Hermana Juliet Hansen .... The Gospel of Jesus Christ is like ridding your clothes of stains

Good morning!!

 

One of the coolest experiences this week happened on sunday, After church our bishop introduced us to a lady named D.......  and the first thing that she says to us is, "I want to be baptised. What's the process?" Never before have I ever had someone come up to me and say that they want to be baptised!! She said that she had gone to church when she was a child because her dad is a member but she had never been baptised. Then recently a friend of hers started introducing her to the church again and she wants to join. So we got everything sorted out so we could start teaching her this week and we invited her to an activity later that day. And she went to the activity, with her mom and loved it! And it appears that her mom is also interested in learning more about the church. How great!!

 

So the activity that D....... went to was a missionary fireside that all the Spanish missionaries in the valley put together. It was a great experience and it was fairly well attended. I had the opportunity to sing in a small missionary choir and it was amazing. There was a point when we were singing "How Great Thou Art!" and the spirit was just radiating throughout the room. It was truly a moment where you could feel that all of us were singing what we truly believed. And as we looked out into the audience we could see some people shedding tears as they felt the spirit. I couldn't help but smile the whole time because of the joy that I felt. There really is no better feeling than to know that the words you are sharing though song can touch a heart. I LOVE how much music invites the spirit!!!

 

We had another amazing lesson with S....... this week. She talked about how she's been reading the Book of Mormon and everytime that she does she feels so much more peace in her life. And she says that she has felt the same way when she goes to church. I love that this is the way that the Spirit is testifying to her that the Book of Mormon is true. She really is moving forward in her testimony of the gospel.

Before that lesson with S........, Hna Whetten and I came up with this little object lesson...

 

Imagine that you have a favorite shirt, dress, etc. And tomorrow you have a job interview and you want to wear this shirt. But you love it so much that you decided to wear it today. You go to eat an ice-cream cone but much to your dismay it falls onto your shirt. And now you have a huge chocolate stain on this shirt. You can't go to your interview looking like that!!! So you try to do a quick remedy with your "tide to go" pen. It helps to remove the stain some but there's still a faint outline. So when you go home you throw the shirt in the wash, then the dryer. And then you iron it out to fully prepare it for the interview.

 

Now compare this process with the shirt to your life. The shirt is you. The chocolate ice cream stain is sin. The "Tide to go" pen is repentance. The washing machine is baptism. The dryer is receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. And ironing is enduring to the end. We all sin and when we do we have to put forth effort to repent of our sins. But we can't be completely rid of those sins until we are baptised (or partake of the sacrament each week). So we need to be completely immersed in the water just like the shirt is. But we can't go around in a completely soaking shirt. We have to apply heat. And that's the same with baptism. It isn't complete until we receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost (baptism by fire). And then for the rest of our life we need to keep doing what the Lord requires, enduring to the end or ironing out our wrinkles. And if we do all of these things we will be prepared for that big interview with our Heavenly Father.

 

I love all of you and pray for you.

 

Have an amazing week.

 

Con amor,

Hermana Hansen