Hello!
This week was packed... I'm sorry I didn't send a mass Email like I
normally do, we've been really busy. Last Monday we washed our car. We
waxed, vacuumed and shampooed the carpets, cleaned the tires, and
much, much more. That took up most of our day. Then we went to Costco
with some members for dinner and shopping.
We didn't have much teaching going on this week, unfortunately. We
actually were teaching a really promising family last week, but the
other Elders in our ward accidentally nabbed them from us. Which was a
little upsetting, but at least they're getting baptized on Set. 6th!
We mostly visited less actives this week. A family (Ortiz family)
who's preparing to enter the temple came to church! They were a part
member family, but the wife was baptized in Centreville 1st ward last
August. They had fallen into inactivity for quite some time, and we
just barely started teaching them the new member lessons. It's going
well, they love learning more about the church, and they're
re-committing themselves to coming to church to prepare themselves to
enter the temple.
We had 3 exchanges this week. Bleh! I don't really like exchanges. But
these ones weren't too bad. The first was with Elder Raban, which was
awesome! The dream-team was back together! (Elder Raban is my
trainer). It was a night full of reunions, because Elder Raban had
served in Annandale right after he left Reston (Annandale is his
favorite area), and one of his old companions he had served with in
Annandale came on exchanges with us that night. It basically turned
into a night of Elder Raban and Bro. Dehaan visiting all of their old
friends. It was a good time, though!
That exchange actually went on for 48 hours instead of 24, because
Elder Johnson and Elder Scholes (Elder Raban's current companion) had
to work on something in the office. While I was with Elder Raban the
second day, we went to serve in Fairfax instead of Annandale. We had
dinner with some sweet members over there, gave a blessing to one of
the Fairfax Sister missionaries, and taught one of their
investigators.
That entire day, Elder Raban wasn't feeling very well. He almost
wanted to cancel everything they had for that evening, but he stuck it
out instead. That night and into the next day he just got worse and
worse. I'm not sure now, but I think he still might be sick, so keep
him in your prayers! The poor fella might've contracted Ebola . ;)
just kidding.
After that exchange, Elder Rugg and I went on another exchange! We had
a good time. We talked to everyone we saw, got a lot of "no, I'm not
interested"'s, and taught the Ortiz family.
Elder Johnson and I finally reunited in joy in and splendor and spent
the remainder of our week visiting less actives, and talking to
everyone. We've been so busy lately, we have had a hard time feeling
like we're really focusing on making our area the exemplar of the
zone. We're supposed to achieve the mission standard, which is 3 new
investigators, 2 at church, and 2 investigators with a baptismal date,
every week, but we're not that close. Neither are any of the other
areas in our zone close to hitting that standard. It's a little
discouraging, but I know that we can achieve it - heck, I know that we
can exceed it!! God will provide a way for us to accomplish the
mission standard, I know it! I know what it will take, and I'm willing
to "come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of
his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him,
and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in
fasting and praying, and endure to the end." Omni 1:26
Coming unto Christ and becoming a consecrated missionary means putting
all of my fears, disobedience and pride on the altar of sacrifice.
It's a complete submission to God's will, and it is the greatest love
I could ever show Him.
That's what I must be, a consecrated missionary! That includes opening
my mouth to literally EVERYONE I see, and declaring the gospel to
them. I invite you all to unbind your tongues, as did the Prophet of
the Restoration, to invite and spread the gospel word to everyone. The
Lord has given us many tools to do this, and He will cast out all of
your fear with charity for your brothers and sisters (Moroni 8:16).
I love this work - I love the exhilarating feeling I get when I talk
to someone I don't know on the street about that means so much to me.
I know that feeling is God sealing the promises He's made to me if I
open my mouth to teach.
Elder Hansen
Oh! Another cool thing that happened this last week... I finally
caught the vision of online proselyting! It's been about 11 months,
maybe more, since we've been teaching online, and I haven't seen the
fruits of it until now.
Paul Johnson, a missionary who was once serving in the Arizona, Tempe
mission, recently returned home to Arlington, VA. On his mission, he
truly understood Facebook proselyting. He was teaching a lot of
people! Our mission President wanted him to give us training on how he
did it. He taught an Elder one-on-one how he proselyted online, and
that Elder trained Elder Johnson and I.
I'm teaching two people from India, a pastor in Ethiopia, a woman from
Guatemala (I think), and someone from Nepal. Crazy! It happened so
quickly, too!
The work is Hastening, and I'm lucky to have a front row seat. Join
the work before you get left in the dust!
