Goodness, I can hardly even remember what happened this past week, it went by so quickly. This transfer is 7 weeks long, and we're almost over - two weeks remaining. I hit my 7 month mark on Sunday - I didn't realize it until about halfway through sacrament meeting. Time is just zipping by now.
On Saturday, we had a mission-wide conference. President and Sister Riggs, and Elder S. Gifford Nielson of the Quorum of the 70 instructed us. It was a 4 1/2 hr. long spiritual feast! Our goal for this year is to achieve 756 baptisms. The mission conference was pretty much a pep rally to get us excited to hit the streets. It sure did work for me - when we went back to our area, I was filled with more love for the people around me than I ever had in my entire life. I feel like that was the first time I have really felt pure charity for everyone around me. The amazing thing is, I wasn't afraid at all to talk to everyone. The scripture in Moroni8:16: "for perfect love casteth out all fear," became real to me.
As a result, Elder Grow and I found 2 really promising investigators. We were on exchanges with a member one freezing cold night, and the lesson we had planned with Kabar didn't happen. So we walked to a different apartment building to check up on a potential investigator. Along the way, we stopped and spoke with someone. His name is Jacinto, and he's from Equitorial Guinea. Apparently, they speak Spanish there. Lucky for us, the member that came out with us that night spoke Spanish. He helped him understand what we were telling him, and Jacinto walked away with a copy of the Book of Mormon. We went to our potential investigators home, she let us in, and we were blessed to give her a Book of Mormon, too. She is from Equitorial Guinea as well, and the member was able to help her understandwhat we taught. It was a great night!
We had another amazing experience with one of our newer investigators, Ernst. We hadn't seen him for a long time, and we were really happy to have an opportunity to teach him again. He had been reading from the Book of Mormon, and he said he knew it was true.
I asked him, "Do you believe Joseph Smith is a prophet?"
He said "Yes, yes, I do!"
"Do you believe he restored Christ's church to the earth?"
"Yes, of course!"
"Well heck, will you be baptized on March 1st?"
"Yes, I will!"
It was such an awesome experience. It literally came out of nowhere - it had been so long since we had seen Ernest, and he wasn't progressing since we had last seen him.
We read with him 2 Nephi 31, and told him about the sacred covenant he will make with Heavenly Father, and the blessings that come from it. He was so anxious to come to church with us on Sunday, but unfortunately he had to work.
I've been working on recognizing and acting on the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Sunday night, Elder Grow and I were walking to an investigator's house through a neighborhood, when i felt like we should try knocking a few doors in an apartment complex to the right of us. I took a leap of faith. We knocked about 6 doors in when we met Eva. She is baptist, but all of her kids are Mormons. She was happy to talk to us, she said we were an answer to her prayers - she was so certain that God had lead us there, that she wanted us to come back and teach her with her son.
It was such an amazing miracle! I'm finally starting to learn a llittle bit of what it's like to be prompted by the Holy Ghost.
Thank you all for your support, prayers, love and letters.
Love you!
Elder Hansen
On Saturday, we had a mission-wide conference. President and Sister Riggs, and Elder S. Gifford Nielson of the Quorum of the 70 instructed us. It was a 4 1/2 hr. long spiritual feast! Our goal for this year is to achieve 756 baptisms. The mission conference was pretty much a pep rally to get us excited to hit the streets. It sure did work for me - when we went back to our area, I was filled with more love for the people around me than I ever had in my entire life. I feel like that was the first time I have really felt pure charity for everyone around me. The amazing thing is, I wasn't afraid at all to talk to everyone. The scripture in Moroni8:16: "for perfect love casteth out all fear," became real to me.
As a result, Elder Grow and I found 2 really promising investigators. We were on exchanges with a member one freezing cold night, and the lesson we had planned with Kabar didn't happen. So we walked to a different apartment building to check up on a potential investigator. Along the way, we stopped and spoke with someone. His name is Jacinto, and he's from Equitorial Guinea. Apparently, they speak Spanish there. Lucky for us, the member that came out with us that night spoke Spanish. He helped him understand what we were telling him, and Jacinto walked away with a copy of the Book of Mormon. We went to our potential investigators home, she let us in, and we were blessed to give her a Book of Mormon, too. She is from Equitorial Guinea as well, and the member was able to help her understandwhat we taught. It was a great night!
We had another amazing experience with one of our newer investigators, Ernst. We hadn't seen him for a long time, and we were really happy to have an opportunity to teach him again. He had been reading from the Book of Mormon, and he said he knew it was true.
I asked him, "Do you believe Joseph Smith is a prophet?"
He said "Yes, yes, I do!"
"Do you believe he restored Christ's church to the earth?"
"Yes, of course!"
"Well heck, will you be baptized on March 1st?"
"Yes, I will!"
It was such an awesome experience. It literally came out of nowhere - it had been so long since we had seen Ernest, and he wasn't progressing since we had last seen him.
We read with him 2 Nephi 31, and told him about the sacred covenant he will make with Heavenly Father, and the blessings that come from it. He was so anxious to come to church with us on Sunday, but unfortunately he had to work.
I've been working on recognizing and acting on the promptings of the Holy Ghost. Sunday night, Elder Grow and I were walking to an investigator's house through a neighborhood, when i felt like we should try knocking a few doors in an apartment complex to the right of us. I took a leap of faith. We knocked about 6 doors in when we met Eva. She is baptist, but all of her kids are Mormons. She was happy to talk to us, she said we were an answer to her prayers - she was so certain that God had lead us there, that she wanted us to come back and teach her with her son.
It was such an amazing miracle! I'm finally starting to learn a llittle bit of what it's like to be prompted by the Holy Ghost.
Thank you all for your support, prayers, love and letters.
Love you!
Elder Hansen