Feliz Conferencia General y Pascua! [Happy General Conference and Easter!]

Hola!

Hope all is well. All is well in Belgrano, although there have been some surprises this week. First of all Marta and Evaristo Díaz couldn´t get baptized  which was a bummer, but we are going to try to work with them and later on they will be able to get baptized. But the important thing is that they want to be baptized, so we will keep working with their whole family! Hernan, Mayra, and Celeste are super strong in the church! Hernan is really excited to be a missionary for his neighborhood to help with the Misión Belgrano. We are going to have a special branch missionary training on Wednesday so that should be fun. The pictures are from Cati Diaz´s 7th birthday, we had lunch with them. I gave her a rubber lobster, so it was a good day overall.

Wellllll we are doing very well, we are laughing probably too much but life is good and we are going to finish the transfer strong!! 

I´m so grateful that for this Easter I can be here serving the Lord and telling everyone the good news - because He suffered and paid for our sins, we can be clean, and because He gave his life and was resurrected, we can live again, too. I love Him with all my heart, I love my companion and area and the people here, and I love you all too! We are also so blessed to be able to listen to our prophet on Easter. It will be very special and I invite everyone to go hear him speak and testify of our Savior Jesus Christ. ¡Que tengan una hermosa semana! [May you all have a beautiful week!]

Hermana Hooke

PS the other foto is of a bridge that we always cross to get to the Diaz house. We came one day and it had collapsed, but we used it anyway. :) 

I think it's finally autumn!!!!!

Hola mis seres queridos [Hello my beloved beings],

 

Hope all is well! All is sure well in Belgrano [the part of the city of San Pedro de Jujuy she is in]. This week was great!! We got caught in a crazy storm without raincoats or umbrellas until a nice man and his daughter gave us a ride, Hermana Hammond helped me overcome my sugar addiction, we are having lots of fun with What Are The Odds, it's actually cooled down a lot (last night I actually got cold so I covered myself up with a skirt...haha the blankets are all in storage), we found some wonderful new investigators and 2 sisters we met on Saturday, Mariel and Cyntia, came to church on Sunday and loved it, the branch leaders are really excited to help out in the new mission plan, and we saw many miracles of being in the right place at the right time in order to meet people. Por ejemplo [for example] ¨That's interesting that the first time we ever come to the plaza as a family, we meet you. I've been asking God for a sign.¨ And ¨I prayed last night and this morning that you would come.¨ And we did. I just love seeing the Lord's fingerprint in little things like that. 

 

Well, it is time for the best part of the week..........

The whole Diaz family came to church yesterday, and Marta and Evaristo, the parents, are getting baptized this Saturday!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for your prayers! Please keep them up so that everything goes smoothly this week. Marta for some time has been saying that yes she wants to get baptized but ¨más adelante¨ or basically at some indefinite point in the future and Evaristo said that when she gets baptized he will too. And in sacrament meeting yesterday Hermana Hammond asked Marta, ¨They are going to announce a baptism this Saturday, do you want them to announce your names?¨ And she said yes!!! I was sitting in another part with some other investigators and when Hermana Hammond told me I almost started crying I was SO HAPPY!!!! I love this family so much and now I know that they can go to the temple one day! I know I've said this like 23987 times but THE GOSPEL BLESSES FAMILIES!!!! Love you all! Oh PS I got the letters from Mom Bails Megan Syd and Lani (and Cath :) the other week! Thanks so much! 

Until next time,

Hermana Hooke

Mas milagros! (More miracles!)

Hellooo!!!!

This week was rapidísimo, can't believe the transfer is half over already! Hope you are all doing well!

This week was so good! Mayra (older sister of Hernan and Celeste) got baptized on Saturday and it was a MIRACLE that everything worked out! Right when we got to their house Saturday night to go together to the chapel a crazy storm hit. It started pouring so hard and there was thunder and lightning so close that for a moment it was as bright as daytime. The little streets turned into rivers and then the electricity went out and we were stuck in their house wondering what was going to happen, so we said a prayer that it would stop raining so we could get to the church for Mayra's baptism. While Hermana Hammond was saying the prayer it started to rain even harder. But when we finished I just felt calm, and I had no idea how. but I knew we were going to get there. We waited for a little while and the storm didn't stop, but Mayra and her family started to get ready anyway. We decided we would walk. It was pretty crazy, with the lightning and everything and carrying the little girls on backs to cross the street-rivers but shortly after leaving their house, it stopped raining. We kept walking and then the electricity came back! We arrived at the church only an hour late, very wet, but Mayra got baptized and that is what's important! 

