Whew!

**From an email sent on June 1**

Ugh. I was sick last night. No bueno. I hate being sick, especially as a missionary. Maybe it was cuz of the heat. We tracted in the heat for two hours. Ugh. It's so humid down here. I feel like i'm trying to breathe water.

Well, first big news was that Sam did not get baptized. She found out she was baptist....apparently hasn't been to church in a while. But her family was freaking out at her. And her mom pretty much yelled at us and told us to leave and not come back. So that's the end of that. She still loves the Book of Mormon so I hope she comes back someday.

We tracted into a really nice man named Terry. He is so great. At our first sit down appointment, he told us that he'd had a dream that God told him that he needs to go back to church and get baptized. So his date is set for June 19th. He came to church on Sunday and loved it. He came in this cobalt blue and black pinstriped suit. It was so great.

Also, we were in Eatonton (a town about 20 minutes away where Uncle Remus wrote about Brer Rabbit) and we walked up to this guy who was on his bike and started talking to him and he also accepted baptism for the 19th. He was totally transfixed about prophets and stuff. LOVE IT!!!

The elders are so great. They are really kicking trash in this area. They told us that they were trying to catch up to the sisters...lol. :) But they had a baptism on Saturday. A woman named Charmain and her daughter La'naya. So great. It was so cute. I asked La'naya how she felt after the baptism and she said she felt great! She is sooooo cute. I love little kids here. I had to speak at this baptism. The spirit was totally directing me. It was so great.

Jessica has dropped off the face of the earth. We have no idea where she is. And Jerri and Latonya have disappeared too. *sigh* No bueno.

May 24 News

**From an email sent on May 24**

So....Brother Stapleton: Told us that he's decided to get baptized into the Episcopal Church. After he told us, I came home and knelt by my bed and cried and prayed for about an hour. It hurts because I know that he knows it's true and he's not acting on that knowledge....he will be held accountable for that....

Sister Sam is getting baptized this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On Saturday at 2:00!!!!!!!!! Sister Child and I are so super excited! She made it through the Isaiah chapters of second Nephi and had two whole pages of words for us to define. She is so great!!! I love her!!! She is totally AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

Brother Smith is soooooo great!!!! He loved church yesterday! I can't wait for him to be baptized.

Sister Jerri and Latonya....Well. That's another story. It's getting interesting. We haven't been able to get in touch with her. We're beginning to wonder how serious she is about all this. But pray for her. And pray for everyone else....oh! And pray for Sister Ingram. She's great and we really want her to be baptized.

The Elders had a baptism on Saturday! I played the piano for it. It was so great. I almost started crying. I love the priesthood power that was filling up that room. And the man they baptized is so funny. He's the one that was being taught by sisters and then he disappeared. But I am so glad that another brother of ours joined the ranks!!!!

We had a fireside yesterday for the youth. I had to sing for it. But I sang a great song and Sister Child told me that I did really good. I sang the hymn, "The time is far spent" it's a great missionary song. It goes:
"The time is far spent there is little remaining
to publish glad tidings by sea and by land.
Then hasten ye heralds, go forward proclaiming;
'Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven's at hand. Repent for the kingdom of Heaven's at hand.'

Shrink not from your duty, however unpleasant
But follow the Savior, your pattern and friend.
Your little afflictions though painful at present,
Ere long with the righteous in glory will end. Ere long with the righteous in glory will end.

What, tho, if the favor of Ahman possessing,
This world's bitter hate you are called to endure?
The angels are waiting to crown you with blessings!
Go forward, be faithful the promise is sure. Go forward, be faithful the promise is sure.

Be fixed in your purpose for Satan will try you;
The weight of your calling He perfectly knows.
Your path may be thorny, but Jesus is nigh you;
His arm is sufficient though demons oppose. His arm is sufficient though demons oppose!"

It's a great song. And then every one of us missionaries gave one of our favorite baptism stories. The spirit was sooo strong! AMAZING!!!!

May 17 News

**From an email sent to the family on May 17**

Hey y'all!

We had the coolest lightning storm last night. It was so great! LOVED IT!!!

Today is Sister Child's birthday....the Elders made her a cake and dropped it off at our apartment....apparently the bottom left corner is left for the green weenie...(which is me, but I'm scared to see what they put in it...) We've had fun so far, though.

