10.26.15 Happy Halloween!

Hey ya'll I don't have a lot of time so I will just talk about my
wonderful weekend here in beautiful Georgia(:

We will start with Thursday though because I got to go on my first
exchange and it was so much fun! I was in Flowery Branch for the day
with Sister Barbon. We got to teach a couple lessons, do some tracting
and meet up with some less actives. It was a great day. I learned so
much and grew to love the people so fast! I had a hard time leaving I
just wanted to stay and teach them.  They are so many great people
here! I love it! Not to mention it was pretty nice to have a car for a
day! 

On Friday we had a follow up meeting with all the trainers and
trainees in Lilburn. It was so much fun to see everyone from the MTC
and hear about their areas.  We all stood up and recited D&C 4
together and it was so cool! The spirit was so strong, I love being
surrounded by such incredible missionaries and remembering the
greatness of the work. It was a great meeting we watched a clip by
President Uchtdorf! He talked about the apostle Peter and his
fearlessness in declaring the truth. We need fear no man. Like my dad
always taught me, the worst they can say is "no"! After the meeting we
got to go to lunch with the sisters and then went back to do our
weekly planning. Then it was the fall festival which was so much fun!
We were the judges for the chili cook off which was great! There were
lots of people there both members and non members. We got to meet and
talk to lots of people and get filled up on chili!

Saturday was a perfect fall day to help move in a new family to our
ward! They are a fantastic family and we are very excited to get to
know them(: After that we had an amazing lesson with Emmah! We talked
about the restoration and Joseph smith. She loved it and found it to
make perfect sense! If we had prophets back before Christ came why
would we not have prophets now when we are preparing for Christ to
come again! Heavenly Father loves us and knows we need that guidance.
The spirit was so strong as we watched the first version together. I
am so grateful for Joseph Smith and his great courage and faith so
that we could have the restored gospel on the earth today. It is a
unique message that we are commanded to preach throughout the world(:
We got to finish up the day with some more service and tracting. 

We thought we were walking the right direction but the spirit lead us to
a circle we decided we would just quickly knock the houses and see
what happens! We met an older man named Tom who had been to SLC and
Illinois and was very impressed with the pioneers and bringing up of
the church. He said it was very admirable and we were able to answer
some more of his questions! It was a great discussion and we are going
back this week to see if we can talk to him more about The Plan of
Salvation. It is so cool to see the spirit lead us right to him. He
was the only one in that whole circle who was home and talked to us
but it was worth it!(:

Sunday we had lots of great meetings that kept us pretty busy! Church
was great as usual. We talked about service and how it draws us closer
to our Heavenly Father. Real joy comes from serving others and as you
serve them you will grow to love them. I love feeling my heart
literally grow for all of these incredible people. Sunday evening we
got to go serve and teach Kate and her family. It was a great sabbath!

Overall it was a fun filled weekend! I am so grateful for all your
prayers and support that keep me going! I love each one of you! 

Happy Halloween!

~Sister Hosman

We tracked right into Mickey Mouse!!!

10.21.15 Follow up training

All the missionaries that entered the mission with Rachael one month ago had a special meeting with the Mission President.  She loved seeing friends from the MTC and her MTC companion.

Sister Hollowed, her MTC companion

10.19.15 One down... Seventeen months to go!

Hey y'all! It's been a beautiful Fall week here in Georgia! Work is progressing and my heart is growing(:

P day being on Tuesday made the week fly by!  After P day the Watkins wanted to take us to Golden Corral.  Both the hostess and the cashier asked about our church and wanted to know when our church service is.  We got to talk to them a bit and give them our information.  It was really cool and we are really hoping to see them on Sunday!  You can do missionary work wherever you go you just have to open your mouth(: you never know who the lord is preparing to hear the gospel. 

Wednesday we got up really early to help a couple move to Utah. They are building a house in Lehi!  It took a lot longer than we were expecting and it was just us and the bishops wife.  We ended up spending our whole day there and did some studies before heading to dinner!  After dinner we went to visit a family in the ward and then we thought we were heading to a less actives house but turned out to be a cute newly wed couple that were very nice.  We told them about our church and missionaries.  They thought it was very cool and we will be checking up with them.  A seed was definitely planted!(: 

Thursday was my first zone conference was great! I loved it!  This past week in preparation we have been studying Christlike attributes.  One of my favorite topics.  We talked about how who we are is just as important as what we are doing.  A couple of my favorite thoughts...

