Dear Family,
I am sorry it has taken so long to
write! We have been pretty busy. I started this email about a week ago, but
things kept coming up so I am just finishing it now. First off, thank you for your letters and
emails. I will try to take some time to
reply individually. I love reading about
what is going on with all of you! It
gives brightness to my days especially when they are not the best days. So
thanks again :)
There is so much to talk
about! I guess I should start with the
most important event. Last time I emailed I was letting you know that Elder Bednar
was coming. Now it has been about two
weeks! So I’ll start by talking about
Elder Bednar. We did a lot to prepare
for this meeting. You would not believe
how hard it was to make sure the building would be ready. We reserved it 5 weeks before and called the
stake presidency to let them know we would be using it. We didn’t tell them who was coming so that
nobody else would show up and to minimize the gossip. So it was reserved. We went into the chapel 2 weeks before and
all the pews were being redone!! We
frantically called them and were like, “Hey we have a very important meeting on
Friday, will it be done??” They said yes and we went to the church building on
Sunday just to make sure. All of the
seats were finished and everything looked great. We were relieved. Little did we know what would happen on
Tuesday night when we went to recheck the number of rows and what zones should
sit where. We open the doors to the
chapel on Tuesday night and all of the huge speakers in the ceiling (which is
like 30 feet up) are on the ground, there is a big ladder going to the organ
pipes, all of the audio ports are taken out, etc………….. I just felt this sinking sensation……. An apostle was coming to visit our mission
and we would have to change the building location 2-3 days before???? You just don’t do that when an apostle
comes. Sure if it was a different
visitor who is more able to adapt and has more time to spend with us, but not
when Elder Bednar is coming to the mission! Anyways, we were more than a little
frantic. Called the stake presidency and
they were like, “oh well that construction and replacement of the audio system
has been scheduled for a long time!” But
we had scheduled the whole building (literally) for this event and now they
were telling us that this was already in the plans?! Ha ha so we called the FM group man who is in
charge of the Salt Lake City general area and informed him of who was actually
coming to this meeting and why it was so important. At first he says, “Well maybe you can do it
in a different building? One of these buildings close by might be big
enough!” We were like “What???” He then
said, “Let me work on some things and see what I can do...” We were even more frantic at this point. He called back 3 hours later and let us know
that they hired an extra crew to get all of the work done by Friday. It was still nerve racking, but it was
finished. The last worker finished at
9:30pm on Thursday night! We cleaned the chapel up afterward and checked all
the microphones and got everything ready.
Meanwhile throughout the whole process I was mostly worried about
conducting the meeting! ha ha I was a
tad stressed. But really overall
everything went great!! :)
We got there early on Friday to prepare. Set up microphones, reviewed the talks again,
made sure all the missionaries were coming and sitting in the right places, reserved
parking spots for Elder Bednar and the Mission Presideny, etc. I was still very
nervous to be conducting. Then at about
8:30 President and Sister Hansen, President and Sister Bennett, and President
and Sister Hodson (Mission Presidency), Elder Williams and myself were standing
in the foyer waiting. A white car pulls
up and Elder Bednar jumps out and opens the door for his wife. It was raining so Elder Williams went and
opened an umbrella for them and Elder Bednar told him to put it over his
wife. They walked up and I am holding
the door for them. Elder Bednar shakes
my hand and says, “Elder Hansen, where are you from?” I say Denver, Colorado. He says, “No, nobody is actually from Denver!
You must be from right around there.” I say you are right, I am from
Louisville. He says “That is terrific.” It
was so cool, as soon as I shook his hand I felt all the nervousness leave and I
just felt calm! I appreciate what the spirit can do for us in our times of
need. Then we all went into the relief
society room briefly (Elder and Sister Bednar, the Mission Presidency, and
Elder Williams and I). The first thing
he says is, “Alright, we are here! I
only have one question for you. What can
we do to help?” He asked President first
and President answers by saying something like, “I wouldn’t dare infringe on
the revelation and inspiration that you have and will receive, but here is what
we have been doing and talking about.” He went on to describe a couple of
things that the mission was working on.
