Haitian-ing the Work: April 11, 2017 - "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass"

Hello Everyone,

It seems like I say this every week but it has been a very busy week! Lots of stuff happened. First of all, I will be transferring back to my Greenie area of Hollywood, but as an English missionary so that's sort of a bummer. My companion is Elder Foster from SLC, Utah.

In other news, this past week we had a Zone Activity where we played "Quidditch" basically Ultimate Frisbee with water balloons. Then the next day we had Zone Training and I think it went well. Afterwards, as a prize for the March Madness competition, all the Areas that got 4 points got to hit us with water balloons so that was pretty cool.

Also this week we amassed all of the recent converts from the last 2 years in the Stake and made a report for Stake Missionary Correlation meeting we had Sunday. It took like 6 hours but hopefully it will help the stake leaders and bishops be informed on where to focus their efforts. In addition to that this week I went on 3 exchanges, I think. And I used the Sacerdocio (the Priesthood en espanol) twice this week! I did a baptismal interview in Spanish and then on Sunday I gave a blessing to a cute little Paraguayan lady also in Spanish so that is pretty exciting. Also we went to Natacha's house and she gave us some good food! It was great. Then after that we went and visited a member that moved from Haiti and when we were walking back we got stopped by one of Elder Jean-Louis' former investigators from his time in Palm Beach so hopefully we can work with him so he can get baptized. As for our Investigators, Fadens and Sterline came to church and they are pretty solid, they are super cool so hopefully the new elders coming in can baptize them on the 22nd of April.

I'm going to be transferring and I don't really know what to say so I will just finish with my last thought. I thought I would just send you all a portion of Zone Training.

“How can I have a better experience at church?”

"Years ago I was sitting in a sacrament meeting with my father... [and] he seemed to be enjoying what I thought was a terrible talk. I watched my father, and to my amazement, his face was beaming as the speaker droned on... Our home was near enough to the ward that we walked home…I finally got up enough courage to ask him what he thought of the meeting. He said it was wonderful…. Like all good fathers, he must have read my mind because he started to laugh. He said: “Hal, let me tell you something. Since I was a very young man, I have taught myself to do something in a church meeting. When the speaker begins, I listen carefully and ask myself what it is he is trying to say. Then once I think I know what he is trying to accomplish, I give myself a sermon on that subject.” He let that sink in for a moment as we walked along. Then, with that special self-deprecating chuckle of his, he said, “Hal, since then I have never been to a bad meeting.”... He could listen to anybody... Dad would say: “Look, I can learn something from anybody. They have had experiences I haven’t had.” (Henry B. Eyring, 1988)

Now why is it so important that we make our prayers, studies and church attendance more meaningful?

“Our devotion to the Lord is equal to the depth of our discipleship” -Elder Hansen

Hopefully you can take something out of this. It makes more sense in a training situation.

I love you all and Hope that you have a great Easter this week

-- Love

Elder Hansen

Florida, Fort Lauderdale Mission

Haitian-ing the Work