We were able to teach both Maria and Marlene a few times this week. They are both just so solid in their testimonies. Maria is planning on being baptized this month and we just need to find a way to get Marlene married and then she'll get baptized. I am amazed by how willing they are to change their lives for the gospel and for Heavenly Father. We taught the word of wisdom this week and Maria was willing to give up her coffee. She said that if God said she shouldn't have it, that was good enough for her. She is doing so well! We love them so much too! They are becoming some of our very dear friends!
Thanksgiving day was wonderful. As missionaries we had only a few hours to do missionary work and the rest of the day we spent together. We hiked A Mountain on ASU campus again and that afternoon a sweet couple in our stake fed all of us Thanksgiving dinner and it was so good! We really enjoyed ourselves too and I felt so grateful just to be with such good people all day and to be learning from their examples.
This week we were able to talk to Patricio. He's not doing well. He told us that he knows that the chruch is true and he has no doubts about it, but right now, he needs time to figure out what he wants with life. It's so sad, but surprisingly, I feel very calm about it. I feel at peace that the Lord is helping him and eventually he will make the right decision to follow God.
We also have had some funny experiences this week. We taught some lessons to new people, Lucy and her mom. They are such a cute bunch of people but hardly have any knowledge about God. As we taught them about prophets they came to the conclusion in the lesson, that we were prophets. It was so silly! We had to try to re-explain to them what a prophet was and to help them understand that we definitely are not prophets! Also, one of our investigators, Willy, loves this one song on the radio right now, Rolling in the Deep by Adele and he's always yelling that at the top of his lungs though he barely knows what the words are in english. But he has an amazing memory and that is helping him a lot as he learns about the gospel. We're excited to have his baptism in the next few weeks!
This week we also had Spanish training for the Spanish missionaries. We have some very inspiring missionaries in our mission and I am so inspired by their examples. I honestly feel like we were "taught from on high" as we discussed what we could do to love the culture more, to be better teachers, and to find more people to teach. We have felt very strongly that in our ward and area we need to start teaching english lessons because there seems to be a great need for it and we feel it would help us find people that are also ready for the gospel. We're excited to work with our ward to get that going.
Well, it's been a wonderful week. I feel like the Lord has helped me to see that even though everything doesn't go as I plan, that He has an even better plan. We have a lot of investigators that are progressing towards baptism, but keep having a few setbacks, but we know that the Lord is in charge and in His time, they will be baptized and progress in His gospel. I love being a missionary and am so blessed to help people, especially the wonderful latin-american culture! Don't ever think that they are anything less than wonderful!
love you all,
Hermana Anneli Hansen
