19 May 2008

Dear Family,

How art thou? Man, your card was soooooooooooooooooooo awesome!!! For all those people who were missionaries before, I think you understand how I feel this good about a card. For all those who weren’t I hope you get the chance someday to feel this way! Haha.

I guess the biggest thing that happened this week was that my replacement came! Yay! Her name is Sister Webb from Centerville, Utah and she is about in her 50’s I think. Her and her husband seem young for a missionary couple, and they are pretty energetic and willing to learn! They have already been a lot of fun, and we have only started training them today! Haha. So, I showed her the mail, and the email, and the secretary desk, and the places we go for groceries. They were only in the MTC for about one and a half weeks! They were a little overwhelmed coming to Japan with the language and the mission field. But he went on a mission to England and she went to Australia when they were 19 and 21, respectively, so they are both rearin’ to go! They have also served as temple ordinance workers, and I think he was a bishop, so they also have very strong testimonies, and they also want to do some proselyting! They are pretty awesome…

Let’s see, this week, I taught the “skills” portion of district meeting. I tried doing something different… a lot of missionaries just have us practice contacts and stuff like that, so I decided to do things a little different. I focused on the importance of our senses in accepting the gospel. At first, I showed everyone these really pretty pictures of nature. Of course, when anyone sees really pretty nature, they feel happy and at peace inside. It’s pretty universal. Why? It is a hard question. I think it has to do with our God-given heritage. We see these awesome things that God has created for us, and we feel good because it is our eyes reaffirming our Heavenly Father’s love for us. If that makes any sense. So, me being the guy who studied humanities right before coming out here on the mission, tried to lead a discussion about that in Japanese. It was hard, but it got people thinking. Proselyting would be so much easier if people knew their heavenly heritage and the members helped people understand that too! It really is true that members are the best missionaries! Anyways, I had people practice introducing and watching the First Vision clip from the Restoration with investigators, with testimony coming at the end. If we have such awesome resources like church movies, why not use them? So yeah, sorry to bore you with that one, but that was my 45 minutes “skills” practice for district meeting!

Okay, so the mission president also bought a single large Pizza Hut pizza for every member of the mission! It was amaaazing! I got bacon mushroom. I can not believe how good it was! Real American pizza…with no tuna or corn or other weird toppings… This is the life…

So yeah, once again, it was pretty good getting that sweet card from everyone! I’m sorry for stealing Hilary’s thunder on her birthday! Thanks for remembering me! Y’all are awesome! Keep havin’ fun and rock on!

LLLLOOOOVVVVEEEE YYYY’’’AAAALLLLLLLL!!!!
Elder Hogge
Mission Secretary

12 May 2008

Joey's most recent letter. I didn't get it transcribed, but here it is graphically with his artwork, which you wouldn't want to miss. Click on each page to make it larger and readable.

Joey's New Address at Mission Office

Elder Joseph Hogge
Japan Hiroshima Mission
1-11-26 Hikari-Machi Higashi-Ku
Hiroshima-shi 732-0052
Japan