3 - 27 / Day 227 CALIFORNIA BOUND!

Um what... I'm really going outbound? Is this real?

Flowers getting ready for Conference!

     
I'm really leaving Temple Square after being in the same 10 acres for about 8 months now?!! hahaha YES! It's vacation time in Fresno, California. I'm stoked everyone -- sooo stoked! You mean I get to teach my investigators in person, I get to have members feed me, I get to actually go to normal church, I get to sit and watch ALL of conference, I get to maybe ride a bike!???? hahaha! YES YES YES YES YES! Heavenly Father LOVES me especially because he's sending me to Sunny California!

     It's gonna be weird to leave my investigators here though. It's stressful thinking about cleaning out my online area book! 

My Friendssssss!

     But here's my MIRACLE OF THE WEEK! I went to the Temple and I was just, ya know, praying for all the people I'm teaching and just thanking Heavenly Father for everything I've been able to experience. So, I was thinking a LOT about Sandra and Bradley and how if and when they accept the Gospel and are baptized they will be able to be sealed in the Temple in a year.  And then when we were leaving I checked the phone and what do you know, it's a text from Sandra .... saying that .... BRADLEY is also getting baptized THIS SUNDAY with her!! So on his like 3rd Sunday to church he is getting baptized!!! Sandra was already an amazing miracle and now Bradley too... say what!? I'm sooo excited for them!!! Sandra was convinced I was coming to Alabama haha but that's okay, I can visit when I'm not a missionary any more! I'm sooo stoked for them! Sandra is the sweetest thing and sent the nicest text in the world this morning saying out of all the missionaries she could have chatted with that day, she was so grateful it was me and knew God sent me in her life for a reason.  So that I could teach her things that would help bring lasting happiness into her life! This gospel really is such a special thing. The blessings that come from it, are indescribable. 

Me and my fam -- at one of my most fav places 

     I was sooo grateful I got to visit with my own FAMILY a little bit this past week.  It was way fun seeing you all and finally seeing Kendl again! It's weird how it feels like nothing has changed even though a million things have. But it was great to see how it's just fun to be with your fam again no matter how much time it's been since you've been away. It gave me comfort to know that it's gonna be just as amazing to be with you all again in just 9 1/2 short months. WOW :) 

Me and Mama!!!!

I hope it's been a great week for all of you & you're preparing to be uplifted and nourished from GENERAL CONFERENCE! 

 xoxoxoox

-Sister Hansen 

P.S.  NEW ADDRESS 

FOR 3 MONTHS --

(California Fresno Mission:

1814 N. Echo Ave. 

Fresno, CA. 93704 

If you wanna write me or something like that :) haha)

Ah, I LOVE these humans.

I LOVE my family!!!

MUSIC AND THE SPOKEN WORD Sun, Mar. 23, 2014

Does this day get any better??!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Up to NO Good. . .  nothing's changed.

3 - 20 / Day 220 New Investigators to the MAXIMUM!

Hello Everyone!

We've gotten so much done this week! It's great :) Idk how but we've gotten soooo many new investigators this week. We have like 22 people we need to teach! Can I just tell you HOW EXCITED I AM for this! yayyyy. There's nothing better than teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to every single person you can.


We had some awesome training from the missionary department this week. On Wednesday, we had a leadership training, and today, we had a big mission training! The Missionary Department is seriously GREAT! Sister Cadom is a gem, she helped with making the district videos and the dress and grooming. She's sooo on the ball with everything. And motivated us sooo much to internalize our purpose and always remember that we have such great opportunities to do just that here in Temple Square. Idk what was in the air this week but my companion and I were sooo happy pretty much all week long. I mean I'm generally happy almost always, but that's something that my companion struggles with a lot but this week has changed leaps and bounds to what has been going on in the past. FINALLY. haha! It's so much better to be around someone 24/7 when they're happy and not stressed out and so hard on themselves & if you think about it, we are here to be like Christ, to represent Him. So we need to be happy... we need to think of others before we think about ourselves. I know I'm here as a missionary to help bring others the same happiness I have... to invite them to let the gospel change their lives. I can't think of a better invitation to give anyone than to learn more about Christ and his church and come closer to Him and in turn they're able to receive AMAZING & eternal blessings. How lucky I am to be part of such an amazing work! I don't like the term work, it seems daunting and hard. Missionary work is "work" but it's great work, positive work, happy work, joyful work... work work work!


