Saturday, April 26, 2014

Easter on the Mission - April 21, 2014

Happy Easter Family!!! 

What a BeAuTiFuL Easter it was!! I love this holiday and for the chance to celebrate our Savior!! 

So this week... it has been long! I feel like it has been forever since I emailed you! There has been a lot of wonderful things that have happened, but also some really stressful things...

Monday we spent Pday with a lady in our ward, Sister Judd! She is great! We played a board game called Swash Buckled. It is so fun! It was invented by a guy in Utah and I guess you can only order it online... idk. But you all should try and find it! It is really fun :) After Pday was over we went to dinner with a cute family, read out of the Book of Mormon with Kylie, and then did a FHE with one of our less-active Spanish families! It was fun! We also started teaching them English! They made chocoflan for us, which is HEAVEN ON EARTH!!! Check out Dominic's hair - it is legit!!














On Wednesday we set our Spanish Investigator, Melvin, with a baptismal date for May 10th!! Wahoo :) Pretty excited 
about that! Feels good to see those we are teaching having a desire to progress! We also gave Mohamed his Arabic 
Book of Mormon this week and I am excited to hear back from him about what he thinks, etc. 

We had interviews with President Brown this week! The more time I spend with him, the more I love him and respect him! He is a wonderful man with a lot on his plate! I can not imagine the stress he must feel! He is pretty sure he knows Lennon's mission president! He thinks he was his area 70 in Oregon. What is your President's name? My interview went really well. He was very laid back and happy which was great :) He said it was a possibility that Ally and I will get to stay together next transfer! I hope it happens. I know ultimately it is not up to him, but to Heavenly Father. I am trying to prepare myself now for whatever the news will be on Saturday, but I am hoping we get to stay!

Thank you so much for your Easter packages this week! They were absolutely perfect! You know me all too well!! :) And Glen sent each of us succulents! You know how much I love succulents!! It was absolutely perfect! So thank you all!!


This week, Sister Schocke had to give a talk in church. She was really stressing out, and asked us to help her write it. So we did :) It was all about the Garden of Gethsemane. I am glad we got to help her! I learned a lot! And then Sis. Judd taught Relief Society and she asked us for help too, and I showed her a talk I had read that morning called, "Lessons from Liberty Jail" by Elder Holland. It is an AMAZING TALK!!! You NEED to read it this week!  She used that talk for her lesson, and then Ally and I taught Gospel Principles. And then we got asked to teach Relief Society on Mother's Day!  So, if you can find any good talks about Mothers, send them to me!! (Preferably through the mail because I can't print emails...)

We went over to teach Troy on Friday and right when we get there Kylie and Troy told us the wedding is now off. I can't even describe to you how I felt as they told us this. I wanted to cry. But we went in and had a lesson with them.  And then they told us they weren't going to come to church on Sunday because they had to be at Troy's parents at 11:30 which was disappointing because their daughter was being blessed that day AND it is Easter! But, we convinced them to come to church and to let their daughter be blessed! And they did come :) But wedding, as of right now is still off... :( Hopefully we can change that tonight when we go over! So who knows, maybe we will have a wedding on Saturday, maybe not. And then, Jo, our other investigator texted us and canceled our appointment. We were going to teach her the stop smoking program and she told she is not ready to quit... Ugh. Ally and I were pretty sad. We were feeling really down in the dumps... But Sister Penn is amazing! She brought down a talk for us to listen to on her laptop by Elder Holland called "Missionary Work and the Atonement." It was amazing! It explains that we do get rejected as missionaries, but it is ok! Christ's Atonement made it possible for us to overcome this. And we are still successful even if we have set backs. I was so grateful for Sister Penn! It was exactly what I needed to hear!

Easter was AwEsOmE!! Church was wonderful! We had a great sacrament program :) And 3 families let us come over and spend the day with them. We saw Sister Penn's entire family and it was really fun! The Judd's had us over and we had rootbeer floats and they taught us how to make those rainbow rubberband bracelets that everyone is obsessed with! ha! And then our ward mission leader and his wife invited us over. It was so fun! I felt like I was home while I was there! They are such a cute family! We played ping pong and air hockey and their 14 year old son showed us movies he had made, and then they showed family pictures on their Apple TV with their grandparents there. I FELT LIKE I WAS HOME!! We do the exact same thing! I love it :)

We watched the Because of Him video with all of these families! I LOVE THAT VIDEO!! What a beautiful depiction of the Savior's Atonement and all that is possible because of Him. I am grateful for this knowledge. It is because of Him that we can be made whole, it is because of Him that despair can become hope! It is because of Him that we can overcome trials and challenges. That we can feel joy and peace and love! It is because of Him that we can and will conquer death and live with our families again!! It is because of Him that I am out on a mission. It is because of Him people find purpose in their lives and hope for their future. I love our Savior Jesus Christ! I feel honored to be able to wear his name on my chest every day! I love that I get to bear testimony of Him every day and bring others to Him. I KNOW there is NO OTHER WAY to have TRUE happiness without living the commandments. Without obeying the laws of God. Without attending church each week. Temporal happiness is not the same as eternal happiness. And the only way we can have that overwhelming eternal joy is by exercising and experimenting (alma 32:27) our faith here on earth. We can feel this overwhelming happiness on earth. What a blessing it is! I know that this is the ONLY TRUE church on the earth today. I know that as we live the commandments we become better people. I read a talk this week that had a wonderful quote. The talk is called “Settle this in Your Hearts” by Elder Larry B. Gibbons. He quoted a Jewish man that said...

“… I am not diminished by being told there are certain things I may not do because they are wrong. Rather, it enhances me.” 

I love this quote and know it is true!! 

I love you all so much!! I hope you have had a wonderful Easter and that you continue to have a great week!! Transfers are this upcoming week! We find out on Saturday... So don't send mail in case I get transferred :) 

LOVE YOU ALL!!

-Hannah :)

Here are more pics from visits we had this week:

1-2. Wheatley family and cute teepee they made for Conference weekend :)
3. Brother and Sister Boyer - I LOVE THEM!
4. Grandma Willow :)
5. Sister West
6-8. A cool random abandoned train we found!










































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