So on Monday the 2nd of September President Hansen called us at about 7:30pm
and told us that he needed to talk to us in person and that he wanted
us to come down to the mission home immediately. We were kinda freaking
out. Ha ha, just thinking why he wanted to talk to us. We thought it
was because a Sister missionary in our zone was going home or because
some Elders in our district were doing something disobedient outside of
the mission. We drove down to the mission home and President Hansen
called me in to be interviewed. When we get in the office he just
started asking about the zone and other things so I thought it was just
about one of the things I said earlier, but then he just put it out
there straight up, "Elder Hansen, I want to call you to be one of my
assistants...." I was like.... "uhhhhhhh..." ha ha.
We talked a lot more and he told me about what the plan was, what
was changing in the mission, transfers, and a lot of other things. Then
he said, "so go home and pack your things because tomorrow
you will be with Elder Logan and Elder Hansen (the current assistants)!
So we went back to Farmington.... I packed all night and got ready..
Didn't really sleep. and at the mission leader council at 8:00am
the next morning I was with Elder Logan and Hansen. So I got to be
with both of them until transfers. I got to learn a ton from both of
them, but I still wish I had more time to learn from them.
Then the next couple days after that we had mission meetings where
we presented the new mission vision. It was awesome. I had to conduct
one of the meetings. Its a different feeling to conduct a meeting in
front of half the mission. Side note -> We have a mission tour in
October and Elder Clarke of the Seventy will be there and President says
that both myself and Elder Logan will most likely be conducting those
meetings... no pressure... ha ha
Anyways,
Mostly we have been working on transfers. Our
area is the YSA in the Pioneer Stake. But we used to cover the whole
stake. It split 3 ways at transfers and so now we only cover 4 YSA
wards. Its good though. A lot of work. A lot of people to teach! :)
It is interesting working with people that are the same age as you.
Teaching them is pretty awesome because you can explain things in depth
pretty well, but still simple so that they can understand. So yeah.
Its going to be great.
Then transfer week happened. Busiest week of my life. Well maybe. But yeah. Got everything done for transfers on Monday morning. We created 3 new zones in the mission. We had 35 new missionaries come in on Wednesday.
We had 7 missionaries leave. We drove a big 12 passenger van all over
the place. I drove it most of the time. It was huge and somewhat hard
to maneuver, but its all good. So the week was just crazy. I couldn't
even tell you everything that we did because I can't remember it all.
I know we didn't sleep much, but thats okay. People keep saying "you
can sleep when you are dead." I don't know how I feel about that. ha ha I
think I agree though. We still take care of ourselves and sleep some,
just not as much as other missionaries. So don't worry mom. ha ha
Anyways, there were a lot of errors in the transfer. Especially
with housing and with cars. It was horrible. We just don't have enough
cars! We have people with heart conditions and other major problems and
surgery and all this stuff and there just aren't enough cars. We have
had about 60-70 new missionaries come into the mission in the last 3
months and we have gotten 0 new cars! NONE! Its ridiculous. They
promised that we would have 20 new cars about 6 weeks ago, but they
still aren't ready. We think it is something to do with the General
Authorities coming in for conference. Anyway, enough of my complaining.
We tried to fix all the problems and worked out some things.
Problems
just seem to come up all the time. President Hansen went out to
Wendover this weekend for a district conference. As soon as he left,
problems with missionaries..... It was crazy. Its kind of scary
because he is going to a mission presidents seminar from Thursday
till Sunday this week and if we have the same thing happen as last time
he left we will be having a pretty rough weekend.... ha ha hopefully
all goes well.
We have been planning a lot of upcoming meetings.
We just had a short meeting this morning for Zone Leaders and Sister
Training Leaders. We need to get them on board and pumped and motivated
to baptize weekly and rescue (re-activate) weekly! So this meeting was
devoted to just that. It was very powerful. President Hansen is
amazing. So filled with the spirit. He committed us all to baptize and
rescue weekly, and to go out and find another companionship to follow
us and do the same. The time is now. Things are changing. The Lord
truly is hastening his work. This meeting was held at the Marriott city
center hotel in one of the big conference rooms there. There was a hot
breakfast provided and out cars were even parked for us. Valet
parking. It was way nice. It was good to emphasize the point of how
important this all is and that these missionaries MUST be committed to
their purpose and to accelerating this work in this mission now. It is
the Lord's vision for the mission. Being so close to President I have
already seen that he is always being led by the Lord and that every
direction that he tells us to take is because the Lord wants us to go
that way. Its awesome. What a great opportunity I have to learn from
such amazing leaders right here in Salt Lake City. Im so grateful for
it.
I love being a missionary. I love the Lord. I love His work.
I'll
have to wrap this up now. By the way my companion is Elder Logan from
Tampa, Florida. He is such a solid missionary. He always knows what to
do and what to say. He has been an assistant for 4 and a half
transfers. Longest assistant to the President in a long time. I am so
happy for the opportunity to learn from him and try to do my best to
lift, inspire, encourage, and bless these missionaries. They are all so
good. I hope they will have the focus and blessing to see success in
baptizing and rescuing weekly. That is what most of my prayers are for
right now.
Also, I have been praying for you all especially you Mom and Dad
and Natalie! Please make sure to let me know that everything is okay
out there! All this flooding has been pretty scary to see. I hope you
are all doing alright and that the people out there will be able to
recover from this disaster.
Alright. That was the longest email I think I have
ever written. Sorry my thoughts were all over the place. I love you all
so much! I miss you!
The church is true.
God lives and He loves us.
Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.
Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.
Godspeed.
-Elder Hansen