Mayra's baptism (after the STORM!)

It was such a special experience, and now we are working more with the parents so that they can get baptized too. The dad Evaristo came to church yesterday, and today while we were in the chapel playing volleyball he came to plant some little plants in front of the church. He is a gardener and had brought them from his work. Just about melted my little heart. If you can pray for Evaristo and Marta (parents of the Diaz family) and Viviana and Oscar (parents of the Rojas family) that would be great! The goal is to have the parents baptized by the end of the transfer. Oh almost forgot, when we got to church on Sunday morning the steeple on the chapel had been struck by lightning during the storm and split in half! Pretty crazy huh? Well, I am learning more and more each day that God is a God of miracles and that He really has all the power to answer our prayers but just wants us to exercise faith first. We could have waited for the storm to stop and maybe we never would have left, but we acted with faith and that's when the storm stopped and the electricity came back on. 

Well I love you very much and hope you have a wonderful semana!

Love,

Hermana Hooke

"Cucarachas, name them one by one..."

Hola!

Well, this week was very fast but good! Julian didn't end up getting baptized but we are working with his family so that in the near future he can be baptized, he is super ready and excited but his family isn't going to church, so we are going to help them with that before he gets baptized. 

 

Mayra (the sister of Hernan and Celeste!) is getting baptized this week!!!!! And today we are going to buy skirts with Mayra and Celeste, so that will be fun. Explanations of the fotos, Hermana Hammond and I in San Salvador, Jujuy, (we had entrenamiento de zona there on Friday) and our new favorite saying that we saw on a shirt. It's really funny, people wear shirts with English on them and they don't even know what it says. 

 

 

 

 

 

Welllll I am out of time but I hope this week is great, and I hope you're all excited for general conference like I am!!! It's not every day we get to listen to a true prophet of the Lord speak to us. If you have any questions or doubts I encourage you to write them down, and I promise that they will be answered in conference. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is really led by Jesus Christ, not by any person, and we are so blessed to have His spokespeople here to help us! 

 

Love you all! 

Keep on keepin on,

Hermana Hooke

[For any of you who don't know, the General Conference of the church will be broadcast live on Saturday, April 4 and Sunday April 5 at 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. (Pacific Daylight Time) both days on lds.org. The conference talks are also always accessible online after conference]

 

[She didn't mention cucarachas (cockroaches) in the body of her letter today, but from today's title and her companion's blog, I get the distinct idea that they have their fair share of them!]

Demasiados Milagros Para Contar! En Serio. [Too Many Miracles to Count! Seriously.]

Hola!

This week was seriously so full of miracles! First of all, I am a big fan of my companion and we are working really hard together. Second, we are helping not just individuals but families. Celeste and Laura both got baptized this week and Carlos (Laura's brother who got baptized 3 weeks ago) was able to baptize them both. (He wants to go on a mission too!) Their parents all came to the baptism and loved it, there was a really special spirit in the service. And on Sunday Oscar (Laura and Carlos' dad) came to church for the first time! He really liked it. In her confirmation, our district President (like stake president but for branches instead of wards) blessed Laura to be able to go on a mission! These 2 families are so wonderful, and our goal is to get them both sealed in the temple! We are working with quite a few families where some are members and some are not and it is so amazing to help whole families progress. This Saturday Julian ( the 10 yr old son of a recent convert of the elders) will get baptized! His brother, mom, and grandma are all members.

Eating Cake for Hna Tate's Birthday

Rojas Family

Another miracle, we found maní untable (peanut butter) in Chango Mas (it's like Argentine Wal-Mart. For reals, its owned by Wal-Mart.). I ate almost a whole jar since Friday...also we made no bake cookies for the baptism and everyone loved them! Another miracle, I ate cow underbelly and didn't die, or even get sick.

It's really neat to have the opportunity to be a representative of our Savior Jesus Christ. People come to trust us in a very short amount of time not just for our name tag, but for our spiritual name tag, which is the fruits of the Spirit. I liked that, Hna Chaparro [Mission President's wife] said that. And every single worthy member who has the gift of the Holy Ghost also has this! People notice your examples.

A lady we were talking with this week said something that I really liked too. She said that nobody can give peace to another person. Perhaps they can give comfort, but only God can give peace. That is true! Even with all the ups and downs of the mission, I have never felt such a constant and deep peace. The Church is true, the Book of Mormon is true, the gospel blesses families, and God is a God of miracles!

Love you all!

Hermana Hooke