Holaaaa! [HOT weather, healthy foods, haircuts, piano lessons, pillows, & more prepared people:)]

October 27, 2014
Holaaaaaa
Hope all is well [with everyone at home], and respective other locations of recipients! Life is good in Salta! Wow I didn't realize it was so hot, I tried to do conversions [from Celsius to Fahrenheit] but I think I did it wrong because I came up with 130 degrees F, so if that was true I would probably be dead.

The whole Aguero family came to church on Sunday, as well as a new investigator Silvina and her 2 kids. That was great!

Thanks for the advice dad, I completely agree. I don't want baptisms, I want converts [i.e. people shouldn't just be baptized before they are really converted]. Reading the Book of Mormon together with the investigator makes a big difference. This week we saw a big change in Nicole and started teaching her mom too, and they both are changing a lot for the better- more happy, more peace. They both accepted to be baptized, so pray for them that they will continue to progress. Her mom's name is Paula.

Oh yeah so we went to lunch with Hna Reales on Wednesday and she is into the whole healthy food thing, and it was really funny because my comp has never eaten anything healthy in her life. She ate a raw carrot for the first time EVER.

Also Wednesday was my piano class, I had 4 students this week, so that was good! The bishop's son said he wanted to come, so as it was starting we called the bishop to ask if he was gonna come. He replied that THEY are on their way. This scared the living daylights out of me because he has 11 kids, and I thought all of them were coming. Luckily, only 2 of them came.

We definitely saw miracles this week! We taught the most lessons we ever have, we found some really prepared people, and this week I really felt the Spirit helping me as I taught. Like that scripture in Doctrine and Covenants--I forget where, but it says "open your mouth and it will be filled." I really felt that this week.

Love you all and if I can I will send pics...

I CUT HNA PLATINO'S HAIR TODAY... I can't believe she trusted me. It ended up about 6 inches shorter than I intended because one side was too long, then the other, then the other, etc....but she is nice
and didn't kill me or anything, so that's the good news. Other good news, we got pillows today! We still need curtains though. Our pension [apartment] is very new.

Love you , have a good week!

Best,
Hna Hooke

Feliz Dia de las Madres (at least in Argentina!)

Monday, October 20, 2014

Note: as always, [words in brackets] are Lori's:)

Hola familia,

Yes this week flew by! As usual. Yep I am officially starting my 2nd transfer here in Huaico!  Crazy. Hna Platino has 8 months left. [A "transfer" is 6 weeks long and may result in a change of companions and/or area.]

We haven't been able to see Jorge and Gema. It's very difficult to find people at home. The neighborhoods we work in, most everyone works all day and sets our next appt for like a week away, and then they aren't there. So even when new investigators seem promising we don't see them for like 2 weeks and it's impossible for them to progress. ["Progressing" includes keeping commitments to live a better life, reading from the Book of Mormon, as well as attending church on Sundays]. We are doing our best. 

Hno Aguero is out of town visiting his mom for Mother's Day, and he always works too, so we can almost never teach him. We found ELEVEN nuevos [new interested people] this week! Please pray for them that they will be able to progress, and also just that all our investigators in general will be able to progress. Hna Aguero and Facundo came to church yesterday, and Hna P and I taught gospel principles [Sunday School class], and it went very well. 

Now that the problem is over I'm allowed to tell you: we always are running out of money because the ATM by our pension [apartment] doesn't accept our cards, but today my mission debit card finally worked!!!!! Woohoo that was a relief. We are trying to eat more healthy, and a new family moved into a new part of our area who is "de diez" (like 10 out of 10). Hno Reales served a mission in CALIFORNIA and is studying to be an English professor, and his wife knows all about health foods and stuff and is gonna give us recipes, and also is going to give us lunch us on Wednesdays. Hooray! More almuerzos! My shoes are fine.

That's a rell nice story about the dead possum...haha. Glad you got that fixed. [An uninvited possum chose the crawl space under our house to die...]

