Weekly Update~ "The First of Many Lasts On My Mission"

Dear Family and Friends,

Last week, during a conference call, President Collings shared an experience from the life of Brother David Whitmer. The account goes something like this:

In efforts to increase the faith of the missionaries and to draw down the powers of heaven more abundantly, President Collings christened this transfer the "David Whitmer Transfer". For the whole transfer, President challenged us to apply all the things we've been learning in the transfers previous to teach repentance and baptism in EVERY single teaching situation. We have also been asked to get back to reading Preach My Gospel every day and to role-play every companionship study. Every week, we will be having a conference call to spend about a half hour or so sharing experiences and miracles as we see the Lord magnify our efforts in doing the best we can. In the past, I've seen that whenever President counsels us to do something, no matter what, do it, because inevitably blessings do come. 

This week was week 1 of the "David Whitmer Transfer" here in the UKM and the Kampala Central Zone kicked it off with a bang. Early in the week, Elder Moyes received a clear prompting about the sisters coming into our zone. In speaking with Elder Grant in the week previous, he shared with me some concerns all the sisters in the whole mission were having about struggling to find new investigators to teach. We decided to share this with the district leaders in Mengo and Makindye where the sisters will be going and encouraged them to begin doing some finding for both themselves and the sisters so they'd at least have a few people to teach when they got there. When we received a report from them yesterday, both companionships of sisters had at least one investigator at church which was a real tender mercy. 

Also, with it being transfer week, as a zone leader and district leader where there are new missionaries coming, sacrificing time in your area is expected. But, as we took time to drive missionaries to their new areas and running errands to transport forgotten belongings we knew the Lord would bless us. He blessed not only us, but Elder Khoriyo and Elder Dlamini in Mengo by helping us accomplish standards of excellence. On Thursday morning, Elder Moyes and I taught a referral from Bishop Omuya to a lady who works at a mobile money stand across the street from a church named Prossy. She is a sweet lady with a 5 year old daughter named Michelle who cracks us up whenever we walk by. While teaching the restoration to her, we noticed mid-way through the lesson another woman seated close-by to Prossy who was also listening while acting occupied with a magazine on her lap. When we talked about how Christ established his church on the Earth, she couldn't contain her curiosity and closed the magazine. We felt prompted to invite her to participate in the rest of the lesson and the Spirit was present. The Spirit was powerful at the climax of the lesson, as we talked about the first vision. Both were glued, and we extended a baptism date to both. We came to find out that the other woman, Sylvia, obviously one of God's elect, has been visited by missionaries a few times before but, has the most motivation to learn about the Book of Mormon than ever before. Super cool. 

The Gym RJ Works Out In

On Friday, I attended my last MLC of my mission and bore my first of many departing testimonies. The reality of going home finally threw it's first punch. The meeting was extremely uplifting and I wanted to share something I got out of it. Elder Farnsworth talked about how Repentance and Baptism are tightly knit as is the rest of the gospel of Jesus Christ but, he then took time what it means to have a remission of sins. When you put the word remission in the context of cancer, it means the cancer is still in your body, but it is dormant and the effects of the cancer can't be felt temporarily. Same with our spirits when we go through the repentance process. Sin is the cancer of our spirits and when remitted, like cancer, has a chance of coming back. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the cure to spiritual cancer. In this church, the full and everlasting gospel is taught with all the necessary ordinances. No one else can cure this cancer. This is simply because no one has the Priesthood authority. I testify that through the restored gospel, we can be clean and fully healed of the cancer of the soul and return to live with our father in heaven. I'm thankful for the time I have left to share this cure with as many as possible. 

RJ's Favorite Meal

I love you all,

Elder Hazen