I'm sooo excited to teach all these new people.


Sandra is getting baptized on MARCH 30th! yayyyy. And Bradley is still enjoying all of his learning and going to church. Everytime after church he say's we've gotta come back! Gabe loved learning this past week how God loves him and that he came from him. I'm praying that they get to adopt that sweet boy!!


We got to take VIP tour yesterday with President Hinckley's son & wife with the ambassador from Hungary! That was pretty cool. I mean Elder Hinckley kinda took over, but whatever, it was still cool to be there! And meet President Hickleys son! Looks just like him! haha.


I've been on exchanges a lot this week with the Sisters in my District! It was great. I feel like it helped me a lot to understand them better and know how I can fulfill my purpose to help them! They're all such amazzzing missionaries!

Can't believe again I'm going into the last week of this transfer. It's UNREAL how quickly the time goes by. I'm anxious to find out if i'll be going outbound. But whatever happens happens & I'm trusting in the Lord as always!

We also saw Quintin L Cook the other day! haha It was awesome. He saw us smiling at him and he waved back and kinda laughed cause he saw how excited we were to see him! haha.

I'm convinced that when the SUN comes out the apostles come out! That's 2 in one transfer!

We barely missed Elder Holland the other day in the Joseph Smith building too.... what the heck is up with that?! hahah

I also had the coolest French tour (she spoke English too though) when I was on exchanges with Sister Gariki from Tahiti. This lady's Sister was a fashion/wedding dress designer and she had her own boutique in Paris! SOOO COOOL!! I want Kayleigh to teach her when she's back in France. This lady was the sweetest & SOOO open. After showing her God's plan and asking her what she thought about it she said "It's true, it's true. Completely superb actually." Her uncle is actually a member and a bishop of one of my most favorite Frenchies here in the mission! haha.

LOVE YOU ALL. 

Can't wait to see my family!!!!! YAY. For serving in Temple Square haha. 

Have a wonderful week & HAPPY SPRING. 

-Sister Hansen

3 - 13 / Day 213 So Much To Share ... Not Enough Time

What a crazy week! I have so much fun news & I don't know where to start.


Lets see.... Who remembers Paul Decker? You know that amazing chat that I got where he said he wanted to be baptized and he even had a blog about all his spritual experiences? Well he finally got baptized 5 months later! WOOOHOOO. His whole family was there & his wife even gave a talk that brought everyone to tears... not even a member yet ;)

We had Zone Conference this past week and it was aamazzzing. President Poulsen is literally such an inspired man... I love him soo much! & feel like he actually knows me. Sister Bondare and I were sitting by his office the other day just getting some things done, he walked past and said, "Sister Hansen what are you up to with all these notes & things," I said, "Just getting ready for District Meeting tomorrow." He said, "Well I was just coming out to find you and thank you from the bottom of my heart for talking with your sweet former companion each pday."  He got teary eyed and said, "that means so much to me and you're such a sweet missionary.  I know Sister Vasconcelos loves you a lot!" Omg... that was the kindest thing in the world to hear him say that and then see him even get emotional.. I'm telling you.. An amazing man right there.

Chillin' at the North Gate on a Sunday : )

He gave an awesome talk on Character during zone conference. SO motivating. It reminded my of my Mommy & how everytime we were being stupid or didn't know what to do she would always say "What kind of character is that?" or "How does that develop a good character?" haha! Those words of wisdom always haunted me in wanting to become so much better & President's remarks just added to it.

It's been sooo sunny for the most part this week... it makes me soooo happy! It probably annoys my companion 'cause I get all giddy and nothing can make me mad cause it's so stinkin pretty and perfect out! haha.

We found out that Chris is a troller... not gonna say I didn't see that one coming. Found out a bunch of others Sisters have tried teaching him but he just likes wasting our time apparently and makes up stories. I asked him about it and all he said was, I'm gonna het baptized Alriiiight! haha I said okay... well you should probably talk to your local missionaries than because as much as I wish I could, I can't baptize you over the phone. Yup okay... bye Chris have a nice life! hahah.

