Family is always the most important

Pictures of McKay's district

Here's his note from this morning:

Hey everybody,

First of all, good luck to Maren and Reese with finals this week, you'll do great.

Families are one of the most prized things in missionary work. To teach and baptize an entire family that then can prepare to go to the temple and be sealed together for eternity is understandably kind of a big deal to us. This week was all about families.

T and K are having tons of fun every time we come over. K probably has a bit too much fun. This time he was playing with the dog while we were trying to teach his mom, and the only way we could find to keep him quiet was for Elder LeMoine to give him his nametag. I don't know what it is, but kids go crazy over missionary nametags, as I learned in Jakobstad. It was one of the ones with magnets on the back, and to my knowledge it will remain on their fridge for as long as K lives in that apartment. He loves Elder LeMoine. T is doing really well. She set a baptismal date for the February 9!!! It all hinges on whether or not she knows Joseph Smith was a prophet (Yeah...really astute observation Elder...). But for her it really does. We asked her what that kind of knowledge would mean and she said, "Well, I guess I'd do just what everyone else does." Meaning going to church each week, paying tithing, giving up coffee, etc. For her, it all rests on that one question. We're pretty excited. We get to see her tonight again and ask her if she's gotten her answer yet.

This week was also full, though, of families disappearing, but the Lord always finds a way to bless us. After one lesson fell through, we prayed and decided to go visit a less-active family who had never really been home at that time. We showed up and, sure enough, they weren't home. So we decided to do some service and scrape all the snow and ice off their car, which was buried under about a foot of snow (finally made that shovel we bought and have had stuffed in the back of the car worth it). While we were doing that, the mom and son showed up. They called dad and he said he was on his way home. They invited us in and we got to finally teach their entire family together about the Book of Mormon.

Sadly, I'm out of time. Sorry this week sounds so lame. Next week will be better, I promise.

Love,

Elder Hansen