Week 17

Dec 31, 2012

MY WONDERFUL FAMILY!!

It was so FANTASTIC to hear all your voices last week! I'm sorry I am bad at phone calls I just get too excited. Hopefully on Mother's Day I will be better at it.

So our week has been so great! We have just been so blessed! For Christmas we went around delivering Christmas cards to our investigators and the older ladies we visit. We had dinner at the bishop's house and then went caroling after. It was a great day. The best part of the day for me was when I got to talk to you all and it didn't make me home sick, it just made me realize how happy I am being a missionary and how important this work is! I absolutely LOVE being a missionary (most of the time ;))

Well our investigators are doing so well! I love them so much! The one family we have been teaching are progressing so well. They have been coming to church every week and have real desires to know the truth.  We taught them the word of wisdom and law of chastity this week and they realized that they are going to have to make a few changes in their lives but they are willing to do it. We went over yesterday and watched the Testaments with them, we wanted to help them get a visual of what it was like when Christ came to the Americas and they really loved it. At the end of the movie we were all in tears. Joel, the father, then told us that we had been feeling something he never had before. He was noticing that he was thinking about God more and had a lot of desire to know Him. He said he couldn't even describe the feeling! He is so open to the spirit! We just love them! They have a baptismal date for the end of Jan so please keep them in your prayers!

Ok now for a funny story. I have been laughing about this for days. Please do not think I am a terrible person for laughing so very, very hard at this but, Hna Higley got hit by a car this week. Are you laughing yet?, because I still am! So we were riding home the other night and we were almost back to our apartment. Hna Higley was leading because she had the keys to the garage. She was pulling the keys out of her pocket while she was riding and then a car came out of the other garage just as she was about to pass it. Now the sad thing about both of our bikes is that neither of us has working back brakes, so when she pulled the brake on her bike it did nothing and she went right into the car. (I am dying right now while I write this.) I was behind her and I was obviously worried for her but she backed up, looked back at me and smiled and assured me that she was fine and so was her bike. I was so relieved and then the image of her hitting the car popped into my head again and I lost it, I just started to laugh so hard. The guy got out of his car to make sure she was ok.  He saw she was fine and that I had lost it he drove away. His car was super dented and scratched though. Too bad for us, he lives in our building, that is going to be an uncomfortable elevator ride someday. We have just been laughing about it since.

Life her is super awesome! We are working hard and smiling a lot! We are going to the zoo today so we have no complaints. Please keep the prayers coming. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Week 16

Dec 24, 2012

Heyyoo I don't have much to write today since I just get to talk to all of you wonderful people tomorrow, but I have had a tremendous week! We got to go to the temple this week. SOOO amazing! I love the temple. There is nowhere in this world where I feel more peace and love than the temple! I just feel so blessed each time I go! Our investigators are doing well. Joel and Angelica came to church again yesterday and then a member took them to the temple to see the lights and watch the Joseph Smith movie. From what we heard from the members, they loved it! claro.

I can't wait to hear from you all tomorrow voy a llamarles a las 11 manana! They keep changing the amount of time I have to talk, they said around 45ish mins but if we go over its not the end of the world, just don't go over an hour and a half, that's a big limbo. CAN'T WAIT!!!!! i don't know if I will be able to sleep tonight! Sorry this email is lame. don't bloggit whatevs. I LOVE YOU ALLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 15

Dec 17, 2012

Well Family,

 It has been another wonderful week here in NoHo.  We have been working our little hearts off and God has really been so good to us!

We have continued to teach the Ramirez family and they are so great. The mother is still a little unsure of the whole thing. She gets really stressed out when she doesn't understand as quickly as the others but we are helping her and we saw them yesterday and she is doing great! I just love this family! They are all so awesome!

