Week 85 - I Love to See the Temple

Hello All!
    First things first- Congratulations to two of the greatest people and greatest friends I know! Nate and Malory Myers are truly going to be a legendary, righteous, kind, loving, and fun team for the rest of eternity. I'm so happy for both of you!
    It's been a great week here in the great CCM. Wednesday brought us the opportunity to drive a couple of hours to beautiful Cardston to spend some time in the house of the Lord. I hadn't been to the Cardston temple since November of 2013, so it was definitely a treat to be there. We even drove through Raymond on the way there, which was a little strange, to be honest. I say it every time I go, but I love the temple so much, and there's truly nothing like the feeling of being there. If you have the opportunity to go and serve there, or even just be there, please go. You won't regret it.
   To make up for the time we'd be at the temple with Elder Engstrom - the other missionary we went with - we spent most of our last P-Day out doing some good work. It was actually a pretty cool day to be out knocking doors, since Medicine Hat was visited by some beautiful freezing rain. People thought we were crazy, but I honestly had a great time.
    We got the chance to meet up with Kate again this week, and answered some questions she had. She's doing well, and I think deepening her conversion and testimony enough to be a really positive example to some of her family members who aren't supportive of her in the church at all.
    We did set up a return appointment on Monday with somebody, though that fell through. We're also hoping to start teaching one of Kate's friends a little bit on Facebook. Otherwise, we'll meet with Willy, who Elder Alpentista found while on exchanges, tomorrow, and I'm sure the Lord will lead us to more and more of the people He's prepared for us as we keep showing Him our love for Him.
    I think I've talked about this passage of the Book of Mormon before, but I read it again this week, and it means a lot to me every time. In Mosiah 23 and 24, it talks about Alma and his people who fled from the wicked King Noah only to be enslaved by the Lamanites and had great burdens placed upon them. The reason that it only talks about these people for two chapters, though, is because they only had to deal with those burdens for those two chapters. Why? Because the Lord delivered them. Why did He deliver them? Because they,“they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.” (Mosiah 24:15) We all have burdens placed upon us for a variety of reasons. The important thing, though, is what we do with those burdens. I testify that if we'll follow the example of the people of Alma, God will not only deliver us from our burdens, but he will refine and purify us and deliver us from the burden of our imperfections, and bring us to a “far better land of promise.”
   I hope you all have a fantastic week. Thank you so much for your love and support and emails and letters. You're all great, and I'm so lucky to have you in my life.
Be good! Have fun!
Love ya!
Elder Hafen

Week 84 - Surprises

Hello All!

    I want to first thank Bishop Denos, Brother Saxton, and Brother Carlsen for their excellent service as my bishopric for the past 5 years.  You've all had such a great impact on my life.

   It's been a busy, fun, and eventful week!  Sadly, though, I don't have as much time to write this as I'd like, since this week is also going to be a busy, fun, and eventful week.  On Wednesday, Elder Alpentista and I will be going to the Cardston temple with one of the departing missionaries here, Elder Engstrom, so we're taking off some time from our emailing to make up for it.  Sorry about that. :(

    Part of the busyness of the week is that we got to go on exchanges with a couple of our fantastic district leaders.  On Tuesday, I went out to Brooks with Elder Keck, a Spanish-speaking missionary, while Elder Alpentista came here with his companion.  Brooks is kind of like taking a little chunk of east Calgary and throwing it out in the middle of the prairie, so I definitely felt at home, even though I sat through a lesson that I really couldn't understand.  (I did get to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon in Spanish, though!  It still felt about the same.)  

    On Thursday night we drove up to Calgary for a meeting we had there on Friday.  It was a great experience seeing a lot of my really good missionary friends and talking about how we can improve our mission.  We had a cool opportunity to talk with Brother Hemmingway from the missionary department over FaceTime, as well, about how we can use online proselyting more effectively; He gave me quite a few ideas.

