This week has been a really good week. Even though our number don't show it I am confident that the Lord is happy with the service of which we have been able to render this week. I know that he will continue to allow us to bear the different challenges that we receive as we continue to allow ourselves to stay within the strength of the Lord.
Monday we had a really great P-day and spent most of it doing allot of cleaning in the apartment and preparing different things. We took care of our shopping and e-mails as quickly as we could so we could get started on cleaning because our rating wasn't the best. We took that challenge and cleaned the apartment and have continued to spend extra time we have on lunch or dinner to clean. We were also able to accomplish allot of preparation that will allow us to save time and keep focused on the important work we must do. We had a great evening with the Hearns and after went and tried to see the Hughett/Byrd family.
Tuesday was a great Zone Conference that allowed me to receive and write down many great promptings that as I apply will allow me to become even better and more exactly obedient. I was grateful for the messages that were discussed and shared because it allowed me to better understand of the great missionary work of which the Savior himself did. His example continues to shine forth and bring new light and lessons deep into my heart. After we visited with Sister Wyser and invited her out to some activities that are coming up and also to church. She had a very positive outlook on the idea. That night we had family home evening but we didn't have anyone come so we went into institute. We ended up talking with Breanna who is a non-member but is excited to learn more about the Book of Mormon. Her fiance is on his way down here for school and we are hoping that she will allow us to share more of this glad message.
Wednesday we stayed near our apartment because on of our appointments fell through. We were able to see a few potentials and past investigators but nothing came of it. We were also able to do 5v5's and have set a goal to testify of the Restoration to everyone that we talk along with asking them for referrals. It has definately continued to increase our finding opportunities and has continued to uplift my spirit continually everyday. We had dinner with Sister Parkes and Sister Odom which went really well and they are helping us with setting up the activity night that we are starting to allow ward members to bring and invite their friends. We then traveled to the Chickasaw area and visited with Kimberely Evans. We had a great lesson with her and have been able to get her a ride to church. Consistency with her other ride has not been established and we all want more consistency so we found a great ward member who is willing to help her out. She has been reading out of the Gospel Principles manual with her husband and we are all hoping it will continue to prepare him to accept His message. During the evening we went and visited with a few part member families who have started to show some sincere interest and are hoping to work with them.
Thursday we had a great planning session. We were able to update all of the teaching records of our investigators and learned a great lesson of being more diligent with keeping them updated. It really helped us to see more of what we will be able to do to continue to help them progress better in the Gospel. We were able to set up some great goals. Between our planning we went by the Church and tracted for a few hours. We were able to bear testimony to 4 different people that answered there doors and were able to ask for referrals from them. We found Monica and she seemed very excited to learn more about His message. We had correlation with Brother Jordan which went really well. We were able to set up a new focus of direction with the new member discussions and establish a good list of people that as a ward we are going to focus better on bringing back into the church. We ended up also visiting with Brandy Rush. She has been struggling recently and we have not been able to have contact with her for a few months now. It lifted allot of worries away and brought a new peace about us all. We gave her a few chapters to read out of the Book of Mormon and found out the next day that she had read them and we were able to commit her to read more.
Friday we tried to visit Latasha but she was not available at the time we stopped by. We went to our backup plan and visited with Brother Cleveland. He has been doing really well and desires to come to church but just doesn't have a ride. We are still working with ward members to get that set up but have not had any luck at this time. We visited with Brother Serrano and did some quick service for him which was really great. We traveled up near the Parkes home and visited quite a few less active members homes. Many people have been home because of school being canceled because of the snow. We visited with the Parkes for a little bit. We found out that a ward member had passed away which was really sad but at the same time I was filled with Joy because she is now serving the Lord in the spirit world and is continuing to magnify her calling there. We didn't have anyone show up to game night so we traveled up to the Coker's to see how they were doing with her daughters death. We ended up visiting with her other daughter and her family. We gave her grandson a blessing because he is taking the death of is aunt really hard. It brought him allot of peace and comfort and as we were able to stay and talk with him it allowed him to reflect and the great times that he had with his aunt and brought some solace into his life.
Saturday we began the day bright and early by traveling to the Bishop's Storehouse. I love being able to help serve and to also see the bright spirits of those who are in need and are willing to help others who are experiencing the same hardships. After we went and picked up Brother Serrano so he could come with us to some teaching appointments that we had. We were able to visit with Mary Tucker and she was happy to see him. His testimony and sharing with her different things of which he has experienced has opened her heart. I know that because of His spirit allowing us all to be instruments that it is allowing the spirit to testify so beautifully. We continued our travels to the Eight Mile are and visited with the Juarez family. We talked with them for a little bit and invited all of the youth in the home to activity night and also to the etiquette dinner that the youth are having. They seemed to be really excited about the invitation. We ended the night by visiting with the Baylor family. We talked with them for a bit and were also able to share with Sister Baylor about the etiquette dinner and the activity night. She seemed pretty excited and said that the kids would most likely be able to come. Only the oldest son in their family is a member and we are hoping this will continue to open the door and allow us to teach the other children or maybe even her husband.
Sunday was filled with many great opportunities of being able to help allot of great people. We didn't have anyone at church but Kimberly was able to make it which was really great and we are going to keep the consistency working each and every week. I was grateful to be able to bless the sacrament and magnify the Aaronic Priesthood. I learned allot of great lessons from talks that were given on forgiveness and also on missionary work by our ward mission leader. After church we visited with Ruxandra who is going through a difficult challenge. She found out that her visa was denied to continue school at the university. She has to be back in Romania by March 2nd, so she was asking us if we knew anyone that she could do some odd jobs for to earn up some money for the flight back. She found out that her visa had been denied just this past week. Hopefully we will be able to help her but more importantly before she leaves to share more of the Gospel with her and in turn she may desire to hear more of it back in Romania with her family. We then traveled to Brother Serrano's and had dinner with him. We followed up with him about his neighbors who he had placed a Book of Mormon with. It was exciting to see his face light up when he talked with them about it and they had been able to read some of the Book of Mormon. We expressed our gratitude for his great work. We also discussed with him about gratitude and gave him some ideas for his talk on the subject of gratitude. We stopped by the Parkes quickly because Bishop had a few questions for us. We then traveled and tried to see a few potential investigators to finish out the night.
I'm so grateful for all of the great things that Lord allows us to feel and receive as we stay within the right spirits and continue to dedicate our lives in his service.
Love You
Elder Regan Hansen
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