Reunion Letters - 08/27/12

Elder "A" and I taught a decent number of lessons this week, but fell short on OYMs. We will keep trying to be better. My goal is to hit the standard of excellence in all of the key indicators by the end of next transfer. But I guess that may change if I get transferred. I still feel like there's so much to do here in Jurupa Valley! But the work will go on without me, I'm sure.

 

At the moment, I feel like I was meant to break through with "BC", and we haven't quite hooked her yet. She has a testimony of the truthfulness of the things we teach her, and we can see the progress that she's making in terms of her personal conversion. But she always backs away from us when she gets too close. I thought for sure that we had convinced her of the importance of coming to church. But on Saturday, she told us she wouldn't be coming, and that she'd talk to us about it later. I was so hurt. I know it's hard for her to change, and that sometimes things happen, but it's so hard for me to watch her stumble.

 

"BC" has a testimony of the adversary now - of her own doing, actually. She told us that it hit her when she was siphoning water out of her broken washing machine: she didn't do anything to keep herself from reading what we assigned her (Alma 32), but between her sister being hospitalized and her washer breaking and her friend staying over, she was distracted. She believes now that Satan exists, and puts roadblocks in her path to keep her from the truth. But I can't help things when she's the one stopping her progression.

Oh, and get this: at Ellis Island, her family didn't speak very good English. When they asked for his family name, he thought they were asking for his profession. "I'm a cooper," he said - someone who makes barrels. "Welcome to America, Mr. Cooper," they said. Before that, their last name was Cohen. Her family taught her that she was directly descended from Aaron. So, when she gets baptized, I'm very anxious to see what her Patriarchal blessing tells her. How cool would that be if I was friends with a literal descendant of Aaron?

I've started to really appreciate all the lessons I'm learning from my fellow missionaries. I learned an awful lot on exchanges this past week, and from a few evenings where Elder "A" and I weren't on the same page. But that just gives me more opportunities to learn how to be more Christlike. Christlike perfection is such a lofty goal. But I was reminded this week by a Mormon message that God doesn't expect perfection from us in this life. That meant a lot to me.

Another thing that meant an awful lot to me: getting a boxful of notes from my family! Everybody wrote me letters at the Tuckett Reunion and I just got a box full of them. I don't think I'll be able to respond to them all individually but I'll give a big thank-you to everybody right here and answer as many general things as I can in a big email. But it looks like I'm running out of time, so that will have to wait until next week.

I finished Jesus The Christ this week and I think I'm starting on the Old Testament and the Bible Dictionary next. I love my Savior so much and I love learning more about the scriptures and how I can apply eternal principles to my life today. Philippians 4:13. And remember to smile and remember that God loves each and every one of us!

Happier Days - 08/20/12

I haven't been sleeping very well lately. It seems that God has a lot to tell me, and he waits until I'm asleep. I got the message very clearly last night and the night before, but not so much the two nights before then. At that point I couldn't tell if I was being inspired or just dreaming about video games. But whoever told me that the Holy Ghost went to bed at midnight was lying. Last night and the night before, I had thoughts enter my head unbidden on what I should do. I then wrote those things down as completely as I could, prayed in thanks for what I had received, and asked if there was any more. I can't remember where I learned that, but it's a powerful practice for receiving revelation.

On Sunday, I got to perform the ordinance of confirmation for "O". We also achieved our goal of 140 contacts for this week during the last two hours of the proselyting day on Sunday. It was pretty miraculous. I failed to mention last week that we had a car inspection at multizones, and Elder "A" and I won the cleanest car award. I also failed to mention the story of tracting into the Good Samaritan. We had terrible luck tracting in a certain neighborhood. We talked to eleven people, and all of them were short with us or outright rude. The twelfth was at a house with beer cans and cigarettes all over the front yard. The man who answered the door was heavily inked and pierced, and admitted to us that he had a hangover and little faith in God. But he treated us with more kindness and humanity than any of the other people on the street, especially those that professed to be religious. We told him that for all his roughness, he was the kindest person we had talked to that day. We were profoundly grateful that God had seen fit to show us that kindness and opportunity to learn. Some would say that you can't judge a book by its cover, but I prefer the following in Spanish: caras vemos, corazones no sabemos.

My heart was changed this week. I couldn't tell you when it happened, but some precious truths seem to have distilled upon my soul as the dews from heaven. The greatest of those truths is this: happiness is a choice.

Many of us place conditions on our happiness. I've often said to myself that I will be happier once I get married. Some people think they will be happy once they have a better job, or once they finish school, or once the kids move out of the house. We shouldn't place such limitations on our ability to find joy. Lasting happiness is not to be found in material things. It can be found no matter what our circumstances in life are. It all comes down to your attitude about things, and that is your choice.

 

Make it a great day or not, the choice is yours. You can be among those who allow their circumstances to change their attitude and bring them down or you can overcome your circumstances. You can blame everything and everyone else or you can take control of the only thing that is truly yours: yourself and your ability to choose. Choose your attitude. Choose your path. Choose happiness.