    While we were in Calgary, I also learned something I probably could have seen coming, but I didn't.  I'm apparently coming home a week earlier than I thought I was.  I thought that I would fly home on the 3rd of July, just in time for Independence Day after celebrating my last Canada Day in the field, but I guess I'll be coming on the 26th of June instead.  We're getting a new mission president this summer, so that's the primary reason for it; It will make things easier on him, which is awesome!  I'm still trying to reconcile all of this for myself, though.  Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly excited to see all of you, but I bet you can probably sympathize a little with how I'm feeling.

   This has actually given me a lot of opportunity to ponder something I've already been thinking of a lot lately: Enduring to the End.  We all have to endure to the end of our lives if we're going to achieve our divine potential, but we also need to endure to the ends of the different phases of our lives if we're going to learn and grow from them as much as our Heavenly Father wants us to.  We all have a lot of those phases, and this on for me has been the most rewarding one so far by far.  It will hard to see it end, but I'm going to do my best to follow the commandments we're given in the Book of Mormon: "And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save. Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life."  I hope we all choose to do that, whatever we're doing!  I know we can with the grace of our Savior.

    I love you all so much!  Have a fantastic week, and don't forget to return with honor.

Be good!  Have fun!

Love,

Elder Hafen

Week 83 - Saskatchewan Bound‏

Hello All!

    First off, congratulations to my good friend, Amy Hauck, soon to be Hermana Hauck in Mexico!  You're gonna be awesome, Amy! 

    It's been a fun week.  Elder Alpentista and I have been pounding the pavement and knocking on lot of doors trying to find some people to teach, and I'm sure we will one of these days!  We haven't had much luck yet, but we have met some pretty promising potential investigators, and I'm really hopeful they'll want to learn more.  We even got the chance to go out to Saskatchewan with some of the elders in the zone who cover a little town out there called Maple Creek.  It was a lot of fun, actually, and the few people we met were really really nice.

    Since we don't really have any investigators right now, there's not too much to report on teaching this week, though we did have a great lesson with Kate.  She was wondering about being able to say that we "know" that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us more than we can know.  That's something I've been blessed to have learned a lot about on my mission, so it was pretty easy to share my testimony with her that we really do have a loving Heavenly Father.

    As we were teaching Kate, a scripture in Moses came to my mind.  In it, God appears to Enoch and shows him a vision.  In the course of it, Enoch sees the Lord weeping, and he asks,"how is it thou canst weep?"  The Lord replies and says, "Behold these thy brethren; they are the workmanship of mine own hands, and I gave unto them their knowledge, in the day I created them; and in the Garden of Eden, gave I unto man his agency;
And unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood;" 

 I realize how true that's been for me, and I wonder how much God has wept over me.  However, with as much as our sin makes Heavenly Father sorrow, I wonder too how much our loving one another and our repentance makes Him rejoice.  He's so patient with us in our mistakes, and He does everything He can to help us move past them.  I know that that's true, and I hope I can better use everything He's given me to do that, especially the Atonement of His Son.

    I hope you all have a fantastic week!  Please let me know if there's anything I can do for any of you, since you've done so much for me.  Be good!  Have fun!

Love ya!

Elder Hafen

Week 82 - Grace

Hello All!

    It's been a busy, good, kinda stressful week in the great CCM!  We've had a lot going on, and time keeps flying by.  I hope you've all had a great week with lots of fun things going on!

    On Tuesday of this week, we had a zone conference, which was a lot of fun.  To be honest, I was super stressed about it, but it turned out great.  We also had a meeting with the Ward Mission Leaders in the stake which was good.  We've also gotten some good personal finding in (aka Tracting) and found a couple of promising potential investigators from that and some of our awesome members.  I think things are starting to pick up a bit! 

    Diana continues to do well!  We met with her a couple times this week, and taught her about the Plan of Salvation.  When we talked about the reasons we're here and the reasons for the Fall of Adam and Eve, I think a lot of questions were answered for Diana.  It's so great to see knowledge and the Spirit change people's attitudes.  She was at church again on Sunday, and I can't wait to see her progress in the next few weeks.

