4 / 29 Day 259 You Pick and Chews

Let me begin by explaining my Title...

At the Hamels Lake

To be honest I've been struggling a ton lately. I don't know why when things get rough it's just like a down poor of trials. I love my companion, I do, but we don't always see eye to eye and it gets super rough at times. I've learned so much about just doing your best and that's all God expects, but my companion really doesn't see it that way. She's got OCD pretty severe and it's hard to handle because I NEVER live up to what she expects of me. So we went to the doctor this week to figure out what's been going on with her skin. She's breaking out and her skin itches or something. She can't leave it alone so she has scabs every where. The doctor told her she's doing it all to herself. With her OCD she just picks at her skin and then the break out spreads and isn't ever going to get better until she stops.

Sister Egbert at the doctor's.

You Pick and Chews your battles pretty much explains my week. She won't stop picking her skin and she yells at me every time I bite my nails in the car. I guess I'm learning patience patience patience. And realizing how lucky I am to be so layed back about things. I mean if any of you knew me before you would know how big of a deal things would be to me sometimes. But ya def not that way anymore. I've just realized that I'M NEVER going to be perfect, especially as a missionary, so who the heck cares if I'm imperfect every once and a while... well all the time actually, haha.

Doing Service... ew .... Caught a frog!

Despite all that, the work has been going off the charts here in Clovis. Even though I'm struggling and my companion is struggling, God is still sending us miracles and trusting us enough to be able to do His work the best we can. I've hardly told you about anyone we're teaching or anything that's going on

because email composition is just annoying because of having No Time, to be honest.  I'd rather write a million letters. But let me just give you all a brief summary.... I'm feeling a little bad that I haven't shared much.

Bill... he's the lemonade miracle dude! He is loving everything that the gospel brings to him and all the knowledge he's gaining, but his wife is just soo against the church still. Says we can meet with him and teach him, but if he gets baptized, they're over.  Found out that her Mom used to be a member, not sure if she was baptized. Either way, something bad happened, and how she does NOT like the church. We're praying for her heart to soften. He is just such a funny man! We love him. He was acutally like famous in the softball world... his nickname is "Whip!" ahaha. He taught us how to play the guitar this week. hahaah. I STINK!

Bill teaching me to play guitar!

The Ladearious Family... O my heavens! They are soooo prepared. Here I am again not having enough time to tell you details. Basically they have been sterotyped as mormons their whole lives cause they're

I found a kitty in the middle of the road!!

just that sweet :) Their 12 year old daughter is going to girls camp this summer:) We're teaching them tonight again. I'm sooo excited.

There are so many amazing people that we've been able to meet and help. We've been working a lot with the less active and part member families in our ward too.
Maybe I can share some more people next week.

I can't believe I'm 20... ew that's weird! haha. I don't feel old enough. I kinda don't want to not be a teenager.

LOVE YOU ALL

Sister Hansen

4 / 21 Day 252 Some Weeks are Rough

Well... I'm feeling super challenged by trying to express the things that are happening, and the things that I'm seeing, in a reasonable way for this blog.  I've realized that I'm just not able to express the miracles that I'm seeing everyday. I'm going to really have to ponder how to do better with this. Some weeks are just rough.

What happens the first time Sister Hansen attempts
to ride a bike to save miles.

This week we had Zone Conference. I learned A LOT. President is soo motivating and seriously amazing! I guess that's what happens when your mission president was a national rugby coach before becoming a mission president!! :)

Balloons!

So, remember the MIRACLE last week when we found that man working in his yard and then we got our miracle Lemonade?  Well, the miracles continue! HE CAME TO CHURCH this week!! I'm kind of nervous though because his wife still doesn't know and she def didn't know he came to church. haha. 

Our miracle lemonade.

I also went on exchanges this week with the Sister Training Leader! We found the coolest potential family! Really excited to go see them again tomorrow. 

I wanna go pick strawberries!

Fresh Strawberries Stand!

I'm still trying to adjust to a new mission and new mission culture. Not gonna lie it's been REALLY HARD! & I will NEVER EVER EVER  like being around Elders. Ughhhh. That will be nice to be back in Temple Square with just Sisters (Never thought I would EVER say that).

