Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Hermana Juliet Hansen - First Week in the Field

Hello All from lovely California,
 
I'm really enjoying the field. At first it was a rough transition from the MTC but now I feel like I have this under my belt and understand better how being in the field works. There is a saying in the MTC that if you can make it to Sunday you'll be okay. Well, I believe that this statement applies to the field as well. If we can make it to Sunday then we can make it the rest of the week.
 
So my first companion is Hermana White. She is awesome. She is from Texas and has been out in the field for 10 months. She has been so helpful as I've been transitioning into the field. I've already learned a lot from her and I'm excited to work with her for the next 12 weeks.
 
Okay so I have a pretty amazing story. Thursday after we had our training with the President, Sister White and I returned to the apartment to study for a little bit and it wasn't even 10 minutes in when I felt really strongly that we should go out and tract. I tried to ignore it but it was like I could not focus on anything else. My mind was like, "TRACT!, TRACT!, TRACT!". So I turned to Sister White and said to her "So this is weird but I really feel like we should go tract right now." She asked if I knew where and I had no idea all I knew was that we needed to go out and tract. So we got in the car and drove. We didn't know where we needed to go but eventually we got to this street and we both felt like we needed to turn there. So we did. We knocked doors and initially didn't have much success but then we got to the fourth door. Before this all of the people pretty much slammed the door in our faces but when we got to this door the lady actually listened to what we had to say. Sister White shared a wonderful message about eternal families and then we asked if we could come in and share a short message. And she let us in the house. We taught her about prayer and learned some more about her and her family. She seemed really receptive. At the end of the lesson we asked if we could come back and teach some more and she said we could. Saturday we went back and taught a little more about prayer (for the benefit of her daughter) and about the apostasy. And we are going back tonight to teach again. I love this family. The mom's name is (.....)  and we are also teaching her son, daughter, and her daughter's best friend. They are a special family. There is such a light in the daughter and her friend when we are with them. You can tell that life has not been easy but they are so excited to learn. Tonight we are going to teach them again but this time the Dad is going to be there and hopefully his heart is as open as everyone else. I can't wait to see how everything goes with this family. I know that God really did lead us to them and I really feel like they have been prepared to hear the Gospel. If we are willing to heed the promptings of the spirit we can be lead to great things.
 
I'm so excited for Thanksgiving this week. Mainly because it is the opportunity we have to give thanks for everything that we have in this life. I have a gratitude notebook and in it I have a list of over 100 things that I'm grateful for. I would encourage you all to make a list of your own. Some of the things that I'm grateful for this year are:
- my family
- the opportunity to be a missionary
- fall colors
- Hispanic food (it is so amazing here!!)
 
What are you thankful for??
 
Love you all so much.
 
Til next week,
 
Hermana Juliet Hansen
 
p.s. I tried this Peruvian drink made out of purple corn. It is delicious. Whoever knew that corn juice could taste like bubble gum.

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