As for our investigators....Jerri and Latonya are still on for baptism. They came to church yesterday and loved it! We also have somebody new that we are teaching. Her name is Sam and she is so great! She's 19 and she LOVES the Book of Mormon. She ordered one from like, one of the commercials or something and we dropped it off to her and taught her about the restoration. Two days later when we came to see her, she was already in 2 Nephi. We've taught her a whole bunch and she loves it!!! She has no problems with the Word of Wisdom, so that was great (especially when people down here LOVE sweet tea). She came to church yesterday and loved it. She's also started reading a Gospel Principles Manuel and loves it. She's so great, her baptism is set for May 29. Hopefully, we'll be able to teach her mom too. :D Brother Stapleton has disappeared. He can't go too far, cuz he's in the Vet's Hospital so pray we find him soon.

Mission life is so great! I love it! Both Sister Child and I think this will be my last transfer here in Milledgeville. When I'm transfered, I'll either go to Rincon, Savannah or Warner Robins, Georgia or Ridgeland, South Carolina. PRAY FOR SOUTH CAROLINA!!! Haha. Just kidding.

I plan to bring all y'all back to Georgia some day to see all the places that I served in....but Daddy, you'll have to let me drive cuz Georgians drive like crazy people and I'm the only who is used to their crazy driving. Didn't take me too long to get used to it since I'm crazy anyway. :D

I love the mission! It's the best thing I have ever done. Sure we have our weird times, like the suicidal duck (the thing flew straight at our windshield!) and the man-eating cockroach (the thing was two inches long, I swear!) and the time the car had a mind of it's own....long story. :D But it's so wonderful.

blog, blog, blog, blog, blog blog blog blog!!!!! Trying to make a song, I suppose....

Hello all you people in the cooooold Utah weather! Georgia is about 80 degrees right now and is so nice! I'm actually getting a little bit of a tan....I know!!! Weird huh? Anyways, Jessica's baptism has been pushed back. Her mom is getting interested and has attended church and has even participated in the lessons, so hopefully she'll get baptized with her daughter. I'm frustrated cuz Jessica is soooo golden!!! She has committed to live the commandments and was all for obeying the law of chastity and the law of tithing. So hopefully, it'll happen soon. We're also teaching a man named William. He's a sweet old man that lives in the veteran's hospital here in Milledgeville. He used to be a policeman and his partner was a member. He's really interested. He feels like he needs to get closer to God, especially after his stroke. So hopefully, he'll also enter the waters of salvation soon.
We had zone conference last Wednesday. Bishop Dubre came. He's one of the writers for Preach My Gospel. It was awesome! I've been kind of on a spiritual high this week because of Zone Conference and then General Conference. When they announced that Elder Holland was gonna speak, Sister Rolfson and I looked at each other and said "Yeah!" At least, we were quiet about it. :) His talk was INTENSE!!!! I loved it! And I liked his little joke in it...."Don't invite them in and serve them tea and crumpets and show them where the silver ware is! *pause* You shouldn't be serving tea anyway!" Sister Rolfson and I quote that to each other and start laughing. Especially since tea is such a big thing in the south. But yeah, General Conference was AMAZING!!!
I wrote another poem/song. I'm in Ether in the Book of Mormon and while finishing Mormon, I got all depressed. I felt so bad for Moroni after his father died and his whole civilization was destroyed. Sad. So I kinda wrote a song about it. It also goes well for when we're going through hard times.....kinda like the last week with me....anyways, here it is:

"Always Near"
By Katie Hoggard

"As I lay awake at night,
Fighting this unending fight.
Wondering what the day will bring,
This is the song that I will sing.

What will happen on the morrow?
My soul is filled with aching sorrow.
How much can one heart break?
How much can one soul take?

I look at the world around me,
Wondering how, how can this be?
The peace we had's no longer here.
From the joyous days when our Savior did appear.

What will happen on the morrow?
My soul is filled with aching sorrow.
How much can one heart break?
How much can one soul take?

Each day gets a little longer,
But each day I grow stronger.
I grow closer to my Lord.
Listen to His glorious word.

What will happen on the morrow?
My soul is filled with aching sorrow.
How much can one heart break?
How much can one soul take?

I feel Him take my hand,
As we journey through the sand.
I feel so much better here,
Knowing my Savior's always near."

The Village of Milledge!!!!!!!!!!