This week was packed... I'm sorry I didn't send a mass Email like I
normally do, we've been really busy. Last Monday we washed our car. We
waxed, vacuumed and shampooed the carpets, cleaned the tires, and
much, much more. That took up most of our day. Then we went to Costco
with some members for dinner and shopping.
We didn't have much teaching going on this week, unfortunately. We
actually were teaching a really promising family last week, but the
other Elders in our ward accidentally nabbed them from us. Which was a
little upsetting, but at least they're getting baptized on Set. 6th!
We mostly visited less actives this week. A family (Ortiz family)
who's preparing to enter the temple came to church! They were a part
member family, but the wife was baptized in Centreville 1st ward last
August. They had fallen into inactivity for quite some time, and we
just barely started teaching them the new member lessons. It's going
well, they love learning more about the church, and they're
re-committing themselves to coming to church to prepare themselves to
enter the temple.
We had 3 exchanges this week. Bleh! I don't really like exchanges. But
these ones weren't too bad. The first was with Elder Raban, which was
awesome! The dream-team was back together! (Elder Raban is my
trainer). It was a night full of reunions, because Elder Raban had
served in Annandale right after he left Reston (Annandale is his
favorite area), and one of his old companions he had served with in
Annandale came on exchanges with us that night. It basically turned
into a night of Elder Raban and Bro. Dehaan visiting all of their old
friends. It was a good time, though!
That exchange actually went on for 48 hours instead of 24, because
Elder Johnson and Elder Scholes (Elder Raban's current companion) had
to work on something in the office. While I was with Elder Raban the
second day, we went to serve in Fairfax instead of Annandale. We had
dinner with some sweet members over there, gave a blessing to one of
the Fairfax Sister missionaries, and taught one of their
investigators.
That entire day, Elder Raban wasn't feeling very well. He almost
wanted to cancel everything they had for that evening, but he stuck it
out instead. That night and into the next day he just got worse and
worse. I'm not sure now, but I think he still might be sick, so keep
him in your prayers! The poor fella might've contracted Ebola . ;)
just kidding.
After that exchange, Elder Rugg and I went on another exchange! We had
a good time. We talked to everyone we saw, got a lot of "no, I'm not
interested"'s, and taught the Ortiz family.
Elder Johnson and I finally reunited in joy in and splendor and spent
the remainder of our week visiting less actives, and talking to
everyone. We've been so busy lately, we have had a hard time feeling
like we're really focusing on making our area the exemplar of the
zone. We're supposed to achieve the mission standard, which is 3 new
investigators, 2 at church, and 2 investigators with a baptismal date,
every week, but we're not that close. Neither are any of the other
areas in our zone close to hitting that standard. It's a little
discouraging, but I know that we can achieve it - heck, I know that we
can exceed it!! God will provide a way for us to accomplish the
mission standard, I know it! I know what it will take, and I'm willing
to "come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of
his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him,
and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in
fasting and praying, and endure to the end." Omni 1:26
Coming unto Christ and becoming a consecrated missionary means putting
all of my fears, disobedience and pride on the altar of sacrifice.
It's a complete submission to God's will, and it is the greatest love
I could ever show Him.
That's what I must be, a consecrated missionary! That includes opening
my mouth to literally EVERYONE I see, and declaring the gospel to
them. I invite you all to unbind your tongues, as did the Prophet of
the Restoration, to invite and spread the gospel word to everyone. The
Lord has given us many tools to do this, and He will cast out all of
your fear with charity for your brothers and sisters (Moroni 8:16).
I love this work - I love the exhilarating feeling I get when I talk
to someone I don't know on the street about that means so much to me.
I know that feeling is God sealing the promises He's made to me if I
open my mouth to teach.
Elder Hansen
Oh! Another cool thing that happened this last week... I finally
caught the vision of online proselyting! It's been about 11 months,
maybe more, since we've been teaching online, and I haven't seen the
fruits of it until now.
Paul Johnson, a missionary who was once serving in the Arizona, Tempe
mission, recently returned home to Arlington, VA. On his mission, he
truly understood Facebook proselyting. He was teaching a lot of
people! Our mission President wanted him to give us training on how he
did it. He taught an Elder one-on-one how he proselyted online, and
that Elder trained Elder Johnson and I.
I'm teaching two people from India, a pastor in Ethiopia, a woman from
Guatemala (I think), and someone from Nepal. Crazy! It happened so
quickly, too!
The work is Hastening, and I'm lucky to have a front row seat. Join
the work before you get left in the dust!