Who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life - 11/11/13

Happy Veteran's Day! Luckily for me, we have email privileges at the Family History Center here in Hemet, so I don't have to worry about the library being closed. 

Yesterday morning, the missionaries got to do a ton of physical service, yes, on a Sunday morning before church. We helped with the assembly of 1,776 American flags. Those flags were put up in the park to honor Veterans all this week. We will be helping to take them all down again on Saturday. The assembly was probably the hardest part, but because of a lack of organization and tools, the holdup was actually driving the rebar into the ground for the PVC flagpoles to rest on. In order to look nice, we had to measure out where to pound the stakes into the ground, and we only had a few tools for driving those stakes, so we got all the flags assembled in the span of about an hour but the rest of the time was spent watching people drive metal stakes into the ground while a dozen people tried to organize and streamline the process by yelling at people to do things their way. But, after church we drove by the park and it was a pretty impressive sight with all the flags in neat little rows. 

We had a very productive lesson with "The Straggler". He's the last non-member in a part-member family in our ward. His children all got baptized shortly before I showed up, and he's shown little to no interest in reading and praying but he's come to church nearly every week. So we went in there with a little more firepower than normal. It seems that we were a bit too casual in previous meetings. We read about the sealing power given to Nephi in Helaman 10, and talked about how our church has the authority to seal families forever. Then we went over Moroni's promise and specifically pointed out the blessings God has given him in his life, and how much he has to be grateful for. Then we promised him that reading the Book of Mormon and praying sincerely about it would be how he would find out if our church is true and if his family can be together eternally. We had a spiritual giant for a teamup who bore tons of inspired testimony and drove the point home like a champ. He now seems to be taking things way more seriously and I hope to have him baptized by the end of the month. 

I'm also excited about the Parking Lot Miracle Couple. They are some of the most elect and prepared people I've ever taught. They are struggling financially, in fact the missionaries put gas in their car one Sunday and I was in their home when the power got shut off because they're behind on their bills. But this weekend they had a yard sale and it was a huge success, so hopefully they'll have their power turned back on after they run the errands on Tuesday.

There is so much to say about this family. Every time we go over there, they share another miracle in their life that they attribute to the gospel. Everything has started looking up for them since they met with me and my companion. Most recently, the woman in the couple got to meet up with her Dad who she hasn't spoken with in six months, and it made her cry, and she feels like it's because of the spirit we brought in to her home. 

Our Parking Lot Miracle couple wants to be baptized, but first the man has to get his divorce finalized, and they have to get married to each other. But they told us this week that is what they want to do. We didn't even teach them the law of chastity and they committed to live it because they read it in a pamphlet. It's a testimony-building experience every time we go over there. The man said his first verbal prayer during a lesson this week and he was in tears by the end of it. I love teaching them. 

It hit me this week, again, that my patriarchal blessing specifically lists a gift I will have on my mission that doesn't seem to be developed yet, or at least I haven't recognized it yet. Hopefully with some study of PMG chapter 9 and some prayer and effort on my part, I will be able to see that blessing more readily. I hit 19 months today in case anyone was wondering, so I only have five more months to be as productive and effective as possible. 

Exchanges were fun! I went to Riverside with one of the APs while he did Spanish work and I just smiled awkwardly and felt the spirit. Even though I didn't contribute much to the lessons as a whole, I felt good after the exchange. Then I exchanged with one of my district leaders and had a pretty decent day, even though we had to take our car in to Pep Boys to get checked out and that took up a lot of our afternoon. I think I've helped set an example that will inspire him to be a better leader. 

Well, I'm not quite sure what else to say, so this must be a good place to stop. Have a fantastic week guys!

Bonus letter from Elder Hansen 10/04/13

Here is a letter from a friend in the ward who heard from Tyler this week and she wanted to share her letter with us:

I'm having a wonderful time here in Hemet as a Zone Leader. Trying to motivate and encourage seven other companionships of missionaries is exciting. I'm loving it so far. My missionaries are mostly hard workers, and the stake we serve in is has a lot of very missionary-minded people, so it's an excellent place to serve. We put in some pretty solid work and we put up some pretty impressive numbers. I'm looking forward to seeing how much we can do in November. 

God constantly reminds me how blessed I am in ways that I didn't expect. I'm currently wearing a jacket that was a gift to me from a lady I baptized last year. I received a priesthood blessing this morning that warmed my soul and calmed my nerves. The people that we have found to teach here are inspiring and miraculous. "K" and"P" met the missionaries in a parking lot the weekend before I showed up, and I've seen them go from the ground up in building their faith. It's a really beautiful thing to watch. 

