I love this week! It was so good! There were a lot of blessings and even though not everything was perfect, I felt so much joy!
I don't think I told you last week, but we had a really interesting experience with a homeless guy on the street. We went up to him to talk about the church and he was really nice at first, but then began to tell us how lost we were. He told us that we were brainwashed and that we didn't know what we were doing. He began to tell us some crazy things about Jesus that weren't true and it was just a little crazy. We tried to just bare our testimonies and leave, but he got angier and angrier. Hermana Norton was telling him that we respected his beliefs and he started yelling at us and telling us that we didn't respect him because we didn't have an open heart to what he was telling us. Then he told us that he was an "apostle" and as we were just leaving he told us that we were "servants of Satan". Wow! It was really crazy to look back on, but it was a good experience for me because even through all of that, I wasn't shaken at all. I know that I'm not brainwashed, that I have a personal testimony of and relationship with Jesus Christ that is strong. I know that I am a servant of Jesus Christ and that He is happy with the things I'm doing. I feel really sad for that man...
We had an awesome lesson with Patricio this week. We've been teaching him now for about a month and last week we found out that he's read to Mosiah 12 (awesome!). This week when we began our lesson with him, he said he wanted to talk about baptism, which was awesome because that's what we had planned to talk about. It was one of the best lessons I've had on my mission. The spirit was there so strong and he shared a very sincere testimony with us about Jesus Christ and how much He means to him. Every scripture we read with him, he loved and made sure to mark it. The best part was the end when we committed him to baptism. You could just see the light of Christ shine through his eyes and he was all for it. It was amazing.
Also this week we had the opportunity to teach some lesson active guys. We met them one day when they saw us on the street and started singing us primary songs from their apartment balcony. :) They have testimonies of the church, but they just have decided to go astray for a bit, but they have always known that they want to come back to church one day. They are really cool guys. We had a lesson with them and talked about the Restoration. The Spirit was so strong and we were all just loving it. They were very open with their testimonies and their desires to be good fathers and priesthood holders. At the end of the lesson we were talking about being missionaries and I was baring my testimony to them about how much I loved being a missionary and the Spirit just filled my heart and I felt so much joy. I couldn't help but just cry at how happy I felt. I knew then and have remembered since that being a missionary and leading people to the truth is pure joy! That was really precious for me to be reminded of just how important this calling is. Then yesterday we got a call from them and they told us that they'd gone to their singles ward this week and really enjoyed it and that they had read the scriptures everyday since we came over. They were so proud to have done it and so excited to tell us about it and we were just as proud of them. It was wonderful!
This week we've seen a lot of progress with Luis. We had two lessons with him and they were both very powerful. He is very humble and really wants to serve the Lord and be baptized still. He sees the goodness this is bringing into his life and every time we visit him, we can see his testimony grow even more. This week we plan to pick another baptismal date for him to work toward. We also had a cool lesson with Marvin about the Word of Wisdom. After we told him about it and why we have it, he told us "I love this commandment. I'm going to follow this for the rest of my life and tell my brothers about it!" I've never seen someone so excited about a commandment. :)
This morning our zone went up and climbed "A" Mountain (a big hill on ASU campus) and then we gave each other spiritual animals. It was silly. Hermana Norton is a white tailed deer and I'm a hummingbird. There were some crazy animals given out. One person was a spanish bull, another was a peacock, one is a mink, etc. Sometimes I wonder if I'm losing my maturity spending time with these silly 19 year old boys. But it's fun and it's really an amazing experience to see them grow up as they become missionaries and to see how much they respect their priesthood and their calling.
Basically, it's been just a beautiful, wonderful week. It was super hot, but it was probably the hottest it will be for the rest of the year because it should start cooling down now. It will probably still be above 90 until November, but 90 sounds really good to me right now. :) Well, I hope all at home is going well. Good luck for all of you that are starting school this week. Love you, love you, love you!
Con amor,
Hermana Anneli Hansen
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