Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a wonderful Mothers Day! It was wonderful here to be able to talk to the family and to be able to see them. Skype is the greatest invention ever! Anyway, it's been a wonderful and crazy week. It seems like everyday on the mission something weird happens. I've never seen or met so many interesting people as I have here in Tempe. We just love being able to learn about different lifestyles and seeing how much God loves them all still. It also makes me so grateful for the chance I had to grow up in a family with the gospel. So many of the families that we see and people that we talk to have had many trials in their lives- trials that could have been avoided with the truth of Jesus Christ. But I'm glad that we can be here to help them through their trials and to find hope and joy.
This week we taught a lesson to one man that is married to a member. His wife just went through the temple and seeing her joy in that and her example has really opened him up to the gospel. We had an awesome lesson about the Book of Mormon. The spirit was there very strong and he shared with us some experiences that he's had lately that have lead him to think that God is aware of him personally. He was very receptive to the Spirit and committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it this week. We have another lesson soon and we're excited to see where that goes.
We also were able to talk a little bit more with a man I think I told you about last week-Kenny. We met him about a week and a half ago and felt like we really needed to talk with him more. He's an alcoholic and he's been trying to get over it for a while. This week we went back and visited him and he was very glad to see us. He had tears in his eyes and told us that the last weekend he'd wanted to come to church and had even bought new clothes for it. But the night before he had gotten really drunk and the next thing he knew he was in the hospital. He told us that the nurses told him that he had stopped breathing for a bit. He's in a really bad situation right now, but as we talked to him, we again felt the love the Lord has for him and we told him that this was the Lord giving him a second chance and that we knew He had a plan for him and only saw the best in him. It's so crazy the ways the Lord is influencing people and leads them to the church. We brought the elders in our district by later and gave him a priesthood blessing of strength to begin to get over his addiction and commited him to coming to church. He didn't show up yesterday, but we have hope that he will find the help he needs here in Jesus Christ's church. He's told us before that sometimes he feels ashamed showing up at church because he doesn't feel good enough. We hope to help him see how much he is wanted and needed.
It has been super hot down here! It's already hitting in the 100s and it will only get worse as the summer goes on. We're not too excited about it, but we've heard that in good ol' Utah it's still snowing, so I guess we better be grateful. The people here are really sweet too and give us water all the time to make sure that we stay hydrated.
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of time today to write more, but life here is good. I love Sister Norton so much! She knows me so much better than I know myself and knows just what to do when I get stressed to comfort me and also to push me to be better. I'm so blessed to have her! Love you all and hope you are all doing well with life. Please continue to keep me updated!
Con Amor,
Hermana Hansen
We had so much fun skyping with Anneli. It was so fun to see her while we talked to her and her sweet, darling companion was with her the whole time so it was fun to visit with her. Anneli absolutely loves her mission. It is so fun to see her grow in the gospel. I'm so greatful for modern technology and for sweet members that will let missionaries use their equipment. At the end of our hour long visit we were able to give her a group hug. So fun!!!!
Andrea (Anneli's mom)
No comments:
Post a Comment