This week was great! lots of work as usual, but this week we held a service project here in the zone. heres the details:
in the Ilha do Governandor(governer´s island) there a surpising number of favelas and poor communities, in one of which there was a nice kindergarten completely coverd by grafiti. We volunteered by offering the teachers a clean-up! so this last weekend we gathered as a zone and went to work.
the Mission President helped us a ton. he bought all the paint/materials necessary for the project, and then brought the mission secretaries along to make a video for the mission. we invited some members who are painters to guide the project. we had to wake up at 4:30 just to get to the site on time. the day was SUPER HOT, but that wasnt gonna get us down!
we first used sandpaper to rub off all the grafiti... my arms are still sore from all the scrubbing! but as mom always said, use that elbow grease!! we then layered the building with their desired paint color. the service project lasted about 5 hours. with 20 missionaries working that makes 80 man hours, the project was a sucess!!
perahaps the greatest sucess was the impact that our service had on the community. many onlookers and neighboors came to thank us for the charity, many of these asked us to come visit them!! it was a blessing to see how simple service opens hearts and doors for our work. It was a pleasure to serve my follow man, and my god! As Christ said,"Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Mat. 25:40
October 4, 2013
EXTENSION!!!
what an answer to prayers! i was given one more transfer, so my original return date(18th of March) has been bumped up to the 30th of april. 6 more weeks of miracles!!!!
Monique´s baptism fell through :( we spent the week preparing so that nothing could get in the way, but when we passed by on sunday, her relative explained to us that she was in the hospital! even worse she went downtown so we couldnt leave our area to visit her. she´s supposedly getting better, i hope she has the strength to continue the progress!! good news though, our relationship improved a ton with her parents!! as we started teaching, her mother was strictly against us it seemed. Monique is already 18 but her mother still has much control over her actions. after a tense discussion about her baptism, we thought our realtionship with her was toast. but after much prayer and fasting, her mother open the door one day with a smile!! she asked for our forgiveness about impeding her daughters baptism, even invited us to her husbands churrasco(BBQ), what a delicious turn around!! i have no doubts that Monique will be baptised, the only question is WHEN. how many hurls will she have to jump through to take this step of faith? we´re praying a ton for her well being, we´re looking to bring her family with her as well!!
The work is going well, i always feel like im capable of MORE! the pressure of accellerating this work is stressfull, we´re quickly realizing that we cant do this alone!! the ward is ready to help, they just dont know how. so, we´ll be giving a lot of trainings in our lunch visits and sunday school classes. EVERY MEMBER A MISSIONARY. this is the vision that God has for his church, we´re entering into a time where there is no room for fence sitters. as the hymn sings- whos on the Lord´s side, who? i know that when the prophet speaks its a commandment. especially when he says something two times!! This is the time for members and missionaries to work together!! i hope everyone knows their local missionaries and are striving to aleviate the burdens they carry as representatives. many miracles will follow!! our friends, neighbors and family are ready to hear this message, now is the time!! we dont have to grab a box and preach in a plaza to be a missionary. simple invites, testimonies and love are the key! i hope eveyone has missionary experiences this week. write me about them, i´d love to hear!!
We´re planning a service project here in the zone, its gonna be incredible! we´re planning on painting a worn out day care, im exciting to see how our efforts to serve will bless our work. untill next week!!
Élder Hansen
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