We also have been teaching the familia Noriega, they are the ones we found through talking to the father on the street. They are AWESOME!! We just love them soo much! We saw them a couple of times this week and they are just such champions. They are reading and said every time they read they just want to read more. They came to church yesterday, which was just so exciting. Having investigators at church can be really stressful though. We are just so worried the whole time, you never know what will go down in our ward. They came in late so we walked them up to the front of the chapel to sit, that way the members would see them and know its their first time. Everybody came up to them after sacrament and they were all so nice! The classes went well, we talked about final judgment in gospel principals, which was a bit scary because we hadn’t talked to them about the plan of salvation yet, but they liked it. They have a 7 yr old son named Jesus and he LOVED primary. They said on the way home they asked him if he liked it and he said yes I want to know more about Jesucristo! awwww! So precious! We went over after church and taught them the plan of salvation-my favorite to teach. They are so solid. They really just have a desire to follow God and want to know if what we teach is true. They are really trying to receive an answer from God. They are amazing! Please continue to pray for them!

We went caroling a couple of times this week. We are trying different finding ideas and so we thought caroling would be fun, with our district. It was a lot of fun! Its great to be a missionary this time of year! It’s crazy that Christmas is next week. It doesn't feel like it usually does around Christmas time at all. It has a very different spirit about it this year. I am so grateful for my Savior and all that He has done for each of us!

Happy Christmas!!

Week 14

Dec, 10, 2012

Hello my wonderful family!

Dang it has been a big week at home! I can't believe Andrea & Jeremy are moving!!! That is such fantastic news!!!!! That will be so wonderful to have the whole family in the, oh so wonderful AZ!!

So this week has been so great!! We have been working really hard. We have really been trying to show Heavenly Father He can trust us with his children and it has been going so well!! We FINALLY have Hna Higley's bike in working order! We now have 2 bikes in storage just in case her luck continues.

We have 2 pretty solid families we are teaching right now. I am afraid to write about them because I don't want to jinx it. :) But one family is the one that had us over for Thanksgiving. The dad has really loved what we have been teaching. He told us the other night that he has felt something missing in his life and has been searching for it and now he thinks he has found it! How great is that! We didn't even tell him to say that. We have a lot of hope for them! They are such a great family! Please keep the Ramirez family in your prayers.

The other family we found was quite the miracle. We went to stop by some other investigators house the other night because we keep missing them. As we pulled up, I mean rolled up, we saw a couple of men sitting outside of their house. I have met them before just in passing but we never really had a conversation with them. Well Hna Higley and I started to just talk to them and we were talking to them about the Book of Mormon. They were only so, so interested but for some reason we felt we needed to keep talking to them so we did, about 15 mins later a friend of theirs walked up. He was smoking a cigarette  and I got nervous that he wouldn't take what we were all talking about serious. Oh, but he did. He was just eating it up. We read the intro of the Book of Mormon with him and we really seemed to understand it. We asked him if there was a time we could come back and talk to him more about this book and our message and he said YES. He wanted us to come teach his wife too. UMM OK!

So we went to his house on Saturday and it went so well. They are a really wonderful family. They have a brand new baby and they were really open to all that we were teaching them. They were super excited for us to come back and teach them God's Plan of Happiness. AWW yeah! They are super awesome!!

God is really blessing us a lot! I just want to do the best I can to be worthy of these amazing blessings and be able to help these people to continue to progress. I LOVE this work. This week I got to look into the eyes of a young 16-year-old girl and tell her how amazing she is. I got to tell her that she is a special and beautiful daughter of God the most powerful being in existence and that He knows her by name and loves her very much. What a blessing that is that I get to help people realize their divine worth. Dang I love this!!

I love you all and can't wait to talk to you all in just a few weeks!! WOOOT WOOT!!!

Hermana Hansen

Week 13

Dec 4, 2012

Helloooo!! my wonderful family!!

Dang my email was just full today with emails, that is what I like to see! Sorry I didn't write yesterday we switched our pday to tuesday this week because we had Elder Don R Clarke from the 70 come for a zone conference yesterday! It was so awesome! I have never felt so guilty and inspired all at the same time! :) He was very bold with us and just told us how to get the work done and it was just so fantastic!

