But like I mentioned last week, Tuesday was transfer day! Sister Lund went to Hays, not very far, and Sister Powell came to be my companion. This is the first time out of my 11 companions so far that my new companion is someone I already know and am friends with. So it has been an easy transition! Sister Powell is from Oregon and has been out on her mission for about 10 months. Kind of nice to have a more experienced missionary again! I loved Sis. Glade and Lund, but both were pretty new missionaries. With a newer companion you have more responsibility to keep things going and make sure things get done, etc. So with Sister Powell things are a little more equal as far as those things go. The ward was kind of shocked Sister Lund left so soon and I am still here. But oh well! They were happy too. Transfer day was kind of crazy! Usually we get a ride to Wichita to go to the transfer bus, but since our car was in the shop for a week we had tons of miles to drive, so we drove us and the Hays sisters. Then after switching we drove them up to their area, then back down to Great Bend again. I have never driven so much in one day on my mission! It ended up being like 340 miles, which before my mission was no big deal because I would drive home to St. George, but it seemed so far out here! Anyway, things are going well and Sister Powell is getting all settled into Great Bend
Nothing too exciting has happened this week with investigators or anything, since it was thanksgiving a lot of people were out of town and/or busy. That is the one bad thing about this time of year and being missionaries! (besides the freezing cold and kansas wind i mean) Lots of people go out of town or are just really busy and don't have time for you. But oh well, things will all work out. We got to meet with Sabrina, Pam, Morris, Anthony and some other people this week. They are all doing good, just trying to get certain investigators to progress a little more. On Saturday we didn't have any plans so we decided we would venture out to some small towns I had never been to before. This area is funny because there are some main towns, then some tiny towns no missionaries hardly ever visit because there are no members and they are far away. But we decided to have an adventure. We started in Galatia, which is the town Morris is from- population around 40. He owns a restaurant there (the only business for miles that isn't farm related) and we had lunch there! It was actually really good. Morris knew we were there and called the waitress and told her our meals were on him. It was funny to see the other people's faces in the restaurant when she told us that! It went silent for a minute. It is so funny because especially in these smaller towns where people aren't used to seeing you, you will be stared at and talked about. It is inevitable. These are the kind of towns where people see you in town then call all their neighbors to let them know we are there. One reason I am grateful to have served in these little towns is that it really shows you if you are embarrassed to be a missionary! I remember that being a little hard for me at the beginning of my mission. I wasn't used to people staring at me and then pretending like they weren't when our eyes met. I wasn't used to being different! But let me tell you, you can't get much different than wearing a skirt and tag out here. I just love it! Also in Galatia we contacted this less active who lives in an old schoolhouse. At first she wasn't happy to see us, but then by the end she wouldn't stop talking! She still won't come back to church right now, but at least she likes us. We also went to go contact a lady the sisters in the past had taught once. Her husband answered and said she was out of town and had been for Thanksgiving so he had been alone. We said we were sorry, and he said, "It's ok, I had my cats!" Classic. I am glad he enjoyed the holiday. We left Galatia and decided to move on to the bustling metropolis of Otis, Kansas. On the way though we say the best field of hay bales in the world and had to stop for a photo shoot. I had pictures of me during the day standing by a hay bale, and pictures at night on top of one, but none on top of one in the day. So as you can see, I needed to take this opportunity! It was probably a really funny sight- two little girls in skirts tromping across a harvested corn field to a hay bale, then somehow climbing on top and taking pictures. Those hay bales are much taller than they look! It was interesting to get up. Right after I got up this car was coming and I didn't want it to see us, so I yelled "hide!" and then flopped over on the hay bale so they couldn't see my face. Instead of hiding Sis. Powell
just laughed and took a picture of me instead. She thinks I look like a beached whale on a hay bale. And I do. Anyway, we did that then went on to Otis (by the way, the first time anthony met me he told me he was surprised that i liked cities because i looked like someone off of little house on the prairie and he would have guessed i was from a little town like otis. thanks anthony). We had one person there that we had written down because the sisters had given them a card or something. Their address was written "110 purple house, sign that says grandma and grandpa." So we spent about 10 minutes driving around Otis trying to find this purple house, but we couldn't. Then we decided that since we were there we would go tracting for a little bit because there was nothing else to do! We met this cute little old lady with dementia, a couple of very uninterested guys, then we decided to try one more house and this lady answers and says "oh, are you the mormon missionaries? come in!" We did of course then she told us how she had talked to missionaries before when she lived in texas. Unfortunately she isn't interested at all and her husband is the lutheran pastor in town, but she still talked to us. Then she started giving us this list of people in town that the other churches have kicked out and might talk to us. Awesome! Unfortunately she didn't know addresses (must just be an otis thing) so we tried to find them after but had no luck. But we did find the purple house! Not interested, but it was still exciting. We had a couple more adventures that day that were pretty fun. Those will probably be the most memorable days to me- days when nothing was planned and we just went out to random places. Being out here sometimes you just feel like you are the only people for miles and miles.
Well, I will mention one other experience this week but not go into detail. This was probably one of the most interesting experiences on my mission so far, but not in a good way. The other night we were talking to some people who for various reasons left the church. We didn't really know what we were getting into when we went to visit them, but when we were talking to them they told us all about why they had concluded that Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet and the church isn't true. I have had a few other experiences on my mission talking to anti people and just hostile people, and I hate it. As we were talking to these people, I just felt numb. We got out of there as soon as we could, but it was just not really a good experience. We talked a lot about the experience and how we felt about the things said. With the exposure I have had to things like that before and during my mission, I am here to tell you that that is never a direction I want to go in my life. I don't care what it is or how convincing it is or whatever the information may be. That will never lead you to anywhere good. It is pointless and soul-sucking. The only bright spot in the conversation for me was when I bore my testimony of why I know the church is true. I have not been brainwashed. I am not just a member because it is how I grew up. I am not serving a mission because I think the church is good and has good teachings. I am here and I am staying here because I know this is true. Not because it only logically makes sense, but because the Holy Ghost has witnessed it to me. If there is anyone reading this that doesn't know that for sure, I invite you to really find out for yourself! Our world is crazy right now and it is only going to get worse. We simply cannot stand strong in what we believe if we are not certain it is true. And we can't accomplish what the Lord needs us to unless we have rock-solid testimonies and are willing to act on those testimonies. Some chapters in the Book of Mormon that have helped us are Alma 30, which talks about Korihor and his methods of leading people away. Scarily similar to some experiences I have had. Also 2 Nephi 27-32 which talks about the last days. This is us! We need to be strong. Here I go preaching again, but I feel strongly about this. We cannot be fence-sitters. Sooner or later we will fall if we try that.
Alright, well on that serious note, I love you all! Thank you for being you and supporting me. Thank you for throwing my mom a birthday party and writing me letters and praying for me. It is much appreciated!
-Sister Hafen
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