Did you know that Moses was the first person to go through the MTC? When the water parted he walked through!

Hey Y'all! It's our last week of MTC! Tomorrow we are flying to Pittsburgh!!! I'm so excited to start teaching and to meet my new companion and I'll definitely miss Sister Keller and cross my fingers that maybe we will be able to meet up again.

This week at the MTC me and Sister Keller were able to go to the Provo city center temple and even though it's by the home of the cougars( the Broncos enemy 😅🤣) it was awesome and of course love your enemies! ❤️ (but go Broncos! hehe)

This week my district was also picked to help pick up the brand new incoming MTC missionaries! I loved being able to help welcome those missionaries and be a part of their first experience here, I hope they felt the love and spirit here like I do.

A couple miracles I saw this week was seeing Sister Carter!( Tahlee) She is a great friend from BYU-I and it was such a great surprise to see her! So comforting to see such a familiar face. Sadly I didn't have my phone on me so i couldn't get a picture.😢 I also saw Rebekah from psychology at BYU-I.

Also I got a free haircut! Me and Sister Keller both cut a couple inches off! Now I can measure my mission by my hair length 😁. I was also able to play violin for our sacrament meeting. The song was I can do all things through Christ. 

Learning how to testify and let the spirit guide has taken a lot of hard work this week and tons of practices with the district but I'm starting to feel more confident and teach with my heart. Me and Sister Keller had a few Helping other Appointments (HOAs where actors pretend to be people we would teach out in the field) and we have really improved from the first time we did it. One of them this week we had the spirit so strong with us in the lesson and we both were able to testify with the spirit and it made us both so excited to go out into the field! Afterwards we said “what if she's so excited she wants to be baptized!”-Best two years

Also to follow up with the morning prayers of gratitude I loved this challenge and I'll be honest I missed one day but even though I missed it once I feel like that challenge was really a blessing and I was able to stay positive all week and remember the things and people God has blessed me with. 

Also if anyone else did the challenge with me I'd love to hear how it went! Just reach out and let me know!

Called to Pyongyang North Korea… I mean Pittsburgh Pennsylvania!!

Avery got called to serve in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, the mission right under Madi’s mission! When she opened her call at the house she wanted to prank everyone that came and so she read her letter saying she was going to Pyongyang North Korea. 

Everyone gasped and then laughed when she paused and said, “Wait, grandpa can I use your glasses?” 

Then she said, “oh I’m going to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania! Haha!”🤣 

She was set apart April 28th at 7 pm as a full time missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 

She started home MTC on Wednesday April 29th.

Home MTC!!

 

Ahhh things are happening! Home MTC started Wednesday this week and I’m really enjoying it. My district is starting to bond more and we’ve got some really funny sisters and elders. It’s crazy how many sisters there will be in the MTC when I get there! In my district we have 8 sisters and 4 elders. The majority will be sisters which is pretty wild because I remember when my sister Madi did home MTC she had 10 elders and 4 sisters in her district. Since the new age limit, sisters are coming in hot! 

I met my companion too and she’s awesome! Her name is Sister Keller and she’s so sweet and has a strong testimony. She’s so funny and cracks me up all the time! (Even to the point of almost getting me in trouble on zoom in front of almost 300 other missionaries! jk kinda :) One miracle I’ve seen is we both have lots of things in common, we both went to BYUI during the fall and winter and she was in Animal Science so we both did Biology around the same time! We both love music and she’s so creative and has so many different artistic talents.

At home MTC we’ve been practicing approaching people and striking up conversations and bringing up the gospel with everyone we meet. It’s been challenging to practice my testimony and invite others to come to church or read scriptures but the more I do it with my district, I feel more confident and ready to go out! I’m really excited to go and start talking to people. 

For this last week at home I’ve been trying to soak it up being with my family and doing the things I love one last time including playing saxophone this last week before I go out into the mission field. That’s been really fun but I’ll miss the sax! I have been really lucky and blessed with my mission president because he’s going to let me bring my violin on the mission. I also had the opportunity to play piano during class breaks and for those of you that know me well, I can’t play piano and so I’ve had some free time to get on our piano and learn a little. Even though my hands and fingers ache, it’s been great learning the chords and going through my favorite hymns. 

Lastly, I’ll miss everyone and feel free to email me and let me know how things are going! I’ll try to get back to emails on my p day which I think will be Monday or Tuesday in the mission field. I love you guys and thanks for all your support! Also me and my mom were able to go out and take my mission photos.

Love, sister Hodges