How are yall doing?? Hope you had a fantastic week! Heard it rained a lot back home in CA, so that's too bad. Here it has been so nice, best weather I've ever had here in TX (knock on wood) 70 and sunny with little humidity all week. MAJOR BLESSINGS!!
Wow has this week been a week SO full of miracles, you have no idea. What an incredible week. We saw some things that we have never seen before, me especially. We worked REALLY really hard, and we're blessed to see the blessings come. Also many things that just made me laugh, things that would for sure just happen to me for some reason, made me just laugh.
Well let's start with the obvious, yes, "emergency bike #2" broke last night. That kind of stunk, but at the same time I found it comical. My history of bikes is hilarious I think. Most would disagree, but it's not like I'm careless or going off jumps on the bike, things just happen it seems like haha. A lot of what happened is just inexplicable. 1st bike, the pedal fell off, and the inside got stripped. 2nd bike, one of the old Assistants bike, the front brake and axel exploded, don't ask, it just did, don't know how. 3rd bike, which was my bike, now "fixed" , the pedal and lever fell off again and the inside stripped again, so that bike went to the graveyard. Bike #4, Elder Wilkinson's bike he left because he went home, the gear shifter and the gears got completely destroyed, so we sent that one back to the mission office. Following that, we got "Emergency Bike #1", (Bike#5) which in the first 15 minutes of riding it, the frame broke from me sitting on it, and so the office missionary said it was junk now. The following week, they send me "Emergency Bike #2" and last night my back axel exploded, once again, don't know how, but it did. So now we're going for bike #7!!! So today, we are going to the Mission Office today to see what we can do to fix the axel. But HEY!! TENDER MERCY!! One of the only In N Outs that was recently constructed here is on the way to the office, sooooo we are getting some In N Out!!!
Also! Whoa! One of the amazing families that we teach, Oslin and Michelle! Got ENGAGED!! The past lesson, Elder Cram and I had the blessing to teach about eternal families. It is one of my most favorite principles to teach. I know that we not only have the ability to be a family here on earth, but for the eternities to come. We shared with this amazing family 4 Nefi 1:10-13 and shared about how this people were so inexplicably happy. And how the reason they were so happy came from being centered in God and following his commandments, and being centered in their family. Something must have really struck Oslin, because about a week later he decided to propose to Michelle and marry. He invited us to be there as he proposed and we were! It was SO NEAT! I love being able to see people begin living the gospel that our Savior left for us and take steps on their own. Honestly, not much more gives me as much joy as that.
Rolling in suits! We went to try to bring a family to church with us on the bus. They said yes on Saturday night. Then Sunday morning came and all the sudden they couldn’t. It’s OK, at leas we looked good on the bikes.
Also, a really big blessing for me. This week we got to take our monthly trip back up to H1 for our meeting with the Stake President to discuss missionary work, and I saw Edith there!! She was a lady that Elder Johnson and I baptized reaaaaaally early in our missions. I asked her what she was doing there, and she said she was going to get interviewed by Bishop and was preparing to receive her recommend to go to the temple!! I am so excited for her!! It was an incredible experience to get to discuss with her the miracles that the gospel has brought to her family's life.
Comp unity. Some bird pooped on Elder Cram for the second time. He asked me to get it out. It’s a good thing he’s one of my favorite comps! #charityneverfaileth
We had a great week all in all, but this final experience was the crowning jewel. Not only for the week, or the month, but probably up there for one of the greatest experiences of my entire mission. Many weeks back I talked about Mario, who was the Relief Society president's daughter's boyfriend (hope you followed that). He has been coming to church every week now for the past 3 or so months. He would come with Kendra (R. S. Pres's daughter/ his girlfriend) and at first it was purely for her. Then we got to know him and got to be friends and we started talking to him a bit about God and his beliefs regarding that. He shared with us his story that he needed to cross the border at 7 years old, alone, without parents or family, 100% alone. He said it was a living nightmare, and ever since then, he asked himself if God was real, because where was He when he needed Him the most. He decided that he was not.
We taught him about our Heavenly Father, about our Savior and how he felt everything Mario ever felt, even in his times of seemingly infinite struggle. We taught him that because God loves us, he allows us to go through things, so that may recognize his hand in an even grander way. We taught about how God never leaves his children alone. We would teach him every week, and he said conceptually it made sense, but he still couldn't accept there was a God. He had questions, but they weren't being answered.
During the lessons, we would invite him to read and pray. After 1.5 months of not keeping invitations, and at the same time not receiving his answers, he decided to read the Book of Mormon. If he couldn't get answers his way, he might as way try to get them some other way. He read the entire book in 2 weeks, then told us he didn't understand a thing. We then invited him to pray as well as read, and this was what was the hardest for him. Praying to someone that he didn't think was there. One night late, a few days after we left him the invitation, he called his girlfriend, Kendra, and asked her to help him pray. And so he began to pray.
After about another month of reading the complete Book of Mormon for the 2nd time and attempting to pray and ask God if he was there, he told us he was getting nothing, every time we met. He was sure God wasn't real. We kept telling him, "If you ask in faith, with real intent, we promise God will answer your prayer".
On one day during the week, Elder Cram and I offered up a prayer of gratitude for the Savior which came as a daily prompt from Light the World. As we finished we both felt the prompting to prepare to extend baptism to Mario. We had no clue why. He still didn't even believe God existed. Regardless, we followed the Spirit and trusted in the Lord on this one!
Just this last Thursday, we sit down in another lesson, and begin by answering some of his profound, conceptual questions. We answered and discussed, and he at one point said "I believe you, but I just can't believe there is a God yet”. We asked him if he would be willing to leave everything behind, all sins and mistakes, all to know if there was a God. Was he at the point of Lamoni's father? He said yes.
At this point, the room went silent, Kendra left to get a drink of water, and it left him and us. The Spirit was so strong, it was almost palpable. After a couple of seconds, he began to cry. He sat there, and cried and cried for a couple minutes. He's a real tough guy too, so it was out of the ordinary. When we asked him what he was feeling, he said he didn't know. He couldn't understand it. We explained to him that the inexplicable feeling he was having was the Holy Ghost testifying to him that God is there, that He is mindful of Mario, and that He loves him. Mario agreed. He told us that from that point, he knew by the power of God, that He really did exist, and that Jesus Christ knew Mario's pain. In that moment we extended him the opportunity to leave his past behind, and follow the Savior into the waters of baptism. He accepted. He will be baptized in 2 weeks.
The reason why this is one of my most favorite experiences is because Elder Cram and I could do pretty much nothing. We couldnt force him into believing in God. We couldn't give him cold hard proof or DNA evidence. We couldn't. Only something as divine as a witness of the Holy Ghost could do that could teach Mario that we have a loving God. We were 100% fully dependent on the Lord. All we could do was be his friend, help him with a few questions, and continue with the faith that God would answer him one day. And he did.
I know, and can testify as a witness of this, that our Heavenly Father listens to every prayer. I know He answers if we look for the answer with real intent, and ask for wisdom. I know He loves each and every one of his children, regardless of all circumstances, he loves them all the same. I know that miracles are brought about by faith, because what happened that night was exactly that, a miracle. He loves us all and His timing, not ours, is perfect. I am so grateful for Him and love Him with all I've got.
I hope y'all enjoy your week. I love you all so much! The restored gospel is so true and it changes lives!!
Love,
Elder Brett Hansen
