Simply Beautiful is the Message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ

A speed-run is a term often coined by those that try to complete an entire game, or goal within the game, in the fastest manner they can.

I don't need to elaborate further, since this email will be an example of such.

I apologize for the mess (i.e. this email). I'll clean it up later. Or not. Who knows.

I often find myself trapped since I am currently typing this in the latter part of the day since I kept prioritizing some Branch things that needed to be taken care of. I would apologize but, for the time being, that's my piority. Even if it takes into my personal time after-nine pm.

I expressed to my family that I've struggled to write my emails recently because many of the "crazy" or "intensive" stuff are actually administrative activities such filling papers and creating a lot of plans. My father told me maybe that would be still interesting to include, since I will probably want to remember in the future, "Oh yeah, that happened."

I guess I shouldn't call all the paperwork things boring, since, after all who would have thought I would be shreading paper for literally hours for the last 4 weeks?

This is a message to all the branch presidents out there: Please read the handbook on the time that documents should be shredded. It's outlined. And all of that is also recorded online as well. Please dispose of it properly, or you might find yourself shredding things all the way back from 2009.

I was six years old when those documents were made. They should have been disposed of in probably 2012.

But hey, it's not all bad; as I review all the documents and dispose of them, I get to watch the Chosen at the same time. That's a pretty good silver-lining I think.

I guess another interesting administrator thing I've been working on is getting this, basically, reception planned for this Wednesday (May 1, 2024). It's super last minute, and honestly has been pretty stressful, but I'm honored to be part of the help. "Planning a Ring Ceremony Celebration/Wedding Reception" has been added to my list of "Stuff I didn't think I would do on my mission, but here we are; I'll try my best"

That list, if I actually think of it, is getting long. Goes to show missions are not as one would always expect. God has a lot in store for us.

Talk about a learning curve. I am super excited for them two though.

Every Monday, we visit the bank to take of things for the branch. Give it a few more weeks, and we might be on first name basis with some of the staff. We had a very fun conversation with one about Crete and I got to tell her I lived there for 3 months.

I've learned, the longer I've done this, why make the "boring" times of things boring?

At first, I would be doing things at the computer for an hour in complete and utter silence.

Why?

So I've started putting on things from Gospel Music. Make life a little more interesting.

Something else that has been keeping us missionaries on our toes has been our most recent approach to finding. On long walks, we talk to everyone, especially towards evening time. Which isn't super different than before, but with three missionaries rather than two; it changes things.

We greeted a man near the church and invited him to come. He wasn't terribly interested in coming, but he was interested in how these "young boys" are going around talking about Jesus. He seemed to have found it impressive.

He began to ask where each of our heritages came from, out of curiosity.

Since he was more curious about our origins rather than nationalities, I explained that I was actually half Spaniard, my mom being full.

I quote of him, "I can see a little Spanish in there; it makes sense; the Spaniards in the South are short."

"Yup that's the part my mom's from."

My companions thought it was the funniest thing ever, but they kept their composure, thankfully. I will say, that was hilarious and also very true. I'm proud of my heritage though.

This evening, literally like 2 hours from me writing this, we had a meeting with one of our friends, Adrian. He's very cool, and he has been a learning experience for us. He has recently found peace in Jesus Christ, and he wants to learn more. So he searched online for a bible, but couldn't find one. For some reason, this "Book of Mormon" kept popping up. So he decided to look into it. His understanding of Christianity is very simple, so we find ourselves often telling the stories of Jesus. He has been enjoying it.

Well, one Restoration lesson about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith later, we teach him about the Plan of Salvation that God has for us.

We knew the spirit was there and Adrian was honest and true with his desires when he opened with his personal thoughts saying, "You know... I was studying... I really don't feel like hell is fire and lava and stuff. I see it more as a separation from God maybe."

The face Elder Wahl and Crossley made could expose a photographic negative. They lit up, and I can imagine I sported a similar face.

"We're actually gonna talk about that today!"

I wish you could see the light in his eyes as we taught him. It was a special experience to see someone really trying to understand something.

"It's beautiful," he said as he tried to find ways to express himself. "I'm shocked, I've learned more in the last 30 minutes than any time in Sunday school growing up!"

We have the opportunity to teach him a lot about the Savior. I'm quite excited for it, to be honest. But I think it's a two sided coin.

The things I've been learning from this experience is two particular things. I am sure there are more that I haven't realized yet.

1. How to teach the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to inform about the restoration of His Church at a basic level. I've realized, members of the Church have studied these stories a lot of times. So much, we often dig deeper to learn more about them. Which is a good thing. But it's like the introduction to an essay. The first paragraph shouldn't contain the entire essay. It should state simply and summarize the contents of the paper. We'll get to the smaller details as we keep reading.

What I am trying to say, is we often assume a common knowledge of topics we have studied well. And especially when we are passionate about them, we dive into it far and forget we might be speaking a different language.

Adrian has been awesome because we will ask, "Do you remember the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden?" as we tell the story of Adam and Eve.

Rather than pretending or saying, "Well, I think I've heard of it," he said today,

"Nope. I haven't."

It's a wonderful practice for us missionaries, to practice explaining things simply. If I were to encourage one thing for you to do after reading this, is to write and study how to explain each lesson in Preach my Gospel in a simple way. Write it in such a way that you have assumed your audience knows absolutely nothing.

A friend in Athens once told me, "You explain the Gospel to me like I'm five."

I apologized, thinking it was a bad thing, but he actually expressed his gratitude for it.

Explaining things with the assumption that the listener doesn't have the same common knowledge as me is something I'm definitely still working on. So far, what has been working for me is this:

Slow down. Take a deep breath. Let them answer questions. We aren't in a race. It's their salvation; let's try to make sure we deliver something they will understand. Then let the spirit take over.

Which leads me to my second point.

2. How precious this message is.

This message we share is so special.

"I feel like more people should know about this, man" Adrain said as we continued our discussion.

"That's why we are here," Elder Wahl responded promptly.

The knowledge we have is something so special. It makes me want to be always ready to share it in the best way I can. I remember days where the lessons would go in ways I wasn't prepared for, and I would find myself stumbling over my words. My thoughts may have been distracted those times since I probably wasn't listening to the spirit enough.

But this message we share is too special and if it takes my whole mission to do learn how to do that the best I can, so be it.

The lessons should be taught in a way that invites the spirit the best we can. I can testify to you there is substantual difference between a lesson with the spirit, or without.

Sometimes it isn't in your control, because the person you are teaching has agency, but do your best to keep the Holy Spirit there.

Well, I should probably go. I do wish I could write more or write in a better manner, but it just hasn't been my piority at this time. I hope you found something worth while though.

I love you all, and wish you a pleasant start of summer! It's getting too hot down here already. I've got to brace up.

See you!

Elder Dylan Hansen