Doing really great - 07/23/12

Another week in Honduras:

Its good to hear that you guys are doing great. I´m also doing really great here in Honduras. This was another week full of great experiences, and I´m grateful that the Lord is blessing us.

This week was the week I got to sit back and let my companion show his decision making skills and lead us. I was hoping to be left smiling and proud of my companion, but I ended up learning that I am not as good as I thought I was at being a teacher. I know that everyone has their own free agency, but I was hoping what I was teaching would´ve stuck with him. I´m not saying he´s terrible, but it was far from what I was expecting. There were a few times where he just gave up and I had to save us. He had trouble making decisions, and while I gave him a list of 5 or so options, none of them pleased him, so he just paced back in forth in the house, made a sandwich, and then we left to go visit a member. I was sad.

I´ve been reading a lot from the 2009 October General Conference, and I must say holy cow, it was divine revelation. That added to a few quote from Elder Holland and I was overcome by the spirit. Henry B Eyring talked about how Christ is our perfect example, and how we must allow love to be the center of our lives. The prophet then followed by one of my favorite talks ¨School Thy Feelings Oh my Brother¨. Add that to the quote where it says that we have to bring all that we have, possessions, ambitions, pride, vanity and put it on the altar of the Lord, sit there submissively, and then walk away. I realized that I need to forgive. I needed to let those bad feelings go. It was a continuation of last weeks revelation, and I´m loving feeling the spirit in my life. There is no point in thinking about or focusing on anger, frustration, pride, or anything really that isn´t love, Jesus, or God. We need to ignore the bad and look for the good.

Changes are August 1, which is weird. About 8 or so Zone Leaders will be leaving, which means there will be several new ones called. People tell me that I´m next, but I don´t think so. I don´t feel like I´m ready, but I know the Lord has greater plans for me than I can imagine. I just know that I don´t need to be a leader to be great in his eyes or to do his will or to make miracles happen. Just Elder Hansen is fine with me.

I love you all, and I can´t wait to see you guys in a year. Be happy

Elder Hansen

Humbled unto the dust - 07/17/12

What an eye-opening week.

This past week was by far one of the most stressful but rewarding weeks of the mission. I have really been humbled unto the dust, and I have seen and felt the love of Christ in my life. I don´t know how if I can explain it in words, but I´ll try.

So to start off, this week was full of drama. Lots and lots of drama. My companion decides that he isn´t going to visit a certain members house because she is always insulting us. She insults us because she thinks that we don´t like her food, and since we don´t like her food we don´t pass by. The truth is that the Relief Society passes a food list around, and we have lunch and dinner for every single day of the week, and to be honest, we don´t have enough time to visit very many members.

Anyways, her sister moved in this week, and wants to hear our message. Definitely an answer to prayers, but due to my companion's hurt feelings, he refused to leave. I decided that I wasn´t going to deny this opportunity, and it turned into an argument, ending with me leaving with one of the Zone Leaders to go teach her. I felt bad afterwards, because I totally went around it the wrong way. My job isn´t to force my companion to do what is right, but to teach by example and instill within him the desire to do what's right. "G", the investigator, accepted a baptismal date that very first lesson, and she has accepted every single "assignment" we have given her. If everything goes well, she´ll be baptized August 4.

After that, my companion criticized my teaching, and once again, another argument. But after we cooled off we were able to talk things over, and I saw things from his point of view and he saw it from mine, and we felt really dumb for arguing over something so insignificant and dumb as that, even though the lesson we were talking about was crucial to the lives of the investigators. For the first time they really opened up to us and expressed a desire to not only listen, but to change their lives.

And then the very next morning we left to go give service, which was amazing, but when we came home we found out that the Zone Leaders had freaked out and called 911 to all of our members.

 On Sunday, we lost 8 of our 10 baptismal dates. And to put the icing on the cake, Monday I got hit really hard by the flu, which is why I didn´t write yesterday.

Needless to say, it was a great week.

BUT, on the good side, I´m having an amazing time and I´m feeling the spirit really strongly.

