Hey-o!
Another beautiful week in Mt. Vernon! So, just as a heads up, we're going to D.C. today, so this Email will probably be short. I'm writing this on the Metro, and I get motion sickness really easily. I usually have to stop writing pretty early on in the ride.
This week was so irregular. I feel out of tune with time, space, and continuum. Part of the reason is because of day-light savings, but it's actually from a bunch of out-of-place meetings.
Monday was our Half-Mission Conference with Elder Kopischke, which was great! I think I already told you about it last Tuesday. The rest of that day, we did something important, I'm sure. Oh yeah! We taught a member who gave us a sick part-member family referral, who we visited later in the week and snagged a return appointment with.
On Tuesday we had Preparation Day, and we played basketball at Jone's Point Park underneath the Woodruff Wilson Bridge again. It was a lot more fun this time around because I had my contacts in and I could see stuff. :) We didn't have District meetings this week, because of the Half-Mission Conference, so that really threw off our schedule.
After basketball, we taught Samuel, our 14 year-old investigator from Ghana. The Sister missionaries passed him off to us, because things weren't really going anywhere with him. We must've done something right, because he's on date for November 26th! Our first lesson with him was so ballin'! (Elder White told me to use that word). We began with an opening prayer on our knees, and explained to Samuel that we were going to stay sitting in silence for a few moments after the prayer to pay attention to the Spirit.
The 3 of us sat back down after a few moments and waited for Samuel to follow suit. Instead, he stayed on his knees for a solid 30 minutes. He peeked his eyes at us and asked, "Is it okay if I pray sitting down? My knees hurt." He sat cross-legged and continued in silent meditation and prayer for another solid 10 minutes. 40 minutes of prayer!!! We taught him about baptism, and pulled out a calendar for him to select a date when he could be baptized. He chose November 29th. It was such a powerful lesson!
We had MLC with Elder Kopischke on Wednesday, which was also really good. We learned a lot about leadership and how to conduct effective exchanges. He also taught us about focusing on teaching Doctrine , instead of focusing on loading investigators with commitments. He shared with us Acts 2:37-38 and said that those verses describe an ideal lesson. In this story, Peter and the rest of the apostles are teaching at the day of Pentecost. At the end of their sermon, the group asks, 'men and brethren, what shall we do?' The people have felt so powerfully the message the apostles shared, that they wanted to know how to ACT. The apostles replied, "Repent, and Be baptized!"
On Halloween, we went to the church and watched Despicable Me 2 and Frozen. My companions and my self weren't able to watch Despicable Me 2 because our ward had their trunk or treat party going on at the same time, so we went to that to gain member's trust. The Sister missionaries and other set of Elders in our ward decorated their car for the trunk or treat, and won "spookiest car award!" It was comedically humorous.
It was a pretty good week. Thank you for all you do for me! Love you all!
Elder Hansen
Elder HansenWashington D.C. South Mission
Another beautiful week in Mt. Vernon! So, just as a heads up, we're going to D.C. today, so this Email will probably be short. I'm writing this on the Metro, and I get motion sickness really easily. I usually have to stop writing pretty early on in the ride.
This week was so irregular. I feel out of tune with time, space, and continuum. Part of the reason is because of day-light savings, but it's actually from a bunch of out-of-place meetings.
Monday was our Half-Mission Conference with Elder Kopischke, which was great! I think I already told you about it last Tuesday. The rest of that day, we did something important, I'm sure. Oh yeah! We taught a member who gave us a sick part-member family referral, who we visited later in the week and snagged a return appointment with.
On Tuesday we had Preparation Day, and we played basketball at Jone's Point Park underneath the Woodruff Wilson Bridge again. It was a lot more fun this time around because I had my contacts in and I could see stuff. :) We didn't have District meetings this week, because of the Half-Mission Conference, so that really threw off our schedule.
After basketball, we taught Samuel, our 14 year-old investigator from Ghana. The Sister missionaries passed him off to us, because things weren't really going anywhere with him. We must've done something right, because he's on date for November 26th! Our first lesson with him was so ballin'! (Elder White told me to use that word). We began with an opening prayer on our knees, and explained to Samuel that we were going to stay sitting in silence for a few moments after the prayer to pay attention to the Spirit.
The 3 of us sat back down after a few moments and waited for Samuel to follow suit. Instead, he stayed on his knees for a solid 30 minutes. He peeked his eyes at us and asked, "Is it okay if I pray sitting down? My knees hurt." He sat cross-legged and continued in silent meditation and prayer for another solid 10 minutes. 40 minutes of prayer!!! We taught him about baptism, and pulled out a calendar for him to select a date when he could be baptized. He chose November 29th. It was such a powerful lesson!
We had MLC with Elder Kopischke on Wednesday, which was also really good. We learned a lot about leadership and how to conduct effective exchanges. He also taught us about focusing on teaching Doctrine , instead of focusing on loading investigators with commitments. He shared with us Acts 2:37-38 and said that those verses describe an ideal lesson. In this story, Peter and the rest of the apostles are teaching at the day of Pentecost. At the end of their sermon, the group asks, 'men and brethren, what shall we do?' The people have felt so powerfully the message the apostles shared, that they wanted to know how to ACT. The apostles replied, "Repent, and Be baptized!"
On Halloween, we went to the church and watched Despicable Me 2 and Frozen. My companions and my self weren't able to watch Despicable Me 2 because our ward had their trunk or treat party going on at the same time, so we went to that to gain member's trust. The Sister missionaries and other set of Elders in our ward decorated their car for the trunk or treat, and won "spookiest car award!" It was comedically humorous.
It was a pretty good week. Thank you for all you do for me! Love you all!
Elder Hansen
Elder HansenWashington D.C. South Mission