Hola Familia y Amigos!!!
I turn 20 this week!!!! Thank you for those who sent me birthday wishes! Also, I hit my 4th month mark this week. Time has flown, but at the same time I feel like I've been on my mission forever. Bien loco.
This week we had Zone Conference and we had the privilege of hearing from Elder Anderson (of the 70, not of the 12). It was probably one of the most spiritually edifying meetings of my life. Sister Thacker played the violin and did a BEAUTIFUL job, it really brought the spirit!
This week we had Zone Conference and we had the privilege of hearing from Elder Anderson (of the 70, not of the 12). It was probably one of the most spiritually edifying meetings of my life. Sister Thacker played the violin and did a BEAUTIFUL job, it really brought the spirit!
Some of the key points I learned at conference was that we need to be BOLD! We see patterns in the scriptures of the prophets and Jesus Christ Himself being extremely bold in the doctrine. He taught that we should never be afraid of hard doctrine. We need to teach simply, and very straight forward, and the spirit will do the rest! For example, when teaching someone who is a strong member of another faith, we need to bear testimony by saying: "We know that this is the ONLY true church on Earth, and living the gospel is the ONLY way we can return back to our Heavenly Father again." We cannot be afraid of telling the truth, whether they are from a different religion or not!
Looking back at the 2 transfers I've been here, I realized I have not been as bold as I need to. Sister Thacker and I tend to find a LOT of people to teach here in Worthington, but we've seen a pattern that most of them end up not really being interested, or they just never answer the phone or the door. At the end of the conference, we ran into Sister Anderson and we were able to talk to her one-on-one! She asked Sister Thacker and I specifically if we had any questions. We asked how we could avoid this problem. She gave us the most amazing advice. She told us the most effective door approach she has ever seen has been stated something like this:
Looking back at the 2 transfers I've been here, I realized I have not been as bold as I need to. Sister Thacker and I tend to find a LOT of people to teach here in Worthington, but we've seen a pattern that most of them end up not really being interested, or they just never answer the phone or the door. At the end of the conference, we ran into Sister Anderson and we were able to talk to her one-on-one! She asked Sister Thacker and I specifically if we had any questions. We asked how we could avoid this problem. She gave us the most amazing advice. She told us the most effective door approach she has ever seen has been stated something like this:
"We are Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we have a message that will change your life. We are looking for people who are ready to repent of their sins and be baptized into Jesus Christ's church, which has been restored and is back on the earth today. Are you interested?"
Usually when we do door approaches we have some small talk and give a short restoration lesson and ask if we can come back and teach more, and the Hispanics here are amazingly nice, whether or not they're really interested, so they usually say yes. We've realized that because of this, we haven't been finding people who are really READY! So this week we have been trying out this approach. We've noticed a huge change. We haven't have found as many people to teach, but the few we found seem to be truly eager, and ready to make changes in their lives!
It's been an amazing week. Another highlight is that Dora came to Stake Conference (which was broadcasted to our church because it was in Sioux Falls, SD), even though she couldn't understand anything. A couple other spanish families came, and the headsets for translating were not working. It was very stressful! We gathered all of the Spanish speakers out in the hall so they could still see the screen, and translated conference for 2 HOURS!!! It was literally so stressful and Sister Thacker and I wanted to cry afterward. We're pretty sure most of the spanish members couldn't really hear or understand our broken spanish either. We were so thankful when some of the English speakers in the ward saw our stress. They noticed that it really isn't ideal for us to be translating for that long, especially when the Spanish Speakers can't really understand us. One of our English members had an AMAZING idea that we should split up the Spanish and English members during sacrament meeting and have the Spanish members do the 1st hour together in the Primary room! Then they can actually be involved in giving talks, and edify each other in their own language. The idea is going up to be discussed in the Stake Council, so we will be PRAYING that this change can happen in our branch! That would be so huge for our members.
I tried so hard to make my email short this week but it still ended up being super long. Sorry bout that. I guess I just can't help but share how amazing this work is!!!! I am so happy! I am officially done being trained, tomorrow we find out if Sister Thacker is being transferred!
Have an amazing General Conference weekend everyone! Love you!!!
--Hermana Hansen--
Pictures:
1-2: We got to carpool to Zone Conference with HERMANA IVERSON! It's always such a thrill to see her. She even remembered that my birthday is this Friday, October 5th!!! They made me brownies. (Notice the fake candles, we can't use fire as missionaries hahaha)
3. Zone Conference! (It was combined with half of the mission)
4. We got Tres-Leches at the Panaderia today! A cute hispanic bakery outside our apartment :)
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