Saturday, December 14, 2013

12 - 13 / Day 122 My Life Was Changed This Week



Well we've had some awesome things we were a part of this week:
1. We had our mission tour where Elder Clark (a member of the 70) came and talked to our mission! It was like a half a day thing & it was LIFE CHANGING! It gave me sooo much motivation and just made me truly so happy to be a missionary at this time! I would LOVE to share some of the awesome insight he gave BUT, I left my notes at home & don't have much time to write this email!

2. Elder Quintin L. Cook just decided he wanted to come our SACRAMENT MEETING this past week! hahh whattt! We were all sitting down and president was about to stand up and open the meeting and here Elder Cook and his wife just come walking in & he goes & sits right up on the stand & Sister Cook sat right behind me! haha President was cracking up and shaking his head! The poor sisters were scared to death to speak! haha. He was so nice & just had the HUGEST smile on his face the whole meeting long.
3. We got to attend The Christmas Devotional & it was AMAZING! I loved it soooo much. If you haven't watched it PLEASE DO! Elder Nelson was my favorite!!! I also I loved Music & The Spoken Word this week it was SO good on Sunday! So many fun Christmas songs & the BYU mens Tennis Team came to watch it too (random) But we get to go the Motab's Christmas Concert on Sunday & I'm soooo excited.
4. This morning my zone got to go to a special needs school here in Utah and put on a HUGE Christmas program for them. The looks on all their faces when Santa came in was the sweetest thing. I had chills the whole time cause their little sweet spirits just touched my heart. Afterwards, we got to go into their classrooms and just help out! It was soo soo sweet! I fed a little girl named Kristy her lunch. Then, I just went over and sat with one of the sweet girls and held her hand while their teachers tried to teach them! It was so so tender. I just had the strongest feeling in my heart of how much the Lord loved each and every one of them even though they may be different, it doesn't matter to the Lord... they are his very special precious children! (Pictures to come next week...get ready, it was SO fun) Here's just a couple pics of me and Sister Nakamatsu.







Sister Nakamatsu and I at the School for Special Needs. ; )

Thats about all the fun actitvities I can think of....

Ben is getting BAPTIZED tomorrow & we get to go! Sister Hale too:) I'm sooo excited to actually be able to be there at one of my investigators baptism instead of getting pictures later on! OH MAN:) Pics to come of that next week too. He's so excited! I've hardly even shared about him but he's a pretty cool kid with a rad testimony of the gospel. I think he has more doctrinal knowledge than me! haha.


Bens Baptism!!



Anywho, love you all .... thanks for all the support & LOVE!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!



xoxox


-Sister Hansen


Friday, December 13, 2013

12-6 / Day 115 Walking In A Winter Wonderland!



It's freezing here !!!

Well I'm surprised I'm still alive this week considering that its been like 5 degrees here! I'm DYING! It's soooooooo cold. This is such a fun time of the year on the square but it's also pretty frustrating at times! People just want to see the lights. They see a missionary coming their way & they just run. I've heard some members say some pretty snotty remarks and it's a bit upsetting to be honest.... "I heard the Sisters had picture training this year cause that's all they're good for," "We're already members of the church we don't need to talk to missionaries," "Oh look, the Sisters have such an easy job. All they have to do is just hide in all the crowds and stare at the lights,".... The list goes on! It's funny that they think you can't hear them, but you can!
But the lights are pretty!


Yayyyyyy!!!!!
Christmas Timeeeee!



I don't know why members think just because they've already been baptized the missionaries do no good in talking to them! Our purpose as missionaries isn't to just dunk everyone into the baptismal font, it's to help anyone and EVERYONE come closer to Christ! And so we've been trying our hardest to stay aligned with our purpose, and yes the Lights are sooo fun & there's been some amazing members I've talked with, but it's kind of a struggle for me right now. I'm working through it though & figuring out what works well & what doesn't.


I've also been really surprised that people struggle so much to remember the real meaning of Christmas... You ask them a Christmas Tradition they have as a family to help them remember what Christmas is all about & they reply with "making sugar cookies," "playing in the snow." I just wanna shake them all and ask, "What does that have to do with the Savior being born to come and give you eternal life?" But of course I don't say that. I just reply with an idea for them to actually remember the meaning and the purpose of this Holy Day season!

Snow Snow Snooooowww!

Teaching has been pretty slow this week as well, Sister Nakamatsu is VERY shy! She talks and has pretty good English when we're just going about doing our things but the second it comes to teaching it's like she doesn't know any English at all! I feel like I'm the only one saying anything about 95% of the time, and I am FAR from the perfect teacher, I need my companion to teach along side with me and help me! There's a reason why we teach the gospel in 2s! I'm hoping it will get better. Almost all of our appointments have fallen through this week so I'll probably just update more next week.

Carlos is doing awesome though and has started to bring his little brother to Seminary with him. He's going to the Temple on the 14th to do baptism for the dead! He's such a great kid! Blows my mind that he's only a junior in High School.

Paul is good, we've only had some short conversations cause he's been busy, but he's reading the BOM a ton each day and wants to be baptized. He just wants to get his family to be more supportive and finish the BOM first... so he's progressing and doing great! We'll teach him soon!

Idk what else to update on...

I got to pass off driving this week and it felt SOOOOOOO good to drive a car again! YAHOOO! haha. I can't wait to go drive to the store today again. It's like the smallest thing, but it helps you feel normal! haha.

I love you all & I hope that you're able to remember the importance of the season!!! It's easy to get caught up in all the hustle and bustle of Christmas and forget what the real meaning is! The Ensign has some awesome stories in it this month & I've loved reading them.
Hand hug to Slater!!!  hahahah!!


The Browns and Jordan!!
Crying I was soooo happy :)
Nate's Aunt & Uncle and kids!
I cannot believe how many RANDOM people I've run into this week on the square, it's hilarious & so fun:)

Hunt me down everyone, I love it!! haha.


-Sister Hansen





Monday, December 9, 2013

11-29 / Day 108 Hope Everyone Had a Happy Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving as a missionary is weird, I guess any holiday will be, actually. There isn't much to update on since I wrote on Tuesday of this week, and today is actually the day after Thanksgiving as I'm writing. We had transfers this week and my new p day will be Friday.
So, I was so sad to not be with all the family on Thanksgiving, but also super excited for all the fun stuff they had planned for us! We got to go to this huge event center called Noahs.

It's a 3 story building, the top floor was ice skating and Christmas crafts, the second floor was movie theatres with like 3 different options playing and volley ball or Raquet Ball courts, the bottom floor was a huge dance area with REAL MUSIC, and a huge game room with pool and ping pong.








We basically just partied from 2-9!!!! It felt wayy too good to dance(for literally 2 hrs straight) and ice skate and just do fun stuff. I have no idea how they went about feeding 200 Sister Missionaries a delicious Turkey Dinner... with left overs! That's pretty darn impressive!




My new companion is the sweetest thing. She's pretty shy so it will be an adjustment for me for sure, I mean you know how i am... CRAZY. And I don't want to scare her and talk too much. She has a very big heart though.







It's weird to not be around Sister Hale. I miss her like crazy!!! I got to my new Zone Wednesday morning and when I sat down waiting for my new compi to come I just started crying cause it really hit that she wasn't my companion anymore. Ya, I know.... I'm a baby! But I really LOVE HER! haha.



THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS TURN ON TONIGHT! I'm sooooooo excited but scared too. This place is gonna be a mad house for the next month!








Love you all & hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! 
xoxox
-Sister Hansen