Family Home Evening with the Hansens

The last several months the Senior Missionaries have Family Home Evening on the 1st Monday of the month at the mission home with President and Sister Hansen. (we meet together every other Monday night with just each other) Tonight was a very special evening because President and Sister Hansen talked about how their call came about. They had been approached by their Stake President about serving a mission in Puerto Rico to help out a couple in their Stake who was serving there, I think as the President of the mission. Pres. Hansen decided to retire from his job and they put their papers in. Sometime before the official call came in the mail they got a very surprising phone call from President Uchtdorf's office saying that he wanted to meet with them in Arizona. They were stunned to say the least. They told us in depth about that visit. What a wonderful thing to sit at the feet of an Apostle of the Lord and feel of his deep love for God's children. At the end of their visit he told them "thank you very much for your time and all you do in the church." That was about it! A few weeks later when their mission call came, they hadn't opened it yet when they got a call from the missionary department saying, "Don't open your call, please send it back to us." then they didn't hear anything else for 3 weeks or so. (I'm not sure of the timing of the whole thing.) Then they get another call saying, "Can you visit with President Monson via teleconference?" Another "stunning" moment. They visited with him for an hour and a half. It was an amazing experience for them. It was amazing for us just hearing about it from them! This was just weeks before President Hinckley died, the middle of January 2008. That was when President Monson called them to preside over an English/Spanish mission here in the States, they found out later it would be in Houston Texas.

What a powerful testimony both President Hansen and Sister Hansen have of the church, of how much the brethren loves each one of us so much, of the gospel of Christ and just how much our Savior, Jesus Christ, and God our Heavenly Father loves each one of us. This missionary work is because of that love. I am so grateful that I get to be a part of this great effort. I feel like I contribute so little but I know that that's okay. By small and simple things are God's purposes brought to pass. I love this gospel, I have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and I know, through personal experience, that if you read EVERY day from that book, even if it's for just 5 minutes, you will have a stronger faith in Jesus Christ. I am thankful that I can re-capture my testimony every single day through prayer and scripture study and studying the words of the latter-day prophets. AREN'T WE SO BLESSED TO HAVE WHAT WE HAVE????

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This is our latest "office staff" picture. Left is our new Service Missionary Sister Sulski, from the Olde Oaks Ward right here next to the mission office. She is called for an 18 month mission but lives at home and her husband works his job. She is wonderful, very happy and positive and outgoing, loves the missionaries and will be a wonderful addition to the office. Her son is on a mission in UTAH and left in December so it's fun for her to be able to see what it's like behind the scenes. Sister and Elder Walker, Elder Galbraith and Elder Scoresby, the AP's are also in the picture.

Here's a fun picture of 2 very ingenius missionaries who had a major flat tire far from their apartment so they decided to rig up this "tandem bike" to get home! One of them carried the tire all the way home while the other one steered!



While there's a major drought going on here in Houston area (driest Winter since 1917 and only a trace of rain for the whole month of April, several days in the 90's - they said that was 15 degrees above normal) it's been the wettest April in Utah. April was 250% above normal and they've started sand-bagging, I hear. already preparing for floods! Pete sent me this picture of my tree in the front yard with snow falling on Friday, April 29th. A few days before that were the worst tornados ever recorded in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina. I tell you this crazy weather has to be a sign of the times!