Hna and Elder Ashton, Elder Flores, and I!
It was the birthday of Elder Webster and Cardozo so we had a little birthday party in the office!
Thanks for the letters this week.. boy this week sure did pass by quickly! Glad to hear that you guys are doing well and having a blast of a summer as usual. It truly is crazy how things change and the differences of every year but it's part of the life right. I like to think that the best days are yet to come! Hope you guys don't work too hard or anything this summer and just relax :) haha. CRAZY it's Magrath days right now. Where has the time gone? The days are seriously passing by so fast. Hope that you guys have a great weekend!
Don't worry about the overload of questions haha, I figured last week I didn't answer very well about my new situation. I hope that I can answer better this week. As far as the offices, it's great, there are a lot of us but there is still so much to do. I am definitely not used to sitting at a desk all day but I have been getting used to it. We actually have a washing machine in our apartment, but it's broken haha. So for now I am taking my clothes to the laundry mat because we don't have time to wash by hand. We live right in front of the Mission Offices in an apartment (the Mission Home is about 30 minutes driving from here) and the office is connected with a church. So if it's nice we play on the outside court or we can play inside in the gym as well. Today we played for about 2 hours.. it was a blast. I actually love playing soccer it's so fun.
We have to travel quite a bit.. to the banks, police offices sometimes, and I have to go downtown to the capital once in a while to help out missionaries who have paperwork to do. It's definitely a different lifestyle but it is still as busy as ever! We have a mission truck that we use sometimes (I am currently waiting to get my Argentine licence) and then I will be able to drive here. Might be a little different than driving in Magrath? haha, But the truck is a stick shift so it's good that dad use to make me suffer to learn how to drive one. For the most part we just take the bus, like to go to our area or to lunch, but the truck is for special situations.
In my picture is my companion and me with our great trainers! The Ashton Family is great. Most people in the mission get their (father or mother) which is their first companion. but not many people are lucky enough to get a grandma and grandpa! haha they are super patient and fun and have been teaching us a lot. He is the Branch President in a little branch about 3 hours from here, and they had been driving out there every weekend and then returning but they decided it wasn't a very good use of time. So we are going to be taking over their spots full time in about a week and they will just be living out there (25 de Mayo). So there is lots to learn in a short time! They have about 2 months left in their mission so they are going to finish out working in the field!
I hope I answered some of your questions. My answers are kind of all over the place.. sorry. The life is good here in the office though. The hardest part has been trying to make the adjustment between office life and proselyting. It is not easy to balance the two and it has been taking some getting used to. Before in the mission I could just forget everything and focus on my investigators and how to help them progress in the Gospel. But now with the 2 responsibilities it has shown me, and taught me how to adjust from one to the other. I would say it is like real life. With all the responsibilities that we are given, we still have to focus firstly on the work of the Lord. It really is the most important thing that we can be do.
The area is going good.. hard but good. We haven't been having a ton of time to work because we are going through training but in the night we are out there working a full!! We have a couple of investigators, but our first focus is to gain the confidence of the members and work with the inactive members. Our ward has 2 Sister Missionaries and then us, and our part of the area had Sister Missionaries in it before but then they closed it down. The other 2 Sister Missionaries continued to work in the ward, and a little bit in our part.. but not a ton. So we are 2 new missionaries who know nothing with a new area. What a great blessing. It truly has shown me to trust in the Lord. Sometimes we don't know where we are, what we should do, or where we should go.. but we have felt the Lord's presence.
Yesterday we were in one of those moments. We were a little bit lost and didn't have anyone to visit, but we felt the impression to visit a less active lady. We went there and we ended up talking to her and her son. and there are 8 more people who live in the house who aren't members. We planned to come by another day to be able to talk with them all, and we also invited the boy to come play soccer with us in the church one day. He said yes and then walked out of the room. His mom then started to cry and said that she knew the church was true but had been passing by some tough moments. She also told us that her son wants to go to church again but is pretty shy. It was a pretty powerful, spiritual experience! They are a great family and we are hoping that we can help them find the truth again, as well help their other family members.
I have learned so much this past week and a half, mostly about the opportunities the Lord gives us. I look back on my life before the mission and sometimes think about the missed chances to share the Gospel or to make a difference. But I have learned to learn from mistakes and not to linger on them. I know that EVERY single day is filled with so many amazing opportunities and blessing to share the Gospel with others. The office has shown me the time is short, but just how great the opportunity is. I hope that you guys can learn to love to share the Gospel with others. I love this church and know it's true without a doubt.
Hope you have a great week!
Love, Elder Hansen.
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