Week 7 - Liberty Jail...

Wow, what to say. This week was awesome!

First of all, this week I got my first referrals! When we give tours we of course always have to ask for referrals, but I haven't been very good at it. But this week we had a really good training, and I changed my technique, and I have gotten 4 so far! Pretty cool. When you think about it though, the main reason the church has visitors' centers is for missionary work. When you get the people that come through to realize that, they are more prone to give you referrals. On a related note, we got a referral from the MTC the other day (people call in there asking for free media and bibles and stuff like that, then they send you the referral). But instead of it saying the item the person had requested, it just said they wanted a missionary visit, which was weird. So we called her and i just told her we had received a message that she wanted a missionary visit, and she said yes. Awesome! So we are going to see her tomorrow and I am excited to see what comes of it.

In other exciting news...we committed a man (BB Robinson) for baptism in November! He still has a little bit of a smoking problem, but I really believe he will be able to quit very soon. It was amazing when we committed him- right before he even said "I am ready. I am ready to become a Mormon." It was awesome! At the beginning of the visit he was talking about some little concerns he still had, and we had scriptures and things to say to resolve his concerns. But the cool thing was that we didn't even get around to doing it- he kind of just kept talking and realizing he really did know this was the true church, and those small concerns didn't even matter any more. It really was amazing to see the spirit teaching, because we really didn't do all that much. But he was so excited! Sister Blunt wasn't there because it was exchanges (aka I was with another sister), but he called her at the jail and they were both crying on the phone, and the spirit was so strong. It was awesome! Then at church yesterday he was telling everyone "I'm fixing to become a Mormon!" He is great. I am so excited! I really pray that he can quit smoking soon and be baptized as soon as possible, because that will help him so much!

Anyway. Can you believe that I have been here in Liberty for almost a month? What the heck! And I am coming up on 2 months on my mission? I can just tell this is going to go by faster than I ever imagined. it is ridiculous. But I am determined to make the most of it! A mission, just like anything else- school, work, life in general- is really as good as you make it. We can all choose how good we want our lives to be. And one thing I have seen so much here- the knowledge of the gospel, when you actually use that knowledge, automatically makes life so much better! Seriously, just think about all the blessings you have in your life just because you are a member of the church. You could literally fill volumes just about that. We have been trying to work more closely with the members in our ward lately and trying to have them connect that- the fact that those blessing come from having the gospel- with the fact that they need to be missionaries too. It is frustrating sometimes when they aren't willing to do that. But it is so important! It really doesn't take much. i know especially in Utah, BYU, etc. it is hard to share the gospel because everyone seems to be mormon! but there are ways. And if we are actually thinking about missionary work, we will be led to those ways. We need to pray for those opportunities and actually want them as well!

Wow, tangent. Anyway. Another cool thing- we had a goal as a mission this week to get 250 investigators at church on Sunday. Everyone has been trying so hard to accomplish that, and also we were able to count non-members that the members brought as well. But we found out last night- 356! We were really excited. Now we just have to keep them at church!

Well, exciting happenings this week- we have interviews with President VanKomen, which will be fun. We will also have district meeting that day and i am going to pass off lessons 2 and 3! What that means- for every lesson we have to memorize the bullet points in the full lesson plan at the end (read preach my gospel and you will know what i am talking about), memorize the commitments, and also have a memorized scripture for every principle in the lesson. I already passed off lesson 1, but I am going for the gold and doing 2 and 3 this week! It is going to be good. Once you pass off all 5 lessons you can drive, so that is a pretty good incentive. :) Also, we were going to be going to the St. Louis temple this week but i don't think we will be able to go because our recent convert who was going to go (aka the reason we were going to be able to go) isn't going. Boo. But, I do get to go on a mini church history trip on halloween! They take all the new sisters on a trip and we go to Independence, Liberty Jail, Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Richmond, etc. I am super stoked! It is going to be awesome.

Well, I love you all and hope you are having a fabulous week! I would love to hear from you!

-Sister Hafen