I've learned what a rare possession my faith really is while on the mission. I've met people with nothing to believe in and very little to cherish. I've had companions who struggled with serious doubts and went home early because they couldn't find the strength to keep moving forward when their testimony was so weak. All the time, I am so glad that I have found the truth and felt the power of God in my life. I know that God lives, and that there is plan for all of us to fulfill our purpose and find joy in our mortal journey. There are several instances where in the face of failure, I have simply assured myself that I will have the chance to revisit that person again in the spirit world and teach them, if they haven't already heard from the missionaries and accepted the message before then. God's plan truly is happiness for all of His many wonderful children.

I love you Sister "V"! I hope that you find the time to count your blessings and thank God for them.

Elder Hansen

Today this ends, I'm forgiving what I've done - 10/04/13

Great news everyone! I got a priesthood blessing this morning and now my headache is gone. For some reason it seems that fasting has gotten harder for me on my mission and I always end up with nausea and a lingering headache by the time I eat again on fast Sunday. Hopefully the Lord recognizes my sacrifice. Or perhaps I'm supposed to learn something that I still haven't picked up on yet. But I think it was kind of funny that I broke my fast with a Fast Break candy bar. I bought a Reese's variety pack and some fun-size 3 Musketeers at Target on clearance Saturday night. Not quite as fun as trick-or-treating but at least the payoff is similar. 

I have survived another week of Zone Leadership. I attended my first Missionary Leadership Council with President Smart on Tuesday. I enjoyed it, actually. It's fun being around other missionaries and getting positive feedback from them. Stake missionary correlation meeting was not quite as fun, especially since I had to get up early to get there by 7am, but our presence was definitely welcomed there. I told the stake leadership about how in the six wards I've served in so far, the greatest indicator of missionary success is not the socioeconomic status of the area as I once believed, but the diligence of the ward council. When the ward council makes assignments, does work, follows up, and makes missionary work a priority, then lots more missionary work happens and the ward members feel a sense of teamwork. This is primarily why I feel that the Jurupa 1st ward and Cole Canyon ward feel so much like a big family: the ward works together towards their common goals, and the ward council leads by example.  

I ran my first zone meeting on Friday. I'm pretty happy with how everything worked out. We did our best to keep our meeting super short and ended up at two hours and ten minutes, ten minutes over our goal. I'm sure I'll get better at planning these things as time goes on. But I think that since the standard in our mission seems to be three hours or more, we are definitely making strides to reduce the mind-numbing reputation of never-ending zone meetings. 

The ward Halloween party was a big hit! We had four of our investigators show up, and they all had a really good time from what I gathered. I think my favorite costume I saw was a woman dressed up as a bathroom stall. We also had a family dressed up as the Wizard of Oz crew, a pregnant teen in the middle of a Cesarean, a dude dressed as a giant banana, and several Captain Americas. I felt kind of bad that our two new investigators showed up late and there weren't any bowls for the chili so they had to use cups, and the hot dogs were all gone as well. But after the trunk-or-treat portion, we took them on a tour of the church building and they really liked what they saw... especially the baptismal font. :D 

I was humbled this week as I realized that I never need to be separated from my scriptures. My companion and I both left our scriptures in the car as we entered a house, but we didn't think it was a huge deal. Well, we were wrong. As we talked about the restoration, she started talking about the Church of Christ. We assumed she meant the church that Christ established during his mortal lifetime. But no, she was referring to a modern-day denomination. And she was absolutely flabbergasted that we had never heard of the Church of Christ. "You've never heard of the Church of Christ?!" she repeated about eight times over the course of our stay, no exaggeration. Apparently, she believes that Jesus smote the rock with his staff and said upon this rock I will build my church, and that was the Church of Christ. I asked her if she had a bible and she said no. So I had no ground really to discuss how dumb that assertion was - I'm assuming she's referring to Matthew 16, and that in no way shape or form supports her beliefs... unless she's a mysterious sort of Catholic offshoot, and that's even dumber. We left feeling very, very stupid for not having our scriptures. 