 

It's important to note that there is a significant difference between temporary pleasure and lasting happiness. I drink root beer because it's fun. If I were to drink too much at one time, it would make me sick. If I drank root beer all the time, I would become malnourished. It's fun, but it doesn't bring lasting happiness. The same principle works for that new car that you will be paying for long after the new car smell wears off and any other thing that is described in the scriptures as treasure of the earth where moths corrupt and robbers steal. It goes away. The satisfaction of a job well done, the joy of growth and development, and the happiness of serving others, does not fade away, but gives us blessings in heaven.

I'm running out of time. Perhaps next week I will finish up my thoughts on the eternal plan of happiness. :D

Four Months - 08/13/12

I've been a missionary for four months now. Does it feel like that long to you?

Well, we had a lot of interesting little stories this week. I guess the most pertinent is "O" finally got baptized! She's been meeting with missionaries for years. She remembers them knocking on her door three or four years ago. Granted, we haven't been in constant contact with her since then, but she's met a lot of missionaries over that time, for sure. I think what made the difference for her was watching the April General Conference talks (all of them!) and gaining a testimony that our church is the one true church that is led by a living prophet right now. For the longest time, she's been insisting that there is virtually no difference between what Mormons believe and what she personally believes (even things like temple worship and degrees of glory, that nobody else teaches), and that her baptism into the Methodist church as a child was good enough to show her devotion to God. But after watching the entirety of the Conference DVD, she started to change her tune a little bit, and once we got her some good fellowshipping friends in the ward, she decided to get baptized the proper way.

"O" spent most of her working life as a secretary in the local school systems, so she has a love of children. She also knows a lot of families in the ward, because she interacted with their kids growing up. For her baptismal service, we organized a Primary Children Ensemble to sing primary songs for her as a special musical number. It brought her to tears. I knew it would be a good idea. I'm so glad she enjoyed it, and that her grandson and his girlfriend came to the service. Hopefully they will want to pay a little more attention to the missionary discussions now. We can hope so, anyways.

At approximately 9:35 AM on Wednesday the 8th of August, Elder "A" and I experienced our first earthquake! It felt like the whole apartment was shaking. I mean, it shakes a little bit from the apartment downstairs, and from cars flying by the street right outside our window, but this was definitely an Earthquake. Some members told us how strong it was and how far away the epicenter was, but I've forgotten. That was also a good day for us because I baked lots of cranberry white chocolate cookies and delivered them to families in the ward. I realized a little too late that baking cookies in a hot apartment in the hottest part of the day would only make it hotter. But the people loved their cookies, and I enjoyed baking!

Two of the families we gave cookies to ended up getting priesthood blessings for the school year. That was a very special thing for us. One family has a non-member dad and one family is my precious recent convert family that has never had priesthood blessings before either (The "N"s). I was so glad that we were able to render that service for them.

Well, God is great, and his work moves forward! Love you guys tons and hope to hear from you soon. May the Holy Ghost instruct you more perfectly this week and this school year! D&C 42:61, 88:78, 130:18.

Grace - 08/6/12

Grace. A word that occurs frequently in the New Testament, especially in the writings of Paul. The main idea of the word is divine means of help or strength, given through the bounteous mercy and love of Jesus Christ.

It is through the grace of the Lord Jesus, made possible by his atoning sacrifice, that mankind will be raised in immortality, every person receiving his body from the grave in a condition of everlasting life. It is likewise through the grace of the Lord that individuals, through faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance of their sins, receive strength and assistance to do good works that they otherwise would not be able to maintain if left to their own means. This grace is an enabling power that allows men and women to lay hold on eternal life and exaltation after they have expended their own best efforts.

There's a pattern amongst the Book of Mormon prophets in the following passages: 1 Nephi 7:17, Mosiah 24:14-15, Alma 14:26-28, Alma 31:31-33. They all prayed for strength to overcome their afflictions. They understood that we were created as agents to act for ourselves, not objects to be acted upon. Our ability to choose right from wrong and learn good from evil was a crucial part of God's plan. They understood that God gives us trials for the divine purpose of developing strength and maturity by stretching ourselves to overcome. And they understood that it is by grace we are saved, after all we can do. So they prayed for the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ to give them strength to overcome their afflictions, instead of asking for God to remove the afflictions.

 Alma 31:38 And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in faith.
 
 This week, I learned a little bit about exercising faith. Some of our investigators fell by the wayside. At the time that we held our weekly planning session, it seemed that our investigator pool was shriveling up into nothing. All six of the potential investigators that we visited on Tuesday stiffed us. We spent several days confined to the apartment this week, too. Elder "AV" was struggling with a very pernicious stomach virus that would not let him proselyte, so we had to take a few sick days. In spite of all that, and the discouragement of having our dear investigators that were on date to be baptize disappear from our view, we still pressed forward and found the strength to move forward. God is surely watching over us.

In the days after weekly planning, we found several more potential investigators, through our relationships with the ward members, and from media referrals. The work is moving forward, and will continue to move forward, God willing. Till we meet again...

Elder Hansen