Wow sounds like everyone and their mom is "meeting the Mormons"... [We have taken several friends to see the movie "Meet the Mormons"--still in our area through Wednesday I think--a very inspiring movie about 6 different Mormon families in different parts of the world--each with their own story. I think anyone would find it inspiring! If you haven't see it, SEE IT:) ] I will have to see that one day. 

This week we had the historic 1st ever meeting for only hermanas. It was wonderful, and big for hnas, they gave us cookies and stuff and talked about a lot of stuff that was very uplifting and helpful, like health tips, how to get along better with our comps, and Proverbios 31:10 ["Who can find a virtuous woman?  for her price is far above rubies."] A part that was very interesting is that Hna Chaparro [mission president's wife] had everyone write on a sticky note a physical challenge and a spiritual challenge and put them in a box. She read them out loud and then everyone wrote on another sticky note advice for someone else´s trial that had been read. She then read these pieces of advice out loud and it was amazing to see that the same people who had these trials also had so much wisdom and help.

Sisters Meeting

The weather here is unpredictable. This week we had the hottest (and I mean HOT...someone said 40 degrees Celsius...not sure exactly what that is but its over 100F. [I looked it up--104F]) and also crazy rainstorms, and it gets cold when it rains. Also this week a fun experience was that some stupid little rat dog with a pink collar outside someone's house (Hna P said ¨fue como un gatito recien nacido¨)  ["it looked like a newborn kitten"] bit my ankles.  It was rather funny. I don't have rabies, don't worry--it didn't even break the skin. That's all the time I have, I love you!

Hna Hooke

P-day already!!! [New ward, crazy storm, unorthodox lesson, morning running!]

October 13, 2014

Nooooo I just had like half my letter typed and accidentally erased it all!!! I will try to remember what I said!

Hello all, loves and kisses from Salta!

We couldn't see Jorge and Gema this week. We had an appt but he's a cop and got called in to work. Please keep praying for them, we are pretty sure he is the future temple president of Huaico. [To answer Mom's question,] I watched half of conference in Spanish and half in English.

This week we went for the first time to what is now the furthest part of our area, random houses kind of spread apart along a highway that pretty much goes all the way to Chile, and we aren't sure how far our area goes, because I don't think there are more missionaries over there. But anyways, literally every house along this highway is the house of less active members of the church. We were able to teach some lessons. It's hard for them to go to church though because they are families and I don't think they have cars, only dirt bikes, and the church is pretty far away.

Also this week there was a crazyyyy storm! It was rell [Hooke family slang for "real"] hot and my comp and I had just bought ice cream bars when it started pouring and wind-ing like crazy. We went to the house of a member who luckily lived around the corne,r and it started to hail like half the size of golf balls or bigger! We called a remis (like a taxi) to take us home because it was already night, but no one would go out in the storm. But Bro Rodriguez was valiant and drove us home! It was pretty exciting.

Friday we had zone training and we learned a lot about being diligent not only physically but spiritually, and when we applied what we learned I could feel SUCH a difference in our contacts [interactions with people].

Yesterday we met with the Cidudad del Milagro Ward for the first time and it was WONDERFUL! Everyone was so welcoming to our little group of people and it was mind blowing to see things running like a well-oiled machine where people actually do their callings. For example, before [when we met with just our small group] we would have Correlation Meeting with just the bishop and missionaries, and yesterday we actually had Ward Council with the Primary [children's group] president, Relief Society [women's group] president, lots of people! And people who actually do things! Like when we mentioned that Hno Aguero needs to have more fellowship with the members (no he didn't end up getting baptized this week, and he is traveling next week), a man immediately offered to go with us to a lesson. It's amazing when the members do things, like 50 percent of our responsibilities are gone now--ok not 50 percent, but it's SO much better when the members do things. Moral of the story: do things to help the missionaries; it makes their lives better!

We were able to see some miracles this week in finding people who God has really prepared to hear the gospel. We have been having trouble, though, with investigators actually progressing, following through with their commitments, etc, and actually becoming converted, and I think what we need to do is read with them more. We will see how this helps, but I felt pretty strongly that this is what we need to do.

