La Semana de Milagros

Oh wow! What a week!

Seriously - as Sister Malani and I looked back over this past week, we had to double check our numbers and everything. We just could not believe it. It's almost too good to be true the week we just had. It's truly been a week of miracles.

I don't even know where to begin. Hmmm....well we had a surprise a few days ago and got a call that we could be receiving, not one, but TWO mini missionaries! yup. And that they would only be with us for about 6 hours. So we quickly scrambled around and changed up our plans and adjusted and went and picked them up. Because there was 4 of us we went on splits and covered our area twice over...one mini with me and the other with sister Malani. I was super nervous because...well I'm not really that experienced and i didn't want this poor young woman to have like, the most awful experience of her life with me. So I said about a million prayers and we went off to work! We knocked on some doors, tried to contact people, and even our set appointment wasn't home. So we went over to visit a less active member and her family. WELL The mother wasn't home, but the woman who takes care of her children while the sister is at work was there watching the kids (she's not a member) so we sat down and started talking. We've talked in the past before, but we've always had the feeling that she wasn't really open to talking about the gospel or having any sort of religious conversation. However, I felt like I should share a scripture with her from The Book of Mormon (Helaman 5:12 - it's a gem. if you don't already know what that it - look it up!!) So as we were listening to her I pulled out my BoM and had it open on my lap. Before I could even say that I wanted to share a scripture she said "So, what do you have for me?" this opened up the conversation and we talked about the Book of Mormon, where it came from and the teachings it contains. I recited to her the 1st vision and talked about Joseph Smith. The spirit was so strong! In the end, she didn't set a specific return appointment with us, but she asked/accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said that she'd definitely read it, and "who knows, the next time we meet i may have some questions for you" It was a very cool experience for both me and the mini missionary. Also, Sister Malani had some amazing experiences with her mini missionary, but I wasn't there for those so I don't remember. All I know is that when the 4 of us met back up before it was time for us to go, they had found 2 new investigators! Yeah! We have appointments with them this week. In fact, our entire day tomorrow is booked from 12-8 with set appointments. WHAT?!?! See - like I said, almost too good to be true. Heavenly Father has blessed us so much this week!

We also had our Pentecostal, Filipino investigator come to church! Let me tell you that was a miracle! We invited him to come to church Saturday night and Sunday morning and he said that he wouldn't be there. So we weren't expecting him at all. And then lo and behold. In the middle of our gospel principles lesson...in he walks! Sister Malani and I were teaching and...we just about fell over. Not really, but we all of the sudden had big smiles on our faces and had to stop a bit and gather our thoughts together. We're still not 100% sure how committed he is to the lessons, or what he's expecting from meeting with us - but we did set a tentative baptismal date with him for March 23! He said he "wouldn't hesitate" to be baptized, but he first had to believe "ever single word" of the Book of Mormon. It's going to be a long journey with him, but it's totally rewarding. What a miracle!

While there were about a million other experiences that were miraculous this week, I'll tell you just about one more. We've started teaching this couple whose names are D and C. Their daughter is a member of the church in....somewhere cold near Canada.....and they've had missionaries come and visit them at their house on and off for many years. We were looking through our area book one night and we saw their names and decided to stop by. So we did last week and they were so nice! However, about 5m inutes into the conversation C said "well, we're happy that you ladies stopped by but I just want to tell you both upfront that we won't join your church" and then I think he started to tell us why, i don't really remember much because i just started thinking in my head. Usually when people tell us this I don't get the best feeling. But with them....it was like I didn't believe them. So we continued to talk with them and we shared a short message and prayed. D asked us if there were any upcoming activities and things that she/they could come to - aha! There it was! So, we invited them both to the departing missionary fireside which is a special event where all the missionaries who are leaving for home this transfer bare their testimonies and sing/perform special musical numbers. The Spirit is always very strong there so it's an excellent opportunity for investigators/members/recent converts to feel the spirit. So we invited them to it (it was last night) and they came!!! Ah it was amazing! The Spirit was so strong there! The testimonies were just what they needed to hear, the musical numbers were beautiful (that especially touched C) and it was just...wow. Afterwards we went back to their house for a few minutes and sat with them and talked about their experience. They just said how uplifting and inspiring it was to be there. Before we left we said a prayer with them and they said we could stop by anytime, and we're planning on going towards the end of this week. Our relationship with them is really building and we have high hopes for both of them.

