2/5/2024 - Week 29 - I left my Legs in Tippecanoe

Wow! This week was a GRIND to get through. But, alas, we're here on another beautiful P-day yet again.

The reason this week was a grind is because we just biked a whole ton. I don't think my body was ready for olympic cyclist level training and conditioning on a bike I got for free(ish). Anyways, I'll talk more about what happened this week.

On Monday, we biked to the quaint little town of Park Layne (roughly a 30 minute bike ride and the only one we can get to without hitching a ride with a member) and we talked to quite a few people (for small town Ohio) and a super nice lady at McDonalds bought us some soda (she initially offered to buy of coffee but ofc that doesn't really work...). Luckily we were able to get a ride back to our apartment so we didn't have to make the 40 minute trek back home.

Tuesday we had service at a farm which was about another 30 or 40 minute bike ride to get to. Once we got there, we were hauling hay bales and mucking the stables for about 2 hours. It was fun, but very tiring. Then the bike ride home featured all forms of precipitation (that I know of at least, meteorologists fact check me in the comments): rain, snow, sleet, and hail. Very cathartic bike ride as you can imagine. We had our bishop's family invite us over to dinner which was super awesome and Bishop even drove us to a lesson we had with some of our friends! The lesson went well and we were really trying to see if they actually understood anything we said, and (to our great astonishment) they really understood a lot which is really cool. We met with them again on Saturday and were able to talk more about the importance of marriage (neither of them are married to the person they live with 🫠). Neither of their boyfriends are interested in the discussions, so hopefully they will still be okay with marriage!

Wednesday we had some awesome service at a food pantry where they literally drive 30 minutes out of their way to pick us up and drop us back off at home! They are all super nice and appreciative of our help. Their head worker there, Bo (Beau? Idk how he spells it), took us to Panera bread for lunch and told us his entire life story as we chatted. He's a really cool guy and had some really funny stories.

Thursday was my first time planning and executing a district council and quite shockingly it went pretty good. Next time will have to be better tho. We also had a lesson with one of our new members who owns every cat in Park Layne it feels like. A new cat came around the corner every 2 seconds and either wanted to kill me or be my friend. Cats are just like that I guess. I'm also allergic to cats so that was fun 👍.

For those of you who now me, you'll know that Friday was a special day. IT WAS GROUNDHOG DAY! Now I know that no one else really celebrates this throwaway holiday, but my family and I do. It was really sad to not be able to keep up the tradition of watching the movie. ANYWAYS, the day was pretty cool despite that. We taught a less-active family who had 2 boys baptized about a year ago and then they fell off the face of the planet and no one in the ward or missionaries have been able to contact them. But we did. Their kids are super funny and they were all begging their mom to let them go to church on Sunday and they absolutely loved the story of Enos and the power in prayer!

Saturday I gave my first baptismal interview (scary). The guy I was interviewing was named David and when he came in he told us something along the lines of "I have an appointment with someone. Maybe the bishop or somebody?" and he was very shocked when I told him that his interview was with me ("I was expecting someone.... older"). The interview went well and he is super prepared and has seen the way that following the Gospel of Christ can really turn a life around and replace sadness with joy, despair with hope, and darkness with light. He also is from Mexico so we were able to talk in some tongues together (aka Spanish). We then did some service for a member family in Tipp City named the Mills and they asked us to help them paint a room in their house. That didn't take too long and Bro Mills was spouting mission stories that he had for most of the time to keep it interesting. Now Sister Mills is from the Philippines, and she decided that we were gonna have the best Filipino food I've ever seen, and boy did she do that.

Sunday was honestly kinda bland. We had to bust our chaps over to church because we were running a lil late and I was saying the opening prayer, so I kinda had to be there on time. Church was super good and we had some great discussions about the guidance of the spirit and how many times we either will receive an answer or the Lord may want us to figure it out on our own. It was pointed out that the Liahona didn't tell Lehi and his family exactly what to do, it just told them a rough direction to go and occasionally the words would change to give more guidance. occasionally. I just found that pretty interesting that they had to have faith for the compass to even work, and even with that, they weren't guided through every step of the process like how to find food once Nephi's bow broke, they needed to figure that out on their own. But for the large things in life (like building a boat for Lehi's family) the Lord is more than willing to give exact instructions, they may be difficult, but they are always possible if we rely on Him!

Overall, I'm doing good. This new area is throwing me for a loop, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. I just need to have faith and move forward, just like with everything else.

Scripture study: 2 Nephi 31: 5-12

These are some of my favorite verses to share with people who are confused spiritually or don't know what the path forward is. I think we can all benefit from studying these verses and looking at what it is telling us about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how it is beautifully simple and simply beautiful.

Peace out,
Elder Parker Hansen