Oops ya fue my computer time...at least I sent photos!

Oops...ya fue my computer time...at least I sent photos:)
Love you lots!
Hermana Hooke

They fixed the rat-chewed piano - I am the first one to play it in the meetings in more than 5 years!

Emily's Zone

A cool little plaza where we did exercise today

Look what a dog did to me! But I survived...

We made cookies last P Day with the Luna family (and their cat Gringo)

Christmas package from Lee Ann & Dan (fuzzy socks!!) THANKS!

Another Fun Week in Concepción!

Hola amigos y familia!

Happy 2016! Hope you had a good new years! We had a good time here and we got to have dinner with our good friend Mary and her family.

 

This week we had some funny moments and some spiritual moments, so I guess you could say it was a very good week! Some funny moments were a power outage in our apartment only (turns out we actually had electricity, we just hadn't turned the light switch on...haha we are smart!) and off-roading a baby stroller for about a kilometer to return it to our investigator Laura's house (don't worry there was not a baby inside.)

 

We are working with a young mother Karina who is a member of the church but has been inactive for years. Well recently she decided to return to church to help her family, and we have been teaching her the lessons. It is amazing to see how, years after being baptized, she is discovering how beautiful the gospel is and really being converted. She said that she had read the Book of Mormon before, but now it is different. Now she feels and recognizes the Spirit and wants to keep reading and learning more. This happens a lot - maybe the Book of Mormon or the gospel haven't changed, but we change, and our hearts change, because of different experiences in life that prepare us to really receive and accept the gospel. There is a time for everyone, we just have to trust in the Lord's timing.

 

Well I love you all very much and hope you enjoy a superb week!

Un abrazo (a hug),

Hermana Hooke :)

Happy 2016!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello!

It was a lot of fun to see you on Christmas! :) And yes mom, even though I saw you, I am still writing, so don't worry. Sounds like you had a lovely Christmas! We did too, we got to have dinner with a member family and as always there was a ton of food and I think we ate like 3 pigs each. (okay not really...but it was a lot!)

This week we went to visit a family of less actives that just so happens to live a 30 second walk from our pensión. (I don't know why we had never gone before!) And turns out that they are a HUGE family, all of them are members except for the mom, and she has always wanted to get baptized but never could, but now her situation has changed so she can get baptized! She wants to get baptized together with her 2 granddaughters who are 8. They are the Soria family. We talked about them in branch council and the branch president said that if the mom comes to church, her whole family will follow her. She has 7 kids and tons of grandkids too! So we are hopeful!

Today we played futbol with the whole district and that was fun.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful New Years! Love you all!

Hermana Hooke :)

Our Christmas Day Skype (on screen w Libby, Becca, Allison, and Catherine:)

Christmas day, and also a branch member's 30th birthday

"Christmas tree-in-a-box" Thanks Grandma & Grandpa T!!

Hna Barros, Hna Hooke (and she forgot to tell me who the one in the middle is...

)

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!!!!!

Hey happy Christmas week!!!!! The best week of the year!!!

Well first of all, the cyber where we are right now is playing Coldplay and I am dying a little bit, how I miss them...

 

Hope everyone is well! Congrats Jon and Amanda!!!! [Jon proposed to Amanda Turnbull on December 21st! She's a doll and we're all excited...but I'm guessing that Jon is the most excited:) ]  Woohoo our family is going to be like 6x bigger by the time I get back!

 

This week was very good here in Concepción! We are spreading Christmas cheer with our Santa hats and Christmas videos and we are going Christmas caroling tonight for FHE! And to top it all off, we now have a collection of 2 whole Christmas trees in the pensión, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Tuttle! Who knew that "Christmas-tree-in-a box" exists? Haha but it's pretty sweet.

 

 

 

 

 

Hermano Pallares received the priesthood yesterday and also got his temple recommend because he is going to Buenos Aires and he is going to go to the temple with the brother of a member here who grew up with his kids...if that makes sense. Basically it is a perfectly set up miracle of the Lord! 

