November 25, 2013 - Thanksgiving Mixup and Time to Be Transferred

Querido Family and Friends,

 

When you are in a foreign country during the holidays, some times you mix up the dates of holidays. Elder Farr and I thought Thanksgiving was this past Thursday, so a very kind member in our ward made us a delicious Brazilian/American thanksgiving to make us feel at home. We enjoyed eating, turkey, mashed potatoes, rice, and vegetables and apple pie for dessert.  However as I read my emails from home today I learned that Thanksgiving is this coming Thursday. Truly as a missionary you are in the world but not of it, and as a result you mix up the date of Thanksgiving, which would never happen before the mission...you got to love being a missionary. :)

Yesterday after eating lunch with a family and all their relatives after church, I had the amazing opportunity to receive divine revelation through the Spirit. While talking with some of this family´s relatives I began talking to two men in their early 20´s. I soon learned that they had been baptized and received the priesthood, but had fallen away from activity in the church some time. I asked them when the last time they read the Book of Mormon and they responded that it had been a really long time. As we finished the lunch by sharing a spiritual thought with this family and their relatives, I felt prompted to challenge these two men to read a chapter in the Book of Mormon. I thought of various common chapters that we invite our investigators to read, but none of them seemed right. Then the thought ``3 Nephi 18´´ came clearly into my mind, without hesitating I told them to read 3 Nephi 18, a chapter never on my mission I had assigned someone to read. Just after I challenged them, the mom of one of these men looked at us amazed and said, ``we are reading the Book of Mormon cover to cover and we left on 3 Nephi 18.´´ Elder Farr looked at me and said pointing to me, ``He received revelation.´´ Truly I testify that the Lord revealed to me what these less active men needed to read. The Lord know us and loves us.

I received a phone call on Saturday night and I will be transferred, after almost 6 months in the Vila Oficinas Ward, to a new area tomorrow evening with a new companion.

 

I love you all. Have a great Thanksgiving week! :)

 

Com amor,

 

Elder Jonathan Hokanson