I don't want to complain or be mean... but... I've really been struggling with my companion the past week or two. I've realized that she just really doesn't see the world the way I do and she just really doesn't have hope for her own future.  It makes me sad & I don't know how to deal with it. But I've learned what it's like to just get over yourself and try your best to make someone else happy. It's always whatever Sister Bondare wants and it's always her way, so whatever.  It's really not worth the arguement or having to deal with an annoyed companion. It's more worth it to just give her what she wants instead of dealing with contention because no teaching by the spirit will be done if she's mad or I'm mad.  So I'm learning to be happy by making her happy and giving her what she wants. It's probably bad of me, owell... idk what else to do.


Sandra is getting baptizedd!!! She was going to be baptized on March 22, but then she found out her Mom was going to be out of town then, so maybe the next weekend instead! But Bradley her husband has been so open and awesome about all of this. He sat in on a discussion the other day and even asked questions and said the closing prayer! So it went from him telling her, "don't tell me anythiing about the church and I won't ask any questions, you do your thing & I'll do mine," to him sitting in on the lessons and participating! YAY:)


Our phone system has been messed up for about a week now, it's super upsetting. So it's caused us to not be able to call our investigators and I'm sooo sadd! I hope it gets fixed soon because that's half our  missionary work right there!


I've started reading the Book of Mormon again and I'm focusing all on the Atonement this time. I've realized how much the Book of Mormon really does help us to become so much closer to the Savior. My understanding of the Atonement has already grown soo much and I'm only in 1 Nephi 20! You can't hardly turn a page without reading something in reference to the Savior!


I can't even express my gratitude for this mission and all that it is allowing my to learn. I adore the testimony that I have of this gospel and how amazing and real it is. I was pondering this week about how truly insane it is to watch all these peoples' lives change because of the principles of the gospel. Ben visited the square again this week. He thanked me from the bottom of his heart, with tears in his eyes for the testimony I shared with him and for helping him get into the waters of baptism. It's moments like that where I am SO happy to be here. Where I just think... how did I get so lucky?!


This morning in Relief Society, we got to hear from Sister Carole M. Stephens, first counselor of the Relief Society presidency! It was soooo good. The spirit touched my heart so many times. I just looked and listened to her and was remembering my setting apart. How it counseled me to watch carefully all the Woman who hold special roles in the church.

Please take daily advantage of the sweet and special knowledge we have!!!!

Love you all,

Sister Hansen

3 - 6 / Day 206 Another Week

Well where to begin? Writing emails is very challenging, haha cause I feel like I never know how to sum up what's happened and what i've learned. But I always try to do my best.

I totally forgot to mention last week, that we met L. Tom Perry on the street walking to the square one morning, haha! My companion was all, "Why does that sweet old man look familiar... is he a general authority?" Then, I looked up and was like, "YES... it's L Tom Perry!" and we were smiling cause it was so cool and then he came up and said, "Good morning lovely Sisters" and cracked some jokes with us! haha YAY:) 

I love teaching because it makes me sooo happy, but with this Apartment Coordinator assignment I feel like it's cutting back on our teaching and missionary time so much, and I'm starting to see how stressed out it makes me not being able to teach people, and having hardly anytime to spend out on the square. I really did let the stress of everything get the best of me this week. The melt down I had in the Teaching Center last night was epic fun... haha NOT. But owell, I'm over it... kinda. haha. I'm just frustrated cause I feel like I'm here on a mission to TEACH and HELP people not to check if Sisters apartments are clean (which took 3 hours out of our missionary work on Tuesday) and other ridiculous things we have to do.  I guess I just haven't been able to figure out the right balance yet. I hate when I have days where I literally just feel like giving up and going home to my comfy bed, the nice gym, and my awesome loving mommy. haha. It's bad & I know I shouldn't think like that but it happens every once in a blue moon.

But, I am grateful for the work we were able to get done this week! 

We met an awesome guy named Greg on chat. He's gay but suuuper stinkin cool. He loves reading the Book of Mormon and studying EVERYTHING on lds.org. He basically knows the church is true and can see the ways that everything helps him feel closer to Christ and have a relationship with God, but he's struggling with his sexuality. Which is hard cause I do NOT know how to relate to this. But we're doing the best that we can & teaching in every way possible. We'll see what happens. He's an awesome guy though. 