Then Elder Bednar looks at the rest of us and asks again what they can
do to help. He looks over at Elder
Williams and I and we are just standing there smiling thinking about how crazy
it is that there is an apostle standing with us. Elder Bednar then said, “Don’t just stand
there and smile, tell me what this mission needs!” We were both a little shocked and gave some
answers that probably sounded lame but we told him that whatever he could teach
about the atonement would help our mission and I said something about learning
to teach by the spirit. Then Elder
Bednar asked his wife if she was ready. She said yes and he used this phrase;
“Alright, let’s go to church!” We walked
into the chapel and every missionary stood up. It was silent. The spirit was so strong. Elder Bednar is truly called of God. We get to the stand and I was sitting right
next to Elder Bednar. On his left
side. We sit down and he asks me, “Are
you ready?” I said yes and again he said
“Alright, let’s go to church!” (What a
funny phrase, I wonder if a lot of people know that he says that? He might not say it a lot, but he said it 2
or 3 times with us so I think it might be something he says regularly. Just a
funny side-note). Conducting the meeting
went well. I felt pretty good and it all
went smoothly. I had practiced a bit and
so I don’t think I messed anything up too badly. He told me I did a good job when I sat
down. Then Sister Bednar spoke
first. She talked about her husband’s
apostolic calling and what she had learned because of it. She also talked about the Book of Mormon and
about the atonement. It was
powerful! Then Elder Bednar spoke. Wow………..
It was soo cool. I will never
forget this experience. I know I have
talked a lot about the temporal side of what happened, but I will never forget
the feelings that I felt that day and the impressions I received. It was amazing. He told us not to write down everything that
is said but to write in your “small plates.”
Meaning to write only the impressions that come as they pertain to
spiritual and precious things. Then he
asked us what we had learned from his 3 talks that he asked us to read in
preparation for the meeting. Elder
Williams and I were running around passing microphones to everyone who was
called on to answer. It was a great
discussion! Over time it turned into a
question/answer session. We all were
taught, but not necessarily from what Elder Bednar had said, but from what the
spirit had impressed upon us. And that
all was predicated on our personal preparation.
It was such a cool experience. He
taught us how to learn by the spirit and by so doing taught us how to better
teach by the spirit. Helping us get out of
the way sometimes and let the Lord teach our investigators through the Holy Ghost. It was a terrific blessing. I loved every minute of it. And it felt
really fast as well! He shared some
experiences and so did Sister Bednar. It
was a special meeting, and I believe that what we learned was determined by how
we prepared. For this meeting everyone
prepared really well and we were able to learn some truly amazing things and
hear some great things from an apostle that I don’t think he would have said if
we were not ready to be taught. I was
impressed with our missionaries. They
were and are very good! So yeah. A
couple things that I learned personally were how to ask inspired questions and
let the spirit teach our investigators more.
I also learned a lot about faith and moral agency. What an awesome opportunity. I don’t think that I will ever get that
opportunity again. I so grateful for it
and I will never forget the spirit I felt when he was with us.
Anyways,
a lot of other things have been going on! Working
hard in our area and it is starting to pick up (I know I said that last
time,
but we have even more potentials and a few more new investigators we are
starting to teach). We have had some great experiences with a girl named
Marlin
(its pronounced Marleen). She was a referral from temple square and we
have
been teaching her. She is progressing
well. The only problem is that she went to missionary farewells for the
past 2
weeks in different wards so she still hasn’t come to the ward. She is
going to come this week though! And we will meet her brother who is
interested as well. It is different
working in a YSA stake. Usually in other
parts of the mission if you work harder, contact more, and teach better
the
baptisms come in some proportion to what you have been doing. In YSA it
seems like you can work and work
and work and still not see success and then when you do see success it
seems to
have no correlation to the work you have been doing or the people you
are
working with. It is just a blessing
dropped out of the sky. Marlin was one
of those blessings. We were working
hard, but nothing was coming from our work or from anyone we were
currently
working with and then one day a text from temple square and we are
working with
someone who has a desire to progress!
Im not complaining though! I feel
blessed when we see miracles and success in our area especially because
of the
little time that we have to work in it.
The
days and weeks are starting to blend together so I am
trying to remember what I told you in the last email… Well I don’t have
much time left anyway so I
will just tell you a funny experience that happened while leaving church
the
other day. We were walking out of the U
of U institute building after Capitol Hill ward and we were kind of in a
rush. We were walking quickly to our car
and there was a man standing next to his car parked next to us. I
glanced at him and thought wow he looks
familiar…. Then I looked again and realized who it was! President
Clayton from the Presidency of the
Seventy! We shook his hand and talked
for a minute. The reason it was hard to
recognize him was because he was wearing a sweater / sweatshirt zip up
thing over
his white shirt and tie! He explained
that he had just gotten back from Logan and that he was going to a YSA
ward
quickly but he had to make a few phone calls first. It was pretty
random, but sweet! That is the second time on my mission that I
have met him and talked to him. He is
really good.
Well I am about out of time for now. I think I will send this and another email
soon. I love you all! As for myself, I got sick for a couple of
days but now I am fine! Always tired,
but what’s new. I love the work and I
love being a missionary. There is no
experience quite like it. I hope all of
you are feeling well and travelling safely for the holidays!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!! We will be only about 25
minutes apart when you are at Paula and Brian’s house! Love and miss you.
Godspeed.
-Elder Hansen
Peak The Strategy
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