March 6th, 2016: Floodgates of Baptism!

Sorry everyone for not writing last week I ended up writing a long email to my President and then I had a lot of emails to respond to. The past two weeks have been great. Last week we worked really, really hard and finally hit our member present goal of lessons. It was good to see that all of our work was finally paying off until we saw how many investigators came to church and people on baptismal date. Both 0’s. We had worked really hard, invited, offered to walk with them, and do all these things to help our investigators progress but nothing went right. Our mission president has been talking about how our mission will "Plead with the Lord, that as we are exactly obedient and work hard, the Lord will open the floodgates of baptism." This week I applied that. Instead of just working as hard as I could, I asked for help from the Lord. This week was completely different. We had 4 investigators at church, and a whopping 11 less actives that came. Also after a hard week of work and pleading and praying we got 3 people on date for baptism that are solid. This area was a hard area and still is, but with the Lord, weak things become strong and God works through weak things. I am weak, I know that, I can work as hard as I want and I will never be able to get a true baptism by myself. We all need the Lord in our lives. Maybe we might not be bringing the Gospel to people on missions and trying to save souls, maybe we are trying to save our own. I know that there are times when we feel like we've worked so hard and have put every last drop of effort into enduring. I promise you that as you turn your will over to the Lord, as you meekly ask for His help, He will be the tipping point and will make your uphill battles become light and easy. "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Are we trudging along the road of life using only one side of the yoke, or are we letting the Savior help us along. A yoke is meant for two people to work side by side to make the burden light. Jesus Christ, our brother, savior and redeemer is there by our side. I promise you all that as you let the Atonement into your life, as you turn your efforts over to the Lord, HE WILL HELP YOU! I love you all and though I may be thousands of miles away, God is a simple prayer away. He is always ready to help. I love you all.
-Elder Hanson