Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Hermana Juliet Hansen - And the learning continues...


Hello everyone!
 
This week has been a big learning curve for me. Going to a new area, a new companion, and becoming senior companion. A lot of changes in a short amount of time. But every day I'm getting a little bit better and a little bit more comfortable in the area.  
 
We're working a lot with our area book and trying to find old investigators to see if they would be interested in listening to the missionaries again. We've actually had some success with that.
One day we were looking for a man named Antonio. We knocked his door and started talking to him and he really gave off the impression that he didn't want to talk to us. So we left after a couple of minutes. I came away feeling like we wouldn't ever see him again but Hna Fish felt like we weren't done with him, that he still had some potential. We then realized that we hadn't knocked some of the other people that live in his complex so we turned around and went back in. We walk by and Antonio starts coming down his stairs to talk to us again. He was like "Wait! I have a question. Why are there so many churches?" I was floored. I don't know what changed from when we were talking to him at his door to two minutes later when we were walking by his staircase. But whatever happened we ended up talking to him for 20 minutes or so about how so many churches came to be. We then left him with a pamphlet on the restoration to read. Hopefully we can visit with him again this week and talk more....hopefully in his home and not on the staircase :)

Another day we decided that we would try to visit a family that had met with the missionaries a little over a year ago. Often times if it's been that long the people will have moved but miracle of miracle we were able to find the wife at home. This family seems so great. They loved coming to church last year but they stopped progressing because his mother showed them some anti-mormon literature. Well, the wife was incredibly welcoming. She remembered fondly the missionaries that had taught her before and she was very open to us coming back to visit. What was interesting was that in the short time that we talked with her, we learned that her husband is good friends with one of the members in our ward. So we talked with that member and he was absolutely thrilled to hear that we had found that family again. So tonight we are going with the member to visit with them.
 
We also have started teaching a 10 year old girl named Katherine. She is terrific. She is the daughter of a less active member who really wants to come back to church. We taught Katherine for the first time this week and she literally soaked everything up like a sponge. We asked to read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon before we came and visited again. And she said that she would have the first 8 chapters read!! Hardly ever does someone say that they will do more than what we assign them. Generally, they'll say well I'll try to read the chapter but I won't make any promises. She actually said that she would read way more!! Then on Sunday I asked her if she had been reading. And she said yes and that she found it to be really interesting. Hallelujah!!! We set a date with her to be baptised the 27th of this month. The only thing that would potentially keep that from happening is if her dad doesn't give permission. But we have an appointment for Wednesday and hopefully we can talk to him then.
 
So many awesome people live here. The members are terrific [they feed us a ton, so I may gain a bajillion pounds but hopefully not :)]. There are so many areas of untapped potential to find more investigators. Many of the investigators that we do have, have such a desire to learn and progress.
 
Looking back on the week it has been a really refreshing change of pace.
 
I continue to learn every day from my study of the New Testament. This week I finished Romans and read a lot in 1 Corinthians. If you ever want to know how you can become more like Christ, I would suggest reading Romans 12. I LOVE that chapter.
 
Well, that's all for now. I love you all and pray for you.
 
Con amor,
 
Hermana Hansen 

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