So I have a new companion. She is...GREAT! I just love her so much! I was SUPER stressd because we had guessed that she might be the one coming to me and I was just not to sure about it. All I knew about her was that she is shy but really sweet. I don't usually do well with shy sweet people. But she is awesome! She isn't shy at all she gets in there and gets work done! I love it! The poor girl though, she has spent her whole mission so far in Santa Clarita, aka fancy. Her apartment had its own washer and dryer AND there was a Walmart in her area AND she had a car. I think she was pretty shocked to be biking in the hood for the first few days, but she is doing so well! She has had a LOT of bad bike luck though this week. Her mom sent her a bike in a box that we had to build (sketchy) and everyday since a piece or two has fallen off. On sunday it was the pedal and it is a gonner. Its pretty funny. We were in the middle of the hood at night and there goes her pedal, we got the oppurtunity to walk home. Ha we were just laughing all the way. After the conference yesterday we had a few appts that we needed to get to but we were still one bike short so we got to walk again. There is something very interesting about walking the streets at night. We were sure though that God had a reason for refusing to allow Hna Higley to have a bike so we talked to people all along the way. It was good. I have had a cold the past few days (Elder Clarke came up to me after the conference and told me I should probably get a blessing for that cold, my b I guess I was sneezing too loud ha) and the walking hopefully will do it some good! :)

We got to go back to the Familia Ramirez this week and teach them lec 1, which is the restoration and all and it went so well! The spirit was so strong! I love teaching the good news of the gospel to people! They mentioned the peace in our eyes again and set up a time for us to come back next week. WHOOT WHOOT! Life is just dandy!

This has been my week just full of goodness. I wish I had time to call all of you everyday and just chat all about the good stuff but I just love you all and pray for each of you all the time! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! No really, it is. I love you all!!!

Hermana Hansen

Week 12

Nov 26th

HEY OHH!

My wonderful family, hello!! It sounds like you all had a great Thanksgiving! 

Well my week has been just splendid! We had a great Thanksgiving. We were invited by a member to her friends' house for dinner. They were so nice! They aren't members by they really liked us missionaries! We have an appointment to come back and teach them more of our message later this week. They were a really nice family, they said they could just see peace in our faces. OOOHH we can help you have a peace face as well! ;)

This week was Hna Clayton's last week. SO SAD! I am going to miss her so much! She is just the greatest! She has taught me so much and she talks to me still even though I am really weird and awkward sometimes. Rare. Because it was her last week she got to go to the temple with the other departing missionaries. Super rude that I wasn't invited, but I got to go on an exchange with another Hermana in a different area. It was so fun! I was with Hna Fish and she is just a great missionary! It was fun for me to go and meet new people and speak spanish with them. For some reason I had way more confidence in my spanish while I was there, maybe there wasn't as much pressure since it wasn't my area but it was really fun. I was really excited to see Hna Clayton by the end of the day though. I don't know what I am going to do without her!

This week is week one of transfer 3 for me. WHAT??!! I am no longer being trained, that stresses me out a bit, I'm not ready to be a real one yet ;). We have the transfer meeting tomorrow which is where I have to say goodbye to Hna Clayton and pick up my new companion. I am so nervous! I know that it is all done by revelation I just hope my ideas are the same as God's ;) We will see!

Well, all is well here in NoHo. I am still learning a lot and I am continuing to learn more everyday. I am pretty scared for the change that is coming my way but I suppose it is good for me so bring it on! I love you all so much!!

Hermana Hansen




                                         Thanksgiving Dinner 2012

Week 11

November 19, 2012

HEYYOOOHHH!!!!

Buenos Dias Mi Familia! 

I hope you are all having a wonderful Monday morning! I am because plus its Pday! Well this week has been a better one! Not so much with finding people to teach, this little North Hollywood is really making us work for it, but its all good (right Adam ;)) However we did find many moments to laugh this week.

We had our ward Thanksgiving party this week and dang, Latinos are so much better at parties. They had a man on the stage with all his DJ equipment and everything. After the dinner they had a talent show and asked us missionaries to participate. (Our district has 6 of us in it and we all cover this one ward) Sadly none of us have talents, so that was interesting but it turned out pretty good. I don't know how to explain this but we did the thing where we look like little people and I was Hna Clayton's arms and I couldn't see what was going on, you know what I'm sayin? I got to hide behind a sheet the whole time and the kids thought we were funny. The Jovenes in the ward did a dance; they did the gangnam style dance (I don't know how to spell that, awkward missionary moment!). It was pretty funny. There were a lot of non-members there that really had a good time and we got a couple referrals from the night so it was a success.