• we read the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It was such a great reminder of how strong our faith should be. They didn't even doubt for one second. Because they loved God so much. We show our love to him by trusting and following his commandments. He protected them and they didn't even smell of the fire. Which is truly incredible. I know if we trust in God and in his plan he will protect us.
• Patience: facing adversity with faith. Learning to dance is the rain. When we set aside our desires for his will does not mean we need to set aside our happiness we just need to be patient and remember he knows best. 

After zone conference we had a Book of Moron read with Mildred.  She's such a sweet little old woman.  I love her so much. She loves the Book of Mormon but it is hard for her to read so we go and read with her!  It's the best(: she heats her house to 90 degrees and sometimes I think I'm gonna die but the spirit is always so strong when we read with her(:

Friday was weekly planning of course and then we got to go help a woman make bread.  We are teaching her husband right now and she had mentioned how making bread was getting hard for her because of all the hard kneading.  So today we went and made her bread(: She got all the ingredients and told us what to do and we got to do the fun part of making the dough and kneading it all together(:  While the bread was rising we went out tracting and visiting some people.  We met a single woman who just moved into the ward and went to check on our sweet investigator Mary has been really sick.  It's been hard and sadly she is just getting worse.  We gave her a lesson from the doorstep and talked to her about priesthood blessings.  We told her to think about and to let us know if she wanted one.  It was a great lesson(: We tracted some more and then had to come home to finish weekly planning.  Saturday was a beautiful day.  The leaves are slowly starting to change colors and I love it! 

On Saturday we got to help a sweet woman with her garage and yard.  She has been single for a long time and needs help with some stuff.  She is so sweet and we had a lot of fun cutting down branches and using our woman power!(: we went tracting for a while and were able to talk to lots of nice people.  Most everyone here is so nice but they have there faith and they are very comfortable in it.  That's okay though we just keep planting seeds and you never know who you'll find or when you'll find them(: We met some more members and did some more tracting.  We find, we teach and we serve.  Solid missionary work and I love it!  We even have white washing perks of trying to get to know the area and the members in there too!  It was a perfect fall day!(:  

Sunday was a fantastic day!  The wind in the morning felt like ice.  It is turning chilly rather quickly!  We had a great church service and then were able to meet up with some different members and less actives!  We had a delicious dinner with an amazing family and got some great referrals we are excited to contact this week!  Overall it was a fantastic week here in Georgia(:  

All is peachy!  Thank you so much for your support and prayers. They give me so much strength.  I love all of you and pray for you everyday.  Hope y'all have an amazing week! 

Peach out! 

~Sister Hosman

Gorgeous Girls!

The pool at their apartments

10.17.15 Service Saturday!

Helping Donna Fullwood in her yard and garage.

10.13.15 I think I'm gonna like it here!

Hey y'all!(: it's been a beautiful week here in Georgia! The people

are so amazing here! I fall more in love with the south everyday!

TUESDAY

Today we had zone meeting all day. It was great! I really enjoyed it.

There were a lot of great trainings and it was super fun to see some

familiar faces from the MTC.  We learned lots of good tricks to help

manage our time and finding the elect. We also talked about how

important it is to invite people to church. How essential taking the

sacrament is and how at times I think we take it for granted. We

really are so blessed. Church is such a great time to take a break of

the world and feed our spirits. I love the peace it brings. We got to

go to lunch after with the sisters which was really fun then we went

to a trailer park for some tracting. We met lots of wonderful people(:

WEDNESDAY

I gave away my first Book of Mormon(: we meet a guy tracting who was

very persistent that Joseph Smith made the whole book up. He has

researched lots and was positive it was all fake. We talked with him

for quite awhile and finally I said "Have you ever read the BoM?" He

said well no because it was all made up. Long story short we then

challenged him to read it and ask God for himself it was true. He

agreed as long as we took an anti Mormon article from him and read it.

We agreed and have a return appointment this week. We will see what

happens but both me and Sister Mathison have lots of faith in him(: we

had an amazing lesson with Mary on the temple. She is great! She had

lots of questions but we were able to answer them and the spirit was

so strong! She is really progressing(: After that we had dinner with

our ward mission leader and his family! We talked about service and

his wife said she has been praying for a big service opportunity. Like

she wanted a "save a starving child from Africa" experience. It was

great they came with us after to an appointment with Emmah who was

baptized the Saturday before I got here. She is amazing! She is from

Liberia and after the first lesson asked "when can I be baptized?!"

