A Week Full of Hallelujah! -March 28th, 2016

How y'all doin??

What a week!

Elder Westling and I didn't have a whole ton of random things we had to get done so we were able to do some really great work! We've been continuing our hunt for all the less active members in our branch and we've seen some amazing blessing come from it! We've also had some pretty entertaining experiences haha!

I hope all of you had an amazing Easter weekend as well! This past week we shared our Easter message with as many people as we could and I loved it! Our message was so well received. One of the many blessing of serving in the South, most people are happy to talk about our Savior! And this week it was really just amplified. It truly was a week full of proclaiming Hallelujah.

This week we also went on an exchange with our Zone Leaders and I got to stay in Talladega with Elder Neser! We had a pretty cool experience that I thought I'd share with y'all.

Elder Neser is a Spanish speaking missionary and we had originally planned the exchange so that Elder Neser could come with me to teach a Cuban family that we met. Sadly right before our appointment they cancelled....we were originally pretty disappointed BUT we decided to still have an awesome night and work hard! We were talking and decided that we weren't going to waste Elder Neser's gift of speaking Spanish that he has been given so he offered a beautiful prayer, in Spanish, that we would be able to find and teach some Hispanics in Talladega. We then remembered that we had seen, what we thought was, a Hispanic child holding a yard sale. So we headed back that way and knocked on their door. The kid answered and invited us in! His family was sitting at the dinner table eating but invited us to come in and sit down with them! (doesn't happen a whole lot) They ended up not being Hispanic but we still had an amazing discussion with them and shared the church's Easter video! They loved it and said that if we ever needed a place to rest or a meal that we could come to their home! Such a lovely family and I'm very grateful to have been led back to them so that we could share the gospel with their family.

We then had another appointment to teach someone. Then after that we were heading home and I realized we still hadn't talked to any Hispanics! We had five minutes before our main curfew so we ran to Walmart! We walked in the main doors and low and behold a Hispanic family of six! Elder Neser stopped and talked to them and they were really friendly and nice! I obviously had hardly any idea what was being said but he told me it went really well and they wanted us to come to their home and teach them! So we have a follow up appointment with them this Saturday! We also went and walked around the whole store and found that they were the only Hispanics in there! And they were on their way out.

So I wanted to share this experience with y'all to testify that our prayers, no matter how simple, are answered! It might not be in the way that we were expecting and it might not be when we thought it would happen, but they are answered. Why? Because our Father in Heaven loves us so much and all he wants to do is bless us, if we will just turn to him and ask for guidance and help. I council everyone to take his out stretched arm and communicate with our Father in Heaven and involve Him in our lives.

I hope y'all have a great week and I'll talk to you next Monday!

Love,

Elder Honn

Transferir el número tres en Talladega! -March 21st, 2016

What's up y'all!

As you can see by the subject of this email, the main news from this past week is that we got Transfer calls on Saturday. I will be staying another transfer in Talladega with Elder Westling! I'm very excited for all the amazing experiences that the Lord has in store for us during this next six weeks!

One more piece of amazing news that we had this past weeks! We were with Zak and we thought that the next step for him would be the temple. So we called our Branch President and talked to him and found out that they have a youth temple trip to do baptisms for the dead on the ninth of April. We then called President Hanks and got permission to go with Zak and the youth! So we will be going to the temple with Zak to do baptisms for the dead! We're so excited and SO grateful for the opportunity that we've had to be involved in this amazing journey of Zak's.

Other than that, this week has just been super busy with a bunch of random things. A couple meetings, some more service, an exchange with some other missionaries. We also finished raking a lawn of a less actives that was literally covered in a foot of leaves. We used something like 48 garbage bags..... it was a lot of work but it was also a lot of fun! Good thing we have some hard working Sisters in our area as well to help us! I'll include a picture of the finished result:)

On a different note, recently we've been sharing a video with as many people as we can. It's the new Easter video that the Church has put out. Its called Hallelujah and it's a very amazing video that I would encourage each one of you to watch. If you watched it already, watch it again! If you haven't watched it, I encourage you to do so. I also challenge everyone to not forget the true meaning of Easter. Easter is a time to remember all that Jesus Christ has done for us. And I urge each of you to do just that! Remember.

Because of Jesus Christ and his resurrection we will all be able to live again after death, and I testify of that! I promise that if we can always remember to proclaim Hallelujah or always praise the Lord that our lives will change and by doing so, others lives around us will change as well.

Here's the link to the video and some other Easter material!

https://www.mormon.org/easter

I love each and every one of you and hope you all have a great week!

Sincerely,

Elder Honn

A Blessing Named Zak -March 14th, 2016

What's up y'all! 

I hope each one of you had a great week! Especially my Pops! Who, as most of you know, celebrated his 50th birthday this past week! From what I hear you had a great day and I'm very happy you enjoyed your package! Sorry, it was a little late.. we've had a hectic week haha! 