    We also met with Kate and her roommate, Mikaela, and were able to answer some questions they had.  I think they're going through a bit of a  rough patch right now with all sorts of different things going on in their lives and their family lives.  I hope we'll be able to help them.

    I just wanted to share a little bit about grace this week.  Grace is the help or strength given through the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. (lds.org) Like I said, I was pretty stressed out for zone conference.  In the eternal scheme of things, I know that that's not a very important life event, but there were a bunch of things that added up to make it a bit of a stressful morning.  However, I knew that I had things I needed to do, things that were part of the calling I've received from the Lord.  I asked Elder Alpentista to give me a blessing just before the conference started.  Then, as it went on, and as I felt the Spirit and learned from him, I started to feel better and better.  The conference went really well, and I was so grateful for the help of my Heavenly Father in making that happen.  All of us are asked to do a lot of things by our Father in Heaven.  Sometimes, it seems impossible to do them all.  I testify that if we'll trust in Him, then He'll make it so we are able to do them.  If we didn't rely on Him, we wouldn't be able to do it, but the Atonement of Jesus Christ makes all of it possible.  

    I hope  you all have a fantastic week and have opportunities to feel the power of the Atonement in your lives.  Thank you all for your love and your support.  Good luck with everything!  Be good!  Have fun!

Love,

Elder Hafen

Week 81 - Happy MLK Day

Hello All!

    First, sorry if I'm pretty brief today.  We've got lots going on today, so we're pretty rushed with everything we're doing, including emails.  I hope you're all having great days, though, and appreciating a great man who did a lot of good in helping us all realize that we really are children of God, whether or not we look the same.

   It's been a great transfer week!  You might have seen it on my Facebook already, but my new companion is Elder Joshua Alpentista.  He's from Oshawa, Ontario (another Canadian) and is pretty awesome.  I've actually wanted to serve with Elder Alpentista for a while now, so this is pretty much a dream come true.  He's a super hard-working, obedient, and just really nice missionary, and the last couple of days serving with him have been great.  I'm looking forward to the rest of the time we have left, however long it may be.

    Not too much has happened lesson-wise in the last week or so.  It's been pretty crazy with everything going on, but we're looking forward to some awesome things the Lord has in store for us.  I don't know what they are yet, but I know they're going to be fantastic!

    One person I did want to tell you all about is Diana.  Diana is a member in our YSA Branch who is just starting to come back to church.  She's from Africa, and has experienced some things that no one should have to go through.  After her family came here when she was a young woman, they met the missionaries and joined the church, but she fell away in the meantime due to a bunch of different things.  However, she wants change in her life, and she's lucky enough to know where to find it.  Meeting with Diana has really helped me see that the gospel really does help individual people in personal ways.

    That's all I really want to share this week and all I really want to bear testimony of.  The gospel is either the only real way to live our lives, or a bunch of nice ideas for living a "good" life. (And some people would even debate that.)  I want you all to know that it is true.  Not only is it true, but it's the best and most important thing we could possibly have in our lives!  Just like all great things, we discover the greatness and the goodness of the gospel through doing the small things.  Every day.  Over and over.  As we consistently and diligently build our lives on the principles and commandments of Jesus Christ's gospel, it will turn us into something amazing, and something we could never be without it.  I know that's true with all my heart. 

    I hope you're all doing well and receiving all sorts of great blessings!  I love you all so much.  Be good!  Have fun!

Love,

Elder Hafen

Week 80 - Another One Bites the Dust

Hello All!  

Well, another transfer has come and gone ....already!  I feel like I was leaving East Calgary about a blink ago, and now my time with Elder Macmichael is coming to an end.  He's being transferred up to Calgary, so I'll be getting a new companion on Thursday.  It's been a fun time serving with him, and I'm anxious to see who the Lord wants me to serve with next.  I'm sorry, but you'll all have to wait in suspense a little bit longer than me, but I'll let you know what's going on next week for sure!