Her faith is incredible. Teaching her is such a cool experience. I

learn so much from her. When we told her about fasting she was

thrilled. She couldn't wait to feel that spirit and fill her spiritual

hunger. While talking to her and getting to know her. We asked what

family she had left back home in Libiera she talked about her parents

and siblings then it got quite. She then said that she had to leave

her 4 year old daughter back with her parents! Can you imagine? We

were all in shock. We are working on getting her here right now. It is

a long and hard process though. Emmah is so strong!  It was a

fantastic day(:

THURSDAY

We had a great day! We had 2 amazing lessons with Robert and Mary. The

more I get to know Mary the more and more I love her. She is amazing.

She is so smart! I love teaching her. She really thinks through things

and has lots of hard questions but it helps me grow(: She has traveled

all over the world studying different religions and has a very strong

belief in Christ. Robert is a member of 6 years who hasn't stopped

seeing the missionaries. He has Parkinson's and every Thursday at 2

the missionaries or the Mormon warriors as he calls us comes to visit

him. It is a very fun and known tradition in GANM. He is a great guy!

We were supposed to meet with a man named Shane but he wasn't home :/

There was a relief society enrichment night for family history so we

invited Mary and she came! She loved it! It was a great night and now

she is excited to do some family history work! Family History really

is amazing. So many cool things we can learn and such a great thing to

do with you family to keep the Sabbath day holy!(: It was a great day!

I love being a missionary. Seeing people through God's eyes is truly

incredible!

FRIDAY

Weekly planning! So much fun! Actually I don't mind it(: it's nice to

plan out the next week. After planning we got to do some service which

was way nice(: The rest of the day was a blur. Lots of tracting and

fun missionary work(:

SATURDAY

We taught an amazing lesson to Emmah about the plan of salvation. We

were able to answer her questions about Adam and Eve and the three

kingdoms of glory. The spirit is always so strong when we teach her. I

love it. The afternoon was filled with tracting and then we got to go

over to the Watkins! They are converts of a couple years and love

missionaries. They have truly taken care of us. I am so grateful for

them! We got to teach their daughter Kathy and invited her to come to

church with us. She accepted! It was so hard to contain my excitement.

We had something that apparently was "impossible" it is so important

to show them that you love and care for them. Through love the spirit

can perform miracles. I love being a missionary!

SUNDAY

We got up early to start the day off with meetings(: I really enjoyed

ward council. Amazing how much love and work goes into putting a

successful ward together! They call our ward Zion here. It truly is.

The people are so great and really love missionary work. We have been

fed every night we have been here! So blessed! We had a great fast and

testimony meeting and got to introduce ourselves to the ward! After

church we had a great lesson with Michale another investigator! We

then got to meet some families in the ward and had a delicious dinner

with Kate and her family. She was baptized last month and is a single

mother of 4. She is so sweet and super strong. We love her! It was a

great sabbath day!

MONDAY

Columbus Day! So P day was moved but we had a good day! Lots of

service! Yard work and cleaning! It was fun to get out of skirt and

get dirty! We then had a great lesson with a new investigator named

Mildred she is 88 years old and the cutest little old lady! She was

excited to read the Book of Mormon and we will be checking back with

her this week(: she really couldn't get over that we were giving a

copy of the BoM for free! She really wanted to pay us for it and tried

to several times. Such a sweet spirit(:

Overall it was a fantastic week! Went by way fast. We have zone

conference this week and I am super excited(: Thank you for all the

love and support! Hope you all have a great week! Keep ponderizing(:

Love you all!

~Sister Hosman

10.12.15 Breakfast for Dinner at the Watkin's

I just know Rachael loved this meal.  Waffles, bacon, sausage, lots of fresh fruit!

I'm so grateful for amazing members, like Rhonda Watkins and her family for taking great care of the Lord's missionaries!
(and for taking and sending me lots of photos)

10.12.15 Columbus Day Service Project

I love this picture of a real Southern Porch & I'm so happy Rachael found a swing - she loves to swing!

The front of her shirt is dirty - so I know she was working at some point!

10.9.15 - A fun stop at the bakery while out tracting

10.7.15 "I found a swing, I'm so happy!"

Rachael is serving in Buford ~ a small town next to Sugar Hill and Suwanee

10.6.15 She's been there one week and this came today!

President Bennion and his wife

10.5.15 "I'm officially a Georgia Peach"

Hey y'all!

