I ❤ Apostles

Something I love about Chiapas is you could literally live in your house and never have to leave... (only to pay the light and water bill in central). People walk house to house, selling everything you could think of. If it's a woman, on their head, and if it's a man, over their shoulder. Mops, brooms, water, fruit, toilet paper, sponges, chicken, tamales, bread, clothes, hammocks, tortilla, toys,  EVERYTHING. They just walk down the street, yelling the names of what they are selling. Even the garbage cart comes right to our house, (a cart with wheels pushed by a guy who takes your garbage to who knows where...yeah garbage trucks no muy existe). 

This week was a good one, because we got to go to the re-dedication of the Mexico City Temple! (Well, by television in the stake center...but it was still awesome!) We completed with the normas secas de excelencia, so we got to go to two sessions! It was my first time participating in a temple dedication in Spanish, and probably my last time... so I cherished every moment! 

The best is that Elder Jeffrey R. Holland randomly spoke Spanish! It was super tender. He started out in Spanish, switched to English for his message, and finished testifying in Spanish. I LOVE HIM. We were able to watch and hear two of his addresses, and both were very powerful. 

His second talk was super amazing, and I will never forget it. He went off script. Completely followed the Spirit..even addressing a little boy in the audience! Since it's live and needs to be in Spanish, Elder Holland will say a sentence and his translator will then translate it for everyone who doesn't speak English. The translator usually follows the written script that Elder Holland should be following, so it's a pretty decent translation. But it was funny to see the poor translator try to keep up with the pure revelation that Elder Holland was speaking as he completely went off script... and it's safe to say that anyone who doesn't speak English got a pretty watered down version of what Elder Holland talked about. 

 Yes, his talk was powerful in Spanish... but so much more powerful in English! That's why it was awesome when he switched to Spanish at the end and testified in Spanish. It was the most powerful testimony I have ever heard. This experience really strengthened my testimony of the restoration that God loves us so much that He really does have living prophets and apostles to guide us, and who really do receive revelation directly from him. MAN, THIS CHURCH IS SO TRUE.

Another bittersweet experience we had was fasting this last week, We have a goal as a zone that every companionship can baptize 10 people this transfer...we have two so far....but we believe in miracles! So we have an eternal investigator, Hermana E., who has been going to church on and off for years. She is Catholic and thinks she doesn't need another baptism because God loves her... and yada yada yada you know... all of Satan's lies! 

So we were planning, and Hermana Ortega said, "If only we could do a 40 day fast for Hermana E. so she can get baptized! Well maybe we can't fast for 40 days...but maybe two!" 

I said, "Or maybe we could do two consecutive  fasts...fast one Friday until Saturday, eat a meal Saturday, and then fast Saturday until Sunday." 

We felt the Spirit testify SO STRONG that it would work! So we fasted specifically for her, that we could find her in her house right in that moment, sing her a hymn, talk about the Book of Mormon. Then the next day she would attend sacrament meeting (she hadn't been to sacrament meeting in a long time.) Then the next week we would do the pre-baptism interview. She would have felt the Spirit strongly in one of these events and have a mighty change of heart and the desire to be baptized! 

We promised we would do everything possible and be obedient. We put our faith in the Lord and we were sure it would work! So we did it all. We fasted for two days, and Hermana E. CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!! We were so excited, sure that God was responding to our prayers! 

So we were nervous, but we went to her house on Wednesday, and did the baptism interview. We were there for almost 2 hours, and it was a spiritually exhausting experience....which led us to the sinking conclusion that she is not ready for baptism by any means. We walked out, feeling beaten. Seriously, how could the Lord let us down if we had faith and did everything? We did our part! In the Book of Mormon theres stories of thousands of wicked Lamanites having a mighty change of heart and are baptised in the same day! WE ARE ONLY ASKING FOR ONE PERSON HERE. Needless to say.... I was a little discouraged. 

