August 14

Family and Friends, Well I have been out here for over a week! What a crazy week it has been!!! This is the hardest week ever in every way possible but I am so grateful for all of the support and prayers! The days have been so long and full of so much hard work, but they have been some incredibly miraculous days! My companions are the most supportive/patient/loving Hermanas ever!! I sure was blessed with them! We struggle and learn together every single day! We just finished our last lesson with our first investigator Miriam (I think she will become our teacher) She "is from" Spain and is so so sweet!!! She has prayed for a testimony of the truth and if she finds the truth then she will be baptized! When she told us that and prayed for us I definitely teared up (no shocker I know) So about my companions! Hermana Loynd is from Portland OR and she was totally blessed with el don de lenguas! (gift of tongues for you americans ;) She is in the intermediate class while Hermana Anderson and I are in the regular class haha so we are always together and just not with Hermana L during class time. We have another investigator Maribel who is the sweetest most talk-able lady ever!! She is very religious and wants her daughter to have a strong belief in God like she does. She said she is willing to listen to anyone who will talk to her about God so that is hard but good at the same time. Yesterday she also agreed to be baptized if she discovers that the Book of Mormon is true. The amount of connections that are here in the MTC is INSANE!!! I met Hermana Peck in the Walkers stake! She came up to me and asked if I knew Madison Walker I almost started to cry haha. I run into the Bluths (stake president in Medford) every day as well as Landon Rawcliffe and Sam Vehrs! SO good to see familiar faces! I also met a girl yesterday from Villa? or somewhere near Sunnyside shes in the yakima stake... She is good friends with Yessica! Let yessica know i ran into Maddie! I was blessed with an awesome zone even though the Elders seem so young they have incredible testimonies that will take them all over the world as they bless the lives of others. SInce me and Hermana A are the only sisters in our zone they are pretty nice to us but we definitely have to keep them in line hahaha. I am one of the oldest in my whole district... so weird!! WE have about 6 other sister in our district but they all leave next Monday and Tuesday! I just relaized I said zone instead of district and vis-versa. Sorry im typing so fast! Haha I wasnt able to get everyones emails down so if you could post on my facebook that if the want my emails they need to write me ;) good excuse right? haha also send me dear elders!! or just letters because I hold the record for most mail and my zone! hahaha gotta keep that up! I love you all and am so appreciative of your love! The Lord is good, the work is hard but worth it!!!

August 7th

So I wont be able to email everyone this week! This time has been limited and I have to study before I go teach our first investigator tonight in Spanish... that should be interesting considering I dont speak Spanish. haha pray for me!!! But tell everyone I love them and pray for them all the time!! This work is hard, but it is so worth it! Obedience is definitely key as a missionary!! "If you are almost obedient you will almost be blessed." "Exact Obedience brings exact blessings" Ill try to write longer next week!! Spanish is hard and my comps are like fluent haha which is good but hard! Tender Mercy.. yesterday I prayed to know what to teach our investigator and I opened the scriptures and opened to D&C 50! Read it!! It is all about the spirit and as a missionary following that!! And it talks about Parley P. Pratt so I knew that it was meant for me! Read it and tell me what you think!! I love you all!!!

August 5th - The Mission Begins!

Kirstie's mailing address through September 14 is 

Sister Kirstie Marleen Hokanson 

SEP14 NIC-MANS

2005 N 900 E Unit 62

Provo, UT 84602

She would love to recieve mail!

Wednesday, August 5th, 2015

I have made it to the MTC! Everything is a blur and i literally have 5 seconds to write you guys. I dont have Liz jon ash or mckays email so send me your email. My pday is friday so youll hear from me soon. im in a trio and my comps are awesome. sister anderson from indiana and sister llynd from portland. we get along great.. so far. haha but i have met lots of people from oregon. one from roseburg and one from eugene so good to talk to them. ran into sam and landon which was so great to see a familiar face. we spoke with some investigators today and it was such a cool experience although at some moments were awkward because missionaries went off topic but the spirit in the room was awesome. tell the bennions that i had the best teacher ever for my investigator class... sarahs boyfriend hahaha but he is seriously awesome i approve if that matters. there are two elders who i have met who are in my mission. both my companions ar epretty good in spanish whihc is a blessing. sorry my spelling this computer is horrible. please forwrd this to matt.

I love you all. i love the lord and i cannot wait for this 18 month experience. talk soon.

Sister Kirstie Hokanson's Mission Blog

All of Kirstie's emails and photos of her mission will be posted here.