Haitian-ing the Work: May 8, 2017 - "...come with full purpose of heart..."

Hello Friends and Family,

I'm sorry that my letters have been really short as of late, I will try to make up for it today!

So this was a busy week, but I think that I should just start by saying that it is normal!

Funny story of the week, we were knocking late Monday night after P-day and we knock into this guy, we don't know his name, but we offered to say a prayer with him like we normally do and he said, "Nah, not right now I guys, I'm really busy, I'm about to take a shower with my girlfriend." Then Elder Foster and I are a a bit of a loss for words, not really sure what to say, so I say, "That's cool man.... can we leave this card with you?" Then we left, so we now refer to him as "the shower guy" and he landed himself a spot in the book of worst excuses ever for not accepting the missionaries. You sure do have some funny experiences as a missionary. :)

So, to start off the week we had a really good District Training from Elder Hatch about how important sharing our testimonies with those that we teach is in helping them develop and gain their own testimonies! I loved it! Then we visited Cynthia and Webster and started teaching them the New Member lessons. We started with The Family: A Proclamation to the World and they loved it. Then she gave us Katsu Chicken (Japanese Fried Chicken, I guess) and that was super good! Then that night after ward missionary correlation meeting we visited the Dunklebergers, because they have a funny name, unfortunately they weren't home....

Wednesday we had another District Training and it went well. It was very long though. I forgot to tell you that for this month we have a new theme in the "Praise the Laud Zone," this month will be "Mucho May" so what we did was we bought sombreros and and fake mustaches and wore them to District Training! (pictures below)

On Thursday we went and celebrated Cinco de Mayo early with a dinner at Azteca Mexican restaurant and it was sooo good!

Friday was Mission Leadership Council and I loved it. It was really great and we had a good discussion. Then when we got home we went out with Brother Pablo like we do every week and we had some good visits! We just rescued a guy named, Allen Bridges and he is a super solid guy (he was less active, now he's not). I like him a lot!

Then Saturday we took Webster out on visits with us and it went really well! He is super solid and is very gung ho about the gospel right now. Then that night we were finally able to have an appointment with a potential investigator! We taught Jenece and she is a 26 year old Mom and she is Haitian, sorry Hollywood Creole, hehe :) and she really wants to find lasting peace.

That was about it for my week! but here's my last thought...

This week in my studies I found this, "And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will." (Words of Mormon 1:7)

This is something that I thought about and I carried with me and thought about during Sacrament meeting. What I learned is that there are only two choices in life, trusting in God or trusting in ourselves. Part of trusting in God is not knowing all things but living by faith and relying wholly upon his merits, since we cannot merit anything of ourselves. When we put our full trust in the Lord he can do things through us that we would never be able to do by ourselves. For example, Mormon in putting together the Book of Mormon, he followed the promptings of the Spirit, even when he didn't know the reason behind what he was doing. He simply trusted in the Lord and knew that it was "for a wise purpose" and therefore allowed the Lord to "worketh in me to do according to his will". This is the Goal of True discipleship.

--

Elder Hansen

Florida, Fort Lauderdale Mission

Haitian-ing the Work