It's already Monday??!!

Helloooooooooooo!!!!!!!

This week was good, we were able to find some really good new investigators, Hernan passed the sacrament and his little sister came to church, and we got to do a lot of service. 

Fun story, a lady gave us the reference of her mom that we could go visit, but she doesn't have an address where she lives, so she spent literally 10 minutes describing how to get to her house and even told us the color of her dogs eyes, haha so I'm sure we will be able to find her. 

This transfer flew by, today we are already starting the last week! Something sad that happened this week is that we were teaching a young man Rodrigo and his uncle Hugo, and yesterday Hugo passed away. He had been in the hospital all week from complications of alcoholism. We went to visit him a few times and it was very sad to see him like that, and if every young person could see the consequences of their choices there would be fewer problems with addiction. Really just remember to make good choices. It was very sad. Well sorry to end on that note, but remember that thanks to Jesus Christ we can always change and improve and overcome our mistakes and weaknesses. Filipenses (Philippians?) 4:13  ["I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."]
(Thanks Lib! :) ) 

Thanks to all for your prayers, I love you all!

Hermana Hooke

Happy Valentine's Day I guess...

Hellooooooo!!!!!!!!!!

I hope life is good for everyone! And if it's not, remember that it will get better, and that hard times help us grow. I love you all very much!

This week was very good. Here are a few highlights and fun facts.

-Hernan received the priesthood yesterday! He's super excited to pass the sacrament!

-We found a ward directory the other day and now we have probably literally 50 less active members to go find that we never knew existed, and help our branch grow!

-The Elderes in our branch had a baptism of 2 brothers on Saturday. We brought facturas (like pastries) and a member brought her 2 recently-castrated heavily-anesthetesized cats, so it was a good time overall.

-Today we got up at 5am to hike a mountain to see the sun rise. There's a cross at the top, it reminded me of Ventura! Except for it's not all dead and brown, it's a green jungle. [She's forgotten we've actually had rain in Ventura--it's green now, but not quite a jungle!]  It was raining so there was no sunrise but it was still fun.

Crossing a bridge in their area (San Pedro de Jujuy)

-Carnaval is here! And we live on the 3rd floor above a panaderia [bakery] (Idk if I've mentioned that before, it's literally the best thing that's ever happened to me) that just so happens to be on the very street where the parade starts every weekend in February at about 11:30pm until about 2 or 3am...so that's fun. 

-Also there's a tradition with carnaval that people throw bumbuchas (water balloons) at random passersby, so that's also fun. It really is though, because it has been rell hot.

Carnaval (Emily ran out of time and had to take the memory card out of the computer before it fully loaded:)

-There was an Hermana Hooker in my area before! Everyone asks me if we are sisters. Someone looked at my name tag and asked me what happened to the ¨r¨...haha... That, my friend, is a long story.

Claudina gave the birthday cake to Hna Chumioque

Well I hope that you have a wonderful week and count your blessings every day! They are there if we look for them! 

Love, Hermana Hooke

Happy February!!!!!!

Hello!!! I hope you are doing very well and keeping busy even though your only child in the house is Josie [our cat:)]. (Is she still alive??) Thanks everyone for the lett-hairs n stuff, I always love to hear how everyone is doing!!!
 

Well this week in rama Belgrano, San Pedro de Jujuy was very good!

 

First, someone guessed that I am FORTY YEARS OLD, so that's the good news.

 

Better news, today is Hermana Chumioque's birthday and also P Day so we used the occasion to go to Los Cerros de Siete Colores in Purmamarca. It was BEAUTIFUL! Its seriously like Zion National Park or Moab, but put in Argentina.  Everything's super green and there are huge mountains and then all of a sudden there are huge red rocks. We got to hike and stuff and it was a lot of fun. I have sure missed doing fun outdoorsy things--we will have to go on tons of adventures when I get back to make up for it...

 

Street in Purmamarca

 

Hna Hooke in Purmamarca

 

Hnas Chumioque, Hooke, Jones, & Chavez

 

 

Best news, Hernan got baptized and confirmed!!! I don't know if I said, he's 13. His family minus his dad were able to come to his baptism Saturday and I think he was kind of bummed his dad didn't come, but then his dad did come to his confirmation Sunday! Hernan is a really nice young man, he is always excited to learn when we come, and his little sisters yell "LAS MORMONAS FELICES" [the Happy Momon ladies]!!!! We are going to work with their whole family, they are all really great. In our area every single one of the recent converts is also now less active in the church. When I came this really troubled me, and I decided that I will not encourage anyone to get baptized that I don't really feel is ready and is going to remain active. I feel that Hernan is very sincere and has a testimony of the gospel, he reads the Book of Mormon and prays every day and is just really great. But it's super important that every recent convert has 3 things, like Pres Hinckley said - a friend, a responsibility, and nourishment with the good word of God. That is very true. 

 

Hernan's baptism day wit Hna Chumioque & Hna Hooke

 

Hernan's family

 

Well I don't remember what else happened this week, but here are some fotos. I love you all very much, and always remember to rely on our Savior Jesus Christ--whether we are in good times or bad times, He is there to help us. John 8:12 ["Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, 'I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.' "]

I hope this week is just wonderful!

Best

Hermana Hooke

Another week of adventures in Hoohoooooooeeyyy!!!

Helloooo!!!