Can't believe I've pretty much hit my half way mark! WEIRD! 

Brody is going to be such a good Missionary!

Cole Keesler, cutests kid alive ... offering to give us doughnuts!

LOVE YOU ALL 

Hope it was a great Easter! 

Everyone watch this video... brings tears to my eyes everyime. 

http://easter.mormon.org/

-Sister Hansen

Popsicles Save the Day

4 / 14 Day 245 Miracle Aid

 Happy Easter ! Emily mailed these pics home last week.  Thought I'd share. 

Soo many Cherry Blossoms!

Right before leaving Temple Square for Fresno.

Oh my gosh! I love being a missionary and witnessing miracles. 

Sister Egbert and I are so determined to find as many people as we can, to talk to everyone, and to help someone be baptized this month! We've decided in order to make all these things possible we need to do everything in our power to have the spirit with us. So we started an 18 day fast, for the rest of April we are fasting from Music in the Car, we will have a model home & model car, be to bed ON TIME, and follow every rule with exactness. And we decided we would fast every Sunday so that we can have the spirit STRONG! Honestly, fasting is something I feel I don't have the best testimony of yet, so I'm grateful for this goal we've set. I'm already seeing the miracles that come when we literally put the Lord and His work FIRST... before our selves and our own wants. Putting off the natrual man is hard, self mastery is such a challenge but it's 100% possible and I've seen just a little bit about how it all works this week!!!!

Sister Egbert and I at the mission office.

We did so many great things this week. 

Taught the teachers at mutual, taught the laurels in young womans on Sunday. Knocked a million doors trying to find new investigators, which totally happened! We've got so many potentials it's GREAT! What I've learned about Clovis though, is that people get sooo annoyed when you knock on their door, but if you contact them when they're outside they're like the kindest people ever! haha. So we find EVERYONE outside and GO FOR IT:)! 

But one of the greatest days this week was when literally every single one of our prayers got answered some how. We were knocking doors and visiting members. It was SOOOOOO Hot outside, like 95 degrees. We were so sweaty. We were craving some nice refreshing lemonade sooo bad. Sister Egbert even prayed for it before we visited a member. Then we had like an hour before dinner and planned to find people just didn't know where to go. I felt prompted that we should go to the member's neighborhood where we were eating. So we parked allll the way down their street and got out and started walking, but I thought, No Sister, we need to go over there (to the other end of the neighborhood) we started to walk and I could see this house from like super far away, pointed and said "that's the one" so we get there and magically there is the coolest old man outside working on some project. We take interest in what he's doing and he tells us all about how he restores sail boats and sells them! Of course I WAS LOVING it cause you all know how much I LOVE the beach. He said to us "You know what's the biggest compliment Sisters... when someone takes interested in someone elses interest and that's exactly what you've done. So let me be honest with you. I've been a horrible guy almost all my life. I was addicted to drugs alchool and that whole scene. But one day I dediced to change my life around and guess who's the person who helped me all along the way... my Mormon friend Ally. I appreciate your church very much.   I attend AA meetings all the time. I was actually there last night."  Sister Egbert and I were shocked that he opened up to us like that. We told him what our purpose was as missionaries and why we came out. Sister Egbert had a prompting to show him a picture of Jesus Coming to the Americas... You know the famous pass along card we give out. Then he got goose pumps EVERYWHERE. Sister Egbert asked him, do you have goose pumps?!  And he said, "Wow, ya I dooo."  So we asked, WHY? and he said, " You know it's just one of those God things!" It was sooo cute. We taught him that that was the spirit! Can't wait to go visit him again tomorrow. 

Then we were late to dinner cause of talking to him and guess what was on the table when we got there. THE MOST DELUXE LEMONADE EVER! Friends... God answers prayers!!! Especially when we're doing all in our power to serve him. See He cares about the silly little details of our lives too. Even blessing us with yummy lemonade! I know that's such a silly thing, but we freaked out! That's also something I've learned the past 8 months... to appreciate the little things in life. Like fresh squeezed deluxe yummy lemonade, or all the BEAUTIFUL California Sunsets, or all the pretty roses that are allll over Clovis. 
Man I wish I had time to tell more of the miracles we've experienced this week. But I know they've come because we've been working soooo hard to be worthy of the spirit! I'm soooo grateful for the promptings I received and followed this week! ITS AMAZING!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL 
Sister Hansen

4 - 7 / Day 238 WELCOME TO FRESNO

Okay ...  Wow.  I'm about to like have a panic attack.  There is not enough time to email and tell you everything that's going on and that has happened since leaving Temple Square.

