2/26/2024 - Week 32 - I can't think of a title for this one

I don't think that words can properly describe this week. It was crazy with very high highs and very low lows (temperature and morale-wise).


This week we had a total of 14 lessons fall through. That is not fun. However 8 of those 14 were on Saturday and almost none of them bothered to let the missionaries know that they would not be able to make it and just no call, no showed (Not cool).

Despite this though, we were able to make 6 new friends this week which was what our goal was so that was awesome! We also had 3 non-members who came to church which is amazing since we've had 0 come in the last 4 weeks!

Temperature-wise we had a great week in the 50's and 60's. Great weather for biking. Then Friday night, mother nature decided to throw us not even a curve ball but a screw ball and we had 3 inches of snow and it was 20 or lower for Friday and Saturday only for it to be back up in the 60's on Sunday. Ohio weather is not real.

Some cool stuff that happened this week:
- We met with a new friend named Heather who is honestly a tad bit crazy. It was our second lesson and she had read the entire introduction to the Book of Mormon (like we had invited her to do), but she also had continued on and had read the Testimonies of the 3 and 8 witnesses (very uncommon) and she had read part of the Testimony of Joseph Smith (unheard of)! She had a ton of great questions and we had a few lessons over the phone to answer questions that had come up during her study! She also brought a friend to church with her on her first time coming so I have some high hopes for her!
-We had exchanges with the Huber Heights Elders and showed them the beauty of having an area that is mostly farm land not neighborhoods. We also got some Canes which I'm pretty sure I needed to make it through the day. (and our ride up to Tipp City - our stake president's 18 year old son -made me some street tacos with molé which was awsome, he'll be everyones dream comp in Mexico if he keeps his cooking skills up, he's also just a dawg in general)
- One of the Service missionaries coordinated with the Service missionary leader in our Stake to get us a Sam's club Rotisserie Chicken because he found out at service we had never had it before. Shout out to Elder Stevens for that!
- Sent a Facebook referral to the missionaries in Uganda, it would be lit if that guy is actually interested.
- Got the Elders in the district hooked on the game Here to Slay
- Had Firehouse subs for the first time (how do people afford this stuff??)

Spiritual Thought:
We had a devotional last night about Grace from the bishop of the last ward I served in (shoutout to Bishop Tyre aka The GOAT aka the White Mamba). There was one point that really stuck out to me and it was an analogy (my favorite teaching method).
He compared the Grace of God to a mighty river and he compared us to a powerhouse with turbines and generators on the river. The grace of God will flow downstream no matter what. However, we need to open our floodgates and let the river flow through us for it to generate the power inside of us. Now the power is not created inside of the powerhouse, but the potential energy is in the River, which is then transformed inside the powerhouse into an energy that can be sent out to people far away to give them the power they need. Grace is very similar. We need to open our floodgates to the Grace of God by obedience to his commandments and a true desire to follow His will for us. Then we will find a power inside of us (not our own power but the power of our God) which will strengthen us to bless the lives of others! Do everything in your power to rid yourself of the things which dam or block the grace of God from flowing through you, either partially or entirely. As we have strength in the Lord, no other strength will or can matter!

I would also suggest listening to the talk "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox, it's a super good and explains grace way better than I can.

Anyways, Peace out, Love you all, Hasta Luego, 
Elder Hansen aka Parker


Élder Donaldson at Zone Council
Elder Jobe and I at Canes and at a cool tunnel we found

Firehouse subs goes crazy
Pics of me before and after all our lessons at the church falling through

Idk, I wanted a picture of this toilet I found


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7/16/2023 - Elder Hansen's Farewell Talk in Sacrament Meeting

Image
Good morning Brothers and Sisters, it feels good to see all of you one last time before I head out on my mission. I’d like to start today by sharing some of the insights I have had while doing the online portion of my MTC training. My companion for all of my MTC training is Elder Sainsbury who just graduated from Rocky Mountain this year and someone I deeply respect. I am extremely grateful for the fact that my companion is someone I know at least a little bit and can get along with easily. I am also grateful for all that he has taught me so far during our time together in the MTC. My MTC district has also been a huge blessing to me. My district has always been very open about their struggles, insights, and together we have helped each other out and encouraged each other along. We are each slowly improving every day and that's all that we can hope for from one another. One of the main focuses of our study in the MTC has been the power of boldly proclaiming simple truths and allowin...
Read more

10/9/2023 - Week 12 - Carr vs. Car

Image
Whats up y'all? This week's been a roller coaster of just crazy cool and crazy weird things happening. I'll start with the title story, which isn't that funny, but it made for the best title in my opinion. So, it's no secret that Elder Carr is an adrenaline junkie and when we go down this one big hill back to our apartment, he loves to just go as fast as he can down the road. Unfortunately, on Saturday night this week when we were about halfway down the hill (going very fast for bikes) a car decided to turn left right as Elder Carr was going through the intersection (we had the right of way) and Elder Carr trying to not get hit smoothly drifted his bike for about .3 seconds until he flew over his handlebars right in front of the car turning left. Luckily, the car stopped in time so he wasn't run over, but he did rip his pants. So technically the Carr v car fight night ended in a draw, but luckily no one was hurt too bad. We also found a dude outside the Church w...
Read more

7/15/2024 - Week 52 - Transfers + Baleada = Great Week

Image
Wowza, so much stuff happened this week. I'm still gonna try to keep this email pretty brief so you don't have to take a nap halfway through it. This week we had a ton of member meals with members from a lot of different countries so we got to try a ton of different kinds of foods! Some of the best was some Guatemalan spaghetti and fried chicken (with tortillas of course), some amazing tacos from the familia Escobedo (plus cake and they sang me happy birthday because I had a birthday since they fed us last? I'm still not too sure what that's about but they're amazing), some world famous Nicaragüense BALEADA with the familia Amador, and lastly some Chicken Noodle Soup with our new member Yenni and her family! It was awesome to see the dedication and sacrifice these families will make to show their love for the missionaries! We also had transfers this week so I kind of got transfered to another area, but its more like the two sets of missionaries in this area got comb...
Read more