Also this week we had some RAIN. It got serious. It was raining all day off and on, on Saturday but we were determined to get out there so we did. We were probably like 2 minutes from our apartment when we came to a GIANT puddle. Hna Clayton started through it like it was nada, I was a bit more reluctant and decided I would hang back to see how she did. Well she was about half way through the puddle (the water was half way up her tires) when a really nice man in a really big truck decided to swerve into the puddle causing a giant wave coming right for poor Hna Clayton. The wave was taller than her. I screamed and she just trekked on and made it to the other side DRENTCHED! We were falling off our bikes, we were laughing so hard! We kept going and by the time we got anywhere we were completely soaked through, we were dripping like fools. This did not encourage people to let us in. We did stop by and see Juana Eva though!! She was really sick but she was really excited to see us! We are going to go over again this week to see her. It was a pretty great day! We didn't get to teach any lessons because people mostly just thought we were crazy but it was fun anyway!

We are learning and growing a lot together. We are really trying hard to be good missionaries and doing whatever Heavenly Father wants us to do. We sometimes have a hard time figuring out what that is, but we carry on and do our best. I have such a strong testimony of this gospel! I KNOW it is true and I KNOW it can bless everybody's lives! I love my Savior so much. I am so grateful that I always have Him to lean on. This world is super crazy and very dark and lonely sometimes but that is the beautiful thing about the gospel, it won't completely solve ALL your probably or magically make everything better but it shines light on everything. Suddenly is doesn't seem so dark and lonely! There is light and peace instead! That is what's up! :) I love you all! Happy Thanksgiving! Eat hard!

Hermana Hansen

                                                       Sis Clayton on a Rainy Day!

                                                       
                                                     Our Serious Faces!

Week 9

Nov 5, 2012

Well Hey There Family!

How are ya'll this fine Monday morning? As always I super loved all the emails and pictures that were sent my way. Oh, the smile they bring to my face. Dang also all those nieces and nephews of mine are SO stinkin cute its ridiculous!

Well lucky this week has been just super duper! We have witnessed some serious miracles! First of all we got to see our little cholito Jose last week a couple of times and we have just been able to see some changes in him. We had a really good lesson about the love of the Savior and by the end of it he was feeling really pumped and loved! Jose is great! He is just one of our favorite people. He is always happy to see us and is just so funny. We set a baptism date with him a couple week ago for July 27, 2014 haha :) That's the first Sunday after his probation is up. We can't really count that as having a date but it made us feel better. :) He is SUCH a champion. I am a huge fan of him!

Secondly, last Tuesday we got up nice and early as usual however we noticed that Ruby had texted us. I don't know if I mentioned Ruby before but she is 15 but acts like she’s 25, she speaks English so I love her lots! However about 3 weeks after I got here she had texted us and told us she was too busy with school and to stop coming by. SAD! But this is the great part, she texted us early early Tuesday morning saying the she just missed us so much and that she had been READING THE BOOK OF MORMON and she just really felt the peace it brought. She said that she loves the catholic religion and always will but everything we taught her and everything she has read just feels so right in her soul! Oh my goodness we were soo pumped! We texted her back and later that day she called us and told us she had watched the Restoration movie we left her a month ago and we was really sad it was only 20 mins! Can you believe her? She is so precious! So anyways she wanted us to come over that night to meet her mom and teach her because she really thought she would love it too. So we went over later and the two of them are MAJOR talkers. I love them so much! They just kept talking and talking! So we didn't have enough time to actually get to a lesson but we are going back this on wed to teach them the Plan of Salvation. Please be mindful of them in your prayers. We are so blessed to meet the people we do and have the experiences we do! God always takes care of us!

I missed ya'll a lot this week on Halloween. We were told to be in our apts by 6 and deep clean our apt. :) We deep cleaned our apt then watched all the Christmas movies we have while painting our nails and making el dia de los muertos paper dolls. We are SO exciting!

Well anyways-good things are always happening, even when we don't feel we deserve it. I love you all so very much!!

Hermana Hansen

Week 8

Oct 29, 2012

Hey Hi and Hello there,

Oh how wonderful it is to hear from my oh so stupendous family. Ya'll are the best!! I have been brought to hysterical tears of laughter here in the library as I read some emails so I would say it has been a successful email Monday.