Ric has been progressing too.  He's 5 days sober & we're going to try our hardest to get him to CHURCH. We kinda forced him into going to an Addiction Recovery meeting the other day. We felt super bad about it, but we know he wouldn't have gotten there on his own, so we arranged for one of his member friends to meet us on the square when he was coming and take him to the meeting. ahha! The look on his face when he figured out what we were doing was priceless. We felt really evil, but we knew the meeting would help him. And now look, he's almost 1 week of no weed:) YAY!

Our diet is killing us though! I never realized how addicted to food I am, but it's bad & I'm fighting my natural man A LOT this week! Oh the price I have to pay to try and loose this stupid weight. haha.

Sandra is just literally a DIAMOND :) I found out this week that one of her local missionaries is one of Corinne's pervious companions! WHAT! SOOOO AWESOME. Sandra laughed so hard when she found out and gave her my number and this Sister called and left a message on my phone. We're not allowed to talk to local missionaries though. But I was sooo shocked to find that out. :) She is preparing for baptism and her husband is starting to open to learning, too. He was soo happy when the Sisters invited him to attend church with Sandra. There little foster boy Gabe LOVES Jesus Wants me for  Sunbean. Sandra told me all about how they rock out to it in the car driving! HAHAH. She is just LOVING the way her life is being changed and it's amazing to see. I was so touched by a part of her email to me this week.... and I quote... “And about being a diamond -- You are a diamond in my life too, Emily. I am so grateful that out of all the missionaries I chatted with that day... God placed you there! I have come to know my Savior in a much deeper way because of you and your love of sharing the Gospel. Thank you for being my friend and so wonderful! :)”. It's things like these that make me SO grateful for the choice I've made to serve a mission. So I can see amazing miracles like her & her family:) She's excited to one day be sealed in the Temple & I told her she better believe that I would be there!!! 

We also got a crazy new investigator named Chris from Texas. In the first lesson we committed him to be baptized and before Sis. Bondare could finish asking he was answering "yes yes yes I would like to be baptized and I would like to be a missionary too," hahaha WHAT. Ya... lets hope he's real. He'll be attending church this Sunday and meeting the local missionaries!! 

Myriam has really been struggling lately & hasn't been to church in a month! So saddd! We're trying our best to help him and slowly seeing improvement. Having to exercise a lot of faith!!

Heavenly Father has definitely sent me a few slaps in the face with the negative attitude I sometimes seem to be getting. We were driving to Costco the other day during our lunch hour and I looked into the car next to us and saw this CUTE girl with her sunglasses on just having the best time ever singing and hanging out with her friends! I looked at my companion and said... Man lucky her. Ya Heavenly Father DID NOT like that. And this is what he did about it... The guy in the back seat rolled down this window and started trying to get my attention, so I rolled down mine and said, "Hii" and he just started cussing obscenities and said, ISNT IT RAD THAT IT'S THE WEEKEND.  I was like dumb founded and felt soooo guilty for my ridiculous thought. Ya, Thanks Heavenly Father for the wake up call! haha. 

Anyways... hope it's been an awesome week for all of your :) I'm soooo happy it's almost spring. So ready for short sleeve shirts, flats, and NO tights or Boots! Yiiippiiiie! & the flowers are started to bloom everywhere!  :)

xoxoxo

-Sister Hansen

2 - 27 / Day 198 Always Richly Blessed!

Goodness!

Our week was full of amazing weather and beautiful skies!!

I feel like Heavenly Father really does bless and love me too much! Even though things are rough, tough, ugly and hard a lot of the time, I can always feel and see the way my Father in Heaven pulls me through and helps me grow.

Friday: 

We got to meet with Ben on the square. He texted us saying he just needed to come & talk and that he was struggling. I totally feel for him. He wants to serve a mission really bad but his parents just don't support it so his bishop has worked out for him to be serving this home mission, where he's half in his normal life going to school, hanging out with friends... and doing all this missionary work too. As you can all imagine how hard that would be... trying to give your will to the Lord and work for him, but be distracted with life and all that comes with it. So we were able to encourage him and then he came along with us to teach our less active Ric. 