Hearts are softening here in North Torrance! It's been a beautiful week.

I love you all to pieces. Write me and pray for me! I'm doing the same for all of you!

-Hna Hensley

ps - transfers this week!! ahh!!!  :)

Adventures of the week

WOW, this week has been one full of adventures.

Spring in Cali

The weather has been really nice here lately (mid 70s or so during the day) and since we're running a little low on our monthly allotment of miles on our car, Sister Malani and I decided that we would bike for half a day.  Plus, we though we would some extra exercise. The members feed us really well here and so we need to slim down a bit haha! Let me tell you, it is quite an adventure to ride a bicycle in a skirt, it's cah-razy.  The area I'm in isn't hilly at all (thank goodness) so the ride was fairly easy and actually biking in a skirt isn't too bad. I have some bike shorts that I wore under my skirt and I got one of my bigger skirts so it's not really difficult to ride around. The difficult thing is stopping.  Then putting your feet on the ground and starting back up in a skirt. Logistically it's tough in the skirt. When you're, let's say, at a stoplight and have limited time to do everything it can be a wobbly challenge. BUT I did it. and managed. We biked from 12:00 to 4:30 that day. Yay! Yes, I was immensely sore the next day - but it was nice! We think we might do it again today actually, so that's fun stuff :)

Another wonderful thing that happened this week was that Sister Malani and I were able to actually teach some lessons! yeah! We had one particularly awesome lesson with a woman named I*****. She teaches at a local Catholic school. Initially we were a little skeptical about this lesson, and very nervous to teach her. She seemed extremely knowledgeable and 'set' in her religion. However, as we sat and listened to her, we were able too teach by the Spirit of God, directly to her. As she sat and listened to our message the Spirit was so strong and she accepted our invitation to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She did not set a return appointment with us because she's going to be out of town for the next 2 weeks.  But, as we were leaving and talking with her she said that initially she was going to tell us that 'she was ok and wasn't planning on changing religions and didn't want to waste our time' but as she listened to us teach 'something told her that she should listen and consider what we have to say'.

 

How grateful we were for the strength of the Holy Spirit in that lesson! As we got in the car afterwards we drove around the corner, stopped and said a prayer of gratitude to our Heavenly Father for allowing His Spirit to testify to all of our hearts during that lesson. What an awesome experience it was for the both of us.

I love you all and am keeping you in my prayers daily! have a wonderful week!

-Sister Hensley

Esta Semana...

...fue interesante!! Oh. Man. I actually have a story to tell this week. You better believe it.

 

So, since we don't have anyone that we're teaching at the moment, we've been going through our area book looking at people who have previously been contacted or taught by missionaries and trying to recontact them and see their level of interest.

 

Well. We went by this man's house. His name is G--------. We stopped by last week when we had our mini missionary with us and he was cleaning his floors. Apparently it was a big ordeal to let us in because they weren't dry or something. So, we set a return appointment with him for Sunday. He seemed a little odd when we talked to him through his kitchen window (he was cleaning the floors and couldn't get to the door) but he also seemed nice enough.  We were so looking forward to his appointment. Well, we got a member from the ward, Sister C-----, to come with us to this lesson and boy - we didn't know we were in for such a treat.  He started talking about his beliefs, which were weird. Like, multiple lives, reincarnation (kind of) colored spirits, God and Jesus are great spirits, Christ didn't actually die on the cross but that it was a symbol for a cross examination, that through the different cycles and lives that the world has been in it's been changed by man so that we can understand, and that he can only say 'amen' in his prayers even though he said like 1000 'our father god's.

