Monday, September 16, 2013

Another busy week :)

Family and Friends,

Pretty sure I should be learning more Spanish. There are a lot of Latinos in Painsville:) We are working on learning at least a couple of sentences, as of now we just smile and hand them a Spanish Restoration pamphlet and a card telling them about an ESL class the Elders teach:) I knew I should have learned Spanish! 
  
      Anyways. The weather here is going crazy. You know how in Utah its really bipolar? well its like really REALLY bipolar here. so funny, One day its like freezing cold and the next its back to the middle of summer! Ugh. We keep waiting for the leaves to turn too and they are taking forever and I just know its going to be winter before we know it!
  
  This week has been simply wonderful and went by too fast. The more I adjust and get used to being a missionary the more I am trying to enjoy it while I can and work my heart out so I have NO REGRETS when I head home. I don't want to even think " man I wish I would have worked harder at the beginning of my mission!" So I am really working on being more willing to walk a little faster, talk to more people and do everything I can more efficiently. I just want to find those prepared people! I know there are hundreds in Painsville!  Elder Bowen toured our mission last week and gave an amazing 3+ hour workshop on not limiting ourselves!!!!! Part of our revised plan in working with ward members is to teach them this flea analogy and help them see that we can't place those limits on the Perry ward and on ourselves Basically he was telling us that fleas jump, and if you put them in a jar they will jump right out, but if you put a lid on the jar, they eventually realize they shouldn't try to jump out and instead jump up right to the edge of the top of the jar. Then even if you take the lid off, they still don't jump out because they think that lid is still there! So silly! He then was saying we are doing that to ourselves when we think, " oh well last week we only had 7 lessons so this week we are probably only going to get 8. He was telling us about this mission in Spain where everyone said 'oh that area doesn't get any baptisms.' But he knew it had more potential so he sent in a faithful missionary who knew God would pull through and pretty soon then were having 10-15 baptisms a month! We just have to have that faith that this is God's work and people are ready. otherwise we are limiting ourselves and God. We have to press forward with that faith that He will deliver and we are simply here to reap. I am so blessed to be here. The ward is wonderful. One thing we decided to do in ward correlation is for each of the missionary companionship's to pick a family to work with in the ward. To be in more regular contact with them and really help them learn how to be member missionaries. Its going to be awesome and I really think some miracles are going to come out of this. We had exchanges this week with Sis. Neslen and Sis. Gee. I went with Sis. Neslen to Chardon and it was awesome! I loved being able to learn from her and push myself to be even more confident and sure of talking to people and sharing the Gospel. We had some amazing lessons and For the first time I caught a glimpse of how fully the gospel can make people want to change. We taught this lady Lesha,  So sweet. I just know she is going to be ready to be baptized soon! Sis. Gee and Sis. Jones also found a lot of new investigators that day and I am so excited to meet them this coming week.
          Saturday we help our ward with Feed Ohio.Such a weird day, We basically sat in  the church parking lot with, 4 Elders and 4 sisters. waiting for people to bring food. We had handed out tons of flyers the week before and some that morning, and we took turns driving with different members to go pick up food but almost all of the areas we had handed out flyers had nothing! It was a  bit of a disappointing turn out from the community but we are hoping and praying they all decided to do the monetary donation online. The ward really pulled through though and we ended up making a sizable contribution. It was really fun to interact with the community and ward members a little more in that atmosphere of selfless service. Really wasn't organized the best though and we all felt so horrible for wasting the day, But the ward had asked us to do it and so we just tried our best to keep busy and make it worthwhile. It was better later that night we had an incredible Bonfire that one of the members hosted for us to bring our investigators too as well as some members to help fellowship. It was a perfect night, with some incredibly spiritual highlights. One of the Elders investigators Rocky is awesome, and sang a song he had written about Jesus. It was so neat!
         Well It has been a fantastic week. We havn't had a lot of chat time in the visitors center on Mormon.org which makes me sad but we have just had so many other things to do! It feels so good to keep busy!  I can't even believe how much better I feel after not even 4 weeks yet, I feel like a missionary!!!!! And I am so excited to be here!
    I love you all! Thank you so much for all the letters and the package! Totally made my day! I have gotten a lot of letters this week and I did know they would take awhile going through the mission office so don't feel bad. Also I am not sure the exact address of my house papa but its called the Hyrum Smith home and its up by the teNewren

mple. So if you are looking on google maps and just look around the temple it is kind kiddy corner from the Community of Christ visitors center, across the street from the gas station there. we can see the temple if we step outside our front door. Its awesome! I am so sorry if I don't get to everyone's questions! Just keep asking and I am sure I will remember to answer it sometime! Love you all! Have a wonderful week and don't forget to be awesome member missionaries! You are so important!!!!! BYE!
     Love, 
       Sis. Hannah     

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