A random story, we were trying to find a reference (referral) and her brother was home and invited us in. My comp was so eager to get in any door that she went in and I was left wondering what in the world we were doing. Clearly there was like a birthday party or something going on, with a bunch of people and like 20 bottles of wine on the table. But my comp proceeded to go around the table learning names and attempted to teach part of a lesson. It was very funny, and a very unorthodox environment for a lesson, but I guess it was good because apparently just before we arrived they had been talking about God and families, and my comp shared a scripture that answered their questions. 

Oh also, randomly my comp said that she wants to start running and for me to train her. She asked how long it will take before she can run without getting tired and be in better shape. I said 3 weeks. After the first day, I changed my mind--it will take a lot more than 3 weeks. Haha, but we have been running pretty much every morning and it's a fun change. I've even taught her drills and strides and stuff, it's pretty fun. There's always random dogs running by us too. It's like the good ole days with the team, haha.

Wellll I love you and pray for you, and believe it or not I even miss you! But I'm learning and improving and growing a lot.

Mil besitos [a thousand little kisses],

Hna Hooke

What a Wheek!!

 October 6, 2014 

Hola all!

Thanks everyone for the emails, and I hope you are all doing well and remembering to be happy in your daily life! As I told Cath, if there's one thing I've learned on the mish, it's that attitude is everything.

Well, this week was wonderful!!! We had exchanges on Wed. so I was in a different part of Salta with Hna Tingey, and it was amazing...made me realize how difficult our area is, and at first I was sad to go back to our area but then I just decided to be more determined to find success and that it takes a lot more creativity in our area. 

I taught my first piano lesson Wed. night! So far my only students are my comp and 1 recent convert (Andrea) but this week we are expecting at least 3 more students! It was a lot of fun--even though I had no idea how or what to teach, it turned out well.

Also another creative idea we are planning to unite our little group with the new ward we are joining with, as well as the community, is that there are a bunch of empty plazas in the neighborhoods, and we are gonna plan a big project to plant trees in the plazas!

Our first thunderstorm this week! It was cool and I can't wait for rainy season...Dec and Jan. It will be so green and pretty!

What else...OH when I was with Hna Tingey she gave me THIRTY references of people to contact in our area because she was in my area before it split into its own area, and all the paperwork stayed with the original area. Some of these we were able to teach, which was great. 

The miracle of the week was last night we taught a lesson to a family. Jorge and Gema are the parents, and they have 1 son and she is pregnant. About a week ago on a rough day we knocked 3 or 4 whole blocks and had left a Libro de Mormon with Jorge because we could just feel that he was prepared. (Our mission president challenged us to inundate the land with LdMs [Books of Mormon], and we are starting to see the fruits of our efforts in this for sure!) We taught them a lesson last night and the Spirit was very strong, and Jorge had read the first 15 chapters! They said that when they ask God and know that what we taught is true, they will want to be baptized!! Also Hno and Hna Aguero and their daughters came to conference on Sat [Church semiannual general conference, available at lds.org]! And he wasn't able to be baptized this Sat but we have set his date for the 11th. Please continue to pray for them; we are certain this time he will actually be baptized!

Speaking of conference, WOW it was so great! And how was that Cataract Canyon reference, Jon? haha. There is a member here who goes out with us sometimes and she mentioned that white water rafting is her fave sport and I told her Jon is a [river] guide, and she wants to meet (and-or marry) him. Also she asked me about formula 1 cars and I think she would like our family very much.

I can't remember anything else, but thank you for the prayers and thoughts and I love you all! Here's a brief spiritual thought from conference...I think it was very significant that so many people spoke on following the prophet and acting on what he teaches us, and then when the prophet spoke his message was very simple and clear. Be a little kinder, follow Jesus Christ. I hope we can all try to do this every day! This was a week of miracles and I'm so grateful we are finally starting to see the fruits of our work and effort.

Love you all!

Hermana Hooke

Got these pics recently from her mission president's wife's online page...would have been taken around Sept 10

That's a lot of missionaries!!