But my oh so wise companion, Hermana Ortega, comforted me. She said, "Well I think our fast was answered. We fast to know the will of the Lord, not to change it. He wanted to see our faith, and because of it, he prompted Hermana E. to go to church on Sunday. A little miracle, because He loves us.  But He knew, and He wanted us to know, that Hermana E. is not ready for baptism at this time. But she will be one day, just not with us. He just wanted to see how far we would go to serve Him, and we did our part. But it just wasn't in His plan... yet."

I know, my comp rocks.

Love, Hermana Hansen

  Our Home

Tapachula.. the land of Miracles...

My joy is FULL. Because we baptised an eternal investigator!!! Well, honestly we didn't do much of anything... it was all the Spirit and the Lord. We just filled out the baptism record.

Hermana M. is the wife of Hermano P., who joined the church 3 years ago. She listened to the discussions with her husband, but never once went to church. She had been baptized Catholic when she was little, later got baptized Baptist...and she was never getting baptised again and that was that! 

But over the summer, she started praying to God. She wanted to know what she should do, because her husband was baptized in a different church. She knew if she wanted to be with him forever, they needed to have the same baptism. She asked God that if the Mormon church was true, that He would let her know through some sort of sign. 

A few weeks later, her husband lost consciousness and was in critical condition for a few days. This experience really scared her, she thought she was going to lose her husband. But, she felt a manifestation of the spirit that this was her sign, that she should get baptized in the Mormon church...now she just needed a testimony.

So, she acted with faith. She went to church with her husband for the first time, without us even inviting her to do so! She actually went to church 3 times before we could even find her in her house and start teaching her the lessons. Poco un poco, her testimony grew. She completed all of her commitments, even the little extra reading assignments in the back of the pamphlets! 

Seriously, in the lessons she has taught us more than we taught her, I'm sure. So, she sewed her own baptism dress, and got baptized on Saturday. 

The only problem was, because of her health, she needed to get baptized in warm water. (Note: warm water in Tapachula IS UNHEARD OF. It practically does not exist) So we decided maybe we could heat up a few gallons of water in the Relief Society room and throw it in right before her baptism. We did it... and we prayed a lot that it would work. So, Hermana M steps in the water... and starts shivering like no one's business. Our attempts to heat up the water DID NOT WORK... not at all. 

 Afterwards we were apologizing, saying we did everything we could... and she said, "Oh sisters, don't worry. I'm sure you did everything you could do... but Jesus didn't want my water warm!" 

Ha ha! I guess it's true...a test of her faith! Although she was very cold in the moment, miraculously the next day she wasn't sick! She said she woke up with a cold, but by ten in the morning it was gone!!! FAITH PEOPLE. FAITH. 

Right after she was baptized, I said, "Well sister, you've been baptized Catholic, Baptist, and now Mormon. How do you feel?" 

She said, "Well it's my last one that's for sure. It's the only true one anyways." :) JOY. 

Love you all! Tapachula is good! We are loving the rain, and staying off of the freeway (Since we saw a hit and run yesterday. Luckily, the ambulance came quickly...I think. :/ Pray for him)! 

Hermana Hansen 

 Laundry Day

 

We might have left the keys in the house...

(this is the house of the Hermanas de Vistahermosa...We were on intercambios!) 

 One hour later!!!!

 

A chosen baptism...and Exact Obedience brings JOY!

So the other day as we were getting ready and listening to music I started singing along to "If you could Hie to Kolob". There is not a translation in Spanish, so Hermana Ortega started singing along but with the words of "La oracion del Profeta". In this amazing moment of revelation, we discovered that the words of "La oracion del Profeta" totally work with the music of "If you could Hie to Kolob".

We thought our discovery was amazing, so we started singing it to EVERYONE. Members, investigators, people in the street, less actives...everyone. Until last week, when we were in Tuxtla and we visited Hermana I. and her family. We sang it for them, and when we finished, Hermono E. said, "That was pretty cool. It's like a pop version, right?" Oops. apparently we accidentally changed "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" into a punky pop version of the real thing. Yeah..we haven't sung it since.