And if that wasn't enough, we got caught in a bash later that same week. Some guy started asking us what I'm sure he thought were tricky questions, and after we answered everything using the bible, he started to just preach to us, for literally half an hour. At that point my companion said we had to leave, and I stood there and put my hand on his shoulder and bore pure testimony to him. He said all kinds of things about being a liar and being misled by the devil, but I again testified to him that I knew I had not been deceived because I had felt the power of God and I knew that I would stand before God someday and be cleansed by the blood of Christ. I then told the man in front of me that I loved him, and left. Bible bashes are not fun,, but I always feel really, really calm in a bittersweet way when I'm done. I know I haven't got a chance of changing their mind, and it hurts me that they are so hardhearted against the church, but the love I feel when I testify of the truth in the face of hatred is pretty significant. So that's what I aim to get out of those situations. 

Remember the eternagator out in the canyon?  She got baptized on Saturday, and I got a ride back to Moreno Valley to attend. The attendance was pretty low, actually, and I was surprised that more people didn't come. But it was so cool to see her family there, all excited for her. Her son is hoping to get baptized soon and told me I'll be invited to his, as well. Did I mention that this lady was a descendant of Joseph Smith? Yeah, I thought that was pretty cool. I just hope her conversion sticks and that her family follows suit. 

Bringing investigators to fast and testimony meeting is always a gamble. You never know how many dumb stories, travelogues, and endless crying thankimonies you'll have to sit through. Well, we had four investigators with us this Sunday, and I think this was one of the best fast and testimony meetings of my life. The secret is in the youth. We had a seminary teacher and a bunch of seminary kids get up to the mic, and all of them bore pure testimony. They get up, say what they believe in, and sit down. Perfect. I didn't even have a chance to get up, they were always lined up two or three deep on the stand up until the end of the meeting. I think we had five adults and close to a dozen kids that got up, and none of the adults were crazy old people that rambled on about their medical history or their kids or stories from the good old days. I was very touched, and so were our investigators. I seriously want to go to Seminary sometime this week and thank them. 

So, next time you're walking up to the microphone on Fast Sunday, remember that Elder Hansen told you not to tell stories because it drives him crazy, especially when his investigators are there. And it's totally incorrect to say "take out your endowments." You receive your endowment just like you receive any other gift from God. It's far more correct to say you "are endowed." Just something I heard from a temple worker and read in the Ensign. I can't for the life of me figure out why that's so ingrained in the Mormon colloquial vocabulary, because as a word nerd, the construction makes no sense to me. Oh well. Rant over. 

God loves you and I do too! Keep on smiling and testifying.

I'll start again and whatever pain may come - 10/28/13

Well, another week in paradise. Hopefully you all got the picture I sent out of me and the Elders that I live with. The apartment I live in has been an Elders apartment for probably three years now, and it definitely looks like a missionary apartment. Right now we have a lamp in the bathroom because the light fixture is acting up. And the shower kind of sucks, I can't get any water pressure and I'm not quite used to the finesse required to get the temperature that I want. So it's a learning curve.

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life.  "KH" who I started teaching 11 months ago, finally got baptized. I walked into the chapel and remembered the names of everybody I saw except for the one family that moved in after I left but I quickly introduced myself to them. Most of the people there came up and said hi to me, which felt awesome. The one kid that told me he's serving a mission because of me was there, as was my family that I baptized first on my mission. I was so happy to see the girls! "M" sat down next to me and we bonded while the baptism was going on. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, it was "J" that actually brought her daughters. I didn't think she would set foot in the church but she did and stayed for the whole baptism. That touched me deeply. She's been inactive since the day of her confirmation.

If there were any people around who thought it was inappropriate for missionaries to hug people, they sure kept quiet, because everybody was giving me hugs, men women and children. Including Jody. I got a handful of pictures, too.

The baptism was full of the spirit. "K" started crying 30 seconds into my talk on baptism and I don't think she let up until after she got out of the water. She has come such a long way! And there were detours and backsliding and sister missionaries that she didn't like along the way, but she got a testimony, she got married, and now she made the step of baptism. My talk was probably the best baptism talk I've ever given. I was so happy for her. It was literally one of the best days of my life so far. 

The new ward seems pretty good. Our ward mission leader is super stoked about missionary work and is trying his hardest to rally the ward members around our banner. There are lots of old people but it's far more diverse age-wise than I was initially led to believe. I don't really know anybody but I'll get there, I'm sure. I've met all of our investigators, and there are only a handful of them. But we picked up two more this week in a super-spiritual lesson! I'm gaining confidence in my teaching abilities again. Now we just need to find them.

Love you tons! Have an awesome week guys.