Haitian-ing the Work: January 11, 2016 - No longer Green (At least for me, Florida is still Green)

Sak tap pase zanmim yo? (Bag passers friends?)

Hey y'all!

We had a crazy week this week in Hollywood Florida! Nothing crazy happened to Hollywood or to the people.... but the work of the Lord was progressing! After really not having anyone to teach other than Jacques and a few unelect people we finally have cool people to teach that are progressing! But lets start back at the beginning.

So on Wednesday Elder Nwa (it's creole for black) and I went to Firestone and got new tires for the Fusion. That only took about an eternity but we were able to do it in 4 short wasted hours. But the day got much better because we went and taught a referral from a Haitian family in the ward named Lenni. She is 15 and is Cuban and is dating Ryan Chicoye who is a Haitian member in the ward. She is super awesome and is progressing well and reading in the Book of Mormon

Anyway, that was Wednesday in a nutshell. Then on Thursday we taught a referral from the ZL's and she was pretty cool but her Haitian Baptist pastor just happened to be there while we were teaching her and he came over while he was mowing the lawn and wanted to bible bash a little bit. So we did a little but then we diffused the situation. After that we went out and knocked a little and knocked on this door and this young man answered and said, are you here to see George? and we were like..... Sure! So he got George and we said a prayer with him and we invited him to church and he was pretty receptive. Then we taught Lenni the Plan of Salvation. Then on Friday we had lunch with Sister Keen at an amazing Mexican restaurant. Then did a little service and taught Lenni again.

On Saturday we taught another referral from the ZL's named Sandra and she is super cool! She is 32 and has 5 girls and she has a baptisimal date for the 23rd of this month. On Sunday we had Sandra and Omidah (her daughter) come to church and also Reina who we helped move back in November. That was pretty awesome, Sandra and Omidah loved church! And then on top of everything else, Elder Murat ordained Jacques to the office of Priest. :)

My last thought this week comes from Moroni Chapter 10 verse 22 which says, "And if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity." If we have no hope we are in despair, like Moroni teaches us and despair comes form our iniquity and our sins. When we sin we feel like there is no way out, "no unclean thing can dwell in the kingdom of God" and when we sins we are unclean. But we can have restored hope through the Atonement of Christ!

"And what is it that ye shall hope‍ for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope‍ through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise." (Moroni 7:41)

When we exercise faith unto repentance we are able to reciev a remission of our sins and can again hope for eternal life. "though [our] sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" (Isaiah 1:18) If we follow the gospel of Jesus Christ we can again have hope for a better world and be able to become clean and live with our Heavenly Father again.

"Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope‍ for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God" (Ether 12:4)

I hope you all had a fantastic week!

-- M pa ka goumen kont santiman sa okenn plis!

--(I cannot fight this feeling any more!)

Elder Hansen

Florida, Fort Lauderdale Mission