Oh family. This week has been...a special one. Not our best week. Our hearts were broken more than we cared for them to be. Our favorite, dear, sweet Juana Eva called us Monday night to tell us she was going to start babysitting her grandkids and "wasn't going to have time for us anymore." Heart Broken!  And the week just kind of kept going in that direction. HOWEVER we are learning to smile during the tough stuff. 

President told us we need to be sure we are having fun, so the other night we did a puzzle. Haha we aren't really all that pathetic but we are keeping our chins up! 

I have really come to realize how much Father loves all of His children. The focus that the adversary puts on just normal people is proof of that. He knows the worth of EVERY SOUL is great in the eyes of the Lord so he goes after every single soul. (What a butt head. ;) Satan I mean!)  Being on a mission is very hard, and tiring but to be able to feel how much the Savior and Heavenly Father love each of us makes it all worth it! We still have a lot of hope for Juana Eva and we will continue to pray for her. She is just the best!

We have started to teach a family that is all so sweet. We have high hopes for them! We are focused on two sisters right now, Griselda and Rosalba, they are both older but seem to have genuine interest in our lessons. One has been reading the Book of Mormon every night-that's what I am talking about! Please keep them in your prayers!

Well ya'll just keep being great supports and praying for us here in NoHo. We are working hard and doing what we can/know how to serve the Lord with all of our hearts! I love you all and think you are the GREATEST!!!

Hermana Hansen

Week 7

October 22, 2012

Hello my wonderful family!!!

How are you all, this fine Monday morning?? I am doing stupendous! You know why? Its Pday and I love Pday. (Preparation Day) I just LOVE reading those emails and writing ya'll back. My family is the greatest.

Well this week. What an interesting week it has been. We really worked hard and had a LOT of ups and downs. Some good news, a few times this week I have been feeling good about understanding Spanish! There were some times when I just entendido (understood) the whole conversation. However, I would then open my mouth and I think every one in the room felt bad for the poor, sad, struggling white girl. Better luck next time. I am finally able to see some improvement so that feels just real nice.

Wanna hear the best new of the week!?!?   It’s about my darling and most favorite lady here, Juana Eva. Oh she just is the sweetest most sincere lady! I love her! Anyways, we went over this week to work on English and to teach her a lesson. English went well and she learns very quickly. We are helping her prepare for her interview that she has to have for her citizen’s test. We did that for a while and we didn't have a lot of time so we asked her how she liked church. Oh family, I was stressed, you just care for these people so much and want nothing more than for them to understand how amazing the gospel is, and then they come to church and it is CRAZY!! Anyways she answered us my saying, in Spanish, “Well I don't want to offend you girls but.........”, and then the crazy fast Spanish started in and I was only catching a few words here and there. I was trying to read Hna Clayton's reaction but I couldn’t quite get a grasp on what was going on. She then got up and left the room to grab her Book of Mormon. Then Hna Clayton explained to me that she LOVED church! Her only complaint was that people kept inviting her to so many activities during the week and she just didn't have time for all of the extra stuff, but she was really going to try to make it to church every Sunday. AAWWWWW YEEEAHHhh!!!!

I wanted to cry I was so happy. We then read with her the intro of the Book of Mormon and explained it a bit more and then-- you ready for this?? We committed her to be baptized on the 25 of Nov!!!!! She at first, when we asked said no-which is normal and actually expected.  We try to set dates with people just so we have a goal and a lot of times it helps them to think about what their concerns are and such. She however, thought we said 25 of Oct and so she was quite weirded out. Ha bless her heart. I love her! But she agreed that if by the 25th of Nov, if she truly feels it is right and what God wants her to do she will be baptized! We are so excited for her! We can really see the Spirit working with her and she is just so open to His teachings. Please keep her in your prayers that she will continue to progress and feel close to the Spirit.

That was the highlight of the week!! Oh how I love to see miracles! We have been working hard and have found some new people who are willing to have us over so that is a start. We have such high hopes for this area! Life on a mission is very much a roller coaster and is hard work but it is so worth it! It is amazing to feel the Spirit work through you to touch the hearts of people who need it! I love being a missionary! I love you all and hope all is going well!!

Hermana Hansen