2/17/2025 - Week 83 - Why are we better when we're stuck inside?

Buenos días! Cómo andan? Todo fino?

This week was full of a lot of ups, and about an equal amount of downs, but I'll try to keep the email focussed on the ups!

Long story short, we put 2 more of our friends on date! Our friend Yelson is awesome! I think I talked about him briefly last week, but on Monday, we put him on date for the 15th of March! When we put him on date, we promised him that he would find work as he strived to work towards being baptized (because he hadn't had a job in 5 weeks) and THE NEXT DAY he got a job! We also went over the Baptismal Interview questions with him this week (and taught the Word of Wisdom at the same time 😬) and when we told him that he would need to stop drinking coffee to be baptized, he told us that it had been hurting his stomach so he already was going to stop drinking it! What a miracle! Bro also doesn't have a car, but said he'd run to church on Sunday because he "needs the exercise anyway"

We also put our friend Albeiro on date for the 12th of April! We knew he was previously hesitant about baptism because he knew he would need to marry his girlfriend to do it and he wasn't sure if she would be down for all that. We luckily were able to convince him a week ago to talk to her about it and she was apparently super down! So now we just need to get them ready to get married (aka, get a marriage certificate -- we're pretty sure they both need a passport or better to get the certificate, but if we're wrong on that and only one does, pls let me know!) and I already know Albeiro will be an awesome addition to the Ward and Church! We also went over the baptismal interview questions and his only problem is that dang wedding we'll have to plan. (A great problem to have btw)

Other exciting stuff that happened this week was that we had our interviews with President Rasmussen (after having them a couple weeks ago) and it was a really good time to spend with them, but we went way over the time slot we had planned...

We somehow made 2 friends while Elder Wilwand was sick on Thursday, I don't know how that happened. (for reference, we couldn't find new people to teach to save our lives most of the other days this week)

One of the friends we're teaching offered to give us a free haircut whenever we want one (and he's a Venezuelan, so he KNOWS how to cut hair)

On Valentine's Day, one of our members, Jeff, called us and asked if we wanted to get pizza with him, and it was a member we really didn't know too well either, so we hopped on that jawn and got to know him better over some pizza! A quick recap would be that he is from the Philippines and looks about 26-29 years old, but at the end he dropped the bomb that he's 42 🤯 He also taught us a lot about the history of the Philippines as well as his whole life story! Basically, he's the GOAT.

The not-so-cool stuff that happened this week:
-We saw the PMF (part member family) we're teaching drive out of their apartment complex 15 minutes before the lesson we were supposed to have with them.
-Ripped some of my pants during District Council so now I need to relearn how to sew
-There was a car crash right in front of the entrance to an apartment complex we needed to go to for a lesson and the closest parking was about a mile away, so we got a nice little walk in i guess
-The ward cancelled church and held it over zoom because it was snowing (we got about an inch...) which basically made it so none of our friends could watch it

Spiritual Thought:
When we had our District Council, the thought that President and Sister Rasmussen shared was the comparison between Zion and Babylon. Zion is the pure in heart followers of Christ and Babylon is sin and evildoing. Just like the comparison between darkness and light, where there cannot be darkness where there is light, we cannot have Babylon in us if we are part of Zion. Each day, as we repent and change, we try to get rid of the Babylon which is holding us back as we clean our thoughts, actions, and especially DESIRES to be in-line with God. Obviously, we will all have times where the infection of Babylon tries to grab hold of us, but as we continually repent, it cannot have power over us! Keep your head up, check yourself for the infection of sin, and purge yourself of it.

Hasta la proxima!
-Elder Hansen

Our boy Jeff!
Baptism in my old area by my greenie and his comp
Teaching some plan of Salvation with our friend Nelson
Who woulda thought he'd settle down in Ohio after getting embarrassed on Utapau
Wilwand @ Target
Don't stand under a tree when it's snowing
Our friend Yelson!

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