Week 38 - Independence Visitors Center

Hi, well I think I have been mentioning it lately, but the day finally came. The infamous half-way point of my mission. I calculated from the day I went into the MTC to the day I am going home, and the halfway point was May 30. Can you believe it? So I am now officially on the other side- I have less to go on my mission than I have completed. I am so weirded out by this. I have been acting kind of weird/anxious the past couple of days because of this, I guess just because when you get to a point like this you realize a) how far you have come, but b) how much farther you want to come and how much more you need to accomplish and change! Missions are so short and such a good opportunity to change and grow. I will never get a chance like this again! So I am trying to always remember that and make the best of it.

Anyway. Kind of ridiculous. So let me tell you a crazy story. So we were at the VC this week and have been pretty busy. Now that school is out it won't slow down either! Anyway, a big group came in and it was my turn. I soon figured out they were a group of church friends from the RLDS church. Not Community of Christ, but the restoration RLDS...something. I don't know. Anyway, they wanted to learn about the history so I took them downstairs to do the history tour. Little did I know at the same time a couple had come in and wanted to see the history, so the senior couple sent them down to join my group. They come down and I find out that not only are they not members, they are southern baptists from Georgia who know basically nothing about the church. So if that were you and you were supposed to tell them about Independence and Zion and all this stuff, what would you do? Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. It worked out though, it was just a little crazy. Basically I had to make sure I didn't start anything controversial with the RLDS people (I was praying they wouldn't be controversial, usually they aren't) while also explaining what in the world I was talking about with Joseph Smith and prophets and Zion and all this stuff to the non-members. Pretty
funny. So we finish the tour and of course the couple comes up and has lots of questions for me. The whole reason they even came in was because they had seen the Community of Christ spiral temple and thought this was the visitors' center for it. Then they decided to stay. So naturally they start asking how we are different from them, all while the RLDS people are still wandering around. I kind of avoided that for a minute until the other people left and was able to tell them about Joseph Smith and the first vision and the Book of Mormon. They were kind of fascinated by the whole thing, they were things they had never heard of before. I don't know what will happen, but I gave them a BOM and some other info so we'll see! A pretty funny experience. Only in Independence, Missouri.

We also had some pretty miraculous experiences this week! Sometimes we get text messages that have referrals for us- either coming from the mission office from other missionaries, or someone orders something online and we take it to them. We had one referral we hadn't been able to contact for a couple of months. We decided to try her again, and she saw us and let us right in. We find out that her daughter is a member and has 8 kids, and her grandson went on a mission and is now at BYU. Some missionaries awhile ago ran into her and gave her a Book of Mormon and then referred her. So she had been expecting us this whole time, but she was never home when we went over. She is really excited about learning, and already knows a lot! That will be fun. Then yesterday we went to this apartment complex to contact a former investigator. As we are getting out of the car, I see this man doing yardwork. I said hello and he smiled and waved, and I knew I should go talk to him, but we went in the building instead. Of course the Spirit was working on my the whole time and I knew I needed to talk to him. The lady we went to go see wasn't home, so we went back out and marched right up to the guy. It turns out he just moved to the apartment complex a week ago. His life has kind of been not so great the last little while, so he decided to move here and turn it around. He doesn't have a car, and last week he walked around Lee's Summit for 7 hours looking for a church to go to. 7 hours! They were all closed because it was Monday, but still. Who does that? So we are going to meet with him this week and teach him the gospel! So amazing. It is so cool how the Spirit will guide you if you let Him. If not, his hand are tied.

What I just said was something I really learned this week. I talked a few weeks ago about how study is so important, and how I had let that slide since I came here because it is so hard with the VC schedule. Well, I kind of was sliding again. And it was affecting a lot of things. I was reading the famous missionary scripture in D&C 11: "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men." For some reason I have only ever thought of that scripture in relation to preparing for big things, like making sure you have knowledge before teaching or stuff like that. But I realized, it goes for every single day! Duh. How can we expect to go out and teach with the Spirit if we have done nothing to invite it. We HAVE to do something. Heavenly Father wants to bless us, He wants to help us, but He just can't do it unless we do something first. We just can't have the Spirit to the level that we need it in our work unless we study and plan and prepare and invite it. It just can't happen. That goes for a lot of things. It was funny because both me and my

companion were studying about this yesterday independent of each other. The same exact place in Preach My Gospel. It was something we both needed! And we concluded that if we can't get this down now, how can we expect to get it in normal life? When your whole day isn't focused on spiritual things? And when we go home, if we don't start out the day right, that is basically hindering the Spirit for the whole day, because He can't lead us and guide us throughout the rest of the day if we haven't invited Him at the beginning. Anyway, it was a good lesson. Now the trick is remembering and continuing to apply it!

Well, that is pretty much it. Next Thursday is transfers! This transfer has gone so fast. I might know when I email next week what will happen, but I might not find out until next Tuesday night. We'll see. Thanks for everything! I love you all!

-Sister Hafen