    This week was pretty fun.  I got to meet Beth for the first time, which was quite the experience.  Beth is one of the roommates of Jacki, one of our investigators who I'll talk about more in a second.  She's pretty passionate about her beliefs, but it's sometimes hard to tell what those beliefs are.  Anyway, we had some really good conversations with her this week that I hope helped her to think about things a little differently.  She's a really respectful and genuine person, and I hope the truth comes into her heart one of these days.

    Jacki is actually in Calgary at the hospital right now.  She had a bit of a sledding accident a couple weeks back, and broke one of her vertebrae. (I hope that's the right singular.)  It's been a big trial for her, and she's suffered a lot of anxiety and disappointment because of it.  Anyway, we went to see her on the day she was going up to Calgary, and gave her a blessing.  We'd talked to her about them before, but she hadn't accepted one yet, but she did that day.  It was a really cool blessing, and what made it cooler was that they came to take her away probably 30 seconds after we finished.  The Lord's hand was definitely in it, and I'm hoping that experience will help Jacki accept the gospel more in her life.

    It was probably the same for all of you, but this Sunday we had a great lesson in the third hour of church from the life of President Ezra Taft Benson.  His life was so inspiring, and he accomplished so much as a church leader, as well as in every other aspect of his life.  I think the biggest reason for all of that was because he followed the first and great commandment, to love the Lord with all his heart.  He showed that in everything he did, and he saw what happened when he did what the Lord asked.  President Benson said, “When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our lives.”  That's so true.  I've seen many examples of that on my mission, and I plan on doing that better now and for the rest of my life.  It might take some serious courage to put the Lord first, but it's more than worth any risk or sacrifice.

    I hope you all have a great week.  Thank you for your support and love.  It means so much.  I love you all!  Be good!  Have fun!

Love,

Elder Hafen

Week 79 - Happy Yoo Near!

Hello All!

    I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve, and that 2015 is treating you well so far!  It's crazy to think that another year has passed, and that time just keeps getting faster and faster.

    We had a pretty exciting New Year's surprise.  Ready?.....We're starting Facebook proselyting!  Yeah, I was pretty surprised too.  So, from now on, you'll be seeing me on Facebook again. (Unless you're not my Facebook friend, in which case, you should definitely send me a friend request.)  However, I won't be on Facebook as a quote on quote normal person.  I'll be on there as a missionary, striving to fulfill my purpose to "Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end."  So if you want to keep in touch with me a little more personally, please send me an email at tanner.hafen@myldsmail.net.  If you want to talk the gospel, though, Facebook message me by all means!  It's gonna be awesome!

    We were pretty busy with some administrative stuff this week, but we did have a really awesome lesson with some members of our YSA Branch.  They had some questions and concerns, and it was great to be able to talk with them and relate with them.  I think it was an edifying experience for all of us.

    I've been gaining a lot of new knowledge and insights on the gospel lately, and it's been a really cool experience to listen to the whisperings of the Spirit teaching me things I've needed to learn.  Something that has been especially emphasized to me is the fact that each and every one of us really are eternal beings with divine potential.  We are literal spiritual children of God!  He wants us to become like Him!  However, it's up to us if that happens.  That's why we're here as strangers in this wicked world.  That's why we're here for only a short time as well, as it says in

Alma 42:8 "Now behold, it was not expedient that man should be reclaimed from this temporal death, for that would destroy the great plan of happiness." 

That scripture really helped me to realize a little bit more just how important our time is here.  We knew what we were getting ourselves into when we came here, and we knew it would be a huge trial of faith, but isn't it such a strong testimony to how worth it we knew it would be that we chose to come anyway? (I hope that made sense.)  I hope we all make the most of the time we've been given here and in every calling and situation the Lord puts us in.

    I love you all so much.  I hope you have a fantastic week.  Thank you so much for your examples and love and prayers.  Be good!  Have fun!

Love ya!

Elder Hafen