Hello out there! Come on in, and live a few of my days this past week with me!
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| WOW. |
Well today is my one year anniversary in mission, and I think that Heavenly Father is trying to bring joy and laughter into this day and teach me that I haven’t seen it “all” yet. Sister Marsh and I had just about the funniest/craziest shift in West Gate I think I’ve ever had. Haha.
We’re sitting here with the phones ringing off the hook trying to find Sisters to take tours and help all the people that are coming up to the window. And then here comes this lady with her little baby, yelling & screaming in our window about how she wants to be excommunicated, that she’s been paying her tithing for 28 years straight and she doesn’t receive the blessings, and that her bishop is rude and mocks her and hates her. That she hates the church and wants to be out NOW and NEVER come back. We had no idea what to tell her after her 15 minute rampage! So then she just asked that we call Security and have them come talk to her! Good thing they handled that well. What a blessing it is to have men that hold the priesthood as security here. They handled the situation quite well, and it didn’t end too bad. She was actually pretty calm and asked to see the Joseph Smith movie. Hopefully that will change her mind about wanting to be excommunicated.
Then this crazy Asian lady who speaks literally NO English comes up asking for the hospital. Her little daughter is trying to translate and just doesn’t even know what to do. So we asked to see the problem or why they needed a hospital and then the mom sticks the little son's finger in the window and he literally has the tiniest little splinter with a little puss inside! Haha. All the family is like surrounding him freaking out. So we call security AGAIN, laughing and telling them to come help. Of course they couldn’t really do anything so they sent them to the pharmacy. The Mom said, “So he’s not going to die?” hahaha, no way.
Then this angry Mandarin man calls in demanding a Mandarin motor coach for 39 people. Oh my heck. What ridiculousness! There were literally 10 unscheduled motor coaches demanding tours.
And then some flustered lady came up asking for taxi information because she needed to get to the hospital for her friend's bladder infection. She asked me if I would call them and get them here and I said “sorry mam’ we are not able to do that,” then she just stormed off. One thing after another, I’m thinking this must be a dream.
Then west gate texted out a 999 flagpole tour, we decided to take it even though we had a million things to get done in our office. On it there was this kind of almost anti guy. Just super political and had kind of anti questions. The whole tour was filled with his questions and building history. Then we were ending it at Temple view and this guy just walks up, introduces himself as Gibson and says, “Can I please just interrupt really quick. I just have to say something. I just came to Temple Square today, and I have found out today that the church is TRUE. God has answered my prayers here today. You all need to please listen to these Sisters. I just know now, and I want to share it with everyone,” then walks away! Sister Marsh and I just looked at each other like uhhh, well okay... thank you Gibson, that was neat! Haha.
And I don’t know why but this day just keeps getting even more interesting. So we’re sitting in our office taking care of business when all the sudden this man walks down in a suit that acts like he knows what he’s doing and he looks familiar, but no one can figure out who he is. Sister Marsh being the funny person that she is says, “Hi you look familiar what’s your name” “I’m Elder Watson. I’ve come here before,” HA! That’s great my companion just asked the Area Seventy of China what his name is. No way about that.
Also Sister Talaktoka had to go to the hospital because she got dehydrated, her temperature also got up to 105 before they called anyone to help. The assistants asked why she wasn’t drinking water and her sweet little Mexican companion says, “Well I tried to tell her that she needed to drink water, but she told me that all she likes is milk.” And I ask myself, where did this day come from? And I cannot believe that I’ve been here a whole entire year. Always crazy things to look forward to here in the square.
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| Class Picture! |
Friday, August 15th:
I have been so behind and bad about my journal this transfer. I must repent. Today was a special day. We talked with Jackie Sweeny for 2 hours straight. She is such a joy. You can literally just see the light she holds radiating from Him in all she does.
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| Sis Marsh, Jackie, and me |
Ever since she went through the temple she’s been obsessed with it. Rightfully so, it’s a beautiful place. I love the insight she has on everything. When we talk, I just can’t even contain my joy and the spirit that I feel. It could literally just burst out of me, no joke. At the end of our conversation she was expressing her gratitude for the service we are giving and for all that we’ve done to help her, ya right… I haven’t done anything. She’s the one that has changed me. She told us about how she’s super bad with names, but that there are 10 missionaries she prays for each day and that both our names were on that list. That hit a soft spot in my heart.
Then later on when we were in guest services some lady called in because she lost her wedding ring. Haha what! Who does that? She set it on a bench during her daughters wedding. So we went on a mission to find her ring. On the way, I found the Gleason’s. OH MY GOODNESS… Bailey is engaged. She also graduated today and like right afterwards is when Jeremy proposed. Her ring is literally gorgeous. I felt so special that they came to find me like right afterwards! Aw. I cried haha. Heidi said to Sister Marsh, “Yeah, your companion is her maid-of-honor. We love her to pieces,” yeah then I cried even more. After that whole ordeal we found this lady's ring. God definitely answered that prayer. Can’t even imagine how stressful that would have been.
Saturday, August 16th:
I literally cannot contain my joy. I need like a humongous jar or something to take all this happiness and joy out cause I can’t hold it all in my tiny little body. My heart is so full. Today we taught Emmanuel from Ghana with Seth as a member present.
He’s a member that Sister Marsh knows because she baptized his best friend when she was outbound. He was in the High Council there, but now is the First Counselor in the bishopric. He is also the Management Society president in all of Africa for BYU. So, cool. When we were introducing Emmanuel to Seth it was super neat. Seth just started talking to him about where he’s from and getting to know him. They actually live like 15 minutes away from each other and Emmanuel is in Seth’s stake! Then he asked if he had a job and Emmanuel said, “No, I’m jobless.” Then, Seth just went off about how the church could help him find a job because we have an employment specialist.
I don’t know why, but the spirit hit me so strong. I started to tear up. I could literally just feel how much Seth wanted to help him and get to know him. I love the African people so much. They are so full of love and charity for all those around them. The call actually ended up cutting out, so we couldn’t finish our lesson on the Restoration, but the time we had was super powerful.
Afterwards, Seth asked, “What else do you want me to do to help him?” We just said, “Well, you could try and help him get to church...” Oh my, he just took off with our suggestion. He said, “I will call the mission president right after we hang up and the stake president and the zone leaders and get him in touch with the local missionaries. They can also go visit with him in the hospital and give his brother a blessing.” WOW! How’s that for a member missionary. Don’t know if anyone else can compare. That’s the kind of member missionary I will strive to be when I am done with my mission. We ended up talking with him after for like 30 minutes about service projects and things in Ghana! Sister Marsh and I are just FIRED up! He talked about the Ghana MTC and we asked if there was anyway that we could work there afterwards, and he just said, “I’ll see what I can do. Either way there is so much service that needs your help here in Ghana. We need people like you to help our people. To show them that there is hope and goodness that can come to them in their lives.”
Yes please… sign me up on anything and everything.
We got to talk to the Branch President in Liberia today also. Jamah’s baptism is all ready for August 23rd! So excited. I can’t even imagine how Sister Marsh must feel right now. She’s been teaching him for like 2 months and who would have thought he would still be getting baptized with all the missionaries being transferred out. We are praying and hoping that we will be able to skype his baptism. It’s going to be at like 4am here though. Booo. We’ll just go beg President to help us figure something out. We also took the cutest little African family from Tanzania, Africa around too. The parents are members, but the kids aren't... they're getting baptized in the beginning of September. We're so excited to go!
Just got news that we get to skype Jamahs baptism this week! So excited about that. President is letting us take his laptop home and skype it at 4am! wooohoo. hahah.
LOVE YOU ALL,
Sister Hansen
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