Week 40 - D&C 1:38

Hello All!

    Another fantastic week in the great Canada Calgary Mission!  It's been a crazy week with figuring out our area some more, finding some great new investigators, and of course, seeing the Lord's servants speak to us in General Conference.  It's been a bit of a roller coaster, but roller coasters are fun, so that's great!  Oh, and of course, the weather has been brightening up nicely.  Right now, it's a sweltering 16 degrees Celsius.(About 61 degrees Fahrenheit.)  I never thought I would think of that as warm.

    Anyway, the work is great, and I actually have some fantastic people to tell you about this week!  

    I'll start with Tethloch, since you already know a bit about him.  We were very pleased to see Tethloch and his family at General Conference on Sunday afternoon, and were able to go over later to visit with them.  They are such good and humble people, and they love God so purely and so abundantly, and it was great to be able to talk with them.  We also learned some great news!  I guess that Tethloch's father, who's name is James, talked with Tethloch's mother last week, and she said she would be willing to sign the permission form for Tethloch to be baptized under some really reasonable conditions.  So, we were able to set a baptismal date for Tethloch for May 3rd!  It should work out just fine, and I can't wait for him to be able to be baptized.  He his such a great kid, and has s sincere desire to follow Christ already.

   

Two other investigators we taught this week are Rick and Cindy.  Cindy is the secretary of one of our Ward Mission Leaders, and had been taught once before we got here.  Rick is her boy friend who works for the City of Calgary.  They've been together for quite a while, and have a couple of children and grandchildren together.  We met with both of them at our ward mission leader's home and it was a very nice visit.  They both seemed very willing to search and learn for themselves whether these things are true.  I think they both watched at least some of General Conference, and I can't wait to meet with them again this week!

    We also met Jodi for the first time this week.  He and Leanne, a returning member of one of our wards, are in a pretty similar situation to Rick and Cindy.  He's met with the missionaries before, and wants to baptize his and Leanne's daughter when she turns eight later this year.  He has a divorce that needs to be finalized, which should happen soon, and a wedding that will need to happen as well, but we're hoping he'll be ready to be baptized soon!  We talked to him a bit about setting a date to shoot for, and he came up with August 17th, so we'll hope for that day!

   

Overall, it's been a great week, with lots of opportunities to learn and grow.  I have enjoyed Conference so much on my mission, and I hope I'll be able to keep that attitude afterwards, but I've really been able to learn so much from it.  I just wanted to share with you some of my impressions from one of the talks, Elder Richard G. Scott's.  I couldn't tell you exactly what Elder Scott said, but I can tell you what I was taught from his words.  I've been wondering quite a bit lately about how I can best magnify the callings the Lord has given me so far in my mission and in my life, and how I can serve the people I've been called to a little better.  From what Elder Scott said, my answer is basically this: love.  Elder Scott talked about the influence people had had in his life as they had simply expressed their love and testimony.  I can think of so many people in my life who have done the same; my wonderful mother, my good and generous father, grandparents, teachers, friends, and others.  These people all have had some things in common.  They've loved me with Christlike love, and they've stayed true to what they know to be right.  I just hope that I can maybe have some small impact on the people I've been lucky enough to be called to serve.

    Well, wonderful friends and family, it's been a good week and a great weekend.  I hope you all have the ch

ance to study the General Conference talks again, because I'm sure our Father in Heaven has more to teach us from those inspired words.  Thank you all so much for your impact in my life, and all you have taught me.  Have a great week!  Be good!  Have fun!

I love you all so much!

Elder Hafen