Easter Week

I am so happy that you have had a great week. :) I am happy for you.

As for me :) I had a WONDERFUL week!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it went by so fast!!!!!! we went to the city Eldoret for zone conference. It was great there were 3 zones that got together and had a great big get together. :) I was even the one to give the training, along with President B.  and the church psychologist it was great. :) I talked about what I call the 5 necessities of missionary work that I heard in a talk by Pres. Pinegar..

Faith is the power

Love is the motive

The Spirit is the key

Obedience is the price

and Christ is the reason

That’s what I did mine on and president did his on having a full tank telling us to fill up our tank so that we won’t run out of gas he is always really funny :)

The psychologist his name was Elder Heartmen he told us about what he made called the color code. About how we can learn more about ourselves and others and how we can use that to help the work move forward. :) it was really good. You have colors for your personality, there are 4 colors. Red, Blue, White and Yellow,  my color is Blue :) my 2nd color is yellow and if you can find his book called the color code it will tell you about it. and it is super cool and fun. :) I learned a lot about how to better talk to people. :) it worked out really well :) and we all had a lot of fun :) Also His wife made a video recording of us and she sent them to our families so you should have something there from me. :)

The area is going great. :) we are trying to bring it back alive. We didn’t really have anyone to teach. But now we have people :) we worked hard trying to find people and it is paying off. :) it’s cool to see how people come out of the wood works to learn more about the church. You can really see the hand of the Lord in people’s lives. :)

Easter :) it was nice. But to tell you the truth it didn’t really feel any different here. I'm sad to say that, but it was just like any other day. I tried to make it better by reading about Christ’s last days and those things. And it did really help :) helped me see what the real meaning of Easter is. But I am sad that I don’t understand everything as much as I want. I feel like that there is such a long road to walk down to learn simple truths about Christ and what He did. I feel like I know nothing. But for Easter dinner we had Omena, and ugali. Omena are these really little fish that taste SO BAD!!!!!! :) lol but it was funny they stair at you while you eat them :) man they are bad. lol But we were at a members house so couldn’t really say no. lol

To tell you the truth emailing here is hard. So sorry if my email kind of sucks. See so far today the power has gone out 4 times from the time we have started emailing. So we kind of have to go fast so we can get all we can in. :) the joys of Kenya power, but I should have some time.

So Robi's wedding............ first can I say HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Robi is hitched. lol… but I am super happy for her! Also a crazy story is that there is a kid in my Zone from Idaho Falls. And I asked if he knew the Redfords and he asked  “you mean Robi?” I was like holy cow!!! That’s my CUZ :) its cool his name is Elder Schnieder. He is a super missionary!!!!! :) So small world.

You got to have 3 GA's????? Man its like not fair anymore. What is this???? lol :) I'm glad that you are able to see all of these super cool guys!!! Oh and that makes me remember, did you get the rest of the Holland notes? I would love to read them. :)  

 Now to answer your questions.

1. To get to Kitale driving from Chyulu it took about 11 hours, but I did stop in Nairobi after 4 and spend the night there in the AP's flat. That was fun. Then got up and took about 7 hours on the worst road in the world. :) it was fun :)

2. Yes I did take a bus. That is the best way when inside of Kenya.

3. The Elders in the Zone we have 8 plus a couple coming the end of next month. It’s small but it’s funny because it is one of the bigger zones in the mission right now.

4. My comp is working on his 4 month mark. :) he is still a young buck. :) But this mission is super young, like it is weird; I am one of the oldest people on mission, there are not many people older than my group.

5. The hard part about our area is just how big it is, like in Chyulu we had a big area and we got bikes but here we have a HUGE area and we still get bikes but we mostly use motorbikes. :) don’t worry we don’t drive them. :) They are like a taxi. they get us around easier, also there are a lot of rumors about the church and stuff like that, but that is really all over Kenya.

6. All missionaries need to email president once a week. We need to give him a report on what we did and things like that and as leaders we need to report on what the zone or whatever is doing.

Well so you hear now that my week went well :) i am glad that yours did. :)

SLY

Your son

Elder Hodges