 

We just sat there and listened and tried to speak but could barely get a word in. Then we did. we taught about the restoration and what we believe about the Godhead and about our purpose and lives here on earth.  We are literal sons and daughters of our heavenly Father and that he still speaks to us today through prophets because he loves us and he is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

 

Then he talked some more about some crazy things that I don't even remember.  This church is online and is taught by professors and you have to be invited but you can leave whenever etc. who knows?  Then we bore our testimonies, and then sister C----- talked about her conversion and we left. He was a very nice man, just blinded by the craftiness of men :( which is sad. But one day he'll look for the truth and he'll remember our visit and then he'll be so much happier! woot woot!

G-------- is the one who gave us FIJI water, and since my companion is from Fiji, we had to take pictures :)

 

That's my story.

 

 

 

I went full-out tracting for the first time today. We knocked a whole street. Nobody let us in, but nobody was really rude to us either. So it wasn't that bad. the work here is moving slowly but surely.

Also - we have an interesting bike story but it will have to wait until next week since I'm out of time!

 

I love you all dearly and know that you are all in my prayers. Thank you so much for all you do - find people for the missionaries in your areas to teach!

 

love you!

Birthday Week

Just like Christmas, birthday's on the mission are the best! My lovely companion arranged for a surprise district/zone lunch at the chapel with balloons and tacos and a cake. It was very sweet of all the Elders (and my companion), we had a nice time. Members and investigators wishing me happy birthday all day - it was great. Plus all of the cards I received in the mail and the birthday wishes from everyone around, my it was lovely.  It truly was a special day - and now I'm 22!  It's going to be a good year for me, I can feel it.

Mini-Miss She came on my birthday and is such a beautiful girl.

But the greatest thing about my birthday weekend was that we had a mini missionary! Her name was Sister E------- and she is amazing! She stayed out with us from Friday night to Sunday night and she was, like, our 3rd companion. She was a little shy at first, but definitely sensitive to the Spirit and ready to follow through with the promptings that the Holy Ghost was giving her. It was a really beautiful thing to watch her grow everyday and every hour just a little bit more! She taught me so many things about patience and love. I love having mini missionaries, and when she turns 21 she's going to be the best missionary - EVER. She's only got great things ahead of her in life. PLUS she was a total vintage girl and she was thinking about getting her degree in makeup for film. WHAT?! The Lord truly matched us together for reasons haha

We had a cool experience last night that I'd like to share with y'all. We had dropped off Sister E------- (sad!) and headed back to our area to work. We had had an appointment and planned to go to this one part of our area later that night. But as we were looking through our mobile area book 2 names stood out to me that were close to our appointment. The mobile area book is a binder we keep in the car that has the names, addresses, and phone numbers of people who have contacted the missionaries and have shown some interest in the past but have faded or we have lost contact.  This is very helpful when plans and backup plans fall through.  After feeling impressed by these two names we decided to go over to that area early and try and contact these people before our appointment. The first person we knocked - not home. So we walk over to the other door and knock and this man opens the door. We were a little surprised because the person we had on record was a woman so we asked him politely if he knew her.  He said he did and that she lived there but wasn't home. We then started to share our message with him and he listened very intently to us and asked us many questions. He's from the Philippines and is Pentecostal. He kept talking and talking to us.  We had to make our appointment so we set a return appointment. He thanked us for coming to his door and knocking on it and we'll be seeing him again this week! It'll be an interesting meeting for sure, since we're not quite sure of his intentions. But if he's really sincerely looking for the truth, he doesn't know what he's in for! haha :) It's going to be a great experience either way.

 

 

The Princes baloons are from
my zone and the other is from
a dear friend, is says 16 + 6.

From another dear friend
who will make a great
missionary.

Well family and friends, I'm off to a doctors appointment in a few minutes. Know that I love you all dearly and that I pray for you often. The lord is keenly aware of each one of us and is always waiting and willing to bless us.  When we do our part, live worthily and ask Him. He will provide a way. :) I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, with all my heart <3 have a wonderful week!

-Hna Hensley 

My wonderful companion Hermana Malani.  She organized the whole surprize party without me even knowing it.

Another week

Well Hola Everyone!