I'm a little pressed for time today because we had a zone activity today! So I'm very sorry but I won't be able to reply to yalls emails today but I definitely will next week!:)  We all went to the Civil Rights Institute in downtown Birmingham! It was such a cool place and I actually learned a lot. It was really cool to learn about the history of Alabama and it gave me a lot of respect for the people who had to go through those horrible times. Martin Luther King Jr is now one of my heroes! 

Anyways, what I mainly wanted to talk about this week was, just like the title says, a blessing named Zak. So three weeks ago, Elder Westling and I received a phone call from our Branch President and he told us show he had this boy name Zak in his office asking to be baptized! Elder Westling and I were so caught off guard and surprised but amidst our excitement and aw we were able to set up an appointment with him to go to his house and teach him! Zak is 14 and has two friends in our branch that have been fellowshipping him and inviting him to mutual each week. And as these past three weeks went by we were able to teach him all the lesson, and have him attend church each week! Then on Saturday night we had the immense blessing and opportunity to participate and perform Zak's baptism. He had been so excited to be baptized since the first time we met him and the night definitely lived up to his expectations. Everything went perfectly and It was such an amazing night. I had the opportunity to be the one to baptize Zak and Elder Westling was the one to confirm him a member and give him the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday in church. 

Wow. Word's can't even express how amazing it felt to be a tool in the Lords hands and help someone fully accept Christ and follow in his footsteps by being baptized and receiving the Holy Ghost. It was such a spiritual night and was one that I will never forget. His whole family who are not members came as well to support him and they all loved it! It was very special to see them being touched by the spirit as they watched their son make the step closer to Christ and be symbolically reborn. 

I am SO grateful for this opportunity that I have to be in Alabama, serving our Lord and Savior and helping others come closer to Him. This gospel is perfect and so beautiful and word's can't express how grateful I am to be a member of His true church. 

I love you all so much and I'll talk to you next week! 

Sincerely,

Elder Honn

Boot Number Two! -March 7th, 2016

What's up everyone!

What a week! Just so busy, all week long!

We started out the week by doing a ton of great service for a couple people. Holy cow, I've never raked more leaves in my life! We filled at least 20 garbage bags full of leaves and that was only their front lawn! We'll go back sometime this week and attack the back haha!

Then I had the immense privilege of driving down to Birmingham and getting surgery on my toe! I won't go into any graphic details about it but lets just say it was pretty gross... Basically he just gave me a BUNCH of shots in my toe (made my toe about the size of a tennis ball), then made some cuts, then gave a couple pulls and there ya go! My toenail is now quite a bit smaller than it was! haha after that he put this acid stuff on the skin to kill the toenail and stop it from growing back so that the ingrown toenail wouldn't make a reappearance. He gave me some medication, some ointment, a medical shoe and sent me on my way!

We had a pretty cool experience though before the actual surgery. The doctor who had been talking to me and taking care of me had also been asking a lot of questions about what we do as missionaries and about the church. Elder Westling and I had the opportunity to answer a lot of his questions and help him learn more about the gospel. Then before the surgery started he said "As you know, we should never do anything without involving the Lord, so lets pray". He asked Elder Westling to say it and we all held hands as I laid on the medical chair and they stood on both sides of me. Elder Westling offered a very humble and powerful prayer and brought the spirit into the room very strongly. After the Doctor thanked him and told him how beautiful of a prayer it was. Then after the surgery he expressed how it was an honor for him to meet us and to spend time with us. He expressed how the world needs more young men like us and how he was very grateful for everything we were doing. It was such a great experience and I'm very grateful for the opportunity that we had to meet him and help him come closer to Christ, even in a small way.

The rest of the week was really great as well. We had our monthly zone training and it was amazing. We were taught a lot about baptism and making sure that we make that a main focus in our teaching.

We then had the privilege of attending a baptism of a new member into the Anniston Ward. It was a real blessing and privilege to be able to witness a man making the next step to coming closer to Christ. And also to be able to see his non member family all supporting him and watching them be touched by the spirit as they witnessed him be immersed in the water and be symbolically reborn. I'm SO grateful to be a member of this church; Jesus Christ's church on the earth today. I'm so grateful for the peace, happiness, and comfort that this gospel has brought into my life. I know that this gospel blesses peoples lives in ways unimaginable, and I know that as we all endure to the end and try our hardest to be steadfast in Christ that the results will be remarkable.

I love y'all and hope each of you have a great week!

Sincerely,

Elder Honn

Steadfast in Christ!

Pictures: A picture of our awesome zone after training this week! And a lovely pic of my new and highly fashionable footwear that I've been rocking this week. Hence the subject of this email.... my second boot/medical shoe thingy that I've had to wear while on my mission... just lovely;)

The bottom two pictures are ones that dear members serving around Elder Honn sent us!