This week has been so crazy I might even go crazy! The miracle of the week is that I didn't die. I will explain.
Monday kinda stunk to be completely honest. I hate packing and it feels like I had just put all of my stuff away before I had to start all over again. Note to self...space bags are an invention from Heavenly Father and are amazing! Other than that I have learned that missions are kind of like being cremated. You have little bits of yourself eveywhere. That's really gross but you all get the idea. And Heavenly Father definitely has a sense of humor! I was on the transfer train heading across the mountains and when we were passing Dotsero, Gypsum and Eagle, the currant bush talk played on the cd in the car I was in. I usually love that talk but this time it felt like a punch to the face and hard to take. Mostly when it got to the part when the man says, " How could you do this to me God? I was doing everything I was supposed to.." and then Heavenly Father answers back," I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be.." and then the man says, "‘Thank you, Mr. Gardener, for cutting me down, for loving me enough to hurt me." Ouch! Lots of goodbyes later and I am now in Denver. It's great but a whole lot different.
It's a lot like a new country, a new mission and the people are awesome. There are a ton of creepy children of God though... Pepper spray is a must.
I started out the week by getting a very nice case of food poisoning from Sonic. So I was out of commission for a bit. Lesson learned = never trust a free hamburger.
Between then and now it has been a very stressful few days. But what makes it better is that my new companion could be twins with Hannah Hutchins. Not just because they are the same height but they are so stinking similiar it is a riot. For all of you who know Hannah you can see why being her companion would be sick! So yeah it's a hoot! We have done so much tracting the past few days and each time makes me want to hit Satan really really hard. He is the worst!
I have a couple favorites.
One day we were tracting out these sketchtastic apartments and this lady opens the door. Keep in mind that it is winter so I am super white, blond and blue-eyed and Hermana Harper is equally white. Anyways this lady opens the door and we start talking to her in Spanish and she just says, "I don't speak Spanish." and slammed the door in our faces. I was like, "great neither do we" but didn't get it in fast enough. Well eternal salvation will come knocking at your door another day.
My other favorite happened yesterday. We went to knock some trailers and it had started hailing at that point. So we come to one and we knock and the guy inside takes down the plastic over his door, sees us and is like, "nobody's home". We literally see you. You are looking into our eyes. That's okay though....planting seeds planting seeds. Sometimes I just want to chuck a handful at people and pray that at least one sprouts.
I learned a powerful lesson about how the Savior must feel when we don't choose to accept Him. Like these two people, we kind of have our moments of rejection. He knocks and sometimes we open but don't choose to leave the door open enough to receive Him. Do we tell the Lord that "we don't speak Spanish" and deny His Atonement to have power in helping us to change and become better? Or sometimes we don't even open the door and refuse to make the effort at all because it's really hard.
It takes a lot of faith to open our hearts to Him and in the multitude of slammed doors in the past few days I saw this example as well. We knocked on this one lady's door and taught about the Restoration and she prayed at the end. This may not seem very significant but it is. While we were teaching, she wouldn't let us in her house. With each page turn in the pamphlet, we could see her heart softening and she wanted to pray at the end. She opened her door all the way and let us in. Then she exercised faith and prayed to Heavenly Father. She prayed for her children and that she would know where God wanted her to go and what He wanted her to do. We are going back this week to finish the lesson but I know that she will progress because I saw her countenance change in a matter of minutes. That's what this gospel, the church does. It changes us if we let it. When we let Christ into our hearts, we become who He wants us to be. When we do what He asks of us, when we are obedient, He blesses us beyond what we can ever imagine.
I had to go to a meeting this week and our mission president was talking about obedience and how important it is. He was saying that if we were trained in our first 6 weeks to be exactly obedient as a missionary then that would shape our entire missions and our lives. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me with such an amazing trainer for my first 6 weeks. I know that Hermana Smock's example has set the tone for the rest of my mission and life. No pressure....but we all have a long way to go and it's because of righteous example's like her and like so many others that we are able to push forward and learn all that we have to learn. The only example we have whom we can follow perfectly and never fear for following down a wrong road is the Savior. It's never going to be easy but it will always be worth it!
Have a great week everyone!
Love,
Hermana Kylie D. Hansen
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