the miracle of the bottomless trash can

Bottomless trash can

HOLA

FELIZ DIA DE ACCION DE GRACIAS! I hope you all eat lots of Turkey wherever you are! We will be spending the day with some of my favorite people!

A whole lot has happened in the past 11 days but I will just catch you up on the four biggest miracles.

First, on Friday I was on exchanges with Hermana Clark in Richfield. It was so fun to be with her and see how she is growing as a new missionary and it was also awesome to be in Richfield. We got to teach someone that Hna Hudman and I started teaching just before I left and it was super cool to see his progress! The biggest miracle happened as we were leaving the apartment building. We decided to cut dinner to save some time and as we headed out of the apartment we ran into Jesús from Lakeville who I haven't seen since Feb! He was the very first person I was priveleged to teach who entered into the waters of baptism and I have been thinking about him a ton lately. I couldn't believe it. I was in Richfield for 24 hours and I was able to see someone so important to me from a different area. Ah it was such a tender mercy! We got to catch up for a second and it just made me so happy to know that he is doing well and everything. There really is no such thing as a coincidence.

Second, Jason is doing awesome! He has chosen to be baptized on December 9! We are so excited for him and his family. This week when we taught him we asked him if he has ever prayed and asked God anything. He said that he asked Heavenly Father every day for a week if he should be baptized and he felt peace about it and now he is doing it! We are so proud of him and his decision to be baptized!

Third, on Sunday a member brought her cousin to church that just moved in with her. We asked her if we could come teach her more and she said no because she doesn't get home until like 8 from work. We showed up for dinner at her cousin's and she had just gotten home early from work! We got to teach her about the Resto and BoM and she is so willing to figure out things for herself, not to mention the solid support she has from her cousin and member boyfriend. We even figured out a day to come back.

Fourth happened this morning. President Barney has been emphasizing service a lot and he asked us to find something to do today to serve. We tried so hard to figure out something and everything fell through. We teamed up with our roommates and decided to rake some leaves of those that still have them in their front yard. We got down the road and saw a house with a tooonn of leaves so we hopped out of the car. As we were raking this cute old woman came outside and told us that she is too sick to do it herself and she has been grieving over how many leaves were in her yard. We called it the miracle of the bottomless trash can because we had one trash can and we fit all the leaves in there. We just kept getting in the trash can and jumping on the leaves until it went down.

We were just talking about how everything led us to the front yard of that sick woman. It felt so good to serve her and we knew we were exactly where we needed to be. Sometimes I underestimate the power of service. There is a quote from President Hinckley that I love. It says,

"Do you want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause. Lend your efforts to helping people. … Stand higher, lift those with feeble knees, hold up the arms of those that hang down. Live the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

I know that serving others is a huge part of growing closer to Christ. If you find yourself feeling sad or alone, get outside yourself and serve someone else! I promise that it will help you!

Quote of the week:
"Can I pay you for this service?"

"No, thank you though!"

"... she could give us cookies"

I hope you all have the happiest Thanksgiving! I love you all!

xoxo Hermana Hanson