     I could literally just feel the love our Savior and Father in Heaven have for Ric & Ben! We all shared scriptures that have helped us in the past with hard times and things like that. But the lesson got to point where Sis Bondare and I didn't really know what to do next, but I could just feel the spirit telling me that Ben needed to start teaching and helping Ric. And low and behold Ben just starts testifying sooo boldly about change and how he knows Ric can change his life around. He shares some personal stories with him and tears filled up my eyes! The spirit was wayyyy strong. Afterward, Ben was sooo grateful that he came to the square, and that he was able to be a part of the lesson. I know it helped him sooo much remember how grateful he is to have this missionary call and that he may not be set apart, but he's still a missionary and it's the best he's gonna get so he needs to take advantage of it. I'm serously sooo grateful to be a missionary in Temple Square... it's always a place where the spirit can be felt in amazing strong ways. 

YaY for Apartment Inventories!

Saturday:

We talked with Sandra... she was literally sooo excited to go to church that she went out and bought a brand new skirt and circled the church parking lot a few times! Corinne is soo right that people in Alabama just instantly become your best friends. Sandra always talks about how she prays for us. 

Sunday: 

Sandra loved EVERYTHING about church. It was stake conference & she still enjoyed the heck out of it. Okay, she's gonna be such a solid member of the church! haha. She said "everyone just loved on me... I got hugs from 7 yr olds all the way to 70 yr olds."  

     In our Sacrament meeting, Sister Alive (from Africa & France) gave such a great talk on Charity. It's been a theme these past weeks that's for sure. Every where I turn I'm learning soo much on charity and how I need to improve.

Monday: 

I woke up super sick and was just struggling the whole day long. I don't know what it is with my immune system.. but it STINKS! hahah. I've gotten sick every transfer without fail, but hey whatever! My body will have it's own little Resurrection once I'm home. hahaha. At least I keep telling myself that. We had Assembly Hall assignment at night and this older guy named Dave came in. We sat down and talked with him and asked him to share his convertion story with us. He legit ordered a Book of Mormon from a TV commercial, read it and knew it was true! WOAH. The Lord seriously prepares people. We had such a deep conversation with him about the Gospel and how richly and truly blessed we are for the knowledge that we have! Sometimes I feel selfish for how happy the Gospel makes me when I look at others who don't have it and who don't know how to have eternal happiness and joy. Thank goodness I'm able to at least try my hardest to bring that knowledge into the lives of others.

 

Tuesday:

Well I've just been struggling with this stupid cold I have, and trying to get work done with the Apartments, with the District & with all my investigators. But somehow it all seems to get done.. probably not as well as it should, but it's completed, none the less. haha.

Our District. Sister Yim (Hong-Kong) Sister Gariki (Tahiti) 

Sister Chau(Japan) Sister Hirro(Philippines) Sister Bondare(Latvia) & ME:) 

Wednesday:

We had our first District Meeting! YAY I survived. I talked about Elder Holland's talk, 'Cast Not Away, Therefore, Thy Confidence.' I had all these thoughts in my head about what I wanted to share and then I got this awesome letter from Nate about what he learned from this talk and it basically put all my ideas together. Totally inspired that I got that letter! And then I used the talk for District Meeting! Hope someone learned something from it. Sister Yim came up to me after, and gave me a hug thanking me for the meeting :) So that was nice. I'm going to work my hardest this transfer, to put off my negative thoughts and attitude I sometimes have, so that nothing is keeping me from the Spirit of Revelation. That night we went home a little early to clean out that BUCK NASTY DI we have in our apartment complex. It's where all the Sisters bring their unwanted -- everything. We have to organize it so other Sisters can come see if then want anything. hahah I'm sure you will all enjoy the ridculous pictures. hahahaha.

DI grossness. hahahaa

So excited to clean garbage!

Piles and Piles of filthy.

The Wonderful things you find in such an international mission! Lol

Alright sorry... my novel is over! There's lots going on around here & I'm glad it's keeping me all busy. Better busy than bored : )


I love you all soooooo much. Remember how blessed truly blessed we are to have the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.


xoxoxoxo


-Sister Hansen

A Beautiful Sunset Always Makes the Day Better