This week was a week of revelation and escogidos. HERMANO H. FINALLY GOT BAPTISED! He's been ready for about 2 weeks. With the 5 church attendance rule, he had to wait. But, he finally did it! His story is beautiful. He's the most escogido escogido I've ever met. A recent convert in another stake invited him to go church with her, and he found it was exactly what he needed. He has been passing through some really hard times these last few years, and he was just filled when he went for the first time.

 So she sent him to his real ward, but they got the times confused. He arrived at 8am, and our service didn't start until 11! So he jumped in with Jardines at 9. Elder de Jesus found him waiting patiently outside and helped him out. Then at 12 he jumped in with our ward until 2!

Since then he has completed with all of his commitments, gained a strong testimony, and brought his dad and son to church with him. When he was finally baptised, he shared his testimony. He said, "I love my savior, Jesus Christ. I'm here to serve Him. I´m ready to serve you all, and I want to be a faithful member until the last day."

Alma 16: 16 And there was no inequality among them; the Lord did pour out his Spirit on all the face of the land to prepare the minds of the children of men, or to prepare their hearts to receive the word which should be taught among them at the time of his coming--
17 That they might not be hardened against the word, that they might not be unbelieving, and go on to destruction, but that they might receive the word with joy, and as a branch be grafted into the true vine, that they might enter into the rest of the Lord their God.

I can totally see him as a bishop, or even a stake president.

This week was also amazing because I learned something that I hope I will be able to shape my mission and my life around...about exact obedience. My whole mission, it's something I have strived for, worked for, but never have been able to achieve. It's not big things, just little things; like staying a little too long in lunch or going to bed 5 minutes late. But, as we have learned, and as we have taught to all the missionaries in our zone, developing the Christ-like quality of exact obedience in the mission, is essencial to success and miracles in the mission, and for our whole lives. The mostly obedient missionaries will probably be the mostly obedient members, picking and choosing what commandments to follow, and in the end, not having joy, not reaching their full potential, and not reaching all that the celestial kingdom has in store for us. It's a dangerous route.

 10 baptisms for every companionship for this transfer 

because when we put our trust in god HE WORKS MIRACLES

 So I was a little discouraged about this, and I had a little extra time before our 8 o clock study started. I started reading a book President gave me, called "The Journey to the Veil." I read a chapter about how exact obedience is reached by following EVERY prompting, and I mean EVERY prompting from the Spirit. Then, once 8 o clock hit, I started reading in the Book of Mormon in Alma 27. I started thinking about how I could reach the same joy that Ammon felt when he found his friend and fellow missionary. 

Alma 17 Now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full; yea, he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of his strength; and he fell again to the earth.

18 Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness.

Suddenly, it hit me. Exceeding joy only comes from living righteously, which only comes from exact obedience.... which we can achieve only if we listen and follow and are exactly obedient to EVERY prompting of the spirit...and I mean every prompting. Exact obedience is less about what we should STOP doing, and more about what we should BE doing. When we do something disobedient, the Spirit will let us know. We should start listening to Him, and start doing what He wants us to do. Only when we try to follow the spirit exactly, can we reach obedience exactly.

 
So, I tried it, I put it in practice. And for the fist time in a long time, the Spirit guided my every word in all my lessons that day. We visited Hermano P., our old investigator who dropped us, told us he didn't believe in God and never wanted to see us again. I had NO IDEA what to teach him. How do you teach someone who claims to not believe in God?

I felt the prompting to pray. So I prayed in my head and heart. Then I felt the prompting, open your scriptures, and look to the left. SO I did, and my scriptures fell open to Alma 22. We randomly started reading 13-18. I honestly didn't know exactly what it said. I knew that it was the conversion of the dad of the King Lamoni but I didn't have any idea about the details. As it turns out, the king in the story is in the exact same situation as Hermono P. He really could relate to him. I was amazed at how similar their stories were.
 

We are not perfect. We are never going to be able to be exactly obedient alone. But if we concentrate on following every prompting of the spirit, we will be able to reach it, and experience EXCEEDING JOY. I invite you all to pay very close attention, and follow every prompting from the Spirit you receive...no matter how weird it may be.

Hermana Hansen