With our bishop and his family.
It is so good to hear from you again, I can´t believe another week has gone by, seriously it seemed like just yesterday I was writing you guys. Sounds like another awesome week in Magrath! That is unreal you guys won the league tournament Carter! I am so stoked, I had no doubt you guys would be able to do it. I hope you enjoyed the moment. They are rare and very special, and I wish you guys all the best in zones! Sounds like things in the Sports world are rough for the Canes and Blazers, its how it goes sometimes hey. I feel bad for them though. I´m glad that you guys are spending lots of good quality family time, they are definitely the best memories and the ones I cherish the most. Thank you for always "making" us spend time together.. haha just kidding i loved it.
Dad how could I forget the Foremost trip or the near death for Carter in Echo Lake haha, both very scary incidents. But I´m glad you guys are alright and nothing serious happened, glad the Lord is looking out for you. How many packages are you planning on sending mom? We are only suppose to get about 4 a year, so I guess now and my birthday will be perfect. I don´t need too much but I do appreciate your love and support very much. I look forward to receiving them!! It has been raining here a ton but its all good, it´s usually very warm when it rains so its not too bad. Just with all the dirt roads its a disaster, we usually walk through so much mud and my pants and shoes are so muddy by the end of the day. I´m definitely becoming a pro at washing my clothes by hand! haha. The rain coat is perfect too.
Spanish is definitely getting better! But It can definitely still be frustrating. The problem with Spanish for me is their are so many different types of Spanish. I speak in "Usted" form, but all the people here speak in "Vos" So some words and all the verbs are conjugated differently, it definitely makes it hard for me to understand. And then when we pray or give blessings we have to speak in "Tu" form, and we read from the scriptures in "Vos Antiguo" something like that haha... so their are 4 different variations. It´s definitely frustrating sometimes, but I am starting to get the hang of it. Now me and Elder Valdes speak mostly in Spanish, I usually can´t express myself perfectly but I can get my point across haha. I'm starting to love it.
We had another great week here in Lujan! As we are nearing the second half of the month we are starting to focus more and more on our investigators and how we can help them prepare for baptism. Our goal for this month is 4 baptisms, so we definitely have a lot of work to do, but we have found as we are diligent in working towards our goals the Lord always blesses us. We are actually planning a big District baptism for the 24th of this month! We have a district conference that day, and then after all the companionships in our district, which is 5, are going to baptize all our investigators! I´m super excited, we have about 15 good possibilities right now, so if you could pray for our District and Zone that would be greatly appreciated! I feel your prayers everyday, they definitely give me strength to make it through the tough times.
As of now Elder Valdes and I have a couple good possibilties for the 24th. The other day we were trying to visit an investigator but she wasn´t there, for about the 4th time in a row, we were a little frustrated. But as we were walking away I saw a house and just had the feeling we needed to clap their door.. {I don't know if I've told you but we don´t knock on peoples doors here, we stand on their front lawn and clap our hands till they come out} haha, its definitely cool. But anyways we clapped our hands and she came out, we ended up teaching her (R••••••) and committed her to be baptized on the 24th! She came to church with us this Sunday too. It was such a strong testimony builder for me of the power of the Spirit. There are moments in our lives when we think things are silly, and the feelings we have are outrageous, but we need to act on them always.
I had another one of these experiences this week. We had a movie night planned for Saturday night in the Church. We were going to watch the Joseph Smith Restoration movie with our investigators. So we went to pick two of them up, and they both said they couldn't come. We were a little frustrated, but we decided that we would go to the church alone and hope somebody else would show up. As we were walking to the Church their was a man in the middle of the street just staring at us... I said to Elder Valdes, he´s coming to the church with us. As crazy as it may have seemed to me at the moment I just felt to ask him. So we said "Hi, we are heading to the church to watch a movie right now, you should come with us!" And to my amazement he said, "Sure why not!" He came with us and had a great experience! There really are miracles everywhere. We just need to be listening to the Spirit and be willing to act upon it.
So I have had to talk in church twice already here in Lujan, nothing much just simply my testimony and usually a scripture and a spiritual thought about it.. but this week I was asked to give a legit 10 or 15 minute talk! So I had about 2 days to prepare. Before my mission I used to write all my talks out, but I just felt that I needed to speak from the heart. I put together a basic outline and a couple scriptures, and then yesterday somehow I gave a 15 minute talk in Spanish. I really don´t know if they understood me, but I felt it went pretty well. I talked about the Importance of Members in Missionary work. And in reality, members are everything. I wish before my mission I would have been better at this, but I definitely see the importance now. When we have members with us we have the trust of the people, and when the Members share their testimonies to their friends its so powerful!
I love you guys, thank you for everything you do for me. I feel so incredibly blessed and grateful everyday. I love this gospel and sharing it with others. Thank you for sharing your testimonies to us many times in our lives, it has helped me more then you can ever know. Have a fantastic week fam!
Love, Elder Hansen!
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