Cherry Blossoms!!

General Women's Meeting : )

Last Day at Temple Square

Last Sunday in the JSB for church.

 It kinda stinks. It's been way tooo long without a preparation day so I'll never be able to tell you guys everything that's happened.
I love our new mission president!! Larry Gelwix... go watch his Mormon message on mormon.org he's AWESOME and soo inspired.

The first day I got here, we were at the mission home for awhile then we went to our new area... CLOVIS :) I Love it here. Sister Egbert is my new companion. I love her sooo much. We have way too much fun together and laugh A TON. She's been in the area for about 3 weeks so she's gotten some new investigators in that time. When we got here we went to teach Shay. She's 17 and lives with her sisters. We walked in and started to talk with her, and then her bro-in-law all the sudden got interested & started asking questions, so it turned into us teaching the whole family! We took them all on a church tour this week... with Sis Cleveland a Mom in our ward that's like an ANGEL! I LOVE HER! IT was soo soo good. Sis Cleveland made them DELISH cinammon rolls to bring to their house the night before Conference to remind them to eat the yummy breakfast and then meet us at the stake center to watch it. Well, they didn't show up but that's okay... we're hoping they watched it at home :) 

Sister Egbert and I at the Stake Center.

I feel soooo spoiled being here and having all my meals prepared for me. It's super hard on my stomach to be eating all this meat and red meat too. I kinda hate that part, but whatever. I've been good about taking my vitamins and those pills that help me digest! haha.
We have seen some awesome crazy miracles this week. It's so cool be be in people's homes and feel the spirit that you can bring to them when you teach them about the gospel and how it can change and bless their families.
This mission is VERY different than Temple Square. Lots of new rules and things. It's great! But I've got a lot to get used to, that's for sure. We do not use ANY abbreviations here, so you say, "Preparation Day," and "Sister," or "Elder," no Dude, Guys, Women... It's been really hard for me to get used to and I kinda feel like a super unconsecrated idiot when I do it, but whatever. I get chastized everytime and I wish the silly words didn't slip out of my mouth, but I'm just not used to it yet. We also don't use ANY ipods here so all my music is packed away till the end of June, hahah. We have set workouts in the morning so we run and then do planks! OMyGosh I LOVE IT! Running outside in the brissk Cali morning is like the BEST THING EVER! I Love it. No elevation to make me loose my breathe and feel like a fatty! hahahah.
Planning at night takes sooooo long. I'm not used to that either. We're both really new to the area so we're trying to find new people to teach and trying to make effective use of our time and not waste miles on the car. That's HARD! Cause I have NO idea where anything is yet. Having our own car is a blessing though. I feel spoiledddd!!
We live with a sweet little old lady in our ward and we call her grandma! hahahaha. She's soooooo funny. It's sooo nice to be in a house with our own big bathroom and kitchen. It feels like I live in paradise. The weather has been BEAUTIFUL here.
It's sooo cute how there's like produce and fruit stands on so many corners. I LOVE IT.
I don't know what else to say... my minds like running a million miles per hour, and I'm having email anxiety writing ... haha! I'll just write a nice long letter with good details in it that makes sense and it's not just a ton of rambling.
Conference was really good. I loved being able to sit there and actually WATCH IT!
I hate being around Elders... I'll never get used to it. Everyone's sooo obedient & I LOVE that. It's weird not knowing everyone, and I feel like super odd and outta place... I'll get used to it all eventually. I'll never like being around Elders though...ew.
I kinda miss Temple Square a little, but only because I was comfortable there and knew everything going on. Outbound is great though and such a new experience so that's great :)

I LOVE YOU ALLLL!! 

     xoxoox

Sis Hansen

Check it ouutt! Macaroons straight from Paris in the same day!!!