Weekly Update~ "Is Your Faith Simple Enough?"

Dear Family and Friends,

There is a line that President Collings constantly shares with us when he's giving us encouragement or is trying to uplift us. He tells us that his faith is simple enough that (some certain thing will happen, will receive some certain blessing, etc.). Awhile ago, Elder Grant and I were pondering what that meant in deeper meaning. We concluded that having simple faith means trusting the Lord's promises in the scriptures and from modern-day prophets. All too often, when we hear about these wonderful stories or miracles in conference or the scriptures, we may think, "Oh, that's nice", and think that they applied only to the prophets or those who have greater faith or are more obedient than us. But, that is simply not true. I testify that our Father in Heaven is mindful of all of his children and loves each of us individually. Because of that, we are just as entitled to ALL of God's blessings as the prophets of old were. I testify that God is a God of miracles and that miracles have not ceased, and that is what we are seeing in the Rwanda zone right now. Yesterday, we had 8 baptisms as a zone and have 10 planned for next week. We are seeing more and more of the elect that are being prepared being put in our path. I know I say it every week, but what a time to be a missionary here. Ndara's family was finally baptized and though I have been optimistic about the possibility of it happening yesterday, I truly didn't know if it would become a reality.

Last week, Elder Grant gave a training in our zone development meeting and made a sports analogy. Yes, Elder Grant and I are kindred spirits and loves sports just as much as I do..as you can imagine, we get along very well. But he compared missionary work to Basketball or Futbol or whatever applies best for your understanding. He told us that on our team, we have other missionaries, our companions, the scriptures, the prophets, apostles, our mission president, the members, etc. On the opposing team, obviously is Satan and his emissaries. He compared a few things to missionary work, but my favorite analogy that he made was this: Sometimes, when things are going well for a particular team and a certain player is hot and is scoring, the other team will adjust and double team. It is in that moment that we need to be selfless and for the good of the team, pass to someone else. The Savior is ALWAYS open and will always be there so we can pass, then cut, then score. This work is not our work, it is the Savior's. When we include him, rely on his Atonement, do all we can, then rely on his grace to make up the rest, that is when we will be successful. With Ndara's family, we had to pass to the Savior to make up the rest. We set the goal from the beginning of the week to have the full family of 5 baptized together that Sunday and that we'd do all we could to make it happen by testifying of eternal families and the blessings that would come from making covenants together. At the beginning of the week, only Gerry, the father, and his oldest son, Joshua, committed to be baptized. But long story short, by Friday, Vivane, Gerry's wife, and Benedicte, his daughter, committed to be baptized, and the morning of their interviews, we received a text saying "Justice was ready for baptism". I know that miracles truly have not ceased. Their baptism service was wonderful and the members were a great support. This is the reason why I'm serving, to see families make covenants together and one day be sealed for time and all eternity. I testify that like we read of on Jacob 5, the Lord of the Vineyard is truly laboring with us in this last time that he is pruning and dunging his vineyard.

Lately, Elder Grant have decided to put a knife in our car because of the abundance of mangoes we see on the road. It is mango season here in Africa, and obviously Elder Grant and I are enjoying.
Recently, we have been seeing more service opportunities arise. These last two weeks, we have helped a recent convert, Alphonse, with his compound. Last week we planted cabbages in his garden and this week we planted more bushes.

We also had the opportunity to help the 3rd oldest member in Rwanda, Sister Odette, who is one of the only endowed members in the country, move to Nyamirambo. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it. This experience was especially special to me because this morning, we got news that she passed away last night. I didn't know her well, I've only visited her one other time, but I was extremely saddened at the news. Once again, I felt gratitude for the perfect plan of salvation and I know that this faithful sister is now re-united with her husband, with whom I believe she was sealed too.

With it being Thanksgiving, I just want to express my gratitude to my wonderful father, mother, and younger sisters and other amazing family members. I know that this time of year is difficult to be separated, but we are reaping the blessings because of it. Enjoy the time with your families, and enjoy the turkey.

I love you all,
Elder Hazen

Weekly Update~ "Singing and Soccer"

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was another wonderful week in Rwanda. While all you folks are gearing up for another winter and breaking out your winter coats and snow shovels, I'm still enjoying my 80 degree low humidity out here. The flood of tender mercies continue for Elder Grant and I.

Service with a Smile

1. A few weeks ago, we met a man called Protais while street contacting with Elder Moyes and when we visited, he turned out to be extremely prepared. He has come to church every single week since we began teaching. To say we teach him is giving us too much credit however. When we go to his home, we begin with a prayer and then he tells us everything he learned from reading the Book of Mormon and pamphlet. He has such a sound understanding of the Gospel already, that all we really do is listen and answer his questions when he has them. He gave us a referral to his friends' family that we will be teaching tomorrow. He will be baptized in two weeks and we couldn't be more excited for him.

