Miracles this Week

Wow! This week has been so wonderful! There truly have been so many little miracles and blessings. I feel like I've grown so much this week from these experiences and can see the hand of the Lord in all that I am doing. First of all, I am would just like to say that I am grateful for trials. I am grateful for these growing pains that we have in life and the chance to stretch myself and grow in order to become closer to the Savior and also in order to "forget myself and go to work". When I first got here to Arizona, my mission president, President Howes told us that each missionary has his/her own capacity and all that matters is that they try their best and the Lord will love them and bless them and their work for their efforts. There's no doubt that I have noticed that as I've been here in Tempe. I can see that I have many weaknesses and I am not strong in a lot of areas, but I truly am trying my best and through it, I can feel myself grow and progress. I can see the Lord's hand in the work and I can feel love for these people and the love of the Lord for me and for my efforts.
Let me tell you just a few of the miracles that happened this week. We had a lesson on wednesday with Beto, our little friend that has known for a while that he needs to be baptized, but something has held him back. He told us last week, that he would pray about a date for baptism, but when we got to his house that night, he hadn't prayed. So we talked a little bit about that and had a really good lesson, but ultimately we weren't sure what to do to help him. I love him and his family so much and we have grown pretty close to them over that past few weeks, so we feel very comfortable talking to Beto. He loves to joke around with us and started joking about his baptism and somehow we started planning the program for the baptism, but still we had no date. It was so silly! He knew he was going to get baptized, but still he would not tell us when. So we started talking about a potential date for his baptism. We asked him which date he thought might work for him and he became very serious. With the help of his wife, they chose a date that they
thought might be good, the 25th of June. Hermana Norton, the wise little missionary that she is, asked him if he wanted to pray right then and there about that date. We weren't sure if he'd actually do it, but we started getting up from our chairs to kneel and slowly, but surely, he came too. His wife ran and got the kids because she knew this would be an awesome experience. Once we were all together, Beto said the prayer. It was the most beautiful, sincere prayer. He humbly told the Lord that he wanted to follow him and keep the commandments and asked for himself if he should be baptized on the 25th of June. The Spirit was so strong and as the prayer finished and we all looked up, we were all crying. Then they all pulled each other into a big hug. That was one of the most incredible experiences that I've ever had. To see the effect the Savior and the gospel can have on someone to change their lives completely is so beautiful! Beto's wife, who is a member, was so happy! They are going to be a forever family! They are already talking about going to the Salt Lake Temple next year to be sealed before their son leaves on his mission. I am so content...
That was only the beginning of the miracles that came from this week. We also had a family that came to church this week after the first lesson. For hispanics, it's a big deal to get them to come to church after just one lesson, so we were very pleasantly surprised. They are super sweet people and I think they enjoyed most of church. It was a little overwhelming for them, partly because our ward mission leader attacked them by asking them about being baptized. We just pray that they still are interested. We have a lesson tonight, so we'll see how that goes.
Also, another kind of silly miracles happened. We have this awesome family, Maria and Juan, that we've been trying to teach for a few weeks, but have failed to actually teach them anything because everytime we go over to their house, they talk and talk and talk and talk. We never have a chance to get in more then a word at a time because they love to tell us stories of how much Jesus Christ has helped them through their lives. We love hearing their stories so much, but also wanted to share the message we had with them. Also, they tend to feed us a lot when we go over to their house and we'd already eaten that night and were so stuffed. So as we went into the lesson, we prayed that they would speak less so we could have the opportunity to teach and that they wouldn't feed us. One of the silliest sounding prayers that I can remember, but it worked! When we got to their apartment, they were sitting their watching a soccer game, but as we sat down to talk to them, they turned the TV off and told us that they had realized that they hadn't given us the opportunity to share our message yet and they wanted to hear. It was incredible! And we had an awesome lesson with them and they listened enough so that we could teach them. They were super interested in the Book of Mormon and they are excited to learn more about Jesus Christ. What a miracle! And they didn't offer us any food too, which is almost an even bigger miracle! From that I learned that God cares about us and wants to answer even the silliest prayers. He knows how important this work is and he cares about Maria and Juan a lot. So cool!
This week we also had an awesome mission training and I learned a lot about love and about being lovingly bold, which is something I really need to work on (especially the 'bold' part). I felt the Spirit so strong and was just so grateful to be able to be with the other missionaries. There really is a such a strength when we're all together and I learn so much from each of them. This training will continue every friday for the rest of the month, so I'm excited for the blessing of getting to learn and grow more from them.
Well, I don't have a lot of time left, but there are many miracles I've seen this week. I know that the Lord lives and truly loves us. I know that He is there and cares about the things going on in our lives, more than we even realize. This week, Hermana Norton recieved a copy of the by Mark Mabry of staged photographs from Christ's visit to the Americas. Looking at them is a spiritual experience in itself. He did a wonderful job of depicting the love and power of the Savior in our lives.

love,
Hermana Anneli Hansen