It has been a wonderful week! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. It was amazing here. I really felt the Spirit of the Easter season because we are surrounded by people of other faiths that celebrate la Santa Semana (the Holy Week) and I heard a little about it. It kind of helped me to think about what our Savior has done for us throughout the week. I know that He lives! Yesterday we had the chance to go to 3 wards and be flooded with the Spirit of Easter. It was awesome. One of the members in the Spanish branch also gave us all necklaces for Easter. Another member sang Yo Se Que Vive Mi Senor (I know that my redeemer lives) at dinner for us. I love Hispanics!
This weekend we had Ashely's baptism. Ashley the younger, the 17 year old. :) It was an amazing baptism and the Spirit was there so strong. Her less active dad and non-member mom came and we hope they were able to feel it. Hermana Staples was so excited and so she tried to make sure that everything was perfect. And it was nearly perfect, but there's always a few little bumbs, but you just end up laughing about them later. Jeremy, her boyfriend, baptized her, but he was so nervous and before was trying to make sure he remembered the words to the prayer. But he did a great job. And she was just so happy and so ready to be baptized. We're so happy for her and for the support that she has from her friends and from the stake! One of the young women leaders told her that Heavenly Father was having a big party for her in Heaven. :)
The other Ashely has been having some struggles, so she didn't get baptized this week. She is still working on smoking, but she's going strong. We've been visiting with her every morning and studying the scriptures with her and it's been a great blessing. She had one day when she was sent some material that was against the church and it really confused her, but as we were talking to her we felt prompted to ask her to kneel and pray again to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if this is the path she should take. She did pray then and there and as she did, the Spirit just flooded the room and we could all feel it and she knew that this was right. We feel so blessed to be able to continue to help her progress and grow. She has a lot of opposition, but she'll make it through. I know Heavenly Father is helping her.
We taught many other good lessons. Things are going very well here. We really want to find more people to teach as well. Some of the people we teach aren't really progressing, so we hope to be able to start teaching new people soon. We started teaching a less active man this week named Daryl that really wants to come back to chruch and he's really excited. We also have been teaching a hispanic lady named Clara that is super sweet and I think she has a lot of potential. We'll see.
Recently the Lord has been teaching me a lot about having faith in Him and not worrying. I am such a silly worrier and it can really effect my outlook on my day, but the Lord is so good to me and He shows me that it's not worth it. This morning the scripture from Proverbs 3:5-6 came into my head: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths. I know the Lord truly cares about each of us so much and He is in charge, so I have nothing to worry about. I also have some wonderful examples around me that are really helping me. One of the Zone Leaders here is always so positive and also living with Hermana Taylor and her abilitiy to not worry about anything is amazing!
The Lord has also been helping me to love people more. I loved the conference talks by Elder Uchtdorf and Holland that talked about how we treat others. I feel like we could all pick things out of there to work on, but I felt some parts of it especially spoke to me. The Lord really is molding and shaping me on this mission and I'm so grateful. I see all my weaknesses, but He sees my potential.
Somehow last week I skipped writing about one of my favorite parts of conference. It was from Elder Evan's talk when he encouraged members to be writing letters to missionaries. Hint, hint. :) Well, that's about all I have time for this week. Hope all is going well at home. I would love to hear from you all and about all your adventures. Have a great week!
love,
Hermana Anneli Hansen
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