Weekly Update~ "MVPs of Christmas"

Dear Family and Friends,

Straight up, this Christmas and Christmas Eve were some of the best days on my mission. There are a few select people who helped make it wonderful. This email will be devoted to expressing my gratitude to each of these individuals~

Whiting Family: The Whiting family is a family from our branch. They are from the States, and Juan is serving as the second counselor and has done a wonderful job. He and his wife Jen, just had a baby and they got back from the States this week. They invited the whole zone over for breakfast on Christmas Eve and we enjoyed some killer french toast together.

Cedric: Cedric was baptized last week and confirmed this Sunday. He was taught by Elder Moyes and Elder Phiri and has one of the purest hearts. He is getting over a battle with a few past demons so he told us yesterday that he wasn't planning on leaving the house because he didn't want to be tempted. When we visited yesterday, we brought him a plate of food and he was so grateful and happy. We think he ended up giving some of it to his neighbors because that's the type of person he is. Such a good man.

Other Cedric: This week, we were planning on having Cedric, one of our investigators baptized. He is a referral from Frank, the branch presidents' brother. When we were going over baptism interview questions on Friday, we decided to postpone his baptism until next week. He was so disappointed because he was looking forward to it but he told us that he knows without a doubt that the church is true and that he'd be willing to postpone his baptism even 6 months if he had too. We felt the Spirit so strong with him and when he showed up to church on Sunday. he had a light and it was wonderful to see.

Grace: Sister Grace is one of Elder Grant and my favorite people in the branch. She is wonderful and was nice enough to help me out with some Christmas gifts to my family I was able to send back to the States with someone earlier this month. Her contributions to our Christmas joy were numerous. First, she and many other R.S sisters woke up early on Saturday morning to cook for the branch Christmas Party. Her and many other individuals were unable to eat the food they worked tirelessly on but had a great attitude about it. On Christmas, while the rest of her family went to the village, she stayed in Kigali to spend Christmas at the church because it was her first as a member. Afterward, she invited us and a few other extended family members over for lunch.

Youth of the K2 Branch: All of them worked tirelessly to plan the Christmas party and like I said with the R.S. Sisters, many of them were unable to eat as well. However, I was so impressed as many of them stayed to help clean up. Elder Grant and I spent 2 1/2 hours with them cleaning up the church and preparing it for the meetings the next day. Honestly, that experience alone made it so worth being a missionary and being able to serve alongside the youth was better than any party or any morsel of food we ate.

Grace made purses for my sisters, a tie for my dad and a
table runner and pot holders for my mom for Christmas

Cleaning up after the Christmas Party

Branch Christmas Party

Ndarra Family: Ndarra's family was one of the families we decided to visit yesterday. On Sunday morning, our district made 3 loaves of banana bread that we split in half and took to families we visited. We stopped at their home briefly because it was the last visit before we called home, but Vivianne of course had to feed us before we went which we were extremely grateful for despite our full bellies. We decided to have a testimony meeting with them and the Spirit was so strong. Ndarra and Vivianne each bore testimony expressing gratitude for the gospel and for us and I was so moved. Their relationship is one I will cherish for the eternities.

Claudia and Family: A return missionary and her family had us over for a lunch. They made unreal food and we shared many laughs together.

Elder Phiri and Elder Moyes: They are the other two members of our district. They bought Elder Grant and I candy bars and ties and left it outside our door Christmas morning. I can't describe the quality of people these two Elders are. To summarize, I have never learned more from a group of people than my current district. I am truly blessed.

Elder Grant: I can go on and on about him but he is my brother and I am so grateful for him.

RJ and Elder Grant

Elder and Sister Gillette: They had all 14 missionaries over for Christmas dinner and allowed us to use their gadgets and gizmos to call home. They were patient enough to let all the missionaries use their computers before calling their own family. They are such amazing examples of Christians built upon principles Christ taught. Even though we made noise all night, they were so kind to us. Sister Gillette made a killer meal of Chicken Cordon Blu.

Skyping with my Family

My Family: Even though it's been 7 months since I've talked to them last, things haven't changed and they're still the people I love. I love them more than words can express.

Christmas Day Skype

Advent Calendar

Opening some gifts from my Family, New Warriors Shirt!

It's bittersweet this is my last Christmas in Africa but I am so thankful to all those who made it wonderful. Merry Christmas!

Love,
Elder Hazen

Weekly Update~ "Gotta Have That Young Salvation!"

