hey everybody,
sorry to be MIA last week--believe me, i was sad about it. it's never fun not to be able to have news from home. even today i'm super rushed, all because of the choir practices. but, after the 11 december i should be able to write my emails in peace--hopefully. anyway, time is FLYING by--i can't believe it's almost december already! we've been pretty busy the past week or so, preparing for activities planned for our investigators and what not. i had my first zone conference this past week, and it was really good. there were a lot of things that we talked about during the conference that really helped me and boosted my spirits. the past two weeks, to be honest, have been super hard. i feel like satan has been working pretty hard on me lately to get me down and discouraged and weaken my faith. there are times when it's really difficult not to feel totally inadequate, like i have nothing to offer people here. i know that's not true, obviously, but constant feelings of failure are hard to shake off. but, little by little, things do get better. i had a good scripture study experience this week--i woke up one morning, dreading another day of feeling insecure and inadequate. i didn't know how i was going to face the day, to be honest, but i knew that i had to try, obviously. so i just said my prayers and prayed that i would be able to feel the spirit and receive the strength i needed to keep going. i got ready, and then went to do my personal study, and opened up to 2 nephi 4--nephi's psalm. this chapter was an answer to my prayer--even nephi had moments of despair and self-doubt, but he knew how to place his confidence in the Lord and move forward with faith. i felt like my spiritual batteries were recharged after reading that chapter, and i was able to go throughout my day feeling confident and excited to work. it's true that it's hard to teach some of our investigators, because they aren't really making progress, but there are others that are moving forward and getting stronger in the gospel every day. just the other day, the two brothers we're teaching were like "man the gospel really brings changes. we used to fight all the time, and now we hardly ever do!" anyway, things are still rolling along. i know that God doesn't give us trials that he knows we can't handle--there's always a purpose behind the hard times. we just need to have faith that if we do our best, after the refiner's fire we'll come out even better than before. hopefully this doesn't sound too depressing. don't worry, i'm not like crying in the shower or anything.
good news! the babou family set their baptismal date--december 16! we had to pray a lot for them, because they originally wanted to wait until february and we were like whaa? because they're so ready NOW. anyway, after fasting and prayer, they decided on the date and there was much rejoicing in the land. this family is way cool. honestly, they were ready even before we started the lessons with them, so i don't really feel like i did that much, haha. but i'm happy to be able to witness the process of their conversion and baptism. i know they'll be a strong family in the church.
this week i gave my first committment to baptism to one of our investigators--he's been taking the lessons for a long time and there's not really anything standing in the way of his baptism, he just doesn't have enough confidence in himself. he's scared of falling again after taking the leap. but we had a really good lesson with him and i invited him to be baptized on the 14 of december (your birthday, mom!) and he was like "haha whaa?" and i was like yeah man, you can do it. he didn't say no, so it wasn't a total bust. but he's going to ponder and pray and all that good stuff, so hopefully we'll be able to see some progress with him soon.
tahitian is still kicking my butt, guys. it's insane how such a simple language can be so dang hard. but, i'm really grateful for our DMP because he is really trying to help me learn. unfortunately during lessons in tahitian, my companion thinks that the best way to help me is to not help me at all, so i kind of have to learn trial by fire. but the DMP is really awesome and is working with me a lot to help me progress. i was super stressed this past week because we had a lesson with one of our investigators and it was my turn to teach the spirit world, resurrection, judgement, and kingdoms of glory. in tahitian. what?! yeah. i was kind of freaking out, but i really did my best to prepare. i put the promise in D&C 11 to the test--seek to obtain my word, and your tongue will be loosed. i put my all into preparing for that lesson, and said ok let's do this. and i tried to walk in with confidence and faith that the Lord would keep his promise to me. honestly, i don't even remember what i said, but at the end of the lesson, our investigator understood what i had taught and started talking about how she wanted to get baptized. what?! ok! obviously i'm not fluent. and i still have a loooooooooooong way to go before i feel confident in speaking and understanding, but it was an experience that strengthened my testimony that God keeps his promises and is there to help us when we need it.
anyway, i gotta go. no time. but i love you and miss you and keep you in my prayers. happy thanksgiving this week!!
love,
soeur hansen
