Friday, June 27, 2014

Week 51 - Deja Vu

Hello All!

    I hope you're all doing well and enjoying your summers!  It's crazy to think that I've now been out for all four of the seasons, and four very different seasons than what I was used to before.  It's been great!  It's been a great week up here in the great Canada Calgary mission.  It was transfer week this week, and I said goodbye to another companion heading home.  Elder Asay flew out on Thursday afternoon, and I said hello to a new companion.
    His name is Elder Poulter.  Born in Payson, Utah, but raised in Dallas, Texas.  He's been on his mission for six months now, and this is his first time serving in the big city.  He's a really awesome guy!  He plays the banjo, looks like Clark Kent, and we have a lot in common.  Best of all, he was just serving in..........RAYMOND!  That's right, we both have the same first area, and it's been a really fun last few days hearing about everything that's been going on since I left just about eight months ago.  The time has flown by, and the work is still going strong.  Apparently I'm remembered as Elder Poulter actually knew who I was and a lot about me.  Overall a pretty cool new companion. :)
    We've tried to get right back into the work, and it's been great!  
    We met with Bruce again this week, and had a pretty interesting lesson.  We brought our High Priest Group Leader with us, who knows Bruce quite well, and he figured out pretty quickly that Bruce was definitely not at the top of his game.  Bruce has some addictions he struggles with, and compared to the last time we were there, it was pretty apparent that he was still under the influence of something.  It was actually pretty sad, but we hope we'll be able to show him he doesn't need to rely on those things.  
    Drey and Cindy also came to church this week!  It was great, especially since we haven't seen Drey there in a few weeks.  The ward, and especially the young men, have done such a great job fellowshipping him and making him feel like one of them.  We'll hopefully be able to start seeing his step-dad out soon.
    Kinda cool story: I was on exchanges just over a week ago with one of our zone leaders, and we were service tracting. (Tracting but offering service.) We knocked on the door of this house that had a kinda shaggy lawn, and a man named Keith answered.  He and his wife and young daughter just moved here a few weeks ago from Wisconsin, and things had been pretty crazy, so the lawn hadn't been mowed.  He said we could come back and do that if we wanted to, and we did!  He was really grateful, and he said he was actually pretty interested in learning more.  We'll hope to see him again soon!
    I finished reading 2 Nephi this week, and Nephi said something that I thought was really cool.  Concluding his writings in 2 Nephi 33:7-9, he says,"I have charity for my people, and great faith in Christ that I shall meet many souls spotless at his judgment-seat.  I have charity for the Jew—I say Jew, because I mean them from whence I came.  I also have charity for the Gentiles. But behold, for none of these can I hope except they shall be reconciled unto Christ, and enter into the narrow gate, and walk in the strait path which leads to life, and continue in the path until the end of the day of probation."  The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can bring what I think we all want: Happiness. Peace. Joy. Love. Salvation.  It doesn't matter who you are or where you've been.  I'm so grateful for the opportunity to share it with others, and I hope I can help them come to this knowledge.
    I love you all so much!  Have a wonderful week.  Be good!  Have fun! (Go USA!)

Love ya!
Elder Hafen

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