Weekly Update~ "Training"

Dear Friends and Family, 

   We just concluded Elder Tesch's  (my new Companion from St. George) first week of his first transfer and he has been an absolute champ. We had a lot of firsts with him this week including his first Rolex, first lessons, first meal of mukenne (tiny fish that isn't a mission favorite), first baptism date extended, and so much more. He has been such a quick learner and has adapted so well and I'm so excited to watch him continue to progress. 

   Transfers week is a busy week but we were able to get a lot done. Tuesday was my last full day with Elder Dowdle and we spent our time seeing recent converts and investigators that he wanted to say good bye to before heading out to Busia on Wednesday. On Wednesday, we had a tender moment as a district saying good bye to Dowdle. Pictures speak a thousand words and this one completely explains our friendship. 

   I went on an exchange with Elder Dabb on Wednesday and came back at around 5:30 to meet up with Elder Tesch and so Elder Dabb could go back to Mukono. Elder Ray and I decided to have a bit of fun with Elder Tesch and switched name tags and I told him to act like a complete spaz. We weren't successful, however, because Dowdle told him in Ntinda that I was tall and super relaxed.   So, when he saw Elder Ray and he didn't fit the description, our fun was spoiled.

   Yesterday at church, everything was going normal until in walked Tanner Call, a kid I graduated with at Lone Peak. There's a humanitarian group working in lugazi right now and he is with them! He is going to be here for 6 weeks.  Haha I was stunned to say the least but, it was super cool to see a familiar face. Testimony meeting was absolutely wonderful. A bunch of the members got up on their own and bore simple, sweet, testimonies full of truth.  The spirit in the room was so strong. We were able to have 90 people at sacrament, the most we have ever gotten. It has been amazing to see the progression of this branch in just the 4 months that I have been serving here and I am looking forward to continue seeing the growth as we invite more families to come unto Christ. 

   We are currently teaching two families. Margaret, Winnie, and the rest of the family was at church this week and I was super excited for that. Margaret really enjoyed the meeting and Winnie is going to be baptized next week so we are hoping that she will continue to be a good example to her family and will continue to motivate Margaret to come to church in the future. We also began teaching Japhet and Sarah, a young couple who was referred to us by Francis. It was Elder Tesch's first time teaching the Restoration and he did wonderful and concluded by extending them both baptism dates for the end of this month which they both accepted. 

   This week I wanted to focus on faith. Since I've been on my mission, Alma chapter 32-34 has been one of my favorite chapters to study. It's one of those sections that you can spend a lifetime studying but you can never quite get everything inside because there is so much good stuff! In that passage, Alma gives his brilliant discourse of the seed and how faith is developed. I would encourage you all to go through this passage sometime this week and write down a few thoughts. President Chatfield always tells us to increase our faith and as we do, then the miracles will come. Miracles don't build faith, they come as an outcome of our faith. We always tell our investigators that faith is an action word, but as I was thinking this week, am I taking the necessary actions to show Heavenly Father my faith and doing all that I can to find families? As I thought about that, I began to have a change in mindset and my eyes have been more open to families as we have been from moving from appointment to appointment. Even though Elder Tesch is still young on mission, he is already applying what our leaders have encouraged us to do and whenever he sees a family walking, he suggests that we go and talk to them. I'm very grateful for this work and am excited to begin sharing some of the experiences that will happen in the upcoming weeks.

I love you all,
 Elder Hazen