Weakness into Strength

Well, if there is a will, there is a way.

I say that because I'm crazy enough to have brought a film camera on mission and got my first roll back this week from a local shop--of which--we stumbled across. They did a decent job considering I had thought no one developed film in this country, but alas here we are! To be fair, I don't think the had the same standard as my old work, Allens Camera. The film came back over-developed(really bright) and had really weird artifacts from uneven developing. The scans and price for the work was pretty sub-par. Probably won't take my B&W film there again. Good experience though, I've never had someone develop my film before!  I'll include some of better images in this email.

A blessing this week from Elder Jenkins and I have been able to work a lot on tech stuff and also get outside. What I've come to learn with social media is a balance; make something good, and quickly. I think the trick is to keep it simple, and just make sure the quality isn't distracting. And that it isn't taking up most of your time. So, we have really been focusing on filming videos that don't require a lot of editing. It's been fun, but as well as efficient.

For P-day today, we went to a natural history museum! It was actually really cool. I'm gonna sound like a kid when I say this, but there was a lot of Dinosaurs. Not like Utah, but it was also great. They had an Earthquake Simulator, and we got to feel what a bunch of earthquakes were like. Particularly the Kobe, Japan one. That one shook us so hard, I was scared of actually geting injured. They should have you sign a waver haha! Fun though. Elder Jenkins got a good video of it.

If I am being honest, this area has been pretty slow, so it's difficult sometimes to even remember what happens during the week. We certainly try to stay busy, but the number of note worthy experiences might be a little limited since sometimes we're kinda just trying to get by.

The mission has been feeling some difficulty everywhere, I think. However, I can't help but reflect on the story of my mother. She felt a lot of hard things happen right before her baptism. Her friend said to her, "Doesn't that just tell you you're on the right track?"

Satan works really hard when you're trying to do the right thing. So, maybe that's what's happening right now. We must continue to persevere, and do our best to follow the Savior and his teachings. Keep trying our best as missionaries. I promise you that even if it's hard right now, as you continue down the covenant path, you will reach a point where you will see God's hand in even the hardest of times.

This week, we had two really cool interactions. One, with a visiting member family from the United States(American accents again, woah!) and a man from Gaza.

We were walking around, inviting people to church, until a man sitting on a bench asked us to ask our question again but in English. He realized we were religious, and as curious what we had to say on some of his thoughts about religion. Typically, we know that these converstations won't lead into someone keeping commitments, but I always feel good after one of these conversations. They may ask pressing questions about our beliefs, but I find I always understand our own gospel better at the end of one discussions. The person we speak to as well, if they are being respectful(conversations like this are not worth it if they are not respectful), is listening to what we say, they have an honest understanding of what we believe.

Anyway, the discussion lead into a couple schools of thought, and it was the first time I've gotten the chance to tell someone the First Vision account on the street. I remember, looking at him and seeing in his eyes, something different. The spirit was really strong, and it was comfirmed to me when he sat up straight after and said, "Well... I don't believe religion's an... emotional thing."Ah... so you did feel something as I told you about the First Vision, didn't you? I couldn't help but think.

The conversation progress, and his face changed again as we told him about eternal families.

"...That would be wonderful...  but that's just a dream." He said.

"Well, I know it to be true," we responded.

But what was interesting about the whole conversation, he unfortunately didn't have the cleanest language. Every so often we would say an unclean word.

I would say, I don't know if I completely understood, "Weaknesses can become strengths though the Lord," until that conversation. Unfortunately, because of the language used in school hallways growing up and, frankly, not a lot of effort to avoid situations with foul language growing up, I am very mentally-resistant towards language. Which, I have felt is sort of a weakness I have because I can quickly tune it out of something that I might be hearing that I should probably just turn off or walk away from.

However, I have been doing a lot of what I can to become better at avoiding situations with significant fowl language. God has seen that effort, and a blessing he has given me has become apparent.

As we spoke to this man from Gaza, he language was not particularly clean. Now obviously, we had never even met him before, so we hadn't spoken to him about having a clean mouth. He didn't know any better. How could we expect him to change that in the short conversation we would have with him?

So, my weakness became a blessing in that moment. I could still remain in touch with the spirit myself, and the fowl words did not have to effect me.

I promise, there are many things in your life that God could or has done for you in this way. When the brothers of Joseph sold him into slavery, did they know that would end up becoming the salvation of their entire family? It would have been inconsivable. And yet, it was still wrong to sell his brother to the slavers, but God still gave them the chance reseive salvation from the famine. God has a remarkable way of turning bad things into good things. I don't mean to turn this into a lesson, but can you see Christ in this story? Someone who was rejected and received horrible things, and yet could save their entire family, through that trial?

It might not be a perfect analogy, but that sounds a lot like the Attonment to me.

Hope the weather is doing well! For some reason it was really hot to day! The Greeks even turned on some fans haha!

Love you all,

Elder Dylan John Hansen