Hola Familia y Amigos!!!!
This week was honestly pretty hard! I feel like we worked harder than we ever have but found ZERO people to teach this week. But we haven't been discouraged at all. I feel that the one thing that kept me going strongly this week was love. Love for the people, love for this area, love for my calling, and love for my Savior, Jesus Christ.
One day this week we decided to go work in Windom, which is about 30 minutes away from our area. We haven't done much finding there, and there a ton of less active members that we wanted to go find and invite to church! We knocked on a less-active member's door, but she wasn't home. So naturally we knocked on her neighbor's door! A family from India answered the door, and they were very kind, but not interested at the moment. The mom actually tried to give us money to give to our church. That was a first! Haha. We thanked her but told her we weren't allowed to take it and directed her to lds.org where she can donate. The miracle happened when we asked them if they knew anyone who would benefit from the message that we share about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. Her young son looked up at us and said, "Oh wait, I do!" He tried to describe to us where his friends house was, but we weren't really following. So he put on his shoes and walked with us all the way to his friends house!!!! It was the sweetest thing ever. We met his friend, Simon and talked with his mom a bit. His mom was busy but said we could come back later. We were so touched by the experience that we took a picture with the two boys. I'm starting to think they should send out little kids on missions instead of us. They are FEARLESS! (I know that probably wouldn't be logical though, haha).
This week we taught Dora a lesson about Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We know for a fact that Sunday is usually the day she does her shopping and goes to the laundromat, so we were a little nervous to teach it. When we extended the commitment to her to keep the Sabbath Day Holy, we were a bit nervous about what she would say. She took a breath, paused, and then she said, "Si, no gastando dinero es facil porque no tengo dinero!!!!" ("Yes, not spending money is easy because I don't have money!!!!!") I was laughing so hard, that was not the response we expected! She was joking of course, but was still serious about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We are so proud of her readiness to accept the gospel. I can't remember if I mentioned this last week, but we found out her son just turned 8 years old and he will be baptized with her!
I feel that the hardest thing about this week was Sunday. Sunday as a missionary is honestly like running a marathon. In sacrament meeting one of the speakers forgot his talk so they asked us to speak last minute, even though we were already giving the musical number too. I'm beginning to realize that being asked to speak last minute as missionaries isn't uncommon, haha. I spoke first in English, then in Spanish for the Spanish members, and then Hermana Thacker and I sang a duet together, "Come Unto Christ." We recorded one of the practices we did so I'll attach it! We then translated the rest of Sacrament Meeting, taught the lesson in second hour to the Spanish class as usual, and translated in Relief Society as usual. By the end of church I am usually wiped out. At the end of all the classes, a spanish member that we are very close to pulled Hermana Thacker and I aside. We ended up talking to her for 30 minutes. She told us that she is moving to another state for a few months to help one of her daughters that is getting married there. She told us about some trials that her family is facing and Hermana Thacker and I just sat and listened. She has a lot of sad things happening in her family -- things I have heard about my whole life, but never had it sunk so deep into my heart before. I was trying to hold back tears the whole time that she was talking. I felt genuine sadness for her and I had never felt that before. I realized that it was because I love this member SO MUCH. I didn't want her to move away, and I didn't want her to have to go through the hard things she's going through. I didn't know that sadness could come from loving someone and caring about them so much.
Last night I prayed so hard for that member, and the sadness I had turned into peace and calm. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan and that everything is going to work out. I'm so thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that can take away sadness and pain. Although missionary work can be burdening, I have found that LOVE is always the cure. That's what keeps me going. I am so happy, I love this gospel, and I know that it is true!
I hope you all have a great week!
Con Amor,
Hermana Hansen
Pictures:
1. This is a lady we are teaching named Leanor! Her cat just had some kittens and she let us hold them after the lesson we had with her. So cute.
2. We ran over a chunk of sharp metal this week and it popped our tire. We had to call a member to come put the spare on for us hahaha. It was so embarrassing and funny.
3. This the picture we took with the boy we met who walked with us all the way to meet his friend!
4. Thank you to whoever sent us a box of hot chocolate from Amazon!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!! It didn't have a name on it.
5-6: For our preparation day activity today a member invited us over to create these flower pot things made of old tires. It was so fun!!!
7: This is Hermana Thacker and I practicing for the song we sang in church! (I am the second one that sings)
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