New Area!

Dear All,

This week has brought forth some new lessons to learn.

We had a baptism Saturday, taught them new member lessons on Sunday. We learned that a baptism date we have [set for] this Saturday doesn't live in our area which really complicated things this week. We called our mission president and he gave instruction on what to do. This morning we called back to give the outcome of the situation, it's still in the air a bit, but President told us why it is so important that we make sure we don't make a mistake.

I feel really close to my Mission President considering the number of times I've had to call him. Who would have thought I would have made more calls to him than anyone else this week? But as he has said before "I prefer it that way."

Those are things that just if anything add a bit of stress, but as long as the investigator gets baptized it's worth it. We visited many people and my companion almost got his face eaten off by a dog. (we were both surprised that dog didn't hop the fence.) We learned just how important we are. A [member] seems to really like us and is less active. His wife told us she was glad we don't take the same approach as most to get him up and doing his duties.

I got to give a blessing to [a members] wife; I'm surprised what I feel and what I say during those. No amount of thinking will do me any good, unless it's a prayer in my heart asking to have the spirit with me. How blank my mind can be yet I can still make complete sentences when I speak. Bearing testimony can be both exhausting and exciting at the same time. It is especially amazing how there is slight differences from one to the other. I can tell I've given a powerful one when the next testimony is so much more powerful and different than the one before it.

Much to my surprise we- I - bumped into someone who looked familiar to me. The following words is what i heard from a gentleman from a ward I serve in. "Hedgecock? you from Phoenix?" "yep!" "whats your dad's name?" "Michael" "I used to go to the family ward you guys went to in Phoenix, I served in the Bishopric there." "with Bishop Hunsaker?" "Yep, Bishop Hunsaker." Chris Brown and his family live in the Sand Creek 3rd ward that I serve in. Our dinner appointment canceled on us and he invited us over to dinner. It was the closest thing to home I've felt in a while, which was refreshing to feel and made the rest of the day better. We met with the stake President who said "President Colton and I have a agreement, he either sends me the best missionaries to serve here, or I make them into the best missionaries." With a statement like that, it's got to be good to be here!

Love you all,

Elder Hedgecock


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Happy Easter!

Dear All,

We have had a very interesting week! This week was "Walk With Christ" [presentation] and we tried to get all the people we could to go to it. What a neat experience it is! Seven rooms, each one depicts a different part of Christ's life. What an amazing experience. The Spirit was very strong in the Walk with Christ, I wish I could describe it with ease.

It is very possible I may not be in the same place next transfer, which we will recieve calls for this Saturday. I'll will tell you what I learn next Monday. We got a call Monday at 8:30 and were told we were moving, to make the experience more exciting they told us we were moving the next day @ 2pm. So 16 hours to pack 8 of which we are suppose to sleep. We moved into our new apartment and we find we are in a smaller apartment. Much smaller. Our bathroom is newly remodeled and the apartment has a brand new stove in it too. So we are so glad to have good things but wish we were not crammed into a small room. The best part: the Landlords who live above us can hear anything above normal speaking level in our bedroom.

We helped a guy transplant tomato plants he had, we invited him to 'Walk With Christ', but was unable to make it.
I got permission from my mission president to go up to Rigby to see the baptism of 2 over age youth I taught. We also got permission to go fishing in American Falls, which has not happened, I'll let you know when that happens.

We also used up a lot of our Book of Mormons for Walk With Christ. We asked our Zone leaders for 2 boxes (80 books) of Book of Mormons. They asked us what we planned to do with them, we said, "Give them out".

We learned a ward in need of a Gospel Principles class is putting it on hold, which is stressful, 'cause we have people we want to bring to Church but it's hard to want to bring them if we don't have that class. We could just take those we bring to a class and teach it ourselves. If we have people there next week and no class is made we will do just that and if someone makes a complaint we will be in the right completely so I will not fear.

Hope all of you are doing well, I am doing fine in Pocatello. We got a lot of Candy for Easter, as I've stated before people like to take care of missionaries out here.

Love you all,
Elder Hedgecock

Conference Week!

Dear Family,

This weeek was really a blast and exciting in so many ways. While a ward member was on vacation we did some yard work for her and a few other things to surprise her. With my Agriculteral Science class experience and Elder Hill's connection with other Elders we had about 8 missionaries doing yard work. I was able to make sure they pruned trees correctly and we got alot done in a short period of time.

We also made visits to those in our area and talked a lot about the “Walk With Christ” at the Stake Center is putting on this week.

Conference was Absolutely Amazing. I still can't believe I'm hearing alot about marriage and family even as a missionary. It's just odd hearing about it and the first thing that enters my mind is "I don't need to focus on that just yet."

Sorry, this may seem like a very dull week and not a whole lot happened, but a lot did happen. We decided to caution tape a couple elders appartments and short sheet their beds. So yes it was exciting.

Love you all!

(tell [my sister] I love her and I want to hear from her)

Love,

Elder Hedgecock