Dear Family and Friends,

First of all, to explain my email subject, it summarizes an event that happened to Elder Moyes and Elder Packer about a week ago while they were street contacting one night.They were stopped by a random guy and they were getting blasted for not being able to speak French or Ikinyarwanda but, they were living in Rwanda. He then stopped and asked how old they were and pointed to Elder Packer and asked if he was older than Elder Moyes. He said yes (which isn't true) and the guy started yelling at Packer saying he didn't like him and he liked Elder Moyes because he'd rather have that Young Salvation...Love the bizarre people we meet on a daily basis:)

But anyway, this week we had a great week filled with neat experiences. We were able to finish General Conference this week on Saturday and Sunday and it was extremely spiritually filling. I will give my General Conference summary next week because I'm working on a garbage computer and the Internet keeps going in and out.

On Tuesday, I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Moyes and we had an awesome day. I want to share a neat experience we had in the evening after having a few strong appointments in the morning and early afternoon. We didn't have any appointments confirmed for the night. We began our finding with a prayer and we went to an area I used to find in with Elder Nambale. After knocking some gates and talking to a few random people in the street, one man stopped us and asked what we were doing. We introduced ourselves as missionaries and asked if he wanted to learn more about Jesus Christ. He graciously accepted and invited us to meet with him and his wife later that week. We considered it a nice tender mercy but, then felt like we shouldn't have been in that particular area anymore so, we decided to re-locate. Long story short, the first gate we knocked on in the next neighborhood over was answered by a mother and her two children who looked like they had just gotten home for the day. The kids still had their school shirts on and introduced themselves in perfect English...one was a six year old girl named Celiah who reminded me exactly of my little sister Payton when she was younger, and the other was a ten year old boy named Serrio who loves the Golden State Warriors. Obviously I liked them a lot from the beginning. We were invited inside by the mother, and about 20 minutes into our conversation in introducing the Book of Mormon and the Restoration, her husband, who is a Mercedes Benz parts dealer, showed up. After talking to them for awhile longer, we set a return appointment for that Sunday and left in gratitude to the Lord for leading us to them. We realized that if we had not gone to the first place and met our other friends first, the timing would have been messed up and we may not have met that family because they may not have been at home. Tender mercies indeed.

On Friday, Elder Grant and I were able to have a fast for our area as a companionship. The following blessings occurred:

• We were able to set 7 baptism dates to some of our other investigators, including Ndarra, his wife, and his three children for the 20th of November.
• 7 of our investigators attended General Conference Saturday and Sunday..all of whom enjoyed seriously.
• 5 random people called us on the phone asking for more information about the church and we were able to refer them to the companionship who stay closest to each of them.
• 4 random people came to church and we had two members bring referrals.
• We were spiritually edified from conference.
• We are enjoying mission more and more each day.

I testify that the Lord hears our prayers and that faith is a principle of action. I know that Heavenly Father has his hands in things that need to happen including the growth of the church in Rwanda.
Tomorrow I get to go to Uganda for Mission Leader Conference. IT will be my first time going back in 7 months. It will be a sweet reunion with many. Stay tuned:)

Love,
 Elder Hazen

Weekly Update~ "Gratitude and Tender Mercies"

Dear family and friends, 

I can honestly say that this was the most spiritually uplifting week that I've had on my mission thus far. I sit here in awe and filled with gratitude for the tender mercies that I've experience this week. One thing that Elder Grant and I have been doing since we've become companions is list the tender mercies we saw from the Lord's hand throughout the day. It is something that we are going to begin to apply with the zone when we take reports from now on.

RJ and His New Companion Elder Grant

Late last week, during companionship study, Elder Grant showed me a talk titled "being purified" (I've enclosed a picture of it).  It basically talks about how a missionary receives counsel from his priesthood leader to take a day entering into an attitude of prayer and fasting, make a list of things that keep the Spirit from being a constant companion throughout the day, then begin a 40 day fast from these things. He counsels the missionary to plead the Lord each morning for strength to resist temptation, and each night, account to the Lord how well you did, and if you did something on the list, figure out why, promise to do better, then ask for more strength the next day. The purpose of the "Purification Fast" is to change our basic desires to align our will to the Lord's, to help our Spirit flourish, and to prepare a place for the Holy Ghost to be our constant companion. Elder Grant and I began our fast on Tuesday and I came up with a pretty lengthy list that continues to grow. Since we've begun, my prayers have become more earnest, heartfelt, and sincere. I've seen some of the blessings already. My thoughts have become more filtered and focused on others, my love for those whom I serve with has increased, I feel happier, the Spirit has guided us to prepared individuals, and the Spirit has assisted more in our lessons. Let me share a few of these experiences:

-On Friday, we had Zone Conference, which was an extremely powerful meeting no doubt attributed to the preparation of the Elders and Sisters. After, Elder Grant went with the K1 Elders to conduct a baptism interview while Elder Majawa and I taught a lesson way out in Narnia. 