I hope you all had a swell week!  Well I don't know where you get your facts Mom [I had checked the Salta and Jujuy weather site, which showed that Jujuy is a little less humid than Salta] but Jujuy is most definitely 9583 times more humid than Salta. Some days are really hot, and others hotter. And sometimes it rains. But it is beautiful and everything is suuuper green! This week was pretty crazy because Hna Chumioque was in the hospital for a few days, but she's doing well now.

Emily didn't say, but we're assuming this is Hna Chumioque at the hospital...

"Be happy / Be a Mormon!"

So on Monday I was in a trio with Hna Jones and Hna Chavez which was fun, then on Tuesday a member who returned from her mission in Uruguay a month ago was my companion, which was also super fun. It turned out well. I don't know our area very well yet because it is huuuuuge and I'd only been here a week, but we went to visit everyone that I knew where they live, and then luckily when I ran out of people to visit, we realized we were late for a  branch council meeting, so that was good, haha.

We have an investigator named Hernan, he is 13, and he will most likely get baptized this Saturday! He is super great, he came to church, and today there was a sport activity and we came to help someone with English and Hernan was there--we didn't even invite him! It was great. Really every person who is getting to know the church needs a spiritual conversion but also a social conversion to help them stay strong. If you see people in church you don't know, get to know them! It makes all the difference!!!

The members here are really nice, there's a member and returned missionary Federico that kind of reminds me of Tommy--he's really funny and he accompanies us a lot because he is on vacation from school. Well the mish (and life) can be a montaña rusa (roller coaster) but I know that all the ups and downs are to help us learn and progress! Love you all monton ["a big mountain" = bunches]!!!

Best, 

Hermana Hooke

Week 1 in San Pedro, HOOOHOOOOEYY! [spelled Jujuy:)]

Well hello there! Hope you are all doing well!


This week was rather crazy. It was a pretty crazy adjustment having a new area, a new comp, new members and investigators, new pension mates [apartment mates], etc...Our area is huge and after 1 week I still haven't even visited some of the neighborhoods that are ours. San Pedro is not super urban but it is really big, and probably has the worst drainage system in the world. It's been raining a lot and all the water goes straight to poor little Barrio Patricios and floods the streets and houses. Huaico was pretty affluent, like the members are lawyers and pro soccer players, but the people here hardly have anything. They are all super nice though and I've met some great people already. The best part is that we are helping families. There are a lot of families that are members but not all active and a lot have problems with addictions, but we have been visiting a lot with them and can tell that they are sincerely changing, and a whole family came to church yesterday, it was a happy moment! Also I gave a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday (my 1st time in Spanish I think) and it went very well for having found out during Gospel Principles class. I talked about how the GOSPEL BLESSES FAMILIES!!! It really is true!

Hermana Chumioque has had some health problems this week, so we spent a good amount of time in the clinic here. Keep her in your prayers. She spent the night last night in the hospital and Presidente and Hermana Chaparro came to stay with her so I am in a trio today with Hermana Chavez de Mexico and Hermana Jones de Chicago.

 Well I love you very much I really do! Thanks for the prayers! Being on the mission more than ever before I have seen how blessed I really am. I made a list of all the blessings I could think of that I have because of living the gospel. It didn't take a long time to see that there are tons and tons! And every child of God deserves these blessings, and I am so grateful that I can help them receive them too. Hasta lunes! 

 

Con amor,

Hermana Hooke

"TRASLADOS! [Transfers!]" New area, New companion

Hoooolaaaa familia!

Sounds like you guys have just been partying it up!! For reals sounds like you had tons of fun, dad even fixed the go cart! Well I hope you are doing swell, and everyone's back in their houses now in San Clemente, the Desert, Hawaii, and Ohio, I guess!

Well biggest news, I am in San Pedro de Jujuy! [she is finally in the place of my favorite word..."hoo HOO-ee!"] My new compañera is Hna Chumioque [choo me OH kay]* de Peru. We live 4 [sisters]  in the pension, so it should be lotsa fun...I'm excited to work here and get to know the people and see miracles!

This week in Huaico was good, we worked supah hard and saw many miracles, but no one came to church again.

Well I have to go but I love you very much! 

Hasta la proxima semana, 

Hermana Hooke

[*So now the companionship is "OH kay" (HOOKE) and "choo me OH kay" (Chumioque)...looks like they're an "Okay" companionship:)]

FELIZ 2015!!!!!!

Hola y feliz año nuevo!!!! I hope you all had a lovely fiesta and that 2015 will be a year of progress and muchas felicidades. New Years is crazy here, let me tell you! Seriously everyone was doing cohetes (fireworks) for like 2 hrs straight when it turned to midnight. It's so crazy to think that for the whole year of 2015 I will not step foot in the good ole US!

Well this week was rather difficult, at the end of the week none of our investigators came to church and no one is progressing. BUT we were able to stay positive and laugh about things, like a drunk and/or blind dog that followed us for like 2 hrs. Everyone always asks us if the dogs that follow us are ours, haha. Nope. Also this week we did divisiones, I went to Palermo with Hermana Perez from Chile, she is awesome! I learned that when we really project the happiness that we feel about our message and how much we love what we do and what we teach that the people can feel it and not only will angels help us, we can be angels for them! Also we helped build this guy's house for a few hours, that was fun. 

Today Hna Ixmata and I went on a run to explore where we live, and we discovered on the other side of this little hidden neighborhood and railroad tracks is a beautiful field and a bunch of trails going back in this little green canyon, it was amazing! Salta is beautiful!

Well basically life is good, God is testing our patience a little bit but we have faith that things will get better, we just have to keep working! 

Love you all monton,

Hermana Hooke