We All Have Agency

With the shooting in Washington, that’s pretty sad, but things are probably only going to get worse. But we know that things always get worse just before something good happens. The world is a pretty scary place.

This week was good.  We got to stop by and see a lot of members and got to know them. It’s kind of scary still that there were only 22 members at church.  I would never thought of going on a mission and have that be something I would deal with.  It’s completely different from all my areas with about 100 plus members.  But, they are very strong members. They were telling us about how a year or so ago there were about 70 members and it was made up of about two big families.  I like to call them the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s because I’ve only heard stories but they were two families that fought and ended up both leaving the church and all that are left are those that were not part of the families. I talked to a member that said it’s now a much "better place".  That’s just scary.  It sounds like a story or a movie, but they all have to come from somewhere.  It’s very sad that that happened and that people don’t see the Gospel as a relationship with God. Instead they see church as a social event which means they don’t understand the scriptures at all. In the U.K., church has started tilting in that direction of it just "being a social thing" and that’s why religion is plummeting in Scotland, I think. So it’s hard to teach people in a society where they think that’s what religion is. 

Another random thing is that I was listening to a recording of a meeting that we had in Holywood and a part that really stuck with me was when we were talking about how all these YSA go to a born again church with rock music and all the fireworks but Bishop pretty much just said, ‘Well all that we have is the truth and when we think that’s not enough, then that’s a bad thing’. 

With all that being said, I see that this work is just hard, but I can do it and I have done it this far.  So nothing can stop me.  I may be the only way for these people to receive that truth.  It doesn’t matter if they accept it, it just matters that I let them use their agency. 

An update of the week, a lot of our investigators have dropped us and we are pretty much just finding all day, every day but that’s all we can really do for now. I love you and I pray for Dad all the time and I know he will be ok.

!The spirit is so powerful and it works exactly the same as the scriptures promise and always will. 

Love Elder H.

Found this at a Salvation Army we were doing service for, I think I could pull it off.

Soft Drink Irn Brew Factory P-Day field trip

Elder Bates and I

We need to work together

Well this week was gooooood.   

The wind and the rain is starting and it’s probably not going to stop until I’m home, but I’ve gone through it before so I kinda know what to expect.  Yesterday we had a fireside and I did it on missionary work with members and I used a lot of things from “The Power of an Everyday Missionary” book and it went really well.  We really wanted to highlight on the blessings a person will get from doing this work and being a part of it.  I also explained the importance of us (missionaries) being a huge part of the work and how we need to be more like members and they need to be like missionaries.  Because this is my personal view but I’m not sure the work will go much further in this ward unless members kind of step it up, but that’s also just worldwide. 

-Elder Hanson

Kilts!

Cumbernauld in Autumn

Kissing the Kerik Stone

Fast Week

This week went by really fast! It was crazy, but yeah, we have been doing a ridiculous amount of tracting but I'm pretty used to it now. Sorry for not sending pictures.  I keep forgetting to take some and plus Cumberland doesn't really have anything to take a picture of.  Hopefully I'll find something. Not really too much is happening right now. We are just trying to find people and it's a pretty old area that feels like its been tracted out. This week we had zone development and it was a blast.  The Glasgow zone met up with the Paisley zone, they had blue shirts and we were pink because there is this huge pink sign in Glasgow that says "People Make Glasgow". Anyway, within a couple minutes of playing sports a missionary stepped on my foot with cleats and I kept playing and it just got worse and worse and at the end of the day I had a really bad limp. My foot still hurts to walk on but I try not to act like it so Elder Bates won't notice. We also had zone conference and got some instruction from President and the APs it was good but I felt like I've kinda heard most of what they were teaching on. I also found out there were only like 4 other people in the entire zone that were out longer then me so I feel old haha. Well hopefully this week will go a little better, we have some more set up. 
I love the Gospel of Christ!
Love, Elder H.

Zone Team

P-Day Bowling

All is well

Yeah, the pictures last time are from the new flat and Yeah, the Shearers are just great and I'm going to miss them a bunch. General conference was just amazing, I got to see all of it except the second Sunday session.  It's kind of hard to say what's new because I'm so close to Airdie that it's pretty much the same. In Combernauld it's pretty much a bunch of houses in the middle of a freeway for the best way of describing it. There are no really big paths, just a bunch of trails randomly everywhere, but it has a lot of really nice parks. 

This week I got to go on an exchange with Elder Fasol in Airdrie and it was just a blast. I got to see the Blacks again and Sister Black literally was jumping for joy when I walked in the door and all the kids were amazed that I was back.  We also got lost in the middle of nowhere trying to find a former investigator and it ended up being really fun. Other than that, I'm still just getting the hang of everything.  I don't really know the members much and we just have a lot of chapping, but all is well in Zion! 

A letter sent home to Shoreline from Belfast from Sister Nicki Beattie:

"Dear Brother and Sister Hanson,

I am a sister from Holywood Road, the ward your son has recently left to go to a new area in Scotland.

All our missionaries are great.  We appreciate them spending two years of their young lives teaching and reactivating many people.  Ireland is a particularly difficult mission.  We have had so much para-military trouble, supposedly in the name of religion, so people are not the most responsive.

Every now and then an extra-special missionary comes along and your son, Elder Hanson, is one of those. Everyone in our ward thought very highly of him and were so sorry when his time here came to an end. 

He has a great sense of humour-eventually fully understanding ours, with its banter and playful self-criticism.  (Let me just say it is unique).  Elder Hanson is not pushy in any way.  He didn't need to be.  His compassion and gentle spirituality gently guided.  He made a great impact on a couple who have been inactive for years who are making remarkable progress.

Elder Hanson gave a beautiful talk, using his father's testimony.  There was hardly a dry eye in the congregation.

I don't know the details, but I assume you are going through trials at present.

Please know you are in our thoughts and prayers.  We are all having to endure adversity, some much more than others, but we will some day understand and see the big picture.

This life is so short in the grand scheme of things and it is wonderful people like your son who make it a better place. 

I'm sure you are very proud (in a good way) of him and you have every right to be.

God bless you and your family.

If you ever get the chance to visit Ireland, please let me know you are coming.

With gospel love, Nicki (Beattie)"