Idabel week 7

Subject:	Idabel week 7
Date:	Mon, 29 Oct 2018 11:40:02 -0500
From:	Brett Hogg

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! 

Miss ya!

Elder Hogg