After, Elder Grant and I went to teach lessons to two families. The first lesson was with a media referral who found the church online that we had taught twice before. We were planning on teaching the Plan of Salvation When we reached his home, we found his brother there as well because Jean Pierre invited him over to listen to us. The brother's name was Ephraim. We began teaching the Plan of Salvation as planned, hoping the things we were teaching would make sense to Ephraim as well. Mid-way through the lesson, everyone was understanding well aside from the occasional question from Ephraim. However, before we could continue, Elder Grant and I received a prompting to pause the current lesson and share a brief Restoration lesson. This prompted many questions from Ephraim, especially about baptism. He questioned the need to be baptized again, like most people do, but Elder Grant and I bore testimony on aligning our will with God's and doing things his way. Everyone in the room was listening intently and was visibly feeling the Spirit. Even Ephraim, determined to hold his position, couldn't stifle a smile. The Spirit confirmed that our words were true, even like it says in the Book of Mormon about Nephi teaching, "They could not disbelieve our words".

Zone Conference

 -The following lesson, we read the Book of Mormon with Edith and her son, Allen. As we discussed with them, the same Spirit entered the room as we committed them to pray about their baptism date on the 16th of October for confirmation. 

-This week, my love for the members' help in this work has increased. Elder Grant and I have been focused on using members capable of fellow shipping our investigators. I can think of 3 specific experiences where certain lessons would not have gone nearly as well without a member present. Joseph Omba was able to communicate with one of our potential investigators to find where he stays, jumping out of the car periodically to ask pedestrians on the road if we were heading in the right direction. Eric Habimana was able to translate a great lesson with his sister and brother in law. Heritier was able to offer a few powerful testimonies. President Collings has sent more missionaries here in Rwanda this transfer for the sole purpose of getting members more involved with missionary work. He promises to send more missionaries here and if they continue to step up like they have thus far.  President predicts that a stake will be established in Rwanda within the next 3 years which gives me chills.

I'm becoming a better missionary personally than ever before. However, I know that I am nothing, and as Ammon, I boast in the strength of my God who gives me power every time I plead with him that my tongue will be loosed that I will be able to bring just one soul to the knowledge of this Gospel.

I love you all

Elder Hazen

RJ finally got his hump day package, all Packagesgoto Uganda and
you have to wait till someone goes to Rwanda to get them!

RJ's Favorite Item from the box- Chocolate WonderBall

Other Favorite- Kipper Snacks!

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

Weekly Update~"Learning Each Week"

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was busy as usual, but once again, nothing too out of the ordinary occurred. Just still keeping busy doing missionary work! However, there were a few random, unrelated lessons I was able to learn throughout the week that I'd like to share. Again, I'm very grateful for all the experiences and lessons I've been able to learn on my mission. I know our Heavenly Father has a hand in each of these times and that he's molding me into what he wants me to become.

• This Tuesday, I went on exchanges with Elder Brogan. He is an awesome missionary and I appreciate everything I was able to learn from him throughout the day. There are times that I feel inadequate in my calling as a missionary and I've felt added pressure since I've been called to be a district leader.   But from him, I was able to be reminded that the Lord qualifies whom he calls and that I know what is expected of me, I just need to continue striving to do my very best and continue to be a worthy vessel of the Lord.
• Also, enjoy the pictures Shumway, Koopmans and I took Tuesday night;)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• On Saturday evening, we had a wonderful lesson with Ignatius. For those of you who don't know who Ignatius is, he is a guy that Elder Nambale and I began teaching. He has a great young family. His wife isn't as interested right now, but she still politely greets us when we come over. He has come to church about 5 times now and is still progressing but, his issue is that he feels that his prayers haven't been completely answered yet although he loves the church. We had a great conversation with him about baptism as we taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we answered a lot of concerns. At the end of the lesson, Elder Mumba asked him why we feels that we keep coming over to teach him. He gave a list of 4 or 5 reasons, but the first reason he gave is that it's because we love him. When he said that I immediately felt the Spirit and feelings of gratitude. I was thankful because that's my number one goal when I go and teach people. I hope that they feel of how much we as missionaries love them and on the other hand, how important it is that our investigators feel of this love.
• I learned how crucial planning is to missionary work and how important it is in general, even after I go home. When we make plans for the upcoming days and weeks, it's important that our plans and goals match up. Sometimes as missionaries, we get into a habit of mindlessly making plans just to cross something off the list of things to do daily. However, if we approach our planning this way, we are setting ourselves up to fail. We can't mindlessly set increasing goals for each key indicator and say we want to find one new investigator then not set any time aside to go finding or set appointments to contact potential investigators. 
• The Lord recognizes how you're using your time as a missionary. Depending on if you're doing what you're supposed to do determines whether he will trust you with teaching another one of his children and bringing them the knowledge of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. Even if we get bounced from an appointment, there's always something to be done. It's important to not find ways just to fill time in our days.
• The Gospel is what brings true happiness. I was able to see this with the baptism of Bosco and Joanna yesterday. I am so happy for them and I know they will continue to be a blessing to all those around them.
  