My last Sunday in the MTC was amazing!  The spirit there is just unreal!  I miss it!  I love it!  Me and my zone sang the EFY medley in sacrament and it was incredible. There wasn't a dry eye. We are now the lords missionaries to bring the world is truth!(:  Whoever says that the MTC is a prison is a liar - I loved it!  

I can't believe that I have almost been in Georgia for a week! The days are long but the weeks are short! We got up at 3:30 Tuesday to come to Georgia!  Such an exciting day!  It was great!  We spent our first night in the mission home which was great!  We had a delicious dinner and a fantastic testimony meeting!  We then had meetings all day!  My trainer is Sister Mathison! She is from Spanish fork!  She has been here for 3 months and we get along so good! She is so sweet and truly has the light of Christ. I love Her! We were assigned to the Sugar Hill stake in the Level Creek ward, which just opened in April (they split a large ward).  There have been Elders here and so the ward is very excited to have sisters! We are "white washing" this area, which means to throw two new people into a brand new area.. where they know nothing and no one.  And because the lord really loves us we are on bikes. With no access to a car! Haha it's been a fun adventure! The members are great! We are so blessed! They say this is the best ward in Georgia! We have been fed every night which has been fantastic! We are just trying to get to know the ward and the investigators! Biking is scary in the rain and there are no sidewalks... So please keep us in your prayers(;

General Conference! Wow what an amazing weekend! Spiritual re charge! I loved it! The gospel really is so simple...  

Follow the commandments and you will be blessed. They are not barriers but protection.  Faith, hope and charity are so important. We just need to put our trust in God and we will make our weaknesses become our strengths. (Ether 12:27) I have already seen that here in the field. I know as long as I follow the commandments and put my trust in him. It will all work out.  He is aware of each one of us and our individual needs. He will lead us home(: the music in general conference was amazing! The music really brings the spirit in such a special way! I loved Elder Hollands talk. I am so grateful to have such an amazing mom full of faith, charity and love. In any moment of temptation let us behold our mother and our savior. I loved what Brother Foster said that children are our best investigators. So true! Fear not I am with thee oh be not dismayed! This song spoke to my heart. 

Things in Georgia have been slightly crazy. All the rain and on bikes but I know I am where I need to be and that he is with me(: The sunday sessions were great too! Our dear prophet is so amazing! What a great example of charity. I know he is called of God. I am so excited for our 3 new apostles the spirit was so strong as they testified of their love for our savior. They will be amazing! There were so many great talks! I loved the one on ponderizing! What a great idea! Me and companion are going to start that! I am so grateful for conference weekend and the opportunity we have to hear from our true servants of the lord.

I am really looking forward to this week! We have some new investigators and are continuing to get to know everyone! I love it here! Georgia is so green and beautiful! Thank you for all your love and support! I miss you all! Choose a scripture and "ponderize" it this week! 

Xoxo peach out! ~ Sister Hosman<3

10.5.15 New Address / Pictures / and parts of personal letters

My address for at least the next 6 weeks will be 

7107 Waterstone Place

Buford, GA  30518

Georgia is so beautiful! So many trees and lots of green, it reminds me of Seattle. The hills are crazy though. So big and no mountains which is weird! The mission home was great! So nice to have a home cooked meal and the mission president is so great. His wife is amazing! She is super sweet. I helped her clean up dinner and we got a chance to talk a bit. She was very grateful for my help and I got a kiss on the head!  Her daughter is so sweet. I helped her crush up her vitamins.  She was wondering how I knew how to do it - I remember doing it for Gram with Mimi.  

The I pads are so great!  I love them!  They seriously have everything on them!  The area book, pamphlets, GC talks, Mormon messages and our email!  The only tricky thing is that we need wifi for most everything and we don't have wifi at our place! 

In this mission they say all the bugs from the garden of Eden came to Georgia!  They are everywhere! So many kinds I have never heard of or seen. But also bed bugs and cockroaches. So that's fun!(;  Another thing about here is that EVERYONE has a dog and a cat. It's crazy. I seriously haven't been in one house yet that doesn't have a dog or a cat. Or most likely 2. It's crazy.  But I have my asthma stuff so that's good.   It's saving me!

*Next week is Columbus day, so my pday will be Tuesday!

We are on bikes! Yup. In Georgia - the place with no sidewalks and where it rains everyday!  It's been quite the adventure, it can get pretty scary at times.  I am in one of the two areas in the whole mission that is on bikes with literally no access to a car.  It is even harder than we thought to ride a bike in a skirt!

10.4.15 Dinner with the Carroll Family

I'm so grateful for members who feed her AND send me photos!