2. On Friday, it was one of the best days of my mission in Rwanda. We were coming off of exchanges the previous day, and when we have exchanges, sometimes our schedule gets a little disorganized. Elder Grant and I decided to go and visit as many members as possible in the afternoon and we brought a hymn book with us. We would share short spiritual thoughts, then sing with them their favorite hymn then leave. It was seriously such a neat experience and we felt the Spirit so strong in each lesson.

3. Leon was baptized. He was brought into the church by a less-active member and by fellowshipping Leon as he was being taught, he came back to church himself. 

4. We were able to play soccer with members and investigators today and it was great to see both of them interact and get closer together.

Elder Grant and I have been pondering a lot about obedience. We know that God loves everyone, but he doesn't trust all of his children. We know that exact obedience brings miracles, and as we go throughout these next two weeks, we will be relying on that principle as we attempt to finish the year strong and accomplish our zone baptism goal. We are looking forward to the miracles that will come these next few weeks. 

Beautiful Rwanda

I love you all,

Elder Hazen

Weekly Update~ "Another Email of Tender Mercies"

Dear Family and Friends,

I hoped you all enjoyed conference weekend. We decided to go watch the Saturday sessions this morning as a zone at one of the branch buildings. We streamed it from the Internet and threw it up on the wall with a projector and were able to have an awesome experience listening to the modern prophets, seers, and revelators. I came into conference weekend praying specifically for things that will help me become a better missionary, and specifically, for ways I can improve on my prayers. I got more than what I asked for with the talks I was able to listen too. I will give a full conference analysis like I usually do after I finish the rest of the talks:)

This week was full of small blessings once again.

1. I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Nabonbo, otherwise known as Andrew, the former Gospel Principles teacher from the K1 branch who was set apart as a missionary last week when President Collings came to Rwanda. He has been working with the K3 missionaries until he departs for the Accra Ghana mission on Oct.5 this upcoming week. We decided that Elder Grant would go on exchanges with Elder Pearson and Elder Barker, while I would take Andrew into our area. This was his first real opportunity in working with a companion 1 on 1 so the purpose of the exchange was to get him excited for missionary work and to give him a taste of what it's really like to be a missionary. I let him take the lead in lessons and finding situations. It wasn't the easiest of days, but we had a bunch of good experiences and Andrew remarked at the end of the day, "today was special and I'll never forget it".
   
   
   
2. Elder Phiri and Fiagbedzzi baptized 4 investigators this Sunday, two of whom were people Elder Mumba and I began to teach. They wanted me to come to the baptism and I was able to attend.
   
   
   
   

I wanted to share a special experience I had with Ndarra’s family. It begins on Friday, when Elder Grant and I were at a loss for what to do to help him and his family progress towards baptism during Weekly Planning. We decided to ask Heavenly Father for help through prayer. As we were praying, I felt a distinct prompting that we needed to include Ndarra’s wife in the lesson. In the past, she has not participated in any of the lessons. She usually is polite and greets us when we come, but then goes to the kitchen and cooks for the family. We also felt prompted to talk to the family about the importance of temples and eternal families. Elder Grant and I made a lesson plan to focus on that, then remind them of our purpose as missionaries in coming and visiting them each week. We wanted to tell them that central to our purpose is helping them make and keep covenants that will ultimately lead them back to their father in heaven. We went to their home on Saturday evening as usual, and began the lesson. The Mama was present and we began by asking each member of the family why they love each other to invite the Spirit. Elder Grant and I then bore testimony on why we love our families. When it was my turn to bear testimony, I pulled out a picture of my family that I usually keep in my scriptures and passed it around. We then explained that the covenants we make in this mortal life are like a pathway that lead back to our Heavenly Father in the Celestial Kingdom. We talked about the first covenant, baptism, and how it leads to bigger and greater blessings, especially temple sealing that allows families to be together forever. We then pulled out a picture of the Accra Ghana Temple and began to explain about temples and that our purpose in visiting them was more than just preparing them for baptism, but preparing them for happiness in the eternities. However, this was when the lesson began going downhill. Haha I guess God really does allow us to go through a trial of our faith before we receive the blessing. We failed to remember that it was Ndarra’s wife’s first real taste of the restored gospel so she then began asking why unbaptized people aren’t allowed in the temple and why her baptism in the Catholic church isn’t accepted to go into the temple. The discussion was turning into more of a debate, so Elder Grant and I decided to bare testimony in effort to save the Spirit. As we bore testimony, the Mama began laughing. We thought to ourselves, “oh no, what now?” She began explaining an experience she had earlier that week while her husband was in the DRC at a funeral. She explained that she was confused at why these two young men come to her home each Saturday evening to teach her family, and why their message is important and if it’s true so she asked God those same questions. After she prayed, she opened her bible to a random page. This is what she read.
Luke 10:1-7
 1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.

