Well, it has been a really good week and and lot of great things have happened, but there were also some very hard things that happened. I know I'm supposed to be here and I know the Lord has a lot for me to learn, but this is turning out to probably be the hardest transfer so far. At the beginning of the transfer I decided that I needed to be more humble. And BOY, the Lord is teaching me humility. But there are a lot of little tender mercies along the way too.
One of the biggest blessings this week is that we had an amazing lesson with Ashley. We talked with her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and as we talked about the Spirit, she told us that every time she meets with us she feels the feelings we've been discribing. She said that everytime she tries to talk during lessons, she feels like she's going to tear up because she feels those feelings so strong. That was an amazing opportunity to testify of the power of the Spirit in our lives and how much it can help us. Also the other Ashley that we are teaching told us at church yesterday that she wants to be baptized. Tonight we plan to talk to her about getting married to her boyfriend because that's one thing she'll have to do before getting baptized. But we're super excited for her!
This last wednesday we had a full, full day. It was a blessed leap day. We had a lesson every single hour and we ended up teaching 7 lessons and going to a baptism with an investigator. That was a huge blessing. As time goes on, I want to get more and more done in each day to make sure that I really can do all I can on my mission. And this was a huge blessing for me. I can't believe all we can get done in one day and how many people we can touch. It's amazing!
We taught a few new people this week. One was a middle-aged man named Mike, who has recently been through a bitter divorce and is really searching for peace from the Lord. We taught him a little bit about the Book of Mormon and listened to his sorrows and testified of the healing power of this wonderful book of scripture. He was so excited to read it and so grateful to us, but because of where he lives, some other elders will be teaching him. He's such a sweet man and we know those elders will teach him and that he's in good hands. We also had some member referrals for some other peopel, a woman named Lisa and a couple, Melinda and Marcos. They both are searching for something new in their lives and we know what we have is what they are looking for.
Our Sunday was probably the hardest day. After a long week I was super tired waking up Sunday. But I was excited for the day and what good things would happen. Then we went to church. We had a ward council meeting with one of our wards and during it the whole ward council attacked our missionary efforts. I never thought I would get attacked by other members, but it happened yesterday. We've been having some sticky situations with some of our investigators and we've been trying to figure out how to handle them tactfully, but the ward when they saw the situations we were in critized every single person we were teaching and all our efforts. We've been trying so hard in this particular ward to get the work going and to help them, but it was hard because they didn't see it at all. They were pretty rash about their comments they made to us and were very critical of us. I don't want to be bitter to this ward and I don't want to hold it against them, but I doesn't mean that it didn't make the day hard. Then we went to one of our other wards and found out that Cherie who was getting baptized this week had decided that she no longer wanted to be baptized and didn't want anything to do with the church anymore. It was a hard day and we all cried our fair share, but we know the Lord has things to teach us, humility being one of them. I would just ask to keep me in your prayers so that I can be strong.
Each day we grow so much as a companionship and the trials and stresses we had this week really have brought us together. I love my companions. They are amazing! They really help lift me up and make me better. Each day we learn so much from each other and grow 10 times more than we did before. One thing we've been talking a lot about as a companionship is "Looking Up", from the talk shared in conference "It's Better to Look Up" It's crazy how many scriptures talk about that. This week alone we have found about 10 and we love to share them with each other. Here are a few: Jacob 3:1 and D&C 6:36-37.
Well, my time is up and I better go. Love you all so much! Have a wonderful week and Happy March!
love,
Hermana Anneli Hansen
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