This week has just...wow. I feel like I say the same things in every letter back home that I wrtie. Oh well, considering that I do the exact same things every day might play into all of that.

So, i got sick again this week :( which is super sad, and they made me stay in so that I could for sure get to be 100% better. This led to more stress about not being able to work, BUT needless to say that I am well again and happy to be working.

As far as my area goes, it's pretty much the same. We aren't teaching anyone at the moment and so we're focused on finding people to teach. helping the ward members become excited about missionary work and helping them feel confident in their own ability to share the Gospel. We also had a big overhaul in leadership in both of our wards so, we're trying to get to know our new leaders, and help them understand our purpose and how we can work together to further the missionary effort here within the Stake.

My birthday is on Friday! wow! How crazy. I don't have any plans as of yet, and nobody signed up on our dinner calendar for that night - but there are some people who love the missionaries enough that I know I could call upon them for my special day haha :) It looks like I'll be celebrating with....missionary work! yeah! Just the same as everyother day really, only now I will get to tell people that I am 22 years old haha which is so strange.

There are some slight prospects in the area as far as people to teach, some referralls from the elders and some singles have been bringing their friends to activities so hopefully we'll be able to find someone with real interest and intent that we can start teaching! Ah Sister Malani and I have a good feeling for this area. While it may not look like much now, we have hope for the future :)

Whelp, that's really all for this week. It's slightly boring because I've been inside trying to not be sickly anymore. On the bright side, we started doing our morning exercise indoors where its warmer so as to not make my fellow missionaries and I any sicker. On the not so bright side, I still can't actually get the basketball to go into the basket.

Throughout all of the tough times, the Lord has been with me. I've been reading in 'Jesus, the Christ' which is amazing.  I'm learning all of these fun an interesting facts and knowledge abuot the life and works of the Savior. The most amazing and wonderful thing that I've been gaining throughout this whole process is a feeling. It's the testimony inside of me of the divinity of my Savior, Jesus Christ. It's the inscrease in love that I have for the people around me. It's the increased faith that I feel when I'm getting doors politely shut in my face. My mission truly is the hardest thing I've ever loved to do.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Hna Hensley

Transfer 3

WOWEE! can you believe that this is the start of my 3rd transfer! I surely can't. I was looking at the calendar the other week and realized that Feb 26 is my 6th month mark! What?! I still feel like I'm just a brand new missionary. it's crazy how the time is fast and slow when you're on the mission. I only have 13 more months to preach the gospel! ahh! gotta get to work and find those who are waiting for me! :)

It was transfers this past Wednesday annnnnnnddddddd  - I'm still in North Torrance. Yup. I stayed right here. BUT Sister Fonokalafi has left me! She's training a new missionary at the VC (Visitors Center)  and so my new companion is Sister Malani! She's from Fiji and has been out for about 13 months. She's AWESOME. I mean, she's like a spiritual giant and I love her to death. Not to mention she's been nursing me back to health this past week too, man. I have so much respect for her already and it hasn't even been a week yet. I'll be sure to send pictures of the two of us next week when it hasn't been raining all the time :( rain doesn't make for good photo taking opportunities.

So, because I have been super sick on and off all week, I've had to stay in, or come in early. I have not been able to get in a full days work because my lungs just want to quit on me or I throw up. Either way it isn't fun and I'm just about ready to be done with this sickness. I'm feeling TONS better but I'm still on the mend and just have to watch out and make sure that I don't relapse and get even sicker than I was before, that would be bad. So your prayers are always appreciated - and know that I always pray for y'all back home as well. The weather has cooled off here a bit and it gets pretty cold at night, which is not good for my lungs - the doctor advised me not to go out walking/tracting when it's super cold, so we've been trying and scheduleing appointments with less active memebers and recent converts and it's been really successful! We're helping one girl who was totally inactive in August prepare to go on a mission! It's such a blessing. I could talk about her and how awesome she is all day long, but I'll move on to other things :)

Yesterday was Stake Conference, so we had a lot of extra time to go out and work. So, we went to go find an investigator that we've had to stop seeing and she wasn't home. So, we decided to look for a former investigator that lived down the same street. We found her! Her name is L and she's....well .... she's pretty great, and she wants us to come back and help resolve some of her concerns. It's going to be so good! As we were leaving she said "even if I don't become a mormon, I want to be able to defend you guys whenever people talk bad about you. I love the Mormon people" it was a pretty sweet experience.

