Sister Henson-It's a small world

Hey Family!
It was a scorcher this week, very hot and humid.
I think I’ve lost ten pounds in the last 6 days.
Gross. Anyway, despite that obstacle, we had
another great week. We had a miracle Wednesday
in fact. We had a great district meeting in the
morning and then headed out to proselyte.Our first
appointment was with Friedo. He just finished 1
Nephi and was telling us what he had learned.
He seemed a little different though as he reviewed
the chapters. Towards the end of the lesson I
started asking him some questions to figure out
where he was at and how he was feeling about things.
He opened up and basically said that he felt a little
spiritually stagnant. That he still felt like he
hadn’t received an answer and that it was pretty
frustrating. He then said that he had come to the
conclusion that he just needed to set a date
to be baptized and show the Lord that he really
did have intent. He had set a date before after
some encouragement from us, but this time, he was
really serious. Sister Hansen and I had come to
this conclusion already, but I think the Spirit
needed to teach him that personally. I continue
to be impressed by him.
After that we headed out to see DeMon and his
brother Tony. But first we picked up Cassy to go
out and teach with us.When we arrived, DeMon wasn’t
home yet so Sister Smith and Sister Hansen went
out to tract and talk to people who were out while
Cassy and I waited there. While we waited, they
taught three new people who all want to learn more
and accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon
and a return appointment.Then we went to a nearby
area to follow up with some other people and decided
to ‘divide and conquer’ again. Again, we found
four new people to teach! Then we went to a great
dinner with one of my favorite members, Jessica Heaps.
She is an amazing cook. To end the night, we
split up again to go teach Kim and then Bill, who
is Will’s dad. Bill is so open. It’s interesting
to watch him; you can tell when he’s feeling the
Spirit but after a little bit, he gets a little
uncomfortable and cracks a joke to ease it.
We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and I’m
confidant that he’ll read it. We’re going over
there for dinner again next Sunday.
Thursday was a great day too.
A member signed up for dinner, Dan, who
happens to be the son of Sherri Godfrey, who
I taught in Elmwood. She was baptized just
after I was transferred to Gretna. It was so
good to see her again and see how much she has
progressed. Dan was baptized just a few months
before she was. They are such a fun family.
Also, this weekend, I had one of those,
“wow, it’s a small world” experiences. I started
giving a tour to a family who was traveling with their
grandparents. Not long after the tour began, the
Grandma asked me where I was from, when I told
her Provo, she stopped in her tracks.
Then she asked if I knew any Judkins in Provo….
Well, yes I do! She went on to tell me about Will
and soap boxing, basically a rundown of how my mission
has gone so far. It was really funny, I felt
like a celebrity for a moment; an almost complete stranger
knowing so much about me.
So, here is a shout out to the Judkins family!
I met your Grandparents, the Haights, and Marsha’s
brother’s family (I don’t remember his name because
I always just called him Dad; it is hard enough for me
to remember the kids names). They were so neat!
The son that is going on a mission soon is a good guy.
He’ll make a great missionary. He was so sincere
and meek. I think I always seem to notice those
qualities because I so terribly lack them ;)
Anyway, it was probably the best tour that I took
that day, maybe this week! I also ran into a
friend from high school who was in Sister Hansen's tour.
He has already come home from his mission and his married,
weird!
Saturday was also a great day. We had a big, combined
ward activity in a little town north of Omaha called
Fort Calhoun.It was at a member’s house and it was
just beautiful up there. Very country. A bunch of the people that
we are teaching came, Tony, Kim, Jeremy, Meghan, Jenn
was also there. And a bunch of members brought
their friends. It was great. One of them is coming to
see us at the Trail Center tomorrow and we are also
going to hold a Bible study with some of the others
towards the end of the week. I love member missionary
work! They are becoming fearless.
So, I’ve been reading and re-reading a talk that was
given by Elder Holland on my birthday in 1982,
it’s called “The Inconvenient Messiah.”
I’m in love with it. It talks about the temptations of
Christ and how Satan was, in a way, tempting Christ
to do things the easy way. There was a need or
task, and there were two ways for it to be accomplished
or satisfied. One was
the easy or convenient way, and the other was the
proper way, Heavenly Fathers way; which would require
sacrifice, discipline and rejection. It talks a lot
about the demands of discipline and sacrifice as members
of the Church. How Christ paid a dear price for the
possibility of our salvation, the Atonement,
and how we should not expect a life of convenience either.
Most of the things that are required of us as members of
the Church are not convenient.
Home/visiting teaching, our callings, sharing the Gospel,
are just a few. But it is through those things that we
learn to sacrifice, to love, to serve, to
have charity and it is the only true way to follow Jesus
Christ. We cannot take upon us His name without being
ready and willing to do even the things that He
did. He ministered, He taught, He served, He did the
Father’s will. How grateful I am to belong to the true
Church of Jesus Christ. That He has once again established
on the earth. A Church that teaches us what Christ did, who
He is, and how to be like Him so that we can one day
live with Him. He lives,what a beautiful truth!
All my love- Sister Henson