 

Sorry I have to go but MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!! Remember that the real gift is our Savior Jesus Christ and his atonement. I am so very grateful for it! Love you all!

 

I will call on Christmas at 12 noon my time...

 

Love, 

Hermana Hooke!

It is HOT in Tucumán!!!!!!

If you want to know what it was like this week, just imagine going for a long swim in a hot tub on a hot day, then drying off in an oven. And that's about how it is living in Concepción without AC or fans. Woohoo! Sometimes we move our mattresses to the main room to sleep where it's a little cooler, and last night I slept with a giant bottle of ice water. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, I've heard!

 

Well nothing too interesting has happened this week...we did divisiones so Hna Barros was in San Miguel for a day, and that's about it. But I am doing very well! I love sharing the message of Christmas with the people here! I encourage you all to see 2 videos the Church made this year at christmas.mormon.org (or navidad.mormon.org, if you want to see it in Spanish for some reason). I love them because they show that knowing we have a Savior makes us HAPPY, and explains why we need a Savior. So yeah, watch them! I am so grateful that over 2000 years ago a little baby was born to give us light and hope, and I know that he lives! Make this year a special Christmas sharing this with someone you know, it is the best gift you can give him in return. 

 

Love you all! 

Hermana Hooke

 

Our ¨Christmas tree¨ that my companion found on the side of the road...

A plaza in our area

Our missionary district just before having a watermelon seed spitting contest!

 

It Snowed in Pleno Verano (the middle of SUMMER)!!

Hola y feliz lunes! Hope everyone is well!

 

Thanks for all your prayers. Hermano Pallares got confirmed this week! Your next task: pray that Salomé his granddaughter will be able to get baptized! She is excited and ready but we need the permission of her parents and they are literally NEVER home. Hermano Pallares really is raising her because her parents seem to be ALWAYS working or doing other things. But we want to help their whole family!

 

This week we saw a lot of miracles, and looking back I can recognize how the Spirit was guiding us. We decided, I didn't really know why, (now I know it was the Spirit guiding us) to go to 2 parts of our area that aren't even very far away, we had just never gone before because my comp before had never gone because her comp before me had never gone, etc. And we found a less active member and her huge non member family in one of the areas, and in the other we found a new WONDERUL family to teach! It was kind of funny, we were talking to people outside their houses and this little boy was  following us around and very interested in what we were doing, so we started to talk to him and turns out he was the nephew of our relief society president. He had seen the missionaries in her house before but had never really talked to them. He told us where he lived just around the corner and we went and met Laura who was taking care of her 3 kids while her husband (who is another nephew of the RS Pres) was at work. We only had about a 15 minute lesson with her....but SHE CAME TO CHURCH! So basically it pays off to follow the Spirit. That is the moral of the story. 

 

Love you all! Have a great week!!!

Hermana Hooke 

 

Today a business gave us a huge map of Concepción that they were gonna throw away because they got a new one. (the good news)

 

 

 

 

We had to haul it a kilometer to our house (the bad news)... okay the photo is a bit dramatized. haha

On Sunday I woke up and look what I saw...SNOW!

Remember that in Argentina, summer, not winter, is starting...

Happy December!!! [and Baptism of Enrique Pallares!]

Hola!

Hope all is going well!

 

Well the highlight of this week was definitely the baptism of Enrique Pallares! He has progressed so much! 

 

He came to his baptismal interview fasting, and he came to his baptism having finished reading the ENTIRE Book of Mormon! I certainly had not read the entire Book of Mormon when I got baptized, ha. It was so beautiful to see how happy he was. When I asked him how he felt, he said, "Like an angel!" He won't get confirmed [a priesthood blessing bestowing on him the gift of the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit] until this Sunday because we had District Conference, so keep him in your prayers so that all can go well. 

 

We are working with the branch leaders to organize visiting teachers and home teachers so that will definitely help in fellowshipping the members. 

 

Well, that is all the time I have for today, but I hope you all have a wonderful week! 

 

Love you!!

Hermana Hooke