This week has also been a week of miracles with the members! We had a girl in the singles ward who is an RM just give us a TON of shirts and blouses and coats form her mission, and a member is taking us grocery shopping today! what blessings! Some weeks, it's so easy to tell how much the Lord is looking out and blessing you. I think the lord gives us good times like these so that when the hard times come, when we don't feel like we can keep going, we can look back on the good times and realize that He is involved in the details and that he loves us very much. I'm happy to be in good times right now, even though I've been hacking up my guts at night, but I'm still working hard and doing my very best to try and find those people whom the lord has prepared to hear His word and come closer to Him.

I love you all, I love my Savior, I know that only through keeping the commandments and striving our very best to learn of the Savior can we find true peace and joy in this life. Have a wonderful, wonderful week (stay dry if you're hear in CA!)

Love,

Hna Hensley

Temple Week

So! the temple.

It was great!  Really, the Los Angeles temple is the 2nd largest temple in the world (Salt Lake is the biggest) and....yes. I can attest to that. It felt ginourmous on the inside!

I felt like I hadn't been to the temple in forever and so it was really, really nice to go. I wanted to stay in there all day long and do everything that I could, but we just didn’t have the time. I'm definitely going to try and go once a week when I get back home. And by then there may be a 2nd temple in Provo! How, crazy is that, huh?

In the temple I got to have some spiritual 'me time' which I feel like I don't get to much here, on the mission. Yes, you learn and grow personally, but almost all of your focus is on other people it was nice to just sit and only think about me and my relationship with God.  Being in the temple for just a few short hours seems to like, recharge my batteries and made me super peaceful all at the same time. I just want to take everyone with me there after the mission! It's so cool! and huge! and beautiful! We went to the 8:30 session and it was just my zone. Sister Fonokalafi and I are the only sisters so thank goodness there were 5 other ladies in the session so we didn't feel so lonely. On the men's side, it was just all Elders, plus maybe 2 other men. But it was really nice. Like I said, I could have stayed in there forever.

Note from Dad.  Unlike our regular Sunday meetings in the Temple men sit on one side of the room and women on the other. Each room can sit about 50 people, 25 men and 25 women. To have one side full and the other empty is unusual.

This week, WELL - crazy town!  I need to really start bringing my journal with me to the library to help me remember everything.   Here are the top items.

We met a really awesome girl who we will start teaching this week who would attend the singles ward.

We got to go to a baptism for one girl that Sister Fonokalafi taught in her last area.

We had to drop another girl we've been teaching who had a baptismal date because she's not progressing.

We taught a family from India.

I almost twisted my ankle playing football today.

I made it through New Years without dying from baked goods, I mean people kept giving us sweets (seriously. cake after cake after cookie after brownie. I just want like, some bacon. or jerky people!)

We're going to start teaching/attending/supplementing a family history class at the stake center to try and strengthen the ward and find new people to teach.

I went on exchanges to another area and taught a CRAZY lady who had CRAZY stories and some awesome spiritual experiences.  I chuckled inside the whole time she was telling us the stories at the ridiculous things I was hearing. Her life was like, 6 episodes of CSI.  However, I am so excited for the sisters who work there because she is pretty golden, you know, beneath the crazy. 

I had interviews with President (they happen every other transfer) and transfers and next week! SO I'll write to you next Monday and we'll see if I move! Sister Fono and I want to stay together another transfer (or course) but she goes home soon...so they might steal her back to the visitor's center

:( 

 But we shall see!

That's the summary for this week! Once again, I know it's super short but I have to write my weekly letter to president and then scoot on outta here. I swear, and hour gets shorter and shorter every week. I still have 1 load of laundry to do.....eek!

I love you all - be safe and know that y'all are in my prayers!

Hna Hensley