Week 9 - Liberty Jail

November 9, 2009

Hello everyone!

Well can you believe it is transfers this week already?! And today is the 9th, which means I have been on my mission for 2 months. But anyway, we get a call tomorrow night telling us what is going to happen with transfers. My prediction (well more of a i am 99% sure) is that I will stay where I am in the Liberty 1st ward/at the jail, and my comp. will go somewhere to Kansas full proselyting. This makes me very sad, because I love her, but I know she is excited to go.

But this week was good! The weather has actually been amazing for about the last week and I haven't even worn a coat at all. This is weird to me because when I got here it was already cold and I was just expecting it to get colder. Now I feel like summer is coming instead of winter! But I am sure it will get nice and miserable very soon. This week- Elder Nelson came! We had an all-mission conference, which was crazy and awesome. It was so cool to see all the missionaries. We have about 230 all together and over 40 sisters alone, so it was great. Elder Nelson came to the jail and had his granddaughter Sis. Maxfield (we live in the same house) give him a tour- it was sad because we left 5 minutes before he got there to go to the conference in Independence. But oh well. At the conference we took a picture of all the missionaries with Elder Nelson, then on the way into the chapel we all got to shake his hand. It was great! That was on Friday, and then on Saturday night we were able to go to Stake Conference. Betty, one of our recent converts and wife to BB, talked for about 5 minutes just sharing her conversion story a little bit. i think the best part was that she wasn't really aware that she was speaking alongside the mission president, a member of the 70, and an apostle. But she did great! We were so proud.

Besides that excitement this week, we did a lot of tracting and finding people. it was awesome that the weather was nice- that was a blessing. We found a lot of potential investigators, and my favorite is this cute old man named Carl. We knocked on his door and started talking to him, then he asked us a question. He asked us where we think people go when they die. We started talking about the plan of salvation, and he teared up a little and told us his wife died 9 months ago after 65 years of marriage. Break my heart! I actually started tearing up myself right there on the doorstep. It is so sad to know that some people really have no idea what happens after death! But we went back yesterday and taught him the whole lesson, and he liked it. We are going back on Thursday, and I am excited!

As far as BB goes, he is supposed to be baptized on Saturday but that isn't going to happen. Up until yesterday at least he was still smoking. We took some men in the ward over yesterday and gave him a blessing, and he was crying and I think it gave him new motivation. I really think he will kick the habit soon and be baptized. We are just praying our little hearts out for him! Oh, do you remember Cindy? We had commited her for baptism pretty early on this transfer. But she went out of town a few weeks ago and then once she got back she promptly started avoiding us. The other day we finally went over to her house after driving by and seeing her sitting outside. We parked and walked over, and her kids told us she wasn't home, even though we had just seen her not 2 minutes before. That little stinker. We aren't sure exactly what happened, but I hope one day she will want to talk to us again. It is amazing how fast people really can turn.

Oh, this is a subject I was obsessed with the other day that I will share with you. So sometimes when we teach members we talk about faith, and one thing we ask them is what blessings have come into their lives from the gospel. One HUGE one I have seen here that I hadn't really thought much about before- stability. Just the simple facts that you know who you are, where you came from, where you are going, that your parents aren't going to walk out on you, that your home is a refuge, not a scary place. That you know your Heavenly Father loves you, and that your family loves you. Seriously, it is amazing to me how many people in this world just don't have this kind of knowledge. The gospel has provided so much stability in my life. If you came to some of these homes we visit you would know exactly what I mean. People need this stability in their lives!

Well, this is getting long. But I love you all and thank you for your prayers and support. Know that even though sharing the gospel can be intimidating and scary, it is so worth it. I am having a blast out here, even though it is hard to wake up early every single day (including p day) and work all day every day. But the good things, relationships, experiences, miracles, etc. they really do just make you forget about all that bad stuff. Being a missionary is great! I whole-heartedly recommend it!

-Sister Hafen