Chicken Feet, Birthdays and BoMs

Hey Familia,

How are yall doing?? Hope you had a fantastic week!! We had quite the week here in good ole H2 North with Élder Cram. We really did enjoy ourselves here and saw some pretty amazing miracles. Let us begin!!

We are teaching the most awesome family! I love them, it's the Bonilla-Montoya. I KNOW I talked about them last week. This week we taught Carlos and Olga. They aren't married. As we were teaching, we invited them to marry and they accepted. It was pretty neat! Apparently for YEARS Carlos has said no to marriage, but when we extended, he accepted. They are preparing to do so now, so that Olga and her 2 kids, Johnathan and Stefanie, can be baptized! After, we had a great meal of tejadas with chicken feet. It happened to be my birthday dinner. I thought that one Chinese restaurant was the last time I would eat chicken feet, but think again! It was good! Families truly can be forever! This family shared that they have been having some family issues, but believe that the gospel will be what unites them. I know that to be true, because I have seen it in my own family.

They also came to a church activity this last Wednesday and even came to church! They LOVED it! Olga is already in with all of the Hermanas in the world and they love her. It is so awesome! Johnathan and a couple other youth really got along and now Johnathan is going to come to Mutual on Wed.. We are so excited!

My man, Cesar.  

We had a ton of meetings this week. It was really fun, because we got to see a lot of missionaries, but man was it tiring. I felt overloaded with information. But cool news, apparently a new white Handbook should be released here in about 2 weeks, so we're excited for that! Overall, a lot of time sitting down, writing notes. Haha! But we got to go back to H1 and see Patricia, Estefany, and Edith in the Bering building! They are doing so well! All are preparing to go to the temple! 

Another neat experience that happened yesterday was the Mario came to church again, who was the boyfriend of a super active member named Kendra. He and I are brothers. He is awesome, just struggling with his belief in God, he's not sure if he's there. We'll, 2 weeks ago we gave him a Book of Mormon and today we asked if he's read any of it. He said he actually only had a few pages left. 😧 Yep, he's read the whole thing in 2 weeks. He says it has answered almost all of his questions about life in its own. We have a lesson with him tonight to talk more! Send prayers our way! 

Also wanted to thank everyone for wishing me a happy bday!! It was so awesome being able to hear from yall, I'm super grateful to have the best friends and family! Thank you for taking the time to write a note or send a video! It meant a lot!! 

These guys are two of my best friends and best companions.  I love them both.  

We also met some pretty neat people this week! We met a guy last night that shared with us quite a bit about how he ended up in Juvy, how he "has the 6th sense" (hope you got that reference), and how he's a crypt (yeah, like the gang) and that was a pretty an interesting experience…

How do you like this rule for the complex?  “No sagging pants.”  😂

Also, we met the coolest 21 yr old girl named Bianca who already has 4 kids and has been married for 5 years. Yeah, the math there is crazy. Anyways, she was real interested in getting close to her Savior and we are really excited to get to teach her and her family.

Over the past couple days I've been reading about Samuel the Lamanite and his prophecy of the coming of Christ, which is perfect timing, considering Christmas is right around the corner. Anyways, as he was preaching on the wall about the coming of Christ and prophecy of a day, a night, and a day as if it was one day. There were 3 classes of people listening. The ones who immediately recognized him as a messenger of the Lord, repented, and grew in faith of the coming of the Christ. Next, those who were firing arrows at him and saw they couldn't hit them. 

Helaman 16:3 Now when they saw that they could not hit him, there were many more who did believe on his words, insomuch that they went away unto Nephi to be baptized.

Then the ones that wanted to capture and kill Samuel. I reflected on that personally. Am I one who believes the words of the prophet and his disciples on faith? Am I receptive enough to the Holy Spirit that I know truth when I hear it? I sure hope so! I know not always, and I am continually working on that. Or am I one who needs to see a miracle first? Do I need something to shake my ground to cause me to repent and change? I am so grateful for how the scriptures teach us. I know that it is the Lord teaching me on how I may better myself as a disciple of Him.

I love y'all much! I love the work! I love being a missionary. More than anything though, I love losing myself in the service of the Lord and of others!

Love y'all!

Elder Hansen