lot of updates. Church attendance is back to about 20-25 right now. The Branch is blessed to have Elder Nelson as he knows how to play piano/organ. The Branch president's wife is learning piano so that she can play, but if she's not there or something, the branch was putting a phone up to the microphone haha. The Branch had a "Dia de San Valentin" fiesta, a small affair, but there were a lot of non-members (all friends or family of members *cough*)! It was fun, higher turnout than for church on Sunday! We also had to talk on Sunday. They asked us Friday night, and Elder Nelson wrote and gave his first talk in Spanish, it was really good! When I got up I had 30 min, but I've gotten really good at taking up time in sacrament meeting.

Other than that, as you saw, we had Zone Conference! It was really good, President Dalton is definitely inspired!

Zone Conference Picture: Elder Hogg is in the back - far right.

Also, another story I forgot to mention. We have been walking a lot recently, trying to save miles. Well all four of us were walking together one morning, and it started really raining (it's been raining a lot here lately), and only Elder Nelson brought an umbrella. Well 2.5 of us were getting rained on, but oh well. Then a lady driving by stops and pulls over to the middle (the roads here have a middle turn lane thing, it's kind of weird) ahead a little bit with her hazards on, and we thought we were going to help he'd push her car or something. Well a hispanic lady gets out and goes to her trunk and gives us an umbrella, says she doesn't need it back, then just drives off! We stopped her just long enough to give her a card. It was a neat little miracle.

ALSO! We found that hand you sent a little bit ago, and we have been having a lot of fun with it lol (see pics).  Other pics: We did more hay this week. and a cat with a very stubby tail.

From Mom: We got these tiny hands from American Science & Surplus. And we sent one to Brett in his box. Well - you see the results. We went and bought a bunch more for the next box. LOL.

Anyway, love yall!

Elder Hogg

Elder Nelson! (New Trainee!) and Softening a hard heart...

Subject:	Elder Nelson!
Date:	Mon, 12 Feb 2018 17:51:22 -0600
From:	Brett Hogg

Hello Family!

It's been a fun week! My new companion/son is Elder Nelson! He's from Holladay, Utah. He went to Utah State for a little bit before the mission. He's really committed to learning Spanish. I didn't realize how much Spanish I actually knew, before trying to help someone else learn spanish. I also learned how much I don't know! Anyway, he's cool.

The work here is going well! Nothing monumental yet but we've had pretty good luck just finding people who are at least willing to listen. We also saw The Lord soften someone's heart right before of our eyes! We went to go stop by this name we didn't recognize on the Branch directory. When we couldn't see any addresses because it was way out in the middle of nowhere, Elder Nelson suggested we park on the street and walk down a bit. When we knock on the door a lady answers and she starts kind of going off about how we shouldn't be coming by and when missionaries taught her son, they would meet at parks and stuff because her husband didn't like us, and how last time the missionaries came they parked in the driveway, and talking really fast, and all. 

Then her husband pulls up and  gets in front of her and leans on the door trying to be all intimidating, and says we shouldn't be knocking on people's doors after dark, and trying to give us a hard time and how last time missionaries came they drive into his driveway and broke his water meter or something, and in general just being a pain. Anyway, we're just cool and keep talking to him and say things like "well we do this full time, all the way up until 9pm!" and "well we parked in the road!" 

Turns out the guy on the records was his wife's son, and he's like 12 (the wife is an inactive member too). So we tell him we can come by at another time, and ask for his number so we can call and set up another time to come by. Well he gives it to us! Then we talk a tiny bit more and eventually he asks if we want to come in! So we come in and he starts talking about religion and stuff and we ask if maybe one day we can come share something with him, he said he was hungry and his wife was making dinner and stuff, but then he invited us to eat with them! 

Now mind you, we just got back from dinner, and that day we got a big lunch (a member gave us some money for dinner earlier in the week, but we didn't get a chance to use it that night), but if you want Hispanics to like you, you eat their food. Dinner has a two plate rule. Even if you don't ask for seconds. So we eat, I eat seconds (Elder Nelson hasn't learned yet, but believe me, I warned him), and we're joking around with him and he lets us share a scripture! We share 2 Nephi 25:26 and he lets us give him a Restoration Pamphlet. He was really cool with us by the end and seemed open to us coming back! I think his wife was surprised as well. 

Note from Mom: My favorite scripture! 

Other than that, just finding really nice Hispanics who are willing to listen, nothing major yet, but the works feels good right now!

Love y'all!

Elder Hogg

Hola y'all! Last week with Companion, Elder Johnson!

Subject:	Hola y'all!
Date:	Mon, 5 Feb 2018 14:56:37 -0600
From:	Brett Hogg

Not a whole lot new this week. We did teach a young man this week and he was really cool. He actually has a neighbor on mission right now! We didn't know him because he's in the English ward, but we are teaching this young man because his mom is puro español. Anyway, last time we saw him we gave him a Restoration pamphlet, and we we came by this time and asked him if he read it he said "yea but I didn't answer the questions in the back." And we were like, oh! Because usually people, especially 14 year olds, don't read the pamphlet, and if they do they don't get beyond the first page. So that was that was cool.

Then we have this other investigator who is best friends with a member, and the member was in Houston on Saturday, and he usually just tags along with them to church. Well he showed up on his own! We were floored. He's a very quiet guy and you never know what he's thinking, or if he likes or dislikes something, so when he showed some initiative we were excited. He's a neat guy, he's young, and he's here by himself from Mexico. He was pretty much adopted by the member family. Anyway, they showed up to but later on in sacrament meeting. 

Then after church, we decided to go knocking. Our branch mission leader drove us around and was excited to show us where all the Hispanics live so we could go knock them. So we went knocking and just kind of street contacted along the way. We didn't realise it was super bowl Sunday, and we were wondering why everyone was outside grilling and drinking. We did meet a couple cool people. One guy specifically was really interesting (and drunk). He got really close to Elder Johnson and started going off about how he's looking for a church, but one that doesn't judge him for having tattoos, or a piercing. Not even in like a confrontational way, but in an unnecessarily serious way. The best part was that he spake Spanish, but he sounded Russian! Like imagine a Russian speaking Spanish. And his hand movements and everything where all kind of Slavic as well (like a mob boss telling a story). I wish I had a video of it. At the same time another, even more drunk guy, was telling me all about the virgin Mary. These are the experiences you only get in the mission haha.

From Mom: Just a note about the following statement.. In the mission, becoming a "Dad" means you are training a new missionary who has just arrived from the Missionary Training Center.. it's his first area. So becoming a "big brother" is that your trainer is training another one!  This can be a weird fun thing... and then there are grandparents - when your trainee becomes a trainer.  So confusing - but funny!

Other than that, the big news is that Elder Rodriguez is getting a baby brother! I'm training again! I'm excited, and nervous, because I've never had a companion with worse Spanish than me, so I've never had to learn like REALLY good Spanish, so i'm nervous about being the only Spanish speaker in the companionship. 

Anyway, that's about it!

Love ya!

 Elder Hogg