The One Where Elvira is Baptized

I feel like I was sitting down and writing one of these just a few days ago. I am surprised how quickly the week went by! That might be thanks to two exchanges, a busy area, and a baptism. Who woulda thought that would make a week busy...

Honestly though, it's like the usual remark that the week flies by, but when you think of specific events, they feel like they were a month ago. Days are weeks, weeks are days.

Let me start off with how much I love my brethren in Christ, the Larnaka Elders, who we had exchanges with.

It's funny, but it was the first time in nearly 2 or so months that I had filmed a video for a missionary. I felt so rusty! Sounds like a comparison that could be used for a gospel principle or something... But we'll save that for another time, haha. Honestly though, it was a great deal of fun to pull the camera out and recall something I had so much fun doing in the past.

It's actually been a super interesting experience spending so much time away from the camera (aside from P-days of course). I have to be honest, at the beginning of my mission I had a pretty unfortunate mentality about my work as a missionary.

"You are simply here because you are good with a camera and computers. That's your contribution to the work."  – me

I am disappointed to admit how long I felt that way in my mission. At times, even now, I still have to swat those thoughts away.

I think we all have times where we only think of ourselves as contributors in one or two ways. Someone we might think we are only good at teaching but not good at finding...or good at finding people to teach but not good at teaching them.

I think that's an effort Satan makes to limit our abilities. I don't think God sent us here to simply become better at what we already do, but rather to work on our weaknesses.

I've said this so many times already but I don't think those that may have known me before my mission would fully recognize me when I'm out talking to people on the street. We literally try to talk to every person that looks us in the eyes... and more. I am nowhere near the best at it, that is for sure. But you know what? I am improving. I'm not in a competition. I'm on a mission.

But if my mission was a competition... I would definitely be winning in one category...

FIND THE COOLEST THING EVER AT THE STORE!

I've literally thought this my entire mission: "You know how much we could use a good old fashioned camping chair?" Elder Schneider must have thought I was crazy when I saw one on the shelf at the store the other day for a very good price. "THERE'S NO WAY!" I recall exclaiming.

Needless to say, it makes a nice addition to our apartment. We only have one chair for the balcony, so now we have two so we can actually sit on chairs out there! I think I could be over-hyping this but, honestly, it's the small things that count I guess. Also I'm tired. So there we are, almost 3 paragraphs about a camping chair.

I don't have a lot of time left, but I need to talk about the highlight of this week as well as this transfer up to this point.

A while back, the sisters had found someone on social media that expressed interest in coming to church. The note we had on her was, "She can't meet any other time than on Sunday, so teach her after church. She'll be baptised someday, but  σιγά σιγά!"

" σιγά σιγά " meaning, "Slowly but surely."

Well, after she discussed getting baptized during Relief Society and I confronted her about it, we did not take it "σιγά σιγά". We first started meeting for a while after church but, call it my impatience, we began to meet with her during the week over video call right after she finished her 10 hour work days. I originally felt bad about it, but once we asked her at the beginning of the lesson, "What was the best part of your day today, Elvira?"

"Right now is the best part of my day! This!" she proclaimed. It was wonderful.

She has already been a wonderful addition to the Nicosia Branch, and she will bless many lives by her testimony and example. Her baptism this last Saturday was an experience I will not forget. The honor to help her come closer and make promises to God the Father and Jesus Christ was overwhelming at a few moments.

We spend a lot of time studying the scriptures as missionaries. We try to learn better for ourselves to answer our own questions, and hope to better answer the questions of others as we study to become better disciples of Jesus Christ. I often find myself getting lost in the scriptures or a podcast made by the church about certain details of things; yet this does the opposite effect I would have anticipated. The more I've studied, the simpler my faith has become. Our knowledge increases as we study His Gospel, but I've seen how those that can barely read one page out of the Book of Mormon, because of their lack of education, revere the Son of God as their Redeemer and Savior more than some scholars. They place their full trust in Him.

"I still have a lot to learn, but I will continue to learn as a member of the Church of Latter-day Saints," Elvira said as she bore her testimony after her baptism. Sometimes I wish I could better understand that kind of faith.

"And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true. And now, behold, I say unto you, and I would that ye should remember, that God is merciful unto all who believe on his name; therefore he desireth, in the first place, that ye should believe, yea, even on his word." - Alma 32:21-22

Well, I should go to bed, I'm pretty tired. After a week of two exchanges and a baptism, I guess it makes sense.

I love you all and hope you have a blessed week! The time is flying by faster than I can get a hold on it. The weather is still hot though!

Elder Dylan John Hansen