Sorry, no rhyme or reason to my email this week, just putting thoughts to paper:)

I love you all,

Elder Hazen

Weekly Update~"Happy Easter!"

Dear Family and Friends,

    First of all, I'd like to say Happy Easter. This Easter season is one of my favorite times of the whole year because we get the opportunity to reflect on the greatest acts of love in the history of all the Earth. I express my gratitude each week for the Savior's atoning sacrifice but I'm especially grateful this week. I was reading conference talks from April 2015 and I came across these words from President Uchtdorf that I really enjoyed about the suffering in Gethsemane and the resurrection and I shared them with Winnie, our recent convert last night. I thought I'd include it at the end of this email as well. I bear my brief testimony that I know the Atonement was suffered for each and every one of us personally and that as we use the enabling power of it in our lives on a daily basis we all can live with our Heavenly Father again. I'm also grateful for the doctrine that families can be together forever. I am always quick to bare testimony of that to my investigators and let them know how much I love my own family back at home and that through covenants made with God, they don't ever have to separated from them.

    This week, our friends from Help International went home and we had one last dinner appointment and one last friendship photo shoot so enjoy these in all their high quality glory.

    Thursday, we had a zone-wide...yes, zone-wide exchange. Elder Tesch and Ray traveled to Mukono early in the morning where everyone met up and then went their separate ways. Ray proceeded onto Seeta with Elder Bemis, Tesch stayed in Mukono with Elder Dlamini, and I spent the day with Elder Robinson in Lugazi. I always enjoy working with Elder Robinson because I learn so much from him. We made sure to spend an hour of the day finding new investigators which proved to be successful because we set return appointments with 2 new families. Later in the day, we visited a guy named Edward, Elder Tesch and I found while contacting a few days previous and taught him the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a neat experience being able to teach with Elder Robinson because I haven't taught with someone older than me on mission since my second transfer. The spirit was definitely present in the lesson and when Elder Tesch and I followed up with him on Saturday, we got to give him a priesthood blessing because he was feeling sick and he was at church the next day! I'm thankful for the opportunities I have to learn from my leaders!

    We also contacted a guy named James this week. He was sitting outside his home and is the next door neighbor to a former investigator.  As we were walking by I told Elder Tesch, "We'll contact him someday". As we passed, the Spirit basically kicked me in the butt and we turned back and taught him the first lesson. He really enjoyed it and we followed up with him last night and taught him about the Book of Mormon and we set a baptism date in April. 

    Yesterday, Elder Tesch and I were contacting after church and we met another Father of a family named Julius. We taught him the Restoration as well and after we finished and extended commitments to read and pray.  He expressed to us how he and his family had been praying for a change that will bless them.  We basically let him know that if he put serious effort into praying and asking if the message we taught him is true, this Gospel could be the change he has been seeking.

    This week, I also had a first on my mission. When teaching one of our investigators, Charles, we were sharing about the Book of Mormon and he began to bash with us a little bit. The Spirit was leaving so I bore testimony and began to leave and he told us to take the Book of Mormon with us that we left with him two lessons ago. It reminded me that not everyone is going to accept our message and everyone has their own agency. I couldn't help but feel sad for him. However, because I now the blessings the Gospel could've brought to their young family and I wanted them to experience it more than anything.  These experiences I've had has shown me that the principle "Line Upon Line, Precept Upon Precept" is applicable to all things. As a new missionary, I never dreamed that I would be training another new missionary and extending baptism dates to people I found on my own efforts through the promptings of the Holy Ghost. As I've learned new skills and my testimony has grown, I know the Lord is giving me more responsibility as I continue to progress on my mission. 

I love you guys so much. 

Love, 
Elder Hazen

"The Gift Of Grace"

On Easter Sunday we celebrate the most long-awaited and glorious event in the history of the world.

It is the day that changed everything.

On that day, my life changed.

Your life changed.

The destiny of all God’s children changed.

On that blessed day, the Savior of mankind, who had taken upon Himself the chains of sin and death that held us captive, burst those chains and set us free.

Because of the sacrifice of our beloved Redeemer, death has no sting, the grave has no victory, Satan has no lasting power, and we are “begotten … again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

Truly, the Apostle Paul was correct when he said we can “comfort one another with these words.”