*Elder Hanson had a different P-Day last week because of the Zone Conference so he sent his email during the middle of the week. I combined it with this week.
Really Worshipping God
I would like to start off and tell each and every one of you how much I love you and miss you all. I know that we might be thousands of miles away but help is only a prayer away.
This week we had a special Zone Conference with Elder Yamishita of the Seventy, who is also going to be speaking in Conference soon, and President Zarbock. Zone Conferences are always super spiritual and they always help me answer all the questions I have. A couple weeks ago I realized that missionary work is work. Now I'm slowing figuring out and feeling that work. This week we worked hard and found a lot of people. Most were not interested in baptism but nevertheless we are finding more people. A new key indicator or rather a new number we report each week to show our work is the number of people being asked to be baptized. Our mission president was very bold but spoke the truth and told us that if we aren't asking people to be baptized and work towards that then why are we there. If we aren't asking them to change, we shouldn't be there in the first place. I feel like that principle is a general principle that we can apply to almost everything. If we don't ask people to do something with what we teach them, why did we teach them in the first place. I often try to use the things I learn here and think about how I will use it in my future life. I think of if we teach our children to never drink but never ASK them to actually do it and SHOW them we don't want them to do it, that teaching doesn't reach its full potential. Often times when I went to church and seminary we would have a great lesson where the Spirit was there and I learned alot but because I never used any of it afterwards, I forgot it all and the Spirit died down. This week we asked almost every person we had a lesson with if they would be baptized. I was amazed at how easy it was to find their concern so quickly and it really opened up their hearts. We received answers from "are you crazy, I'm a Baptist Preacher!" to "yes I would like that very much."
To be honest I am not the best missionary, nor will I ever be. I am not the smartest or the most spiritual. However one thing I have always tried to do is be the kind of person that if God asked me to do something, whether it be to tell someone something out of the ordinary or to do something that might seem peculiar that I would do it. This week at Zone Conference Sister Zarbock spoke of the word Worship. The first time it is used in the Old Testament is when Abraham was about to put Isaac on the altar to follow Gods command. The first time in the New Testament is also when a sacrifice was about to be made. Sometimes we think that all we have to do is show up to church and we are worshiping God. We fail to realize that that was never true worship, worshiping is like a cause and effect system. When we are actually putting something into church, when we are causing us to learn, the effect is the Spirit teaching us and blessings come more freely.
Speaking of this I would like to add a little from something that just happened. We are emailing in a computer lab and a member just came up and gave us food and drinks. She told us how she was a member from a local ward and that her daughter had served her mission in Hawaii. She told us how she wishes that people would have done those things to her daughter and she said that she wanted to show she cared.
This Sister Mark just showed her true worship to God. Sister Mark was just a miracle to two Elders she doesn't even know. She became a blessing to others and now in return I know she will receive her own blessings because of this. By the phrase "our actions define who we are" God is the ultimate blessing because all blessings come from Him. If we are truly trying to be like Jesus, let's show it. Let's bring something to the table. I last week could've done better, but this week I will be better. I love you all. See you soon!
Elder Hanson
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Time Flies!
This week flew by! We were so busy doing one thing after another and the whole week just flew by! We did a lot of work finding and meeting new people this week. We have really been talking to everyone and because of it we had a lot of lessons. We are starting to find more people to teach but our investigators are doing well. Baby is really doing well, we just need to wait for her mom to come from America for her to be baptized. Shenelly is doing awesome, except for actually coming to church. She is keeping the word of wisdom but she just needs to come to church. We re-met this family who is a part member family. They seemed kind of fake interested in us last time but this time they are really reading and really wanting to know. Their names are Darney, Balomo, Radon, and Angeles. They are actually reading and progressing and it's awesome! I'm so happy for them and they are really starting to change.
The biggest thing that happened this week was probably an exchange with our Zone Leaders. Elder Lee came here to Kitti and we had a blast together. I learned a lot! The biggest thing is to talk to everyone, and I mean everyone! We had so many lessons this week and met so many new people just by talking to everyone. We literally took an hour to make a ten minute walk because we just went back and forth across the street so we could talk with everyone! It was awesome! We met so many nice people and so many rude people this week. It was a hard week that had a lot of ups and downs but that's what a mission is! There wasn't anything super special this week and I know you all want a break from my emails so just know that I love you all and I think about you all in the ten seconds I'm not thinking of my investigators! I love you all soo much!
See you soon!
Elder Hanson
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