Dear Family and Friends, January 20, 2014
Since it is
Marty’s Birthday today, the seniors center is closed today. So we get to sleep
in. As if that would every happen. I woke up at 4:30 am , read the Book of Esther. I started the Old
Testament after Christmas, so I am averaging 26 pages a day. I ought to be done
with the Old Testament by Valentines Day. Then it is on to the D&C and The
Pearl of Great Price. That would make all the standard works in a 5 month
period. Never done that before. However, I do have a greater appreciation for
the Lord’s dealing with His children here on the earth.
Yesterday
after church, there were three baptisms in the branch. Melonie Goodwin, a woman
about 42, she found the sisters and was taught the lessons. She had to wait to
get 1st Presidency approval, because she is on parole. After her
final interview she was so excited about being able to be baptized, that she
was jumping up and down. She has a long time friend that did not like her
learning about the church, so he gave her an ultimatum, either me or the
church. She told him without hesitation, the church. The other two baptisms
were a father and son. Dad about 40, the son twelve years old. Really nice
people. Good understanding of the church. There were at the baptism about 5 non
members. One of which was Judy Dunn who we are working with towards baptism,
she has set the day of March 9th (her mothers birthday) as her
baptismal day.
The branch
here really goes out of their way to make converts feel welcome and important.
The branch president leads the way in making that happen. He has been the
branch president here for over 6 years, he is only an Elder, but he really
cares for his branch. Next Sunday we drive to Lonoke , Arkansas Arkansas
We just
keep plodding along, we continue to meet new people and make new friends. This
past week the sisters have been without a car, so we had to drive them around a
lot to their appointments, They are a couple of dizzy young ladies, but one
just has to love their crazy ways. They are so intent and focused on missionary
work.
Yesterday
at church we were assigned to give a lesson on gaining a knowledge about God
and sharing that knowledge with others. As I prepared, I thought of this
statement to make at the being of the class. “I know all there is to know about
_______.”
I gave the class time to think about what they considered
themselves to have a great knowledge about. (No takers) I then shared with them
my knowledge about siphons, I do know a lot about siphons. I know what they
look like, what they are made of, what sizes they come in, I know now to gather
them, I know how to bundle them, I know how to scatter them, most importantly I
know how to set them, I know how to adjust them for different flow, I know how
to set the appropriate amount to handle the flow of water into the ditch. I
don’t know everything about siphons, but I do know a great deal. It was my
father that taught me about siphons and how to set them, I in turn taught my
children about siphons and how to set them. I then bought the discussion back
to the knowledge we have about God. Who he really is, what he is like, how we
can learn about him and how we can share that knowledge with others. It ended
up being a very fun exercise and
learning experience for the class.
This Mom
now: The class that Dad was talking
about was Priesthood. Since we had
investigators at church I taught the Sunday School class and he took the
investigators to Gospel Principles then I had Judy in Relief Society and Dad
had Lloyd in Priesthood. It was a very
long day for Judy especially since they stayed for the baptisms. Judy wanted to see what was going to happen
to her. We will go and see them today
and see how she is doing. Judy and Lloyd
are in poor health and so we try not to over do things. But they did get married and she set her own
baptism date long before she was asked to be baptized formally.
We are enjoying
the sunshine and somewhat warmer temps.except for the winds. If we didn’t have a wind it would be very
comfortable. I would rather have winds
then socked in fog all the time. When we
have sunshine it tends to be cooler then when it rains. The rain here is heavy and can cause floods
in no time. It is deceptive in our
apartment because the sun shines in and warms up the apartment then we go out
side and it is cold.
I have prayed
that hearts would be pricked so that less actives would feel a desire to come
back. We have some that have said that
they will come back but it is hard to come back after not being in church for
awhile. We only have a little over a 2
months here and that will go by very quickly.
We continue to visit all that we can catch at home or will let us come
and visit. We really try to be a friend
and support them as best we can. There
is one lady who informed me yesterday that she was going home with us. No, no and no. She has problems and is slow so, she and her
husband have already wrung the branch dry and now it is the missionaries that
are slowly but surely being wrung dry.
It is only Dad and I that can actually do anything but if we do to much then
they think that we will bail them out of their millions of problems. Sometimes we walk a very thin line to help
the members help themselves without enabling them more then what we
should. It is so easy to get caught up
in lots of drama.
The branch
President has called certain members to take over from where we left off. Almost everyone that we can get in to visit
we have done so. But I am really hoping
that they can keep the ones that have come back and keep them active. Who knows we may be sent back here and maybe
not so the branch members will have to step up to the mark.
For the last week
we had the Sisters. We take them to
their appointments and sometimes we are invited in especially if they want some
moral support. Usually tho’ we drop them
off and do our own things then go and pick them up. On Tues after District Meeting they will have
a car again but then it will be the Elders with out a car. They are usually not as dependant as the Sisters
are. The Sisters had exchanges with the
Training Sisters last week. The Sister
Trainer decided that they would ride their bikes. Sister Cooke got major lost and the trainer
did not realized that Paragould Crowley
I have started to
pack up things that we really do not need to take back home in the car and
sending it home. One of the Senior
couples that were in Blythville did that and I thought what a good idea. We were so jammed pack coming here that
whatever we can do to be a little less jammed packed would be good.
Well my dears we
must close Love Dad and Mom, Papa and Grammy, Elder and
Sister Hansen
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