Monday, July 2, 2012

Hermana Juliet Hansen - Lessons Learned From The Bible


Hi everyone!
 
So I can't believe I forgot to mention this last week. So almost two weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to the LA temple. It is always so amazing to be able to go to the temple and feel of the strong spirit that is there. Almost the entire mission went that day to kind of bid a fond farewell to our mission president and his wife. I had a really amazing experience as I was sitting in the celestial room after the session was done. I decided that I wanted to pray to Heavenly Father and ask him if he was happy with how I had done the first half of my mission. So that's what I did. I sat down and I asked God. And after I prayed I felt a great sense of love. It wasn't overwhelming but was enough to know that God had heard my prayer and was pleased with me. I'm grateful to know that I am doing what is right in the sight of the Lord.
 
This past week we had the opportunity to receive one last training from President Martin before he left the mission on Saturday. The training that he gave us was the training that he would give to every missionary before they went home. And part of the training that he gave was "Jerry Martin's 10 commandments for career success." For your information these are what they were...
 
1) Choose a career you can fall in love with
2) Weigh the lifestyle implications of your career choices every step of the way. (i.e. will you be able to go on vacations with the family, will you have to work on sundays, etc.)
3) Select good supervisors and role models
4) Add value every day (i.e. always be a high-value contributor. Deliver a little bit more than expected)
5) Become a quick change artist
6) Be a problem solver and not a problem pointer
7) Learn to be an effective team player
8) Surround yourself with people who challenge you
9) Attitude is a personal responsibility
10) Nurture your life anchors (i.e. God and family)
(These must work if President Martin was able to become an executive CEO of FritoLay) 
 
I was really grateful for the training that he gave. Even though these were points on how to be successful in business and career, I was able to learn some great things on how to be a better missionary.
 
And lastly I would just like to share with you the experience that I've had with the Bible. For a while now I've been contemplating if I should work on reading the Old Testament while I'm on my mission. I would go back and forth wondering if it would really be worth my time (in the essence of would it benefit my investigators). Well last week I decided that I would go ahead and start reading it. And I would do it in Spanish so it could count as language study. And I have learned that it indeed has been worth it. I LOVE the Bible. And the stories are so applicable. One lesson that I learned was from the story of Noah. There is something important from Genesis 8: 20. Noah and his family had been on the ark for approxiametly 150 days (40 days of rain and 110 days of water receeding) and when finally they were able to walk on dry ground Noah built an altar and offered a sacrifice to God. So my question for you all is....when we go through our own personal floods (temptations, sicknesses, etc), when it is all said and done do we take the time to offer up sacrifices (give thanks) to the Lord for the things that we have experienced?
 
Con mucho amor,
 
Hermana Hansen

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