Sounds like everything is going well!! How exciting to hear that school is starting up. That summer feels like it flew on by. Over here, I think this last week was the fastest week of the mission. My entire mission. We were just running, working so hard, and just finding and teaching like crazy. To kick off the week, we learned a little Swahili!
Just when I get out, the city pulled me right back in. Our area is quite small, which is perfect for being in a Bike area. Truly, we are living in little Mexico. It is all Spanish all the time, which is SOOO nice. That's a huge change from MoCity, which is about half and half. Here, it is full Spanish, and I love it, it is way more fun, way more prepared people, and wow did we see miracles this week.
We ran into a member of H1who saw us on the road and pulled over to say hi. Hermana Abarca is awesome!
We are working right next to Third Ward which is a famous area in the mission. In this entire week I have felt as if I was sent right on back to H1. I recognized a ton of people. It was really neat! Back in H1 people would go play soccer some nights at the Bering building, who were from H2, so I would talk to them there. In fact, Obispo Ortiz, the bishop we have in our ward actually remembers my name (without looking at my plaque).
My new companion is Elder Loar and he's from good ole Gilbert, Arizona. We worked together back in H1 for a transfer, and now they put us together. He is AWESOME! He has good Spanish, good connections with the ward, and we get along SUPER well, which makes me excited for this transfer.
We saw a huge miracle in this family that we just started teaching, the Calderón family. WOW. This family is so prepared, they already have testimonies about everything and shared with us their testimonies of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Anyways, we invited them to church, and they said they would come, and they did... ALL 7 OF THEM!! They are the coolest family ever and I feel so amazingly blessed to have the opportunity to teach them.
On the way to their lessons this storm was looming above us. We were on bikes and couldn’t get out of the way. It destroyed us.
Raindrops the size of golf balls just before we got to the Calderon family’s home.
I actually have never taught this many families in my entire mission. We are teaching 4 different families, and all are incredible!! Just the kindest people, willing to do so much for their Savior, even if they don't have much. I'm truly humbled by the circumstances they find themselves in, and where their heart lays. They are truly disciples of Christ.
Back in the complexes where we spend a lot of our time.
There’s wall art like this everywhere in our area.
This was reassuring. Trying to steer away robbers!
I had a great study this past week, and it was mainly focused on the power of prayer. There is an incredible talk by President Nelson in April 2003 titled, "Sweet Power of Prayer" in which he describes truly what role prayer should be in our lives. It is there so that we align ourselves more with the Father and what he desires of us. At times we forget, His desire is to try us, to strengthen us, and help us achieve our full potential. In doing so, sometimes the answer to our "hail mary" prayers is going to be "no". He is there to help us grow, and as we learn that he is there to help us achieve full potential, and not take us out of potential problems, our will lines up with that of the Father.
I love the scripture Jacob 4:10 which reads "10 Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works.". As we learn to take counsel from the Lord, and not to counsel him, we will live a successful life in the sight of our great Father. He will direct our paths, and we will recieve joy not only in this life from living the gospel, but after this life as well.
Love y'all mucho! Excited to be here on the mission as a servant of the Lord. There is no better work than being a missionary!! I am so blessed to be able to call myself an official representative of the Lord, who wears His name on my chest every day. Make sure we all have His name written on our hearts!
Keep on keeping on y'all!
Elder Hansen
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