Things are going well. Jessica's baptism might be pushed back. She also prayed for the first time last Saturday and it was amazing! She said how thankful she was that these sisters could come help her and that she could turn her life around. It made me wanna cry. This is the first baptism I've had that it's actually been someone that I've found and baptized. Brother Davis (from Cochran) said that that was what made it all worth it. Was when you baptize somebody that you found, not that someone else had found. :D We don't have any baptisms coming up besides hers, but her mom and her baby's daddy came to church with us, so maybe they'll be baptized. Pray for them. We met a girl yesterday named Tawana and she was excited to talk with us. We just contacted her on the street and she told us her address so we could come back. She was excited and called us 'her new friends.' :D,

Zone Conference is this week. They're having it down in Tifton again. Bishop Dubray is coming. He's one of the co-writers of Preach My Gospel. So it's bound to be good. And I'm excited for General Conference. We'll be going to the chapel here in Milledgeville. Most of the members will be watching it at home since the BYU channel now plays it. But we'll be going to the chapel.

Not much else exciting is happening. It rained like crazy yesterday and we were actually told by Elder Ludwig to go in early cuz he'd been watching the weather channel and it said that Milledgeville had a severe thunderstorm warning. I swear, I've never seen so much rain in my entire life! If Utah got half this much rain, we'd have a flood. No bueno.

Anyways, the church is true and live life to the fullest, because every second you spend angry or upset, is another second of happiness you can never get back.

Pictures from Georgia

**The captions are what Katie wrote on the back of the pictures. Enjoy!**

Welcome to Cochran!

Our car. :)

Zone Conference. Macon Zone Sisters.

Emily Stiles' baptism.

Emily & Shawn on Emily's baptism.

An awesome church sign. "The church where God is glorified, the people are edified & the devil is horrified."

What!? No mail!? Sad day!

Our bedroom.

Sis. Hatfield & I on the day of transfers.

With the Davis'.

Did you know it snows in Georgia? Yeah, me neither.

Sister Hardman & I enjoying the SNOW. :)

Playing in Sis. Hardman's funky hat.

Sister Hardman, Sis. Truehaft & Sis. Robinson & me on the day that Sis. Robinson went home.

Me, Sis. Hatfield and Sis. Hanson at Zone Conference.

What is this peculiar white stuff?

See! I've learned how to cook! (Actually, it’s just celery soup) :)

A sign in front of a trailor park. 8 & 9 are my favorites. "Pins? What’s a pin?" "Live and play at own risk? I know I’m in Georgia now!"

New Companion

I am still in Milledgeville, but I have a new companion. Her name is Sister Rolfson. She's from Canada. This is her last transfer, which means I'll be the one sending her home and I know that it'll make me a little trunky, so I try not to think about it too much. But, I'm still the designated driver. I like listening to her speak cuz sometimes her Canadian accent comes out. :) She's an art major and she's the youngest of four kids. She has three older brothers.

As for our investigators. Jessica is committed for baptism on April 2. She's 19 and has the cutest little girl. And we are now teaching Sister Julia (an 81 year old sweet baptist woman that LOVES the Sisters) and she is "chewing" the idea of getting baptized. She came to church yesterday so that's promising. But as for that, not much else is happening. The ward is still the same....kind of hard to handle, but it's all good. Jessica came to church yesterday with her baby's daddy, so I'm believing she'll get baptized...I hope her boyfriend joins her and then they can get married and then sealed and then happily ever after.....pray for them all. Jessica also came to a relief society activity on Thursday. It was great, because that meant that all the sisters could go too and enjoy a free meal. :) But it was called Daughters of Zion and Sister Rolfson and I sang "As Sisters in Zion" and it was really good. They had good food and a good program. The program was all about famous women in church history....Eve, Ruth, Mary, Emma and Lucy Smith. It was really good.

Before Sister Hardman got transferred to Rincon, she and I wrote another song/poem:

"MY SAVIOR'S TOUCH"

I can see it coming,
Through the fields of clover.
I can feel it coming,
Soon this change will be over.

There is sunlight,
There is moonlight,
There is my light,
Never faded.

I see the stars,
They seem to be glowing.
'Look at you.' they seem to say.
'You're growing.'

It's been hard,
There's been so much.
But all is healed,
Through my Savior's touch.

I wrote it the day she left. I hate change. I just want my routine back. *sigh* oh well. I'll visit Sister Hardman after we both come home. She only lives near Logan, so she's close by. We could go to the temple and stuff sometime. But life is good. It's hard, but I still love it. It's when we find people like Jessica and Julia that make it all worth it.