Week 36 - Independence Visitors Center

Hello all!

It was a good, busy and crazy week as usual. Last Tuesday I got to go over to my friend’s house for dinner! My friend Candice who I worked with at the library lives in my area, and she goes to the single’s branch but her family is in my ward. Such a small world. Anyway, I got to see her and it was fun to have dinner with their family.

This week was also Zone Conference! I love Zone Conference, it is always exactly what I need at that time. We had a lot of good trainings about obedience and diligence and just having faith. Our mission president had us read the talk “Return With Honor” by Elder Hales before we went and then we were able to make some comments about what we learned. I also got to see my last companion Sister Webb and the missionary she is training. They said that the ice cream social was a success, there weren't tons of people there but there were about 25 non-members which is great. Also the four of us sang a musical number that we hadn't practiced, but it turned out well. And I played the piano for most of the songs, and led the music for the times I didn't.  Afterwards I was talking to President and he said. "wow, you have a lot of talents!" I laughed. Really it was just because no other sisters were there, but I am happy to help. On my mission I have been able to play the piano quite a bit, which has been a blessing. I didn't really practice a whole lot in college, and i haven't been able to a whole lot here, but somehow it doesn't scare me as much anymore to play in front of a lot of people. Pretty cool.

Anyway, I learned something very important this week. You know how growing up people are always telling you that you need to pray and read your scriptures every day? And it gets kind of annoying? Well, I am jumping on that bandwagon. This week we worked at the VC every single morning, and since we have to be there at 8:30 we don't really have time to study on those mornings. Then I try to study at the VC, but there are lots of people and distractions and if we are busy you can just forget about it. Anyway, we were out in our area on Saturday night and when we got back we were both just kind of frustrated with different things. I didn't feel like I was feeling to spirit very much or teaching by it, and I didn't feel like I was receiving any guidance for our area. I just felt spiritually empty, and I was getting distracted by a lot of different things that don't usually distract me. And we realized, it's because we haven't been studying like we need to! It was kind of like a slap in the face for me. It's like if you are consistent about going to the temple for a while, and then aren't able to go for a few weeks. You can really feel the difference! So I made some new goals to make sure that never happens again. We can't successfully get through our lives the way we need to if we don't have guidance from Heavenly Father. And the only way to have that guidance is to invite it by being obedient!

So it was a good lesson learned, which I will probably be learning the rest of my life. I also had a really good eye-opening experience at the Visitors' Center this week. Two men came in and wanted to look around. They are from one of the "restoration branches", so we have lots of common history. They wanted to go through God's Plan for His Family, which is a presentation about eternal families and the restoration and stuff like that. Another sister went with me because we can't do just 1 or 2 men tours by ourselves, which I was grateful for later. Anyway, we go through the presentation and then ask them what they think about it. The older man started to talk about how it was nice, but not true. How really, no offense, but we aren't really going to be in families after we die. We will still know each other, and we will still live on after we die, but everyone will be equal and just live all together. It was a very interesting situation, and the spirit just kind of left. It is a hard lesson to learn on your mission that when things like this happen, it will do no good whatsoever to try and "bible bash" or disagree and start debating. So we handled it and life moved on, but it was a good experience for me to have. It makes me sad to think that these men really don't believe it is possible to be with your loved ones again. Knowing that the Plan of Salvation is true, and learning it more on my mission, gives me purpose to my life. Why in the world would Heavenly Father send us down here, organize us in families, let us get all attached and love each other more than anything, and then just take that away? He wouldn't! Because He loves us.

We had another experience teaching this week where someone was trying to prove their beliefs to us with the Bible. I just hate contention, and I have learned so strongly that the Spirit cannot be there if there is contention. It just can't. It's not in His job description. I was thinking about the experience later and realized we really need to be focusing on the Book of Mormon more. We use an analogy sometimes about why it is important to use both. If you take a Bible and nail it to the wall, you can rotate it anyway you want. You can twist it over and over again, and it will go wherever you want it to go. But if you take the Bible and the Book of Mormon and nail them in together, it doesn't work that way. They won't move. With two witnesses, the doctrine is solid. I have always been taught that the Book of Mormon is so important, but I never really understood why. But it is. It is so powerful. I was reading Elder Bednar's talk from conference and he says something so good that really made sense to me. He said:

"The Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth because it centers upon the Truth, even Jesus Christ, and restores the plain and precious things that have been taken away from the true gospel. The unique combination of these two factors—a focus on the Savior and the plainness of the teachings—powerfully invites the confirming witness of the third member of the Godhead, even the Holy Ghost. Consequently, the Book of Mormon speaks to the spirit and to the heart of the reader like no other volume of scripture."

I love it! It's all about the spirit. By reading the Book of Mormon we can just feel the spirit so strongly. There is something about it that i can't explain that changes your life. I talked about our 60 day read of the Book of Mormon before and how amazing it was. At Zone Conference President VanKomen was doing a training and he asked us what we learned from doing that. I raised my hand and talked about how when we were reading it, it was at a time in my mission that I was struggling. By doing that every day and inviting the spirit into my life, i was able to come to understand the Atonement like never before. It was something I hadn't even realized before I said it. But it is true. I needed an answer to my prayer, and it came by reading the Book of Mormon. And I was able to learn things i wouldn't have been able to otherwise. It is so powerful! It reminds me of a quote I like in Preach My Gospel from President Benson:

“We are to use the Book of Mormon in handling objections to the Church. . . All objections, whether they be on abortion, plural marriage, seventh-day worship, etc., basically hinge on whether Joseph Smith and his successors were and are prophets of God receiving divine revelation. . . Make a list of some “great questions of the soul” that investigators have asked. Find verses in the Book of Mormon to answer these questions. Write the answers in your study journal, and use them as you teach . . The only problem the objector has to resolve for himself is whether the Book of Mormon is true. For if the Book of Mormon is true, then Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith was his prophet, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true, and it is being led today by a prophet receiving revelation. Our main task is to declare the gospel and do it effectively. We are not obligated to answer every objection. Every man eventually is backed up to the wall of faith, and there he must make his stand”

So good! Anyway, that is plenty long enough. I love you all, and hope you have a fantastic week!

-Sister Hafen