 2 Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.

 3 Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.

 4 Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way.

 5 And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house.

 6 And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again.

 7 And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Go not from house to house.

 After she read that to  us, I couldn’t help but get emotional. Elder Grant and I just looked at each other, speechless. She told us she knew this was an answer to her prayers and that we truly were sent by God. We committed the family to pray to know if we were sent by God. Elder Grant and I knew that this was a miracle from the hand of God. We knew it came as a result of our diligence amidst our frustrations that week (we got our side view mirrors stolen from our truck for the second time in three weeks earlier that day). We also knew the Spirit was guiding us, because without it, we wouldn’t have known to include that Mama in the lesson. I’m thankful for the tender merices of the Lord each day, no matter how great or small.

love you all very much,

Elder Hazen

Weekly Update~ "Miracles with Fasting"

Dear Family and Friends,

Transfers, months, weeks, and days continue to run at an exponentially increasing pace. I am now 13 months out, wondering where the time has gone, but continuing to make the most of what I have left.

Today, as I write this, my heart is full of gratitude to our Father in Heaven for how much he loves us, his children, so much so that he sends the Spirit to whisper revelation in his still small voice to guide our lives. I'm especially thankful that as a missionary, I've been able to be more sensitive to spiritual promptings due to the lack of noise from the world fighting for my attention. I can't count how many times these clear, impressive thoughts have helped me and changed the course of an entire day. Such an experience occurred a week and a half ago during our weekly planning session. As I blankly stared at the half sheet of paper full of our plans for the upcoming week, my thoughts were wandering to our dwindling teaching pool. I knew that in order to build it up again, it was going to come from help from on high, so I thought "Why not petition for the Lord's help, and call down the powers of heaven through fasting?" Elder Nambale and I decided to consecrate our entire day Tuesday in the upcoming week to finding and opening with a fast before beginning. We prayerfully planned our day the night previous, set a goal to find two new families, and with the knowledge that we had the Spirit with us, we went to work. We talked to many promising individuals and set many return appointments, but at around 5:30 that evening, we still had not taught a lesson. We then knocked on a gate in Kiyovu, a neighborhood near President Kagame's home. We saw two people seated on the porch, with a clear view of the gate, but no one made an effort to move to come talk to us which we found to be strange. When someone finally answered, we went to the porch and introduced ourselves as servants of Jesus Christ, and before we could say more, one man got up and gave Elder Nambale his chair, and gestured me to sit at another chair at the table they were seated at. The owner of the home introduced himself as Jules, and called each of his children to come greet us, all of whom spoke perfect English. He then began explaining his story. He is married with four children, is a retired engineer and is currently building his dream home that he plans to rent out certain floors to tenants. He has also battled Parkinson's disease for 7 years. We sat and listened as he told us about his difficulties and struggles, but then said something profound: "Even though I have this disease, I don't curse God. I know he is there and that he loves me. I am truly happy. I have my family and we are fine. I praise God every day I continue my life." I immediately said a prayer of gratitude in my heart that we were led to Jules and his family. This is a man that has true faith and accepts the will of God for him. I know that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is exactly what he needs to give him strength to press forward. He invited us to his home again on Friday to share food with him and his family and we introduced the Book of Mormon to him. He graciously accepted it, he wrote in the back, "a gift from Nambale and Hazen", and told us he would read it deeply. 

On Wednesday at MLC, President Collings' closing remarks were focused on the principle that miracles do exist, especially in missionary work when we set the bar of expectations high for ourselves, do what we're supposed too, and follow revelation received. On Sunday at church, one of the guys we invited to church while street contacting on Tuesday came to church with his 3 kids. I know that Jules and his family, and Innocent and his family were miracles and the Lord's hand was in helping us accomplish the goal we set in faith to find two families. I testify that this is the Lord's work and this is his church and I'm reminded of this daily. He lives and loves all his children. I testify that faith is a principle of power that causes things to happen that need to happen like the spreading of the Gospel to all of Rwanda and the entire continent of Africa. 

P-Day Basketball Game

Baller

Chameleon 

I love you all,

Elder Hazen