I realized that I was being prideful, and when I asked the Zone Leaders for forgiveness, it really was relieving. I can´t explain how good it felt to let it out. I felt like I had the reason (and was justified), but when I finally realized and confessed, a peace entered into my heart that really was amazing. The spirit told me to ask that same Elder (the one that I was arguing with just days before) to give me a blessing. Before the blessing I wasn´t able to walk from one side of the house to the other without taking a break, but after his blessing we left and worked for the last 3 hours like nothing had happened. I felt my Savior´s love. I felt his support, I was sustained by angels. I cried like a baby. You guys know that I don´t cry, but I couldn´t hold back the tears. I know my Savior loves me.

I love you guys a ton, and thanks for the prayers. They´re working. God is listening.

Elder Hansen

Cool conversion stories - 07/09/12

This week was pretty cool. We had two baptisms this week, and both of their conversion stories are pretty cool.

We´re going to start off with Ivonne. She is the larger and older of the two that we baptized, and I can easily say she has been one of the funniest people I have ever taught. She is a reference from the 2nd Consejero in the Bishopric, and he straight up told us that she gets bored of the missionaries.  So we decided we would try and be her friends first, and then once we established the friendship is when we started the teaching. It worked out really well, and she is a very dear friend to me. She surprised us by her dedication to reading. We left her a chapter to read one night, and we came back the next day and she had not only read the assigned chapter, but also the following 6 chapters. She reads more than my companion! Ha ha ha, I´m just kidding, but seriously, she would also go above and beyond with all of our assignments. She has tons of friends in the church, and I´m very proud of her progress. She really has come a long way, and I know that she will continue to grow and that the ward will take care of her.

We also baptized Alicia this week. She is a very sweet 10 year old girl. We have been teaching her since I got here, so a little over 3 months now. Their family has gone through a lot recently, and it was really moving to see how grateful they were that we passed by and brought them the gospel. They still aren´t exactly living in paradise, but they have the peace that comes from the Spirit and the desire to endure to the end. It was very exciting to see almost the entire ward show up to her baptism and support her. I was privileged to baptize her, and I´m grateful for the opportunity I have to help her along.

So basically this week was focused on having these past two baptisms. Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, but I´m used to it. Satan always has to try and ruin everything, but in the end we came out on top, like always. It was very stressful, but we are learning to cultivate patience and love. Oh yeah, I also had to give a 15 minute talk on Sunday. Moroni 7:43

I love all of you guys. Jesus does too

Elder Hansen

Just over the hump - 07/02/12

Hey guys! I´m happy to hear you guys are having the family reunion. Wish I could be there, be sure and tell them I love them.

Things are pretty amazing here in Pedregal. Last week we knocked on a lot of doors, and this week we reaped in the blessings. We received 3 super positive references, all 3 of which are looking like they will be baptized this month. We also found a family of 6, and they are escogidos, or in English, chosen. So things are looking really really good. We´ve got 2 baptisms planned for this weekend, and my fingers are crossed that everything works out.

As far as cool experiences goes, Hermana Pati came back from El Salvador. She said it was a really spiritual experience for her, and she is even more devoted that her family needs to come back to church. She was praying for a new job, and she got one.  During the lesson, she broke down crying telling us how grateful she was that we came and shared the gospel with her. She didn´t even know she needed it, but now she knows, and she said she won´t ever let go. It was really powerful, and it touched me and made me feel like I am making a difference. We saw the Lord´s hand many times this past week, and I´m grateful for all of your prayers.

I had my hump day on Friday, and surprising I forgot until that night when we were in a lesson and someone asked me how much time I had in the mission. I said the usual, "Oh, I´m just starting." Then I remember that it was my hump day, and that I already ate all the candies and goodies that Mom sent a week ago. Ha ha ha ha, I guess I´m still a kid at heart. Patience never was my strong suit.

The Lord is blessing us in countless ways. I´m so grateful to have grown up in the church in such an amazing family. I know that this Church is true, that the Book of Mormon is the words of Christ and that Christ Lives! Amen Hallelujah! Woo hoo!

Take care guys,
Elder Hansen